Trouble with statues...

That night, as the slave camp settled down, the old ashik got all of the captives from the small village by the muddy oasis to huddle in the centre of their cages away from the exterior walls of the mekillot wagon. He wouldn't tell them why, but since they had been abducted the old man had seemed to grow in confidence and take the lead in decision making for the group. The sibling brothers, who had spent a lot of time with him, also noticed that the old ashik seemed to stand a little straighter and his voice was stronger than before. At that moment his voice, quietly but powerfully, started to tell his tale once again.

Scar lashes out with the Sword of Kemalok and catches her attacker in the head with a glancing blow, but the skeletal figure continues to try and bite her. Arthur swings with his Troll maul and once again shatters the leg of a skeleton. But then the tide starts to turn and both Scar and Miloch receive nasty blows, with Miloch being hit in the arm and Scar clawed across her face. In a flare of anger Scar strikes her attacker in the chest and finally the undead creature collapses into a pile of bones. Scar staggers backwards and allows Kank to step into her place in the defensive line.

The mighty Arthur sweeps again with his Troll maul and smashes the other leg of his skeletal opponent. Miloch hits again with his iron battleaxe, but his weapon is less effective against the skeletons. Kank's first attack is dodged and then Miloch is hit, but the claws scrape off of his magically enhanced armour. Arthur hits yet again with a flurry of blows and his opponent finally shatters into a cloud of bone fragments. Kank lands his first blow of the battle and the Greathammer of Galaxyl shatters one of the skeletons clawed arms. But two more of the restless undead step into the fight.

Arthur smashes again with the stamina of a mekillot and the strength of a Half-giant, yet again his metal Troll maul shatters the new attackers leg. Miloch lands a slice with his battleaxe and nicks the skeletons bones, slowly whittling it down. Kank's attack is dodged and then Arthur is raked across his stomach by the skeletons claws and the stoic Dwarf winces in pain. Behind the front rank Balboa manages to reach Scar and calls upon the Gnomes of the earth to heal her terrible wounds.

The metronomic Arthur smashes the abdomen of his attacker and the skeleton falls to the floor but continues to attempt to claw at the Dwarf. Miloch swings his iron battleaxe over his head in a two handed slash and the attack smashes into the rib cage of the skeleton, the undead creature explodes in a shower of bone fragments. Arthur continues to deal out unrelenting damage, but Kank's wild swings continue to miss. Kank's opponent ducks below his latest attack and rakes his claws along the Mul's left leg and it starts to bleed slowly but freely.

The undead gain the upper hand when one of them manages to claw Arthur badly along his right arm, the wound causes the big Dwarf's arm to hang limp by his side and he is unable to use his two handed Troll maul. Arthur shouts that he is withdrawing from the fighting line and the massive form of Ferulah leaps over his head and lands on all fours amid the skeletal attackers. As she lands she lashes out with both fore paws smashing the leg our from under one skeleton and ripping the head clean off of another. The headless skeleton collapses into a pile of inanimate bones. Arthur staggers backwards towards Balboa and Scar steps forwards taking his place in the line.

Miloch hits again and then Kank actually manages to connect with the Greathammer of Galaxyl, the head of the hammer smashes through the chest of one of the skeletons and it shatters into bone fragments. But Miloch's opponent rakes both of it's clawed hand down the Human warriors chest and he collapses to the floor unconscious. Scar attempts to counterattack and cover for her downed comrade, but as she lunges forwards the strap on her greave snaps and the armour falls away. Ferulah pounces onto another of the skeletons and rips it in twain. The distracted Balboa attempts to call upon the power of the Gnomes to heal Arthur, but his focus waivers and his plea goes unheard.

Having leaped into the middle of the skeletal attackers, Ferulah finds herself surrounded and is unable to dodge all of the attacks, one of which rakes down her flank and the big mountain lion starts to bleed. seeing Ferulah in trouble, Kank surges forwards and smashes one of the skeletons arms with the Greathammer of Galaxyl. Balboa regains his focus and calls upon the Gnomes of the earth once again, this time they listen to him and the power flows from the earth through Balboa and into Arthur healing the Dwarf's wounds. Ferulah swings about her with her powerful paws and shatters another of the skeletal horde.

Scar leaps to Ferulah's aid and strikes with the Sword of Kemalok, Ferulah then smashes the same attacker and it shatters in a shower of bone. Kank overhead smashes the last of the skeletons with his greathammer and it is smashed to pieces. The only thing that can be heard in the aftermath of the battle is the heavy breathing of the Company of the Cloaked Inix. Balboa rushes to Miloch and heals his wounds while Scar administers first aid to the others. Once everyone is back on their feet Scar heads forwards down the eastern passage and finds a set of stairs descending to a room with eight empty tomb niches. She quickly searches one of the niches and finds amid the remnants of a shroud two silver pieces. She heads back up and tells the others, no sooner has she done so and Arthur is rushing down the stairs in the search of remuneration.

