The next morning, Sylvester used his miracles to cast Cure Light Wounds on Kurt twice, healing all the injuries he had accumulated yesterday.
After a small breakfast, they began making their way to the entrance of the barrow while leaving Bask behind to guard their campsite. They weren’t attacked by any more Stingy Jacks, and instead made it past the brambles to reach the barrow.
“Hey, is the tree…” Karrank called out, pulling everyone’s attention to the dead and twisted looking tree.
The tree was subtly moving, as if wind was blowing through its branches. The problem, however, was that there wasn’t any wind. Today was clear and sunny, without a hint of wind.
Suddenly, the tree began to shake and twisted some more to reveal the face in its bark to the party. It had human-like brown eyes set into the trunk and a large jagged mouth filled with cracked and mossy teeth. The eyes focused on the party and the treeant began to speak with a deep and gravelly voice.
“When red and orange fill the sky
and daylight’s glow is fading,
I raise my bow and fiddle high
and start my serenading,
A single note is all I play,
The tempo is all I vary,
I’m somber on a chilly day
But when it is warm, I am merry!”
After saying its small poem, the treeant closed its mouth and watched the party, waiting for a response. Everyone turned to look at Sylvester.
“A cricket.” Sylvester called up to the tree.
It almost seemed to nod before twisting itself back to its normal position. The large circular door to the barrow rumbled as roots pulled the stone to the side, opening the way for the party.
“So that was a riddle?” Kurt asked.
“Of course! And the answer makes sense too! Even the las line did, since crickets vary their chirps so precisely you can use it to calculate the temperature.” Neil quickly answered, excited to see the barrow.
Sylvester led the group down the stairs, which were wide enough for three to fit side by side, and into a large room filled with roots and bones. This hall had another set of stairs continuing down on the far side. As soon as Sylvester set a foot in the room, however, the bones began to rattle and piece themselves together into skeletons.
Everyone had been prepared for this, and they quickly began retreating up the stairs. Sylvester had his shield and mace ready when the first three skeletons reached the group.
The groups began to exchange blows, with little success other than Sylvester who managed to completely smash one of the skeletons with a powerful overhead blow.
Neil managed to smash the arms of one of them, but the sounds of other skeletons approaching began to echo up the stairs. Sylvester and Kurt both held back the skeletons already present, while Karrank managed to shatter the head of one of the skeletons with a bolt, causing the entire skeleton to fall apart.
The small, but growing, crowd of skeletons began pushing their way up the stairs, limited by its width. The ones in front continued hacking at the party with their rusty blades but found no purchase. Sylvester and Neil smashed another skeleton together, but its spot was quickly filled by another.
At the bottom of the staircase, the party was able to see an armored skeleton trying to push its way up. Sylvester struck the newest skeleton, instantly slaying it, while Kurt and Neil smashed another. Karrank began focusing his fire on the armored skeleton, but only managed to land glancing blows.
Sylvester and Kurt both began to take blows as the skeletons relentlessly pushed on, but they weren’t out of the fight yet. Still, they continued to take blows and were slowly forced further up the staircase. Neil wasn’t useless, however, and managed to smash one of the skeletons attacking them. Now there were only a few skeletons other than the armored one.
Sylvester and Kurt used this to try and push back, but Kurt took a nasty blow causing Neil to swap places with him. They managed to hold back the skeletons, but now Neil was too focused on defending to get in any solid attacks. Sylvester and Kurt, who was refusing to give up, managed to both take out a skeleton. This left only two normal skeletons and the armored one, whose blade appeared spotless, clearly magical.
At this time Karrank’s crossbow jammed again, causing him to break out in curses as he drew his dagger and dove into the melee. Sylvester smashed another skeleton into the ground, giving him an opening which he used to attack the skeleton. Had the dagger not been enchanted, however, his blow would have just dinged off of the armor harmlessly.
Neil started taking some nasty blows as he found his space to dodge restrict, causing Kurt to switch with him again. The skeletons tried to press their attack, but one of the steps came out from under the armored skeleton, causing it to collapse to the ground. Kurt used this opportunity to pulverize the ribs of one of the other skeletons, while the others tried to actually hurt the armored one.
They continued to slay the remaining skeletons and attack the armored one, but it managed to get back up and slashed at Kurt. The blow sliced his staff in half and caused him to collapse, bleeding heavily.
