So, yeah, it's 2022, and this forum thread is pretty dead, but ... a couple questions if anyone's still out there.
1) What's up with the trap on the front entrance to the Sightless Sphinx? The text says, "Fort DC 23 for 3d6 points of damage, 1d4 points of Strength damage, and stunned for 1 round." The DM text, however, says "DC 23 Fortitude save or die of fright."
Is the damage listed in the stat block for the trap what happens if you SUCCEED on the saving throw? 'Cuz ... YIKES.
2) I can't figure out what the Sightless Sphinx is supposed to look like. It's described as a "seated sphinx." The aerial view on the map shows its body to be considerable shortened, as if it's sitting down. BUT ... the front limbs are pretty clearly extended forward in the classic reclining sphinx pose. Are they supposed to be angled down, as if the sphinx is sitting back on its haunches like a dog?
So, yeah, it's 2022, and this forum thread is pretty dead, but ... a couple questions if anyone's still out there.
1) What's up with the trap on the front entrance to the Sightless Sphinx? The text says, "Fort DC 23 for 3d6 points of damage, 1d4 points of Strength damage, and stunned for 1 round." The DM text, however, says "DC 23 Fortitude save or die of fright."
Is the damage listed in the stat block for the trap what happens if you SUCCEED on the saving throw? 'Cuz ... YIKES.
2) I can't figure out what the Sightless Sphinx is supposed to look like. It's described as a "seated sphinx." The aerial view on the map shows its body to be considerable shortened, as if it's sitting down. BUT ... the front limbs are pretty clearly extended forward in the classic reclining sphinx pose. Are they supposed to be angled down, as if the sphinx is sitting back on its haunches like a dog?
Re #1, it's a trap based on the spell weird; the text of the spell makes it clear how it's supposed to work. Creatures first get a Will save to disbelieve. If they fail that, they then get a Fortitude save: on a fail, they die; otherwise they take the damage you note.
Re #2 at least, there's a picture on p4 of the AP - a very uprightly seated sphinx, with a large chunk of its front left forepaw damaged.
Hakotep's ba is still in his body, which is still in his tomb. Serethet has the body of Chisisek so would be able to find out from him the same information the PCs can and head to the Slave Trenches.
So if the group DOES survive this they'll have to chase after Serethet and her cult, which will lead them to the Slave Trenches, they can have a stand-off somewhere in or near them, and the game can progress as normal. Or maybe Serethet has taken control of the Five Pointed Sun pyramid and attacks Wati (or just the PCs as they're searching for her, or she's taken control of it and is camped out near the Slave Trenches) so that she's the final boss of the pyramid instead of Isatemkhebet... Or the PCs have to fight both at different points in the pyramid...
If the group doesn't make it and they want to continue the story, the Five Star Pyramid attacks Wati, allies or other people from Wati storm the pyramid, Serethet is in the pyramid somewhere so that the new PCs can find out what's going on, and the story continues. (If some of the group want to play their original PCs they can likely get the location of the bodies out of Serethet so that they can bring them back to life.)
Or something like that.
(It's been a few years, and I've run a few other APs since Mummy's Mask so the details are a little fuzzy about some parts of it. Change things as needed to suit your plans / suit what works best for the story.)
I could be wrong but the Five Star Pyramid (and the other ones as well, it's just that the Five Star was closest) only became active because Hakotep woke up due to getting his ib from the heart back when Serethet died... The ib makes Serethet be possessed by Hakotep, right? So she knows about the other pyramids but they're inactive (otherwise why haven't they done anything for the past few thousand years? I don't remember if the books say that they're inactive or what their deal is.)
Serethet has to go to the Slaves Trenches to activate a pyramid and since the Five Star Pyramid is the closest that's the one she gets. (There's that place with the combination wall thingie, she knows the code to get the Five Star). The PCs chase her there shortly after she's taken off in the pyramid (but it hasn't left the area) so they have to fight her first and then go through the Slaves Trenches to call down Hakoteps. (Or new PCs in Wati, Serethet calls down the Five Star and attacks Wati as a 'screw you' to the PCs.)
