As you peer into the chamber where the snakes lie, a few things become clearer.
A portion of the tunnels’ stonework has collapsed here, exposing the winding crypts beneath to the harsh sky above. Shallow alcoves line each wall, stacked high with artfully arranged human bones and skulls. In the center of this subterranean chamber, a jumble of bronze springs and copper plates lies tangled in a pile of fallen stone.
Zilchus finds no tracks but human ones, but he's guessing the mess of bronze and copper is what's left of the elegiac compass in area G.
This chamber was once part of the canals of the Veins district that were drained and bricked over when the necropolis was founded. The Pharasmins placed one of their elegiac compasses here, but it broke beyond repair when the roof collapsed on it decades ago. The snakes were merely enjoying the warm sun.
It's a little tricky, but with effort (and rope) you can climb out of the tunnels and into the Necropolis from here. You hear nothing on the surface.
"If you guys don't want to climb up first, maybe Ben can send up Stingy, Nidhi whispers. Then after a pause of thought: "Undead aren't interested in scorpions right? I mean those centipedes up there are HUGE!" Nidhi makes a gesture with her arms to establish how big the bugs are. "I wouldn't send up Bynx. I've never seen an alive cat in the Necropolis." Nidhi shifts her weight from foot to foot, eager to be in the sunlight but unwilling to be the first to climb.
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They really care for me…
Better him than me. Zilchus squashes another snake near Ben. Good thing he was in front of me so they ate him instead of me. Might learn him something good to appreciate those that bleed to protect him.
Zilchus smiles at Ben when he seems to be okay.
* * *
Zilchus offers Cahal the first opportunity to climb up, then will follow so he can pull up others as necessary while Cahal keeps watch.
”Alright, let’s get up there and find a safe spot from which to scout from,” Zilchus sets out a plan.
He will also look for tracks up top as there might be hordes of undead around.
Survival
"Destroyed..." bitterly comments the Professor. "Mmmh...Guess we'll have to deal with it."
Ben prepares to climb up, but then Nidhi proposes to send Stingy up as a scout. Ben thinks about the plan for a moment, and the idea, that at first might have sounded like reckless, strikes him as plausible instead.
Ben lets out Stingy from his cage and allows the celestial scorpion to walk on his hand. Then, amidst the likely suprise of his friend, the scholar starts to explain what he expects from Stingy...to Stingy himself!
"I need you to climb up there, my friend, see what's going on and then come back here to inform me about what you've seen. Think you can do it?"
Actually, the whole conversation is completely unintelligible to the others, as though Ben was speaking an unknown language.
"When he'll come back, he will tell me about what he's seen," says Ben with a smile. "I've learned to communicate with him. Not only I can talk to him, but he can talk to me as well, although our conversations cannot be understood by anyone apart from us."
Stingy scrambles up the debris and climbs, upside down for part of it, out the hole in the ceiling.
He's gone for several moments, each one lengthening as the time ticks by. You hear nothing, and are starting to grow restless when the scorpion returns to the opening and chatters back to Benedictus in a strange tongue.
There are no moving figures above, and though Stingy is somewhat nearsighted, being a scorpion, nothing seems to be moving around the immediate area.
- - -
Zilchus does the actions he described previously, moving up after Cahal.
Benedictus smiles at Florence when she shows her surprise for his new ability. When the young woman asks him about the way in which he has learned to speak with his familiar, and how to possibly transpose the same method to her familiar, the Osirionologist ponders from a moment, all while the group still waits for Stingy to return.
“I have learned it naturally, if I may say so, in the sense that today, when I woke up, I felt like I would be able to speak with Stingy. I don’t know where that awareness came from, but it was leading me to an inner confidence. So I tried to speak with Stingy and he understood me! That was startling, at first, but then I spent about half an hour familiarizing with our new medium of communication and I got used to it rather quickly.”
Ben smiles as he speaks, grateful to Florence for giving him the chance to meditate on something he had let pass almost completely unthought.
