Session 124: Gnorcia and the No-Good, Very Bad, Day

The group, consisting of Gnorcia, Lhoss, Feno, Kyro, and Niki (the others were mysteriously teleported off or disappeared through mysterious circumstances) continued to explore the underground caverns deep underneath the barrowmaze. As they proceeded to explore the various tunnels, they eventually discovered a small cavern filled with fungi and mushrooms of various sizes, as well as a small pool of liquid, presumably water. As they approached the fungus, two of them started to scream. This surprised the group a little, especially Feno, as he had never seen or encountered screaming fungus before. As the two were screaming, another, larger fungus with multiple limbs started to walk menacingly towards the group. At nearly the same time, the group hears the familiar sound of skeletons shuffling towards them from the opposite side of the room. With their glowing blue eyes, the group sees the familiar forms of sapphire skeletons approaching, drawn by the screaming fungus it would seem. Niki, Feno, and Gnorcia, being near the front of the group, try to attack the fungus, but surprisingly, perhaps due to the screams of the mushroom creatures, miss their attacks. The skeletons attack Kyro in the rear, and cause minor damage, but he has cuts and bruises he didn't take care of from a previous fight, so this attack especially hurts. The mushrooms finally reach Gnorcia, and attack, hitting her with a seemingly poisonous attack. It appears to be a particularly debilitating poison that quickly begins to corrode her left arm, causing it to rot from within. Lhoss, using her enchanted gear, gets on the ceiling quickly and a skeleton tries to attack her, but she is well out of its range, having climbed the ceiling like a spider. She tries to hit the skeleton with her staff but was unable to do so for some reason. One of the fungi attacks Niki and hits, but fortunately her druidic powers protect her momentarily from the poison's effects, and she shrugs it off. Feno and Lhoss both watch as the poison takes greater hold upon Gnorcia, now traveling to her leg. She tries to drink a cure poison, but quickly discovers that it is a disease that has afflicted her, and no a poison as previously thought. Fortunately, the next few attacks of the fungi on her miss. Unfortunately, the disease takes root in her arm, and it falls off, completely rotted away. 

The gods, finding mercy on the group perhaps, summon the paladin Chalkboi into their midst. Quickly surveilling the situation and with a grave look on his face, he lays his hands upon Gnorcia and uses his innate abilities and cures Gnorcia of the disease. While the arm still lay on the ground withered and rotted off, she was no longer in danger of dying thanks to actions of this paladin. Feno, with a flurry of blades and a in a fit of rage, destroys all the remaining mushrooms in the room, whether they were a threat or benign. Lhoss tries to utilize her levitate magic to neutralize a skeleton near her from being able to attack the party, but it shrugs off the spell, having no effect. Fresh off of curing Gnorcia, Chalkboi attempts to turn the undead, but perhaps due to the strength of these skeletons, or the dampening from the barrowmaze, he is unable to do so. Gnorcia sneaks behind a skeleton, and destroys it, causing it deep blue sapphire eyes to fall to the ground. Kyro, sensing Feno near him, disengages, and allows Feno to take his spot into the skeleton battle foray. Feno swings his mighty sword, but still having ringing from his ears from the mushrooms, misses again. Lhoss and the rest of the group take turns and eventually destroy the remaining skeletons, and the eyes, preventing them from regenerating. 

Following that battle the group decides to explore a little more and look for a quiet place to eat and meditate (for those that are magically inclined). They stumble upon some fire beetles, which attack the party. They are fast and hungry, and attack both Lhoss and Gnorcia first, biting each for minor damage. Lhoss hits one with her weapons for minor damage, but Gnorcia misses, perhaps thrown off from her missing appendage. Feno squeezes into the area with the beetles to attack. With a fine, icy mist emanating from the enchanted blade, he strikes true, dealing instant death to the fire-based creature. Gnorcia steps up and does her usual aerial maneuver and flips behind a beetle to attack, destroying it. One of fire-beetles, especially hungry, attacks Feno, nearly biting him. Feno attacks back and destroys it in vengeance. With his fighter bloodlust he steps up and destroys another one, this one near Gnorcia. Finally, Gnorcia, steps up and kills the last one with ease. With the final beetle destroyed, the group gathers the glowing glands (that are similar in torchlight in terms of glowing light) and finally sits down to eat and memorize spent spells. Feno takes the role of guard, and watches the entrance to the cavern they are in. Just as the group started eating a Feno sees a group of undead in tattered clothing approaching. He lets the group know before preparing for battle. Chalkboi once again tries to turn these undead known as Huecava but is unsuccessful. Gnorcia, filled with large sense of bravery perhaps, rushes forward to attack these new undead creatures. Her attacks do minimal damage to their bony exteriors. They attack back and hit her with their poisonous claws, infecting her with a new blood poison. She suddenly feels very tired and drained. Feno, seeing this familiar scene unfolding, rushes toward Gnorcia, and picks her up under his arm and runs back toward the rest of the party. The undead try to take advantage, but Feno easily dodge their attacks. Kyro throws a vial of holy water, causing it to smash on one of the Huecava, causing moderate damage. The group take turns, and eventually kill the new undead with Feno dealing the final blow to the last Huecava.

