With her staff poised in the air and ready to strike, Merutep hesitates. "Hmmm...."
Hibbins continues to hold a piece of masonry, ready to start chucking rocks as soon as the others figure out what they wish to do.
Heshsharu hisses and rises to attack Meriui, its face a mask of rage.
Caius thrusts his rapier at the creature.
Striking as he sees the opening, Meriui briefly wonders what sort of life a sand creature might actually have.
Rashim had a rock already hovering, waiting for the evil creature to be evil. When it begins to attack, he sends it spinning in.
Hibbins throws a rock...
Before Heshsharu can rise to strike Meriui, the monster is pulverized by the party into a loose pile of sand. Inside the pile left behind is a pile of items, likely the remains of the previous unfortunate to meet the sand creature.
Four doors lead away from the courtyard: north to the servant's dining room, east to the chapel, west to the hallway running along the western wall of the manor, and south to the front foyer where a trio of skeletons armed with broken khopesh stand at attention.
Caius looks down at the pile of treasures.
"So is any of this useful to any of us?"
Hibbins will down his extract of identify and go to work. Just go down the list, that should be enough rolls to cover whatever we are carrying.
Using his extract, Hibbins is able to identify the properties of the items pushed up from the sand.
After watching Hibbins look over the treasure Caius looks around the group.
"So now that the nasty sand creature is gone...which way shall we go?"
"That way?" Hibbins points to the eastern section they had yet to clear.
"Sure. Let's go that way . . .." The shield leads the human through the opening . . ..
The archway to the east leads to a small room, its walls covered by hieroglyphs and images of fantastic beings. A small stone shrine, dusty and thoroughly defaced, stands against the eastern wall.
The an open portal to the north leads back to the kitchen the Scarabs entered through and an archway to the south reveals a small privy. Beyond the privy, a large basin can be seen, likely the manor's bathing room.
The Kelishite takes a few moments and offers a short prayer to his patron at this old shrine before continuing through the space to the South.
Hibbins watches his companions, waiting for the others to start heading to the next room.
Caius seems oblivious to the shrine and follows the group.
He looks to his companions as he moves. "So what are you all hoping to find in this dump?"
A stone privy is built into one wall of this tiny room, and a stone table with a basin stands against the other wall. A large mirror once hung above the table, but it was shattered ages ago. The floor is covered in broken glass and dead scarab beetles.
A headless corpse sits upright in one of the privies, mummified by the dark and arid conditions.
The opening to the south leads to a tiled chamber. A large, empty pool sits in the middle of the room, surrounded by sloping floors. A few steps descend into the basin, which has accumulated a deep layer of sand on its bottom. Faded murals on the walls depict scenes of life along a river, with recurring themes of running water and aquatic life running through the artwork. In the northeast corner, a tarnished bronze spigot juts from the wall just above head level. Archways lead north and west, and a stone door stands in the eastern wall.
In conversation with Caius.
"I am just hoping to find enough to retire on, build a nice life and maybe find myself a good woman to have eight or nine children with."
Taking ten on the heal check.
"Hmm, natural mummification...low decay state...died on the privy...only a few years dead. I wonder where the head went off to."
At the sight of the spigot... "I wonder if the cistern is any good..." Not wishing to release putrid waste or some insect swarm, Hibbins avoids playing with the spigot.
"Eight or nine children? That would be reason enough to leave again, I would think! As for me . . .. I'm hoping to find what the Dawnflower wants of me. Nothing complicated."
as for the corpse
"Hunh. Well, I don't think the sand thing out there would decapitate someone. Didn't find a head out there, anyway, did we? Means there could be another threat around, or at least, there used to be."
Moving over to the spigot, Meriui puts the back of his hand on the pipe, checking the temperature. Is it cool, indicating a protected source of unexposed fluid, warm, indicating a far less protected source of mixed possibilities, or neutralish, suggesting the cistern has gone dry?
"Me, I'm just looking for enough to get by on. That, and the occasional dancing skull to make Hibbins jump..." he says, with a grin at the alchemist. Nodding to their friend on the privy, he adds "I swear that one wasn't me, though."
Caius nods at his companions and begins to move south. Taking a moment to look around the room south of the battle with the sand creature.
The bath has no obvious cistern, only a spigot and pair of handles marked Cold and Hot in Osiriani.
The room to the west of the bath is the front foyer to the manor. A trio of skeletons, dressed in tattered cloth and holding ruined khopeshes, stand at attention at the various exits from the foyer.
If they notice activity in nearby rooms, like the fight with Heshsharu, they don't show it.
Detect Evil - Are the skeletons animated, but still, or simply still?
"Alright, gentlemen, these appear to be animated skeletons, if you would be so kind as to provide me some assistance in returning them to true death . . .." He adresses his companions as he redies his shield and flail, before going into the room and swinging at the one by the door.
Hibbins sighs and picks up another piece of masonry to chuck at something.
Rashim grins, and mentally sends a nearby piece of masonry spinning towards the closest skeleton without touching it.
Caius quickly draws out his rapier and activates his wand causing his rapier to elongate and lash out at the skeleton to the left of Meriui.
He then moves beside the skeleton.
Merui HP: 24/24 - AC: 21/11/15 Status:
Caius HP: 18/19 - AC: 12/10/12 Status:
Hibbins HP: 12/12 - AC: 15/12/13 Status:
Rashim HP: 20/20 - AC: 16/14/12 Status:
________________________________
Skeleton Blue - HP: 4/4 - AC: 16/12/14 Status: prone
Hibbins/Rashim/Caius/Skeleton/Meriui
When Meriui rushes into the atrium, the skeletons react almost immediately, but not fast enough. He smashes one of them into disparate bones before it turns. Rashim crushes the skull of the second with a well-aimed hunk of debris. The third crashes to the floor with Caius's enchanted blade wrapped around its legs.
Turning, Meriui attempts to pummel the prone skeleton with his flail . . ..
Edit:
Rashim grins in pride as his rock smashes into one of the skeletons, and quickly focuses on the last remaining skeleton. It was a bit harder to see, being prone, but he let out a breath and focused carefully on the squirming skeleton.
Rashim destroys the third skeleton with his makeshift projectiles, scattering the undead into pieces as it tries to rise.
As the dust clears from the sudden combat, the foyer comes into clearer view. Brightly colored columns stand in the four corners of this foyer. Hieroglyphs cover the walls and tiled floors, obscured in places by piles of dust and sand. Open archways lead to the north, east, and west, while a set of stone double doors exit to the south.
The last unexplored room on the first floor lies through the arch to the west. Within, a large staircase climbs to the second story. Sand and dust cover the floor and painted columns stand in all but one of the corners. Pieces of broken wood, shattered pottery, and disintegrating fabric litter the room's perimeter, the remnant's of some long dead scavenger's search.
"Pentheru. Interesting name." He stands for a moment, reading the various messages, before turning back to his companions. "So, moving on?"
Caius looks around the room kicking debris while searching for valuables.
"Nothing here but dust. Yeah, lets search the last room to the west."
Hibbins continues to juggle the piece of masonry he picked up, having nothing to throw it at he has now taken to absently fidgeting with it to relieve stress.
Rashim, rather proud of himself after fighting the skeletons, searches remarkably inefficiently. Seeing Hibbins fiddle with his masonry, Rashim grins and floats another piece of masonry to be near him and fiddles with it in a similar way, but without touching it at all.
The stairs rise to the second floor of the manor, the layout of which seems similar to the first. A series of rooms lines the walls of the home surrounding a balcony in the center open to the sky above. Your knowledge of the lower level tells you that it sits above where you battled Heshsharu earlier.