You perceive no traps in the room.
You do see there's some piles of dust-- actual piles, as opposed to just environmental dust-- at a few points throughout the room.
The sound.... kind of hard to identify. Somebody walking, their feet scuffing on the ground, maybe?
Shuff-shuff, shuff-shuff. Lyrian can see there's a hall full of pillars down there, where the sound is coming from.
Seeing Lyrian stop, Shaggar frees his axe and creeps forward into the room, claws accidentally scratching on the stone floor.
Shaggar creeps up, not quite as silent on the smooth marble as he is on soft sand.
He also hears the shuff-shuff noise-- then it stops.
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Rosalia takes the last plane out of Shaggar airport up into the pyramid's entrance, pausing at the opening so far up in the sky for a few moments to look out at the vast swathes of empty desert they had left behind them. For all she loathed the trip here-- and not only that, but practically everything about the entire country she had experienced thus far-- she didn't fancy spending her last moments trapped in some god-damned ancient pyramid either. So--for one last hint of confidence, she takes in the elemental war for just a couple of moments, before sighing, taking her blade in hand, and then following the others into the depths.
Noticing Shaggar creep ahead, Rosalia continues up towards the rather dusty room that Lyrian had stopped in as well, not willing to venture far past Heldar's light nor wanting to interrupt those who could sneak in darkness. But... she wants to be ready as well.
Heldar moves closer, as silently as he can , casting a simple divine incantation, and observing the piles from afar.
The group gathers in the square chamber, relaying via whispers what they've noticed so far. Shaggar keeps a wary eye on the end of the hallway, but nothing seems to materialize down there.
Heldar, the archway runes detect strongly of magic, as do the portraits on each wall. It is unfortunate you have not studied in identifying specific properties of these spells!
Should you bring this to the attention of your also-magically-inclined colleagues:
Rosalia also begins to examine the places of magic in this chamber, her eyes glowing bright with brilliant blue energy.
"Well, well, well, what do we have here...?" she murmurs. "The runes on the archway... I do not know what they spell out exactly, but they seem to form some kind of... protective magics, I suppose. I suspect that it is protective of this pyramid, however, not of us..."
Rosalia then turns her attentions to the portraits, and almost immediately arches an eyebrow at what she sees there. "Well, anyone in here already knows we're here," the magus mutters with a shake of her head. "I should've expected this." She makes a sweeping gesture, indicating the portraits, as she continues. "Whoever enchanted these portraits can see through the painted eyes as if they were their own."
Quieting herself, Rosalia spends some time staring at the images, trying to notice if there are any subtle changes within them--something to indicate the caster is watching them, for example.
When Heldar (and anyone else) detects magic, they also perceive an aura from within one of the piles of fine, gray dust/sand.
The dust piles look as though they have been extensively rifled through at some point in the past, as opposed to being smooth-and-pristine piles.
It is still silent up ahead. After the raging noise of the storm outside (which can no longer be heard at all), it's almost a balm to your senses. Almost. Or it might be creepy, depending on your temperament.
"There is also magic coming from one of those piles of dust up ahead but... Do you think it is safe to proceed Rosalia?" - the oracle adds, turning to his companion, and taking a sidelong glance at the portraits - "And perhaps we should turn these around..?
Carefully examining the magical let's-call-it-a-trap that involves the antilife sphere, Lyrian ponders whether he thinks he could disarm such a thing.
The group is standing in the square room right now. It's been roughly thirty seconds, we'll say, to get everyone in there and to do detect magics, etc. There is silence down the corridor ahead. Nobody at this point has mucked about in the pile of dust to track down that magical aura that Heldar detected.
"We need decisive action my friends" - Heldar whispers - "If you believe this magic ahead of us to be harmful, I can attempt to dispel it" - the man winks at Rosalia - "What say you my friends?"
The images of the long-dead pharaohs watch you with unmoving eyes of white quartz and black onyx.
Lyrian, Rosalia, Javi, and Heldar all hear the faint shuff-scuff begin again, somewhere out of sight in the darkness ahead. Something dragging across the ground. Hatyah and Shaggar are apparently still digging storm-sand out of their ears.
Javi and Lyrian-- you think the sound is moving away.
"There is something there, beyond this tunnel. We should move friends" - Heldar insists.
"Very well" - turning again to the arch, his eyes still detecting its magic, Heldar pits his abilty against an enchantment probably ages older than himself.
