Barrowmaze 5E Session 5 - Back to the Dungeon - Carnivorous Flies and Ghouls!

 

Today (8/24/25) we played our fifth session of Barrowmaze 5E. The party decided to return to the dungeon and try to fill in some gaps on their map . . . 

The roster of characters:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl 2)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Necromancer 2) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger 2)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter 2)
• Hireling - Freelik of Glossimir (High Elf Fighter 1) - 2 gp/day
• Hireling - "Killer" Kelg Barrelgut (Hill Dwarf Fighter 1) - 2 gp/day
• Hireling - Brother Binford (Human Cleric of St. Ygg 1) - 2 gp/day
• Mongrelmen Hirelings: Kasmut, Kenamon, Qalhata, Somintu, and Werenro

7th Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     The party set off for the Barrowmaze early as usual, and arrived without any random encounters. They entered the dungeon and started to explore areas of the map they had left unfinished. They fought a gray ooze (damaging the weapons and armor of Alivin O'Harris, though they later replaced his damaged battle axe with a +1 battle axe) and a couple of giant carnivorous flies, and then pressed on to an area where they fought even more giant carnivorous flies in a room with the demolished ruins of a statue. They did find some murals that gave some hints to the history of the Barrowmaze that they had previously gleaned from a runic tablet - the ancient death-god, Nergal, gifting his favored priest with a special tablet, the Tablet of Chaos, then sending his followers into the Barrowmaze . . . Having used up a lot of spells and resources, the party retreated to a "safe" room (previously secured as a base) and took a long rest . . . 

8th Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     When the party finished their long rest, it was in the wee hours of the 8th. They explored a defiled crypt, where they fought a ghoul - Sariel turned the undead, and as it tried to flee, Omarion captured it, tied it on a leash, cut off its arms and jaw, and kept it. They then entered another defiled crypt, where four more ghouls awaited them. After this, the party decided to return to Helix for rest, recovery, and restocking . . . 

Valhalla (R.I.P.)

•  Imeni the Mongrelman, beheaded by Varghoulis the Dread Knight and his Crypt Knights of the Black Legion (1/3/1000)

Barrowmaze 5E Session 4 - Into the Barrowmaze - Hired Help, Barrows, and Dungeons

 

     Today (8/24/25) we played our fourth session of Barrowmaze 5E. Having decided previously to alternate exploration of barrows and the dungeon beneath them, the PCs planned to resume exploring the barrows at the start of this sessions. 

     Before we got to that, however, we started with the arrival of a caravan in Helix from Ironguard Motte. The caravan was in the employ of the Silver Standard Merchant Caravan, and had hired double the usual number of guards: a company of adventurers called the Fearsome Fivesome AND a bunch of independent adventurers. It was reported that the reason for this heightened security was a sharp rise in attacks by undead along the roads, some bearing the mark of the Black Legion. The PCs decided to hire some additional muscle before returning to the Barrowmaze, and so approached the independent adventurers (I used the pregen characters published with Barrowmaze for these characters): they ended up hiring Freelik of  Glossimir (High Elf Fighter 1), "Killer" Kelg Barrelgut (Hill Dwarf Fighter 1), and Brother Binford (Human Cleric of St. Ygg 1) at a rate of 2 gp/day each. The increase in "firepower" was assumed to be worth the split in XP . . . 

The roster of characters:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl 2)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Necromancer 2) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger 2)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter 2)
• Hireling - Freelik of Glossimir (High Elf Fighter 1) - 2 gp/day
• Hireling - "Killer" Kelg Barrelgut (Hill Dwarf Fighter 1) - 2 gp/day
• Hireling - Brother Binford (Human Cleric of St. Ygg 1) - 2 gp/day
• Mongrelmen Hirelings: Kasmut, Kenamon, Qalhata, Somintu, and Werenro

5th Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     The party set off for the Barrowmaze a bit later than usual (by about half an hour) because of the time taken to negotiate the hire of the hirelings. Along the way, they spotted two withered corpses along the path. They investigated, only to be set upon by two coffer corpses. The party quickly realized that non-magical weapons had little effect on the monsters, and switched to their meager magical daggers and spells to defeat them. 

      Arriving later than usual at the Barrowmaze, they explored the first mound to which they came - it was sealed, and so required some work with sledghammers to open. They found two skeletons (not animated), bowls of coins, and two decorated but fragile amphorae. 

     They then investigated a second mound, another one sealed requiring sledgehammer work to open, and found a sarcophagus; they opened it and faced a zombie draped in black cloth. In the battle the amphorae from the first mound were shattered. They defeated the zombie and claimed its treasure - a gold necklace with a jade scarab and a ring of protection +1 (claimed by Omarion, for the first time raising his Armor Class from 10 to 11!). 

