Usathis the kasatha
Kembe the blink dog.
Bunursa the rabbitfolk who loves treasure.
Ava the ghost girl who is possessing the body of a little black rabbit.
Talonflame the falcon. Bunursa's loyal pet.
Ankhet the dwarf. She's followed in her father's footsteps and become an alchemist. Usathis, Bunursa and Kembe found her in the Necropolis and she's been their 'child' ever since.
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When we last left off the local church of Pharasma announced that the Necropolis was being opened to adventurers! They were holding a lottery to see which groups would get to explore which tombs.
The group was excited! Kembe has long sought for an ancient magical staff lost in the Necropolis, while Bunursa loves stealing the ancient treasures found within. The group often sneaks into the Necropolis, so the chance to delve -- legally -- for treasure was too amazing to pass up! They signed up together as an adventuring team named the 'Sand Seekers' and were assigned their first tomb!
The Tomb of Ahkentepi.
The group gathered their gear and entered the Necropolis...
Usathis is a tall pale kasatha with four arms, and a long head with intertwining lines tattooed along its length. He wears loose clothes, fine leather armour, a belt around his waist and a scarf around his face. He does not like to show his mouth, so even among family, he rarely takes off his scarf. Usathis has a shield strapped to one arm, and a three other weapons on his belt, a longsword, a light pick and a light mace. Darts are strapped across his chest and a full backpack is on his back. He has no hair anywhere on his body.
Usathis has always hated unnatural creatures, like undead and constructs. His tribe was killed by giants, so he has grown to hate them, as well. He never eats meat, or harms animals. He loves gardening and caring for his environment, so whenever he takes a plant, he is always sure to bury its seeds nearby and give them a sprinkling of water. He's started a fine garden outside of his mud-brick home, and on top of Bunursa's warren, which the family all works on together.
He was happy to head into the Necropolis today. He doesn't like breaking the law, but he knows that his friend, Kembe's mission is important, so he usually makes an exception so he can help in the Necropolis. But, today, he was welcomed in. It was SO much nicer without having to worry about being arrested!
Usathis walks near the front, right beside his friend, Usathis. He makes Ankhet is right behind him, in case of traps. He keeps an eye out for danger, ready to leap into battle to protect his family!
Kembe is an honourable blink dog with red and white fur and piercing blue eyes. He cares about honour, oaths, prophecy and destiny. His people are secretive and clannish. He has always held an interest in the movement of celestial bodies, planets and stars. He protects others when they are in need. Particularly the kasatha. His people’s oral history remembers when they came to Golarion from the stars.
Portents led him on a quest to search for a magical rod from the Necropolis of Wati. He does not say why. Upon journeying towards the city he came upon a Kasatha with no concept of his history. Kembe saw something in Usathis and took it as a sign. He decided that he was meant to meet this man, and protect him from the encroaching darkness that Kembe and his people saw written in the stars. A long time had passed since then, and he had yet to find the staff of his visions. But perhaps, with the Necropolis open to him, he would find it soon!
Kembe walks at the front of the group, beside Usathis. He sniffs at the air and looks around, wary of danger.
Bunursa is a black and brown furred rabbit folk with long ears. She wears ancient gold jewelry -- claimed from the tombs of the Necropolis -- and white Osiriani clothes. She wears a cestus on each forearm and carries a crossbow in her hand. On her hip is strapped a drum.
Bunursa is thrilled to be here today. She loves treasure. Especially free treasure. And today, she could steal all kinds of things! What fun!
She walks behind Ankhet, with Ava beside her, and Talonflame flying in the skies above.
Talonflame soars through the air beside Bunursa, staying close to his master.
Ava hops along right beside Bunursa's feet. She is so scared! They were going to go into a tomb! Those might have ghosts! Or traps!
Spooky!
"Oh, Auntie Bunursa! I am so scared! Can we go home?"
Bunursa smiles down at the little ghost girl who was possessing a black bunny rabbit. "It will be alright, Ava. We're going to have a treasure hunt. Won't that be fun?"
The bunny shakes in fear. "It won't be fun if we find m-m-monsters!"
Ankhet is a youthful dwarf, barely into adulthood. She has brown skin and a round happy face. Her hair is black, worn in braids, and decorated with golden clasps and beads discovered in the tombs of Wati. She wears modern Osiriani armour and clothes, and wields a fine khopesh. A wide variety of alchemical items and vials are clipped to her belt.
She walks in the middle of the group, content to let her Uncle Usathis and Uncle Kembe lead the way. As they travel she keeps an eye out for traps -- like the one that killed her father -- and undead -- like the one that ate her father alive. Even today the sight haunted her. Scared her.
She wouldn't let anyone close to her die. Not today. Not ever.
