Jazadi nods in agreement with Jamie. "Yeah... not sure how I missed it the first time."
The trap, for trap their is, seems to be almost fiendishly complex. As far as Jazadi can determine, and it takes some help from Uthe (for the magic) and Jamie (for the common sense) it seems that the floor tiles are enchanted to literally fly at anyone stepping too far into the room.
Disabling it would require stopping magic woven practically into the earth itself, or you could try to rush through the room and try to avoid damage with speed...
"...yeah, this looks pretty tough to disarm." Jazadi groans.
"I don't know if I really want to chance it, but I'll try..."
Unfortunately, no sooner does she apply her tools to one of the tiles than something nasty happens!
Dhakira puts away the scroll in her scrollcase, Then she takes out the wand of cure and give a shot to Adol.
She let’s jazadi and Jamie examine the cupboard. When she ears about the trap, she casts Guidance on Jazadi and then goes as far as she can. « It’s not that I don’t trust you guys, but that trap sounds very complicated, and a healer is never too cautious as I will need to patch you up if things go wrong. »
Jazadi steps a little too far forwards and sets off the trap!
Tiles hurtle out and strike you all hard in various tender places.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
"SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY!" Jazadi yells as she races across the room!
A yowl of pain escapes from the amurrun's petulant silence and she dashes forward in a burst of surprising speed to escape the room. Once there she turns to glare at Jazadi.
Adol lags behind a bit, telling himself it probably drew more tiles to himself that way. That his heavy armor made him slower anyway had nothing to do with it at all.
Thus, he gets hit a fair amount, and can't quite decide if this was more of a funny story or a humiliating one. How many paladins before him had gotten their face bashed in by floor tiles? It couldn't be that many... right?
Dhakira follows the others as fast as her short legs can take her.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Say'ri goes slamming into the door and finds it locked! Fortunately the gunslinger has an excellent lockpick and blasts through the door with a single shot! Jazadi and Uthe barge their way through, followed by Jamie, Say'ri and Dhakira as Adol heroically brings up the rear!
A fifteen-foot-tall statue of a matronly woman with long, flowing hair stands in the center of this chamber between two large stone tables. Ten curtained alcoves break up the hieroglyph-covered walls. Enormous bronze doors stand to south, matching the ones that you've just barged through. Apart from the two sets of door, three passageways lead off from this central chamber. One set of footprints can be seen on the floor, although they are themselves acquiring a light covering of dust.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Jazadi winces as she picks a piece of errant masonry out of her trousers.
She can't seem to bring herself to look anyone in the eye--least of all, Uthe.
Dhakira pats Jazadi’s shoulder reassuringly « It was a though one my friend, don’t be too hard on yourself. » Then she grabs her divine spiral and starts praying to Pharasma « Please my Lady, grant me some more of your divine energy. »
She makes sure everybody id feeling a bit better, then sighs. « I feel my connection tp Pharasma being overextended, I don’t think I’ll be ableto do that again today.
While the warmth of Dhakira's healing energy soothes her somewhat, the ruffled amurrun still approaches Jazadi with her tail stiff. She reaches up to wipe at her injured nose and looks down at the blood that it leaves on her finger. "Get better," is all she says before returning to Sayri's side.
"So, what do you usually do when faced with multiple ways to go? Back in the day, my, uh... 'friends' and I used to flip a coin. Or do you have something more concrete to base decisions on?" Adol asks, unaware of the Falcon's standard operating protocols.
His eyes narrow slightly when Dhakira speaks up. "So she is mostly out of healing, and Uthe is out of spells. Should we attempt to rest here, in that case?"
« It’s not a bad idea, but do we feel to sleep here? »
Adol looks back to the group's point-woman. "What do you think, Say'ri? You're the leader, and know your friends much better than I do. What do you think of our chances if we continue as we are?"
|
Say'ri considers the question with a frown. "The longer we continue the greater the risk we run. Safety probably dictates we move back upstairs, but that means we have to traverse the trap again. I say we try one of the passages, try to find a room we can barricade and then sleep in shifts. It won't be exactly fun but if we are truly close to the source of this outbreak we can't afford to go in without us all at full strength."
