Barrowmaze: beyond the Ritual Baptistry

[Spearmint]

If you wanted to take a 'two hour break' which may give time for minor spell memorization, that would be okay. The Wights do not descend while the Earth Elementals are in place.

If you sneak past them to the top of the stairs (using Smokie?), then as long as you don't cross the oily pool you can see the Wights wander aimless around the interior chamber among other Nergal statues and pillars.

The way past Totenkopf's and past the Cromm Cruach Mess hall and into the wider corridor appears free of intruders. The doors to the Pit of Chaos / Nergal Sanctum closed, the statues by the door sense 'invisible' creatures so Smokie doesn't proceed closer lest they disclose his presence.

[Rex]

Orgoth

"If you can regain some magic by resting we should do that. Moo Moo is a good idea, our best option I think."

[Spearmint]

just a timekeeping record here:

Mid-morning: leave camp room, refreshed and spelled up, CLW on Yardie.

approximate times:
11.00am vs Pyre Zombies
Midday vs Sons of Yannarg
1.00pm vs Salem & Set Cultists
2.00pm vs Nergal Barrow wights
5.00pm. finish Short rest.

[OGRE MAGE]

Okay, I will figure out what spells can be recovered when I get a second.

Sven will give the group a breather while he studies. Once ready, he will lead the pack back to the big hallway, heading away from the Pit room this time.

“We need to be extra cautious now, I think. The demon said cultists work around here. Do any of you who have been in here before remember this spot? Gargyx? Legs?”

After peeking around the next corner, Sven will suggest Moo-Moo be used.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth will take a position behind Yardie/Moo-Moo as he leads the way.

[Spearmint]

I will edit an update here then crack open a few beers for New Year

[Spearmint]

Escaping the Barrowmaze

Barrowmaze: random vs 1 [1d6]=2 [1d6]=5

After some study and reflection, plans are made, weapons and torches branded, helmets and shields adjusted.

I think I note the Bone-Vest as being equipped to Berric for want of allocating it out. No more Holy Waters, all are used. No more potions and lotions, I think you guys need adjust your inventories.

Orgoth may still have his Potion of Invisibility.

The Earth Elemental mud guardian can be reclaimed, rolling up the mud like rolling up flattened pastry and triggering the internal vacuum of some spatial dimension to suck up the loam back into the large cannister. Sven slings it over one shoulder.

A strange 'marching order', Yardie who wears the minotaur skull, his dreadlocked head inside the large bovine cavity leads the way, listening to incomprehensible chuntering and snorting with occasional discernible directions for left, right, straight. He is armed with Orgoth's spear.

Orgoth walks behind, his glowing longsword held in hand, shield raised. Crippens & Berruc, each with javelins complete the vanguard.

Sven checks with his bronze compass, adding scribbled notes on some dry graph parchments to sketch a map. He walks next, at his heels are Smokie, Gargyx & BarkingToadLegs .

Then comes Penelope and the two unnamed human survivors, they help lug whatever gear you need and brandish a torch each.

Grumashk brings up the rear, totting the heavyweight sledgehammer with ease.

Are you bringing those Canopic jars with you?

Escaping ...

The first check is to gain the 'all clear' around the Ritual Pool chamber and that nothing intrudes or follows from the South Wing of crypts. The bloodthirsty wolf spiders are still in their rubble habitat and are happy not to be disturbed. You ignore intruding upon Totenkopf's research, a hum of Quasi lightening heard behind the securely locked door. Over the hidden pit and around the mossy pit in the wider hallway. Several crypt doors are bypassed, their secrets and treasures left for another time.

You make it into the wider corridor that northwards leads to the Pit of Chaos. The baleful influence in that corridor is not good, even stalwart Smokie shivers, struggling to keep a howl in and turning invisible. The Mongrelman whimpers, Penelope and the torchbearers visibly flag. You hurry on southwards, passing several unstable portions of wall that shudder slightly as your hollow footsteps tremor-step upon the hallway flagstones.

Unstable wall vs 1-2 [1d6]=3.

Bits of brickwork and earth crumble, a solid chunk clattering upon the floor from the ceiling, sending shards of stone to pebble dash behind you.

Thankfully you turn out of the hallway into a narrower passage. Again, many crypts and passages are on either side but following the guidance of the Minotaur's spirit, you ignore these abd head eastwards.

