Torch On her turn: 1d20 ⇒ 18; 1d6 ⇒ 2
Selassie smacks the doll again as it presents an opportunity.
She then follows up with another attack
Irakelesh steps forward towards the last remaining doll. "We've got you on the run now." he says eagerly. He flings the flaming torch in the air a few times around his head feeding oxygen into the burning end. The flames whip up higher and higher. An adventurous grin crosses his face and he lunges in for the attack. "This is so awesome you guys. I mean, who would have thought that we'd be fighting dolls! Ai'sha, back at home, we never thought this..." He swings for all he's worth.
The torch sails over the top of the doll without even singeing it. "Ahh! I can never hit these things." His smile falters a little but not much. "But it's always worth the try." With that Irakelesh reverses his swing and tries for a backhanded attack.
This second stroke misses as well. Streams of oily smoke trail through the air where the torch passed.
Again, Selassie hits one of the dolls with her mace, and sends its flying aside, but it seems to do nothing to it. It scrambles towards Aliva, who is able to hit it with a torch, briefly setting it alight. It flails at her recklessly.
"As cute as you are, you're starting to get on my nerves!" Fitliss tells the remaining doll emphatically, thrusting at it once as it moves and leaves an opening, and then again as he recovers from the first wide thrust. "Darn it! Two misses!"
Ai'sha swings at the remaining doll once, so many attacks have left her tired and she breathes heavily.
The blade misses its target, but she converts into a second attack as the creature advances towards Aliva.
The second swing misses as well, Ai'sha curses and drops her stance for a second, trying to catch her breath.
"Stupid *pant* creepy *pant* doll *pant*"
After several misses Irakelesh tries a new approach. Instead of swinging the torch he holds it like a fencing foil and lunges at the doll. He grips the torch in his right hand while he waves his left hand in the air for balance.
This time he strikes a solid blow to the doll. The end of the torch smashes into the doll's face smearing black soot and ash across the porcelain surface.
After seeing Irakelesh lay into the doll, Aliva sets her jaw and swings.
"Milani grand me your strength to defeat this foul thing."
The tiny doll is preternaturally quick, and eludes Aliva.
Since she has been unable to hit the doll, and seeing that the torches are far more effective than other weapons, Selassie decides to move up to bless Aliva with good fortune.
"Just one left!", Ai'sha attacks once more, the fatigue is getting to her, and her form is sloppy.
The doll looks like it is not in good shape, but it relentlessly continues to attack Aliva.
Again it manages to smash her with its tiny fist.
"Just die already you stupid doll!"
Irakelesh laughs, without menace, at his friends' attempts to attack the doll. "Guys, I showed you how to do it. Like this." He lunges with the torch again. This time he adds an additional flourish to his off hand.
The fire end of Irakelesh's torch burns into the doll's face with a solid hit.
Aliva collapses to the ground in exhaustion, holding her torch up so she doesn't burn herself.
"Never again will I look at a doll the same, creepy little things."
"Well that was interesting," Fitliss beams brightly. "Now let's see what is in this room, shall we?"
The final doll bursts into flame, runs about wildly for a moment, and then collapses onto the floor. After a harrowing battle, Pharasma's Seekers are safe once more, at least for now.
As things calm down, the group is able to get a better look around the room. The dolls seem to have been animated objects that were part of a diorama, with a sculpted landscape and tiny stone and wooden statues, depicting an ancient battle between the city of Wati and an unidentified enemy. The diorama occupies the entirety of the northern wall.
The rack to the east proudly displays three shields. The rightmost shield is a light wooden shield identical to the shields carried by some of the toy soldiers in the diorama, and bears the Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs that spell out the name "Akhentepi," marking those soldiers as under his command. The light wooden shield on the left does not appear to be Osirian in origin, but none of the Seekers are worldly enough to recognize its origin. The central shield is unusual in that it is a light steel shield shaped like a scarab; it matches the one borne by Akhentepi in the engravings on the doors in the arrow-trapped corridor when the group first came in.
