After awhile, all three come out and inform you of the plan.  Brother Lee, Mugwort, and Squire Lars are to hold the fort tomorrow.  Mugwort is obviously disappointed; Lee is probably holding it in.  Father Durrant announces, "We will have a holy feast before sunrise.  It shall prepare us for the day ahead.  Although you do not share our faith, Geoff and Dawn, welcomes you are welcome to feast with us in the morning and to join us in prayer.  You will benefit from it in more ways than you know."

The discussion then turns to the attack strategy.  The twelve are divided into four squads:

Squad One:  Sarge, Geoff, Cassandra, Louglynn.
Squad Two:  Bart,  Leliath, Norm
Squad Three:  Durrant, Zodac
Squad Four:  Erin, Dawn, Steven

Geoff and Cassandra are to flank the entrance while Sarge crouches in front of it with crossbow.  Squad two will ready missile weapons.  Squad three are to provide shield cover for squad four.  Squad four are to provide missile or spell support, hand up extra bolts, arrows, and darts if necessary, and most importantly watch the battle and shout warnings of anything strange.  The party will dig to clear enough material to allow Louglynn to magically open the entrance.  When the way is clear, Louglynn will roll clear, Sarge will fire a magically lighted bolt into the tunnel, and squad two will rapidly fire blindly over Sarge's head.  "Lose a shot if you must, but do not look that beast in the eyes," Father Durrant tells them.  On his command, squad one is to charge into the tunnel to engage the beast.  They too are to avoid eye contact and rely on blind fighting to hit.  "Look at the creature's feet, arms, claws, chest -- anything but the eyes." The other squads will enter on Father Durrant's command but keep to medium range from the creature.

Before adjourning to slumber, the watch scheduled as 4 hour dual post shifts, staggered every two hours so a fresh person comes on every two hours:  Sarge, Leliath, Mugwort, Cassandra, Norm, then Durrant.

Father Durrant wakes everyone a bit early.  He has the center of the tower cleared.  He begins with a prayer then reads from a large, ornate scroll, chanting at times, singing at others.  Lady Cassandra, Lars, Lee and Zodac kneel with heads bowed.  Many minutes into the spell, and as the long rolled paper nears the floor, Father Durrant raises his hands and the scroll above his hands. An instantaneous flash of light creates a magnificent table over full with food and drink.  Around the table are twelve plush and comfortable chairs to which Father Durrant now empty handed beckons the chosen twelve.  Lars and Lee stand, bow to Father Durrant and climb up to join Mugwort on the morning watch.

Once seated, everyone joins hands and Father Durrant leads them in prayer.  The food is the best that any of you have had, the drink invigorating.  As the sun's morning light filters into the tower's arrow slit walls and open door an hour later, the twelve of you are finished amazingly not uncomfortable for the amount of consumption that just occurred.  Again, Father Durrant bids everyone stand and join hands around the table.  "Please bow your heads and close your eyes," he says when he begins the prayer of thanks.  When finished, the feast is gone without a trace.  Even the fine silver service.  You are all instilled with a sense of calm and an abundance of determination.

You all then go off to prepare for the upcoming battle.  When you are all ready, Father Durrant hands out potions.  Today Geoff is given a potion of extra-healing and one of super heroism; Dawn is given a potion of invisibility; Norm, growth; Leliath, speed; Bart, gaseous form and extra-healing; Sarge, invulnerability and extra-healing; Steven, fire resistance; Erin, giant strength; and Zodac, a necklace of prayer beads.  After handing them out Cassandra, Durrant, and Louglynn take theirs and you set out for the tomb.

A few big, puffy clouds drift in the sky today.  It is cooler, probably a weather front rolling in soon.  Nothing has disturbed the previous day's excavations.  From the depth of the sand filling the entrance to the first tunnel you uncovered, you will have to dig for about an hour to clear enough sand and stone for Louglynn.  Geoff and Sarge start digging in the center of the cliff and Durrant and others help haul and pile the stuff.