Heldar focuses! He brings his will to bear. As soon as he does so, the sense of the magic suffusing the stone almost overcomes him... not only was this enchantment cast thousands and thousands of years ago, but the raw power of whoever must have cast it seems worked into the stone itself-- an incredibly powerful student of the arts of magic, someone many, many years of experience and study past Heldar himself.
....and yet....
Perhaps it is the long millennia that have weakened the sway of the original magics here. Perhaps Heldar is just that determined and skilled. Perhaps Heldar is just plain lucky.
Either way, there's a noise in the chamber like the -pop- a diver feels in their ears when they resurface. When the arch is scanned for magic again, the central rune is free of any signs of enchantment.
The man breathes a sigh of relief - "I have managed to suppress the magic" - he comments to his companions - "It may be just temporary, but we should be able to move ahead"
Shaggar nods and moves through the arch cautiously, axe ready, searching for the 'shuffler' and hoping there aren't more magical runes decorating the walls of the narrow passage.
Hatyah lopes quietly (stealth) and faithfully behind him.
While Heldar considers the strange (and concerning) enchanted runes, Rosalia's eyes are caught by a glowing, fiery aura concealed beneath a pile of ancient dust. Pulling up her sleeves, she rifles through it and eventually locates an obsidian ring; most curious indeed. Alas, she's distracted by the return of the odd shuff-shuff-shuffler and hasn't the time to consider it right now. She pockets the find to deal with at a later date before following cautiously after Shaggar.
Shaggar creeps forward...
Shaggar sees... a hallway of pillars. The four nearest him are each carved in the likeness of one of the pharaoahs, and contain hieroglyphics twisting around their respective bases. The farthest one from him has script as well, but has been left largely blank as if a statue might have been carved here but was never completed.
Each of the four nearer pillars is carved of a different stone, although, with darkvision, Shaggar has trouble distinguishing these as he cannot tell their colors.
From right to left:
This pillar is carved in the form of a man seated on a throne... you think. That is about the only detail that can be made out, for the statue has been defaced violently. Any script it contained is illegible.
This pillar is carved into the shape of a woman standing, and if the statue is not a gross exaggeration, she must have been a beautiful one. It is the same woman whose face was represented in stylized form in the mask, and whose large stone head you stumbled across when entering the valley. She is depicted smiling.
The third statue is that of a man and some sort of reptile or lizard, about half the size of the man, curled up obeisantly at his feet. The man is holding a chain in one hand that leads to the lizard's neck, and his other is raised in a forbidding gesture.
The last of the four figures is that of a man standing with a staff in one hand and some sort of tool in the other. His expression is stern and humorless.
It is difficult to read the script on the fifth pillar from the mouth of the junction, due to its distance.
Shaggar also hears, down the hall in the direction of the fifth pillar, the softest of noises, the brush of cloth against stone, perhaps. Gnoll ears are really, really keen. Still, he sees no sign of any person.
Lyrian, who can read ancient Osiriani, moves to the end of the entrance hall and stops before entering the hall of the pillars, silently reading their inscriptions.
He mimes asking if Shaggar has heard anything more and indicates his readiness for action at the gnoll's signal.
Not wanting to disturb the scouting, Heldar stands back, waiting for the 'go ahead' sign.
Shaggar skims only the first few lines on the pillar with the woman on it, wary of a trap. Then he turns his attention to locating the mysterious 'shuffler'. Since he can't see the creature, he is forced to consider the possibility that it might be invisible. He slides into the room between two pillars, touching neither and peeks around the pillar cautiously in the direction of the 'shuffling', trying to spy whatever is there.
Though Lyrian and Shaggar both read the Osiriani script, the threats of dire destruction do not dissuade Shaggar from striding forward past the statue of the woman in order to have a better view of his heard-but-unseen opponent.
The second that the gnoll steps within five feet of the statue of the pillar of the woman, a low whisper builds to a shriek in the space of a few seconds, seeming to come from the statue itself. To everyone else, it is merely noise. Shaggar feels it rather more intimately.
Shaggar..... ow. The sound reverberates through your bones like a hammer striking steel. There's a burning twinge in the gnoll's ears when it passes, and a little bit of blood trickles from one furry ear.
That seems to have been a trap.
On the other hand, now you can see down the corridor. Good news: your enemy is not invisible. Bad news: you have an enemy.
Javi is up! Though he is a little distance from the scene of the crime, as it were.
Shaggar sees a man at the end of the corridor, holding a bow. He is clearly a dead man. Well, an undead man, anyway. Holding a bow which he is raising Shaggar's direction. His skin is death-dark and leather dry, and he still bears the chain armor and other gear on his body.
