Holding her staff in one hand, Uthe gestures towards the bug and a splash of green fluid streaks towards it, the carapace sizzling where it strikes.
Seeing Ammon in trouble, Jamie drops her morningstar, draws her crossbow, and shoots the big bug!
Dhakira takes a 5 feet step while flicking her otehr wrist to get the CLW wand and casts it on Ammon
''Hold strong Ammon''
Ammon is distracted by the burning pain in his shoulder, but fortunately, everyone else manages to distract the centipede in one way or another. The centipede tries to bite and whip Say'ri with its long double tail, but she deflects it with her buckler.
-34
"Hold firm! I have the beast in my sights!" Jamie says. She reloads her crossbow, takes aim, and fires another bolt into its sinuous body!
Ammon thanks Dhakira for the healing with a quick nod - at least it staunched the bleeding. He then waits until Jamie and Say'ri have fired their weapons before moving back in!
Though he hits the caterpillar viciously, seemingly killing it alongside Jamie, he goes pale in the face and promptly falls to his knees afterwards, clutching the arm he was stung in.
Jamie downs the creature with her single bolt that pierces right through its carapace, then Ammon finishes it off for good measure.
The door to the mansion hangs wide open, both courtyard doors are pushed back on their hinges after being burst through by Uthe and Ammon.
The western side of the estate forms an L-shaped yard mostly given to sand, sun-dried earth, and the ancient husks of dead trees. Stone benches line the walls of the yard, and a large tiled pool sits in the southwest corner, dried and partially filled with sand. A short flight of steps leads between a pair of pillars to a set of stone doors in the west side of the house. At the north end of the yard stands a squat stone building with columns at every corner.
The Eastern yard is a spacious yard fills the compound east of the house. To the east, several small stone outbuildings have been built right into the compound’s outer wall. A well stands between two of these outbuildings, opposite a stone table and benches that sit in the shadow of the house. To the west, two sets of steps, both flanked by columns, lead up to doors into the main house. To the northwest, an open doorway leads into an extension of the house, next to a small structure with a domed roof.
Jamie's triumph at felling the centipede is short-lived when she sees Ammon's discomfort. She rushes to his side and puts pressure on the poisoned wound. "Dhakira! Can you treat the venom?"
Once the fighter is taken care of, the halfling gives him a relieved smile before turning to the task of exploring the grounds. "I think we should explore the smaller outbuildings first before entering the manor proper. Shall we go west?" She points to the squat building across the yard.
Ammon grimaces in discomfort as the party assists the wound, swaying slightly. But he attempts to fight off the poison as best he can.
Fortunately, by the strength of either Jamie's presence or Dhakira's skill, he finally manages to shake it off.
When he slowly gets back to his feet, the movement of his left arm seems both sluggish and to stutter. "I... don't feel so well. I think I need a priest with more powerful magic to get this looked at, or a lot of rest. If we keep going, I don't think I'll be able to defend myself as well as I could."
Ammon takes the potion and drinks it, then experimentally moves his arm. It still doesn't quite look normal, but the stuttering effects seems slightly reduced.
"Thanks. That helps a bit, I think, but maybe we shouldn't move inside the main building before this gets fixed."
He looks back at Dhakira. "Oh, just in case, can you close the wound itself?"
He moves back in front of the party with Say'ri to see what was in the courtyard.
Uthe follows along. The jingling of her bells is slightly muted. "Do you think that there will be any more such ... manifestations?" she asks Dhakira. "We do not care for such things."
The scorpion seems to have climbed out of what was once a pool in the ground, that is now half-filled with sand and cracked through the ages.
A rectangular stone building sits in the northwest corner of the estate. At each corner stand columns carved to resemble men and women with their arms crossed over their chests. A set of stone doors stands in the southern face of the building, carved with bas-relief faces of two men. Hieroglyphs are carved into the doors just beneath the faces.
The faces on the doors match the faces on the two statues outside the property. Two of the buildings columns also depict these men, but also depict two women.
The Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs identify the building as the “crypt of the House of Pentheru” and warn, “May defilers be cursed by the gods until their day of judgment.”
The crypt’s stone doors are heavy, but open easily after Jamie has carefully checked them. Inside, a wide stairway descends downwards.
Jamie gestures down the stairs, after searching them for traps. ”Shall we?”
Jazadi gathers up her things before following the others.
She reads the hieroglyphs on the building. "...this is the crypt of the Hose of Pentheru. May defilers be cursed by the gods until their day of judgment."
