"Feel the cold, punks!" Brynark yells as one falls to his snow flurry.
Teos summons inner strength and kips up to his feet.
He punches at the one who tripped him.
Teos stands, taking a deep wound for his trouble, then punches out, but misses the man in the mask!
The masked man's khopesh snakes out again, and catches the back of Seherab's leg, knocking the investigator to the ground!
Seherab lets out an oof! as he falls down but rather than risk standing up he stabs at the masked man's shins.
Seherab stays on the ground, and attacks the masked man, slashing the man's calf with his shortsword, and causing the man to hiss in pain and anger!
The eastern man stabs at the prone Seherab, but misses!
The western man reaches down and touches Seherab with his electrically charged hand, shocking the investigator!
L-13
R-
G-
Brynark sends a Ray of Frost at the man in green as he simultaneously directs the flurrying cloud of snow at the man in the golden mask.
Ankhef commands his servants to attack the man in the golden mask before the snowcloud rolls in.
Ankhef will cast his final second level spell for the day and then try and rescue Seherab.
The monk dances back a few feet into a flank position, and then lashes out with his bare foot at the western cohort, attempting to remove an opponent from harassing honored Seherab. His shendyt makes little fluttering noises as his feet repeatedly whip up at the mans temple.
Ankhef's summoned elemental slams a dirty fist into the leader, while the skeleton misses with both of its claws. Meanwhile, Ankhef moves up, dodging an attack from the cultist, and heals Seherab!
Teos lifts up onto the pads of his feet and nimbly backpeddles into a flanking position, then slams his fist twice into the cultist. Despite his heavy injuries, the man still stands!
Brynark's personal flurry glides above the masked leader, and pelts the man with ice. His mask hampering his peripheral vision, the man doesn't notice until it's too late, taking the full damage from the ice storm.
Brynark then fires off an errant frost ray, freezing the far wall.
The masked leader steps west and attacks the prone investigator. His first blow cuts into Seherab, but the second scrapes across the floor!
L-23
R-
G-18
Seherab does not risk standing up in so sensitive a position but instead keeps focusing his sword on the leader's legs.
Seherab slashes out with his blade, cutting the leader, and apparently nicking the femoral artery, as the man's collapses in a pool of blood!
Seeing their leader fall, the two men cry out in anger and slash at Seherab.
Both men plunge their shortswords into Seherab's prone body, nearly sending him to unconsciousness!
G-18
R-
Teos lashes out at the western foe again, stepping over to continue his assault against the eastern vagabond.
Teos punches the man in green, breaking the man's nose, and dropping him. Taking a step to the east, Teos lands two more punches on the remaining cultist!
Seherab studies the next foe from the ground and again slashes at the man's tendons.
Acting before Ankhef and Brynark get a chance, Seherab slashes the remaining man, dropping him to the floor!
Hearing things quite down, Ptemenib limps slowly into the room. "I heard things quiet down. Figured you either won, or lost and I was in trouble." Looking at Teo and Seherab, he shakes his head. "You two look awful. Let me heal you a bit." Grapsing his holy symbol, he calls on the power of Pharasma.
Seeing the bleeding stemmed, but not stopped, he channels again.
Searching the bodies you find the three cultists each carried a potion of undetectable alignment, scroll of whispering wind, oil of taggit, dagger, five darts, short sword, cloak of resistance +1, spell component pouch, spellbook, thieve's tools, brass funerary mask (worth 25 gp), 3 turquoises (worth 10 gp/ea), and 4 gp.
On the leader you find studded leather armor, composite shortbow (+3 Str) with 20 arrows, mwk kukri, natron fang (+1 khopesh), a key, a gold funerary mask (worth 50 gp), and 21 gp.
Seherab stands up and dusts himself off as he sheathes his sword. "Thank you, Ptemenib. They really had me in a bad place there for a bit."
