History Comes Alive

April 9, 2020 

Olva tells them to get ready and has a hammer out.  She tells the scouts to go forward. 

They group feels they are being watched long before they see anything.  Rowen and Gorstag think they saw something at the pond but then lose it.  Rowen stops but Gorstag continues.  Rowen sees the ones behind them as Gorstag calls out the ones that were at the pond.  The goblins don't seem to want to fight, backing off, but then when they are ready, try for an ambush.  The fight is on!  

Lots of little cuts and scrapes until the end, when Gorstag and Dio get hit bad.  Not enough to go down but certainly hurt.  Olva heals and Dio uses his own abilities to get Gorstag and himself fully healed. 

The move to the opening and Olva is unsure of what to do.  The group moves into it and finds a large antechamber. There are a lot of carvings around it and the room is huge, being twenty feet wide, thirty feet long and with a twenty foot ceiling.  On the other side, they see an archway leading into a small passage that goes down.  Dio and Olva look around at the chamber but then keep going.  The passage way down is cramped for all but Olva and Dio.  Five feet high, five feet wide, and sloped down.  No steps but there are worn spots that they can use.  It's also quite dark but Tristan or Kaji have light, either a torch or a spell, respectively.  The floor levels off ten feet before a door.  It's a stone door with a knob in the shape of an anvil, carved from onyx or obsidian, held out a bit by a stone dowel.  After searching it and not finding anything, they twist it and it opens.  It even slides open easily, slightly weighted to close.  Tristan is suspicious about it and watches the door as the rest go into the room.  

The chamber is twenty five feet by twenty five feet.  There is a mosaic, again using onyx or obsidian, of an anvil on the floor, the symbol of Moradin.  There is writing on the wall as they enter the chamber and an urn in the corner.  The urn is just over two feet high and a foot in diameter or so.  There is also a door on the left wall, with the same anvil knob.  After spending some time, the group thinks the wall says this:

Here lies King Bulger (Oak(Oath?)Shield), the Exiled

foolish he may be for (aiding) the Harbinger

treasured be he that he (guarded) Xothol.

The items in parentheses are lost due to some erosion from the ceiling of water.  They use their best guess at the words.  They do know that this is old dwarvish and did have to guess at the meanings of some of the words. 

Knowing that this is a tomb, the urn is meant as an offering.  Dio and Olva put in some coin to it and the rest do as well.  A few stop and stare at the silver, copper, and gold in the urn already but don't take anything. 

Kaji opens the door after looking at it.  Olva is not happy.  Seeing that they are the only ones who have been in here, and the group spent ten minutes looking around, looking at the dust and mud from the leaking water, and it appeared they were the first inside.  She says it's time to leave.  Kaji wants to go further but Olva says no.  She reminds them they work for her and promised to obey her orders.  Kaji ruffles at this but as Dio moves to back up Olva, and the rest stand off to the side, Kaji relents.  They head back up to the first chamber.  Olva wants to cast a ritual in the ante chamber to close it and Dio asks if he can help.  She nods and they stay behind as the rest go outside.  

And find a huge giant waiting for them.  More than twenty feet tall, with blue skin and straw colored hair, wearing skins cut into hide armor and carrying an axe on his belt, the giant greets them.

"Ya, helo dere!  How ya been?"  

The ones there stop and stare.  Olva isn't there and they look at each other, unsure of what to say.

"Oh, beggin me pardon, are ya all okay?  You didn't happen to see my ice spear in dere, did ya?"  

One of them finally stutters out no.  Olva and Dio obviously heard and came outside.  Olva is shaken and still shaking.  She doesn't grab a weapon because the giant hasn't gotten one but is unsure about this.  

"Get ye away, tall one, this is dwarven sacred ground," says Olva, her voice staying steady.  

"Ya, it is, and I've no wish to disturb it, doncha kno?  But me spear is in dere and I need it."  

"How do ye kin that?" retorts Olva.  "No one has been in there in a long time!"

"Ah, sure, good qwestion," replies the giant.  "Me goddes, Auril," he says, taking out a silver amulet that looks like a snowflake.  "She says it's in dere, so it's in dere.  Unless you want me to get it?"  The giants eyes get a glint of glee at that.

"No!" shouts Olva, a bit too hastily.  

"Well, den, I guessen it'll be ya'll that get it for me?"  

Olva speaks to the rest.  It takes a few seconds for them to get over the shock of her asking their advice.  She says it's death to attack the giant and if they can find the spear without a fight, that's the way to go.  

