Almalik shields himself with mage armor after retrieving his wand. Ama tries to hit the creature in the head and manages to connect. The creature's hide looks like it parts before the blade and closes again behind it, the blade doesn't seem to do damage. Nagbur tries to collapse the creature's legs but it resists the attack. The creature rips on of its claws through the tent again and steps inside, it moves towards Fish.
Round 1:
- Almalik
- Nagbur
- Ama
- Cubis
- Fish
In bold may act.
Round 2:
- Almalik
- Nagbur
- Ama
- Cubis
- Fish
"Wait swords not work? How Fish kill it?"
Not seeing any other option Fish swings his blade.
Ama sees an opening, and swings her nodachi again.
If it looks like Ama'll miss, she'll spend a mote to warp time and bring a slight change to her blade's course.
---
Ama'll directly follow her attack up with another swing of her weapon.
She'll spend a(nother?) mote to warp time, if necessary.
Almalik begins to sidle around the cubis, trying to find a better opening to start casting some spells.
Unable to maneuver as much as he wants, Almalik tries to rattle off a spell and fire a ray of frost but he's unable to form the words in the close confines.
As the creature bursts through the slashed tent and lunges at Fish, Nagbur slaps at it in panic.
Fish swings his blade and again the skin of the Cubis parts before the blade, only this time you see that the blade draws blood. You see the wound close behind the blade and a purple welt is at the place where the blood showed earlier. Ama reacts to the cubis moving past her but it was too fast to hit. She attacks directly after Fish again and the Cubis was distracted causing the sword to also draw blood. Almalik seems too thrown aback by the Cubis barging into the tent and seems unable to act. nagbur tries to trip the creature again but it still seems unfazed by the attack.
The Cubis turns around to Ama and attacks her. He swings both claws and hits with his first for a solid 13 damage.
Round 2:
- Almalik
- Nagbur
- Ama [4/17hp]
- Cubis -9hp
- Fish
Round 3:
- Almalik
- Nagbur
- Ama [4/17hp]
- Cubis -9hp
- Fish
In bold may act!
"Agh!"
Nagbur cries out and stumbles back from the thing as it tears into Ama. Yes, there's a mental link by which he can judge injuries, but he doesn't need to use it... he can almost feel the pain himself.
But rather than work on her wound, he chooses to toughen her against additional injury first.
"Nagbur! Five feet to the left! I'm using a spell!" calls Almalik.
Ama looks a bit shocked when the cubis draws her blood. A moment of dizziness causes Ama to panic. She doesn't want such a large wound. It hurts.
In her panic, Ama doesn't realize what exactly she's doing. She looks down at the wound the cubis inflicted to her, only to see a single scratch where the huge wound was a moment earlier.
"You no wait! Take shot now!" shouts Nagbur as he tries to scramble out of the way.
"Everybody, only move to avoid the cubis' attack, do not attack back or block anything!"
Almalik swears and deciding that the Cubis is easier to fool than kill, tries to cast another illusion. His shaking hands manage to finish the spell.
Trusting that his companions do not move, Almalik waves his hand his companions begin to vanish one by one, replaced by the empty walls of teh tent. Behind the cubis, off in the distance, the entire group wave to the cubis.
Almalik turns everyone 'invisible' and the Cubis looks confused. He looks right at every one of you in turn before noticing the movement behind him. He sees the lively group standing quite a way off and he gives chase.
You quickly patch up the tent once you are sure it is safe and return to bed for the rest of the night. You wake up in the morning refreshed. After a quick breakfast you continue the search for the first tomb.
"Next time Fish will wake Almalik to deal with cub monster." Fish says before everyone goes back to sleep.
In the morning Fish looks around at all the sand. "Fish find nothing but sand. Only way find something here is look for magic."
Ama sheaths her nodachi and lays down her head. It doesn't take long for her to fall asleep.
The next morning, Ama wakes up fully healed. She nods her head when Fish speaks. "Almalik, we need your magic box of tricks."