Descending down the stairs, you are confronted with a decaying stench. A stone altar sits upon a raised stone platform in the centre of this square room. Caryatid columns carved in the likenesses of male and female figures with their arms crossed over their chests and khopeshes or ankhs in their hands stand at each corner of the platform. Empty torch holders are built-in all four of the room’s corners. Another set of stairs continues to descend further from the opposite side of the room.
Pharasma's spiral symbol is carved into the top of the altar, instantly recognizable as you have all seen it so much in the last few days.
A horrid, once-human Mummy-like creature lurches out at you all, jumping from the top of the stone altar as you enter the room. It is a pallid thing, wrapped in wispy strips of skin, with bits of detritus and a sour stink clinging to it
"EEK!" Jazadi recoils in fear as the 'mummy' approaches.
She retrieves her whip and tries to trip it up!
Then she blinks and notices what it really is. "Oh--it's an adherer. It's just a creature whose skin is sticky enough to catch weapons. It's not a mummy, everyone!"
”En garde!” Jamie declares, slicing at the creature with her curved blade!
More green fluid flies as Uthe directs a low-level spell at the creature.
Ammon attempts to learn more about this target, but unfortunately can't recall anything else - whether it has a weakness, if fire would work better, or something else worth noting.
Instead, he instinctively swings and hopes for the best. He is already halfway there when Jazadi's words come back to him. "Wait, what do you mean with 'sticky enough to catch-'"
"-weapons?" Ammon asks, yanking out the sword as hard as it went in.
After the fight with the centipede, Dhakira helps Ammon to deal with the poison. then uses the magical energy of her Sun Metal spell to cast Cure Light Wound on Ammon.
Seeing that Pharasmam is not being generous with her healing energies today, she uses the wand to cast
''There, there dear, is that better?''
She follows the others around the courtyard ''If you feel OK to continue, let's go.''
Dhakira starts to pray under her breath.
When the dwarf walks past her without responding to her question, Uthe's eyes narrow, but she doesn't say anything.
The bandaged corpse slams forward, this time into Jamie, trying to grab for her.
"Hey! Leave her alone!" Jazadi swings her whip again, this time hoping she's luckier than last time...
"YOU! Pick on someone of your own size!" Ammon yells at the thing, just as it grabs Jamie. Enraged, he swings...
...and probably misses?
Worried about Ammon's health, Dhakira realizes to late that Uthe had asked her question. ''What's that? Oh yes, haunts. I'm afraid that we'll see more of those in this place that has seen so much death. We'll have to be on our toes. Pharasma energy can only do so much against the negative energy of the haunts. She still tries to smile reassuringly to amarrun.
Dhakira finishes her prayer and Justin the celestial eagle appears over the sarcophagus and does a full attack against the enemy.
Justin smites evil against the Adherer
(+1 if evil)
(+1 if evil)
(+1 if evil)
Then she cast CLW with the wand on Jamie
The creature batters Jamie within an inch of her life and hoists her off her feet! She shouts defiantly despite her wounds, stabbing with her dagger!
Uthe sends a stronger bolt of magic into the creature.
Jazadi's whip snaps around its legs and trips the adherer, releasing Jamie from her bonds. Ammon makes to attack, but he just falls short but fortunately, Dhakira's eagle manages to scratch at, what was once, its face.
Unfortunately, Jazadi's whip gets caught on the Adherer's bandages. Jamie slashes at the creature, now on the ground, but her slashes don't cause it any anguish.
Say'ri's bullet ricochet's of the wall and Uthe's Magic Missile hits, but it doesn't seem to bother it at all.
The adherer goes to stand up, to try and slam back into Ammon but Ammon is ready and braces against it.
-20
"Oh, blast it..." Jazadi curses as she struggles to get her whip free!
And she does!
Jamie drops her dagger and gets both hands on her curve blade again. As the creature stands, she slices it!
Her blade gets stuck to its body. Cursing, she draws her morningstar and bashes it! "Fall, fiend!"
Ammon strikes the adherer as it stands back up! Unfortunately, this time his weapon gets stuck on the glue-like substance surrounding it. He gives an experimental tug, but meeting massive resistance he abandons it for a different plan. "Jazadi, you know of this thing, right! Is there some way to get around this stickyness?"
Then, he simply lets go of his sword, draws a warhammer from his belt and attacks again.
He hits again and angles the head so that the sideways momententum makes it easier to pull it free!
