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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Capellan" data-source="post: 1326709" data-attributes="member: 6294">"Forgotten Honour" by Eric Price (Dragon Scale Counters) - Part 6After declining the offer of a bed for the night - Twinkle whimpers when Gardan tips her an outrageous wink - the adventurers depart, eager to get back to Amberdale and open the tomb.The return journey takes two days, by which time most of the adventurers' injuries have been healed, but they elect to wait until the next morning before they enter the tomb itself."May as well be at full strength when we start." Macwood sums up the plan for Captain Jarrek, "Because we probably won't stay that way for long."Entering the sewers the next morning, the Company makes their way to the huge iron door.  Once there, Twinkle uses a knife and a small hammer to chip away the physical seal on the door, and then Stormstrider invokes his druidic powers, channelling a cure light wounds into the metal.There is a grinding sound as the door swings inward, revealing a rough-hewn stone chamber, the floor of which is littered with bones."Think they'll attack us?" Stormstrider asks."When we haven't got a cleric?  I'm sure they will." Is Macwood's assessment.The bard is swiftly proved correct. As the adventurers move into the chamber - bludgeoning weapons at the ready - the bones roll together, gradually building from the feet upwards into five complete skeletons.  Teeth clattering in macabre laughter, the creatures surge forward, their bones hands outstretched like claws.The first one gets its skull crushed before it even gets within arm's reach: Ming Li lashes out the end of her staff, shattering the brittle old bone with a rapid flick of her wrist.  The other four fair little better: they meet mace and staff and hammer, and rapidly return to the scattered bones they were before the adventurers entered the room."You know," Rose remarks at the end of it, "Those things used to a lot scarier."With the immediate threat at an end, the group takes their time in looking around the chamber.  The rear wall has the only properly worked stone in the room.  Not only is there a large sarcophagus before it, but the wall itself has had a mural engraved upon it.  There are three panels, two depicting the sun either just rising or setting, and the one in the middle showing it high in the sky."Is that it?" Twinkle looks at once disappointed and relieved, "One room with skeletons, an old coffin to empty, and we can go home?""Not quite." Macwood has scrambled up onto the sarcophagus and is staring at the lid. "There's some kind of runes here.  You might want to stand back: I'm going to wipe the dust away and see what they say -"The bard abruptly realises he is talking to an empty room.  Turning, he can just make out the others, peering in through the doorway."- and it might not be safe." He sighs.The halfling crouches, draws in a deep breath, and then exhales as hard as he can, blowing a cloud of dust out of the deeply-cut runes on the stone lid."I'm not dead!" he calls, "The runes are in an some kind of Old Elvish.  They say: 'When I move to greet the morning sun, my greatest secret shall be revealed.""Any ideas what it means?" Elspeth asks, as she re-enters the room.  Macwood shrugs,"Probably that we have to move it to point at one of those two panels." He suggests, indicating the mural. "And then it'll open, or a secret chamber will be revealed.  Something like that.""It looks pretty heavy." Stormstrider remarks.  Macwood shrugs again,"You're strong.  You'll get over it.""It should move pretty easily, actually." Twinkle has been peering at the base of the sarcophagus, and now pops up.  There's a smudge of dust on the tip of her nose, "There are grooves in the floor here, under the dust.  We just need to get the blowhard here -" she indicates Macwood, who preens unashamedly, "- to clear them, and we should be able to swing it in either direction.""The sun rises in the east, so I say we move it that way." Ming Li points at the panel in question.This suggestion meets with agreement - and another max exodus from the room.  After a short argument about who has to go back in, Elspeth and Stormstrider return, set their shoulders to the sarcophagus, and push it eastward.They don't die, either.Instead, their actions reveal a short flight of steps that lead down to an open doorway, just beneath the middle panel of the mural.  Light spills out of the doorway, and Macwood scampers down the stairs to peer through the gap."Secret room." He reports, his face light by the glow from within. "There's a lit torch down here." He squints at it carefully, "Looks like a continual flame."The group moves into the new area.  This chamber also has murals in the walls, this time of elven warriors battling monsters.  A badly rotted couch is set against one wall.  Twinkle promptly sits on this, and the couch collapses into a sodden heap, throwing up a small cloud of dust and mould.  A panicked stampede for the exit follows, ending only when it becomes clear that the gnome's choking and sputtering is simply the result of mundane dust, rather than any of the lethal varieties of fungi."Don't do that again." Elspeth tells Twinkle, sternly.Once they have all returned to the room, the group reviews its options.  There are two exits: on the right, a corridor set with a series of alcoves; on the left, a closed door."So, do we flip a coin to see which way to go?" Macwood asks, "Or just throw the gnome down one and see if anything eats her?"</blockquote>

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