Session 13 - Scene 6 (of 6)

With the fight over, Krolec walks over to the statues.  The plaque indicates this is, indeed, the Relcoff Plaza.  He and Leigh quickly sketch out the statues for Honoria Mellnor while the others rest.  

As he examines the statues, Krolec notices that the bow sitting next to the statue of Darin Relcoff, a famous hunter, is an actual bow, not part of the statue.  After making sure the area around the bow isn't trapped, he grabs it.

Sa-ika identifies the bow as a magical point blank longbow.  After making sure no one else can use it, Krolec takes the bow for himself, confident that his ranged attacks will now be more effective.

The group then searches the rest of the area, making sure the barrows are empty – which they are, with the exception of some spider webs, eggs, and the usual buried corpses.  Scrag clears them all out with his fire-making abilities.

Krolec does make another discovery.  Under the statues, where the spiders came from, is a half-buried holy symbol of Erathis – the favored god of the Relcoffs.  Rhogar identifies it as a symbol of mortality, designed to aid in attacking the undead and immortal.

As Silas is the only worshipper of Erathis among the divine champions in the group (Rhogar and Merend being followers of Bahamut), it is decided he can keep it.  It will certainly aid with his undead abjuration powers.

With the area thoroughly searched and cleared, the group hikes back to the safety of the guardian's chamber to rest up.  Tomorrow is another day...

Session 13 - Session Notes

I'm going to start off by saying how big a laugh the whole "Ja'kal Maksun" thing got.  Everyone was almost dying with laughter over that.  Which surprised me a little, as it was meant to be funny, but I didn't expect that big of a reaction.

The Krolec player was completely freaked out I was going to turn it into an encounter straight out of the Thriller video, lol.

In reality, the whole thing was planned just as a slight breather between the first combat and the second one.  Exploring the double-sized tomb was actually ratcheting up the tension quite a bit, so the comic relief really worked.

The first combat wasn't actually planned, I just happened to roll a random encounter and it was the one I got from the chart.  The two critical hits that took down the dogs quickly made it a lot less harder than it might have otherwise been, I think.

The second encounter is, like most of the encounters here, straight out of the Barrow Grounds adventure from Expeditious Retreat Press.

I did have to add some more magic items to the mix.

Here's a major problem I'm having, at least when it comes to following the RAW guidelines - I can't follow the treasure parcel system for shit.  I'm barely halfway into my level 2 parcels, several level 1 parcels are outstanding still, and meanwhile the PCs are nearing level 3.  I think they want you to give out waaay too much treasure per level, considering the short amount of time it takes to advance in level.  It's particularly difficult with a larger group like I have.

In other group news, starting next session Mitka will become a regular and Zena will become one of the alternates.  Basically, the Zena player can't always make it and thought it would be fairer for the Mitka player to take her slot (since everyone knows he wants to be a regular) and she take one of the alternate slots.  I really hate having to run it this way - but there's no way I can do 10 regular players and keep a cohesive game.

Session 14 - Cast of Characters

Krolec Jar'Bin: Elven ranger and leader of the group.
Merend: Grumpy dwarven cleric of Bahamut and second in command.
Rhogar: Dragonborn paladin of Bahamut who is still recovering from his recent resurrection.
Mitka Karamazov: Halfling thief.
Sa-ika: Genasi stormsoul swordmage.
Silas Ballard: Human avenger of Erathis.
Al Trueism: Human wizard.
Leigh: Eladrin wizard.

Session 14 - Scene 1 (of 4)

It is decided that Zena will go off and deliver the sketch to Honoria Mellnor while the others continue on with clearing the cemetery.  Scrag elects to guard the rear this day.  Krolec identifies the next target for the others as an old mausoleum near the Relcoff plaza.

With most of the southern area cleared already, the short trip over to the mausoleum passes without incident.  Krolec examines the doorway carefully, looking for traps.  Finding none, he notices the intricate scene carved on the mausoleum door – a dragon flying over a small fleet of ships.

Sa-ika checks out the door, making sure there is no magic enchantments on it.  Krolec motions for Leigh to come over and investigate – she determines it must be the tomb of Captain Teague, also known as "The Dragon".  She goes on to explain Captain Teague was a great sea captain of centuries past who later retired and owned a large seaside resort.

Finding the information rather perfunctory in respect to their mission, Krolec has Mitka make sure the door is unlocked and that no noises can be heard beyond the door.  Al, getting tired of their constant caution, moves to go open the door but Krolec steps in front of him.  When Al insists, Krolec and Mitka decide to step back, figuring that Al deserves whatever he gets for being so impulsive.

Like at the other tombs, the door opens into darkness.  Al lights a small rock, but tosses it to Krolec to throw in rather than doing it himself.  As he and Krolec argue over who should throw the rock in, Merend steps up and grabs it from them, then throws it in himself.

