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"Hmm...yah. Water's movin so there must be a hole in here somewhere."
Sarsczek carefully enters the room and then peers at the treasures. "Nah much treasures left. I wonder why dees are left. Traps meh-bee?"
He hops over to the treasure shelf in the middle and carefully inspects where the remaining treasures sit, looking for traps or guardians.
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Drawing attention to his observation, Look it seems there is a slight current toward the eastern wall, Elaqis you got anything you can send in and scout around?
The gnome looks confused as he glances into the room and notices what is to him just a barren stripped chamber and more pools, but he shrugs. "Well, your eyes have been quite keen enough so far. Though is that 'current' is just more leashes I am sure they would expect an apology."
With a dismissive gesture, the ice mephit flitting about vanishes. In mere moments, it is replaced by a water elemental - only one this time, but a larger specimen than the two called before.
"Hello! Welcome to the Prime plane! Well, adjacent to the Prime. Actually it used to be on the Material plane but then got brought to a demi - you know I'm not sure the full details matter. But can you go and have a look down there. There appears to be a current: does it lead below or further behind the wall?"
@Unnvar: Your keen eyes not only see the current, but 4 pairs of eyes peering from below the water surface.
Clandelve sees one pair of eyes; Sarsczek and Elaqis see 2 pairs of eyes, until Unnvar points out the other 2 pairs that are better hidden.
August doesn't see anything until they point them out in the water, he still strains to see the last one.
@Elaqis: You can wait to summon your water elemental if you'd like.
@Sarsczek: You can hold off on jumping onto the next platform, if you'd like.
@Unnvar: Changing your knowledge check to local, you believe they are lizardfolk. They speak Draconic.
The 2 lizardfolk closest to Sarsczek stand up. The one on the right speaks, its voice unsure of the group,
The two standing have their hands on their weapons. The other 2 are still hiding.
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In Draconic Sarsczek quizzically responds. "Me?"
Sarsczek looks down at his scaley skin, then back around at the rest of the party. He laughs for a moment and then studies the one who spoke before continuing in Draconic. "Oh yeah! I've got scaley skin and they are all smooth skins! We're re-search-ing. I do whatever these guys say. I'm..."
He makes a hissing sound, followed by a short growl and clicking of his tongue against his teeth.
"... but my friends call me Sarsczek. This is my friend Elaqis. I think he knows what we're doing. I juss do what he says. Unless he tells me to do somethin bad. But he hasn't so I like him!"
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As Unnvar and Sarsczek mention him, the gnome enters the room and steps up beside the tiefling.
"Well, I wouldn't say I am in charge, but yes my name is Elaqis. This is Sarsczek, Owyn, and our friends. This entire tomb was once found on a different world, where we are from, but it and other locales were taken to here. Our organization just recently acquired a means to reach it again, and so we sought to explore and document it."
"But it appears we are not the only ones interested in this tomb. Do you live here now? And are you the only ones here? As the Iomedaen said, we would love to learn more about your culture here. You clearly know the area much better than us: enough to be clever enough not to have to deal with mummies at least!" Elaqis flashes a big grin at that last part.
@Sarsczek: They seemed a bit unnerved, not just by your presence, but you get the feeling they are not acting as they would like.
With Owyn's words, the lizardfolk seem to relax a bit. In Draconic: "We are working for bad smooth skins. They take our eggs and make us collect treasures, except cursed treasure marked with X. If we do not obey, they will kill eggs."
With Elaqis's help and Sarsczek's charm, the other two that were hiding stand up, feeling more comfortable with the new company.
You notice that although they are standing up straight the water comes up to their shoulder's. You estimate it's about 5' deep.
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Unnvar carefully observes the conversation taking place, being patient about not understanding the dialogue, and marveling and feeling lucky so many of his fellow pathfinders can speak draconic. Languages have never come easy to Unnvar; he has mastered the common tongue well enough, but even his orc was poor, and other tongues just confused him. Nevertheless, things seemed to be going well and he was eager to find out what was being said later on.
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"Why yes, I suppose we could help retrieve your eggs. I mean of course we could!" the gnome says, hand to chin. "These other smooth skins: where are they? And do you know where they have taken the eggs and the relics from here?"
As he notices the lizardfolk stand, Elais frowns as the 3'2" figure stares at the water. The deep water. A desert! Why couldn't an Osirian tomb be in a desert!
The lizardfolk look excited at Sarsczek's and Elaqis's responses, "You will help get our eggs back!?! Thank you. The smooth-skin that took them calls himself Gerben. He wears a ring with a golden snake on it. The treasure and our eggs are through the tunnel over there." He says pointing to the south east corner of the room where the water current seems to be flowing.
You'll find the tunnel only about 5' in diameter, and 40' long. Since you can use the sides to push yourselves along, I won't make anyone roll swim checks for this.
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"Agreed. We should go sneakylike... see if we can get a drop on dem. Mebbe me an Unvar go first, make sure we dun walk into a ham bush, then try 'n get into a place to protect da eggs."
