Turel waits patiently for the pale woman to finish her incantation. Not realizing Regina has the ability to see in the dark, Turel waves Harmose closer. "We will need some light over here, Harmose." Once Harmose and the others are in position, he nods to Regina. "When you are ready for me, I shall open the door."
As the door swings open he peers inside, scanning the room for any signs of ambush.
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Based on previous posts, I am assuming you mean to head north. Turel pushes open the doors to A6.
*****A6*****
A brightly painted chariot sits in the center of this chamber. Beyond the chariot, a large canvas stretches between two stone columns. The skins of several animals -- antelopes, great cats, and crocodiles -- now faded and deteriorated with age, are tacked to this canvas. A wooden chest, lacquered white and trimmed with gold inlay, sits in the southeast corner. In each corner of the room a small stone shield is molded into the masonry at shoulder height. An open hallway leads to the east, and a set of stone double doors leads south.
************
Harmose peers in the room from the doorway.
He is relieved that the 'ominous' looking structure from the map is only a chariot, but still wary of traps. He will let Camus, Turel and Tuneya scout ahead of him as per procedure. This time he throws the message spell on Turel.
"You should be able to hear everything I say, and communicate back the same way." he whispers to his friend. "Try it. You don't have to whisper, if you don't want."
Tuneya hrms as she examines the tapestry. Family died due to a calamity? That explains the small tomb. No one else to bury with him at the end of his life.
She tries to recall what she has heard about events of the period and what calamities may have fallen, then frowns. She then nods her thanks to Regina before looking at the notes Harmose shows her.
"Yes, these are accurate." She looks back to the tapestry. "Before we leave, I want to make a copy of this as well. But, first, we should check the north and south chambers. Make certain we're not about to get ambushed."
As they head north, she searches the room as carefully as she can for traps . She particularly looks warily at the chest and makes a second effort to search it, just in case it too is trapped.
As Turel waits for Regina to scan the area with her spell, he nods slowly. "A useful magic to know."
Looking over the chamber and waiting for the woman to respond in the affirmative. His mind again turns to the recent conversation between Aleris and Harmose, wondering just how attracted they are to each other. He sighs inwardly, thinking It is well and truly out of my hands now. Still, something troubles me, something Aleris said at the end... He decides to test the magic now, as he had not experienced such before.
"Are you feeling well, Harmose?"
As the others move into the room, Turel moves to the other side of the room watching for threats coming from the east.
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In this case, Harmose feels confident that walking around the room in general is safe. Trained Knowledges local, history or engineering might be useful with the chariot.
Regarding Tuneya's study of the tapestry back in A5, she can infer that the family is probably interred somewhere else and that this tomb was prepared much later, after Akhentepi’s continued successful military career.
Tuneya Takes 20 searching the room (2 minutes) and the chest (2 minutes), totalling 4 minutes of looking around carefully. She does not find any traps in the room, but she does find a poison blade trap on the chest.
Harmose pauses a long while before answering Turel's whispered question. He waits, before crossing the doorway, letting all others past him.
How transparent were you, Harmose? Are your high walls doing you any good at all?
"This is a difficult question to answer." He whispers over the spell, feeling the inadequacy of both this answer and the one he gave Aleris. "Am I well now? Yes, assuredly. But... Remember our talk of visions? I have those sometimes. Not of the future, but of the past."
Don't tell him. Lie!
No.
He takes a deep breath. "I had one just now and I wasn't prepared for it. Can we wait until we are out of this tomb, away from the dead, to talk about this?"
How many awkward conversations are you going to HAVE?
Harmose has no idea. All he does know is that maybe the time has come to finally have them.
Taking a deep breath, he steps inside A6 with the others.
Regina examines the chariot with interest.
It's...a two wheeled model from the...time of Ahkentepi. That much is clear, darlings.
Turel nods almost imperceptibly when he receives Harmose's reply, "OF course, Brother. When you are ready to discuss this I will be there."
As he continues to watch the corridor leading eastwards, Regina's words catch his attention. He starts to question her but then closes his mouth again.
It is not as if chariots are widely used, or even known of, where I dwelled...
Camus gives a quick glance and looks for traps around A6, A7,A8 while humming a song
After noticing if everything is safe, he has an idea
"Sorry guys I have to do this"
Camus hops on the chariot takes out his sword and shouts
"COME FORTH TO THE BATTLEFIELD MY MIGHTY ARMY , OPULENCE AND GLORY AWAIT US, AHAHAHAHA"
Camus stays there posing and laughing manically for some time but at some point he just looks kind of creepy.
