Entry Chamber
A stairwell down from the Last Chamber of the crypts descends steeply down into the Entry Chamber of the tomb, the rough hewn walls of the mine and crypt yield to an orderly, repeated pattern of square cut pilasters spaced with gaps of approximately 4 meters. Between the pilasters, wooden lath was set over the still rough cut sections between the pilasters, then plastered over. In most places, these plaster sections have collapsed to dust, but in several places the plastered sections remain, and are decorated with elaborate murals. This pattern of plaster murals between hewn stone pilasters is repeated in most of the chambers of the tomb, but not in the stairwells.
In this chamber, two portions of mural remain, one on the north half of the east wall of the chamber and the other on the south wall of the chamber, next to a stairwell that descends steeply into the depths of the tomb. The painting seems to be a battle scene, depicting a cavalry charge against a group of poorly armed peasants.
CHALLENGE
21C using History, Literature or TacticsAnyone with the History, Literature or Tactics skills can roll a 21C to recognize the painting as a depiction of the The Last Charge of the Grey Corsairs. As soon as anyone realizes this everyone will know what it means; the expressions 'to ride a grey horse', or 'to be a grey rider' mean to be extremely reckless, or to charge heedlessly into certain defeat.
The expression comes from the story of Il Corsari Grigi, an order of Senecian Knights who fought in southeastern Tulosz during the Middle Imperial Era. After the capture of the ports of Beniic and Cesti in 743 and 744, the Grey Corsairs were openly raiding across the region southeast of the Zgesi River, working to cut off land support to Mahogany. As the Grey Corsairs set their sights on Wakefield, they came to the village of Szolovic and ordered the villagers to surrender.
The legend goes that an old man; a former knight during the Orcish Conquests (impossible as those had ended some three-hundred years previously) walked out to parlay with the Corsairs, and warned them that if they attacked, they would all certainly be killed. The leader of the Corsairs laughed and ordered an immediate charge - some two hundred cavalry charged down a steep grassy hillock toward a waiting row of scarcely as many peasants and farmers. When the cavalry were about 20 meters from the peasants, a tree was felled off to the side of the hillock, pulling a chain some 250m long taut at the level of the mid foreleg of a horse as the peasants raised a long row of sharpened wooden stakes. Unable to stop, the cavalry hit the chain at full speed, crippling dozens of horses and sending riders flying to be impaled on the stakes. The subsequent ranks or cavalry crashed uncontrollably into the first in a bone-shattering pile-up, and the Corsairs were eradicated in less than five minutes. After the humiliating defeat, the Order was formally disbanded and their disgrace became an object lesson in military history.