GM: Jerry McCoy
Players: Jamison, Tracy, Jeff, Sean Nittner
System: Labyrinth Lord
Local villagers whisper of a mysterious place deep in the marsh – a place shrouded in mist and dotted with barrow mounds, ruined columns, and standing stones. The tomb-robbers who explore beneath the mounds – or rather the few who return – tell tales of labyrinthine passages, magnificent grave goods, and terrifying creatures waiting in the dark. Are you brave (or foolish) enough to enter the Barrowmaze?
Session 62. Day 77.
Jerry reached out and told me he was running this game (they are up to session 62!) and invited me to play. The current situation:
The party ran afoul of a dragon’s breeding ground and riled things up. Big green dragon things. They headed back to the Barrowmaze but soon after they were waylaid by that green dragon who told them that while she could easily kill them, she wants them to find a relic for her, The Fount of Law. They found the relic thanks to the help of a medallion that would lead you to what you desired most. The discovered the orb (ivory in color, the size of a bowling ball, heavy) and learned it was made to close the Pits of Chaos, which is a nexus point for the realms of the undead from which Nergal, Orcas and Set all come from.
Now they have to decide: hand it over to a power hungry green dragon or do they attempt to close the Pits? The dragon gave them two weeks to hand her the relic, they now have 10 days remaining. They aren’t sure what to do.
So I rolled up stats, 3d6 down the line. 11, 11, 10, 9, 9, 7. Absolutely nothing special there except a slightly low Charisma (more on that soon), but I got a good roll and started with 200 gold. Woot! Looking at the classes, I saw Elves were just as broken as I remembered them. Weapons, armor, spells, infravision, detecting secret doors, immunity to paralysis from ghouls, and pointy ears…they’ve got it all. Yeah, you need gads of XP to level, but as I’m not sure I’ll be able to make more than one session, it was the easy (and overpowered) choice to go with. Introducing Finean, the Sage, an elf who is so obessed with lore than he goes on and on and tends to bore people (hence the low Charisma). I took Read Languages and Sleep (in addition to Read Magic that all elves and magic users get), bought a ton of gear (woot, splint mail at 1st level!) and I was set. No backstory, I was going to create that in game to suit whatever was happening. I knew he’d care about the Fount of Law, but waited to decide the particulars.
Before the game I met Jerry and Adrian Romero at Souvenir Coffee in Rockridge and we kibitzed about past games. Jerry told me about a great Dungeon World game where he had some giant miniatures (owlbears and the like) and when the players underwent a transformation he gave them a choice of giant minis and then allowed them to create custom moves to fight the end boss. Good times.
Jerry drove me to Games of Martinez, where the game was hosted and introduced me to the other players.
- Jamison was playing Bart, the 3rd level Magic User with chronically low dexterity and a hunger for killing cultists with magic missiles.
- Tracy played Clearance (pronounced Clarence) the 4th level Cleric of Crom, who collected tchotchkes to adorn his gnomish neck.
- Jeff played Arik the 5th level thief who found a +4 Dwarven Thrower in a pile of rubble. Random tables are great!
The situation (at least a well as I could record it):
The dragon brood mother expected the Fount of Law in the next 10 days, but the heroes wondered if they should instead, use it to seal the Pit of Chaos…or give it to the Priests of of Ig (who might have been the ones to create it originally), or learned to use it themselves.
The central tension in the Barrow marshes was the conflict between the old gods (Angranach) who many thought were myths, but turn out to be quite real, and the new gods (Futurists) who, in all likelihood have created a lot of religious propaganda to promulgate a pejorative perspective of their prior peers.
I decided that Finean was a follower of Aranctro, the new god of magic, and was pretty convinced that Aranctro gained his power by stealing it from an old god. This suspicion was emboldened when he realized the symbol of Aranctro (an 8-pointed star made of overlapping squares) looked a lot like the symbol of the old god Imperax (an 8-pointed circle with chains leading to the center) with bindings placed on top of it! Yeah, that’s just Sean shenannigans, but it was enough for me to figure out who Finean is! A scholar is search of divine powers of his own. You know, the kind of guy you can have a beer with.
