Art by Gus L.

Introduction

Hello again, Gentle Reader. This session actually happened a while ago, but a combination of online and offline projects conspired to keep me from writing this report in a timely fashion. No more, I say! This is likely the last session report that will cover the Iron Barrow, so if you're interested in my thoughts about the experience as a whole make sure you read my Reflections at the end. As far as the events of this session go, we take revenge, get some fresh air, and test the patience of the undead. Also, there's a bath scene.

Roster

• Gentle Mormo, Cleric of the First Emperor (Shrine Guard), played by Arnold K.
• Iosis Harvest the Magic-User (Alchemist), played by Naeolin/Derek/Me.
• Krast the Bull, Fighter (Retired Bull Legionnaire), played by Joel Hines
• Lempen the Judge, Cleric of the Golden Emperor (Holy Auditor), played by Zedeck Siew
• Morgwen the Escaped Penal Templar.
• Susie the Magic User (Arcanist Scholar), played by Marcia B.

Play Report

Please note that the locations visited in the misadventures I describe in these play reports may end up in published Crystal Frontier modules (currently we are exploring the Iron Barrow) at some point. If your GM likes to run those for you, or has been talking about it, this would likely be a good time to stop reading.

Start of the Seventh Expedition

The start of the seventh expedition began with the return of Iosis from his supply run in Scarlet Town, during which he had gathered many supplies and much in the way of mystical knowledge. He was accompanied by a new companion, Krast the Bull, and together with many more familiar faces they delved once more into the depths of the Iron Barrow.

The party quickly made their way back to the room with the flaming skeletons and took the path in the Southeastern corner of the room, discovering various murals depicting black snakes along the way. They decided to return to the room with the pool and spectral flowers they had discovered during the last expedition. Iosis had asked Morgwen to bring an empty waterskin in order to collect the water, which she did upon arriving. Iosis suspected that, based on the riddle the others had encountered, the water had special properties when undead were exposed to it.

(The riddle, for those who don't want to bother returning to the previous session report, was ""If I should wake beneath the loam, memories pool will take me home. When life again begins to lack, bloody waters will bring me back.")

Krast decided to stick his finger in to see if the waters interacted with the living, and found that the waters seemed perfectly mundane. Others began to experiment as well, throwing hair in and splashing water out of the pool, but the only curious property they noted was that the pool refilled to its previous level.

Iosis wondered if giving the water to mindless undead would restore their memories, but giving them the water mixed with blood would return them to death. The party debated the merits of various proposals, before they settled on the idea of fetching one of the corpses they had found in a sarcophagus previously and seeing what would happen if they tossed it into the pool.

Impatient Like the Dead

Before the party could enact their plan of corpse experimentation, they heard noises coming from the hallway and were soon confronted with Ama, the undead noble who had sought the party's aid in returning to her homeland during the previous expedition. She was in a considerably worse mood than when she had been previously encountered. The party realized that if they weren't careful, the conversation was likely to end in violence.

Behind the mask, she looks pissed. Art by Gus L.

The group hatched a desperate plan: trick Ama and her handmaidens to bathe in the pool. Sadly, the party's efforts at persuasion were less than effective, and in the end Gentle Mormo disrobed and attempted to bathe in order to convince the undead ladies that the waters were fine.

Mormo stepped into the pool and waded to the center, where he promptly disappeared (Gus told Arnold that he could play Lempen's henchman the rest of the session). Ama made a quip to the effect of "that's why you don't get into pools in tombs". The party briefly debated, then made a desperate scramble to gather Mormo's things and dive into the pool as well.

A Change of Scenery

The party surfaced moments later in a pool situated in a mountain dell, which Krast confirmed was in the Maidens' Tombs mountain range, a few days away from the Barrow. There were many not-spectral flowers lining the pool, a plinth by the water's edge, and several trees scattered throughout. There was a small shrine cut into the western wall, with signs of it being used in the past, plus stairs leading upward.

