Bancroft on Old School Gamers

Shadowmaze -- Session 62 - Bancroft

Tue, 19 May 2026 21:00:00 -0600

The rain started in the night and it was still going in the morning, the kind that doesn’t mean to stop. Bancroft heard it on the shutters before he was properly awake. He lay there a while and listened to it and thought, without any heat in the thought, that they were going to go down into the ground anyway, and the ground did not care what the sky was doing.

Shadowmaze -- Session 61 - Bancroft

Tue, 12 May 2026 21:00:00 -0600

The last twenty minutes of the dig went like the first three hours had gone, which was to say it went slow and steady and without anyone dying. Bancroft worked the trench with Irulan. Anister kept the watch above. Clarice was not with them today. The note she had left in the morning had only said gone south, back in a week or two, and the part of Bancroft that liked to know things had asked Bolo whether he knew more, and Bolo had shaken his head with the careful look of a man who knew exactly what he was not telling, and Bancroft had let the matter drop. People came and went on the moor. You did not pry.

Shadowmaze -- Session 60 - Bancroft

Tue, 05 May 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Bancroft came up the moor road late, a half-hour after the others, because the cobbler in Helix had needed an extra hour to put the new sole on the left boot and Bancroft was not going to dig in a wet boot if he could help it. By the time he came around the long shoulder of the ridge that hid the dig from the road, the others had already finished some short business of their own. He saw it in the trampled grass and in the streak of blood drying on Anister’s pickaxe handle and in the way Clarice was wiping her dagger on a strip of moss. He did not ask. The kind of business that left grass trampled and dagger blades wet was the kind of business he was glad to have missed.

Shadowmaze -- Session 59 - Bancroft

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 21:00:00 -0600

They went back in the morning because no one could think of anything else to do.

Bancroft was the one who wouldn’t let it go. Anister had said, at breakfast, in the flat voice he used when he was trying to be kind, that there wasn’t anything to go back for. She’s behind a wall we can’t move, Bancroft. She’s been behind it all night. Whatever’s happened has happened. And Bancroft had looked at his bowl of porridge and said, then at least we owe her the work of trying. Which was the kind of sentence that ended conversations rather than winning them, and so by the time the sun was properly up they were on the moor road again, Anister with a pickaxe over one shoulder, Bancroft with a sledgehammer across his own, and a new hireling walking behind them with a torch in either hand.

Shadowmaze -- Session 58 - Bancroft

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 21:00:00 -0600

🎲

The first thing Riyou did was throw fire.

She had a flask of jellied oil – the kind of thing you carried for weeks without thinking about and then needed in one specific second – and she lit it and chucked it underhand at the man at the front of the wedge. It caught him across the chest. The flame went up his shirt and onto his face and the two men flanking him took the splash and started slapping at their own arms. The lead man started screaming and didn’t stop.

Shadowmaze -- Session 57 - Bancroft

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0600

🎲

Bancroft got to Helix three days behind the others. The disease from the Huecuva had taken longer to shake than the priests of St. Ygg had promised, and by the time he walked through the gates he was light on coin, heavy on fatigue, and already behind on what mattered.

Shadowmaze -- Session 56 - Bancroft

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0600

🎲

Four new faces at the entrance to the barrow. Bancroft sized them up the way his father had sized up hired hands at harvest – which ones would last the day, which ones would wander off, which ones would break something expensive. The halfling was interesting. Small, careful hands, a crossbow that looked recently oiled, and a leather case of bottles and powders that marked him as an apothecary. The others were what they were: bodies. Warm ones, for now.

Shadowmaze -- Session 55 - Bancroft

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0600

🎲

The necromancer fled north through the barrow, and the cleric followed.

The cleric had been dizzy since the last fight. He felt as if his head were filled with something thin and wrong, like air that had been breathed too many times. The barrow would occasionally shimmer at the edges of his vision, the walls going soft and then hard again, and he could not tell if it was the blood loss or the dark or just the way this place worked on a man after long enough inside it. His faith felt like a well that someone had drawn from too often. Once, not so long ago, it had answered every prayer. Now it was the barrow, where nothing answered but the dead.

Shadowmaze -- Session 54 - Bancroft

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Nine of them at the skull door. Four who had been here before, five who hadn’t. The five were men from the Gray Company – Gallo, Larwyn, Tolm, Tarsil, and Kholix the torchbearer – and they stood at the entrance with the expression of people who had been told what was down there but hadn’t believed it yet.