After a few yards you stop. This time is everyone who gets the feelings of dread and paranoia. Sven slaps his head, hearing empathetic voices and they don't sound gruffly lupine, more devilish and enticing.

"Welcome, come, come as Hand and offer your heart." the Voice speaks.

The group halt outside a grim façade, the large skull edifice framing the sides of a passage that ends in two doors of black and dread.



Actions everyone provide a Wisdom saving throw please. Sven at -1.

[Spearmint]

[Rex]

Orgoth

Sheet updated, he does still have the potion of invisibility.

Wis save [1d20+1]=19+1=20

"Yardie, where is Moo-Moo telling you to go, I would prefer it not be into the skull."

[OGRE MAGE]

Oh yes, I must remember to scratch off all my magic items that I keep using on other people. Thanks for the reminder!

Sven doesn’t like the looks of the hallway. “If we had the means, we could probably create a cave-in here pretty easily. We should remember how dilapidated this area is when we come back with the Font.”

“With a group this size, we all need to travel using the buddy system. If you see someone near you in trouble, help them out! Orgoth and I can’t be everywhere.”

Magic Resistance (25%) [1d100]=5

The mage shakes his head at the frightening skull doorway, guessing this is the area the demon mentioned. “NOBODY’S going in there! Keep moving! Grab anyone who strays! We need to get away from this spot!”

If necessary, he does just that, making sure the flock follows the skull bearer, and grabbing up anyone who resists leaving.

Now we can’t trust Yardie to tell the truth that Moo-Moo is directing him to go through.

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Keep moving everyone."

Orgoth blocks the way into the skull just in case.

[Spearmint]

Enticement: Gmk [1d20]=20 Cr [1d20]=20 Brr [1d20]=11 Yd [1d20]=3Enticement: P [1d20]=8 H1 [1d20]=7 H2 [1d20]=7 Btl [1d20]=15Smokie resistance: vs 25% [1d100]=46 Save 13+ vs Enticement [1d20]=19

Half the team feel the enticement but blocked by the larger and fiercer of the group, attempts are made to corral the group away from the maw of the skull despite Yardie insisting that 'through those doors is the way'.

Totenkopf's Wights: present vs 1-2 [1d6]=4 Surprise, surprise [1d20+2]=14+2=16 [1d20+2]=7+2=9

You are reminded by instinct or fear that those Wights, dismissed from their duties by the Pit Fiend may be wandering nearby, drawn by the demonic influence of certain crypts.

Thankfully the shadows that play grotesquely upon the walls inside the mouth cave of the skull are just the fleeting imaginations of your own shadows and not the Undead lurking as door-keepers and stewards to the Death Vaults.

With some effort the group are moved on, shepherded with a physical push or two until you round the next corner and lose sight of the stone edifice. You come to another wider hallway that stretches southwards 60'ft or more beyond your sight and illumination.

Yardie taps the Minotaur's skull, trying to concentrate and with second hand information passed in from Sven tries to focus on exits and entrances.

"I wish to know the location of the nearest exit from this maze that leads up to the Barrow Mound meadows above."

"You have entered through one on more than one occasion. It lies to the south through the Haunted tombs." referring to the Silas Barrow entrance. "The other is held in the dominion of the Necromancers of Set. The way is forbidden to all except to those who follow the Usurpers way. It lies in the east, past the Death Vaults of the Chosen"

You had also been told 'it is three doors' to the Metal door room (assuming the wooden one into it from the corridor of Mausoleums is one of those).

"Two doors ... we are two doors away. But which do we choose?" he asks.

The group fan out in the wider hall, buddying up as requested. into the assigned pairs I used in the encounters.. This long corridor is silent but fetid and eerie. Rats scurry away from your light, beetles and millipedes bury themselves under portions of rubble. Somewhere in the distance a door thuds shut, behind you doors open, footsteps ... going away. Silence apart from heavy breathing and the feeling you are still being watched.

actions please

[OGRE MAGE]

Uninterested in opening any more doors, Sven can tell this place is almost as evil as the Pit room. He tries to keep everyone focused and moving forward.

"Orgoth, could this be that wider hallway we found on our first trip? It was angled off the initial area we searched and had that creepy pit where the cultists stored the dead bodies."

The mage addresses the entire group again quietly. "I think we're getting closer to a known exit we have used before, but we are clearly not alone in this area either. We need to be doubly cautious from here on. Check every wall and watch every step you take. This place is filled with traps."

