Chronicles of the Adventurers Guild #2

On the 23rd Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Moonshadow, Kimly, Tamira and Folly (see PC profiles here), with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored the following barrows:

#17 - A covered barrow which they excavated with effort; within, a single undecorated sarcophagus holding a single undead which they vanquished after a fierce fight.

Being too weary for further battle, the members then broke open the cover stone to barrow #16, and returned to the Guild.

Grave goods recovered assessed to be 48 Gros in value, of which 16 Gros was disbursed to the party according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

===

On the 24th Day of Lenzin,

Guild members Moonshadow, Kimly, Kelso and Aksinya, with the bearer Lennard in employment, explored barrow #16, which had the day before been opened.

Therein they found the remains of an ancient warrior upon a stone plinth, and upon him a sword untarnished by the ages. Against the walls of the barrow were skeletons, which animated and attacked the party when they attempted to remove the sword, felling Moonshadow, Kelso, and Aksinya, and only desisting when Kimly returned the sword. The party was able to destroyed the skeletons while they were in their inanimate form, and successfully claim the sword thereafter.

Here also they found a hidden passage to tunnels below the barrow, which exploring, they found to be connected to the tunnels which lead from barrow #20 (!)

To the southeast they found a foul pool, which they wisely did not drink of.

Following the tunnel to the east and thence north, they came upon an affray between two parties, one of which fled past them and thence to the west. Following this party, which consisted of two men and a dragon hybrid warrior, they learned that they had battled against "cultists", which they cautioned the party against.

The trio then ascended a rope suspended from an opening in the earth, which the guild members surmised to lead to barrow #12.

Exploring to the north, the party opened a sealed burial chamber, and while they were recovering grave goods from burial alcoves in the walls within, were attacked by animated skeletons, which they destroyed.

It being late, the party returned to the Guild.

The sword was assessed to be 52 Gros in value; the grave goods recovered were assessed to be 59 Gros in value. 40 Gros was disbursed to the party according to the terms of the contract.

Signed,

Jeras, Guild Chronicler

Addendum: The matter of unauthorised treasure hunters and "cultists" having been reported to Guildmaster Heinz Hassel-Hoffa, due warning was issued to guild members to be on alert.

Prepping and Running the Game

The two days described above took place during a single session - the deadly nature of an old school rules/dungeon at a low level means that retiring and healing up is sometimes the wiser option.

One thing I have noticed in this game, and in my other campaigns, is that players tend to regress to the level of their characters. In exploring barrow #16, they made the rookie mistake of turning their collective backs on potential threats to face what they thought was the bigger threat, and as a result were surprised by an attack on their rear that nearly resulted in a TPK.

While this is not at all at odds with the newbie status of their characters, it does reduce their efficiency, and with each "down" having the potential in stat loss, can in the long term result in their characters being unviable, which I have tried to account for by having them each make two characters.

Nevertheless, I think I will need to actively manage this by imparting some knowledge of dungeoncraft via one or more of the NPCs back at their home base.