Session 2 Recap -- Banditry and Burial Alcoves

Session 2 was played December 22, 2022

Today's Party:

Father Klassen the Dwarf 1  (Josh)

Shelby the Halfling 1 (Kip)

Doris the Elf 1 (Marika) 

-Jonovan the torchbearer

-Hymen the man-at-arms

-Lowman the man-at-arms

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With Blueshirt ailing upstairs, and both Redshirt and Cromann out carousing, Shelby sat alone in the taproom of Hazel's Inn. At about eight o'clock, two new members of the adventurer's guild entered and awkwardly introduced themselves. 

They had been to Sir Ramekin's and been given the same speech, and it was agreed that the three of them would head to the Barrowmaze the next day. They had little else to talk about, so they went to bed, while the wild nightlife of Savoy raged on down in the town square.

At daybreak, a little shopping was done, and the party descended again to the Barrowmoor. Their hike to barrow mound #12 and its infamous hole-in-the-ground entrance was uneventful. 

The adventurers noticed some odd spaces in their maps and decided to look for secret doors, and ended up finding several. A purse with several gold (!) coins was found on a dead adventurer behind a wall. Father Klassen also found three nicely polished skulls, and stashed them in a canvas sack by the door to be collected later. 

A portcullis that was somehow not noticed last time was forced open, aided by Shelby's grease-pot, and the party quickly got into a fight with four zombies. Shelby was hurt badly, but the men-at-arms stepped up again and the party dispatched them. 

After some more sneaking around, and a lot of secret-door hunting, the party found a secret door in the room that had the zombies that mortally wounded Blueshirt last session. The door led to a strange compartment where there were four funeral boxes that each contained a strange velvet glove and concealed a lever beneath. The party donned the four gloves, pulled the four levers, and another secret door opened, revealing a miniature tomb with a dead priest in it. The party took the priests lovely silky robes, which appeared to be a made of some sort of exotic material, along with a beautiful club carved from driftwood.

It was then that they heard voices -- human voices! Apparently a party of gruff individuals was searching for a secret door on the others side of a nearby wall. Threats and edgy jokes were exchanged, and eventually the wall slid open, revealing a party of six or seven Blackslashes. The interaction was testy, but some map information was exchanged. 

The party hunted around more, searching several hundred burial niches and finding some treasure. They entered a room with a horrific stench, causing 100% of the party to vomit all over the corridor. The source of the stench was two decomposing adventurers that had been speared to a wall several weeks earlier. 

While searching this room, skeletons began chopping at the iron-spiked door. Once they had put a hole in it, the PCs quickly dispatched them by using the spears. The skeletons, with their pitiful rusty cutlasses, could not mount a proper counterattack through the hole. 

It was around then that the party decided to leave. On the way back, some pitiful wailing was heard, and the party found one dead and one dying Blacksash tomb-robbers. Shelby went to help the living one, who revealed itself to be a skull-headed, shape-shifting heucuva. The creature touched Shelby with his bony finger, which seemed to give him some sort of curse or disease. 

Shelby ran, and the creature advanced slowly on the party as they hurriedly climbed the rope to the exit, aware that the wooded tripod above could only support two fully equipped peoples. Unfortunately, the party's weapons were useless against the creature. Only when Father Klassen pulled out the driftwood club did they harm it. With one blow, the club smashed the skeleton thing to splinters, allowing the party to escape. 

On the way back to town, the party was accosted by the same thugs as in Session 1, but there were five of them this time. Armed with three crossbows and two blades, the bandits demanded a third of the take. Father Klassen scoffed at their leader and was immediately hit by two bolts, dropping him. Shelby ran up to the crossbowmen to prevent further boltings, and the party prepared for a fight. 

At this moment, an arrow came out of nowhere, piercing the bandit leader's neck, and the rest of them scattered. A rangery-looking woman with wild red hair and jewelry made of dried flowers approached the party, pet bear in tow. 

She introduced herself as "Paloma, friend to all but evil." She introduced her bear as "Lux, friend to none but me." Paloma told the party that bandits are becoming a huge problem due to the gold rush atmosphere of town, so precautions will need to be taken. She also said she kept a room at a seedy establishment called The Tap, just outside the town walls, on the mountain side, but slept in the forest half the time. Perhaps they could buy her a drink, she suggested. 

Back at the inn the loot was divided. The party's coffers has grown quite a bit.

Gains: Over 1500cp in treasure, a stash of dungeoneering equipment, interesting priestly robes, and a magnificent +1 club. 

Kills: Four zombies, four skeletons, one heucuva. (The bandits were routed by Paloma.)

Losses: None to speak of.

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Rule change:

We discovered at the end of the session, when two-thirds of the party were severely injured, that the "slow healing" houserule causes a problem wherein everybody is in the hospital all the time, or in debt after paying for magical healing. 

So I'm going to drop that houserule -- basically, if you make it back to town you're fine to heal normally. Outside the town walls, though, you're on your own.