Suru once again tries to launch two arrows at the thing. The first shot actually glanced off the thing, easily deflected by its hard, metal-plated form. The second shot, though went right into the floor beside it.
Malik, moving into the room, takes a chance at lobbing a ball of acid over the sarcophagus at the space where the creature is coiled. He gives it a little too much force to get over the sarcophagus, and the ball strikes the opposite wall.
Elneiros picks up his crossbow and fires a bolt. Not wanting to throw another bomb into the melee.
Regaining his previously dropped weapon, Elneiros attempts to shoot the cobra. Much like Suru's first shot, his bolt glances off the hard exterior of the thing.
Chephren, moves in an onto the stone container presumably holding the body of Akhentepi himself. He attempts to get the thing's attention to offer Andrei a better shot, but the thing looks to be keeping aware of all the threats.
Brennan Dances back and forth with the snake, jabbing and prodding, but he is unable to get a solid hit on the thing. Even for a being made of metal, it moves fairly deftly, avoiding Brennan's stab.
Regardless of Chephren's attempt to get the cobra's attention, Andrei winds up and brings his large blade down in a heavy overhead strike. He smashes through the snake's body, despite its dodging and weaving, and cleaves multiple coils in two with a loud metal clanging and small parts flying everywhere. The snake is reduced to multiple half coils, bent plates, rivets, springs, and gears.
Brennan stood up from his crouch and grinned down at the thing. He kicked the coils apart and made sure the thing was dead before looking more closely at the sarcophagus and other objects in the room.
His poor heart pounding fiercely, the librarian looks around almost wildly. Did Malik just go into the room with that thing? Malik must gain more sense! Determined to be more careful, he takes a look around.
"Impressive as always, Mister Constantine!" Surubi claps and begins to look around the room, first for lost arrows, then to see if the two chests and two funerary urns are safe to touch.
"Mister Chephren, do you think there are any traps on these? You've gotten so good at seeing them after listening to Mister Darkblade's advice!"
High finds an arrow intact.
2 arrows found
Chephren takes a look at the various items in the room after hearing Surubi's complement of Brennan's skills of teaching.
Then he gives the walls of the chamber a quick look.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
As the pieces of iron, that was at one time an animated cobra, get scattered across the floor with Brennan's kick, everyone begins securing the chamber. There are eyes everywhere, checking the chests, urns, sarcophagus, and walls for any signs of danger. With this appearing to be the last stop along this trip, the threat of built in defenses is very real.
However, the sign of any real threat is not present in any way. None of the members can discern any danger beyond that which the tomb's guardian represented. Speaking of the guardian, Chephren notices that within the head portion, there are intact vials of an odd yellowish substance.
Malik seemed pretty familiar with the construct, maybe he knows what it could be.
Assuming Chephren alerts him to their presence, Malik nods. "Malik is pretty sure these are vials of some poison, no doubt delivered with the serpent's bite to incapacitate tomb raiders. They could command a decent price on the market, Malik thinks."
Not seeing or sensing any additional dangers, Chephren will get his crowbar out and begin to carefully open the sarcophagus.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
After the snake falls Elneiros takes a quick look around the room, seeing as everyone is checking out the chests he decides to do what he does best and attempts to ID the strange vials.
"Ooh, be careful Mister Chephren, these can be tricky. You want to angle it just right, and at the same time make sure you do not damage anything inside, nor harm the decorations." Surubi, weapons stowed, tries to give Chephren some advice and assistance with opening the sarcophagus; but 'his' attention is all over the room, and 'he' narrowly misses having his fingers crushed. "Mister Elneiros, you seem to be good with vials and things, maybe you should hold onto those three you're looking at? And Mister Brennan, ah, I see you're already looking at those two chests. Mister Chephren and I will finish here and you can work your skills on those."
Being relatively weak, Malik will let the more martial people try to force open things, and instead keep his crossbow out, looking for any other menaces that might approach while his companions are occupied.
Chephren is greatful for the assitance that Surubi is attempting, even though it would proablably be more advantageous if Surubi came the same side as Chephren, instead of laying over the top of the sarcophagus, trying to flip the cover up.
