Hidden in the corner of Red Larch’s newest sinkhole, Barrin observes ten cloaked figures return to enter the stone door, leaving behind ten cloaks, and then six recloaked figures depart with three bagged figures, leaving behind four cloaks.
Because inquiry and curiosity are the pillars of progress, the party selects the hallway of unusual architecture to explore. The purpose of the gridded ceiling construction down the long, dim corridor reveals itself to Argyle and Blameless as they barely avoid the concealed, suspended cages dropping on them. The cages block the way, dividing the adventurers and ironically trapping them in between while at the far end a pair of eyes set in grey skin peer through a slot in the stone door. An exchange of religious credentials fails to improve the situation but Allana figures out this is a Delver cult.
Blameless issues a cease and desist on the dropping of cages, on pain of popsicle, to Grund who earns his moniker Pee Pee Orc and hurriedly abandons his post inconsiderately forgetting to first raise the cages. Meega gets busy deranging the cages while Argyle discovers he can either tip up a cage or slip under it, but not both. Simon’s mage hand rearranges the broken bits of plaster.
While Meega frees Argyle from isolation, Rollen and Barrin push open the eyehole stone door revealing a square chamber wherein suitably shaped boulders pin a young man to the floor in front of a gray obelisk of the same make and model as the King’s Mattress but with the recent inscription to “displease not the delvers”. The hallway cages are remotely flown from chains in this room.
Braelen Hatherhand, trapped here for two days, complains of hunger and thirst but not of his geologic bonds. While Barrin gives his complete attention to raising the dropped cages to reunite the party, Allana and Blameless furnish Braelen with water and inquisition. Although not a Believer himself, his father Rotharr and much of Red Larch are, and Braelen enhances the party’s understanding of the situation. This underground complex is thought to be the product of Delver society and it is further believed that ancient Delvers are entombed here. Larrakh, the head priest of Black Earth, ostensibly conveys the wishes of these ancient Delvers who communicate by moving large stones in a nearby chamber. The Bringers act as enforcers for Larrakh, and the denizens of Red Larch either believe in this arrangement or serve it out of fear. In fact, an obviously conflicted Braelen declines liberation from his weighty punishment for the heinous infraction of not delivering a message to Waelvur. Rollen, concerned for Braelen’s safety, heals his wounds.
Reluctantly leaving Braelen to his unfortunate predicament, Allana swings open the next door and mutually rediscovers Rollen’s nemeses, the Bringers of Woe, a gang of five laughing, leather-clad, crossbow-wielding bandits loitering around a central life-sized, reconstructed statue of a Dwarf recovered from a local quarry now framed in a wooden scaffold. Allana scoots out of the doorway and Blameless peeks in to extend sincere offers of friendship, answered with three bolts shot at Rollen who, having deja vu all over again, remembers to step out of the way this time. With deadly force now justified, everyone breaks off a piece for these black-armored stooges. Overstimulated Blameless causes a gout of wild magic that makes everyone except two Bringers invisible. The party, experienced with this condition, capably polishes off all but the last Bringer who makes for the door. Allana commands him to approach, halting his egress and confounding him longer than he survives.
His invisibility intact, Blameless takes advantage of the lawful good loophole (that which is unseen is unjudged) and cleans out the tribute arranged within a ring of sand at the base of the assembled statue. The wealth is redistributed invisibly with one notably interesting dagger appearing in Barrin’s belt, to which he enigmatically proclaims his freedom.
Continuing to exploit his invisibility, Blameless opens the opposite door into a short hallway to find a whittling old man at the far end. Thaumaturging a booming Delver voice for Argyle’s stern Delver-like expression, Blameless expresses displeasure with Larrakh on behalf of the Delvers. Larrakh’s pious personal assistant opens the next door and passes the message through, but this seems to lessen the ruse’s effect and Larrakh, who must also have thaumaturgy as a cantrip, laughs in a booming voice at these preposterous, imposturous infidels. Larrakh’s personal assistant suddenly recalls another appointment and grovellingly excuses himself.
Flat, upright stones are scattered through the enormous chamber, a lantern illuminates the center of the chamber, and six slabs with skeletal remains ring the wall on three sides. Larrakh remains unseen so the party fans out and, at the conclusion of his maniacal laughter, a sharp clunk is heard as all the stones begin to levitate slightly.
A few of the stones, shoved by Larrakh and his acolyte to crush the adventurers, begin their march across the room, but Barrin charges one of these, returning it to sender. Rollen jumps atop a stone which Allana launches at Simon. Larrakh, observing everyone’s fun, ruins the merriment by shattering Blameless, Simon, and Rollen while Barrin tangles with the acolyte.
Barrin, in a spot of trouble, ducks out of melee, surges his health, and crashes a stone into the acolyte, lining him up for a deadly, fiery orb from Blameless. The wild magical feedback makes Blameless’s beautiful rat nest hair fall out. Meanwhile, Rollen rides into a worrisome confluence of several stones and is thrown unconscious into the maelstrom. Argyle, just having a quick peek at the stone slabs and skeletons, rescues Rollen.
Outnumbered and outpaced, Larrakh becomes the victim of unintended consequences as several stones are sent his way at high velocity in a proxy war of King’s Mattresses. Realizing his disadvantage, he casts a slowing spell on Barrin, Allana, and Meega but this realization comes too late as he is corralled into a corner by the stones, now bouncing madly off the walls and each other, as Barrin steers them toward the doomed priest. Larrakh has a trick up his sleeve and spider-walks up the wall to safety, evading the stones, several flying spells, and Meega’s axes, until Barrin’s shortbow returns him both to the floor and to his maker.
Argyle arrests the momentum of the careening stones and the party examines a magnificent mural high on the walls portraying a great Delver battle against fire, wind, and other elementals. At the far end, a heroic gray Half-Orc with a purple mohawk is reverently carried by the Delvers on a litter.
The stones eventually settle back to the floor while Argyle and Rollen debrief Grund cringing in the corner, Barrin finds some pyramidic currency in Larrakh’s pockets, and Allana finds a secret passage in the corner as well as a false panel in the back wall. From Grund’s recollection, Rollen is able to piece together how the stones were activated and smacks Larrakh’s staff into the floor. The re-levitating stones are lined up and unnecessarily smashed into the false panel revealing a dwarven crypt beyond.
This chamber is of fine dwarven craftsmanship with ten dwarf-sized sarcophagi. The only asymmetrical feature of the room is a stone column, not quite adjoined to the ceiling or floor, with a hole, conveniently located and sized for Argyle’s warhammer handle. Argyle’s reverence for dwarven remains is exceeded only by his reverence for a finely crafted warhammer, so he borrows a warhammer from a nearby damaged sarcophagus to crank the column around with Meega’s help. In the revealed subcrypt are three additional sarcophagi: to the left and right are royal resting places, perhaps a king and queen, flanking a half-orc-with-gray-skin-and-purple-mokawk-sized sarcophagus, the non-final resting place now open and empty of Mreegar.