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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cinerarium" data-source="post: 958384" data-attributes="member: 9349">Hammer 15 (I think), the Depths of KhundrakarStill sore from the elemental’s pounding, we awoke in the utter darkness of Khundrakar, feeling ever more like we are trapped in a tomb. I talked briefly with Kaz and Fin before praying to Deneir this morning.  We came to the conclusion that whatever lay beyond the doors would most likely be undead.  After all, it appeared that the goblinkin had not survived this hall, and what could have survived so long, unable to reach the surface?  It was with great trepidation I watched as Fineon moved towards the entrance to the lower levels, coming into contact with the magical aura that made the doors swing open on their ancient hinges.My fear, for the moment, was ill-founded.  The other side of the doors opened into a stairwell leading down into darkness.  With goblins and ogres at our backs, we warily descended.  The bottom of the long, curving stairwell opened into a large, natural cavern whose limits our light could not find.  We moved further into the cavern, staying near the wall on our left to avoid getting hopelessly lost.  I jumped at every echo and drip of water, my heart beating in my chest as I mentally conjured the images of every ghoul in Hell out of the shadows.  Soon enough they came, a band of albino lizard-creatures, similar to the lizardfolk but with elongated snouts and pale, white scales.  They swarmed at us out of the darkness, swinging great axes and bearing down on us with a fury!  The fight was short but fierce.  I launched defensive spell after defensive spell, and healed Begeth and Fineon as they were bloodied even as they hacked apart their foes.  Kazir’s evocations sizzled out of the ether, combusting and electrocuting the cave-dwellers.  Soon enough they all lay bleeding their lifeblood onto the cavern floor.  Wounded more in spirit than body, we rested momentarily, and ventured on.Soon enough we found the passage that the monsters came from, their wet tracks appearing from a subterranean stream that issued from a cave wall before disappearing into the wall opposite.  Another tunnel led us into a chamber coated in giant mold spores and phosphorescent fungus.  Amidst the mold we spotted several decaying skeletons adorned with weapons and armor.  None of us had the ability to retrieve the booty without traveling through the mold, so we retreated for the time being.Down another passage we found what I had suspected and feared, a burial chamber.  A number of sepulchers carved from stone blocks sat atop a ledge that overlooked a much larger cavern, this one also covered in phosphorescent fungus.  The ledge and sepulchers were clean of fungus, though a number of desiccated humanoid and beetle husks lay nearby.  I moved to approach the far sepulchers, which were closed and covered in dwarven runes that I wanted to copy.  As I approached, a number of gigantic spiders dropped from the ceiling!  Their faceted eyes reflected hundreds of torches as their maws clicked in anticipation of another feast.  Toth and Fin were quick to cut down the spiders closest to them.  I stabbed at one with my rapier, to little effect.  Kazir’s spat forth a gout of vile ichor that he narrowly dodged before destroying the beast.  In a matter of seconds, the spiders lay dead.  I began to think that we had come into our own, so to speak.  We had taken the worst the cavern had to offer, and survived.  Brimming with confidence, I made it over to the closed sarcophagi and began to examine the runes.  While struggling with the hard dwarven script, I heard Toth scream in agaony over my shoulder!  He had looked out of one of the exits to the cavern, a short passage that ended in a large round pit.  He staggered backwards into the room, a huge wound open in his shoulder.  We quickly readied ourselves for whatever would come through the entryway.“Another o’ them spiders,” Toth said, “but large as a horse!”  He spat and grimaced at the pain.  Tense seconds passed.  After an eternity, we relaxed our guard.  The spider seemed content to leave us be, and for our part we decided to not investigate its parlor any longer.  I healed Toth, and we took stock of our options.  Below us lay the fungus-infested cavern.  Bringing our light closer to bear, we could see that a rough path existed through the dimly glowing moss, as far as we could see.  Closer to hand was another passageway.  We chose the closest passage, and left the fungus for later.After a winding tunnel, the passage opened into another natural chamber, this one formed around another stream that emerged from the right hand wall and fell into a steeply-descending cascade before disappearing into a hole in the far corner of the room.  A treacherous path led up along the left hand wall into another archway.  