Suddenly bursting with excitement, and losing much of her poise, Merutep smiles brightly. "Oh, wonderful!" she exclaims.
Turning to Aya she tells the bird. "See? It's fate! I told you it would all work out!"
Aya shakes her head at Merutep fondly, as if she were an exasperated mother, amused with the antics of her wayward child.
Merutep turns back to Caius, nearly spilling her wine in the process. "Oh!" she remarks, catching the glass before it spills. "Sorry, I'm just so thrilled!"
Setting her wine down on the counter, Merutep explains. "I'm from Wati, you see, and I've always desperately wanted to enter the Necropolis. There's power there waiting for me--sites of importance to the Old Gods--and I've just always known I had to see them."
Aya nods approvingly at Merutep, then turns her attention to Caius with interest.
"So when they announced the Lottery, you can imagine how excited I was!" Merutep continues. "I joined a group called Wati's Chosen, and registered with the Grand Mausoleum, but all my team members got wet feet! The cowards didn't even show up! And they wouldn't let me and Aya in alone of course," She shakes her head as if that were an absurd rule.
"But now you're here!" she exclaims, reaching for her wine and taking a sip. "And I'm here. This is perfect!"
Merutep takes another sip of her wine.
"Now," she says, turning slightly more serious and regaining a measure of her poise. "To business. You asked me what I can bring to the table? I can commune with the spirits of old, and the Old Gods, which allows me to channel a portion of their powers into the world." She seems very proud. "In short, I can use their blessings to cast magic, protect my allies, and heal, of course. Aya here is my conduit to the ancient goddess, Isis. It is she who grants me most of my powers, although I can hear other gods and spirits as well. It is my hope that by getting closer to their places of power I'll be able to channel their gifts as well."
Aya pauses her examination of Caius in order to bow proudly when Merutep mentions her. She then turns her intelligent golden eyes back onto Caius, clearly examining him for flaws and suspicious behaviour.
"I am also a student of history, the natural world, the planes, religion, and can speak Ancient Osiriani fluently." She raises an eyebrow at Caius. "Does this meet your requirements?"
She picks up her wine and drinks it.
The tattooed man sips his tea, considering the room. As the Kelish man appraoches, he waves his right hand at a seat.
He walks up next to the man with the shield, sizing him up. "Your look says you are a fellow Kelesh man, but your shield begs otherwise. How do you move that thing around?" He says this with a grin, bowing his head ever so slightly in greeting. "I am Rashim, of the Sand Scarabs", he says, indicating the group from which he came. "We are looking to replace a couple members of our crew who had to leave suddenly. Big man like you, big shield, you look like you might know your way around a fight. You looking to make your way into the tombs?"
He nods. "I am Meriui bin Mercea, Rashim of the Sand Scarabs. A servant of the Dawnflower." He touches the symbol suspended from his neck with his right hand as he declares his allegiance. Then he puts his left hand on the tower shield. "The purpose of a shield is to protect the owner. My purpose is to protect people from the horrors of the pestilence of the dead. I am looking for an expedition to join, yes. Not because I wish to put others at risk seeking these horrors out, but because such an expedition already chooses to risk them, and will provide opportunities to end their threat." He takes another sip.
"My apologies, but I am proving a poor host. Would you like some tea?" He starts to wave a hand for service.
Caius listens intently as Merutep recounts her expertise, when she finishes he nods and smiles. "It would seem you'd fit right in with the Sand Scarabs. Our companion Kyrus, was a priest of Pharasma , and unfortunately he had a duty to his village and had to leave us."
He then stokes his chin as he continues. "The Sand Scarabs have need of your kind of expertise and the fact your fluent with Ancient Osiriani is quite a bonus."
Caius then stands up and pushes his chair back into place. "Follow me. I'll introduce you to the other Sand Scarabs and let our leader Marius talk with you."
He then leads Merutep to the table where Marius sits, pulls out a chair for Merutep, and then sits down.
"Marius this is Merutep and Aya. I think they'll serve us well as an addition to the group."
"Wonderful!" Merutep exclaims in excitement. She stands quickly, and hurries after Caius with Aya on her shoulder and her wine glass in her hand. As she nears the table Caius guides her to, she slows her pace and walks with poise and grace, intent on making a good impression.