The small mausoleum lights up, exposing two crypts at the far wall with an inscription hanging over them.  Krolec advances in, being careful to check for traps as he goes and admiring the architecture of the stone floors, vaulted ceiling with an acute angle, and the flying buttresses off of the side walls.

As he gets closer, he can read the inscription.  It is carved into the middle of a large heart carving and reads, "love will keep us together".  Examining the crypts, he sees that one is for the captain, and the other for the captain's wife, Tennille.

Krolec and Sa-ika decide to open the captain's crypt first.  As they move off the lid, something pops up from underneath.  The captain was apparently turned into a vampire spawn upon his death.

Mitka immediately steps in and attempts to hit the vampire in the heart with a torturous strike of his blade, but misses.  Al follows up with a phantom bolt, causing the captain to fall back into his crypt, stunned.  Next to him, the other crypt opens, and the vampiric form of his wife emerges.

Tennille claws Krolec with her sharp talon-like nails.  He responds by making a hasty retreat.  Leigh blasts her from outside the mausoleum door with a magic missile, causing her to collapse.

Merend, misunderstanding, assumes Krolec is under some kind of magical condition and trying to flee.  He quickly moves to close the door, slamming it in Leigh and Rhogar's faces.  Rhogar immediately opens the door back up and tries to get Merend to explain what he is doing, but is still a bit puzzled even after Merend responds.

Meanwhile, Mitka gets the idea to grab the vampire bodies and drag them out into the sunlight.  Krolec is wary of them becoming animated again, and cautions him to stay back.  Leigh then uses another magic missile to blast the Tennille vampire into flames.  The remains of both the captain and his wife are then hastily thrown into the sunlight by the others while Merend inexplicably decides he is terrified of vampires and runs out in a panic.

Back in the crypt, Krolec searches around the mausoleum while Sa-ika explores the crypts.  She finds a rolled up piece of parchment in the captain's tomb.  It's not magic.  Leigh unrolls it and examines it; it appears to be some kind of nautical map of an island she does not recognize as being a discovered island.  She does, however, recall that the captain was said to have found an undiscovered island somewhere north, and told a tale of a huge blue diamond that could be found there.  He died before every mounting an expedition to recover it.  It's decided to put the map aside for the moment – it will have to be looked into more later.

Session 14 - Scene 2 (of 4)

Krolec leads the group up a nearby hill to the next closest item on his map, another barrow.  Krolec finds the door lacking any traps, but locked.  Mitka uses his lockpicks to unlock the doors.  He and Krolec then each grab one side of the double doors leading into the barrow and jump back to open it.

As usual, the space beyond is covered in darkness, though they can still clearly see that the entrance way into the barrow chamber is partially blocked by debris.  Al uses his magic to illuminate a rock then has a magic hand carry the rock over the debris to light the chamber beyond.  Krolec has Leigh light one of his arrows and he fires it in as well.

Krolec then steps up to listen in.  He hears movement inside, approaching quickly.  He yells to the others, but it is too late.

Two wights emerge from the barrow.  One claws into Krolec.  He feels the life-draining effects of the wound as he makes a hasty retreat while the wight advances towards Leigh.  On the other side, Mitka narrowly avoids getting clawed himself.  Behind the two wights are two battle wights, dressed in full armor and carrying swords.

Al attempts to hold the wights back with one of his phantom bolts, but misses.  Sa-ika moves in to attack, hitting the wight in front of her, but missing the battle wight behind it with her lightning clash.  Desperate to cause some damage quickly himself, Mitka strikes at the wight in front of him twice with his deft strike maneuver, hitting it once.

Across the battlefield, Merend uses his prayers to call down a daunting blast of light, hitting the other wight.  Krolec follows that up with a couple of hits from his bow.

Rhogar then decides to move up from his position in the rear.  Calling forward his powerful paladin's judgement prayer, he strikes a damaging blow against one of the wights.  However, he is then struck by a bolt of energy emerging from the barrow, draining his health and making him immobile.

Back over at the other wight, Silas steps forward and uses his abjure undead prayer on the wight in front of Leigh, blasting it into ashes.

Free from immediate threat, Leigh then uses her scorching burst spell to attack the other wight and the battle wights back over at the barrow entrance, downing the wight.  The battle wights then lash out, striking into Rhogar and Sa-ika, before adjusting their positions to go after the wizards.

With the battle wight approaching him, Al lets loose with his rolling thunder spell, blasting it.  Sa-ika tries to use her lightning lure to draw it away from him, but fails.  Mitka, however, manages to maneuver around to his back, but misses with a torturous strike attack.

Since no one is greatly wounded yet, Merend elects to stay on the offensive.  He blasts out with a lance of faith, hitting it and giving an enchantment to Silas.  Krolec tries to follow up with a couple of arrow shots, but misses both.  Merend mentions a little too loudly that Krolec's tendency to miss his shots is why he didn't enchant him with the lance of faith.  Krolec is not pleased at the comment.

Rhogar decides to assist with some defense, calling forward his sacred circle.  Just then, a deathlock wight emerges, and raises the previously destroyed wight back to undeath.

