Barrowmaze V: Expanding Dark Horizons

[OGRE MAGE]

Sven has his Web spell ready as well, anticipating another disaster.

[Spearmint]

Sven has his Web spell ready as well, anticipating another disaster.

One could try ...

The mages first instinct is to pin the enemy down with a Web spell cast in the hallway in front of their door.

2nd Level Spell Retention (INT 15) [4d6+2]=15+2=17 back to the books

[OGRE MAGE]

Checks sheet......yep, its still crossed off.......

He must have meant his Mirror Image spell.

[Spearmint]

Exploring the Corridors:

Metal Room, West Wing.

02.45am. June 8th 1066.

After the second slaying of the conjoined ghasts and watching de Ogilvy torn apart, there is a brief silence.

The thick mist fills the corridor swirling around the skeletal crew, one of their number also joining the pile of newly dead. The skeletal parrot squawks from the shoulder perch of Peg-leg who hobbles to retrieve his harpoon barbs. The pirate Captain doffs his cap to "a hearty fellow who has gone overboard one last time."

Sven does his best to rally the skeletons, rousing them to at least have a brethren accord.

Pirate Skeletons reactions [1d100]=42 resolution is uncertain but 55% prone to negative reaction.Pirate Skeletons reactions vs 55% [1d100]=74

Only the Pirate Captain has mindful sentience it seems. The others, while not atypical 'mindless undead' defer to follow him and he at least can comprehend your speech and reply.

"Long dead have we lain, shivered our timbers and shed our fleshly mainbrace. Once more to feel the wind in our faces and salt spray upon our backs and to sail the Barrow Mere waves. Where be this place".

The Captain spits on his boney hands and holds it out for Sven to shake in accord.

Orgoth and Peaches stand ready for any kind of betrayal though once the Captain has sheathed his sword, the crew follows to port their weapons and fall in around him.

Behind from the metal doorway, the gnomes lower their own pick-bows while Amos and Truro, the latter especially look on with concerned interest.

actions please

[OGRE MAGE]

Surprised that his incessant babbling actually worked for once, Sven shakes hands before pressing his luck even further.

"We got a little job ta finish before we see the sea, boys! And it starts in here! We need to pull these bodies apart so they aren't anywhere near each other. Including yer mate there. Everyone grab a leg or a head and follow me!"

Sven orders the pirate crew to stick the dead bodies in the last room on the left, where they found these monsters in the first place, spreading them out so they aren't touching this time.

He shrugs at Orgoth and Peaches, not really sure what he is doing. Allowing the clerics to remain at rest while the final room across the hall is searched, everyone in the group keeps in contact through the rooms and remains on full alert at all times.

"Let's check this last room over before we head to our next job." (looking through the northwest door again)

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth follows Sven's lead and making sure the undead pirates follow orders.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee

Peaches also follows Sven's lead. He's such a Charming fellow, how could she not?

[Spearmint]

Exploring the West Wing

03.00am. June 8th 1066.

There is a grim task to clean up the ghastly carcass and dump the bloody remains in the former ghast lair.

This was the first exploration you did of this section: from post #481 Delving for Power and Glory expedition.

Exploring the Western Corridor

Cautiously advancing, checking for traps and tippy-tappying the uneven flagstones for hidden dangers.

Isvand leads the way, followed by Amos, the others a few yards behind. The scouts pass the first doors leaving them to be checked by others. Eventually you find the passage continues 100'ft west with six opposing doors at the 40'ft, 70'ft & at the end, 100'ft mark. All the doors are closed except the furthest one on the south which is wide open, flush against the wall.

Passing the first pair of doors, the northern one is a typical sodden stuck door that may be barged or shrunken to size and opened. The southern one has been deliberately closed with three door wedges hammered into the hinge and gap between door and frame that prevent it from being opened.

As the lead scouts pass the second set of doors, they begin to smell the heightened rot and decrepit smell of decay. The source of that is revealed by three figures who emerge from the crypt with the open door which obviously catches their attention.

