655 - The Barrow Downs of Alglondor

Seeking the ancient relic known as the Lanthorn of Shadows, brave heroes traveled to the ancient Barrow Downs of Alglondor. Now known as the Vampire War Zone, this region was long overrun by the forces of the Vampire Lords, its sacred tombs defiled and sealed against the holy knights of Alglondor.

The powerful wizard Lokizo uses his magic to assist swift travel, summoning a flying steed. While traveling over the downlands, a war-struck region at the Eastern border of Alglondor, the heroes see remnants of vast battles and the burned husks of once-proud Alornean towers and towns. They carefully skirt the active armies of the Vampire Lords through treeless plain and grassy, rolling hills. In the center of the downlands lie what must be the ancient Barrow Downs, for the circle of hills is covered with stone obelisks carved with holy symbols of the Alglonds. Lokizo's winged steed refuses to approach the unholy area, so they land outside the haunted hills and approach on foot.

Most of the barrows have sealed stone doors covered with ancient runes. Roscoe immediately notices that the runes on the doors are active magical traps, but they look nearly impossible to disarm. Arnath reaches out to touch one of the doors to see if he can divine anything with his magic, and is struck blind, deaf, and unable to move! The adventurers decide to see if there is a way around the doors and discover that some of the outlying barrow tombs have broken doors. Inside can be seen several skeletons of humans and Goblyns on the floor near the door, facing inward.

A pool of water has also breached the walls of one barrow. Throm crawls inside for a look and discovers that the wooden flooring of the barrow has been rotted away by the water. The adventurers enter the barrow, standing on the shaky wooden floor. The barrow mound has a narrow passage leading from the this small 20' by 30' cramped room to the door. The room is decorated like a feast hall, with wooden tables and chairs sitting on a wooden planked floor. The room is small because most of the mound is stone and sod, and the walls contain long rows of ledges upon which lie remains of ancient lords and kings. Old tapestries, banners, and plaques inscribed with war poems and accounts of past deeds line the spaces between the ledges. The sound of running water can be heard from below the wooden flooring. Throm investigates a hole in the wooden floor and would have fallen in but for the rope Thorvig tied around him.

Throm decides to make the hole a bit larger so that he can investigate. He smashes a hole in the floor with his axe, but the entire wooden floor collapses, throwing Throm and Arnath into an abyss below. Lokizo hastily weaves a spell to slow their descent, while Thorvig hauls in the rope that Throm was tied to. The adventurers see Arnath floating slowly down a vertical shaft beneath the flooring, his eyes clenched in terror. A short time later, the magical lightstone held by Arnath winks out and he plunges downward, no longer held aloft by Lokizo's feather fall spell. Everyone cringes in terror as they hear him screaming during the fall, and after a few moments a quite splash of water far, far below. They try shouting to him but he appears to be too far away to hear, or dead.

Thorvig begins to lower Throm down on his rope, but Throm decides that he is moving too slowly to save Arnath from certain death and cuts his rope to fall into the water with a bit less screaming and a slightly louder splash.

The fall is long, with a bit of water at the end which cushions the fall of Arnath and Throm enough to survive the impact with the floor beneath the water (splash, crunch!). Arnath and Throm find themselves unceremoniously dumped into this enormous cavern that is dark and featureless all directions as far as the eye can see. Luckily there is no current or other hazards, for the swim to find land nearly spells the end of Arnath, who quickly tires and begins to sink. If not for Throm's bravery the scholar would have surely perished in the dark water. The two adventurers swim for what seems an eternity before finding a sequence of broad stone steps that rise out of the water. They drag themselves to the shore, strength-less and chilled, and wrap themselves in woolen blankets to wait for rescue.

Lokizo, Thorvig, and Roscoe discuss plans for rescuing their hapless comrades. Lokizo determines that Reshuk may have placed a powerful curse over the tombs that dispels non-evil magic.