Silas uses his angelic alacrity, striking into the wight near Leigh.  Leigh steps back herself, blasting it with a magic missile.  The battle wight and wight next to it then attack Silas.  He is hit once, and would be hit a second time if not for the quick magic of Sa-ika, who uses her spell to dimensionally warp the battle wight over to her side of the field, causing it to strike the deathlock wight instead.

Silas isn't the only one hit, as Mitka also feels the life-draining sting of the battle wight in front of him.  

Meanwhile, Al decides to beat a hasty retreat, running over to hide behind Leigh.  He does sustain his thunderballs, though, to keep the battle wight over by Mitka pinned down.

Sensing Mitka is in grave danger being next to the two battle wights, Sa-ika uses her dimensional warp ability to switch places with him, then uses her lightning lure to drag the deathlock wight closer to her.  She follows up with a swordburst attack, hitting all the wights.

From his new position, Mikta maneuvers himself in and slices into the battle wight with his handspring assault.

Merend blasts at the deathlock wight with his sacred flame.  Krolec uses an evasive strike to attack the deathlock wight next, barely hitting it by drawing on all his elven accuracy.  He tries to follow up with a couple more arrow shots, but misses.  The deathlock wight claws into Sa-ika.

Across the battlefield, Silas tries to use his bond of pursuit to attack the reanimated wight on Leigh, but misses.  Leigh, however, has more luck blasting it with her magic missile.

Behind her, Al is focused on the deathlock wight.  He attempts to use his tome of readiness to cast an astral wasp spell, but fails.

Sa-ika, however, has better luck with her next swordburst attack.  The deathlock wight goes down.  Mitka then tries to take out one of the battle wights with a deft strike, but misses while Merend uses his flames to destroy the remaining wight on Leigh.

Krolec fires off another set of arrows at the battle wights, killing one of them.  Rhogar tries to take out the last one with an enfeebling strike using his divine strength prayer, but misses, as does Silas with a blast of his radiant vengeance.  In the end, Leigh manages to finish off the last of the wights with her magic missile.

Session 14 - Scene 3 (of 4)

With the immediate battle over, Krolec has everyone rest for a few minutes before heading inside the barrow, just in case there is anything else dangerous inside.  Al, impatient as usual, walks inside.  Krolec stops him and convinces him to let Krolec search for traps first.

Merend, however, doesn't think they should go in at all, and begins making grumpy, sardonic comments.  Already upset over his comments during battle, Krolec takes offense.  The two briefly argue, with Krolec ultimately getting the last word for Merend to keep his grumpy attitude under control.

Krolec and Mitka head inside, searching for traps as they go.  In the back of the barrow is a crypt with a large chest sitting behind it.

Al thinks they are wasting time, and decides to head over to the chest before Krolec can search the area for traps.  Consequently, he fails to spot the false pit trap in front of the chest, and falls in and injures himself.

Krolec thinks Al got what he deserved for not waiting, so doesn't move to help Al out of the pit.  Silas, however, takes pity on Al and uses his rope to help Al up and out of the pit.  Mitka, careful to avoid the pit, discovers there are no traps on the chest itself, though it is locked.

Krolec, however, is more focused on the tomb.  He sees there is some ancient script on it and has Leigh translate.  Apparently, the crypt is the resting place for two brothers.  She identifies this barrow as the "barrow of betrayal".  Apparently, the two brothers fought on opposite sides of a conflict in centuries past.  One slew the other, and then committed suicide out of grief.

Back over at the chest, Mitka picks the lock.  Inside is a very nice looking short sword.  Al uses his knowledge of arcana to examine it, determining it is a luck blade.  After a very brief discussion, everyone decides it makes the most sense for Mitka to keep it.

Krolec and Silas then turn their attention to the crypt, but find nothing other than the brothers' remains inside.  As with the other barrows, they decide to burn everything once they are done searching to make sure there is nothing else of value there.

The next couple of hours are spent clearing the next two barrows to the north, both of which are simply old and empty.  Several members of the group remark how difficult it has been to burn down the barrows without Scrag's expert fire-making skills as they head over to the next spot on the map, a plaza.

Session 14 - Scene 4 (of 4)

The plaza is surrounded by large hedges.  The interior appears to have several stone benches, most of which are surrounding an old fountain of some kind.

Everyone finds the location rather eerie.  Al decides to activate his guardian blades spell in anticipation of an attack.

Krolec slowly leads everyone into the plaza, very carefully looking around the area for any dangers.  As he approaches the fountain, he can see that it is filled with putrid, brackish water.  He advances for a closer look.

As he looks into the water, his reflection changes into a twisted face of darkness.  Out of the water emerges the form of a wraith.

Rhogar is the first to respond.  He immediately moves up and strikes at the wraith with his sword, hitting it with an enfeebling strike.  Mitka sneaks around to a flanking position, hitting the wraith with a torturous strike of his own.

