The ruins were quite extensive in size but little remained other than a few tumbled walls but the quality of construction suggested that this had once been a grand building. Immaral and Constallus studied what was left of the ruins to see if they could tell if magic was behind the building's destruction while Gareth explored what was left. Looking around I guessed that the building had once been at the edge of the woods and that they had encroached since the destruction of the building. Gareth called me over as he had found some tracks amongst the mud and leaf litter. I studied them briefly and thought they might be the tracks of some giant beetle. Gareth returned to his searching and almost immediately called back, "You were right Bodrick; they are beetle tracks."
We rushed to join him as two large reddish beetles and a larger silvery-black beetle scuttled across the ruins their shining carapaces scraping on the rocks as they did so. "Watch out for their spit, if it gets on you you'll be stuck fast!" I shouted as Gareth stepped forward. He stopped and shot but his crossbow bolt was diverted by the creature's strong carapace. Immaral had moved up to behind the largest beetle but his arcane blast missed the creature, instead sending stones and mud spraying everywhere. Constallus struck it with an unholy word causing the creature to rear in pain. I stepped forward and struck with my longsword but the creature was too nimble. Gareth scampered onto the top of one of the tumbledown walls after another of his bolts missed its target hoping to get a better view of the beetles' weak spots. Charlla attacked and cracked the creature's shell a bit but I found myself immobilised by the creature's spit. Next time I should listen to my own advice! The other two beetles sprayed a burning liquid that splashed across Charlla, they must be fire beetles I thought to myself as I struggled to free myself from the beetle spit. Gareth nimbly ran along the top of the wall and shot again at one of the creatures' eyes but missed. It was then Constallus' turn to be caught in the sticky mucus of the tangle beetle but Immaral managed to hit the creature with a burst of magic missiles while Constallus managed to swiftly free himself from his predicament.
To my horror the creature turned its attention back to me and advanced menacingly while I struggled against its phlegmy bonds. Immaral and Constallus worked together to fell one of the fire beetles. Gareth fired shot after shot at the large black beetle as it came closer to me but none of the bolts seemed to hit a vulnerable spot as I struggled harder and harder. It seemed that no sooner had I pulled a limb free than I managed to get it stuck again. I could barely move enough to fend off the curved mandibles of the beetle. Eventually one of Gareth's bolts struck the creature in a leg joint and I managed to pull myself free from the drying goo. Jumping and tumbling down Gareth flanked the beetle and using our best efforts we managed to down it while Constallus killed the other fire beetle. While the corpses of the fire beetles were still warm I used one of the larger beetle's mandibles to carve out four glowing glands from the two fire beetles. Meanwhile the others searched the area and Charlla treated the wounded. Amongst what was probably the beetles' lair, we found a fine set of leather armour. It had no crest on it so we couldn't confirm that it had belonged to the Bran fords but Constallus confirmed that it had a magical enchantment upon it,
"It is Bloodcut armour. It bestows extra protection upon the wearer if they are badly injured."
"Looks like it fits nicely!" Gareth said as he shrugged into the finely crafted armour. The only other item of note found was a chunk of slag, possibly a melted silver goblet or salver. I tucked it into my pouch; it could be sold when we returned to town.
No sooner had we done any real damage to the creature, who was difficult to hit our weapons passing through it as often as not, it would vanish into the wall of the cellar only to reappear when we least expected it. The first time this happened we thought we had dispatched the creature and we resumed our search of the chamber only to be surprised when the wraith, seemingly restored attacked us from the rear. It was only with the concerted efforts of all of us that we managed to best the undead spirit sending it too its final resting place.
We returned to the loose bricks I had noticed when we first entered the chamber and Gareth checked them for traps. Finding them to be safe he removed them and found that a small, plain wooden box had been hidden away. Inside there was a pile of old gold coins and a chunk of amethyst. The skeletons carried rusting metal shields that still bore the crest of the Branford family. One however was not rusted and it had a protruding fist set into the centre. Constallus identified this as a bashing shield and it seemed to make sense that I took this useful magic item along with a couple of dusty bottles of wine.
Seeing that this was a dead end, in more ways than one, we decided to return to the farmer and ask if we could rest the night in his barn before setting out on the trail of the goblins.
The farmer was only too pleased to let us stay in his barn once we told him that we had killed the creatures that had decimated his flock. In reward we got a steaming bowl of stew and a flask which he swore contained a healing potion he found while tracking down a lost ewe a few years before. To celebrate our success in battle we opened one of the bottles of wine to accompany the stew before we slept the sleep of the righteous warmed by the bodies of the farmer's animals in the byre below us.