Baldric's Water walking spell is dispelled and he plunges into the dark waters below. Getting his surroundings straight, he swims down the stairway which ends 50 feet below and opens up into a long hallway. 30 feet wide and goes well beyond his vision, Baldric sees a guardian standing in the middle of the hallway, completely submerged in the water. There was no way that Stonesplitter would be able to tell the guardian the words of passage here. The only way for Baldric to go is down the hallway.

The length of rope ended for him at the bottom of the stairs, so Baldric pulled out his coil of silk rope and tied it to the end of Kilari's to add an extra 50 feet to the length before walking/swimming down the hallway, hoping the guardians didn't come to life on him here. As he walked down the hallway, keeping a close eye on everything, Baldric couldn't help to think that if he recovered this artifact for the dwarves, that he'd possibly be a hero and the gods might restore his life to him.

Tying his rope to Kilari's, Baldric continues his journey down the hall. He passes 5 guardians across the 50 foot hallway and barely could see the carvings in the walls. He can see what looks like Dwarven miners digging, fighting against something, and burying this lost king. Everything else has been obliterated with time and from the water. Reaching the end of the 50 foot hallway, Baldric would come upon a set of stairs at the end. What really surprises him is the fact that he can actually see light coming from down there. It's faint, like a Continual Light Torch, but it's better than nothing. The stairs go down about 25 feet.

Untying the rope from his belt, Baldric gave one single yank to tell everyone above that he needed more rope to move with. Hopefully Feff didn't think he was in trouble and started pulling him out of the water. Giving his friends the time to tie on another coil, Baldric waited, while trying to see if he could see anything down the stairs.

Baldric waits a couple minutes for the group to tie more rope to the end, so he could walk more. Looking around to pass the time, he looks down the stairs to see if he could pinpoint where the light might be coming from, but he can't. The angle is off. He'll just have to wait and walk down the stairs to see. Eventually, he gets a tug back, telling him the rope is ready.

Baldric figured that the light was from an everburning torch, but didn't know why it would be in a tomb that had death magics in it to keep people out. Baldric decided that he would start looking for traps on the stairway. If this was indeed a tomb of some lost dwarf, then traps would definitely be set down here to keep people out of the riches that might be here.

Search: 22,29(critical success),23

Baldric takes the time to look for traps, but he doesn't find any. They're either too complex for him, they're already set off or there wasn't any in the first place. Slowly walking down the stairs, when he gets to the bottom, the room lights up slowly until it's equil to daylight. He spots the source of the ever burning torch. A dead body (Or what's left of it) is floating near the ceiling, still clutching the torch after an unknown amount of time. Judging from what's left, Baldric is able to determine that it was once a female, possibly an elf.

In three corners of the tomb, stand 3 stone guardians, inanimate at the moment. To the West lies the Sarcophagus of the Dwarven King. 5 feet wide and 10 feet long, the Sarcophagus appears to have been carved right out of the stone when the room was mined.

Baldric's map updated

link to a message in this game

Baldric felt sorry for the poor soul that died in this place, with her body just floating in the water like that. He was going to make sure that her body left this place, so it could get a proper burial. Baldric looked for traps again, still not convinced that the place was safe. There were three stone guardians, plus there was supposed to be a zone of death where no living creature could go into. This place was definitely a tomb.

Baldric looks for traps all the way to location S-29.
You rolled 81 using 8d20 ((3,18,9,4,20,3,17,7)).
So, that would be a 12,27,18,13,29,12,27,17.

Baldric continues to take his time searching for traps, as he wants to be certain that nothing is there to spoil his trip down in this watery tomb. They're either too complex for him, they're already set off or there wasn't any in the first place. Taking the last step to the floor level with the Sarcophagus, Baldric felt the trap hit him, but since he's immune to death magics, the "Death Zone" that Stonesplitter mentioned had no effect upon Baldric. But, Baldric caught something out of the corner of his eye. The body near the ceiling moved and before he could do anything, a spirit came out of the body and screamed at Baldric. The wave of death hit him again, but to no effect.

Initiative please

Battle Map Updated

link to a message in this game

Baldric wasn't surprised at all to see that the body was undead. They've already attacked him before, why would they stop now? The spirit screamed at him and he felt magics wash over him, but Baldric didn't feel anything. He pulled out his dagger and walked over to the spirit and slashed at it, wondering what it was.

