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. 

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. 

The Barrow Wight Slayers - Rags to Riches - Part Four

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

    The group reconvenes at the door, which Thalyros has not broken sight with since they entered. Argunijin enters first, with the group following. It leads into a small entry way, where there is a hall on either side and a ladder leading upwards. They first go left into a small armory. Most of the weapons are covered in dust and were underway repairs. Argun takes a spearhead from a spear set on the table, which has had it's shaft broken in two. They also grab a key.

    Moving across the hall, they find a small kitchen, with a locked trapdoor. They choose not to open the trap door.  

    "This is very strange." Levius says, opening a sack of flour, which has seemingly spoiled. "This fortress shouldn't be unmanned like this, yet it is. There are no signs of life here either."

    "Yes, strange indeed." Thalyros says.

    They then moved to the upstairs, going up the ladder one by one. In the barracks that they entered, an Auxilia¹ was present. However, he was not alive. A large gash was present along his chest, and he was strewn in a pool of his own blood. His left hand was on the floor, covered in blood, but his right hand was clutching a Gladius close to his chest. The gash on his chest cut through his chainmail and padded tunic, meaning that whatever struck this man was both large and powerful.

    "What in Voden's name..." Argun said, climbing up the ladder to see the sight.

    Thalyros, second up the ladder, quickly started muttering burial prayers.

    "...ura ebka mal cañi. Whatever struck this man must be swiftly brought justice. No Men shall fall to these beasts no longer, whether the beasts be Man or else." Thalyros says. He closes the Auxilia's eyes, and then points to the sword. "Perhaps we shall take the sword?"

    Levius, the last one to come up, squints at it. He then gets closer, to look at it.

    "Hmm. It seems to be magical in some way. I am not sure how." Levius says. He then picks it up along with the sheath off of the Auxilia, and attaches it to his bag. "We can bring it to an expert to learn more. I am curious why this blade is enchanted. Why would an Auxilia like this have an enchantment on his weapon? Aren't enchantments of Mythos?" 

    Levius then turns to Thalyros and Gunbu, expecting answers. However, it is Argun who answers. Argun is a Wildling, much like Gunbu, from one of the many Steppetribes. He was a chieftain -- or something close to it, at the very least -- in the Noyakin Clan. He has short, black hair and a mustache, with light brown skin. However, what you would first notice, is that he stands at a staggering 6'10" (~208cm) and is both muscular and fat. While he doesn't talk about it much, he was also a former slave in the Empire.

    "Hark! Whatever he carried is now our spoil, and we shall rectify the death of our fellow Man, by relieving whatever beast lies here of its life!" He says, proudly. He tends to make sentences more complex, as he is not the best speaker of Imperial, and learned most of it from the Noble who owned him long ago. "So, we shall sally forth from here to the basement!"

    "First, maybe we should go up the stairs?" Thalyros says, pointing to a wooden staircase, under which lies a stockpile of old food.

    They head up the stairs to a lookout, much like the top of many lookout towers. There is an inner area and an outer area, with the outer area being like a balcony. There is an unlit torch hanging from the balcony, which is usually lit. An unstrung longbow and a half-quiver of arrows rests on the inner wall, near the trapdoor which Thalyros peeks his head up from. 

    The rest of the group follows suit, looking over the lands. It is still early spring -- many of the trees are budding. Dark clouds brew to the north east, and it looks like it will soon rain. They had heard on the way here, when they stopped in Vireqosta², that this outpost was one of the oldest outposts in this region of the Empire, and was originally built to overlook the Montis Virella so they could warn the cities of southern barbarian parties. Levius wonders how many Auxilia, current and former, have looked at this very same view.

    They make their way back to the bottom floor, where the trapdoor lies. The group stand and look at it for some time, before Levius speaks up.

    "One us needs to open it, and that one of us will be me. So, stand back!" Levius says. He crouches down with the iron key, and opens the trap door. Below, is darkness. After thinking for some time about how to overcome the darkness, Thalyros goes up and grabs the torch, which he lights. The group descends down the trapdoor.

    Underneath the outpost, they find a small wine and grain cellar. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, they hear distant and faint dripping water from somewhere. They eventually notice that behind an empty crate, is a staircase down, dug by whoever lived here. It goes down for some time, spiraling. The dripping water continues, slowly. It echoes from where ever it is dripping from. The group stays silent, as they peer down the staircase, into the darkness. 

¹: Auxilia: non-citizen soldiers in former Imperial states
²: The capital city of Virella
³: The great southern mountains that bisect Virella