Tristin stood inside a circle of glyphs facing an unfurnished room. The floor was littered with corpses in various stages of decomposition, some so old that they were nothing but bleached bones. The smell of decay threatened to overwhelm her senses and she involuntarily covered her nose with the back of her hand. The whole room looked like a scene of a battlefield with discarded weapons among the corpses, some still sticking out of the dead.

The glyphs began to glow a pulsating red, which increased to a flicker and then burst in a spectacular flash of white, blinding her momentarily. When the light dimmed and her eyes adjusted back to the gloom, she saw an apparition stand a few feet in front of her. There was a certain look of familiarity about it and Tristin couldn't help but wonder where she had seen the ghost before. He wore a fine heavy armor, ancient by the look of it. His face was old and covered by a well-kept beard, he had a patrician look about him.

He unsheathed his longsword and pointed it at Tristin, it was the only tangible thing about the specter. "Are you worthy to wield this weapon?" He challenged her in an otherworldly voice. "Arm yourself, and prove your worth!"

Tristin reached back for the hilt of her own weapon but her hand grabbed nothing but air. She realized then that the longsword the ghost pointed at her was Talon itself and then it dawned on her where she had seen the ghost's face before and why it was so familiar to her. She stood facing Günter Falke, her great grandfather, she was sure of it now as she had seen his likeness many times before in a portrait that hung in her father's library.

The apparition didn't wait on her to make a decision, he took a swing, forcing her to duck and take a tumble out of the way. Tristin grabbed the closest weapon within her reach as she landed back on her feet and whipped around to block another swing from Talon. Sparks flew as the sword's sharp edge connected with the metal handle of a war hammer she was now holding. She heaved forward, making the ghost take a step back, and followed up with a set of her own attacks. It was a classic set of swings and feints designed to land a blow every time, she was alarmed to see that her last swing did nothing but move air as it went effortlessly through the ghost's ethereal form. Panic threatened to overtake her momentarily, but she pushed that feeling down like Drogan always taught her.

"Hey Deeks!" She called out to the kobold as she blocked another swing from the specter. "How do you kill something that's unkillable?"

"Ooooo! A riddle, Deekin likes riddles!" She saw the kobold dig parchment and quill out of his pack and start scribbling and muttering to himself as he worked out the problem she presented to him.

She noticed Valen watching her with a look of concern on his face. He reached for his own weapon and took a step forward.

"You better not take another step tiefling! I'd hate to see what that trap conjures up out of that flail of yours!"

Valen watched her dance around the room as she deflected the ghost's attacks and followed up with her own swings. He couldn't help but appraise her movements and his weapon master training told him that she was quite a capable fighter. He looked back at the glyphs scribbled on the floor and then at his flail and decided that she was probably right, he wouldn't want to face whatever spirit possessed Devil's Bane.

"Of course!" He heard Deekin exclaim louder than he would have liked. "Yous don't kills it Tristin, yous traps it!"

A flash of inspiration crossed Tristin's mind as the kobold gave her an idea how she could defeat the ghost. It was at moments like this that she was most glad to have Deekin at her side, she could always count on him to figure a way out of a difficult situation. She renewed her attacks on the ghost, but instead of trying to hit it she focused on corralling it into the trap she had set off. She saw the glyphs light up expectantly as the apparition took a step into the circle and she knew that this was the correct course and so she pushed on cornering it inside the trap.

When the ghost was fully within the circle, the glyphs flared up a brilliant white like they did the first time and when they dimmed she saw him bend at the knee, his head hung in defeat. He held out Talon in an offering back to her. "You are worthy." He told her and as she took Talon back, he faded out of existence. She bent down to examine the now inert glyphs on the floor.

"How did you know that would work?" she heard Valen ask her.

"I lived with a mage for a few years, they always get creative with their traps." A rueful smile formed on her face as she traced a glyph with her fingers and remembered the countless times Drogan made her run through a course of his own puzzle traps. "Let's get out of here, the stench is unbearable, and I'd like to find out what's behind the locked door we had to pass by."

Valen silently agreed with her, he opened the door a crack to check that he hallway was devoid of the guardian. Finding it empty, he slipped out and motioned for Tristin and Deekin to follow him. She slipped out last and marked the door methodically with the charcoal. She was surprised to see Valen crouched by the other door working the lock like an expert burglar and her eyebrows shot up in surprise. The lock clicked and gave way, he turned the knob gently and looked up to see her surprised face. "I wasn't always a weapon master." He explained and there was a hint of smugness in his sly reply but she was glad that he allowed himself to divulge a bit about his past, it made it easier for her to work with him.

They found themselves inside a musty library. Rows of bookshelves were filled with ancient books and scrolls and covered in a film of dust. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and corners of the room and the furniture showed signs that rats had made a nest here. They decided that this was a good place to set up camp, both Valen and Tristin could use some down time to nurse the bruises from their encounter with the golem, while Deekin could scour the bookshelves for anything useful.

