Barrows of the Kolgrimmr Campaign

Barrows of the Kolgrimmr was a 5e campaign GMed by Arch Gamemaster. It involved a merry band of adventurers, whose goal was to infiltrate the stronghold rumored to have been sealed, 400 years prior, within the marshes near Pjolt: the barrows of the Kolgrimmr dynasty.

The group met on the way over, in a caravan that took a period of two months, and joined together to explore the barrows for a variety of reasons: finding lost books, raiding for treasure, and putting down any wandering undead, to name a few.

## Characters

* Fiddlemore Whidix AKA Raphael April (Tropingenie)
* Turtillous Jimbis/Flint Michigan (Looweeja)
* Sam Norman (ArcaneBacon)
* William (Zerxrez)
* Wren Blackwell (TacoCat)

## Campaign

### Session 1

Once assembled, they walked through the northern forest, finding first a stele of sorts that warned them against disturbing the dwarven dead, and Wren used Mending to uncover an additional warning about blue flames that would burn whenever the restless dead were near.

The group found a road deeper into the woods, followed it to some stone foundations, then fixed an old sign and used it to orient themselves towards the barrows. At some point around here, they found a long-dead adventurer resting against a log, whom they buried, except for some bones Turtillous took for his warlockery. They walked on, and found a small barrow the size of a cottage, which they dug around, uncovering a blocked door, which they broke through, finding four dead dwarves in alcoves. Barrow was determined to belong to the Granitebeards.

Wren found a jointed metal scroll of poetry among the grave goods, which he copied from and then replaced, and William sneakily levered an agate out of one of the alcoves - he was not discovered, but the group assumed one of them had taken it, and tried to find out who. Fiddlemore objected to tomb desecration, being here only to lay the dead to rest or take care of similar threats, and remained outside.

They re-sealed the tomb, magically mended the stones, and moved on. The next barrow they came across was that of the Basalthearts, near a stream, and built right into the cliffside. They entered, and found a the walls to be carved with leaves and stylized trees, with many alcoves containing stone coffins. At the very back, they found a statue of a dwarf clutching a strange stone sphere about the size of a shot-put. They experimented, found it relaxed muscles and had some transmutation properties, but elected to leave it be.

After they re-sealed the barrow, they stopped for lunch, and witnessed a small blue flame, and the reflection of Musei, an elf Turtillous had killed in Kursed Katana. It would seem that he was still haunting them. Turtillous and Fiddlemore had a bit of an argument over proper cooking, and then the group moved on.

The next barrow they found was near a bend in the stream, that of the Saltstones(?) Once opened, the group noticed it had a far eerier feeling to it than the rest of the barrows. It was a little too dark and cold inside, covered with thick cobwebs, and had dried leaves on the floor, even though it had been sealed for 400 years or more.

The barrow had three chambers, and was constructed similarly to the others, with alcoves and so forth.

Carvings of dwarven faces peered out of the stone, with garnet eyes in the second, and jade decorations in the third, which also had three throne-style alcoves, only one occupied. Blue flames started dancing once the party was in the third and last chamber.

The group was attacked by cobweb tendrils that brought a terrible cold with them, Turtillous was flung into a pile of corpses behind an illusory wall, and people were pinned to the ceiling by cobwebs once other members of the group started running outside, while shadows and cobwebs crept everywhere.

As of the end of the session, Sam and Fiddlemore made it outside, while Wren and William are facing off with a short phantasmal figure in the second room, and Turtillous has vanished mysteriously.

### Session 2

Sam fired a rope attached to a crossbow bolt into the tomb, Wren got webbed and crushed to the ground, and William tried to burn the mass on him. Sam charged into the tomb, and hurled the mass of webs and shadow off Wren, which crashed into the wall. It made for a coffin, intent on hiding, but Wren sprang up, helped by Fiddlemore's unseen servant, and tore after it with a torch, setting the horror on fire, burning it away.

At this point, the group felt entirely justified in looting the tomb, and Fiddlemore elaborated on his reasons for being reluctant to loot tombs earlier - he had thought his goddess, Athys, had an injunction against it, when in fact she did not.

The group found a number of unusual items, including a stone that preserved the head of a dead dwarf, which William swallowed, causing him to become very healthy looking, a solid steel battleaxe, and a jug that turned any liquid in it to wine.

The group went barrow hunting again, found the cursed tomb of the Undermountains, and the tomb of the Lightbeards, who fell to the black pestilence, and were well torched by William's fire magic, which he used to clean the barrow in case of disease, and left it smoldering overnight. Not much was found inside, and the heat warped the jewelry.

