Setesh nods authoritatively as he examines the potions.
"The first of these will allow you to see in the dark for a few hours. The second will restore damage done to you mind or body."
"Shall we head back to the surface? We have a report to hand in, and loot to sell, after all..."
Almathea shakes her head. "Not yet, not until we look inside the sarcophagus."
Thea moves over to it and attempts to open it.
The sarcophagus cover is heavy, but with some help you're able to slide it open and place the cover on the floor. In it lies a relatively well preserved mummified corpse wearing an exquisitely crafted gold funerary mask.
Black Adder Venom: Bite—injury; save Fort DC 11; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con damage; cure 1 save.
Two of the snakes have one dose remaining, the third has three doses. One test for each snake will get you all of the material.
After a close call, Setesh manages to harvest the venom from each of the snakes.
That mask looks very impressive. Probably not worth much though.
"At least now I am content to leave for now with whatever we are capable of carrying out. We may have to hire help later on to clean out this place as best we can. Even those snakes can be hauled out and smelted down to their base metal."
Erei walks around, making notes on the value of items.
Coffer, 50 gold pieces. Pendant, 70 gold pieces. Looks like a little over 50 gold pieces in gems.
He turns to Leto as Leto speaks, Actually, that thing looks like the most expensive thing in here. Probably in the range of 500 gold pieces? Let's take care not to damage it.
Good point. I´m certainly no expert on such things.
"Well," Micah says placing his hands on his hips and looking more than a little pleased with himself, "apart from that bit with the monstrous sarcophagus this seems to have been a pretty successful venture."
"If we're done here for now, let me tend to your wounds before we head back to the city proper."
"Well then, if someone can identify this armor, we should be done here... Let's head back, and sell what we can..."
Assuming no one appears to be in a rush or attempts to stop him, Erei will spend the two hours carefully removing the gold leaf from the sarcophagus.
Shall we away then? We might as well move these items and see what other looting we can find. That and I am interesting how our tomb fares when stacked against the other options.
Thea is fine with taking their time and making sure that they have gathered up everything that they can from the tomb.
And Nevai helps with the heavy lifting, as directed by the more intelligent members of the party.
Removing the gold leaf is rather easy, but tedious. It takes a few hours to get it all. Once finished you gather up all your findings and make your way from the tomb. Getting it all up the rope is tough, but manageable. It's still dark when you finally get out of the hole and it looks to be just before dawn. The air is cool and the area around the tomb is deathly quiet. A flap of wings is followed by Skyblazer rejoining the group.
---
After about a half hour of walking back you hear an echo of boots and flashes of light from torches around a corner which eventually turnsinto a small group of armored men and women. The holy symbol emblazoned on the breastplate of the woman in the lead easily identifies the group as a patrol of the Voices of the Spire. She calls out as she sees you,
Peace be upon you, travelers. I trust you have traveled under the grace of Pharasma and showed this necropolis the respect it deserves. She looks stern, but her tone has no note of accusation in it.
"KeeeReeee!!"
"It is good to see you as well Skyblazer. Did you see anything interesting while we were down below? Besides the food that you caught I mean."
Nevai greets the woman as she approaches. "We have. We were just headed to go and catalogue our findings and find a good night's rest. Are there regular patrols through the streets, or has there been a problem?"
Setesh nods.
"To the best of our ability, I believe that we have done so; has there been trouble? You look like you have seen action recently..."
Her eyes narrow as she looks at Nevai, then back to Setesh, We are a regular patrol. No problems to speak of. She frowns slightly as she looks back at the cleric, Your forehead...thief? Perhaps you could explain this thing? The knight's tone is deliberately neutral. The men behind her shift their feet, one rests his hand on the hilt of his sword, but no one seems prepared to draw a weapon...yet.
"Ah, well, interesting story, there - we were exploring the tomb we had been assigned in the lottery - it belonged to a warrior by the name of Akhentepi - and in one of the rooms, there was a big mirror; when we looked into it, we saw a man whom we presumed was an illusionary representation of the eponymous man himself glaring at us, and then poor Nevai there had that magically etched into his forehead."
"It would have been a shame if it had happened to me," Micah jokes with a smirk, "but on him it seems like a bit of an improvement." If the soldiers are willing he continues to talk and joke with them for a minute or so in an attempt to diffuse the situation and establish a friendly rapport...
Yeah yeah quite the story!
Leto tries to hold himself in the back a bit.
"It may have been interesting to see the face of Akhentepi, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. I'm hoping it will fade in time, since it will make trading difficult, to say nothing of my wife's reaction."
At first the knight seems unconvinced, but as Micah speaks her frown turns into a smirk, I suppose it does. It serves you all right to be marked as such. Her chuckle undercuts the accusation. Well, as long as you did not delve into any other places you seemed to have served your penance.
The rest of the soldiers visibly relax and are happy to speak for a short while. Though after a few minutes the senior knight grows serious, We should be on our way. We have a bit more to our patrol. May Pharasma watch over you in your travels.
She hesitates a moment as the group makes ready to leave, Several groups are meeting at the Tooth and Hookah this evening. It is said that this will be the place to go and hear stories of the adventures taking place in the last few evenings. And perhaps to get a glimpse of the treasures found before they are sold off. Her knowing smirk remains constant, I suggest you move along and speak with the church about your findings. They will be interested to hear of this Akhentepi and the...tricks that he left behind. Perhaps your next site will hold even more...wonders. Her laugh is a short bark as she puts her helm back on and turns to leave.
Setesh smiles wanly.
"Maybe..."
Once the knights have moved on, he turns to the others.
"Come on, let's head back to town and off-load what we found."
"Yes, I am more than ready to unload our find and have a nice relaxing evening. Hopefully followed by rest and then a new day of tomb exploration."
"I'll see you there," Micah calls out to the knight as she turns to leave.
Grinning, he tells his companions, "well, it looks like we have plans tonight!"
"Do we want to pay for someone to identify the armor?"
You arrive back at the gate to the necropolis just after the sun finally rises over the horizon. The city is coming to life around you as you walk through the streets. The sounds and smell of the city come to you as you approach the bazaar and several store fronts and tents are already open for the day.
"While we are looking about for buyers, shall we go ahead and head back to the church? Let them know that we are done and are ready to draw another tomb. I don't want to wait too long and miss out on any good ones, so we may as well draw now even if we don't go until tomorrow."
"Besides, there is even a chance that there will be buyers just hanging around the church, waiting for groups like ours to return with priceless antiquities before they are all snapped up by merchants who will double the prices that we received for them."