     At this point, having spent much more time than expected hammering away at sealed tombs, the party decided to return to Helix before it got too much later. On the way they could hear the snarls and growls of the terrors of the Barrowmaze, but they managed to get back to Helix without incident. 

6th Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     The party got their usual early start to the Barrowmaze, intending to return to the dungeon beneath the burial mounds today. 

     This time they decided to explore a passageway to the north that they had previously bypassed. They entered a quiet crypt in which there was some graffiti ("Beware the Minotaur"), to which Feles added his own ("Feles was here"). They entered a second quiet crypt where they fought a giant spider and retrieved a hoard of electrum coins. Then they entered a defiled crypt in which they faced a phantom and found a runic tablet detailing the History of the Tablet of Chaos. 

     As a side note, this was randomly rolled - there are many runic tablets in the Barrowmaze, most of them bearing curses, but this one was purely informative, and of potentially epic importance, too. The tablet told of the ancient death-god Nergal and his Tablet of Chaos, which had power over death and the undead. It was said that the ancestral builders of the Barrowmaze brought the Tablet of Chaos to this place, and that it is possibly the reason the Barrowmaze is such an accursed place swarming with undead. It even hinted at the method of destroying the Tablet of Chaos (possisbly by sundering a law-aligned magical item or artifact against the Tablet of Chaos, thus destroying both!). 

     After this, the party explored a seemingly empty room beyond a portcullis, then found a secret door to a hidden chamber where they fought six zombies. 

    Finally, they explored one more chamber, smashing through a bricked up doorway to encounter a room with four shadows. They defeated the shadows in a hard-fought battle, then retreated back to Helix to recuperate . . . 

Valhalla (R.I.P.)

•  Imeni the Mongrelman, beheaded by Varghoulis the Dread Knight and his Crypt Knights of the Black Legion (1/3/1000)

Barrowmaze 5E Session 3 - Into the Barrowmaze - Return to the Dungeon

 

     Today (8/17/25) we played our third session of Barrowmaze 5E. Having spent the previous session exploring the burial mounds on the surface, in this session they decided to return to the dungeon. 

     The characters have learned to set off early in the morning, because travel time to and from the maze is about 4 hours each way, and they do not want to waste daylight in the maze (they took to heart warnings not to linger in the Barrowmaze after dark!). I use a time tracker that tracks both hours and 10-minute increments, which is useful in a setting in which one checks for random encounters every 20 minutes or so. The players got very lucky - they didn't roll a single random encounter for them in this game, even when they were making noise breaking down a bricked up doorway with sledgehammers!

The roster of characters:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl 1)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Wizard 1) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger 1)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter 1)
• Mongrelmen Hirelings: Kasmut, Kenamon, Qalhata, Somintu, and Werenro

4th day of Hardfrost, 1000 CGY

     The party entered the Barrowmaze and headed for the large mound they knew contained an entrance to the dungeon below the mounds. They used their own grappling hooks and ropes to enter, as they do not trust the existing apparatus. 

     The first room they explored was a trap that slammed down a stone slab with Alivin O'Harris and Feles Pugnat in a room and left Omarion Zolond, Sariel Moonblossom, and the mongrelmen outside the room. Then a door opened, releasing several skeletons into the room. Fortunately, Sariel quickly found a way to trigger the stone slab to rise, and the party was able to destroy the skeletons. 

     After this, the party carefully explored several more rooms, some of which were empty. For the first time they encountered rooms with burial alcoves, and spent time searching them for treasure - which was rewarded each time they searched, despite the cost in precious time! In one room they found a sack with 15 pp, in another room 108 gp from alcoves. 

     Next, they entered a room full of giant rats. Omarion blasted them with burning hands, and killed them all. The party looted 123 sp from that room! 

     They risked breaking down a bricked-up doorway next. The sound echoed through the ancient corridors of the dungeon, but brought no new random encounter down upon their heads, luckily! They looted sacks of treasure (300 sp and 400 gp) plus alcoves again (666 sp). 

      The party then moved into a slightly different area of the dungeon. I note that the maps for Barrowmaze do a pretty good job, considering the size of the task, but contain some oddities, such as areas where letters are used to indicate sub-areas, but the map does not always make clear to what area a sub-area belongs. Another oddity is that moving beyond area 17 leads to areas 60, 61, 62, etc. Like, it is hard to figure out how to number a non-linear dungeon, but sometimes, the numbering really seems to make little sense! Anyway . . . 

     They party found 115 cp, 2 silver earrings (50 gp), and a silver dagger +1, which ended up in the hands of the ranger, Alivin O'Harris, since the last magical dagger went to Feles Pugnat. 

     Passing through a room that had suffered a partial collapse, they triggerd another shower of debris, and everyone in the party took some damage from falling masonry.

