"Them masks over there represent the Osirian god Aw-new-biz. I figure this is where 'is body was taken and then embalmed. Eh, we could have a gander at the altar, but the idea of pulling valuables out of a shrine makes me feel queasy. Then again, t'is hardly a place of worship since no one is supposed to be here. "
Foggert continues to aid and assist Devon in her quest to find a trap before being exposed to its deadly mechanisms.
Say'ri's premonitions prove to be correct: Devon doesn't find any traps, but her movements provoke a response. There's a scuttling sound from behind the altar and two large, spider-like entities rush forward!
The agile rogue dodges one of their attacks but the other one manages to bite her with its mandibles.
Devon 5 hp
Say'ri 9 hp
"Mrrowww!" Devon yowls in pain as the creatures leap out and bite her. She cautiously retreats behind Say'ri, badly wounded!
"Good grief, them be some ugly fellas!"
Ashira taps Devon on the shoulder, giving her a tiny little boon to help shield her. Then, cautiously, she'll advance towards the spiders. Armed with nought but a dagger and buckler, Ashira shakes but stands firmly between the spiders and her teammates.
One of the creatures issues a high-pitched, chitinous shriek as Say'ri's blade slashes deeply into it. In a frenzy of attacks, it lashes out, but the warrior's faith (and more importantly, her armour) protect her from the worst of it.
The other one moves in search of easier prey, and attacks the approaching priestess; but its mandibles are too clumsy and Ashira easily dodges its attack.
Devon 5 hp
Say'ri 6 hp
S1 - 7 damage
Bolstered by Ashira's spell, Devon tumbles back into the fray. She rolls past the creature attacking the cleric to get into a flanking position, then she drives her spear into its back!
Ashira stays on the back of her feet and flails around with her dagger, which cuts absolutely nothing.
Say'ri's attack brutally puts down one of the bugs, while Devon's spear gravely wounds the other; it thrashes around but is still going.
As Devon's spear sinks into the blasted bug, Eli sees a window of opportunity and he strikes. Or rather, splashes. A big gobble of acid is conjured forth from realms most vile and then lobbed at the bug.
Eli juust misses with his spell. The remaining bug lashes out at Ashira, but the priestess's protection holds - mostly - as a lone claw slashes her, with a spray of blood.
Ashira 6 hp
Devon 5 hp
Say'ri 6 hp
S1 - dead
S2 - 11 damage
Abandoning her spear, Devon tries to finish off the bug with her claws.
Devon ends up with chitin under her fingernails (so to speak) but the bug is utterly shredded.
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Say'ri breathes out heavily and looks over her shoulder at the rest of the group. "Is everyone safe?" She asks, eyes scanning the room for more threats.
Not finding any she heads towards the next door. "Get what you can." She suggests, taking up a guard position near the way forward with Al-Jannah perched on her shoulder.
"Ew." Devon picks the chunks out of her claws, then rubs her shoulder where the bug bit her. She looks at Ashira. "You okay? Think we could all use a bit of healing."
The rogue searches the room for any valuables.
Eli can't help but feel like he's completely useless in these combat situations. The spells he had prepped were of no use for the things they had encountered so far. Vermin and illusions - ugh!
"Aye. Good grief, I didn't expect no gosh darn spiders down here. Well, spiders? They sure look like spiders! Then again, maybe I ought to be relieved that it wasn't no mummer. Heh. Surely there will be no mummer roaming about, right? Right??"
"Might be a spider mummy that shoots darts, with our luck," Devon grumbles.
There are no other doors leading out of the embalming room - it is, in every sense, a dead end.
Your only options are: back to the mirror-room and try the doors on the other side; or call it a day and head back towards safety.
"Let's press on." Devon heads to the opposite doors and opens them.
Eli is more than a little distracted by the dead not-quite-spiders and he hunches down to observe their mortal coils, prodding this and that bit with a dagger to get an idea of how these creatures tick. Or ticked. "I'm gewd, but eh, shouldn't Ashira patch y'all up just in case we do run into another encounter?"
Ashira grimaces at the claw marks along her side. She gathers everyone in a group and blesses them all with a healing prayer to Pharasma. "One of the specialties of Pharasma is healing, due to her domain over birth. I can go a bit longer."
She grumbles. "It would help if I was a half-decent combat priestess."
"Gahhhh!"
"Okay. So that's the last of the healing. I can bring you up on your feet if you go down, but that's about it."
Devon sighs with relief as Ashira heals her wounds...eventually. "No help for it. If anybody gets hurt too badly, we'll have to fall back again."
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"Thanks Asha!" Say'ri says with a smile. "Now that's happened I'm going to approach this a bit differently."
She sheathes her new khopesh, slings the shield on her back and produces a mighty looking flail which she wields with two hands. "Let's see if I can batter things down before they hit us at all! It keeps taking two or three blows to kill these vermin and that's too long!"
She follows Devon to the next door, flail swinging slowly.
Ashira will cast Deathwatch on herself to monitor the state of all living beings around her.
Lady of Graves, was that a sign of your disfavour? Do you despise what we are doing?
