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Hearing the tenor of the conversations around her Say'ri takes a deep breath and looks up at her ancestor. "Courage." Akhentepi whispers, encouraging rather than commanding for once. Say'ri gives him a short nod before levering herself up from the floor and squaring her shoulders.
"So, tracking down the first attackers - that makes good sense. Thank you Khammayid."
Khammayid looks relieved to be assigned a task other than going off into the night searching for undead, and nods at Ibrahim. You know best, of course. I will stand guard vigilantly. He says with firm resolve. To Say'ri he smiles, and puts a hand on her shoulder. And thank you, for all of your assistance in these dire times.
Mad Dog for his part takes what feels like an eternity to make a decision before he, too, nods. Ok, one sec, he says, finishing his drink. He totters over to Marrna and takes her head in his hands, talking softly, albeit with a heavy slur, until the dog blinks awake.
Now you be a good girl an' kill any dead things tha' come here while I'm gone, ok? I'll be right back! He kisses her on the top of the head while she responds with a loud bark and jumps to her feet, standing watch over the threshold.
Khammayid motions to a few of the others, who help him replace the barricade and bid you farewell.
The tracks are numerous and easy to follow, meandering through the alleyways. Though it is not a long journey, Mad Dog needs to be shushed several times as he continuously asks when you're going to find the dead ones. And then you see it: A cart lies on its side in the alley ahead, though most of its load appears to be firmly in place. A body lies beside it, covered in blood and twisted in death.
Several zombies mill about the cart, while two of them work together to feast on the dead man.
Finally! Mad Dog yells, running towards the dead. C'mon ya ugly sacks, come and get me!
The zombies turn slowly and eye the drunken halfling hungrily.
Next up: Party
Petra hurries up, snapping her wrist to drop the wand into it in a practiced fashion, and calling the blessings of the gods upon them.
"Abominations! This servant of Anubis will return you to your sleep."
Mirri spent most of the journey up until finding the cart reassuring Mad Dog that the group gets attacked by zombies on a near-constant basis and that the next fight was just around the corner. She almost became worried that the group's luck had changed when the next fight appeared.
See! I told ya! Hey, wait for me! Mirri darted off after the man, trying to position herself in a flanking spot.
The halflings advance while Petra blesses the others. Say'ri and Akhentepi strike the first of the foes down, swiftly and savagely.
Next up: Ibrahim
Ibrahim runs up to support his allies, slashing at "green"
The zombies shamble forward, only two of them close enough to lunge toward the party. Ibrahim ducks under a lazy swipe, but Akhentepi is hit with a wild haymaker, rattling the majestic bird fiercely.
Party Up
With her blessing already given, and the zombies somewhat resistant to her normal arrows, Petra muses briefly over whether to activate the bow of Senenmerek or to be useful in other ways. She decides on the latter, hurrying up behind the others and snapping a second wand into her hand (the first one dropped onto the flagstones to be collected later). "...bird!" she says, very tactfully, to Say'ri's spiritual companion. "Here.... just... bump into my hand."
Initially hoping to follow Mad Dog into the fray, Mirri took in the battle as it sized up and saw an opportunity to get around the zombies' flank nearer Ibrahim. Darting north, Mirri tumbled under one of the undead creatures to stand behind it and slashed at it's rotted tendons with her knife.
Mirri slices through one with a sound reminiscent of wet paper tearing. Ibrahim's cut is less precise, hacking partway through another corpse's neck.
Say'ri swings defensively to allow time for her winged companion to retreat.
The zombies surge forward, hungry for flesh. Taking savage bites out of Ibrahim and Say'ri
Mad Dog swings his club upward and strikes the nearest zombie under the chin, setting its head at a weird angle, but not slowing its advance.
Party Up
With her healing discharged, Petra raises her bow. "Anubis... help us all to cut down these abominations."
Petra moves a few feet to line up her shots. Mad Dog's club, and her own bow, start to glow faintly.
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Say'ri sees her flail glow and grins as she brings it round to strike at the zombie who took a large bite of her flesh - adrenaline masking the pain at least for a moment.
Akhentepi swoops down on Petra and bathes momentarily in her healing magic before letting out a caw of victory and circling upwards to return to the fray.
Letting the zombie swing wildly over her head, Mirri simultaneously slid behind the undead creature and again struck with her knife at its rotting hamstrings.
Say'ri's flail glows with divine power, nearly shearing through the zombie's neck.
Ibrahim and Mirri finish off the two previously-damaged zombies, leaving only 2 foes. Ibrahim is bludgeoning over the head, rattling his teeth.
Mad Dog runs up with a yell and strikes the zombie in the head, completing the decapitation started by Say'ri. The head sails onto the roof of the nearby building to the north, and Mad Dog guffaws uncontrollably.
Finish that last zombie, y'all!
Petra moves up, raises her now-glowing bow, and lets loose.
Petra, Mirri, and Say'ri make short work of the remaining zombie.
Mad Dog punctuates the kill with an emphatic belch, then sits down to rest.
Inspecting the wagon, it takes Mirri all of 3 seconds to determine that the goods remaining in it—half-filled sacks of moldering grain, shoddy pottery, and jugs of long-hardened paint—are a false front. A large hidden compartment beneath it all has been burst open from within.
