Monday, October 2, 2017

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 19: Tomb of the Jackal Pharaoh

(Previous session retconned to include Igby on the barge.)

The Ruby Scarabs spent more than a week in the company of Azzaria's adopted tribe, learning of the dangers and mysteries to be found among the Parched Dunes. When they reached the point at which they must part from the hospitable nomads, the Scarabs followed a stream toward their ultimate destination. Uto fortified them for their journey by summoning a bountiful banquet for them to dine on each morning, while Sula cast spells to relieve them of some of the effects of desert heat and hide their tracks from pursuing cultists.

The Scarabs hadn't been following the stream long when they heard singing and a shadow passed overhead. When they looked up they realized the shadow was that of a sphinx, this one of the female variety rather than a male like the sphinx that had aided the cultists in their attack on the Golden Ibis. The singing sphinx circled them, then flew off toward the east and appeared to land. Uto was eager to follow her, so the Scarabs headed to the east.

When they reached the spot where the sphinx had landed, they were surprised to find an ancient structure standing in the middle of the marshy stream bed, its wooden doors long rotted away. The sphinx had perched on the roof of this decaying building, which by its style and decoration appeared to a be tomb. Kaa recognized the architectural details as those of a very long-ago period, more than 7,000 years prior to the current date. In front of the door stood two frames made of bone with fox or jackal hides stretched over them. Uto identified these as fetishes to ward off evil, and Sula determined that they hadn't been there long. Azzaria respectfully greeted the sphinx, who had continued to sing while the Scarabs approached. The sphinx then spoke in her native tongue, which only Kaa and Uto could understand. Uto then asked for her help to achieve his goal of becoming a tomb guardian, while Kaa translated for the others. The sphinx gave a reply that Uto took to mean he must go into the ancient tomb and perhaps get something or complete some task on the sphinx's behalf. Azzaria asked her if she was the sphinx that had sent Azzaria's tribe to the river, to which she responded she had been tasked to "bring two together who had been parted." When Kaa asked her by whom she had been tasked she declined to answer, saying, "You are not ready to know."

When this conversation had concluded, the Scarabs approached the open door of the tomb. It led into a short hallway, which opened into a wide gallery. A set of intact double doors with no visible means of opening stood at the opposite side. The walls were carved in relief, but the water flowing into the tomb had caused mold to grow, hiding the designs. The Scarabs could barely make out an image of a jackal-headed man wielding two kukris, who was apparently being worshipped by a group of men and gnolls.  Though the gallery floor was covered by water, Kaa was able to make out something in the center that he suspected was a pit trap. One side of the gallery had also been occupied by a mound of soggy vegetation that appeared to be home to a group of half a dozen shocker lizards. Sula suggested that if the Scarabs left the lizards alone they would be no threat, but Azzaria was concerned that the lizards would attack and tried to soothe them.

Suddenly, as Azzaria moved a little closer to pacify the lizards, the mound of soggy vegetation rose up and reached tendrils toward her. Sula realized that the mound was really a plant creature. Sula spoke to the creature in the language of natural things and told it to leave them be and it would go unharmed. Kaa shouted to his comrades to lure it toward the pit trap in the center of the gallery, but Sula told him that the shambling creature was perfectly capable of understanding his words. She moved toward the creature to attack it and it grabbed her with a tendril, pinning her so she couldn't use her spear and squeezing her in its crushing grasp.

Azzaria became enraged, her body blurred and her movements incredibly fast. She began to attack the plant creature with a weapon in each hand. Kaa meanwhile was distracted by noticing that a small alabaster statue was propping open the door. He moved to look at it while Uto approached the plant creature and cast a healing spell on Sula. Igby also attacked the creature. Kaa opened the door, observing a descending staircase beyond it. The open doors allowed the water in the gallery to rush down the steps, and Kaa spotted an opening in the stairs that appeared to reveal another pit beneath them.

Sula transformed herself into a large snake to get free of the creature. But just as she did so, Azzaria landed a fatal blow and the creature collapsed in a heap of vegetation and the remains of its last meal. To Azzaria's disgust, the lizards began to consume the food remnants. Sula slithered away from it and Uto cast another healing spell on her. After confirming that he'd been correct about the pit trap in the center of the gallery, Kaa moved to check on the chamber at the opposite end from the mound's lair. There he saw a frieze of the jackal-headed man now in a chariot surrounded by gnolls and jackals. A second room revealed shelves containing nineteen alabaster statues of jackal-headed figures, like the one that had propped open the doors. In the statue room was an inscription about a Dog Pharaoh and his conflict with the Illuminated Pharaoh. The inscription told that the two opposing pharaohs worshipped opposing deities as well, the Dog Pharaoh following the snake god Apep while the Illuminated Pharaoh followed Ra, the sun god. Some of the inscription was written in the language of the Abyss, describing the Dog Pharaoh's armies of gnolls, were-jackals and some sort of unknown demon.

