The Sightless Sphinx
The Ruby Scarabs once again withdrew from the Sightless Sphinx to recover from their battles with the two guecubu and the zombie priestess. Once outside they examined the items they had taken from the zombie's burial chamber to determine which to keep and which to sell. Sula requested that she be allowed to take one of the fine scimitars that some of the cultists had borne, as she'd seen the need for a slashing blade against creatures like the guecubu. Most of the other items proved to be of no use to the Scarabs. Then they said a brief farewell to Tetisurah and Hutt transported them back to Sothis, where they planned both to gain magical recovery from the effect of the bodaks' gaze and to purchase some additional items that might be useful in Areshkagal's temple.
During their overnight stay in Sothis, Sula acquired several potions to allow her to see in the dark in the event they met any more babau demons, and had a spell cast on Nyema to cure her of the weakness the bodak had inflicted on her. Uto purchased a number of scrolls containing spells to combat the debilitating effects of things like the bodak's gaze. Once they had been healed and made all their purchases, Hutt took them back to the Sightless Sphinx. They found Tetisurah sitting in exactly the same position she had been in when they left.
As they returned to the structure, they discussed what direction they should go in next. They met no cultists and found none of the traps had been reset. The doors they chose to open next led into sleeping rooms that had clearly been used by the cultists. Kaa opened several simple chests and found that they contained clothes and personal items but nothing of worth. But in one room he noticed a loose brick in the floor. When he pried it up he found a bottle containing a milky white potion, which Hutt told him could make the person who drank it invisible. These rooms showed no sign of having been occupied over the past few days.
After departing the cultists' bedchambers, the Scarabs proceeded down a hallway, Kaa and Azzaria taking the lead. They came to a place where the hallway turned a corner and there were two doorways at this bend. Kaa peered around the corner and saw no one. The two doors were neither trapped nor locked. He noticed that humid air was seeping through the crevice under one of the doors. When he opened it he looked into a room that held a pool in one of the far corners, with a disturbing rock formation standing in the water. On the wall beyond the pool were carvings of clawed tentacles. There were also two male girtablilu in the chamber who had apparently been enjoying the pool.
Girtablilu warrior
Uto asked his companions to wait a moment until he could try to persuade the girtablilu not to attack. He steered the bronze sentinel through the doorway to converse with them. When they greeted him with hostility he cast a spell to calm one of them, which gave him a little time to talk to them without being attacked, but his effort to convince them that the Scarabs would leave and they should remain in the pool room and not attack was unsuccesful. One of the girtablilu charged him, while the other began to cast a summoning spell.
Two giant scorpions appeared in the pool room, summoned by the second girtablilu. The girtablilu ordered them to kill the intruders. One scorpion moved toward Kaa but missed its attack while the other attempted to attack the bronze sentinel without effect. Uto stretched his hair out through one of the sentinel's portholes, holding out the talisman that he'd taken from the dead girtablilu warrior the Scarabs had found in the desert many days earlier. When he showed it to the warrior who had charged toward him, the girtablilu sneered at it, indicating that it had belonged to someone from a different tribe and he had no regard for it.
Sula, who was still in the hallway, repositioned herself so she could see through the open door and hurled a handful of flames at one of the giant scorpions. The ball of fire overshot it and landed on the stone floor. Kaa sent a blast of lightning at one of the girtablilu. Hutt cast a spell to hasten everyone's movements. As he did this he noticed that the drops of blood that had fallen on the floor seemed to have been absorbed somehow. Then the stone in the center of the pool began to move, transforming itself into a tentacled creature that seemed to be made of water vapor. Hutt recognized it as a kind of elemental creature of air, but one that had been corrupted by evil. It would be invulnerable to lightning and resistant to the elements of fire and water. He shared this information with his allies.
Mihstu
Uto slammed the sentinel's bronze fists down on the girtablilu in front of him. Azzaria's form began to flicker as she attacked the same foe. Sula threw another handful of flames, again unsuccessfully, then stepped inside the room to get better aim. Kaa pummeled the second girtablilu, which had moved up to join the fighting. Several missiles of force shot away from Hutt to strike the scorpion nearest the doorway; it collapsed and then vanished. Hutt's homonculus, Little Anubis, rushed into the room and attacked the second girtablilu with its tiny spear. The elemental moved toward one of the girtablilu who was more injured that his comrade.
