After returning to town without Mordaf, Owain was the most physically injured, with badly broken ribs, and would need several weeks to recuperate. It would take him longer to recover mentally from the loss. Mordaf had always looked up to him and Owain felt he’d let down his friend. The others were content to just bide their time, for awhile, but after a couple weeks they became restless and longed for adventure. This was brought on by hearing tell of a young man out harvesting mushrooms who encountered a giant spider, closer to the village than those vile creatures would typically come.

Yan, Aeodan, and two brothers named Bronwen and Brenek, decided they’d set out to explore the barrow area. They were familiar with this site but the standing stones with their hieroglyphic-like carvings always inspired awe. Bronwen threw a rope over one stone and had his brother hang onto the end, so he could climb to the top and see if there was anything of interest off in the distance. Nothing could be seen.

They started hearing a wind chime sound and suddenly a figure appeared in the mist, a hooded and cloaked Bakku (an intelligent and advanced species related to Orcs) wearing a staff on his back that was both weapon and magical. It had holes in it and that’s what the wind was blowing through to make the sound. Bronwen slid down the rope quickly.

The Bakku went to a triad stone and knelt, obviously meditating. Bronwen knelt down about five feet away to join in the meditation and asked if it was okay? Speaking telepathically, he said “anyone can join, it’s a free space.” Yan then also knelt but Aeodan hung back, thinking it was all a bunch of malarkey. To everyone’s surprise a presence started forming in a slow circling mist around the Bakku and there was a soft hissing voice. Bronwen remained calm but Brenek was nervous and tried to pull Bronwen away. Aeodan kept his distance, very wary.

They became suddenly aware that the mist had vanished, and then shocked to see that the stones had vanished as well, and in their midst, standing in front of the Bakku, was an enormous wooly mammoth. The Bakku bowed to it and touched its trunk gently. The same hissing voice could be heard, but not understood. Suddenly it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared, and the stones and surroundings were back to normal.
Telepathically these words were spoken: “so, you’ve found the ankh rod. You will need that to get into the barrows.”

The group of four decided to get back to town, as they couldn’t wait to tell Owain all about this encounter, and now they knew to bring the rod with them when they returned. Taking a close look at the rod for the first time, they noticed it had similar inscriptions to what they’d seen at the standing stones.

Back the next morning, although they’d been there before, outside the barrow, the presence of the rod allowed them to see a stone arch entryway they’d never found before, with steps going down. They could feel cold air coming up the steps. Nervously they went down. The room they entered had tapestries covering the walls, and there were three wooden coffins in the room. The grandest sight was a huge war chariot in the middle of the room, with giant skeletal horses on either side of the chariot.

One tapestry depicted beautifully dressed humans and taller snake-like humanoids. There was a human queen, or empress, seen holding an amulet and broadsword, being crowned by an angel. Another depicted this empress plunging the broadsword into a huge serpent creature. Bronwen said perhaps if we could get ahold of this sword and the amulet we could use it to defeat Dewi, who we’d come to believe had been turned into a giant snake by Anawawd’s curse, or his sister cursed to be a giant spider. A cold wind gave everyone goosebumps as they could hear a whispering voice but no one could understand the words. Bronwen pretended he was having a conversation with an unseen presence.

They were then attacked by skeletons, from the right and left! These animated dead creatures were dressed in ancient ringmail armor. It was a scary battle but with each one wielding their weapons they were able to defeat the skeletons and make off with their armor and bronze spears…