They passed another barrow which they determined was of no great interest, then the Greengrout barrow, which had a very druidy feel, and a sandstone tree in the middle with green gem leaves. Fiddlemore whispered a prayer to Asweir, and a summer wind blew through the tomb, and forget-me-nots grew on the floor. The group left the tomb alone, and chose to move on. As a result, Fiddlemore heard the voice of an elven woman, which told him "Where the daughter of earth and water reaches to touch the sky from the bones of the earth, and holds fast against the fury of the winds and the dragon's tongue, you will find the passage to shadow.”

The group returned to Pjolt, and took a room in the inn. Wren got a letter from his wife, which was chatted about at length, William was advised by his patron to drink sparrow blood to help in his divination, and Sam started walking around looking for the descendants of the dwarves of Kolgrimmr, culminating in a chat with a charming dwarven grandmother, one of the last Saltstones, to whom he returned a brooch, and got a lot of useful information from. Wren later visited her as well.

Meanwhile, William's shenanigans resulted in a lot of suspicion from the local populace, a chat with the local priest and his reinforcements, and a holy water drinking contest of sorts, where the two of them emptied a barrel. William used Thaumaturgy to make it appear as if the holy water caused his devil nature to be leached away, changing his eye colour, and has now been summoned to appear at the church later.

### Session 3

Wren was whisked away by a giant version of his wife's familiar, and Turtillous returned from his adventures in weirdness - magically disguised as a dwarf, because that's just how he rolls. He then told the group a rather involved tale about how he ended up in a mine with a bunch of frisky dwarf women. Little did he know, the mines around here are all infested by vampires, as the group found out last session.

William noted that Turtillous had a bite mark on his neck, made the connection, and then the group tried to determine if Turtillous was going to turn into a vampire by various means, including pouring holy water on the bite, which caused a bit of steam and uncomfortable warmth.

Turtillous, understandably concerned, decided to seek out the priest that had been bothering William, and headed off to the local chapel, disguised as a human. Once there, things got interesting.

Turtillous told the priest and his son an increasingly convoluted story about how he got the bite, starting with a pale man running up to him and biting him in the street, then turning into a bat and flying away.

Then, when the priest understandably brought up William, who as a tiefling is likely to be blamed for just about everything, Turtillous compounded the hilarity by saying he had nothing to do with *that* tiefling, but there were four more in town!

He then went on a spiel about four tieflings in town using magic to disguise themselves as elves, and were setting up a merchant business selling magical items and other things that had no place in a poor farming community. He also claimed they were sitting in the inn, and gave him some kind of drink they dubbed 'holy water'.

Turtillous is a pretty smooth talker, so up until this, the dwarves were at least entertaining the possibility all of this happened - but there are no elves in town, and certainly no elves in the local inn, which the priest had *just visited* to confront William.

The priest then calmly told Turtillous that the 'holy water' was probably full of hallucinogens, and that he should sleep it off. Turtillous agreed, was given a bed in the pews, and after sleeping a bit, snuck away in the dead of night to join the others.

Meanwhile, Sam and Fiddlemore had used the evening to acquire a cart and two horses, and the rest of the group had prepared themselves to leave town, leaving the key with the inn owner, as well as a letter for Wren when he returned, giving instructions as to how to find the group again. Turtillous snuck into the inn just before they left, disguised himself as an elven lady, and woke the innkeep, babbled a bit about being here to sell magic items and being a tiefling, and then ran off, just to sell the story.

The group set off, and a little later, bumped into an old lady in black rags on a bridge at midnight, who introduced herself as Mizz Nightwillow. Turtillous immediately invited her along, and she happily got into the cart (which was by now covered in weird inscriptions from the magic users) quite comfortably.

When the group set a watch, she woke up each time someone new went on watch, and asked to take watch, being rebuffed each time. In the morning, she gave Turtillous a strange jar of herbs to season his cooking with, which he didn't use.

At the same time, she approached William, and discussed the possibility of regaining his soul through other means, culminating in her tying bone beads to his arm, which caused him to no longer be able to mentally contact his patron.

Turtillous noticed the two of them, and after Nightwillow left, went over to talk to William. Turtillous summoned his patron to chat, but he didn't give much information, other than being concerned, saying it was outside his sphere of influence.

