Barrowmaze Campaign Diary, Session 12 - Return to the Barrowmaze

This is part of my on-going diary series for my Doom of Barrowmaze campaign run using Old-School Essentials.

Session 12 - Return to the Barrowmaze

This week the party consisted of...

	Barry, Barbarian 4. Duvari polymath and would-be warlord. Expedition leader. Played by Zi.
	Kazrik, Dwarf 3. Dwarven shipwright of Clan Boatstone. Played by Ryan.
	Narion, Elf 2. An unusual elven smith and tinkerer. Played by Andrew.
	Psteve, Cleric 3. Enigmatic prophet haunted by eldritch whispers. Played by Andy.
	Thaddeus, Paladin 4. Eccentric holy warrior in search of wisdom. Played by Todd.

Downtime

After defeating the vile naga and her amassed cult, the party returned to Bogtown. Some of the newly dubbed "Saviors of Bogtown" chose to return some of the treasure to the village. 

After leaving the village, the party took 3 weeks of downtime. Some of the group traveled to Halesport, the massive, port city on the Pale Sea roughly a weeks travel away. There they were able to find an enigmatic aristocrat that wished to purchase the jade statue at their asking price. 

Narion worked on a tinkering project, creating hollow point bolts filled with holy water. Psteve spent almost his entire share of treasure on scribing scrolls of divine magic. Barry invested time into learning how to make anti-venom. Kazrik began learning how to better detect traps and construction tricks. Thaddeus secluded himself in the libraries of Halesport and Murkwater, hoping to glean new information as to the nature of Nergal and the Barrowmaze.

The group was able to determine the magic on most of their magic items, though they did pay for a few to be identified by Katarina Zorik. The list of items they found included:

Magic Items

• Scalebane, +1 short sword, +2 vs scaly creatures - Barry
• Bag of Holding (500 coins) - Kazrik
• Elven boots - Kazrik
• Horn of Valor (+1 AC to allies who can hear the horn for 1 turn) - Narion
• Ring of Protection +1 - Barry
• Ring of Free Action - Barry
• Khiral's Wand of Cold - Narion

Potions

• 2 Healing Potions
• Potion of Invisibility
• Potion of Clairvoyance
• Philter of Love
• MU scroll (Haste, Continuous Light, Detect Magic

Into the Barrow Mounds

On the 1st of Summerwane, the group gathered once again in Tamhill and set out into the moor. They decided to investigate some of the unmolested barrow mounds near the area they had been focused previously.

First, they opened a sealed tomb near the entrance they had been frequenting. Within they found four stone pillars carved with screaming human faces. In the center stood an unlit iron brazier. The group tried to light the brazier half a dozen ways, including lighting Psteve on fire (thanks to his ring of fire resistance) but could not get the brazier to light. Eventually, they gave up and left.

Next, they investigated a barrow that had already been opened, apparently with the aid of horses. Inside they discovered a mummy in a looted tomb, but found a single gold ring that had been left by the previous tomb robbers.

The Saviors of Bogtown next investigated another sealed tomb, finding a series of gemmed pillars within. After testing the room extensively for traps, the group looted over 3,000gp worth of gems. They were unable to open the three locked, bronze doors that lead out of the central chamber, so they departed.

The final barrow they investigated was one on the southern edge of the Barrow Fields. It had already been opened, and the group found a strange, clawed tunnel within that descended on along meandering route down into the maze. Kazrik suggested going alone by means of his Infravision and his new elven boots. This proved the perfect plan, as his utterly silent movement in the dark was not detected by the two cave trolls that stood guard at the bottom of the tunnel.

The group discussed charging in to kill the trolls, but decided against the idea for now and chose to return to Tamhill with their loot.

Final Thoughts

Downtime

About half of this session involved dealing with the group's downtime activities. I had hoped to deal with it between sessions. Sadly, the players generally did not seem interested in discussing their activities between session, and I am not going to hunt them down and force them to discuss their character activities like school children doing homework.

Barrows

The players finally decided it might be worth checking out the other barrows on the surface! Turns out, it can be a decent place to find quick loot. Sure, some of them a terrifying death traps, but you never know what's inside that tomb until you open it up and a few characters get swarmed by [redacted]. 

The players were definitely intrigued, but frustrated by the brazier. They couldn't figure out the proper trigger. Given the changes in the game system from Labyrinth Lord to OSE, this might prove to be an issue with the tools at the player's disposal, but it always feels better to figure it out than to have the GM take pity on you.

Kazrik and the Trolls

This was probably my favorite moment of the night. The right character, with the right magic items, using them well. It felt like his stealthy discovery of the troll guards was the perfect payoff for previous sessions and the choice to give a specific character a certain set of tools. This, to me, is the heart of what makes old-school RPGs special, because these sort of things feel earned.