Barrow of the Forgotten King 

Kingsholm

A couple of weeks after their decisive actions on Barrow's Edge's goblin problem, Mallie asked them to meet her at the inn. She told them that there was trouble in the nearby town of Kingsholm and her friend Ian, the innkeeper at the town's best inn, the Coronet and Cabbage, had asked if the "Defenders of Barrow's Edge" cold help. The  party made their way to Kingsholm and met with Ian, as well as some of the town council and the local guards commander. They were told that a prominent local farmer, his wife and daughter had disappeared after heading into the town's mausoleum to prepare a relative's body for burial. Two guardsmen sent to investigate had not returned either.

The Party agreed to investigate, and after Elred had bought himself a mace, headed to the cemetery. There, they found a couple of wolves and a young worg feasting on the corpses of the two guards. The animals were swiftly despatched and the party headed into the mausoleum, where there were clear sings the animals had dragged the bodies out.

There was an door at the far end of the mausoleum that led down to a lower area. Lefrassa led the way, quickly followed by the others. At the bottom of the staircase was the corpse of a human woman, crumpled and broken. The statue of some winged celestial being overlooked the scene from its pedestal east of the stairs. Several tables stood against the east and west walls,and all but two of the seven had corpses on them. Farther into the chamber was a long pile of crushed stone where somebody or something toppled and crushed two of the tables. They could also see,  at the far side of the room, vault doors along the north wall, a couple of which hung open, exposing the rudely tousled bones within. Suddenly, three of the corpses rose and with chilling moans shambled towards them.

The Party deployed to defend themselves, Elred hanging back to provide a source of light. The zombies were quickly turned by Lefrassa and fled. Suddenly Truldan heard a banging sound coming form one of the vaults and with Elred's help freed a young girl from where she had been locked-in. They girl was hysterical and Elred volunteered to take her back to the town and safety.

While Elred was gone the others ran into to some trouble with some skeletons, Truldan learned that bludgeoning weapons were more effective on skeletons that his shiny new axe when Hanks fists cut a swathe through them and Lefrassa turned the rest. When Elred retuned they pursued the undead who had fled, finding the zombies still cowering at the end of a passageway where they were easily disposed of. Many of the tombs in this area appeared to have been recently disturbed and looted. In one side-tomb they found the remaining skeletons, as well as the tomb's protectors - small wasp-like constructs that had a nasty sting! The skeletons were quickly destroyed and the tomb left to its tiny attendants.

The Party then headed down a passageway that looked older than the rest of the tomb,Lefrassa commenting it looked like dwarvish work,  the colour of the stone here was a darker grey, and the shape of the blocks making up the walls were different. Two small staircases descended to a stone door that had a strange image engraved on it, which Lefrassa identified as a beholder! The party spent much time pondering this door trying to work out if the image was some kind of puzzle-key the door as there was no lock, before Hank and Truldan resorted to simple forcing it open with brute strength!

As the door opened, magical white light suddenly illuminated a wide roombeyond  that was divided into four distinct areas. Each area was roughly octagonal and roughly the same size. The ceiling in each of these areas was vaulted and about 20 feet high at the apex. A stylized symbol of an eye adorned the centre of the tiled floor in the central section of the room. There were various tiles scattered about the room, which reflected the image they had seen on the door, but no exit.

The Party  spent an interminable time in discussion on their next move before Elred and Hank started moving the tiles about in various random ways and suffering a variety of magical effects. Eventually, in a fit of divine inspiration, Lefrassa suggested placing the tiles in the same order as in the image on the door,  at which point a green ray from the ceiling hit one of the tiles which vanished to reveal a stone shaft leading down!

The Forgotten King's Statue

After a brief discussion, Hank led the way down the ladder while Elred tossed a lit  torch down to provide some light. The landing, some 20 feet below, was clear, so Hank called the others to join him. A staircase led down from this landing to another narrower one where they could see a haphazard pile of bones. Hank led the way again, only to be attacked as the "pile of bones" turned out to be two skeletal wolves. The skeletons were swiftly dealt with, however in the room beyond, an ogre zombie proved a very different proposition - multiple members of the Party having to be dragged out bloodied, unconscious and near death, before they finally followed Wilf's advice and headed back to the town to rest.