     Finally, the party entered an chamber of many pillars (and some rubble from past collapses) occupied by a giant constrictor snake. The snake ensnared Sariel Moonblossom in its coils and nearly killed her, while the rest of the party engaged it in battle. It continued to lash out with its fangs while restraining Sariel. The party managed to kill the snake, searched the chamber and came up with 6 valuable gems, and then decided to make a retreat back to the town of Helix. They were able to make it back without any further encounters (although they thought they heard the distant war-drums of the Black Legion at one point!). 

     Back in Helix, the party sold off loot (they made a deal with a merchant to sell him the gems they found for a better price in exchange for promising him exclusive first rights to any gems they find in the future!). The party earned a total of 1072 XP, or 268 XP each. This brought them up to 461 XP each, so they leveled up to 2nd level. Alivin got to choose a fighting style (he picked two-weapon fighting) and Omarion chose necromancy as his arcane tradition. 

So now, the new roster of characters is:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl 2)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Necromancer 2) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger 2)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter 2)
• Mongrelmen Hirelings: Kasmut, Kenamon, Qalhata, Somintu, and Werenro

Valhalla (R.I.P.)

•  Imeni the Mongrelman, beheaded by Varghoulis the Dread Knight and his Crypt Knights of the Black Legion (1/3/1000)

Barrowmaze 5E Session 2 - Into the Barrowmaze and the Black Legion

 

     Today (8/10/25) we played our second session of Barrowmaze 5E. It was certainly an unpredictable good time!

     So, to start off, I had the characters roll on the Trinkets table in the Player's Handbook - it's a fun little assortment of knick-knacks that I had forgotten to have them check for the first game, so we did it now. One character got a silver snuff box, another got a book about the rise and fall of a famous hero with the last chapter missing, etc. Just stuff for role-playing. Also, it was noted that since the PCs had recruited 6 mongrelmen, many of the townsfolk muttered darkly about the mutated folk who live in the area of the Barrowmaze. They even heard a rumor that the mongrelmen enslave outsiders . . . the PCs didn't believe it (well, Feles Pugnat was inclined to believe it, but the others didn't!). Anyway, a little bit of backstory stuff, and the party was off to the maze! They planned to loot some more burial mounds before delving back into the dungeon!

The roster of characters:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl 1)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Wizard 1) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger 1)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter 1)
• Mongrelmen Hirelings (Non-Combatants): Imeni, Kasmut, Kenamon, Qalhata, Somintu, and Werenro

3rd Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     The party got an early start and headed for the Barrowmaze. Alivin suggested trying to loot a burial mound at the far end of the area. They found a sealing stone marked with a skull in front of a rose - according to legend, the mark of the Black Legion, a dark army that served the ancient cult of Nergal under the dreaded warlord Varghoulis! This did not deter the heroes! Using iron spikes and sledgehammers, they smashed open the sealing stone and entered the tomb! 

     Inside they found a stone sarcophagus marked with a similar seal to the one on the coverstone, but with eyes of rubies! While examining the crypt, they discovered a \secret door. They opened this door and found an indentical sarcophagus, containing, Kenamon and Alivin were badly wounded, and the PCs were forced to flee.

 

     Sariel Moonblossom was able to get Alivin and Kenamon on their feet again, and the party decided to try a different burial mound far away from that Varghoulis. On their way across the Barrowmaze, they saw another party, the  Boon Companions, and exchanged words with them. The two parties did not seem to like each other very much, and the PCs actually encouraged the Boon Companions to head toward Varghoulis' crypt! 

     The party entered another mound and fought a ghoul, defeating it and taking its treasure, and then tried another mound, where they defeated two skeletons and took their loot. They later discovered that a dagger they had acquired was a dagger +1, +2 vs. undead, which certainly seemed like it might be useful in the Barrowmaze! They also found a scroll with some spells that Omarion later added to his spellbook! 

     At this point, the PCs needed to return to Helix before nightfall. They sold some antiquities to Mazzahs the Magnificent, and used the gold to buy some healing potions, holy water, and other needed gear. That night at the inn they saw the Boon Companions, who were angry that the PCs allowed them to walk straight into Varghoulis and his allies . . . which apparently now includes a risen Black Legion of skeletons, zombies, and crypt knights! 

     The PCs earned a total of 250 XP from this expedition, or 75 XP each, bringing each of them to 193 XP. Since 300 XP are needed to earn level 2, it is likely they will level up in a session or two, assuming they survive. The surviving mongrelmen grieved very much for the loss of Imeni, but were grateful that the party protected the rest of them; Kenamon was especially grateful to Sariel Moonblossom for keeping him from bleeding out and reviving him. Their loyalty scores generally increased, with Kenamon especially feeling loyalty to the PCs for saving him from the Black Legion. 