Attack spirit: 32
Damage: 12
Knowledge: Religion: 13

Round 1 results----------

Baldric wasn't afraid of the "spirit" as he pulled out his dagger and walked up to it and slashed at it. The firery blade looked strange in the water as it slashed through the "spirit", making her screech in pain, if a "spirit" could feel pain. Now that he was face to face with the thing, Baldric tried to remember anything from his studies, but he draws a blank. To him, it's just some spirit that's upset with him. One thing is certain though. This "spirit" used to be a female drow elf as Baldric gets glimpses of what it used to look like. She tries to grab at Baldric, but the ghoul is highly evasive, even under water.

Name     Initiative   Health  Misc.
Baldric      19       49/49
Spirit       13       ??/12

Battle Map Updated

link to a message in this game

The evil spirit needed to go away if Baldric were going to try and find this relic that Stonesplitter wanted, so Baldric slashed at the spirit of the drow with his dagger again.

Attack spirit: 31
Damage: 7

Round 2 results----------

Baldric slashes out at the "spirit", but like most incorporeal undead, avoids the blow altogether while striking out with her hands. She manages to touch Baldric with her ghostly digits, but nothing happens to the ghoul.

Name     Initiative   Health  Misc.
Baldric      19       49/49
Spirit       13       ??/12

Battle Map remains the same

link to a message in this game

The fight goes on like this for a couple minutes; hit/miss, hit/miss, (with Baldric completely dominating the fight) and he finially manages to dispatch the undead with his magical dagger. The "spirit" cries out in pain and anger and disappears. Whether or not it's permanent is unknown.

Baldric wasn't the best of swimmers, but he could get around as he swam up to the body. The clothing indicated that the body was a female and from the glimpses he saw while fighting the spirit, Baldric knew it to be a drow elf. Still not wanting for anybody to be trapped in a place like this, Baldric pulled off his cloak and wrapped the body of the woman in it, so he could transport her out of here. Then, placing her near the floor, Baldric looked for traps near the large sarcophagus.

Search for traps: 11,12

Baldric looks for traps near the Sarcophagus, but doesn't find anything. They're either too complex for him, they're already set off or there wasn't any in the first place. The Sarcophagus looks to be made out of 1 piece of stone, except for the lid, which is a good 6 inches thick. All granite, the Sarcophagus depicts several pictures of a Dwarf fighting Giants, mining for treasures and leading his people. Baldric finds Dwarvish runes:

"Here lies Reorx Hammerhand, Killer of Giants,
plague to our evil bretheren and scorge to
the drow people. Never taking the throne, we
still treat you as our king. Rest in Peace."

    Year of the Spreading Spring 1038

It's going to take some muscle or some crafty engineering to get this lid open. While Baldric examines the Sarcophagus, he spots 3 chests made from granite which measure 3x3x3 and have sturdy adamantite locks on each of them.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:33, Fri 10 Feb 2012.

Baldric had a sneaky suspicion that the three guardians in this room were linked to the stone lid. If you opened it, they move in and attack. He didn't recall what Stonesplitter said the relic was, but Baldric figured that it was probably the hammer that he saw depicted on the side of the sarcophagus. Still being very cautious, Baldric searched for traps on the chests.

Search: 29,19,23

Baldric cautiously walks over to the chests and examines them for traps, but doesn't find anything. They're either too complex for him, they're already set off or there wasn't any in the first place. He does notice that the chests can be removed from this area....

Baldric knew he would need some time with those locks to pick them and this place wasn't it. So, he moved one of the chests to judge how heavy it was, keeping an eye on those stone guardians. If he figures he could carry one, and the guardians don't move, Baldric will carry all three chests in three trips to the main hall. Feff could easily drag them out with the rope. If this works out fine, Baldric will then place the body of the drow female with the chests, secure the chests with the rope, then give it two tugs, which is the sign that Feff needs to pull.

The chests are quite heavy. Probably because they're filled with water plus the possible contents the chests might hold. The chests are of nice quality and could fetch a nice price in town. Baldric moves a chest as he watched the guardians. They don't move. It takes him a good 5 minutes to move all 3 chests to the main hall, which would've made a living man tired. He then places the body of the drow female on top, then wraps the coil of silk rope securely around the 3 chests and gives 2 quick tugs of the rope and holds on.....

