Return to the Barrow Mounds:

[Spearmint]

Amos

“Per istam sanctan unctionem et suam piissimam misericordiam, indulgeat tibi Dominus quidquid per visum, audtiotum, odorátum, gustum et locutiónem, tactum, gressum deliquisti ...”

[Spearmint]

May 3rd 1066.

Barrow Maze.

Exploring the corridors.
4.34pm. Firebrand torchlight (Bro Fab) Lantern light (Gerdal) Candlelight (Sven).

Conditions: Steban -7hp, stuck in pit trap. Isvand -7hp.

vs Poison 14 target [1d20+4]=18+4=22

The plucky halfling plucks up the still warm corpse of the chameleon and despite taking a Greivious wound, his fortitude is enough to see him stagger back to the rope, climb up and reach out with his hand to pass the lizard into the healing palms of Bro' Fabian. He closes his hand over the reptile and prays grace and favour.

Bro Fabian heals Harkazz [1d8]=5

Amos concludes his last rites, a liturgy for the dying. This time though, colour returns to the face and skin of the patients and it is not undeath but restored life that sits up in the corridor.

Isvand wriggles back, bloodied but unaffected by the poison coursing around his veins.

Orgoth finally gets to stop bring used as a ladder. Sven can reseal the amphora of Hurtloam.

actions please.


so I will give some background to the encounter. Harkazz as a tiny creature would normally get a single hp but as a familiar gets 2-4. The snake bit for 1d3+3 damage and I used the +3 as the poison effect. Failing a saving throw, the chameleon went to -1hp.

Gerdal with the familiar would be in danger of losing double the amount of Harkazz' hp permanently if it died. So when it succumbed to the poison she dropped to 0hp. (actually -3hp). Using a familiar bond between them, I determined she could be revived within a number of rounds equal to her constitution, which was 4.

A very narrow window to act in but Isvand making the poison saving throws means he can pass the
in time for the cleric to minister. But this was done at the very limit of the time and the Grim Reaper came calling.

and lost ... this time.

Grim reaper vs cleric [1d6]=4 [1d6]=5

[redwarrior]

Isvand gets to his feet, shaky but happy, after a moment, looking over to see that the Chameleon and wizard appear to be doing well. If it's all the same to the others, I'll not be taking the lead for a bit. I think one more blow would do me in right now. He says, with a big smile lighting his face. This isn't the kind of heroism he saw himself doing, but it's surprisingly satisfying. Isvand has clearly seen better days, and is at less than half HP

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven is genuinely thrilled when Isvand comes crawling down the gothic ladder still in one piece, and just in time to save the others. He dusts the halfling hero off and nods solemnly to show his appreciation, before moving to check on Gerdal next.

“Brother Amos, if Gerdal here appears to be recovered, perhaps you could assist our brave halfling over there with some of your healing prayers? He did just save the day after all.”

Once the boy mage is certain that everyone has at least partially recovered, he asks for a report of the room. “Isvand, were you able to see any hardware or mechanisms of any kind on the north wall that might indicate a way we can get those pit doors open again? I grow more concerned about Steban by the minute.”

“If those weird snake guardians are still intact inside that crypt, that likely indicates nobody has been in there before us, so the room might still contain valuables.”

“What do the rest of you think about that?”

[Spearmint]

Amos

Amos prays CLW on Isvand [1d8]=4 +4hp Isvand

"Are you suggesting sending Isvand back through the hole in the wall to search the room? Alone?" he expresses the wisdom of that in the light of the two recent poisonings and that you don't have the tools to knock the wall down or make the hole bigger.

But if Isvand is willing to risk it again, he offers to shield him with the use of his prepared Sanctuary spell which might give him a few rounds of protection from attack.

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Not sure its a good idea to try and search any more through there."

[sastaz]

Gerdal staggers up on her feet again, letting the Harkazz climb up on her shoulders once more.

"Where's the guardian?!" she exclaims as she looks around half panicked.

After being filled in on the story and sharing what she's seen through Harkazz, she turns to Isvand and puts her hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you Isvand, seems I am not finished on this world quite yet anyway."

Upon hearing the discussions.

"These are no doubt powerful guardians and we must be very well prepared before facing them again. I say we seal the wall for now and wait for the pit to open once more, in order to rescue our last member. If our theory is it will reset within the hour, it must be any minute now."

And Leitz is back online in two days

[sastaz]

Gerdal again:

"If we secure someone with the rope, that one can trigger the trapdoor without falling all the way down. With the right preperation, we should be able to get all of us up before the lids close again. What say ye?"

[OGRE MAGE]

I tend to agree, but I would like to get a response to this question before deciding to shut the wall up again.

Once the boy mage is certain that everyone has at least partially recovered, he asks for a report of the room. “Isvand, were you able to see any hardware or mechanisms of any kind on the north wall that might indicate a way we can get those pit doors open again? I grow more concerned about Steban by the minute.”

Giving Isvand and the others a moment to regroup and decide if further exploration of the room is necessary, Sven cautiously returns to the pit doors to check on Steban again, barring any new action in the hallways.