Session 123: Adventuring in Orlane

We had lunch at the inn and Lhoss shared that she had overheard some talk about another band of adventurers in Orlane. We thought to find out where they were and see if they are friendly or not, so we headed over to the Golden Grain Inn. There we saw two older men engaged in an early drinking game, and at one corner table there was someone in a hooded cloak

Innkeeper Bertram welcomed us and Lhoss asked about another adventuring party. He said three people, including a strongman, were looking for torchbearers, and they stayed the night. He thinks they found a couple of farm lads looking to make some extra money, and he thought he heard something about either Hookhill or Hochoch, but he can’t remember. He suggested talking with Molly, who spent more time serving them.

Molly, a young woman with braided blonde hair, comes out from the kitchen. Molly said they were two men and an elf, and they seemed decent enough people, paying good coin for torchbearers. Their leader was a thin man named Sly, who did most of the talking. There was a larger man who seemed interested in her, and an elf who seemed aloof. They were going to the barrowmarsh in search of adventure, calling themselves “The Boon Companions”, and they had talked about going to the jeweler for something important.

We found that interesting and left to see the jeweler, Haskell. He said some other adventurers had come by the day before but had little to share. We then decided to split up around the town and watch the roads, as well as ask around if anyone else had seen the adventurers.

Lhoss went to Ramne’s to chat and to watch the northern road. He had a lot of questions about how she is using her spells and generally getting on as his pupil. He made dinner and they stayed the evening on the porch and were entertained by Whiskers.

Kyro went to the Temple and they greeted him warmly. They had lots of tasks for him and while working and chatting he learned there was some conflict with the clerics.

Hilja went to the Slumbering Serpent and spent time drinking, eating, and listening to conversations. She heard a lot of talk about the newcomers in the area, those building new homes, and how Orlane is changing. The talk had a somewhat negative tone and there was some grumbling about the land being divided up.

Feno and Eldriel went to the elves’ house to see if they had seen the other adventurers. They had not, but said they would keep a watch out for them. They also talked about elven matters and how Orlane is primarily a human town and nation, and how they are politely received but sometimes hear rude comments and experience faux pas from humans dealing with elves.

Arnd went back to the Golden Grain Inn, ordered some food and quite a bit of ale, and watched for the possible return of the other adventurers. He did not see the man in the hooded cloak again. Not too many people at the inn were interested in talking, but they were interested in him and asked some questions about dwarves that he found a bit odd though not offensive.

Gnorcia went to Hewitt Twain’s farm where she collected a dozen eggs and shared a meal. The Twain family had seen a fair number of people about, as the town is bustling and still growing. At least ten new farms have been pitched this year. She intuited that prices are going up a bit and it’s a sort of boomtown right now. There was also talk of a militia being put together from Orlane and Hewitt’s sons were ambivalent about joining. After dinner, Gnorcia excused herself to the porch and watched the road.

After about 10 minutes a group of adventurers appeared that seemed to match the description from earlier. Gnorcia shadowed them to the Golden Grain Inn.

As Arnd was eating dinner, a large group of men came in and went upstairs. One of them was an elf. They were wearing armor and the elf was wearing distinctive red chain mail. As they were going up, Gnorcia stepped inside just long enough to motion to Arnd that she was going north, then headed up to find Lhoss.

As she approached the bridge over the river, she saw another large party and hid by a nearby barn to watch. One of them was an elf, two were dwarves, and two were humans, one male and one female. They went to the Slumbering Serpent. Others who appeared to be day laborers also came down the road and went to the Golden Grain Inn. Gnorcia then hurried off to find Lhoss and the two of them split up again, Lhoss to retrieve Kyro from the temple, and Gnorcia to retrieve Feno and Eldriel from the elves’ house.

After explaining what she had seen, Gnorcia invited Feno & Eldriel to go to the Golden Grain Inn to possibly speak with the elf in the red chainmail. Dorian & Llewellen were also curious and accompanied them. We returned to the inn and foundArnd, who waved us over to his table. Arnd said the group had changed their dirty armor for clean clothing, and had come back down and ordered food. The elf was then dressed in a blue hood and tunic. Dorian and Llewellen said they weren’t familiar with the red chain mail, but they did note that the elf was a high elf, like themselves. Feno, a wood elf, decided to introduce himself to the high elf, who was with the group crowded around a large table. Eldriel (a grey elf) stayed with Dorian and Llewellen at Arnd’s table and watched with curiosity.