After reporting in to Ian, who was perturbed at the news that several of the tombs had been looted, they settled in to eat. While Elred discussed various options to get past the ogre, up to including flooding the tomb with oil and setting  light to it, Hank and Truldan got drunk. After dinner, Lefrassa headed off to see Gran Stoutbrace, the dwarf representative on the Town Council, to ask him about the dwarven work he had seen in the lower parts of the Mausoleum. Gran told her that according to Stoutbrace legend the clan had helped construct an elaborate tome hundreds of years ago for a human king who's name was long lost to history. He belived the dwarven stonework must be connected to that. He also told Lefrassa that a statue to the king could be found in the hills north of the graveyard.

Next morning the party trooped out to the site of the statue where, apart from being attacked by a runehound, they found an abandoned campsite and also shaft that had been dug into the hillside. They retuned  the inn to ponder their options -  Lefrassa was suggested they go back into the mausoleum via the front door, but the others were keen to explore the shaft they had found, suggesting it was probably how the tomb robbers had got in, and it might take them nearer to whatever they were looking for.

Next morning, bright and early, they headed out for the statue again, Truldan and Elred led the way down the rope ladder the tomb robbers had conveniently left. As he neared the bottom, Truldan was attacked by a choker, which with Elred's help he managed to kill although it near strangled him! The area below the shaft secured, the others began the long descent to join them.

The Central Hub

Eventually they ventured out through the broken door of this room, finding themselves in a roughly octagonal room. There was another door, this time closed on the north west wall and to the east Truldan could see a rope bridge suspended across a water filled area. Not trusting the look of the ancient rope bridge they went through the door. Truldan leading the way. Almost immediately he was attacked by a varag zombie. As the others crowded in in to help, tow more varag, living ones this time, moved to attack, Hank and Elred both going down in quick succession. While Lefrassa tried to keep her friends alive, Truldan was taking serious damage from the zombie and began raging. Finally his blows began to tell and he was able to help Lefrassa despatch the two living varag. Once Lefrassa had healed those badly injured, the decided to rest.  Ancient frescoes decorated the walls of this octagonal room, which walls partitioned. The art was not of the sort customary for a king's tomb. Each of the interior walls showed images of men and women of many races carousing in a tavern. The outer walls near you depicted a gold dragon defeating a red dragon. To the right and left were statues, one in the image of a beautiful princess and the other shaped like a knight ready for battle, sword raised and shield readied. They secured the area, as best the could, and fortunately their rest was undisturbed.

On waking, they decided they had best check out the rope bridge before proceeding deeper into the tomb, through a door to the west. Once again Truldan led the way only to be attacked and dragged into the water by a flotsam ooze. Elred and Lefrassa managed to grab hold of him and stop the ooze dragging him down long enough for Hank to leap into the water and attack it, freeing the barbarian from its adhesive slime.  After resting briefly, Truldan then discovered the rope bridge led back to the room where the ogre zombie was located, and deciding that discretion was the better art of valour, slammed the door shut once again.

Heading back to where they had rested, Elred unlocked the door to reveal a short corridor with two doors. Neither of the door was trapped, but one of them appeared to have been sealed with some substance round the edge. Hank and Elred pondered their options, but Truldan eventually got bored of the deliberations and went through the other door . A balcony on the north wall overlooked this wide room, which was lower and cooler than the previous areas explored, and a steep staircase led from the balcony's west side into the chamber. Atop that stairway they could see a closed stone door. Swiftly flowing water ran in a canal that flowed east to west through the area, and the moisture made the room damp, the walls and floor slick with malodorous subterranean fungus. A narrow bridge crosses the canal at the foot of the stairs from the balcony. Flanking the canal on the north and south are rows of statues depicting shield-bearing soldiers saluting with their drawn swords. In front of them, two of the statues were shattered. Nearby lay the bodies of two varag.  As they headed towards the exit they were confronted by a water weird who spoke "More intruders. Leave this place the way you came, or face the price of your folly, as have those before you." Elred's attempt at diplomacy with the water weird failed dismally but after a brief combat, the water weird let them pass with the grumpy comment."If you pursue those who have thwarted me, good luck on your quest. Leave me."

The exit from the canal led to a hall stretching from the Southeast to the Northwest. Statues along the eastern wall represented different figures, and each one is placed in front of a vault door. The nearest portrayed a human wizard, holding her staff aloft. Second is a dwarf cleric brandishing a symbol of Moradin. The third and fourth were twin elves, one an archer aiming a bow and the other a warrior wielding a rapier and dagger. Statues to the east and west of the northern stone door appeared to be made of black onyx. Depicting human warriors, they hold halberds crossed over the door. A single stone door was set near the centre of the western wall.

