Eventually the stairs end. Webs stretch between the walls of the chamber at the bottom of the shaft, supporting two large, webbed cocoons hanging a few feet above the floor. A large circular stone disk stands in the eastern wall of the room, surrounded by a circle of Dwarven runes. Three more runes are carved on the face of the disk. The great disk is flush with the wall and has no visible hinges or handles.
The webbed cocoons hold the mummified bodies of a dwarf woman and a woman who looks about midway between a dwarf and Stilgrit as far as spider features go. Their bodies are covered thickly except for their faces and abdomens.
Kronug has a suspicion about the mummified dwarves, but it is so grotesque that he says nothing.
The runes mean nothing to him.
Haftor walks a few steps into the room until he can see the writing clearly. He reads the Dwarven runes slowly and carefully, translating into common, "Hrm. Around the circle, it says, rest here until mine sons touch upon thy blessings. Then, the three symbols in the center are loyalty, duty, and strength."
He gets down on one knee, planting the head of his hammer on the stone floor. He is lost in silent prayer for a few moments before raising his head and adding, "Torag has three sons associated with the virtues on the stone: Grundinnar is loyalty, Kols is duty, and Trudd is strength. These character traits are valued most by The All-Father, and I strive to embody them."
He stands, then chuckles through his beard. "Having said all that, I have no idea what to do next. Rest here? Maybe clear away the webbed bodies befouling the place."
The spider-dwarf hybrid wore an amulet that detects as magical, and carried a pouch holding holly, mistletoe, and other druidical spell components.
Jarrek nods appreciatively at Haftor's explanation, silently agreeing with Kronug's unsaid thought about the dwarf and half-spider dwarf woman, as he looks around the bottom of the shaft for some sort of idea about what to do next.
"Do you think that command in dwarven is for visitors, Haftor? Or referring to those laid to rest here? Oh wait, what did it say? 'Rest here until my sons touch thy blessings'? Are there any buttons or anything to touch? Maybe you need to touch them in a certain order. Like which one of the sons was oldest, middle, and youngest?"
"Perhaps the stone disk rotates, so that the runes on the face of the disk line up with corresponding runes in the circle surrounding it."
Seamus studies the door carefully. "I don't see any other way around this."
"Haftor, you are a 'son' of Torag, are you not?
Then perhaps you should touch upon the runes corresponding to the blessings.
It couldn't hurt to also say the name of the son and their virtue at the same time. In Dwarven, of course."
"My other thought is that the stone disk might turn by itself, like a clock. And so resting here as Jarrek suggests could be the right thing, and in time the runes would line up."
Haftor would like to do a few things. The first, is that he feels that maybe there is some holy power that is being suppressed because the place is desecrated. He coordinates taking down the bodies and removing them from the room, lifting and dragging as necessary, then generally cleaning up the area.
He does a heal check on them just to determine how they might have died and what is the significance of their exposed faces and abdomens.
He also casts detect magic on the amulet. Maybe there is some connection between this item and the room.
He then addresses Kronug's earlier comment. "We are all Torag's children."
He studies the walls of the room, looking for secret doors.
Finally, he touches the three runes, speaking Torag's son's names as he touches each associated symbol. He starts out in the order of eldest son to youngest, then youngest to eldest, etc.
Haftor can tell that the two women died of old age. He sees nothing in the stones but the quality of their workmanship. The amulet is magical.
When he touches the rune meaning "loyalty" and speaks Grundinnar's name, the rune glows blue. Touching "duty" and speaking Kols' name causes that rune to glow, as well, and touching "strength" and speaking Trudd's name not only causes the third rune to glow but in addition causes the door to sink backwards and slide noiselessly to one side, leaving an opening.
The chamber on the other side is lined with tightly spaced pillars that gracefully support a vaulted ceiling; walls, ceiling, and pillars alike have been cut from the surrounding stone. Centuries of dust coat every surface, and the air is stale. A large translucent panel is set in the center of the floor. On either side, a stone door sits inside a low arch.
Jarrek laughs, still cleaning spiderwebs out of his hair and clothes from helping clean up the chamber. "Good work you two! Now, what have we got here?"
The bard doesn't find much of anything--the translucent panel looks like it's glass with a thick film of grime on it, and would take a bit of work to clean enough to see through. There's no sound other than what's coming from the party.
Roshelle walks into the ancient chamber in awe. She imagines that no one has been here in centuries and yet the place feels alive. It's like a slumbering beast that the small party has stumbled upon in its hibernating lair.
She moves slowly around the chamber and examines each of the doors before focusing on the panel on the floor. She takes her waterskin and holds it over the panel but looks to the dwarves before she pours it out.
"Is it ok if I pour some water here to try to clean this up? I want to remain respectful to this hallowed place."
Haftor provides one of his standard shrugs. "Good idea. Cleaning seems respectful to me."
