By the proverbial skin of his teeth, however, he is able to resist the mighty current enough to avoid being washed away!
The room being drained, you are now able to see the remaining 10 feet of this (now-)spacious chamber: Embedded securely in the stone wall is the outline of a door, and the water had also been concealing more hieroglyphs. Perhaps they can help explain the odd arithmetic above....
|
Drained, exhausted, and his clothes dripping wet, Razmand slowly gathers himself from the floor with weak movements; the leeches did get him a bit, and he lifts up to a sitting position and starts plucking some of the few leeches still attached to him. Grimacing each time he feels a sting, he eventually begins to feel back in action. He makes a genuine smile towards the rest of the group, standing up and straightening his jacket.
"That was... awkward, Razmand says, "I hesitated to move on, but as the results show, I'm glad I did perform the deeds necessary."
Razmand walks over to the others and pats them on the shoulders. "Maybe one day you youngsters get the gist of doing something else than just swing your weapons to solve a problem." The chelish man shows a wide, teasing smile.
|
|
"Much obliged, Elenial," Razmand says, and turns to look about the room, "now that those pests are gone, we can finally concentrate on these murals... hmm."
The stairway descends into stagnant and murky water, too deep and dark for you to be able to see where the floor is. The north wall features two fifteen-foot-tall mosaics of the Dog Pharaoh flanking a series of smaller hieroglyphs arranged in rows and columns. The east and west walls give glimpses of the top half of faded and water-stained frescos depicting pleasure slaves and vast wealth in a desert oasis paradise.
Elenial actually doesn't have much trouble making it over the pit.
On the other side, she notices strange eddies in the water on the far side of the room. Perhaps there are more pit traps underneath the water....Meanwhile, sharp-eyed Razmand looks at the hieroglyphs on the far side of the room. Five of them he recognizes as standing for the basic arithmetical functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and equation), which might suggest that the others stand for numbers - but something's wrong, because Razmand damn knows the Ancient Osirian numeral system perfectly well, thank you, and these don't match.
"The initial calculations are simple; two plus four equals six. Eight minus one equals seven. Fives times two equals ten. And nine divided by three equals three. Thus the four calculations left mean... squiggly & dot, scarab, scorpion, jackal."
Razmand proceeds to see if these hieroglyphs can be pressed; if so, he presses them in the beforementioned order.
A little bit of arithmetic is no match for Razmand "The Count" Nevantes, and he's even savvy enough to know how the combination lock works on the first try! After millennia of inertia, the door obligingly grinds open.
Beyond, a short stairway leads up to the center of a hallway with identical doors at either end. The floor here is barely damp. Each doorway features a simple stone handle. On the passage’s northern wall are two figures in bas-relief: to the west, a human man holding an ankh in one hand and a khopesh in the other; to the east, a jackal-headed man double-wielding twin kukris.
After that last nightmare, you find that that door and this hall all appear to be blessedly straightforward and tame. Nothing but a lock, it seems.
The lock yields. Razmand could probably design a trickier one even if he was strung out on pesh.
It occurs to Razmand that maybe there is a bit of treachery at work in this hall. As he was rounding the corner, he'd noticed a bit of anomalous stonework down the other end - a sure sign of another trapped floor with some barely-guessable nastiness underneath.
The floor in front of the other door is indeed one big trap.
Razmand slides the stones around until they're secure enough to walk on without fear. Child's play.
|
|
"See, now these stones had been placed not to act as a pressure plate system, but instead create a structural point of failure which in turn creates a chain reaction, a collapse. Their placement was basic, but with this small adjustment to the tile configuration the balance of the floor was re-established and the fear or befalling to the pit has been negated. The tiles support one another now, and continue to do so unless the tile configuration is skewed again."
"You should read about different trap mechanisms and tile configurations from the chronicles, they feature very thorough articles about the varieties of floor patterns, notably how different races have favored certain shapes over others, and how that affects the needed patterns. It's very basic physics, actually, and doesn't require an astute mind to understand."
|
Thanks for the boring history lesson on trap mechanisms, I'll remember that next time I have trouble sleeping. Can we move this along? I may just turn back and let those leeches do me in if I have to here a speech like this at every little trap we find. Baldwyn you thank you can just smash the next one to oblivion?
|
"Boring, can we go through the door now?" zorro say rudely. "I'm hate things that I can't stab!!!"
-Posted with Wayfinder
|
|
"Tsk, you shouldn't look down upon a teacher, who is willing to share his knowledge. If anything, you should indulge yourself in it," Razmand scolds, "and I wouldn't object to Baldwyn performing feats of strength on the next item we find, but I have a feeling the Society's researchers would rather have the tomb mostly intact, not in shreds."
"And Zorro, you need help. I can direct you to certain therapists that specialize in curing this condition known as murderhoboism. It is known to deteriorate social skills and result in a lack and/or decrease of personal charisma. I can provide the same recommendations to others as well, in case you wish to take advantage of the opportunity."
"But as you have voiced your opinion, we will move on now. To our original direction."