Merutep sits in the offered chair calmly, managing to control her excitement. She nods at Caius. "Thank you."
Then she turns her attention to Marius. "Hello, Marius." she replies with great poise and calm. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance." She offers him her hand in greeting.
From her perch on Merutep's shoulder, Aya bows her head respectfully at Marius.
He nods. "I am Meriui bin Mercea, Rashim of the Sand Scarabs. A servant of the Dawnflower." He touches the symbol suspended from his neck with his right hand as he declares his allegiance. Then he puts his left hand on the tower shield. "The purpose of a shield is to protect the owner. My purpose is to protect people from the horrors of the pestilence of the dead. I am looking for an expedition to join, yes. Not because I wish to put others at risk seeking these horrors out, but because such an expedition already chooses to risk them, and will provide opportunities to end their threat."
Rashim grins widely at this response. Oh but this one is a serious one! Purpose of a shield indeed! This'll be fun! "Sounds like you'll fit in quite nicely - it's been mostly insects we've seen so far, great big ones, but I've no doubt we'll find some dead for you to re-kill too."
"My apologies, but I am proving a poor host. Would you like some tea?" He starts to wave a hand for service.
Rashim interrupts him before he gets too far. "Kind of you to offer, but I'd just as soon you join the rest of our group for a drink. I'm sure the others are eager to meet you, and I see the lovely bird lady has joined them as well. Shall we?"
"As you wish." Meriui stands, grabs the tower shield, an unwieldy, bulky thing, and almost casually sets it into place on his left arm. Once it is there, the young man moves it about with just the one arm with practiced ease and obvious control. This is displayed as he uses his right hand to pick up the service tray for his tea to carry with them, but the shield contacts neither chair, nor table, nor patron.
Hibbins waits patiently for everyone to gather around the table he has been saving, someone had to take one for the team and mind the table after all, by now he is a few drinks in and looking pretty relaxed.
After shaking Marius' hand, Merutep turns her gaze to the half-orc at the table. She offers him her hand. "I'm Merutep. It's a pleasure to meet you, as well, sir."
Marius stands as the others join the table "A pleasure to meet you both." he says as he extends a hand to the newcomers "Please take a seat." he waves to get the serving girls attention "Another round for us, and whatever these two are drinking as well." He whispers in the girl's ear, who then eyes Merutep and Aya, before she departs
Taking his seat he examines both Meriui and Merutep with a keen eye "I'm sure Rashim and Caius have filled you in on our situation and that, by the fact that you are here, you have agreed to join us. Just a quick note of business first, everything is divided equally amongst us. We share the danger, we share the reward. Tonight, though, take the time to get to know us. Ask any questions that might be on your mind and we'll do our best to answer them. Tomorrow, after the Dawnflower's blessing," he nods at Meriui "we'll return to the tomb." he raises his glass in a toast as the girl returns to the table with the drinks and several platters of meat, one of which is still raw, which she sets on the table "Tonight we dine, tomorrow we delve."
"Yes," Merutep acknowledges with a smile. "Caius informed me of your plight. By a happy chance of fate our needs align. I am registered in the lottery, but no longer have a team to enter with. Their nerves got the better of them, I'm afraid."
She pauses, taking a sip of her wine.
"Your terms are more than fair. I accept them happily."
As the servers arrive with more drinks and food, Merutep raises her glass in a toast alongside Marius. "To new partnerships, and new discoveries."
After taking another sip of her wine--and having it refreshed by the serving girl--Merutep uses a utensil to place some pieces of raw meat on a plate, which she passes to Aya.
Then she reaches over with her fingers, picking up a piece of cooked meat from another plate and eats it.
"Mmm. this is delicious. Thank you."
Aya lets out a gentle cry as Merutep toasts the others.
As Merutep puts the raw meat in front of her, Aya nods at her in thanks--calmly and with unnatural poise for a bird--then begins to eat the meat.
Caius studies the two-newcomers with interest, causally sipping his wine.
He then raises his glass in toast along with the others. "Welcome. It shall be a pleasure to get to know you both."