Gnorcia and Arnd then decided to see if the dwarves at the other inn were friendly, and excused themselves, heading north to the Slumbering Serpent. As they entered, they found Lhoss and Kyro speaking with Hilja, who had been drinking quite a bit and was rather tipsy. Just then, a group of adventurers came down from upstairs and ordered dinner. Kyro and Lhoss immediately had to wrangle Hilja back into her seat and give her another ale, as she seemed intent on approaching the other group and they didn’t want her doing that in her condition.

Gnorcia, Arnd, Lhoss, and Kyro then left Hilja at her table and moved closer to the other adventurers. Arnd whispered to Gnorcia that the dwarves were Hill Dwarves, whereas he is a Mountain Dwarf and doesn’t associate much with Hill Dwarves. Lhoss noted that the elf was a male high elf with dark hair and he appeared to be both a rather young elf and the one in command of the group. The dwarves were sitting near each other, and the humans were sitting either side of the elf. The male human appeared to be wearing some sort of religious garb, but the female human was oddly spinning utensils on her fingers as she ate. She was also sitting with her back to the wall, watching the room, and appeared to recognize that the group was watching her. Lhoss meet her gaze but soon looked away, intimidated. Kyro stepped up next to Lhoss and glared at the woman, who then looked away dismissively.

The rest of their group then took note of our party before turning back to their food. After about an hour, the room cleared up a bit and the woman and one of the dwarves got up and seemed to go up to their rooms. Emboldened, Lhoss went over to the remaining group and introduced herself. She explained that we were adventurers and were curious about what they were doing. They weren’t very friendly and the elf said that as long as we stay out of their way, there shouldn’t be a problem. Lhoss asked if they were exploring the barrowmaze but got silence in return. We then left and returned to the Foaming Mug where we met up with Eldriel and Feno, and shared what happened in both places.

Feno told us he had introduced himself and the elf at the other inn, who responded by asking him cooly, “Do I know you?” Feno shook his head and asked, “What brings you to these parts?” The elf replied, “Well, that’s my business.” Feno had continued, saying, “I make it my business to keep an eye on elves traveling about with humans.” At that, the others at the table gave him inquiring and slightly hostile looks, but quickly turned back to their food.

Feno said that Dorian and Llewellen didn’t recognize him. Irritated by the elf;s cool responses, Feno convinced one of the bartenders to serve them bad ale. They then got into an argument with their server and the barkeep over the ale and Feno gave the bartender some gold for his trouble. After discussing the results of our evening adventures, we determined that maybe in the future we should try buying ale for folks before we start asking them questions.

The next morning we had breakfast by 5:00 am, and were on our way by 6:00, dragging Arnd and Hilja, who were both a bit hung over. We saw farmers loading food into wagons and heading toward Orlane, and talked to one who was delivering food to the Slumbering Serpent that day. We arrived mid-morning at the barrowmaze, not having seen anyone else along the way. As we were talking about which entrance to go to, a group of skeletons attacked! Hilja immediately cast entangle and five of the seven skeletons were caught in vines. One slowly stumbled out and headed toward Feno, who completely obliterated it. Arnd then stepped up to the other skeleton and obliterated it with his newly-acquired warhammer as well. After that, Arnd demonstrated the hammers throwing feature, destroying all of the remaining skeletons (despite a few bad throws.)

We then went back to the main entrance of the barrowmaze and wound our way through to the obelisk room. From there, we went east and into the catacombs where we had previously discovered a cavelike structure at the end of one of the halls. Arnd led the way with his 10-foot pole, and we wound our way through the cave, finding a few forks and three dead ends before we determined to go back to the first fork in the cave.

Session 122: Physical Therapy and Friendly Fire

In the aftermath of the paralyzing hug bestowed on Calbach by Roots, the rest of the party (Sergius, Niki, Gnorcia, Lhoss, Chalkboi, and Kyro) find themselves at a loss as to how to help their motionless comrade. As they stew over ideas, an eye and ear appear on the wall. Kyro, quick as lightning, fires off an arrow and strikes true. With a curse, the apparitions vanish. Still, the problem of a helpless teammate remains. Lhoss removes Calbach's boot and instructs him to wiggle his toes. He does. A little. He is also able to wiggle his fingers, but nothing else. Kyro splashes a small amount of water on the patient and he twitches, but nothing more. Lhoss ambulates his limbs, circling his arms and legs in an attempt to reanimate them. It helps. A little. Lhoss determines that the best course of action is to re-memorize her levitate spell and float Calbach to Orlane and figure it out from there. Meanwhile, in the midst of study, Calbach recovers and wearily stands back up. Wryly, Gnorcia offers a hug which Calbach declines with a tinge of chagrin. Time to get back to the task of searching the upper hallway alcoves.

