As the Ruby Scarabs made their way in the direction Erayu of the maftets had indicated would take them to the Sightless Sphinx, they came across a set of tracks crossing the dunes. Sula examined them and determined they represented two laden sledges being drawn by a pair of large reptiles that walked with a gait similar to a crocodile. The tracks were headed in the same direction as the Scarabs. Sula assumed the shape of a falcon and flew ahead to gather information. She saw that there were indeed two sledges loaded with supplies, hauled by a pair of large reptiles she didn't recognize. But she did recognize the gilded masks worn by the four people who accompanied the lizards. She circled over the sledges to see as much as she could before returning to her friends. In addition to an assortment of crates, boxes, and jars that probably held water, her sharp sight was attracted by a small golden cage on the front sledge. Inside the cage was a tiny metal figurine in the likeness of the jackal-headed Osirian god Anubis. But to her surprise, the figurine was moving, like the tiny people she and her comrades had encountered in the tomb of Akhan-tepi in Wati's Necropolis. Before she flew back to the others, she also noted that the rear sledge held a sarcophagus. Could it be the stolen sarcophagus of Chisisek?
When Sula rejoined the other Scarabs she told them everything she had seen, including the sarcophagus and the tiny cage. The masks the people had worn meant they were members of the Cult of the Forgotten Pharaoh. That made it simple for the Scarabs to decide to attack them and prevent the other cultists from gaining whatever supplies the sledges carried. Because the sledges were avoiding the ridges of the dunes and couldn't move quickly, it wouldn't be difficult for the Scarabs to get ahead of them and carry out an ambush. After discussing the possibility of making a two-pronged attack with Uto and his bronze sentinel bringing up the rear, they decided they would all attack from the front.
They positioned themselves at a point where the sledge drivers would have to decide whether to go right or left to remain below the tops of the dunes. Sula prepared Nyema for battle by armoring her with bark and casting a spell on her claws that would cause anyone wounded by them to bleed profusely. Sula herself abandoned her falcon form and resumed her natural shape. As the cultists approached the place where the Ruby Scarabs awaited them, they called out to the Scarabs to stop. Kaa stepped forward and asked them to allow the Scarabs to look inside the sarcophagus, but the cultists responded by calling the Scarabs bandits. Azzaria surrounded herself with six duplicates of herself, leading one of the cultists to fire his bow at her. Another cultist freed the reptiles from their traces and one of the beasts moved toward her.
The bronze sentinel suddenly appeared from between the dunes, flying over to land behind Azzaria. Uto spoke from within it, telling the cultists that it wasn't necessary to fight, but they didn't listen. Kaa sent a bolt of lightning at one cultist, and Sula followed with a lightning bolt of her own. Behind the rear sledge, a magical portal unexpectedly appeared, disgorging a man-like figure with the head of a jackal like the figurine of Anubis in the cage - but this being's head was not a mask. This jackal-headed person let out a howl as he arrived. The cultist nearest to him turned and fired on him.
Azzaria snarled in rage and her body became difficult to see and began to move with greater alacrity. The lizard that had moved toward her attacked the bronze sentinel instead. Uto used the sentinel's controls to have it strike the lizard with its fist. Meanwhile Kaa dispatched the second reptile. The remaining lizard grabbed the sentinel in its teeth and began to shake it, but because it wasn't actually biting Uto, this didn't disrupt his spellcasting as much as it might have. Nyema charged one of the cultists who stood by the front sledge and began to maul him. A blast of electricity shot from the direction of the jackal-headed person to strike the cultist Nyema attacked, forking to avoid the lioness. The cultist who had fired on the jackal-man charged toward him. The tiny Anubis figure began to bite the cage in an effort to get free of it.
Azzaria and Kaa flanked the cultist nearest to the sentinel. The cultist shouted at the lizard to drop the bronze construct and attack Kaa instead. Uto summoned lightning to strike the man twice, and when Kaa also brought electricity to bear on the reptile it released its jaws from the sentinel. Nyema continued to savage the man she had charged while Sula hit one of the other cultists with lightning and moved closer. Uto slammed the sentinel's hands down on the lizard. Tetisurah, who had hung back, now moved to cast a healing spell on Kaa, who had taken some serious wounds from the cultists. The tiny Anubis broke free of the cage.
