"What, ya fancy a nap already? Off yer lumps ya lazy warts; we've things to do."
As Gunnar turns to leave the room, he glances sidelong to his left, then waves off a nagging thought with an exasperated sigh. "FINE!"
"Say we load up the mattress then. Might have its uses and it's no good here."
"Any of you finger-wiggling types want to see if there's some kind o' magic keepin' the dust off that breastplate? Seems awfully shiny for being down here so long."
The commander gives the breastplate a casual glance before she gestures towards the door with one of her axes. "You lot can look at it on the way. We've got rooms to clear and undead to put down. I want these freaks out of our fort as soon as possible."
Boomer chuckled. He hadn't expected to be taking marching orders from a ghost, but he decided he kinda liked it.
"You heard the lady." The group's resident demolitioninst was holding a cigar and a flask in the same hand and was alternating between them. "I got a whole batch of new bombs and no one to throw 'em at."
Gunnar and Goggeck flip over the mattress to find the underside has been chewed through and burrowed in. Ripping open the hole further, they find an entire swarm of rats!
...or, what WAS an entire swarm of rats, now just a tangled mass of dried rat husks. They seem to have gotten tangled up in each other, and died that way long ago. However, there’s a glint of something green and shiny amidst their matted form. As Gunnar tries to untangle them and get to the shiny within, suddenly one of the rat corpses bites him!
His glove protects him.
Too surprised by the thing to move quickly, Glor is slow to react.
Without hesitation, Goggeck tries to slam the dead rats with his cold iron-shod fist.
Commander Silverbrew takes the initiative, marching into the room and taking a well-practiced swing against the tangle of dead rats.
"What in Hell?" Hezekh says, as the apparently-dead rat attacks. He punches at the rat with a pair of quick strikes.
As the one of many rats nips at Gunnar's finger, he drops the tangled mass on the bed. All of the dried rat husks begin reanimating, gnashing overgrown incisors in every direction possible.
Hezekh is the first to react, but his punches just aren't fast enough to catch the now squirming mass of reanimated rats, and he ends up punching the mattress.
The Commander is right behind him and gets in a hit. She might be surprised her attacks don't seem to be quite as effective against dead rat flesh as she'd hope.
Just to give you an idea of what you are up against
The tangle of rats begins gnashing out at those immediately surrounding it.
The mass of rats seem to be favoring Helga and Gunnar.
Glor will ready an Alchemist's Fire and call out Its a swarm. I can burn it but it might splash to you lot. Gonna throw anyway. After throwing he moves back.
Gunnar bellows in pain as the deathly teeth sink in, yanking his arm away as he swats the swarm off of him. He pulls his warhammer as Glor's vial shatters, shielding his face from the worst of the burns, then smashes his weapon into the mass with both hands.
"Fire in tha hole," Boomer said as he tossed an explosive into the mattress.
Urist looks over the scene with a harumph. "Well tha'sa nasty pile 'o rats right there, eh?"
He gives Boomer a pat on the shoulder with a glow in his eyes. "Make sure we've got this place cleaned up fer tha commander, else she'll have someone's 'ead over this."
Toulbe begins reciting an old dwarven epic about a fortress besieged by mammoths. It’s a touching tale, and it pulls at everyone’s heartstrings just right.
Goggeck smashes down with his hammer, hitting the tangled ball of reanimated rat husks, and smashing the bed beneath it. The mass of petrified rat corpses seems resilient to the blow, although he crushes a few of them.
Gunnar follows up, and crushes two more rat husks.
With a guiding touch from Urist, Boomer lands a bomb amidst the tangled mass. A poof of down feathers fills the room as the bomb detonates and completely explodes the bed. The rat mass is still there, gnawing out in every direction.
On a hunch, Glor lobs in a grenade of his own, and in doing so, singes his teammates as well.
Helga lets out a battlecry as she tries to cut the rats into little chunks!
Hezekh coughs as the flame washes over him. "That'll wake ye up." Then he strikes at the rats again.
Both Helga and Hezekh pound the rat mass until it is totally obliterated.
As the tangled mass falls apart, a green gem much like the one found in the golden skeleton helms falls out.
There’s one more gem to be uncovered in this place. Where to?
If nothing else, for the sake of efficiency we can just do the classic "left wall sweep" method and check every room we run into.
You are currently standing at the red dot, outside of the throne room. Immediately to the East is a dead end hallway. Immediately to the West is a hall with two doors at the end. South leads back to Hall of Droskar's Image. That corridor has 4 unexplored doors along its length.
