~magical GM hand waving~
After a few weeks delay and some sheepish explanations (as well as 25GP per scroll), the party makes its way back to the tomb.
Written in Dwarven, the runes around the perimeter of the disk read, “Rest here until mine sons touch upon thy blessings.” The runes in the center of the disk are Dwarven symbols for “loyalty,” “duty,” and “strength.”
Torag’s three children and the values they identify with are Grundinnar
(loyalty), Kols (duty), and Trudd (strength).
“That sounds very dwarvish, but it doesn’t mean anything to me, I think we will have to break it down if we want to continue. Maybe a wandering scholar will happen by and explain this riddle.”
*think Eng is only one with knowledge religion
“Any suggestions Daardra before Ghûn tries to smash the door?”
We can go buy a knock spell. Do we have anything dwarven we can touch against the door? If none of these, we can try to break it down, although I have reservations about that.
“I don’t have anything dwarven that I can recall.”
On way back to town:
“Nope.”
What caster level knock spell do you purchase+
The cheapest one that has the best chance of working????
Let’s buy a wand so we don’t have to come back 12 times.
~GM handwave~
After further travel and embarrassment, the party returns to the tomb 4,500 GP lighter and attempts to coerce the mighty dwarven door using magic.
It only takes 2 quick charges from the wand to break the enchantment and Ghun rolls open the door.
The room beyond is roughly rectangular 30x35 with doors in the center of the N & S walls.
The tightly spaced pillars that line the walls of this wide chamber gracefully suspend 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.
If room appears safe then move to N door and open.
DM bump.
DM was waiting to see if Clint was going to post....
With a perception roll like that? Dang, nothing gets by him.
The faint light of the party's magic items barely illuminates the space. As they head to the N door, Ghun notices a few things:
The panel in the center of the room is actually super thick glass (maybe 5'), over the centuries the glass has turned a translucent yellow with grime and dust. Strangely enough, Ghun swears he can make out some footprints in the dust covering the floor of this room and they look recent.
Ghun opens the N door revealing a long rectangular room running W to E.
Huge stone panels line the walls of this chamber, each depicting a carved scene, but all of the panels have been damaged or defaced in some way. Hundreds of footprints crisscross the dusty floor. There is another door on the far S wall.
G inspects the room and will move to door and open if he deems it safe.
Does Eng know anything about the panels?
This room appears to pay tribute to Nargrym’s life and deeds, carved as images into the stone wall panels. The images primarily commemorate Nargrym’s battles, but the final panel depicts his tragic betrayal and murder.
An engraved bronze plaque above each panel has dwarven writing on it. Nargrym's eyes appear to have been chiseled out of each panel.
There are more footprints in the dust as well.
All of the footprints are identical in size and shape to the ones in the other room.
Ghun opens the door and follows a 30' hallway that leads to a roughly squarish room.
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 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 silver.
There is a formerly secret door on the E wall that is slightly ajar, and a regular door on the S wall.
The four statues depict dwarven deities. One of the statues is Torag. The runes in the basins of the fonts are traditional dwarven blessings.
The other 3 statues are Torag’s younger siblings: Angradd, the Forge-Fire; Torag’s half-sister Dranngvit, the dwarven goddess of vengeance;
and Torag’s older brother Magrim the Taskmaster, guardian of the underworld.
The bas-relief panel depicts Nargrym Steelhand at the height of his giantslaying glory
“The statues are Torag and his siblings.”
Detect magic and evil throughout the room.
Wait for results of Eng’s magic and evil detection and then check secret door if no threats
Eng detects no evil or magic. Ghun, opens the secret door all the way revealing a few flights of stairs running counterclockwise ending in another door.
Do the footprints lead to the secret door, the regular door, both doors, neither?
The foot prints lead to and from both doors. Clearly, someone (or something) is walking about the tomb.
Open the regular door before going down the flight of stairs.
The door opens revealing a square room beyond with a door in the N wall.
A nauseating stench of filth fills this chamber. Various items of broken furniture are sloppily piled into curious arrangements throughout the room. Among the piles of wreckage are toppled statuettes of jade and serpentine, shards of clay and porcelain urns, and several crushed drinking steins. The western wall of the room bears several large cracks and a few small holes where it meets the floor.
Use detect evil and detect magic, inform Ghûn of the results and let him go in first for further exploration.
Not detecting any evil or magic in the room, Eng sends Ghun in to explore. As he approaches the N door a crossbow trap is triggered firing at his back!
On flat footed AC
DC 23 FORT save or
1d4 CON/frequency 1/round for 9 rounds
Anything found in the room?
-10
Any items of value have been clearly been purposefully destroyed.
Open the North wall door.
Follow G.
Orett/Daardra out of town for weekend.
The N door opens into the first room with the strange dirty glass floor.
The only remaining unexplored area is at the end of the stairs from the secret door.
Head down the stairs and open the door.
Two wide alcoves flank the eastern portion of this room, the floor of which is inlaid with the symbol of an ornate warhammer. Each alcove contains a large iron brazier and is crammed with a variety of baubles and trinkets. Beyond the alcoves, the chamber narrows and a flight of wide steps climb to a vaulted recess. A great stone sarcophagus, its lid pushed to one side, lies in this space beneath a large translucent panel in the ceiling above. A smaller alcove stands on either side of the stone coffin. The northern alcove holds a five-foot-tall iron cage, its bars bent and twisted out of shape, while the southern alcove contains an elaborate iron candelabra covered with drippings of dried purple and red wax, which holds dozens of melted candle stubs.
Detect magic and detect evil.
No evil is detected, but some magic is detected in large rolled-up rug laying in the NE alcove.
“The hammer is for Torag.”
Pointing:
“Dwarf above!”
There's a dwarf in here too, pointing to the casket, but he's seen better days.
maybe he was gnawed on by that mad bastard up above?
Is this the same crazy dwarf that we captured for a while and thought we were all orcs or something?
Totally different dwarf
If the dwarf isn’t immediately threatening us, move to the rug that had something magical and unroll it.
As the party unrolls the rug a cloud of spores burts forth burning everyone's lungs.
The party can hear the cackling laughter of the ragged looking dwarf above.