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"It is an ubashki swarm! Be wary, for they are undead, and a swarm of them will be difficult to combat. And try not to get too close, they are carriers of disease."
Ishia draws her crossbow and fires a shot at the mummy, but her bolt is not even close.
Ishia fires another bolt, missing again. Her eagle attacks again, landing a single blow before winking back out of existence.
The eagle continues to fight the vargouille, successfully striking this time. Ishia fires another crossbow bolt; it misses.
Ishia finishes her spell, and a golden eagle appears next to the vargouille, attacking with its claws and beak but missing completely. Ishia draws her crossbow and fires at the vargouille, but her shot goes wide as well.
"They are vargouilles. They will attempt to bite your face--this will transform you into one of them, be wary! Their shrieks will freeze you in your place, and their fangs are poisonous as well!" says Ishia. She then begins to chant, in preparation for casting a spell to summon a monster to aid them.
"I need a moment to rest and prepare another spell," says Ishia.
Ishia fires another burst of energy at skull, but misses again.
Ishia points at one of the skulls [/ooc]pink one[/ooc] and beam of positive energy shoots out from her finger; unfortunately, the bolt misses by a mile, and Ishia curses under her breath.
Ishia walks to the sound of the dwarf being attacked.
"Creature! Tell us what lies in this tomb, and we will not harm you," shouts Ishia from her hiding place in the other room.
Ishia recognizes the new creature--a doru div! She steels her resolve as Say'ri finishes off the sandman, reaching further into the ether to summon a greater creature to aid them. From the gate, there appears a few points of multicolored light, almost like a constellation--she can see the slim outline of cat against the darkness, before it blinks out--but she knows the creature is still there, ready to aid her. "It is a doru div!" shouts Ishia as her spell finishes. "Be wary--its words are woven with magic, and only holy weapons or cold iron will harm it!" With most of her magic depleted, Ishia hobbles out of the room, hoping that her elemental will be able to handle the div--or at least, make it easier for the others to deal with. Wherever the creature is, it bends the space around the div, dragging it downwards, towards her allies waiting weapons.
While the sandman's blow nearly fells her, Ishia again resists the magical sleep and is able to hold her concentration on the spell.
The blow hurts, but Ishia shrugs off the magical sleep with ease. Terran:
"Very well. I know a few djinn who might be interested in using your body for--well, I suppose telling you would be spoiling the fun, wouldn't it?" Even as she mocks the creature Ishia steps back behind Ibrahim before she begins to recite from her scroll, calling upon the powers of the Great Beyond to aid her.
For a moment Ishia feels herself begin to grow sleepy--but she is able to shake off the sensation even as Say'ri and Ibrahim collapse behind her and the sandwoman transforms into a monstrous shape. She steps over the fallen body of Say'ri, attempting to distance herself from the sandman as much as possible. Terran:
"You are making a mistake. I am a powerful conjurer and if you do not cease your attack I will summon a great spirit of the air to destroy you and scatter your body to the wind," she says, speaking in the rough language of creatures of stone. An elemental, she hopes, would respond to the language of power if nothing else. "I will give you this last opportunity to make amends before being destroyed." As she speaks, her voice changes from rough and gravely to soft and light, and she begins to move her hands as if she is beginning to cast a spell. Auran:
"Please let this creature think I can summon an air elemental. Thunder! Lightning! Airy things! Blow the dust away!"
"Oh, come now. The creature may very well be a servant of Anubis. And after our previous encounters we need all the help that we can get. The spirit wishes to see the unclean spirits driven from this home; would not Anubis desire exactly the same?" says Ishia to the dwarf.
"It wishes to know how we came to this place. And it wishes to bless us; to aid in exterminating the undead here, I assume," says Ishia. Terran: "Thank you, kind spirit. We will cleanse your home of these unclean forces. We came here through the front gate, were we have already fought many foul creatures. Tell me, where you the voice who sought to assist my companion? Was it your power that held the undead at bay?"
It is the spirit of this house," says Ishia, looking back at the dwarf. "It's probably distressed by how its home has been polluted by the undead. It may have been the source of the voice that Mirri heard--perhaps that is why the skeletons behaved so strangely. So long as we are properly respectful, it should do us no harm."
