At the farthest end of the underground chamber network, the party finds itself in a royal crypt of dwarven construction. Meega lifts aside the cover on the dwarven queen’s sarcophagus revealing skeletal remains wearing a fine dress, an amulet and, almost escaping attention, invisible lady gloves. Within the opposite sarcophagus, the king’s mortal remains wear a fine suit of plate. A small vial peeks out from underneath. Simon unsqueamishly rakes up the valuables and passes along a message from Moradin successfully suggesting Argyle should wear that nice, kingly plate. Blameless finds a false bottom in Mreegar’s empty sarcophagus concealing a well-used battleaxe, as suitable for Meega as it undoubtedly was for Mreegar, of magical bone with a leather lanyard and a braid of purple hair.
Backtracking to the main crypt, a search of the ten lesser, yet still noble, sarcophagi turns up a brass box which Simon opens face-first to reveal a wooden box. Blameless borrows a gold piece from Rollen and puts it in the box. When Simon closes the box the gold piece “disappears”. Meega and Argyle close the royal door via the cranky column and return the previously borrowed Warhammer O’ Leverage to its deceased owner.
Returning to the chamber of moving stones, Rollen leads the way out through Larrakh’s corner escape tunnel which gradually opens to the quarry behind the Mellikho Stoneworks in the northwest of Red Larch. A picnic in the outlying woods alleviates hunger and exhaustion from the morning’s Black Earth showdown. Refreshed, the time has come to confront the constable about the illicit goings on beneath his feet and to learn his mettle.
As the adventurers approach Constable Harburk they realize Grund and the Whittling Man, Baragustas, are being interrogated. Using his super-ego voice, the constable orders everyone to disarm and wait. The party members elect Allana as their representative and placate Rollen, barely keeping his lid on, with a backup plan, conditionally initiated by a codeword from Allana (“blerg”), for the regulars to defend themselves by force.
Harburk’s investigation centers on three corpses, presumed murdered, found in the quarry. Neither Grund nor Baragustas have knowledge of their demise, but both sufficiently defend the party’s virtue, vis-a-vis Larrakh, to convince Harburk to release, if not absolve, them. In their own defense the party remind the constable of their deeds rescuing the sinkhole children when, by the way, some nefarious degenerate dropped the rappelling line into the sinkhole.
A suddenly lurking Dwarf, Bruenor, seems interested in the broader fate of a delegation from Mirabar, of which the three deceased were members, and specifically mentions the name Bruldenthar, not among the deceased. Wary of over-informing the constable, the group keeps tight-lipped and shruggy on the subterranean details and hopes to find Bruenor later.
On the merits of his association with Ardak, the party believe they can trust Endrith Vallivoe so, released from detainment, they seek his guidance at Vallivoe’s Sundries. In his opinion the Believers are misguided and probably unprepared for the truth of Larrakh’s foul manipulations. He suggests conferring with Mellikho, who has observed strange men about the quarry.
In familiar synchronicity, Bruenor happens into the store at that very moment. This time, free of potential legal entanglements, the party relates to him their encounters with the Believers, the slain strangers, the Bringers, and Larrakh in particular who was found with Mirabar trade bars on him. In turn, Bruenor reveals that the doomed delegation was bound for Summit Hall with manuscripts essential to his semi-secret organization, the Harpers.
The mention of manuscripts jogs Endrith’s memory: he chanced to purchase one of these twelve books from a merchant who purchased it from a keelboat captain and, even after multiple markups, Endrith hands it over to Bruenor freely. Having no proficiency with Dwarven, Blameless is permitted to handle the book and finds it to be of exceptionally fine quality. Allana, also unfamiliar with Dwarven but suffering from eidetic memory, flips through the book briefly before Bruenor gets suspicious, but it is long enough to inerrantly and canonically remember the entire text. Simon, through the window from his banishment outside, surreptitiously makes out the title, “History of the Besilmer Dwarves”.