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The Tomb of Ahkentepi was a rectangular stone mausoleum sitting alone in what appeared to have once been an actual cemetery. The trunks of a few dead trees poke out of the sand around the tomb, and a hot breeze whistles through their desiccated branches. A set of massive stone double doors is a fixed to the northern side of the structure, beneath a facade bearing the likeness of an Osirian man. Windblown sand is heaped around the crypt, partially burying the doors that lead within.
The Sand Seekers had pulled out Ankhet and Usathis' shovels and quickly dug out the door. Ankhet checked them for traps and realized that this tomb was never meant to be reopened, but that it had been sometime in the last twenty years or so. Usathis pulled open the doors and they found themselves in a small chamber with a massive stone wheel in its far wall. The walls here were carved with engravings and hieroglyphs honouring the departed Ahkentepi, while the stone wheel was engraved with a large spiral, and was set in stone track in the floor and ceiling.
Ankhet once again checked the room and doors for traps, the moved to inspect the doors. She decided that the wheel could be safely rolled along the tracks to open and close a doorway. before she could try to push the door open an angry scorpion who had been using this chamber as a home popped out of the sand and attacked!
The group easily quashed the bug, and got to work pushing open the door. While they did, Ankhet read the hieroglyphics aloud. She learned that Ahkentepi was a celebrated military commander who was buried well before Wati's fall. There is also warning carved into the walls which read:
"Akhentepi's tomb is well defended, and those who defile it tempt the wrath of the gods. The only thing the Lady of Graves despises more than the grave robber is the unsuccess l grave robber. Turn back while you can."
After passing through the wheel door Ankhet wedged it open with pitons, to ensure they couldn't be locked inside. Then they continued deeper into the tomb. They found themselves in a plain square room with a a square hole in the floor. Through it was a shaft that drops straight down into darkness. A faint musty odor rises from the pit. A single piton has been hammered into the stone door by the northeast corner of the pit, and a dusty length of rope dangles from the piton into the darkness of the shaft. The rope and piton looked old, but not ancient. Likely from the time when the tomb was last opened by robbers.
The group lit a torch and dropped it into the shaft, only to discover that there was a chamber sixty feet below. The old rope only extended five feet into the shaft, the shaft's walls extended ten feet, and then the chamber opened completely for the next fifty.
Usathis and Ankhet pulled out their ropes and tied them off, allowing most of the group to climb down the rope. Talonflame flew down the shaft, while Kembe simply teleported, disappeared from beside Usathis in a puff of blue smoke, then reappearing in the chamber below a moment later.
You now find yourselves in the lower chamber. Mirrored images of a warrior in side profile, facing inward, are carved on an ornate pair of stone doors in the west wall of this square room. The figure is depicted wearing padded armor, with a scarab-shaped shield on the arm facing the viewer, and a raised khopesh held aloft in the other. A crumpled humanoid body lies directly in front of the doors. A hint of decay hangs in the air, and a dried stain mars the stone floor under the body. The square square shaft in the middle of the ceiling leads straight up into the room you just came from....
Ankhet looks around the room nervously, wary of traps and enemies...
"I don't seen any traps..." she admits. She points up to the ceiling. "But this whole room is a death trap. If our rope up there broke this room would be impossible to climb up out of. You'd have to fly or use magic." With a grin at Kembe she adds, "Or travel through the ethereal plane like Uncle Kembe."
She pulls out her khopesh and points to the door. "There's a body on the floor over there. Careful."
After pointing it out she takes a jug from her belt and drinks the contents.
Bunursa looks around curiously.
"Where's the treasure? Where's the treasure? Where is IT! I hope the robbers didn't take it all!"
She flails around her arms and stomps her feet impatiently.
Talonflame flies behind Bunursa patiently.
Ava shakes beside Bunursa's foot.
"Yikes! That dead body is scary! He might be a skeleton!"
Upon seeing the body, Usathis immediately rushes over the body and slices it's head off!
"You are right, Ava. It could an undead abomination. That is why I chopped its head off."
Looking at Bunursa he says, "Bunursa. I do not think they were robbers. I think they were people who tried to make this place safe. The Voice of the Spire."
Kembe looks up at the ceiling and then looks at the ancient Osiriani writing. He sniffs at the air.
He disappears in a puff of smoke and reappears a moment later beside Usathis.
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As Usathis brings his longsword down on the neck of the corpse it falls off easily. He doesn't believe it was an undead. And it's certainly not a skeleton, either! This dead body has skin.
Kembe can smell dust and old death on the air. There's also the faint scent of grease.
Ankhet approaches the dead body and looks it over...
"Well, this man's certainly no Voice of the Spire." she says after checking out the body. "He doesn't have a holy symbol on him, or those cleric robes. He's got... rusty armour, broken gear... Oh! There's a few pitons here that are still good. And a hammer. Two vials of alchemist's fire." She takes the alchemist's fire and puts it into her backpack along with the pitons and hammer. "Grave robber. I think he was a human or a half elf... Both of his legs are broken. Like he fell from a great height..."