The old gods that we had heard of were:
- Nergal, god of the underworld. His words “Life in Death is from Nergal”
- Set, the son of Nergal and administrator of the underworld.
- Orcus, the sun of Nergal and the enforcer of the underworld.
- Zorcon, the demoness wife of Nergal, who Finean alone had read the rumor that she had an affair with…
- Imperax, god of decay.
- Crom, god of plunder, might, and glory.
- Herne, the green horned god of the Hunt.
- Collectively they spoke the language Black Speech… a language Finean very much wanted to learn.
Of the new gods, the priests of Ig definitely knew something about the old gods, and the Fount of Law (the party found it in the crypt of one of their great heroes and supposedly it was created by Ig) but they had become agitated both times party members asked them about it. We discussed the possibility of using Barts ESP spell to try and learn more about it from a priest, but decided not to push our luck. We’d talk to Plebus the Sage instead.
WAIT? THERE IS A SAGE HERE? Heck yeah. Maybe he can be my sage mentor?
We already knew, from some oracular pillars that the Pit of Chaos was “to the north” but could be so many places. We looked at the maps we had so far and had many possible leads (recalling apropos of nothing that we keys with both a pentagram and a book on them that led to a secret room), so we decided to pay Plebus the Sage 1000 gold so we could each ask him a questoins.
- Aric’s alter-ego (Jeff’s other character) asked how he could free himself of the Cursed Gem of Monster Attraction. The sage theorizes that if someone stole it…or accepted it willingly the curse would transfer to them. We wondered…could we craft a replica of the Fount of Law with the gem inside it and give that to the brood mother? The sage asked us the question “What do you know about dragons?” and told us to think on it rather than answer now. This would clearly be a dangerous plan!
- Finean asked what lore he could share of Imperax. Imperax and Nergal were as close as brothers! But after the affair was discovered, Imperax left and Zorgon was cast out. Some even wondered if Orcus and Set might be Imperax’s children instead of Nergals? When Zorgon was cast out, as women are often unfairly punished for the acts of men, her son Orcus was furious and started a war against his father for his treatment of her (and his lack of retribution against Imperax). Some say Zorgon orchestrated this war from afar.
- Clearance asked where we could find the Pit of Chaos. The reason the Barrowmaze is inhabited with so many fell creatures is because it is a connection between the plane where Nergal resides. Nergal sees himself as the ruler and highest above all. The pit, if it leads to him, would be at a high point in the dungeon, connected by grand hallways. We looked at the map of the maze we had so far and had a pretty good idea where to start!
- Bart asked how he could cure his clumsiness and the sage gave him a recipe (or a part of one) that included the bellies of fire beetles and the poison glands of scorpions. There was a woman in Helix (the town we were in) that could possibly brew them into a concoction that would aid him. He might need to perform a quest for her, but it was a start.
Other bits before we headed out!
- Finean cast Read Languages to read the inscriptions on a steele that the party had found earlier and recorded. It was written in Black Speech (yeah!) and was a praise to Nergal “Life in Death is From Nergal” The praise went on “Oh to be allowed to pass through his gate and serve him as a guardian of the pit.” The glory, etc. etc. etc. Oh boy, guardians ahead!
- Bart cast Read Magic to read the four scrolls they had recovered, about the Life and Faith of Genesee, the holy warrior of Ig that they found the Fount of Law on. Notably his sarcophagus was covered with symbols of Nergal, Orcus and Set. Interesting.
The Adventure Begins
We made our way to the Barrowmaze with a purpose. We would find the Pit of Chaos. But first we found
- A marsh moose, who gave us a look but kept his distance.
- Lizard men chanting unholy rights that we avoided.
- The marsh. A thick layer of fog that reduced our visibility and gave the whole place a haunted feel.