The party ascended the stairs, which led to a valley where smoke could be spotted to the North. They traveled a short distance before stumbling upon some shepherds. Upon being spotted, a horn was sounded and they found themselves confronted by about 30 men armed with the weapons of hunters (spears and bows and the like). An old greybeard stepped forward to speak to the party, and Susie decided to be party spokesperson. They quickly discovered that they came from a shrine dedicated to "the old mother goddess" that is considered to be cursed by the locals, as people are known to disappear when visiting.

Susie began to tell the man about how they had arrived at the shrine after exploring a tomb, but Iosis interrupted before she could divulge too much information and Lempen began discussing taxes with the man as a distraction. Iosis cautioned giving away too much information as to the nature of the tomb they had been exploring, lest they anger the shepherds over the defilement of a resting place of their ancestors. The party ended up agreeing to leave, with Susie offering a silver knife as a peace offering before departing.

The party returned to the pool, where upon examining the plinth they discovered grooves that lead down towards the water. Believing they now understood the riddle, the party caught a rabbit and killed it. When they let the rabbit's blood flow through the grooves and drop into the water, they found that the surface of the water subtly changed. They dove back into the pool and found themselves back within the Iron Barrow, but luckily Ama and her handmaidens were nowhere to be found.

The party briefly discussed whether they should venture to the room where they had previously encountered the Ferropedes, or explore the hallways to the West. The Western hallways win out, but they don't get far before encountering a patrol of Skele-Bros. Mormo's attempt to banish the undead warriors was successful in dispersing the main body of the patrol, but their leader was undeterred and launched into a vicious attack. A brief skirmish took place, in which sword, spear, and magical cookies were employed to varying degrees of effect. Though clearly skilled in battle, the undead leader was brought low by a well-placed toss of Holy Water by Susie. Thus, the party had their revenge for the cruel insults and provocations they endured all the way back during the second expedition (after initiating the conflict in the first place...)

The Wage of War and the Cost of Greed

As reward for their victory, the party found a single arm band (100 GP). Looking at their options, they decided to take the Southeastern route that (hopefully) led away from Canine's skeleton army. Shortly thereafter, they discovered a sarcophagus with the symbol of a sword etched into its lid. As they cracked it open and carefully removed the lid, they heard fighting in the distance, but elected to ignore it. Inside, the group found a sword with a fur-lined sheath that somehow had escaped the ravages of time. Morgwen claims the blade for her own, but before she can draw it Iosis warned her of the nature of such swords that they had found previously, and the price in blood that they exact from their wielders.

Ignoring his advice, Morgwen drew the blade and had the impression of a man wandering for many years alone, a voice in her head crying "who, who, do you know the way home?"

"Who are you? I haven't seen anyone in so long... Are we fighting? We should fight soon..."

Morgwen felt an internal tug, an urge to strike out at her nearest companion. She resisted the impulse, and attempted to sheath the blade. However, the sword resisted her attempt, and countered with a strange question: "What makes the moon shine?". Morgwen replied with "the light of all the people of the world", which actually seemed to satisfy it. The sword demanded a payment in blood before being sheathed, biting so deep it caused Morgwen to become light-headed (1 HP remaining. Apparently, if the sword had disliked the answer it was capable of doing enough damage to kill Morgwen outright).

The sword dealt with, the party ventured further South and discovered yet another sarcophagus, this one with a man with outstretched arms and coins overflowing out of his hands. Lempen, thinking of the potential taxes inside, excitedly pried off the lid with Morgwen's assistance. The hissing release of gas is all the warning that the party received before an articulated bronze snake lashed out from inside the stone container, striking Lempen full in the face and biting through his golden mask (down to 0 HP in one hit!).

A very short battle ensued, in which Lempen's manservant Table valiantly smashed the snake into inoperability. Morgwen, thinking practically, bundled the remains of the snake up to sell, and the party once again retreated with loot and fallen comrades in tow.

Map my Gus L.

Reflections

On paper, this wasn't a very successful session. We had a big party and found less than 500 GP, but (for me, at least) it was really fun. Plus, magic swords are always a great victory.

I came to this session bound and determined to solve the riddle of the water, which I ended up completely misinterpreting by thinking that it was the key to restoring undead memories and putting them back to sleep. I can't stress how hilarious it is that we spent so much time hatching plans to test the water on corpses and the like. You really can't predict what players will latch onto and spend their time on.

