Setesh breathes a sigh of relief when the creature discorporates.
Gathering his wits, he takes his time searching the doors, and then opens them.
"Too bad. The scarabs look like they are plated and not solid gold."
Thea shakes her head sadly and waits for Setesh to finish searching the doors for traps before they can be opened and next room looked through.
The doors are unlocked and swing open easily.
---
A tapestry hangs from a frame against the south wall of this large chamber; it depicts an otherworldly vista where the souls of the dead, shepherded by strange beings, enter an ethereal river ambling through space toward a landscape dominated by an impossibly tall spire. Columns sculpted in the shape of Osirian warriors wielding khopeshes stand in all four corners of the room. The floor is tiled in a white spiral pattern on a black background, and this spiral pattern is repeated on the stone double doors to the north, east, and west.
---
As with the other tapestry found, this one could be removed, but its condition would make it worthwhile only for a very dedicated collector. Thus, it is difficult to tell what value to place on it.
A thorough search of the room finds nothing else. The northern door is locked but the western door is not.
That doesn´t sound good behind this door. Either there are some very big bugs or quite a lot of them, maybe a whole swarm. Can we deal with something like that?
"I thought I heard something back there. If they're anything like the last bugs we found, we're in for quite the fight. If it's a whole swarm of them... let's see," Nevai responds as he digs through his pack. "Ah, here we are. I've got an alchemist fire and a pair of acid flasks that might come in handy if there's a large number of them, and I think Almathea mentioned that my shield might provide me some protection from swarms of insects as well."
Mh seems like the locals are prepared! In Absalom, we didn´t have much swarms, at least not in the city. I heard spooky tales though about those iconic beetles of Osirion - Scarabaeii - falling over people in great numbers and only leaving the bones.
Oh wait. Weren´t there such beetles at the doors? The golden ones?
"Well, if we want to get any further into the tomb, I guess we are going to have to be able to handle it. Who wants to do the honors of opening the door first?"
"I guess I'll test this shield out? Here, take these and get ready." Nevai hands Leto an alchemist's fire, and Almathea a flask of acid before moving to the door with an acid flask of his own at the ready. "You guys should probably stand back a bit and I'll open the door when you're ready."
Let's get to it. Erei will stand back from the western door and prepare.
Thanks Nevai! I hope i can put it to good use if need be.
Leto positions himself 10 feet away from the door, holding the alchemists fire in one hand and his bow in the other. He then nods to everyone to show he is ready.
Setesh likewise positions himself 10' back.
Micah stands back from the door enough to avoid blocking anyone's throw. His cutlass is readied to strike at the menace should it emerge. From his expression it is clear that he remains blissfully unaware that his weapon will be of little to no use against a swarm...
The door slams open swiftly.
---
This short hallway narrows sharply to the west, descending to set of stairs that abruptly ends at a rough rock wall.
---
You see what looks like a dozen lanterns hanging in the darkness. As your eyes adjust the creatures turn and you realize that they are actually large beetles. Most of them are the size of a house-cat, though as they move you notice one rises from the ground and is easily twice the size of the others.
The room bursts into activity moments later as the sounds of chittering and fluttering of wings increases, washing like a wave from the room. The beetles follow shortly after.
A layer of Grease is conjured under the group right in front of the door catching three of them.
Two beetles slip around in the Grease, one flipping over with a loud clack!
Two more beetles leap off the ground from the tunnels in the back of the room, one slamming into the stone door as it attempt to exit the room, sending it swinging open. It lands next to Nevai and tries to bit him.
The larger beetle, after managing to keep itself from falling, attempts to slide its way towards the door, and Nevai.
It keeps its footing and tries to bite at Nevai.
The second beetle in flight rushes past the first two. Realizing it can't escape through the crowd in the other room it lands and tries to bite Micah.
Leto tries to shoot the smaller beetle attacking Nevai while holding the alchemists fire in his arrow hand, a bit awkward.
As the beetle flies within Micah's reach he brings his jeweled cutlass quickly up then sharply down in a graceful arc striking at what appears to be weak spot in its chitinous shell...
,
The beetle is split cleanly in half while still in flight. Both halves land on either side of Micah. Green and yellow ichor leaking onto the ground.
Round 1
Seeing the size of the creatures before him, Nevai quickly grabs his acid flask in his shield hand and draws his khopesh. He takes a swing at the largest beetle in front of him before stepping to the side of the door to allow his companions a clear shot.
,
Setesh eagerly tries to crush a beetle.
Almathea tosses a glob of acid at the biggest beetle.
"I don't think that I expected quite this level of insect activity when I decided to come down here.
--------------------------------------------------
Thea sends another glob of acid at the big one.