Brennan waited to one side, holding his knives in a readied posture, certain that something in the sarcophagus was going to need a fatal dose of steel soon.
With Malik's educated guess, and Elneiros' confirmation, it is agreed that the vials contain poison. Elneiros can tell, by the time he checks the second vial, that it is black adder poison.
As they pry the lid open on the sarcophagus, they find a mummified body inside, and resting on its face is an exquisitely crafted gold funerary mask.
Malik gasps as they open the sarcophagus and the value of the mask is immediately evident. "Look at the craftmanship! Malik has never seen such exquisite detail, especially set in gold. This piece right here might rival all the others combined!"
Of course, Malik didn't know that...but it sure seemed like an appropriately dramatic thing to say, and the librarian didn't socialize nearly enough.
Even Brennan was impressed at the detail and artistry of the golden mask. So much so, that he appreciated for at least three heartbeats before trying to rack up how much it was worth.
"All right. Pack up the mask and the other items, and let's get back. Has anyone been taking notes or drawing maps? Those could be worth a lot to those priests up top."
With the mummy of Akhentepi revealed to the others, Chephren proceeds to the two chests, so that they too may be opened for all to see. Thus showing the great wonders that the ancestors of Osirian would take to the afterlife with them.
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]On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
Taking great care, Surubi slowly lifts the mask away from Akhentepi's corpse and places it inside 'his' pack. "It is somewhat heavy, but this one can carry it until we distribute the load up at the top of the rope." 'he' says. "Before this one's pack is closed, though, would you check to see if it and the items in the chest are magical, Mister Chephren or Mister Malik?"
After confirmation of the item's magic, or lack thereof, Surubi moves over to the two funerary urns. "Mister Chephren, do you have any idea what these would be for? We found some similar ones in another room, but this one does not know whether they are of any value."
Malik nods agreeably to Surubi, scanning the newly-found items for traces of arcane energy.
"Surubi, in my training these are funerary urns, and are used for the storage and preservation of the deceased's internal organs. Thoses would not be items that we would want to remove from this chamber, if we did not wish to desecrate the tomb of Akhentepi," Chephren explains.
"Can you show me the other urns you found, as they may not be funerary urns, but may store other items used in the afterlife."
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
The mask comes off easily enough, although it's quite clear that the weight of such a thing did not help keep the body it sat upon in the best of conditions. The bones of the skull look a little misshapen from the mask having sat on the face for so long. The mask, though clearly of value, has no magical auras.
Opening the two chests reveal more treasures. A well-crafted suit of padded armor, still perfectly matching that which was displayed as worn by Akhentepi in all of the murals, rests in the northeastern chest. This armor does radiate magic to Malik's eyes.
The southeastern chest holds a disintigrating cloth sack, with numerous gold coins spilling out of it, and a small, well-preserved, darkwood coffer. From inside the coffer, there are two more magic auras that Malik can see.
The funerary urns are exactly as Chephren surmises. They are what he would expect to find in this, the actual burial chamber of Akhentepi himself.
Brennan quickly assayed the coins, counting out the metal weight as he did so. He slipped them into one of the bags he carried, making a point to show everyone what he was putting away as he did so. The darkwood box was more intriguing, and he examined it closely before trying to open it.
Malik nods to himself sagely, grinning widely at his companions. "This armor is magical, though Malik is ignorant as to its exact nature at the moment. The coffer also radiates a couple of magical auras that I can attempt to ascertain, if Chephren would be so good as to open it or hand it over."
Assuming nothing goes boom when it gets opened, Malik will attempt to identify the two objects in the coffer.
Chephren looks at the darkwood coffer Brennan is checking out and then back over to Malik. With a smirk he says, "Malik, I am sure Brennan would hand it to you as well as I could."
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
As Brennan collects the coins into a more suitable container for transport, he's able to guess that it's about ten pounds worth of only gold coins.
The coffer is well made, unlocked, and seemingly safe to open. Inside of it sits two vials of liquid, an ornate lapis and carnelian pendant, and an assortment of semi-precious stones (carnelian, turquoise, and lapis lazuli).