Absent a better notion, the party checks into the Swinging Sword intending to stay a couple of nights. Adjourning to the Helm at High Sun for some highly publicized stew, the party sees Braelen, of boulder starvation fame, and his father, Rothar Hatherhand, enjoying a bit of stew together.
Because awkwardness and provocation are the pillars of sociology, Blameless greets Braelen and joins them, quite unwelcomed. Rothar, fuming at the imposition, leaves with Braelen. Next, Blameless strikes up a conversation with Bruenor who hints subtly that Blameless should be more guarded until they can meet up later at the stable. Running out of opportunities to practice social emulation, Blameless starts to ask Meega about Mreegar but, now unsure what constitutes acceptable dinner conversation, decides to just stick with the stew and ale.
As foretold, the party encounters Bruenor while chatting with William the Stable Boy. Bruenor imparts that Larmon Greenboot, a local shepherd, found some shallow graves to the east, south of the hills. Larmon, when not shepherding, may be found around the Red Larch Tool & Beauty at #17.
After a full night’s rest, the party defers the day’s priorities to Meega. Noting Rollen’s uncontainable enthusiasm, she suggests another attempt to activate the Lance Rock portal and the party, full of misplaced optimism, revisits the scene of their recent failures.
With an abundance of mutual encouragement, an abiding grasp of history, religion, and arcana, and a little luck, the portal opens, probably back to Quastarte. Unfortunately, only Rollen and Allana have physical contact with the King’s Mattress at the moment of activation and they vanish, sucked in. Recreating the first success, subsequent activation of the portal goes much easier and Meega, Argyle, Barrin, Simon, and Blameless find themselves transported a harmless 30 seconds later. Unfortunately, the party reunites in a destination despairingly unlike Quastarte, a destination where everything wants to kill and perhaps eat them, and the killing is well underway by the time the B Team arrives.
Unfamiliar bug-like critters yank on opposite, and unconscious, ends of Rollen and Allana while silent, aloof, headache-inducing observers look on. Argyle, in top form, throws a heal on Rollen and smashes the nearest bug with his warhammer while avoiding the counterattack. Blameless stabilizes Allana, but the coordinated attacks of an observer and bug knock him out. Meega’s axe finishes a bug and, like Argyle, her armor and agility stave off damage. Rollen, too close for the longbow, scrambles to his feet hacking with his shortsword while Simon flings a spread of magic missiles. Blameless manages to land a fiery orb on Argyle’s bug, but entirely incinerates himself with wild magic in the process. Barrin, stabbing and punching faster than a gnomish Stab-And-Punch-2000 with optional rotary coprocessor, holds out bravely but eventually succumbs, as does Allana despite her fiendish vigor. Even stout Argyle falls and Rollen lays on hands to revive him. “CLEAR!” Meega, Rollen, and Argyle continue against mounting odds as reinforcement observers approach, but Ardak fortunately steps through the portal blasting a knockdown wave to buy time for recovery and escape.
Back through the portal to Lance Rock, Daddy Ardak directs Meega in aligning the portal stone for the desired conduit to Quastarte and everyone goes back through, this time returning to Quastarte as intended. Although very tired from the recovery, Ardak entertains many questions. In short, the party’s destiny is to use available means, including the portal system, to assist with the retrieval of the missing manuscripts so that the elemental evil rising in Dessarin Valley may be defeated.
Ardak identifies the collected magical items:
The queen’s amulet resists detection by divination.
The queen’s invisible gloves assist with lockpicking and traps.
The king’s potion appears to be for invisibility, but is actually sneezing and choking dust.
The bone axe, from the Dessarin Dwarves thousands of years ago, improves attack and damage, especially against giant creatures.
The box is a collapsible boat, either 10’ or 24’, with a sail, mast, oars, and 1 gp, seating up to 4 or 15.
Ardak, before retiring for the evening, soberly admonishes, “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”