Into the Depths

The party had finally made it to the tomb, but since it was almost night fall, decided to set up camp on the hill above the entrance. During the night, the camp watch was disturbed by splashing in the lake below. Investigating, they discovered a reptilian humanoid (quickly dubbed Fluffy) fishing and swimming there. While they watched the strange creature hunt, a human body was suddenly flung from the tomb into the lake waters. Though slightly slow to the rescue, the party did eventually manage to retrieve the body from the lake before it became dinner.
The body turns out to be that of Colyn Fynne, Bryant’s brother, who is still alive though apparently poisoned from a strange puncture wound in his shoulder/neck. Lilly quickly treats the wound to the best of her ability, and Colyn slowly regains consciousness. Unfortunately, he has no memory of how arrived at his present situation. The last thing that he remembers was meeting in the woods with an undisclosed man late Saturday night. He felt a sudden pain at the puncture wound site and then lost consciousness. When he next woke, it was in the party’s camp on Wednesday morning, missing everything but the clothes on his back. He is quickly re-equipped from the party’s supplies and agrees to help them investigate the tomb in hopes of finding out what happened to him.
While the rest of the party is setting up to descend the cliff face to the tombs entrance, Milo is set to guard the base camp and animals in case Fluffy, the lake creature, returns to find where its dinner went off to. It is discovered that the piton left in the rocks above had been rigged to cut any rope using it. It is quickly replaced and the group descends to the tomb. The entrance turns out to be a natural, water-smoothed cave that leads to a long twisting tunnel, which while fairly tall (10-15’), is extremely narrow (3-5’) and very dark. After some roughhousing between the brothers, the entire group starts to make their way up the tunnel. When they are roughly 50’ into the tunnel a loud voice suddenly booms out, “Those who would seek to defile this place, turn back now!” Undeterred, they continue on.
50’ further, the tunnel opens out into another chamber. As soon as Colyn enters, a large spidery form comes hurtling toward him from the ceiling and he instinctively lashes out with his weapon at it. Regrettably, it turns out to be a discarded spider exoskeleton which has been filled with some sort caustic dust, which floods both the room and hallway. The majority of the party, manage to cover their faces quickly enough to avoid most of the dust, but both Lilly and Rizzo are overcome by it. Panevik and Sandra manage to drag their comrades out of the cloud, back down the tunnel, while the brothers flee the other way, through the chamber and into another passage beyond.
As Bryant and Colyn come coughing and sputtering out of the cloud they almost stumble into a childish snare trap. There is even a half-heartedly rubbed out X in its center where the victim is supposed to place their foot. It is easily disarmed and moved past, however, Colyn realizes that it was only a distraction from the real trap, a 10’ long covered pit lined with crude spikes and a strange purple moss. While it should be an easy jump, the uneven tunnel floor causes Colyn to loose his footing at the last moment and go sprawling across the floor. Fortunately, with his weight distributed so widely, it does not fully open, but he is left wedged into the crack between the two halves of the pit cover. Bryant quickly climbs across the pit along the tunnel wall to rescue his brother only to have several tiny spears go sailing past his head; two of which embed themselves in Colyn. The sudden pain causes Colyn to loose his precarious position and plunge into the pit, which seals above him. Spinning around, Bryant sees four tiny humanoid figures retreating down the unexplored passage quickly. Rather than go sprinting off into who knows what, he decides to stay where he is and help his brother out of the trap and disable it. Alas, the creatures use this as an opportunity to sneak back several times with a fresh supply of spears each time.
Meanwhile, on the far side of the dust cloud, Lilly has recovered enough to examine Rizzo and concoct a bundle of soothing herbs for them both to chew on while they wash off the caustic grit as best they can. Panevik collects a sample of the dust as it slowly settles out of the air for later study when he has proper equipment. However, he is able to determine that crossing the room should be safe once the air has cleared. A short time later, they proceed through the first chamber to where the brothers are trying to disable the lid to the pit trap while dodging the occasional spear. Sadly, their attempt didn’t take into consideration the lid flexing and bouncing as people walked across it and as a result several individuals end up at the bottom of the pit and impaled on the remaining spikes. They are eventually rescued, but not before there are several more spear attacks. However, with so many additional defenders, the attackers are quickly whittled down, with only one managing to flee.
Colyn pursues it cautiously but still manages to get himself ensnared in the thousands of tiny hooks suspended from the ceiling of the next chamber by hair thin lines. It is then that three of the creatures, waiting in ambush, emerge from the shadows. The lines and hooks actually serve to protect him somewhat as two of the three spears thrown at him tangle in them. Thinking quickly, he transfers his sword to his free hand and flourishes it above his head, freeing himself. Hearing the conflict, his companions begin to advance into the chamber. Seeing that they have lost the advantage, the creatures flee further into the room, disappearing over the edge of a chasm which cleaves the cavern floor. The hanging trap is quickly destroyed, leaving the party free to examine the gulf.
The rift is roughly 15’ across and plunges down twenty feet before reaching the surface of a murky, foul smelling pool (a scent strikingly similar to that of the stinky little man). The floor on the far side of the gap is at least 5’ lower than that of the near side and there are strange thin lines hung across it about a foot below the repective lips. As the party is trying to figure out what the cords are for and how to get across, splashing is heard below and Fluffy pulls itself out of the water into a small opening in the wall below them. After insults, threats and a botched bribery attempt (poisoned crossbow quarrels tend to put a dampener on diplomacy) it is decided that the only way to get everyone safely across is over Fluffy’s dead body, so an attack plan is devised. Bryant climbs across the pit carrying a rope while the others do their best to distract Fluffy. Lilly than commands it to sleep while Panevik feather falls down to its level, great sword drawn. While they fight, the rest of the party scurries across and takes up support positions on the lower lip. Fluffy soon sees that its chances look grim and flees into the water. Panevik cautiously climbs out and across the pool wary of attack from below, but it never surfaces.
A tunnel on the far side leads into another chamber, this one with a short brick wall and a strange all wooden door. As Colyn is searching it, a set of odd frayed/feathered tenticales reach out for him.