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Khargrom manages his camel, making sure it has some food and water before they head any further.
The dwarf looks intently over the gems, attempting to appraise their value and recall what he knows of their mission... something about gems triggers a memory. "Our patron is the Saphire Sage and we are looking for a Diamond Sage. But wasn't there some sort of mention about other jewel or sages?"
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"Looks like two sets of doors here, let me check them out and then we can proceed."
(Traps +1, Stonework +2, Stonetraps +3)
(Traps +1, Stonework +2, Stonetraps +3)
"Dey look safe!"
Mechien as you pickup and inspect the wayfinder you notice an inscription on it. "Congratulations, Asha. —V.L." which triggers a memory of the map you used to get here also had the initials V.L.
Bossk you surmise that this is Asha (mainly from the wayfinder inscription) though you are not really sure who that is. It looks like she has been dead a while (months maybe) and most of her backpack is crushed.
Khargrom you think the jewels are probably just costume in quality and value but they do look very intentionally set and definitely remind you of the information about the Jeweled Sages. None of the doors appear trapped to you. Though being intently in tune with stonework, you do wonder how a column manged to fall on a person in the room and none of the other columns are damaged and in fact, they look perfectly fine.
As a couple of you move into the room, you see the open passage to the room where the water noise is coming from.
The relaxing splash of water echoes throughout this tiled room. A large, pristine pool occupies much of the chamber, and a statue of a warrior-maiden serves as the centerpiece, endlessly pouring water from an ornate jar. A large carving on the east wall depicts a frightening man who stares at the viewer, with half his body burnt and ruined and the other half young and healthy. A withered corpse lies in the northwest corner. An open doorway to the south leads to the fortress’ entry hall.
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Khargrom points out the oddity, "Someone prolly rigged dat column as a trap. Sneaky buggers. Poor Asha, fell for it. Pathfinders never go alone, right? Why would dey have left her here?"
He points into the next room, "Careful, corpse in dere. Maybe another trap." He steps in the room to see if he can see anything by getting a hair closer.
Ray starts looking for a way to get the backpack without getting in the water.
The backpack is on the body of Asha which is under the column. The water fountain is in a different room (see map) with another corpse. There looks like some stuff in the backpack still if you want to go rooting around in it.
@Khargrom you look a little closer at the column damage and you don't think it was a trap at all, you think damage like that is consistent with a stray spell that shattered the pillar that crushed Asha. When you turn your attention back to the water fountain room you note some really interesting things on the walls, but you'll have to get closer to figure out what's interesting about it.
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Anthony frowns as he spots the crushed cadaver of the fallen pathfinder. "How... unfortunate." Hoping to distract himself, he looks at the art on the walls.
"This one here looks like the River Sphinx. This barge, here, is captained by each of the God-Kings in turn. From here.... Azghaad..." his finger traces along the art, ever so carefully. "...to here, at the Song Pharaoh."
Keeping his eyes from the center of the room, he heads through the doorway to examine the pool. "Oh. Another one."
Khargrom moves up to the interesting spot on the wall and starts looking a bit closer.
Mechien recalls the map initials but doesn't quite know the relevance of that yet.
Bossk looks at the backpack contents and finds two interesting things: a steel canister that feels/sounds like it contains a liquid and a stone . Bossk rightly thinks that there should have been a whole team here and wonders what happened to them. He then starts to move towards the fountain room and realizes something is wrong, he seems to be moving slower. But then looking in the fountain room and seeing yet another body, realizes that he just might know what happened to the team. The body looks desiccated like it died of something since there appears to be plenty of what appears to be fresh water in the fountain that still gurgles. You would need a heal check to figure out more.
Anthony moves into the water fountain room and sees some more very interesting art on the walls that he thinks he should take a closer look at. But he looks into the fountain and...
More interesting stuff on the walls, there is an image of a man:
If you can read Ancient Osiriani, you get a +10 competence bonus on this check, and you can attempt the check untrained.
(darkvision, scent when raging)
(darkvision, +1 traps, +2 stonework, +3 stonetraps)
(darkvision)
The body lies huddled in the corner of the room. The wall next to him bears a multitude of scratches as if indicating the passage of time, and a chewed piece of leather next to him bears a nearly illegible note that curses the writer’s companions for leaving him to drown in a desert.