Micah smirks at his own prowess as the beetle coming for him falls to his sword. Darting forward, full of confidence, he positions himself next to Nevai and takes a swing at the largest bug...
,
Setesh crushes the beetle next to Nevai, clearing the way for Micah to move forward. Between Nevai's attack and Almathea's acid, the large beetle crumples.
Leto aims at the beetles, stimulated by the others battle prowess.
At some point we are likely to need to withdraw, just to recharge. This is quite tiring.
Move action to draw the crossbow, standard action to begin singing Inspire Courage.
After the volley of arrows, Nevai moves up to engage the few remaining beetles, bolstered by Erei's song.
,
,
With a powerful overhand slash, Nevai slaughters one of the remaining beetles.
One beetle is severely hampered by the arrow almost pinning it to the ground.
Both beetles attempt to take flight, neither are successful.
Grabbing two more arrows, Leto unleashes another volley.
Glad that i brought a second quiver! At this rate, i would have run out of arrows soon with only one. Didn´t expect this to be a bug hunt.
Erei will stop singing and simply move out of the way to give line of sight and attack to the others.
One of the beetles lays still after being stuck through with two arrows. The final beetle flutters its wings again trying to take off and escape.
It manages to push itself off the ground and shake its wings free of the grease. It chitters madly as it pushes its body into one of the small holes in the wall.
Setesh looks over the beetle carcasses...
...and his eyes light up with enthusiasm.
"Ooo! This is a lucky find. Each of those beetles has two glands, which will glow (providing roughly the same light as a torch) for a few days..."
He then sets about harvesting them.
The remaining beetles are all quite dead. The glands are easily harvested.
Micah cleans the bug guts off his fancy blade. "I'm starting to think maybe someone doesn't want me protecting you, Nevai," he says jokingly, "it seems like I only miss when I'm coming to your aid!"
"Then I guess I should count myself fortunate that this time I didn't need rescuing," Nevai says as he grins back to Micah.
Erei stands in the back, leaning on his flag banner.
Well, shall we attempt to press on or do the rest of you need rest and relaxation? I'm in good condition, but I'm also not on the front lines.
"I still have a couple spells remaining if one or two of us is injured, though I have expended all of my group healing for today. I believe we can still press on for a while longer."
"As long as Nevai can keep healing I can keep fighting."
Setesh nods.
"Very well, then."
He then moves into the room that the beetles were occupying, and carefully searches it.
Nevai motions towards the now vacant doorway and says, "This room seems safe enough now. I'll be right behind you."
Erei and Leto, as Setesh searches the room you both notice the outline of a door in the northern wall. There don't appear to be any hinges or a lock mechanism for it. Even with a thorough search you find no way to open it.
You find half a dozen small burrowed holes in the walls and several that appears to be tunnels that collapsed in on themselves. Other than that, there is nothing in the room.
"Hmmm... I guess there must be another way to access the door?"
With a shrug, Setesh moves back into the other room, and, after checking the northern doors for traps, opens them, and thoroughly searches the area beyond.
The northern door seems to have a complicated, though ancient, locking mechanism. There are no obvious traps.
Setesh takes his time to unlock the door.
Taking your time, the lock is not a problem. The door opens to a set of stairs heading down to more doors. There are no traps and these doors are not locked. Beyond them are more stairs and another set of doors, eerily similar to the last. These doors are also untrapped and unlocked. They swing open easily and it appears, after more than eight grueling hours of searching a dusty tomb and fighting countless vermin, you have made your way to the burial chamber.
---
The center of this large octagonal room is a raised square platform a few inches above the floor, with a stone pillar at each corner. A gold-trimmed sarcophagus sits in the center of the platform, flanked by two statues of humanoid beings with canine heads, each of which holds an ankh in one of its crossed arms. Stone double doors exit the room to the north.
---
"Finally, we've made into the burial chamber. I'd suggest not opening the actual sarcophagus yet. Doing so could decrease its value if the mummy inside gets damaged in any way."
Thea looks over the sarcophagus without actually standing upon the raised platfrom, just in case.
"We should also give thought to whether or not we want to rest here for the night and then continue to move through the tomb tomorrow. It doesn't look like anything living has made a home in here, so it might be a good enough location for that."
"Are the living the only thing in here we need to worry about?" Micah asks, half-jokingly.
As people begin to spread out throughout the room, the impetuous swordsman eyes the two statues. "Its a shame, really," he says, hopping up onto the raised platform, "that I didn't bring a hammock; these two would have made great posts!"
Erei shrugs, looking at Almathea as she speaks, I do think that if we want to sleep here, a search of the sarcophagus first may be prudent. As Micah alluded, we don't know whether or not the living are our only threat. And I for one would hate to be ambushed by either these statues or some mummy as we rest.