Nevai leans over and says to Menya, "I can see everyday purchases like that have no interest for you. Tell you what: I have some pull with the Grand Mausoleum. It's possible I can put in a good word with the High Priestess when the next city contract comes up for weapons and armor for the Voices of the Spire. Quite a lucrative contract, I hear. Just saying."
Menya glances at the others, then back to Nevai, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. Without a word, he nods, and puts his bidding paddle down in his lap.
The party wins the armor, and at market value!
***
More auctions continue in the background, but the party has bought and sold everything of interest to them. As they wait for Beni to return from the back room with their purchases, the conversations around the auction house get a little more boisterous; people are feeling tipsy from the wine, and the rush of a big purchase is causing many people's moods to soar.
Even Nevai looks more pleased with himself than usual. The normally severe cleric is actually laughing, something he's not done since he awoke from death a few days ago. You are commiserating about your wins and losses (after making sure no one is in range of your conversation, of course), when Nevai glances up.
"Gods, I meant to see about getting another healing wand, just in case. I totally forgot. Eh, I'll ask Ptemenib if there are any in stock at the Mausoleum. I--"
He glances around, brow furrowed. "Wait. Where's Ptemenib?"
As Beni comes out, three servants behind him hauling a large crate of purchased goods, Nevai asks, "Beni, did you happen to see where Ptemenib went?"
Beni puffs out a deep breath as if exhausted (despite not having helped carry out any of the items himself). "Yes, friend of Horus! I did indeed! He seemed most keen on one of the guests, a gentleman of whom I am not familiar. Swarthy he looked, and I considered having him thrown out! But, he did not cause any trouble--spoke to no one, in fact--so I thought it best to leave it be. The man left not long before the auction began, and Ptemenib followed him out. That is all I know, I am afraid."
Nevai scowls, and looks to the others. "Melech, perhaps it is best if you suit up in your fine new plate mail. I cannot say how, but I get the sinking feeling that Ptemenib may be in danger. I--"
Nevai stops in mid-sentence as if struck. Something resembling a heat wave ripples through the room, bursting from one end of the auction house to the other. It seems to have no effect on anyone save three people:
The auctioneer, Manaat, and Nevai all collapse as the wave rolls over them. You can actually see their ka for a moment, as if it was knocked out of their bodies by the pulse of energy, before it snaps back into them.
Nevai lies on his back on the ground, eyes wide and chest pounding, unable to process sensory information for several moments.
Nevai can't get his breath for a few seconds, before finally gasping, "Ow."
Melech looks at the complicated armor, then at the immediacy of whatever is happening right now, and decides now is not the best time to try to put the new armor on for the first time. Thankfully, he is still wearing his old armor .
He draws his falchion, then scans the room and its entrances and exits.
Ulysses kneels and examines Nevai, trying to glean clues from the cleric's symptoms.
Several moments pass, but nothing else happens. No divs explode from the floor, no mummies leap through the doors, no golems burst through the wall.
After about a minute, nothing has attacked. People are chattering excitedly as the sudden adrenaline fades and the immediate fear abates. The auctioneer and Manaat both sit in audience seats in front of the stage as employees of the auction house tend to them. The three auction employees that carried the goods to you are fanning Nevai and helping him into a chair. Beni returns with a pitcher of water and fresh cups. He fills one for Nevai and hurries off to the other two who... fainted? You have no idea what happened.
Ulysses wracks his brain but can't think of any spell that might have done this, and he can't tell what physical effects it had on Nevai aside from putting him entirely out of sorts. It looks like the condition will probably subside in a few minutes, but other than that, the alchemist has no idea what's going on.
Melech keeps his eyes sharp for the full minute, but nothing happens. Across the way, he sees the Four Lanterns lower their guard as well, muttering uncertainly amongst themselves.
Nevai wheezes a little, but manages to take a deep, shaky breath. "Melech. I... I really think you should armor up. I think... whatever that was... I can't say how I know, but... I feel like it's not over. I think that was just the beginning..."