To Mitka's horror, a specter materializes behind him, hitting him with a psychic blast that knocks Mitka prone.

Al realizes he has been standing too close to the wraith when he realizes how weak he is.  Trying to decide whether to move out of the wraith's life-draining aura or attack, Al ultimately decides to attack, missing with a phantom bolt blast.

Rhogar is then hit by a psychic blast from the wraith.  He goes insane, running off and striking Leigh with his sword.

Given the dangerous effects of staying too close, Krolec decides to move out of the wraith's aura rather than attack.

Sensing they could be in a lot of trouble, Merend decides to use his more powerful prayers, but both his beacon of hope and turn undead attempts fail.

Overhead, several rotwing zombies spot the battle and decide to swoop in and attack.  Two of them strike into Silas, greatly injuring him.  Al and Mitka, however, manage to avoid their attackers.

Despite feeling the life-draining aura, Sa-ika decides to use her dimensional warp to switch places with Mitka.

Silas then uses his ability to abjure undead to strike the wraith, then uses a distracting flare to escape.

Across the battlefield, Rhogar recovers his senses.  He switches his focus to the rotwing zombie attacking Al, striking it with his enfeebling strike.  Al tries to follow up with a hit to the zombie using his staff, but misses.

Mitka, now a safe distance away, stands up and takes a moment to recover his breath while maintaining a shifty appearance.

Meanwhile, the specter damages Sa-ika by touching her with its ghostly hand.  Leigh tries to attack the wraith with her magic missile, but misses.  The wraith, however, is still focused on Sa-ika.  Using a psychic blast, it causes her to go insane as well, and she runs off and attacks Mitka.

Krolec has better luck, striking at the wraith with a shadow wasp strike using his bow.  He also notices that the wraith's aura seems to be down.

Sa-ika and Al are then hit by the zombies, but Sa-ika uses her power to dimensionally teleport one of the zombies attacking Silas to hit the wraith instead.  She then gives an inspiring word to Silas, and takes a moment to recover while Silas blasts the zombie with his radiant vengeance.

A little ways away, Rhogar also strikes at one of the zombies, hitting with a shielding smite.

Mitka realizes the wraith's draining aura is back up as he feels the life drain out of him.  He decides to step back out of its range.

Sa-ika, meanwhile, is hit by a psychic blast from the specter, knocking her prone.  Things start to look up, though, when Leigh finishes off the wraith with a blast from her magic missile.

Al takes a moment to recover himself, then attacks one of the zombies with his phantom bolt spell, but misses.

Krolec steps in and grabs the prone Sa-ika, then pulls her back to safety while Merend uses his healing word to heal her.

The rotwing zombies move in to attack.  They strike Al twice, and Mitka once.  Both men are severely injured, and fall into comas.

Sa-ika stands up and calls upon her promise of storm and blasts away at the zombies with a sword burst.  She yells to the others to get Al out of there.

Over by Mitka, Silas briefly thinks about using his healing potion to stabilizes Mitka, but a glance from Merend makes him change his mind.  Merend has a plan already.  Instead, he uses his angelic alacrity to attack a zombie, but misses.  He follows up with a bond of pursuit prayer, hitting the zombie.

Back over at Al, Rhogar uses his ability to lay on hands to stabilize Al as Mitka slips closer to death.  Al regains consciousness, but decides to stay put for a minute, as he is surrounded by zombies.

The specter goes after an exposed Merend, hitting him.

Leigh decides to use a shock sphere, blasting several of the zombies.

Krolec pours a healing potion down Mitka's throat, reviving him.  Merend moves in to strike one of the zombies with his healing strike, but misses.

The zombies attack back, hitting Al and Mitka, causing Mitka to slip into a coma again.  Once again, he begins the descent towards death.

Sa-ika yells that they should retreat, but neither Merend nor Krolec think it makes any sense.  She lets out another swordburst at the zombies.  Silas attacks another with his oath of enmity, while Rhogar misses with an enfeebling strike.  Rhogar also discovers that zombies are immune to his poison breath.

The specter tries to attack Merend again, but misses.  Leigh tries a couple of magic missile shots on the zombies, missing herself.  Al decides to just keep staying on the ground to avoid getting killed.

Using his elven accuracy, Krolec lets loose a barrage of four arrows, killing one of the zombies while Merend steps back and kills another one with him flame strike.

Sa-ika tries to lure the specter over to her, but misses.  Silas engages it with his oath of the final duel.  The specter tries to attack back, but misses.

Rhogar strikes back again at the zombies with his divine strength, downing it.  Mitka, meanwhile, gets some divine help of his own, and manages to stabilize himself.

Leigh fires off another magic missile, missing again; as does Merend with another sacred flame attack.  Krolec has no better luck, missing twice the specter twice with shots from his arrow.

Luckily, the zombie is equally incapable, missing Rhogar.  Sa-ika finishes it off by slicing it in half with her whirling blade.

Silas strikes at the specter again, striking it with an overwhelming strike.  Rhogar tries to flank attack with an enfeebling strike of his own, but misses.