Irulan braced the crowbar into the stone frame and pulled. The door gave with a grinding protest and wanted to close again, heavy and slow, like something that didn’t want to be opened and would fix the problem on its own if you let it. Inside, the mechanism had been packed with rocks. Someone had been here since last time. Rocks, and at the center of the pile, a dead rat arranged with its teeth bared at whoever reached in – taxidermied, posed, someone’s idea of a joke.

Shadowmaze -- Session 52

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Bancroft was lying on the stone floor.

He had been lying there since the spider. He knew this in the abstract – the spider bite, the paralysis, Irulan cutting him down from the web, the floor coming up. He hadn’t planned to land face-first. That was just how things went.

The stone was cold against his cheek. He could see the grain of it – the fossil-something embedded in the limestone, the dust settled into the low spots over a few hundred years of quiet. The skeleton’s bag was two feet from his outstretched right hand. He’d been staring at that bag since Irulan cut him down. It hadn’t moved.

Shadowmaze -- Session 51

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Bancroft
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Four people walked into the Brazen Strumpet the night before. A human, a dwarf, a half-orc, and a halfling – new to town, down on their luck, the kind of people who end up in Helix when the road runs out somewhere else. They arrived separately and ended up at the same table, which might have been luck or might have been that people with empty pockets recognize each other without having to ask.

Shadowmaze -- Session 49

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Bancroft
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The morning was cold and gray in Helix. Bancroft woke early, already thinking about the barrows.

They had hired five henchmen from the Gray Company – a local band who took on lesser jobs while their better-equipped brethren sought greater treasures. Nine gold for the lot. Bancroft hoped it would be money well spent.

Gillix and Ragnar were both mute – Gillix with a spear and a battered Viking helmet and a habit of gesturing at people’s crotches that Bancroft decided not to ask about, Ragnar with a crossbow and a quiet devotion to St. Ygg. Hengest was the torchbearer, a big man who talked enough for all of them. Landersooth carried a club and smelled of fish and kept looking over his shoulder. “They can’t find you in there, right?” he said, when asked why he was coming. And Mordu – burned badly down his left side, the skin still raw. When someone offered him a torch, he told them where to put it. The nerves were too close. Bancroft understood that.

Shadowmaze -- Session 48

Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:00:00 -0600

Bancroft
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🎲

Two barrow guardians. Three giant scorpions. One doorway, blocked by a wall of chitin and stone. Bancroft’s mind raced through the options the way a drowning man’s hands search for something to grab.

“The gems!” he shouted. His mama had always told him to focus on the important things in life, and right now the important thing was this: the guardians had come alive to protect the treasure. Maybe they’d chase it. And if the scorpions wanted to eat something, maybe they would settle for fighting stone instead of flesh.

Shadowmaze -- Session 46

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 21:00:51 -0600

Bancroft
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The news had reached Helix three days prior: Wyz the goblin wizard, along with Alandor and Perch, had vanished into that accursed book in the barrows. Touched it together, holding hands like children afraid of the dark, and one by one they had been swallowed by shadows. Morrigan and Aura had watched it happen, helpless.

Shadowmaze -- Session 45

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 21:02:42 -0600

Bancroft
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The screaming started with the dog.

Bancroft was deep in a dreamless sleep when the sound reached him–a frantic, high-pitched barking from down the hall, followed by the crash of something heavy hitting a door. Then came Seacrock’s voice, raw with panic, echoing through the thin walls of the inn.

Shadowmaze -- Session 43

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 20:58:36 -0600

Bancroft
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The jingle of coins in his purse was a happy, heavy sound, a promise of steel and safety. Bancroft, his mind as clear and simple as a summer sky, had a singular purpose. “I have enough,” he’d declared to his friends, his voice booming with the certainty of a man who has counted his treasure and found it sufficient. “We go to Ironguard Motte. I’m getting my plate mail!”

Shadowmaze -- Session 41

Tue, 06 Jan 2026 20:46:35 -0600

Bancroft
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The first blow that day came with the ordinary violence of the barrowmaze–bloody, sudden, and oddly intimate. Bancroft planted his feet, cursing his missing shield, and brought his sword down across a shambling zombie’s shoulder. The thing snarled with a voice like dry leaves and spun, its filthy claws raking the cleric’s forearm.

“By Sylvanus,” Bancroft gasped, tasting iron, but he kept his footing. Irulan stepped forward without hesitation, her blade ringing true as it bit into rotten tendon. Riyou’s arrow sang from the shadows and struck the creature between its shoulder and chest, driving it to its knees.

