With a chuckle, Javi stands up on his tiptoes to take his turn at the looking device. After a minute, he lets out a surprisingly disappointed, ”Huh … I think I’ve seen something like this before.”
He fishes in his belt pouch for a few seconds, then pulls out a few marbles, quickly regarding and discarding all but one … which he holds up for a few seconds before looking back through the looking device’s eye piece.
”Yup … looks like a dusty old marble.” The marble held does, in fact, have a surprising similarity to Aucturn. Javi winks at the group, ”We sure this thing isn’t just looking deeply into my pockets?”
He tosses the marble up into the air, then makes it disappear like the others back into the mismatched folds of his clothes. He then resumes taking all the small-enough-to-be-taken artifacts that aren’t nailed down and depositing it in the sack.
Rosalia lingers by the door. She has put Rook down, but is standing with her arms wrapped tightly around herself, and makes no move to help in the looting of the astrological instruments nor to look in the eyepiece. Occasionally she throws nervous glances over her shoulder as if expecting someone to be sneaking up on her.
Heldar grabs the pile of scrolls, laying them carefully down on the closeby desk, sharing what he has learned about them with the others - "We may find use for some of these, I believe" - then moves off again - "Now, and even though they are not magical, perhaps important information can be found on the remaining papyrus spread around this place" - he adds, beginning to sort through the remaining scrolls, trying to find clues regarding the purpose of the room's apparatus, or the apparently decreasing numbers they found in the previous rooms.
Perhaps important information can be found, yes-- but where to begin? There are hundreds on hundreds of scrolls here. A quick glance over a random sampling of the scrolls reveals that a fair number of them appear to be star charts-- though many features constellations you are completely unfamiliar with.
Other scrolls contain complex mathematical formulae, well beyond your ability to grasp-- it seems to be things concerned with such concepts as how many times might a string be cut in half if one had an infinitely long string and an infinitely sharp pair of shears, and what number multiplied by what other number produces a sum of two, and what is the precise ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, and other such high-falutin' concepts.
Some scrolls appear on your brief glimpses to be diagrams of some sort of machinery: it looks like a lopsided circle with a man inside. Other scrolls contain poetic-religious text such as you saw in the room of knowledge-- again praising the Stranger.
After a few minutes, Heldar resigns himself to the fact that there are just too many scrolls to easily ascertain what might be the most interesting or valuable information here. The Society would likely tell you to bring back all of them, but... that's a lot of scrolls. Nine-hundred-and-ninety, if you're counting.
Rosalia watches Heldar's searching disinterestedly. She sits down with her back to the wall and pulls her cloak a little around herself, as the air of the tomb is cold when one isn't moving terribly much.
Javi finishes bagging whatever items the pathfinders point out, though he can't help but look over at Rosalia. "You alright?"
He pauses by her on his way back towards the creepy bowl room and the northern door beyond. For once, there is no snarky quip or sarcastic tone when he speaks to her quietly. "He's out of your head, right?"
Otherwise, he stands a quiet, patient vigil at the room's exit. "I'm ready to move forward when you guys are."
She gets to her feet and grips the hilt of her sword again. Only the keen-eyed, or Javi as he's right there, might notice the minute tremble of her hand before she does so.
Javi makes his way to the other door! He listens a second time, and hears nothing. A quick search for traps reveals it is trap free. As soon as the others give him the signal, he grunts and shoves the door open.
With Heldar's light spilling behind him, Javi sees... another decent-sized chamber. Many jars and ornate boxes line the walls here, as well as a divan. Javi catches glimpses of rich fabrics and furs, glints of gold and precious metals.
There are three other things that occupy his immediate interest.
In the northwest corner of the room, there appears to be a large, standing glass box. Javi thinks can just make out an unmoving figure inside the box.
In the northeast corner of the room, there is an... egg? Maybe? There is a large, sort-of-egg-shaped object, anyway. It's a good ten feet long on its long axis, and maybe seven to eight on its short axis. It possibly looks to be made of metal.
Finally, there is a sarcophagus made of black stone. It is standing, facing the doorway, the lid shut. A non-circled version of the rune of the Pharaoh of Numbers, inlaid in gold, is the only decoration on it Javi can see.
As Javi scans the northern room, he waits for a time when Rosalia seems particularly unfocused or occupied, then whispers to the rest of the group.
"I'm worried about Rosalia. She seems off since we made her face down the bowl. I ... uh ... think we may have broken her brain." Jumping between topics in his usual Javi-like fashion, he points into the room. "Any of you sense any magic in there? Do we want to do anything about that coffin before I sneak in to test for traps?"
Shaggar glances at his allies and perks his ears in Rosalia's direction... He listens quietly before turning his attention to Heldar.
