Tomb of Moving Stones, Part 2
General Summary
2 Mirtul, The Year of The Scarlet Witch (1491 DR)
Town of Red Larch, Dessarin Valley
The group decided it was safer if Braelen stayed with them rather than risk the young boy returning to the town above.
They continued to the east.
Beyond the stone door was another large room.
The fifty-foot-square chamber was hewn out of rock. The floor was rough but flat, the walls showed the chisel-marks of the original builders, and the ceiling was about ten feet high. Identical stone doors with iron pull-ring handles stood in the middle of the east, north, and west walls.
In the center of the room stood a life-sized and lifelike statue of a dwarf warrior wearing a chain shirt, helm, and big boots. He carried a shield on his left arm and a battleaxe in his right hand. The statue had been broken in places, the head, and upper torso, lower torso, and legs. However, it seemed the remaining pieces had been reassembled and held together and upright in a stout wooden frame.
A dagger, along with several coins and gems, lay on the floor in front of the statue, surrounded by a ring of fine gravel.
On the frame holding it together was a small, neat inscription that read:
Petrified Ironstar (?) dwarf,
found 1459 DR in Red Larch West Quarry
in broken condition.
The group took the dagger, coins, and gems, then opened the door to the east.
The door opened into a passage—ten feet wide, ten feet high, and hewn out of the rock—that ran forty feet ahead. A small lantern hung from a hook in the wall next to the door at the east end of the passage. Sitting on a wooden stool by the lantern was a balding, beardless old male human in patched and faded work trousers and a matching tunic. He was idly whittling a stick.
All but Darath recognized the old man. He was Baragustas Harbuckler, a retired carpenter who lived in Red Larch. He was often seen in the marketplace but mostly kept to himself, whittling away and offering his small carvings to the children of Red Larch.
When asked what Baragustas was doing beneath the town, the old man threw himself onto the floor and begged for mercy. He begged the adventurers not to provoke the "wrath of the Delvers" by disturbing the stones of the tomb beyond the door at the end of the passage.
Moments later, the group heard sounds of approaching people coming from the west.
The group decided to open the door to the north and hide in the dark passage they found.
Soon a group of men and women, wearing leather armor and armed with scimitars and light crossbows arrived. They asked Baragustas, who seemed to know the men and women if he had seen the adventurers. Baragustas said nothing but looked towards the passage to the north.
One of the men slowly turned and aimed his crossbow into the dark passage.
The battle was hard fought, but the adventurers were victorious. One man managed to escape back towards the west.
The group searched the men and women. Besides the gear they carried, each man and woman bore a tattoo on their forehead.
When asked who the men and women were, Baragustas said they were a group called the Bringers of Woe, mercenaries employed by the Believers, and Larrakh, an earth priest from the Cult of the Black Earth. The recent involvement with Larrakh helped The Believers to understand the moving stones and what the moving stones prophesied.
The group asked Baragustas where Larrakh was. He told the group the earth priest was in the room beyond the passage to the east.
The group allowed Baragustas to return to town but convinced him to leave Red Larch forever. The old man gladly accepted the offer.
The group then proceeded to the east.
They found an enormous chamber with a twenty-foot ceiling carved out of the rock. A lit lantern rested on the floor near the center of the room. An odd array of stone monoliths—some upright standing stones and others arranged in three-stone arches—stood around the chamber. Six low stone slabs were set against the walls around the room's perimeter. Each held humanoid bones, dressed in scraps of tattered cloth and rusted iron.
They searched for the earth priest but did not find him. They did find a secret passageway that, presumably, Larrakh may have used to escape. They followed the narrow passage, but it ended in a cave-in a short distance away.
Larrakh had indeed escaped.
The group once again searched the enormous chamber but found nothing important. The bones were human remains of past miners. Each had a crushed limb, chest cavity, or head.
They also discovered that if one was to moderately strike the floor with an object, the object would float about an inch off the floor and could be moved with a light touch.
Seeker cast Detect Magic and discovered the chamber's floor was magical. It radiated transmutation magic.
With the earth priest gone, the adventurers searched the rest of the tomb. They found three human corpses in a small room to the north. The bodies had been reduced to little more than bloody bones and sinew and were sprawled in the room's center. Two oversized rats rooted among the bodies, stopping to chew flesh they've pulled free. Scuttling noises could be heard from narrow crevices in the room's walls.
The adventurers continued on. Eventually, they arrived back in the main cavern where the sinkhole was. They then followed a narrow passage to the north which led them to a set of wooden stairs leading up to a trapdoor in the carved chamber. A small wooden coffer sat on the floor by the stairs, and beside the coffer was a heap of damp sand from which the ends of torches protruded. The coffer contained flint and steel, as well as six dry torches.
The trapdoor opened into the quarry behind Albaeri Mellikho's house, who owned the quarry.
After returning to town, the adventurers found Harburk and reported their discovery to the constable.
The constable had Braelen's father arrested as well as Marlando Gaelkur who claimed it had been Larrakh's decision to murder the three people they found in the tomb using the magical dagger. After implicating Albaeri Mellikho, and Ilmeth Waelvur, Harburk tried to have them arrested only to discover both had fled Red Larch.
Imdarr Relvaunder, a priest of Tempus, and Lymmura Auldarhk, an acolyte of Sune, who both served at the Allfaiths Shrine offered to care for the young boy while his father's fate was being decided. Darath Tugon, a paladin of Tempus, offered to take on Braelan as a squire. With Braelen's father's approval, Braelen agreed to become Darath's squire.
And so the adventurers, having put a stop to The Believers and the earth cult's activities in Red Larch, took a much-deserved rest.Rewards Granted
Milestone level
Reszur
Weapon (dagger), uncommon
You have a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.
The name "Reszur" is graven on the dagger's pommel. It is decorated with star motifs and a grip of night-blue leather.
If the wielder speaks the name, the blade gives off a faint, cold glow, shedding dim light in a 10-foot radius until the wielder speaks the name again.
The dagger doesn't make noise when it hits or cuts something.
440 cp, 253 sp, and 97 gp. Six small green agates (worth 5 gp each) and two polished moonstones (worth 50 gp each)
Tattoo found on the Bringers of Woe
Braelen Hatherhand (Male Tethyrian Human, 11 years old)
Report Date
16 Nov 2022
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