The party moved west through a long corridor that then widened as it turned south towards a distant dead end, dominated by some 30-foot object. Six 5-foot-wide tunnels ran east and west from this passage like three sets of fishbones. Each transversal tunnel was full of alcoves, some 50 per tunnel. Most contained skeletons or mummified bodies, but one tunnel contained silver plated skulls. Mandras frequently took the lead, brashly testing tunnels for undead and hoping he would not end up waking up the entire collection of bodies…
The group worked its way down to the end and was confronted by a statue of Death, sitting on a throne, holding a sword and a staff. Everyone stopped at a healthy distance, eyeing a glowing sword that lay on the floor 10 feet in front of the sculpture. Rarder drew Consciencia, the sword detected magic in the glowing sword on the ground, but also back in the side tunnels.
Mandras went into the two western tunnels that had magic objects in them, finding a narrow foot long box with a large lock in it, that he popped into his backpack. He also found a lovely spear, which he delicately but too eagerly grabbed… it stuck to him and although he could change his grip on it, he could not drop it or part with in in any manner – cursed! Arnd in the meantime had found a magical spearhead, which was carefully put away.
Returning to the statue, a somewhat chastened Mandras volunteered to poke Death, which he did, repeatedly, to no effect. He then poked the glowing sword on the ground and his spear passed through, revealing a ten-foot pit with green ooze of sorts on the bottom. He almost fell in, but managed to pull back just in time. He turned to express his relief to the party and found then standing a good 40 feet behind him… and out of the corner of his eye he caught 4 hooded and robed figures issuing from a tunnel. He fell back as quickly as possible to join the defensive line the adventurers were forming, even further back. Rarder threw a bottle of holy water at a creature, burning it but also revealing plate armour beneath the robes. Koko slew two and Mandras slew one in spite of his spear feeling much weaker than his normal two-handed axe. The last creature went down and the party decided to fall back to explore a tunnel they had ignored in the lever room.
This new corridor led us to two doors opposite each other. Mandras listened at the south door and heard what seemed like small pieces of masonry falling. He attempted twice to open the door, but failed. Behind him, Alfred called the party back, as he had heard loud voices behind them. Everyone hastened back to the corridor where an encounter was developing. Mandras was asked to hail the party (highest charisma). It turned out to be a group of brigands seeking to charge a toll for the party’s presence here… the bare gall of these fools. The adventurers charged the would-be brigands, bringing down three of the twelve. The rest fled when Koko held their leader. Rarder promptly offered him more gold than they had asked for, if he would guide the adventurers through the barrows. In the meantime, Mandras continued vainly trying to relieve himself of his accursed appendage…