Azzaria looked toward Sula and called out to her that since the jackal-man appeared not to be an enemy perhaps she should help him. The cultist who was directing the remaining lizard shouted desperately for it to finish off the bronze sentinel, but the lizard was too wounded. While Azzaria ran toward the jackal-man, Uto slammed the lizard again and told Kaa to hit the cultist. The lizard fell over. Tetisurah cast another healing spell on Kaa, then flew back to the sledge that held the sarcophagus.
Abruptly the jackal-man appeared next to the first sledge, and the cultist who had been attacking him found himself facing the tiny Anubis. He was even more surprised when it stabbed him with a tiny spear it had retrieved from one of the chests on the sledge. He turned and moved toward the approaching Azzaria, who was accompanied by her three remaining duplicates. When the cultist attacked her another image vanished. The cultist Nyema had mauled collapsed in a pool of blood. The man facing Azzaria suddenly cried out and exploded in a burst of fire. Now only a single cultist remained on his feet. Kaa tried to grapple him but failed to achieve a hold. Sula ran up with her spearhead crackling with electricity to stab the masked man. Kaa grabbed him, and Uto brought the sentinel's heavy bronze hand down on him. Azzaria then ran up to hit the man and he too died in an explosion of flames.
With the cultists all dead, Uto channeled divine healing to his companions and extended it to include the jackal-man. Azzaria was the first to introduce herself to him. The jackal-headed man told the Ruby Scarabs that his name was Hutt, of the Fang clan of rougarou people, who were all like him. The cultists had slain all of his comrades and stolen his homonculus, Little Anubis, and he had been pursuing them to recover the homonculus and take revenge. Uto then climbed out of the sentinel to introduce himself, followed by Kaa and Sula also telling him their names. Uto explained briefly what the Ruby Scarabs were doing and who the cultists were, and offered Hutt the opportunity to join them in their attack on the cultists they expected to find at the Sightless Sphinx. Hutt was willing to join them.
Kaa searched the containers on the first sledge while Hutt looked on, using his special ability to detect enchanted objects. Some of the things on the sledge were clearly supplies for the cult, but there were also items that were clearly stolen funerary goods. Among the enchanted objects that Hutt identified were a kopesh, a ring, the sarcophagus itself, a ring worn by the mummy inside the sarcophagus, a collar worn by the mummified cat with her, and another object inside the cat. Tetisurah was disappointed that the sarcophagus didn't belong to Chisisek.
Hutt revealed that the kopesh could create a wave of force against an enemy, and also granted the bearer the ability to wield it as if they had been trained in the use of such a blade. Azzaria claimed the weapon. The first ring Kaa had found proved to hold powers that would benefit him but not any of the other Scarabs, so they gladly allowed him to take possession of it. The ring and collar in the sarcophagus were meant to aid any person with a familiar or companion animal, so Sula was encouraged to use them for herself and Nyema. Uto removed the object from inside the cat mummy, a sphere of marble which when swallowed offered more benefits to a companion like Nyema. Kaa had also found a spellbook written on stone tablets that were unusually light; because none of the Scarabs could read the book they gave it to Hutt. Uto took charge of the enchanted sarcophagus, which could be made small enough to hold only an object the size of a cat, but could be enlarged to the size of a person and would then carry objects that weighed more than the bronze sentinel.
When wounds had been healed and items had been distributed, the Ruby Scarabs resumed their journey toward the Sightless Sphinx. Sula had seen a large structure in the distance when she spied on the cultists. It took three or four hours for the group to reach their destination. When they approached, they saw an enormous structure in the form of a six-legged sphinx, its face missing. They knew from their conversation with Erayu that it represented not a sphinx but the demon lord Areshkigal, lord of portals and riddles. The vast edifice had a large door hewn into its chest. It was approached by a broad avenue flanked by statues of actual sphinxes, each of them as broad as ten men lying head-to-foot. The Sightless Sphinx's forelimbs were longer than the avenue was wide, and the avenue could have held two of the sphinx statues place head to tail.