Sarsczek looks around at the group, then thinks. "An if we get caught, we yell, an everyone run in as fast as 'ey can and SMASH!"
He accentuates the last word by curling his fist into a ball and slamming it hard against the open palm of his other hand. His tail moves back and forth excitedly.
"Sound good?"
If the party is ok with scouting, he'll try to move as subtly as he can, and do his best to emerge from the water slowly and silently, taking advantage of his good constitution to hold his breath for however long is needed. If the party wishes to go as a group he'll join the group wherever he's told to, and move quietly anyways.
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After the story of the poor lizardfolks is relayed onto everyone, it almost seems as if Unnvar smiles, but it lasts only a second.
Well, well, well, now how did those snakes get into the tapestry?
The Aspis are once again a thorn in my side. I agree Sarsczek, let the two of us scout this out and we'll come back and let everyone know what's going on. You first! He looks at Sarsczek and points to the hole.
August, Clandelve wait here with the others; well make sure the coast is clear.
Unnvar follows Sarsczek into the hole, his face suddenly looking very frog-like.
Unnvar and Sarsczek go for a quick swim through the tunnel to scout ahead.
The swim is fairly easy, though the swamp water is extremely murky and you have to use the wall to find your way out. You emerge as quietly as possible, and seem to go unnoticed as you see a human (as described by your scaley friends) and a contingent of lizardfolk across the water at a raised part of the land.
The dark and claustrophobic passage through the foundations of the tomb opens into the overcast swamp. The back of the tomb is much like the front, with gnarled swamp trees fighting for space on the dryer bits of ground and reeds, grass, and open stagnant water claiming the rest. To the east the ground raises slightly. Between two bone and leather fetishes lies a path that has seen recent use, the grass and marsh weeds broken down into a matted mush.
A simple survival check (which either one of you would make easily taking 10) notices the terrain slopes upward from here toward the land making it easier to walk through as you approach the raised part of the swamp.
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Sarsczek will see if he can spot the eggs, and look for any tripwires or alarms that might alert them to our approach.
He'll study the movements of the Aspis agent and one of the Serpentfolk , and then see if he can get an idea of if they are currently enslaved, under a compulsion, or converted.
Once he's confident he's located any landmarks of importance, he'll slink back through the tunnel and inform the crew of the lay of the land.
"Ok guys. So... the..."
He refers to the Consortium agent as something rather rude. You aren't sure if it was deliberate or if he just accentuated the individual syllables of the group's name.
"...agent has some serpentfolk wif him. Deres 'bout 60 feet... Why do they call it feet? My feet aren't da same as Elaqis's feet. Anyways, deres 'bout 60 human-feet between the cave and the baddies. If the quiet ones of us come out first, the rest of you should be able tah come out just behind us and still mebbe catch them offa guard."
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"An Aspis and serpentfolk." Elaqis says quietly as a faint tugging sensation tickles his memory.
Ignoring his flight of fancy, the gnome steps forward. "I'm not a terrible hider but a figure of my position is hardly suited for the vanguard. However, if the purpose is to rush along quickly, I can aid with that."
Sorry for the delay. I'll get the new map up shortly. Let me know what your next move is and the party order.
@Elaqis: Are you casting haste to help everyone through the water easier?
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"Dun see no eggs der. Baddie looks like he's waitin for us but didn't see me an sneaky ol Unnvar. Has more snakeyfolk with him, but they seem scared o'im. Imma thinkin we all go through the tunnel together. Me 'n Unnvar in front, we try to sneak forward together first. Once we pop outta the water, everyone rushes in. If me'n Unnvar sneak good we can get the drop on the baddie. If we don't sneak good, we got you all right behind us so it won't go too bad."
He ponders for a moment, then adds. "We may wanna take 'im alive. An make sure nobody can give no signals, or runs off. We wanna make sure we can find out where da eggs are!"
As an afterthought, Sarsczek cocks his head and sniffs towards the serpentfolk in this room. "Soun'good to you too? Anything else we should know?"
The dark and claustrophobic passage through the foundations of the tomb opens into the overcast swamp. The back of the tomb is much like the front, with gnarled swamp trees fighting for space on the dryer bits of ground and reeds, grass, and open stagnant water claiming the rest. To the east the ground raises slightly. Between two bone and leather fetishes lies a path that has seen recent use, the grass and marsh weeds broken down into a matted mush.
Unnvar and Sarsczek sneak through the water, just when they think they're going to make it unnoticed, the human speaks, "Well, hello there. You snuck up on me a bit. Welcome . . . Pathfinders I can tell. Don't let us get in your way, we're just about done here."
The human smiles at Owyn, pausing a second before speaking, "I suppose we're doing the same thing you're doing. Discovering lost tombs. Quite fascinating, don't you think." He looks at Sarsczek for a moment then answers with a bit of condescension in his voice, "The 'snakeyfolk' are helping us navigate through the swamp and with some of the heavy lifting."
@Sarsczek and Unnvar: You don't see any evidence of traps or the like.