“As for replicating this with Bynx...Mmmh, well, I’ve heard several stories about spellcasters who were able to speak with their familiar, like I just did with Stingy. I believe that the major change has to occur in the familiar, however, and not in the spellcaster. I feel like this is a skill that familiar unlock while they get more and more powerful. But if you consider that a familiar’s progression is thought to be entirely dependant on his master’s progresses, well, I suppose that you just have to push your limits a little further and you will be able to speak with Bynx!.”
***
The conversation is a nice distraction. When it dies, Stingy has returned and reported what he saw. And Ben does the same for his friends. “Stingy has reported that there’s no sign of activity up there. There seems to have been a cave in a very long time ago, but apart from that, nothing remarkable. We can climb up!”
The party reaches the surface without incident and stands in the warming morning sun in the Necropolis. No undead are immediately visible to you, though there is a background noise in the region you didn't hear last time you were here.
Before all was silent, now there seems to be a shuffling of the wind, a sifting of the sands, a general energy that was not there before. But perhaps it's just a change in the weather...
Where do you plan to go from here?
Zilchus thinks about the mental map and places the party's position near G.
He points to the map and puts bits of copper over areas G, K, L, M, and O. ”These are what we call Elegiac Compasses. We haven’t used them in decades, so I don’t know if any of them will still be working, but if so these devices sense necromantic energy. Our inquisitors have used them to track and subdue strong pockets of undead in the Necropolis throughout the centuries. I suggest you start there, and if they work, you should be able to triangulate onto this mask you seek. If it’s as powerful as you say, it’ll be revealed easily enough.”
”However, if that doesn’t do it, or they’re just not working, I’ve made contact with some Dark Folk called the Xotl who dwell beneath Vizier’s Hill. You could speak with Unwrapped Harmony, their leader, in the old villa of the Asetiti family, here.” he puts a silver bit over area I. ”I do not know how much they will help you, but it could be worth a try.”
”Finally, there are some residents I’ve only recently become aware of who are somewhat troubling. A cult of Lamia called the Amushet. It’s a stretch that they’re involved, but, well, they are evil, so who knows what they’re up to in there.” He puts another silver bit over area H. ”This is the Cenotaph of the Cynic, and I think where they make their lair.”
"There should be a compass nearby. Let's go there (the compass at G), then over that way," Zilchus points to the nearest other compass (L), "After we see if we can get this compass to work."
The twisted metal in the wreckage is what's left of the compass here. It doesn't look like you'll get it working by normal means.
"Aww man," Nidhi stares down at the wreckage that used to be a Elegiac Compass. "I wonder how it was damaged..." Nidhi examines the spot for five minutes.
Nidhi looks towards the area Zilchus points at. That's closer to the gate where the undead have been swarming. Nidhi takes out her bow when the party decides to move that way.
"Agreed. Let's get moving then. I hope at least a few of them are still intact..." says Ben while he walks toward the next compass location with his friends. "And yes, I agree with you Cahal. We must lay low and move fast. I will try to memorize our path, so that we can come back quickly if needed."
You find your next target without too much difficulty. There was a substantial pack of ghouls moving down a parallel street but you waited a moment, hiding until they passed, and managed to arrive without a battle that could attract others.
This elegiac compass is contained on the roof of an old glassblower’s shop. It was repurposed to serve as a humble family mausoleum generations ago, but the storefront, and even some stock, was left alone. You enter the shop cautiously and easily see the sand and dust here has been disturbed recently. And by something large.
The shop is relatively small. There’s a stairwell leading to the second floor as well as a door to the back of the structure. How do you proceed?
"Back here," Zilchus leads to the back.
Zilchus enters back door first, keeping an eye out for trouble and tracks.
Perception
Tracks - where do they go? how recent is recent?
You, presumably, follow the tracks, and find they lead to a large fissure in the ground behind the building. The fissure descends into the earth beyond your light source and, as it's still early, the sun is not quite high enough to illuminate the depths of the pit.
