Journal of Miyara Kyosuke (68)
Back in journal 66, the scroll case from the throne
room had two other pieces of paper we had not been told about.
One is a map. It shows what we now know to be
the lake room with some marks and notes in modern dwarvish.
The second piece of paper is also a map of this lake
room, with more notes that seem to be more revealing. They are
questions about clues in rubble, possible directions of Hargrim's tomb,
and so on.
The Queen knows some things about this room.
It's the burial chamber of the kings. They are buried in the
ground in ir near this room, by some magic beyond her. They spend
some time on the throne before they are entombed.
There are several "beaches" in this cavern, one of
which is the rubble where the note-taker thought there had to be a
clue. It is 30 feet high, and 60 by 30 in north-south and
east-west dimensions.
There is also a door near us on the south wall,
while stairs down extend from the northeast corner of the cavern.
Pireseri looks through the door, and there is a
spiral staircase going upwards. He also reports that the throne
is solid. He adds, however, that there is a very secret door in
the northwest corner - it's a door with a rock face built in front of
it.
There is also a secret door in the wall near us,
with stairs going down to a room below the floor of the cavern.
It's located where the notes on the second map wonder why there isn't a
room there.
With these clues to work from, Rabena studies the
maps. There are specific marks on them, she explains, and she
wants Pireseri to look around and examine certain places. He does
indeed see several secret doors where she indicates, and walks out to
look at others.
We all accompany Pireseri and Rabena. Rabena
trips over something unseen under the water and falls down,
The northwest door, so secret and hidden, leads to a
trap. The others lead to passages most of which have stairs
heading down. There are tomb-like rooms at some of these, and at
least one contains a sarcophagus.
Rabena assembles her map.
The Queen doesn't know where anyone is buried, by
intention. No-one should know where they are buried, other than
that they are in this complex.
We need to find the Queen's bones. There are
just a few places we haven't seen yet, and most of those start in this
cavern. Miyara says we should try the upwards spiral staircase
first, and so I set off in the lead with Pireseri observing in his
special way right behind me.
The stairs go up about twenty feet, opening into a
natural cavern except that the ceiling has mostly collapsed onto the
floor. Pireseri tells us that there are remains of sarcophagi
under all the rubble, and also if we climbed over it and continued
north, we would come to one of the balconies overlooking the
lake. Goru tells us it would take several days to clear this
rubble. We return to the lake.
Next is a complex of caverns and rooms to the
southeast. A natural cavern leads to double doors to a dwarven
made 8x12 room. It is full of modern equipment, as for an
expedition. Nothing of interest is here, just the gear and some
pieces of stone probably taken from the lake room.
A passageway leads to a simple trap, easily disarmed
by Pireseri. This leads to stairs up, which take us to a landing
with a secret door off it, and more stairs go up. The secret door
leads to a natural passage heading north, and that is where we go
first. This leads to yet another balcony, otherwise unremarkable.
Back to the stairs, and we continue up the
stairs. It comes out in an area we already know, near the throne
room.
We return to the level of the lake room.
Moving on anticlockwise, the next secret door leads
down to a tomb with a sacrophagus. It contains a king's remains
and the armor he may have worn in life. Tapestries hang on the
walls, too dark to see, except it probably had pictures of dwarves
doing dwarvish things. There is a certain amount of jewellry
here, including the neck band that is worn by dwarven royalty.
While Pireseri cannot read the writing, Goru can translate it as
Fenni's tomb. The Queen knows that Fenni was the successor to
Hargrim. Fenni is 1:1:9:73. He is the one who buried
Hargrim and built the tombs.
Fenni's tomb and sarcophagus were carefully sealed,
so a good bit of his body remained.
Next secret door, not very well hidden, has stairs
going down behind it. It is not trapped -- or, rather, the trap
would only trigger if the door was broken down rather than opened - and
leads to another tomb. Pireseri opens the door, and the stench
that rolls out is astonishing. It was not sealed well, and is
damp and smelly. Luxuriant growths of mould festoon the walls and
floor, both the red and yellow varieties are represented. When we
reach the sarcophagus, we see they blanket it. We care and
caution we proceed, as Rabena tells us it's dangerous.