Shadowmaze -- Session 40

Tue, 16 Dec 2025 20:46:35 -0600

The morning sun cast long shadows across Helix as Bancroft made his way through the town’s winding streets, his mind turning over an intriguing conversation from the previous evening. He had encountered a small goblin wizard–scarred and bearing himself with the cold authority of one who had gazed beyond death’s veil–who spoke of an animated serpent trapped near the rats’ nest in the shadowmaze.

“An animated snake, you say?” Bancroft had mused, his farmer’s practicality already working through the possibilities. “Made of brass and steel?”

Shadowmaze -- Session 38

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 20:54:20 -0600

The morning after their devastating encounter with the mimics found the survivors nursing both wounds and wounded pride. Druidly’s absence hung over them like a shroud, but the barrowmaze waited for no one’s grief. Bancroft had managed to recruit four new souls willing to risk their lives for treasure–though their qualifications remained questionable at best.

“Right then,” Bancroft announced with his characteristic optimism, shouldering a shovel alongside his sword. “Fresh start, fresh barrow. Sylvanus teaches us that from death comes new growth.”

Shadowmaze -- Session 37

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 20:44:39 -0600

The morning found their company diminished but determined. Druidly, the half-orc wizard whose arcane studies had served them well, shouldered his pack with the quiet confidence of one who had mastered the mysteries of sleep and flame. “The swamp barrow,” he declared, adjusting his spell components. “Those frogs won’t catch us unprepared again.”

Bancroft nodded with the simple enthusiasm that marked all his endeavors. Despite his farmer’s origins–or perhaps because of them–he approached each challenge with the same methodical care he had once given to planting seasons. “Sylvanus teaches us that all creatures have their place,” he said, hefting his sword. “Even giant frogs.”

Shadowmaze -- Session 36

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 21:19:44 -0600

Bancroft staggered through Helix’s gates like a man touched by plague, his once-proud bearing reduced to a shambling gait. Yellow mold clung to his skin in sickly patches, and his head bore fresh dents from their harrowing escape. Most telling of all, his jeweled sword–the blade that had marked him as more than a simple farmer–was gone, lost to the maze’s hungry darkness.

One by one, his companions limped back to town, each bearing their own wounds and disappointments. Irulan clutched the elvish longsword they had claimed from the statue at such terrible cost, but her face was grim. “The magic’s gone,” she reported, watching the blade’s ornate surface catch the lamplight without so much as a glimmer. “Pretty enough still, but no more than decoration now.”

Shadowmaze -- Session 35

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:06:42 -0600

The shadowmaze had claimed its victims, and now it hungered for more.

After the chaos of the previous session–where skeletal warriors had burst from concealment and Wyz’s own caltrops had become a treacherous obstacle course–the survivors found themselves scattered and desperate. The cunning goblin wizard’s plan to destroy the reforming skeleton had failed spectacularly, leaving him face-to-face with his undead nemesis as torchlight flickered and died around them.

Shadowmaze -- Session 34

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 20:39:18 -0600

The stone walls of the Barrowmaze pressed close around Bancroft and his companions, their only known exit sealed shut by mechanisms beyond their understanding. Behind them, the chittering of giant rats grew louder, echoing through the narrow passages like the whispers of death itself. With nowhere to retreat, Bancroft hefted his sword and shield, calling upon Sylvanus for strength as the party formed a defensive line. The rats, however, seemed to sense their desperation. As the adventurers stood ready for battle, the vermin’s courage faltered. One by one, they melted back into the shadows, leaving only the sound of distant scurrying and the party’s ragged breathing.

Shadowmaze -- Session 33

Tue, 11 Nov 2025 20:42:57 -0600

The weight of debt pressed upon Bancroft’s shoulders like a funeral shroud. The church of St Ygg had demanded payment for their divine intervention–the Cure Disease that had saved him from the festering rot of a rat’s bite. Now penniless, the former farmer trudged through the rain-slicked streets to the soup kitchens, his chainmail gleaming incongruously among the ragged masses. His jeweled sword marked him as a man fallen from grace, a warrior reduced to begging for scraps.

Shadowmaze -- Session 31

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 20:31:00 -0600

Just as the party thought their situation couldn’t grow more desperate, the northern door burst open and two terrified townsfolk stumbled into their chamber–Ibri and Itchi, their faces pale with fear and their clothes torn from their own flight through the rat-infested passages. These were clearly not adventurers; their wide eyes and trembling hands spoke of ordinary folk who had somehow found themselves trapped in this nightmare maze. What business could have possibly brought them into these deadly depths?

