Summary:
The Army of the Light is hit hard! Roulf dies from a poison metallic snake bite! The two dwarves Jasper and Magni lose a point of Strength from fighting a Wraith, and Wright loses a level from the Wraith.

PC’s:
– Session 108:
Llewelyn, Elf Cleric 8/Wizard 8 of Sehanine Moonbow
Rolando, Hobbit Rogue 6/Pacer 6 of Brandobaris Fleetfoot
Kiaria, Human Seeker 7 Bast
Belden, Gnome Bard 7 of Aengus
Sir Arthur, Human Oathsworn 9 of Celestian
Roulf, Half-Orc Drachentöten (Dragonslayer) 7 of Crom
Edward, Human Bard 7 of St. Cecelia
Kyron, Human Cleric 9 of Charon
Balthazar, Elf/Mongrelman Wizard 8 of Arcanus
– Session 109:
Martin, Human Rogue 10 of Bacchus
Llewelyn, Elf Cleric 8/Wizard 8 of Sehanine Moonbow
Wright Dawnbreaker, Human Paladin 5 of St. Luther
Magni, Dwarf Fighter 5 of Barundar Battleaxe
Remy, Gnome Rogue 6/Illusionist 6 of Hermes
Kiaria, Human Seeker 7 Bast
Jasper, Dwarf Fighter 4/Cleric 4 of Dumathoin Deepdelver
Roulf, Half-Orc Drachentöten (Dragonslayer) 7 of Crom

Game Diary:
Once again, “life” meant I fell behind a week in my game diaries so I have to do two in one.

In Session 108 the group was continuing for a third session in the Barrowmaze in late October. The session did not possess any earth-shattering drama. The group finished their 3rd session in a row in the Barrowmaze so simply finished exploring some rooms and then headed back to Irongaurd Motte. Several characters were rotated out of the game for level-up abilities (i.e. C&C Advantages) and downtime abilities. They also needed to recover from all the undead encounters they had (in the Barrowmaze whenever you have had undead encounters equal to your Wisdom score you might go insane, and it takes one week per undead encounter to get your mental equilibrium back).

So, for Session 109 the players brought in some neglected characters to make one more big push before winter hits the Duchy of Aerik. Since nothing bad had happened to the Army of the Light in quite a while I think confidence was high.

Entering a new area of the dungeon the PCs entered a room with curtains covering little alcoves. At each alcove, someone would push the tapestry out of the way to see what was behind and it was Roulf who disturbed a metallic cobra. It bit him and he failed his saving throw. The poison was very strong and with that failure, Roulf fell to the ground dead! That did stun a few people, but at least we are at the point in the campaign where there are now clerics like Kyron who are high enough level to Raise Dead, so they put Roulf out of the way in a quiet room to retrieve later to bring back to town for resurrection.

The rooms they were exploring were very close to where they suspected the Tablet of Chaos is located and some had come to see the waves of Chaos that would drift through the environment around them causing an uneasy existential feeling in the air. They were soon to discover that a lot of things they thought they could predict would be a little off.

They entered several crypts which had mummies in them, but they felled them efficiently.

Another room had only two entry points, one was a one-way door and the other was a secret door but it pivoted vertically at waist level for a medium-sized being, so those of human size had to crouch down to enter. Players knew to be cautious and as two dwarves Jasper and Magni entered (they were smaller so could come and go more quickly than the medium-sized players) a shimmering incorporeal undead rose from a sarcophagus in front of them. Their dwarven deepvision also allowed them to see other parts of this large room and they could see incorporeal undead rising from at least two other sarcophagi. Llewellyn is an accomplished cleric and his insight revealed that they were related to Wraiths, which can be quite deadly if they happen to have the traditional level-drain ability.

Jasper and Magni bravely fought the wraith, but incorporeal undead are unique in that your armor doesn’t protect you as much against their touch attacks. And they did indeed get touched by these undead and even though they succeeded their saves, their Strength scores went down by one point. Another nice bit of fun for GMs is that incorporeal undead can pass through solid surfaces, so those in the 3rd and 4th rank in the marching order that thought they were safe were caught by surprise when one of the wraiths burst through a wall and attacked them at the back of the group! Wright fought bravely but when he was struck and failed his saving throw he went from 5th to 4th level. In a previous adventure, Remy had acquired a 4th level fighter follower after pulling a card from a Deck of Many Things and he was also struck by the wraith, failed his save, and fell to 3rd level.

With no place to retreat (and the Army of the Light never retreats!) they eventually destroyed the undead and plundered their tomb.

By the end of this game session, they had also managed to fight some unique Barrow Wights which clearly had more than your normal wight undead powers, ghasts, and some juju zombies.

We ended the session still in the Barrowmaze, but with Roulf dead, Jasper and Magni with -1 on Strength, and Wright and NPC down a level, the Army of the Light took a few good hits. Next session they will complete what they want to do in this section of the Barrowmaze and then most likely head back to Ironguard Motte to see if they can raise dead and restore attribute points to those who experienced losses. And then, do they do a time jump over the harsh winter period and do some downtime activities, or will they risk adventuring during the dead of winter?