In the first hallway, a skeleton lies in repose upon a slab. As Niki enters to sweep the room, it animates and grabs her by the throat, strangling her. Kyro is the first to act and fires off an arrow, but in the struggle between friend and foe, Niki shifts into the path of the arrow and is hit. Eyes already widened and bulging from the force of being throttled, are cast back to Kyro who immediately fills with shame and regret. Once again, the group is reminded of the danger of firing ranged weapons into melee. Calbach and Lhoss attempt to swing their blunt weapons to disengage the bony figure, but are unsuccessful. Niki herself uses her warhammer to shove the creature away. It falls to the ground, seemingly defeated. The group takes a collective breath, but then the undead foe jumps back up, ready for more! With deft action Gnorcia finishes it off using Vengeance. Calbach pulls the arrow from Niki's arm and the party resolve to finish searching before heading back to Orlane. The group finds a hand axe with dwarven runes that name the weapon Brilnok, which means light. There is also a dwarven shield that is claimed by Sergius. Calbach contemplates destroying the slab and pillar until it's pointed out that they're made of granite and unlikely to be damaged without great effort and is dissuaded. Additionally the party finds a sling and cloak. The hour is getting late, so they all depart for Orlane, hungry for a delicious dinner.

They arrive in town earlier than they customarily do and find the dinning room humming with patrons. Several of the townsfolk are curious and interested in their adventures, so the day's activities are recounted (with just a few flourishes to display the strength and bravery of the Saviors of Orlane) and as a treat, Niki casts detect magic on the found items to wow the crowd a bit. It turns out the sling, axe, and robe are magical. Along with the coins found, not a bad haul for a day's work.

Broken Bones and Putting Down Roots

Day 12 of Harvester

Beads of sweat form along the brow of Feno after the long training sessions with Dorian. Feno has learned a few things from his fellow fighter these past few days while the rest of the group went back to the barrowmaze. After seeing the group show up suddenly one evening and being told of the problems of their latest adventure, Feno decided to recommit to and focus on more training to become a better fighter, and perhaps, a better elf. Later that day, while wandering around the grounds of Orlane, fireflies seemed to be attracted to Feno, and congregated all around him. In a large swarm they danced and danced, and in but a moment, he was transported back to the barrowmaze with the rest of the party.

Lhoss wanted to finish the skeletons off that attacked and nearly wiped out the party last time, and thought it was time to develop a strategy to accomplish that task.

After some discussion about plan of attacks and strategy, Feno suggested utilizing the door as a bottleneck of sorts and forcing the skeletons to come through that choke point. This would prevent both the party from being overwhelmed like last time, as well as being stabbed in the back. Hearing this idea, Gnorcia agrees that this is the best and safest idea, and the rest of the party agrees. 

Hearing approval of his plan, and seeing the group take tactical positioning, Feno opens the ancient burial door towards the skeletal crypts and walks towards the fateful are nearly wiped the party previously. With the torch that Kyro had given him moments before, Feno uses it as a helpful distraction by throwing it down the hall. With a smirk of elven confidence, he brandishes his sword in his right hand and his shield in his left, and bangs them loudly together, mimicking a dinner bell, trying to draw the skeletons in. And boy does it work. The previous horde comes quickly out of the alcoves ready for Feno. Having gotten their attention, Feno backs slowly into the next room, leading them into the ambush point that the party has set for them. He enters to the side of the fallen obelisk room as the skeletons shuffle in; only to be greeted by the rest of the party. Lhoss uses her arcane abilities and launches a couple magic missiles at a skeleton, blowing it to pieces. Feno, not wanting to be shown up, attacks a skeleton near him, and likewise, demolishes it. The rest of the skeletons adjust their movements and then attack. The party for the most party dodges their attacks, with Lhoss, Chalkboi, and Calbach being the exception. They get struck by the swings of the blades of the skeletal creatures. Gnorcia, as she tries to attack a skeleton, stumbles a little and completely misses her target. Niki is successful at destroying a skeleton, as is Kyro.

As the battle rages on, the underground room reverberates with the clash of metal and bone, the hiss of magic, and the war cries of the adventuring party. Exhaustion begins to creep into their limbs, and the chilling atmosphere threatens to sap their spirits, but they fight on, driven by a shared determination to cleanse this cursed place. Lhoss fires more magic missiles, injuring a skeleton. Chalkboi, using his self-aware sword, and upset over the strikes by the skeletons, destroys the skeleton he engages with. Feno with rage in his eyes destroys a pair of skeletons, beginning with the one skeleton that is nearest to him first. Another skeleton, whether he was particularly brave or just plain suicidal, attacks and cuts Feno lightly on the cheek with his short sword. It was short lived victory before Feno quickly cuts that particular one down. The group take turns killing skeletons. While most of the group simply defeat them, Sergius and Feno completely destroy them. With the group killing most of the skeletons in the room, Feno moves into a tactical position towards the door again and kills another skeleton that rushes towards him. With the much smaller remaining group of skeletons, Calbach, tries to do an aerial maneuver, similar to what Gnorcia sometimes does, but fails spectacularly instead. He runs forward to try to jump, and then trips over Gnorcia, and goes headfirst towards the nearby wall, knocking the wind out of him. The rest of the group kills the remaining few skeletons, with Sergius dealing the killing blow to the last skeleton. Gnorcia picks Calbach's dropped mace from the ground, walks over to his semi-conscious body, and drops the mace on him in retribution for his recent behavior.

