Seherab identifies the creature as he falls asleep!
The sandman tries to slam a sandy fist into Teos, but misses!
Anhkef casts bless before moving to the side, unsure if he's going to try circling around or not.
Teos grunts, tired of creatures of the earth attacking those who should be kin. He moves to pin the creature under his iron muscles.
[snoring]
Teos leverages his low center of gravity and pins the sandman while Seherab sleeps!
Harkuf smacks the snadman with his staff!
The sandman tries to break free from its pinned state, but is unable!
Teos squeezes the elemental, grinding the sand into dust.
Teos squeezes the sandman a little, while Seherab continues to sleep!
Ankhef moves up and pokes at the creature whenever it tries to break free.
Ankhef tries to aid Teos, but has little luck!
Harkuf swings at the creature, but misses as well!
The creature struggles mightily and breaks free from Teos' grapple!
Seherab begins to mumble in his sleep.
Luckily, Teos is especially adept at the primal, man-on-man (or in this case man-on-elemental) struggle involved in matters of grappling, and manages to keep a hold on the earth creature.
Ankhef pokes at the creature whenever it tries to break free.
Teos manages to keep a hold of the sandman, squeezing him a little more!
Ankhef distracts the sandman with his spear!
Harkuf smashes the sandman with his staff!
The struggling sandman tries to break free from Teos' iron grip, but can only muster a feable attempt!
Teos squeezes once more, wondering how much more squeezing the evil, animate pile of sand can take.
Teos squeezes the life out of the sandman. It stops moving and collapses into a pile of sand!
Teos stands up and wipes the sweat off his forehead. He walks over to the Honored Seherab and shakes him gently awake.
Seherab stands up with a stretch and a yawn. "Sheesh! Wake me up next time. Good job though, I guess you didn't need my help too much. Now let's see what this guy was protecting in here."
Seherab takes his time scouring the area and taking notes on anything of historical or cultural interest.
Searching the courtyard, the party finds a suit of +1 scale mail, a +1 light crossbow, five cold iron crossbow bolts, 10 regular crossbow bolts, a gold holy symbol of Sarenrae (worth 25 gp), 3 pp, and 37 gp.
"Anybody need a tap of the wand?"
"I'm fine. I've used all my healing extracts for the day though, so keep that wand at the ready."
Seherab leads the way forward and looks in the room to the left.
Seherab moves east into what looks to be a chapel. Hieroglyphs and images of fantastic beings cover the walls of this small room. A small stone shrine, dusty and thoroughly defaced, stands against the eastern wall. This area appear to have been the household chapel, dedicated to Abadar, Pharasma, and Sarenrae. The Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs on the walls offer praises to the three gods and list several common prayers to each.
Moving north, Seherab sees what must have been the kitchen. Two stone tables sit against the western wall of this room, while a third occupies the southeastern corner. A small, square wooden butcher’s block stands in the northeast corner, now almost collapsing under its own weight. A stone oven sits in the middle of the north wall. A humanoid skeleton lies beneath the northwestern table, surrounded by smashed crockery. A door to
the east and an open doorway to the south, the one at which Seherab is standing, exit the room.
Seherab takes copious notes along the way and leads the party back to the northwest to examine the rooms missed earlier.
Seherab heads west, passing through what looks to have been the servant's dining area. Continuing west, the party comes to a larger dining area.
An enormous stone table, the marble top polished and smooth, runs parallel to the west wall of this large room. A much smaller stone table stands in the east side of the room. Splintered piles of dust and wood lie in the corners and along the walls—the only remains of chairs after untold years. A strong, fetid stench pervades the room.
Half a dozen human skulls have been set upon the western table. Each skull is polished clean and balances atop a tarnished silver goblet standing on a tarnished silver dinner plate.
As the party enters, the skulls lift off the tanle and begin moving toward you, jaws clattering!