Upset with his injuries, Mitka picks up his crossbow and tries to finish off the specter, but also misses.  In the end, it is a magic missile from Leigh that finishes the job.

Despite their injuries, everyone takes a quick look around the plaza to make sure there is nothing valuable there before leaving.  All they manage to find is some copper pieces in the fountain; apparently, it was once used as a wishing well.  Merend is convinced they are bad luck and makes sure no one takes them.

As everyone heads back to rest up for another day, they all agree with Sa-ika that this was their toughest fight yet, and wonder what the future holds...

Session 14 - Session Notes

I'll start off by saying that this was the longest regular session we ever had, lasting from 7 pm until midnight (instead of the usual 10-ish quitting time).  Basically, we were getting near quitting time after the battle with the wights, but nobody felt like going home yet except for the Leigh player (whose character was then played by the Sa-ika player).

Part of it had to do that nobody really felt that injured in the wight fight, since the wights mostly just zapped healing surges.  So, they went on to the big plaza wraith fight, and that ended up taking around 2 hours to get through (though not all that time was the battle itself).

One interesting thing was that we finally got to use the milestone rule.  The Mitka player brought it up after they decided to continue, and everyone else was like, "what, you never told us that before" - to which I reminded them that it never came up before because they always rest after an encounter or two.

Other interesting tidbits about the session:
* Once again, I just want to mention that the overall design of the graveyard as well as the wight barrow and the plaza come from the Barrow Grounds adventure by Expeditious Retreat Press (though the locations/encounters are heavily altered by me).

* Several people were in bad moods.  A couple of people had a bad week for one reason or another, and would get either snippy with each other or just do random stupid things.  Hence, some of the characters behaved a little oddly compared to normal.

* The mausoleum joke with the undead "Captain and Tennille" came to me just that day.  I always had it listed as the mausoleum of Captain Teague (with the resort background and the name being a shout out to a joke from The Sopranos).  

I also originally didn't have vampire spawn in there, but decided to add that after already doing the joke tomb with no monsters last session.  Oddly, the fact they were minions really creeped out the PCs - they kept thinking the fight was "too easy".

As for the map, that may lead to a future adventure arc (one I'm calling, "The Glacier of Dread").

* For the wight battle, the "battle wights" actually just used the regular wight stats for the most part.  The battle was originally designed for 4 wights, but when I went to set it up I realized I never bought a fourth wight - I only had three.  So, I substituted two battle wight minis to make it 2 wights and 2 battle wights, then just adjusted the stats a little.

As mentioned before, the group didn't really feel that injured this encounter.  It wasn't until the next encounter, when Mitka ran out of healing surges, that they really felt the effects.

* Al falling in the pit was hilarious because this is the second time (after Zena in the caverns) where the group checked for traps everywhere except for one place which actually had a trap that someone then triggered.  They probably think I cheat and wait for them not to check a place, but I really did have it marked there.

* The two empty barrows between the wights and the plaza were done in a "montage sequence".  We didn't actually play them out.

* The big plaza fight was easily the most fun of the three encounters that night.  As DM, I was having a lot of fun with the wraith and specter powers messing over the PCs (the fact they both rolled recharges right away helped a lot), and the zombies coming in and threatening people who weren't usually threatened.

But the best was Mitka nearly dying twice.  Particularly when he was healed then immediately knocked back to dying before he had a chance to do anything.  That was a laugh riot.

Session 15 - Cast of Characters

Merend - Dwarf Cleric
Scrag Graveborn - Half-Orc Earth Warden
Sa-ika - Stormsoul Genasi Swordmage
Mitka Karamazov - Halfling Rogue
Al Trueism - Human Wizard
Leigh - Eladrin Wizard
Rhogar - Dragonborn Paladin
Krolec Jar'bin - Elven Ranger

Session 15 - Scene 1 (of 6)

As the sun rises over the dewy foliage of the cemetery, Merend forms his plans for the day.  With Krolec back to town getting supplies, and Zena yet to return from her errand at the Mellnor estate, Merend is concerned the group is a little undermanned.  As usual, they decide to have one member guard the rear while the others advance in.   Merend decides to have Silas guard the rear and brings up Scrag, figuring they can use the extra muscle.

The second decision he makes is to avoid spending a good portion of the day just walking back to where the group left off before.  Instead, he will start them off in the opposite direction, towards a nearby double barrow.  As they advance towards the barrow, Merend spots a quartet of slumbering zombies heading their way.  Shouting a warning, Merend alerts the others to get into combat position.

Scrag moves up into a front position, ready to block the zombies from getting any further, but leaving room for the wizards to blast them before engaging in melee battle.  Rhogar advances from his position in the rear, standing abreast with Scrag.  Sa-ika moves up to Scrag's other side.

Mitka also moves up, but off to the side of Sa-ika.  He fires his crossbow, striking one of the zombies in its rotten chest.  Leigh and Al also fire away, with a shock sphere and a phantom bolt, respectively.  Al gets a good hit on one of the zombies, while Leigh's shock sphere manages to hit them all.