Anthony looks into the pool, and it appears to be about 6 feet deep but he also notices something else as that something else notices him. A water elemental emerges from hiding and perches next to the statue, watching you.
You all are no experts in that language, but that didn't sound very friendly.
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"Can I... huh... hmmm... borrow someone's dagger? gentlemen?" asks Shukara, awkwardly.
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"Hummm... 'tis the god of magic Nethys. Split form... shows creative and destructive potential of magic. These things there, on either side, list the god’s powers in Ancient Osiriani... wish I could talk and read it already... still learning you see... you can remove the list and rearrange it I think... it might be a puzzle for us to figure out..."
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Khargrom points out the crack in the wall, "Secret door here, gotta lead to a hidden room or passage. Not sure how to... WOAH! That uh critter been here the whole time? I gotta get my peepers checked."
He slowly reaches into a pouch and pulls out a *scroll, other hand open and facing the elemental to show he has no weapon, "I gotta scroll here if none ya unnerstand what it says, but it won't let ya talk back. Would also be worth it to read this scribble, ifn the water dude don't attack."
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Seeing the water elemental rise up, Bossk slowly raises his sword to get ready to defend himself and the party. Then the thing speaks "Anyone have an idea what it is saying. And just so everyone knows the backpack had a curse on it, and I am not moving slowly on purpose."
Bossk realizes that one of his best survival plans was that if things went really bad. He did not have to out run the monster just the slowest member of the party. Now he is the slowest member of the party, and he does not like it.
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You have picked up a magical stone. This dark, polished stone reduces the possessor’s base land speed by half. Once picked up, the stone cannot be disposed of by any nonmagical means—if it is thrown away or smashed, it reappears somewhere on the possessor’s person.
The elf shakes his head. No, I cannot decipher the glyphs on these movable tablets. Maybe we should go ahead and use that scroll, Khargrom.
Shukara rightly believes this is some kind of puzzle but is having difficulties reading meanings into the hieroglyphs.
Khargrom spots the crack and admires the stone work but doesn't know how that might open. Pulling out the scroll while facing the elemental doesn't seem to elicit any response. Then hands it over to Mechien.
Bossk slow to get to the other room raises his sword but sees that the elemental doesn't really care and is not currently hostile. Then thinking on the fate of the one getting crushed by the column, thinks maybe it was because she was the slowest in the party and everyone else was getting away faster. This thought does not bode well for the barbarian.
Mechien thinks the scroll thing is probably a good plan.
Ray secretly feels thankful that he didn't go rooting around in the backpack.
The elemental remains perched on the statue base and watching you all. The water in the fountain is gurgling happily.
Mechien you are able to understand the Ancient Osiriani language that the tiles are using. And yes you are shocked that the dwarf you blasted with the zombie goo has handed you a scroll and you didn't even think it was a self immolate spell on it.
The following are common translations of the cartouches found near the image of Nethys.
• The staff paired with the sun represents the release of power and the ability to destroy enemies. Literally, “Destruction.”
• The ankh over rising bread represents prosperity and abundance.
• The ankh before the arch represents protection of the land or home from enemies. It can be translated as “Rune.”
• The scepter paired with the Ssun represents the control of power and its use in preserving the land. Literally, “Preservation.”
• The Man before the scarabs and cobra represents the knowledge of death and its many forms.
• The eye over water represents the knowledge of the world.
Currently the tiles are in-order: (see map with handout, read left to right, top to bottom)
• Whole side: 1, 2, 3• Burnt side: 4, 5, 6
You can simply represent this as six numbers like 123456 and I will read it as if you had them in the order of left to right top to bottom just like the handout.
If you would like to try a different order, just rearrange them and tell me the ordering you would like to try like 654321.
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After obtaining the benefit of language comprehension, the elf lights up immediately with the meaning of the movable tablets.
Ah! Numerals. These are "1" through "6", in order. Or, "destruction", "abundance", "rune", "preservation", "death", and "knowledge of the world". I don't recall, did the venture captain give us a code to enter here? Did we find numbers on the previous body?
Everyone your options are,
1. Play with the puzzle tiles.
2. Attempt to interact with the elemental.
3. Leave the room continue exploring.
Please post something that you would like to do or we can just continue on to the next room tomorrow morning.