The temple of Areshkigal was surrounded by a broken stone wall, and on one side they saw the unnatural shadow Erayu had described, which could not have been cast by the structure itself because the sun was at the wrong position to create such a shadow. Sula volunteered to fly over the structure in falcon shape to find out what other objects or beings might lie on the other side of the Sphinx. She observed a pavilion which held a giant scorpion, as well as one of the girtablilu scorpion-centaurs they had encountered in the desert. There were a number of cultists lounging under the shade of a grove of palm trees that appeared to be made of stone, and in the shadowed area she saw a scaffolding on which two more scorpion-centaurs appeared to stand watch over a brass spyglass.
When Sula had reported her information back to the rest of the party, they decided they would camp a distance away out of sight to rest before taking on the cultists. Hutt created a magical shelter for them to sleep in. In the morning Hutt suggested that they could use the cultist equipment they had acquired to try to convince the cultists that they were delivering the supplies from the sledges, but they soon decided they preferred to make a direct assault. After everyone had prepared, a spell was cast on Sula that allowed her to communicate what she saw back to the others while she flew overhead as a falcon. The rest of the group followed her directions to creep up behind the sphinx statues along the avenue, out of sight of the guards. But as they crossed from the avenue toward the broken stone wall, one of the girtablilu spied them and shouted a warning to his comrade, who then ran to strike a gong and alert the rest of the camp.
Azzaria raced forward through a gap in the wall, pulling a bead from the necklace she wore and hurling it among the stone palm trees. It exploded in a ball of fire, burning several cultists. Overhead, Sula summoned a column of flames on the same spot. Uto walked the bronze sentinel past the wall and used its hands to eliminate a cultist. Another cultist had climbed on top of the wall when the gong rang, and Azzaria moved to face him when he jumped down. Nyema ran around the nearest section of wall to join Azzaria, but by the time the lioness reached the spot Azzaria had already eliminated her foe and he exploded. One of the girtablilu scorpion-centaur people appeared nearby and Sula struck it with lightning. Sula spied the giant scorpion approaching and blasted it as well. Uto followed her example by inflicting a burst of electricity on the scorpion-centaur, while Kaa moved among the palms to fiercely pummel one of he cultists who had managed to escape the flames. Only two men were left of the five who had been there when Sula first flew overhead.
A flurry of hailstones and snow appeared over the scorpion-centaur, summoned by Hutt. The scorpion-man rushed the rougarou wizard. A second scorpion-centaur appeared near the trees. Azzaria took out a wand and aimed it at the giant scorpion as it neared. Nyema pounced on one of the two remaining cultists, and he disappeared in a burst of fire. Kaa slew the last cultist, while Uto sent more lightning against the scorpion-centaur facing Hutt. The scorpion-centaur grabbed Hutt in one of its pincers. The second scorpion-warrior moved up to Nyema, stabbing her with his spear, and as the giant scorpion grabbed Azzaria, Sula attacked the huge scorpion and it expired. Kaa flanked the warrior attacking Nyema and was stung by his scorpion tail. Hutt escaped the pincers of the first warrior by exchanging places with his homonculus. His attacker turned on Uto inside the bronze sentinel, but the shaman blocked his blows with a shield of stone. Tetisurah then joined the battle and slew the girtablilu warrior.
A third scorpion-centaur arrived, dodging the icy area Hutt's spell had created and running toward the bronze construct. Sula met him with lightning, as did Uto. Kaa's opponent died. Tetisurah flew up and landed by Azzaria to heal her. The scorpion-centaur who had just arrived moved to attack Azzaria, and the sphinx pounced on him, killing him. When his brother-in-arms died, the remaining girtablilu warrior ran back toward the unnatural shadow at the side of the Sightless Sphinx.
Next: part 29, The Sightless Sphinx part 2
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