As the skeletons continued to knit in the pit, the party slew the remaining two and watched as the bones of another two skeletons started to come together. Mandras, Alf and Tarwin started crushing the skulls in the hopes that extracting the sapphire like gems would solve the problem – it did not. As Mandras held a gem in his hand he saw the skeleton start to rebuild around the stone and hastily dropped it as if it had been a burning rivet. Thinking swiftly, he knelt to the ground and smashed gem with the flat of his axe. The sapphire splintered and all movement ceased. The rest of the party were busy doing the same and, in a trice, the four opponents were no more. A quick look in the pit showed that the 6 occupants could not egress and rather than waste time, the party continued its explorations in search of greater undead.
Heading north, deeper into the barrowmaze, the adventurers opened doors here and there, hoping for an encounter. They passed many an empty, dusty chamber. At one point, they heard another party on the other side of a door, but ignored it and forged on deeper. One of the rooms entered contained 40 alcoves containing piled bones – they were used to this by now, but a chalk drawing on the ground caught their attention. Koko used his superb cartography skills to add a copy of it to the map he scrupulously sought to maintain. No one could figure out the chalk drawing, so the party continued.
They came upon an area of carved reliefs again, with a blood-stained altar. A door to the west was gingerly opened and the corpse of a beast was found therein, perhaps sacrificially slaughtered to the goat headed deity. Mandras checked the body and found a platinum necklace (#67) and a bag of gold, whereas Alf found a gold statue of a deer.
They had been in the maze for 5 hours now and were no closer to success. They then found a long east west corridor with multiple doors to the north; one had a slime trail leading in and it was wisely ignored. Heading west, the heroes worried about the speed they were recklessly proceeding at. Koko was losing the odd marble trying to map such a flurry of activity, but his chaotic mind managed nevertheless!
Ignoring the north doors, the party suddenly came across a chalk sign on the wall, an arrow pointing west, saying do not go this way. So, they did, excitedly... They suddenly came to a dead end, with a door to the south. Mandras and Alf, who had been taking the lead went in, seeking a fight. The 20 x 20 room held a door south and west, and three levers on the wall, as well as 40 wall alcoves containing urns. Alf inspected the latter and found 18 platinum coins. Mandras and Alf started to pull levers, ignoring or welcoming traps. The western door led to a corridor and was promptly reshut. The southern door led into a room with more alcoves, holding shrunken heads – there was also a door to the south. As Mandras and Alf entered the room, the door slammed shut behind them. Fortunately, the party on the other side re-opened it by playing with the levers. Alf spiked the door open.
Mandras and Alf now paid for their boldness. Opening the southern door, they were tipped into a ten-foot-deep pit and took injuries, but managed to crawl out. It was now 6 hours in the maze and the party paused to take stock.