Troin continues his arrow barrage at Falto:
"Mangy?!" Koshukhep roared in outrage, his fury and pain causing him to strike out wildly.
"I will tear you to shreds between my claws and lap your blood, you pompous braggart! Honorless coward! Fool!" he growled, blood shining wet on his black hide. "You should have stuck to lying about your prowess!"
Torin peppers Falto with a heavy barrage of arrows. The Brevan stumbles but holds his feet. But then Koshukhep unleashes his frenzied feline fury. There is a moment of pause as Falto stares the Catfolk Ranger down. But then a torrent of blood flows from his sliced opened neck.
Falto falls to his knees, dead before he even slumps over.
Kwin lowers his blade as he watches Falto slump and collapse, dead. "Pity. I'd readied a biting comment on needing to worry about the mangy vulpine, too. Intended to shift forms as I said it and everything." He looks at Koshukhep with a grin. "Style and flair, doncha know."
Koshukhep was about to answer Kwin when he glanced at the movement in the corner of his eye and spotted... Falto!
Glancing down at the body at his feet a second time, he wrinkled his brow and said, "I did not think I had been out in the sun so long."
Once assured that Izra was not, in fact, either Falto, a ghost or a hallucination, Koshu looked back to Kwin. "I would not say you are mangy, my friend. A bit mussed now and then, but..."
As promised, he licked the blood from his paw, then spat it onto the ground by Falto's body.
"Come, my friends. There are more bandits waiting for their souls to be weighed, unless Torin's good aim has done them in, as well."
"I would not say you are mangy, my friend. A bit mussed now and then, but..."
"Sarcasm," Kwin explains with an amused smile as he sheaths his blade and readies his longbow again.
Noticing Suri getting ready to jump from the fog and attack the brigands, Ahmed whispers a short prayer for her, using some of the minor magics he still has available in his human form.
The brigands fire their bows at the rampaging eidolon bearing down on them. But only one of them manages the shot, even from point-blank range. The rest of the shots are deflected by Ahmed's spell.
Suri swings her claws at one of the Brigands but the barrage of arrows being shot at her still work as a distraction, even if most are unsuccessful at harming her, and her hands swipe through empty air.
Djehuti: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (17) + 8 = 25
Torin: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Izra: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20
Koshukhep: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (17) + 3 = 20
Ahmed: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15
Brigands: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (7) + 1 = 8
Kwin: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (2) + 4 = 6
Suri: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
Torin advanced through the illusion and fires an arrow at one of the thugs:
Izra, after making sure Koshu recognized her, closed the remaining distance, drew her wand, and tapped the big cat with it.
"I would not say you are mangy, my friend. A bit mussed now and then, but...""Sarcasm," Kwin explains with an amused smile as he sheaths his blade and readies his longbow again.
"Indeed," Koshu agreed, his faintly mocking jaw-drop grin growing wider.
Izra, after making sure Koshu recognized her, closed the remaining distance, drew her wand, and tapped the big cat with it.
Koshukhep bowed gravely to Izra-Falto. "Fear not; never could you carry the stink of arrogance that comes from this lout." He snorted in Falto's direction, then dropped a heavy paw on Izra's shoulder.
"Would you care to be a hostage, and demoralize the remaining brigands?" he asked, his jaw dropping in another catfolk grin.
Djehuti stops maintaining the illusion and the mist suddenly disappears, leaving the dusty street unobstructed. As the street suddenly clears, he draws an arrow and fires in one smooth motion.
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Koshu maneuvered them in front of Falto's body, so that it was at least partially obscured, and motioned for Kwin to help block the bandits' sight.
"Brigands!" Koshukhep boomed, taking hold of Izra in a way that made it look as though he was prepared to rip her head off entirely, or at least remove the front of her throat. "Pay heed to your leader's plight, or soon you shall suffer the same fate as he! Shall I take your tongues and taste your blood, as I have tasted his? You are outnumbered and your paymaster will give you nothing! Face us, and face your deaths."
Izra knew that actually opening her mouth to say anything would ruin the illusion, so she merely glared angrily at Koshu, raised her arms in surrender, and spat on the ground in feigned disgust.
Kwin steps slightly to the side to help block the brigand's view of the crumpled form.