If the rooms look secure enough then Camus gos to the chest and tries to open it. He does look for traps too
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The chariot creaks and shakes as Camus hops on. Then, one wheel snaps off, and that side of the chariot crashes to the floor. Camus needs to make a Reflex save or Acrobatics roll (choose one). The broken-off wheel careens across the room, bumping off a wall and then wobbling for a bit before falling against the floor.
Camus' attempt at disabling the trap in the chest does not hit the required DC, and a razor-sharp blade scythes out, trying to cut his hand.
Camus: Roll 4 times Fortitude save.
Harmose had settled against the wall to make a drawing of the room's layout.
His attempt at drawing was utterly derailed by the collapse of the chariot, which caused a wheel to come crashing not a foot away from him, and startled him enough that he got an ink blot all over the paper.
He prestidigitated the ink away, thinking, I am NOT saving that blasted idiot from Tuneya's wrath.
He started his next attempt.
And then, hearing Camus's scream from the knife on the chest trap, he botched his drawing again, dropping both the paper and the pen.
Oh no. Things were going so well. No!
Harmose runs towards his empty-headed friend. Please be okay. Please!
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Turel stares at Camus as if the man had lost his mind. For all he knew maybe he had. He winces further at the destruction of the priceless chariot. You fool! Did you not remember the instructions the church gave us, about preserving the artifacts here?
As Camus writhes on the ground, Turel moves over beside him noting the spreading red marks indicating poison had entered his blood. "We need to get the poison out of his system NOW!" He then places his mouth on the wound and starts sucking the blood out of his hand, spitting it on the ground.
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She checks the chariot as best as she can and tries to recall what she can, though she is somewhat distracted by worrying about Harmose's condition. He seems very much upset, but she doesn't want to say anything until they're at a safe spot. She merely smiles to herself, then turns to look at the chest, just in time for Camus to decide it's time to be General Pain.
Tuneya just stands there, twitching. She can hear the mutagen screaming at her, saying, "Take me! Take me! Unleash me! Go nuts on him! Make him into a replacement wheel!"
Tuneya closed her eyes for just one moment, her hands curling into fists as she muttered a prayer to Pharasma under her breath. I will not kill him... I will not kill him... I will not gut him with one of his rips and leave his severed head mounted on a pike outside the entrance as a warning... I will not kill him...
"Camus, do you remember the three laws we were told to obey? And may I ask what the f^%$ you were thinking when you broke one of them?"
Harmose had to veer out of the way of chariot wreckage, so he arrived just in time to watch Aleris expertly suck the poison out of Camus's wounds.
Is there anything she can't do?
"Is he going to be okay?" Harmose asked.
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Camus was just laughing manically when....
"Ow shiiiiiit!
Later...
"Alright lets get this open"
Hears the trap and sees the blade which comes closer to him
"Oh f@#& this day. Akhentepi you can kiss my big and hairy a...! "
"...ck..."
___________________________________________________________________
"Camus, do you remember the three laws we were told to obey? And may I ask what the f^%$ you were thinking when you broke one of them?"
"On how hot was the priestess?"
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Hey, but not bad! Camus makes his first Fortitude save, and greenblood oil is ended on the first successful save, so he actually takes no Constitution damage at all, only the 2hp damage earlier mentioned.
He also easily makes the Acrobatics roll out of the chariot, not damaging either himself or the chariot (any further) when he leaps out. Good job! :)
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Camus looks a little bit tired after battling the poison. But he does seem healthy.
*Shrugs*
"Well to tell you the truth the last trap was aimed at an area on the room near the trap, I tought that if the chest was trapped it was better if you guys were far from me in case something happened. It could be a problem if ye all get poisoned. But I learned my lesson, will take precautions for the next time"
He directs towards all.
"Thanks all anyway, that could have been really dangerous"
Camus claps his hands toguether
"Well now back on to bussiness"
Camus looks inside the chest, he also looks with the stone shields to see if they are valuable. He also examines the chariot to see if it can be repaired and/or if its valuable.
Actually lets say he is actively looking at everything which may be sold for 1 gp or more.
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The stone shields are molded into the masonry and cannot be removed. Things that can be appraised in this room (Appraise roll separately for each) are the chariot, the chest, and a pair of books found inside the chest.
You'll need to pass a Disable DC 20 to get inside the chest, but since opening locks carries no negative consequences on fail, you may Take 20 on it if you wish. You may also try to roll if you want to spend less time on it, and then Take 20 if you don't get it on the roll.
Once you get inside the chest, you will find three potions (Spellcraft separately for each to identify), and two books with thin, gold-plated metal sheets for pages. They are written in Ancient Osiriani; does anyone have that language?
"Alright this goes here.. this goes there..."
"Arrr come one open up already!"
