Drask picks up a number of the "corpses" they just created, piling them in front of the hole. Anything coming up through there would have a bit of a climb ahead of them. He could move it back after they rested.
You all settle in to rest and recover after the two brutal fights. Luckily the time passes without event and you wake up feeling better than you did the day before.
As Vels ignores her and heads down in the pit without thought to her own safety, the dwarf mutters about suicidal elves and goes back to getting the camp ready.
With the group rested, Veltariel again volunteers to lead the way down. ”Once I get down, I’ll tug once for Danger, twice for All Clear. Remember most of the way down you won’t be able to see or hear. And eventually there will be no wall to brace against, so you will have to rely on the rope.”
Once everyone is ready, she will begin descending the tunnel once more.
Drask normally wakes early in the morning, up before many of the others and doing some wake up exercises, but he doesn't sleep well that night. His dreams are a battle of fear and rage, both directed at himself. He blinks wearily as the sound of the others wakes him up, but he just groans and pulls his blanket over his eyes, clutching his pillow tightly in front of him.
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Mokhasi collects his things, "wait, please. I learned new magic. Do not descend yet." Just before the others descend, he focuses a moment, and a surge of power thrums through the room, one of the runes on his face burning away a verdant green.
Mokhasi and his his companions feels lighter in their feet, and seems to ignore minor inconveniences such as rubble and roots.
Drask eventually gets up groggy. He makes his way to the rope.
Taking one look down that rope, Sapher pulls it up and takes the time to put proper knots in the thing as well as her own rope to make it long enough. Then she gestures to the wizard's to go first, then follows.
Veltariel climbs down the rope nimbly enough, with Esrisi close behind. As they drop down into the lower chamber, Veltariel knocks an arrow and looks around.
”North, East, and West,” she whispers as she points out the possible entry/exit points before moving cautiously ahead towards the sarcophagus, keeping an arrow in her bow but not drawing it back just yet.
As everyone descends through the darkness and silence you eventually emerge into a large room. The ceiling of this grand hall is made of polished gray marble. It rises to a height of twenty-five feet, supported by ornate columns whose central eight-foot-sections have been carved to resemble a beautiful woman. A ten-foot-square platform sits in a wide alcove on the north wall, atop which lies a white marble sarcophagus with a painted lid. The sound of gently running water echoes along the hall to the west.
Veltariel makes her way slowly across the room to the sarcophagus, remaining about 20 feet from it. Once the others are down the rope, she looks back and says ”What do you all think of this?”
Sapher will stand next to the elf, trying to see if all of this point to a particular burial practice she ever learned about.
"Looks like a pretty, rich woman died." Drask notes with a shrug. Drask winces, sitting down on the edge of the alcove.
Veltariel gives Mokhasi “See? I was right!” look as she steps over to the tomb. ”Then maybe they were buried with some of those things you were saying we could put to use, Mokhasi.”
She looks to the others and asks ”Anyone want to give me a hand here? In case it’s an undead, I’d rather deal with it now than it surprise us later,” as she prepares to push the lid aside.
Looking at the sarcophagus you notice both the figures represented in the columns and the painted lid of the sarcophagus depict a beautiful dark haired, lithe woman sleeping with arms crossed over her chest.
Sapher doesn't note anything particular about any sort of burial practice involved, but finds it slightly odd a sarcophagus is used here as that is definitely not common for the region.
Checking the lid it doesn't appear to be locked but it is extremely heavy, close to 600 pounds.
Vel puts some force into and pushes the lid off after some effort. Within the sarcophagus lies the perfectly preserved body of a woman identical to the one depicted on the lid, clad in diaphanous flimsy robes and an enormous amount of splendid jewelry. She looks almost as if she’s sleeping, not dead.
Veltariel looks on curiously into the tomb. ”Someone...may want to look at this...”
She reaches down and feels for a pulse...
Vel reaches in and touches the beautiful woman's body. It is warm to the touch but there doesn't appear to be a pulse. The woman does not respond to Vel's touch.
Caroliss approaches Mokhasi carefully, not wanting to cause the elf distress, but most certainly interested in talking. "We had some dangerous experiences recently, but handled them quite well, don't you think? I think we lived up to the motto--Explore, report, cooperate! So, you're obviously a powerful arcanist, and I was wondering if you could teach a Pathfinder a thing or two . . . "
Caroliss conjures some light and observes the sarcophagus and woman within, trying to understand.
