Tomb of the Bloody Baron

For their first quest, the delvers decided to find and loot the Tomb of the Bloody Baron.
== Research ==
Information about the Tomb of the Bloody Baron is easy to find: there are all sorts of rumors, legends, children's faerie tales, and morbid drinking songs about the Baron, his life, and his death. Information that is not self-evidently lies, myth, or stories originally told about someone else is a bit harder to uncover.
The Bloody Baron spent a large fortune building his tomb; reliable reports indicate that there were at least two false tombs built on other sites, and possibly additional false tombs built nearby or even in his true tomb. The Baron was paranoid about having his eternal rest disturbed, and all of the tombs are protected by all manner of traps and undead guards. Some of the traps were mechanical and some magic, but there are clear references to several false doors with deadly traps set for anyone who would try to pick them.
The undead sentinels of the true tomb are sustained and empowered by an altar to dark guards, possibly ones that the Baron himself worshiped.
The false tomb has a swarm of doomchildren in it. How they are maintained is unclear, but demons could be self-sustaining.
There is speculation that despite the builder's best efforts, the Tomb would not be airtight, and swarms of vermin, giant vermin, fiendish vermin, and fiendish dire giant vermin might have tunneled in. These tunnels could be used to help locate the Tomb.
Finally, a few members of the Bloody Roses delving company survived their abortive raid on the Tomb and sold a poorly drawn map to the Polisberg Mages Guild. The Guild will sell copies of the map for $400.
== Sponsors and Patrons ==
== Preparations ==
== Objectives ==
== Summaries ==
;Memorable Quotes
;Combined Statistics
=== Session 1 ===
;First Session Statistics
;First Session Chat Log
After most of the original delving band departed, Singeon and Lenia and their new ally Mrugnak recruited a few new members: barbarian archer Burken the Wolf and Mordreona the thief. The new group had one last party at the taproom of the Inn, and then began their long trek to find the Tomb of the Bloody Baron.
Thanks to Mrugnak's weather knowledge and Berkun's navigation skills, they made good time. However, two days out they ran across the Ettin Ochley and Leyoch. The 23 ft tall, two headed monster engaged in negotiation with Lenia, to no avail, and charged to attack. The delvers responded with violence. Mordreona snuck beneath the creature and castrated him while Mrugnak and Singeon hacked at his legs. Berkun cut Leyoch's throat with a lucky arrow. The Ettin went into a Beserk rage, stomping down on Mordreona and slamming Mrugnak with his club. Singeon vaulted onto the monster's back and started carving into his spine, taking a few elbows as he went. The monster collapsed from damage, and the delvers looted his corpse of valuables. After a few hours of rest to recover, they continued their journey.
Three days later, as they traveled down a wood path, they heard voices ahead. Mordreona and Berkun took the trees to scout, and found a half dozen Uthgark barbarians. The barbarians soon spotted the delvers, especially after Mrugnak began waving at them. A tense situation.
;0% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 2 ===
;Second Session Statistics
;Second Session Chat Log
Facing off against Uthgark barbarians, the delvers prepared an ambush. The barbarians charge in, only to be merrily slaughtered as they entered the kill zone. Triumphant but tired, the delvers settled down to recover.
A few minutes later, the rest of the Uthgark barbarian hunting party came forward. They split into three groups: a ritualist on a flying carpet armed with bombs, and two flanking groups running through the forest. Mrugnak foolishly attempted to bat the bombs away, and was badly burned by acid. Mordreona and Lenia were nearly overwhelmed by barbarians before rallying them and killing them, while Berkun was briefly captured. The ritualist was brought down by Mordreona and Mrugnak, and the remaining barbarians scared into retreating as Lenia used Frostbite on them repeatedly.
;0% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 3 ===
;Third Session Statistics
;Third Session Chat Log
The delvers gathered up the loot from the barbarians and beat a hasty retreat. After some minor repairs, Mrugnak adopted the Uthgark swordlord's armor as his own. The group continued on to the Tomb.