Summary:
1. Entering the Barrowmaze in the last rush before winter arrives the dragonslayer Roulf is attacked by four mimics, and the monk Zen destroys two gargoyles each with single blows from critical hits.
2. Assassin Vetle Løkken attempts to kill the cleric Kyron. He fails but he has left a permanent mark.
3. Members of the group sense a powerful existential chill – are they near the Tablet of Chaos?

PC’s:
Llewelyn, Elf Cleric 8/Wizard 8 of Sehanine Moonbow
Rolando, Hobbit Rogue 6/Pacer 6 of Brandobaris Fleetfoot
Kiaria, Human Seeker 7 Bast
Belden, Gnome Bard 7 of Aengus
Sir Arthur, Human Oathsworn 9 of Celestian
Roulf, Half-Orc Drachentöten (Dragonslayer) 7 of Crom
Edward, Human Bard 7 of St. Cecelia
Zen, Human Monk 8 of St. Agathos
Astrid, Human Skald 5 of Hel
Kyron, Human Cleric 9 of Charon
Balthazar, Elf/Mongrelman Wizard 8 of Arcanus

The last two diaries are late due to two game sessions being canceled due to absences/sickness, and I have also been busy with some other non-gaming activities.

Game Diary:
It is mid-October in game time and the characters wanted to make one last push into the Barrowmaze before they spend the winter months within the walls of Ironguard Motte to train and engage in some downtime activities to learn new skills (and perhaps to try and recover losses from poisons and diseases).

The Army of the Light arrived at a gaping opening in the Barrowmoor roughly 160 feet by 200 feet that reveals the Barrowmaze beneath. Due to previous battles which incorporated more than a half a dozen fireballs, two sinkhole spells from Rosaline (the druid), and another half a dozen lightning bolts, the barracks of the church of Nergal and a massive Nergal grand hall now lie revealed to the open air. As the chaos of the realm below airs out to the world above, it provides adventurers new ways to enter the barrowmaze other than trying to break into barrow mounds. Several tripod and pulley systems that adventuring groups and tomb raiders have created to lower themselves in and out have been set up.

The Army of the Light decided to make use of these new contraptions to lower themselves.

As the group was lowering themselves into the vast opening they heard screaming from the dungeon below them and could tell that other adventurers trying to get some last-minute looting done before winter arived. Sure enough, with only a couple members of the Army of the Light at the bottom, a series of gargoyles with bloodied talons came flying out of the Barrowmaze into the open sky. Zen, our resourceful and skilled monk was having none of it and he attacked and in two rounds rolled two critical hits, and in both instances killed a gargoyle with a single punch. Other nearby adventuring groups a hundred feet away near another pully system watched this in awe and took note of the amazing heroics they witnessed!

Upon entering this new part of the Barrowmaze they discovered some doors that had been opened, with dead adventurers lying beside the open doors – it seemed they had opened the doors and unleashed the gargoyles that had killed them. Exploring a new area they found some backpacks lined up against the wall and assumed adventurers had left them there as they explored elsewhere. Roulf stepped forward to examine them, and although two were useful packs filled with supplies, two were mimics, and Roulf was engulfed by the monsters as their sticky, acidic tongues attached themselves to him, burning his flesh while trying to engulf him. A few critical hits by the mimics ensured that his armor was crushed by their jaws. He survived but would need to get new armor (whenever my monsters score critical hits in my game, non-magical armor or weapons is destroyed, whereas magical armor just gets disheveled and it loses some of its AC bonus until after combat when it can be readjusted or parts reattached).

Not long after this, the group discovered crypt knights behind locked doors which caused several members to run in fear. One of them was Roulf. I randomly rolled a direction die and he fled out near the rubble that is open to the sky. More than an hour had passed from when they had first entered and new adventurers were at the pully systems nearly 200 feet away and they began laughing at the adventurers below running and screaming in fear. Some of the players had taunted and made fun of them and these adventurers above now returned the favor. As Roulf ran around in the rubble below he passed through two hanging tapestries – but they were mimics! Once again poor Roulf was getting attacked. These mimics were even more powerful than the previous ones and he was in a serious struggle. This was made worse by the fact that the tomb raiders above decided this was a great time to engage in target practice with their bows on the PCs and hopefully get some free loot without going too far into the dungeon!

The Army of the Light had their hands full as some had to despatch the crypt knights, others went to help Roulf not get devoured by two mimics, and Llewelyn decided to simplify things by launching a fireball toward the wannabe archers above, blowing them to smithereens!

Roulf survived, but getting the acidic goo off him from the mimics meant that the hair on his head looked like a bad wax job and only now existed in clumps with some skin pulled off as well. Healing was needed. That is where Session 105 ended.

