Diorio attempts to skewer the critter that is trying to make a meal out of my blue friend.
With an expert thrust, worthy of his deceased maestro, Diorio skewers the arachnid attached to Sobekhotep’s forearm. The thing convulses, then drops to the stone floor, releasing the stoic wizard.
"Ah, blood!" the tiny grippli chirps. When Sobek swings open the doors, Lueck charges the nears one with his axe!
To hit , Damage .
Orange: 5 dmg
Lueck strides forth and lands a solid blow againt the arachnid. He can feel the exaltation of his goddess as the bronze axe draws blood.
The last arachnid scurries out from behind the pillar and both surviving vermin launch ferocious attacks on Lueck and Sobek, biting and tearing with their sharp claws.
Sobekhotep gets a nasty bite on the arm, but manages to fend off both claw attacks.
The critter batteling Lueck manages to slip a claw past the grippli's strong defenses and punctures his inner thigh, leaving a thick stream of blood gushing down his leg and onto the stone.
"Go! go!" shouts Seben.
The bird just glares at her lazily before taking to the air, uncertain how the girl will ever learn if he must handle everything for her. He flies high over the battle before sailing down behind one of the strange spider-like creatures.
With his hooked beak, the Sacred Ibis makes a lightning swift jab at one of the softest-looking parts of the beast.
Seeing no ancient chariot to climb into, Seben pulls back on her bow as hard as she can and lets an arrow fly.
Between them, Seben and the Ibis efficiently dispatch their target, leaving just the one Lueck injured.
Indus springs forth and flanks the vermin facing Lueck, trying to dispatch it with a swing of his blade.
Indus moves to a flanking position and scores a significant hit, but not without earning himself a painful bite in the leg for his trouble.
Please check your private messages for a possible nerf-hammer strike against the Ibis
Diorio will balestra lunge at the last critter.
Having clearly found his optimal fencing form, Diorio dispatches the last remaining arachnid with a precise thrust.
Indus keeps his guard up and scans the room after the last bug has been dispatched.
"I'm ok ... it's just a minor wound. Are you all ok?"
Careful examination of the chamber reveals no further dangers, traps or hidden doors.
There is little of value or interest in the chamber, just the stone table and a scattering of tools and jars.
Indus keeps his guard up and scans the room after the last bug has been dispatched.
"I'm ok ... it's just a minor wound. Are you all ok?"
"Just a burn on my forehead, but it's already receding."
Seben relays what happened with the mirror and the apparition of Ahkentepi and cautions the rest of the Brigade against peering into it.
She takes off her cloak, or whatever she has from her explorer's outfit, and throws it over the mirror to try to cover it as best she can. She attempts that without looking directly at it.
She then tries to re-examine the tracks and compares them with the treads of the dead spider-creatures.
"I haven't reached this part of the curriculum yet, I'm afraid..."
Once Upon a Time on an Old Stone Table
Seben follows the tracks into the larger room with the table of stone. She shivers. Was this room somehow colder than the others? Or was it just because she made the mistake of donating her cloak?
“I’m just trying to see if the number of tracks means there might be more of these—”
Seben stops mid-sentence when she spies one of the canopic jars, its unmistakable shape. It reminds her vaguely of…
Wait. That table!
Seben suddenly realizes she’s been on that table. Or perhaps, more accurately, one just like it.
She remembers lying frozen on her back while her mid-section was opened up. Her entrails surgically removed from her stomach with precision and then slowly wound into clay jars in stylized patterns. These same jars.
Her body cavity was replaced with fluids. She remembers the sensation of perpetual drowning, her lung spaces filled with a viscous glue. A feeling that remained for the six years it took for the last of the liquid to finally air dry before the nothingness finally took over.
Then she spots the embalming tools. The ones they used to bore through her head to remove her brain.
It’s too much. The memories flood back too quickly. And then she passes out, her head banging on the side of the table as she falls before finally crumpling to the floor like a rag doll.
Her bird squawks in distress and rushes to her side, fanning her face with its wing.
With a gasp, Seben comes to.
She’s alive. Sensation returning to her body as she fights to get to her feet. Warm blood. A beating heart.
No, not really. She realizes, as she takes a knee, that the truth is now more stark than ever. Alive is just something she’s been pretending to be.
Seben is as dead as Ahkentepi.
|
Sobekhotep bows his head, and offers a simply prayer to Anubis, the Lord of Mummification.