Looking down through the window, the view is centered on (presumably) Nargrym's sarcophagus. However, it has been opened and its lid pushed to the side, offering a glimpse of its occupant: a crumpled dwarf corpse dressed in a suit of scale mail armor.
Jarrek grimaces and glances at Haftor. "Looks like we're not the first ones here." He goes to check the doors to see if they're locked.
Neither door appears to be locked.
Jarrek grunts. "Neither of these doors are locked." He hooks a thumb at the door next to him, the northern one. "Let's check out the next room."
"Works for me."
On the other side of the door, huge stone panels line the walls of the chamber. Each depicts a carved scene, apparently from Nargrym's life, but all of the panels have been damaged or defaced in some way. Nargrym's eyes have been crudely chiseled out in every panel. Hundreds of footprints crisscross the dusty floor. There's another door in the south wall.
Frowning and nodding to Jarrek, Haftor checks that everyone is ready. He opens the door to the north, then looks in, drawing his hammer.
Jarrek studies the panels, smiling and nodding as he learns about Nargrym's adventures. "A real hero," he says to the others.
Jarrek studies the panels, smiling and nodding as he learns about Nargrym's adventures. "A real hero," he says to the others.
Kronug looks at the damage to the panels.
"We know that the traitor Lokmorr was 'caged him alive in Steelhand's tomb, to spend his final hours in the presence of the hero he betrayed.' I don't know a lot about stonecraft, but how long would have taken to chisel out the eyes in every panel and do that much damage?
I think he may have lived more than a few final hours."
Seeing Jarrek's examination of the footprints, he takes a closer look himself. He's guessing that is just one set of dwarf-sized tracks, the same being walking around here quite a lot.
Kronug's supposition is correct--all of the footprints are identical, and the size is consistent with a male dwarf of average size (or large human or small half-orc). The tracks meander around the room, not just from door to door.
"Lokmorr is still here, I think."
Haftor stares at the damaged panels for several long moments, eventually beginning to tremble slightly with retrained rage. "Hammer and Tongs, this is an outrage. Whoever is responsible, Lokmorr, somehow, or someone else. They deserve righteous punishment, and I will be the instrument of their destruction. This I swear to the All-Father."
There are engraved bronze plaques under each of the panels, identifying each of the deeds or occurrences in Dwarvish--"The Slaying of Drogmalak the Terrible," "Victory at Hrothbad's Mines," and the like. The plaque under the final panel is covered with something that looks like dried feces, rendering it illegible.
Kronug will start cleaning off the plaque under the final panel.
While Kronug cleans the plaque, Haftor studies the walls for anything interesting or out of place.
Haftor finds nothing interesting or out of place. The befouled plaque, once clean, reads "The Betrayal of Lokmorr."
"Lokmorr's got to be a zombie or a mummy if he's still here, then." Jarrek shakes his head and gestures at the door the footsteps lead to. "Let's go see where he went."
When it comes to our door procedure, I'm going to repost this from before since I think it might have been missed.
I will open doors if needed, but if there is a smarter way of doing it then I am all for that.
It's also nice to not let the enemy get a surprise round with you in line of sight. Open/Close can be used from an oblique angle.
Four statues of idealized dwarves stand against the walls of this chamber, next to stone fonts. A dusty film covers the fonts, and their basins are inscribed with Dwarven runes. A massive stone panel on the room’s eastern wall bears a bas-relief likeness of a dwarven warrior garbed in a suit of scale male and wielding an oversized spear. The carved figure is unadorned with the exception of its right hand, which is leafed with now-tarnished silver.
There is another door in the south wall.
Haftor immediately recognizes the statues as depictions of Torag and his three siblings: his younger brother Angradd, the Forge-Fire; his half-sister Dranngvit, the goddess of vengeance; and his older brother Magrim the Taskmaster, guardian of the underworld. The runes on the fonts are traditional dwarven blessings.
Kronug, Roshelle, and Seamus all spot a small gap between the stone panel and the wall.
Jarrek nods appreciatively at the statues and carving. "The man himself, Nargrym Steelhand, at the height of his giant-slaying glory. Impressive looking, ain't he?"
Roshelle is amazed at the stonework. Despite the defacement of some of the statues, the detail is amazing and so life like. Once again she is amazed at just how skilled dwarves can be when working stone.
As Jarrek points out Nargrym, Roshelle notices a small gap between the stone panel and the wall. She moves to where she can get a better look at it then points it out.
"That's odd. Do you think that there's something behind this panel? Can it move?"
"Wait!" Seamus cautiously approaches the panel and searches it. "I don't see any traps. Go ahead."
Jarrek whistles. "Whooo, sharp eyes there Roshelle." He hadn't spotted the gap himself, but once it's pointed out and cleared by Seamus he goes over to tug on it to see if the panel can be pulled, pushed, or slid open.
The whole panel slides to one side, revealing a small landing and a narrow staircase down.