The group, upon the defeat of skeletons, regroup in the room of the obelisks, and the magically inclined party members memorize their spells. Upon the conclusion of their studying, the group moves to the alcoves the skeletons came from in hopes of finding untold treasures. The group find the usual gold and platinum, but Lhoss also find a hidden lever that opens up a new passageway. The hear the cries of someone calling for help as they proceed forward down the new passageway. Pressing down the passageway, the stench grows from bad to worse as they get closer to the pleading and begging for help. They arrive at the source of the cries: a sarcophagus, with the sounds of clawing and scratching coming from inside. As they approach the crypt, Calbach opens it up and a figure emerges and introduces himself as Roots. Roots offers to hug Calbach in gratitude, and Calbach naively accepts, and is paralyzed as a result. He turns to Feno and Gnorcia and blames them for what just happened. Lhoss casts levitate, bringing him towards the roof. In retaliation, he spews a noxious breath attack at Niki causing her to choke. Feno, having enough, swings his sword at it, causing some damage, but surprisingly not killing it. It cries in pain. Kyro draws an arrow from his quiver and puts it into his bow and fires. Then another. Both arrows find their mark and kill this unknown creature, Roots. Feno sees in the sarcophagus an enchanted bow and a platinum figure. Upon their removal Lhoss puts the lifeless body back inside the sarcophagus.

Session 120: A Horde of Skeletons Attacks

Recorded by Gnorcia:

We stayed the day in Orlane and had a wonderful but not exactly memorable day. Lhoss and I spent the day checking in on the mayor, Vilma, and the elves. The next day was Day 6 of Harvester. Feeling refreshed, we arose early, had our meal, and were on our way toward the Barrowmaze by 6:30am. It turned out to be a gloomy, rainy day. Sergius grumbled about the rain because for some reason he did not have a cloak, but the rest of us just pulled our cloaks over us and started the march down the road. I loaned my cloak to Chiki, who also did not have one, knowing it would require cleaning after a day around that gnome and his chicken. Also in our party were Kyro and Eldriel the Grey.

It was a somber, melancholy march with no sunlight and a steady pour of rain. We could smell Sergius and his increasingly-wet chain mail. The road got muddier as we went, then the trees from the Dim Forest dripped on us as we traveled through there. The Barrowmarsh trail was even wetter and murkier than usual, with a supernatural-looking fog. Despite the gloom and rain, we were excited and determined to find more treasure and possibly the Font of Law. We entered the Barrowmaze and made our way back through its silent hallways to the room we had been exploring two days before.

Peering through the portcullis, we saw a lot of dust and cobwebs and two doors to the left—one of them broken down in pieces on the floor. We raised the rusty portcullis and Kyro began sweeping the floor for traps. He soon discovered a large pit right in front of the second, broken door! Avoiding the pit, Kyro peered into the room and was immediately attacked by three crab spiders that dropped down from the ceiling. Lhoss ran in and attacked one and I leapt onto the back of another, destroying them both. Sergius then ran in and attacked the last spider but it turned and bit him, poisoning him. He dug a poison cure and a healing potion out of his bag and drank them down. I managed to harvest the poison sacks from the crab spiders and carefully packed them away as Lhoss and Eldriel did a quick search for hidden doors or anything on the walls. We then headed back out to look into the other room.

The other door was ajar and Kyro pushed it open, revealing two open sarcophagi. He looked carefully at the ceiling—which appeared normal with no hidden crab spiders—and began to sweep the room. The skeletons lay still in their sarcophagi—as skeletons should. We determined to head back out and try the closed door in the large room to the west. Kyro entered the room and began to sweep the floor for possible danger. At one point he found a hollow-sounding spot on the floor and Sergius hit the floor with his battle axe, revealing the seam of a pit trap in front of the first door on the south. Kyro continued sweeping and found yet another pit trap to the northwest in front of another door there. Beyond that, the floor appeared to be safe.

Kyro then began sweeping the floor in a hallway to the south and discovered a large group of 23 skeletons that began lumbering toward us from both hallways, north and south! One attacked Lhoss and another attacked me. Fragile elf Eldriel had gone wandering off across the room and found himself attacked by two skeletons at once. As the skeletons swarmed we all took some damage and Sergius quickly fell to the floor but Chiki grabbed him and dragged him out into the hallway, then poured a healing potion down his throat. He immediately jumped up and sort of stumbled around the room, mindlessly. In the meantime, the rest of us determined to get out as well. Kyro and I both turned and ran out the door, taking a hit from skeletons as we did so, but were able to escape.