As Say'ri goes deeper into the mansion without the rest of the party, Ishia hears the voice of the house spirit speak out to them. Unsure if Ibrahim's holy water had destroyed the haunt yet, she fires another blast of energy at were Ibrahim had struck before chasing behind Say'ri.
When she reaches Say'ri, she still stays relatively behind her before speaking to the woman made of sand. Terran: "And greetings to you, spirit of the House of Pentheru. I am Ishia of the Sands; me and my companions mean you no harm; we have simply come to clear your home of the foul spirits despoiling it. We will not disturb you or your ward here."
Ishia manuevers herself closer to the skeletons before unleashing a blast of white energy at one of them
"Ah, I see. The spirit must have stolen my voice. That is unfortunate, as I require it for my spells. Fear not, though! Perhaps it has only stolen the Taldane from my tongue," she says; her next words are entirely in Osirion, and she speaks them as she intercedes herself between the halfling and the two women. Osirion: "The skeletons that Mirri befriended seem to be working under some sort of command; they have not attempted to storm the door--which is extraordinarily lucky for us, I might add; they easily could have overwhelmed us. I have a spell prepared that can disrupt the magical energy that holds the undead together; I imagine that Petra does as well. However, I must urge caution; we do not know the source of Mirri's voice, and though I hope none of us will be so foolish as to follow its words again, it could be a grave danger. We could open the door and snipe at the skeletons from outside; given their behavior before, they might not even attack us. And even if they do, they would have to come to us, not vice versa--this way we would not risk disturbing more creatures inside the mansion."
"Say'ri--I suggest in the future you keep your pet on a tighter leash. And perhaps we can all reconsider chasing after phantasms or trusting the voices in our heads, yes?" says Ishia, dusting off her robes. "Upon entering this place, we were immediately accosted by a haunt. There are assuredly more poweful spectres within this place--it is a tomb, but not a purposeful one--the spirits we find will be angry and confused; do not expect friendly ghosts like Akhentepi. You cannot trust your senses here--though why you would trust a voice in your head over me in the first place is another question I don't care to have answered."
Ishia moans audibly as Mirri disappears into the mansion. Hopefully they would not be immediately beset by whatever creatures lied in wait within--in the mean time, she prayed to whatever gods were listening that her next strike would finally end the surprisingly resilient centipede.
"I would advise against that!" says Ishia, stepping further away from the centipede, the sting of its tail still fresh in her mind. "The likelihood that anything speaking to you from inside the house is an ally is considerably low." Ishia considered her options; her grease spell could slow the creature down and perhaps by them a bit of time to finish off the monster; but the thing was wounded and she could perhaps end its life herself with her acid. She looked to the collapse body of Say'ri, who she had hoped would be able to kill the creature once aided by her magic; that had been her best option and now it was gone. Gritting her teeth, Ishia launches another blast of acid at the centipede, hoping that her magic would strike true.
As Ishia continues to chant, she reaches into her pouch and produces a pinch of powder which she sprinkles in her hand. She brings her hand up to her face and blows the powder in the direction of Say'ri; as it settles on her skin, Say'ri begins to grow, doubling in size over the course of an instant. Her spell completed, Ishia steps back before launching a dart of acid at the approaching vermin.
With a sigh, Ishia follows after the rest of the party; she is less than surprised when they are confronted not by whatever it is Say'ri saw, but a gigantic centipede. She does not attempt to climb the wall, but instead begins to chant, her eyes fixated on Say'ri while she does.
"What is it?" says Ishia as the others follow after Say'ri. "Whatever it is you saw, I suggest that we proceed with caution. We were immediately accosted by a haunt upon entering this place, and succeeded in alerting all the inhabitants of the courtyard to our presence. It is likely that whatever dwells inside knows of our presence as well."
"Stand back!" says Ishia, stepping to the side before launching a blast of acid at the swarm of scarabs.
The eagle continues to attack the skeleton but its blows are ineffectual; the undead's lack of flesh makes claws and beak useless, and the eagle fades back into the Great Beyond. But Ishia is now in range of the creature, and she fires a bolt of acid at it--and bone dissolves just as easily as flesh, it seems.
