Secrets revealed...

The old ashik sat amid the sand dunes outside of the small town beside the oasis. He waited for the young herders to return from selling their herd and purchasing the goods they needed to carry on surviving in the harsh environment. The old ashik had not wanted to enter the small town, his hand instinctively moved to absentmindedly scratch at the old slave brand that he had hidden beneath his robes, and so he waited for the young brothers to return so that he could continue his tale. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the siblings hailing him, so he slid down the dune and said, where was I…

Ignoring the stairs leading down through the hole at the back of the ancient tomb, Balboa decides to make sure that the level they are on is clear first. The four freed slaves head into the room to the other side of the big room and discover another passageway leading back into the rock, they follow it and discover another two ransacked rooms full of niches. Finding nothing of interest, apart from an old obsidian maul, they follow Balboa down the stairs.

The stairs lead to yet another tomb, this one with niches around the walls and a large stone sarcophagus in the centre of the room. They approach the sarcophagus slowly, and breathe a collective sigh of relief when they find it empty. The walls of the small room are covered in frescos of a variety of humanoids; dwarves, elves, and humans holding their arms aloft into the sky. Within the rubble Balboa uncovers the remains of two skeletons, both of which look younger than the surrounding tomb, one of which has sustained a wound to its back. Balboa suggests that the tomb robbers fell out with each other.

Finding little else the group agree to leave the tomb and climb back down to the base of the cleft, when they get there they see both Ka-Reen and Kank hobbling slowly towards them along the cleft bottom. When they meet up they agree that they need to rest up and agree to head back to their camp site from the previous evening, Balboa slips a couple of times trying to climb out and set the rope and collects a number of scratches for his troubles. Ka-Reen has a look at his wounds and cleans and bandages them. She also explains that she has no control over her power to heal, and that it could kill her if she tries to heal someone who is mortally wounded. Once again the group agree that rest is the best course of action for the night.

That night, Kank insists on taking a double watch to allow the others to get some rest. He hears Balboa whimpering through the night and the following morning Balboa tells everyone that he had a very restless night filled with dreams of the masked individual who sacrificed him in his vision. After a full night's rest Ka-Reen is feeling much better and takes the time to heal Scar with her power. The group then move to the scraggly trees at the top of the cleft and use one of their canvases to rig up some shade for Stanley their kank. They then decide to head back in and search the remaining two tombs.

Planning to climb down from the top of the cleft, Kank looks nervous and agrees to stay at the top of the cleft and lower the others one by one down to the level of the tombs. Miloch is the last one to be lowered, but when he is just a few feet off of the tomb floor he slips off of the rope and lands with a crack on the tomb ledge. He lays there contemplating the pain throbbing in his groin and listening to his comrades laughing themselves breathless.

When Miloch looks up and his eyes clear he realises that this tomb does not have a door but is open to the elements and it is littered with debris. There is an opening at the back of the tomb that leads through to a chamber beyond, and inside they discover more niches and frescoes. One of the frescoes has been broken through and a stairway leading down into the darkness can be seen beyond. Once again Arthur looks at Balboa and says;

After you!

Balboa shrugs and heads off down the stairs holding his torch high to light his way. The stairs descend about ten feet to a landing and then turn right heading back in the direction of the gorge but still descending. As he gets to the landing Balboa has a weird feeling in his bones and he shivers but does not know why. He tells the others but none of them feel the same thing as they pass the landing, but Scar spots a faint seam in the stone work that seems to outline a doorway in the rock. Making a note of its position they continue down the stairs towards the light that they can see.

They find themselves standing in the final tomb, which is dominated by a single sarcophagus in the centre of the room. Once again the tomb has been ransacked and there is nothing of interest to find so they return to the hidden door. Scar gives the door a shove but it does not budge and so the massive frame of Arthur and the slightly smaller from of Balboa put their shoulders to the door. The doors moves slightly but is very stiff, they stand back and Balboa concentrates on the bottom of the door. The bottom of the door and the floor slowly mould away from each other and then Arthur, Balboa, and Scar pushing over Arthur’s head shove the door once again.

The door jolts open half a foot quickly and causes Arthur to slip. Arthur falls into Scar and knocks her off of her feet. Scar falls on top of the other two, and then all of them tumble down the stairs in a tangle of limbs. They land in a big heap at the bottom of the stairs with Arthur’s head taking the brunt of the damage. They finally manage to disentangle themselves and return up the stairs to the hidden doorway and find that it opens into a five foot wide corridor running off into the darkness. The use some rubble to wedge open the door and head in.