After setting the tea tray down, and placing the shield where it is reasonably close at hand, Meriui joins the others at the table. As everyone toasts the opportunity before them, he smiles broadly. "May we prove to be worthy companions, each to the others." he sips his tea in response to his own "toast" before continuing. "You are an interesting group. I suppose this is the way of such expeditions. How do you meet and choose to work together?"
Bobbins takes another swig as the conversation turns to the addition of new members and he calculates how his shares just shrank a little. "Same as anyone else meets. Mr. Eloquent there decide to get a crew togetha and tracked downs us experts in our fields, same as we just did width you two. An we all could use the money right? We been lucked so fars, good spot on first go, just bunch bugs and simple traps. Course it's always to pleasure to meet a pretty young lady, as long as bird doesn't peck at me, I don't need no more scars than I got already." The slightly inebriated half breed smiles at the bird in hopes that he can get on its good side.
Aya the magnificent kite sticks her beak up in the air at the insult. Clearly she's miffed that someone might think she'd go attacking things willy-nilly. Of course, the bits of raw meat dangling from her beak do little to help her case....
"Oh, Aya's quite gentle!" Merutep assures Dr. Hibbins. "And very intelligent. She's a conduit to the goddess Isis, so I wouldn't expect her to act like other wild animals, Dr. Hibbins."
Merutep smiles at Aya affectionately. "She's very maternal, actually. Just about the only thing that rises her ire is if I come to harm. Oh, and children! She's very protective of children."
Turning back to the others she adds, "But then again, aren't we all?" She smiles and chuckles. "Or we should be, at any rate."
"Do any of you have children?" she asks curiously.
Mollified by Merutep's glowing description of her, Aya gives herself a shake, turns to Dr. Hibbins, and bows respectfully.
Then she goes back to eating the raw meat from her plate with great enthusiasm.
Caius nods as Hibbins explains. "Hibbins has the gist of it. We all have our reasons for braving the dangers of the necropolis, thankfully we've been lucky enough to find a solid crew of trustworthy people."
At the mention of the bugs, Caius's face scrunches up in disgust. "I don't know if I would saw we've been lucky to find human-sized insects burrowing around in the tomb." he says with a small chuckle.
"Giant bugs are not the same sort of abomination as the walking dead, but the people here don't deserve to have them running loose, either."
"Oh, and the walking dolls, don't forget about them. They were a bit on the creepy side."
"Well, that sounds like an exciting tale! Do tell." Merutep remarks, leaning in to Dr. Hibbins with interest.
The night passes as you get to know your new companions, but soon it is time to turn in before meeting in the morning.
As scheduled you meet at the gates to the necropolis as the morning sun rises. There, the Pharasmin priests open the gates and let the remaining adventuring groups in.
Soon you enter the tomb of Akhentepi and make your way to the lower tomb. Marius leads the newcomers through the rooms you've already explored and the various treasures therein. Once more you find yourself in the room with the golden sarcophagus and the trapped dais.
Marius points out to Meriui and Merutep the pairs of secret doors to the east and west before explaining the nature of the trapped platform "Anyone stepping on the platform would be electrocuted by electricity arcing between the pillars before all the doors to this room slammed shut and those pair of northern doors would open to reveal whatever is behind them." he kneels back down to examine the traps mechanism again before continuing "We were in the midst of figuring this out when Kyrus, one of our departed companions, had his vision and decided to leave."
Removing his tools from his backpack, he gets to work figuring out how to bypass the trap. "I knew taking a break and coming at this fresh would be a good idea."
Merutep bids the others goodnight and returns to her tiny home near Mender's Row. She peeks in on her parent's before retiring, and finding them asleep leaves them a note detailing her success in finally finding a team to enter the lottery with.
Come morning, Merutep meets the others at the gates. She seems poised and prepared, but inside she's bouncing with excitement. She smiles widely at the gate guards--recognizing them from the MANY times she's tried to convince them to let her in so she can explore.
She greets the guards by name and tells them proudly, "I have business with the Lottery." One through the gates she waves at them and thanks them profusely.
Turning to her new companions she waits for them to lead the way.