Lokizo and Roscoe lower Thorvig down on a rope. Beneath the wooden floor of the barrow is a 30 foot long rough-hewn vertical shaft leading to a 60 foot high, dark cavern. The cavern is filled with 10 feet of water, which Thorvig is dropped into as Lokizo tires of lowering him down. The cavern extends in all directions beyond Thorvig's vision and he hears no sign of his friends, so he picks a random direction and starts swimming. The swim is long and Thorvig begins to tire, but near the end of Thorvig's long rope Whelm speaks, saying that he senses his gold-laden friends nearby.

Thorvig swims back to the "center" of the cavern to tell Lokizo and Roscoe, but has difficulty navigating the dark waters. After conversing with Lokizo, they decide to swim after Arnath and Throm, leaving Roscoe on the surface to tend a lantern showing the entrance/exit of the cavern, and ensure that the rope is undisturbed. Once in the cavern, Thorvig fails to locate Throm and Arnath until the scholar creates pinions of fire with his psychic powers to act as a signal. Turning around and heading towards their friends, the swim of Thorvig and Lokizo parallels that of Throm and Arnath, as Lokizo tires and Thorvig must save him. Eventually all four adventurers lay on the stone steps shore, breathless, cold, and exhausted from their swim.

Exploring the area, they determine that the steps stretch out on either side for a great distance, and they find a wall of the cavern. The entire wall is a grid of niches that contain the remains of the dead knights of the Shieldlands. Deciding that rest is futile in the cold, and that the dead are probably undead, the adventurers decide to press on and find a way in or out.

They travel along the side of the lake for an hour, and finally the scenery changes. The steps reach further out into the water, and a spire of rock juts from the wall. The spire is carved in the shape of an ancient armored king with a shield pointed at his feet and the flaming sword upraised. Lokizo and Arnath agree that this is actually a statue of Pyrose. The carving is incredibly detailed, but the once-white marble has veins of black and red that spread through it like an evil taint. Between the feet of the king lies an arched passageway that leads into the Halls of Light, the fabled Tomb of Kings.

A pair of tarnished bronze doors leads into long hallways of the tainted marble. More doors lead to the wings of the tomb. Each bears the seal of the Holy Realm of the Faithful of Shield Lands and most are magically warded with the unholy runes. The doors all appear the same.

Pressing onward through the next set of doors, they once again face a similar set of hallways. At this time, however, Arnath notices that the symbols on the doors are actually slightly different from one another. Going back to the previous chamber, the adventurers see that all of the doors have slight variations in their coat of arms. Lokizo's skill in heraldry allows them to decipher most of them.

• Knights of the Holy Shielding (ornate cross on a shield)
• Ranger Lords (crossed bow and oak leaves)
• Stewards of the Realm (staff and coins )
• Lords of the Realm (royal sword and blank shield)

Arnath senses that the door of the Knights of the Holy Shielding is the only part of the tomb that has not been tainted by the evil of the Vampire Lords. Thorvig opens the door and they see a chapel-tomb of the paladins of the Shieldlands. They hear chanting of many voices in unison, saying holy prayers of sanctity and protection to Pyrose. Several rows of ghostly white paladins clad in armor kneel in vigil before a holy altar, both hands clasped on their downward-pointed cruciform-hilted swords. The entire room is bathed in white, holy light and a white marble basin stands in front of the door, filled with pure holy water.

As the adventurers enter this sacred place they are bathed in white light. As one, the ghostly knights stand and turn to face them with military discipline. A leader of the knights steps forward and welcomes them to this sanctuary, saying that this is the one part of the tombs that has remained pure, but only through their constant vigil and prayers. The adventurers may rest here in safety, under the protection of the Knights of the Holy Shielding and Pyrose.

Weary and glad of the chance to rest, the adventurers accept the hospitality and fall into a deep sleep to the sounds of the knights prayers. They later awaken fully refreshed and filled with a sense of peace.

