12.4.2016
Session 16
(Igby’s player absent
– Igby participating as NPC)
Before departing from
Kawab Villa the next day, the Ruby Scarabs realized that their next option to
get more information would be to visit the Anushet, the trio of lamia sister
living in the Cenotaph of the Cynic. They needed to know if the three lamias
knew anything about who was causing the dead to rise, or who the gold-masked
figures the Darkfolk had seen might be. It was even possible that the lamias
themselves were responsible for the increase in undead activity inside the
Necropolis.
Sula and Uto both
prepared spells that morning to allow them to relieve the effects of filth
fever from Sula and Kaa. Once they had taken care of this, they set off for the
location of the next Elegiac Compass that they had yet to check. They decided
to avoid encounters with any undead if possible. Their map of the compass
locations took them to an unknown building, which was marked with the symbols
of Pharasma and of House Matya.
Once they had entered
the building, Kaa spotted a trap door in the floor. There were signs that
someone had tried to pry it open. The trap door led down into a small but
well-appointed burial chamber. Next to a wooden sarcophagus stood the remnants
of the Elegiac Compass, but all of the useful parts had been removed. Signs in
the tomb chamber made the Scarabs think that the removal had been done
recently. Disappointed, the group decided to investigate the sarcophagus. It
proved to be trapped with a device that would emit a ball of fire on being
triggered, but Kaa disabled it. Within the sarcophagus lay the well-preserved
mummy of a man. He had clearly been preserved with magic to prevent him from
rising from the dead. After examining him briefly, the group restored the
sarcophagus lid. Uto took a few white hairs to make a wax fetish of the man who
lay there.
When they had left
House Matya behind, the Scarabs headed for the Cenotaph of the Cynic. This
structure proved to be a large, impressive building with a domed roof. It had
been built as a memorial for those who had died during the madness, but had
been repurposed as a resting place for people who worshipped no gods. Some of
the symbols of the gods decorating the building had been defaced.
The front of the
building had two sets of doors. Kaa tried the first set on the right, but was
unable to unlock them. The left-hand doors proved easier to open. The chamber
beyond the doors had once held four pillars, but one of them had fallen. It
also held an extremely large cobra, which raised up and flared its hood at
them. Its hood had been decorated with gold rings inserted through piercings
along the edges, indicating that the snake was a pet or sentry. The Scarabs had
no desire to antagonize the Anushet, so Sula ordered Nyema to stay outside
while she stepped into the room and tried to persuade the cobra to let them
alone. She was able to convince the emperor cobra that not only should it
ignore the Scarabs, but it should also slither over to one side of the room so
they could enter without getting too close to it.
The cobra watched
them as they proceeded toward the next set of doors, but it made no move toward
them. The next doors were neither locked nor trapped, and admitted them to a
narrow curving hallway lined with many doors. These doors opened on small
alcoves in which many bodies in various states of mummification had been
stacked. A little farther down the hallway Kaa found a larger room that was
lined with cushions and shelves of books, and emitted a strong odor of perfume
that could only partly mask an underlying animal scent. But the room was not
currently occupied.
Not far from the
doors that had admitted them to the hallway was another set of doors, in the
opposite wall from the mummy alcoves. Nyema alerted that she detected something
on the other side of those doors, as she and Sula were standing right in front
of them. Suddenly one of the doors flew open, revealing a large circular
chamber containing two very large lions, and an angry human man. The man appeared
to be wearing the armor of the city guard, but it fit him poorly. He began to
insist that the Scarabs should leave immediately. Then one of the lions pounced
at Nyema.
Uto immediately cast
a spell, causing the man to slump to the floor in slumber. The lion’s attack
had hurt Nyema badly, so Sula stepped in front of her companion and raised her
spear. Kaa darted inside the circular chamber and maneuvered himself so that he
could blast one lion from behind with fire. The lion turned to face its attacker.
Uto had linked his own life force with those of his comrades and absorbed some
of the injury done to them by the lions. Azzaria’s body began to appear blurred
as she moved to attack the lion that Kaa had burned, while Igby and Sula faced
the second lion. Within a few moments both lions had fallen to the Scarabs’
blows. Still reluctant to rouse the ire of the lamias, Sula used her magic to
prevent both lions from breathing their last breath.
The room in which the
Ruby Scarabs now found themselves was full of objects: books, cushions,
tapestries, clockwork devices, trinkets and jewels. Uto went to check the man
he had put to sleep and found that some strong enchantment lay upon him, likely
placed there by one of the Anushet, as the Scarabs had been told that the
lamias sometimes took paramours from among the male population of Wati. A
moment later the man awoke and began shouting for his ‘beloved’ Hepsushep, but
no one responded to his cries. Igby slapped him and told him to be quiet and
tell the party where the lamias were.
At one side of the
room was a semi-circular raised platform, separated by its own door. Kaa
stepped up to this platform, and after politely knocking as he’d done at all of
the other doors, he opened it. Inside he saw a dais covered with cushions, on
which sat a lamia. She seemed unperturbed by the sudden intrusion. Uto stepped
forward, addressing the lamia courteously and telling her that the Scarabs had
no desire to offend her and pointing out that they had spared the lives of the
lions and her paramour when attacked by them. She reacted with a friendly
attitude, commenting that she was growing bored with Tarek, her current
paramour, and indicating that she thought Uto might be a suitable replacement.
Uto responded that he wasn’t opposed to that idea as long as the decision was
his own to make and he could finish his mission to stop the rise of the undead
first. When Hepsushep agreed to provide what information she could in exchange
for a gift, the party members readily agreed to give her the bolt of Qadiran
silk they had recently acquired.
