This is the first journal entry for my Doom of Barrowmaze campaign using Old-School Essentials. Most of the group is new to OSE, with a few exceptions. For my purposes, the Barrowmaze has been placed into my homebrew campaign setting of Valakis (hence the blog name!). As such, several places from the book have been renamed, modified or replaced entirely.
The village of Tamhill replaces Helix, Ironguard is replaced by Voley Castle, the Duchy is replaced by the Free Barony of Fulst. Bogtown remains, though it's location is notably different. The Barrowmaze was dropped into the Cairn Moorlands in the Skyspire region of Valakis. The campaign is using a variety of homebrew modifications to OSE including a Death & Injury table, (new) advanced weapon rules of my own design, and other such modifications.
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| The Free Barony of Fulst & surrounding lands |
Session 1: Jewels of the Maligned
On the 22nd of Springwane, 1041, the campaign began under a bright spring sun in the village of Tamhill. Led by Barry, the expedition assembled, featuring the following characters:
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Barry, Barbarian 4. Formerly of the "Buff Bastards" adventuring group. Expedition leader. Played by Zi. |
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Francis, Thief 1. A shifty and lazy sort. Played by Stony. |
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Gwyn, Cleric 1. An acolyte of St. Ygg searching for answers. Played by Todd. |
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Kazrik, Dwarf 1. Dwarven shipwright of Clan Boatstone. Played by Ryan. |
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Narion, Elf 1. An unusual elven smith and tinkerer. Played by Andrew. |
The group's meeting point was the Rogue Willow tavern and gambling den, marked by it's sign: a grinning willow tree wielding a sword and dagger. Inside, they shared rumors they had overheard and engaged in a brief discussion with Bertrand's Brigands, initially met with mockery. However, the brigands' tone shifted when they realized they had knowledge of Barry's former adventuring team, the "Buff Bastards," and the tale of their assistance to the dwarves of Darrow. Bertrand offered terse advice before departing.
With a new torchbearer/porter named Harvey, the group departed for the moor.
Upon reaching the barrow fields, the group took note of the ancient, stone pillar with a skull carved at its pinnacle, and a massive, menhir encircled barrow mound, but decided to avoid them, deeming them too obvious. They investigated a nearby, flooded barrow mound, marked by croaking sounds. Choosing to ignore it, they proceeded to another opened mound, where the dwarf Kazrik spotted signs of foot traffic on the stairs. Inside, they discovered an empty, broken stone sarcophagus. After examining the walls for secret doors and trying to move the sarcophagus unsuccessfully, Kazrik deciphered the secret passage trigger from the motif on the sarcophagus: a skeleton that needed to be pulled, turned counterclockwise, and pushed back in.
Descending the secret staircase, they faced and defeated two giant centipedes. Elf Narion's keen eyes spotted a secret door, leading to a chamber where the party looted dusty burial alcoves for 30 minutes (turning up a paltry 300 sp). Turning to the room's central, stone mausoleum marked as the tomb of "Klexx the Maligned," they pried it open with a crowbar. Inside, they found a jewelry-clad corpse. An attempt to stake it unleashed a coffer corpse that almost took down Gwyn, the cleric.
Exiting the tomb with valuable loot—consisting of a golden crown and two jeweled bracers worth nearly 4,000 GP all told—the group encountered a large chapel dedicated to forgotten gods. It featured eight statues and a broken stone altar. A pit trap almost caught Gwyn, but Narion's sharp senses saved the day.
After nearly two and a half hours exploring and securing treasure, the group decided to return to Tamhill, avoiding further risks. Brother Gwyn required two full days rest to return to full health, during which time the other characters planned to engage in downtime activities.
Final Thoughts
I thought this first session was an excellent start to the campaign. The players dove right into the premise of the campaign and the players more familiar with 3.5e & 5e D&D had little trouble adapting to the oddities of OSE. It certainly helped that two of the players (Todd & Zi) have played OSE extensively with me before, so they could lead by example.
The group made a number of prudent decisions in their first delve, such as avoiding the flooded barrow mound and retreating after finding the jewelry instead of risking Gwyn for more material gain. I hope everyone had as much fun playing as I did running.
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