As they searched the area Elred head muffled swearing coming from beyond the central door. Opening the door he called out a warning and sent Lefrassa to investigate. As she descended down a short series of steps, to a small room dominated by a statue of a woman holding a large open book and a large stone door, the cleric was attacked by a wererat. The wererat quickly surrender when surrounded by the others and Elred tied him up. Interrogating him, they quickly discovered that the wererat had little loyalty to his friends, telling them "The two leaders of the robbers are Xeron and Krootad—one's a human sorcerer and the others a hobgoblin priest. The rest of the crew are—or were—varags, except or a half-elf woman, a human man, three hobgoblin men, a little goblin, and a halfling mage. I wasn't hired on till after the diggin' was done. I turned back after the rest of the crew entered a magic
maze that's a ways ahead. Been trying to to pen this vault so I came away with something since. Don't know much more than that."

Elred examined the statue next to the vault and spotted some text written on the book the statue held which he read out :

Two as one can win the day,
The one with two shows the way,
Brave the blade to break the seal,
Twist the knife, it will reveal.

After some time Elred eventually worked out the key to opening the doom was the dagger held by one of the twin elf statues and turning it indeed opened the door to reveal a sarcophagus. They debated for some time about the ethics of opening the tomb, but eventually they did, discovering there was no body within to disturb, just a pile of items and a letter. Unfortunately the letter was written in draconic which none of them understood. Fortunately the wererat did and offered to translate it if they set him free. After promising that he would not return, he read out the letter.

"We who rest still long to serve. If you seek the same, take our goods and be blessed.
If greed moved this stone and not a true heart, may our curse find you ere we awake."

Feeling that protecting the tomb of the forgotten king counted as a service to him, they took the magic items and distributed them among the Party.

The Inner Vault

Hank opened the door to reveal a wide hallway that stretched north and south. Each end of the passage was a blank wall, although the northern part of each end appeared to be an opening. Moving to the eastern opening, a ladder of iron rungs led down to a wide hall occupied by four grim statues of men in black armour, each holding a shield in front of his legs and feet. In the far north-east corner of this landing was a statue of a minotaur holding a longspear. Vault doors behind each of the statues hung ajar. On the opposite wall, engravings depicted a battle between humanoid armies. This passage seemed to continue to the west around a corner.

The other opening also revealed a ladder of iron rungs leading down to a narrow hallway that runs north. Scenes of battle again are engraved on the wall, this passage also seemed to continue to the east around a corner. They gingerly climbed down the ancient iron rungs and moved cautiously down the narrow passageway. A thin wall cordoned-off an oddly shaped inner chamber, inside which, a statue of a gold dragon spat water into a clear pool. The skeleton of a massive horned humanoid lay on the floor. Beyond that and the statue lay four humanoid skeletons with a hobgoblin dressed in a black breastplate stood near them.

Immediately Truldan charged in, just as the hobgoblin uttered a sharp command and the skeletons rose and attacked. Hank took on the minotaur while Lefrassa used Turn Undead on the skeletons allowing Truldan to close with the hobgoblin as the skeletons cowered. Elred moved to position to fire his bow, but seemed to be having trouble hitting anything, while Wilf cast a ray of frost at the minotaur before firing his crossbow at the hobgoblin. Under the combined assault, the hobgoblin eventually went down, as Lefrassa helped Hank finish off the minotaur, and then the cowering skeletons. Elred searched the hobgoblin's body, finding a promissory note from the Temple of Hextor signed by someone called Xeron, Hank meanwhile helped Lefrasa return the skeletons to their tombs.

After discovering that the water in the dragon pool had marvellous healing properties, they moved on to where the tomb robbers had smashed through a set of stone double doors, filling the squares with dense rubble, beyond which was a ledge jutting out into empty space. A rope ladder affixed to the ledge led down into the darkness of an apparently natural cavern. Hank led the way down the rope ladder followed a bit behind by Truldan and then Elred. Elred unfortunately slipped and tumbled from the ladder, hitting Truldan on the way down and causing both of them to crash into the floor below with a sickening thud. Truldan being less injured began administering a potion and at first failed to notice that Elred had been attacked  by a Lurking Strangler  until the rogue went blue in the face and stopped breathing! Wilf and Lefrassa arrived and helped Truldan remove the Lurking Strangler using their  knives while Lefrassa cast cure minor wounds to stabilise the rogue.

Hank meanwhile had pressed on, climbing  a series of ropes strung across several ledges and only fell into the water below and having to be rescued once!