She draws a complete blank. "Are you sure you want to do that, Vel?"
Veltariel looks at the body confused. ”She’s alive...” she comments as she then lifts up some of the woman’s jewelry and asks ”Mokhasi? Any of this stuff cursed that would cause this?”
Vel lifts up the jewelry and suddenly freezes in place.
At the she is alive, Sapher moves over to check to see what might be wrong.
After a moment standing there Vel collapses to the floor not moving, her eyes lifeless.
"See--definitely should NOT have done that!" Caroliss casts detect magic and tries to understand what just happened to Vel.
When Vel collapses, she hurries over and sees if Vel is still alive!
Sapher rushes to Vel's side as well to check on her.
Vel is no longer breathing and shows no signs of being alive. Caroliss seeing what happened and taking note of the magical energies involved realizes that a phantasmal killer spell had been cast on Vel and it appears that she could not withstand its effects.
Sapher ignores the yelling and does everything she can think of. Healing magical and not. Praying, everything!
Sapher tries all that she can but is unable to revive Veltariel.
Drask frowns, hearing the others and seeing Vel collapse. "What happened? She get hurt by something trying to graverob?"
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Mokhasi moves down the rope carefully, and looks around briefly.
Before he can do anything, Veltariel has opened a sarcophagus, and reached inside. Whatever she found, it gripped her body before Mokhasi could even speak, and her lifeless body fell to the ground.
Kiir suddenly flashed deep blue light, and pulsed with said light, holding the color, which now tinted the entire room with a solemn glow.
Mokhasi blinked, "it was the spell, phantasmal killer. They are often written of in the chronicles. I would bet anything. Nothing can bring her back. She is dead." He moves over to her body, his face placid, and touches her forhead. Then, he detects magic on the jewels and whatever is in the sarcophagus.
Mokashi detects lingering necromantic energies, but they seem to be dissipating rapidly after what just happened. Then all of a sudden he notices a large spike of said energies in the body of the woman laying there.
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Esrisi who had been looking for the trouble turns to Mokhasi and says "Wait. What do you mean she's dead? Just heal her, bring her back." she says, dropping to a knee and casting a cure spell on her. When it doesn't work, she does it again. "Veltariel, come on. Get up please."
She shakes her body, unable to comprehend that she is actually dead. "Caroliss! Sapher! Heal her!"
When she sits up, she sighs with relief and falls back on her bottom. "See? She's fine.", exhaling loudly.
The body in the sarcophagus stirs and sits up, looking around at everyone gathered nearby curiously. ”Wha-what happened?”
Drask blinks, staring at Mok. "What."
He looks down at Vel.
"What?!" He rushes over, checking her pulse.
"...s@@@." He gives a stressful sigh, running a hand through his hair. What could they have done to prevent this? So sudden, so fatal, so final.
But then the body in the sarcophagus stirs and Drask leaps to his feet. His axe is raised, but his wariness stops him from attacking. Anything that could kill Vel that easily was something not to be trifled with.
A bead of sweat runs down his brow. Were their fates already sealed?
The woman in the tomb looks at Mokhasi strangely. ”What do you mean ‘My name?’ Stop playing games.”
The woman reels from the sudden strike! ”What the hell, Esrisi! You seriously want to do this now? Need a third beating?” she snarls as she starts climbing out of the sarcophagus.
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Esrisi stumbles back, wide-eyed, taking a break when Mokhasi tells her to chill.
"What trick is this! What have you done to Veltariel!" she shouts, panic-stricken. She looks down at Veltariel's body and then back up at the woman talking like Veltariel. "Who are you!?"
Looking at Mokhasi, she points to the body and says "That is Veltariel, not her! She's a HUMAN!"
Drask just keeps flicking his gaze between the others and the new person in front of them, axe still raised, still not fully decided if he's going to attack or not.
"...hey, what was the name of the person that beat you at Serpent's Run?" He suddenly asks.
”What. Did you. Call me!?!?” the woman in the diaphanous gown almost growls as she steps out of the sarcophagus. When Esrisi points out the body, she looks down and becomes confused.
”Wait...what...what’s going on...” she stammers as she looks down at her hands.