With his new strength, Baldric hurries back to the tomb before the spell expires...

Move Lid on Sarcophagus: DC 25

5 minutes was spent getting to the tomb, so Baldric has 5 minutes to be able to open the lid: 50 possible Strength rolls before Tahldor's spell expires. It will take 5 successes to get lid open.

Baldric hurries over to the lid and tries to push, pull, lift or whatever else it took, to try and get the thing open. If Feff were down here, he could probably move the thing in one try. After what seemed like forever, Baldric managed to open the lid with his magical stength just before the spell expired. Then he swam over to get the everburning torch that was floating in the water to get a better look inside the sarcophagus. If there were going to be traps now, this would be the place.

Inside the sarcophagus, Baldric can see it was cut out of the stone and fitted for a dwarf. But, there's no dwarf body in here. Only a suit of Dwarven sized chainmail, a small metal shield, a set of metal gauntlets, a metal belt and a warhammer. All of them have a glow about them once Baldric got a good look inside.

Looking at the stuff in the sarcophagus, Baldric wondered where the body went. The stuff was obviously magical with the glow on all the items, so he searched for traps first before he touched anything.

Search: 29 (Critical Success)

Baldric finds a magical trap with the hammer. He has no idea what it does or how to dispel it. The rest of the stuff is trap free and easy to remove, if he so wished.

Not finding any traps on the chainmail, shield, gauntlets and belt, Baldric gathered those up and packed them away on his body. The hammer was concering him and the trap he couldn't figure out. It was definitely magical and he wished he had some magical powers that could aid him in this situation. He knew the dwarves wouldn't want this relic destroyed, so he doubted the trap would be destructive in nature, so Baldric placed his left hand on the handle of the hammer to see what would happen. If it damaged him, Baldric could go to Tahldor for assistance.

Packing away the treasure he just got, Baldric placed his hand on the hammer to see what the trap would do. If it was a fire trap, the water would probably immediately put it out, but if it was lightning, it would intensify the effects. But no. It wasn't any of those. Once his hand is on the hammer, the 3 stone statues in the room animate and look towards the Sarcophagus. Out in the hall, Baldric can hear the statues moving around. That's not good....

Seeing that the stone statues came alive when he touched the hammer, Baldric took his hand off and backed up to the wall to see what would happen. If he needed to leave, then at least he had a pile of magical gear to present to the group for his efforts.

Baldric takes his hand off of the hammer and the stone guardians become inanimate again as he backs up to the wall. Whatever this trap may be, it's definately linked between the hammer and the stone statues. If you want to call it a trap....

Baldric had an idea, but it required the rope that he left tied to the chests near the group. So, Baldric decided that he will go back to the group and show him what he already got and tell them of his problem. He figured that he could quickly tie the rope to the hammer and then have Feff pull it out.

Baldric makes it out of the tomb and down the hall with no problems. He unties the rope and climbs the stairs and out to the waiting party.

Walking/swimming down the stairs, Baldric doesn't see the body of the female drow that he fought in spirit form. There's no current in this place and he detected no other undead in the area, so it's a mystery as to how she's missing. Continuing on with his journey, Baldric makes it back into the tomb with no problems. The lid is still open and the hammer is still glowing mildly...

Carefully making his way to the sarcophagus, Baldric keeps an eye out for trouble. He's still wondering where the body of the drow female went off to and hopes the spirit doesn't come back to give him trouble. Uncoiling the rope as he went, Baldric made sure there was plenty left to tie the hammer with before dropping the weapon on the ground so Feff could pull it out of the tomb.

ooc: If possible, Baldric will take 20 on Use Rope.

Baldric has plenty of time to tie the rope onto the relic hammer. Every time he touches it though, the statues animate. Once he lets go, they stop. Tying the rope securely and picking up the hammer and dropping it on the floor, the statues animate and stop again once Baldric releases the hammer. Just by trial and error, Baldric will guess that only Dwarves can touch the hammer safely. Giving the room another look over, he believes the tomb has nothing else to offer and leaves the area to tell Feff that the hammer is ready to be pulled in.

Moving as quickly as he could, Baldric moved out of the tomb to tell Feff to pull on the rope. This was perhaps the ultimate experience of his whole life. He died once trying to loot a tomb and now that this one was complete, he really didn't have any desire to loot tombs anymore. What could top this?