"Listen to him!" he shouts, tinging his voice with a bit of fear. "He's tasted blood now! He gets crazed when he's tasted blood!"
One of the the brigands, looks at the others and nods. Immediately, they lower their weapons and slowly back away.
***
Falto has the following on him:
- potion of cure light wounds
- mwk studded leather
- +1 shortsword
- mwk shortsword
- masterwork thieves' tools
- 58 gp
"Nice," Kwin says with a smirk as he watches the brigands leave. "I love a spirited fight, but only when one's necessary. No point involving innocents and hired hands in some demented loser's folly."
Djehuti sighs and looks back at Falto's corpse. "So unnecessary. It's not as if we carry the antiquities we recovered with us, not on our way to the site."
Kwin shrugs. "He was a fool. It was bound to happen to him eventually. Random chance it was us."
Rummaging through the Falto's clothing, he pulls out a leather tool roll. Spreading it out, he runs his fingers over some of the implements. "Say, these are higher quality than what I have. Anyone mind if I claim this in the name of 'All the better to open doors with, my dear?' "
From his squatting position he eyes the short swords being examined by others. "Those swords look pretty nice, too."
Izra shrugged. She found looting the not-yet-dead to be a bit distasteful, but the man had brought it upon himself.
"Nothing he carries would be of use to me. Spread what is useful around the group. But be quick."
She knelt next to the fallen Falto, and examined him to see if he was still breathing.
Djehuti shrugs. "Fool or no, this was spectacularly poorly thought out." He glances at the ambush leader's armor. "Once washed and repaired, I might use his armor. If no one has a prior claim on it."
Looking up from the body, Izra sighed.
"It is as I feared. He is dead. And he died here, in a giant crypt, full of undead and unquiet souls - like his own. He died with rage and hatred in his heart. Leaving him here could mean discovering an angry spirit or worse, awaiting us when we go to leave. A priest could protect the body, but I am not blesses with the ability to grant repose in such situations."
"Well don't look at me," says Kwin with a snort. "Burning the body help?"
Koshukhep seemed uneasy at the notion of burning the body, and even more so at Izra's description of the necropolis. "If someone were to burn my body, I would certainly return from the afterworld to inform them of what I thought of that. We should take him to the priests to be laid to rest, so that he can be judged."
"Not to seem insensitive here, but I'm not really in the mood to answer the sorts of questions that naturally arise as you carry a corpse through the city. If you insist, I guess we can dump him at the main gate. The guards can deal with it."
"Speaking of uncomfortable questions..." He walks over to the corpse, and digs out his arrows.
Kwin silently nods at his partner as he accepts the two swords. He pulls each from its scabbard to examine it closely and test its balance. Selecting one as somewhat better than the other, he rearranges his gear to accommodate the additional weapons.
"We can lay him somewhere more dignified and say the prayers over his body. Hopefully that will mollify his spirit enough that he will not come back to haunt us." Djehuti looks over at Torin. "Before all this started, I would have agreed with your point. But given all the expeditions into the crypts, I would be surprised if we were the only group carrying a dead companion through the streets to be laid to rest or raised from the dead."
Izra nodded, and said a prayer over the body herself.
"We have time to take him back to the gates, and leave him with the priest commanding the guards there. If nothing else, his body will rest outside of this place until we can collect and dispose of it properly later. If we are fortunate, perhaps the priest will see to him."
The Band of the Black Fire arrives at the gates of the Necropolis. There they find that the acolyte assigned to document those entering has changed. Izra recognizes him as a young acolyte named Barnozi.
The acolyte shakes his head when the band explains. "Shameful. I regret to say that we were warned about this man. In fact we had orders not to let him in. He must have found a different entrance."
"Can you describe the ones who aided in the ambush?"
Barnozi grows steadily pale as you describe the brigands. "To my everlasting shame, I believe I know one of them. Thank you for your mercy. I shall inform the proper authorities. Check in with the Mausoleum tomorrow. There may be a reward for your actions."
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Izra nodded to Barnozi.
"Thank you for your assistance. And do not bother yourself over knowing someone who makes poor choices. If merely knowing such a person is enough to bring shame upon you or your house, well, we would all bear such shame as to render it meaningless." She gave Barnozi an encouraging half-smile, and then turned to lead her group back into the Necropolis.