Finding a similar room on the opposite side, Scar moves carefully down the centre of the main room until she finds the two trigger points that caused both herself and Balboa to be shot by crossbow traps. Scar points them out to Kank and the big Mul starts to move slowly forwards using his greathammer to test the floor in front of him. After a short while he manages to find a clear path through the trapped floor and he leads the other through towards the large tombs at the end of the room. Balboa and Scar step forwards and examine the writing on the three tomb stones, Scar says that the writing is definitely Dwarven but neither she nor Balboa can read it.

While Balboa and Kank discuss where to head next, Arthur and Scar investigate the tomb stones and without much prompting from Scar the big Dwarf swings his Troll maul and smashes the central tomb open. Inside, Arthur discovers a skeletal body of a dwarf laid out, the corpse is wearing the remnants of what must have been rich robes as well as a gold and silver chain of office. Arthur also discovers that it is wearing a gold ring and has a silver piece covering each of it's dead eyes. Scar asks Balboa if he will see if there is any magic and the Mul agrees. He finds no magic in the central tomb, but tells the others that there are points of magic in the other two tombs. That settles it for Arthur and he starts to break into the other tombs.

In the first he finds the remains of a women, with a similar chain of office and a gold wrist bangle. When Balboa looks he says that the wrist bangle is magical. In the other tomb they find an armoured body holding a shortsword that is so corroded by age that it is beyond use, but again when Balboa looks he tells Arthur that there is something magical clasped in the skeletons hand. Arthur pries the fingers apart and discovers a green crystal.

The Company agree to backtrack to the main shaft and lower a lantern down into the dark, Balboa spots another opening about sixty five feet down on the southern face of the shaft. Kank and Ferulah lower Balboa down on a rope with the hope that he will be able to climb around to the entrance, but when he gets there he discovers that there is another entrance on the side that he has been lowered. Balboa steps in and finds a corridor running south and a set of stairs leading down northwards. The corridor running south is lined with a couple of tomb niches, Balboa retreats back to the main shaft and climbs around to the other opening and finds that it has a set of stairs leading down to the east and the western corridor joins up with the corridor from the other entrance. He shouts up the shaft for Scar to join him.

Scar joins Balboa and heads down the eastern stairs to a landing and then down the next set of stairs to a room lined with five tomb niches, the names on the tombs have been forcibly removed which the warrior woman finds strange. As the others are lowered to join Balboa and Scar, Arthur starts to investigate the defaced tombs and mutters something about them being special, Balboa joins him and believes that the defacing occurred at least five hundred years ago. Another set of stairs leads down and Scar discovers another tomb this one marked with the name 'Hrothvern'. A wide corridor runs off and Kank moves forwards along it, at theend of the corridor Kank can see a plinth and to the right of that along another corridor he can see a door.

Balboa joins Kank and then the brave Mul moves forwards and can see that the plinth supports a stone bowl filled with red sand, at his shoulder Kank asks what the sand is for, but Balboa can only remember that it is used in some kind of earth ritual. Balboa moves towards the door with Kank following close behind, he finds that it is a standard stone door, but as he is inspecting it he spots out of the corner of his eye two statues step out of alcoves further down the corridor and start to stomp towards them. They both rush back to the others and Arthur, Kank, and Miloch form a fighting wall ready to meet the statues. But the statues get to just in front of the sand filled bowl and stop dead.

Arthur stares at the statues and then disappears, only to reappear a heartbeat later standing behind the statues. Kank and Miloch charge into the fight just as one of the statues swings it's massive obsidian greataxe at Arthur but fortunately it misses. The other statue swings at Kank but the Mul dodges the blow. Kank swings the Greathammer of Galaxyl but is parried and Miloch's battleaxe is turned by the statues stony surface. Arthur attacks with his Troll maul but is parried, Miloch's attack is again deflected and Kank misses. The statues attack again and Arthur is hit, but his magically enhanced armour deflects a lot of the strike. The second statue hits Kank with a powerful strike and the big Mul's left leg is cut badly and it collapses beneath him.

Miloch smashes one of the statues with a powerful blow but it has no effect on the animated guardian. Arthur is hit powerfully in the abdomen with the obsidian greataxe and he collapses to the floor. Kank swings hard with the Greathammer of Galaxyl and shatters the statues abdomen, the statues torso drops to the floor and much to the big Mul's horror, it continues to fight. Miloch is hit badly by the first of the statues and his wound starts to bleed badly. Kank smashes the torso again, but again the statue continues to fight.