Mummy's Mask

Game Master Samy

With a shrug, Kito says "Really not sure what it does."

Looking towards the group, she then asks "Shall we open one these, start cataloging the contents?" as she moves over to one of the urns to examine it.

"Don't we need to explore all of the room, including the magical parts? I hate to be a sacrificial lamb, but I dpn't think we need to leave anything unexplored, that might harm someone in the future. Just my thought, I suppose."

"So...are you saying we should poke it with a stick? I don't actually have a stick, but this might work just as well," Aleris offers as she holds up her glaive.

Qari shrugged. "Yeah, I know. It sounds dumb, but I think we probably ought to poke it with that stick," she giggled nervously.

I don't think I can take 20 on Disarm Traps. If I could, I would :D If not:

Polux heads toward the chest first - "Well, it just has to be done" - he looks back at the group with a smile behind his cowl - "And I am here to do it. You all best stand back"

Crouching near the magic emanating chest pointed out by Harmose, Polux sets himself to work in trying to ascertain if there is any trap present.

Just because it is glowing does not mean it is trapped :D

Taking 20 on Perception for 25.

Nope, can't take 20 on Disarm.

Polux finds that there is a magic trap on that section of wall that upon touching summons a swarm of cockroaches. You may attempt to disable, or leave that section of wall alone. However, Polux also feels that there may be a secret door concealed in that section of wall, and that would be impossible to open without touching that section of wall.

When Polix whispers about the summoning trap, Qari warns the others to leave her an open lane to use her cold powers. "If they aren't engaged in melee, it's easier for me to hit them. The rest of the time, I'm worried about catching all of you in the cold, too.". She looks for a spot roughly 20' from the swarm giving her a clear sight line.

"That seems a good idea." Harmose nods. "Here's mine. Let's catalog the room, pulling all valuables out after Polux has checked that their containers aren't trapped. I don't want us to blast any antiquities, and I don't want us having trouble with the swarm escaping into chests and jars containing stuff we want to transport out."

"A secret door and a swarm summoning trap? We must be getting close to Akhentepi's actual tomb." Harmose paces, gesturing with his expressive hands as he talks each idea through. "Then we can do one of two things. We can have Polux attempt to disable. I don't like that idea because it puts him in harm's way and because we don't know how tough the trap is. Or...We can get everyone out of the room when we trigger it." He pulls out two alchemist's fires and hands them to people who look like they can throw things. If your character wants one, raise your hand and claim it.

Harmose floats a rock in the air, moving it around to show how he might trigger the wall. "This is only five pounds of force but I can do it from 25 feet away. I trigger, Qari blasts, and then the two people with alchemist's fires finish up whatever Qari didn't. Does this sound like a reasonable plan?"

____________________________
TL/DR:
1) Pull out antiquities
2) Mage hand a rock
3) BOOM!
Any objections? Additions?

Kito asks "Is this the sort of magical trap that resets itself? If so, we need to disable it rather than set it off."

Looking towards Polux, she adds "I could try and help you disable the trap. In theory, it is possible to block the summons."

I have the Trapfinder trait. I should be able to attempt an Aid Another with my +5 Disable Device skill. Can add in Guidance for a small additional bonus.

Aleris raises her hand. "If we go with just triggering the trap, I'll take one since I've sort of made it a focus of my training to shoot things and throw stuff. But if Polux and Kito think they can disarm it completely and want to take the risk trying...may as well, right? They won't learn anything if they don't try."

"Very well. If they want to try, they can try. Either way, let's move everything else out first." Harmose starts carefully packing and moving anything that Polux believes untrapped.

Kito looks over the Urn she is next to. She takes a few notes about where it was found, and then tries to gently move it out of the room.

She takes notes on each item before moving it. Some of the notes are pretty minimal -- third box from the bottom of four on left side, second set in.

Turel gratefully accepts the other bottle of alchemist fire from Harmose. "I can do little against swarms of cockroaches with my body, so this will prove most useful. As for trying to disable the trap?" He shakes his head. "I fear it is too risky. Should you fail, both of you will be obstructing the line of fire."

He does assist Kito in moving some of the heavier items out of harms way.

Happily taking the vial of alchemist fire Deseri starts to help move items out of the room. Triggering it from a distance allows us much more control in taking out what ever comes out. With Polux and Kito in the way we would not be able to do anything without chancing injuring them since it is a swarm of nasty bugs.