As he was conversing
with Hepsushep, Uto suddenly realized that the figure he addressed was an
illusion. Inside the chamber where the illusion sat was an iron stair leading
up to an enclosed balcony. He suspected the real Hepsushep was inside. He did
not give away what he had discovered and continued speaking to the illusion as
though he thought it real. Hepsushep told the Scarabs that she knew nothing
about the masked figures the Darkfolk had seen, nor the Elegiac Compasses,
though she showed interest when told the compasses were clockwork. Uto then
offered to fully heal the two lions, but Hepsushep declined the offer. Azzaria
spoke up, offering any aid the Ruby Scarabs could offer to the Anushet, after
which Hepsushep told the group to take a tome on the history of Wati that she
thought might be of use to them. She also mentioned that her sisters were out
hunting, and the group unanimously decided that they did not need to wait to
meet the other two lamias.
After the Scarabs
took their leave of Hepsushep, they turned their steps in the direction of the
last unexamined Elegiac Compass. According to the map they had been given, it
stood near a shop that had once sold glassware, by the name of Shiny Baubles.
They found the shop long since looted, broken bits of its wares scattered in
the street outside. Kaa was distracted by trying to pick up some of the glass
bits. While Kaa was busy, Uto glimpsed a cracked wall at about the spot where
the compass was meant to be, and he magically levitated himself to get a better
look. Through the crack in the wall he saw something that might be the compass.
He also observed that while there were some buildings next to the glassware
shop, behind it was an empty space.
The shop was still
structurally sound enough that Azzaria could climb the ladder up to the roof
and look down into the small walled enclosure. The rest of the group climbed up
to join her. Inside the walled area stood the final Elegiac Compass, its
mechanism stil intact but its power supply crystal missing. There was evidence
that something else had been on the rooftop recently: they spotted tracks that
looked like the tracks of a dragon, but they were no bigger than the prints of
a large dog. It was possible they were the tracks of a drake, but as it was unlikely that a drake would have taken the crystal, Sula wondered if the track-maker might have been a juvenile
dragon.
Looking down beyond
the compass enclosure, the Scarabs saw that a sinkhole had opened up in the
ground. They could see a bit of bright blue silk scattered with coins at the
bottom. Curious what might lie at the bottom of the sinkhole and hopeful that
they would find the missing crystal there, the group climbed down into the
depression. Uto used his prehensile hair to lift Nyema down while he himself
flew into the pit. At the bottom he saw what clearly appeared to be a dragon's
hoard: jewelry, armor, weapons, potions, vials of perfume, coins, goblets and
serving dishes of silver, and many other treasures. Suddenly a feminine voice
exclaimed, "Who dares despoil my lair?" The Scarabs all turned to
look and found themselves staring at a young dragon, its body covered in
glittering crystalline scales.
Uto attempted to
speak diplomatically to the dragon, but she was possessive of her hoard and
hostile toward the uninvited visitors. As she and Uto were talking, Kaa noticed
a large crystal almost entirely encased in copper wire and realized that it
must be the power source for the compass. The dragon spied him looking at it,
and hoping to improve her hoard, offered to sell the crystal in exchange for
gems or jewels worth at least 800 gold pieces. As it happened, the Scarabs had
come into possession of some gold and lapis jewelry and a matching necklace and
earrings of gold and onyx which had a combined value close to what the dragon
demanded. When they offered these to her, she seemed pleased to accept them in
exchange for the power crystal. This trade improved her attitude toward the
Scarabs enough that she told them her name, Shardizad, and even offered to sell
them other items from her hoard if they would bring her more gems.
When the Ruby Scarabs
climbed back up to the compass enclosure, they began the task of trying to
reconnect the crystal to the compass mechanism. Because they were not familiar
with the workings of the compasses, this took some time. Kaa was standing watch
near the ladder on the shop roof as dusk fell, while Sula and Uto were working
on attaching the crystal. Kaa heard something moving on the ladder below.
Something was climbing up to the roof. As the figure rose high enough for him
to see, Kaa was startled to recognize Velriana Hypaxis, leader of the Scorched
Hand, for he knew she had died in the underground chamber beneath the temple of
Nethys. She was clearly undead now.
Just as Velriana
climbed up the ladder, Sula and Uto got the compass working. A light shone out
from it, in the direction of the ancient sealed gate that once had led out of
the Necropolis. But it was too dark to tell precisely what location the compass
was pointing at. Then the undead
Velriana let out a horrific shriek. Kaa cowered helplessly in response to her
awful scream. The rest of the Scarabs managed to escape the worst effect of
this shriek. Sula sent a sphere of flame to burn the undead woman, while Uto
blessed everyone with the power of the gods. Azzaria recognized that Velriana
had beecome a revenant, a particularly vicious type of undead that would not
rest until it had exacted revenge for its own death.
It was Velriana's
misfortune that she didn't know which of the Scarabs had actually dealt her the
final blow in the temple. Now all of the Scarabs but Kaa swarmed on her, and
after a moment he recovered his composure and joined them. Within a very short
time Velriana Hypaxis had died a second, final death.
The Scarabs examined
her body and were surprised to find that whle she was waiting for an
opportunity to exact vengeance she must also have been looting the Necropolis.
She wore a magic belt that could transform into almost any variety of slashing
weapon, as well as six gold bracelets, a gold necklace set with smoky quartz,
and a ruby diadem. Perhaps the diadem was meant to replace the showy hat she
had worn in life, which Kaa had claimed after her death.
As it was fully dark
by this time, the Scarabs decided to leave the Necropolis through the
smugglers' tunnel and rest beyond its walls for the night. In the morning they
would return and determine what building the compass pointed to.
Loot
Tome on the history of Wati
Blade belt
6 gold
bracelets
gold and
smoky topaz necklace
gold and ruby
diademNext: Part 12