With the death dog killed, Ishia and her eagle move towards the commotion--and sees a single skeleton assaulting Ibrahim. Her eagle shrieks and attacks the creature, but fails to land a blow, and Ishia is still too far away to attempt an attack on her own.
As Ishia finishes her incantation, the sun seems to shine brighter--just for a moment, and then from a beam of light a creature appears--a falcon, with wings like the sun, a bird that looks as if it had come straight from a heiroglyph. The falcon screeches and attacks the two headed dog, beating at it furiously with its claws and beak.
As the bird attacks, Ishia fires another dart of acid at the beast; the bolt sizzles as it hits against the dog's skin.
"A death dog. Be wary, its bite is pestilent--you wouldn't happen to speak goblin, would you?" says Ishia as the two headed dog approaches. "I suppose if we run into every creature inhabiting this place all at once, it will make this excursion shorter." "Keep the creature distracted. I have a plan." Ishia closes her eyes and begins to chant, raising up her arms as arcane energy flows through her body. Ancient Osirion:
[b]"Celestial Horus, Patron of Osirion, I beseech thee, turn your eye upon us!
Ishia sees the snake attempt to bite Ibrahim and summons up a dart of acid to fire at the serpent--but does not strike until after he is clear of her shot.
With the haunt inactive, Ishia follows after her fleeing companions. She thinks about shouting after them, but the fear they are feeling is likely magical in nature; her warnings would fall on deaf ears--and besides, she doesn't want to give away their location any further than it has been already. With a sigh, she follows after Say'ri and Ibrahim--the closed gate does not seem to impose any impediment to them--hopefully the courtyard is uninhabited. Of course, it is not. Ishia stops in her tracks when she sees the snake, standing beside Mirri. She almost wishes it was an undead creature--she would know what to do about that, but she had never had much interest in the more natural creatures of the world.
Ishia jumps at the sound of the rattling of the gates and the call in Ancient Osirion--at first she fears that it is the undead--but then she realizes that is unlikely. This is no zombie horde pounding at the door. And Ishia is not afraid of any phantasm. "It is only an illusion!" calls out Ishia, but she realizes this will be unlikely to stop the others from fleeing. Gritting her teeth, she steels herself against the terror and points her finger in the direction of the door. A bolt of white energy bursts forth from her hand, firing in towards the rattling gate.
In the morning, before meeting with the others, Ishia carefully scribes another scroll of Summon Monster, before preparing her spells for the day. "I would prefer to simply enter the front door. Scaling the wall might give us a better vantage point, but it also might give us away to anything lurking inside. I am willing to rely on Akhentepi's sense of any immediate danger." says Ishia after Say'ri's familiar goes flying over the wall.
I vote house of Pentheru
Ishia pays the man before saying goodbye to the others and returning home.
Focused on the sword, Ishia is completely oblivious to anything unusual about Marnn's reaction. Regardless, an idea has begun to form in her head with regards to the magical trinket. "Well, it is magical, I'll give you that. But beyond its resistance to corrosion, I see no evidence of other magical properties. I'm not sure that you are the one in danger of being swindled, my friend. Still, I would be willing to pay you to hold onto it for us until we have the funds to purchase it--how many coins would you like?"
"It is unfortunate that the priestess is being so stubborn. I will do my best to try to convince her," says Ishia, before thanking the woman and seeing what her companions are up to. Passing by Ibrahim and the halfling, she sees the sword he is peddling as magical--and there are easy ways for her to confirm that it is, of course. . Assuming that it is magical, she asks to see the sword, to confirm its properties.
As the day is growing late, Ishia says farewell to the rest of the party and returns to her home.
"I know not why the priesthood of Pharasma has chosen this method of selection," says Ishia, pretending not to notice Velriana's hand. She considers what Velriana has said--however blunt she was being, she did have a good point. A temple of Nethys was almost certain to house magical power beyond what was typical "I understand your frustration. Perhaps, if a team other than your own is selected to explore the Eye, they will be willing to switch tombs with you, or explore under your guidance. And of course, there is always the possibility that your team will be assigned the tomb regardless. We are all bound to the will of Ma'at," continues Ishia. "Regardless, I share your concern. After tomorrow's exploration, I will speak to the priestess as well--perhaps she will be more receptive hearing it from a local."
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