The zombies rush in and attack Sa-ika and Rhogar, but they are able to fend the zombies off.  Merend blasts at the zombies with a lance of faith, disintegrating the zombie into dust.

Scrag responds with a vicious ram assault, knocking two of the zombies on him backward.  Rhogar does well himself, scoring a solid hit with a shielding smite.  And Sa-ika manages to hit one of them with her sword burst attack.

With a deftly aimed shot of his crossbow, Mitka hits one of the zombies in the brain, dropping it instantly.  Leigh blasts away another with his magic missile.  And Al fires off another phantom bolt, killing a third.

Session 15 - Scene 2 (of 6)

With the zombies dead, Merend looks around to make sure no one is present.  Before they go any further, he has Scrag burn the bodies while he and Rhogar issue prayers.

Attention then turns to the barrow.  Mitka moves up and begins examining the door.  As the others wait, they spot Krolec approaching.  He has returned from his shopping trip with new arrows and rations.  Rhogar makes a note to himself to remember to ask someone to get him a new bow next time anyone goes shopping.

Satisfied the door is not trapped, Mitka picks the lock.  He and Krolec then open the doors and stand aside.  As in the past, Al lights one of his rocks and has Krolec throw it in.  The illuminated front area of the barrow seems empty except for the various remains entombed there.

Scrag decides to head in first, but Krolec has him stop before going in too far so the area can be searched for traps first.  After clearing the front area, Krolec has Al illuminate one of his arrows and fires it into the back part of the barrow while Leigh illuminates the front part with another rock.

The back area also appears empty.  After spending a few minutes searching for traps or anything of value, Krolec is convinced the area is empty.  Everyone exits and waits for Scrag to burn the area down.  As Merend and Rhogar say more prayers, Krolec tries to decide where to head next, ultimately choosing a nearby plaza.

Session 15 - Scene 3 (of 6)

Krolec leads the group into the plaza from the north.  Like most of the others, it appears to be surrounded by large hedges.  A statue and some benches fill the interior.  The group slowly advances to the break in the hedges, with Sa-ika and Scrag taking point.

Scrag's quick reflexes alert him that something is wrong.  Sa-ika is a little slower to react, and notices one of the thorny vines overgrowing in the hedges as it tries to lash out and grab her.  She narrowly moves out of the way, avoiding its tangled embrace.

Krolec immediately fires off his bow, hitting the vine attacking Sa-ika with an arrow.  Scrag uses his strength of stone to slash at the vines in front of him.

Merend blasts the vines on Sa-ika with his lance of faith, while Mitka misses with his crossbow.  Al follows up with one of his phantom bolts.  Rhogar moves in as well, unleashing his poisonous breath.  The vines wither and die.

On the other side, Leigh unleashes a fiery scorching burst at the vines on Scrag, but doesn't manage to kill it.  It tries to strike back, but misses.
Sa-ika examines the dead vine near her – it appears to be a bloodthorn vine.  They grab victims then suck their blood using their thorns.  She also notes that the vines are capable of moving.

As she makes that pronouncement, several other groups of vines growing alongside the hedge entrances begin to move around, advancing towards her and Scrag.  One of the vines grabs onto Sa-ika.
The group is shocked by the sudden attack of the greenery, and has a hard time getting focused.  Krolec misses with a couple of arrows, as does Merend's lance of faith attack, Mitka's crossbow shot, and Al's phantom bolt.  Leigh scores a partial success by hitting one of the vines with another scorching burst, though misses another.

Rhogar moves up to assist Sa-ika, hitting the vine with his invigorating smite.  Sa-ika also lashes out, hitting the vines with her swordburst.

But it is not enough, and Sa-ika is soon nearly surrounded.  Several vines grab her and begin sucking her blood.  She quickly falls into a coma from the severe blood loss.  Two other vines grab on to Scrag and Al.

Krolec recognizes the situation is dire.  Sa-ika could be killed very quickly with all of the vines attacking her.  He lashes out with his bow, using a shadow wasp strike tactic, hitting one of the vines.
Scrag is also feeling threatened.  He changes form into his shadow panther form.  Using a furious assault, he slashes the vines holding him into ribbons.

Merend calls out with a healing word prayer, healing Sa-ika back to consciousness.  Leigh also assists by blasting one of the vines holding her with one of her magic missiles.  Rhogar also tries to help using his paladin's judgment, but fails.

Standing up, Sa-ika unleashes a furious set of swordbursts, killing three of the four vines latched onto her.  Her victory, however, is short-lived, as the continual loss of blood causes her to fall into a coma again.

Across the way, Al also feels the sting of the vines as the one holding him begins sucking his blood.  Mitka fires his crossbow again, hitting the vine attacking Al.  Al tries to hack his way out of trouble using his sword, but with little training in the ways of martial combat, he gets only a glancing blow.

