[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 21: Quest for a Queen

Character level: 9th

After parting from the scorpion-woman and the disturbing monument she guarded, the Ruby Scarabs spent the next three days searching the badlands of the Parched Dunes. On the third day they glimpsed a roughly hexagonal-shaped structure ahead, which curiously seemed organic in nature. This structure stood perhaps a hundred feet wide and twenty to thirty feet tall. Though the rest of the Scarabs thought they ought to bypass it since it couldn't be the tomb they sought, Uto argued that they should take a closer look as Chisisek's tomb might be hidden behind or beneath it.

As the party approached the strange structure, they heard a buzzing sound and then saw six creatures flying toward them. Two of these creatures proved to be giant bees, while the other four were winged women whose anatomy was a mixture of humanoid and bee. These arrivals immediately appeared hostile, three of the bee-women wielding longbows and the fourth carrying a glaive. One of the women fired on Azzaria. Uto began to fly and cast a spell in an attempt to parley with the attackers but his magic seemed to have no effect on them. The woman with the glaive swallowed a potion and began to perform a kind of flying dance, which seemed to bolster the morale of her comrades. Meanwhile the two giant bees moved to attack Igby and Nyema. Nyema was stung and let out a snarl of pain. Sula called fire to her hands and hurled it at the bee, while Nyema snapped and clawed at it. Kaa joined Uto in flight, sweeping an arrow aside with his hand as the bee-women fired on him.

Sula and Nyema slew the giant bee and one of the bee-women flew toward them to attack. Nyema leaped up on a rocky outcrop and pounced at the woman, catching hold of her leg and raking her victim with her claws. One of the other bee-women had moved toward Uto, who had been absorbing injuries from his companions and had taken refuge behind a rock to heal himself. Sula hurled a handful of flames at the bee-woman. The woman with the glaive unsuccessfully attempted to cast a spell on Kaa and an enraged Azzaria to make them stop fighting. Uto cast a spell on one of the bee-women, causing her belly to distend and her jaws to grow protruding teeth. She started to turn toward the woman with the glaive, an expression of insatiable hunger on her face, but before she could do more Azzaria vaulted at her from a rock outcrop and sliced her in two with her sword. Kaa meanwhile blasted the spellcasting bee-woman with electricity, followed by a stream of acid. Uto subjected his nearest attacker to a spell that burned her with both fire and acid, and Nyema's opponent stopped struggling and fell to the ground. The woman with the glaive had just fallen to Kaa's magic, and this last surviving warrior abandoned the fight and began to fly back toward the hexagonal structure.

Uto handed a wand to Sula so she could heal the injuries suffered by Nyema and Kaa. He himself drank a potion, while Kaa and Azzaria searched the bodies of the bee-women, taking the glaive and three powerful longbows. Igby claimed one of the bows. Then the group moved forward to the structure. They had to climb up seventy-five feet to the entrance. The interior was divided into hexagonal shapes like a honeycomb, but parts of the waxy interior had clearly been damaged by fire and the Scarabs saw several arrows embedded in the walls. Beyond a thin barrier they could see something that appeared to be a humanoid creature wearing a shiny mask that seemed very familiar.

They were not alone in the hive. A bee-woman carrying a uraeus staff stood there, glaring angrily at the Scarabs. She was accompanied by several other bee-women whose appearance was more insect-like than hers. The woman demanded to know if the Scarabs had come to finish what they had done. After some conversation, Uto managed to convince her that they were not associated with the people who had attacked the thriae hive and were in fact enemies of those people. The thriae woman, who explained that she was the seer of her people, told the Scarabs that the Forgotten Pharaoh cultists had carried of the queen larva from the thriae hive, and that they could use the larva to start a thriae hive of their own under their control. The Scarabs immediately offered to go and rescue the larva. The seer, Zerah, told them that her prophetic visions had told her the cultists had taken the larva to a valley in the north. She also agreed to have one of the workers remove the cultist's corpse from storage, where it was being kept to feed other larvae, so the Scarabs could examine if for information about the cultists' plans. Azzaria searched the body, finding a still-intact pouch containing a potion and four spell scrolls. The corpse also wore a magical cloak, and was carrying a note which read, "Take men south to meet Jamirah and return her to the sphinx."

Zerah then gave the Scarabs two gourds filled with a substance called merope, which they could give to the queen larva to keep it healthy. After promising to return the queen larva if they could, the Ruby Scarabs set out to the north to find the cultists. As they made their way across the sands the following day, the ground suddenly exploded and then collapsed beneath Igby and Azzaria. Azzaria managed to catch herself to avoid plunging into the ensuing pit, but Igby wasn't so fortunate. From the bottom of the pit emerged a many-legged large creature with toothy insectoid jaws, a creature called a shalkeshka.

The shalkeshka grabbed Azzaria and she began to rage. Kaa scorched it with his flames. Sula ordered Nyema to attack the creature, but before the lioness could leap into the pit, a second pit opened up as a second shalkeshka emerged, and Sula fell into the second depression. The second shalkeshka bit Nyema and grasped hold of her. Wanting to get out of the pit, Sula transformed herself into a large eagle. Nyema snapped and clawed at the beast. Uto summoned two ancestral guardians to attack the shalkeshka that held Azzaria. Igby joined in attacking it and it collapsed. The second shalkeshka suddenly released Nyema and burrowed through the wall between the two pits to attack the slayers of what was presumably its mate. Before it could disappear Nyema pounced on it, biting and clawing, then slid off its back and fell on her side as it leaped out from under her. Kaa also scorched it with his flames before it could slip through to the other pit. 

Azzara stopped raging as Uto used his divine magic to heal her. Kaa sent fire at the shalkeshka again and the second one collapsed beside its mate. When both creatures were dead, the Scarabs found that the shalkeshas had slain other people in the past, and the remains of their possessions were buried in the sand at the bottom of the creatures' nest. The Scarabs recovered potions, scrolls, coins and gems.

Once they had recovered from their wounds, the Scarabs found tracks in the desert. They soon approached a narrow canyon with very high walls. It would have made a good site for an ambush. Sula encouraged her companions to let her fly over the canyon in eagle form to scout it out. They waited near the mouth of the canyon as she carried out her reconnaissance.

The canyon led her to an area so narrow that Nyema would have difficulty passing through it. She saw no cultists sanding guard before that point, but beyond it she spotted a giant standing guard. She also saw a two-story structure flanked by large statues, and positioned on a ledge between the top of the walls and the floor of the canyon stood a pyramid. Two extremely narrow unsupported stone bridges extended from the opposite canyon walls to the pyramid's location. There was an opening in one wall of the pyramid, with rubble beneath it that implied it hadn't been part of the pyramid's original structure. Sula perched for a little while above the pyramid, watching cultists going about their activities below. After observing this, Sula returned to her comrades to report what she had found. The Ruby Scarabs then decided to camp for the night and approach the pyramid the next day when they could be prepared with magic to face the cultists and their allies.