Sia bites at the lead trog again.
Wulfram continued his assault on the Trog leader.
Wulfram buries the head of his spear deep inside the troglodyte leader's gut, scoring a critical hit! She groans in pain as blood pours from the wound, but she's still barely standing!
Karla fires another bolt, but she finds it hard to hit her target while firing into a melee. One of the trogs regains consciousness, though it's still blind and stunned.
Though Nik'o misses with her opportunity attack, she bites the trog again and bears her to the ground before tearing at the reptile with her claws!
Sia finishes off the leader with a vicious bite! The trog collapses, blood pooling around her body.
Eustoma takes aim at the prone acolyte, shooting her with an arrow.
Rogar gathers kinetic power and readies his attack. As the acolyte stands, he tries to blast her, but the rocks clatter off her scaly hide. She tries to stab Nik'o again, to no avail.
Before the acolyte can stand up, Nik'o's jaws lock around the trog's throat and tear it open! The reptile falls twitching to the ground. The rest of you are able to swiftly dispatch the remaining troglodytes before they fully recover from the color spray.
After looting the fallen trogs, the door in the east wall draws your curiosity. The door is otherworldly in the largely stone chamber, being made of polished, blue steel. It is decorated with a ring of pictograms, and at the center is a depiction of an unusual head with bulging eyes and wisps of hair radiating in every direction. The head—which looks at once like an insect and an old woman—spins freely, and the wheel of pictograms depicts a beetle, a rock, a wedge, a hammer, a crying face, a flame, a claw, a door, a metal bar, a figure standing in triumph, and a bottle.
Karla recognizes some of the pictograms from the carvings in the previous passageway. In order, they were the rock, the metal bar, and the crying face.
"The Trog we captured spoke of the stones telling them to attack us," Wulfram replied to Karla. "Perhaps it is some sort of communication device? I do wonder who we would reach if we were to use it." He cat a spell to see if the wheel radiated magic, then turned his attention to the other magic items.
There are no magic auras coming from the wheel or the door. Wulfram is unable to discern the properties of the magic items at this time.
Eustoma studies the door. "We should go back and see if there are any other discernible pictograms. It should help with the puzzle." She stops to take a look at the magic items on the way back to the pictograph room.
Back in the pictogram room she carefully looks at the walls to see if she can figure out what any of the other keys might be.
Eustoma studies the runes on the wall, but only the three pictograms Karla remembered are present.
"I can't see any more pictographs." Eustoma explains as she wanders back into the room with the others.
I wonder how many pictures we need to figure out how to open the door."
It turns out you already have all you need to solve this puzzle. Rotating the head to the three symbols you have seen--rock, metal bar, and weeping face--causes the door to unlock. On the other side, a three-stepped riser fills most of the room, atop which lies a stone sarcophagus depicting a vaguely insectoid creature similar to the ones depicted in statuary in the previous chambers. Four lidless stone coffers placed around the dais contain treasure.
Rogar does his part, readying a blast for anything that might attack them. As it turned out, the caution was unnecessary. However, he joins the others in the vault as they go through their findings, "Ah don't know lass. It's possible, fer sure, bu' I don' know if they woul' leave all this 'ere if they had come in. As fer if they knew o' this place? Ah can' imagine tha' they didn't. Bu' actually come inside? Who knows?"
This is fascinating." Eustoma looks around the room with wonder. I had no idea this would be in the middle of the forest. Does anyone want to open the sarcophagus to make sure there isn't a creature inside?" She examines the magic items, and then studies the sarcophagus.
"Would The insect creature be the Excavator?", Wulfram mused, "Whatever that means."
Wulfram examined the magic items from the stone coffers.
There aren't any writings or pictograms in this chamber. There doesn't seem to be anything unusual about the sarcophagus. The lid is heavy, but Wulfram could push it open without much difficulty.
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"I suppose if we're going to make this our home, we should check out the sarcophagus," Wulfram said. "Any objections?
Within the coffin lie the partially crystallized remains of an ancient, four-armed, insectoid creature. It appears that it has been dead for an astonishing length of time.
Wulfram scanned the inside of the sarcophagus for magic. "I see no reason to disturb the remains," he said.
Wulfram slid the cover back onto the sarcophagus. "Well, this area seems secure," he said. "That just leaves the moaning tunnel to explore."