The rack on the south wall holds a composite shortbow, which appears to be in good shape with the exception of its deteriorated string, as well as a khopesh and spear, both of superior craftsmanship, all of which probably belonged to Akhentepi.
There are a total of five small chests and a clay urn arrayed around the room as well, in addition to the large, trapped chest in the chariot room.
"Stop bragging, you just got lucky.", she pokes Irakelesh at the forehead, where the "thief" sign is (was?).
She then steps into the room, looking around.
"Anyone wants a shield?", she jokes.
where the "thief" sign is (was?).
"Can we take them with us? Might fetch a price at a collector, same with the dolls, I know we smashed them and they still creep me out but they could be sold as well."
After looking around a bit more, Aliva stops at the bow.
The bow is nice as well, would be good things to take with us for the troubles caused here."
"We are here to collect artifacts. We should also take rubbings of the inscriptions and engravings, they are of great historical interest."
Aliva will scan the room for anything of magical power , she will also sit down to do this, putting some pressure on her wounds.
"My lady grant me your power to knit my wounds, your strength to help me continue on."
Aliva chants and waves her arms, concentrating for about 20 seconds as she scans the room.
Round 2: She detects two equally strong auras.
Round 3: There is a faint aura coming from the scarab shield, and another coming from inside the trapped chest.
Aliva determines that the shield is magical, but she is unsure what it is. She also knows there is something magical in the trapped chest.
Fitliss and A'isha also examine the shield.
Round 2: They detect two equally strong auras.
Round 3: There is a faint aura coming from the shield, and another coming from inside the trapped chest.
Fitliss identifies the shield as, appropriately, a scarab shield.
This +1 light steel shield is fashioned in the shape of a scarab beetle–a creatures that functions as a psychopomp for Pharasma, guiding the souls of the departed into the afterlife. Scarab shields are especially favored by archaeologists and tomb raiders for the protection they grant against guardians and vermin frequently found in ancient ruins and forgotten tombs.
Once per day on command, a scarab shield grants its wielder a +2 sacred bonus on saving throws against fear and death effects for 3 minutes. At any time while this bonus is in effect, the wielder can end the effect as a swift action for a burst of healing energy. The wielder loses the saving throw bonus, but is healed by 1d8+3 points of damage.
In addition, a scarab shield can protect its wielder from swarms. If a mindless swarm attempts to enter the wielder's space, the swarm must attempt a DC 11 Will save. If the save succeeds, the swarm can enter the wielder's space and attack the wielder normally. If the save fails, the swarm instictively avoids the space occupied by the wielder, completely ignoring the wielder for 3 rounds. This effect ends if the wielder makes any attacks, but the wielder may use non-attack spells or otherwise act without ending the effect. This ability functions once per day.
It weights 6 pounds and would sell for 2,279 gp.
Fitliss identifies the shield's magical properties.
Fitliss relates the shield's properties excitedly, before examining the chest as well, trying to determine the contents.
Fitliss relates the shield's properties excitedly, before examining the chest as well, trying to determine the contents.
Fitliss realizes that he would have to examine the magic item itself, an impossibility while it remains in the chest.
Aliva will pull out her dagger and break the wax seals on the chests that are not trapped. After opening them she will turn to the other,
"The trapped ones can we move them out of here and maybe find someone to open them for us? Also should we take some time now to move some of the goods back towards the entrance?"
Among the various chests are various small bags of gold and silver. There are also several scroll tubes holding what appear to be papyrus records, private memos, expense ledgers, speeches, and private correspondence. It would take about an hour to sort through all the documents to see if there is anything of interest, but in any case these documents might be worth some money if brought to an Osirionologist or other interested buyer.
The clay urn is also sealed with wax and contains nard, an expensive, oily perfume.
"Right, i'm guessing we should try to go back, maybie find something, or someone, that can help us open those big doors?", Ai'sha opens her backpack, putting some of the loot on it and taking out her journal and a inkpen.
