Barrow of the Forgotten King - Session 1

With the completion of the Scourge of the Howling Horde module, it fell upon me to take the reins as the dungeon master for the kids campaign. I, too, selected a premade adventure, the Barrow of the Forgotten King. Using the standard adventure hooks, it linked up well, and offered the characters the opportunity to gain a couple more levels and the players the opportunity to gain more confidence in their gameplay. Once again, the party was called upon to help a town in distress. This time it is Kingsholm, where a group of mourners never returned from burying one of their dead. The two town guardsmen, called Sentinels, who went to investigate the disappearance also did not return. So one of the town's major merchants is offering up some hard-earned gold to anyone who will go find out what happened. There will be a bonus should the party also bring to justice whoever is responsible. After some initial haggling over price, primarily by Ral the rogue (played this time around by Chad), our intrepid adventurers Kil Stonecutter, Ral Dashar, and Angel, Star, and Ron Moonwhisper, set forth to see just what was going on up at the graveyard, a couple miles outside of town. As they approached the mausoleum at its center, they found two bodies sprawled on the steps outside the mausoleum, and three wolfish creatures hiding among the tombstones. They made short work of the canine menace, though Ral spent more time checking the bodies for signs of life than he did in combat. He must be a real humanitarian to risk himself that way. The two were dead, of course, but surprisingly not of wolf bites. One was beaten to death, the other shot full of arrows. Inside the mausoleum, a blood trail shows where the wolves had dragged the bodies outside. After checking the general area for more danger, the group opened the door leading to the lower crypts and followed the stairwell down into the dimly lit interior. Here they found more bodies, apparently both the dearly departed and one of his mourners were laid out on stone tables. A second mourner was sprawled at the foot of the steps. As the party approached, two of the corpses rose to attack! Fortunately the group was more than ready for a couple of zombies, and made short work of them as well. As they fought, a group of skeletons came around the corner to attack, too, but were quickly put down. When the sounds of combat died down, they could hear someone beating on the inside of one of the tombs in the walls and calling for help. They managed to get the door open, and Tyra Yurling, the last of the three mourners, tumbled out, shaken but unhurt. She was willing to run back to town herself while the party went deeper into the tombs, so Star walked her out to the cemetary gate. By the time Star returned, Ral was up to his waist inside one of the tombs, checking it for valuables (or any other survivors, he claimed). The party then went deeper into the tomb network, where they found a large crypt set aside for Verduun and Gola Miklos. Unlike the rest of the complex, this crypt was kept meticulously clean, with the sarcophagi both as pristine as the day they were carved. Four tiny creatures, like little human-faced wasps, flew out and attacked them, but were swiftly and decisively destroyed. Beyond this tomb was a large stone door, carved with an intricate picture of a hideous creature with numerous eyestalks. Below it was carved a cryptic verse. The party spent a long time agonizing over the possible meaning of the words and image, worried that all manner of death could be awaiting them beyond. Ron and Angel huddled in one corner jotting idea after idea on a sheet of parchment, while Ral, Star, and Kil debated numerous interpretation. In the end, there was nothing to do but pull open the door and see what would happen. It was stuck at first, but finally popped open. Inside was a large, magically-lit area divided into four octagonal rooms. In each room, there were carvings in the floor, reproductions of each of the eyes of the creature on the door. Some were carved directly into the stone floor, others into large movable tiles. After looking the scene over, the party soon discovered that the tiles were in a different order from the eyes carved into the door, and set about placing them in the correct order. When the last tile fell into place, a trapdoor appeared and opened, leading down deeper into the tombs.... I had a real blast DMing for the group, and I really like the new format the pre-written modules are using. Sometimes having the room descriptions and the encounter setups in two different sections can lead to confusion and some details being left out, but for the most part the transitions back and forth are fairly smooth. I was able to describe each room as they enter, then immediately flip to any encounters they might have there. Most of the fights thus far have been pretty light-weight for the characters, though the puzzle of the carvings had them challenged for quite a long while. I was thoroughly entertained watching them come up with one explanation after another, getting close to the answer, then moving much father away. I'm really looking forward to our next session, and I know Brianna is, too.