Holbrecht adds, "That's not all, there's a secret door over on this side too. But, if there's a trap there, that should indeed be handled before we try opening anything else."
Holbrecht looks to Kachu, tapping his foot, before prodding the little creature to go back around to where Nefer is to try and disable the trap.
Kachu works his way back around the outer walls over to the pressure plate that Neferteri had found, taking out his tools the small blue creature looks at Neferteri. With the nod from Neferteri the blue creature goes to work. After a minute the blue monkey shakes his head. Changing to a smaller tool he tries again. The second time the blue creature manages to disable the pressure plate, nodding that it could be reset if need be. Gathering up his tools he bows to Neferteri for the assistance.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 9:49 am
"Nice job!"
Lin moves up behind Kachu and tries to open the secret door behind the trap. Kachu reaches out and helps her.
"Well done, the both of you!" Alexander says, and the old man even goes so far as to give a brief applause.
'Not that I can see exactly what they did, but the results are meritorious to our endeavour, and so a word of appreciation is the least I can do,' he thinks.
Holbrecht waits by the secret door he found, and shows where it is to Nefer as he nears. Once Lin and Kachu find out what lies beyond their door, he would like to check the contents of this one as well.
Lin Zi and Kachu try to open the western secret door but it is locked. Lin looks at Kachu who quickly goes to work on the door and soon has it unlocked. Lin then slowly slides the secret door aside to see what is on the other side.
As the secret door slides open with a rumble, Lin can clearly see that a corridor runs for about ten feet before ending at another set of air tight heavy stone doors.
Neferteri spends quite a while moving on around the walls of the chamber, pausing momentarily at the stone doors to the north noting that they appear to be stuck closed. If the group was going to continue to go in that direction then the doors would have to be forced open or broken in some way. Neferteri then continued around the wall and ended next to Holbrecht. The entire task took about 18 minutes to complete.
Holbrecht tries the eastern secret door and finds it locked as well, turning to Neferteri the halfling eyes the door and takes out his tools. After a couple minutes Neferteri nods and Holbrecht opens the secret door.
As the eastern secret door slides away and Neferteri and Holbrecht can see inside, they find that this small room is filled with human-shaped bundles wrapped in linen. Each wears a small medallion around its neck.
After studying the bundles for a few seconds, Holbrecht nods as he understands what they are.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:09 am
"I wonder whether something unpleasant was sealed in here instead of Akhentepi," Alexander mutters. He repeats his cantrip and looks for magical auras.
Holbrecht looks at the piled bodies, and somewhat answers Nefer's question."If only we could ask these mummified workers, they could tell us. I pay homage to the men that made all this edifice possible." He gives a slight bow to the bodies. Then he gets an idea, "Maybe they still can." He heads inside to see if there is anything amongst them that could lend a clue as to where they should look next.
Once Nulyth is sure his companions have thoroughly searched the main room he joins them, examining the sarcophagus with an appreciative eye. He goes over to examine he room with Holbrecht and Neferteri, whispering a prayer to Sarenrae. "How horrible..."
Alexander's words cause him to turn around and look at the older man, clearly unnerved by his words. "What makes you think that, Alexander?"
"A guardian..." Lin looks apprehensively towards the sarcophagus before turning to Holbrecht. "Anything over there?"
Kachu scampers up to the north doors to examine them, looking for any easier way past them than brute strength.
Alexander again scans the room for magic, concentrating in each direction but again he can find nothing that gives off a sparkle of magic or any residue that may have been here at one time.
Holbrecht and Neferteri search through the mummified corpse's but the dozen that are stacked here only carry the wooden holy symbols around their necks. The walls and floors show no signs of anything else. The air here is stale and obviously these bodies have not been disturbed in over 2,000 years.
Nulyth meanwhile eyes the sarcophogus with the gold leaf etched upon it and then joins Holbrecht and Nulyth on the eastern side of the chamber.
Kachu scampers up to the north doors and further inspects them, they are indeed stuck closed. More on purpose than my the passing of time. Airtight doors like the others but this set seems to have been fashioned in such a way that once they were closed, they were never meant to be opened again. They would have to either be broken down or forced open if the party wanted to see what was on the other side.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:10 am
"I am no muscle-man," Alexander says, eyeing the sealed doors with narrowed eyes. "And alas, I am as yet unable to cast the kind of spell that could open such a seal. How do we proceed?"