"I have a large sack, sayyid. On our way out, I'll happily empty it and stuff it full of scrolls. Some will be lost but many will be saved. But I think that wall counting down in the other room is telling us when this temple will return to the Stranger. I don't want to be inside it when that happens. Let us move on before time is against us."
Shaggar follows the halfing and glances balefully into the room, nodding his head at Javi's wise suggestion about magic snoopery. "Before I take a well-earned nap on that divan, that would be wise." He glances at Rosalia, considering Javi's thoughts about her.
Lyrian gazes into the room, searching for magical auras.
.
Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
There's a fair bit of magic in this room. Lyrian takes the time to sort out the many auras. The crystal or glass thing in the northwest corner definitely radiates magic. There are a few other points of magic scattered around the containers in the room and the back wall of the room seems to have some magic as well. The large egg-shape radiates multiple very strong magical auras.
The sarcophagus radiates no magic.
Rosalia seems to be slowly following the others. When it's pointed out there's magic in the room, she tears her gaze away from the knocked-over basin and edges closer to the door. Rook darts around and weaves between her feet, his tail twitching restlessly.
Rosalia scans the room with her own version of the spell that Lyrian had cast, and starts helping him identify the auras. "A lot of transmutation," she says tonelessly. "Some illusion. Some enchantment. Some abjuration.... oh, necromancy..."
"That egg thing's especially strong," she says, rubbing at her forehead and the bridge of her nose. "It's got at least five spells on it I can see? About the only school I'm not finding in this room is evocation. Not much divination either."
"This is either a treasury of some sort, or a very obvious trap" - Heldar jests, winking at Javi.
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"Treasury - I've always dreamt of a giant, spell-tainted, egg."
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"Could you imagine anything more unusual than that master Shaggar - therein lies its worth, does it not?"
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The gnoll nods, "It will make a fine omelet for Hatyah."
Rosalia seems to lose interest in the spells once she's pronounced her analysis of the multiple schools of magic. She returns to flicking the occasional brooding glance at the knocked-over basin, then looking determinedly elsewhere.
Going in? Doing more analysis of all the things to analyze? Trying to crack a metallic-looking egg? Going to go check on Hatyah? Stopping for coffee?
Javi listens to the arcane discussion, then pipes back up. "Alright. So, there's a ton of magic in there. Gotcha."
He takes his first tentative step forward. "I'll sweep for traps. Try not to let me die too gruesomely."
Then he sneaks in, using anything he can for cover as his eyes, ears, and fingers pry for triggers, traps, and threats.
Javi circles around the room...
He passes numerous chests, containers, jars, and casks. Other than giving them a look over to make sure there are no obvious traps or threats lurking in them, he avoids the temptation for now...
In short order, he comes to the crystal cage in the back. It looks large enough to accommodate the form of most grown humans.... might be a bit of a squeeze for Shaggar. There is a small stone flask, sealed, sitting on the floor next to the base of the glass box.
The box itself has an unmoving form inside. It appears to be that of an Osiriani woman, young, reasonably attractive, dressed in the clothing one might expect of a pleasure-girl. After a few seconds of looking, Javi is fairly sure 'she' is actually just a statue made of pale sandstone.
Next to the statue-in-the-box, Javi taps the wall testingly-- and finds that his fingers go right through. The back wall of the room appears to be an illusion, though it remains solidly in place even when he sticks his fingers through it and he still can't see through it.
Shaggar puts a claw on Rosalia's shoulder and 'escorts' her into the room, concerned what she might do if left on her own.
Rosalia starts visibly when Shaggar does so. "Don't sneak up on me like that!" she snaps, sounding more like herself than she has in a few minutes, never mind that Shaggar didn't exactly 'sneak up' on her. She gives him a huffy glare and scoops up Rook before striding into the room. She gravitates towards the jars and things that Javi's already cleared as being trapless, starting to poke idly into the containers.
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Javi waves to get the team’s attention, then waves them forward, indicating they should follow his own path. As he waits, he checks to see if any of the un-trapped chests, jars, or casks are easily opened. If so, he gives a cursory look to see what they contain.
It’s the slave-girl box and adjacent flask that beg for his attention, though. After a second of waiting, he can’t help himself, and gives the flask a tentative poke. Then he stoops down low to try to smell it … hoping for some hint of what’s contained therein.
When the group is close enough, he puts the tip of his blade through the wall a few times demonstratively before whispering, ”False wall.” He touches the glass box, ”Creepy slave girl in a box.” Then the adjacent flask, ”Object of curiosity.” He finishes with a tap to his own chest, ”Curious, curious cat. Someoene please check it for magic stuffs before I lose my self-control.”