Silly me, it'd actually make more sense for Turel and Deseri to take the alchemist's fire since Aleris still has some uses left on Fire of Belief for the day. So we'll go with that. Carry on!

Actually I was going for the chest, but the door it is :D

"That's ok" - Polux nods to Deseri, once most of the contents from the room are removed - "This is what I do - adventuring is not a safe business. If I wanted safe I'd open a bakery" - then turns to Kito - "If you will risk staying here with me, I'll take that offer for help though"

I'm gonna use the Inspired feat for this one - not sure if I need to announce it beforehand, but anyways...

Stepping close to the secret, trapped door, Polux reaches for his tools, methodically laying them down next to him - "Here goes nothing" - he whispers, going to work on the wall, dislodging a particular stone with a wedge, scraping this or that portion of wall.

After the first few seconds he seems to have outlined the door itself, but the work proceeds, as he exchanges impressions with Kito.

Disable Device (with Guidance): 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 8 + 1 = 26
Disable Device (with Guidance): 1d20 + 8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 8 + 1 = 12

Ah! Read the linked text and that explains why two rolls! Taking off my second roll since I don't have that feat.

Kito looks to Thera and says "أنا على وشك أن اختبار بعض تلك النظريات لك علمني. يرجى وصول إلى بر الأمان. يا! أنا أفضل تمكنك من معرفة أنه من المفترض أن استدعاء البق. تذكر، والبق استدعى لا يستحق الأكل ... يختفون قبل أن تتمكن من طعم لها!"

Kito brings up Detect Magic so that she can more clearly see the outline of the magical trap and helps Polux in his attempt to disable it.

Aid Another Disable Device + Guidance: 1d20 + 5 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 5 + 1 = 26 Successful Aid, so total is now 28

Thera flies off Kito's shoulder and over to the rest of the group, looking for a safe place to land.

Opening her mouth to object but failing to speak at Polux continuing to speak. With a defeated sigh she moves out of the way and waits. He is right Sand Brain. This is dangerous work but to just run towards it is crazy. I am traveling with food throwing crazy people! Though different was what I wanted.

Turel gratefully accepts the other bottle of alchemist fire from Harmose. "I can do little against swarms of cockroaches with my body, so this will prove most useful."

Ra, leaning idly on his hammer, straightened up.

As Polux and Kito work together on the trap, Aleris stands at the ready with some of the others in case it should activate. Though she's not inclined to say so out loud, she can't help but feel slightly vindicated in response to Polux's words.

That's what I thought; he's not stupid or reckless but he's not afraid of a little risk, either. Same seems to go for Kito, too.

Polux and Kito successfully manage to bypass the magic activation sequence of the trap, rendering it inert. The swarm trap is now disabled. The secret door is not locked and can be opened at will.

Harmose bows to Polux and Kito. "Excellent work! I shouldn't have doubted your skills. Though I must say, Polux, that baking is not necessarily the safest profession either. We've seen first hand how dangerous a little flour and water can be..." Harmose grins.

"Shall we follow the secret door and meet our dearly departed host?"

As Polux successfully deactivates the magical trigger, Kito says "Interesting, the way you twisted the magic in on itself there. Sort of made a magical knot!"

Smiling, she looks towards the rest of the group and asks "So, what now? Check the chests for traps and open them, or onward into the tomb?"

"يجب أن تكون آمنة الآن، ثيرا."

"ما حدث الخلل؟" Thera asks as she flies back to perch on Kito's shoulder.

هنا، لدينا بعض من هذه الأخطاء. لديهم بالفعل التوت ممزوجة معهم." Kito answers as she reaches into her pouch and takes out what looks like a handful of dried trail mix. Thera happily eats it from Kito's hand.

I had thought that we had already checked the chests for traps and cataloged their contents, earlier. If we haven't then by all means let us do so now. Samy, taking 20 on our perceptions, what do we find?

Harmose studies the 'trail mix', poking a finger at it. "Now I'm curious. Do you purchase this pre-mixed, or do you make it yourself? I've never had to worry about what I feed Wenet. She's vegetarian. Just like me."

Then Harmose grins. "Perhaps it is in the nature of these things for familiars to share a diet with their masters. Do you like your bugs with berries too, Kito?"

