25^th of Mirtul of the year 1492

Having run out of the Swinging Sword with Harburk Tuthmarillar they were greeted by the sight of a large sinkhole over 30 feet across having opened in front of some buildings across the street from them. They could hear the screaming of children in the hole and as they watched, an old woman ran to the edge, and had it crumbled further, and she slid in as well. All the screaming was quick to draw the attention of other villagers including some of the elders.

Harburk Tuthmarillar

Albaeri Mellikho, Ilmeth Waelvur, and Ulhro Luruth were attempting to push the other villagers away from the edge and seemed to be trying to keep everyone away from the sinkhole.  Dancer noticed that the three of them seemed to be nervous about something related to the situation. There were many calls for rope, ladders, anything to help.

Albaeri Mellikho

Ilmeth Waelvur

Ulhro Luruth

The three of them could be heard yelling at the villagers that everything was in control, and that they should just go home, and the problem would be handled.  Harburk went over to assess the situation. Albaeri came over to intercept the party.  She tried to push the characters away and told them simply that they were not needed and did not need to be involved.

While she was confronting the party, Dancer and Fwoosh were finger talking that they felt there was an issue there, or that she might know more about what had happened.  As the group started ignoring Albaeri, the other two elders came over and blocked the group as well.  They were saying things like.

“The Stones should not be disturbed.”

Fogo stepped forward and strongly stated that they were involved and were going to rescue those that had fallen. As they argued with the three, they noticed that there were a few more notable people were missing from the crowd.  No one from the Blackbutter Inn, but more interestingly was that Grund was nowhere to be seen. The party attached a long length of rope to a building for a secure hold and Dancer was quick to head on down to check out the situation and the room that everyone had fallen into.

Switching his position with a child, Dancer allowed a child to go up and Fwoosh came down following that.  This started them bringing the kids up while different members slowly made their way down. While this was occurring, Ilmeth stepped forward and started a much more aggressive stance and stood up to Fogo.

“The Delvers should not be angered.”

When pushed for answers, they only got more push back and that this was a town problem, and they should just go somewhere else.  The elders will handle this. This did not stop the rescuing of the children and finally the old woman who had sprained her ankle and needed assistance. Questioning her it seemed that the town, or at least many of them were not aware of this space under the town.  Harburk had come back over where the group was working on getting everyone up from the hole and stepped in and shepherd the elders further away from the group.

Those that were in the room at the bottom of the sinkhole began investigating the space finding a large stone door to the east and a narrow passageway to the north. Dancer and ISAC struggled with the stone door but did not have the physique to open it up.  It was heavy and difficult for them to open. As the details was shared with the party members, Fogo became much more aggressive and attempted to push Ilmeth for answers but becoming very belligerent Ilmeth only continued to push back strongly.

Harburk once again pushed the three away from the party so that the group would be able to do something while the elders were arguing against any action. It did not take long with the assistance of the villagers; the rest of the party was all able to get back together in the large room under the sinkhole. Analyzing the hole above them and room itself, it occurred to them that the recent heavy thunderstorms had saturated the ground and the tremors shook enough of the dirt and rock loose to have caused the sinkhole to open.

Exploring the tunnel heading north a bit more, it reminded them of the escape tunnel from the Ruined Moathouse.  They surmised that it might heading upward and toward the Mellikho Quarry. The fact that Albaeri had been running interference, and the issues with the quarry workers might all be related. Finding some human sized footprints in the muddy passageway that were going in both directions.

Angelica and Vladimir were able to easily open the stone door opening to long corridor where they could see another pair of stone doors with Dwarven warriors carved upon them. All the corridors were all masoned stoned.  It was all crafted and well made. Using Dancer as the forward scout everyone moved forward. The southern passageway only went a short distance before ending in a dead-end. Having a choice of further east to another stone door, or to the north.  They decided to take the northern route.

Moving slowly and carefully via the northern route and a couple of turns they eventually got to a room that had several dead bodies and many greater giant rats.  Slaughtering the rats did not take long, although Vladimir did suffer several bites reminding him of his time in the Middens in Amphail only a few weeks ago.  Once the rats were dead, they were able to move forward and inspect the dead bodies.  These bodies were all in a rough shape, and someone had carved a symbol in all their foreheads that was deep enough to crave directly into the bone.

Symbol Carved into Skulls

The symbol was very recognizable to all of them except Dancer.  It was the Drow symbol for Earth. Moving forward again they found another room with a large floating stone.  Learning to be more paranoid Dancer was able to determine that there was something waiting for them in the next room.  Sending in Benny to fool anyone inside, Benny was quickly covered in some sort of Mud Breath revealing their opponents.  A set of Mud Mephits.

Mud Mephits

The battle only held a few surprises which was the Mephit abilities to breath out an immobilizing mud breath, but the worst part was that once killed, the Mephits would explode causing damage, restraining those in range, and healing the other Mephits close by. After taking care of three of them, the other two fly away much faster than what the party could easily pursue.

