"This is not unexpected," Natasha says, sighing like a sea breeze, "and I bear you no malice."
The aquaeous Mage slashes a wavelet at the Janni and chants: "Sagittae magicae, omne errore vacuae!" Three bolts of force go flying and strike the genie-kin flawlessly.
Natasha is flowing around and away even before her spell finds flesh.
The genie manages to swat away two attacks, but Elreem's claws still find purchase.
Natasha's bolts collide, but seem to do little to faze the genie.
The giant swings hard at Elreem with it's massive blade, missing once
Ajkanir's airy form whips and whirls its way over to the janni, and a whirlwind-like limb takes shape, sweeping towards the creature's feet and trying to knock them out from under him.
The genie laughs, dodging away from Ajkanir's attempt to trip him.
Khol moves up to the Janni and grins widely as his jaw unhinges slightly and Khol darts forward to bite at the creature's flesh.
Razan snarls as the two brutally efficient attacks strike Elreem, just taking the eidolon to the point where it would be sent from the plane... But Razan activates his life link and pours his own vitality into his companion fully restoring the eidolon's health!
He then darts forward using his new reach to avoid offering an opportunity to the Janni and attempts to aid Elreem by distracting his foe.
Elreem steps around to flank with one of his companions and aided by Razan's distraction strikes again, sinking his jaws and a claw into his foe!
Zahur rumbles forward, trying his hand at wielding his new form, but finds himself unable to do anything.
Once again, Elreem claws viciously at the janni, scoring two hits.
"Be undone, and find peace and freedom in the embrace of Pharasma," Natasha sloshes as she weaves her watery tentacles in intricate, arcane gestures. The ends of these tentacles briefly come to a boil as a beam of searing heat takes form between them, then lances towards the Janni.
"Ignem iubeo!"
http://pyromancers.com/media/view/main.swf?round_id=31841
The Janni roars at the fire effect, and steps back from the fight, into the air, hovering over the dais.
It points at Zahur, then jerks its hand away, and violently strips Zahur of his elemental form. Stones fly from the man's form and encase the genie.
"Ha ha!"
With a motion and a word, the now-Shaitan summons forth a wall of stone, interposing itself between Ajkanir, Razan, Elreem and Khol. It rises ten feet into the air.
"Why him?" Natasha snarls. "I am the one who managed to burn you, curse it all!"
Ajkanir flies over the summoned stone wall and swoops down, attacking the Janni with two blows of his powerful arms.
Undaunted, Khol moves around the wall, drawing his bardiche as he does so and striking at the Shaitan as soon as he can reach.
Razan races forward and digs into Zahur's spell component pouch with his fiery fingers, thinking don't burn very hard. Then he casts haste upon everyone save Natasha and the Scorpion.
Elreem leaps atop the wall of stone with ease now he is newly hasted and uses the elevated position to snap at the Janni! But he cannot make contact with his nimble foe.
"Gozreh, aid us in our battle against this guardian of the Usij!" Zahur raises his longspear and thrusts it forward to poke the genie.
The genie reels, dodging and swatting away the attacks, and laughing.
Zahur's bane lands.
"Laugh this off," Natasha rumbles as she once again twists her waves in an arcane pattern. Darts of force rise from within her waters and flawlessly strike the dancing Shaitan.
http://pyromancers.com/media/view/main.swf?round_id=32128
The genie flinches as the magic missiles impact his stone body. In return, he rips the magic from Razan. Dark red fissures form along the stone body, and genie bursts into flames.
It swings its Scimitar in a wide arc, at Elreem and then at Ajkanir, missing both times.
"Come on!" Natasha protests. "Can you not see me? I'm the one repeatedly hurting you! Take the stupid water form, already!"
Khol drops his bardiche and darts in next to the genie, trusting his fiendish blood to protect him from the flames.
Ajkanir feels Zahur's divine blessing course through him, and he lands two devastating blows on the genie.
In quick succession, Khol and Ajkanir score a serious of nasty hits against the now ailing genie. But the genie persists...
the genie stumbles at Ajkanir's blows. He reaches out as he falls backward, and grabs at Ajkanir's elemental energy. The genie manages to tear it away from the man as he stumbles, but once he hits the ground, the energy dissipates as he tries to grab it.
A momentary look of panic washes across his features, and he pulls away Natasha's watery form, leaving her soaking wet on the floor. The energy dissipates as it reaches toward him, splattering across the stones instead in a gush of water.
The genie grins, and laughs once at the ceiling, loud and echoing, and then vanishes.
"Finally!" Natasha fumes, spitting out water. "Here's hoping that released the poor sod from the Usij's vileness."
Khol calmly wipes his claws of the Genie's blood before offering Natasha a hand up.
"It would be a shame if I had had a hand in killing a distant cousin."
