Once the Ruby Scarabs had completed their investigation of the dangerous Dark Depository, they decided to spend a day away from subterranean archives and go into the marketplace of Tephu to sell some of the items they had removed from the Depository. They had acquired a number of valuable scrolls containing powerful spells, spells which none of them could cast. This netted them each a not inconsiderable quantity of gold. Sula was also able to determine that the headband they had found in the Depository was actually a cursed item, which would be illegal to sell in Tephu. But the Scarabs learned that the Temple of Thoth would pay a bounty to acquire such items and keep them out of the hands of unsuspecting citizens, so they gave the headband to the temple.
Kaa requested that he be allowed to take the silver crocodile collar they had found among the bone golem's remains as part of his portion of the treasure, as well as the golden chalice that had been given to him and Sula for coming in second place in the chariot race. He and Azzaria each took one of the vials of magical protective kohl. After acquiring so much more gold, Sula decided to purchase a headband for herself to increase her insight, and an amulet that would grant greater fighting prowess to Nyema. Uto bought himself a belt and a set of magical arm wraps that would enable him to carry a heavier load, and a wand containing a protective spell. The Scarabs also treated Abdallah and his siblings to a good meal at the Caravan's End.
When they had completed their shopping the Scarabs asked various people if they knew anything about the Tower of Ra's Glory. They had examined the scale model of Tephu in the Great Library, but found it insufficient to help them determine where the tower's shadow would fall on Midsummer's Day. Eventually they were led to an elderly dwarf named Rahmet Glyphkeeper, who had actually worked on the construction of the tower. The tower had been built some 200 years earlier, rather than during the reign of one of the ancient pharaohs. After listening to a few of the aged dwarf's stories, the Scarabs were able to elicit from him that the tower had stood 125 feet tall. The dwarf even gave them some architectural plans for the construction of the tower. This information, combined with Sula's knowledge of the sun's position at different times of the year, told them how to find the Vault of Hidden Wisdom.
The next day Abdallah showed them to the neighborhood where they believed the Vault could be found. The location of the secret library was now a bathhouse, but Kaa quickly identified a hidden door in an alley behind the bathhouse. While Abdallah stood watch for unwelcome attention, Kaa determined that there were no traps and opened the door, stepping into a passageway in which he saw a battered bronze chest. The chest stood next to a pit trap, which he suspected was a spiked pit. His companions waited in the alley while he disabled the trap. After everyone but Abdallah had slipped inside, Kaa opened the chest to find it empty, merely serving as bait to lure the unwary into triggering the pit trap.
Kaa and Azzaria could see into the next chamber, which appeared to be a reading room with a statue standing in the center. Suddenly an alarm began to sound. The walls of the Vault were thick so the Scarabs were not much concerned that it would be heard outside. But the alarm seemed to have attracted some attention from within the Vault, as they heard metallic footsteps on the stone floor. Kaa could distinguish two separate sets of footsteps. The alarm stopped sounding, and something passed by the doorway at the opposite side of the reading room. Kaa moved into the reading room as the sounds grew louder.
Two clockwork constructs rounded the corner of the passageway that ran around the perimeter of the reading room. One of them immediately approached Kaa and fired a net over him. The second clockwork creature stepped up and slammed its metal fist into the entangled tengu. Both constructs also wielded halberds. Sula realized that Azzaria's adamantine flail would harm then and told her so. Then she moved toward the construct that had ensnared Kaa, raising her spear and charging it with electricity. The spear itself didn't appear to do much harm to the construct, but the electricity damaged it. While Azzaria tried to swing her flail around the corner t hit the construct, Uto reached out with his hair and prepared to pull Kaa free of the net.
The construct that had thrown the net over Kaa pushed him, then turned and walked away. The second construct punched Kaa again twice, hitting him hard. Realizing that he couldn't take another such forceful blow, Kaa drew his nine-ring broadsword and sliced open the net to free himself. Uto then channeled healing magic through his hair to Kaa. The construct that had abandoned Kaa now walked up behind Azzaria and began to fight with her. Azzaria became enraged and cast a spell on herself that made her difficult to see. Uto summoned a spirit ally to help fight the constructs.
Sula had been damaging the first construct with her spear, but when that construct moved to attack Azzaria, she stepped back and summoned two spheres of lightning, send one at each of the constructs. As soon as the lightning struck them both constructs exploded, showering the reading room with gears and pistons and other mechanical parts. One of the pieces that fell on a table was a key, which Azzaria picked up. She observed that the 'statue' in the center of the room was probably a construct also, and it had an emblem on its chest that resembled the key.
