Descent into the Earth Tombs...

Once the guards had collected the empty slave bowls and left the former residents of the village by the muddy oasis locked within the four cells in the depths of the Mekillot wagon, the old ashik stood up and looked around at everyone. His voice was quiet, but held strength, when he told them all to not sleep but be ready. To keep them all awake he continued to tell his tale.

The Company of the Cloaked Inix wish farewell to Reechet and the colony of Kenku and continue to climb the steep pathway up towards the Dreaming Caves. When they arrive at a large boulder partially blocking the path, Kank creeps passed it and finds a large cave entrance the is thirty foot across and fifteen foot high at it's highest point. Seeing that the cave is empty, Kank moves beyond it and moves up to where, based on Sabertine's map, he expects to find another cave mouth. He does and so he beckons forwards the others and they descend the slope into the cave.

The slope drops into a lower natural cavern, but the torch light reveals that the back wall of the cavern has been worked and is dressed with stone blocks. Set within the dressed wall are three sets of double doors made of a dull yellow brown metal, each of which is marked by Dwarven runes. Balboa and Scar step forwards to see if they can decipher the script, and very quickly Balboa realises that the lower of the doors is marked with a prayer to the earth. The middle door appears to be marked with runes representing all four of the elements, and the upper door is marked with only air runes.

Arthur steps towards the lower door and touches the Dwarven rune ring, given to him by Sabertine, to the door and as soon as he does there is a loud clank and the sounds of large weights moving behind the walls and the doors slowly swing inwards. The passageway beyond is more natural than carved and leads into a large cavern that disappears off into the darkness in all directions, a narrow pathway runs around the edge of one of the cavern walls and is positioned halfway up the wall so that to the Company's right the steep wall climbs upwards, and to their left a huge drop disappears into the darkness. The members of the Company are all aware of the oppressive feeling of thousands of tons of rock pressing down above their heads.

Kank checks for tracks on the pathway and declares that nothing has passed along the path for many years. They agree to rope themselves together for safety and make sure that Balboa is in the centre of the line with instructions to use the power of the Gnomes to mould a stone hook at the first sign of trouble and loop the rope over it to break any falls. They move in file slowly along the ledge with Kank taking the lead, when he has traveled around one hundred paces, Kank spots in the torchlight giant insectile legs appearing from below the ledge and climbing up onto the pathway. Kank shouts a warning and backs up towards the others while summoning the power of the earth ring to enhance his strength.

As Kank is backing away a giant spider pulls itself up onto the path and skitters quickly into attack the big Mul, as it does three other giant spiders crawl down the walls of the cavern to attack the others members of the Company strung out along the ledge. The panicking Balboa fails to cast his spell and form the stone hook, but everyone is fortunate to see the attacks of the spiders either miss or glance off of armour. Arthur swings with his metal Troll maul and crushes one of the spiders legs, Scar slices with the Sword of Kemalok and another of the spiders loses a leg. Kank swings with the Greathammer of Galaxyl and also crushes one of his attackers legs. Miloch steps in to assist Arthur and manages to bury his iron battleaxe deep into the spiders thorax. But the spider lashes out in fear and anger and catches Arthur with a powerful blow, at the rear of the line Ferulah is also attacked and the massive mountain lioness is unable to dodge on the narrow ledge.

Balboa steels his nerves and calls upon the power of the Gnomes of the earth once more and creates a rock hook and loops the rope over the anchor point. Arthur swings once again with his massive Troll maul and strikes the giant spider in the middle of it's thorax, splatting it against the wall of the cavern. Seeing Arthur's spider dead, Miloch turns his attack against Ferulah's attacker slicing another leg off of the creature. Ferulah, enraged at being hit, crushes the giant spider attacking her with both of her powerful fore paws.

Scar attempts to slice at her attacker with the Sword of Kemalok, but her swing goes wild and the giant spider takes advantage and punches it chitinous tipped leg through the flesh of the warrior women's thigh. Scar's leg crumples beneath her and she tumbles off of the ledge and into the dark. The rope tied around her waist snaps taught and Scar's weight is too much for Balboa to hold and he too is pulled off of the ledge and into the void. As the members of the Company are pulled one by one into the darkness the rope snaps taught around Kank's waist. The magically enhanced muscles in the big Mul's legs bunch tight, and with a sinew straining effort, he manages to hold the weight of Balboa and Scar. Then the spider attacks again.