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Khargrom looks at the two and shrugs, "Guess we gonna do some stuff here. Dat works." He looks at the elf making odd faces at the elemental and pointing at the tiles. He tries a few languages he knows to attempt communication, also motioning to the tiles.
Ray As Ray starts to "play" with the tiles you hear the elemental say something. And that particular arrangement doesn't seem to do anything.
Mechien you bow and gesture and the elemental says something to you in a harsh tone. Diplomacy check would be ideal here, you gather from her words, that she is somewhat unfriendly towards your group, but not openly hostile.
Khargrom you try to speak in several languages and the elemental doesn't appear to comprehend you but it says something. If only the elemental had one of those scrolls too.
Mechien you bow and gesture politely at the elemental and it seems to be working. It appears through it's speech to you that she is merely indifferent to your group.
Khargrom is wondering what is going on but something seems to have changed in her attitude/posture.
Bossk has excellent instincts when it comes to solving some puzzles.
Ray keeps playing and it pays off as he switches the good stuff on one side and the bad stuff on the other, the crack in the wall begins to widen and the door opens.
When the elemental sees the door open, she visibly relaxes and starts talking animatedly. She appears to be friendly.
The rich scent of palm wine, cinnamon, and myrrh fills this magically illuminated storehouse. Each wall has deep slots filled with papyrus scrolls. A white-and-black marble altar enveloped in faint wisps of faerie fire sits squarely in the center of the room. A ladder to the south leads up to a walkway, with more shelves and a golden sarcophagus.
Khargrom gives a once over to the new room but doesn't find any traps. Taking a look around, there is a small shrine next to the sarcophagus with some notes in a language you don't understand. Linguistics DC25 if you want to try to understand them or hand them off to someone that can "comprehend".
Bossk keeps eyeballing the elemental just waiting for the imminent attack he thinks is coming.
Mechien you see a chest on the walkway which you head up to using the ladder. Inside it is five bottles of holy water, a stack of ancient platinum coins, five spell component pouches, and three scholar’s outfits in red, yellow, and green, cut in a style common a millennia ago.
Ray begins looking for magic and the room lights up like a Christmas tree. There are several shelves on the wall that appear to have magic paper, the sarcophagus in the room radiates strong magic.
As you all look around and investigate the sarcophagus and notes.
The sarcophagus contains a mummified corpse.
The notes are question-and-answer sessions conducted with the corpse’s spirit. The questions concern the preservation of memory in magical jewels and the crafting and repair of such jewels.
The notes explain that the sarcophagus allows a creature touching it to commune with any corpse placed inside. This ability can be activated once per day, as the spell speak with dead (CL 8th), though the visage on the lid speaks the answers rather than the corpse.
As you look around the shelves detecting magic and investigating.
The archive contains a trove of history from the Age of Destiny that the Jeweled Sages managed to preserve through the decline of the pharaohs and the purges directed against them. The altar is consecrated to Nethys.
One of you gets the bright idea to cast Read Magic on the scrolls and discover a few scrolls: a scroll of bless, a scroll of magic weapon, a scroll of ghostbane dirge, and a scroll of resist energy.
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Khargrom points out, "Why donna we get our pathfinder buddy from de other room and talk to her, Asha was it? Get some info about dere mission instead of talking to the body already inside da coffin? Or maybe wait to see if we find a more interesting body later on?"
He also carefully counts out the platinum coins for everyone to see and then tosses them in a pack to distribute later. He nods at the elf's suggestion, "Yeah, dose robes might be useful at trickin' someone later. Better put em on or take em wid us. But donna look like dey gonna fit me."
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Mechien takes the scrolls of magic weapon, resist energy, and passes on the scrolls of bless and ghostbane dirge.
I will gladly come up with the questions but...
The elf makes a foul face as if one of the dwarves had broken wind nearby him.
I'll need one of you to be my lovely assistant and move the body.
He smiles sheepishly, waiting to see how they respond to this. He takes a more serious expression again and continues.
Let's at least ask dear Asha one question, and if we don't find it fruitful we can save the additional uses for another potential corpse.
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Khargrom carefully removes the old body, setting it gingerly down on the floor. He goes back out to the other room, collecting Asha's corpse and bringing it in, depositing it into the sarcofogaus as requested.
He mutters while he works, "Always gotta make da dwarf do da gross stuff. Is just an empty body, ehn't nuddin crazy."