After a brief discussion, Javi nods and skulks down the corridor to his right, warily sidestepping the columns despite assurances that any arcane nasties are suppressed. He slides between the fifth column and the wall, peeking around the corner but mostly trusting to his ears to detect any threats. If he finds none, he presses quietly forward. He moves with a practiced care, doing his best to search for traps and triggers by touch and sound as much as by his goggle-hindered sight.
Javi edges around the corner to see-- a very short 'stairwell' leading up. It's only five steps and then a small landing. There appears to be a door, maybe? with some writing on it up ahead, though from his current angle it would be hard to make out the script.
He hears no signs of enemies, and he sees nothing that jumps out to him as a trap.
Lyrian listens carefully.
Lyrian is unable to tell anything more about what he senses even when he listens carefully.
**
This doesn't seem to be a 'door' so much as a stone slab where a door might have stood, to block the doorway. There are no handles, knobs, or hinges, for instance-- although you can see scrape marks on the floor before the 'door' to indicate that it might have been dragged or shoved into position. A circular wax seal about five inches in diameter is unbroken along the top lintel of the 'door', showing that this stone has not been moved since the wax seal was placed there, at least. The seal features the symbolic runes of three of the four pharoahs, but they are not circled versions of the runes, and thus, they are not a part of the 'cursed' runes.
The 'door' has hieroglyphic script in Ancient Osiriani.
He has been given the number sufficient to a traitor. May he be forgotten and his name unspoken!
Heldar follows behind the group's scouts, keeping a safe distance and trying not to step where he shouldn't. He waits at the bottom of the short stairway waiting for the 'go ahead' sign.
Sensing no immediate danger, Javi sneaks forward to the door-thing, flipping out his wayfinder to get a better look.
Not a minute later, he pokes his head back around the corner, waving the group forward. ”Some Ancient Osiriani up here. And the way’s blocked by a massive stone.” When they approach, Javi spends a bit of time making sure there aren’t any more hidden nasty surprises on or around the stone.
”Someone spent a lot of effort,” he mutters as he searches the edges of the stone with his tiny fingers, ”making sure whatever’s in there stays in there.”
Shaggar approaches and reads the inscription aloud. "He has been given the number sufficient to a traitor. May he be forgotten and his name unspoken! Hrm. The truth or a ruse?"
Javi pauses in his work. "You think all those acid-burned-out spots are where his name once was?"
Javi ascertains the presence of no traps, though his fingers, eyes, and ears make a full circuit of the block of rock.
Heldar joins the others up the stairs, listening to Shaggar's words, pondering them carefully - "The Pharaoh of Numbers then - he would be entombed here?" - he asks as much to himself as to the others, straining to dig up memories of their recent events for a clue - "I get the sensation that his name will play a big part in our endeavours, but we do not know it. As I said before, it is lost to time" - he sighs.
"Any other way to navigate this door Javi?"
Jav shrugs as he looks. "Havne't seen any so far ... so I'm gonna say ... sledge hammers or magic?"
"If this leads to his sealed crypt, perhaps we should leave it alone for now. Much as I don't want to tackle the multiple traps in the other direction, at least there is a corridor beyond it."
Lyrian speaks up. "If the inscription is about numbers, perhaps that pharaoh was the one who ordered it inscribed, and another lies buried within. Either way, I am content to search more of the pyramid before we try to breach this door. You rarely bury vast treasures with someone and then call them a traitor."
Javi's eyes reveal the scrape marks he already noticed. It is possible that brute force could shove the stone block in further?
The runes of the three pharaohs that are visible on the wax seal are those of the Pharaoh of Numbers, the Radiant Pharaoh, and the Cerulean Pharaoh. By process of elimination, the missing symbol would be that of the Fiend Pharaoh... which would also match up with the heavily defaced statue, again by process of elimination.
The corridor leading the other direction waits...
Shaggar glances at his clawed feet, "There's a tremor coming through the stone. That's concerning." The gnoll heads back into the entrance corridor - just to ensure no blocks of stone are sealing their exit.
There are no blocks of stone sealing your exit. All your base are belong to us.
Shaggar trots a short distance up the sloping entrance/exit shaft, but is reassured when he can see that same square of daylight far, far away. It seems to be static, neither increasing nor decreasing in size.
Jav shrugs as he looks. "Havne't seen any so far ... so I'm gonna say ... sledge hammers or magic?"
"Unfortunately my magic doesn't really offer me many options to bypass such obstacles" - Heldar smiles at his companion, then turns to both Shaggar and Lyrian as they offer their perspective - "I believe I agree. Best evaluate our options before we begin breaking down doors"
Shaggar glances at his clawed feet, "There's a tremor coming through the stone. That's concerning." The gnoll heads back into the entrance corridor - just to ensure no blocks of stone are sealing their exit.
Heldar follows their gnoll guide - "What do you think it can be?"
"I have no idea - perhaps stones moving. Maybe by destroying the guardian or setting off the pillar's magic... something was set in motion."
"We can wait a few moments, or perhaps move further towards the entrance to check?" - Heldar adds - "Else, let us return to the hallway, and navigate towards the unexplored end?"
"That," says Lyrian to Heldar's third option, and leads the way, looking carefully for trouble.
Lyrian hears more rumbling now. In fact, everyone can hear it at this point: it seems to be coming from down the unexplored corridor.
"That's what we came for," says Lyrian, nocking an arrow and advancing cautiously.
First, he uses the spell sift to examine the whole corridor. Then he advances cautiously, continuing to look for trouble.
Shaggar rubs the fur on his muzzle, "Is there a way to counter the effects of that final pillar?"