Razmand walks back over to the door on the right and opens it, but not before the bloodthirsty gang he's been tasked to babysit is behind him with all weapons drawn, ready to face whatever death dragon that might wait for them behind the door.
The most positively adorable band of heavily-armed tomb raiders this side of the Hao Jin proceed into the next room, and what do they see?
Brilliant treasure fills this room. From every angle, gold, silver, and myriad gems catch the light. While the floor is a soupy morass and mold grows up the walls, the Dog Pharaoh’s treasures sit atop shelves untouched by the grime below. An ornate sarcophagus lies on a dais at the far end of the room, mold growing up its sides.
However, Baldwyn frowns deeply as he blinks in the gleam, Elenial deflates after taking a closer look at a huge gem, and Razmand isn't fooled even for that long: All this gleaming pharaoh's ransom of treasure is nothing but a load of cheap souvenir-shop knickknacks - the "gems" are glass, the "gold" is pyrite, et cetera. That said, they are pretty in a garish sort of way, and their age is real enough. Collectively, the entire lot might go for up to 150 gp, but that's a poor payday for (Razmand guesstimates) 50 cubic feet and 600 lbs of loot; if the party had magical means of carrying it all, maybe it would be worth it.
Much less deceptive than all this "treasure," however, is the unnatural linearity of some of the mold growth on the south wall, which sticks out to the entire party like a cathedral in Rahadoum.
|
|
"Curious," Razmand says, rubbing his beard idly, "you notice that too? Who would store a pile of fake items to act as a hoard? The reasons for this are multiple, but I'm expecting trouble. Tombs like this never rest calmly."
Razmand makes cursory investigations on the room from the door, not entering it.
The room is full of counterfeit treasure, something funny is going on with the southern wall, and you are as certain as you could possibly be that that's all there is to this chamber.
As far as the mold itself goes, you've occasionally found more interesting strains in the cheese in your rations, but the way it's growing suggests something odd about the wall itself....
Baldwyn is reminded of this one poster he used to have on his dormitory wall when he was in training....
A few prods from Razmand's mace expose the wall for what it is: A secret door leading directly to a new chamber!
This long, dank hallway contains three sarcophagi arranged down the center of the floor. The floor, walls, ceiling and the sarcophagi themselves are completely covered with a layer of dull brown fuzz. A door in the eastern wall at the south end of the room provides the only exit aside from the secret door to the north. The air here is unnaturally cold.
|
|
"A secret burial chamber? I most certainly do not like this," Razmand says, looking down the corridor with suspicion, "and since the environment is cooler here than elsewhere... it would suggest to a magical aura or very well made insulation that keeps the bodies in a frozen state. Could this be a primitive stasis chamber? An experiment to keep certain bodies in prolonged hibernation? Such experiment must have gone awry as it has been far too long; or maybe in the ancient times they had perfected the technique, but the art of it had been forgotten along with the Dog Pharaoh's tomb."
"But now I'm beginning to realize the previous chamber was a bait," Razmand continues, apparently having a habit for long speeches. Either he is absent-minded about speaking aloud his theories, or he is deliberately being long-winded just to annoy Ramesses. It is hard to tell, though, as Razmand is adept at bluffing. "I've heard of creatures that remain in a dormant state unless their hoard is tampered with. So I suggest you all to keep clear of those souvenirs, unless you begin to feel an urge to kill a being." He takes a look at Zorro, who admitted having a certain taste for drawing blood with his blade.
"Regardless, those three tombs might be the guardians of the Dog Pharaoh. I urge you to tread with careful steps lest we awaken them."
He knows they won't be able to get past the tombs with stealth; not with this team, at least. Regardless, he tries.
Razmand is initially worried he's stepped on a trap, such is the precision and synchronicity with which the coffins open from the inside as he enters the hall - and out from each one clambers a slender anthropoid figure covered with thick carpets of brown mold, save for around their eye sockets, which glow a baleful red. It's possible that Razmand has managed to evade their direct gaze, but he can't stop them from sensing that the living have intruded upon them - and even if they can't see Razmand, they can certainly see Baldwyn....
[dice=Livin' In the Fridge!]1d20[/dice]
Everyone but Ramesses
____________________
Moldy Leftovers
____________________
Ramesses
Razmand knows a mummy when he sees one , but whatever it is that's covering them is kind of weird...and his understanding does not stop the profound unearthly horror they inspire in him....
Mummy Rot: curse and disease—slam; save Fort DC 16; onset 1 minute; frequency 1/day; effect 1d6 Con and 1d6 Cha; cure —.
Mummy rot is both a curse and disease and can only be cured if the curse is first removed, at which point the disease can be magically removed. Even after the curse element of mummy rot is lifted, a creature suffering from it cannot recover naturally over time. Anyone casting a conjuration (healing) spell on the afflicted creature must succeed on a DC 20 caster level check, or the spell is wasted and the healing has no effect. Anyone who dies from mummy rot turns to dust and cannot be raised without a resurrection or greater magic.