When they woke in the morning of the 9th, Jerker and Chad made ready to return to the homestead to fetch a wagon and Ferris. The former was meant for conveying gold ore, the latter to aid in what might be a tricky task of breaking into an ancient dwarven vault.
Meanwhile, there was some discussion about a pair of figures seen at a distance picking their way through the ruins and then down into the chasm. Tienarth produced his crystal ball and focused on the figures to reveal a scene of a gnoll in elaborate garb standing at a podium on a dais. He studied a scroll spread out before him. Nearby, a tapestry draped over an uneven pile of unknown shapes.
Having decided to leave the vault for later, the party climbed down into the chasm to find those two mysterious figures. After a few hours, they came upon an as-of-yet undiscovered door, behind which were stairs going down into inky blackness. Down below were long corridors of shelves filled with stacked blackened bones. Aderian led them into the darkness.
Presently, they came face to face with two enormous spiders. Hairy legs and dripping mandibles found no purchase against the armor of the stout pirate. Elgar, the stalwart paladin, was not so lucky. He felt the sting of venom cloud his vision as he collapsed momentarily in a stupor. Tienarth, protected by a handful of mirror images, felt invincible. He stepped up to slash at the spiders with his dagger. In the end, the two spiders died as they attempted to retreat.
A few minutes later, Aderian handled a third spider with little trouble. Elgar still suffered from a fuzzy feeling in his head that would not diminish.
For a few hours, they wandered the hallways. Copious bones filled shelves, though a few spots were bare. Dust on the floor indicated recent if infrequent traffic. Eventually, they came to the rough end of a passage which they immediately suspected of keeping a secret, and Tienarth easily recognized the outline of a secret door.
Beyond the door was a room painted black with splotches of red which they speculated could be dried blood. A door across the room bore the engraving of a skull with vertebrae dangling instead of teeth. Past this door were passages right and left. They turned left and came to another door the opened to a small room with a few rotting cloaks on hooks.
Suddenly a click was heard from behind and boots on the feet of skeletal warriors marched towards them. They met in the hallway, standing two by two. Tienarth bound up all the skeletons in a magic web, though two of the lucky skeletons hacked at the web with swords, even freeing some of their companions. Florida fetched a torch from Tienarth’s pack and lit it. The next instant, he tossed it over Elgar’s head to ignite the web. Tienarth toss a flask of oil for good measure.
Between the flames and steady hacking the skeleton fell into piles of bones and chainmail.
With barely time for a few deep breaths, a scratching sound from deeper in the dungeon announced a horrific site: a profane mixture of bone and rotting flesh topped by three heads. Ragged wings and a scorpion tail followed the lumbering body atop mismatched legs. Quick-thinking Tienarth cast a spell of haste upon the party. Aderian and Elgar bashed at the horror and it lay silent.
Having been attacked from behind twice in succession, the old elf called for a retreat, made easy and quick by the magical speed. They climbed back into daylight just as the effects wore off.
End Notes
- Treasure: none
- Combat 2255 xp
- 3 Giant Black Widow Spiders 175 xp each
- 10 Skeletal Warriors 145 xp each
- Bone Horror 280 xp
- Characters 564 xp each
- Aderian (human, fight, lead) 637 xp
- Elgar (human, fight, smite undead) 637 xp
- Florida (underground, fight) 575 xp
- Tienarth 564 xp
(xp fixed for missing skeletons)