Sylvester prepared to cast his healing magic, while Neil guarded Kurt from any further injuries. Karrank roared with fury, launching a flurry of blows on the armored skeleton, keeping it from finishing the job.
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Sylvester’s internal energy quickly coated Kurt and stitched his wounds together, saving his life. Unfortunately, the blow had slightly caught one of his eyes and the damage would be permanent. He didn’t lose it, but it was blinded. Still, he was awake again and quickly began to drag himself away from the fight, still weak from his injuries.
It didn’t matter, however, as the joint forces of Sylvester, Neil, and Karrank finally managed to strike down the armored skeleton. Everyone retreated back to the campsite once they were sure the skeleton was completely dead.
Sylvester provided healing to Neil and himself, but he didn’t have much he could do for Kurt. Unfortunately, his injuries had been severe, and he would require a week of rest in order to finish recovering his vital energies. Thus, he wouldn’t be able to further join the delve.
The remaining three made their way back into the barrow and into the hall. Trapped within the walls, stuck in roots, and still attempting to pull out stuck weapons, there were many skeletons still unalive in the room. The trio carefully made sure to destroy them from a distance before they began to loot the room.
The armored skeleton’s blade had been enchanted, so Sylvester used his internal energies to bless himself before trying to pick it up. Luckily, it was neither cursed nor sentient and so couldn’t object to Sylvester prying out the very expensive moonstone from its hilt. Looting the room, they managed to recover 26 platinum pieces, 468 gold pieces, and 665 silver pieces.
All told, they had found a veritable fortune. Sylvester, however, knew that there was even more treasure to be found in the barrow and that there was only one fight left, and that it would be significantly safer with preparation.
So, the group made their way to a nearby town and stayed there for a week while Kurt finished recovering. Sylvester also made sure to procure a silvered mace and a staff with silver ends, costing nearly 800 silver pieces. When asked why, he explained that it would be necessary to fight the spirit of the moon druid.
Once the week was up, they all returned to the barrow in the middle of the night. The treeant forced them to answer its riddle again, though it was identical. They quickly made their way down the staircase, past the smashed skeletons, and down the new set of stairs. These stairs ended in a large round chamber dominated by a carving of the moon set into the floor. In the middle of the moon, was a large crystal which focused the moonlight coming down the stairs onto a spot high above the only door out of the room.
“Careful, no one step on the moon.” Sylvester warned everyone.
They followed his directions and shuffled around the moon. Once he was sure everyone was in position, Sylvester smacked his staff into the side of the moon closest to the door. The entire thing began to spin like a coin, clearly being fixed at two points on opposite sides of the floor. A very deep and dark pit could be seen below the now spinning moon.
“Alright, now we need to wedge our staves into this moon so that we can direct the moonlight toward this door.” Sylvester explained, lining up his staff with Neil.
They managed to successfully wedge the moon in place, focusing the moonlight from above onto the door deeper in. A few moments passed and the door rumbled open. Sylvester had Kurt hold his staff and quickly made his way across the spinnable tile to retrieve the crystal on it.
It was nerve-wracking, but the staves holding the disc in place held and he made it back to the group with treasure in hand.
“Alright, now we need to prepare for one last fight.” Sylvester announced, before they went into the next room.
“What is in there?” Kurt asked, picking up the enchanted blade that nearly killed him.
“The spirit of the moon druid who built this place. It is completely insane and will attack both us and our minds.” Sylvester explained, handing Neil the silver capped staff, and pulling out his own silvered mace.
“That sounds like it will be nasty.” Karrank commented.
“It shouldn’t be too bad since we are prepared for it. Just make sure not to listen to its whispers, they can drive you crazy. Temporarily, at least.” Sylvester continued to explain while coating Karrank in the warm and uplifting internal energies of the Heroism miracle.
“Ooh, this feels good. I feel like I could take on anything!” Karrank declared while flexing.
“Just make sure not to use it against us.” Sylvester said while coating himself in Protection from Evil. Once that was done, he looked at everyone.
“Are you all ready to go?” He asked.
“Yes.”
“Oh yeah!”
“I hope.”
“Then let’s go in.” Sylvester said, gesturing for everyone else to go first.