Holbrecht nods with Nefer, "I say we work inward, check the statues first, then move on to the dais. Once we have cleared the whole room, we head out the secret passage. If we cannot open the north doors without destroying them, then we must forgo."
Nulyth looks back at Lin when she mentions something about a guardian, but declines to push it any further. He remains quiet while the others check the rest of the room and joins Kachu at the set of northern doors. He looks over them to any signs being able to wedge a prybar or some other tool to aid them in opening the doors.
Lin hesitates then nods. Dissatisfied with the doors, Kachu scampers over to the south-eastern statue and assists Holbrecht in inspecting the statue.
Holbrecht moves over to the statues and inspects them, the statues depict the ancient Osirian god Anubis. Other they their high quality stonework nothing else seems unusual about them. However before stepping on the dais Holbrecht notices a small crack that rings the base of the dais. The entire platform seems to be one giant pressure plate. He can not determine what might happen if it was stepped on but it is the largest such device he has seen. The balance of the sarcophagus on the platform must be exactly centered to not set off the trap, however if one of the group was to step on it then it would throw the balance off and the entire dias would sink down a few inches setting off the trap.
Nulyth moves to the northern doors and inspects them confirming what the others had noticed, the doors were mortared shut and they would have to be forced or broken to continue in that direction.
Kachu comes over to assist Holbrecht but finds that he has already found what he was looking for.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:12 am
"Whoa! This is amazing... well, dangerous, possibly.... or could do something else... not quite sure yet Anyways, the whole dais is a perfectly balanced pressure plate. Nefer and Kachu, you want to deal with this?" Holbrecht points out, while circling the dais.
Nulyth turns when Holbrecht mentions the massive pressure plate and looks in the direction of the dais. "I do not like the sound of that. Perhaps you should wait until the rest of us retreat a little before you tackle the trap. That way if the door tries to close, perhaps we can wedge it open. Likely the roof will collapse on us, or something else equally horrible will occur." With that, the aasimar takes a wide path around the dais and towards the tunnel which led them into this room.
Intent on the trap, Kachu spares no glance or gesture towards Nulyth as he pulls out his tools and goes to work with Neferteri's assisting eyes and hands. Lin turns instead, and simply says "They've got this."
Crossing her arms and keeping a good distance away, Lin doesn't even attempt to understand the meanings of the tiny gestures, the proddings and pokings; she just appreciates the precise mastery at work.
Working on opposite sides of the dais Neferteri and Kachu get to work, having to work in tandem to keep from off setting the fickle balance of the platform. Wedging where appropriate and bending unseen things down in the small crevice at the base of the ringed platform, slowly methodically working their way around. Never before had they seen or heard of such a large trap of this type. Neferteri could not help but wonder what it did.
After about 15 minutes the two rose from their work and nodded to the others. They now believed it to be safe. Neferteri wondered what could possibly be in the sarcophagus that required so many protections around it.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:27 am
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I am concerned about what might be inside this sarcophagus. Neferteri voices. Its quite well protected. Perhaps it is the sarcophagus we seek. But for now, I say we keep exploring, as we have this passage and the northern door to explore. The sarcophagus can wait. He moves to the secret passage they have not explored and begins to check the first 5' of that passage.
Holbrecht nods at the assessment. "As this is the way in, it is also the way out. We can just as easily check the contents during our egress, especially in the case that there may be something particularly heavy that would have to return for nonetheless." With that he indicates the open secret side passage. "Shall we?"
As Neferteri moves through the secret door in the west wall, he begins to search for traps. After a few minutes of searching the short corridor seems secure as do the double water tight sealed doors that lay ahead to the west. No traps could be found.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:35 am
Nulyth watches the duo from a distance, highly impressed with their abilities. "I sure hope those two know exactly what they are doing. I do not have the patience for such work."
Once the trap was disarmed, he joins Neferteri near the other hallway in the event any more strange enemies decide to attack the group.