When they settled themselves in, Tristin went to examine the dilapidated furniture. The scratch marks and droppings confirmed that rats indeed lived here so she sat on the floor by one of the rickety armchairs with her legs crossed and called out a greeting to the rats with her mind. She didn't have long to wait as shortly after her call a portly rodent came out and twitched his nose in a greeting to her.

Valen watched her from his resting place as she whispered something to the rat and he couldn't help but strain his ears to eavesdrop on her conversation with the rat. He found it somewhat absurd, listening in on her whispers to a rodent, and he thought her to be an odd woman, talking to rats and keeping company with a kobold. He never met someone before that could communicate with animals and he thought it a quirk if not a complete waste of time. He then thought back to the way she threw herself at the guardian golem and the petrified look on her face as he screamed at her out of her stupor, he still wasn't sure what made her lose her nerve so quickly. And yet when she faced the spirit mere moments ago she was more composed and focused on her goal than many of the drow warriors he had trained. He watched her as she reached inside her pack and produced a lump of cheese, she broke off a piece and offered it to the rat. He couldn't help but scoff at her action.

"Find out anything useful or am I to assume you like to give our rations away to strange animals?" That came out more caustic than he would have liked.

She turned to look back at him with a knowing smirk on her lips. "Yes." She nodded at him and he gave her a skeptical look.

"Rats are naturally social creatures - they love to gossip, and with the right offer they will tell you anything." She went on to explain. She and tapped her temple with her index finger. "This rat was gracious enough to share a map of this place, I have the whole layout in my head now so we won't be stumbling blindly about anymore."

The expression on her face became pensive and she stared off into the distance as she seemed to study the mental image of the crypt. "This place is a lot bigger than it seems, there is a large chamber above us and a whole network of tunnels beneath, and plenty of secrets...Speaking of secrets!" Her face lit up with excitement, and she stormed past him and past the bookcases to the back of the library.

"Come help me move this case!" She called out to him.

He found her in the back trying to slide one of the bookcases along the wall. "There is a secret chamber behind this."

"Let me handle that." He told her and she obediently moved out of his way. He had no trouble moving the case and soon he saw what got her so excited in the first place. There was a door hidden behind the case, its hinges rusted over, keeping it firmly shut in place, but one good shove had it open into a tiny room. It was sparsely furnished with only a commode and a small bed covered with a moth-eaten quilt.

A small skeleton lay on the floor with a dagger sticking out among its ribs, indicating that whoever it was before, they have met a gruesome fate. A crystal lay on top of the commode; Tristin reached for it and rubbed the grime off its surface with her thumb. It caught light from a flickering torch in the library, playfully bouncing it around among its facets and then the light seemed to have jumped out from inside the crystal and landed on the floor by the skeleton and turned into an ethereal form of a dwarf.

The dwarf looked at them and blinked several times. "Hey, visitors!" He exclaimed jovially and threw his arms out wide in a welcome. "I haven't had visitors since..." he looked down to think and he saw the skeleton by his feet and his jolly nature seemed to disappear as he remembered what happened to him. "Since my master decided to stick a blade between my ribs."

He looked back up at Valen and Tristin. "Well since you're here I'm going to assume that old bastard has either finally kicked the bucket or locked himself up in that sanctuary of his for good! Tell me, have you run across a walking suit of armor and its keeper yet?"

Tristin exchanged a look with Valen, knowing that the ghost was referring to the two golems patrolling the halls. They nodded at the ghost to confirm his suspicions.

"Ha! Devious creations aren't they?" he asked, seemingly proud. "I helped create them you know! And what do I get as thanks? A death by stabbing and an eternity trapped inside that stupid crystal!"

"You knew The Maker?" Tristin asked the dwarf.

"Knew him? I was his apprentice, best one he ever had too, like that did me any good." He looked back at his remains and crossed his arms in front of his chest, grumbling something under his breath. "Tell you what, I'll tell you everything I know about this place but you got to promise me something."

He looked at Tristin expectantly, tapping his ethereal foot.

"What do you want in exchange for your knowledge?"

The dwarf looked at the crystal that Tristin still held in her hand, his eyes shining longingly. "Promise me you'll destroy my phylactery when I tell you everything there is to know, I've been trapped in that prison for centuries and I'd very much like to depart this world now."

Tris looked at the crystal she held in her hand and felt pity for the dwarf. "No one should have to endure that kind of imprisonment." She mused out loud, she then turned her gaze back on the apparition. "You have my word, we will set you free."

And so the dwarf told them everything about The Maker and his obsession with creating the perfect construct and about the horde of sentient golems that lived in the tunnels beneath these halls. He told them how they could disable the guardian golem and its custodian and how they could unlock the magically sealed door that led to the Maker's Sanctum. And when he was done Tristin had Deekin bring Starsplitter down on the crystal shattering it into a million pieces and releasing the dwarf's soul.