"Well that's torn it! Now we need to head down there!"
Brengalyn wasted little time moving to descend.

Penny followed closely behind.

The way down was precariously close fitting for Brengalyn. Once she descended into the tunnel, climbing down rungs set int he wall, she found herself in a pitch black corridor extending right and left from the tiny spot of gray light from above. The corridor, like the tunnel she had descended, was close, maybe three feet wide and barely seven feet tall. The ceiling was arched but the floor was flat and strewn with pebbles and the occasional old bone.

Penny dropped her slight form down into the tunnel and took up the rungs. Soon enough the light faded away so that she had to squint just to make out Brengalyn's head before she stepped onto it. Luckily, the fighter's shoulder was there for her to step onto. The place smelled old, ancient, like the ruins of the cities.

Brengalyn knelt to the passage floor, drawing out a torch and working to light it with her flint and steel

"Apologies Penny, but we'll need more than your starry vision down here."

She looked up the shaft

"Barg! Help Thamkis down!"

With Barg's help Thamkis descended, holding out a hand to take Brengalyn's torch

"We'll need your steel at the ready."

She then of course handed the torch to Barg

"And likely my spells as well . . . "

The corridor was chilly, but warmer the freezing winds and snow above. By the light of the torch it was easy to make out a series of runes carve into the wall. They seemed to placed in a likely position to provided directions. But to where?

Barg grabbed the torch with both hands, hopping from foot to foot as he proceeded heedlessly down the hallway past Brengalyn

"Come friends! Is good direction, Barg knows it!"

Barg had scampered twenty feet along when there was a loud clicking noise.

(OOC: Barg make Reflex save please. Almost asked for a Dex save. Sheesh, too confusing with a 5e game I am running also.)

Though the click meant bad news, the eternally blessed Barg simply barely moved out of the way, hardly even ruffled

OOC: That's a dexterity save of 25, with Evasion

Barg propelled backwards like a, well, a Goblin launched from a catapult. Brengalyn sidestepped as the little Barbarian tumbled by to land somewhat catlike just past her in the cramped corridor. There was a loud woosh-like sound and where Barg had been standing a blade flashed out and hung in the air about waist to Brengalyn. Easily decapitation height for Barg.

Penny squeaked "Barg! Are you alright? Are you hurt?"

Brengalyn moved over to try and lift Barg up

"There's no trap in the land that can outsmart Barg the Bold."

She looked ahead, drawing out a set of picks

"Perhaps we should creep forward, searching? Wouldn't want to make Barg dodge all of them!"

The tunnel wound one for another hundred feet before the party came upon another trap. This trap, however, was a spike from the floor that extended to within a hand's breadth of the ceiling. Skewered along  the spike was the drying corpse of a minotaur. It was clad in armor of plate and chain, a dilapidated backpack was torn and its contents spilled onto the floor, and there were several weapons about the corpse or on the floor beneath it.

Barg crept up to the torn pack and tried to see if there was anything worth salvaging

OOC: Perception check 12

Barg slipped forward, closer and closer, to find that there was little of actual use of value left on the corpse. It had been there for quite some time, hundreds of years by the state of the bones and metals. But, closely inspecting the ground for lost coins he found footprints in the age old dust leading onward into the tunnel. And there was a peculiar set of drag marks among the tracks.

Penny followed a little behind.

Brengalyn knelt down to help track these tracks, making note of the marks and signs

OOC: Survival check 11

Thamkis brought up the rear, Graham waddling behind, and with weathered hand and wizened eyes regarded the tracks and what they meant, where they led

OOC: survival check 27

The footprints where broad and had the feel of orcs and, maybe, hobgoblins. The tracks were old, likely as old as the time-worn corpse. Whomever had been here had passed by ages ago. But, as Themkis looked up to express her thoughts on the age of the tracks in the deep dust she noticed a mark along the wall that stood out only because of the bright beauty of Penny's face so near to it. It was a trailblaze and it indicated that the path ahead lead to something of import. Or most likely, it was the way to whatever this dead fellow and his company had been bound for in the past.

Barg, getting too bored for his own good in a place too small for his boundless energy and chaos, kicked at the dust on the floor anxiously waiting to move on and discover adventures and powerful foes. Something rattled. Thamkis reached out a delicate hand and lifted a odd key from the floor. It was marked with Dwarven runes indicating that it was the key to the armory of Manorhelm. Whatever in the hell of dusty darkness that was.

"A key! A dwarf key! It is most oxpissy day indeed!"

Barg danced and capered, the thought of a dwarf key to a dwarf door of a dwarf room filling him with glee. Dwarf rooms had dwarf gold!!

"And you can probably hold onto that key Barg, once we have Thamkis take a look at it. She's sly in the ways of the dwarves."

Brengalyn motioned to Thamkis and then moved up against the wall to let her through

Thamkis hobbled forward, taking the key from Barg to look at the runes

"Hmmmm, very interesting. Manorhelm. Perhaps it will serve us in our travels, perhaps someone wishes to access this place, or keep it safe."

(OOC: So, there I was thinking, when are they going to post in. Well, doh! bart moments aside, i completely missed that i didn't.)

The passage went on for some distance. Nearly a mile according Brengalyn's pace count. A little over according to Thmakis'. But, as all things do, the corridor came to an end. There was a large, elaborately carved door of marble hung with what appeared to be hinges of adamantium. There were deeply carved runes about the door.

Thamkis was surprised to see the inscriptions of a dozen spells preventing the entering of devils, demons, dargons, and the dead. The four D's of Doom some of the old Dwarves were fond of saying. There was a large knob at the doors low right with a peculiar key hole. Footprints in the deep dust went through the door at some point in the past.

"Oooooo!"

Barg marvelled at the door hinges, cocking his head to one side then the other trying to figure out what metal they were

Likely steel!

"We could see if I can pick the lock? Dwarven locks are much the same as others."

Brengalyn knelt with her picks to try the keyhole

OOC: disable device check 30