Lyrian stands amid the pillars, next to the statue of the man with the reptilian creature and takes a bit of time to carefully scrutinize the corridor going forward.
He is unsurprised to recognize that the next statue along is trapped in a similar fashion to the others. The simplest way to disable it, of course, would be to say the name of the Pharaoh of Numbers, but nobody has heard what that Pharaoh's name might be.
Disabling it seems rather difficult given that you would need to stand close enough to do so-- and, from Shaggar's educational sojourn near one of the pillars, merely standing close enough to reach the pillar seems to be a painful experience. Perhaps if you had those sets of thieves' tools they sell with extenders.
Lyrian is also able to tell, via his keen experience of such affairs, that the energy tied to the statue seems to be acid-based, as the energy tied to the pillar of the woman was sound-based.
Using his spell of seeing to look past that statue and onto the pillar of glittering obsidian...
The script on this statue does not seem to be Osriani hieroglyphics at all. No familiar bird shapes or scarabs to be found-- the writing is a script that combines both angular and squiggly elements...
It seems to almost... writhe around the blank pillar. Lyrian would be tempted to dismiss this as a trick of the flickering torchlight, except-- you have no torches, and Heldar's magical light burns soft and steady. Still, it sort of swims before his magically-extended sight.
Lyrian is fairly sure he has seen this language before-- it is script in the obscure and otherworldly Aklo tongue. He thinks if he concentrated he might be able to decipher it.
He does not actually see any encircled runes in the twisting script, however.
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Strange vibrations in the floors and bizarre, writhing, alien script? Rosalia's becoming increasingly nervous about her time in this pyramid, and she begins to wonder anew if they made the right decision to pursue this mission from the Society. She tries to shake off the nervous gnawing in the pit of her stomach and focus on the task at hand, occasionally shooting a subtle glance over her shoulder to make sure the sunlight from the entrance is still visible behind her.
"Given a short time I could memorise some spells to potentially help us with both this trap and the stone," she informs the rest in a matter-of-fact voice. "An invisible servant to walk ahead of us and set off the trap, for example. Though I'm not convinced it would not immediately reset..."
"Or perhaps a spell to imbue Shaggar with even more brute strength than what he already has," Rosalia adds with a smirk.
"Alternatively, we just make a run for it and hope for the best. I don't fancy standing around here for too long with that rumbling coming closer..."
"Let me try something first," says Lyrian with more confidence than he actually feels.
He begins to chant a few short phrases of his own mystical language.
As Lyrian works delicately with fine tools of invisible arcane energy, his face drawn in concentration... the rumbling picks up. Now everybody can hear it-- a ponderous sort of groaning, stone under stress, little vibrations in the stone under your feet. It seems to come sort of from down the hall that is as-yet-unexplored.
Everyone tenses, braced for anything from a ceiling collapse to a pit yawning below them....
....and the rumble recedes, growing quieter with every passing breath.
Lyrian drops back to his companions, bow in hand, ready face whatever comes.
"That is disturbing," he observes. "No good here. You were saying, Rosalia?"
The rumbling grows fainter until it is no longer detectable by ears or through vibrations. Those who had held their breath exhale again, and possibly trade tense glances if it is in their nature to do so.
However, nothing happens. It becomes the deathly quiet of a tomb again.
Returning to the inscription in Aklo, via his use of the cantrip to perceive at a distance, Lyrian is able to return to deciphering the obscure script.
The letters swim before his eyes and seem to rearrange themselves in alien fashion even as he struggles to comprehend them and compare them to the snippets of Aklo he has seen before. There are moments where he feels that he might almost have the meaning, but as his mind stretches to encompass the concepts he loses it again.
After a few moments of concentration, Lyrian feels a pressure building behind his eyes that gets worse and worse until he realizes he has a splitting headache and that he's gasping for breath as if he'd run a mile. His mind feels thick and clouded, as if the nature of the world itself has become a little more confusing.
Heldar braces for some sort of impact that actually never hits. He looks around at his companions - "Something is happening..."
Focusing his attention on Lyrian, he waits for his feedback - "What are you up to my friend?"
"Um..." says Lyrian, blinking. "My chariot is full of eels."
"Uh, bad juju on one of the inscrip..inscrit...drawings."
"Ok then..." - Heldar seems to realize that Lyrian is somehow befuddled - "Do not take any further risks my friend - what do you feel?" - he asks, worried about his condition.
"Well, we need to make a decision - I can use further spells to try and supress the magical traps ahead, or we can try to pry open the stone door. What do you think friends?"
Pondering for a few moments, the Oracle adds - "Dispelling magical effects is quite a powerful spell , and even though all the magical trappings seem to indicate that something important is being guarded, I wouldn't be surprised if this was all a ruse, to deplete resources... That being said, I think we should try the stone door again, maybe pry it open - that would be my suggestion"
Shaggar's eyes shift between the two obvious choices... as he decides on a third. "If I were trying to protect my secrets, both courses would be a trap." The gnoll stays at least 5' from the 'live' pillars and methodically begins searching for a hidden door.
Staying five feet away from the 'live' pillars, Shaggar begins a super-methodical search-- rapping on the stone, tapping with his claws, even sniffing at hieroglyphics.
He devotes a solid minute to thoroughly checking the stone for secret doors, hidden compartments. He finds nothing.
As the team debates the next action, Javi pulls off his goggles and looks at the stones at the base of the remaining pillars ... hoping to find any pressure-plates or other discrete but exploitable mechanisms. Failing that, he gives the same look at the architecture around the pillars.