- Three giant scorpions that attacked, and were slain, by our heroes. Finean’s first kill! We collected their poison sacks for Bart.
We entered the barrow though secret door and at once felt the presence of the old gods. The place was very dark, very quiet, and felt like a place for solemn reflection….though we’d do little of that.
We traveled up the large hallway that the party had avoided in the past and encountered two groups who were arguing with each other. One appeared to be clerics flanked by zombies, the other necromancers flanked by skeletons.
“So Kalec, snooping around where you shouldn’t?”
“Garmoth, I should have smelled our stench.”
“Keep taking and I’ll use this dagger to make those your last words.”
“Should you even be using a dagger Gar? Even the horned one has some rules, doesn’t he?”
Then battle ensued between them. Stinking cloud was cast and one side was defeated. Then Bart cast Sleep on the still standing clerics and Clearance Turned Undead on the zombies that remained. Bart slit their throats and took their tomes and loot. On the leader Kalic (a necromancer of set) he found a medallion with a two-headed snake, both heads facing each other, a spell book (which we later determined had the spells read magic, burning hands, magic missile, enlarge, stinking cloud, levitate and strength), and 12 shiny gold pieces.
Meanwhile, Finean inched along the edges of the sinking cloud, covering his mouth with a wet wraps to prevent inhalation (it partially worked). On the other side he found the corpse of Garmoth, who had a holy symbol of Orucs, a shadowy figure with horns, robes, a mace, and 15 platinum. Nice!
We explored further, found a oubliette with bodies in side and a secret door to the north. Inside there was a room of giant stinging horseflies (where Finean discovered Sleep was better a affecting hirelings than it was a flies), another room that sounded like had more horseflies, and a passage that led to an intersection with a hidden pit just in front of it (Huzzah to Clearance for casting find traps).
We listened around the corner and heard four men walking. Everyone but Finean and Clearance scooted back behind the door, so we could listen to them in the dark. They walked past in hooded robes and skull masks and bones stitched into their robes. The seemed to be scouting the area. Finean made a bold move believing they were servants of Nergal. “Brothers! I got lost and separated by this pit. Life in Death is from Nergal. Praise Nergal!”
“Nergal you say? Nergal. We serve Set. DIE!!!!” We battled and thanks to Clearance’s Bless spell, two magic missiles from Bart, and arrows from Arik (Finean snoozed as it turns out sleep is also good at making 1st level characters drop), we defeated the magic users!
We collapsed the pit cover and saw something shimmering and grey at the bottom. Like a grey ooze maybe? Let’s not find out. We rigged a spike and rope to get Aric across the pit where he looted the bodies and recovered two spellbooks and 8gp.
After that we boogied out of town. We lost one torchbearer to the house flies and another to a pack of two scorpions that ambushed us on the way out. Our hireling fees aren’t going down anytime soon!
XP Awarded to Finean (others got the same base but different bonuses):
- Base: 577
- +100 for entering the Barrowmaze for the first time.
- +100 for casting his first successful spell
- +50 for finding the secret door
- +150 for discovering Section 2
- +100 for learning the lore about Nergal
- 1077 total. About a 1/4 of the way to level 2. Not bad!
Other notes:
- Arik gave Finean a longbow and runic tablet (forgot to use it!)
- Finean gave the figure of Orcus to Clearance as a tchotchke to add to her collection. Finean and Clearnce were the front line fighters this foray and forged bonds of battle and blood!
- This “evil” god nonsense is totally propaganda of the current regime trying to suppress history. The Pit of Chaos my eye. These new gods want to hide their sins! “Life in Death, Baby!”
Pics from the Game
After the game Jerry drove me to BART and told me about one character who looted a blood red ruby and tarted having dreams where a shadowy figure suddenly turned to look at him. As the dreams progressed the figure paid more and more attention to him, till eventually Orcus was courting him as a cleric. I’m stealing that for one of my games for sure!
