Elboc will try forcing the iron spike into one of the holes and using it as a crowbar.

Elboc manages to wedge an iron spike into one of the gaps, but just can't get enough leverage on it to move the heavy stone.

From beneath Hamburg's tattered robes, the skeletal hand skittered over and plied its minuscule might to the task of prying the spike.

Hamburg snapped his fingers, "I don't think that'll help, c'mere before you fall apart." The macabre little critter tried futilely a few more times before giving up and slinking back beneath the odd wizard's robes.

"I suggest a new quest, or side-quest as it were, to find ourselves a dwarf! Legend says they're masters of stonework. No doubt, if they really exist, a dwarf would have this thing open in no time! Perhaps it was a dwarf who constructed the thing in the first place... Who's with me?"

"Where did you have in mind for looking?" asks Elboc. "One of the other doors?"

Voran nods solemnly. "Time to move to a different room, I think, Elboc."

The rope-and-wax seal on the next tomb door, when carefully examined, reveals another pull-ring behind it.  It's entirely reasonable to assume that the other two doors here have the same setup.

Elboc will try to open this door in the same way.

Elboc once again cuts the ropes and flicks away the wax seal on the door, then pulls it open with the pull-ring it reveals.  The scene inside is identical to the first tomb, except that the stone in the middle of the floor is cracked in several places, and there is a dry, unmoving, bandage-wrapped foot sticking up out of the near end of slabs of what appear to be the three-inch-thick shards of the cover stone.

Roak nods to Elboc. "After you!"

Elboc will try to lift part of the block, levering it out with his dagger via the cracks.

OOC:
To be clear, Elboc is trying to lever a three-inch-thick slab of stone with his dagger?

OOC: Maybe not.

"I wonder if we can break this up some more to get at whatever is beneath?" says Elboc.

Voran enters, pulling out his mace. "Who among us is strongest? Perhaps we could try smashing some of the broken stone with a blunt object such as this."

Hamburg seemed to be having some sort of one-sided conversation with the disembodied skeletal hand that was... sitting before him on the ground, raised up by the digits of the middle two fingers. Finally, the odd wizard conceded... "Oh alright, but don't say I didn't warn you!"

The skeletal hand leapt joyfully to its total number of digit appendages, and skittered toward the rag-wrapped foot protruding from the broken stone. The last little distance it slowed as if sneaking, the ticking sound of bone on stone becoming very light. Soon, it began to tickle the dead foot!

~~~

"Pfffft! Strongest? Need this puny creature even ask this? Of course I'm the strongest! Not even close! Nary the contest!" The Necromancer declared.

Creeth looked as if he might caw his support, but the trusty familiar didn't wish to spend an hour preening to re-align its feathers. He tended to skip bothersome displays of excitement.

Creeth moves forward and tickles at the protruding foot.  Some of the rags slump, revealing dried flesh below, cracked and covering bones just barely holding together.  There is no movement from the foot.

Elboc will take the mace from Voran and try to break up the block some more.

It takes some effort, but Elboc is eventually able to break up some of the cover stones more fully.  He's at least successful enough that he is able to pull some of the smaller fragments up, revealing more of the pinned and bandage-wrapped form beneath.  With some carefully placed ropes and the assistance of his companions, he should be able to pull the larger fragments out, now that he has some place to feed the ropes under the blocks.

"Give me a hand here," says Elboc. "Let's get these levered away and see what treasures lie beneath."

Hamburg had little in the way of gear, but what he lacked in provision he more than made up for in eager enthusiasm. He stepped forward to help Elboc lift and rig the blocks.

Roak lends his strong hands to the task, yanking on ropes when yanking is needed.

Slowly the group pull up more and more of the broken cover stones, eventually revealing the figure below.  It is wrapped in ancient bandages, much as the foot they had first seen is, but the arms and upper body are bound in a complex series of ropes and knots.  Another wax seal, similar to the one which had been on the door outside of this room, is affixed over the mouth of the body.  It looks to have been here for a long time, the bandages limp and loose over desiccated flesh.

"No treasure, and I don't look forward to seeing what happens if we remove the ropes and seal. Perhaps we should move on from grave robbing and try another area."

In reply to Elboc Ice Eyes (msg # 923):

Lanliss nods, pondering the seals.

"I second the motion."

"My enemies would see me like this one day Creeth, but I shan't let it happen. No, I will not make whatever mistake these poor wretches made to be stripped of their power..."

The raven shifted on the shoulder of the Necromancer, red eyes aglow...

~~~

Hamburg wasn't the least bit disappointed. He was enthralled with the effort that had obviously gone into this setup and the detail to which those who'd done so had given attention.

"I suppose we should shut these up again and re-seal them so anyone else who comes along might find them undisturbed as we have... Quite the find, even if there is little to show for our efforts."

He sighed.

"Where shall we go to next?" Already he was eager for the next adventure.

"We can try the other doors around here, though I suspect we'll find the same things."