He closes his eyes and takes another deep breath, sipping the cup of water before him.
Melech hears Nevai, looks around the room again, looks back at Nevai, then sighs and begins removing his breastplate. "This will go much faster if you can help me, Ulysses." Then he looks over at the Four Lanterns across the room. "Stay on your guard! This may not be over!"
Ulysses downs a potion of ant haul, then grabs a chair to stand on and begins helping Melech.
Ulysses is busy strapping pieces of plate onto Melech, and even without the armor completely on, the slayer cuts a damned impressive figure. There's a sullen anger that seems to radiate from it, and the steel doesn't shimmer or shine; it is dull, flat, brutish. The hieroglyphs of the armor are not glowing brightly, but simmer with a faint red energy. The armor is not so much evil as clearly built for the purpose of keeping its wearer alive while he unleashes violence on the battlefield; it is armor with a dreadful purpose.
Ulysses and the other auction employee helping him into his armor have a handful of pieces left to strap down, when suddenly there is a dull, heavy thud against the door, rhythmic and steady. Two of the servants, Ahteb and Hamapetra, step up to the doors uncertainly and go to open them to see who it is, when all three doors practically explode off their hinges with the force of the blows against them, and six shambling figures move into the auction house. Ahteb and Hamapetra lie unmoving beneath the debris of the doors, blood slowly trickling out from their limp bodies as the figures move into the building, stepping heedlessly over their forms. The brutes' milky, empty eyes and stiff, jerky limbs pronounce them as members of the undead, but a horrid power radiates from them: just at a glance, they look stronger and more durable than the average zombie.
The effect of their entrance is immediate and as destructive as the doors being shattered as attendees run screaming and pell-mell into the night.
ROUND 1
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (0 dmg)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 7 rounds)
Zombie 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp, assisting 2 rounds)
Zombie 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, donning 2 rounds)
Zombie 4 (0 dmg)
Zombie 5 (0 dmg)
Zombie 6 (0 dmg)
[/color]
The first zombie steps up to Khammayid and swings at the young noble. Depite his clearly ineffectual armor, it shockingly manages to deflect the zombie's fist and, most likely, save the boy's life.
Nevai staggers to his feet and says to the cowering servant next to Melech, "Pull yourself together! Get that armor on him as quick as you can! Come on!"
He then moves up into the fray, shield still strapped to his back. No sense getting it out now, there's no time. He draws his khopesh as he moves and stops next to the zombie.
The servant seems to snap out of it a little and gives the cleric a shaky nod, diving back into the work of strapping the last pieces of armor in place.
The other zombies shuffle into the room amidst the screaming, panicked, throng, swinging clumsily at people left and right.
The second zombie, a particularly corpulent man with a slack jaw and two chins, waddles awkwardly toward the group of people on the left.
ROUND 1
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (0 dmg)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 7 rounds)
Zombie 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Zombie 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, donning 2 rounds)
Zombie 4 (0 dmg)
Zombie 5 (0 dmg)
Zombie 6 (0 dmg)
[/color]
"Get behind us!" Ulysses screams to the room in general, then pulls out a tanglefoot bomb and tosses it at #5.
Ulysses' bomb glues #5's feet to the floor. That is, coincidentally, also all that survives the blast from the bomb. The two zombies next to their friend's amber-preserved feet fail to move out of the way of the blast (shocking) and get gummed up in both tanglefoot goop and partly-fried bits of their friend.
Zombie #3, seeing the spark of life before it, begins clambering over the chairs to reach Khammayid and Nevai.
ROUND 1
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (0 dmg)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 7 rounds)
Zombie 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp, assisting 2 rounds)
Zombie 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, donning 2 rounds)
Zombie 4 (8 dmg, entangled)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (8 dmg, entangled)
[/color]
Melech waves off the man helping with his armor and advances on the zombies that are still smoking from Ulysses's bomb. Even not fully donned, his new armor makes him feel imposing, powerful. He deems #6 the biggest threat to civilians and swings a killing blow at its neck.