My players recently finished book 4, defeating the Forgotten Pharaoh. They have elected to bring Serethet back to life.
It's great that the adventure has advice for exactly what to do in this case. "However, her actions have left her bereft of her connection to her god, and she remains an ex-cleric. A quest of atonement, likely involving the recovery of ancient knowledge from a dangerous area, is required for Serethet to regain her clerical abilities."
My question about that is: why? What's the offense? Nethys "remains neutral for the most part, unless his powers of omnipresent knowledge reveal he is being betrayed or threatened. He particularly allies with those requiring the use of magic, regardless of nefarious or benevolent cause." He is "torn between saving the world with one hand and destroying it with the other". His only edict is "Seek out magical power and use it".
It seems like Serethet, and the Forgotten Pharaoh for that matter, was being fully on Nethys brand when she recovered the heart and took on new magical powers, regardless of the intent. For what exactly would Serethet need to atone?
I was most struggling with why Nethys would be offended, so I appreciate your notion that the problem could be in her.
I was also thinking it could be a Nethys clergy political issue. They can turn her abilities back on (so to speak), but someone's jealousy, or backroom trade of favors, or some other concern has them stalling or keeping her in her place.
Thank you for your reply.
Now I'm completely at a loss for what to do next. The aforementioned captured, bound, gagged, nude, and now cursed with -4 on d20's, -6 wis, -6 cha and -6 con Forgotten Pharoah is on her way to a fate worse (for me) than death. So, after some Divination casts on the way back to Ipeq and then Tephu to ruin economies with half a million gp worth of loot, the party is afraid that if they kill the FP, that the lost Ib will go find the Ba and the whole FP cult problem isn't solved at all.
Anyway, I'm looking for any good ideas for means to get her dead to make book 5 happen. Right now, it looks like a total resource splurge on the part of the Blue Feather to kill the abomination known as the FP, damn the consequences. Since the party is going to have to goto Tephu to try to commission a casting or a scroll of Trap the Soul or Imprisonment, Ol' Haty-a Deku and company can come out of the woodworks with a bit better cadre of assassins who don't care about the party at all.
Anybody have any better / more creative ideas?
I know it's a few years late, but one answer is to simply run Book 5 and 6 without Hakotep. Instead, it is his queen Neferuset who awakens and looks at the camera, saying "fine, I'll do it myself" as she grabs the Infinity Gauntlet.
Arguably, Neferuset is just as big a villain as Hakotep, and she is involved with forces far worse than just undead. She is an Oracle of the Dark Tapestry, she commands eldritch abominations, she was intimately involved with the construction of the Khepsutanem and interrogation of Shory prisoners, and she was responsible for a lot of the horrors that the players later find in the pyramids. If Hakotep is comatose in a demiplane or something, then just buff her up to a level that would rival him and make her the Final Boss instead. Maybe add a few more Aberrations from the Dark Tapestry to pad the pyramid out, and instead of Hakotep's servants rising as undead because his Ib is back with his Ba, have it be that Neferuset herself is raising them using some eldritch power. If you've seeded some of the hints at Dark Tapestry involvement that Osirion has, you could even make her being the endgame boss seem like a natural progression. Make her the one pulling Hakotep's strings - Set is silent to him if he appeals to him for aid, but perhaps that's not just because he's abandoning him, but because Hakotep has been manipulated by Neferuset's dark patrons all his life and didn't even know it?
Now the Pyramid of the Five-Pointed Sun isn't just trying to get the PCs because they messed with his plans, or because he wants some new undead generals, they're trying to get Hakotep's Ib and Ka back so that they can raise their Pharaoh, and are willing to hold an entire city hostage to get it. Maybe have the other pyramids in reserve, rather than attacking Osirion's other cities, because Neferuset only has enough power to deploy one of the flying pyramids. If the PCs give in, then you have your final boss back and the other pyramids descend to attack. If they continue to contain Serethet, they'll still need to hunt down Neferuset to stop more undead coming after her. You just have to bump Neferuset up to an equivalent CR and run the final battle as written but with her instead.