The Barrow Wight Slayers - Rags to Riches - Part Five

Domečar 1st, 1483 AA. Roccastra, Republic di Virella. Early afternoon.

    Peering down the staircase, the group sees a spiral of intricate compacted dirt and mud stairs woven from the earth. It is dark, so much so that they can't see anything past the torchlight. After some contemplation, Argunijin is the first to descend the staircase. It does not go far down, but they go slowly, watching for who, or what, made those marks on the Auxilia.

    As they descend, the stairs slowly go from compacted earth to being carved stone bricks, though in the sense that the bricks were there first, and these stairs were carved into the stone after the fact. While it is odd, they continue onward. Eventually, they come into a much older area made of stone bricks. On the right wall is an entry way with an arch made of engraved stone. The engraved stone is purely decorative.

    Looking through, they see a burial chamber of some sort. They have managed to find themselves in a crypt. The stone here looks old, much older than the group. The group steps into the crypt, waving the torch around to see the room. In the center of the room are three burial slabs with wrapped mummies on them, with almost twenty niches in the room, two stacked on top of each other on the walls. The three in the center have weapons and jewelry under their wraps, but the group staves off from touching them.

    "How queer. This stone is much, much older than the building above." Levius says.

    "These engravings," Thalyros says, pointing to the engravings on the slabs, which show the deeds of the men who are strewn on top of them. "they must be of Yhranians! No Imperial nor Dwarf carves like this still!"

    In fact, Thalyros was correct. This crypt was much older than the structure above, and Men and Dwarf no longer engrave stone pictures in that manner. The crude engravings depicted that the men on the three slabs were no doubt ancient Yhranian warriors of yore, heroes of some sort.

    "There's a passage to the left, follow me." Thalyros said, holding the torch.

    They came to a passage shaped like a plus, with an arch instead of a door on all but one of the passages. The passage forward was a portcullis, made of iron, which was lowered. This was odd for how long ago this strange structure was constructed. On each arch, including the portcullis, were more engravings --engraved knotted ropes behind a sun, and on either end of the rope, they go behind a mountain. The ancient runes of the Yhrani people are also engraved into the wall. 

    Gunbu steps closer, grabbing the torch. She is literate in the rune-script of the north, though the group have yet to discover why. They assume she is the daughter of some important chieftain.

    "Idek mol aval. Remember our love." She says.

    "Well, surely that spells good luck for us!" Levius says, sarcastically. "I feel that there is magic here."

    "I believe there are no spirits here, but I could be mistaken. Nevertheless, we should stay cautious of spirits and all that might assault us." Thalyros says, though he pauses. "Levius, pray tell, how do you know there is magic here?"

    "I have a gut feeling, one could say." He responds.

    They check both rooms, first the right room, then the left. They are similar, with many more burial niches on each wall, stacked twice. In the south room, are two people, in puddles of their own blood. One is a younger child, a slash across his back. The other is an Auxilia, with multiple puncture marks all over its body. The Auxilia reaches toward a silver ring, with a stone of polished obsidian set in it.

    "Hmm, my first spoil of adventure!" Argun says, kneeling down and grabbing the ring.

    "Why, are you dense!" Levius says. "Don't grab items like that before we inspect them!"

    Despite this, Argunijin had collected his first spoil of war. The ring itself is nothing special, but it was just large enough to fit snugly around Argunijin's thick finger. The obsidian stone inside of it reflects off of the torchlight, shining a beautiful purple-black color.

    They then went to the other room, where they found another Auxilia. On the wall, in Imperial, Do not open is written, in the man's own blood. His hand is covered in the blood he used to write the message, with the other hand holding a crank. 

    The group does not heed the message, grabbing the crank, and then looting the corpse. The man has the most intact armor and weapons, which the group collected. Argun specifically, taking the chain shirt, which he plans to have repaired and fitted to him back in Roccastra. He says it is possible, which the group trusts, as he was born in the Year of Iron.