"This is an important place. A preparation chamber, where the bodies of those interred here underwent the final stages of the mummification process."
Giving the central block a long, lingering look, he sighed.
"Well then. I guess we now only have one door to check behind..."
After thoroughly inspecting the western door for traps, he opens it.
While Seben is being a Drama Lama in the preperation room, Sobekhotep examines the western doors in the mirror chamber. He finds no traps.
Through the half-open door, he can make out a stairway leading down.
With a gasp, Seben comes to.
Diorio rushes to Seben's side.
"Are you OK? Looks like you fainted there. Here, take a drink and let's look at that head.
Indus also comes to the 'young' woman's side, worry on his face. "You look like you've seen a ghost. Are you injured?"
Seben accepts help from Diorio and Indus as she finds her footing once more.
"I... I think I'm fine," she says. "Must have been that stupid mirror."
She takes the drink from Diorio and passes him back his wineskin. "I guess I just kinda lost it for a second there."
Then she becomes embarrassed: Sobek, Indus and Luek were the ones injured in the battle, and Seben is the one getting sympathy.
". . . Wait, where is Sobek?"
"He must have gone ahead without us. That's really not smart from someone as smart as he is," Indus says with a sigh, then heads off to catch up to the wizard.
Initiative:
You push open the doors and find a flight of stairs gradually decend to the west down a passage. Halfway down the stairs, small holes and burrowed tunnels riddle what remains of the passage's southern wall. You suspect this is how the solifugids have entered the tomb complex.
Earth and sand have spilled over the collapsed masonry, covering the stairs with dirt and rubble. Stone doors engraved with a golden scarab stand at either end of the stairs.
As you move furter down the stairs, examining everything with your usual meticulous care, you are surprised by sudden movement in the pile of sand covering the stair.
Too late, you realize that the sand is actually alive as it rises up into a large snakelike creature. It lunges forward and sinks massive fangs into you chest, leaving you close to the end of yet another lifetime.
Just as you realize that Sobekhotep has gone on ahead, you hear a rasping sound, like sand poured over stone, from beyond the western doors which now stand open. A moment later, a sharp thud of sand striking flesh echoes through the tomb.
You push open the doors and find a flight of stairs gradually decend to the west down a passage. Halfway down the stairs, small holes and burrowed tunnels riddle what remains of the passage's southern wall. You suspect this is how the solifugids have entered the tomb complex.
Earth and sand have spilled over the collapsed masonry, covering the stairs with dirt and rubble. Stone doors engraved with a golden scarab stand at either end of the stairs.
A a large snakelike creature that appears to be made of sand is swaying at the center of the stairs, fresh blood staining massive fangs. Sobekhotep is standing at the top of the stair, looking pale beneath the blue skin, a massive wound on his chest.
Indus sets into a run at the sound, hoping he's not too late.
Seeing the huge sand-like worm, he tries to roll under its maw and strikes at its body.
The creature is a sandling, a type of elemental creature of loose earth and sand. It is resistant to cuts and stabs, but can be smashed apart. It is also vulnerable to water, which severly hampers it’s movements.
"Careful, everyone," Indus yells. "It is a kind of sand spirit. Blades have little effect on it, but water will slow it down."
In a remarkable display of nimble moves, Indus dodges under the creature’s reach and slashes at it. Most of his cut just whirls up loose sand, but the sandling does recoil in pain.
Seben does her best to shake off her fog and races after Indus, refusing to look at Ahkentepi's mirror as she passes by.
"Hang on, Sobek! We're coming!"
"Careful, everyone," Indus yells. "It is a kind of sand spirit. Blades have little effect on it, but water will slow it down."
.
"Alright!" she says, "I'll give it a try!"Seben holds out her hand and conjures a darkened cloud atop the serpent of sand. With a twist of her wrist, the cloud has a sudden downpour, dumping its contents of rain water.
Soaring high, the Sacred Ibis joins the fray.
Flying over top of Seben in the doorway, the creature spreads its wings and darts overtop the sand serpent.
The sandling snakes out of the way of the downpour. It manages to avoid some of the water, but not all.
[Retcon]
"Squaaak!"
Realizing suddenly that Sobek is in rather dire jeopardy, he moves towards him. When he is unable to reach Sobek, he murmurs a prayer to to Sekhmet and sends his long tongue out at the wizard. The tongue splats against Sobek's back for just an instant before retracting.