Lhoss then cast magic missiles on the two skeletons attacking her, disintegrating one and distracting the other enough that she could jump up onto the wall and climb quickly to the ceiling of the room, beyond their reach. She then doused her lantern just as I closed the door, leaving her and Eldriel alone with a horde of skeletons in the dark dungeon room. As the skeletons bashed on the door, trying to get out to us, Lhoss scrambled along the ceiling to where Eldriel was trapped in the corner by the bony undead creatures. She then cast levitate on him just as he fell to their attacks and passed out, bleeding. After Eldriel floated up to the ceiling, Lhoss bound up his wounds and poured a healing potion down his throat. She then tied him to herself so he would float along behind her as she silently moved across the ceiling toward the door. She noticed that the skeletons had stopped banging on the door and were click-clacking their way back to their hidey holes.

At the door, Lhoss made a low whistle and Kyro—who was waiting outside for her signal—quickly opened it to let them through, then closed it again. In the meantime, Chiki had cast a wall of fog to obscure the rest of us, just in case any skeletons got through, but it wasn’t needed as the skeletons had disengaged. Lhoss poured more healing potions down Eldriel’s throat and swallowed another dose herself. The poor druid looked drained, but we were all safe from the skeletal threat.

Session 119: At last, a gelatinous cube

Feno, Niki, Arnd, Sergius, Lhoss, Chalkboi, and Kyro could tell they were in the vicinity of the Font of Law, but they had thoroughly explored the current corridor and found nothing. They decided to retrace their steps back to the obelisk room and search beyond the eastern door. Upon opening the door, Feno was greeted with an odd sight: beyond some rubble stood a man with his back to the group; one arm was raised and frozen in place as if to ward off or wave. The figure did not respond to Sergius' calls, which was... disturbing. The party took in the rest of the room and noticed the walls of dark granite and limestone, distinct from the rest of the barrowmaze, as well as a rusty portcullis. As Niki moved further into the room to probe with her 10' pole, she noticed an odd ripple in the air. Immediately though, she was able to discern its true form: a large cube of transparent material... and it was moving toward her! The jiggling form attempted to advance and engulf her, but Niki outmaneuvered it. She struck out at it but it was Feno that delivered the destroying blow, absolutely demolishing it. The human figure, no longer supported by the gelatinous cube, fell and revealed to the group that he had been half devoured by the goo. Upon close inspection, it was believed that the half-consumed man had been a member of the Band of the Black Hand. Ah well, no great loss.

Sergius was the first to begin exploring a passageway to the south. He found burial alcoves and limestone walls that turned into rougher walls. There were eight hallways, each containing many differently-shaped burial alcoves. The adventurers closed the door behind themselves, as not to be snuck up on, and worked together to systematically search the alcoves. It was clear they would not wrap up in time to be back to Orlane for dinner, so the group ate a hasty dinner of bland rations and tried to make quick work of the searching. The haul was impressive: a gold circlet, brass cup, circular polished stone, ivory carving, bracelet, fire opal, glass box, jade idol, earrings, copper inkwell, ornate plate, mithril brooch in the shape of an elven tree, necklace, coral, and a healthy amount of gold, silver, and electrum. Feeling good about the day's work, everyone was prepared to head back to town. Feno carved a small star into the wall as a reminder that he had been here.

Alas, behind the door, the way was not clear to depart. A swarm of three stirges barred the way with a pair of sapphire skeletons advancing in the background. Two of the enormous mosquito-like creatures attacked Niki and began to suck her blood. Arnd swung out with his throwing war hammer and squished one. Lhoss used her spider climb to hang from the doorway and strike down at another, killing it. Unfortunately, this put Lhoss in a vulnerable position and she was stabbed by both of the skeletons. Feno squished the last stirge. Working swiftly, Chalbkoi and Sergius felled the two skeletons, their sapphires glowing ominously. This group has fought enough of these skeletons to know that they can only be fully defeated if their sapphires are smashed. Kyro and Chalkboi cleaved one each and the valuable shards were gathered up. The group headed back to Orlane as night fell.

The treasures were tested for magic and two items proved to be imbued with powers - the brooch and the polished stone. The group decided to divvy up some of the magical items and potions they had acquired. Anyone willing to pay the price to identify a potion could claim it. Feno claimed two and Lhoss claimed one. In addition, the ring the group had previously found was identified as a ring of fire resistance and given to Sergius. The polished stone was determined to be a luck stone and given to Feno. The brooch was shown to turn any fine cloak into a cloak of elven-kind (and therefore decrease the odds of being perceived) and given to Kyro. The rest of the treasure was sold to the jeweler Haskall with the proceeds split among the party for a handsome payday.