Uto eliminated the second scorpion. Hutt moved toward the girtablilu to aide Little Anubis. Sula lobbed fire at the first girtablilu. The girtablilu went down, and its comrade withdrew from the fight, retreating back toward the pool. The elemental began to follow him. Uto suggested that everyone withdraw from the room and shut the door behind them in the hope that the elemental wouldn't pursue them. The rest of the Scarabs backed out. As Kaa began to lock the door, the elemental seeped out through the gap underneath it into the hallway. Sula drew her spear as Kaa's fists battered the creature. Then Uto reached out with his hair, and using the magic of an amulet he carried he sent the elemental back to the plane from which it had come.
Kaa reopened the door to see that the girtablilu was still alive. The girtablilu mercenary responded by saying, "You said you would leave!" Uto tried to convince him that his people shouldn't be working for the cultists because they were evil and dishonorable, but the girtablilu wouldn't believe him. He did however tell Uto the name of the mercenaries' leader, and he also indicated in what part of the Sphinx the Scarabs would likely find the cultists. Uto also confirmed that the girtablilu had food and wasn't so badly wounded that he was at risk of death. After Uto left the room, Kaa locked the door again and jammed the lock. Uto sealed it with a spell that molded some of the surrounding stone over the edge of the door so the girtablilu would be imprisoned there.
Kaa then checked the next door, which like the other door was neither locked nor trapped. This door opened into a large room divided by curtains, its floor covered with green and white tiles of semiprecious stone. One wall was covered by a tile mosaic. Green flames burned atop two pillars. Beyond the curtains was a bed with a silken coverlet, and a pool of greenish water. By the pool stood a white stone statue of a faceless six-legged sphinx.
Azzaria also looked into the opulent chamber, and it was she who spotted a big creature near the pool that seemed to have the head of a crocodile on the body of a man, and fists of stone. This description confused the rest of the party. Then two cultists rushed toward Azzaria and Kaa and began to pummel them with their fists and feet. Sula and Nyema entered the room and took up position behind the cultist who was attacking Azzaria. Hutt again hastened everyone.
Rathos the broken soul
A wail of agony issued from the crocodile-man, filling the Scarabs with dismay. When his gaze fell on them all of the Scarabs quailed from it and averted their eyes. Nyema was worst affected because she didn't know better than to look at the creature. The creature's cry left her weakened, but that didn't prevent her from attacking the cultist with her fangs and claws. Sula stabbed at him with her spear. Kaa's fists flew at the second cultist. The crocodile-man bit Azzaria and punched her with his stony hands. Tetisurah then moved into the room, asking a cryptic question that Uto realized was meant to determine who was injured. Uto warned her to avoid looking at the crocodile-man. Then he directed the gaze of the Forgotten Pharaoh's funerary mask at the strange being. The mask seemed to have no effect on the crocodile-man.
Sula and Nyema jointly attacked the cultist again and again until at last he cried, "In the name of the Forgotten Pharaoh!" and exploded in a burst of fire. Tetisurah moved up behind Azzaria, carefully shielding her eyes from the crocodile-man, and cast a healing spell on the nagaji woman. Nyema had turned on the crocodile-man after the cultist died, and Azzaria moved into a flanking position opposite the lioness. After she struck him several times he too called out and then exploded, leaving behind only a pile of ash and his half-plate armor. Kaa disposed of the second cultist at the same time.
With the three cultists gone, Kaa searched the room, finding no traps but discovering a small opening on the far wall beyond the well. Hutt realized that the well was magical. Further examination revealed to him that it was a scrying pool which would only scry on other locations that had similar statues of the demon lord Areshkagal. The Scarabs realized that this mus have been how the cultists knew what they were doing as they first entered the Sphinx, as the entry room held the same kind of statue.
The Scarabs gathered up the crocodile-man's armor and the items left behind by the two cultists, then moved out into a long hallway that had no doorways along it. At the far end was a blank stone wall, but Kaa observed that it wasn't the same type of stone as the walls and floor around it. Hutt then exclaimed that it was actually a stone wall created by a spell. He licked it, and told his companions that it wasn't a newly-cast spell and had probably been there for several years.
Masked cultist of the Forgotten Pharaoh
Next: part 33, Deeper Into the Sphinx
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