Soon Louglynn feels confident that he has the power to penetrate to the tunnel.  The squads form their assigned ranks.  Sarge pulls out and loads a glowing bolt into her crossbow and gets on the ground behind a low mound of gravel.  Louglynn stands in front of her and pulls out a scroll.  He begins reading the arcane instructions aloud as indecipherable gibberish.  He gestures at the cliff and it begins to disintegrate.  Soon, as the disintegration digs into the cliff, the sides start spilling in. Though enough of the cliff remains clear for passage.  When the disintegration stops, the tunnel is still not visible.  Louglynn casts the spell again.

This time the spell digs through to a dark opening.  As soon as he sees this, Louglynn shouts, "NOW!" and drops and rolls to the right side where Cassandra waits.  Geoff is on the left.  Sarge, seeing her cue, lets the bolt fly into the darkness. The second squad follows suit and starts firing into the growing opening.  Nothing moves.

"FIRST SQUAD MOVE!" Yells Father Durrant.  Cassandra and Geoff wait for the missiles to clear.  Cassandra enters the opening in front of Geoff. Sarge barrels in after them.  Once inside, the bright glow of the bolt laying on the floor about 30' away illuminates a hall very different from the other two.  The hall is empty, but even the bolt's glow does not illuminate it to its length.  The walls and ceiling are painted in bright, brilliant colors.  The floor of the corridor is a colorful mosaic of stone, with a distinct, winding path of red tiles about 2' wide.  No stonework can be seen on the walls or the ceiling 20' above. Some sort of cement of plaster has been smoothed over all of these surfaces and then illustrated.  The scenes painted show fields with kine grazing, a copse with several wolves in the background, slaves (human, orc, elven, and strange human-animal mixtures - pig, ape, dog) going about various tasks.  There are all manner of objects, animals, and insects shown on the walls in addition to leering demonic figures.

About 10 yards on the right (west) side of the hall, is a depiction of a wizardly work room.  Two jackal headed figures a painted so as to be holding a bronze chest that actually extends from the wall.  Just beyond the workroom is a depiction of a torture chamber and a painted iron door confining some horrid creature (its taloned and scaled hands grasp the bars of its small window).  The three warriors stand on the gravel spilling into the hall from outside.  Louglynn walks in and surveys the area.  Still nothing stirs.

After several seconds if not minutes pass anxiously, the foursome backs out of the strange hall.  "O.K.," Mr. Louglynn says, "the first thing we must do is dig out that opening.  We don't want to be trapped in there.  Sarge, Geoff, and Dame Cassandra will you do the honors when I call of the spell?"  Cassandra and Sarge nod.

"That will leave us quite exposed," Father Durrant responds, "let us leave one of our mighty warriors ready to fight.  M'lord Geoff is a guest in our party, let him keep his sword. The going will be slower, but we may come to regret the choice otherwise."

"The Sergeant and I will not dig with our backs exposed," Dame Cassandra says putting down her shield and helm and taking off as little armor as necessary, "set up a perimeter at the light's edge."

Durrant nods, "Geoff and Zodac take your shields and build a wall at the edge of the sand.  Leilath keep your bow ready and stand behind them; Stephen and Norm be ready to launch your weapons against any foe.  Erin keep your blade ready and stand with the others.  Bart check out the walls, look for traps and see whether those painted doors are real or not.  Louglynn and Dawn be ready to do what wizards do when the time comes."

That said, the party makes its way into the tunnel with the equipment.  "The spells have at least three hours remaining. Lets clear the first section of the floor and allow Bart some progress before I close it up." Sarge and Bart inspect the hall and find nothing dangerous within the first ten feet. The others then descend the slope to the tile floor and Louglynn dispells the magic opening in the cliff.  A cloud of dust erupts along with a loud crashing noise as the magically separated sand and rocks smash back into place.

"Y'all stay close and watch the dark end, I don't like being the first thing to be jumped on," Bart says as he slams a lantern into Geoff's chest. "Stay close."

Bart follows the red tiles mostly on hands and knees and muttering incomprehensibly. The path winds over to the wizardly workroom, Bart glances up at the protruding chest but continues to check the path.  "Don't touch it!" Bart snaps at Geoff following along behind him.  He reaches the torture chamber and gets excited. "I found something!  There is a seam here."

