Barrow of the Raging Storm

Your party approaches a barrow at the base of the mountain. A raging storm brews overhead, and as you approach, a bolt of lightning strikes down on the peak of the mound, lighting up the world all around you. A thunderclap momentarily deafens you, and as your eyes adjust to the resuming grey of the dark day, you see a flicker of firelight emerging from the two gaping holes built into the side of the hill. You’ve found the pirates camping within the Barrow of the Raging Storm.

As I delivered it to my players, the premise of this Midnight Sun adventure is that some pirates have been attacking ships returning from raids. They have been stealing the loot and the corpses of any slain Nords. Among their victims, a ship from Valthis returns to tell them that the pirates sailed upriver (to hex 506), where I placed the Barrow in my Shadowdark RPG campaign. The adventurers started from there and explored the dungeon thoroughly.

The adventure was created using the tools described in the Shadowdark RPG core rules and the Midnight Sun micro-setting from Cursed Scroll 3 (you will need this supplement to play). I created it in about 6 hours between 2024-03-08 and 2024-03-09 and ran it for my group on the 9th. It took about 2.25 hours to play to completion. The party consisted of two level 1 characters and one level 2 character. I had so much fun making and running this. I will continue creating more Midnight Sun Adventures, so stay tuned!

• The Barrow is the burial sight of Embla Bear Heart, a beloved worshipper of Thor and shield maiden. He strikes lightning onto the hill every day in honour of her valour.
• Thyra Night-born uses the constantly striking lightning to fashion her ultimate warrior, a Flesh Golem.
• Thyra has hired a group of pirates to raid the returning Viking ships; they can keep the treasure, but she needs the corpses. She has walled up the passage in Room 2 to prevent their prying.
• Jerrik, her apprentice, injured himself while reinforcing Thyra’s magic glyph in Room 5 and is searching for a way to heal himself.

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