And with that, Argumentus investigates the stone graves, especially the shield.

Motsognir climbs down the rope. He will impress his woman with dwarven literacy.

Bumping awkwardly against the wall as he descends, confetti flitters down onto Argumentus, the dwarf's chainmail resetting itself.

store Bloody Ending

Trying to maintain a safe distance, I inspected the door further. I could see it was trapped but was unsure exactly what kind of trap it was or how we might circumvent it.

Bob studies the obviously-arcane trap, trying to think of a way to get around it.

It's another Glyph of Warding. In this case, it should be simple enough to deactivate the glyph by scrubbing out one of the glowing runes. Easier said than done, of course.

+2 to any disarm attempt against the door

Soggy tries to find something to read that no one's read yet, but to no avail. Desperate to appear intellectual, he takes off his newfound helm and studies it most beardstrokingly. "Ahem, a-hrm. I see!"

The stone cairns contain exactly what is advertised: the skeletal remains of 2 dwarves. Aside from its apparent age, the shield is unremarkable.

If nothing else, I admit I was curious as to how the shambling zombies we had destroyed earlier had found their way through the trapped door and up through the hole. The caterpillas could wait until we'd finished with the undead, I called up to the dwarf and the child to join us as we'd found the way forward.

I had a last check around the room for any secret doors or cubby holes or clues, before bracing myself and having a go at the trapped door.

Search for more clues or doors or hatches and shit. If none are found, try to disarm the trap on the door

Bob takes one last careful look around the room before attempting to disarm the trap. Squinting suspiciously at every available surface, the elf finds another wooden door on the room's east wall, carefully painted to blend in with the stone around it.

Argumentus opens the secret door with no regard for his personal safety.

Argumentus attempts to open the secret door, but it is locked!

(but not trapped, so there's that)

I wasn't aware of any of us having any lockpicks so I had a go at disarming the trap on the other door while I waited for the big guy to kick in the secret one.

Bob sidles up to the door and attempts to disarm the glyph trap without blowing himself up in the process.

Success! Bob manages to find that crucial symbol that holds the whole thing together, and scrubs it out with his Eternal Chalk. The glowing lines promptly fade away.

Trap disarmed: 125 XP (25 each)

Feelin' more experienced for watchin' out for giant catapillas that ain't interested in us, I decided to join the rest of the team.

Seeing his stalwart companion scale the rope, the dwarf sighed and did the same. Joining the rest of the troupe.

"Wait." He glanced at the dwarven language. "We are decidedly -not- robbing the graves of dwarven heroes."

"No rob, no goodies."

Argumentus opens the goddamn door.

We'll just skip the strength check since you'd just do it again until it worked

With as much of a running start as he can manage in the cramped chamber, Argumentus rushes the formerly-secret door. After a couple of false starts he finally smashes through the wooden facade. His momentum carries him into a narrow hallway leading north, with a flimsy-looking wooden door at the far end.

With the rest of the party at the bottom, Argumentus opens the newer, flimsier door.

The others joined us and the ugly dwarf immediately started acting all defensive about the two piles of rocks. Dwarves do love their rocks it seems.

I listened at the now untrapped door for any signs of life beyond. I then joined the big guy in the secret passage, pausing only to guage whether or not the shield on top of the pile or rocks was magical. I knew that allowing a powerful weapon to lie unused in a dungeon would bring huge dishonour of the family of the dwarf it used to belong to and as such, we should probably take it with us.

Bob listens at the west door. There's an unpleasant gurgling noise, followed by the sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor. The elf then re-examines the shield which, again, turns out to be uninteresting, and hurries to follow Argumentus.

The fighter punts open the new door without any trouble. The room beyond is strewn with stone sarcophagi and the occasional skeleton. A translucent blue eladrin woman abruptly pops into view.

"Goodness, more visitors! What a busy week it's been. I'm glad somebody found the secret passage. They try to hide the visitors away from me for some reason. Don't know why. I'm perfectly harmless!"