The floor had been smooth tile with uncracked fine mortar and Bart happens to notice a thin crack, a mere fracture in the mortar running from the wall to about half way into the 20' wide hall.  He follows it to the wall where it disappears. All of the walls have been plastered over and it it likely that the plaster covers the seem along the wall.  Carefully he moves along it and sees that it ends once it reaches the center of the hall.  "Hey, I'm gonna need about 150 pounds of sand up here.  Someone start filling sacks and tie them shut." Turning to Geoff, "When we get those bastards filled up, we'll tie 'em together and toss 'em over the line.  Can you throw 150 pounds of sand, guy?"

"Not to worry Bart," he replies.

Erin says, "Finally, something I can do.  That's about five sacks, right?"

"Yeah," someone says.

She pulls out some sacks and starts filling them.  Mr. Louglynn helps.  "M'lady Dawn, will you help?" She does.

Bart continues scanning across the hall but finds no trace of any more fractures.  Bart starts checking the floor between the western wall and path back toward the entrance while the sacks are being filled.  He finds nothing unusual and declares the path safe up to the seam.  Father Durrant and Zodak move to the seam Bart discovered and set up a their shields.  Bart examines the floor immediately east of the path back toward the seam and is back at the seam when he hears Louglynn call out, "Ready with the sacks." Geoff hands Bart the lantern.

Sarge walks along the path and hands the sacks to Geoff who carries them to the seam and pitches them almost without straining over the seam.  They take the floor with them as they hit.  Huge northern and southern 5' by 10' sections of the floor rotate downward and the sacks plummet into the darkness revealed.  The floor rotates back. The trapdoor is now ringed with jagged seams of fractured tile and cement all the way around the pit fall.

Everyone exchanges worried glances when the sand bags drop through the trap doors in the floor in front of the painted torture chamber's door.  Bart moves to check out the wall next to trap doors; making sure not to cross the jagged cracks in the tile floor left when the trap doors swung open. The walls are smooth plaster and he can find no way to get near the painted door.  He taps the wall as close to the door as he can reach (getting within a  foot) a few times but hears nothing unusual.

The rest of the party is hanging back by the sand while Cassandra and Sarge dig out a passage. Dust still hangs in the air at that end from the violent return of the sand and rocks when Louglynn dismissed the passwall spell. Bart motions for Durrant and Zodac to follow the path up to the pit to provide cover.  As they approach, Bart ties a big knot seven feet down the rope that is tied around his waist. He puts the rope knot in Geoff's free hand and says, "I don't want to end up down some deep hole so keep me at this length. If I need more, count out the feet for me."

Bart proceeds to methodically check the floor between the entrance and the pit.  While he searches, Mr. Louglynn casts a spell and several small orbs begin orbiting his head.  Three orbs float before his face and he instructs the first, "Follow this hall until you can do so no more.  Note all doors and turns.  If hall ends, return."  To the second, "Take first opportunity to turn left, and proceed straight from there.  Note all doors and turns.  If passage ends, return." As those two float down the hall he instructs the third, "Take first opportunity to turn right, and proceed straight from there.  Note all doors and turns.  If passage ends, return."

Bart finds nothing and doesn't drop through any more trap doors so he proceeds to check out the floor next to the trap doors.  As he is checking there, two of Louglynn's orbs float back from the dark end of the hall and return to his hand.  Bart has proceeded to check the first strip of floor beyond the trap doors and has proceeded back across the hall when he hears a crack and the floor drops out from beneath him.

The first of the two orbs to return to Louglynn's hand was the first to have been sent. The visual message transmitted shows the hall continuing on beyond the area illuminated by the glowing bolt for about fifty feet.  The painting on the wall are not discernible clearly by the orb's night vision. When it reached the end of the hall, an archway is visible on the left and some sort of large fresco adorns the back wall.  The second orb reveals similar details, but Louglynn also notes that it followed the first two orbs into the dark end of the hall. As Louglynn finishes viewing the two orb's travel, he sees Geoff holding the rope and Bart is nowhere to be seen.