2 days later, the group's route through the woods was blocked by thick brambles, which they cleared while Nightwillow offered an alternate route. Having passed that, they moved from forest to mountains, and a day or so later had an encounter with two Yetis near where a rockslide had blocked the path. Fiddlemore determined the Yetis were magically called to attack them. The group slew the smaller yeti, discovered they were immune to frost, and with a mix of fire and illusion, chased the other one off.

### Session 4

Turtillous crudely harvested some yeti horn, took the head of the dead one, and chewed on it a bit.

Time went on. At about 3 AM, 3 days later, a mistake was made: William, whom Turtillous had foisted his watch onto, ruining the attempts of Sam and Fiddlemore to keep William off watch, did exactly as those two had predicted and allowed Nightwillow to take part of his watch.

Fiddlemore was woken by Nightwillow crossing his silent alarm spell at about 6AM, which he had subtly cast around himself each night. She commented on him being a light sleeper, and Fiddlemore noticed the rest of the group was gone. He asked Nightwillow, who told a theoretically-possible story about them walking off to scout ahead.

She herself then walked off into the woods, and Fiddlemore, still unsure of what she was, opted not to pursue, and instead loaded up the wagon with everyone's things and headed off.

#### Mice in a Box

Meanwhile, William, Turtillous and Sam found themselves turned into mice and stuffed in a small wooden box with seeds and leaves. Rather disoriented, they first ascertained their situation, then they started summoning their weapons (which became mouse-sized) and knocking holes in the side of the box. They then figured out that they were in the air, and through a bit of telepathy, carried by Nightwillow.

They considered a few risky plans of action, then Turtillous cast a spell normally used to disguise humanoids, causing an image of his dragonborn self to emerge from the box. After a very good bit of bluffing, the box was flung into the air by Nightwillow.

Turtillous did some quick thinking, caught the box with Mage hand, and started flying around with it. William summoned his book of shadows and joined him with his own mage hand spell. The group then performed a number of aerial maneuvers, did some dodging, and William turned the seeds inside into flowers. They escaped Nightwillow, but were hunted variously by crows, eagles, and animate bags large enough to capture the whole box.

During this, they made a pit stop at the campsite from last night, fried a poor sparrow, and William collected a tiny bit of blood in a seed husk.

Meanwhile, Fiddlemore was chatting to an old prospector down the road, and they started bargaining over Turtillous's cookware.

Up the mountain path, explosions were heard from the mouse crew. Fiddlemore and the prospector start talking about wizards. Eventually, the bargaining is inconclusive, and Fiddlemore heads off, only to remember the jug that turns water to wine, and come rushing back. With a bit of smooth talk, the bargaining re-opens, only for William to use his sparrow blood to have a vision, and fly over to Fiddlemore, who was able to communicate with him via some spell-casting from both. Fiddlemore, thus alerted, stashed the cart and started fast-walking up the path, prepping spells.

The mice were then bedevilled by wasps, and seeing as Sam had nearly destroyed the box with his casting, he had the choice of either riding with William or Turtillous on their mage hand 'speeder bikes'. He chose the latter, and the two of them dove into the long grass to avoid the wasps, and he ended up fighting a duel with a spider, who webbed him.

#### The Party Reconvenes

William turned himself invisible and used magic to create a nasty smell to keep the wasps off his trail, and the mice made their way to Fiddlemore, who helped clear the wasps away using chill touch. The group talked about Nightwillow, who was hovering far out of range over the forest, debated taking the help of Turtillous's patron, who could aid them if certain rituals were performed, and eventually decided to just keep an eye out for Nightwillow.

While the group rode away, Fiddlemore griped over losing the sale to the prospector, who decided the whole thing was too magic-y to get mixed up in.

The mice changed back once they had a bit of rest, and then joined Fiddlemore in keeping long, very sleepless watches. Turtillous grew sick from yeti parasites and possible incipient vampirism, and spent a lot of time raving and being violently ill over the side of the cart.

The group continued their long journey, now into the second week.

Session 9

Mist gathered over the graveyard. And the sky was much the same. But only for a moment. The clouds parted, and bright moonlight covered lit the tombstones. A dull rumble rolled through the earth. Suddenly, a burst of earth issued forth from the grave. And a gorgeous woman, her dark purple hair and black-feather wings illuminated by the moon, appeared above the grave. But of course, nobody saw a moment of that.[1] Darkness enveloped the graveyard as the clouds gently floated to block the moon. When it cleared, it was as if the graveyard remained untouched. Mist gathered over the graves, and clouds filled the night sky, returning it to the darkness from where it started.

## OOC

[1] Tropingenie was narrating at the time, and rolled a nat 20