At the western end of the hall you find two doors. Checking the north door first you find a storage area. Termite-rotten crates spill their goods across the floor. Cheaply made arms and armor, rusted to uselessness over the years, are strewn disappointedly across the floor.
The southern door opens into what looks like a training room. The rotten remains of wooden mats cover the floor, and empty weapon and armor racks line the walls. Empty, save one. A full suit of dwarven plate begins moving of its own accord, ready to strike down all who enter with its longsword.
The phantom armor rushes the first one through the door, Glor!
The mobile suit cuts neatly across Glor's chest.
Glor is partially protected by his stone hardened skin but is still cut deeply. Not being a melee combatant and unable to step back and fire a blase he withdraws into the corner of the room.
Toulbe screeches a bit and begins randomly on about the various uses of cinnamon, a bit of tree bark surprisingly, in meals.
Hezekh steps forward into the gap, and punches the armor twice in quick succession.
Worried about blowing up his friends or wasting his explosives, boomer held back and waited.
Urist marches forward, steel flashing in his hand as he positions himself to aid his allies in a flank.
Goggeck begins to circle the errant armour, seeking to pound it into submission.
Tactically.
The commander follows up on Urist's tactics, meeting him on the opposite side of the opponent for a heavy attack.
Glor withdraws after taking a nasty hit, allowing Hezekh to step forward and pummel the armor. He connects with his second punch and dents the breastplate with his iron fist.
Goggeck lands a glancing blow, but distracts the armor long enough to allow Urist to set up a flank.
Toulbe nervously begins talk of strange and foreign spices, which, surprisingly encourages everyone to reach a speedy and victorious conclusion to this fight.
Helga takes advantage of her tethered mortal’s positioning and lands a mighty blow. With Toulbe’s inspiration, it is enough to knock free the spirit haunting this set of armor. As the necromantic tie is broken, the armor and sword crash to the floor.
Before you now lies a full suit of plate, although now badly dented in a couple of places, and a masterwork longsword. Not much else of value left in this room.
Goggeck turns to the others, resting on his hammer.
"We should consolidate our gains."
Well done lads. That thing hit hard.
"Yes, let's take some time and catch our breaths."
And so, the group returns to the Hall of Droskar's Image, where they left their wagons and camp. The large bronze statue is on his pedestal, preaching the glories of Droskar to the bison and donkeys, praising the beasts of burden for their tireless and futile efforts. "...All Dwarves should look up to you beasts. Aye, truly you know the meaning of life is to slave and suffer. There is room for your souls yet in the Ashen Forge."
The pack animals listen on as they lazily graze on a bale of alfalfa grass. Bistro gives Toulbe a loving nudge as the group returns.
We should look over our finds and hand out what is useful so that we are more formidable as we continue to explore. Has anyone kept up a list?
Goggeck casts a spell on himself.
"The bed of iron. I can spend this night clad in my full armour, and rest easy. I can also do this for two others."
This hide shirt I wear is as subtle as a satin sheet so I do not need your spell master Ghack. I could use some healing though, either magical or mundane. Gunnar, Helga, perhaps I can help you rest better tonight. Let me take a look at your wounds.
Helga's wounds are mostly shallow, though they do ooze a strange reddish ectoplasm. The medical attention does slow that down just a bit, but they will require magical healing to close up in time for the next outing.
The commander remains stoic and silent, staring back at the entrance the whole time.
"Likewise, I appreciated the offer, but I've long become accustomed to sleeping in me mail shirt."
Toulbe squeaked a bit at his bisons nudging. The simple act of affection almost toppling the small man. He scratches a bit under the bisons chinbefore he starts getting out the cast iron cauldron to begin making the mushroom recipe from earlier.
He tried a few new spices outside the usual mix to see how the subtle differences might change the overall flavor.
Say, this is quite good. Just what a dwarf needs after a hard fight. Glor complements as he eats.
Goggeck shrugs.
"So be it. If nothing else, I will not have to choose between chainmail and a good rest. I look forward to that mushroom broth, Toulbe."
Toulbe serves up his mushroom hotpot, with a side of steamed giant centipede legs, with butter and a dash of cinnamon, of course.
Glor will claim a potion of healing for himself. Nothing else suites him.
Goggeck will also claim a potion of cure light wounds and look over the various breastplates.
"Can anyone tell what enchantments lie on these for good or ill?"
Toulbe starts working on teaching his Bison how to do watch. He tries to use the activities of the Dwarves moving around the camp when they cross past the cauldron. Meanwhile, he begins trying to understand what the breastplate is about.