Our encounter with Ama threatened to derail our entire session, as we didn't want to fight her and also wanted to test our theories about the water. She started the encounter very angry with us (poor Reaction roll), and it's a testament to the moral quandary Gus put us in (by confronting us with a reasonable undead) that we didn't just kill her and take her stuff. It's really hard to do that to people, which she very much counted as despite being a long-rotted corpse.

Arnold's character disappearing into the pool was a big shock. I was pretty proud of all of us taking the risk of jumping in after him rather than leave him to his fate, and it ended up serving the dual purpose of letting us discover yet another way into and out of the Barrow and got an undead noble off our back. Not that I actually realized it was just another exit. I was convinced there was some hidden treasure somewhere, but at the end of the day a way down to the third level represents a pretty significant potential time savings, though at the cost of relocating our entire camp.

This is likely the last time that our particular online group will venture into the Iron Barrow (now retitled Bronze Bones of the Crystal Frontier). When the game resumes in July, the plan is to tackle another WIP of Gus's. Thus, I think it is fitting that I talk about my thoughts of the module as a whole as it stands right now.

I would like to start by acknowledging that Gus took on a pretty big challenge in making this module, because a tomb full of undead that didn't used to be the flying palace of a space elf is substantially harder to make fresh. I think he has largely succeeded in doing so, and I am sad we didn't make it down to lower levels where I know that even more interesting things were awaiting us...

That is probably my main criticism that hasn't been addressed through playtesting revisions: Gus has kept a lot of the weirder and cooler shit close to the vest. There are things further down that I wish were hinted at more overtly in the first and second levels. This is hardly a criticism unique to this module, of course. I've seen it leveled at a lot of larger Dungeons, but it is something that I think more modules should address by letting levels "bleed" together more. An incongruous item or entity would go a long way.

The main thing I enjoyed about this Dungeon is how much it rewarded you engaging with it as a place with history that you could uncover and use to your advantage. Gus made the undead interesting here by giving them a distinctive, alien culture that players need to unravel in order to intelligently overcome challenges and make allies rather than enemies. For instance, in this session there were two sarcophagus opened: one trapped and one with a magic weapon inside. At first glance it might be tempting to accuse Gus of violating the ICI Doctrine (not that Gus is contractually bound to actually telegraph traps or anything). However, I think he actually did telegraph the danger if you consider the decorations from the perspective of the people who created the tomb, who valued war and acts of combat prowess over unearned wealth. Thus, the sarcophagus with the sword being a reward and the one with coins being a trap.

Throughout the dungeon, there is a level of environmental storytelling that rewards engaging with the place and its people rather than simply dismissing them as set dressing. Though I initially took issue with how the tunnel entrance had too much potential to allow you to wander around without meaningful discoveries (worth GP and otherwise), the level redesigns as a result of playtesting addressed many of these issues.

I often feel like a lot of published Dungeons just don't have enough cool stuff. It's one thing if my Dungeon that I threw together using the tools in the rulebook is generic, but why am I paying money for stuff like that when I can have cool custom magic items and spells that actually fit the location being explored? Every cursed magic item should be something that is actually cool with serious drawbacks, like Gus's Tomb Blades, instead of just refusing to be taken off like a super-glue prank.

One last note, this time specifically on large Dungeons and Open Tables. I know that we're not the most efficient group, being an Open Table that takes place online via Discord, but I was very surprised that even after 7 sessions we still had several levels of the Dungeon not even partially explored. One thing that I do think made it challenging was that Gus's locations are dense, and because there is a potential for set dressing to matter, we spent a decent amount of time speculating on different things and filling newcomers in on the inner workings of the Barrow. I think that, if I were to run this module, I would want either a stable roster of players or ensure that player discoveries were documented in a way that were more accessible than long-winded play reports (cough) so that players could be on the same page faster. Still, that's a small price to pay for the rewarding experience this module provides.

10/10. Would set everything on fire again. I'm sure I will write about this module more once it is published and I get my filthy mitts on it, but that's all for now.