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (3) + 3 = 6

Turel nods in approval seeing Polux and Kito expertly disarm the trap. "Well done." He acknowledges their effort.

He glances at Harmose. "I say Polux and I should be the first ones inside the room. Do you agree?" The thoughts of what may lay beyond the doorway keeping him from picking up on his friend's discomfort.

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 14 Good roll for her. Just not good enough.

"I can usually find a mix of nuts and berries. The bugs I have to add, but Thera really likes it that way." She rubs the crown of Thera's head as she says this.

Smiling, she adds "I've not been interested in trying the mixture, although Thera has made many attempts to share bugs with me. Feel free to try it yourself if you like, after all bugs aren't animals. If they were, there would be a lot more magical means of dealing with them."

"Agreed." Harmose pauses a moment, and puts his hands on both men's shoulders. "Be careful, friends. Our dearly departed host has guarded his tomb zealously. Odds are strong that there will be another guardian or trap waiting for you on the otherside if this wall."

Or... Horus forbid, Akhentepi himself? No. The tomb was sealed BEFORE the time of Madness.

Still, Harmose feels a sense of uneasiness.

If you any buffing or protective magics, now's the time to use them.

"Definitely a good job on disarming that!" Aleris agrees. "As for dealing with bugs, you'd think wizards would've come up with a spell that would let them summon a really big shoe by now..."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28

Okay, that's not what I would have expected from someone that's so open about trying and enjoying practically everything. I'll have to ask about that later.

"Right," she responds, giving Harmose a bit of a side-glance. "I'm afraid I don't have much in protective magics that I can share, but I can strengthen my own attacks for a short time so I'll make use of that before we head into the next room."

I'll cast Divine Favor on myself once we're ready to proceed onward; duration of 1 minute.

Sense motive 1d20 ⇒ 10

Qari was blissfully ignorant, as usual. She barely listened to the conversation focuses on watching the two disable the magical trap. "Kito, that's a great way to put it. A magical knot! Will the magic go off in the future, or since the trap is disabled, is it now interrupted and ruined? Magic can be so fickle."

Realizing she was going on, she muttered, "...well, in any case, good job. Not having to deal with more critters is always okay with me."

Kito thinks a moment about Qari's question before answering.

"The analogy isn't exact, but I would expect the spell to dissolve before the trap could re-arm itself. There is probably some way to restore it..."

She falls silent for a short time, evidently lost in thought. Suddenly refocusing, she blurts out "Sorry, quite the puzzle but now is not the time to solve it! Everyone ready to move on?"

She once again uses her small blessing on the three who are leading the way through the secret door.

Guidance!

Ra took his place next in line, keeping the torch in his left hand just in case.

Letting out a breath she did not realize she was holding once the trap is safely disarmed. Deseri remains quiet though the chatting of her companions.

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 9 About what I figured it would be.

Keeping her spear in hand she quietly takes her place in line.

Sorry for the delay. Spirit Shield should still be up. How much time has passed since the sarcophagus?

I would estimate maybe 15 minutes since the sarcophagus.

You take 20 on Perceptions, going through this room thoroughly, and catalog the following in the chests:

Most of the goods in the chests, such as once-fine clothing and sealed jars of food, no longer have any value after the passage of centuries, but among the spoiled and ruined grave goods are several salvageable items of value, including:

* two vials of a silvery substance
* a masterwork longbow
* 10 cold iron arrows
* a gold scarab clasp
* an onyx and silver holy symbol of Pharasma
* a silver hand mirror, and
* a wax-sealed clay urn of nard.

Appraise may be used to estimate values.

The detect magic aura came from the vials of silvery substance. Spellcraft may be used to identify.

All the chests in the room were unlocked. Knowledge (religion) may be able to tell why.

Kito examines the two silvery vials.

Take 10, Spellcraft on first for a 19. If that works then Take 10 on both. Otherwise roll for second is in spoiler.

"Wow, there's actually quite a bit here, even with all the foodstuffs and clothing being ruined," Aleris comments as they work to organize and catalog everything of value. "Hopefully some of this will fetch a good price at market! A little odd that all of these chests were unlocked compared to some of the others we've seen, though..."

