The Tomb Robber descended the rope ladder into the burial shaft. The freshly exposed pit was home to the enormous burrowing insects harassing the town, but also to an untouched mausoleum hopefully filled with treasure. Delving alone was risky but meant he wouldn't have to share the rewards with anyone. He hefted his sword in one hand and his lantern in the other and proceeded into the tomb, passing under the image of a man with the wings of a grasshopper.
The Robber entered a central hallway with four doors leading deeper into the tomb and an image of a skeleton weighing a heart against a sword. One of the doors was filled with rubble and a giant cockroach with a human face scuttled into it and hid as the Robber approached. He ignored the huge nocticolid and investigated the southwest door first. It held nothing but bones, slime and an enormous slug, which he didn't feel like bothering. The northwest room had a hole in the wall which led into a cave system with rushing water. The door was watched by an assassin bug that sat motionless by the hole, carapace covered with dead ants. As the Robber planned his approach a column of giant ants came marching through the chamber from the surface, mandibles filled with foodstuffs. The outsized reduviid grappled one of the ants, envenomated it and slurped its innards out as it thrashed, then went still. The other ants ignored the big bug and the Robber, carrying the food into the cave beyond. As the Robber watched, the assassin bug scooted under the giant ant and added its desiccated exoskeleton to the heap on its back.
The Robber went to the northeast tomb to look for another way into the cave system beyond the mausoleum. A stone warrior brandishing a shield and sword stood guard over a sarcophagus and another hole to the flooded caves beyond. On further inspection the "warrior" was actually a decoy made of rocks suspended from a huge spiderweb. The cyclosa spider above lay in wait for prey to attack the warrior and blunder into the web. The Robber decided to try his luck with the assassin bug instead. He went back into the northwest chamber and waited for more giant ants to pass through the room.
Four myrmidons emerged from the cave system, headed for the surface. One was eaten by the assassin bug. With no food to fill their mandibles, the other three chased after the Robber. He fled into the room with the spider and lured the ants into the web. One got in a fight with the spider but the other two pressed the attack. They bit him and sprayed formic acid into the wounds but he slew the pair with his blade. The third ant fell to the spider's venom but tore the web in the process, leaving a gap for the Robber to push deeper into the tomb. He pried the lid off the sarcophagus and recovered a pair of gold coins from the corpse's eyes, along with the shield dropped by the stone decoy suspended by the spider.
The cave guarded by the spider was inundated with water from a sump, which swirled around a midden piled with treasure before flowing out of a hole in the rock. A narrow path led up a flight of stairs at the edge of the chamber to an opening. Wary of jumping onto the heap of treasure with no way back, the Robber went up the stairs and found a ladder down to the lower level of the cave complex. Wisps of smoke rose up through the hole from a small fire. He dropped into the room, weapon at the ready.
Three humans wearing outfits made from giant ant exoskeletons greeted the Robber with weapons raised. He tried to parlay with him and they fanned out to surround him. He noticed the severed limbs dangling from the ceiling to smoke over the fire. He ran back up the ladder, accepting a parting blow from one of the cannibals for a chance to pull the ladder up behind him. When that didn't work he pushed it so it fell backward into the pit, giving him a chance to escape.
Thinking quickly, the Robber fled back through the spider room, picking up the carcass of a giant ant along the way. He tossed it to the assassin bug and ran past while it fed. The room beyond was a flooded cave with water rushing down to a sump below. A living bridge of giant ants spanned the gap, mandibles clamped around legs and abdomens. He ran across the bridge before he could talk himself out of it.
Thinking quickly, the Robber fled back through the spider room, picking up the carcass of a giant ant along the way. He tossed it to the assassin bug and ran past while it fed. The room beyond was a flooded cave with water rushing down to a sump below. A living bridge of giant ants spanned the gap, mandibles clamped around legs and abdomens. He ran across the bridge before he could talk himself out of it.
At the other end of the bridge came another cave. This one had a tunnel leading deeper into the anthole and a wooden door with a knocker shaped like a spider. The Robber heard the bare feet of the human cannibals slapping on the dungeon floor and the sound of ants scuttling on the level below. He banged on the door and the tarantula yanked him inside.
On the other side of the door, which the huge spider promptly shut and barred, was a well lit and furnished lounge. The tarantula spoke to the Robber. It was happy to meet someone who still had their wits about them. The three humans on the level below had lost their sanity, going native and living like bugs in their ant disguises. He offered the Robber vermouth and cheese, which he ate cautiously. The tarantula asked him to step into the chapel and welcome his guest when she arrived in just a moment. He had work to do behind a locked door.
The chapel had an image of a grasshopper knelt in prayer and a hole in the ceiling where the sky was visible. The Robber decided to leave with his coins right there, but a big butterfly descended through the opening and asked if she had come to the right place. The Robber was a lot more... fleshy than she was expecting. He told her she had come to the spider's nest and she cooed with delight. She went into the parlour and the tarantula took her behind the now unlocked door. The Robber heard excited conversation between the two, then a sound like a paper cutter. He peered inside and found a display room with butterflies pinned to the wall. The spider fussed over his newest acquisition, carefully rotating her head back into place where he snapped her neck. The Robber took the wine and cheese and got the fuck out.
The tunnel outside the tarantula's lair was empty except for a spray of arterial blood and a severed ant leg. Refreshed by the tasty treats, the Robber braved the lower level of the dungeon. He slipped down the ant hole and found himself in a small room full of giant ticks. There was a wooden door, a passage large enough to squeeze through, and a bunch of ant holes too small to enter. He tried to sneak past the ticks and the bugs leaped up to bite him. He made a run for the door and found himself back in the smokehouse of the cannibals. Two of them survived the fight in the ant tunnel, one of them injured. The ticks attacked the Robber and the cannibals both, sucking their blood and growing fat. He chopped away at the hurt one and caught the counterattack on his shield. He went down and an assassin bug burst out from the cannibal's corpse, which it had animated as a disguise. The bug attacked the remaining cannibal, who fell to its paralytic venom. The Robber beat back the ticks and went to investigate the other end of the ant cave.
At the opposite end of the anthole, the Robber found a cluster of glistening honeypot ants dangling from the ceiling. He judged that the hanging bugs would summon reinforcements if he tried to eat their secretions and went back to the fire to see if the cannibals had any treasure. The assassin bug was busy drinking nutritive slurry from the body of the paralyzed cannibal, giving him the run of the place. He grabbed a spear and a fistful of gold coins the cave dwellers lifted off their victims. Thus armed he went back up the ladder to the room with the midden.
The ledge with the stairs led back to the room with the spiderweb. The Robber wrapped his spear in cloth and used the lantern to set the rags ablaze, then put the spiderweb to the torch. He went back to the central chamber of the tomb, intent on leaving. The roach-woman Whalefall peered out of the debris filled room and asked if he wanted to spend his coins. The Robber bought a book of blood magic from the dungeon merchant and left the way he came in, climbing up the rope ladder with his remaining coins.
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