Two days later, they were attacked by manticores. Lenia and Mordreona were gravely wounded in the initial pass, though Berkun brought the first beast down with a single arrow. The horse and the mule fled. The second manticore failed to achieve anything of note, and was again brought down by Berkun, with some help from Mrugnak. The last manticore decided to go away and chase after Lenia's horse. Mordreona and Mrugnak ran to intercept, but the manticore easily outpaced them and ate the horse. With heavy heart, the group collected the mule, rearranged their belongings, and trudged on.
The day after that, they were approached after lunch by 3 humans claiming to be members of the Threshold Explorers Guild. They offered to sell the delvers a horse, but that was apparently a distraction while an invisible thief slit Mrugnak's coin purse and stole some amber carvings from Berkun. The thieves left in good order, as they had a 5th member cover their trail.
Dispirited, the delvers reached the ruined town and started searching for the Tomb using the Bloody Roses' map. A little after noon on the second day of searching, they spotted the entrance to the Tomb: a stone door, liberally decorated with the blood and guts of two members of the Bloody Roses. Mordreona carefully approached the entrance but could not figure out how to disarm it, and Lenia began casting spells...
;6% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 4 ===
;Fourth Session Statistics
;Fourth Session Chat Log
The delvers started outside the Tomb of the Bloody Baron, trying to figure out how to get past the traps. After several minutes of discussion, Lenia attempted to disarm using a Concussion spell. That seemed to work well enough, and Mordreona managed to unlock the door after looting a replacement set of lockpicks from the dead catboy.
The door opened into a long, tall hallway leading to a burial chamber. Mordreona cautiously led the way, and detected a series of pressure plates leading to the bier and coffin. While she was debating how to disarm them, Singeon decided to jump over them. He failed, setting off a mechanism that dropped a portcullis behind the party and released a swarm of doomchildren. Singeon and Mordreona were cut off at the top of the hall, while Lenia, Berkun, and Mrugnak had their backs to the portcullis.
The doomchildren briefly menaced Singeon before he began cutting them apart, at which point they exploded. Although Singeon weathered the blasts well enough, Mordreona was critically injured but the blasts and fragmentation. At the other end of the hall, Lenia used Air-Walk to step away from the Doomchildren and Berkun and Mrugnak tossed them around. Then Berkun decapitated one of them, setting off a chain reaction that battered Mrugnak and set bone shards flying everywhere.
Lenia applied magical healing to Mordreona, and the delvers explored the tomb. It was empty except for the coffin. Mordreona picked most of the locks that held the portcullis in place, and then Mrugnak pulled it out of the floor. The delvers then explored the coffin, which was also empty and did not conceal any secret hiding places. Singeon volunteered to climb in and have the lid placed over him, at which point a hidden trap nearly severed his left wrist. Swearing and dispirited, the delvers retreated to camp for healing and recovery. On their way out, they spotted stonework of another possible tomb.
Returning the next day, they unearthed an entrance hall that had been bricked over. Mrugnak used his tools (spiked axe and flail) to destroy the brickwork, and the delvers peered into the true Tomb of the Bloody Baron.
;20% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 5 ===
;Fifth Session Statistics
;Fifth Session Chat Log
At the start of the session, the delvers had just broken through a brick wall and revealed a tunnel that probably led into the Bloody Baron's true tomb. With Mordreona leading the way, they cautiously entered the tunnel and approached the door at the end.
Fiendish rats dropped from holes in the ceiling and walls and attacked. Mrugnak confused them with the legendary rust rats of his childhood, and Berkun and Singeon scrambled for disposable weapons. Mordreona fled for the tunnel door and daylight. Lenia was bitten by rats and driven unconscious by their toxic poison.
After a difficult fight that nearly killed Mordreona and badly wounded Singeon and Lenia, the rats were dispersed. The delvers rested and healed. Then there was a discussion of tactics that nearly devolved into a fight between Mrugnak and Singeon, but Lenia and Mordreona intervened in time. Finally, Mordreona returned to examining and unlocking the door at the end of the tunnel.
Beyond the door was a guardroom filled with six skeletal knights. Mordreona quickly shut the door, but the knights entered the tunnel anyway and attack. Singeon was locked into close combat with one of them, while Mrugnak flailed about with his weapons. Lenia used powerful magic to disperse a few of them. 