#6 is quickly relieved of its head.
The patrons veritably stampede out of the auction house, running over the still forms of the two servants and dealing damage to both. There is a crash from outside as the scaffolding on the side of the building collapses. Nevai can just see the collapse fall on the fleeing Maru and Namaru. Their feeble moans can be heard from under the rubble--they're somehow not dead.
Just then, screams begin to erupt in the streets outside. Atherton, who seems to be the de facto leader of the Four Lanterns, glances uncertainly from the zombies to the source of the screams, then nods to the others. "They've got this, let's go find where those screams are coming from. Sounds like there's more than these things on the loose."
Adelbert bolts out the door, musket in the air, whooping and hollering as he runs headlong out the door and toward the screams.
Inside, not everyone is safe. Khammayid is blocked off from fleeing by the zombie in front of Nevai, and Armor Helper Guy and Beni are stuck behind the oncoming zombies as well. Beni, for his part, takes one look at the zombies and flees to the back, throwing open one of the doors. Armor Helper Guy, seeing what he's doing, decides that's a great idea and follows after him.
Zombie #4 swings clumsily at Melech, but doesn't even touch the fresh new armor--he just catches air.
#1 smashes a fist into Khammayid, who folds like a card table and falls to the ground coughing up blood.
ROUND 2
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (0 dmg)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 7 rounds)
Zombie 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp, assisting 2 rounds)
Zombie 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, donning 2 rounds)
Zombie 4 (8 dmg, entangled)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (24 dmg, dead)
Ahtep (-3 hp, unconscious and dying)
Hamapetra (-6 hp, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (-2 hp, unconscious and dying)
[/color]
Nevai looks from the oncoming zombies to the dying citizens, chewing his lip. He doesn't know what else to do, so he raises his holy symbol and releases a burst of energy, hoping to kill the zombies so he can start healing the living.
All but one of the zombies get blasted with holy power. #4 sizzles and falls to the ground, the energies animating it severed.
#2 goes to slam its fist into the unconscious woman next to it. Not only does it miss, but appears addled by its own ineptitude.
ROUND 2
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (11 dmg)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 7 rounds)
Zombie 2 (11 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp, assisting 2 rounds)
Zombie 3 (5 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, donning 2 rounds)
Zombie 4 (19 dmg, dead)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (24 dmg, dead)
Ahtep (-3 hp, unconscious and dying)
Hamapetra (-6 hp, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (-2 hp, unconscious and dying)
[/color]
Ulysses moves to give himself a clear shot, then tosses a TF bomb at #3.
#1 explodes in a shower of gore and sticky green goop. Nevai gets sprayed with it. Some of it gets in his mouth.
#3 takes a swing at Nevai but glances off the magical chainmail, just barely missing.
ROUND 2
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (31 dmg, grease stain)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 6 rounds)
Zombie 2 (11 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Zombie 3 (5 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Zombie 4 (19 dmg, dead)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (24 dmg, dead)
Ahtep (-3 hp, unconscious and dying)
Hamapetra (-6 hp, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (-2 hp, unconscious and dying)
[/color]
RETCON: #3 sploded, not #1. #1 dies from the splash damage. All that is left is #2 and I hate my life.
Melech gets in #2's face, yelling and making a ruckus to take its attention off of Hamapetra.
Hamaneptra continues to bleed out. Ahtep looks like he's stable. More feeble groans come from the rubble outside where the scaffolding collapsed. Khammayid continues to bleed out.
Beni runs into the back room he just opened up and slams and locks the door behind him. AHG screams frantically, "Beni! You son of a b~+!$! Let me in! Let me innn!!" Meanwhile, the auctioneer cowers in the corner.