Kank only just manages to dodge the spider's attack, and he is unable to counterattack because the weight of the others on the rope is pulling him off balance. The spider that was attacking Scar skitters at Arthur and strikes twice with it's clawed fore limbs, one of the blows glances off of the Dwarf's heavy armour but the other sinks into the flesh of his arm. Seeing red, Arthur swings hard with his metal Troll maul and strikes the arachnid such a powerful blow that the creature flies dead off of the ledge to disappear into the darkness below. Kank finally gets a firm base beneath him and swings hard with the Greathammer of Galaxyl destroying the abdomen of the creature and killing it.

Between them, Arthur and Kank manage to haul Balboa and Scar back up to the ledge, Balboa then calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to heal Scar's leg while Miloch administers first aid to Arthur. The Company move as quickly as they dare along the ledge, all the while shinning their torches and lanterns up the walls to make sure that they are not surprised once again. Eventually they get to a long passageway that leads to what Balboa says is the first of the Earth Tombs. They examine the shaft but can see no passageways leading off of it further down. Balboa examines the images carved on the walls near the top of the shaft and sees that they are of many Dwarves fighting against a great evil, one that Balboa has seen in carvings before but cannot remember the name of it. Kank looks over his shoulder and says;

Isn't that Borys of Ebe, the Butcher of Dwarves?
Balboa looks at Kank, still shocked at the blunt Mul's occasional sparks of amazing insight, and just nods. The Company agree to move to the lowest of the tomb shafts identified by Sabertine as being a possible location of Hrothgurtun's tomb, marked by Sabertine on the map as shaft one. As the Company pass the next tomb shaft along the passageway they hear the sound of many legs scrabbling up the shaft, they barely have time to prepare themselves when a giant centipede pulls the top half of it's over bloated body out of the tomb shaft and attacks.

Scar is the quickest to react and slices at the massive beast with the Sword of Kemalok and striking against it's segmented body. The centipede attempts to bite Arthur but misses, but as it attacks the writhing mass of it's body slams into Scar and smashes her backwards where she lands in an unconscious heap. Both Arthur and Miloch score hits against the giant beast and then the creature manages to land it's bite on Arthur's arm, the Dwarf staggers and then collapses to the floor as the centipedes poison courses through his veins. Balboa manages to reach Scar and once again calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to heal her wounds. Ferulah rushes to Arthur and quickly unstoppers a Weezer honey and starts to force feed the unconscious Dwarf.

Both Miloch and Kank land telling blows against the giant centipede, but once again the centipede turns and this time bites Miloch and the Human warrior stumbles backwards as the beasts poison starts to take effect. Scar points at the creature and summons her inner power and unleashes a shocking disruption spell. Kank steps in and swings with his greathammer again landing a powerful blow, and he then sidesteps the centipedes bite. Scar hits it again with another spell and Kank sweeps hard with the Greathammer of Galaxyl and the attack slays the giant creature. The weight of the giant centipede's body drags the dead beast back down the tomb shaft and it disappears into the gloom.

Miloch quickly administers himself some Weezer honey to stop the poison from coursing through his body. The Company agree to push onward but when they reach tomb shaft one, they change they minds and push on to the tomb shaft that Sabertine had marked as number two because Balboa reasoned that it is more likely to adjoin the other two identified shafts. Balboa steps forwards and investigates the carvings at the top of tomb shaft two and believes that he finds a figure that might be Hrothgurtun, he can also see what might be a tomb niche carved in the shaft at the edge of his light. They tie a lantern to a rope and lower it into the tomb shaft, about eighty feet down they can make out two entrances carved into the shaft opposite each other.

They pull the lantern back up and the lower Scar down on the rope, when she gets to the first of the openings she shouts out;

I can see another pair of openings about another sixty foot down!

Scar swings herself into the opening and finds herself in a passageway the end of which she can just make out a couple of carved tomb niches. She moves into the passage and looks around the corner, which is when she sees the large statue of an axe wielding Dwarf. She backs out to the shaft and calls down the others. Balboa calls upon the power of the Gnomes to mould a rock hook inside the shaft and then they lower down Arthur to join Scar. Once the big Dwarf has stepped into the passage from the tomb shaft Balboa is lowered by Ferulah and Kank, next they lower Miloch and Ferulah lowers Kank and finally climbs down the rope on her own.

The foolhardy Balboa rushes forwards and inspects the first tomb niche, he can tell that the writing is in Dwarven but he cannot read the name. He pulls out paper and ink and copies down the name for future reference, then moves to the second of the tomb niches. Balboa does the same thing and then strolls past the statue of the Dwarf, the rest of the Company hold their breath and expect the statue to attack, but nothing happens. Balboa discovers that the tombs circle back around to the other tomb shaft entrance and that there is a second statue, this one holding a greathammer. While Balboa is looking at all of the tombs, Arthur and Kank disagree upon opening all of the tombs. Arthur wants to search them all but Kank believes that doing so will just invite unwanted trouble.

