A call for hirelings only yielded a cleric, Hameza, with a dog named Poochie, of all things. She worshiped Denara, which you would think would be a refreshing change from the stuffy St. Ygg priests, but no. She spent the entire 3 hours to the barrows talking about insurance. Charlotte tried to pet the dog and got bit. Things were tense between Charlotte and Hameza after that. On our way in, we were jumped by 3 giant scorpions. I saw a claw come towards me …

I came to after a vision of a river. The scorpion apparently tried to bite me, but bit my pet rock instead, and left my body in disgust. I was severely injured, and my pet rock was shattered. I stumbled back towards town, and met the rest of the group on the way. Hazema died about the same time I did, and the dog as well. The phenomenally bad decisions continued, as the group decided to go back towards the barrows. I did get Bancroft to heal me at least.

Bancroft wanted to poke into a barrow with animated skeletons, for some reason that I can't fathom. They did indeed start to get up, and Bancroft tried to turn the two he saw, then moved forward and saw three more that he needed to turn. The height of inefficiency. One dead, three turned, one not. And I was the only one that even dinged that one with magic missile for the longest time until Anister shot it. I suggested they quickly look in the empty alcoves for treasure and we get out before the skeletons weren't turned anymore, but yet again, no. Bancroft decided to go after the three turned skeletons. Which promptly attacked, because they weren't turned anymore, so he didn't get surprise on them. Bancroft hit one, and his elf sword vanished. Luckily, there was a longsword on the stone slab in the center of the barrow. Anister dropped a skeleton with a well placed arrow. Charlotte bravely tried to sling a rock at one and got tangled up. Magic missile fizzled out, so I became a useless torch bearer.

Anister and Bancroft traded blows with the last two, then one, while Charlotte kept trying the sling, to no avail. She is a dead shot throwing a dagger, though. Bancroft finally managed to finish the last one off. After a thorough search, Anister found that the back right alcove covered a door, but we'd need tools to pry it open. We headed back to town.