The corridor winds away into the cleft cliff face heading away from the bottomless pit in the centre of the cleft. The corridor stretches down in front of them and by Balboa’s reckoning they travel three hundred feet down before the steps level out and the corridor widens. The level that they find themselves in runs off in two directions around a central column of niches. Each of the two corridors are also filled with niches, and all of the niches contain the skeleton of a dwarf wrapped in shrouds. Following one of the corridors the group find that it leads to a stone bridge spanning a deep, dark chasm.

The bridge is ten foot wide and spans the thirty foot gap to what appears to be a large hall. The group tentatively cross the bridge and find themselves in a large room ornately carved with ancient runes that none of them can read. The walls are also covered in frescoes depicting hundreds of dwarves worshiping a fiery beast. Along the walls are four alcoves, each one containing a shrouded body. And at the end of the room, up a short flight of steps sits a throne. And upon that throne sits the skeleton of a large dwarf, and on that dwarfs head is the mask that Balboa saw in his vision and his nightmares. The other three hear Balboa audibly gulp.

Scar pushes her way to the front and steps off the bridge into the throne room, as soon as her foot touches the floor in the throne room there is a low howl that rises from the corpse sat upon the throne. A glowing blue nimbus of energy rises out of the corpse and forms into the shape of the mask wearing dwarf. At the same time the four shroud covered skeletons in the room’s niches step forwards and ready their weapons. That is enough for Balboa and he screams;

Let’s get out of here!

Balboa turns and makes it a few paces across the bridge before he realises that Scar, Arthur, and Miloch are charging into the throne room to engage the skeletons. Balboa looks towards his escape route and realises that it is blocked by a horde of skeletons from the niches in the circular corridor. Knowing that there is no escape he turns and rushes to join his colleagues in the fray.

As Balboa turns he sees that Arthur has engaged with two of the skeletal dwarves, Miloch is facing off against one of the dwarves, and Scar is fighting one of the skeletal dwarves and more frighteningly the spectral mask wearing horror. As Balboa takes this all in he sees Arthur smash his maul into the arm of one of the dwarves, the arm shatters into smithereens. He then smashes the other ones leg to pieces with his return swing, but is slashed in return by the claws of the one armed undead. Miloch cuts one of the legs out from under the dwarf that he is fighting and then Scar just manages to duck under the swing of a two handed maul but fails to evade the spectral claw of the mask wearing horror whose ethereal claws pass straight through her armour and chills her soul.

Arthur swings once again and smashes the leg of the one armed dwarf. Scar swings with the Sword of Kemalok and slices through the form of the spectral dwarf, the sword passes right through it but does seem to injure it slightly. Miloch is slashed by the claws of his attacker but retaliates and takes it’s other leg off. Scar slices through the masked spectre once again but the horror strikes back and Scar starts to feel weak, and as she does the Sword of Kemalok falls from her nerveless fingers.

Miloch swings his obsidian battle axe at his foe but the legless skeleton rolls out of the way. At that point Miloch realises that there is blood pouring down his arm from an open wound caused by the skeletons claws and he is forced to drop his axe. Balboa rushes in to assist Arthur and takes a blow for his troubles, but he sees it bounce off of his armour. Arthur swings his maul and smashes the skull of one of the dwarf skeletons dropping it dead, again, to the floor. Balboa lands a strike with his mace and smashes it’s arm.

Scar drops her torch and grabs the Sword of Kemalok with her off hand, she swings it awkwardly at the masked horror and hits it. The spectral horror appears to lose the use of its arm. Miloch punches his attacker in the head with his good arm and sends it back to the grave. He then drops to his knees and desperately tries to staunch the flow of blood from his open wound. Balboa risks a glance over his shoulder to see how close the horde of skeletons have come but sees that they have not crossed the bridge and are ominously standing at the edge of the chasm.

Scar strikes the masked horror with her off hand once again, but Arthur is smashed in the arm by the two handed maul wielded by the dwarf skeleton. He is forced to drop his two handed maul as his arm hangs limp by his side. Arthur shouts;

Even the dead are trying to kill us here. Everything is trying to kill us!