The members of GoHAC who were lost in the halls of Tannheim spent an uncomfortable night in the caverns. After a fitful rest they decided to continue searching for a way back up to the upper halls and possibly locate the forges of Tannheim. Jym, Vismund, Dawn, Mike, Rael, and Lethe spent the next several hours wandering ancient forgotten halls and dark natural caverns. Lethe, scouting ahead, was the first to come upon a hall that appeared to still be in use. He came back to the group and warned them to be stealthy as they approached. They could see the flickering light and smell the smoke of a campfire. The hall appeared to be an ancient armory, complete with racks of weapons and suits of armor standing in niches along the walls. The ground appeared to be covered in dust and bird droppings. In a far corner a dour looking dwarf tended a fire, roasting what appeared to be a rat on a stick, and tossing choice bits of meat to a quartet of greedy rooks. The dwarf was clad in a leather battle-harness and a complicated looking repeating crossbow sat close at hand. He was talking to the rooks as he fed them, and his voice sounded the same as that of Yrgüt the Trapmaster who had taunted them at the floodgates.
The party successfully caught the dwarf and his pets by surprise as they moved quickly into the room. Jym was the first to step on a trigger plate and hear the tell-tale “click” of a trap. The suit of armor to Jym's left shot a poison tipped dart out through its visor, striking him and immobilizing him while his body fought off the effects of the toxin. He shouted a word of warning to the rest of the group as he drew his crossbow and took an unstable shot at one of the rooks. The rook took flight from its perch, dodging the bolt, only to be skewered by a well aimed dagger toss from Lethe. The death of one the rooks sent the rest of them into a murderous flurry. A dozen rooks came out from their nests hidden in the crevasses of the vaulted ceiling to harry and peck at the adventurers. Warned to their presence, Yrgüt cursed them and grabbed his weapon. As the party moved through the room they fended off the rooks while keeping an eye out for trigger plates, flying poisoned darts and dodging bolts fired from the dwarf. Rael was temporarily immobilized by one of the darts before fey-stepping across the rest of the room and out of range of the trap, but was surrounded by more of the rooks. Dawn blasted groups of the birds from the back of the room while others moved slowly but carefully across the room.
Sharp eyes picked out a safe path across the room, while Jym took a mighty leap over the trapped squares once he was free of the traps effects. As the group closed in around Yrgüt he pressed a switch on his bow releasing blades that sprung out from its front and sides, making it an effective close range weapon as well. Mike used his beastly powers to lure Yrgüt into better position to his companions' advantage. Rael defended his friends with his aegis of shielding, but he took a lot of damage and was eventually worn down. As he collapsed at Yrgüt 's feet, Jym closed in from one side and delivered the final fatal blow on the Trapmaster.
The party searched the room for treasure and in addition to some gold, the exotic repeating bladebow, and his magical leather battle-harness, they found Yrgüt's ritual book among his belongings. In the book they found a number of useful rituals, his notes about the halls of Tannheim and many schematics of traps of his own design. From his notes they determined that they would be confronted with a juggernaut and the gates of gilded blood before finally getting through to the forges. They also learned that there were other points of interest down in this area of the halls. Yrgüt had written about slave pens, the great stairs, the crypt of the Underking, and the stairs of ruin. They decided, after a short rest, to go seek out the crypt of the Underking.
Luck seemed to be on their side as they went in search of the crypts. Lethe kept the party from stumbling into the few patrols wandering the halls. They eventually found the dwarven crypts. The first few levels of wall vaults were filled with the corpses of lower-caste dwarves, but as they descended the vaults became more elaborate and obviously contained the remains of more powerful and important dwarves. The walls told the early histories of the halls of Tannheim in bas-relief. Apparently the first dwarves in the area wrested the mountain caverns and their riches from a nest of dragons and other monsters.
The deepest portion of the crypts ended in a columned hall lit by flickering arcane torches. The walls were lined by a twelve identical sarcophagi standing upright depicting fierce-looking dwarves. On the far end of the hall were a short set of stairs leading to a pair of great stone doors carved in the likeness of the stern face of a dwarven king. Jym noticed a pair of goblins in the center of the room, apparently dead, but of what it was unclear. Tracks in the dust showed that a number of humanoids came here and then hastily left when their companions were killed. Deep scratches in floor near the sarcophagi and cleverly concealed hinges in the walls suggested that the stone containers had opened and shut many times in the past. Jym moved up to examine the goblins and found that they had died from terrible wounds and with fear on their faces. When Jym looked up he noticed a pair of ghostly dwarf soldiers that had appeared on the stairs and stood guard there. The sound of stone grinding on stone betrayed the fact that the sarcophagi would soon disgorge their ancient contents.
Dawn, Mike, and Lethe prepared to attack anything that came out of the sarcophagi as Jym and Rael advanced on the phantoms. Vismund hung safely in the back. Decrepit dwarven skeletons equipped with moldering equipment clattered forth from the sarcophagi that had opened and were blasted apart by the waiting party members. Suddenly a specter who had been lurking in the shadows sprang forth and assaulted the minds of the adventurers with a psychic blast. Rael slashed out at the specter and found that its insubstantial form was very resistant. The specter turned invisible again to lurk and strike at an inopportune time. More skeletons continued to climb out of their tombs and attack the party only to be destroyed. Jym and Rael closed with the phantoms on the stairs. The phantoms slashed the Tiefling and the Eladrin with their ghostly blades which passed through their armor and flesh with ease. Jym and Rael rallied and coordinated their attacks on the guards. Meanwhile the specter continued to pop in and out of sight, slashing at the rest of the party in the back of the room with his shadowy claws. Mike and Lethe made blind stabs where they sensed the specter lurking invisibly. Dawn filled the area with arcane blasts of power, burning allies and enemies alike. The sarcophagi finally emptied and the specter was driven off. The phantoms were the only guardians of the crypt left. The party focused their attacks and sent the guards back to the realm of shadow. Once the dust settled the party turned their attention on the doors.
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