Welcome, Sergius Radizki, to our crazy adventures

 In circumstances that only make sense within the Barrow Maze, we've had a new member join our adventures.  Niki was healing herself and Ronan from their injuries while Chalkboi healed himself with his Paladan ability, when I looked around for Armatzi, only to find that he was nowhere to be found and instead there was an unknown mountain dwarf standing with our group.  I honestly have no idea where he came from (aside from the mountains, obviously) or how he got here so quietly but he introduces himself by saying, "I'm Sergius Radizki, and I'm a mountain dwarf."  

Someone asks, "What can you do?" and he says, "Uh, I'm really strong?"  Everyone kind of shrugs, says "OK" and boom, he's part of us now.  I think that Arnd is pretty excited to have another dwarf in our midst, even though Arnd is a hill dwarf and not a mountain dwarf.  Of course, I'm none too clear on the distinction there, so maybe they're actually as compatible as Hookhill and Hochoch are (ie only on the surface, with a ton of unseen conflict underneath).  I hope that things keep going smoothly, since some snarky banter like Niki and Armatzi share is pretty funny but having companions that actively look down on others (or even hate them) is way more drama than I want in my life.

Anyway, Lhoss examines the spell book that the recently defeated necromancer had left behind and discovers that it holds three spells.  Sleep (which is unsurprising since he'd used it on us), Magic Missile, and an unknown spell.  She says that there are also several additional blank pages, so maybe one of our magic users will be able to use it as a backup?  I don't know, since while I've heard tales of rangers that prove their dedication to nature enough to be able to do Druidic magics, I'm nowhere near that level yet, so I'm not worrying about it at the moment.

Niki dutifully uses her pole to sweep the room for traps and pits finding none.  There are four tall marble pillars holding up the ceiling, and in the middle of the room is a rune-encrusted obelisk that gives off waves of malevolence.  The writing is a combination of Elvish, Dwarven, and some sort of ancient common in addition to the cryptic runes.  Lhoss can read enough to let us know that it's describing nasty rituals in the worship of Nerul.  Immediately, everyone except Calbach decides that the evil thing needs to be toppled.  Calbach himself is still very wary about statuary dedicated to the death deity, recalling his injuries from trying to destroy that goat-headed bust that was guarding a hallway.  

Lhoss quickly scrambles up the 30-foot obelisk with a 50-foot rope that she ties in place, then while she and the others begin to tug, Feno and I use sledgehammers to break up the base.  Our efforts are soon rewarded with the stone crashing to the ground and breaking into chunks, the largest of which is a mere four feet long.  I'm glad my companions are as nimble as they are since Sergius came close to being smashed beneath the rubble.  As we watch, a smoky black shade with glowing red eyes solidifies above the wreckage, glowering balefully.  Everyone tenses in alarm, but the shade doesn't attack; it simply dissipates into the Aether.  Once it's gone, we all go toward the door to the south.  I whack the largest chunk with my sledgehammer as I pass, causing several chips of stone to fly off.

The passageway past the door is dark and murky, and it has several doors in pairs off either side for as far as I can see.  The doors are decorated like burial crypts rather than like what we now consider to be standard Barrow Maze doors.  My lantern begins to gutter, so I quickly refill it with oil, and several of the others in the group light fresh torches to improve visibility.  The first door we come to is unlocked, and when opened reveals a dirty but otherwise nondescript room.  There are not even any places to search for treasures.  The second door is locked, but Lhoss examines it and says that there doesn't appear to be any traps.  When her lock-picking skills aren't up to the job, Feno just uses his great strength to force it open.  The second room is equally dirty and dusty, but there is a slab of stone where a shrouded skeleton is lain out.  We've been attacked by skeletons many times in the past, so are on guard, but this one seems to be inanimate.  Niki sweeps the room for dangers and discovers a runic tablet on the floor.  I feel a bit nostalgic for a moment, remembering when Armatzi and Tatania would sort of compete to see who could read the most runic tablets, but feel no desire to read this one myself.  Sergius, on the other hand, snatches it up and quickly reads it.  As I feared, a negative effect quickly begins, with a grey mist appearing and attempting to penetrate Sergius's head.  Fortunately, he seems to have some natural resistance to such attacks since he fairly casually shakes the mist off and remains unaffected.

Feno and Lhoss decide to examine the skeleton closer, but don't find anything of note.  Feno goes so far as to remove the shroud, but the skeleton has its arms crossed over its chest in peaceful repose and remains still.  With a shrug, Feno puts the shroud back and tucks it around the resting skeleton.  We close the door behind us and continue to search down the hall.

