The Scarabs then proceeded to the door on the right of the arch. The next room they entered was shaped like a wedge. At one end motes of multicolored light shone. These came from a mosaic of colored glass depicting animals, which behaved as though sunlight shone through it even though there were no openings on the outside of the pyramid other than the entrance. Uto scanned the wall to see if it was magical. Kaa crossed the chamber, and as he neared the mosaic he realized he felt much refreshed.
Then the doors closed, and as they did a figure appeared in the room that resembled Kaa in every detail but for its head, which was the head of a lion. It even carried gear identical to the things Kaa bore. Hutt reacted to this by casting a spell of alacrity on his comrades. Kaa backed out of the room and closed the door, hoping to lock the strange apparition inside. But an instant later a section of the wall next to the door vanished as if Kaa had used his power to remove it, and the lion-creature emerged into the hallway. Sula directed Nyema to move away from the creature, while Igby rushed in to attack it. Hutt attempted to turn the lion-creature into a duck, but his spell failed to affect it. Azzaria and Kaa joined Igby in attacking it. Then Azzaria struck it a mighty blow and the creature seemed to transform into shards of colored glass like the mosaic inside the room.
The Scarabs waited for a few moments to see if any other hazard would appear, and Uto healed the injury the creature had dealt to Igby. Then the party moved on past the mosaic room into another chamber. This one held a magnificent statue of the Pharaoh Hakotetp. As soon as they entered the room they all felt a sharp pain on their foreheads and realized that the heiroglyphs of Hakotep's name were being burned into their faces, something that Sula had experienced previously in the tomb of Akhan-tepi in the Necropolis of Wati. Kaa struck off the head of the statue, halting the process before anyone could be permanently marked.
After Kaa decapitated the statue, he found that within its legs were two magical rods that could be made immovable. He took these. There was nothing else in the statue room, and the Scarabs left it behind. In the next room they came to, they were surprised to find a group of statues all with distorted faces. Some of them bore cartouches with the name of a merchant family line that had faded long ago. Beyond the statues was a wall made of clay bricks rather than stone. Kaa made an opening in the clay wall to see what lay beyond it and saw an area six or seven feet wide containing small tables, chests, coffers, and weapon racks. He also observed a scepter in the form of a shepherd's crook and a diamond on a stand. Uto detected that the gem was a magical one that could create light. Hutt found that the crook was a scepter than would grant the bearer the ability to summon a suit of resplendent garments. The coffers proved to contain over six thousand gold pieces. After examining the faceless statues more closely the Scarabs theorized that the merchant family had opposed or offended Hakotep and had been petrified by some effect that also robbed them of their faces so that even if the petrification was dispelled they would die horribly, blind and unable to breathe.
The Ruby Scarabs left behind the cursed family and returned to the serpent's head, placing a different fang in the socket to gain access to another passageway. This time they traveled to aroom approximately ten feet long and twenty feet high, with a door that was quite tall and wide. A short passage beyond the door led into a hexagonal room where blue sparks popped and crackled. The walls were covered in magical writings. In the center of the hexagon was a small pyramid with a five-pointed star on its southern face. Hutt warned the others that there were five invisible creatures in this chamber, creatures called stalkers that were likely placed there to guard the chamber. He, Uto, and Kaa read some of the inscriptions on the walls and realized that this chamber was the control room for the Aeromantic Infundibulum that inabled the pyramid to fly, storing energy to control its direction and altitude. But the energy to power its flight came from elsewhere. The inscriptions also indicated that the power being broadcast to this pyramid was also being broadcast to Hakotep's pyramid and perhaps even to other pyramids.
The Ruby Scarabs withdrew from the control room without engaging with the invisible stalkers. They passed through another doorway nearby that led them into a very large room. Along the sides were two long pools of water. In the center of the chamber a white marble sarcophagus sat, its lid hovering several feet above it. Fountains splashed into the pools and the walls were made of alabaster tiles.
As Kaa warned his friends to look out for water elementals in the pools, a figure of a mummified woman in armor rose from the marble sarcophagus. Uto addressed her, saying, "We want to negotiate peace." The woman responded, "Then you have come to surrender." Uto asked her, "Are you Isatemkhebet?", the name inscriptions throughout the pyramid had mentioned. She answered, "Yes. Are you Uto?" When Uto answered in the affirmative, Isatemkhebet said, "Then I will take you to my lord and Pharaoh Hakotep. He did not specify that you should be living."
Two mummified harpies suddenly entered the room. One flew to the pool on the right and began to sing. Nyema was entranced and moved toward the singer. Kaa breathed a blast of flames at Isatemkhebet. She called out a few words and a moment later a mummified bull with strange blades protruding along its back appeared in the room. Uto cast a spell to detect the level of injury suffered by everyone in the chamber. The water in the pools began to churn and two very large water elementals emerged, as Kaa had feared. Hutt again granted extra speed to everyone. Igby realized that the mummified "bull" was actually a gorgon, a creature with the power to petrify with its breath. Azzaria remarked, "Now we know what made the statues in that room!"
Igby cast a spell of his own and both Isatemkhebet and the gorgon froze in place, unable to move. While they were held, the Ruby Scarabs applied themselves to defeating the harpies and elementals. Azzaria and Kaa both took flight. Sula summoned lightning to strike the harpies, which were able to evade it, then she turned her bolts on the elemental nearest to the enthralled and oblivious Nyema. The elemental struck the big cat even though she posed no threat to it at that moment. Azzaria attacked one of the elementals using the Crook of the River flail, which allowed her to rush it and be drawn toward it. Despite that the flail's attack was water it harmed the elemental. Igby continued attacking the elemental while Azzaria turned on one of the harpies and Sula continued to attack the second elemental with lightning.
Hutt meanwhile looked into the passage that the harpies had entered from to be sure no other enemies approached and saw a bright shaft of sunlight.
One of the elementals was transformed into ordinary water by Igby's attacks. Both harpies went after Kaa and he slew one. Uto healed both Nyema and Kaa. The second harpy fell to Igby and the second elemental also died. With their other enemies slain, the Scarabs quickly healed some of their wounds and turned to face Isatemkhebet and the gorgon again. Sula cast another spell prepared to drop a wall of wind in front of the gorgon if it began to exhale its petrifying breath.
Next: part 43, The Last of Isatemkhebet
No comments:
Post a Comment