The old mummies do not paralyze or cause disease as other mummies, but they are not vulnerable to fire as a default (having their own individual vulnerabilities depending on specific embalming process used), and they can act with blinding speed. Additionally, creatures slain by these ancient mummies are bodily transformed into dust, leaving nothing from which to resurrect them.
(You also know everything there is to know about normal mummies, like DR 5/-.)
Javi snaps out of an errant nightmare about holding down a regular schmoe day-job while trying to provide for a brood of always-hungry rug-rats … a thought so terrifying as to render him stunned through the entrance to the tomb. But he snaps back to the present to realize his job as a scout likely should be towards the front … so he sneaks up towards Lyrian and Shaggar’s position, eyes and ears peeled.
Rosalia: You think there's some evocation up there. Shocking!
The shambling figure at the end of the hall steps to where it has a better line of sight on Shaggar. His rotting fingers move with unnatural speed, blurring in the darkness. The bowstring twangs three times.
Shaggar snarls and snaps off the arrows sticking in his flesh. After setting off one pillar, he has no intention of running the gauntlet trying to reach the bowman. He lunges back across the pillared chamber, growling at Lyrian and Javi, "Fall back." He hustles down the hall pulling the arrow-heads from his flesh and rattling off what he knows. "Our foe is one of the ancient mummies, not the lesser shroud-wrapped ones of today. It is quick as death and most blows are blunted by its flesh. It has a weakness... but it likely isn't fire as it isn't shrouded. If it kills, you'll be turned to dust, but at least it carries no Mummy Rot. We should battle it away from the pillars, if possible."
Rosalia follows suit, silently creeping down the corridor to beside the hulking gnoll that had become a rather appreciated, solid companion. She eyes up his wounds with a frown, but says nothing as he recalls what he knows of ancient mummies. She had not expected to face something of this sort just yet... it surprised her to think that one of the ceremonial undead would be one of the pharaohs' lesser defenses, not something hidden away at the very centre.
Sensing the pain from Shaggar's wounds, the Oracle immediately stands on alert, moving forward to meet his companions.
He hears Shaggar's warning as the gnoll ranger moves back, their life link connection letting Heldar know Shaggar has been wounded again - still the Oracle smiles, knowing that soon his companion will continue healing his wounds further.
Moving closer to his companion, he puts a hand on his shoulder, accelerating his healing with divine energy - "Our challenges thus begin" - he speaks to his companion with a calm voice. - "But we will not be stopped here. You can save your potion" - he smiles.
Lyrian leans out of the hallway and snaps off a lucky shot.
Hatyah lopes after her packmate.
"Can we pull it back to that last room and ambush it?" Javi whispers to the team.
Round 1 recap
Javi slips up to catch up with the others-- in time to hear three arrows twanging in quick succession, and to see two of them sticking out of Shaggar's already-wounded flesh like a pincushion. Heldar similarly flinches as if struck, his nose starting to bleed as he takes some of Shaggar's pain unto himself.
Shaggar growls a quick tactical decision, as well as useful information, and pulls back to the shelter of the hallway, gesturing Hatyah to follow.
Rosalia slips up like a wraith, probably unseen by her friends as well as her foe! Okay not really but still, extremely quietly.
Lyrian looses an arrow which looks like it will be a dead shot to hit their foe, but at the last second the preternatural speed that seems to augment the undead creature's movements means that he is able to dodge a hair's breadth aside from the electricity-laden arrow.
Heldar quickly channels life into Shaggar's bruised form, easing some of his pain.
Additionally, you technically already identified this type of mummy, based on a description you heard a while ago! Heldar would realize that Shaggar's description matches up with those he already had heard/thought about.
Round 2...
Shuff-shuff-shuff--
A rapid sound of scraping and dragging, and the preserved-but-wasted figure comes into view around the corner, appearing around the pillar of the man with the reptile. The statues do not seem to mind the mummy's progress...
Empty eye sockets stare at the group a fraction of a second, and settle on... Hatyah, of all people (well, creatures), as its target for destruction, despite the fact that she is directly behind someone else and the mummy does not have a clear shot.
Though the shot is well-aimed, Lyrian's presence keeps the shaft from flying true to the hyena.
Heeding Shaggar's advice, the halfling reverses direction and rushes back around a corner. "Rosalia," he whispers in Taldan as he pulls his blade free, "take the other corner ... we'll flank him."