She casts around before alighting on the left-hand path. "Let's go this way. Those double doors look far too imposing."
Uthe moves up to follow close behind Say'ri as she leads them towards the indicated path.
"All right. Let's look for a resting spot, in that case." The paladin nods and follows suit, gripping his sword and walking to the front.
Still smarting a bit from the misadventure with the trapped floor, Jazadi falls into formation without a word.
With Adol leading the way you head up the left hand corridor. Half-walls and heavy curtains divide the room you find into a network of small apartments and common spaces. Colorful linens, faded with age, lie neatly folded at the foot of each bare bed, save for the far end of the room, where rich silks and pillows cover a bed surrounded by a mess of discarded books and notes. The state of the remnants of food suggest that the area has been abandoned for some time, despite the two corpses who lie in nearby beds. Each woman is well dressed and neatly, if inexpertly made-up and their bodies are perfectly preserved, untouched by the ravages of necromancy or time.
While not entirely defensible it does seem that this area has seen very little traffic for days, and may well provide at least some sort of sanctuary for the night.
Fortunately for you all nothing disturbs your rest and with the various faded blankets and beds it is actually a reasonably comfortable night, although not for those of you who spend near-silent hours watching over the rest.
Uthe ensures that Say'ri is not on first watch as she pulls her down to join the amurrun on her tattered bedroll. She doesn't hide her need for calming and comfort as she traces her tongue up the woman's jaw and wraps her arms around her to pull her close.
She continues her affectionate ritual until sleep claims her not too long after everyone else settles in.
~~~~~
The sorceress stretches languidly hours later, ready to forget the previous days failures and move on to new challenges.
"Shall we open the big doors today?" she asks.
Dhakira uses the few spells she has left to make sure everyone will be in top shape, at least physically, after a night's sleep. She doesn't mind taking a guard shift in the middle of the night since she can see in the dark.
She still wakes up early and prays to Pharasma while tracing a spirale with rocks she can find all around. Then she helps prepare the breakfast and is ready to go.
|
|
Uthe ensures that Say'ri is not on first watch as she pulls her down to join the amurrun on her tattered bedroll. She doesn't hide her need for calming and comfort as she traces her tongue up the woman's jaw and wraps her arms around her to pull her close.
She continues her affectionate ritual until sleep claims her not too long after everyone else settles in.
Say'ri was intending to take first watch, but that plan gets rather thoroughly derailed by her cat, who insists on grooming, cuddles and soothing. Because of this Say'ri ends up taking the last watch, having slept soundly and woken at the touch of Dhakira's hand on her shoulder.
"That's where the centre of all this likely is." She agrees with Uthe. "We'll need to be careful though. I suspect it was only the grace of Horus and Nuit that kept us safe while we slept."
Jazadi rises, renewed and prepared for a further foray into the dark.
Keeping close formation you return to the central area and head towards the large southern doors when suddenly a corpse leaps from a curtained alcove next to the door!
A burst of magic engulfs the group and suddenly Adol and Dhakira find themselves facing the creature alone!
replicas of buildings and streets fill most of the gallery, creating an impressive but woefully out of date, room-sized map of Wati. A stark black pillar rises thirty feet or more from the center of the room.
DC 20 Knw Planes/Religion
"AH! WHA--?!" Jazadi whirls about in a frightened spin as she's suddenly separated from the party!
"...well." She says, taking in the massive black pillar in the centre of the mini-map of Wati. "That's... uh..."
"...weird." The archaeologist blushes and starts looking around for a doorway out of the room.
"Argh! Ew! Ew!" Jamie says in disgust as she suddenly appears atop the corpse. She quickly disentangles herself from the gruesome remains and starts hustling back into the central chamber.
The amurrun hisses in frustration and then sprints back towards the central room, attempting to dodge the painful missiles.
Meeting Say'ri in the next hallway, she shakes her head causing her worn bells to tinkle merrily in contrast to the angry expression on her face. "What did Jazadi do this time?" she demands.