With the battle completed, they moved into the room with the large floating stone but seemed to be very reluctant to touch or have anything to do with it.  The strange runes on the stone glowed softly and to the party was only a nightmare waiting to pounce upon them. Moving down the southern corridor they found another larger room with a very life-like broken statue of a dwarf.  It had a small plaque attached to the frame holding it together.

“Petrified Ironstar (?) dwarf, found 1459 DR in Red Larch West Quarry in broken condition.”

Around the statue was a ring of gravel and between the two nearly a thousand coins and a dagger covered in dried blood.  Convinced this was another trap that could send them to one of the many planes of hell, they avoided crossing the thin and beckoning stone barrier. While inspecting the room, the noticed that there was a secret door on the southern wall. Deciding that it was safer than taking one of the two doors in the room, off they went.

What they discovered was that this door had not been opened in at least several hundred years, meaning that the current inhabitants of this place had not found it.  Excited with the prospect of unlooted treasure they quickly moved down the steep ramp that led downward. The passageway left to a tomb area with 19 alcoves, each one containing some sort of stone sarcophagus.  Lights appeared on the tall ceiling as they entered, and they were able to see the reliefs of many different images.  Dwarves fighting different creatures, from humans, orc, elves, and even dragons.

Suddenly afraid that all the dead things might get up and attack them, they decided it was best to not touch much here or pay consequences that they were not ready to face. Although a lengthy and healthy discussion about looting the dwarven tomb later came about. Deciding that since it had been previously undiscovered, they could close the door again and come back later when they had more time. Heading back up to the previous room and moved to the western room.  Getting everyone ready for combat, and a difficult door, Vladimir was surprised when it easily swung into the room.  They were greeted by a very large obelisk in the middle of the room with a small boy held down by rocks un front of it, and Grund looking through something through the west door on the other side of them, keeping his hands on a set of chains waiting for something.

Grund

Braelen Hatherhand

The sudden entrance seemed to have surprised him and the party. Grund did not seem to be very happy to see the party.  He was worried that the others would come back and punish him.  He continued to argue with the party that they should leave.  Trying to fool him, Fogo disguised himself as Albaeri which seemed to work for a bit, but as the arguments continued, he seemed to realize that something was not quite right since Albaeri who always seemed to yell at anyone and everyone, was not willing to say anything. If anything, it was the multitude of people talking that really caused the confusion and exposed them more than anything else. Even with calming and logical arguments, eventually Grund was not convinced which caused ISAC and Dancer to attack Grund.

While large, he was not a difficult foe for the party.  He was quickly knocked down and only because of Vladimir yelling about not killing him, Grund was only knocked unconscious, although heavily wounded. After removing all the stones from the boy, they attempted to chat with him, but the bloody and heavy-handed takedown of Grund right in front of him caused him to clam up and refuse to talk.  They had managed to completely intimidate and nearly frightened him to death.

Avery being the smallest and least threatening of the party took the boy away from Grund’s beaten and bloody body.  Feeding him some food and water, Avery was able to get him to start talking if the rest of the party was nowhere near them and out of sight. Braelen Hatherhand shared that he had been put here by his father as a punishment, and that his father is one of the believers that worship down here. He was able to name a few more of the believers and that they were concerned about the movement of the stones in the room to the far east and that they were concerned about the stones moving which seemed to cause bad luck and might be related to the tremors that have been happening. Convincing him to go back to the starting large room where the sinkhole fell into and wait for them there.

Again, while figuring out the caging system in the western hallway, Dancer was wandering around the room and once again found something on a southern wall.  Caging Grund in one of the ones in the hallway, the found another secret door, this one a bit different.  It still appeared to have been unfound by those here, but when the door was opened, it revealed a second door.

The door was a dark grey granite that still has remains of faded paint upon it.  The stone dwarven warrior stared outward at those in the hallway.  Its eyes are holes large enough to fit a small hand while there is a hole leading into the mouth, the left hand is holding a stone saucer with a small hole on the bottom of it, and finally the right hand is held out as if waiting to hold something. It is at an angle that will cause whatever is in the palm to slide into what appears to be a pouch that has a slot on the top of it.

Stone Door with Dwarf

Surrounding the carving and written in Dwarven on the door was the following:

Aundra e eth hallanaryr wundstr avor corruption

Jert eth vjakr avor ljef

Grasp eth murmal avor temptation

Ynsta eth aldrorz anzjon

The party was amazed and completely clueless since no one was able to read Dwarvish. After a short discussion, the closed the door and pretended it no longer existed. After getting the door closed, some of the members heard something on the other side of the door to the east.  Pushing the door open were the two mephits that had flown away with four men in stone masks.

Stone Mask Men

In melee the Mephits were not very difficult, but the four stone masked men proved to be much tougher.  After nearly a minute and surviving the exploding mephits, all were vanquished. After the combat, Angelica offered a prayer to her god and healed everyone in the party all at once.

And that was the end of the session.

Campaign Notes

They are finally in the Tomb of the Moving Stones.  They found two secret doors and were only able to open one of them.  Too bad no one spoke Dwarvish.