Sunday was a continuation of the open table game I’ve been running on the OSR Pickup Server, and I had the pleasure of gaming with:
- Barkface the Druid, played by EvilTables
- Bolo the Illusionist, played by Misha
- Donnie the Bard, played by Malley
- Sky the Druid, played by John/Captain Caveman
- Uriel the Ranger, played by Dante
- Vermund Borgarsson the Barbarian (deceased), played by Graytung
Resting a few days in town, the party met up with newcomer Bolo, who had just won an admirable sum from the Fearsome Five, a notorious mercenary group from the southern region of the moor. Taking the opportunity to get out of town while the Five’s tempers smoldered, the group set off to try their luck in the maze once more.
Various members went about downtime activities – Sky befriended a local hound with their magics and druidic wises, naming her Foamy, Uriel sold off bits of the snake they dissected last session to a trader, and Vermund heard rumors of organs in Coptic jars possessing magical properties from the local Elven bowyer.
Donnie purchased a new block and tackle to replace the rickety one they had been using to descend into the maze, the group works together to get a more secure entrance to the dungeon. After descending, our party plans to search north of the snake room, but find its corpse suspiciously absent.
The continue trekking north, investigating a large pillared room filled with the statue of an ancient death god. Barkface utilizes their Detect Danger spell once again and discovered a pit trap in front of the beckoning statue. As the group debates next plans they hear a muffled cries from the west portion of the room, near the statue.
Bolo begins investigating around, sneaking around the pillars, cautiously approaching the statue before realizing it was coming from the pit trap. They tossed a rope-tied backpack onto the pit, opening it. Donnie cast torchlight down the pit and the group saw an emaciated Dwarf peering up at them.
Convincing the Dwarf to put on the backpack, they hoisted him above. The Dwarf thanked them graciously, saying his name was Arnd Cobblestone and that he had been abandoned by his companions. He swore that he would repay the group whatever he could, offering to aid them in their journeys, seeming more enthusiastic than his physical state would allow for, so the group decided to hand him a crossbow and a torch, and told him to hold up the rear. He told the party that he could read a bit of the Tongue Necro, and was able to identify the statue as being Nergal, and ancient death deity. Vermund noted suspicion that he could speak such a foul language.
Proceeding north, the group heard the familiar squeaking and hissing of the over-sized rodents that infested the tomb. Vermund kicked open the door shouting at the beasts, goading them to attack. Fearing light, commotion, and the intimidation of a surprise barbarian the rats fled further northward.
The adventurers decided to slowly probe into the many nearby rooms, wanting to get as much out of Barkface’s remaining Detect Danger effect as possible. They searched east, finding a room with a partial collapse in the north west with water slowly accumulating in pools on the floor, and vegetation starting to breach the stone. Barkface guided the party safely to the debris, but unfortunately found no treasures in the stone.
Returning to a room they glanced into filled with deep burial alcoves, most of the party looted a ruby ring and a fine topaz. A chalk map was drawn in the center of this tomb, and was quickly copied onto the party’s map.
A small portion of the party kept watch in the hallway and heard a bird call from the north corridor. Reading their weapons, they noticed an alarming, although familiar face make its way out of the shadows – one of the creatures the party had traded with in a previous excursion.
The being held a potion and gestured it towards the party, murmuring and growling words in a variety of languages, including the words “Hungry” and “Trade” in an older dialect of the Common Tongue. Trading him ten rations, the being greedily stuffed the rations into his satchel, and left the potion on the floor before ducking back into the darkness.
North and westward the party continued to explore, finding an open open room with a bare pedestal on it bearing the word “Solis” upon it. Reasoning that this was a sun deity, Barkface stood upon the pillar and discovered a mosaic in the ceiling above, depicting a sun in the classical fashion.
They probed at the mosaic with a 10′ pole to no effect. They tried placing a lantern onto the pedestal, and even a coin, but found no response. They decided to make note of it and continue on.
Finding a door that had been recently opened, they discovered yet another room filled with neat alcoves. Searching the room they found a pouch with a decent amount of platinum, as well as a mechanical lever tucked away. Excitedly Arnd threw the lever, and was disappointed to find it had no effect.
Further searching the room revealed a secret door to the north, and after opening it they saw a raised portcullis in the archway. Bolo tossed a ration just past the arch, and witnessed a loose tile. Noting the plate, Vermund lept over it, investigating the short hallway beyond. Discovering an easterly secret door that was locked by some mechanism, the group decided to brace the portcullis with some wooden poles, a hammer, and multiple people before pressing the suspicious tile.
Setting off the trap the group felt the weight of the portcullis try to smash down, and stood fast to hold it up. Vermund heard the click as the secret door unlocked, and when he threw the door open he bore witness to the corpse of a magic-user against the far eastern wall.
He hurriedly marched to the corpse, and discovered that a portion of the floor rang out metallic and felt hollow. He began to drag the corpse and her gear – a bag with a spell-book, and a large silver pole that appeared to be some sort of key. As he turned around to exit the corridor he found that he was not alone, and that a malicious shadow had swelled behind him, and started to advance.
He shouted to the group, drew his blade, and marched forward to strike, but the floor plate gave way. He was barely able to grip onto the edges of the pit, holding himself up.
Barkface and Sky navigated to the room while others continued to support the gate trap. Blows were exchanged but mundane blades had no effect on the shadowy being. Barkface inched around the pit to collect what the corpse had on her. Bolo lit his bag on fire, and using it tied to a rope attempted to strike or goad the creature into attacking him. Sky even threw a magical dagger over to Vermund, shouting about its enchanted nature. Vermund shouted back that he would not fall under the sway of sorcery, being a proud barbarian.
Barkface grabbed the dagger after tossing the rest of the magic-users gear to the west side of the room, and the party beat a retreat while Vermund drew the shadow to him in combat. He hoisted the corpse of the magic-user overhead, promising to destroy it if the spirit would not relent, but the creature was not swayed by his argument, draining the life force from him with its shadowy grip, while Vermund heaved the body into the pit.
Vermund’s respiratory system began to fail as the strength was siphoned out of his body by the horrible creature, but his stand secured the safe retreat of his companions.
Overall thoughts
Again, a really fun session. We had a bunch of technical hiccups – Roll20 went down for maybe an hour or so. I’ve been running with tokens and the lighting system because Barrowmaze is so dense it can be a tad difficult to describe without visual aid. Unfortunately I also added a bunch of notes to the map, so I had to reskim several of the rooms as the party entered them, and at least one of them I messed up the description of – the room with the statue had an altar in it, but when the party asked if there was one I said no – I somehow missed or forgot that portion when I skimmed, and when I looked back down I think I was somehow reading the description for another room.
I told the party in Discord of this mistake afterwards, and gave them a thorough successful search of the altar. Hopefully next time if there are technical issues I won’t be flustered and miss details. Normally if I were going to be running this out of the book (instead of using digital aids) I would have highlighted the sensory notes of the room in addition to any other details. Its not the biggest deal, something I’ll just have to be careful of in the future if this happens again.
Also the final confrontation took so long that we really had to rush to “get out” of the dungeon, especially since one of the players had to duck out right at the 3 hour mark, and I did as well. I’ve toyed back and forth with different procedures to use if the party isn’t out in time, but with all the technical issues and what not I wouldn’t want to spring them up since we lost so much time to just refreshing Roll20.
Again, I need to be better about noting quotes from the players. Everyone is collaborative, on tone, and funny and I want to capture that in these session reports, but my notes are always very direct on just the physical details. I need to really, really remind myself to take note of writing down player character reaction/interactions.
Anyway, I had a fun time. Looking forward to running this more. Thank you for reading!