Balboa returns to the group and says that none of the tombs match the copy of Hrothgurtun's name that he has. The Company agree that it would be sensible to rest up for a while and regain their strength before moving onward. Scar turns to Balboa and asks;

How does your ability to detect magic work?
Balboa explains and calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to demonstrate, he looks around the tomb niches but declares that there is no magic in the area. They rest for several hours and eventually agree to move. They lower the newly cavalier Balboa from the east side entrance down the sixty feet to the next set of entrances. When Balboa steps in he can see a corridor running off into the darkness, he shines his light across the shaft into the other entrance and can see that it continues for about twenty foot. Balboa swings himself into the passageway and waits for Scar, Arthur, and Miloch to be lowered to join him.

Scar leads them in and finds that the passageway ends at a set of stairs dropping ten feet into a large room. At the end of the room are two large, unmarked, tomb niches. To either side of the room are two smaller shafts dropping down into the dark. Balboa joins Scar at one of the shafts and lowers his lantern on a rope, he finds that the shaft drops about fifty feet and then a passage runs back towards the main tomb shaft. They check the other side and find that it is identical, so Arthur and Miloch lower Balboa down the shaft and he is followed by Scar. They search the first passage and find eight open niches, each one containing a shrouded body with silver coins on their eyes.

At the end of the corridor is a large slab marked with writing, but neither Balboa or Scar can decipher what it says. They get themselves pulled back up the shaft and move to the opposite one and go through the same process, this time they discover ten open niches and another large slab marked with identical writing. But again, they cannot work out what it says. All four of them return back to Ferulah and Kank in the upper tombs and then Scar and Arthur are lowered to the entrance on the opposite side of the main tomb shaft. They step in and find that the passageway turns left and ends at a wide sweeping staircase dropping into an even larger and more impressive room. The walls of the room are covered in carvings of scenes of industry and building, with many Dwarves involved in giant constructions.

Miloch and Balboa are also lowered and arrive just in time for Arthur to spot that there is writing on the far side of the room. Scar and Balboa descend the steps side by side and start to cross the room heading for the far side, as they pass what they thought were alcoves on either side of the room they can see that they are actually passages that each end in a staircase descending further. They get parallel with the two large columns in the centre of the room and can see that they are covered in writing, but neither Scar nor Balboa can read all of it. But Balboa can tell that it is written in an ancient language. The pair continue to moves forwards together and pass between the pillars towards the back of the room. That is when the sound of a loud mechanical click can be heard, followed quickly by the twanging of twin bowstrings and both Balboa and Scar are hit by obsidian crossbow bolts.

Balboa looks down at his feet and can see the slight depression of a pressure pad, and they can both hear the mechanical sound of crossbows being re-cranked, so they quickly retreat. As they are moving backwards, Miloch shouts a warning that he can hear the sound of shuffling footsteps from both of the passages. The members of the Company retreat to the top of the stairs just in time to see the figures of numerous shroud draped skeletons shuffling out of the passages and towards the steps and the Company. Arthur, Miloch, and Scar all call upon various powers to enhance their armour of bolster their attacks. They position themselves so that they can face the skeletons three abreast, while Balboa rushes back to the main tomb shaft to shout up to Ferulah and Kank for assistance.

The Dwarven skeletons slowly climb the stairs towards the Company, Scar's swift strike with the Sword of Kemalok is dodged but both Arthur and Miloch manage to smash legs from two of the front row of skeletons. Arthur is caught a glancing blow and he retaliates with a sweep of his Troll maul smashing one of the skeletons pelvis and sending it crashing back down the stairs. Scar hits but realises that her blow is not as effective against the fleshless horrors than it would be against living beings. Arthur swings again, and this time shatters one of the skeletons arms, he then swings a second time and smashes it's leg to smithereens.

The battle rages on with Miloch and Scar slowly whittling away, and Arthur smashing his way through everything that steps in front of him. But then one of the skeletons gets through Scar's guard and claws her hideously across her leg and Scar is forced to drop to one knee. Balboa quickly calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to improve Scar's armour and hopefully protect her from further injury. By the time that Kank has managed to climb down to the fight he finds that both Miloch and Scar are bleeding from numerous wounds, and even the mighty Dwarf Arthur is looking a bit battle worn. The steps are covered in shattered bone fragments, but there are still a horde of animated skeletons attacking the Company. Kank powers up his ring and hops from foot to foot hoping for an opportunity to get into the battle.