They quickly filed into the room, which was the resting place of the moon druid. The room was square, but with a very tall arched ceiling. The walls were unadorned, but almost felt like they were absorbing all the sound in the room, which was unnaturally quiet. In the center, was a large stone sarcophagus and behind it was another sealed door.
When Kurt first stepped into the room, however, an incredibly quiet muttering began to be audible. Like Sylvester had warned, everyone did their best to ignore it.
Sylvester, instead of getting ready to fight, clasped his hands together and began to loudly chant.
“May we all find enlightenment and see beyond the grand illusion…”
He circulated his internal energies in time with his chanting, causing it to spill out and circulate through the room causing it to reverberate with his words. The babbling spirit of the moon druid did not appreciate this and immediately manifested.
It began to crescendo its own mad babbling in retaliation, but this only gave the remaining trio time to attack it. Neil missed, but Kurt and Karrank both struck true with their enchanted weapons.
When the babbling reached a near deafening fever pitch, however, Neil and Karrank both began to be affected by it. Kurt pushed through, however, and struck again at the spirit which turned to face him. It swiped at him, but he managed to dodge the blow. Neil kept some lucidity and swung at the spirit again, but his coordination was horribly thrown off by the madness. Karrank merely stood still babbling incoherently.
Sylvester was forced to break off his chant when Neil fell to the madness and tried to attack him. Luckily, it bounced off his reinforced body. Kurt swung again at the spirit, managing to sever one of its ethereal appendages.
Neil finally stopped his assault and began to babble to himself while Kurt and the Spirit both launched all out attack at each other. They both took hits, but Kurt stayed standing while the spirit completely dissipated.
Karrank and Neil quickly recovered their faculties without the spirit’s presence.
“That was very unpleasant.” Karrank declared.
“Agreed.” Neil said while going over to a corner to vomit.
“Ok, that was the last major danger in this barrow!” Sylvester announced, to tame enthusiasm from the group. “Beyond this last door will be our treasure. But let me warn you: under no circumstances should anyone touch the scroll on display. It is horribly cursed and will affect everyone present.”
“How badly cursed are we talking about?” Karrank asked while examining the door.
“Do you feel like fighting a dragon?” Sylvester threatened.
“Are you serious?” Neil asked.
“Completely. So don’t. Touch. The scroll.” Sylvester ordered.
The door blocking their way to the treasure was a simple stone door and they quickly managed to force it open. Inside, they found the moon druid’s vault and quickly began to loot it.
There were several chests, one of which was trapped, which Sylvester made sure Karrank took care of. Once everything was outside and on their wagon, they set about dividing the spoils.
The large gem that Sylvester had pulled off the moon dais was worth 5,000 silver pieces and the one off of Kurt’s new sword was worth 2,500. They also recovered an additional 2,000 gold pieces and a sack of 30 polished moonstones, each of which would be worth approximately 500 silver pieces. They also recovered a large number of scrolls that a collector, such as Neil’s master, would pay about 5,000 silver pieces for.
All these gems and coins were quickly divided up, including the money that would be gained from selling the scrolls.
The tricky part came from the other items. They also recovered a sentient silver dagger, and an enchanted silver longsword made for hunting lycanthropes. There were also scrolls of Moonbeam, Dispel Magic, Heal, and Control Weather which they set aside from the nonmagical scrolls.
Kurt wanted to keep his new enchanted sword and Neil wanted most of the magic scrolls for his own studies.
Karrank wanted the dagger, but it rejected him and seriously injured him when he tried to pick it up. He ended up with the silver longsword instead.
Thus, Sylvester ended up with the sentient dagger, which didn’t reject him. Neil also handed Sylvester the scroll of Heal, which was a miracle and not a spell that he could cast.
The dagger was sentient but didn’t seem to have a proper consciousness. It could differentiate between the people it would allow to wield it, but otherwise it seemed just like a normal silver dagger, albeit one that was magically enchanted. Sylvester made a note to look into the history of this dagger later.
The group spent the night in town, celebrating their successful dive into the barrow. Sylvester bought supplies for the trip home for 33 silver and they quickly set off the next morning. Before they left entirely, however, Sylvester went back to the barrow and Blessed the druid’s sarcophagus to prevent his babbling spirit from reforming.
With that business taken care of, the group began quickly making their way back home.