"Visitors, visitors. How nice, please do come in." waves one hulking human undead who politely gestures the intruders forward with a friendly wave of his hand. His voice rasps and grates, he drools infectious spittle and his garb, indeed his torso, look ripped from many claw like tears. Of more alarm might be the tibia he clutches in one hand, nibbling the bloody meat and consciously undoing the boot lace on the foot, casting the old leatherwear aside to get at the remains of toe and and ankle.

Two other figures peek heads from the door and wave you to join them.

The ghast quarters were described thus:

The ghasts came from a room that measures 20'ft square. The room replicates the abattoir scene in the corridor. Bones and body parts from gnawed upon guests strewn across the room. Pinned up on the wall, as some form of trophy or decoration are a shield, a set of chainmail, some boots nailed to the ceiling, a dwarf's face whose long black beard has been braided with finger bones, a pelt from a white wolf, several ears pinned in a question mark shape and a string of random rusty metal implements such as keys, spoons, a tankard, lock-picks, a small hammer and some chisels.

Since your last visit, the undead Abomination has added a few more trophies; a large fiery crab carapace, a black ink drawing of a shadow and the head of the faceless man that you added to the pile of dead before the Abomination resurrected. You can guess from the full stomachs of the ghast where the rest of the putrid body ended up.

de Ogilvy is about to be uncompassionately interred with the foul mess. Amos insists on at least giving due respect to his priesthood elder and prefers to 'gather his pieces' and bury his sacked up body in a better place. He suggests under some rubble and marking his spot with a headstone or engraving of sorts. in an aisle of the Nergal Nave?

Sven and the skeleton Captain buddy up, shaking hands upon a shaky truce. You look at your palm afterwards and find an indelible black spot ...

Shutting the door on the ghast room, the crew open the unexplored room, door 5, the last one at the top left of the wing.

Here is a description of the rooms in this wing:

Exploring the Western Corridor

so I will note these doors in descending order from left to right. Doors 5-3-1 and opposite doors 6-4-2.

Door 6: was already open and you entered a 20x20'ft room occupied by the ghasts.

Door 5: opened to a narrow passage that proceeded north 20'ft and turned towards the right. Shadows danced on the walls at the edge of your light. You subsequently closed the door without crossing the threshold.

Door 4: opens easily to a small chamber, the walls in this 20'ft square room have been decorated in plaster bas-relief depicting scenes of life, death and afterlife. A plinth in the centre of the room contains a single stone sarcophagus whose heavy lid has been pushed to one side. The interior of the coffer is quite plush compared to others you have seen, with plush velvet linings and neatly embroidered burial linens. The coffer is however vacant, whoever was interred here has risen long ago. A single gold necklace designed as a long stem with thorns and ending in an inset jet gemstone carved in the pattern of a blossoming rose is laid within the folded linens. taken by Gerdal

Door 3: This square room, sized the same as the others explored, is furnished with a small shrine. A cross-legged statue sits on the an ornate throne, underneath which are four canopic figures which represent aspects of the divine in the cults of Orcus and Set. The figures have heads of a baboon, a jackal, a falcon and a human.

Before the shrine is a large iron brazier, whose use seems to be in ceremonial burnt offerings to the deity figurehead. The room is not damp unlike other crypts, though the embers in the brazier look to have burned out long ago.

In corners of the room are large slim vases, made from terracotta but painted in glossy designs. The four are not free standing amphora but look as though purposely built into the floor as their form moulds into the flagstone floor tiles.

There is some detritus here, testimony that others have come this way. A broken lantern, a battered shield, a chipped sword, an empty pack, discarded clothes.

The room is occupied by several large crabs. Each has a carapace the size of a small shield and long black vice-like pincers and grasping claws. They have dull sandy coloured bodies on the underside and a burnished crimson red on their top surfaces. Seemingly territorial, the crustaceans wave their pincers threateningly as they scuttle about the room. door closed, no interior exploration conducted.