Come morning Nagbur walks around with Almalik, looking for clues. After a while, he clears his throat. "Longshanks. The thing you do last night, the illusion." He moves ahead, then turns to face the man. "Very clever," he says sincerely. "Very smart. We all maybe dead now elsewise." He stands there looking up at Almalik, nodding thoughtfully.
Then, without another word he turns and walks off, studying the sand.
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Almalik smiles over at Nagbur. "Thank you Nagbur, I think we'd all be dead a few times if it weren't for one another. Severe circumstances create strange partnerships. I'm glad the illusions fool the cubis so easily."
With that, Almalik waves his hand to cast detect magic, and he begins to scour the area, shovel ready.
Not far from the tent Almalik feels a jumble of auras. He feels hundreds of faint abjuration and evocation auras coming from one spot. Almalik immediately starts digging on the spot where he feels the auraa. The group (hopefully) joins him and about two hours of digging rewards you with a find, a smooth sandstone surface above the auras. This must be the ceiling of a room of sorts.
Not accustomed to this kind of exertion, particularly in the desert, Almalik is a puddle of sweat and exhaustion by the end of the digging.
"My kingdom for a an unseen servant. We've only found the roof."
Picking himself up, Almalik tries to get a sense of where the entrance to the building is using his detect magic spell and just a good look at the roof of the building.
"Wait, wait, you got a kingdom? A kingdom?!" Nagbur asks incredulously, one eyebrow raised.
"Anyway, sorry Nagbur not learned more yet," he says to the exhausted Almalik. "Me think there be way to make you stronger, but not got it worked out yet." Animal Affinity
Starting at the point Almalik cleared, Nagbur begins walking outward in a spiral, hands clasped behind his back, head down, studying the sand.
Not able to make sense of what Almalik just said, Ama figures she'll just let it rest this time.
Ama starts to copy Nagbur's approach to finding the entrance of the building. Except Ama walks the spiral in the opposite direction. Whenever Ama's about to walk into Nagbur, she jumps over the blue.
The heat slowly starts to drain your energy again. Just before the day gets to the hottest point Nagbur finds a weird rock formation. The pointy rock is the same type of stone as the roof you cleared earlier. You start to clear some sand around the rock and soon discover that it is a wall. The roof of the building has collapsed here and you might be able to enter. Almalik runs over with his shovel and immediately start digging. The group pours all their effort in the job again and you clear it in a few hours. You have uncovered the entrance of a long lost tomb.
It is now nearly evening and you find yourself in the 'entrance' of the tomb. You see many doorways to either side of you and the hallway ends in a bigger room with a sarcophagus in it.
"What about camping inside one of these small rooms tonight, after we've cleared at least one? We can block the door opening with the box at the end of this hallway." Ama point at the sarcophagus when she mentions a box.
Ama walks over to the first room, and takes a peek inside.
"Me not like looks of that 'box,'" says Nagbur, "but plan sounds good elsewise."
Almalik collapses at the end of the hard day of exertion, and crawls into the shade of the tomb in order to escape the burning sun. He is bathed in sweat, miserable, and for once in his life hasn't said anything for a couple of hours.
"Door... block... box... good."
Almalik groans and crawls to his feet and takes a moment to recover in the cool of the tomb.
"Fine. Right. So gentlemen and whatever Ama is, let's figure out if there is something waiting to kill us in the sarcophagus. One rule I have learned in this ignoble profession is to assume that every corpse is not a corpse. Please have your weapons at ready."
With that, Almalik makes his way over to the sarcophagus, and tries to give it a shove with his mage hand. If that fails, he begins to open the lid.
The group makes it way over to the sarcophagus. Ama inspects every room as she passes them and concludes that there are a lot of pots and a small pool of water in two adjacent rooms. The large room at the end of the tomb is the definitely the grave room. The room contains the sarcophagus, several pots, two what looks like rugs and a treasure chest behind the sarcophagus.