Never having encountered something that was immune to her magical bolts, Uthe takes a step back and considers her options.
"Fire or alchemical solvent should work!" Jazadi responds.
The eagle bites the Adherer as it<s getting back up
He then makes his full tripple attack
Dhakira channels positive energy ''Please Pharasma, my friends are in need of healing.''
Say'ri holds back, as the rest of the group manage to slice and hack the undead to pieces, its bandages unravelling onto the floor.
Descending down the next set of stairs, the corridor opens up into a larger chamber.
The air in this chamber is cool. The walls and ceilings are tiled with stone, but the floor is hard-packed earth, giving the area an unfinished quality. A long stone table rests against the western wall, flanked by two large brass urns. A flight of steps ascends to the south, while two passages lead north and east out of the room.
Carrying on, the corridor turns right, right again and returns to the large chamber that you could have reached through the shortcut in the previous room.
An earthy scent fills this large chamber. The ceiling and walls are tiled with stone, but the ground is bare earth. Stone benches are set against the east and west walls, and torch holders are mounted in the corners and on either side of a wide doorway to the west. The beginnings of several shallow, rough passages have been started along the eastern wall and in the southwest corner, but the excavations are incomplete, ending in earth and rubble after only a few feet. At the south end of the room, a short, wide flight of steps descends to a set of stone double doors.
As soon as you enter the room, a swarm of undead house cats set upon you, spilling out of the cramped space they were interred as a waterfall of hairless feline bodies, spreading out to intercept you. Fortunately, you all manage to work as a team, having learned of each other's strengths somewhat and the swarm of cats does not survive your coordinated defense.
Uthe who seemed quite put out at the assault of undead, mummified cats, continues to stand off to the side, a frown on her face. She nods at Say'ri's comment.
"We can't imagine one that would," she says simply.
Ammon pokes the remains of the last agressive skeletal cat. "These ones doubtlessly lived lives of such luxury that even if they had a choice, eventual mummification might have been worth it. In ancient Osirion, cats were believed to be magical creatures capable of bringing good fortune and luck. Wealthy families housing them tended to dress them in Jewerly and mummify them upon death. Such was their reverence that in one major battle, Keleshite invaders sprung cats to their chariots. The opposing Osirian army refused to fight back and was decimated."
He grins. "Good thing we're not bound by ancient superstition, eh? There is such a thing as taking worship too far."
Just in case, he makes a warding gesture and winks at the ceiling.
Dhakira adds, brushing cat dust from her armor ''Well at least we've put those poor little souls to rest. I hate undead in all it's forms.''
Uthe's expression turns from disbelief to disgust as Ammon relays snippets of local history. "There are some things we will never understand about humans," she says with a shake of her head.
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"To be fair, Ms. Uthe, I don't think you're alone in that regard." Jazadi says as gathers up her whip. "Even I don't quite understand humans sometimes."
Ammon shrugs at Uthe's condemnation. "I'd say it's easy for us now to judge. These people lived in an era of sudden and extreme prosperity. Who is to say it wasn't divine intervention that brought them to it, personified by the local cat diety of Luck? Mummification was a very expensive thing to do, well beyond that of a common man. That these cats received it was the greatest honor the Osiriani felt they could give them, I imagine."
Curious, he then decides to ask something that had been on his mind for a while. "By the way, Uthe, why do you always refer to yourself as 'we'? There is only one of you, isn't there?"
Dhakira, who had been too reserved to ask the question herself to Uthe, waits discretly for the answer, intrigued.
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Curious, he then decides to ask something that had been on his mind for a while. "By the way, Uthe, why do you always refer to yourself as 'we'? There is only one of you, isn't there?"
"Learning Taldane is ... difficult at times," Uthe replies. "You borrow so many different words and structures from elvish, dwarvish, sylvan, and even gnomish. In our native tongue, the ... how are they called? Pronouns? They are structured differently. When you refer to a single person or a group of people you use the pronoun, 'You'. Where we would refer to a single person as 'Ta' if they were male and 'Tan' if they were female. A group of people would be addressed as 'Tasa'. Whereas referring to oneself as singular or as a group would be the same, 'Tha'."
She shakes her head.
"And saying 'I' when referring to oneself is ..." She smirks. "The word 'I' sounds too much like 'Aie' which in our native tongue is a rude term for the female genitals. We've heard the Taldane equivalent, but we won't repeat it."
A quiet chuckles follows.
"So we prefer to use the other ... pronoun when referring to ourselves. Are they that different that it's confusing?"