Door 2: has been spiked shut by a trio of wedges hammered deep into the gaps between door and frame. The room beyond is 20'ft square. The walls are plain; no frescoes, no mold, no blood streaks or odd garments hung up, no shadows dancing in your torchlight. In the centre of the room are five silhouettes. Each are made of bronze and are hollow, a rectangle of human height or short and stout like a dwarf might be represented, a larger frame built for a half-orc, a gnome or halfling depiction, a slim svelte figure which contrasting to the others must represent an elven image. The cut-out figures have basic poses, similar to a gingerbread man. The silhouettes ring a central black marble coffer whose lid is covered in intricate gold leaf designs. Two of the Silhouettes cannot be viewed through to the central coffer, instead the elf's has an image of a forest scene whilst the dwarf's is filled with swirling mist.

There is a body on the floor by the door. The figure is dressed as an adventurer in mundane garb with a rusty battleaxe strapped to their back. The startling feature is that the person has no visage. Literally no face, for the eyes, nose and mouth are absent. Not hacked away but as though the person was wearing a plain mask which concealed all their features. Faceless Man eventually added to carcass pile. Room searched but study interrupted by ghast resurrection.


Door 1: another solidly wedged door in need of barging open which Orgoth did. Entering a 20'ft square room with a flagstone tiled floor, walls and ceiling. The three walls are decorated with frescoes depicting acts of petition to various Deities, devotees reaching out to receive tablets of stone, similar to the runic tablets you have discovered before.

The walls though are also covered in a thick layer of jaundiced coloured, bubbly mold. Large patches on the ceiling are more gelatinous and in the far corner you see what resembles most like a large gelatinous oval, rather like a translucent amniotic sac which has a figure hunched over in a fetal position inside.

the Amber Jelly was later cut in half and fed ghast portions before it slithered back into the room and the ingested body searched for meagre reward.

You open door 5 of the West Wing. A 5'ft passage extends 20'ft turning to the right. Just like before, you lift up your lantern light to illuminate the passage and as you do so, you note that the shadows on the edge of the light in the passage seem to retreat from view. When viewed under a dimmed candlelight, you can see that the shadows have a humanoid form and behave as if replicating human movement; one waves a hand, one walks, another dances.

To add to your confusion: you can remember in the corridor outside of Room 68, some graffiti mentioned "I lost my shadow" and you have noted that Isvand or Gnimish have particularly animated shadows as a result of playing and losing at ghost poker with the spectre. Indeed Isvand's shadow tried to throttle him in the Bacchus Ale Pools.

The skeleton crew seem unconcerned by the dark or the strange shadows. Directed ahead they advance down the narrow passage to the corner and turn from view. Your lantern light illuminates them as they go and you see their thin skeletal shadows cast upon the walls but unlike those which 'reside' here, they are not somehow detached from their skeletal person-hood.

questions, actions before you follow in the room if you have any.

[OGRE MAGE]

Wow, I forgot how much we skipped in this hallway last time. The crab shrine seems significant.

After reading that again, it really feels like we are missing something.

You guys have any ideas with these rooms! Can you see any obvious connections we are missing?

[Rex]

Nothing obvious. Orgoth is still in poor shape I think, maybe just letting others search around for now would be the best idea.

[SocraticLawyer]

Agreed

[Spearmint]

Exploring the West Wing

03.10am June 8th 1066

Having described the rooms again, it makes sense for Amos to inter the remains of de Ogilvy in the plush sarcophagus in room 4 rather than drag the body elsewhere.

He is helped by the gnomes while the mercenaries and Truro hold the fort in the metal door room.

In the dead of night, with the dead, the character trio cross the threshold of crypt room 5 and walk up the short passage. Sven carries Arnaud's Everlit Candle, a magical illumination that radiates light in a small radius but enough to see in the narrow confines ahead. Shield up and spear ready, Orgoth is a step behind and Peaches carrying her lantern, a yard further. The pirates are out of sight but not sound. It becomes clear the passage spirals to the right within the confines of a 20'ft room, after turning to the right it then turns down and then to the left then up.

You can hear the footsteps ahead and see the edge of the thick mist which emanates from the undead pirates presence. A baleful light carried by one has a dull eerie glow, like a Will O' the Wisp enticing wary travellers to their doom. The passage has standard ill fitting flagstones to walk on, the walls and ceiling rough plasterwork and whitewashed. The cavorting shadows before and behind, elongated and strange but not animated to any physical threat unlike the actual Shadow creatures you defeated prior.