He whispers into the small hole they made earlier. "Are you still doing okay down there, Steban? I think we may have found a way to get you out, but it might be a slow and dangerous proposition. Are you able to keep away from those vines for a bit longer?"

[sastaz]

Gerdal

"Either way, we must not let them reach us, lest their poisonous fangs will strike as lightning. What means of taking them down at a distance do we have? May I suggest taking them down by arrow through the hole? Lure them here one by one? And if they crawl through, we will strike."

[Leitz]

Steban

"No good conversations down here, but otherwise everything is fine," Steban said as his blade politely shortened an overly brave crimson weed. "I have food and water for a few days, if it comes to that. Ask Gerdal what she thinks about burning the vines, if I have to."

I'm enjoying reading about the party's adventures and appreciate their focus on getting Steban out as soon as possible. Also, I'll be off-line this weekend.

[Rex]

Orgoth

"Burning the vines may cause you problems with the smoke, it can kill just as quickly as fire itself, I saw that in a house fire in a village we stayed in one time."

[OGRE MAGE]

I will wait to respond in case there was something horrible out in the hallway waiting for us, or in case Isvand has some info about the room that we do not.

If there is no way to activate the trap doors from inside the snake room, I am fine with resealing the wall as best we can for now. But I am not ready to completely forget about those graves in there just waiting to be rob......pilf......liberated.

[sastaz]

Seconded! Now that we know these guardians we can go back prepared!

And we can free all that sealed away gold from the clutches of evil

[sastaz]

Gerdal, now sitting down against the wall to regain some strength, patting Harkazz

"You'd have to poison the roots. Burning the vines won't do nothing...but smoke."

[Spearmint]

May 3rd 1066.

Barrow Maze.

Exploring the corridors.
4.40pm. Firebrand torchlight (Bro Fab) Lantern light (Gerdal) Candlelight (Sven).

Conditions: Steban -7hp, stuck in pit trap. Isvand -3hp.

This is the description of the room beyond the wall. Gerdal repeating verbally what she sees and through the senses of the Familiar.

"A wall opposite, stone like the halls. Look left, look right, look left again. Only darkness. Climb down rope, keep to floor sides.

Observe, look, sniff. Large stone figure to south. Kneeling, one arm raised, head of bird. Bird no eat me today! Bug running, tongue snatch, hmmm scrummy beetle."

Gerdal gives you a little running commentary of the Familiar's vision. (and tastes). The lizard searches and sniffs around the statue, climbing on it, before going to the other end of the corridor. Here the space opens up. Burial alcoves in wall, shrouds of cloth covering bones. Sound of metal moving. Wheel on wall. "Brzzzzt, click, click, click." Sniff, check, search. Sound louder and nearer. Not wheel, something else, unseen. "Brzzzzt, click, click, click,"

Shiny brass snake, coiled, rising, hooded, fangs

So you have a kneeling bird-headed statue to the south, alcoves cut into the west wall of the too chamber and 'a wheel on the wall'.

Also noted by Isvand were three golem(?) snakes or serpent constructs. (Sized same as normal snakes).

The wall. Without tools, you cannot enlarge the gap at the top by the arched ceiling any further.

The group can split to temporarily check on Steban. He is fine, bored but fine.

You must be getting close to an hour between the pit trap scene and present judging by the flickering torch light. Bro' Fabian tosses his used firebrand aside.

You can try the false trigger by securing weight on the trap and spiking the rope or all belaying like a tug of war team.

The corridor to the north and stairs is quiet, to the west is quiet, fire beetles munch on rations and zombie in the diagonal corridor. The corridor south of the beetle chamber also quiet.

actions please.

[OGRE MAGE]

I am pretty sure Sven has a fairly easy way to get Steban out of the pit without further damage, but if Leitz is going to be off the air for a couple days, I want to wait till he comes back to play that scene out.

Sven decides that it is too dangerous for Isvand to go back inside now that the daily allotment of healing spells has been exhausted. He asks Brother Fabian if he could replace the bricks as close as possible to the way they were, while he cleans up any obvious dust or rubble on the floor below the hole.

“If we decide to go back in there, I think it would be best to do so while at full strength. Master mason,” he says to the priest of Cromm. “What type of tools would we need to make that hole wide enough for the rest of us to fit through? And more importantly, do you think we could expand the hole in a way that we could seal it all up again like it was originally once we are done in there?”

[Spearmint]

"Sledgehammers and picks. Break the wall down. It is sturdily built and will take some effort. More hands to the pump, quicker the time but I would think only three max could operate here without getting in each others way.

Build it up, you need fresh mortar or cement or another binding agent."

[Rex]

Orgoth

"More then 3 and we could work in shifts."

[sastaz]

Gerdal gets up on her feet, slowly regaining her energy.

"What I meant was that we should put the stones back in place, mortar or not, in order for the snakes not to creep up upon us as we go on. Of course, resealing the whole tomb later could be an option.

Gerdal suggests the party starts doing that while discussing this matter. Just a matter of trying to pile the stones back in the hole.