The Barrow Wight Slayers - Rags to Riches - Part Six

 Domečar 1st, 1483 AA. Roccastra, Republic di Virella. Unknown.

    The crank slots into the door quite perfectly, which Argun, the strongest, then cranks furiously. Eventually the door locks, as they can slide a piece out to prevent it from spinning back. Peering through, they see a larger hexagonal room, On each wall is a single burial niche, though only four of the six walls have niches. The farthest wall has a large mural engraved on it, with very small flakes of remaining paint left on it. 

    The mural is a story, of a group of adventurers -- heroes and leaders at the least -- slaying a wyrm of yore. In the later parts, they spend time making armor from its scales. The central figure wears a laurel of grapevines, seeming to be some sort of leader of the clan. On his chest is a rune, which is flipped sideways.

    "That rune, it symbolizes that this man would have put his family and clan over everything else, including himself." Gunbu says. "That must be him."

     Gunbu points to a burial slab in the center of the room, where a mummy lies with a brass laurel. The man is clearly the one depicted in the murals, as the laurel looks almost completely similar. Under his wraps are various glimmering silver adornments, including a sword. However, the group knows better than to steal from a long forgotten king.

    They also see, that under the mural, is another stone-hewn staircase, also hewn out of the bricks that were already set. They approach, to see a grizzly sight. A trail of blood leads down the crudely made staircase, which leads to a pile of bodies. This sickens everyone but Gunbu, who stares at the bodies. Argun, who turned her around, recounted later that he saw a glint of fire in her eyes.

    They then dragged them out, with Thalyros sanctifying their mutilated bodies, which have bite marks and missing pieces on their bodies. The stairs continue further down, into a darker place, where no light has shone in many eons. They hear a noise, like a low bird chirp mixed with a clicking and hooting, almost like an owl. They knew this noise very well. It was Orcs; Goblins; Goelins; the foul spawn of the deep earth.

    They charge down the stairs, immediately swinging upon them! Argun hits one with his polearm, knocking the jaw off of his face! Thalyros hits one in the shoulder, crippling it. Levius stabs one in the ribs, hitting the vitals. The shadowy Gunbu takes runestones, made of agates, out of her pocket, casting a spell! As fast as it began, the fight was over, the foulspawn lying on the floor, their black blood flowing onto the cavernous and rough stone. 

    However, the chattering of more orcs is heard from down another winding stone hall. As the fight ended, they quickly started picking over the crude weapons of the orcs, and then moved to the next room. Handing his polearm to Thalyros to hold, Argun charged into the room, firing an arrow into one goblin, then a second, who fled into a much larger cavern. However, as that orc fell, many started to chatter -- possibly twenty -- started to run towards the group.

    Argun managed to fell one, but there was too many. They fled, sprinting up the stairs, and shutting the gate! The leader, who wore a cloak made of patchwork chainmail and leather, made many hoots and hollers as he entered the room. However, their leader pointed to the corpse in the center of the room, then the niches, and fled!

    The group took some time to rest, as they had expended some energy running for their lives, and then peered back into the hexagonal room. Whatever the orcs fled from terrified them, so badly that they wouldn't return back into the crypt. 

    After that encounter, they decided that it was time to return to town and collect their reward. They did one last sweep of the place, looking for anything to take. On their way out, Levius stared at one of the mummies. He saw an ornate sword under it's wraps, which he dearly wanted. He cut the wraps open, but a specter rose sharply out of it! They were all greatly shocked, and to this day, Thalyros dislikes crypts for this very reason. They then decided to not take whatever was inside, including the sword, as they assumed it would not be great.