Chapter 1: The Knaves Visit the Spudfields

Endrei accepts Audree's torch, then scrutinizes the door at the top of the stairs above them.

"That's not the way we came," he frets. "But it does seem to lead up..." And 'up' is that way that Endrei would very much like to go.

With a sigh, the big man lumbers up the stairs. He sweeps torchlight over the portal, to see if there's any sort of evident lock.

Endrei quirks a haggard eyebrow at the key protruding from the lock.

"Someone locked himself in here. Or someones," he adds, thinking of the twin skeletons in the crypt behind them. He leans his hammer against the wall by the door, head down, and reaches for the key. His paw is about to grasp it when he pauses.

"Or they locked something in there," Endrei muses, crumpling his lips in concern. The big man casts a worried glance over his shoulder, at the others. Then, gingerly, he takes hold of the key and turns it in the lock. Endrei cracks the door and peers through the small opening he's made, trying to get an idea of what lies beyond without alerting anyone-- or anything-- inside.

"Well you have the magic touch it seems. The good news is if the key is old enough to crumble to dust, the lock should be equally as weak. Give it a love tap with your big hammer, Endrei."

Endrei frowns and swirls key dust between his fingertips. "That'll make a lot of noise," he pouts.

But what else are they to do? Neither Audree nor Clomm seems like the lock-picking sort, and Endrei's own sausage fingers are ill-suited to such a delicate task. Endrei sets the torch carefully on the top step, then takes his great hammer in both hands. Wincing a little in anticipation of the racket he's about to make, he swings soundly at the plate of the ancient lock.

"Nice work, Endrei! Now let's get out of here before we run into anything else!" Audree motions with her chin for everyone to move out and she'll bring up the rear holding the ridiculously large tome.

Clomm limps as quickly as he can behind Endrei. He can’t wait to be rid of this place, and wonders if it was worth the cost.

Endrei's ugly face brightens with a mixture of surprise and relief. He thinks he recognizes the corridor off to their left! At Audree's urging, he reclaims the torch, shoulders his hammer, and leads the way back towards what he hopes is the way they came in.

Audree breathes a sigh of relief and continues out the tunnel.

Endrei wipes a drying smear of bile from the moonscape of his cheek. "That was the boy's dog," he rumbles. "Or what's left of it, anyway. How did it come back?"

Following Audree now, with torch raised high above to light their way, the big man casts an uneasy glance back at the baby-headed monstrosity of a staff that Clomm has insisted on carrying out of the tomb with him.

"I think we woke those dead warriors," Endrei opines. "When we put the jewels into that thing. Maybe the same magic brought the dog back."

"Best we leave this place quickly then. The ends justify the means, wouldn’t you say?" Clomm’s scarred, stoic face flickers in the torchlight. He seems harder, more desperate now than before.

Taking furtive note of Clomm's expression, Endrei looks away. It will be hard to convince the little fellow of the danger or impropriety of removing the baby-headed staff from the crypt. And after all, it isn't Endrei who has hold of the thing, and whatever miseries may arise from it.

He lifts his shoulders. "I just wanted a meal and a bed," he rumbles, and trudges on.

"Indeed it is us. Well, most of us. I'm afraid we lost someone... We'll explain more soon. Do you think you can ask your parents to make us some drinks?"