Lhoss checks the next set of doors for traps and doesn't detect anything out of the ordinary.  The door on the east side of the hallway is cautiously opened, revealing a damp room with water dripping from several spots on the ceiling.  There are four sarcophagi arranged around the room, absent lids but filled with slimy peat-colored water.  It's impossible to see what, if anything, is in the stone boxes so Feno attempts to push one over to drain.  The dripping water has caused a lot of mineral calcifications, sticking the sarcophagus rather firmly to the floor and it doesn't want to move.  Before anyone could go offer assistance, an equally calcified skeleton arises from each of the sarcophagi and spikes fear in all those who were unfortunate enough to be outside Chalkboi's holy aura's radius.  The skeleton closest to Chalkboi swings its mineral-encrusted sword at Chalkboi but misses him by quite a bit.  Niki retaliates with her war hammer, breaking off bits of the skeleton.  Ronan is right there with his cudgel in an attempt to assist, but his swing goes wide as well.  As we've come to expect, Feno turns his foe into powder with a single hit and Sergius proves his claim of being "really strong" by doing the same.  Arnd misses his attack, followed by Lhoss attempting to utilize her spider-crawl to arrange a back-stab which she likewise misses on.  I use my magic sword, Dynasty, to smash the third of the skeletons and nearly stumble into the icky water so I miss seeing who takes out the final skeleton, but I know someone did it since it's gone by the time I recover my balance.  Now that the skeletons are no longer an issue, Feno resumes pushing on the sarcophagus to dump out the water while Arnd, Niki and I work on a second one.  Ronan, Chalkboi, Lhoss and Calbach tackle the third and Sergius manages the final one by himself.  The rush of fetid water is accompanied by the jangle of coins hitting the floor.  A quick search gathers a total of 72 gold pieces which we quickly divide between ourselves.

The door across the hallway is locked, but Lhoss uses her lock picking skills to open it.  Feno opens the door but when a skeleton inside stirs, it raises a cloud of yellow mold dust that billows towards the doorway.  I'm very grateful for Feno's superhuman level reflexes since he gets the door slammed shut before even a single spore of the mold can escape.  Something, probably the skeleton we'd seen in there, is scratching at the door and trying to get out, but it can't.  Lhoss readies her "Continual Light" spell since we've seen that it can neutralize the deadly yellow mold and Sergius prepares to attack the skeleton, hoping to catch it by surprise.  Timing everything to perfection, the door is swung back open just as Lhoss's spell is cast, sanitizing the mold and leaving it a dull grey in color.  Unfortunately, Sergius didn't catch the skeleton by surprise, nor did he even hit it, but it had no better luck in attacking him.  Lhoss proves how nimble she has become with her new gauntlets by scrambling right over the skeleton and attacking it from the rear, but it moved just at the wrong moment, and she didn't get her strike to connect.  As I was right there in the correct place, I use Dynasty to shatter yet another foe.  Niki is preparing to sweep the room with her pole but before she gets a moment, Calbach stumbles his way into the room and slips on the mess that was left over from denaturing the mold, falling hard onto his back and rattling his brain.  He is rather dazed for a bit but recovers quick enough.  Hopefully he won't do that again, since repeated concussions will lead to brain damage which is not something that any sort of adventurer can afford.  Nothing more is found in that room, so we move on.

The next doors appear to be the final set in the hall, and Lhoss checks them over for traps.  She is pretty confident that the door on the east is in fact safe from traps, but it has a lock that is beyond Lhoss's skills in lockpicking.  Feno tries to use his strength to bust in but doesn't quite manage so Sergius applies his muscles and finishes the job.  This room holds another sarcophagus, which isn't much of a surprise all things considered.  Niki successfully sweeps the room, finding no pits or other traps, and Lhoss decides to check the sarcophagus for traps as well.  Unfortunately, in doing so she surprises a trio of spitting cobras that had set up house there, and they surprise her in return by spitting at her with their venom.  The venom falls short, so Lhoss is uninjured.  Feno quickly beheads two of the cobras with his sword and uses his wisdom and dexterity to harvest their poison sacs.  He knows that he can take the prized items to the Temple of Merikka where they use such things in making helpful potions.  Unfortunately, the third cobra was bashed with Calbach's mace, and the poison sac is too damaged to be harvested.  Checking out the empty nest, Calbach spots a pair of gold chalices which he puts into the bag of holding for later.

The final room of the hallway is opened to the disgusting sight and sounds of a pair of ghouls gnawing on the bones of a previous victim.  Sensing fresh prey, they both attempt to bring down Feno, but they are sorely outmatched and badly miss in their attacks.  Niki tries to get one of the ghouls with Mr. Paws, but just doesn't seem to be as effective with the weapon without Jack beside her, and she fails to do any damage.  Feno isn't about to let the ghouls have another chance at him and so he slaughters the nearer ghoul while Sergius destroys the other.  I kind of wonder what our next step is going to be since I suddenly remember that we were supposed to find the Font of Law in this area of the Maze, and not only didn't we find it yet, but we seem to be running out of places to look for it.  I can only hope that Chalkboi is open to promptings from St. Cuthbert, since without Armatzi here, Chalkboi is our only hope.