Barrowmaze V: Expanding Dark Horizons

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Prepare to heal me if you can!"

He moves to attack the fire crab with his magic silver spear.

Spear +1 [1d20+2]=14+2=16 to hit [1d6+4]=2+4=6 damage
Superior Shield Bash [1d20+2]=9+2=11 to hit

[OGRE MAGE]

Typical Fighter.

Okay, well, those questions are generally steered towards the players, but I’m glad you helped.

Sven doesn’t have any ice cubes, but I do seem to remember seeing one on Peaches when we searched her while she was blinded.

Could that be what you’re speaking of?

[OGRE MAGE]

Almost knocked from the fight by his multiple injuries, Sven dodges the crab when Orgoth charges in. He fires at the monsters vitals with his crossbow, hoping Peaches has something better up her proverbial sleeve.

Crossbow Attack [1d20]=19 Dam [2d4]=7

[Rex]

Orgoth really doesn't have any other option. Throwing away the only weapon we can use against the crab doesn't make any sense to me.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee
I really hope this works, thinks Peaches.

Hey Muscles, duck! she shouts to Orgoth, as she throws the magical Ice Cube at the fiery crab.

If needed:
Ice Cube throw [1d20]=20
W00t!
I guess today was a good day....

[Rex]

Nice! Someone eventually had to have a great roll.

[OGRE MAGE]

Nice Shot!!!

Hopefully that does the trick.

Now......where do you get such wonderful toys?

[OGRE MAGE]

Slays/Plunder/Map

Kills
10 Black Hand Skeletons
1 Troll
3 zombies
2 fighter bodyguards
1 halfling assassin
Tri-Ghast Abomination
de Ogilvy
2 Giant Obsidian Statues
Dust Witch (huecuva)
Palanthus' banished Wraith
Swarm of Giant Fireflies

Pending:
3 More Huecuva
6 Ghouls?

Befriended Gabby
Traded for Moo-Moo which eventually saved our asses
Go back for Candelabra?
(Bring Catnip for Gabby)
Found Other Party
Saved Peaches
Found Main Entrance?
Tasked 7 undead pirates to aid us and trapped them in the dungeon
Figured our way out of the endless maze
Accidentally discovered secret door to Gauntlet room
Found Location of Gnome Map

Loot
* = Magic Detected
A scratched ruby ring from a dead man's finger
A carved owl about the size of a hand made from a blue-green fluorspar
*Scroll- Chant Amos?
*Minotaur Skull (can't get lost) Orgoth?
6 Sapphire (shards 1/2 value)
*Wooden ring made from dark ebony and inset with a large orange fiery tiger eye gemstone *CURSED* Sven's Finger
*Troll in the Box?
Alcove swag bag:
501sp.
A silver bladed Poniard, the slim dagger has a pommel with inset masked face design, like a bandanna wearing highwayman.
Coloured glass vases and several ceramic figurines
A rolled up leather parchment bearing a 'Last Will & Testament', stamped by the Rosy Quartz
A dozen bolts suitable for a light or hand held crossbow. Gnomes
25gp
Plain ring 20gp
35gp
V Mask
*Short Sword Treyvor?

150 Gold Drake Doubloons
Pouch of several jaundiced looking pumice stones which have a briny yet pungent whiff

6 Gold Earrings
*Spider Climb Spell
*Gabby's Scroll Tube (2 new spells?)
Incense Burning Mace
2 vails of Huecuva bone marrow

**Palanthus Gauntlet Amos
Ceramic Vase, sealed with an airtight stopper, varnished in white and blue patterns, still glossy after the years buried. Bucko?
Bronze Death Mask Yardie
400sp
*Broken Longsword Orgoth?
*D13 Knuckle Bone Die Peaches
Shiny Apple
*Terracotta figurine, a simply crafted leprechaun caricature etched with the words 'ask and you shall receive' Orgoth?

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[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth magic items.PNG (25.95 KiB) Viewed 605 times

[Spearmint]

the map is expanding!

The Windy Corridor.

