Since they seem to be normal creatures with no special resistances Calla will go with the usual bread and butter! She calmly spends a mythic point to use her Intensified Spell Metamagic for 10 rounds without increasing the casting time (swift action), draws the Empower Rod (move action), and also spends a reservoir point (free action) to empower the not-so-standard spell she casts next.
"Fear my Fireball!"
Hemket burns one of the large ones down, we'll say B1. Marius hastes the group and Calla drops a monstrous fireball on the group of creatures.. The heat was so intense it left the sand crystallized and the water steaming.. It did not however have the effect wanted on the bird things as they look undamaged..
Hadjii starts a summoning spell while flying up in the air..
Logos casts shield of himself and waits for them to approach..
The swarm flies up into the group, engulfing 3 of you..
Calla is apared..
Logos, Hemket, and Marius need DC 15 fort vs Distraction and DC 15 fort or be blinded for ..
Yall also take plus 1 bleed
the big ones launch into the air, 2 move up and attempt to blind you all.. 2 toss wings shards.. DC 19 fort or be blinded for the duration of the fight.
Logos and Hemket get attacked by the shards..
Logos hit, miss.. Hemket 2 misses
plus another bleed.
Group is back up.. The swarm is among you except Calla, you all take another bleed damage as well..
surge
Volley at another biggun. (deadly aim, rapid for 3, haste etc)
2 biguns down..
totally blinded by the first flash, the Hadj tries to finish his spell:
he'll put a swarm of bats right where he saw the flash come from -- those two flyers might take swarm damage at the start of their turn (I assume they will turn out to be immune, however...)
for his turn, Hadjii the blind air elemental will start another full-round casting, swapping out his prepared Flame Strike for a spontaneous Summon Nature's Ally IV. If he somehow makes it to next round, maybe some air elementals who still have their sight can distract the flying goons for a bit...
any chance the big one's blinding effect hits a cone rather than a radius? any chance that cone would fail to encompass both those on the ground and those 50' up?
Seeing as the creatures weren't even fazed by Calla's fireball Marius channels his divine power to heal the group. Marius will then spend a myhtic point to get another standard action and activate his protection aura to give everyone a +2 deflection bonus to ac, and resist 5 to all elements.
Calla is pissed off. She is gonna freaking kill these b~!!$es!
Since she has friends among the enemy ranks she instead draws her Selective Rod and applies it to the spell, making all of her party immune to the effects of the ball she casts!
"Losers! Frostball!"
Update in the morn..
fail.. The swarm goes down to chinatown with the frostball..
Logos does his charge pounce thing at one of the biguns.. Mp for sudden attack and negate pa pens..
all hits..
he leaves it mangled but alive due to its DR..
The bird thing attacks him as he charges in though..
but misses..
Seeing the loss of their young and 1/2 of the adults the 2 uninjured birds take flight and are 240' away in a mtter of seconds.. The remaining injured one stay and is dealth with..
Out of Combat.. A slow river trickles on.. Actions?
Search the area for loot since we're greedy bastiches.
Hadjii's swarm will pursue the surviving bird-things for two rounds -- and the twitty elementals will chase the birds for over a quarter of a mile -- before they disappear...
Hadjii will cast Detect Magic and also fly around looking for goodies of note:
Help search the area for loot since we're greedy bastiches.
"Let's follow the river for a while. It's more likely to have structures and other kinds of life."
Nothing is found outside of the water..
for completeness The Hadj will fly low over the river, scanning down visually for shiny objects dropped by birds -- and with Detect Magic still going, in case there are subdued magic items hidden on the bottom...
Searching around yall dont find anything of importance.. Scanning the water reveals no magical auras..
So north by northwest?
2 days pass and nothing is found but dirt and scurrying lizards..
Where to next?
Head back to the NE heck, so dead north of the river hex.
Ok, how about that hex 2 north of the river one with the star?
Sand, sand, river, river, sand, sand, even more sand.. Thats what you see over the next 3 days..
Where to next?
"I'm getting tired of all these wanderings and no temple. Do you guys think we've missed the temple somewhere?"
"Can't imagine it will be easy to find, or it wouldn't be a lost temple would it?"
A full week of walking in sand goes by with nothing happening to speak of.. Late afternoon on the 7th day you come upon a ruined and ancient village..
"Broken rock walls offer scant shade from the burning desert sun, but cloth sheets painted with triangles and yellow and blue stripes stretch between the crumbling walls, affording some shelter. Here and there, the walls remain intact enough to suggest the frame of a building, but the ruins otherwise appear ravaged by time. Still, the ruins show some signs of habitation. Wooden barrels topped with white marble lids stand in a shady area next to a wall. On the outskirts of the ruins, wooden racks hold stretched and drying animal hides. The hum of conversation drifts on the dry breeze."
You see a pair of 7-foot-tall, dark-skinned humans with the lower limbs of lions and gold-feathered wings stretching from their backs standing guard outside the entrance to the place..
They both seem to notice the notice, but take no hostile actions other than grabbing a scimitar in wach hand..
Marius motions at the lion people. "Maybe they know where it is?"
Marius waves at the new people glad that they didn't hide their monstrous forms like some creatures did.
They do not verbally respond, but one casts a spell.. Your to far away to tell what it was though..
Calla casts Mirror Image and analyzes the creatures better.
She will ask the others to wait and will send her Invisible Arcane Eye to take a closer look at the creatures, entering the structure if possible, to see what and who is inside.
elemental Hadjii will cast his prepared Bear's Endurance on himself, and descend from 100' up to 50' up, circling directly above the Maftets. He'll call out any Maftet weaknesses he may be aware of.
The 2 watch yall cast spells from there post.. They each start cast spells as well when 4 more show up, as well as a different looking one.. Obviously a higher ranking guy.. Even at a distance you can see he has white hair and looks as if he has age on him.. After confering with the guards he motions yall to move closer..
Marius will move closer though he will remain wary since everyone seems to be casting spells left and right.
Im just gonna assume the rest follow.. The group approaches a well armed group of 7.. Its leader comes out in front and motions for you to halt 20' away.. He speaks calmly and very precise..
"What are you doing here and why do you ask this question?"
"Peace, friend. I'd rather not get into a fight..." He holds his hands out and palm down.
Multiple Callas stand a little behind Logos, just in case. "We look for a place which should remain lost for eternity, but it has been found, and by the wrong people. We're trying to fix that."
Hadjii relates well with animals (especially canines), not people -- so with little hope of saying anything that will favorably influence the situation, Hadjii will simply try to Aid Another on the check made by the ever-charismatic Marius:
from 50' up, everyone hears something like "uh, no kill I"...
Marius finds it lucky that he liked cats, and they liked him ever since he was a boy because it seems that the creatures were like cats.
"We're brave adventures going to clear that Sphinx out of the Cultists of the Forgotten Pharaoh who took over."
Marius smiles winningly at the Maftets trying to put them at ease.