As you walk through the tomb you see markings on the walls around you. Drawings of ancient folk in epic battles with the Cubis. In between the drawings you also find runes unfamiliar to you.
Almalik immediately tries to open the chest with mage hand and concludes that the lid is too heavy. He tries putting his back behind his shoulder and with the help of the others he manages to push the lid open. The moment the lid is opened black tendrils of mist appear that sap the strength of all of you. Everyone of you is exhausted for 3 minutes. The remains in the sarcophagus don't seem to move, you think it is dead. On it you find a shield, a spearpoint (The shaft seems to have rotten away) and a golden crown.
The shield is inscribed with hundreds of tiny runes. With detect magic you find that the runes emit the auras Almalik felt earlier.
Already completely worn out from the work of the day, Almalik's legs give out from under him and he just lies there, groaning for a little bit.
If nothing has eaten the group, he waves his hand to cast detect magic and inspect the items in the sarcophagus.
The crown and spearpoint emit no magical auras. The shield however does. As earlier you feel hundreds of faint abjuration and evocation aura's coming from it. The evocation auras are only located at the pointy ends of the shield. The abjuration auras are all over the shield. Upon closer inspection Almalik sees that the auras are coming from tiny runes inscribed all over the shield.
You are the only one with high enough perception to see this since the runes are incredibly small:
There are two types of runes you can discern on the shield. One type is all over the shield and the other type is on the pointy ends of the shield. With detect magic from Almalik you know the Abjuration aura belongs to the runes all over the shield and that the Evocation aura is only on the pointy ends.
As you are busy inspecting the loot and the chambers you notice that the room is getting darker every minute. It will be night again soon.
"Talky talky," Ama says as she tugs Almalik's sleeve. She's about to mention the runes when Almalik also discovers them. "Never mind."
"The runes on the shield and those on the walls... maybe they're alike?" Ama walks over to a wall, and tries to compare the runes with those on the shield.
Ama then attempts to drag or push the sarcophagus to the nearest small room. "I think it's sleepy sleepy time, but I'm already very sleepy and pushing this by myself is hard..."
Fish looks at the shield and the runes. "This one has funny marks. You know what they for Nagbur?" Fish then discovers the spear head which he takes a shine to. "Fish found a tooth pick!"
Nagbur wobbles a little as the wave of exhaustion hits him. "Long day," he mutters.
"This one has funny marks. You know what they for Nagbur?"
Nagbur takes hold of the shield and studies it closely in the failing light. "Nagbur not taught about magic stuff, it just comes. So me not know much except for mind stuffs. But, pretty sure this be magic writing. And look here," he says, pointing at the tiny marks inscribed on the shield. "Two different kinds. This be all over, but this only near the pointy parts."
He shakes his head and hands the shield back. "Nagbur not know magic like this. How about you, longsh... er... 'Almalik?'"
In response to Ama's comment, he studies the runes on the walls and compares them in his mind to the two varieties on the shield.
The spearpoint and crown don't seem special on closer inspection. The runes on the shield do match some on the walls on the other hand. The runes placed all over the shield are depicted near drawn battlefields where a single person is holding off hordes of Cubis. The runes on the pointy ends are shown at drawings of a single person slaying Cubis. There are several other runes that look alike the ones on the shield with similar drawings. With drawings this old it is hard to see what the figures in the drawings are doing differently compared to each other.
Almalik looks over the shield.
"Fascinating. The runes on the shield glow with magical energy; abjuration in particular which is protective magic. The sharp ends of the shield hold evocation magic, which tends to be a little more violent. The auras are faint which means that whatever magic is on this is either weak, or dormant. I will memorize read magic on the morrow, it may help decipher the runes. I can also memorize a spell to let me read any language I encounter, but that is too situational for me to use in a dangerous area like this."
With that, Almalik moves over to inspect the chest. He attempts a mage hand spell to lift the lid from a distance.
