Isaa's Tale - Enter the Barrowmaze

Isaa's Tale

**Isaa** sits at the bar in the Stuck Pig, his face lighting up as Otto places a giant (for a halfling) pint tankard filled to the brim with chocolate milk.

"Thanks Mr. Otto!" he cries "I just got back from the Barrowmaze. We made so much money, it was awesome!"

As **Isaa** continues to speak he begins to get carried away with his tale. His speech begins to speed up and he take less time to pause between sentences.

"It's a creepy place to the northeast of here filled with old tombs. I set off a few days ago with that loveable scoundrel **Reginald Tealeaf** and that giant Goliath **Balbrek** and also the other Goliath **Uthal**.

"I'll tell you what Mr. Otto, **Uthal** sure is the smartest Goliath I've ever met he's got all sorts of tricks up his sleeve oh and we also went with a pale guy named **Gravedigger.** Did you know he carries around a spare arm with him thats better than his original arm he told me I could keep his old arm when he was done with it but when I tried to help him rip it off  it wouldn't come off and he said it wasn't ready to come off yet but he would definitely give it to me when he was done with it.

"And last but not least there was the Paladin **Sofia** she sure is pretty Mr. Otto whenever I look at her I get butterflies in my stomach but it's weird they're not like the happy butterflies I feel when I look at **Gigi** they're more like the nervous butterflies I get when I'm out in the wilderness and I know there's a wolf or a mountain lion stalking me what do you think that means Mr. Otto are the butterflies supposed to feel different when you get them from different girls?

"But anyway so we headed off northeast and made camp that first night and then we got attacked by these freaky scarecrows and when I punched them it didn't really work the way I wanted it to but then someone figured out that the scarecrows didn't like fire and once we started using fire against them they didn't last much longer so once that was all done we went back to bed but a while after that I had to get up for my watch and then a skeleton horse came trotting up to our camp and kinda acted just like a normal horse so we tried to make friends with it but it didn't want to be friends with us so we just let it wander off I hope it ended up finding its owner it seemed a little lonely.

"So anyway the next day with arrived at the barrows and we went up to the nearest barrow and some of the guys hammered down the door and when we went in there were these tombs and we found some old stuff that **Regi** said was treasure and then suddenly we were attacked by skeletons so I attacked back and this time my blows worked really well on their brittle bones so I kept striking them until they were all down and then **Gravedigger** blew his magic whistle and one of the skeletons got back up but this time he was our friend and he helped us keep watch that night which was a good thing because some skinny dried up zombies attacked and the killed the skeleton again but then we killed them and went back to bed.

"The next day we found a giant black pillar that was way bigger than the Harrowmere obelisks and **Gravedigger** said it had writing on it in the necromancer language and I bet everyone that I could climb to the top of the piller and they all said it was too high and that I'd fall so I said ok I won't do it but I'm still pretty sure I could have done it so then we went to another barrow and it ended up being the entrance to some underground tunnels called the Barrowmaze so we all thought 'yeah lets check this place out' and we walked through a few doors and then there was a Skeleton Minotaur charging **Balbrek** and **Balbrek** went down so we fought back but then it charged at **Sofia** and knocked her down too and we all started to get a bit worried but we kept at it and eventually we killed it and then **Gravedigger** got really excited and started poking around with its bones which I though was kind of weird but he's a necromancer afterall so he must know what he's doing.

"We were all getting pretty tired by that point so we decided to check one more room and inside that room was some zombies and when I struck one with my Bo Staff once again it didn't work how I wanted it to so I dropped my Bo and pulled out my shortsword and stabbed it and that seemed to work how I wanted it to so I kept stabbing at it with my shortsword and eventually we wore the zombie down until it was barely standing but it wouldn't go down and someone shouted that it had zombie fortitude or something and then **Balbrek** smashed it but it didn't go down so **Uthal** firebolted it but it didn't go down so **Sofia** slashed it but it didn't go down so **Gravedigger** hit it with his magic scythe but it didn't go down so **Uthal** firebolted it again and then it went down."

**Isaa** suddenly pauses as he seems to finally run out words. Picking up his milkshake he drains the entire tankard in one long draught and sighs with satisfaction.  "After that we'd had enough of the place so we came back to Hope and sold our treasure. **Gravedigger** said he wants to head out there again soon and I think I'll go with him. Hopefully his old arm will be ready to come off by then and he can give it to me like he promised. Anyway, thanks for the drink Mr. Otto! I'll see you tomorrow."