With the two constructs destroyed, the Scarabs were able to look around the reading room and see that it showed no sign of having been disturbed for many years. They also noticed an odd light coming from the room beyond. Azzaria looked into that room and saw two bizarre creatures. Their bodies appeared to be crystalline, with four limbs, each limb splitting to terminate in two hand-like appendages. When these creatures saw her they both moved toward her in a hostile manner, and she had a disturbing vision of every possible future she might someday experience. She called out to her friends that the creatures were hostile. Kaa raised his sword and moved into the room to attack one of the creatures. He, too, experienced a vision of his potential futures. The creatures struck at him not with their limbs but with crystal tentacles.
Sula clothed herself in barklike protective armor and moved her lightning globes closer to the strange creatures, though she couldn't attack with the lightning because Azzaria was in the way. Azzaria cast a spell and suddenly there were two of her. Uto summoned to ancestral spirits to help his comrades fight the weird-looking creatures. One of the creatures emitted a cone of light that caused everyone, even Nyema who was still waiting by the entrance, to feel the same vision of possible futures that Azzaria and Kaa had already received. Uto suddenly melded into the stone wall. The creature nearest to Azzaria backed away from her. Sula moved her lightning spheres up to it, and both spheres vanished. While Kaa began punching and kicking the creature he faced, Sula shifted from her spear to her club and cast a spell to make it deal more damage. Before she could move up to swing her club at one of the creatures, Uto emerged from the stone and healed Azzaria, Kaa pummeled his foe until it dropped, and Azzaria destroyed the second creature.
With the enemies defeated, Kaa expressed how disturbing the visions of the future had been. He was so distraught that he had to sit down in the reading room for a short time to regain his composure. While he was recovering, Uto realized that the clockwork constructs' gears had been made of gold and gems, and he gathered these up. Azzaria found a sheet of magic vellum, but Sula was unable to determine the properties of it even with Uto's aid.
After he recovered, Kaa checked the hallway leading off of the room for traps and found none. At the end of the passageway he found a small dais that appeared to have been where one of the clockwork constructs had originally stood. The passage led to a rotunda with a domed ceiling, the circular pillared room lined with shelves of scrolls held behind unlocked metal mesh doors. Kaa began to examine the rotunda for secret doors, while Azzaria went back into the reading room and used the key to wind up the construct there. When she had wound as much as she could, it activated and greeted her, explaining that it was a research assistant and asking what it could do to help.
With the research assistant's help, the Scarabs found Khnenti's journal. The journal told them that reuniting Hakotep's fragmented soul might bring him back to life. It spoke of the Forgotten Pharaoh's tomb as a flying pyramid, and implied that the pyramid might also be invisible. Furthermore, the journal explained that Chisisek, the architect of the tomb, had been slain so he couldn't pass on his knowledge to anyone else. Chisisek's own tomb was hidden, but the rotunda supposedly held a fresco describing his burial. But when the Scarab's looked at the rotunda dome they saw no such fresco.
Uto levitated up to the ceiling to examine it. He realized that the dome they saw was a false one, hiding the real ceiling. By this point the Scarabs had been in the Vault of Hidden Wisdom from early morning until early evening. They were all tired, so they decided to have Abdallah show them to a nearby inn rather than making the long journey back to Caravan's End, so they could resume examining the Vault the next morning.
Early the next morning the Scarabs returned to the Vault of Hidden Wisdom. Uto again levitated up to the ceiling. He and Sula had both prepared spells to allow them to reshape the stones of the false ceiling. But when Uto pushed aside some of the stone, the entire ceiling collapsed, showering him with stone fragments and releasing two mummified big cats. One of the cats immediately rushed the rest of the group who were waiting by the rotunda entrance. Sula send Nyema to fight the cat. The second cat let out a piercing howl that caused Azzaria to flee in terror. Sula joined Nyema in fighting the two cats. A moment later a now enraged Azzaria returned to join them. Uto used his healing magic to harm the two mummies, while Kaa bit one with his crocodile mask. In a few moments both mummified cats were immobile on the floor.
With the fresco exposed, the Ruby Scarabs were able to read heiroglyphs that told them Chisisek's tomb must lie somewhere in the Parched Dunes, though the fresco didn't give its precise location. There were also strange geometric shapes in the fresco that appeared to refer to the ancient Shory weapons that Hakotep had sought. But it seemed that to find out more about the Sky Pharaoh and understand what the cultists might be after, the Scarabs would need to seek out Chisisek's hidden tomb.
As they made their way back to Caravan's End, the Scarabs saw Muminofrah's royal barge on its way down the canal. A big dark-skinned man could be seen feeding the Fan-Bearer dates. Evidently Muminofrah had lost interest in Uto. Uto did not express much disappointment at this turn of events. Even though he had never been out of the confines of a town, he was looking forward to the Scarabs' planned trip into the desert.
Loot:
Gold and gems worth 2,000 gold pieces
2 +1 halberds
3,784 gold each from sale of scrolls and other items
Next: part 18, Voyage of the Golden Ibis
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