The next day, I got together with a new group from the Grey Company after getting myself checked out by a St. Ygg priest for piece of mind. An elf mage, Serie, and four newbies: Pippin (halfling), Thrain (dwarf), Caleb (human), and Vrak (half orc). I quizzed them all on their dedication to be adventurers, and warned them that it was not a walk in the park. They insisted they were prepared. I oped for an easy start, and we went to the barrow (D9) with the golems and stairs down to an altar. We can check out the stairs and see if we can find a way to drain the water.
Opening the secret door, we say the statue holding Bancroft’s sword, glowing white, and the three lizardmen golems. Having warned the others not to go near the statue, we edged along the wall to the door. There were stairs going down, but the stairs were flooded. So anything down there would be underwater. There didn’t seem to be any lever or anything to drain water. There were pictures on the stairway walls of elves and nature things. Serie thought it was some important elven ranger, but she didn’t know who. The water was boggy, so Serie ducked under with her glowy staff to see how far we’d need to hold our breath to get into the room below. She said there was a stone slab with a mummy to the northwest. No air pockets. I tied a rope around the dwarf at his insistence, and swam with Serie to the spot. With her light, he dove down to grab the mummy. They got back and we went outside to see if there was anything in the wrappings.
It smelled really bad, but Thrain searched thoroughly and didn’t find anything. So if there is any treasure, we’d have to dive and grope around for it blindly. Or try to grab the glowing sword, like Caleb wanted to do. Serie wanted to bury the remains, so I helped pile dirt. Thrain and Caleb wanted a torch and rope, so I gave them my rope and lit them a torch and wished them Fortuna’s blessing as they went in to try to get the sword. From their muttered planning, the idea was for Caleb to climb the statue and switch the magic sword for Vrak’s longsword, put the magic sword in a loop in the rope, and the others will pull the rope and magic sword out.
It went awry immediately as Caleb fell from the statue and died. Pippin went up in his place. He dropped the loop over the magic sword, and as he went to switch the swords, the golems animated under him and clawed him to death. Thrain pulled the rope, but the golems got to him first. I heard the screams and told Vrak to pull on the rope, and told Serie we had to leave the remains.. Vrak backed up onto the remains while pulling on the rope. But the golems pulled back.
As the golems started to come after us, we ran. They didn’t give chase very gar, since they had two swords now. Serei still wanted to go back to bury the remains. I compromised with both, so we could pile Thrain’s wood over the remains, and Vrak would come with us if I bought him a sword back to town. I helped Serei with the cairn while Vrak guarded. Halfway through the cairn, we saw five zombies coming. We left them to the stinky remains, and they didn’t really chase us very far either. We got back to town. I bought Vrak a sword and gave him a gold to sleep in the inn with us. I mourned the lost companions that we barely got to know, who died in an act of foolhardy bravery. I hope Fortuna takes their souls rather than that stuck up prick St. Ygg.
I never thought when I left Threshold to go adventuring that my actions and choices would affect anyone but me. But they do. I lost everyone before because I opened that door. Three from this new group because I wasn’t a good enough leader and didn’t explain better what I knew about the golems. When I tell stories at the Brazen Strumpet after being out, I should tell them about those we lost. I’ve got a damned good story this time. Those three’s attempt at the sword - that was epic.