After a minute or so you are several corners into the small room.

actions and questions please and each provide a 'random' d20 with your post.

sorry my artwork is limited. You are by the bottom passage, the Skeletons further in.

[Rex]

Orgoth

Orgoth keeps observant and on alert.

requested roll [1d20]=13

[OGRE MAGE]

The images of the three of us are awesome!

After convincing the hirelings to be wary of the possibility for the reemergence of the monsters they killed, Sven keeps shrugging, as if he cant stop now. "Stay behind me you two. I have no idea what the heck we might find at the end of this maze. Hopefully it will be a friendly minotaur, with extra treasure" he jokes softly.

Random D20 [1d20]=8 I hope that's not a Save.

Sven will suggest that Smokey turn invisible, hoping the wolf's shadow wont be seen anymore. He ponders the idea of doing so himself next.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee

Requested roll [1d20]=11

Peaches keeps her Burning Hands spell at the ready, in case anything nasty jumps out at her.

[Spearmint]

Exploring the West Wing

03.25am? June 8th 1066

The skeletons proceed ahead with vigour, drawn inexorably down the claustrophobic passage, chasing shadows on the edge of their vision, spiralling through the continuing passages turns, ever inwards towards the rooms centre.

The trio of character adventurers follow hot on their heels, joined by a wolf familiar who turns invisible so as not to add his own freak shadow to the cast of witnesses that cavort on the walls of your trespass.

You each feel the growing burden of dread as you wander along. The passage feels constricting, both mentally and physically, draining emotion and well being. A certain fatigue creeps upon you,
even the hardy Smokie feels the withering to his senses though he alone of the quartet does not lose any of his boundless lupine energy. "Hooman. I have a feeling about this place" he telepathically empathises with his master. He turns to follow his scent back up the passage but alarmingly his musky trail just gets him to turn in circles. "We have been walking a long time." he complains.

The sentiment twigs a hint of recognition. The Everlit Candle is by definition ever lit, the baleful glare of the skeletons in the mist comes from an unhallowed lantern shedding eternal gloom. If any of you had carried a firebrand they would have stubbed out long ago. As it is, Peaches lantern oil flickers as the last residue begins to soaks through the wick. How have many hours passed so quickly when you have just barely set foot in the room?

Looking behind you, the passage seems as it were but once you try to retrace your steps, the confusion as to your whereabouts steps in. This way, no that way, there was only one way, now there are two. And three. All the same looking, short passages that turn, shadows waving you this way and that, exhorting you to follow, gesturing you to flee. Shadows waving, including your own. Animated with a gesture involuntary of your own arm moving. Shadows of Sven, Orgoth and Peaches, each looking a little more darker, sinister and detached.

Then the warrior half-orc keels over, dropping shield and spear and collapsing to the floor, overcome with a debilitating exhaustion.

Sven -2, Orgoth -2, Peaches -4 Constitution points please. This loss may only be temporary, you hope but it may negatively affect current hp if dropping Con causes you to fall into a lower bracket of hp bonus or penalty. No penalty for the Mages but dropping Orgoth from 16 to 14 nullifies the +2hp per level bonus he receives, which at 3rd level suddenly inflicts a -6hp loss. With only 5hp, Orgoth has a heart attack and drops to negative -1hp.

Smokie & Sven resistance to shadow magic vs 25% [1d100]=75[1d100]=90Sven [1d4]=2 Orgoth [1d4]=2 Peaches [1d4]=4

so the asked for check was against the rooms magical spell effect and compared to a Save vs Spells not one vs paralysis/death magic as the effect is to cause those who fail a save to lose Constitution points. As each point is lost, so your shadow becomes more detached until at 0 Constitution, one may suffer a permanent effect.