Kaa examined the pit in the gallery and observed that it was indeed a spiked pit as he had surmised. He also saw evidence that there was a hallway leading to it below the gallery. Uto levitated himself over the descending staircase to look at the opening there, and saw another pit trap beneath the stairs, one which appeared to have taken the life of a potential tomb robber at some time in the past. He lowered himself down to examine the corpse and made a fetish to remember the soul of the unburied victim. After he returned to join the rest of the Scarabs, they went on into another room on the first level.This room contained paintings depicting the Dog Pharaoh's wealth. The room also contained some curious heiroglyphics on the wall and a grate in the floor. While the others began looking at the symbols, Uto used his prehensile hair to open the grate, causing water to drain out of the room. The Scarabs who were able to read the hieroglyphs because convinced that they represented mathematical equations rather than words. At the same time, Uto noticed that when the water was gone, a set of doors was revealed and in front of them ten depressions could be found in the floor below the symbols. Kaa examined these and realized that the tiles in the depressions could be pressed to activate something. Using the equations, Kaa worked out the correct sequence in which to press the tiles, and the doors opened. Sula, who had remained in snake form as the Scarabs continued their exploration, rested while her companions studied the symbols that were incomprehensible to her.

Once the doors were open the Scarabs entered a room containing two bas relief figures on the walls. On the west side stood a man holding an ankh and a khopesh, while to the east was the now-familiar jackal-headed man, with a kukri in each hand. Beyond this chamber was a T-shaped corridor with a locked door at the end. Kaa opened the lock easily, revealing a room filled with glittering treasure surrounding a sarcophagus. Everything in the room was coated in mold due to the moisture. The Scarabs were immediately doubtful of the treasure, as their previous experiences exploring tombs told them they had reached this treasure chamber too easily. It took them only a few moments to see that the treasure was all false, made up of materials that would have been worth only a few hundred gold pieces rather than thousands. Uto cautiously examined the sarcophagus through the Forgotten Pharaoh's mask and could detect no undead creature there, but was unsure if that was because there was no undead in the burial chamber or because it was too thick for the mask's magic to penetrate. Then Kaa noticed that some of the mold on one wall had grown in an oddly geometric shape, a rectangle. He examined this more closely and realized that the mold had picked out the borders of a secret door.

The door was not trapped and Kaa opened it without effort. Beyond it lay a narrow corridor containing three sarcophagi. The sarcophagi and the walls and floor were all covered in a fuzzy brown mold. The corridor was unnaturally cold. Sula realized that this type of mold lived by drawing heat, thus explaining the chill in the narrow space. She warned her friends against using fire and told them that the mold was vulnerable to cold. Kaa breathed his cold breath into the chamber to destroy the mold. At that moment all three sarcophagi burst open, disgorging animated mummies that immediately moved to attack the group of people standing just outside the secret door.

The first mummy's aura paralyzed Azzaria with fear as it rushed through the opening, but none of the others were affected. Kaa shouted, "Igby, stay back!" Igby cast a spell that paralyzed two of the mummies temporarily. Kaa breathed cold upon them, though he was unable to direct his breath at the mummies without also affecting Uto. The mold covering the mummies was destroyed but the mummies were not stopped by the cold. Sula transformed away from her snake shape and summoned two balls of lightning to attack two of the mummies. Uto destroyed one mummy, and a moment later a recovered Azzaria brought down a second one. Sula's lightning dispatched the third. With the mummies gone, the Scarabs used one of the sarcophagus lids that was still covered in frost to destroy the rest of the brown mold in the chamber. The three mummies proved to have been individuals of wealth and power, each one wearing jewelry worth perhaps 500 gold pieces. One of them had an ornate ankh symbol amid the wrappings, and another had a headband that proved to be magic.

The tomb's final chamber at the opposite end of the T-passage proved to have been the pharaoh's burial chamber, but it had been looted long ago and what little was left had been destroyed by water. A crevice in the outer wall showed how the looters had accessed the burial. Inscriptions showed that most of the items in the room had been cursed. The Scarabs found evidence that someone had tried to destroy the cursed items and the objects had exploded. Some items had apparently reformed after being smashed, but because they were cursed their value was limited. The chamber also showed signs of having been used as a den by lizardfolk, though not recently. After searching the burial room thoroughly, the Scarabs returned the way they had come to meet the sphinx outside. Along the way they discussed how the inscriptions in the tomb had sometimes referred to the Dog Pharaoh and other times to the Jackal Pharaoh, and they realized that the Jackal Pharaoh had been defeated by his rival the Illuminated Pharaoh, who had changed the references to call his enemy a dog.

When the Ruby Scarabs returned to the Sphinx, she spoke a riddle to Uto, asking him, "Who are two sisters, each giving birth to the other?" Uto recalled that inside the tomb there had been many references to the battle between Ra and Apep, the struggle between light and darkness. He answered, "The Moon and the Sun." Pleased, the sphinx agreed to perform the ritual that would allow him to become a living monolith as he desired. While he and the sphinx performed the ritual, the other Scarabs waited beside the ruined tomb. When Uto returned to them at the completion of the ritual, a ruby stone in the shape of a scarab beetle had been embedded in his forehead as a sign of his oath to the gods.

Next: part 20, Slavers and Scorpions







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