The sudden jerk pulled the rope knot from Geoff's grasp and he dropped the lantern to grab the rope with both hands. But Bart has already fallen into the floor.  The rope, now taught in Geoff's grasp, is holding the trap doors open.  Geoff slowly steps toward the pit fearing the worst.  Bart is dangling by the rope around his waist; his weight is the only thing keeping the traps doors open.  The pit is about ten feet deep.  Five iron spikes in a random pattern jut from its floor.  Bones and dust litter the floor.  Bart is about two feet off the floor and holding his upper right arm.  "I'm all right. Fucking spikes!  Pull me the hell outta here! Geoff! waddya waitin' fer. Get me outta this hole."

Geoff pulls Bart out of the pit. As Bart slides up the trap door and his weight shifts, it closes.  He lies on the floor at Geoff's feet. The gashes really sting.  Father Durrant comes quickly to Bart's side and inspects the wounds.  The leg wound is deep and bloody. The arm wound is too but the gash did not pierce any muscle tissue, just ripped the skin  away from it. The hand wound is a clean slice. There is no sign of  poison.  Bart looks himself over and pulls a vial from his vest.  He tips it to Geoff before quaffing its contents. "That oughtta do it," he says as he gets to his feet.  Durrant and Geoff can see the grimace trying to break through his non-chalance. "I'm fine, just hold onto the rope!"

Bart continues checking the hall methodically with Geoff maintaining a firm grip on  the rope knot.  Geoff notes that Bart is taking more time now.  The wound may be slowing him down or he is being more careful not to let it happen again.  He checks a stretch of the curiously painted western wall, then resumes checking the floor across to the eastern wall.   After crossing back and forth a few times and examining the walls when he reaches them, he is on his knees looking for clues when the floor breaks away again.

This time Geoff maintains his hold on the rope and it catches him mid yelp.  The open trap door reveals yet another pit of spikes.  This time though, Bart didn't slide off the counter-weighted section of floor.  Geoff easily pulls him back up and the floor rotates back into place.  Cracked tiles and cement now clearly reveal the outline of the third trap.

Bart sits up and adjusts the rope around his mid-section. "Damn this is getting out of hand."  Bart crawls to the line of broken tiles around the trap door then lies on his stomach and starts pushing on the trap door.  The heavy stone does not move. Bart eases out a bit and presses down about two feet from the edge. He might feel a bit of give but can't force the door to swing open.  Geoff says Bart didn't fall through until he was at least three feet over the pit.

Sarge and Cassandra's digging finally reveals some daylight.  The sweat and dust covered women, happy to get a breath of fresh air, manage to clear a crawl space out of the hall.  Both celebrate with a short break and refreshing water.

"Damn," Bart says, "I'm to short to do this crap."  He pulls himself off the floor, looks at Geoff and says, "change of plans my friend."  He unties the rope then walks a safe path back toward the entrance.  Sarge is resting having already armored herself.  Cassandra is still in the process of donning her full plate with Erin's help.  Bart walks up to the three women, obviously pained by a
bloody gash in his left leg and another on his upper right arm.  "Sarge, I know you don't want to fall into a spiked pit or anything, but we need someone with the skill to find traps and the leverage to push open those pits.  One can only step in so many before feeling his mortality, as it were.  Can we trade places?"

"Well, I was just about to get to this box," she replied, "but you do appear to need a break.  Fill me in on your approach."  Bart and Sarge have a quick conversation in some strange, almost intelligible language.  Sarge nods as Bart explains his approach and when he is done she pulls her battle axe out and heads with him to the first pit he discovered.  From the edge of the trapdoor she holds the head of the weapon and pushes the trapdoor with the end of its handle.  She can get the trapdoor to rotate with a moderate force on the axe about three feet from the edge.  She practices a bit, trying different angles and applying different amount force.