Following Mirri, Petra can smell from within the hidden compartment the unmistakable scent of cedar oil and incense—both used in traditional Osirian mummification rituals. Mirri squeezes in regardless, and comes out with a smile on her face, holding an assortment of jewelry (worth 850 gp). She also finds a mummified hand attached to twine like a pendant and shrugs, throwing it to Ibrahim to identify. It is indeed magical.
This mummified human hand comes from an honest man punished for a crime he didn’t commit, and is dried and hung from a simple twine thong around the neck. The hand’s scapegoat origins offer some protection to its wearer. When the wearer of a hand of the honest man is targeted by a curse or a misfortune effect such as a witch’s misfortune or evil eye hex, the curse is instead transferred to the hand with no ill effects to the wearer. The hand retains the curse (even if it normally expires after a set duration) until the effect is removed with a remove curse spell or similar effect.
A spellcaster receives a +2 bonus on her caster level check to remove a curse stored in a hand of the honest man. Removing a hand of the honest man while it holds a curse instantly transfers the curse to its wearer. A hand of the honest man can hold only one curse or effect at a time. If the wearer is targeted by another curse while the hand is currently storing a curse, the new curse takes effect normally. A hand of the honest man has no effect on curses already affecting a creature.
The wearer of a hand of the honest man is riddled with guilt over any untruths she utters, and takes a –2 penalty on all Bluff checks while wearing the hand.
Meanwhile, Say'ri inspects the body of the wagon driver, who has 50 gp still in his belt pouch. In addition, he wears a crude silver chain worth 50 gp wrapped around his left wrist. Say'ri knows this to be a symbol of the Silver Chain, Wati’s most powerful gang of grave robbers and artifact smugglers.
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Say'ri examines the driver with a frown of distaste. "Of course, the Silver Chain would be mixed up in this. Definitely not the night to be transporting dead bodies across the city." Seeing the blank looks from her companions she elaborates.
"The Silver Chain is the cities biggest organised gang of grave robbers. If you want something from a tomb, cadavers, that sort of thing then these are the people who will break into the Necropolis to get it for you. They have exceptional resources after all their robbing - the Necropolis guard keep trying to track them down but we've never managed to locate their bases. This man is, was, one of them"
Petra frowns as she listens to Say'ri's explanation. For a few seconds after, she is silent, and then she says in loud, angry tones: "A whole gang of those who steal from the dead? Anubis shall rip them limb from limb. I shall send them to him. Where may we find them?" (Despite poor Say'ri having just admitted the bases are unknown.)
With an indignant huff, Petra moves around picking up dropped wands. "Are any still hurt?"
Petra dutifully knits the flesh of her comrades back in place with the wand, with a vague frown for how quickly the power of the gods is spent against the hordes of the dead.
"There, you should both feel better. Now, where is this silver chain?"
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"They must have a base somewhere near the Necropolis." Say'ri explains, realising that Petra has a bee in her keffiyah on this subject. "The last theory I knew about was that it was somewhere in the Fingers, but no-one could ever find it, and their operatives are notoriously slippery about such things..."
Mirri had cheerfully handed the others the items she discovered in the cart, including the cart drivers chain. Seeing the reaction it received, she almost wished she hadn't. Prolly not the time to mention I use ta know a few of those silver chain types In truth she hadn't know any of them well, all via her brother, and knew nothing of base locations or the like. Still, seeing both Petra and Say'ri get tense over the matter made the diminutive Halfling shy away into the shadows even more than usual.
You...ya think mebbe the Silver Chainers stole that artifact thing from the skeleton, causin' this whole mess? We could go lookin' in the Fingers for 'em but they prolly won't like that much.
Petra frowns at Mirri's supposition. "I do not think mere grave robbers were responsible. The guardian spoke of one man, a necromancer. But such degenerates as this may know the Necropolis, and where necromancers lurk, perhaps?"
The dwarf's shoulders slump a little. "I do not know this city. I must rely on you, Say'ri al Bashere, and you, Ibrahim al Sahure... and you Mirri...." (it occurs to Petra she does not know the halfling's surname) "...to guide me in the fulfillment of my-- our-- oath."
Ibrahim smiles and thanks Petra for the healing. Then he strokes his chin and contemplates the situation.
"I can't claim to know much about grave robbers, but perhaps we should try to trace the path of the wagon? It may lead us to more of these silver chain members."
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Ibrahim smiles and thanks Petra for the healing. Then he strokes his chin and contemplates the situation.
"I can't claim to know much about grave robbers, but perhaps we should try to trace the path of the wagon? It may lead us to more of these silver chain members."
"That could work." Say'ri responds. "If we could narrow down the area even a bit then that could help a lot."
Petra nods wordlessly to the thanks for the healing-- the gods provide that, she is only the bearer of the gift, as she sees it, but she supposes the humans would think it rude if she made no acknowledgment.
"I do know how to track," Petra says slowly, "but I am used to doing so in the desert, not on these busy streets with the mobs of people. Still..."
She at least studies the hard-packed earth of the city streets to see if there's any sort of sign of the recent corpse passage.
Ibrahim offers what little assistance he can give to Petra