"How about freeing him, then?" Natasha asks, as she accepts Khol's assistance in rising.
"Sits much better with me," Khol pauses by the lamp which once housed the genie and collects his Bariche. With a flourish he brings the Bardiche's blade down on the lamp with all of his might.
"I think that laugh was his glee at finally being freed and not the laugh of one that has pulled a masterful trick over us."
Zahur looks around "So what did the Usij set the Janni to watch over?"
With a mighty blow, Khol shatters the lamp into scraps of twisted metal.
A moment later, the sound of grinding stone fills the room, and the wall north of the entrance begins to shift into a series of hieroglyphs. Each set lasting for a moment, before the stone begins to reshape into a new pattern of symbols.
The Bringer of The Light.
The Sovereign of the Dark.
The Ruler of the Flame.
The Despot of the Air.
The Tyrant of the Earth.
The Lord of the Seas.
The last set of symbols fades away, and a long moment passes before a doorway opens in the wall. above it, more symbols.
The Lord of Death
"I was not expecting that to actually accomplish anything," Khol said with a toothy smile, flourishing his bardiche again. Without much concern for the hieroglyphs flicking in and out of existence, Khol begins making his way to the newly opened doorway.
Ajkanir turns to the academically-inclined wizard and asks "Well, Natasha, what does this one say? Will we all be turned into boggards and have to do battle with an invisible basilisk?" Seeing the tiefling striding ahead, he continues, "Whatever it is, it looks like it'll happen to Khol first."
"The translation is as follows," Natasha says.
"The bringer of light.
The sovereign of the dark.
The ruler of the flame.
The despot of the air.
The tyrant of the earth.
The lord of the seas.
The lord of death.
Hmmn. Either these are grandiose titles for Ahriman, or...
I worry that what we have been doing in this pyramid may have unpleasant consequences. Note that we have already bested challenges involving light and darkness, and now the four elements. What if all this activity is like a series of keys inserted in a ritualistic combination lock? We may be awakening something unpleasant..."
"You might be right Natasha. It could be a trap." Zahur searches his memory for any Usij rituals that might offer a hint of what we have been through so far as well as this "lord of death."
"I almost wish you couldn't read it, 'Tasha - I agree that we seem to have hit everything on that list except the 'lord of death.' Have to say, I'm not so eager to cross that one off, especially if we're just being used as tools to unlock something terrible."
Ajkanir goes silent for a moment, before speculating aloud about what the 'lord of death' could be, seeing if he can't jog Zahur's memory a bit.
As the others muse, Natasha adds her own efforts, puzzling through her memory for a reference to the lord of death and any ritual the party may have unwittingly been involved in.
While nothing immediately leaps to mind, most Ancient Osirion tombs and pyramids contained ancient hieroglyphs that depict both the life of the person buried there, as well as their honorifics and titles, and their possessions, and often their mummified servants.
It could be that the titles that appeared there were those of the person buried here?
"They may simply be titles for those interred here," Natasha says. "But I still have a bad feeling... Never mind. We must advance, regardless."
The Wizard whistles, bringing Sand to her side, and sets off after Khol.
"I hope so. I guess we have no other options apparent yet." Zahur and Salt join everyone moving to the doorway.
Down then, they descend. The passage descends at a steep, almost dizzying angle for what seems like hours. The only sound that of the party's footsteps. The only light, that of their spells and torches.
When the light finally corners around the end of the tunnel, the party steps onto a narrow path that rings a huge, circular room.
What the path rings is something far more horrifying than that seen so far in the pyramid. Five feet down from the stone walkway, a circular pit filled completely with ancient bones makes up the majority of the room. At the center of the room, just barely visible beyond the edge of the torchlight, a platform rises from the skeletal floor, too far away to make out anything on it.
"'The lord... of death'," Natasha quotes, her voice bleak. "Do not advance yet; let me check something."
The Wizard casts a cantrip and looks the room over closely.
No discernible auras are detected with the spell.
"I detect no magic," Natasha reports, frowning. "This does little to reassure me."
Bardiche in hand, Khol continues forward, cautiously scanning the surroundings.
"I could attempt a spell which harms the undead, but I am concerned about brining the entire pit down upon us if it has the wrong effect." Zahur again searches his memory for knowledge of the Usij and their practices which may prove helpful.
It is common enough knowledge that the Pharaohs of Ancient Osirion were often interred with servants, slaves, and spouses sometimes. But usually the unlucky were mummified to prepare themselves for the afterlife, as per usual tradition. Not just dumped into a pit with hundreds of others.
"We're right to be wary. It's not surprising that there would be bodies here. What is surprising is that they aren't mummified and treated with respect. Perhaps a sacrifice of some sort..."
"Knowing what we're wandering into, I believe we can go ahead and cut out the 'perhaps' from that statement, Zahur," Khol said grimly, approaching the stone platform.