Angered by the sudden assault of both blade and water, the sandling rises up to it’s full 10 ft height and issues a long, hoarse challenge that sounds like a bucket of gravel poured down a stone chute.
Then it comes crashing down on Indus, long fangs sinking into his neck and shoulder. It retracts without letting go, tearing muscle, sinew and veins in a gutwrenching shower of blood.
The brave young archeologist, betrayed by Bes, turns pale as alabaster and tumbles to the floor.
Initiative order
- Lueck, Indus (dying), Seben-en-Ra
- Sand Creature
> Sobekhotep, Diorio
Sobek's spear slides into the serpentine form, but finds limited resistance.
Hearing the commotion and cries of pain and possibly death from his comrades, Diorio rushes into action, weaving past his fellows to stand astride the fallen Indus, flashing his blade in wide arcs to draw the strange creature's attention to him, knowing his own attacks will be all but futile.
"Try your fangs on me!"
"Get Indus out of here!"
Sandling dmg: 7
Despite Diorio’s attempt to ward off the sandling’s attacks, the elemental lands a bite before he can get his defenses up.
He retaliates at once. In another impressing display of swordsmanship, Diorio slices deep into the sandy body, doing significant damage despite the disadvantage of his thin blade.
Seeing Indus go down, Lueck readies his wand. He casts the curative magic it stores. Again, he delivers its magic to Indus with a wet "splurt" from his tongue.
Cure light wounds from his wand, heals , wand has 24 charges remaining.
He retaliates at once. In another impressing display of swordsmanship, Diorio slices deep into the sandy body, doing significant damage despite the disadvantage of his thin blade.
"Hah! So you can be hurt! Be gone, or die the death of a thousand cuts!"
With a groan, Indus gets back to his feet, still hurting from the sandling's blow.
He grasps his sword in two hands and hacks at it, calling on Bes to guide his strike.
This time, the God of Luck shows a much more favorable response. Not only is Indus able to rise unmollested due to Diorio's intervention, his strike also slices a large section of the sand serpent loose.
The sandling thrashes wildly, now obviously badly injured and still slightly hampered by the water from Seben's spell.
Seben looks on in horror as the sand serpent downs Indus... and then he pops right back up again to renew his attack.
Eyes wide in terror, Seben continues to squeeze all the moisture out of the dark cloud she can, sprinkling rain upon the terrifying beast.
Seizing its moment, the Sacred Ibis flies out at the Serpent and darts around its head, trying to distract it with its wings in the tiny rainstorm. Then it swiftly flies back to Seben.
Sandling: 15 dmg
While the Sacred Ibis zips around and distracts the sandling, Seben sends another cascade of water down upon it. It still manages to evade most of it, but combined with the liquid it had soaked up from her last cantrip, it is visibly sluggish.
Neither distraction nor water seems to be able to harness the fury of raw elemental force. With another crushing attack, the sandling smashes aside Diorio's deft parry and tears another serious wound in the swashbuckler.
Initiative order
- Lueck, Indus, Seben-en-Ra
- Sandling (slowed)
> Sobekhotep, Diorio
Absorbing the terrible blow, Diorio's mind refuses to deal with the pain...for now. Time to hurt later. Your enemy will not stop for you to lick your wounds.
Despite both making highly accurate attacks, Sobek and Diorio only manage to dislodge a bit more sand.
Indus starts to edge around the creature to get an advantage, striking at its flank, calling on his arcane skills to enhance his blade.
More sand flies through the dusty tomb stairwell as Indus’ blade slashes through the sandling. It now looks close to unraveling, but is still both alive and dangerous.
With Indus still looking a bit more scruffy than normal, Lueck focuses on him again.
From atop the stairs, Seben sucks in a breath and tries to envision that the creature has some kind of center, some internal point from within where its power is sourced.
...She shoots at that.
The little bird strafes around the sand serpent in tight circles, trying to obstruct its vision and divide the creature's attention.
Once again, the Ibis does its harrasing fly by, and this time the sandling tries to slam it out of the air. The sacred bird is much too nimble to catch, though.
Frustrated, the sandling lashes out at Diorio, but the many injuries seem to have diminished its fighting power, and Diorio easily evades the blow.