He looks at the other half of the room, completing his whisper, ”And let me know when you want me to check the rest.”
Heldar does as requested by his stealthy companion, and again focuses his senses to look for magical auras in the vicinity of Javi.
"Why put a statue in a box?" Lyrian wonders out loud, watching the statue with curiosity.
"That's why I was curious about what kinds of magic are on it and the flask."
While waiting, Javi tentatively pokes his hand through the false wall another few times. Curiosity getting the better of him, he sticks his face through.
Guess what, Heldar? There's magic in the room! Sadly, without Spellcraft, you can tell nothing other than that certain items are magical. The cage/box, as Rosalia and Lyrian have learend, is certainly magical. The small stone flask that Javi is poking at is magical too. So is the wall that he's sticking his hand through. So is a fair bit of Javi's gear.
As Javi waits for people to examine the spells, he sticks his face through the wall....
...and finds empty air. It is dark in here. You are likely to be eaten by a grue. Still, you have a handy wayfinder. That or you ask your roving light source in the form of Heldar to come inside the illusory wall, one of the two.
As for the statue-girl... why, indeed? It is a great mystery. It is a bigger mystery, it seems, than using one's magical abilities to try to uncover the nature of the enchantments upon the box.
Rosalia gets there eventually, however. She frowns as she peers at the statue woman, and then at the little stone jar, and then at the box.
"They're both radiating transmutation magic," she says after some intense scrutiny. "But I can't tell what spells, exactly. Sorry..."
Rosalia returns to looking in the boxes. They are not locked, and Javi and Rosalia and anyone else who is interested is able to poke around inside them. Rosalia has found a statue of a falcon, and Javi sees that the box nearest to him contains a beautiful, and likely extremely valuable, pendant that is set with three large red stones that resemble pearls. Javi, your 'woah, money!' senses are tingling....
Rosalia confirms that both of these items are magical, and attempts to untangle the enchantments.
Rosalia looks covetously at that necklace, Javi. "Oh. That's-- that's really useful. Those stones... I think they're pearls of power... wow. Uh-- I think I should wear that."
It is dark in here. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Heldar approaches the cage and the girl, since he really cannot contribute much to the identification of the magical auras all around them - "Hello, can you hear us?" - he speaks to the girl.
Javi absently gives Rosalia the pearls of power, his attention firmly on the illusion-walled hole. After a few seconds, he pulls his head back through the illusion. After a quick, confused look between Heldar and the stone girl, he whispers to the group, relaying what he found.
”There’s a hallway back there. Some kind of thin vertical shaft going straight down and then a ten by ten foot hallway that just keeps going.” He returns to his suspicious watching of Heldar and the inanimate woman. ”How long was I through that wall? Did she talk or something?”
Javi waits for the team to finish any inspection of anything on this side of the room, then he sweeps the other side ... similarly looking for traps or threats.
The statue of the girl remains a statue. It does not answer Heldar. It is disappointing. Double-alas: Lyrian is unable to identify the enchantments.
Javi... well... they're... probably designed for things to be able to move through them? That is the only reason you can think of for there to be gaps in the otherwise solid stone-block construction of the pyramid. The ten-foot-wide hallway may well be the only way the big egg thing was gotten into the room, however, (well, short of magic) because it looks too wide to have been fit through the room's actual door. The vertical shaft is about 4 feet around, and easily wide enough to allow most humans/human-sized creatures to move through it.
Javi scours the other side of the room. The weird egg thing has all sorts of gears and movable levers on its surface; Javi takes his time going over it to make sure that none of the moving doo-dads contain any traps. Up close, it does appear to be made of metal. The surface of the thing, especially near the narrower tip of the egg, seems to be pitted with long narrow scratches and grooves (as in, not part of its design, but damage inflicted on it).
Beyond that, Javi mostly finds more luxurious items. There is a robe made of fine, pleated linen, very lightweight and feeling almost silk-like. The linen has been dyed black, and metallic gold thread picks out designs along the hem-- ankhs, imenets, and amentas. Rosalia comes over to poke at that robe, even as she's adjusting her very impressive new necklace with its three pearls-of-power.
"Ooh. I've heard of these! This is a robe of bones!"
After relaying his thoughts on the hidden hallways and the egg-thing, Javi begins poking around at all the expensive-looking stuff. He can't help but let his eyes continually be drawn back to the black stone sarcophagus.
”You think he’s in there?” he whispers after making an ’i’m not touching that’ expression at the robe of bones, ”Because that’s creepy as all hells to think about. Secondarily, do you think he’s the key to shutting down that count down?”