At the far end was another iron ladder which led them into the maze that the wererat had warned them about. The Party wandered for some time, occasionally wandering into rooms marked with arcane symbols on the floor that summoned various creatures, firstly a lantern archon that led them safely through part of the maze, then some fiendish wolverines nad a fire mephit.

The Labyrinth

The Party wandered fairly aimlessly through the Labyrinth for some time, occasionally tripping more summoning runes in some rooms. Along the way, Truldan and Elred discovered some of the seeming dead-ends contained portals and  Lefrassa commented they never seemed to double-back on themselves as she never saw any of the marks she made on the walls, not realising the magic of the labyrinth was erasing them. Eventually one of the summoning runes brought a hound archon who, after sensing that the majority of the Party were good-aligned, offered to lead them towards the exit.

The end of the labyrinth passed through a partially flooded area infested with giant leeches as  well as swarms of normal sized ones. They were negotiating their way , Elred with some difficulty, past these when suddenly some nearby runes flared and the room started flooding. Fortunately everyone managed to get out in time and they entered a roughly hexagonal room where they found an unconscious half-elf lying at the bottom of a pit and Truldan was immediately volunteered by Hank to go down and bring her up. After Lefrassa healed the woman she introduced herself a Leera, a bard who had fallen in with the tomb-robbers seeking adventure and quickly realised she was seriously out of her depth, when in a nearby room they had been attacked by construct and the tomb-robbers had abandoned her and her friend Teryl. When he had been killed.

Leera had fallen into the pit when running for it. Elred volunteered to look after Leera and they moved on, quickly running into the constructs that Leera had mentioned, who fortunately were still in a poor state after their previous battle and were quickly dealt with.

A stairway led down to a passageway that had been partially blocked with rubble, so Hank quickly hoisted Truldan over the top and into a world of trouble as there was a bunch of varags there. As Truldan held them off, his comrades clambered over the obstruction one by one and joined the fray. One of the varags in particular, who danced about the battlefield, proved a tough foe but eventually the Party prevailed.

The Cliffside Waterfall

After some hesitation, Truldan led the way down the steep slippery stairway that led from this chamber. The air was filled with mist and spray and they could hear what sounded like a waterfall ahead of them. Fortunately it looked like someone had built a rope line onto the stairs that made the going somewhat easier. As they progressed, Lefrassa noticed that prayers to Obad-Hai were inscribed into the rock beneath their feet. Suddenly a fossergrim, Sigurd, emerged from the waterfall and confronted them. Fortunately when they explained the mission the fossergrim seemed friendly and offered them healing if they would rid the area nearby of a giant spider infesting the area, to which the Party readily agreed.

The Party moved forward and in the next chamber were confronted by a Tomb Spider Broodswarm and a Web Mummy who proved difficult opponents. After destroying both, and the resultant broodwarm that emerged from the destroyed web mummy, they had to return to the waterfall for rest and healing. Unfortunately Hand discovered, as a temporary side effect of the tomb spider's poison, that Sigurd's healing didn't work and in fact harmed him! In typical dwarf style he bore this stoically.

After a night's rest, watched over by Sigurd, they sallied forth once more to face the Tomb Spider itself, a task made difficult by its webs. Eventually they managed to badly wound it and drive it from it's nets where it fled right into Sigurd's path  - which was the spider's final mistake. Truldan was badly wounded in the encounter, and Leera, unaware of the tomb spider's poison nasty side-effect, tried to help by casting cure light wounds on him resulting in almost killing him instead. The Party watched helplessly, their healing abilities useless  as Truldan succumbed to his wounds, until Sigurd stepped out of his waterfall and cast inflict minor wounds, stabilising the barbarian. After resting, during which time Elred searched the bodies in the spider's webs and recovered some treasure, they moved on again with some urgency realising that that tomb-robbers now had had an additional day to reach their objective - whatever that was!

They passed through the spider's lair into an area of the tomb where paintings on the wall sprung to life showing key events from the life of the Forgotten King. They also ran into a plague walker, which Lefrassa turned and Hank then exploded by hitting repeatedly, and a huecuva who proved troublesome due to his damage reduction, before being destroyed by the Party.

The Betrayer and The King's Tomb

As the Party entered the final room in this section once more the artwork on the wall spring into life a showing the moment when the king and his queen were betrayed by one of their friends , when the vision ended a simple stone door was revealed. This door opened out onto a stairway leading further down and then, past a statue of a mounted warrior into a recreation of a huge throne room with another mounted warrior statue in the corner. A crowned man  was seated on the throne, and as they moved forward, he opened his dark eyes and frowned. "Who would disturb the rest of the king?" he asked in a deep voice.

