Qildar opens the door and gestures for Trutzburg to go ahead in front of him.
The floor of this small hallway is partially blocked by heaps of stone rubble. A skeletal human hand protrudes from one pile of rubble. The debris looks old, and the few sagging strands of web draped over the rubble seem to have been here for some time.
Trutzburg slowly moves into the room and starts to look at the hand sticking out of the rubble:
The hand belongs to a human skeleton buried within which has been shattered into many pieces. The skeleton’s priestly robes are now mere moldering scraps, and the blade of a nearby sword has rusted away into uselessness.
Trutzburg continues to dig out the skeletal remains.
While Trutzburg is digging through the rubble, Qildar takes a look around the room. As Qildar looks in the room, Sana taps him on the shoulder and points to the ceiling.
In the ceiling is a shaft that ascends another 5' above the ceiling then looks as if it runs further north.
Yes, the rubble seems to have come from above. It seems some kind of "blast" created the cavity above (and thus the rubble below).
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"We should be careful moving through here. It's possible the rubble is from tripping a trap. That shaft would also be a good place for a spider."
Not wanting to confront a spider while solo in a confined area, he carefully searches the area next to Trutzburg and to the east towards the door for traps before moving to the door to search it.
While searching the area for traps, Qildar notices an imperfection in the floor of the niche to the west and he's pretty sure it's similar to the trap found in the corridor two rooms back. The doors themselves do not seem to be trapped.
Trutzburg tosses a big chunk of ceiling onto the trap door and it swings open revealing a web strewn spiked pit 10 feet deep.
Uncovering the body, you find a shattered human (or humanoid, it's hard to tell) skeleton. The skeleton's priestly robes are now moldering scraps. A sword nearby is rusted to uselessness, but there is a key under the skeleton that looks rusted but durable.
Qildar checks for traps on the floor and the door, and when he's convinced all is safe, he opens the door.
This large stone chamber contains two clusters of four stone caskets each. In the center of the room, between the two groupings, stands an empty, unlit iron brazier that is covered with soot and smells faintly of past fires. Drapes of dust-covered spider webs cling to the ceiling.
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Qildar looks concerned by both the spider webs and the caskets. "We better be careful here. Who knows where something will come out from. I hope those caskets are empty."
While still standing in the doorway, he scans the room for any indication there might be something in the caskets as well as in the webs.
"I can't tell what might be up there. Let's even our odds a bit," he says as he takes a torch from his pack and lights it. He then concentrates and says a few words and the torch slowly rises from his hand. Continuing to focus on the torch, he makes it rise up to the webs to light them on fire. Once they are lit, he brings the torch back down to the ground by the door. "Let's see if anyone is home," he says watching for movement and ready to attack with his long spear.
Qildar burns the webs away with torch and mage hand. As the webs burn away he notices they are a bit older and dustier than the ones he's encountered before and seem to be void of life.
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Qildar nods in agreement, satisfied that there is one less threat in the room. He then turns his attention to the caskets. "Stay close," he says to the others as he prepares enter the room. He starts by checking the floor by the door for traps and then does the same for the first casket to his right
Qildar checks the floor for traps and deems it safe to pass. As Qildar approaches the casket to his right:
A chill breeze arises from nowhere with an eerie howl. The room seems to darken, and in the sudden gloom, scores of small spectral eyeballs appear, drifting with the breeze. They peer intensely before fading away.
@Sana: Yes, you saw it.
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Qildar considers Sana's statement. "I agree that leaving potential threats behind us is usually a bad idea. My concern is us freeing something that would have been confined to the caskets had we left them closed. If everyone is ready, let's open one at a time," he says waiting for the others before getting help to open the first casket.