Shadowmaze -- Session 30

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 20:42:17 -0500

The session began with an unexpected moment of levity as Irulan found herself locked in a battle of wits with Keelgo, a gruff dwarf from the Outriders of Uleck. What started as casual tavern banter quickly escalated into an elaborate exchange of “yo momma” insults that had the entire common room in stitches. By the end of their verbal sparring match, the two had developed a mutual respect and genuine friendship, proving that sometimes the best bonds are forged through good-natured mockery.

Shadowmaze -- Session 28

Wed, 22 Oct 2025 01:57:30 -0500

Bancroft and his friends searched the area once the strangers had left. One of the nearby rooms had a table with three polished skulls sitting on top – very strange decor. Druidly thought they might be magical, so the party kept them. A few minutes after they finished searching, a group of adventurers came from a door to the south. There was a tense moment, with Druidly moving his hand toward his pouch of spell components, but the newcomers left without a fight.

Shadowmaze -- Session 27

Tue, 14 Oct 2025 21:55:18 -0500

Bancroft contemplated the holes in his gloves from handling gold coins over the past few days and the heavy weight of almost 400 silver coins in his backpack. After some thought he spent 200 sp to buy a chest and a master lock, put his remaining silver in the locked chest, and left it in his room at the inn.

Shadowmaze -- Session 25

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 21:45:59 -0500

The scorpion grabbed at the sleeping toad with its pincer, but the claw splashed uselessly in the water. The stinger followed but was deflected by the toad’s tough hide. Somehow the toad slept on.

Bancroft stepped in to swing at the scorpion but missed as the magical light from the last of Helfa’s stones faded. Lacking other options he moved toward the barrow entrance.

Shadowmaze -- Session 24

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 21:00:54 -0500

Bancroft stepped forward with his sling and delivered a rock into a vulnerable point in the scorpion’s chitin, which oozed greyish ichor. Furious at losing its meal and the injury, the scorpion advanced back into the barrow. Bruzra claimed the sling and bag of stones from Bancroft to use in ranged attacks while he prepared to defend with sword and shield.

Shadowmaze -- Session 22

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 12:27:47 -0500

This time the plan came from Druidly: lure rats to the entrance one by one, put them to sleep with a spell, then finish them. The idea worked for precisely one rat; the rest fled deeper into the barrow.

A few steps farther in they found more rats. Druidly’s attempts at communication were wasted – the party suspected the rats did not understand Common. He cast a magical missile to strike a sleeping rat he found, killing it. Two rats down and so far no party wounds.

Shadowmaze -- Session 21

Tue, 16 Sep 2025 21:21:26 -0500

The squad of risen skeletons advanced upon Bancroft. Two bore sword and shield, closing to melee, while the rest took up positions with bows. Bancroft once again called upon the power of nature to turn them back. One of the sword-wielders fled, but the others remained intent, and their arrows struck from the darkness. Bancroft staggered back up the stairs; their aim would suffer in the light of day.

Shadowmaze -- Session 19

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 05:41:04 -0500

One day of carousing quickly turned into two. Bancroft woke the next morning with his head lying on the dirt, a tuft of grass for a pillow. Despite the alcohol he felt surprisingly refreshed; a deeper sense of connection to the earth filled him. A night spent outside of town had done him good.

The fog of alcohol blurred his memories of the prior night, but he had been separated from his companions earlier in the evening. It did not take long to find them: they were occupying the stocks in the center of town next to Druidly, who had attempted to burn down the wizard Mazzah’s tower the night before. Apparently further adventure would have to wait.

Shadowmaze -- Session 18

Tue, 02 Sep 2025 05:41:04 -0500

Somehow Druidly dodged the bandit’s blows long enough to put half a dozen of them into a magical sleep. Those left promptly returned the favor and he fell unconscious. While the bandit leader shouted, rats crept up from behind. He screamed as they swarmed him but lived long enough to flee toward the stairs, ordering his followers to keep Druidly inside the barrow.

Shadowmaze -- Session 16

Tue, 26 Aug 2025 21:45:29 -0500

Bancroft held the door closed until the sounds of fighting died down. It didn’t take long, just enough time for a quick prayer to Sylvanus to heal Gravelgnasher and relight some torches. The fighting had ended, but there were still rats outside from the sounds, just not trying to open the secret door. In the relative quiet, Bancroft heard a metallic clanking and scraping coming from further into the room, below the floor. Suspecting a pit trap, he poked and prodded at the floor nearby, finding a section in the center of the room that pivoted. There was something moving in the pit.

Shadowmaze -- Session 15

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 22:34:40 -0500

Bancroft and his friends returned to the barrowmaze and inspected two barrows to the far north. Each burial mound had a pair of bronze doors. One set was ornate, bearing symbols of Nergal that matched those on a freestanding pillar to the south; those doors resisted their attempts to open them. Careful inspection revealed a pentagram that could be shifted to reveal a keyhole, but they had no key and any attempts to force the doors resulted in magical repair.