Sven tries to keep his light source to a minimum, but pushes the group forward to see where this wide hallway leads.

"I don't think we should open any more doors until we get a better idea of where we are."

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Maybe it is the same hallway, but it is hard to tell. They are using the same construction over and over again which makes it difficult."

Orgoth keeps moving, trying to be alert.

"Do you have copies of the maps from our first expedition with you Sven?"

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven nods.

I do, but I have not correlated how they connect with this new area yet.

[Spearmint]

Escaping the Barrowmaze

Escaping the enticement to enter the vaults of Nergal's Chosen, the group press on, determined to locate a familiar face, a familiar set of corridors, a familiar exit. "Two doors" is passed around as a word of hope and encouragement.

But no escape is easy and without risk. You are not more than a few yards down the passage when tragedy strikes, a double fisted whammy that seemingly strikes out of nowhere. But it is the floor that erupts alarmingly and strikes out in the form of a roughly humanoid appearance.

Yardie walks downwards on the passage left, Orgoth beside him. Others file behind. The mercenary treads on those flagstones, carefully, warned in advance by Sven that every step could be a mis-step. And so it proves, fatally so but not for the mercenary, rather those who walk in his wake.

It takes everyone by surprise for the tomb guardian is almost imperceptibly hidden against the floor, unless you knew what to look for, you wouldn't see it. Though once it rises, Sven & Orgoth may have a reflection they have seen its ilk before.

I think it was in crypt room 68, a room at the foot of the corridor south of the 'tapestry room' you encountered a floor where the tiles had been dug up that vaguely resembled a squarish humanoid figure, the tiles smashed and placed aside in a pile.

So then this 'flagstone golem', a Construct of tiled granite slabs rises up suddenly to smite those who trespass over its domain. You have no time to question whether it is simply a guardian 'on duty' or a trap or even a random, wandering creature. All you know is the huge blocks of tiles and rubble rising up in a cloud of dust and shards of stone. Grabbing a hold of the nearest victims, it strikes to bludgeon the two human escapees with powerful blows that cave in their skulls and send brain matter and thoughts of escape splattering upon the walls.

Flagstone Golem: [1d20+2]=9+2=11 [1d8+3]=7+3=10 [1d20+2]=3+2=5 [1d8+3]=3+3=6



Actions please.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth rushes the golem to try and clear room for everyone else to get away from it. "Clear!"

Long Sword +1 [1d20+2]=14+2=16 to hit [1d8+4]=2+4=6 s/m damage [1d12+4]=12+4=16 l damage [1d100]=76 stun
Shield Bash [1d20+2]=9+2=11 to hit

[OGRE MAGE]

If this thing can instakill rolling a 3, we might be in trouble here.

Sven grows increasingly concerned about making too much noise in here.

Glad he took the time to memorize his magic again, he casts his spell of Levitation upon the flagstone creature.

2nd Level Spell Retention (INT 15) [4d6+2]=11+2=13 +1 for BM = 14

[Rex]

Orgoth

Yup, gonna need to run I think.

[Spearmint]

If this thing can instakill rolling a 3, we might be in trouble here.

I did check that, but yes, even with surprise not factored in, the golem hits on the unarmoured human duo.

But insta-kill is almost the group's response, Orgoth max's out his longsword cleaving, -16hp, the bugbear hammers into its rear, -6hp and Yardie & Crippens add stabs -12hp. Shards of tiled flagstone break off the creature, plates of its stone armour crack under the assault.

Sven finds it resists his levitation and it strikes out at the major threat but Orgoth's armour and shield are enough to protect him from the bludgeoning fists. The fracturing stone animate grunts, the noise echoing in the corridor, the thuds and cries of alarm sounding loud but do not draw any more attention to you.

Grumashk: sledging [1d20+1]=9+1=10 [2d4+1]=5+1=6Yardie: [1d20+1]=14+1=15 [1d8+1]=8+1=9 Berric [1d20]=12 [1d6]=4 Crippens [1d20]=18 [1d6]=3Flagstone Golem: 14+ save vs Spells [1d20]=17Flagstone Golem: [1d20+2]=1+2=3 [1d8+3]=1+3=4 [1d20+2]=7+2=9 [1d8+3]=2+3=5

You might have this! Orgoth next attack please