Chain Breaker

11 High Sun - late afternoon

It is cold here, deep underground, within the barrow of the Hobgoblin warlord, Xalik cul Zhan. The party had worked their way through spiralling underground passages, riddled with traps, haunted by wraiths, and infested with giant insects, and now stood on the threshold of Xalik’s burial chamber.

His body, which they had seen burned to cinders in the market square of Devlin’s Dower, was, even now, reforming before their eyes, magically reconstituting itself with energy drained by the sinister spectre that haunted this labyrinth.

The mysterious wayfarer Gallowglass told them that Xalik can never be truly slain as he is bound by an oath that extends beyond his mortal end. The only way to truly lay his ghost is to shatter the symbol of that fealty: his troth ring. The silver band, set with a blood red jewel, could be seen glittering on his hand even now.

Featherfew, infested by fungal spores, glanced at his hand and saw a tracery of fine yellow lines glowing upon his skin as the poison spread through his capillaries. His ally, Enid, laid out a hand, and with a glow of holy light, purged the corruption from his system. The friends prepared themselves, and then the druid intoned the name of Xalik cul Zhan, praising him with a bloody hobgoblin compliment.

The gates swung wide soundlessly, revealing a vast chamber. An immense throne, seemingly assembled from great slabs of stone, lay in the centre of the room, upon which is sat a tall skeleton, its posture uncannily erect. Pale blue light glowed from two unlit braziers, while at the back of the room stood two imposing stone statues, depicting hobgoblin warriors in full armour, resting on their swords. The ceiling of this room was concealed in deep pools of shadow, from which only the tips of stalactites emerge.

Pebbles launched a sorcerous blast at the skeleton, while Den grabbed Burley’s great axe and ran into the room, circling around the throne, searching for Xalik’s treasure chamber, in which Gallowglass had promised them was hidden the enchanted maul of the Dwarven prince Daven Ironhand. He found only a wall of cool grey stone. Featherfew fired his bow from the doorway, while Enid implored the creature to end its oath. It rasped out a grim refusal, and she hurled a javelin at it, though it fell wide of the mark.

Den hurled the axe back over the top of the throne, where it fell at the feet of Burley, who stepped up and struck the warlord with an almighty blow. But as Ilyad fired blasts of eldritch energy from the doorway, the creature extended its taloned hand and magically summoned its barbed sword from Burley’s pack. Stepping from the throne, it drove the blade deep into Burley’s side.

The wraith that had haunted the party as they ran through the dungeon emerged from the wall and attempted to drain Enid’s energy. But she fended it off and struck it as it fled, the radiant energy which suffused her sword dealing it a terrible wound.

Den ran forward and struck Xalik with his bare fists, knocking the creature off its feet. Seizing this chance, Pebbles crept forward and lit the braziers with two bolts of sorcerous energy, thinking to recreate the scene the party had glimpsed in the old ruined tapestry. Featherfew readied his bow, hoping to catch the wight when it reappeared, while Enid ran to the statues and discovered that the swords were loose in their mounts. She withdrew the stone blades and turned them upside down. As she replaced them, something about the chamber changed.

Walls of stone parted like curtains, revealing a low chamber, filled with riches, the booty of battles past: weapons, armour, coins, and jewels. Curled at the centre of the room was a decaying human body, next to a rude farmers’ handcart. A simple tapestry hung in this chamber, depicting a towering humanoid figure in silhouette, a pair of immense antlers emerging from his head.

Enid grabbed an immense maul from the floor and ran with it toward Burley’s outstretched hand. At the same time, Den stepped back and a cloud of darkness separated from the ceiling and fell upon him. He grappled with a tentacled mass that sought to wrap itself around his head and smother him. Meanwhile, the wraith emerged from the wall, creeping up behind Featherfew. He loosed his arrow and it flew wide. The malign spirit opened its mouth to draw out his vital energy.

But Burley, maul in hand, swung the enormous hammer down on Xalik’s troth ring, shattering the blood-red jewel, and unleashing a rolling wave of anti-magic, which extinguished the mystical blue glow, and banished the spectre. A change in the atmosphere of the barrow was perceptible to all who still stood. Xalik cul Zhan was vanquished.

Den threw off the horrid cave-dweller, and pummelled it until it stopped moving, snuffing out its aura of darkness. He then joined Featherfew, Enid, Burley and Pebbles in the treasure chamber. The friends examined the warlord’s booty. They found a stoppered vial made from thick, faceted glass within in which a clear concoction, speckled with salt and soot, swirled; a spherical glass bottle, containing a glimmering red liquid; and an iron helmet, with a narrow slit for the eyes and ram’s horns curling around its sides. Den also pocketed a pair of plain bone dice which radiated magical energy. They also uncovered a fortune in antique coins and finely cut gemstones [450gp].

While the party squabbled over whether it was right or wrong to help themselves to these treasures, Ilyad stood alone. She contemplated Xalik’s troth ring, which lay shattered on the floor. The ruined silver band called to her, and she struggled with the temptation to pick it up and put it on.

On their way out of the tomb, Burley used Daven Ironhand’s maul, Chainbreaker, to shatter a sealed stone door. Within, the party discovered the lonely corpse of Linny Stringwinder, the grave robber who, along with Carp Barlow, had awakened the evil of this place. In her small withered fist, she clutched the old copper coin which she had stolen from this place; it seems she had sought to return her share of the stolen grave-goods, but had found Xalik to be an implacable and remorseless master.

Outside of the tomb, Pebbles fetched Sir Starling’s pauldron from his cart and strapped it to his shoulder. ‘We’re real adventurers now,’ he said. ‘We went into that dungeon, vanquished the evil, and didn’t massacre anyone!’ He then set to helping Burley, who was digging graves for Linny and Jabez, the old farmer. Den marked their graves on the map, and the party set out northward, looking to meet Lapidarius Greylock at Margaux’s Farm.

The trudged through the uncannily flat and featureless plains, the monotonous landscape interrupted only by the trunk of a dead tree. Bone white and limbless, it jutted from the ground at an odd angle. At its base, there was a hollow, which made a sound when the wind is up, not unlike blowing across the neck of an empty jug. Investigating, the friends discovered that the hollow gave way to a narrow tunnel, from which issued a pungent odour of rotting meat.

Choosing not to investigate this unsettling discovery this far from home and late in the day, the party made for Margaux’s, passing a strange hill and a ruined barn on their way. But the sun was falling low as they came to a sandy track, and a signpost which pointed the way to shelter…