Eyerthrein added, “There is nothing invisible; there is just a general sense of evil; I can sense no difference from the thirteen collections of rocks.”
Erinnia, Nigel, Vanni- with Exeter drawn, and Boomer walked cautiously into the room. The others followed. Erinnia and Nigel accompanied by the heavily armed warriors checked the walls of the room but found nothing. In frustration Roscoe hit the door with his staff and cast a “Knock” Spell. The door did not open. The sorcerer then tried a Stone to Mud spell but again there was no effect.
“It’s akin to a Wizard Lock Spell but stronger. I see no means of opening the door by Magick,” Roscoe added.
Erinnia and Nigel concurred that they found no mechanism of entry.
“We’ll have to find a way to open it; I suspect that entails inspecting the thirteen piles of rocks,” Cara suggested.
The collections of rocks were equally distributed throughout the room.
“Let’s start from the left and work to the right. We’ll check them one at a time,” Knarra added.
Dael objected, “That’ll take forever! Let’s split up and work through them.”
“We’ll check them one pile at a time,” Knarra repeated.
“Dwarves are good with rocks,” Nigel suggested.
Boomer frowned but walked to the leftmost stack of rocks.
Boomer probed the first pile of rocks with the tip of his broad sword. He knocked the uppermost handful of stones from the pile. The stones landed on the floor briefly and then “jumped” back to the top of the pile. He quizzically touched the top of the pile with his right gauntlet and disturbed the stones again. This time they stayed on the hard floor of the room. He spread out the remainder of the stones but found nothing.
The dwarf walked to the next stack and disdained using the blade. He scattered the stones with his armored glove.
He proceeded to the third pile. One of the larger stones felt different when he touched it. It was not as dense; it was lighter in weight than other stones of comparable size. Boomer gingerly raised the stone and shook it gently; it rattled. Boomer placed the rock on the ground at the suggestion of Roscoe.
Roscoe confirmed, “Magick!”
“What do you want me to do?” the dwarf asked.
Cara, Roscoe, and Knarra briefly conferred.
Cara said, “Break it! Everyone, be alert!”
Boomer tapped the rock with his axe.
Boomer hit the rock with his axe.
Boomer growled and smashed the axe against the rock with all his strength. The shell shattered, radiated immense blue light and Magick, and revealed a small skeleton. The skeleton looked like a little possum with a hard shell and two little wings. It was thirteen inches long.
“What’s that?” Eyerthrein queried.
“Do you mean to say that the history scholar doesn’t recognize something?” Dael chided.
Knarra said in awe, “That’s a Shypoke. That’s a Shypoke egg! Gather every fragment of the shell!”
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