Malik nods as he inspects the potion vials. "Malik does not know the nature of this container, but this other contains an elixir that will recover a small portion of your essence, should it be stolen from you through magical or poisonous means. Very valuable." The librarian grins. He had not seen so much wealth in one concentrated area, and was practically intoxicated with it all.
When he recovers a bit, he attempts to determine the value of the pendant and the assorted gemstones.
"The other urns were in an earlier room, Mister Chephren. We... well, Brennan and this one and the little ones that left found them before you were down here. This one will show you on the way out." Surubi carefully puts the funerary urns back where they had been, and moves back to the sarcophagus. "Mister Chephren, Mister Darkblade, once you are done collecting the treasures from those boxes, please assist this one in putting the lid back on; we do not want to disturb the body more than needed."
Chephren helps gather up the antiquities and then attempts to close the sarcophagus.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
With a keen eye, and a head for numbers, Malik easily determines that the pendant could net seventy gold, and the stones all together probably run about fifty-five gold.
Despite Chephren offering almost as little help in closing it as Suru offered in the opening, the two of them manage to get the lid back in place. If it were any more difficult, though, Suru probably could have assumed Chephren was intentionally being unhelpful to pay 'him' back for 'his' not quite help in opening the thing.
"Malik humbly suggests we extract all of our findings and return to the city proper. This expedition has been an unprecedented success!" Malik's excited demeanor is quickly dulled by the loss of his first three companions, and the return to the surface of the little ones of this current group.
Malik helps to transport items back to the room with the knotted rope, and will proceed with the previous plan of remaining at the bottom as others climb up, helping secure items before they are dragged up.
Only then will he attempt to climb out.
Chephren also helps with their 'Loot and Scoot' approach. He will also draw out a design of the tomb's layout and include short notes of important details, like the Shrine/Embalming area, the murals on the walls, ect.
Once the antiquities are at the ceiling tunnel, he remove his armor and also will wait for assistance to climb up.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);
As the group is is on their way out Elnieros informs the group of the vials he inspected earlier.
"I almost forgot, you were correct about the vials earlier Malik. They are indeed poison. Black Adder poison to be exact. These may indeed come in handy at some point. I will keep them on me for now."
Elneiros helps the group as needed, whether that be transporting items or helping people up the rope.
With the greater climbing abilities of Andrei, Brennan, and Suru, the group is able to navigate its way back up to the top. The goods hauled up and arranged, make for a rather bulky and weighty haul. The chests collected in one of the earlier rooms helps to pile it all together, but adds to the weight tremendously, almost doubling it.
As the group piles all that they found in the most effective way for each of them to haul out what they've recovered, they are only left with the task of getting it out of the Necropolis, and to the market.
By this time the sun has been hanging over the city of Wati for most of the day, and is only part way through its descent onto the horizon. As such, the temperature is nigh unbearable. You are all sweating and panting by the time you manage to extract yourselves from the giant tomb of tombs. With the added distance to market, it has easily been an hour to get your haul ready to trade with the vendors.
Malik huffs and puffs as he helps his companions cart the loot out of the tomb and through the city as best he can. The sun shines down on him relentlessly, precious water practically pouring off his frail frame as he continues along. With determination he plods along.
Before they make any final decisions, he decides to attempt to identify and appraise everything that remains iffy:
Chephren labors through the heat, calling on the cooling waters river Sphinx.
The heat was just about more than Brennan could stand. The waterways of the Riverlands never got this hot, and relief from the heat was only a quick dip away. Hauling the tapestry and other items out had him sweating and panting, and dragging them into the city was even worse. He couldn't wait to sit down and quaff some ale, and wait for the cool of the evening.
Bones and ashes, another group. I do hope they are smarter and nicer then the Clowns. That should not be too hard to achieve.
Seeing that the Osirian heat is more than a match for Brennan today, Chephren offers is aid.
"Brennan, please allow me to assist you. Anubis offers a means to wash away the sweat and grim of the day, just as we use this power to cleanse the dead before thier body is prepared."
The same offer is provided to any other that wishes to be washed clean.
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On Going Effects: Strength Damage -4 (-2 Str penalty);