When the Ruby Scarabs had finished off all the opponents found within Chisisek's tomb and eliminated the serpent lamia named Jamirah, they settled down to rest and divide up the spoils they had acquired from their fallen enemies. Most of the items they had found were not things anyone wanted for themselves, but Sula took a pair of goggles that could grant her sharper sight. Uto also took some potions and a wand, and Azzaria accepted an amulet.
Azzaria then began trying to free the imprisoned sphinx from behind the amber barrier. She first attempted to smash it with her adamantine flail, then tried to push the sphinx out. Uto suddenly realized that Azzaria seemed to have lost all common sense. She should have been aware that the sphinx was held captive by a powerful spell that couldn't be overcome by strength. He realized that something the lamia sisters had done to her had taken away her sense. He called Azzaria over to his side and cast a spell on her to remove the effect that had robbed her of her wisdom.
The Scarabs remained at the tomb overnight, planning for Uto to cast a spell to free the sphinx the next day. When he cast the spell, the scroll clutched in her paw crumbled to dust. The sphinx spoke in her own tongue, which only Uto and Kaa could understand, exclaiming that the scroll was trapped. Then she looked around in confusion. Uto then introduced the Scarabs and explained to her what had happened while she was trapped. When he told her that Chisisek's body had been taken, she slumped in great disappointment. The sphinx, who introduced herself as Tetisura, explained that she had been guardian of the tomb all her life, as had her mother before her. She told the Scarabs that she had overheard the cultists talking and that she believed their base of operations lay somewhere to the north among the Parched Dunes in a place called the Sightless Sphinx. Then she cast a spell on herself to heal some of the wounds she still had despite Uto's efforts to heal her on the previous day. When she cast the spell, Sula realized that she spoke the secret language of the druids.
After Tetisura cast the spell on herself, Uto also cast several healing spells on her to help her futher. Tetisura then expressed a desire to check on the condition of the valley. The cave with a spring the party had found was her home. After she had toured the valley and the Scarabs had told her a little about their fight with the cultists and Jamirah, the group decided that they should seek out the Sightless Sphinx to find both Chisisek's body and the stolen thriae queen larva. Tetisura indicated that she would go with them.
On the following day the group set out in search of the Sightless Sphinx. Sula armed them with her usual complement of spells to protect them from the heat and disguise their tracks. As the Ruby Scarabs and their new companion made their way across the smooth dunes, they caught a glimpse of movement ahead. Coming over the peak of a dune showed them a strange sight: the corpse of a scorpion-man, in the process of being consumed by a man-like wasted creature with unusually long legs. None of them recognized what manner of creature was eating the corpse, but it appeared to be some variety of undead, which was immediate cause to attack it. Kaa began the assault with a blast of flames. The creature responded by leaping high into the air on its powerful legs and producing a bow that appeared to be made of bone. It had no arrows nor a quiver, but when it drew back the string an arrow of bone appeared and hurtled toward Kaa, who knocked it aside with his hand.
When Uto and Sula saw that Kaa's flames seemed to harm it, they both rained divine fire from the sky upon the creature. Then Azzaria flew toward the thing, roaring in fury and surrounding herself with many images of herself to defend her. The creature howled, leaving Azzaria shaken. Uto ran across the dunes to make sure that the scorpion-man was truly dead and not an undead thing. Then Azzaria struck the undead creature and its skull crushed like a eggshell.
Kaa picked up the creature's bone bow and Sula told him that it was enchanted. The Scarabs also found that the corpse of the scorpion-man carried a magic whip, as well as two magic arrows. But the bow and amulet they found were not magical. The Scarabs recalled that they had heard the scorpion-men buried their dead in the sand and covered them with a stone inscribed with a special rune. There were no stones in the vicinity and they were too far from where they had last met any scorpion-folk to transport the body there. Then Uto realized the wand he had just acquired to shape the sand into a stone slab, which Kaa then engraved the rune on.