"Ugh finally!"
He then looks at his gathered loot and directs towards the party
"Hey do any of you want to examine this? Im not fond of books and I am savy enough to know what this potions may do"
Just in case Camus examines the shields since they have caught his attention.
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The shields have nothing interesting about them.
Camus has no idea about the chest or the books, and about the chariot he doesn't get a good idea, but he thinks it might have been valuable before the wheel snapped off; not necessarily anymore. In any case, it is too big to be moved out of the tomb unless it was disassembled into pieces and reconstructed back outside. Craft (carpentry) or Profession (driver) skills would be required for that.
"Meh it seems its all trash, tough you guys may want to try disassembling and reassembling the chariot if you want it may have some value on the market. We should do that at last if anything"
Camus is all right! The big idiot must have the constitution of an ox. And why not? We already know he's got the brains of one...
Slowly, relief is followed by anger. That could have not only have harmed himself but could have stopped us from exploring further in order to get him taken care of. This could have ended so badly!
_________________________________________
Harmose takes a deep breath to calm himself, and distracts himself for a moment with the intellectual question of identifying the potions.
"I can take a first look at the potions, while Tuneya looks over the books. Any of these bottles I can't identify, Tuneya surely will."
_________________________________________
Once he is done, he sits next to Camus, and says, "Let's talk about what just happened, shall we? I understand why you weren't listening when Sebti the Crocodile gave us her little lecture. She is hot, if you are into women with blue lips."
Harmose frowns, and then says, "But from now on, you have to listen to what Tuneya says. Yes, she's hot too. But she is also our resident archaeologist, and she is LEADING us on this dig."
"Let's put this in simple terms:"
Harmose holds up his hand and begins ticking off fingers.
": You cost us LOOT today. That's less money for all of us."
Harmose gestures at the now trashed Chariot.
": You cost us TIME. We could be in the next room already if it weren't for your foolishness."
": You could have cost us YOU."
"With your disabling skills, you're one of the best trap people we have. If we had to leave to get you healed, with money we do not yet have, we might have had to stop for several days while other teams got GLORY!"
He pauses to let his words sink in, and then adds casually, "If you could have waited for Tuneya's go ahead, there are a number of things that we could have done to help you disable that lock."
_________________________________________
Harmose waits to see if his words have ANY impact on Camus, and then ends with the following:
"Regina told Turel that she would turn him into a toad for breaking a simple little scroll." Harmose leans over Camus. "Just what do you think she'll do to YOU if you mess up again?"
Harmose gets up, and says to Turel and Aleris, "You two were great back there. Thank you for helping save Camus. I feel better knowing you both are part of the team."
Then he looks around and surveys the wreckage. Is there anything worth keeping here?
He shares the information about the potions and anything else he finds with the the team.
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Regina follows up Harmose's little "talk" with Camus.
Camus, darling, your antics are amusing...when they are costing us money. Do try to be more careful in the future. I would hate having to turn you into a scarab beetle and keeping you in my pocket until needed.
Harmose turns to Tuneya. "Did you find anything interesting in those books?"
He looks longingly for a moment at the Ancient Osiriani symbols on the gilt pages.
Someday, I will be able to read them for myself.
Edited to Add:
"I can't figure out the value of any of these items. Maybe we can all work together to figure out a fair price for them? Or should we get them appraised by professionals?"
Tuneya just stares at Camus for a moment, then facepalms and mutters something under her breath in Ancient Osiriani. Anyone else who understands the language and is close by can hear it is the phrase, "May the fates save him from himself" repeated over and over again. Finally, she stops and stands aside as he deals with the chest, making certain to keep an eye on him to see if he's alright. Just in case.
Once it's open, she shoots Aleris a thankful look and then bends down to begin carefully examining the books, not wanting to damage them at all. She also makes an effort to translate if it's in code, though is currently heavily distracted by trying not to snicker at her thought that Camus may come up with another, warmer place to store a beetle that he may be interested in.
"Careful, Regina. He might enjoy that."
She then looks up from the books. "Camus, thank you for handling the traps. Turel and Aleris, thank you for your aid to us both. Harmose, thank you for your help as well. And, Regina, thank you for keeping an eye out for unpleasant ambushers."
She then nods to Harmose. "I think so. I may need to take these with us and examine them in detail in a safer environment. If these are what I think they are, the local archives deserve copies of these."
She looks back at them, then reads aloud what she has read or, if it is in code, deciphered (or informed of her lack of deciphering them).
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Is this polished brass or something else?
That looks to be an unusual binding, does it not?
The clasp...is it gold as it appears to the casual glance?