The leader of the knights tells the adventurers that a powerful shadow has been put in the Sanctuary of the High Kings by the Vampire Lords to taint their sacred halls. The knights give the heroes a blessing to protect them from the unhallowed ground, and warn them not to disturb any graves unnecessarily.

Opening the next set of doors, the adventurers find a pair of alcoves, each occupied by an suit of full plate armor standing at attention and armed with mace, flail and shield. The arms and armor were once beautiful white enameled steel with rich gold filigree. Roscoe notices that the armor and weapons also contain a trace of taint, though not as pronounced as the marble. Arnath mutters a prayer to Perditor Mortua and the maul glows with light, indicating some sort of undead inside the armor.

When the maul glows, the suits of armor leap down to attack. The armor seems to be filled with some sort of corporeal undead, and their weapons sap the life force of those wounded. The adventurers quickly take one down, but then the next set of doors open and two more guardians charge through, this pair armed with sword and axe.

During the battle, the guardian that Thorvig took down rose back up and resumed its attack. Arnath employed Perditor Mortua on each corpse as the other heroes felled them, and the bodies burned to ash, never to rise again.

Ignoring the side passages as the knights instructed, the heroes find the last room, the great Sanctuary of the High Kings. Arnath says a prayer to Perditor Mortua and the doors swing open.

Six kings of old have been buried here in ornate marble sarcophagi. However, all of the graves have been defiled by the servants of the Vampire Lords, the bodies pierced by strange black iron daggers. The bodies seem to twitch and moan in pain, even in their death. This is surely the cause of the taint, and the work of the Vampire Lords.

The adventurers boldly step into the room and suddenly feel alone. Oddly, everyone else seems to have vanish from sight and cannot be heard or detected. Most of the adventurers hastily flee from this unpleasant surprise, and when they leave the room they once again can see one another.

However, Arnath remains in the room and ventures near one of the kings. He screams in terror as he feels himself being clawed by the shadow. Arnath flees the room, nearly dead, and emerges into the hallway and his waiting friends. The adventurers reason that the invisibility is due to the influence of the Lanthorn of Shadows.

The adventurers try to blow away some of the invisible smoke from the Lanthorn, and Throm catches a glimpse of a shadowy creature with glowing red eyes and multiple clawed arms. Finding a proper challenge, Throm enters the room to do battle with the shadow. The shadow attacks Throm as it did Arnath, with numerous sharp claws. Invisible and silent, the shadow makes a difficult foe to locate, but Throm's keen warriors's senses allow him to take a swipe at the evil spawn. Nonetheless, Throm senses that this foe is too much for him to fight alone, and retreats to form a better plan.

Frightened but determined, the characters devise a plan to remove the twisted iron daggers using coordinated teamwork. They rush into the room and remove the daggers from the corpses of the kings. The shadow in the room attacks Arnath and Lokizo, nearly killing them both, but they succeed and with a loud bell-chime the curse of the Vampire Lords is lifted! The shadow screams in torment and the dead return to their rest.

The adventurers search the room for the Lanthorn. Thorvig runs up the wall to the ceiling and clambers down the chandelier chain, finding the lamp at the end of the chain. Thorvig extinguishes the lamp and the adventurers are once again able to see normally.

As they heroes return down the hallway, they notice that the taint has been expunged from the white marble. The unhallowed caverns are once hallowed! Waiting down the hall are the ghostly Knights of the Holy Shielding, who proclaim them heroes of the realm and holy warriors worthy of the three holy relics. Any of the honorable and faithful of the Shieldlands will recognize the relics and honor the heroes for their deeds!

Lokizo magically transports the adventurers out of the Shieldlands through the air to Aquila. Once in Aquila, they pay a visit to the temple of Pyrose to report their heroic deeds at the "Tomb of the Kings". The priest are incredulous and skeptical at first, but the adventurers bear the three holy relics as evidence, and soon word spreads through the religious circles of the city about the liberation of the sacred barrows.