The basis for this week’s session was the short adventure The Chieftain’s Barrow, available on the DMs Guild, plus wilderness random encounters from Lost in the Wilderness (no longer available).

The party heard rumours of undead troubling a village in the Cairn Hills, so set out to investigate it.

On the first day of travel, they came across a small house near a pond, where a woman drying fish was menaced by a pride of four lions. The woman was not amused when Vena the Druid fed the lions her fish with no compensation (after discussing the situation with the lions) and misdirected them on the trail.

The second day of travel saw the party discover a group of twelve ogres menacing a group of goblins to catch fish for them. The party slew the ogres – the goblins fled – and theorised that the ogres were supplying the woman at the house with fish!

On the third day of travel, the heroes encountered a group of nomadic warriors worshipping at a megalith and were warned off. The party took the hint and left.

At the village, the party learnt of the undead leaving the barrow at night and slaughtering their sheep (and soon, likely other prey!) However, a group of nomadic warriors were guarding the barrow and preventing access to the tomb of their ancestors. Apparently, another band of adventurers had been by and disturbed the undead, and had fled thereafter. Negotiations with the nomads were not successful; they would let no-one in without the say-so of their priestess, who was currently away conducting a rite for the leaders of their tribe. (Alton the Rogue deduced they’d run into those nomads the day before, but there was no way the party would spend another day trekking back!)

So, instead on the fourth day, Vena prepared pass without trace and the group sneaked past the nomads into the barrow.

As they were being stealthy and all using darkvision, they completely failed to notice the trap and had a large block fall on the paladin and druid. (Disadvantage to Perception checks when using darkvision!)

The central cavern of the barrow held the following foes:

• 2 skeletons
• 2 sword wraiths
• 2 deathlock wights
• 1 wight

Also, a magical table.

The party turned the sword wraiths and defeated the rest of the undead. They then discovered the Great Leader who was buried here: now a sword wraith commander, who summoned further sword wraiths to attack the rogue (who thought he was safe hiding behind the wizard). But the Great Leader also fell, and the party were successful.

Eric the Wizard cast an identify spell on the table and discovered it was meant to protect the tomb against necrotic energies (and the undead), but some of its runes had been dislodged by the previous party which had reversed its effect! He replaced the runestones, restoring the protection on the tomb, and also opening a secret door to the Great Leader’s treasure.

Which the party took on the way home, sneaking past the nomads on the way out.

Rewards: 4000 XP and 1285 gold pieces each, and a figurine of wondrous power (silver raven).

Then a week of downtime, which I believe Alton spent training and Vena spent gambling.

A bit of wilderness action this session, so not strictly speaking a “weekend” session for the characters!

Time taken in the session: around 2 to 2-1/2 hours of play (and a bunch more catching up).’

Quick review of The Chieftain’s Barrow: Very simple adventure for level 5 characters. I added more details to it, fleshing things out more, and also upscaled a few foes for the level 9 party I had. I feel it could have a bit more meat on the bones, as it was a very small part of this session. (Though having only two players meant things went by fast). A few nice ideas, but worked better as a seed for the session than the entire thing.

Characters: Vena (Druid 9), Alton (Rogue 9), henchmen Theobald (Paladin 7), Eric (Wizard 7)