Ankhet gets up and dusts off her hands. Then she glances back up at the shaft. "Looks like this guy fell from that rope up there and dragged himself over here before dying. But... If the grave robber died down here... How were the doors all shut?"
After a few moments she shrugs. "Door looks safe, Uncle Usathis. You can open it."
Usathis opens the door and looks inside!
If he sees any undead that come within his reach he will stab it!
"I smell dust, old death, and the faint scent of grease..."
Kembe looks inside the next room and sniffs.
Talonflame swoops down and lands on Bunursa's shoulder.
Ava shakes in fear when the door gets opened. She lets out a little shriek of panic and runs around Bunursa's feet.
"Aah!"
Then she gets dizzy and falls over.
Bunursa steps closer and peeks inside, looking for treasure!
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The walls of this ten-foot-wide corridor feature carvings of great battles. Armies with spears and shields clash at the direction of generals, while other leaders direct troops from chariots that are ruthlessly overrunning their enemies. Engraved stone double doors stand at either end ofthe hallway. Like the last doors, these show an image of Ahkentepi on each of them, although this time he is depicted as an older man riding a chariot. In one hand he holds the same scarab shield as the last image, but with the second hand he points forward, as if ordering his army into battle.
Ankhet moves to the front of the group and looks around.
"Wait! This hall is trapped!" Ankhet slowly walks into the room. "There's a big pressure plate right on the floor at the end of the hall. It looks like if one of us steps on it the walls will fire something at us. Darts or bolts, probably." She enters the hall, kneels down on the ground, and pulls out her thieve's tools. "Stay back. I'm going to try to jam the plate."
After a little while she stands up and puts her tools away. Then she returns to the end of the hallway.
"That's the best I could do. Hopefully it's enough. Go ahead, Uncle Usathis. We'll enter the hall after you check if it's safe."
Ankhet waits for Usathis to step on the pressure plate and test if its safe for them to cross.
Usathis eyes the pressure plate. "Kembe?"
"Yes! Fear not, companions. I will go ahead."
Kembe walks across the hall and stands on the pressure plate.
If the trap goes off he well quickly blink back...
"Good luck, Kembe!"
Ava covers up her glowing blue eyes with her little paws. "Oh, I can't watch!" she squeals.
Seeing that the hall is safe Ankhet smiles and pumps her fist. "Yes!"
She walks down the hall and examines all of the interesting carvings. She pulls out her notebook and charcoal and takes some notes on the room like her father taught her how to do a long time ago. History was worth preserving and respecting! Recording it for future generations was very important. That was the difference between an archaeologist and a tomb robber.
And Ankhet was no tomb robber.
Bunursa, on the other hand, WAS a tomb raider.
"Let's go, go, go! I wanna find the treasure!" she exclaims, bouncing impatiently in place.
Talonflame flies ahead of Bunursa.
Ava is too scared! She shakes and shivers in fear, and stays right beside Bunursa's feet.
"Yikes! Don't leave me in here! It could be haunted!"
Usathis walks over to Ava and crouches down so she can see him well.
"Fear not, little Ava. I will protect you from harm."
He pats her gently on the head.
Then he stands up and walks over to the door. He opens the door and looks into the next room.
Kembe follows Usathis.
Ankhet puts away her papers. "Coming."
She hurries over, and peers into the next room.
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A large tapestry hangs on a wooden frame on the far wall of this chamber. Faded and delicate, the tapestry depicts a middle-aged man, accompanied by a woman and two children, with a small estate in the background. To either side of the tapestry are two small pedestals, upon which sit two mummified cats. Stone double doors exit the chamber on both sides of the room.
Ankhet looks around. "Looks safe."
She heads into the room and examines the tapestry. After reading the hieroglyphics around she explains, "This is a picture of Ahkentepi and his family. His wife and children befell some kind of tragedy. Murder or sickness of something. Anyway, it seems like they were all quite young when that happened."
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Kembe can tell that the room to the right smell of dust, while the rooms to the left smell of earth and dung.
Ankhet can tell that the tapestry is valuable (100 gp), but also very delicate. If it's not taken care of properly it will fall apart and become worthless. She can't tell if the mummified cats are valuable, but it's possible. Mummies tend to sell for decent coin.
Ava calms down in Usathis' hands. "Thank you."
Bunursa races right into the next room. She looks around for sparkly treasure. Finding none, she looks at boring treasure. First the tapestry, then the mummy cats.
"Hmmm... Let's take them all!" She grabs the mummy cats and sticks them in her backpack.
"Can you preserve this tapestry with your alchemy, Ankhet?"