Noonan shuffles along
Dwalindor and Noonan (and presumably Tariq and Shad) move down the corridor to the left and come to a branch - one goes south and the other farther east into the gloom and darkness.
South.
As you head south you see a room to the east - A ring of stone pillars supports a white domed ceiling above this circular chamber. Along the perimeter of the rotunda, shelves crammed with crumbling papyrus scrolls and clay tablets stand behind iron mesh doors.
Noonan adjusts his spectacles.
"Hey, the chest is made of bronze, that's worth something in and of itself."
He chides the dwarf.
"Look at this place."
Tariq snoops around the scrolls.
"Let's see now . . . cartouches that I may recognize . . . "
Noonan and Dwalindor notice the proportions of the dome overhead aren't right - it should be higher in a room of this size.
Hmmm..Ceiling should be higher. Maybe a false ceiling?
Got a 100 adventurer items and a pole ain't one.
It would seem we have entered an area that my knowledge is not very useful. How can I help Tariq?
"Wait one second my friend, this one here . . . "
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"Yeah Noonan. Something ain't quite right with that stonework. Arch is all wrong. I might be able to lash Amanda and Lucy together and see if I can poke it or something ."
Unless other ideas are presented, Dwalindor sets to tying his two pole arms together to extend their length. A bit unwieldy but should reach.
Give it a try
Tariq makes progress but is still just on the cusp of a discovery.
Noonan has a senior moment.
Marge? It is rather chilly here, do you have my slippers?
Oh, nice lady who was a maid back on the estate.
How hard are you poking Dwalindor? And what square are you in?
int
crit?
After digging through the scrolls, Tariq finds the remainder of the journal of the Nethysian priest Khnenti.
According to the journal, with Hakotep's ib and ka trapped in his heart and funerary mask, the part of his soul, the ba, remained trapped within the pharaoh's body in his pyramid.
In order for the Sky Pharaoh to pass into the afterlife, the three parts of his soul-his ba, ib and ka-must be rejoined.
Khnenti goes on to speculate that that runiting Hakotep's divided sould might even return the Sky Pharaoh to life.
Meanwhile Shad is able to discover that Chisisek designed and built Hakoteps' pyramid. When construction was completed Chisisek was killed and buried in a hidden tomb to preserve the pyramid's secrets. No lans of the pyramid seem to have survived.
Dwalindor meanwhile pokes a small hole in the ceiling - that's no solid stone up there.
Careful, Dwal. Something might fall on us.
Careful, Dwal. Something might fall on us.
See that folks? That's foreshadowing - the mark of a classy Adventure Path.
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Something ain't right up here or I am a bearded hobbit! Let me know when you all got what you need. I aim to poke a bit harder up here...unless one of you brought a ladder or something.
Dwalindor continues to wait for the painfully slow and boring reading to complete before he presses in a few more spots close to the first.
vs stonework
I have a bad feeling about this.
Perhaps we can find and speak to the spirit of the builder?
Dwalindor, your native facility with the stones tell you that the small hole leads to some sort of hidden chamber - you're pretty sure with a big enough hit you could collapse the whole ceiling - and it's thin enough it wouldn't actually hurt anyone.
Noonan crouches under a protective table.
"Huh . . . Great I'll bet there is a cult seeking to resurrect the Sky Pharoh and some secret organization dedicated to making sure he remains in his current state."
He looks up.
"What the? Alright, I'm going to back down the hall a little ways before you bring the house down on us."
Roll initiative!
See what happens when you poke things?
"That my friend is considered plowing . . . Poking is reserved for things more delicate."
Interesting. I heard you were the one getting poked...
"Oh, you obviously don't have dwarves in the shadow realms. If they say a well hung human looks like a baby's arm holding an apple then a dwarf is more like a----wait? Did you hear that?"
The ceiling collapses - obviously designed for such a purpose - and the false stone rains down around Dwalindor.
Two hulking figures fall down with the ceiling and hiss audibly as they see you standing in the Vault perusing the scrolls within.
The monsters, large cats wrapped in bandages, prowl a bit before orienting on the dust-covered dwarf in front of them and one of them comes charging in.
The second one raises its head and emits an ear-piercing scream, rattling the very stone.
You all rock back under the effect of the necromantic yowl.
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Dwalindor is surprised to see something other than rocks fall down, and even more surprised when it bites him.
+2 vs Poison +4 vs spell/like
+4 spell/like?
But the dwarf, steeled by too many nights with the triple chins of the desert princess, may just be able to shake off both effects...barely (or not).
RHAHHHHHRR! Now you just made me mad! or runaway
He drops his two pole-arms and quick-draws his dwarven waraxe to take a swing at the mummy-cat.
for
for
Noonan moves to just north of Shad and casts Divine Favor(+2 hit/damage 1 minute)
will
religion