Shadowmaze -- Session 13

Wed, 13 Aug 2025 01:38:25 -0500

Bancroft stood atop the barrow and looked down upon the tilled earth with satisfaction. Weeks of effort to uncover a fresh barrow had finally paid off: the door had been uncovered, revealing a chamber with four sarcophagi and many giant centipedes. The initial expedition had slain several of the centipedes but not enough, so the entryway had been buried again to keep other parties away. Now it would be dug up, the thin coating of earth removed, the centipedes slain if they were lucky, and whatever treasures the sarcophagi held reclaimed.

Shadowmaze -- Session 12

Tue, 05 Aug 2025 21:42:15 -0500

Bancroft stood atop the barrow and watched his friends dig. Someone had borrowed his shovel and there were not enough to go around, so he kept watch. It was almost like watching crops grow – slow and steady. Occasionally a frog, scorpion, or skeleton wandered in the distance, but the dig continued until, at last, the clink of shovel on stone resounded: the diggers had uncovered a door.

The sound attracted attention. Two frogs hopped up to investigate. Tohru squinted at them, then stepped forward and performed the improvised mating dance she had used before; astonishingly, one frog paused and watched, while Bancroft threw his pitchfork and struck the other in the eye. The rest of the party rained blows on it, and it died. The remaining frog lost interest and fled.

Shadowmaze -- Session 10

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 23:33:14 -0500

Bancroft and his companions returned to the barrowmaze, where they began their investigation with a barrow sealed by a stone door. The party examined the heavy stone barrier, but quickly realized their crowbars would be insufficient to force it open - they would need sledgehammers or similar heavy tools that none of them had brought along.

The group proceeded to the next barrow, where Bancroft observed stone doors inlaid with bronze highlights. A wax seal suggested the contents were still intact. After much discussion among the party, Ovarf broke the seal, which melted to the floor. The moment they wrenched the doors open, a hideous moan emerged from the barrow, and Bancroft fled with the rest of his companions.

Shadowmaze -- Session 8

Tue, 22 Jul 2025 03:42:07 -0500

The adventuring party continued their exploration of the barrowmaze, beginning by excavating a barrow while discussing the construction of a rope ladder for safer descent into the main complex. Using their makeshift ladder, they discovered both old and fresh corpses near the entrance, stripped of gear and flesh except for bone fragments. Their search yielded only a modest pouch containing ten copper pieces.

Shadowmaze -- Session 5

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 00:29:44 -0500

Bancroft and Darmek queued for the barrowmaze with about eight in their group. The day began poorly: they were ambushed by six giant frogs before reaching the barrows. The party ran; three frogs pursued, then only one. They managed to kill that frog, but the group was exhausted and retreated to Helix with nothing to show.

The next day they returned and retrieved the possessions of a fallen companion, then selected a barrow to open. Halfway through removing the slab blocking the entrance they were attacked by several giant scorpions; Darmek and Uthlynk fell during the retreat. They escaped, disheartened and empty‑handed.

Shadowmaze -- Session 3

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 20:57:47 -0500

The trip to the barrowmaze began on a solemn note: the party had lost friends in one of the barrows and needed to retrieve valuables from their bodies. The bodies themselves were not where the friends had fallen; something had dragged them into the barrow and a blood trail led the group onward.

Two of the party, those closest to the fallen, lit a torch and entered the barrow to search for remains and valuables. Nothing was simple. A zombie wandered near the entrance and then entered the barrow; the party’s archer failed to stop it and the creature surprised those inside.

Shadowmaze -- Session 1

Mon, 16 Jun 2025 00:40:39 -0500

The barrowmaze opened today. Friends said to come help, get rich, and buy lots of drinks. Good friends. Bancroft followed. There was a line like a race, or like the market. When they reached the barrows, giant scorpions blocked the way; one of Bancroft’s friends was killed and the group fled. Afterward the party handed Bancroft a shovel and told him to dig. It was boring, like farming. He was used to farming, but had not signed up for adventures to dig holes. Still, someone must dig to search for treasure, and at least he was good at it.

Bancroft on Old School Gamers

Shadowmaze -- Session 62 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 61 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 60 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 59 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 58 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 57 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 56 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 55 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 54 - Bancroft

Shadowmaze -- Session 52

Shadowmaze -- Session 51

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Shadowmaze -- Session 3

Shadowmaze -- Session 1

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