Pireseri tells us it is the tomb of another king,
but this one has damp in the tomb and sarcophagus. The body is
really nasty. The neck band and jewellry indicate a king.
It is the tomb of a king that was not on the note, Darbli. The
Queen says he was a very unimportant king.
The next is a non-secret passage with stairs going
down. The stairs go down steeply, with no traps and no
mould. At the bottom are double doors, and Pireseri tells us the
Great Temple is beyond.
The next secret door was not meant to be opened ever
again. This is in the north. Beyond this solid wall is a
passageway with stairs going down. This is dwarven magic, I say,
this is now real rock obviously sealing the tomb of Hargrim. The
wall, fortunately, is not trapped -- there are no traps and no
triggers. The sogin roku of Stone could get through in a few
minutes, but by hand it would take half an hour or so for Goru using
the expedition equipment in that room to the south.
Next around is the very secret door leading to the
tunnel which dead ends, only existing ot be a trap.
Next hidden secret door leads to stairs down, and
Pireseri says there are no traps. We proceed. Again, as
soon as we open the door we smell damp rotting corpses. This is
not just damp, but there is some water running in here. The mould
has not taken over here. We go in with care, and as we approach
the tomb Pireseri tells us that at the bottom is an octagonal room with
bodies laid out on stone biers. The bodies are rotting, there is
water in places. The bodies are royalty, but as there are eight
of them it is probably not Hargrim.
We go down to the room. The stench is
overpowering and I react violently. Goru reads the notations, and
they are no-one that he or the Queen have ever heard of. Despite
the rotting bodies, it is clear that there is valuable jewellry.
The next secret door, directly to the west and
extremely well hidden, reveals a passageway to stairs down. There
are runes hidden in the rock surrounding the door, carved to look like
random rock changes but in fact are dwarven runes. It spells out
"Hargim."
I say this has to be a decoy, and the other one is
the real one.
There appear to be no traps. Hosei tells us
that there is magic here that is different from the other magic around
here. It could just be that this is the doorway to the tomb and
therefore magical, or it could be a trap, or it could be a decoy.
We leave this one alone for the time and go on to
the last door.
The final secret door leads to a stairway curving
around and down to a room under the lake. There is a trap, which
Pireseri disarms. There is a locked door at the bottom of the
stairs. It is heavily trapped, triggered by opening the
door. The trap opens the ceiling, which of course is covered by
water.
In the room beyond is an empty sarcophagus.
The name carved on it is Hargim.
This would be the more obvious trap of the
two. Pireseri re-locks the door and we go back to the lake.
Miyara says we still need to find the Queen's
body. We still have the two passages here. We are unlikely
to find the Queen's body here, but the only place we have not yet
looked is the entrance of the cave where there was a battle going on
several hours ago.
Miyara studies Rabena's map of the entrance, to see
if there is anywhere we could go near enough for Pireseri to look for
the Queens bones. Miyara again confirms with the Queen that she
must have her bones for a proper burial. We discuss the matter
for a while.
We wander around the lake for Pireseri to check for
bones, even though as Miyara and I know the bones will not be here.
((Suddenly the White Fairy has a vision. He
sees himself as the Holder of Kadar Gravning, and he is going through
the burial ritual for the queen, of whom he thinks more as a wife than
the queen. She will get her proper burial, eventually.))
Goru gets a strange look pass over his face, but he
says nothing.
MIyara says that the only prospect now is to go into
one of the remaining tunnels. She and I agree that going through
the solid rock is the correct path. Goru fetches tools from the
expedition and starts to break through.
After 45 minutes the White Fairy has made enough of
a hole for us to squeeze through. Hosei and Pireseri check for
anything dangerous. Pireseri sees nothing out of the ordinary,
but Hosei says there is probably a magical trap.
I suggest doing the ritual, but Miyara says that was
specific to the octagonal room, and I cannot argue with her.
Sun volunteers to go in while we discuss the magical
trap, but Miyara tells him he will not.
We discuss possibly doing the ritual, and as Miyara
says there is the body of Mendri's father Gadric, who after all was a
king and therefore could be buried here. That might let us
through.