On the trip to the tomb of Akhentepi, Merutep's head swivels back and forth rapidly, trying to take in every sight and sound she can.
After listening to Marius' description of the room, Merutep looks around carefully.
Aya takes flight come morning, flying above Merutep, catching a small bird to eat, and enjoying the morningsun's warmth on her feathers.
When Merutep enters the Necropolis she swoops down near Meruteps head and gives her a happy nod of approval, before soaring back up into the sky.
As the group enters the tomb of Akhentepi, Aya swoops down and lands on Merutep's shoulder as gently as she can. She shares a knowing glance with Aya--clearly both bird and master are excited to be here--then she turns her keen eyes onto their surroundings.
Caius turns in for the night, slightly tipsy. Upon waking he gathers his gear and joins his companions into the tomb.
Upon entering the chamber with the trapped dais, Caius moves out of the way, leaning against the wall. His hand resting against the hilt of his rapier.
"I'll keep my eyes open over here. Not much else I can do to help with this."
Following the others, the young man seems to be trying to see everything as they travel, until they settle into the trapped room, and it becomes apparent they will be waiting for Marius to work out how to get past the trap.
"Keep watch? Sounds like a good plan. I can't help him with the trap, but I can help you watch for something else." He shifts the tower shield around, and actually looks like he's getting more comfortable with it on his arm.
A slightly hungover Higgins does not seem to be enjoying the trip as much as he did last go round. He does howeverfocus on aiding in the disarming of the trap.
Rashim also helps out with the trap, pointing out areas of difficulty.
Caius and Meriui take up positions where they can keep an eye on the doors to this room, both secret and not.
Marius together with Hibbins and Rashim's help, manages to jamb the gears of the trap, disabling it.
Merutep looks around the room but finds nothing out of the ordinary. Aya meanwhile swoops and soars around the room before landing on one of the torch holders, which moves under her weight. Just as the others finish disabling the trap there is a loud click as several lockouts snap into place, keeping the pressure plate's gears from moving. Satisfied, she returns to Merutep's shoulder.
Merutep happily pats Aya on the head.
"Well done!" she compliments the bird.
"Is it safe now?" she asks the more mechanically minded members of their group.
Meriui's eyebrows shoot up when he hears the click, but they settle once nothing obviously happens. "It seems you are past that problem. Do we have a preferred door, or do we need to search this space better, first?"
With the trap safely disabled Marius, still expecting to be electrocuted, warily steps up on the platform to inspect the sarcophagus.
Hibbins prepares a bomb in case an unquiet dead pops out of the sarcophagus and weights to see what happens.
Caius leans forward in anticipation as Marius steps upon the platform. He keeps his keen eyes upon the dais and the tomb.
"Well so far so good Marius. At least you didn't get shocked."
The young man keeps scanning the room, now trying to scan both the elevated platform and the exterior walls at the same time.
"Yes," Merutep agrees helpfully. "The lack of electrocution is an auspicious sign."
"Always a good first step" Rashim agrees, as he moves slightly behind Marius, also looking out.
As Marius steps on the platform, nothing happens. Examining the sarcophagus he is disappointed to see that the gold accents are nothing more than thin gold leaf, which could be scraped off and sold.
Kneeling beside the sacophagus Marius is shocked as it rises to it's "feet" and the lid opens, intending to entomb him inside.
Initiative
"No, I do not believe I will allow this . . .."
Meriui skitters around onto the platform and skirts by the "sarcphogus", taking a defensive position next to Marius.
Hibbins throws his bomb so as to have it burst behind the sarcophagus, hoping to at least catch the thing in his splash radius without harming his companions.
Damage of 6
Animated Objects are as resistant to damage as the material they re made from. Animated Objects have a Hardness of at least 5 (or more).
All Animated Objects come with a slam attack. Some are created with an additional attack as well. Judging by the open lid and the empty chamber behind it you believe that this one has the ability to swallow someone whole and suffocate them within.
Some Animated Objects have defects or flaws in it's construction that make it more susceptible to different attacks or otherwise affect it's abilities. Due to the clunky nature of it's movement and it's fragile construction, you believe that this particular construct is slower and is more vulnerable to cold based attacks than other Animated Objects