But before the group buried the scorpion-man, Uto took out his effigy of Anubis and inserted it inside the corpse. When it was in place he asked the scorpion-man's spirit six questions: his name, if he was of the same clan as the other scorpion-folk they had met previously, did he guard a sacred site, what sacred site his people guarded, and if he would give permission for Uto to speak for him as a Speaker of the Past. The dead scorpion-man replied that is name was Dakuri, that his people were not related to the other clan which was unknown to him, and that they had guarded a sacred site but it had been taken over by an enemy. But he was unable to say precisely where the site lay. Uto surmised that if the site was protected by magic to prevent divination, that might be what prevented the spirit from giving the location. Dakuri's spirit also indicated that he didn't know what a Speaker for the Past was, but he didn't refuse to allow Uto to speak for him.
After Uto removed the effigy and let the spirit rest, the rest of the group covered the body in sand and laid the stone over it, and Uto then performed the ritual of speaking for the dead. Tetisura watched all of this with an inscrutable expression. When the ritual was finished Uto explained it to her, but her cryptic response gave no indication of whether she disapproved. The Scarabs took Dakuri's amulet in the hope that they would eventually be able to return it to his clan to be passed on to the next generation of his family, as was the custom of his people.
At the end of the day they found no sheltered area to camp in, but Sula made them as comfortable as she could. That night they rested safely, and the following day also passed uneventfully. But on the second day after they found the scorpion-man, the Scarabs spotted evidence of a very large serpent, like the seps that had very nearly killed Nyema a few days earlier. Sula decided to scout out the creature's location and try to draw it away, and Tetisura offered to go with her. The sphinx expressed admiration when Sula was able to transform into a giant eagle, an ability that was apparently beyond the sphinx.
Sula and Tetisura swooped at the seps repeatedly, attracting the enormous snake's attention and encouraging it to follow them until it was far enough away that they felt the rest of their companions would be safe from an encounter with it. But in the process they also attracted the attention of four leonine dragons that were perched on the crest of a dune. These creatures couldn't fly as swiftly as Sula and the sphinx, but they gave chase, and three of them roared. Their roaring wasn't an ordinary beast's cry; Sula felt the strength drain from her and was left deafened for a few minutes, though the deafness at least had passed by the time she returned to where the rest of the Scarabs waited.
Another night in the desert passed and Sula recovered her strength. As the group continued their search for the Sightless Sphinx, they spied a tall black obelisk rising above the dunes. As the Scarabs passed over the crest of a dune they saw before them a rocky slope with what appeared to be a temple cut into it. The temple's gold leaf had flaked off and the steps were cracked, but Sula spotted signs that those steps had recently been swept clean by more than the wind. There were also marks indicative of some type of large serpent, though not as large as the seps they had seen the previous day. The iconography of the temple indicated that it had been dedicated to the goddess Sarenrae, but it had been decommissioned at some time in the past.
The Ruby Scarabs decided to proceed with caution on entering the temple. Sula gave herself armor of bark, and Uto cast several spells on Kaa and Azzaria. Kaa then examined the doors, which curiously were not sealed, locked, or trapped. The doors admitted them to a large pillared chamber covered in frescoes dedicated to Sarenrae, their gold leaf flaking off. In the back of the chamber they suddenly spied an older man, his back to them. "Not thieves, I hope?" he asked as he turned to face them. "Explorers like myself?"
As the Scarabs watched him suspiciously, the man introduced himself as Zaid Faad, proclaiming that he was a well-known and respected explorer specializing in old temples, and that he had claimed this temple for himself. When asked if he was there alone, Faad claimed that his porters had left to obtain supplies, which only aroused more suspicion in the Scarabs as they had seen no sign of anyone else near the temple when they arrived. Faad then began to insist that the Ruby Scarabs couldn't enter the temple for fear they would disturb something, and he demanded that they leave immediately. Uto refused and shifted into his living monolith form, declaring that the Scarabs were searching for something and needed to examine the temple. As soon as he had said this, Faad also transformed, turning into a large serpent with five heads which Kaa recognized as a royal naga.
Next: part 25, Lair of the Serpent King
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