Realising the futility in trying to flank a flankless creature, Indus presses the attack again, trying to connect to some kind of 'vital' area.
Neither Sobek nor Indus manage to hit the sandling. Looks like battle fatigue is taking its toll on both sides.
Feeling inspired by the determination and aid of his friends, Diorio keeps up the attack, opting for a banderole cut to maximize damage potential to such an amorphous creature.
With another flawless fencing maneuver, Diorio does indeed maximize the damage done. His banderole cut dislodges another large section of sand, leaving the sandling thrashing in agony.
It is clear that another hit is almost certain to defeat the creature.
Seben cheers when she sees Diorio deliver such a powerful cut.
The Sacred Ibis flies forth once more, swooping in and around the serpent, screeching like a banshee.
The badly injured elemental has no chance of hitting the agile ibis.
With his allies at least on their feet, Lueck gives in to his goddess's bloodlust. Divinely inspired, he drops his axe and pulls his mace. He rushes forward and engages the creature.
Small Heavy Mace to hit , damage
The sandling recoils from the savage charge of the grippli warpriest. Under assault from all sides and struggling to maintain its structural integrity, the elemental sways from side to side, as if trying to decide which of the many pain-inflicting intruders to strike.
With a final coarse and grinding roar of frustration, it receedes slowly backwards down the stairs before it slides up against the tunnel-ridden south wall and burrows into the loose sand, abandoning the defense of its lair.
In the aftermath of the bloody engagement, the entire Smokin' Bask Brigade can almost feel the satisfaction of Sekhmet resonate from Lueck's axe, his holy symbol and the mask you discovered in the other hallway.
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Sobekhotep offers up a brief prayer.
"Thank-you, Lady of Slaughter, for watching over us. Truly, the Gods look after those who look after themselves."
He then channels magic into himself and Diorio.
"This will sting a little, but I promise, you will feel almost as good as new... physically, at least."
Once everyone has healed up , Sobekhotep will cautiously descend the stairs.
"Thank gods, that is over," Indus says and wipes sweat and blood from his forehead.
"Is anyone okay?
Indus digs out a wand of hazel engraved with blue runes, holds it over his deepest wound and intones and incantation. "Corylus avellana maxima!"
With that, his wounds close up, leaving only a faint bruise.
He offers the use of the wand for anyone else injured.
"Thank gods, that is over," Indus says and wipes sweat and blood from his forehead.
Seben's eyes are still wide with adrenaline as she steadies herself to try to catch her breath.
"Is it over!?"
She scans the rubble, looking for signs that the beast might return and attack from another angle.
Diorio checks the tears and holes in his clothing and armor and is glad this engagement is over.
"That was really close. Such a creature is not one for blade work. I sure hope there are not more of those lying in wait."
"It is apparent, that we could use some other weapons in case we encounter other enemies that resist our blades. Should we press on and hopefully clear this tomb, or should we go back to the city to reequip?"
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Sobekhotep shrugs.
"Mummies and constructs will resist arrows, blades, and clubs alike. It would be impossible to account for everything. Some targets simply require the application of additional strength to power through."
He then frowns.
"That said, in the future, back-up weapons like clubs and slings are certainly worth considering."
After a short pause to heal and recover after the perilous encounter with the sandling, the entire group moves through the western doors and further into the tomb of Ahkentepi.
A tapestry hangs from a frame against the south wall of this large chamber; it depicts an otherworldly vista where the souls of the dead, shepherded by strange beings, enter an ethereal river ambling through space toward a landscape dominated by an impossibly tall spire. Columns sculpted in the shape of Osirian warriors wielding khopeshes stand in all four corners of the room.
The floor is tiled in a white spiral pattern on a black background, and this spiral pattern is repeated on the stone double doors to the north, east, and west.
Inscriptions on the north door read: "Ahkentepi" while the west door is marked "Didibastet". The second name also appears in the papyrus mentioning Ahkentepi's mistress.
Seben reads out the names on the doors for the rest of the Bask.
Seben’s study of the documents recovered in the room with the model ship do indeed indicate that Didibastet is the name of Ahkentepi’s mistress. In some sections, she is referred to as a priestess and that her tomb and funeral should reflect her faith and status. However, there is no mention of which deity she served.