As Melech hustled past the doors, he caught a glimpse of a light spell illuminating the Four Lanterns as they duke it out with a trio of zombies harassing passers-by on the street, and he sees the swift flashes of movement as panicked citizens flee up and down the Market Square. Apparently whatever is happening here at the Canny Jackal is happening elsewhere nearby, as well.
ROUND 3
BOLD may act.
[color=green]
Zombie 1 (15 dmg, dead)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 5 rounds)
Zombie 2 (11 dmg, not threatening for 1 round)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Zombie 3 (25 dmg, grease stain)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Zombie 4 (19 dmg, dead)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (24 dmg, dead)
Ahtep (-3 hp, unconscious and stable)
Hamapetra (-7 hp, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (-3 hp, unconscious and dying)
[/color]
Nevai groans, leaning heavily against one of the chairs, and raises his holy symbol, pulsing out a burst of healing in a 30-foot radius to stabilize all the dying people at once.
All three of the unconscious people inside the building stabilize and awaken. It doesn't seem to help the people buried outside, however.
The zombie, being brainless, decides to punch one of the metal plates covering Melech instead of somewhere vulnerable.
ROUND 3
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Zombie 1 (15 dmg, dead)
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 5 rounds)
Zombie 2 (11 dmg, not threatening for 1 round)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Zombie 3 (25 dmg, grease stain)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Zombie 4 (19 dmg, dead)
Zombie 5 (lotsa dmg, dead af)
Zombie 6 (24 dmg, dead)
Ahtep (5 hp, prone)
Hamapetra (1 hp, prone)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Melech studies the out-of-sorts zombie, then swings his falchion with a warcry.
Melech cleaves the zombie in half like it was paper. That is the last of the zombies. A startling moment, to be sure, but easily handled by the Bomb and--
Suddenly a sextet of severed, desiccated hands leap in through the doors and windows almost at once. One immediately leaps at the prone form of Hamapetra, while another grasps at Ahtep. Both hands rip into the tender flesh of their necks and grasp them by the throat, throttling them.
These are Crawling Hands. Normally they are designed to mark a single quarry and seek them out for death, grabbing on and choking them to death, before returning to their master. If the Crawling Hand has no marked Quarry, however, it gains the same focus of target and abilities against whomever it last attacked.
Unsurprisingly, when it hits a target, it strangles them, dealing minimal damage but grappling them and suffocating them as per the rules of the Strangle universal monster ability.
Through the doorway you can see two more hands clawing at the rubble outside, trying to get to the old woman and her granddaughter trapped under the rubble.
Armor Helper Guy screams and pulls at the door at the sight of the severed hands. "Beni, you bastard! Let me in! Let me--" He stops yelling as there is a muffled, blood-curdling scream from inside the storage room that is abruptly cut short with a dull, powerful against the door. AHG backs away slowly, jaw quivering in abject terror, as blood slowly pours out from under the door.
ROUND 4
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 4 rounds)
Hand 1 (0 dmg)
Hand 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Hand 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (0 dmg)
Hand 6 (0 dmg)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (5 hp, prone)
Hamapetra (1 hp, prone)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Nevai croaks out a curse. "Crawling Hands! They'll strangle everyone!"
He was hoping to move into a more advantageous position so that when he channeled, he could hit all the hands in the room, but Hamapetra may not have that kind of time. He feebly raises his holy symbol and bursts out again, striking at least a few of the crawling hands.
The light of Horus blasts the two closest hands. The one on Ahtep is hideously blackened and scorched, but somehow remains animate. The one on Hamapetra manages to shrug off the worst of the divine power and continue throttling the poor girl.
From outside, a strange scrabbling noise can faintly be heard from the direction of the collapsed scaffolding. More hands, or something else...?
ROUND 4
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 4 rounds)
Hand 1 (0 dmg)
Hand 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Hand 3 (0 dmg)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (10 dmg, grappled)
Hand 6 (5 dmg, grappled)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (3 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Hamapetra (-1 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Ulysses points at Hamapetra and Ahteb. "Melech! Help them!" Then he gets a little closer to #3 and throws a TF bomb at it.