Kn. Religion: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (8) + 6 = 14

Unable to help herself, she carefully picks up the silver hand-mirror and turns it over in her hands. "How pretty! Gold may be worth more, but personally I've always thought that silver is so much more striking, especially paired with blue."

Anyone else use a bow for ranged besides Aleris? And no, Aleris is not claiming or attempting to claim the mirror for herself; she just likes shiny things :3

In Aleris' opinion, the likely explanation for these chests being unlocked (and untrapped) is because these items were likely the closest and more personal to Akhentepi, and his soul might have wanted easy immediate access to them.

Spellcraft: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Untrained Appraise: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (16) + 1 = 17

Harmose looks at the silvery vials and the other goods and raises an eyebrow. "Interesting..."

Are they? Do I need to appraise everything separately? If so... The first one is for the clasp.

Harmose bows to Polux and Kito. "Excellent work! I shouldn't have doubted your skills. Though I must say, Polux, that baking is not necessarily the safest profession either. We've seen first hand how dangerous a little flour and water can be..." Harmose grins.

"Shall we follow the secret door and meet our dearly departed host?"

Polux chuckles - "I must agree. It cannot be nice to be on the receiving end of such glup. I stand corrected" - and bows - "Indeed we shall"

As Polux successfully deactivates the magical trigger, Kito says "Interesting, the way you twisted the magic in on itself there. Sort of made a magical knot!"

Smiling, she looks towards the rest of the group and asks "So, what now? Check the chests for traps and open them, or onward into the tomb?"

"Well" - Polux ponders - "I don't possess any inherent magical powers, hence I try to work with what is already there - it is risky, but there is really no other option" - he comments - "And I'll admit, it is an amazing thing once you start to actually see beyond just the wall... I never get tired of it"

-------

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

The talk of vegetarianism does bring a raised eyebrow from Reknar, but he does not follow through with any of it.

Qari was blissfully ignorant, as usual. She barely listened to the conversation focuses on watching the two disable the magical trap. "Kito, that's a great way to put it. A magical knot! Will the magic go off in the future, or since the trap is disabled, is it now interrupted and ruined? Magic can be so fickle."

"It is definitely disrupted" - Polux chimes in - "And without any further action, it will remain so" - he nods, looking interested at the items retrieved by the others.

Not sure if I should be first in the room with Turel :D Ra-Khefer is quite tankier than Polux? Or do we need my eyes up front? If so, I can scout ahead.

Qari remains in the mid to back of the grouping, not wanting to mess with any of the nasty traps the group had already uncovered.

I probably should have specified this earlier, but for the future assume that unless there's a really good reason not to, Aleris will at least share the results of knowledge and perception checks and the like with the party. Sense Motive is a whole different animal, obviously.

"Hum...looks like all this stuff might've held more personal significance to Akhentepi; that's probably why none of it was locked away in chests. That also means that Harmose is probably right - we must be very close to the real tomb."

She gingerly picks up the longbow as well as the cold iron arrows. "Would anyone object to me at least borrowing these for the duration of our visit here? I'm happy to put them back once we're done..."

Even though this is a *really* nice bow... she thinks as she gives it a wistful look. Maybe I can buy one similar if we earn enough.

"Is the bow still serviceable?" Kito asks, curious. "I know that metal corrodes over time. Without pests, I'm not certain what would happen to wood.

If it is still useable and better than what you have, please take it!"

Appraisal, untrained: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (20) + 5 = 25

Kito reviews the treasure again, taking notes of her own. "Looks like some really nice things here."

"I don't see anything wrong with using what we find down here. As many traps are here, we need to use everything we come across to get out of here alive!"

Polux eventually gets drawn in to peruse the items the group has found, his curiosity taking the best of him.

Appraise Aid?: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 4 = 10

So, am I taking up point?

"Agreed. Use what you find." Harmose nods. "Polux, Turel, Ra-Khefer... You're on point. Let's go!"

Ra nodded at Harmose as he took his place and raised his shield, more than ready to depart.

Kito quickly puts her papers away and hurries over to where everyone is gathering.

Just as everyone gets in place, she casts her small blessing on Polux, Turel and Ra-Khefer.

Guidance.

Turel accepts the blessing from Kito with a nod, his face a grim mask as he turns his attention to the door and what lay beyond it.

We certainly must be close to the final resting place of Akhentepi, and whatever secrets he holds.