The vine nearest Scrag grabs onto him, but he uses his great strength to pry himself free.  He then strikes back using his strength of stone.

Merend says another healing word prayer to heal Al, while Leigh and Mitka attack the vine holding him with a magic missile and a piercing crossbow strike, respectively.  Al himself manages to shimmy free of the vine's grasp, and shifts away while blasting the vine with a phantom bolt.

Back over at Sa-ika, Krolec helps out with a couple more shots into the remaining vine attacking her.  Making sure she doesn't die, Rhogar lays on hands to revive her, and calls forth a sacred circle of protection.  Sa-ika stands up once more, calls out an inspiring word, and then slices in with another swordburst.

The vines lash out again, missing Scrag but grabbing Mitka.  The one holding Sa-ika enjoys another feast of blood.

Krolec fires off another set of arrows, but misses his mark.  Scrag also misses with his chopping battle axe.  Merend has better luck, blasting the vine on Mitka with his sacred flame.  Mitka finishes the vine off with his deadly handspring assault.

Leigh and Al focus their attacks on the vines in front of Scrag, hitting them with a magic missile and a phantom bolt.  Rhogar, however, is more concerned with the vines attacking Sa-ika.  He finishes them off with an enfeebling strike.

The sole remaining vine latches on to Scrag.  Krolec tries to help with some more shots from his bow, but misses.  Scrag, however, chops the vines into small pieces using his strength of stone.

Session 15 - Scene 4 (of 6)

With the battle over, Krolec has everyone stop and rest.  As Merend was one of the few who neither used many powers nor got injured, he decides to take a look around.  He notices something is odd about the statue in the middle of the plaza.

Several of the others come over to take a look, but only Scrag notices the circular grinding marks near the base of the statue; clearly it moves.  After Sa-ika makes sure the statue isn't magic, she, Scrag, and Krolec begin pushing on the statue to rotate it.

A short moment later, and the moved statue opens up a secret compartment hidden in the base of the pedestal.  Inside appears to be good looking battle axe.  Leigh identifies it as a battle axe of wounding.  Scrag's eyes light up.

Krolec then goes through the motions of making sure everyone is OK to let Scrag have the axe.  As no one else uses a battle axe, everyone is in agreement.  Scrag happily takes the axe, looking forward to inflicting grievous wounds on his enemies.

Leigh is feeling a bit tired at this point, and mentions the group stopping for the day.  But Mitka, overcome with an adrenalin rush, wants to keep going.  Scrag is also anxious to try out his new axe.  Krolec ultimately agrees to try and clear at least one more barrow, deciding on the one to the north.

Session 15 - Scene 5 (of 6)

When they reach the north barrow, Mitka once again goes through his routine of checking the doors.  This time, he hears something moving around inside.  As these doors are already unlocked, everyone starts to get into position.

Al surprises everyone by insisting he and Leigh be the ones to open the doors.  He figures that will be safer for them because they will be hidden behind the doors in case anything in there is ready to attack.  Several of the group find the tactic questionable, but ultimately decide it is better to try it Al's way than to waste time arguing with him.

As they open the doors, Krolec readies to throw in a lighted rock Al gave him.  But once the doors open, Krolec sees there is no need – a large brazier is aflame in the rear of the barrow.  Standing next to it are two flaming skeletons and two phantom warriors.  Off to the sides stand another four skeletal warriors.

Scrag isn't sure what to do, and holds back, waiting to see if the skeletons come out first.  He gets his answer quickly.

The flaming skeletons hurl out two balls of fire, striking Mitka.  Mitka immediately falls to the ground and collapses into a coma, still afire.  The fire goes out quickly, but he immediately begins sliding towards death.  Rhogar tries to revive him, but fails.

The phantom warriors then walk through the walls, emerging outside and immediately attacking the wizards.  Both Al and Leigh are struck by their ghostly swords.

Scrag calls forth his strength of stone, and begins attacking the phantom on Leigh.

Next are the skeletons.  They advance out the front door of the barrow, also focusing their attacks on Al and Leigh, who suffer further injuries.

Krolec makes a tactical withdrawl to the rear, then fires away with his bow.  His first two shots miss, the second volley manages to score one hit on one of the skeletons.  Sa-ika takes the opposite tactic, charging in and unleashing a pair of swordbursts, hitting two of the skeletons twice and another once.

Merend shouts something about the fire perhaps being the source powering the skeletons.  No one really pays him any heed.  Using his powerful beacon of hope prayer, Merend weakens the skeletons while healing most of the injured in the group.  He then performs a healing word prayer for Mitka to revive him.

Al goes on the offensive.  Shifting away from the phantom, he lets loose a force orb, hitting two skeletons and the phantom.  He tries to follow up with a flaming sphere spell, but misses.

Leigh uses a similar tactic, using her fey step to teleport away to safety.  She then unleashes a scorching burst on the skeletons, killing one.