The tanned dwarven monk grunts in disgust at the undead abominations and moves up to strike one with his balled fist.
"Wah! Skulls!"
Teos darts forward and punches a skull. It explodes in the spray of bone shards from the strike!
Teos and Seherab knows that these animate skulls are called beheaded. They are a minor from of undead, possessing only the typical undead traits.
Seherab strikes at another skull, but is too unnerved to make the blow count.
"Spirits who posses me, find a new home!"
Ankhef will command undead.
Ankhef pronounces a command and begins to control three of the skulls!
Harkuf moves into the room and swings his staff at a skull, but misses!
The skulls float forward and attack, but only one manages to slam into Harkuf!
"Nasty. Undead. THINGS!" Seherab stabs in frustration at the skull between himself and Teos.
Seherab destroys another skull!
Ankhef initiates some skull on skull violence.
Ankhef follows up on the southern skull himself.
Ankhef commands his skulls to attack the others. They both hit, cracking skulls. Ankhef then follows up, smashing the soutern one to pieces!
Teos headbuts a skull twice!
And Teos takes out the last skull!
Searching this room, you find six silver goblets worth 45 gp each and six
silver plates worth 30 gp each atop the western table.
"Well done! Ankhef. . . are you going to keep those things? Kinda gross, but as long as you clean up after them I guess you can keep them."
Senerab scours the room for anything the party may have missed, then leads the way back to the southwest room to see if anything was missed there. If not, southeast!
"I have no desire for them to follow me home, but they may yet be of some use."
Teos attempts to arrange the broken skulls in some semblance of honorable rest while his companions discuss the fates of the remaining undead.
|
"Way to use your head, Teos!" Harkuf happily extolls. He rubs the bruise from the skull slam while smiling. After a few moments, the smile fades.
"Any of you notice that smell? Shouldn't anything that's buried down here be all dried out? " Harkuf stalks around the room, smelling and trying to find the source of the stink.
Teos smiles a toothy grin at Harkuf's joke. It is noticeable that he is missing a tooth, the training methods of the Ouat monks perhaps being none-too-gentle.
The dwarven monk waves his hand in front of his nose, as though trying to a fan the fumes away.
Seherab leads the party to the south, to the southwestern room. A large staircase climbs to the second floor from this room. Sand and dust cover the floor, and painted columns stand in all but one of the corners. Pieces of broken wood, shattered pottery, and disintegrating fabric litter the room’s perimeter.
Teos points out an engagement ring hidden among the debrie. He gingerly picks it up with a cloth, and hands it to Seherab.
spoiler=GM]
As Teos picks up the ring, a ghostly scene superimposes itself over the ruins of the room, as translucent furniture and decorations like potted palm trees and richly upholstered divans waver into existence. In the center of the room, a ghostly young man clasps the hands of ethereal young woman. They speak in Ancient Osiriani, but any listener can mysteriously understand them, regardless of language.
“I’m so sorry,” the young man says. “I can’t find the ring I bought you anywhere. I just had it!”
“It’s all right, my love,” the girl replies quietly. “It’s not the right time to tell my family anyway.”
“Come with me, Ariseti! Come across the river where we’ll be safe!”
“Not just yet, darling. My father says we’ll be safe here. You go, and when all this is over, you can come back for me, and we’ll announce our engagement then.” She pauses, and reaches out to touch the man’s forehead. “Are you feeling all right? You’re burning up!” With this the vision ends, as first the figures fade from view, followed by the room and its furnishings.
As the scene fades, Seherab feels a hot, fetid breeze on the back of the neck.
(+2 for unusual stonework, +1 for traps)
Seherab is reaching out to examine the ring when the scene begins to play. Seherab watches in fascination, wondering at the scholarly clout he might have for publishing on cultural events of Ancient Osirion, witnessed firsthand. As he feels the breeze on his neck, however, he gets a bad feeling and backs out of the room. "Something's wrong!" he tells the other dwarves.