Well..let's get going...I have some drinking to get back to. I'll use this rope and give it a test run... Valeros says as he gets the rope and uses it to get back up.
The group finds another statue wedged into the door that leads deeper into the complex. They realize that, inserting it into a pedestal nearby and giving it a twist fully opens the door and they can take the statue with them.
The stairway beyond the door descends into stagnant, murky water. The north wall features two fifteen-foot-tall mosaics of the Dog Pharaoh flanking a series of smaller hieroglyphs arranged in rows and columns. The east and west walls give glimpses of the top half of faded and water-stained frescos depicting pleasure slaves and vast wealth in a desert oasis paradise.
The water is too murky to see the floor and there's no way of knowing just how deep it is.
Diazepane quickly assesses the situation and flies back down into the under tunnel. With two deft moves, he triggers the two trap doors. Water floods down, threatening to push him down onto the spikes before he moves aside. In addition to the thunderous rush of water, Diazepane hears rubbery thuds, only a few at first then in a rapid staccato.
As he looks down at the grates with the water flowing through him, he sees, writhing and wiggling wildly in the flood, dozens, hundreds, perhaps even thousands of leeches lingering for only a moment before being washed away in the deluge.
While the water does flow away, Diazepane has several seconds of heart gripping fear as it starts to rise, coming up to a level of 4 feet as the water flows, leaving only a 3' gap between it and the ceiling. But he is easily able to fly up through one of the open trapdoors.
As the water drains out, the faint outline of a 10' square door can be seen between the two mosaics and under the hieroglyphics.
The algae covered door has additional Hieroglyphics .
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Mylvwara raises an eyebrow and leans her head over to one side, "I recognise that. It's from Ancient Osiriani but the modern language still uses it sometimes. Those are mathematical symbols. The left facing hand is plus, the upraised hand is minus, the y shaped symbol is a multiplication sign, the split ropes is the division sign and the scales are the equal sign."
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Mylvwara looks around the room for additional traps or mysteries.
Then she looks over the door for anything she is missing.
"To open the door, you should press the symbols of waves over the sun on the top row. Then the scarab beetle symbol on the next row. On the third row it is the scorpion and the final row, at the bottom, is the sphynx."
Mylvwara makes no movement toward the door herself.
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Shardra watches as the pool and its many wriggling inhabitants drain away. As the last dregs gurgle and bubble down the exposed sluice, she steps out into the room, carefully and determinedly squishing and vestigial leeches which lie stranded by the retreated water, if they come too close. She peers cautiously down the hole in the middle of the room. "huh. You ok down there, alchemist?"
She notes the now elevated level of waters in the corridor below. "Looks like that's not a trick we can repeat with the forth trapdoor. Not without a swim. In with the leeches."
She examines the hieroglyphics alongside Mylvwara, but languages and ciphers are not her forte. People, or rather their spirits, are. She holds her tongue.
Until she breaks her silence with; "We saw water dripping from the fourth trapdoor. That's behind this door. Could be we open it, water rushes through here. Could be carrying something, too. More leeches. Or worse."
She readies herself. "Diazepane, get back up here before we drown you opening this door."
Hmm...I trust your judgement...this sort of thing is outside my wheelhouse... the warrior says as he takes a couple swigs of wine
As the party contemplates the puzzle the water down below continues to gurgle and drain and is noticeably lower by the time anyone checks it again.
They depress the appropriate tiles and, with a raspy groan, the doors slide open, revealing a set of stairs going up.
It is easy enough for all of them to jump from the corner of this room to the edge of the stairs and make their way up.
A short stairway leads up to the center of a hallway with identical doors at either end. The floor here is barely damp. Each doorway features a simple stone handle. On the passage’s northern wall are two figures in bas-relief: to the west, a human man holding an ankh in one hand and a khopesh in the other; to the east, a jackal-headed man double-wielding twin kukris.
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"Stop right there, Mr. Ketal. By my measure the final trapdoor is before the double door on the left."
Mylvwara restrains Diazepane before he can move forward.
"If your flight spell is still intact, perhaps you could open it from beneath?" She looks about suspiciously, "Or you could look for the trigger while flying, thus ensuring you do not fall."
Diazepane finds most of the water and leeches drained out of the bottom part of the tomb, now. A little more trickles in from the first trapdoor as the swamp continues to flow into the building.
He critically botches his first attempt to open the trapdoor from below and immediately dies.
What do the rest of you want to do?
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Realizing that he can't actually die from embarrassment and that no one saw him fail, anyway, Diazepane gives it another try and opens up the last trapdoor (that they know about.)
Mylvwara doesn't detect any magic other than what the Pathfinders brought in with them, nor does she actually see the trapdoors until Diazepane triggers them.
