Adventurers
- Koko (Cleric 5)
- Mandras (Dwarf 3)
- Rarder (Fighter 5) and Konrad Claver (Cleric 3)
Hearing screams of some kind behind them, the party opted to press on into the Barrowmaze. The possible cause of those screams revealed itself with an attack upon the rear by three cowled skeletons, fingers stained with blood which, after gouging the side of the party’s warhound, were fended off with little trouble.
Meanwhile, the front of the winding adventuring column pushed past a prone corpse, two discoloured holes in its thigh, into a pillared chamber with a few doors. Splitting up to investigate the various points of interest, they were interrupted by a strangled cry from Alesandese holding a torch aloft in the middle of the room, a large rattlesnake’s fangs clamped into her arm. The party leapt upon the creature which, though it flailed about, couldn’t pierce any more armour, and it was summarily dispatched.
Crowding around the stricken torch bearer, the adventurers hastily tried to halt the spread of the deadly venom through her bloodstream with an impromptu medical amputation. Mandras swung his axe through the air, it screaming his name as it sliced through Alesandese’s arm, and everyone scrambled to apply a tourniquet. Unfortunately, whether it be from the poison, the blood loss or the shock, the retainer passed away.
Zuhaitz, one of Koko’s retainers, determined that this wasn’t worth the pay (which she had yet to receive from her employer) and demanded that the party turn back. There followed some wrangling until finally Rarder stepped in and handed her the back pay from his own coin purse. Zuhaitz pocketed it and rejoined the other followers.
Leaving Alesandese’s body to be picked up on their way back, the party headed on. They found themselves in another room with an altar before a great statue of a goat-headed figure similar to the one appearing in the relief carvings on the walls and pillars throughout the dungeon. As the adventurers contemplated the safety of entering, a weak voice called out in dwarvish. Between the altar and the statue they found a pit with a ravenous dwarf stuck down below who claimed to have been abandoned by his own group. Hauling him out and healing him up, they handed him Alesandese’s gear and bade him take front rank.
Meanwhile, the zealous Konrad had been desecrating / sanctifying the altar, dousing it with holy water and defacing its relief carvings. A deep, affronted voice sounded from the statue, and doors opened in two pillars. A swarm of skeletons emerged, large gems encased in their foreheads gleaming as they fell upon the party. The adventurers’ armour withstood the attacks, but as they hacked their way through their assailants the gems shone brightly and knitted the bones back together to unleash the skeletal attacker back upon them. Back to back, the party fought the undying…