Journal of Miyara Kyosuke (62)
I descend the ladder first. Pireseri follows
me, then Goru, then Miyara, Hosei and the others.
We go down about a hundred feet. We are in a
natural cave about ten by fifteen feet. There are two openings
leading to other areas. Pireseri looks around in his special
way. There are several natural caves and passages, except that
there are two constructed rooms to the west. We seem to be on the
lowest level of the stronghold. There are signs of ancient
habitation here, mostly rotted or decayed away.
We set out for the rectangular room to the west, and
find ourselves at a door. Pireseri says the door is not trapped,
and there is no-one in the room. I open the door before the
barbarians can break it down, discovering that from the other side it
is a secret door.
This was once a jail or dungeon. All the
remaining equipment is dwarf height. In the southeast corner is a
large grill in the floor. There are two other doors in
here. Pireseri says that the door to the south leads to a
hallway, while the one in the west wall opens onto stairs up.
There is no connection that he can see between this room and the other
one.
I look down the grill. It appears to be an
oubliette, about ten feet deep, but is empty.
Pireseri suddenly says he recognizes the other
room. It's the room with the shaft that leads up to where we
encountered the dwarves. We are on the other side of the cave-in,
that we could not access before.
We check the other natural rooms here. They
seem to have been a place for special prisoners, and contain two
oubliettes. The first contains a pile of bones, which stands up
and starts throwing bones at me. After the bones have been
thrown, a ghost of a dwarf remains. I speak to the ghost, and he
replies angrily in some barbarian tongue.
I ask Goru what the ghost is saying. He is
referring to bodily parts and functions for which Goru does not know
the Nipponese words, and comparing us negatively to these parts.
I ask Goru to talk to the spirit and find out what we can do to help.
Miyara says that he is probably angry because none
of his descendants visit him and pay him honor. She is of course
right as usual.
Goru tries to calm down the spirit. Instead,
he irritates the spirit more, and Goru is shocked because he really did
try to be nice.
About half the bones bounced back into the
oubliette, so it takes a while for the spirit to exhaust his supply.
I have no idea what to do, so I look to
Miyara. She suggests to leave him here, as he must have been a
criminal to be here. Goru agrees that leaving the unfortunate and
rude beast behind.
I look down the other oubliette, but see nothing in
there. It is apparently empty, and there is nothing else of
interest in here.
We go through the remaining door and up the
stairs. The door to the west on the landing was an ancient
kitchen storeroom, now empty except for a couple of crates.
Pireseri takes a careful look around. He reports that there are
two secret doors at the top of the stairs, to west and north. The
west is not secret from this side, while the north is not secret from
the other. There is another door in the storeroom, closed -- not
locked, not trapped, which leads to the kitchen.
Behind the other door on the landing, the secret
door, is a steep incline, a natural passageway, headed up and curving
to the east. Pireseri shows us the triggering button and opens
the door. I climb up the incline, taking a rope so the others can
climb up too. Ash slips the first time he steps on the slope, but
soon all are at the top.
At the top of the incline is a door. Pireseri
says there is a passageway beyond. We open the door. To the
west, after ten feet the passage opens up and reveals circular stairs
heading up. To the east it ends in a door about 30-40 feet away,
with another door between the end and us on the north wall.
The north door, as Pireseri reports, opens into a
octagonal room with a folding table with a backpack on it. The
numerous other things scattered around the room are also modern.
There are some shields, some axes, a staff, and other shinies.
That room has no other exits.
The east door leads to a room that is also
eight-sided, with several other exits. In the middle of the room
is a stone dias with a long sarcophagus sized block of black
rock. There are gold inlays with lettering. There are two
thrones of ornately carved stone facing away from the rock. Stone
gargoyles are at various locations in the room.
Pireseri suggests we start with the other room to
see if the backpack reveals anything. We go in there first.
The room is clearly a storage place for religious items, and these
items are presumable from the expedition. The two shields are
finely crafted and decorated, and the two axes have silver
coatings. The staff has a shiny black rock set in the head, and
it's next to a large mirror with arcane dwarvish runes in the
border. There are candlesticks and incense, and pens and
inks. The back contains an intricate, carefully folded, robe
worked with gold and silver wire.
Hosei checks everything for magic. He says
that none of them are particularly magical, but they all have the faint
aura of religious items.
The sogin rokus are not glowing any more intensely,
although they may have over time become a little brighter than when we
first entered.
Next we must clearly investigate what we believe to
be the tomb.