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The gnoll looks curiously at the halfling, "Do you wish to stay in here longer than another 24 hours?" He runs a claw over the robe. "You'd look fetching in this, Javi. I think dead women would swoon."
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"I think this place is just lovely. And other than that whole 'getting trapped on another planet that's likely uninhabitable' thing, its' got a certain timeless appeal."
He gives the robe another dismissive look, "Psh ... I always look fetching."
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The gnoll 'grins'. "As I imagined, you have a poet's soul, friend Javi."
Shaggar cracks his knuckles and goes owl-eyed over the mechanical egg then gently lays a claw on the first handle. "I believe this is a T'cheem Battle-Spider from the late C'thon Period - sort of an armored war-wagon... with chitinous legs instead of wheels. Shall I test that theory?"
Javi covers his privates.
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"Why certainly, Shaggar," says Lyrian. "Give it a whirl."
Shaggar yelps a laugh and throws the lever.
On the plus side, Rosalia seems a little more engaged in this room, at least-- she's moving around and poking at things without explicit prompting or guidance from others, and not just staring broodingly into space.
"Hmm... I can try and figure out the spells on the egg..." she says, a second before Shaggar yanks on a lever!
Shaggar, make me a save against... disappointment, as nothing eats you or breaks your face. There is a 'click' from inside the egg's exterior, and then a soft hissing noise and a gentle puff of pleasantly-warm air on your face. A section of the metallic shell moves smoothly to one side, letting you look into the inside of the egg.
Soft, gold-colored light flares up on the inside as the 'door' opens. You can see what appears to be a... sumptuous couch, inside? The bulk of the interior space is taken up with a cushioned area, perhaps eight feet by four, piled with several pillows. The air that is puffing out over your face smells fresh and clean, not the stagnant, chilly air that has permeated the tomb so far.
"...I wasn't expecting that," Rosalia says after a beat, peering in after Shaggar. She starts trying to decipher spells.
"Hmm.... can't tell what some of these are... well, there's a light spell, of course... an air bubble...? Endure elements... a variation of the overland flight spell...?"
Shaggar actually looks excited. "This thing flies and gives air?"
"Yes," Rosalia says with a frown, peering inside. "And does other things, though I can't tell what, exactly. ...looks comfortable, at least."
Rosalia looks as if she's debating getting inside the egg, then thinks better of it and moves back over to the crystal-cage-and-statue. "She's pretty. I wonder if maybe she was the pharaph's favorite, or something."
There are no wheels at ground level to indicate how this might have been transported: it looks to heavy and cumbersome to simply have been dragged, and all the levers and such probably wouldn't take very well to being rolled along the ground. It's big enough to accommodate a person or two, certainly. Beyond that, you really have no idea what the giant egg thing might be or do.
Since Javi doesn't want it, Rosalia scoops up the robe of bones as well and tries it on, examining her reflection in the glass of the crystal cage. The black linen robe was made for someone much taller than Rosalia-- it drapes on the ground around her ankles like a pool of shadow, and the drapery completely swallows up her body into gold-accented blackness.
"I think I'm wearing a substantial amount of the old pharaoh's wealth right now," she observes to nobody in particular. "If we find a crown, I can start passing myself off as a princess. Yay."
Rosalia laughs a little, a hollow-sounding noise.
Lyrian starts looking for ways to open the box and get a closer look at that statue, despite his own atrophied sense of common sense meekly shaking its head within his subconscious.
Lyrian opens the box. There is no lock, simply a catch on one panel that is easily opened.
The statue stares ahead at him with the blank stare of all stonework. The woman stands straight with her hands quiescent at her sides. The statue's body language is that of calm waiting.
Nothing bad happens as a result of Lyrian opening the case.
Rosalia gazes at the statue a moment, then reaches inside and pokes the statue. The statue does not react. Nothing else bad happens.
"Perhaps, we should pack what we can carry and keep moving. I wouldn't mind trying to flying this strange egg out the tunnel but we should leave that til last."
Shaggar steps through the illusory wall and looks up and down the small shaft.
Shaggar disappears from view through the wall. He moves to the shaft and peers down it.
Everyone hears a voice, not Shaggar's, saying a quick word from somewhere behind the wall.
Shaggar, what would you like to do about this?
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Lyrian, debating what to do next, is slow to realize the danger confronting Shaggar.
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Sparkly Shaggar's red eyes gleam down at the woman. He growls "The false Radiant Pharoah - or her twin - has come." Still in a fey (or perhaps 'crazed gnoll') mood, Shaggar drops his axe and steps calmly into the narrow tunnel. He drops like a stone at the woman, claws and fangs ready for action.
Of course, he realises after he's taken the plunge that were he a wily caster, he wouldn't be where he appeared... Still an acceptable risk.