"Your words are wise," Koshukhep rumbled, eyeing Izra as they returned to the Necropolis. "Sometimes it seems most of those I know - outside of this august company, of course - have made only poor choices, leading my people into ignominy. But I do not think I agree that shame could be rendered meaningless merely by being possessed by many. Shame has its own weight on the soul," he opined.
Kwin gives Barnozi a civil nod and falls in behind the rest of the band, quietly considering Koshukhep's words.
Djehuti does not comment on either Izra or Koshu's comments but follows along as they make their circuit from street to gate and back.
"Your words are wise," Koshukhep rumbled, eyeing Izra as they returned to the Necropolis. "Sometimes it seems most of those I know - outside of this august company, of course - have made only poor choices, leading my people into ignominy. But I do not think I agree that shame could be rendered meaningless merely by being possessed by many. Shame has its own weight on the soul," he opined.
Izra shrugged. "Shame is not what weighs down a soul, Koshukhep," she replied as they walked, "It is the weight of the various sins that soul committed while it lived. Shame is something felt by the living. It may be something that motivates a person to great works - to expiate guilt and shame previously earned, perhaps, or to avoid such things - but as often, shame, or the fear of it, drives a person to make foolish or reprehensible choices in an attempt to hide or avoid it."
She shot a quick glance at the big cat-folk, then continued. "But you have a point. Entire peoples have done stupid things to expiate a shared sense of shame, or to preserve a shared sense of pride. I may have misspoken with Barnozi. I meant merely to comfort him, and assert that, just knowing someone does not, of itself, mean that their actions make you subject to judgement as a better or worse person yourself, just for having the knowledge."
"I see your meaning, honored Izra," Koshukhep said, his tone musing as he continued, "Perhaps one could even say that shame should lighten the soul, for it suggests that they repent, whereas those who feel no shame at all at their dark deeds are those who deserve it most. Pah, this wondering at the hereafter makes my teeth hurt. But I think you would get along quite well with my teacher, Antekh-Mon. Such discussions you both would have!" He chuckled, a deep rumbling laugh that shook his massive frame.
"Well my philosophy is less philosophy, more drinking," offers Kwin brightly, having quickly given up on following their conversation. "And both of you could benefit from studying said philosophy when next we return to the tavern."
After dropping off Falto's body, the Band returns to the House of Pentheru. They see the familiar gates and walk inside. As they do, they can once again hear the sounds of an angry mob in the distance.
Powerful blows shake and rattle the gates, as a woman’s voice cries out in Ancient Osiriani, “Hold the gates! Don’t let them inside the compound!”
Despite knowing it's coming, Djehuti begins to panic.
Ears laid down flat and teeth bared, Koshukhep couldn't help but look around as though expecting the mob to become visible around him.
Breathing deeply, he reached out to Djehuti in an attempt to calm him. "Be easy, my friend! The danger is long gone. Pah, I am a fool. I should have bought another charm in the marketplace to protect you from evil spirits, as the one I gave to Kwin does."
Even knowing it was coming - probably because of her susceptibility to it the last time - Izra was shaken by the sound of the non-existent mob. But Djehuti's obvious fear quickly drew her focus.
"Be calm, my friend," she said, "It is the illusion again. Koshukhep speaks the truth. The danger is long past."
Eyes darting from side to side, Kwin digs the talisman out of his pocket and holds it out to Koshukhep with a shaky hand. "Here, you can have this one back. Doesn't work for kitsunes."
His fear subsiding, Koshukhep blinked at Kwin, then shook his head and folded the kitsune's hand around the painted stone. "Ah, but it does - you have not run, my friend!" He laid a finger alongside his nose, which was a strange gesture for a catfolk, and winked at Kwin. "The spirits do not notice you, as they fail to notice me. Or at least, take more than a passing interest in us. The merchant was very sure that the talisman was blessed by three separate gods!"
"Well... alright," Kwin says doubtfully as he returns the token to his pocket.
Djehuti turns and runs into the house. "Inside and bar the doors!"
After Djehuti rushes inside, the doors slam shut behind him magically. Nothing can open the door from the outside.
Djehuti hears a voice say, "They're inside! Protect the family!"
Another yells, "It's too late! Save yourselves!"
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