Behind the doors, a flight of steps gradually descends down this passage. Halfway down the stairs, small holes and burrowed tunnels riddle what remains of the wall on your left.
Earth and sand have spilled over the collapsed masonry, covering the stairs with dirt and rubble. At the far end of the passageway is a set of stone doors engraved with a golden scarab, its wings open beneath a golden sun. One of the doors is slightly ajar.
Devon cautiously looks around as she slowly makes her way down the stairs.
Devon sees that the small holes and tunnels burrowed into the wall are not natural in origin - something caused them when it (or they) burrowed through the rock and into the passageway and is/are presumably still here, somewhere...
Other than that, there's nothing of interest in the passageway.
The catwoman creeps to the open door and peers through it.
Eli weighs in on what might've made these tunnels."Perhaps these tunnels is where them not-quite-spideys came from. I do think we're getting closer though, just look at that golden scarab!"
"These holes." Whispers Ashira. "Are they dart traps? Or a tunneling swarm? Be careful, Devon."
Ashira won't give guidance this time, since she wants to stay quiet.
The rubble on the floor of the hallway makes the footing treacherous, but Devon makes it through to the double doors and peers through.
A tapestry hangs from a frame against the wall to the left 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. Once evidently brightly-coloured, the fine threads have given way to the ravages of time.
Columns sculpted in the shape of Osirian warriors stand in three corners of the room. Each warrior wields a different weapon combination: one a khopesh and scarab shield, the next a heavy flail, another a longspear.
The floor is tiled in a white spiral pattern on a black background, and the light from your torches seems to make the spiral edges flicker, so that what was a white tile is now black... or the other way around.
The spiral motif on the flooring is repeated on the two sets of stone double doors, one opposite you and one on the right hand side from where you currently stand. Devon finds that both sets of double doors are locked.
Somehow the meaning of all that this room has on offer escapes both Eliyajah and his feathery companion. "It sure looks pretty. Is this what ancient Osirion looked like, Say'ri?"
"No. This is a room built for the soul to transition from the outer tomb chambers to the final resting place of the body. It contains so many motifs that reflect Goddess Pharasma. Akhentipi's tomb should be just beyond this room. I think the one straight ahead is most likely."
"Straight ahead, then." Devon searches the indicated door for traps. She then either attempts to disarm them or unlock them.
+1 vs traps
+1 vs traps
Devon finds no traps, but struggles to unlock the door. After several minutes of painstaking work, the long-unused tumblers give way and the door opens...
You find yourselves in a short hallway which narrows sharply before descending to a set of stairs that abruptly ends at a rough rock wall. The area at the foot of the stairs was never excavated, though a few small tunnels pockmark the stone. These tunnels greatly resemble the ones that riddled the passageway you passed through earlier, and have apparently been bored by housecat-sized beetles with glowing green-yellow spots on their carapace.
This last requires very little deduction on your part, because you have just disturbed two of them in the act of crawling out! Their sharp, spade-like front claws twitch aggressively as they scuttle towards you...
"Ugh, more bugs." Devon hefts her spear and hurls it at the closest beetle, but the tip bounces off its carapace.
Eli sings parts of a song that has all the ingredients to be cute and catchy if only it weren't sung in Necril. Shadowy tendrils rise up through the floor and attempt to catch one of the beetles.
You pin the target’s shadow to its current location, causing the target to become entangled and preventing it from moving farther than 5 feet from its original position, as if its shadow were anchored to the terrain.
Each round on its turn, the target can attempt a new saving throw to end the effect as a full-round action. A flying creature can only hover in place or fall while entangled in this manner.
This spell automatically fails when cast on a creature that doesn’t throw a shadow, and it ends if the creature is entirely in an area with no illumination.
One beetle disappears in a puff of violence, leaving one remaining.
Ashira steps up to the remaining beetle. At first it looks like she's about to strike with her dagger, but she hesitates and sinks into a defensive posture.
The remaining beetle offers little resistance and soon joins its fellow.
There is nothing left to see in this dead end, so you are faced with no choice but to return to the previous chamber and try the other set of doors. These too are locked, but Devon has no trouble opening them.
These doors lead through to a large ornate, octagonal chamber. At the centre of the room is a raised square platform a few inches above the floor. Unlike the rest of the tomb you have seen so far, the raised platform is of white marble rather than stone, and it gleams in the light of your torches.
The octagonal chamber has high vaulted ceiling, supported with a stone pillar at each corner of the raised platform. The stone pillars are carved in the likeness of soldiers of Ancient Osirion, armed with khopesh and scarab shield.
In the centre of the marble platform rests a gold-trimmed sarcophagus, flanked by two statues of humanoid beings with canine heads, each of which holds an ankh in one of its crossed arms. These are similar to the statues you previously identified as being in the likeness of the god Anubis, although the expression on the faces in this room is more warlike: the lips pulled back from the teeth in an obvious growl.
Stone double doors exit the room on the far side from where you entered. Unlike the doors you have previously seen so far, these are not decorated but heavy and functional.
"There's something odd about this side of the wall, the colour is slightly off. Could this be a secret door, Devon?"
Devon tears her gaze away from the shiny sarcophagus. "Hmm? Maybe. Let me look."