After a tense few rounds with the possibility of being assaulted on both flanks by numerous threats, the party turn things around to their advantage.

Pinging a crossbow bolt, Sven pierces the crab between carapace and soft underbelly, -7hp, Orgoth stabs the other side with a mighty skewering thrust, -6hp pushing the creature back a few yards. As the Fire Crab flares, Peaches tosses in a Mazzah special, a magic ice cube that seemingly doesn't melt. She has felt the effects once before, by accident but one that saved her life and put her in stasis until rescued by De Ogilvy. Hurling the cube with force, not gently rolling it as she did with the Knuckle-bone dice, the magic item releases its arcane energy and expands as a 10'ft cube. Everyone dodges away as the berg erupts as a freezing mass, enveloping the Fire Crab, dousing any remaining flames and heat.

At the end of the passage, the ice cube fills the T-junction, freezing the green slime amoebas that cling to the arched of the passage and catching to any of the fireflies that hung around for after battle morsels. It blocks access to either side unless you want to hack pieces from the ice cube to squeeze by.

The web has been burned away, the ghouls slain. The 'unseen' threat has not made itself manifest and Smokie cannot particularly trace any new scent above the usual fetid crypt atmosphere.

Assessing the team, everyone is in their feet though some have a few more scars to boast about. Sven already feels better and the simultaneous ice explosion seems to have countered the excessive heat radiation from the crab, so a rub of salve or Cinder's ointment is enough to cover any of Orgoth's burns. The group can go into an 'at ease' mode for a few turns, the Mercenaries going right up by the temple door to guard, Truro wards the slim passage and everyone else can check stuff out.

I described Alcove A. An empty coffer and hung up shield. The shield is quite ordinary and features heraldry from a lesser known or long forgotten house. The lineage does not come to anyone's mind.

Alcove B, contains an illusory wall and a 10'ft square chamber with a raised circular 8'ft diameter dais, just a step high. There is nothing else of note in the alcove regarding physical features; graffiti on the wall announces I fell here'". Despite looking carefully, no secret doors are located, no hidden niches. The illusion is permanent and does not blink or phase out if you try and disbelieve it. Like the glowing sword in the Nergal chapel, it is enchanted by strong magic that only higher castings of Dispel Magic could counter.

The six ghouls are dead and may be harvested for various ghoulish organs requested by Mazzah who wants them in his experiments to create an anti-paralysis potion. They have no weapons of worth or articles save one who wears a gold wedding ring which carries an inscription, 'love from Penelope'.

Alcove C described here: The third crypt can be accessed by stepping over the rubble piles that are sprawled in the corridor. It contains a simple 10'ft square chamber with decorated plasterwork of faded murals. Set against the north and south walls are two upright coffers. They look very typical of 'Mummy' coffers; veneered hardwood designs with a head-dressed figure in a crossed arms pose, clutching a sceptre or rod used in religious rites. The gold gilded thread has been stripped from each funeral case along with any decorative inset gemstones. They stand closed.

The back wall has shallow burial alcoves. The forty pigeon holes contain a lot of bone fragments and pottery shards, dead rats and one is a host to a spider web of thousands of inch long critters. Among trinkets that could add to bazaar sales are, an ancient egg timer with sand in turnable glass vial that flows for one turn of time. (Circa 10gp), three arrows that have phosphorus covered barbs and a flask of preserving fluid for anointing dead bodies.

The slim side passage is not searched yet. Call this 'Alcove D'.

You can retrieve the 'Lady Luck' Knuckle-bone. The two dead Huecuva are ashen and burned. Their tattered robes blackened, any possessions lost in the flames they died in. The Fire Crab is dead also and not kept alive in some cryogenic stasis.

Sven 13/13
Orgoth 12/23
Amos 7/13 Read Magic.
Truro 1/5. Remove Fear,
Gnimish 3/9
Treyvor 6/6
Bucko 4/8
Yardie 8/8
Smokie full health. Wolf Familiar to Sven
Peaches 3/8.

actions please.

[Rex]

Orgoth

"We need to get out of here soon or we never will."