Any misstep on the path would find me sliding down the damp walls of the chute and into the waterfall, never to be seen again.Tymora favors the foolish, fortunately, and we safely traversed the path to the archway.  Through the arch, the path ended in a landing looking over a perfectly circular pit, obviously carved by the loving hands of dwarves.  I guessed that a stairwell most likely descended from the landing to the floor, about forty feet below.  I examined the walls and found that indeed, small holes existed that could have been filled with wooden supports for a stair.  Unfortunately for us, no stairwell currently filled the pit, so Fin attached a rope to a protruding rock in the hallway, and rappelled down to the chamber below.  Nervously waiting my turn (I asked Begeth to lower me down, so as not to repeat my fall into fire a few days before), I nearly jumped off the precipice when Kazir screamed in pain behind me.  Whirling to face the new enemy (and very conscious of Fineon, forty feet straight down and far from danger), I saw Begeth’s spider, easily six feet across, perched on the wall above Kazir.  His left arm hung limp, badly bleeding, as the spider moved in for the kill.  In an instant, it was on Kazir, attempting to grapple him against its crunching mandibles.  Kazir’s good arm shot out, fending off the furry forelegs of the arachnid.  Begeth charged to Kazir’s aid.  Toth howled in primal fury, his great axe whirling in an uppercut blow that sliced half of the insect’s head clean off, the carapace shattering as whitish ichor splattered across the floor.  As a final insult, Toth kicked its lifeless form into the chasm.I did not relish his tusked grin as he looked back at us.  Below me, in the pit where Fineon was alone, I heard talking.  I turned to look over the edge.  A ghostly dwarf had emerged from an archway at the base of the pit and had approached Fineon.  I could not understand its speech, but after a few moments it appeared that Fineon did.  After another minute of talking, during which I did my best to heal Kazir, but in truth did little as I had spent all of my spells uselessly against the lizardkind, Fineon began to ascend the rope, leaving the ghost below.“Fin – what happened below?  Are you well?”“Eh, I’m fine.  Come on, let’s go back to the outer room.”  He shook his head as I opened my mouth to speak.  “Say, Kaz,” Fin asked, just now noticing our wizard’s blood-soaked cloak, “how’d you get hurt?”In the outer chamber, our words nearly drowned out by the roar of the waterfall, Fin told us what had gone on below, even while he remained blissfully ignorant to how close we had come to losing Kazir.  The dwarven ghost had thanked him for clearing out the upper levels, or warrens as he called them, but warned him not to continue any further.  Fin wanted to go back immediately, that we should all fight the ghost and destroy it, that we might take whatever treasure it guarded.  Kazir seemed only too willing to go along.I will not speculate on the attitudes of those who may someday read this journal, if indeed it ever emerges from the darkness of this place.  I have never been one to care for the laws of monarchs or petty nobles, whose right to power comes as legitimately in my mind as that of any thug in the street, always watchful for the next larger dog to come along.  But the contents of this tomb, for that is what it is, are in a large sense the property of the dwarves who died defending it – and apparently haunt it still.  If we had not encountered this restless spirit, I would have no qualms claiming the spoils for myself, as we bled for that right against those who had stolen it to begin with.  But the discovery of the original guardians of that treasure – even those undead who guard it still with honor – gives me pause.  And I would not send such a spirit to the Abyss for failing to fulfill such a charge as defending the treasures of its kinfolk.So I argued with Kaz and Fin.  This is not the first time I have noticed their willingness to pillage, their lack of compassion for their fellows, and their cold desire for treasure at any cost.  Yes, we were hired by Lord Macon to recover whatever we could of the dwarven treasure – but that was before we knew that there were dwarves still here defending that treasure (albeit undead dwarves).  Throughout it all, Begeth at least stayed at my side – of all people, the one I considered least likely to be there.  But he has a strong sense of honor, this one, and I had saved his life several times now through the grace of my Lord Deneir.  He is a stout, if simple, comrade.In the end, we decided to let the matter rest for the time being.  Wounded and bereft of magic, we decided to again retire to the chamber where we defeated the elemental, and rest.</blockquote>

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