Session 106 began with Kyron and Balthazar planning on joining the group a bit late (the player who runs those two characters had missed the previous game session), so we had a quick side encounter to get him to where the group was in the Barrowmaze. However, due to Kyron once having been a cleric of Zuul and causing a great drought and later flood in the Duchy of Aerik, someone had put out a contract on him and an assassin named Vetle Løkken was hired to kill him (I did a character creation challenge entry where I made this NPC villain a few months back). He and his fellow ruffians disguised themselves as farmers on their way to the Barrowmoor for treasure and glory before winter set in. Kyron and Balthazar were looking to accompany some adventurers to the Barrowmoor (going by yourself is dangerous), and Vetle showed graciousness at being with such a powerful cleric and shook his hand in admiration and appreciation…with gloved hands. A fellow “farmer” also pat Kyron on the back in thanks and appreciation, again, with gloved hands. Kyron guessed something was up and made a guess that they had used contact poison on him (he was aware that there was a contract on him).

Vetle and the others stepped back after patting Kyron in thanks and seemed to be waiting, being experts on poison they knew how long it should take for the poison to fully work. Kyron needed to make to two Constitution saving throws. He failed the first (from Vetle), but passed the second save. He was fortunate, for unbeknownst to him, if he would’ve failed both it would’ve meant instant death. However, by only failing the first his three prime attributes – Strength, Wisdom, and Charisma, were all dropped by one point each and he took over 20 points of damage (still not good!).

Realizing the two-stage poison had failed, Vetle and his fellow assassins encircled Kyron in such a way so that no matter which way he faced he was going to be flanked and open to 2 back attacks. Kyron sent his Arrowhawk familiar in for a lightning attack. Two of Vetle’s thieves decided to focus bow attacks on it. Balthazar took out his wand of magic missiles and nearly drained it as he launched waves of magical missiles at the assassins. It was now a gritty fight to the death!

The key as to who would win this battle was relying a lot on initiative. I came second for a couple of rounds and it also helped that I missed a couple of key attacks (Kyron noticed that the assassins had wiped their blades on some wet substance which he assumed was new poison). Winning initiative means that Balthazar could get his magic missiles off (he fired more than a dozen over two rounds) and the assassins went down.

The poison he was afflicted by was dangerous, so simply casting neutralize poison was not going to be enough, the character had to make a spellcaster check and had to beat a Challenge Level equal to the level of the assassin who made/used the poison. It took two attempts. This meant that any further effects were now gone and Kyron leaned forward and vomited out the remains of the poison in his system. Still, the attribute drain represents the long-term strain the poison has had on his body and his bodily organs (Kyron’s Strength, Wisdom, and Charisma are still a very impressive 15 after the drain, so most people will not notice this loss).

Catching up with the group at the Barrowmaze minutes after they had fought the mimic tapestries, they all healed each other, caught up on what happened, and then proceed back into the maze.

They now entered small, narrow set of crypts where only hobbits, gnomes, and some dwarves could stand up in (the corridors were only 3-4 feet wide and tall). Rolando and Belden did most of the exploring in these areas. There was a lot of claustrophic fun as they disturbed a brown pudding, pushed mummified dead bodies off stone slabs revealing tiny hobbit-sized corridors that ran underneath the crypts and ended up at a secret door that opened up into the bottom of a pit trap.

When Rolando and Belden got trapped in a tiny crypt behind a falling stone trap, Roulf and Zen broke through with sledges and then decide to crawl on their stomachs to try and retrieve their little friends. Belden heard something approaching and not knowing what was happening fired his arrow and rolled a 20 hitting Zen with a crit! But Zen is a monk and can try and deflect arrows and he then rolled a 20 – a critical defensive success vs. a critical hit!

While this happened a series of metallic scorpion constructs above the pit trap trigger it and the hobbit and gnome became busy fighting them at the bottom of the 10 x 10 pit trap, and Zen and Roulf had to swing their weapons awkwardly on their stomachs in an area 3-4 feet high and 9 feet wide. Having battles like this in tight quarters where you are restricted from using your normal “swinging widely” techniques and need to try something else can be a lot of fun!

Once they destroyed the scorpion constructs and the rush of adrenaline wore off, they could collect themselves and calm down. It was then that they felt a powerful chill. It was not a chill of coldness, but an existential chill. Some of them could detect undead, and some of them could detect evil. They sensed this, but these senses were not the main presence, the sense of undead and evil was in a way riding along on something else. One player said – “The Tablet of Chaos?!” The existential chill came from the east (the adventurers had come from the west), an area of the Barrowmaze they had not been to. I gave them Wisdom/Dexterity/Constitution/Charisma checks (based on their prime attributes) and described how they sensed this overwhelming presence based on their primary attribute (some felt their confidence drop, others felt their bodies tighten up, etc). They knew they were not ready for what lie further east.

Appropriately enough, it was the end our game session and a great place for a cliffhanger for them to mull over before the next adventure the following week!