"There are more outside!"
Ulysses' bomb explodes, and literally nothing is left of the hand. You figure with an extensive search, you may be able to find a stray fingernail, if you're so inclined.
ROUND 4
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 4 rounds)
Hand 1 (0 dmg)
Hand 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (42/42 hp)
Melech (57/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 3 (16 dmg, dead)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (10 dmg)
Hand 6 (5 dmg)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (3 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Hamapetra (-1 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Melech glances through the door at Ulysses's warning. He swings his falchion at #6.
"Nevai! Help Ahteb!" Melech shouts, then makes his way outside to help Namaru and Maru.
Melech deftly slices the hand off at the base knuckles, leaving only a pile of feebly grasping fingers on Hamapetra's neck, which twitch and tumble off one by one. She is no longer in immediate danger of suffocating, but she is in very bad shape. She will likely die without medical attention.
The easternmost hand skitters across the floor, under chairs and around zombie corpses, to leap at Ulysses . It rakes at his throat and grasps his neck, but the blood from the wound it just opened up makes it too slick to grasp properly.
The hand still on Ahteb's neck continues to choke . His eyes begin to swim as he teeters on the brink of unconsciousness.
The two hands outside scrabble at the debris but then, sensing a new, more easily reached prey, leap at Melech's throat with shocking speed. Both hands rip at Melech's neck and one of them grips him hard by the throat.
Meanwhile, the door in the back where Beni ran to hide gets slammed again, cracking across the middle. It's not going to hold much longer...
ROUND 5
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 4 rounds)
Hand 1 (0 dmg, grappled)
Hand 2 (0 dmg, grappled)
Ulysses (40/42 hp, grappled)
Melech (53/57 hp, hastily donned, grappled)
Hand 3 (16 dmg, dead)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (10 dmg)
Hand 6 (23 dmg, dead)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (0 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Hamapetra (-1 hp, prone, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Nevai groans and scrambles across the chairs to get to Ahteb.
ROUND 5
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 3 rounds)
Hand 1 (0 dmg)
Hand 2 (0 dmg)
Ulysses (40/42 hp)
[/b]Melech[/b] (53/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 3 (16 dmg, dead)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (10 dmg)
Hand 6 (23 dmg, dead)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (0 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating)
Hamapetra (-1 hp, prone, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried)
Namaru (6 hp, buried)
Khammayid (5 hp, prone)
[/color]
Mac kills #1 but can't avoid #2. He grunts as it wraps itself around his throat. His falchion is too big to swing at himself, so he drops it, draws the scimitar he is still carrying around, studies #2, and slashes at it awkwardly.
Ulysses takes a few steps away from the hand (and from the door with the banging), pulls a bone burn from his bandolier, and tosses it at the hand.
Melech pulls out the scimitar and hacks the hand off his throat with expert accuracy, removing a couple chin hairs but otherwise leaves himself untouched as the hand drops to the ground in two pieces. You can now clearly hear the moans and weeping of the grandmother and granddaughter under the rubble.
Ulysses steps back from the hand and throws a bone burn at it, but he misses so wildly that his confidence in his ability to attack is utterly shaken.
The hand doesn't even notice the bone burn sailing over its head and leaps up at Ulysses again, but the alchemist manages to bat it down.
The hand on Ahtep continues to choke the life out of Ahteb, who slumps down as the hand continues to murder him.
Ahteb resists slipping closer to death, but Hamaetra continues to hemorrhage internally. Khammayid stands up and runs to the back of the Canny Jackal, feebly raising his masterwork scimitar to defend the auctioneer.
Once again, something slams into the door. It breaks into multiple pieces, but they are still just barely holding it together. Whatever is behind that door is about to come out...