When she is satisfied she heads back to where Bart left off, where Geoff still stands now backed up by Father Durrant and Zodak.  She walks up to Geoff, leans down to grab the rope, then stands close and stares down at him while tying the rope around herself. "C'mon, little man. I might need you to carry me away from danger." She smiles a toothy smile then turns to resume the inspection of the floor.

As she turns from Geoff, he says, "Uh, I might be able to pull you out, but I probly can't keep you from falling to the bottom. You may want another pair of hands on this rope."

Sarge turns around and says, "I wasn't planning on falling into any pits."

"Neither did Bart."

"The little one should know better than to step without probing." Sarge then shouts, "Dame Cassandra, will you help friend Geoff mind this rope?"

Cassandra nods as she has finished donning her armor and heads down the hall to help. When she arrives, Sarge begins her inspection.

Bart turns to examine the box that protrudes from the hands of the jackal-men when Sarge moves away from the pit.  The box top is well over Bart's eye level.  Bart says, "Hey Norm, I could use your help."

"Good, I feel like I've been in a holding pattern for months. Whatdaya need."

"Your shoulders. Let me hop up on them so I can get a look at the top of this box."

"Sigh. Fine."

The halfling rises on Norm's shoulders to observe the top of the box. The top has a lid that is probably hinged on the bottom. There is a small catch on the top, probably to release a locking bolt into the round protrusion on the front side of the box. There are three small holes on the surface of the catch mechanism.

"Hey, Mr. Louglynn, care to cast a spell?"

"Huh?" the wizard responds (he was peering down the hallway trying to figure out where the last ball went).

"A spell. Tell me if the box is magic."

Mr. Louglynn comes over and casts the spell. "No, Master Brightpipe, it appears to be an ordinary box on the outside."  Bart pushes the latch down with the blade of his dagger and sure
enough three needle points reveal themselves. There is a click as the bolt releases and the lid swings down into the box towards the wall revealing an empty box. Bart leaps off the Gnome's shoulders, saying "Hit the floor Norm!"  Mr. Louglynn steps back as well.

After many long anxious seconds nothing untoward has happened. Bart and Norm release their pent up breath with a collective sigh.  Bart notices that all eyes are upon him, except for Geoff, Cass, and Sarge who continues her prodding and inspection of the far end of the hall. Bart gets up, dusts himself off, and looks around at the others.  He then shrugs his shoulders saying "squeamish pussies," then climbs back up Norm to check out the box.

The box is slightly inset into to the wall, probably it is mounted in the stone wall behind the plaster.  The interior depth checks out; there doesn't appear to room for a false bottom. The lid swung back to cover the side of the box embedded in the wall.  There are no catches, latches,
hooks, or anything else along the walls that might trigger a trap if the lid is raised.  Bart produces a small hooked tool to lift the lid and inspect the rear wall of the box.  As he reaches into the box, his hand bumps into something.

Nothing is visible, but something is there. Bart puts the tool away and gently feels around in the box until he discovers a small invisible rod stuck to the bottom of the box.  It is only three inches long and a half an inch in diameter.  It does not protrude from the bottom of the box. He explains his discovery to Mr. Louglynn and they quickly decide to have everyone move out of the hallway before Bart tries to manipulate the rod.

Mr. Louglynn calls the order down to Zodak, Father Durrant, Geoff, Lady Cassandra, and Sarge who had not made much progress.  The troop makes their way back to the entrance dug earlier through the sandy cliff.  Mr. Louglynn, Geoff, and Cassandra remain on the gravel inside the hall to observe Norm and Bart.  Bart gathers his courage, then grabs hold of the rod.  It doesn't rotate or press, but it does pull.

There is a brief grinding noise and suddenly Norm and Bart are falling.  Bart's ring of feather falling kicks in and he looks down to see Norm falling towards a set of familiar looking spikes.  Norm hits the bottom awkwardly and lies still.  This pit is three times deeper than the others Bart slid into.  The 10 foot square trapdoor swung in its entirely into a cavity beneath the bronze box and has not sprung back like the other two section trapdoors.  Bart floats to the bottom in about 15 seconds easily avoiding the spikes. He moves to Norm and finds him barely alive, one spike has pierced his leg and it looks like two others scraped him as he fell.