The party scholar examines the khopesh admiringly for a bit, sad that he is not trained in such weapons and leaves it to the others, along with most of the others. "This cloak could be useful though. Does anyone mind if I keep it for myself?"
Searching the room, you note a large iron chest and smaller wooden chest, though they are locked. Using the key found on the leader, you unlock the iron chest and find a handy haversack and an assortment of gemstones, necklaces, rings, statuettes, and other items worth a total of 3,765 gp. In the smaller chest, you unlock it to find the rest of Ptemenib's possessions.
"I have a cloak that bolsters my immunities, so you three can keep theirs." Brynark says as he enjoys the healing from Ptemnib.
"I am interested in the khopesh and the spellbooks, however..." Brynark states, examining the weapon.
"Also, I am feeling a bit hot. Perhaps if I turn down the freezing factor on my snowcloud then we can just cool off a bit." he states as he brings the cloud over him and the snow drifts solemnly over his head. The sweat on his brow freezes into little icicles.
"Ah, much better."
Ankhef nods to Brynark, "Take the books, we'll manage a fair accounting in the end when we're not quite so panicked."
Ankhef looks around "Anything else to do here, or should we head back to the temple?"
Brynark will follow Ankhef's guidance as he tries to examine the weapon. "Lead the way, brother." he says. "I am merely learning of this mission and have no bearing on what to do next."
Petemnib watches intently, but merely follows along.
Teos picks up the funerary mask. Why man hide face? he finger-speaks to Seherab and Ankhef inquisitively.
Teos will lead into the final room, when the group is ready.
"Why does anyone hide their identity?" Seherab asks back. "Likely because he knew that whatever he was doing was wrong and was ashamed, down below the surface."
Seherab follows Teos into the next room with his short-sword at the ready.
Teos leads the way west to the other set of door. Opening them, the party hears the gentle lapping of water echoing in this chamber. Stone stairs descend from a raised platform into a subterranean canal that leads west. Loading exit the chamber to the south. Within are two men and dog-like creature. They turn at the party's entrance and draw their weapons!
The man act quicker than the party, rushing over to attack!
Despite their quick reflexes, both men miss as they rush their strikes!
Ankhef casts Bless!
"Nice try," Seherab mutters as he watches out for a weak spot in the man's defenses and strikes out.
Teos stomps at the foot of the man Seherab struck, and follows it up with a poke to his windpipe. Neither, however, comes remotely close to actually hitting.
Brynark steps back and sees the enemies closely grouped and decides to try out a new spell. "Don't touch the frost." the warlock yells in Dwarven to his allies.
Brynark weaves his hands in a magical incantation and a slow, chilling frost descend on the area with the hyena and the Silver Chain. "Freeze!" yells the dwarf as they feel a rush of cold that chills their very core.
As the men rush the party and fail to lands their strikes, Ankhef casts a spell, blessing the party!
Seherab studies the posture of the man next to him, finds a weak spot, and stabs the man in the side!
Teos rocks back on his heels avoiding the attack aimed at him, but is off balance when he retaliates, missing with both punches!
Brynark calls upon his cold magic, unleashing an arcane frost upon the foes. Unaccustomed to such cold, all three are bitterly frostbitten and staggered by the icy chill penetrating their cores!
The hyena merely whines with a queer, laughing bark, and moves to the north.
The two men continues attacking the party, as the northern man misses Teos, while the southern just manages to jab his punching dagger under Seherab's guard!
S-15
H-10
"Is that all? It's not about the amount of force, you know, but where it is applied." Seherab's keen eyes watch out for an opening and then he quickly stabs with short sword but despite his own advice he only strikes the man's armor, sending his sword skirting off to the side.
Teos channels the patience of water chipping away from stone as he continues his attempts to knock some sense into the brigands
Ankhef helps Seherab out with a guidance before stepping back in case his allies need more space.
Bryanrk keeps focusing as the frost congeals around the feet of the men. Stepping back, he looks on with pleasure as the enemies begin to freeze.