At the end of the session, the delvers had just put down the last knight and were breathing heavily.
;36% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 6 ===
;Sixth Session Statistics
;Sixth Session Chat Log
At the start of the session, the delvers had just defeated the skeletal knights. They were starting to relax and examine the bodies when the door to the guardroom opened from the far side and two waves of horde zombies poured forth.
Sadly for the zombies, they were not a large enough horde to meaningfully overwhelm the delvers, and were destroyed in seconds.
The delvers moved through the two guardrooms into a third. Mordreona spotted a pit trap in front of the door. After a great deal of investigation and probing, the delvers realized the door was false - as was the east wall. Mrugnak assaulted the wall with his pick, revealing another hall beyond it and another door: this time an iron vault door with a very elaborate lock.
At the end of the session, the delvers were just about to open the vault door and head deeper into the tomb.
;50% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 7 ===
;Seventh Session Statistics
;Seventh Session Chat Log
At the start of the session, the delvers were just about to open the hidden vault door. They did so, revealing a corridor with unopenable doors on either side and magic runes inscribed all throughout the floor. The runes froze the blood of anyone who stepped on them.
Mordreona advanced cautiously to the middle of the room, looking for but not seeing the pressure plate that opened the doors. She triggered the trap, the doors opened, and the eight wights behind them poured out. Mordreona retreated and Singeon charged forward, freezing his feet on the runes. Mrugnak went beserk out of concern for his ally. 
The battle was brief but deadly - not so much for the wights themselves, but because of the difficulty of fighting while not stepping on the runes. Singeon was badly injured by the runes before the wights were killed, but Mrugnak was still deep in his blood rage. Singeon tried to play dead to fool Mrugnak, but mostly succeeded in further injuring himself. Despite Mordreona's taunting, Lenia talked Mrugnak out of the rage and extracted them from the rune chamber.
The delvers chose to retreat back to camp after the fight, being much too wounded to continue. As they headed back up through the guardrooms, they saw that the skeletons had revived and were blocking the way. Mordreona fled past them, but the other delvers became locked in a desperate battle at the end of the session.
;60% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 8 ===
;Eighth Session Statistics
;Eighth Session Chat Log
;72% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 9 ===
;Ninth Session Statistics
;Ninth Session Chat Log
;81% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 10 ===
;Tenth Session Statistics
;Tenth Session Chat Log
The session began with the delvers in the final guardroom. They worked together to revive Mrugnak enough to let him stagger back to the Hall of Lies before collapsing. Lenia and Mordreona returned to camp and tried to find a way to remove Lenia's curse.
At that point, a faun druid named Connell - an old school acquaintance of Lenia's - happened across their camp. He volunteered to aid them and entered the Tomb to heal Mrugnak. The group then returned to camp, where Connell managed to exorcise Lenia's curse. He did not think he would be able to cleanse the altar itself, though. The band rested overnight.
The next morning, they returned to the tomb. Mordreona picked the lock on the last door and they entered into the true crypt of the Baron, which was nearly empty. After surveying it, Mrugnak volunteered to open the coffin.
The Baron had turned himself into a wraith and was lying in wait to defend his last treasures against any tomb robbers. He jumped of the coffin and engaged Mrugnak with blade and black magic, nearly cutting off an arm and leaving the minotaur crippled on the floor. The other delvers attacked ineffectually until Lenia realized he had a Wraith amulet on. Mordreona jumped the Baron from behind and tried to snatch the amulet away. Without the power of his mighty shield and armor, the Baron had a hard time dislodging the thief. He tried to shake her off but she clung tight until she pull the amulet away. Without the malevolent artifact to sustain him, the Baron immediately died.
The delvers quickly looted the tomb of portable wealth and started carrying Mrugnak out to where he could safely healed.
;89% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 11 ===
;Eleventh Session Statistics
;Eleventh Session Chat Log
;89% of the planned adventure completed.
=== Session 12 ===
;Twelfth Session Statistics
;Twelfth Session Chat Log
;89% of the planned adventure completed.
Category:Saga of Westmarch