Adol whirls around, stupified as to why his allies were suddenly all missing save for Dhakira. He calms down when they all rush back into the room from... somewhere? "I would ask what just happened," he starts, stepping forward and striking at the undead monstrousity, "But it can wait."
Dhakira tells Adol « I’m note sure where the rest of the group went, but I’ll get you some help. » She prays to Pharasma and 3 hyenas, Helene, Henry and Hortense, appear and surround the undead creature. They each smite evil and try to bite it.
Helene
Henri
Hortense
Then Dhakira tries to identify the creature
Uthe gets clipped around the ear by a flying tile, but all in all escapes rather lightly given where she landed and hustles down the corridor behind Say'ri. The gunslinger's shot thuds into the undead creature but prompts no visible reaction.
Adol's blow is dodged in a strage, jerky movement but the creature is unprepared for a celestial hyena pack and both Henri and Hortense tear chunks of its flesh, although neither manages to fell the creature.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the complex Jamie decides that this is not the time to cuddle the dead and runs for the exit while Jazadi splashes her way across a shallow pool to a door and finds a narrow, steep and twisting passageway ahead of her. It's going to be a long climb....
The creature vanishes from its position and reappears in front of Say'ri, savaging the woman with its claws!
Jazadi groans in resignation and begins heading down the twisty passageway.
Dhakira shakes her head "I have no clue what that thing is! Do you?" she asks Adol, then she puts her hand on his arm and casts Guidance. She then tells the hyenas to follow the undead, guiding them so they avoid getting attacked by the monster, and tells them to attack it.
Helene
Henri
Hortense
"I, ah, was hoping you could inform me , lady Priestess. I always served my church in a more combatative manner rather then an esoteric one," Adol admits, slightly sheepishly, just before he does score a hit this time and cuts into it with a radiant blade of divine light!
Jamie moves to flank the creature with Say'ri, but even with a surge of spiritual guidance, she comes up short.
Adol cuts the creature's head from its body with a blow of his holy blade and the body crumbles into dust, leaving behind nothing more than a tarnished circlet of brass and gems worth two thousand gold.
Jazadi comes pounding up the stairs a minute or so later, just after the hyenas have returned to the celestial plane. With the group together again, and the presence of a powerful undead suggesting the right direction you press on.
The chamber beyond is deathly silent, its vaulted ceiling absorbing any sounds from the surrounding area. A broad walkway leads through, flanked by deep pits. In the center of the walkway stands a quietly bubbling fountain filled with clear liquid. A mighty statue, wielding a huge flail, stands menacingly at the far end of the chamber, blocking the way onwards. It's jackal head makes it clear that this is a statue of Anubis, whom Dhakira, Jazadi and Say'ri know as the osirian god of the dead.
"Wow... an actual graven guardian!" Jazadi stares at the massive statue. "As long as we have a holy symbol of its faith, it won't attack us--unless we attack it first."
"I don't suppose anyone here just happens to be a worshipper of this... jackal god, then?"
"Why would we worship a jackal?" Uthe questions as her ears twist in confusion. Not waiting for an answer, she continues, "Does anyone know what the holy symbol for Anubis is?"
« Pharasma has helped me remember. Anyone good with drawing? » and she takes out a pen and paper from her bag, looking around hopefully at Jazadi. If someone volonteers to draw, she describes what she knows.
Jazadi takes Dhakira's offered pen and paper and begins drawing Anubis' holy symbol as best she can...
...unfortunately, her lack of experience in drawing shows.
|
|
"This isn't going to work." Say'ri says shortly. "Unless we want to try and break out of the necropolis entirely we need to destroy it. I can fire off a few shots but I've only got about a dozen bullets left, so I'd rather not use them all up here. Could we trip it, or trap it somehow and just go around?"
"So... I don't consider myself the smartest person around, but maybe we can try searching the other rooms a bit more thoroughly first? Perhaps we will find a holy symbol to that diety. It seems to fit that they'd bring symbols of their god to this place of death. Perhaps some were buried with them," Adol suggests.
Jazadi nods in agreement. "Sounds like a good idea."
Nodding, Adol turns around and begins searching the other rooms for potential holy symbols of Anubis. If he can't find any, he returns and readies to probably fight the statue.