You have lost the Constitution over an unknown period of time, not a round by round deduction, more a growing hourly fatigue. So further Con losses will not be deducted straight away, but the longer you stay in the passages the more at risk you are of continued fatigue. Orgoth, suffering the hit point loss and going into negative hp will breath out rather than bleed out at a rate of -1hp per round though.

next actions please

[Rex]

Orgoth

Down.

[SocraticLawyer]

Peaches McGee

Seeing Orgoth go down, Peaches calmly but deliberately springs to action. Pulling out her first aid kit, she administers aid to Orgoth with practiced hands.

Not my first rodeo. Half-orc dudes are always swooning around me.

CON and inventory adjusted.

[OGRE MAGE]

Oh boy! Are the skeletons still around? If so, Sven calls for a full halt.

Sven frowns at Peaches announcement, but still hopes she can do something to help Orgoth. “I have a potion that will help him if you can’t.”

“What happened to us? How did we not notice something was amiss sooner? There must be powerful magic at work here. Even if we get him back up, how do we find our way out?”

Then the mage remembers the skull they got from Gabby and checks to see if Orgoth still has it on him. “I wonder if I can use my magic to understand the minotaur language if I touch the thing?”

So, Smokie feels okay, but the rest of us are being drained? Hmmmmmm….. Are the skeletons feeling drained?

[Spearmint]

Exploring the West Wing

03.25am? June 8th 1066.

Shadows on the wall.

Peaches purses her lips and breathes a gulp of air into the unmoving lungs of Orgoth and then pounds his chest in quick compressions.

Peaches: 1st Aid kit Wisdom check: vs 13 [4d6]=10

you don't have a kit in your inventory and these are used primarily on open wounds but I will allow you to try some CPR.

Check the rules on 1st Aid Kits and healing in the House Rules.

Succeeding in her initial diagnosis, the treatment breathes a modicum of life back in to the dying warrior, +1hp bringing him to a point if stability on exactly 0hp. The medic success also adds a bonus -1 to his Constitution check which proving successful too, raises him to his unsteady feet.

Death Save (14 Con) [4d6]=15 -1 from successful medic check. Passes, so goes from comatose to walking wounded.

While the treatment goes on, Sven tries to hail the pirate skeletons, but they seem 'always around the next corner'. They can be heard but not seen though an odd skeleton shadow flits in the edge of your vision. You feel the physical effect of the fatigue in the passage, draining life and energy away (well away but into a necrotic shadow-self on the wall). Smokie, being invisible casts no shadow. He mentally suffers the confusion caused by the magic, having failed his natural resistance but physically is fine which might indicate an advantage in going invisible too.

Searching through belongings, you find the potion of unknown evanescence and the Moo-Moo minotaur skull. From studies of the malachite goblin head, you know that those magical features are activated via communication in goblin tongue. Perhaps Minotaurs speak common or Moo-Moo was some bovine polyglot? You concentrate on the head, trying to look into it, through it with your mind's eye. After a few minutes you hear voices in your own head, a deep gluturral baritone that rasps in an unknown tongue. A ' Comprehend Languages' would enable you to understand but not communicate verbally back.

Moo-Moo vs 25% [1d100]=59 % chance in MM of creatures speaking common.

Sven intelligence check [4d6]=12, succeeds to trigger communication.

I am going to assume you do indeed cast the CL spell. The Minotaur voice is complaining about being carried around random passages and is basically yearning for the outdoors rather than rotting in this labyrinth. It actually knows 'the location of the nearest or most accessible exit' from the Barrowmaze, so is instructing whoever holds it to 'go this way, turn that way, go through that door'. The nearest exit being via Silas Barrow.

So while you cannot communicate back, Moo-Moo could sense if you actually follow the directions (would this be a cownav opposed to a satnav or a Tom-tom?) and about turn to leave down the correct passages to the entrance.

You have a sense you have walked far and been here a few hours but that could be an illusory affect. The fatigue and loss of Constitution and hp is not an illusion. I say that as you have no idea how long it will take to get back which might affect other choices. If it took a turn to get out then you might not face another Constitution check so wouldn't need to use an Invisibility spell to protect yourself from shadow drain, but if it was longer, then casting a spell protects you or another at least.

actions please.