Marnarius expertly dismantles one of the mummy. Once they're down to one, the party easily dispatches the final abomination.
Marnarius mouths a silent prayer over the fallen undead. "I hope they can go to their judgment now. These are stronger than anything we've seen before, so we'd better find that compass quickly."
Moving further into the building you come to an open area. Tools and notes have been placed upon this chamber’s broad stone worktables with apparent significance and precision. Several sarcophagi lie along the walls, surrounded by dusty models, urns, and statues. In the northeast corner, a disorderly campsite mars the mathematical order of the room’s design.
There are some side passageways leading away from this main room but everything seems quit for now.
"That's odd. Wonder who might be staying here, with mummies and all? Leto, could you cover me?" The slayer makes his way cautiously over to the campsite and examines it carefully for clues.
"Gather up, before some new threat shows up," Nevai requested before summoning more healing power from his deity.
"We're running a bit low on healing magic. This is the last of the wand, though I've got a little bit left before I'll need to rest and meditate for more."
Almathea will cast Detect Magic as she looks about the area, including the campsite.
"Thea, can you or Erei read the notes there?"
Nuru takes a knee and tries to regain her composure. "Thank you, Nevai... I'm pretty much taking a beating from those horrific creatures," she says with a forced semi-grin.
Don't worry, i got your back Marnarius.
Leto follows with bow drawn, carefully watching the surroundings.
The notes are in ancient Osiriani and detail, very precisely, the resting places of what appear to be very highly regarded thinkers and architects of their time.
After pacing around the camp area, the half-elf straightens up. "Four, maybe six people were here for a week or so. They left a little less than a week ago, I think, but it doesn't look like they bugged out in a hurry. I'm going to guess that they found something big enough to make it worth leaving their gear behind."
Leto watches Marnarius and Nevai examine the area, but stays vigilant.
How do you know it was a week ago? Four to six people sounds like another adventuring party somehow, don't you think? Leaving their gear behind could also mean they turned into ghouls or something or were eaten by mummies though.
"Their latrine pit is dry, but I can still smell it--that tells me that they've been gone at least a few days, but not much longer than that. No bloodstains on their bedrolls, and the camp is still in reasonable order--that tells me there wasn't a fight against anything doing physical damage. If they'd been attacked by wraiths or shadows and turned incorporeal, I'd expect to see weapons, armor, and clothing laying around--none of that."
"The timing is consistent with them being here after the lottery, yes."
Nuru heads to the nearest side passage and pears down the hallway, looking and listening for any indication that someone or something might be nearby.
Everything is quiet throughout the building.
"Where is the compass?"
"Roof top again?" Nevai pondered and began searching for a way up.
You got a pretty good look at most of the roof from outside and there didn't appear to be a compass up there.
The slayer shrugs. "We'd better search this place thoroughly, and at least find where the compass was."
I agree. Let's search everything.
In the remains of the camp you find a small silver ring.
Where else would you like to go?
Leto takes things in his hands and goes on to explore the rest of the building, carefully watching his steps and the surroundings.
Searching the rest of the building takes very little time. In one side room you find a corpse. Searching the body you find a potion of undetectable alignment, dagger, shortsword, cloak of resistance +1, 5 turquoises (worth 10gp each), and 4 gold. There is also a small journal with quite a few scribbles in it.
"Careful with the body--see the signs of mummy rot? I'm guessing the mummies downstairs wounded this one. They fled and hid, but the disease eventually weakened them so much they died."
"No, I completely missed the signs of mummy rot, but I do believe that the compass would have been housed in this room. Though obviously it isn't in here now. We will have to just check every room here until we find the thing. We can only hope that it hasn't been removed from the Necropolis yet."
At this point you've searched the entire building and there is no sign of the compass.
"Can any of you figure out that notebook?"
While the rest of the party considers, Marnarius unrolls the map again. He stifles a yawn and points to the N. "That's the closest one we haven't checked."
"I've never been any good with that sort of cryptic writing. As for this guy, we're lucky that mummies just rot away your flesh, instead of spawning more mummies like many undead do. If no one can figure it out, I can have Skyblazer take it back to the temple. They might have a scholar there that can read it and explain it to us when we get back."
"Well, it is a bit hard to translate since most of it is in shorthand, the journal does have a list of locations: the Marid’s Caress, the Observatory of Truth and Wisdom, the Pyramid of Arithmetic Bliss, the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye, the Shiny Bauble, and the tomb of Menket Maatya. The Marid’s Caress and the Sanctum of the Erudite Eye have been crossed out. Now, why they have been crossed out, I have no idea."
"I have a guess. We're at the Pyramid now, we just came from Menket Maatya's tomb, the first place we searched for a compass was an observatory...I think this is a list of compass locations, and someone is going after them."
Nuru nods at Marniarius "That would seem to the purpose of the list. Which of these locations is closest to here?"
I suggest we hurry to one not crossed out. I believe those ones have been visited and don't have their orb anymore, because they stole it!
"Good idea, but our map doesn't actually have the names of the compass locations. They'll probably be obvious once we're there." The slayer tallies up the map markings. "Hm. That list is partial--it only has half a dozen locations, and we have ten marked. If we're lucky, we can avoid our unseen enemies while we find another compass."
Are we even sure we want to avoid them? It looks a lot like they have been causing mischief and chaos, that's exactly what we want to prevent.
"Eyes on the prize, Leto. Once we have the location of the necromantic energy source plotted and we report that back to the High Priestess, we can go after our phantoms. If we were killed right now, the temple would have no idea what happened to us, and what we've learned so far." The half-elf loosens his kukris in their sheaths. "Now, if we happen across them in our explorations, that's another tale entirely."
"I don't know about you, but I plan on avoiding dying before I can get old with my family."
One place is as good as another, they are all historical sites in this area. Let's go, fate is waiting! You can hesitate all you want, we're still gonna meet it. The sooner, the better.
The Marid’s Caress: Crossed out in the notebook and probably in the area marked K on your map.
The Observatory of Truth and Wisdom: You passed this observatory when you traveled between the Shiny Bauble (the first site you checked) and the market with all the ghouls (M).
The Pyramid of Arithmetic Bliss: Where you currently are.
The Sanctum of the Erudite Eye: This was the last place you "plundered" during your last necropolis visit.
The Shiny Bauble: This was the first place you searched where you found a compass. The old glass shop.
Tomb of Menket Maatya: Marked O on your map.
Almathea compares the map and notebook for a bit...
"Well, from what I can decipher, The Marid’s Caress is crossed out in the notebook and probably in the area marked K on our map. The Observatory of Truth and Wisdom, we already passed by when we traveled between the Shiny Bauble and the market with all the ghouls (M). The Pyramid of Arithmetic Bliss is where we currently are. The Sanctum of the Erudite Eyes was the last place you explored during our last necropolis visit. The Shiny Bauble was the first place we searched where we found a compass. The old glass shop. Tomb of Menket Maatya is marked O on our map.
"Sounds as though N H is the place to go, since it's not on the list."