- - -
Zilchus stops well short of following some tracks to a fissure outside the back of the building, his falchion unsheathed and weapon cord bound.
"I'll bet there is something in there...and it's something we may not want to fight. But I'd rather not have it behind us, especially since it's been in the house and might consider it part of its territory," Zilchus points with his sword at the fissure.
"I hope it's not a giant centipede that made those tracks..." comments Cahal, sneaking a look at Nidhi.
"C- centipede?" Nidhi turns pale. "I- I don't want to go down that hole. If the bug isn't bothering anybody we should just leave it alone." Nidhi glances over at her companions nervously, "Err- I mean- fighting it might attract unnecessary attention."
"But if you all insist on going down there, I'll stand watch here. You know, to make sure nothing else goes down the tunnel." Whew! Good cover, Nidhi!
The fissure is irregular, but about 20' across at its widest point. It looks like a natural sinkhole, which happens irregularly in Wati, though this is very large.
There are no boulders or other large stones along it's perimeter, but it very nearly fills the courtyard and the nearby buildings provide plenty of opportunities to tie off a rope.
Sounds like the party may be avoiding this particular hole in the ground. If so, where do you go? Upstairs I presume, but please confirm.
Zilchus looks at Florence and Nidhi, trying to make sure they know what they are saying. He offers a strategic, and more aggressive, viewpoint.
"Are you sure you want to leave this foe behind us? You know that if it comes be-nipping at our heels, it will likely be *your* heels that are nipped? Cahal and I are usually in front," Zilchus makes the point. "In addition, we don't *have* to go down there...we have bows and higher ground advantages, but it seems silly not to explore it a bit."
Zilchus waits to see if Nidhi and Florence wish to reconsider or if Ben has any bright ideas.
"What if those tracks belong to a lamia?" suggests Ben, shaking at the thought. "I'll try and see if there's a magic aura down there".
Regardless of the outcomes of his detection, Benedictus will look to his companion with a quizzical look on his face. "Mmmh, a part of me says we should be investigating this hole, and another one suggests me to just leave it be and move on...Anyone feels brave today? I think we should at least try to get a general idea of what this sinkhole contains..."
Zilchus can confirm that they are not Lamia tracks. Benedictus' detections reveal nothing in the darkness, though now that he's gone to the edge and peered in, he can see a rough floor 35' down or so and a cave opening leading off. Looks like it was once a water channel, now dried up.
"Looks like that was a water channel, once. See that rough floor, down there. Wait, I'll send some lights down...OK, everyone can see it? I believe we should explore the tunnel, my friends...I know it sounds risky, and it probably is, but there could be something potentially interesting for our purposes down there...
How exactly does the party investigate the hole? You've likely learned all you can from here at the edge of it.
I know discussions can take time in PbP, but please remember to post something happening not just discussion. You can say things like, 'If the party agrees to investigate the hole, I do X.' or something similar so we're not waiting on a whole extra round once the decision is made to determine what people do.
We're stalling a bit lately, and I'd like to keep us moving, but I can't make decisions for you, especially ones that endanger your characters. :)
Now that the party has agreement, Zilchus steps to what appears to be a safe part of the edge of the fissure. He casts light on a silver piece, then sends a few of his shinier silver and coppers down into the fissure.
”I figure the creature has been snaking baubles over the last few weeks. Maybe these shiny baubles will attract him.”
Florence drops the end of a rope, and Zilchus some coins, well lit.
Nothing stirs below however, though the darkness is somewhat lifted by the multiple light sources.
Benedictus shakes his head. He was hoping for Florence and Zilchus's ideas to solve the problem, or for Cahal or Nidhi to volunteer to climb down the hole. "Seems like we'll have to descend, my friends. I would volunteer myself, but you know, I think I wouldn't be the most suited one for the task at hand. I'm a terrible climber, and if something decides to attack me as soon as I land, without the protection of Zilchus or Cahal I would probably die, no matter how many protective spell I could cast on me before descending."
