- Harlin Winklevos (Fighter 3)
- Mandras (Thief 5)
- Rafin Falskax (Cleric 1)
- Tyrion (Elf 1)
Seeing that the flagstone creatures hadn’t followed them out, the adventurers dusted themselves off and made back for Ximes to rest a while and gather up some more resources. The injured recovered while the others went out looking for any intel on the missing persons they’d been asked to find. One lead led to Mandras burgling a vanished merchant’s home late at night, pocketing some loose change and unearthing some documents indicating the businessman had been less than honest in his dealings with the Duke of Ximes. Mulling over this information, the party stocked up on some digging gear for their hired non-combatants and accrued a few more retainers.
The journey back to the mount of tombs was uneventful and, finding the barrow apparently undisturbed since their previous visit, they warily descended the spiral stairs again. Peering back into the room of alcoves and goat-headed statue, they noticed that there were two spots in the room where flagstones were missing from the wall and floor. Reasoning that these were from the two monsters they had demolished the first time round.
Mandras swapped in for Tyrion as scout, adjusted his own elven cloak and boots and crept in, taking stock of the contents of the alcoves. Curiosity eventually getting the better of him, he picked up a sealed vase. Immediately the floor and wall around him knit together into two more flagstone humanoids and they attacked. He took a swat to the ribs but dodged the mightier blows, and the rest of the party charged in to his aid.
Rafin lunged through the furious melee to tap the battered thief with the Staff of Healing. Emboldened by this, Mandras decided to stay in the fight. Evidently the dwarven bullishness still resided somewhere inside, but as the initial defiler of grave goods he remained the focus of the tomb’s guardians; they flattened him, bringing him to the brink of death, and this time he took the next opportunity to crawl to safety while his companions slowly whittled the creatures away.
For his trouble, Rafin was also nearly felled by one of the walking cobbles, but he was able to just about cling on enough for everyone to bring down the last one. Wheezing, they explored the rest of the alcoves, at first tentatively in case there were more barrow guardians lurking in the walls, then briskly gathering up the treasures and skedaddling back out into the open to ponder their next course of action.