Sounds like we got comp'ny. It ain't right to be runnin' around in someone's front yard without sayin' howdy, so I join the taller members of the horde and visit for a spell.

Greet the eladrin
Perception check on something that isn't inanimate for once

If this wasn't a ghost, I wasn't school tiddleywinks champion three years straight.

I greeted the apparition, trying to work out what I could about her in the process.

"Er, hello, to whom might we have the pleasure of addressing?"

Do some magicy sensing stuff and some diplomacy stuff and say hello.

The ghost regards Brigid with astonishment.

"Oh, my. What happened to you? Did you get caught in the Automated Squashifier? Normally that kills people! You're very lucky. I mean sometimes they live for a minute or two, all waddling around and screaming, but you look fine! Other than being squashed.

As for me, I... my name is... hmm. It's been a while, you know? I don't quite recall. Even when people do talk to me, they never call me anything nice. If I need a name I'll be Jane Doe, I guess."

She smiles.

"Anyways! Are you folks planning on sticking around for a while? I don't have anything to offer in the way of refreshments, but you'll find there's excitement around every corner! Like that pit trap right there in front of—"

She squints at the tile just in front of Argumentus.

"Well, it was a pit trap, anyway. Maybe they fixed it up. I don't pay too much attention except when visitors arrive. Just spend most of the time in the ol' strongbox here. Of course, it was occupied when I found it but as it turns out I don't take up a lot of space.

So yeah, look out for that pit! If it's still around. It must be. I left my bones down there. Don't know what I'd do if I lost those!"

Her brow furrows, and she begins systematically ducking her ethereal head through the floor at regular intervals.

The dwarf stood at the back of the line and jumped, his armour rattling exactly like a bath mat doesn't, trying to see over the shoulders of the two tallest members of the group. He settled for ducking his helmeted head around their ribs and commenting:

"A ghost? Someone check to make sure it isn't someone in a mask with some glow paint."

He settled back and blinked as the members of the horde looked at him like he was crazy.

"What? It happened in my hometown once. He would have gotten away with it, if not for these two meddling kids."

He coughed and cleared his throat while shrugging.

"Of course three winters later half the population was wiped out when a barrow wight took up residence in a local graveyard, and no one took it seriously until the village elder was eaten...."

He again blinked at the returned stares.

"I'm just saying. We should be careful."

In between rants, the dwarf uses his religion training to test and see if he can get any sort of feeling off the situation.

"So, er, have you had many other visitors lately?".

Look at the floor, does it look like a pit trap

"Squashed? Heavens no! I'll have you know I'm the tallest of my six sisters! Then again, we tend around the shorter side of things. I once knew a lad by the name of Thornewoppen, he was darn near four feet tall! It's right ostentatious, it is! So, ah, how'd you come to be fallin' in a pit such as you did?"

Can I nature check to see what this person's true nature is? If so let's do it.

"Been an awful lot of folks down here the last week or two, but the only one I met personally just came in yesterday. Tall fella, big black robe. Just waltzed through here pokin' all the skeleton bones like he was lookin' for something. I offered to help him find it, whatever it was, but he just pretended like I wasn't even there. Rude fella. He went over there—"

(She jabs her thumb to the north)

"—if'n you wanted to talk to him. Doesn't really seem like the chatty sort, though. All the other folks took the main passage, I guess, with the Squashifier and the Crematorium and the Chessmaster and all. I don't reckon they got too far."

Bob doesn't see anything suspicious about the tile
Brigid can barely see past the tall folk, let alone get any good insights into the ghost's character
As far as Gabriel can tell, Jane Doe is indeed a restless spirit and not just a random lunatic with a pass-through-walls spell.

"Sure does sound mighty busy over there. Glad we found this 'ere shortcut; I wouldn't mind bein' shorter if I had'ta be but I reckon that fancy city-lady and that man-golem over there wouldn't take kindly to it. Say, you ain't seen many dead folks up and walkin' outta this place have you?"

Insight check again because I wanna