The scholar scratches his chin, thoughful. "I propose we climb down in pairs. Zilchus, would you like to come with me? We're the one who insisted on exploring this tunnel, after all. And besides, we're the men of the group. We get to do it, I'm afraid."
If Zilchus accepts his offer, Benedictus will have the others lower two ropes and slowly climb down using one of them. During the climb, he will ensure that he and Zilchus land together on the ground.
If the hole cannot contain two climbing men at the same time, Benedictus will ask Zilchus to climb first and will follow immediately after, meaning that he will start to climb not when Zilchus has landed, but as soon as there's enough space on the rope for him, so that his feet are at a few inches of distance from Zilchus' hands .
_________________
Zilchus looks at Ben, then the descent.
"I don't think we should descend. I wanted to explore, maybe catch it asleep, but not sure I want to go down there," Zilchus says. "Given our options now, Ben, I'd think we should go to the shop and barricade the door."
Zilchus looks to see if anyone else vehemently thinks they should go down, then, if not, returns to the shop and enters after looking around.
Perception
Ben carefully considers Zilchus' answers, and eventually decides to give up on his idea to explore the tunnel.
Way too risky, he's right.
"Very well. I understand, and I honestly can't ensure you all that what we would find down there would be necessarily useful to us. So OK, let's to back to the shop."
Ben follows Zilchus, and helps him (at a distance) in barricading the door, perhaps passing him some nails with mage hand or handing him out some tools with the same spell.
"Uhh... you all sure we should go down there? I mean it's not attacking us or anything." Nidhi continues to stand firmly outside in the sunlight. She doesn't make any moves to suggest she's preparing to climb down the hole. Nidhi is not eager to go looking for some giant grotesque bug.
Nidhi is relieved that the party decided against spelunking. She joins the others inside the shop and glances around.
The party returns to the shop and looks around. Though Nidhi is very perceptive, nothing further of note is found, though Nidhi is shudderingly aware that whatever searched this place slithered more than walked.
To bolster the door against intrusion, you push an old display case in front of it, making it hard to open, and a noisy prospect.
Checking the back room quickly before heading up the stairs (DMPC), the party finds it has been converted to a crypt. Four of the six tombs are empty - three of them having never had a body. In one however, you can hear the scratching of someone, or something, trying to get out. But the heavy sealed stone is proving difficult, if not impossible, to whatever lies within.
*scritch*, *scratch*, *whump*
Ben does not answer directly to Florence's question, hoping to never have to do it. "Hello?", he tries instead, addressing to whatever lies within the tomb, "if you're something...alive, know that we don't mean any harm and we could help. Can you hear me? Do you even understand my words?"
Looking at the other tombs, if they're as thick as this one, it's unlikely the occupant can hear Benedictus - at least not intelligibly.
Nevertheless, as he closes in to shout through the stone, the scratching seems to intensify.
*scritch*, *scratch*, *whump* *scritch*, *scratch*, *whump*
Zilchus tries to help Cahal by keeping guard over the opening so that if something jumps out, it jumps in his sword.
He will offer Cahal the crowbar to use while he stands where it should open.
Cahal pushes the heavy stone lid aside with some effort, and is rewarded with an attack by the skeleton inside! The fight is short however, as it’s only a single skeleton, and the scratching is no more. Frustratingly, a quick search of the tomb reveals no grave goods of any value.
The group mounts the stairs (the only other way to go) to find several rooms of what was once a family apartment above the shop. They too have been converted to crypts, but nothing stirs. You find a trapdoor leading to the roof, but the ladder has long since rotted away along with most of the door itself.
A grappling hook with rope is all that’s needed to surface on the hot roof, with a decent view of this immediate area, and you see what looks very much like an intact compass not too far from the entry.
"Wow, an intact compass! I wasn't counting on it anymore."