"I think i'll also draw a map, just so we don't forget the way...", she scribbles a few lines.
"Yeah, let's head back to the inn. And it would help to find someone who can unlock these tricky things. Let's grab a few of these items and then go." Then Irakelesh remembers the mark on his forehead that Ai'sha reminded him of.
"Hmm. I wonder if we will have trouble getting past the guards because of this." He points to his head. [b]"Hopefully we can convince them that it is just an unfortunate accident."
"Can you not just cover your forehead in something?"
Aliva will look around for something to cover Irakelesh and Fitliss' head.
"I'm sure Selassie can vouch for us!" Fitliss declares cheerfully.
"Yeah, maybe Ai'sha will lend us a couple of her scarves." Irakelesh looks at Ai'sha to see if she has any extra clothing she is willing to spare.
"Sure, you're gonna love them, very masculine.", she jokes, taking two other veils from her backpack and lending them to the two "thieves".
Irakelesh picks out the most colorful of them. "I think it suits me just fine." He tries to tie the scarf around his head, covering the mark on his forehead. "Ok. How's that?" Then he prances around the room and says in a falsetto voice, "Hi, I'm Ai'ahs. And I like my scarves." A big grin spreads across his face as he quickly steps to stay out of her reach.
Fitliss frowns at the scarf. "Masculine?" he asks, clearly baffled. "I've never been much one for fashion, so I guess I wouldn't know," he says, fastening the scarf round his head in an imitation of Irakelesh's.
"I-idiot!", she blushes and clenches her fist, punching the air where Irakelesh's head was a second ago.
Irakelesh easily dodges Ai'sha's swing. "Mised me, missed me. Now you gotta ..." Irakelesh abruptly stops and blushes as he realizes what he was about to say.
Aliva will help with moving stuff back to the rope that they climbed down, "I didn't expect all this"
Selassie just shakes her head at the silly antics,
"It looks like we have plenty for a first load."
The group manages to collect all of the treasure they have gathered so far, and passing through the hall with the now disabled trap, they return to the lower shaft chamber. Getting most of the loot up is not a problem, and before the last person climbs up she ties off the rope to the larger chest so that it can be pulled up.
The chest is hauled up, and while not terribly difficult, it does make a great deal of noise. Pharasma's Seekers begin to move into the antechamber. The huge wheel door is still open from before, as are the initial front doors.
Meanwhile, nearby, another figure is carefully passing through the Necropolis outside. He hears sounds coming from one of the buildings nearby, and creeps forward to investigate.
Suddenly, something audibly skitters across the floor in the antechamber, putting everyone on alert. It appears that a pair of creatures crept through the open doors into the antechamber while you were down in the tomb. These oversized scorpions have translucent shells, allowing one to see through to the creatures' internal organs.
At the same time, another figure appears across the room in the doorway. This reptilian humanoid has sandy-brown scales, a short and toothy snout, and a thick crocodile-like tail. He seems to see you at the same time, but does not seem particularly aggressive, and eyes the scorpions.
"Ugh! More insect-things?" Fitliss sighs, shifting in front of the great stone to attack the one around the corner.
Aliva whips her bow off her back and nocks and arrow, awaiting the NE scorpion to move better into her view.
"Milani grant me your judgement to vanquish these bugs."
Ghost scorpions!"
Selassie sees Aliva ready her bow and squeezes past her allies to stand behind her and bless her with good fortune for her shot.
"Interesting. Ghost scorpions. I've only heard of these. Nice to finally see them. But I'm afraid I'd rather see them dead." Irakelesh unhooks his morningstar from the loop on his belt. "Ok. I'm ready for these guys." He stays where he's at, waiting to see which way the scorpions are going to move.
"Is that a...Lizardperson? Hope the scorpions are not his pets.", Ai'sha imbues her blade with magic and walks up to the closes scorpion, she keeps the scimitar in a foward guard, ready to parry any sting attacks coming from int, and delivers a low cut.