GM L, could you set this as inactive? If at some point you have time to restart, though, please PM us.
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I'm sorry to hear that, but I fully understand...RL has to come first, and it sounds like you've got a pretty full plate. Thanks for running, and I also had a great time.
"We should stay put. It hasn't managed to get to us yet, and even if it gets through the door we're still in a better tactical position now."
Marnarius waits, listening.
I'm restricted to posting by phone for the next week or so. AFAIK, the party is staying quiet and letting the phantom hunter go by.
"Let it come to us, whatever it is. Do any of you recognize the voice?"
Marnarius rolls to his feet and prepares to ignite a sunrod, if the door starts to open.
"I think we should camp out in the two connected rooms on the west side. They have a single door--we could get cornered there, but unless we encounter incorporeal undead they can only come at us at a single point."
"Let's go back to the Pyramid of Arithmetic Bliss. Plenty of places there to hole up."
Best of luck, Nuru! That leaves us with four active characters: Marnarius, Nevai, Leto, and Almathea, plus Erei (who hasn't posted in over three months). Even without the bard we've got the main areas covered--divine and arcane magic, an adequate front-line fighter/locksmith, and a lethal ranged attacker. About the only thing Marnarius could really use, if we stick with four, would be a better AC, if he's going to survive tanking while Leto pincushions the enemies. That said, a heavy fighter-type would not be a bad thing, to give Marnarius a flanking buddy when Nevai is occupied. Thoughts?
"You can go back and rest there if you trust them. I don't."
Once out of the lamia lair, Marnarius stifles a yawn. "We've been hard at it for a while. Better we rest for a little and go into this next challenge fresh. Nevai, can Skyblazer carry a message to the Cathedral to let them know what we've found?"
The half-elf silently prepares to move on. I don't like how they're behaving towards that human, but we have a job to do now. We'll get him later, if we can.
Marnarius frowns. "That's closer to the gate than I'd like to be. We'll have to be careful."
"The body we found with the list didn't have a mask, though, so I don't know if we're talking about the same groups of people." Marnarius takes out the map and indicates the line from the only compass the party found. "Did you see them near anything in this area?"
"Golden masks? We've found some people with brass masks...." Marnarius describes the funerary masks taken from some of the party's enemies. "Did they look like that?"
I'm on vacation the next ten days or so, and will be slow to post.
"The plague of undead outside of this place has been steadily growing worse, so just because these 'mortal concerns' have been beneath her before doesn't mean that won't always be the case. Best if we can speak with her soon."
Marnarius looks a little nervously around the room, judging his chances of fighting the lions.
Wary but willing to go along with the others, Marnarius keeps close to the rest of the party.
"I suppose. If they're not part of it they're going to be pretty tough, though, to survive the undead hereabouts."
"I don't feel like getting into it with a bunch of evil lion-centaurs right now. Let's check the next spot."
"Sounds as though
"Eyes on the prize, Leto. Once we have the location of the necromantic energy source plotted and we report that back to the High Priestess, we can go after our phantoms. If we were killed right now, the temple would have no idea what happened to us, and what we've learned so far." The half-elf loosens his kukris in their sheaths. "Now, if we happen across them in our explorations, that's another tale entirely."
"Good idea, but our map doesn't actually have the names of the compass locations. They'll probably be obvious once we're there." The slayer tallies up the map markings. "Hm. That list is partial--it only has half a dozen locations, and we have ten marked. If we're lucky, we can avoid our unseen enemies while we find another compass."
"I have a guess. We're at the Pyramid now, we just came from Menket Maatya's tomb, the first place we searched for a compass was an observatory...I think this is a list of compass locations, and someone is going after them."
"Can any of you figure out that notebook?" While the rest of the party considers, Marnarius unrolls the map again. He stifles a yawn and points to the N. "That's the closest one we haven't checked."
"Careful with the body--see the signs of mummy rot? I'm guessing the mummies downstairs wounded this one. They fled and hid, but the disease eventually weakened them so much they died."
The slayer shrugs. "We'd better search this place thoroughly, and at least find where the compass was."
"Where is the compass?"
"Their latrine pit is dry, but I can still smell it--that tells me that they've been gone at least a few days, but not much longer than that. No bloodstains on their bedrolls, and the camp is still in reasonable order--that tells me there wasn't a fight against anything doing physical damage. If they'd been attacked by wraiths or shadows and turned incorporeal, I'd expect to see weapons, armor, and clothing laying around--none of that." "The timing is consistent with them being here after the lottery, yes."
After pacing around the camp area, the half-elf straightens up. "Four, maybe six people were here for a week or so. They left a little less than a week ago, I think, but it doesn't look like they bugged out in a hurry. I'm going to guess that they found something big enough to make it worth leaving their gear behind."
"Thea, can you or Erei read the notes there?"
"That's odd. Wonder who might be staying here, with mummies and all? Leto, could you cover me?" The slayer makes his way cautiously over to the campsite and examines it carefully for clues.
Marnarius mouths a silent prayer over the fallen undead. "I hope they can go to their judgment now. These are stronger than anything we've seen before, so we'd better find that compass quickly."
Nuru's attack distracts the mummy for a fatal second, as Marnarius slides around the undead foe and unleashes another lethal pair of slashes!
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