You start heading down the tunnel from which the howling wind comes, but it quickly becomes apparent that it extends for quite some distance. The cavern continues for thousands of feet, twisting and turning down into the depths of the earth. It is likely a passage all the way to the Darklands.
"I'd say our work for the day is done," Wulfram declared. "Time for a well earned rest in our new home!"
"This is an excellent place for our people to set up a permanent base camp. It has water, shelter, is defensible, and even has a forge that might be fixed. Hurrah for our new home."
She stares at the tunnel to the Darklands. "Rogar do you know how we might block up this path to the Darklands? That's one major weakness I see in this place. We should also lock the big door with the sarcophagus to discourage the curious."
Rogar strokes his beard and looks around for points of structural integrity.
"Aye, lass. There's a few stones 'ere, 'ere, and 'ere tha' woul' cause tha whole thing ta collape. However, I'm no' sure if we want ta. If we explore it a bit an' clear out some o' the inhabitants, we migh' be able ta use it as an emergency escape in a wors' case scenario. In tha meantime, though...."
Rogar concentrates, and a barrier slowly begins to take place, a trough and hill that would discourage any incoming creatures while still possible to scale. Once it's several feet high (a process that takes some time), he erects several stone walls to block off the majority of the passage.
With Rogar's barrier in place, you sweep through the caves one more time to make sure they are cleared out. Along the way, you find a handful of treasures that you overlooked on your first pass.
When you reach the first cave beyond the entry tunnel, though, you are surprised to see a hobgoblin wearing a gleaming breastplate emblazoned with the insignia of the Ironfang Legion as well as a fine, maroon cloak. An axe is at his belt. He sits aside a hulking, black-furred wolf the size of a draft horse clad in leather barding.
The hobgoblin's eyes widen slightly when he sees you, but a grin crosses splits his pock-marked face. "Did you kill all of these troglodytes? I'm not mad--I'm impressed!"
"I am Corporal Fahrak of the Ironfang Legion, second-in-command to Sergeant Scarvinious," the hobgoblin says proudly. "I came to recruit the Children of Stone into our ranks, but since you appear to have wiped them out, perhaps I should extend the same offer to you? There's no reason you have to die needlessly when you could prove to be valuable assets to the Legion. I will happily offer you the payment I prepared for the troglodytes in exchange for your loyal service. I promise you will full lives as beloved slaves of the coming empire if you abandon your foolish goal of resistance and serve as my agents."
"If ye would allow me ta present a counteroffer, might I suggest tha' ye die fer wha' ye've done?"
Rogar, not having any of this, sends a boulder hurtling towards the hobgoblin, giving it all he has to try and push the hobgoblin far, far away.While it doesn't quite manage to knock Fahrak off his feet, it does slam into him with a crunch.
As soon as Rogar starts to conjure his boulder, the hobgoblin reaches for his axe and the wolf howls a challenge!
"We'll not be your slaves, Ironfang!", Wulfram declared defiantly. He drew out a potion and drank it, immediately feeling a surge of strength flow through him.
My you are ugly. I'm no slave. My family worked hard to get us away from that." Eustoma suddenly lets loose a howl. The group has never heard her make that noise before.
Sia waits until there are more allies close by before she will move forward.
Rogar hurls a boulder at Fahrak, denting the hobgoblin's breastplate and battering his body. He howls in pain and rage!
While Eustoma readies a spell, Wulfram drinks a potion of strength and steps forward.
Fahrak spurs his wolf into a charge as he hold his battleaxe high! Once they get close, Eustoma unleashes her howl, but it doesn't seem to be effective.
The hobgoblin brings his axe down hard, biting deep into Wulfram's chest and nearly dropping him! The wolf bites, but the shaman's armor protects him from a killing blow!
Rogar gives it his all, earth swirling around himself as he narrows his eyes at the hobgoblin. As he studies Fahrak, Rogar watches his movements, prepared to knock him off his wolf the moment he tries to attack Wulfram.
Wulfram steadied himself and stabbed as his charging opponents.
Badly wounded by the hobgoblin's axe, Wulfram stumbled back and thrust again at Fahrak, trying to concentrate on his dangerous foe. "Cover me!", he gasped. "I need to pull back and use a potion."