(Copied from previous site)
And so through the face they went. Jerad and Stonan led the way, emerging into a strange room with a narrow beam suspended above a floor covered in what appeared to be ceramic balls about the size of an orange. The beam spans the entire length of the room from just behind the face to a door at the far end, just within the reach of the shadowy light of Jerad's illuminated mace. There was no indication of what might lie in wait below the spheres, or even how far down the floor is. The walls of the chamber, from the height of the beam up to the ceiling, are honeycombed with many small dark recesses.
Romanova was sharp enough to notice that the holes in the wall were just a hair bigger than the ceramic spheres underneath the beam.
Now mindful of the likely trap, Jerad and Stonan got down and hugged the beam, crawling along it towards the door. Towards the middle of the beam, Jerad felt it shift, and a fell wind began to blow from the holes in the wall.
"Fwump, Fwump!" the spheres came shooting out from many directions. One caught Jerad in the ribcage, knocking the wind out of him. Another caught Stonan square in the side, knocking him from the beam to the spheres below! Panicked, Stonan leapt to his feet, promptly sinking up to his ankles in the loose spheres. Stonan assessed his new situation, not thinking it so bad, until a green, worm-like creature burst from the spheres behind him and attacked!
The foul aberration unfurled four tentacles and whacked at Stonan with each one, then lunged at him with it's vicious beak. Stonan sliced at the beast with his axe, but the thick hide and soft body absorbed most of the blow. At this a faint child's voice, which seemed to emanate from throughout the room, shouted, "Good one dwarf!" and cackled with glee. Those who were not in the room already entered at the sounds of fighting, and Jerad dropped to the spheres to help Stonan. Phil also dropped down to the fight. Mercurio tried to communicate with whatever child spirit was commenting on the fight, but to no avail. Romanova attempted to disarm the ball trap so she could aid in the fight from above (and set off the trap again in the process).
Stonan and Phil's blows were hitting and missing, none doing too much damage, and the child's voice continued to cheer and jeer them. Mercurio identified the beast as a grick, and told Romanova to hand her enchanted sword to Stonan because it would cut through the beast's tough hide. She did, and Stonan's blow finally did some damage. Naeder cast a spell upon his weapon and jumped down to help, his next blow felling the beast.
Once the beast was defeated, the ghost of a young boy, perhaps thirteen, appeared on the causeway. His appearance was horrific, his head bent grotesquely to one side due to the injury that caused his death. At once he tried to take possession of Mercurio, but the wizard resisted. Romanova had her back turned while she worked on the trap. The ghost easily stepped into her and began to speak.
"My name is Alastor Land, and you must help me if you want to go further in this tomb. I ran away from home and met my end in this very room. Take my bones from the corner there and place them with my family and I will open the far door for you." Alastor went on to describe the location of his family's farmstead.
The party gathered the bones and left the Whispering Cairn to find the boy's grave. From Mercurio's knowledge of Diamond Lake and the boy's description they were able to locate the abandoned and ruined farm of the Land family. Much to their surprise, the family graveyard had recently been robbed! Romanova was able to determine that five medium sized humanoids had recently dug up the graves and then headed up to look at the house. Only four sets of tracks returned however. The four that came back appeared to be running, quickly gathered their wheelbarrow, and headed back towards town along the road. Romanova followed the wheelbarrow for about a mile before losing the tracks in the hard packed road.
Deciding that perhaps the house held a clue as to who the grove robbers were the group cautiously made their way up the small hillock that the house sat upon. Romanova scouted out the north side while Stonan looked in the front door and Mercurio went to the south. Romanova was surprised to see a massive owlbear in the one room, but not as surprised as the owlbear was to see her! It roared and headed for the door, right into Stonan, who was waiting around the corner of the one wall. The owlbear had certainly been injured by the grave robbers, and was luckily not yet at full health, or there might have been real trouble. As it was, Stonan was injured before he, Jerad, and Mercurio were able to bring the beast down.
During the fight Romanova came through the north window to try and attack the animal from the rear, but was stopped short when a large owlbear cub was waiting for her just inside the house. The cub bit at her, but only because of her sudden movement. Upon examination, the owlbear's mate had been killed by the grave robbers, and so had three of four cubs. The owlbear cub, now an orphan, bonded with the first party member it saw, Romanova. Romanova wanted nothing to do with the beast, but the others wouldn't let her harm it, it was just a baby after all, and quite a valuable commodity to either the Emporium, a trainer, or the druids of the Bronzewood Lodge. The group found an intact human arm with a telling tattoo, the mark of Garavin Vest, a ruthless mine manager who used to brand his miners. Vest's mine had been acquired a few years back by Balabar Smenk, and the few miners who are left in Diamond Lake are in gang led by the half-orc Kullen, who bears his mark on his forehead. Evidence in hand (pun intended) the group headed for the Feral Dog, hangout of Kullen's gang. Romanova let the cub follow her to town.
Once near Diamond Lake, the group skirted the town in the woods and led the cub to the Bronzewood lodge. The hierophant of the grove agreed to take in the cub and provide the group with assistance at a later time in return for not killing the infant. The druids there healed those with wounds.
Smartly the group went into the dog during the day when fewer people, especially those loyal to Kullen are around. They spread out so as not to be too conspicuous. Nader and Stonan approached the half-orc and threw the arm down on the bar! Kullen was surprised by their brazen attitude and gave them the name of the arm's former owner, Skutch. Kullen seemed dejected about the loss of his comrade and uncharacteristically melancholy. With only a little prodding he gave up the reason they had robbed the graves, to provide 'helpers' to a man named Filge that Smenk had brought to town. Filge was staying in the old observatory up on the bluff.
The group left Kullen to drown his sorrows and headed for the old observatory. They tried knocking, but got no answer. Looking for an alternate way in they tried a door underneath the steps that Romanova ended up having to unlock. When Jerad opened the door a nasty floating dust bunny was waiting for him and promptly bit him on the hand. Jerad felt a flash of heat run up from the wound. Between Jerad and Phil beating on the undead thing they managed to kill it again.