Warning: Spoilers below for the adventure, Barrow of the Ogre-King, in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide.
Picking up right where we left off, our intrepid party of adventurers had just stumbled upon some shambling creatures. Yuri, who had scouted ahread, quickly retreated to the backline and combat began. As the PCs engaged the dwarven zombies shambling forward, a couple of goblins emerged from a nearby door and joined in the fight. Partially surrounded and with some PCs getting flanked, the party faced a difficult combat but that was soon to change.
With a crashing sound and a mighty yawp, a still living dwarf fell through the ceiling just beyond the already ongoing combat. This dwarf, Dent, quickly engaged the goblins he saw in front of him. With Dent’s aid, the goblins and zombies had no chance. After the combat, the party learned that Dent had happened upon the dwarven ruins while looking for a different tomb (and the remains of the deceased adventurers he had been hired to recover). Much like Berran, Dent had fallen into a pit which had dumped him into the fight. (Our out of town player, Dave, was in town for the weekend and so I opted to bring him into the game in this manner).
Having been well-tested by the previous pair of fights, the party decided to take an extended rest in a side room with a door (the one through which the now deceased goblins had come). Unfortunately, the sounds of the prior fight had attracted the attention of some other residents of the Barrow…a band of goblins and hobgoblins. As the party prepared to rest, the door to their desired campsite burst open and a couple of hobgoblins charged into the room and formed a shield wall (phalanx ability). Pinned within the room, having difficulty with the hobgoblins high defense against physical attacks, and facing the poor visibility and distraction of a goblin hexer’s Vexing Cloud, the party had a rather difficult time. In the end, with some good tactics, they prevailed although one goblin was able to flee deeper into the Barrow.
Resuming their attempt at a rest, the party succeeded and, after their well-earned rest, the party continued on. (Note: The goblin shaman, Sarcossung, was too busy working his ritual to resurrect the Ogre-King and ordered the remaining goblins to stick close by to guard him…this is why the party had the opportunity to take an extended rest). They first found the goblin warrens (along with some valuables) before pushing deeper into the catacombs when the discovered a large chamber that descended deep into the earth. This chamber held the tombs of many dwarves which had been desecrated and plundered. Descending a ramp to the bottom of the chamber, the party found a side room containing the sarcophagus of the Ogre King and its guardians or would-be resurrectionists. The goblin shaman, Sarcossung, and a couple of other goblin types (ones which had fled from prior fights in the barrow) had taken up position here to meet the party.
Sarcossung immediately demanded that the humans leave but, being adventurer types, they (of course) refused and another combat started (possibly our longest fight to date with 4e…maybe not). In the end, Sarcossung and his allies were killed and many of the PCs were quite close to death as well. The Horn Totem, the item which had been stolen from Garwan’s, was found on Sarcossung and a skull, from which the horn had been taken, was also found. Like the Horn Totem, the skull was magical as well (a magical mace known as the Skull Totem). After aiding their downed companions and gathering any treasure of value, the party headed back for the surface.
(Here ended our second session which was pretty much a straightforward dungeon-crawl).