"See, we do get to go further," says Kaji, smiling.  Olva glares at him but tells the giant they will go.  

They head back through the ante chamber, into the first room.  Olva tells them they don't need to make a second offering.  The hall way is five feet wide and tall again and Gorstag and Tristan have a tough time of it.  Another door, another anvil knob, and they find themselves in a room that at least has a taller ceiling.  Gorstag and Tristan stretch a bit.  The room has another statue but it's obviously demonic in nature.  Again, they take time to read the inscription at the base and the best they can do is "To keep the angry charcoal at bay."  Again, there is another door, so they give some coin.  Tristan seems more tempted to take some but doesn't.  Kaji also looks tempted but Olva isn't letting Kaji out of her sight.  

The next hallway again leads to a door and into a much more opulent chamber.  There are two guardian tombs across from one that looks nobler.  The room is carved with more scenes but everyone focuses on the sarcophagi.  Olva and Dio looking at the noble one the others trying to figure out how to open them.  They can see that the lid is beveled and would just sit on top but they can't move it.  Tristan maybe sees something that could hold a dowel to keep it in place when Dio and Olva announce that this is a fake.  It's well done and there probably is someone important buried here, someone important to the king but it's not the king.  They search the room for secrets but find none.  

They head back to the room with the demonic figure and after some searching, find the secret door across from the real door.  Rolen takes lead and looks, finding the pressure plate.  The group realizes they weren't ready for this as they have no chalk or anything to outline the plate.  Finally, Tristan comes forward and creates an illusion of grass and flowers on top of the plate.  Then Rowen steps on it!  He leaps forward as the rock cube slams down behind him!  The group finds they can just hear each other if they yell and he tells them he's fine.  For good measure, and to make sure they don't hurt anyone, never mind that they seal him in, Rolen sets off the next two falling traps as well.  However, at the end of the hall, he finds the reset and pulls it and the blocks of stone slowly rise back into the air.  

Tristan manages to get into the middle of the hallway without setting anything off and uses his Floating Disk spell to carry the rest across the hall safely.  Meanwhile, Rolen finds the hidden release for the secret door.  Inside this room is the sarcophagus of the king, with a statue of him in his honor.  Kaji again looks around, eyeing things, and finds an ice spear in the chamber!  Best they can tell, it's like it was dropped there from four feet.  Nothing is exactly at that spot, though, so it's not obvious how it got there.  

They grab it and Olva immediately shepherds them out of the chamber.  Kaji still bristles at that but does go.  They go all the way out to the giant, who is speaking to Molik.  

"And that's why you should get the duck," finishes Molek.  The giant laughs a full belly laugh at that one.  When the giant sees the group, and the spear, he congratulates them.  

"Well, it was in dere!  Nicely found!  Now, if I could have me spear?"  He holds his hand out for it.  Kaji gives it to him.  The giant tries to say more about the area but Olva cuts him off, several times.  The group realizes she doesn't want the giant speaking of it but says nothing.  Olva then says she is going to lock it up after they watch the giant depart with the spear.  Dio again offers and she nods and they go back to the ante chamber and start the ritual.  

The rest of the group notice that Olva didn't want the giant to speak.  

"Well, of course not," chides Molak.  "These dwarven tombs guard things, as you can see.  She doesn't want you to get any ideas.  Further, she doesn't want to think about what the giant might do with a spear to the Snow Queen.  Probably call up winter early."  

Olva and Dio finish up the ritual and walk out as the door shuts and seals behind them.  Olva nods, satisifed.  

"Right, back to Alastair's," she proclaims.  They walk back in silence, finally arriving at the small village.  Olva goes to speak to Alastair while the rest speak to James and Willem.  They eat and drink and are provided with beds, which they use to rest.  

85 xp 

GM Notes

• I used the usual accent for Olva but decided on a Norwegian accent for the giant.  The idea of the huge giant speaking that way, although I made it stereotyped to be sure, amused me.  
• Olva and Kaji were getting into it.  Olva got in his face, well chest, and was not going to take his lip.  
• I'm not sure where the party would have gone if he pushed it.  Before Kaji could say much, though, Dio sided with Olva and that ended it 
• I did like the dungeon crawl with the twist of not looting it.  
• I had a lot of history on the walls and the carvings but mostly background information.  And Marc never rolled well to figure it out. That's fine, as most of is isn't needed, just flavor.  
• This was fun and d20Pro worked well!  Really happy with how well it is all working! 

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