Hank stepped forward and began explaining their mission. As the discussion continued, the man on the throne seemed pleasant enough,  but Leera and Lefrasa seemed wary of him, warning Elred that his words could not be trusted. Elred challenged him on this when suddenly Lefrassa recognised him as the one who had been depicted as betraying the king and queen in the magical artworks they had seen. She was just about to inform Elred this man was The Betrayer when he seemed to suddenly noticed that Truldan had been hanging back. This seemed to enrage The Betrayer, as if it was some kind of insult, and he suddenly leaped to his feet drawing his weapons and shouting "knights to arms!" As he did, the bejewelled throne faded into a plain stone seat. The man's hair withdrew under the crown, and his skin greyed and rippled, revealing bone and muscle beneath. His armour sagged and corroded, seemingly grafting to his distended flesh along with the crown, which had lost all lustre. Lidless, his eyes burned with madness as he attacked.

As the two statues transformed in undead mounted warriors and attacked, Lefrassa used turn undead. The Betrayer staggered for a moment but continued his attacks, but one of the undead cowered back into the corner., the other engaged Truldan. In the battle that ensued The Betrayer attacked with swords and his slam attack, nearly killing Hank, who was save be Leera, and badly wounding Elred and Lefrassa before he was destroyed. Truldan's flail made short work of the undead he was fighting and the cowering one was destroyed with ease. As Lefrassa doled out healing, Elred searched the room, recovering some treasure from a couple of chests and finding a secret door from beyond which he could hear faint voices and a strange clanging sound.

Hank, as ever, led the way through the door which led to a staircase that returned through several levels. Lefrassa and Hank's dwarven senses identified the clanging sound as someone using a pitchfork on stone work, and they emerged into a tomb, dominated by four statues of the kings friends and several despoiled stone coffins . In one corner a hobgoblin was trying to enlarge a hole in the stone floor supervised by a yuan-ti pureblood - Xeron. Seeing them, Xeron cursed and cast a small figurine on the floor that shattered while the hobgoblin reached for his sword and moved forward.

As the party deployed into the room, Lefrassa and Truldan engaged the Hobgoblin while Hank and Elred tried to deal with Xeron. They were hampered by the sudden appearance of a nagatha which they had to deal with first while the yuan-ti cast spells at them. Both Hank and Elred went down under the combined assault before the nagatha vanished as abruptly as it had appeared, but fortunately Leera and Lefrassa was able to render aid to them as the hobgoblin was slain. Xeron transformed into a viper and slithered towards the hole in the floor, but a flurry of attacks of opportunity soon put paid to his escape.

As the fury of battle abated, all four of the statues turned to look at them. The statue of the king looked up, and a translucent apparition stepped forward. He spoke in a strong but somehow distant voice, smiling warmly. "Thank you, my friends. It is good to see that heroism remains in this world. My time to return is not now, but it might be soon." The ghost of the king went  on to explain, "My name is Theron, but that is no matter, for my time is past. The name you need to know is Sertrous. I heard that scoundrel "—the king gestured toward the body of Xeron— "refer to something called Vanguard of Sertrous, and while I do not know who or what the Vanguard of Sertrous is, I know that it is evil. It must not triumph! The villains stole my bones, and the weapons of my wife and my champions! Those arms are very powerful and should not be used in the service of evil. Still, they did not get this ..."

The ghost reached into and through the bottom of his broken sarcophagus. When his hand emerges, it held a black longsword that glowed with a silvery light. "This weapon, Merthuvial" he says, "once helped me save a kingdom. May it aid you in your heroics and serve as thanks from a forgotten king." Somewhat warily, Elred accepted the blade as the king's ghost vanished. The rogue's wariness in bearing the king's blade grew even more as Lefrassa gleefully told him the Merthuvial meant "Kingmaker" in Celestial!

They decided to rest before going further, and after resorting some order to the tomb spent a peaceful night's rest, watched over by the king and his companions. Next morning Elred decided to release Leera, giving her a map on the complex they found on Xeron's corpse. Leera thanked them and told them in they ever needed a bard to look her up in Kingsholm.

Lefrassa and Hank made short work of expanding the hole in the tomb floor so that they could all get through and they dropped down into a rough tunnel below. The tunnel led for some distance until it pierced though the wall of a huge chimney. There they found the body of a halfling slain by arrows and viper bites around his face and the statue of a surprised looking goblin. There was no sign of the loot from the tomb, or the king's bones, but the halfling had a note clutched in one hand which Elred was able to decipher.