Seherab parries and thrusts, but misses!
With Ankhef's guidance, Teos lands an open handed strike against the northern man, dropping him. He then lands two blows against the southern man, dropping him as well!
Brynark's cold is enough to freeze the hyena in place!
Searching the two men you find they each carried a potion of cure light wounds, alchemist's fire, holy water, +1 leather armor, hand crossbow with 10 bolts, punching dagger, sap, antitoxin, climber's kit, crowbar, mwk thieve's tools, sunrods (2), silver chain braclet (worth 50 gp), and 5 gp.
The hyena was apparently trained for fighting as it wears leather barding.
Searching the room turns up nothing of interest.
Seherab takes a hit from the wand and collects all of the items into his handy haversack. "Let's follow these doors to the south and make sure there are no ruffians left in this place. We will need to alert the authorities to keep a watch in case there are any other hideouts and the Silver Chain is not destroyed by our efforts here."
Anhkef nods at Seberab's suggestion.
"Wise counsel, dwarf brother. Let us head south." Brynark says in agreement as he begins to feel the drain of his magic. "Hopefully there is not too much more trouble."
Smiling at the groups resolution. Teos takes a moment to bind the unconscious men and then moves to the southern doors.
Heading south, the party enters a pairs of double doors, and moves into a large chamber. Beakers, cauldrons, and other alchemical equipment crowd several tables in this cramped room. A decomposing body sprawls across the floor, its face concealed behind a brass funerary mask.
Ankhef don't notice no nothin'
Teos quickly makes a silent handsign.
Out!
He quickly retreats from the room, unceremoniously grabbing and dragging any stragglers behind him.
"You don't smell that?" Brynark asks as he covers his nose. "Ugh... who had beans for lunch?"
As the dwarf smells it, he realizes that it might be poison, seemingly as Teos realizes it as well.
"I'm gonna assume you want us to leave from the poison cloud, right?" Brynark jests with the mute as the latter pushes him out the door.
Ankhef is slow on the uptake and gets dragged out by Teos.
Seherab backs quickly away at the others' pressing. "That was close. Brynark, we really should teach you the Dwarven sign language. It is essential for dealing with our cousin Teos here. That was close. Now how do we get in there without succumbing to the poison? I have worked with the stuff before so I've got more of an immunity than most and I might be able to neutralize it."
Seherab starts looking around for some common ingredients he might use to burn off the cloud safely.
Thinking fast, Seherab mixes up a powdered antitoxin of tumbled charcoal, natron, and pulverized ceramics. As he does so, the rest of party notes that with the doors open, the gas appears to be dispersing a little. Seherab then tosses his mixture into the room, where it billows into a cloud on impact, and neutralizes the remaining gas.
One able to enter safely, the party finds little of interest aside from the decomposing body. It still has its equipment consisting of a potion of undetectable alignment, scroll of whispering wind, oil of taggit, dagger, five darts, short sword, cloak of resistance +1, spell component pouch, thieve's tools, brass funerary mask (worth 25 gp), 3 turquoises (worth 10 gp/ea), and 4 gp.
Besides the equipment, you find a letter on the body.
Move quickly. Once the Pharasmins open the necropolis to explorers, we run the risk of outsiders finding the mask first. Succeed, and Hakotep's moment of resurrection will soon be at hand. I do not need to tell you how much I would loathe expressing the Sky Pharaoh's displeasure should you fail.
-Meret-Hetef
(+12 on checks that pertain to dwarves or their enemies)
---
Seherab's expression grows dark as he reads the letter and passes it to his companions. "So the Silver Chain were only lackeys doing the bidding of some other cult, it seems. And they are up to something nefarious, it sounds like. Resurrections done in secret are rarely for the better of the populace at large. The Pharasmins need to hear this development as soon as possible."
[ooc]Is the mask of the guy in the other room the mask mentioned in the letter?