Norm's twisted body is gruesomely contorted. The left side of his head slammed into the dusty floor, and his torso is chest down. His right arm is splayed out and bleeding from a gash; his left arm is crushed under his body. His hips are twisted with his left leg flung out wide and torn open. His right leg is held off the floor with two feet of a three foot spike protruding from the front of his calf.  Blood gurgles from the wound. The vicious spikes, X cross-section with sharpened sides, were made to create such open, bloody wounds.

Norm's backpack is easily accessible and as Bart calls for help he riffles in it and quickly finds the vial of healing liquid. Bart's cries become more panicky as he realizes Norm's unconscious body is in no position to accept the potion. Bart's heart sinks and dread sets in as he realizes moving Norm will probably kill him. There's no way Bart could maneuver the gnome off the spike that is just about
as tall as both he and Norm. His calls for help continue.

Geoff, still holding the rope that had been attached to Sarge, runs to the edge of the pit. The light from the magically glowing bolt barely illuminates the bottom. One of the two are moving around, the
other is lying still.  Mr. Louglynn and Cassandra with the lamp come to the pit a moment later. With the light, you see the pit is much deeper than the others Bart discovered, about 30 feet deep. Like the
others, five spikes adorn the floor. Bart looks okay, but Norm is motionless in a contorted position. One of the spikes has punctured his leg.  Bart is holding a potion, but Norm is face down and the
spike is holding his legs higher than his head. Bart calls up, "Help! What can I do! He's dying!" Father Durrant comes running to the pit as Geoff lowers some rope.

"Geoff, Sarge, hold the rope," Dame Cassandra says, "I will go down." She hands the lantern to Mr. Louglynn then begins her desent. She is amazingly light even in her armor. Stone blocks form the sides of the pit. Cass desends as quickly as she can, finally dropping the last six feet.  Moving to Norm, she says a prayer and heals him with her glowing hands.

"It's too late. He's gone," she says sadly.  She and Bart, with tears in their eyes, slowly untangle Norm and lift him from the spike. Cass ties the rope around him and Geoff pulls him up, then lowers the rope for Bart and Cassandra to climb from the grim pit.  Father Durrant is wrapping Norm in a cloak, and Bart goes to Norm and lays five gold coins on his chest before the cloak is tied closed. Father Durrant performs a brief ritual then you all take Norm out of the entrance hall.  The sun is low, it is about 5:00, and the hill shades the gravel cliff.  There's a couple hours of light left. Everyone gathers around to hear what's next.

Geoff starts, "This sucks!! There has got to be another way through this fucked up tunnel".

Father Durrant speaks, "Perhaps there is another way, m'lord Geoff, but we won't be able to discover it tonight.  Let us return to the fort, make plans, and pray for dear Norm's soul."

As the party prepares, Mr. Louglynn goes to Bart and says "Bart, you were doing what had to be done.  You've saved many of us this day from similar fates.  Mourn as you feel need, but keep your mind on our purpose here,"

Bart nods, but look convinced thinking to himself, "but I forgot he was there, he should have gone out with the rest.  The trap didn't kill Norm--I did." The guilt weighs heavy on his countenance.

"Now, Bart," the wizard says, "let's check out how hard that ceiling is.  Do you think we could drive some spikes into it?"

"Let's have a look," Bart responds, turning to the cave.  Once inside, Bart can scramble up the slope next to the tunnel the women dug to inspect the ceiling.  The ceiling, like the walls has been plastered and painted.  Bart takes a spike and chisels at the ceiling.  He takes a kind of pleasure defacing some of this evil place.  The plaster is a half-inch thick, over a layer of lath, and finally hard stone; a good anchor. Satisfied, Bart and Louglynn go back outside.

Father Durrant says, "Let us head out," when he he sees Bart and Louglynn emerge from the darkness.  Cassandra carries Norm's wrapped body.  Not much is said on the way back to the tower.  Mugwort spots the somber procession from the battlement; they come greet the party as they near the tower and hear the bad news.