After picking his teeth with the spear point Fish goes to inspect the chest.
Almalik tries to open the chest from a distance and it opens without any resistance. Inside you see several very old scrolls. They look like they might fall to pieces any second. Apart from the scrolls the chest looks empty.
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Almalik beams widely as he looks over the scrolls before he very, very gingerly closes the lid.
"I believe my comprehend languages spell will come in useful in the extreme. But these scrolls are delicate and must be handled under safe conditions. Let us rest and then explore the tomb."
Almalik says his prayers to Sarenrae and settles in for sleep.
Ama rolls her eyes at Almalik's last words. "I already told you it's sleepy sleepy time."
I think he's a bit slow sometimes. Or maybe his sound receivers are broken. They're awfully small, aren't they?
Ama touches her own, pointy ears while observing Almalik's somewhat round ears.
Yes, probably broken. Poor Almalik can't receive sound like I do...
---
The next morning Ama happens to wake up rather early. She decides to get up quickly and poke the others until they're all awake.
"Wakey wakey!" Ama shouts in everyone's ears. Almalik receives extra loud treatment.
Piecing together Almalik's explanation of the shield's magic and the wall art, Nagbur nods. "So, shield be extra protection from cubits and makes better killing too? We need this. You can make it work?"
The group goes inside one of the rooms and blocks it off with the lid of the sarcophagus. Almalik changes his spells and Ama pokes everyone awake, which leads to a really grumpy Nagbur. You can inspect the scrolls, the rooms or go for a 'stroll' to the next location.
Fish will search the pots and other areas in the other rooms of the tomb. "Maybe there is back scracher for Fish too."
Almalik screams as Ama wakes him up and he lunges wildly at the nimble elf-looking thing, but misses by a mile. He stares at her with wide eyes.
"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!"
He swallows noisily, smoothes out his beard, and glares at Ama.
"Nevermind, don't answer that."
He takes a moment to recover himself before gnawing on some trail rations. After taking time to memorize his spells, he quickly inspects the shield and the tops of the scrolls with read magic.
Unfortunately the writing on the scrolls is on the inside. You are able to read the shield however. The runes on the pointy ends are offensive runes which work against Cubis only, the word reads Force. The runes on the shield itself are defensive runes also working against Cubis only, the word reads Shield. The shield gives you a AC bonus when fighting Cubis, the normal stats are the same as a heavy steel shield. When used as a weapon it deals damage, ignoring the DR of the Cubis. It deals additional damage against them on top of ignoring DR.
Ama smiles brightly at everyone when then wake, no matter their reaction. When Fish decides to search the various rooms and the pots in them, Ama joins him in his search.
When done searching Ama takes the map and shows it to the others. "There are two more crosses. Let's go to the one closest to the oasis thingy first. Do you want to go to the oasis thingy itself, or not?"
She also listens to the explanation of what the shield does. "So who's wielding it?"
Nagbur shrugs at Ama's question about locations to visit. "Somebody else pick, Nagbur not know enough to make good choice."
Your look around in the old dusty ruins. You kick over the pots and find soms money in them. Otherwise there might have been other items but they have turned to dust.
You might be able to take the chest with scrolls but you could also try to 'repair' the them.
If you decide to leave for the next destination please roll survival as before.
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Almalik unfurls the map and stares at it a little while.
"I am in favour of doing this properly. We seem to have an appropriate way of dealing with the Cubis through illusion, which gives me some hope of our continued safety. The power of this shield is also something considerable."
He glances over. "Fish is our most up-front fighter. Fish,c an you try wearing the shield? See if it will change size for you; some magical items do that."
"Anyways, back to the map. I say we hit every marking on the map. So the oasis would be next. It will also allow us replenish food supplies if need be."
Almalik, having put the scrolls aside for a minute, hands the shield to Fish for him to test it. The shield is obviously too large for him but when he straps it on it shrinks to a comfortable size. When you unstrap it the shield warps back to its original size.
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