Tuneya, scrumptious, I can grant some small assistance from above to your efforts, should that be helpful. And I do aim to be useful.
She shoots a glance at Camus meaningfully.
Turel shudders inwardly at the tone in Regina's voice as she 'talks' to Camus. Truly, there is a spine in her, one that will not bend easily. I do not wish to fall from her good grace any further, like what happened earlier with the box I dropped.
He walks over to the remains of the chariot, wondering if there were any salvageable parts. He then moves to the chest and runs his hand over the top and sides trying to determine its make. The books he touches lightly, unwilling to mar them in any way.
Tuneya nods to Regina. "Please feel free! Always better to have multiple people involved. Tends to lead to covering weaknesses. Harmose, do you also want to help?"
Tuneya nods to Regina. "Please feel free! Always better to have multiple people involved. Tends to lead to covering weaknesses. Harmose, do you also want to help?"
"Yes, I would love to try again. Maybe I'll see something I missed the first time?"
If allowed, he also attempts to assist Tuneya with any linguistics decoding, mainly by taking copious notes on the symbols for later study.
Alas, he still has far to go on this. Still, he diligently copies the symbols that Tuneya effortlessly reads.
"Alright alright I get it, I'll be more careful next time. In my defense however I was really not trying to screw up things, I just got a little overconfident..."
Camus looks at all pissed faces which look at them. Takes a deep breath
"Ok, I AM sorry"
Altought he pauses for a moment, thinking.
"Well the chariot was fun but nowhere near I tought it could break"
Damn my luck one wants to do something nice for a change and it all gets messsed up .Camus thinks with an annoyed face
[b]"Alright guys it seems we are done here, we should check the next room. Do we all agree"[b]
_____________________________________________________________________
1) Guidance +1
2) Aid Another from Tuneya +2
3) Take time when you have that time and take 20!
Turel nods slowly as he looks on Camus's face. He seems to be earnest in his desire to help us during this quest. I certainly hope he does keep on this path, although considering his actions back at the Hookah, I still wonder...
"Your apology is accepted Camus. I trust you have learned your lesson here." He waves the brash man forward. "Yes, proceed ahead. I shall watch your back."
He steps forward, waiting for Harmose to shine his light ahead, and scans the room closely for any threats.
Seeing genuine remorse on the Cavalier's face, Harmose softens. "I know you meant no harm. Actually, we can use this learning opportunity as your first step to help you win your lady friend, Kema."
Harmose gestures outward, as if inviting Camus to see a new vision of himself.
"When you next meet Kema, go as a changed man. Not as a rash destroyer of antiquities, but as a thoughtful warrior who learns from his mistakes and works to do what is right."
His eyes gleaming, Harmose urges, "She deserves the best you can offer, don't you think?"
Harmose pats Camus on the shoulder to show him that all is forgiven.
Once Tuneya has done her appraise checks, Harmose follows behind Turel, Tuneya and Camus as their light source going in to A7.
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From the Aid Anothers, Tuneya will get a grand total of +6 to each Appraise.
Right now, I am inferring from the map that your marching order would be:
Front row: Turel and Camus
Middle row: Tuneya and Regina
Back row: Harmose and Aleris
Please let me know if you would like to alter that. Otherwise I'll assume whatever marching order would seem logical from your positioning on the map.
You can choose to Take 20 on Perception or not; it's still morning time, and I would estimate you have spent perhaps half an hour to an hour in the dungeon so far, so I think it's reasonable to think you are not in a hurry right now. The most pressing time concern would probably be the trip back: whether you want to travel through the Necropolis during light or dark hours.
A7 is a fairly bare passage between A6 and A8.
*****A7*****
Four funerary masks hang on one wall of this short hallway, staring down as if in judgment at anyone standing in the corridor
************
A DC 10 Knowledge (religion) check (untrained suffices) will be enough to identify two of the masks as depicting the gods Pharasma (Goddess of the dead) and Abadar (God of cities). The other two masks will require a DC 20 check. They may also be Appraised (a single check for all four masks is enough).
I'm a little skeptical about spamming always-on Guidance. I feel like touching every party member every minute would either get on peoples' nerves, or it would become so dull that eventually you'd forget to do it. I think it's best to save Guidance for special occasions.
When you are moving to A8, everyone make new Perception rolls, no Take 20 this time.
While the group was still search A7, Harmose points a finger at Tuneya.
"Tuneya," Harmose says softly over a message spell to the archaeologist.
"Once we get a little money, there might be a way to effortlessly fix that chariot. There's a spell called Make Whole. We could get a scroll of it., and preserve the past as originally intended."
__________________________
Harmose's senses tingle as the group approaches A8, the final room of the North Wing.