Diazepane starts to deal with the lock on the door, only to find it's no real lock, at all. There is a click as he does do, though, the trapdoor mechanism working (though not opening the already open trapdoor.)
When he opens the door he finds nothing but a blank wall.
To the right it is...be careful..I am beginning to think there are traps all over this place...
After investigating the doors to the west (and avoiding the trap there) the Pathfinders turn to the east.
Mylvwara finds no magic on it but they do find that it is locked.
Though sturdy, it looks like they could either pick the lock or bash the door open.
I can smash this down...might let others know we're here...or you could just fiddle with it and see if it opens. I know which way I prefer...but that's just me... Valeros says as he cracks his knuckles in anticipation of breaking down the door.
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As the chemist works the lock, Kal stands in ready anticipation of whatever that door was protecting.
"Either you or I should be the first in" he glances at Valeros. "I'll fight you for the honor!" The flat comment gives way to a chuckle giving the impression that the Ganzi probably wasn't being serious. Probably.
Well, we could debate it...or we could...what's that? Valeros points over to the corner. When the others look, he goes through the door.
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Diazepane is easily able to unlock the door.
Val Killmore's distraction is barely enough to fool the average person, though it catches a couple of the Pathfinders.
Nonetheless, he's first off the blocks and throws himself through the doors, only to be riddled with daggers and immediately die.
What do the rest of you do?
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Then, Valeros remembers that when the other Pathfinders glare "daggers" at him, it is only a figure of speech and checks out the chamber.
Brilliant treasure fills this room. From every angle, gold, silver, and myriad gems catch the light. While the floor is a soupy morass and mold grows up the walls, the Dog Pharaoh’s treasures sit atop shelves untouched by the grime below. An ornate sarcophagus lies on a dais at the far end of the room, mold growing up its sides.
of the room has grown in an unusually linear pattern. Close inspection reveals a secret door, counterweighted to slide open with a firm push.
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Slightly lagging the rest of the party in the flurry of activity before entering this room , it seems as though Shardra is slightly distracted by the ambiance of the tomb itself. Is it the ancient spirits of its builders, call out to her across time from the ethereal plane?
She enters the room, but perhaps surprisingly for a dwarf is not distracted by the gaudy wealth on display. She runs her hands over the walls, before appraising the mold on the wall opposite.
"There. A hidden door. Obvious if you look." She looks at Diazepane. "Apology accepted."
Ahh...so it is...good eye, Shardra... Valeros says as he looks at the door indicated.
Mayve we should set the mold on fire? Acid? Spit on it? he jests as he tries to remember seeing this type of mold before.
The mold doesn't appear any more dangerous than what might appear on a sandwich left in one of your packs for a bit too long.
As Shardra examines the door which is all too obvious to her expertly trained eyes, it shifts a bit at her touch.
Even a dwarf is likely to respect the skill that went into making a door so perfectly counterbalanced that has lasted all these centuries as it opens with a light push.
This long, dank hallway contains three sarcophagi arranged down the center of the floor. The floor, walls, ceiling and the sarcophagi themselves are completely covered with a layer of dull brown fuzz. A door in the eastern wall at the south end of the room provides the only exit aside from the secret door to the north. The air here is unnaturally cold.
Mylvwara recognizes that the mold is, indeed brown and not just in color but in species. It does not seem to be thick enough to actually be dangerous.
What IS dangerous is the lid of the sarcophagus everyone is standing near sliding off and the mummy that stands up, ready to attack.
Also...the other two mummies in the other two sarcophagi. At least, you're pretty sure they're mummies. They actually look like some sort of emaciated apes covered in brown fur. Then, you realize that "fur" is actually more of the brown mold and the temperature in the room immediately drops as heat is sucked into those now opened caskets.
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There is no shout of alarm or loss of cool from the Shaman at the sight of the risen dead clambering from their sarcophagi. She calmly steps back and invokes the spirits to add vigour and alacrity to her allies
She narrows her slate-grey eyes at these 'monkey mummies' - what does she know of their special abilities and special defenses?
She shares whatever she knows with the others, in her typical abrupt style.
Between Mylvwara and Shardra, the group quickly discovers that these are, indeed, mummies. They fill all those nearby with such despair that they might be frozen in place and unable to act (despair aura 30' paralyzed,) they are highly resistant to physical damage [DR5/-), they are vulnerable to fire (Weakness Fire) but the brown mold growing from them will only become stronger under such heat and their touch carries a dreadful curse (Mummy Rot.)
Shardra makes the party fast (they're gonna need it) after stepping out of the line of fire.
The mummies then shamble toward the party (or just stand still) and attack. And waves of despair wash over the group.
The one surrounded by the party attacks Mylvwara.
The one in the next sarcophagus stumbles up and swings at Valeros.
The last gets in Kal'Ryon's personal space but is unable to attack.
Both attacking mummies miss.