Two more fireballs emerge from the barrow, this time striking Merend.  Mitka stands up and advances to perform a deft strike on a skeleton with his short sword, but fails to hit.

Fearing the destructive power of the fireballs, Rhogar is focused on trying to shut the doors to the barrow.  He moves in, closes one of the doors, then strikes down one of the skeletons with an invigorating strike.

The phantoms strike out at Al and Scrag, hitting them both.  Scrag responds with a ram assault, knocking the phantom warrior back against the outer wall of the barrow.

Two of the skeletons move up and strike out at Merend.  Sa-ika uses her dimensional vortex power to cause one of them to hit a phantom instead.  Krolec fires out again with his bow, two shots finding their mark on one of the skeletons.  Sa-ika uses her swordburst to attack the phantom and skeleton near Al, hitting the phantom and killing the skeleton.

Merend steps back and tries to recover his breath.  He then blasts out with a lance of faith on the skeletons, but misses.  Likewise, Al moves away from the phantom warrior on him and tries to attack with a phantom bolt, missing as well.  Leigh has better luck, hitting a skeleton with her magic missile.

The blazing skeletons move up, and re-open the closed door.  They lash out at Merend with another pair of fireballs, causing him to go down to the ground.  His last thoughts before slipping into a coma are that perhaps the group should retreat and leave him to die.

Session 15 - Scene 6 (of 6)

Everyone else, however, is committed to continuing the battle.  Mitka lashes out at a phantom with a torturous strike, hitting a very lucky, solid hit.  Rhogar, blocked from attacking the blazing skeletons by the door, decides to attack the phantom as well, hitting it with a shielding smite.

The phantoms lash out again with their swords, missing Scrag but hitting Mitka.  Scrag is hit again when he decides to run past the phantom and strike one of the blazing skeletons with his strength of stone, leaving a damaging wound.  The remaining skeleton on the battlefield moves up from behind and flank attacks Scrag, getting a solid hit in.

Krolec is next to act.  He fires off another set of arrows, hitting the skeleton.  Sa-ika, however, has something more powerful in mind.  She moves around to get into position to attack the blazing skeletons then throws out her sword as a whirling blade.  It chops at the blazing skeleton in front of Scrag before returning to her hand.

Leigh focuses on trying to stabilize Merend, but is unable to.  Mitka, meanwhile, decides to remain on the attack, striking out at the phantom with a piercing strike of his blade.  Rhogar tries for the phantom as well, summoning his divine strength and attacking with an enfeebling strike, but his attack fails to hit.

The phantoms attack back again, missing Rhogar but hitting a fairly wounded Scrag.  Scrag decides the situation is desperate enough to use his healing potion.  He then is hit again by the phantom as he tries to maneuver into position, but ultimately hits the phantom with his strength of stone strike.

Krolec also decides to attack the phantom, firing twice at it with his bow, hitting it once.  Sa-ika tries to hit it with her lightning clash as well, but misses.

Leigh, however, is focused on the burning skeletons.  She fires out a shock sphere, hitting them both.  They respond by stepping back at hitting Sa-ika with a pair of fireballs.

Across the battlefield, Mitka finally finishes off the other phantom with a piercing strike.  With that phantom dead, Rhogar advances towards the other phantom in the doorway of the barrow, but misses with his attack.  

The remaining phantom lashes out at Rhogar, hitting him.  Scrag hits the phantom back using his strength of stone.  Krolec hits it as well with one of his two arrow shots.

Sa-ika decides to let the others battle the phantom, it hits her with its sword as she runs past to attack the blazing skeletons with a swordburst.  Her attack fails.

Ultimately, Al finishes off the remaining phantom warrior with his phantom bolt.  Leigh tries to attack the blazing skeletons, but misses with her magic missile.

As the skeletons prepare to move again, one of them is finally overcome by the damage of Scrag's wounding axe, and collapses into a pile of smoldering bones.  The other steps back and tries to blast Sa-ika with flames, but misses.

Mitka decides to try and help Merend, who is still miraculously holding off death.  He fails to revive the dwarf despite his best efforts.

Back in the barrow, Rhogar misses with his enfeebling strike.  Scrag then charges in and strikes with his strength of stone, chopping the blazing skeleton in half.

With all the enemies dead, everyone stops to catch their breath and stabilize Merend.  Sa-ika and Krolec take a look around the barrow, and discover an old, decrepit spear and a shiny, new-looking shield sitting next to the flaming brazier.

Sa-ika concludes that the brazier is magical, and Leigh identifies the tomb as a sacred burial area for a group of soldiers lost in battle, honored with the eternal flame.  Sa-ika identifies the shield as a flamedrinker heavy shield.  Everyone notes the irony that the shield would have been most useful in the battle they just had.

It is ultimately decided that the shield will go to Rhogar, as not only is he a front-line warrior but no one else present uses a heavy shield (Zena is away and Scrag uses a light shield).  They then head back to their safe haven to catch up on more rest, noting again how their adventures nearly turned very deadly for the second day in a row.