ROUND 6
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 3 rounds)
Hand 1 (16 dmg, dead)
Hand 2 (11 dmg, dead)
Ulysses (40/42 hp)
Melech (55/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 3 (16 dmg, dead)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Hand 5 (10 dmg)
Hand 6 (23 dmg, dead)
Something In The Closet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (-3 hp, prone, grappled, suffocating, unconscious and dying)
Hamapetra (-2 hp, prone, unconscious and dying)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried [400 lbs])
Namaru (6 hp, buried [400 lbs])
Khammayid (5 hp)
[/color]
Nevai raises his khopesh, wavers back and forth a bit, and then brings the khopesh down, hoping to Horus he hits the crawling hand and not the unconscious Canny Jackal employee.
Melech moves to the rubble covering Maru and begins removing it as quickly as he can.
Ulysses decides that, since he obviously can't hit anything, he should try to keep some people alive. He ignores the hand trying to strange him and flicks his wrist to retrieve the CLW wand while walking over to Ahteb. "We'll get you out of there soon!" He taps him with the wand.
Nevai's khopesh hacks several fingers off the crawling hand. It falls to the ground, spasms once, and ceases moving. The energy from the wand brings Ahteb back to consciousness with a feeble gasp.
Melech manages to throw off some seriously big chunks of the building's edifice, removing 175 lbs of rock off Maru.
The hand leaps onto Ulysses again, but the gnome brushes it off almost contemptuously.
Nevai glances to the left, and sees the knob on the door to his left jiggle aggressively, followed by a dull WHAM. It's not nearly as potent as whatever is destroying the door to the south, but it's still hefty. It's hard to say when whatever it is will break through.
The feebly attached pieces of the door explode outward, and a figure storms out with an awkward, jerky gait. They were once a woman, you suspect, based on the funerary garb, but it's hard to say based on her body because it's wrapped in hundreds of feet of linens, trailing off in tatters.
Her mouth opens and she screams in Ancient Osiriani,
Yep. It's a freaking mummy.
These undead are dreaded throughout Osirion not only for the difficulty to kill them (they have DR 5/- and undead traits) but their fists break bones and curse those who are touched by it with the dreaded Mummy Rot. It's particularly difficult to get rid of Mummy Rot because it is both a curse and a disease. It is typically a death sentence.
In order to get rid of Mummy Rot, one must first break the curse with remove curse, break enchantment, or similar magic, then a remove disease spell. You cannot heal naturally from Mummy Rot.
You also recall that all those dusty old bandages make them vulnerable to fire.
As the creature approaches, Khammayid and the auctioneer both shriek in terror and flee pell-mell toward the doors, but Armor Helper Guy stands frozen in terror. His trousers darken down the inner leg, and though he shakes so hard he practically vibrates, he stands frozen before the creature's advance.
ROUND 7
BOLD may act.[color=green]
Nevai (30/30 hp, staggered 2 rounds)
Ulysses (40/42 hp)
Melech (55/57 hp, hastily donned)
Hand 4 (0 dmg)
Amadjawet (0 dmg)
Ahtep (6 hp, prone)
Hamapetra (-2 hp, unconscious and dying)
Armor Helper Guy (?? hp, paralyzed)
Maru (0 hp, disabled, buried [400 lbs])
Namaru (6 hp, buried [400 lbs])
Khammayid (5 hp)
[/color]
All the blood drains from Nevai's face. "Mummy!!" He turns frantically to his alchemist companion. "Ulysses! Fire! Don't get close--it exudes despair. You may be paralyzed with fear."
He looks at the shaking door to his left, the crawling hand to his right, the dying woman near to him, and AHG paralyzed and in the mummy's crosshairs, and practically screams in frustration. And he's still out of sorts, unable to function fully. After a few moments of hesitation, he hobbles forward feebly to try and draw the mummy's attention.
As soon as Nevai approaches the mummy, a sense of absolute dread and horror washes over him.
He barely manages to shake it off.
Ulysses steps away from the pesky hand, preps a tanglefoot bomb, and hucks it across the room at the mummy.
Melch looks through the door and sees what's coming. He considers for a moment, then removes more rubble from Maru.