[OGRE MAGE]

I dont remember getting one of those. I hope it melts back down into a cube and can be used again.

Sven is shocked at the effectiveness of the tossed ice cube, almost wishing he would have nicked it for himself when he had the chance.

"WOW! That was fortunate. I thought we were in a bad pickle there until Peaches came to the rescue with that.....that.......what the hells was that thing?"

Sven makes sure the others are okay after the battle, carefully looking around the area where Smokie sensed the invisible intruder earlier. If there are no signs of anything present in the hallway, he lets the others search the alcoves, pack up the spoils, and rest while he and Smokie have a look around.

"I agree we need to avoid any more calamities like this one, but I cant leave here without checking out this stairway. Stay here, search around, and catch your breath. We are only scouting ahead and will return at the first sign of trouble. Hopefully before it finds us."

Telling Truro to watch out from the intersection, Sven casts invisibility on himself, before he and invisible Smokie take a look up the eastern hallway. 2nd Level Spell Retention (INT 15) [4d6+2]=12+2=14

He has Smokie move ahead first to look around in the darkness before he moves up to join him. Together they walk past the doors and around the corner, hoping to get a look at the exit stairway on the gnomes map fragment. They will stop and return at the first indication of danger, returning to the others to tell them what they found.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee
Peaches picks up her knucklebone die. She leans against the wall to catch her breath for a few minutes while Sven and his doggie explore further.

Peaches makes a mental note to learn how to turn Invisible like that. She'll do some research back in town. Assuming she makes it there....

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Windy Corridors

The side alcoves are casually searched though no brave or foolhardy soul opens either of the wooden 'Mummy' style caskets in 'alcove C'. A few trinkets recovered from the dusty burial alcoves. Likewise the narrow passage on the west side is peered in to rather than inspected fully. The bodies of the ghouls gathered and unceremoniously thrown back into the middle alcove from whence they came.

While the tidy up happens, Sven hacks a section of ice away from the frozen block which fills the whole bottom of the corridor in a 10'ft cube. He cuts enough away to slip through and invisible wanders east, intent on locating what be believes is another Barrowmaze entrance via a Barrow Mound above. He follows a portion of map copied from Konrad.

The two gnomes, Gnimish and Truro look on with jealousy. Asked to wait behind the berg barrier while the mage and familiar scout unseen.

Amos and Truro guard that narrow passage, Bucko and Yardie at the top of the corridor.

Barrow Maze random and even more random vs 1 & 1-2 [1d6]=6 [1d6]=4 option [1d10]=5

While nothing stirs for a turn, Peaches and Orgoth, what would you like to do? Just wait until the mage returns? open the Mummy caskets, investigate the narrow corridor, chip ice away and explore the past the western archway?
actions, give me three turns worth of potential actions. Obviously if (or when ...) you hear a scream or howl, those can be interrupted so you can run to the rescue or run away from danger.

Sven. I will post in your forum as you are exploring unseen. You first stop is the statue by the map portion noted 'blood for the blood God'.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth will rest and try and stay alert.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee
Peaches also rests, studying her spellbook while they have some downtime.

[OGRE MAGE]

Still invisible, Sven and Smokie return to the group after a short time.

“The stairway passage is blocked by a cave in, but Smokie was able to squeeze by for a quick look and found a doorway that must lead up into another burial mound above.”

“Judging by the Silas mound, I think the best loot is probably still inside the ones nobody has busted into yet. However, I know we are beat to crap right now and I think the prudent decision would be to stick to our plan of resting out the night and returning to Helix in the morning.”

“I will ask each of you……..should we stick to the plan……..or go check out these stairs?”

At one point, he pulls the gnomes aside. “Did either of you two actually know the Erin mentioned on your map? Let’s just say……..I felt a presence.”

[Rex]

Orgoth

"I think we should stick to the plan."

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven nods in agreement, casting no judgment on his massive friend's decision.

"As expected, ever the wise one. You are as predictable as you are helpful in a tight pinch, my friend."

He looks to Peaches and the others to get their opinions.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee
I'm with the big guy. Lets stick to the plan.