Holbrecht quite readily gives up his spot in the lead beside Nulyth to Nefer, allowing the halfling to take the fore in searching the path. Given the state of his injuries left over from the day prior, he feels a little better having a body between him and whatever they come across.
Lin hesitates and nods. Snapping her fingers she dismisses Kachu in case any enemies appear then follows the others into the corridor.
Alexander draws his slender blade, just to be ready, and limps along in the rear. He keeps muttering his cantrip as he goes...
As the group make their way through the water sealed doors it seems like an eternity to even go five feet as Neferteri insist on checking every nook and cranny over and over. As the group begins to creep down the corridor the passage turns to the north where a flight of stairs lead further down to a set of plain unmarked stone double doors.
Neferteri calls the group to a halt before they take the turn in the passageway however. He has spotted something. Another secret door on the south wall and this one is locked.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:43 am
Lin raises an eyebrow and turns towards him. "Will you need Kachu for this, d'you reckon?" She looks around, her summoned light flickering gently. "I'd rather keep him away for now."
Nulyth remains ready to attack as always while the halfling checks over all the nooks and crannies for traps. "I am glad we have all of you skilled at locating traps and doors. I fear I would have stumbled past this door without a second glance."
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Let me check it out first. Lin. The truth is that Kachu is considerably better than me with traps. I've watched him and know that to be true. But I do not think he is better than me at spotting them. So if there is no trap I do not need him.
Neferteri takes 20 looking for traps on this secret door, and then again to open it.
Holbrecht holds up a finger and adds as a point of fact, "I actually have some training in this particular skill myself, though I also suffer from the hindrance of all my armor and stuff I carry. I could always help, it's just you and Kachu never much needed or asked for assistance, so it didn't come up."
Alexander adds his own, magical scrutiny to the others', but otherwise remains silent and still, his lips pressed together into a thin line and a white-knuckled grip on his rapier.
...and our saga continues...
Neferteri checks over the secret door for traps and triggers but does not find any. He does find a small keyhole behind a stone which indicates that the door is locked. He quickly goes to work with his tools and after a couple of minutes the lock gives way to his prodding. The click echoing through the hall as he gives everyone the nod that the door is now accessible.
The ancient door not waiting for someone to open it suddenly begins to slide to the side after the lock is released. Sand and dirt fall from the ceiling as the door grinds into the wall.
In contrast to the rest of the tomb, this rough earthen passage is not lined with masonry. At various points along the tunnel, sections of the walls have crumbled, as if something had dug small tunnels in the walls that subsequently collapsed. The tunnel heads south and then turns to the east out of sight.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:47 am
"...huh. Workman's tunnels sealed off after completion..?" Lin shrugs as Kachu peers curiously into the darkness ahead.
Holbrecht in turn looks to either Kachu or Nulyth to lead the way. He will be ready to follow right behind for a second pair of eyes, but he is still cautious about being too far in the front. Especially, since he's still injured.
"Note the collapsed areas," Alexander says. "We may not be alone in here; be wary; something has been burrowing around."
The group took their time looking down the hidden passage a few moments longer. In contrast to the rest of the tomb, the rough earthen passage was not lined with masonry or any kind of smooth worked stone. At various points along the tunnel, seconds of the cave wall had crumbled, as if something had dug small tunnels into the walls that had then collapsed.
Not wanting to delve too quickly into the tunnel, Holbrecht and Neferteri were fairly certain it would lead back towards the unfinished section of the tomb. They also both noted several set of insect like tracks in the softer parts of the path that had exposed and unworked dirt for a floor. It seemed that some kind of creature had inhabited the tunnels, likely the reason for their instability.
Then Holbrecht spoke up. "More Mining Beetles it looks like." the pattern being very familiar to the other tunneling they had seen in the other unfinished area of the tomb.
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Current Location: Tomb of Akhentepi: Burial Chamber, Date: Oathday, Pharast 26th, 4714 Time: 10:48 am
Holbrecht looks back to the others, "A small passage, plagued by mining beetles, may not bear following.... Well, it may be worth it to remove the infestation... but if they got in, we would have to do a lot to ensure they... well not they but more... don't return... although I would like to remove them to preserve the tomb while we can.... it may not be a task for now....So, maybe we should return the door to its closed state, and instead continue north down the stairs."