     The Black Legion is now potentially a power in the Duchy of Aerik and a threat to the entire region. Good going, guys . . . 

Valhalla (R.I.P.)

•  Imeni the Mongrelman, beheaded by Varghoulis the Dread Knight and his Crypt Knights of the Black Legion (1/3/1000)

Barrowmaze 5E Session 1 - Into the Barrowmaze (8/3/25)

     So we finally began our D&D 5E Barrowmaze campaign! We set aside some time on Sunday afternoons to play - in slots of about 2 hours, because the kids do not have great attention span - and then had to wait another week after character generation (session zero) because Eli was out of town. 

     The roster of characters:

• Tanya - Sariel Moonblossom (Half-Elf Cleric of Arcantryl)
• Eli - Omarion Zolond (Drow Wizard) 
• Aidan - Alivin O'Harris (Human Ranger)
• Christopher - Feles Pugnat (Tabaxi Fighter)

     We started with some framing stuff - the characters are already in the town of Helix, have procured lodging and such (at a lifestyle cost of 2 sp/week), and have been hired by the local wizard, Mazzahs the Magnificent, to investigate the Barrowmaze and bring backs treasures and lore, and to seek out more information about the dungeon said to lie under the burial mounds. Also, I'm using the calendar presented in Michael Curtis' Adventurer's Almanac from Goodman Games, and starting the game in winter, in the beginning of a new year - the first day of Hardfrost. There is no built-in year for the GCY calendar (Grand Concourse Years), so I arbitarily assigned the date as 1000 GCY. 

First of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     The party got an early start from Helix. It takes about four hours to make it from Helix to the Barrowmaze. They picked out a burial mound to investigate - it turned out to be a covered mound that would require excavation (fortunately they had stocked up on shovels and picks). It took about eight hours of work to excavate the mound, so the sun was getting really low before they entered the barrow. At this point they realized they had not stocked uop on torches or lanterns, and had no light source, but they made makeshift torches from branches, and descended into the tomb. They found a crypt with four sarcophagi - and several giant centipedes, one of which surprised the human fighter by dropping onto him as he entered! This was their first fight, and they did OK. They killed the centipedes, looted the barrow, and headed back to Helix to heal and sell their loot to Mazzahs. 

2nd Day of Hardfrost, 1000 GCY

     Having stocked up on supplies, including a new lantern, the party again got an early start. Four hours to the Barrowmaze. This time the party followed a path of cairns to a large central barrow and entered it. They found a rusty old tripod and rope descending about 35' underground. They didn't trust the tripod, so instead used their own grappling hooks and rope to descend. They found thmselves in the dungeon about which they had heard speculation back in Helix! 

     The party began to carefully explore the dungeon, deciding to favor passages to the right. As they entered the first door to the right, they were set upon by some wandering giant rats! The rats landed some painful bites, but the party prevailed!

     The party continued their exploration and came upon a party of six mongrelmen who were apparently descendents of the original builders of the Barrowmaze. They apparently live in fear of The Necromancers of Set. The party recruited these mongrelmen as guides and helpers, offering them protection. There are three males (Imeni, Kenamon, and Somintu) and three females (Kasmut, Qalhata, and Werenro) - they agreed to help, but not as combatants. 

     After this, the party decided to retreat back to Helix to plan their next moves! 

DM's note: The Barrowmaze text gives no names for the mongrelmen and precious little info on their culture and such. Since there are some ancient themes in the ancient background of the setting (Nergal is Mesopotamian, Set is Egyptian, Orcus is Roman, etc.), I decided to give the mongrelmen Ancient Egyptian-flavored names. I rolled these ones randomly on some tables in the back of Xanathar's Guide to Everything. The party was non-threatening to these mongrelmen and immediately offered to protect them from The Necromancers of Set when they learned of the mongrelmen's fear of them, so I decided that they were recruitable as followers - this makes a bit more work for me, but seems worth it in opportunities for role-playing! 

     The session ended there, with the PCs earning 118 XP each. Since 5E requires 300 XP to reach 2nd level, it seems likely that if the PCs survive and continue a similar trajectory, they'll level up in about three games. The combats went more smoothly than they did on my previous attempt at 5E - maybe it is just that the kids are a little older now and better able to figure out the math and what is going on? Anyway, I was pleasantly surprised at how well it flowed. DCC RPG is still my go-to game, but 5E doesn't seem that bad! 

P.S. I later created NPC sheets for the mongrelmen with Loyalty scores and space for equipment and such. I gave them all personality traits, ideals, bonds, and flaws, based on the tables for the "Hermit" background from the Player's Handbook, as this seemed the most applicable. It was a bit of work, creating separate sheets for 6 different NPCs, but I think it will pay off down the line . . .