Session 6: The Tomb & the Cavern

### Final preparations

It was now night on the third day of the festival. Determined to find a way into the Donjon before Deg could be executed the following day, the party stopped by the convenience store Sylvan-Elven to pick up some supplies, and then, on the recommendation of Luigi, brought on a mercenary paladin they recruited from the Happy Beholder named Zirthos.

### Return to the Rock Bottom

Recalling the three rumored secret entrances to the Donjon Depths -- somewhere in the graveyard, a secret cave in the lake, and beneath one of the buildings to the south -- the party decided to investigate the buildings. The castle itself seemed to be built over many centuries, with three layers of handiwork: an almost-completely-gone base layer of oddly smooth alien stonework, the main walls of centuries-old dwarven stonework, and subpar patch jobs for holes in the walls that looked to be done by human hands.

The party returned to the Rock Bottom, the bar they'd visited previously. This time, there were fewer military and law enforcement types, but many festival revelers drunkenly partying. They talked to a vagrant outside, a drunken dwarf, who told them about a secret passage he'd found once in the Rock Bottom's backyard. The party went in to find it, while the dwarf yelled to bring him his hat if they found it.

### The Dwarven Tunnel

Slipping out a door at the back of the Rock Bottom, the party found a backyard with a locked shed. After breaking the rusty lock, they pushed aside some crates and barrels inside to find a wooden trapdoor in the stone floor. Climbing down a ladder into the darkness, they found themselves in some sort of large, stone-carved dwarven tunnel. They decided to head north, in the direction of the Donjon. Soon, they found the end of the tunnel, and a broken stone that had once blocked a door, with the word 'GLORINGRAED' inscribed above it.

### Gloringraed's Tomb

Advancing into the door and down a stone stairwell, they found themselves in the tomb of King Gloringraed, an ancient dwarf ruler of Bral. It had been emptied of treasures and strewn with rubble by careless grave robbers previously, but left behind was a monument to the king, inscribed with the following text in Dwarvish:

*H're lies King Gloringraed the Gouger, whom cleans'd this celestial stone o' th' foul ab'rrations what defiled it.*

There was also a magically sealed stone door at the far end of the room with a magical glowing dwarven symbol above it. It was scratched and pocked with holes but unbroken, as if tomb robbers had tried to get past it but failed. Inscribed above the door was the following text in Dwarvish:

*His final foe lies lock'd away below. Shouldst ye seek t' face it, ye shalt speak th' odious name o' its wretch'd kind.*

The party deliberated over what to speak to the door, and tried many words. After saying "beholder" in Dwarvish, the door slowly rumbled and scraped open.

### The Battlefield Cavern

Advancing down more stone steps, the party found themselves in what seemed to be a naturally-formed cavern with a pool of water in it that was murky and seemed to glow from below with a yellow-green light. Bioluminescent mushrooms and lichen were all over, and the cavern was dotted with many stalagmites smoothed flat by erosion. Some of these formed a maze of 'islands' in the pool, and others were around 5 feet tall and could serve as cover. On the far side of the cavern was a doorway that led further north.

When the water was disturbed, a dark shape appeared in the middle of the pool, and a creature of rotten, waterlogged flesh burst from the water - a zombie beholder. The party leapt into battle against it, dealing significant damage as it paralyzed several party members with eye rays. During the battle, it gave a guttural call and two zombie dwarves appeared from the water to flank the party. The battle was pitched, and the floating undead beast seemed badly damaged.