Reset from the conclusion of part 33
The Ruby Scarabs spent a moment looking into the room that appeared to be a painter's workshop, but after Hutt detected only one enchanted item inside and Uto felt that there was something wrong about the room, they decided that investigating the room would be a waste of their time. They needed to move on in pursuit of their goals: to recover the sarcophagus of Chisisek, to recover the kidnapped thriae queen larva, and to stop the maftet who had aroused the evil within the Sightless Sphinx. They trrned aside from the workshop and directed their attention to the double doors that stood at the end of the hallway.
As he had found with the other doors they had passed through, Kaa determined that these doors were neither locked nor trapped. The doors opened into a large chamber centered on a pit filled with fire. On the fire side of the chamber beyond the fire pit stood a brick kiln. Between the doorway and the kiln stood three girtablilu, one of them a female. When she saw the Scarabs, the female said, "You've killed too many of my warriors to allow you to live."
Azzaria retorted, "They refused to surrender!" The female raised her sword and pointed it toward the Scarabs. One of the two males began casting a spell, which the Scarabs knew by now was probably meant to summon a giant scorpion to aid the warriors. Then Uto steered the bronze sentinel forward and addressed the leader: "Your people died honorably. We spared one. I have spoken for those who died." The female asked, "What do you mean spoken for? Who are you to speak for my people?" Uto began to explain, but she interrupted: "I won't talk to someone I can't see."
Uto emerged from the sentinel, flying and accompanied by his ever-present spirits. He held out the talisman he had taken from the dead girtablilu they had found in the desert. One of the male warriors came forward to take it from him. After examining it for a moment he told the leader that it had belonged to someone whose name he knew. The leader thanked Uto for the courtesy, but added that they had a contract with to protect the cultists, and their people valued honor above all. She then told the Scarabs that the maftets had released a great evil within the Sphinx. When Uto told her that the cultists had stolen a corpse, her humanoid face showed concern. Uto explained how the cultists had stolen the sarcophagus of Chisisek and kidnapped the thriae queen larva. She didn't seem to care about the larva, but taking the sarcophagus was clearly something she couldn't reconcile with her sense of honor.
Uto went on to tell her what the Scarabs believed the cultists meant to do, and what the Scarabs themselves planned. When he finished, the female told him that the demon the maftets had roused had slain many of her people and she would be willing to work together with the Scarabs to destroy it. But she couldn't turn on the cultists with whom she had made a contract. To confirm the relationship, she introduced herself as Rubila, and the Scarabs gave her their names in return.
Another set of doors led out of the fire pit chamber. These led to a narrow stairwell rising up. At the top of the stairs another stood another unlocked door. It led the party into what might once have been a guard chamber, though the wooden table that had once stood there had all but turned to dust. The dust on the floor showed signs that something heavy had been dragged through the room fairly recently. From beyond the door to the next room Kaa, Azzaria, and Uto could hear a grinding noise like stone grating against stone. Kaa also smelled something like the odor of the girtablilu. The Scarabs decided to gird themselves with magic before opening the next doors. Sula cast a spell that caused Nyema to grow larger, another that gave her bite greater power, and a third that coated her fangs with acid. Then she armored herself with bark, and granted her companions the power of the bear so they could withstand more injuries.
These doors were locked, and it took a few moments for Kaa to unlock them. The doors opened into a much larger chamber, lined with pillars inscribed with heiroglyphics. After a moment the Scarabs realized they must be in the head of the Sightless Sphinx. The chamber was lit by a red glow from six crystal windows along one side. A pair of ornate doors topped by a golden falcon image were set in one wall.
Movement to their right drew everyone's attention. An enormous scorpion, larger than Nyema now was, rushed toward them. Sula realized that although the creature's armor was tough and it was extremely large, it was no different than a giant scorpion in its abilities. It could be killed by ordinary weapons. When she shared this information Kaa moved to attack it, and Azzaria quickly followed him, taking up a position on the opposite side of the scorpion. Hutt cast a spell that granted them all increased alacrity. Nyema leaped through the door and poised herself to pounce on the emperor scorpion. As she passed the sentinel her huge form rocked it slightly. But before she could attack the scorpion, Azzara chopped her way through its carapace and its legs crumpled as it died.
Several of the Scarabs briefly considered collecting some of the scorpion's meat, but they needed to move on. Kaa went to the falcon doors and was disappointed to find that the gold was only a thin layer of leaf over the stone. Azzaria, who had begun to fly when she went against the scorpion, decided to look at the crystal windows. They were the Sphinx's eyes, though strangely they weren't visible from outside the structure. From inside the Sphinx's head Azzaria could see out into the desert, though everything was tinted red by the ruby crystal from which the window-eyes were made.
Kaa opened the falcon doors, revealing a chamber in which five masked cultists stood around a platform bed covered in silken sheets and draped with a canopy of golden feathers. Four silver orbs floated at the corners of the platform, shedding light on the room. The walls of the room were painted with images of Areshkagal coupling with various creatures and slaying others. The paintings were unfinished and appeared to have been recently applied.
A woman stood at one end of the platform. She wore a much more ornate mask than the five men. When she spoke, the voice was that of a deep-voiced man. Kaa leaped forward to attack the two cultists who stood nearest the doors. Nyema bounded in after him, her form almost blocking the doorway. Hutt again granted everyone speed. Azzaria flew across to the woman, realizing as she did so that the woman's skin had a stony appearance. She warned her comrades of this. Uto flew the sentinel over Nyema to face the masked woman. He reached out with his hair to touch her with a spell, but his effort failed. Tetisurah flew into the room to face one of the cultists. Kaa pummeled a cultist while Nyema clawed and bit another. The woman took out a wand and the cultists began to move as quickly as the Scarabs. Outside the falcon doors, Sula began to summon lightning. But when her lightning bolt struck the woman, it seemed to be absorbed and the woman was surrounded by a shield of electricity.
Hutt cast a spell at the masked woman, and her haste vanished. Her electrical shield was gone as well. Nyema slew one cultist. The woman cast a spell on Azzaria that deprived her of some of her wisdom. She kept fighting, hissing angrily at her opponent. The masked woman, who was also flying close to the floor, fell slowly under the onslaught from Azzaria. As she did so, a glowing golden heart with wings rose from her body and flew through the ceiling.
Azzaria moved on to one of the cultists, and in a short time all of them had given themselves up for their Forgotten Pharaoh. Uto healed all of the injuries that had been suffered by Nyema, who had taken the most harm from the cultists attacks as she had faced three of them. He also healed the harm done to Azzaria's mind. When everyone was healthy again, Kaa checked the platform bed for secret compartments but found none. Uto detected that the masked woman had many enchanted items on her person, including the ornate mask, a falcon crown, a staff, several potions, a wand, and an armband in the form of a serpent. They didn't take time to find out what these things did, but instead proceeded to the next door leading out of the room that had been repurposed as a bedchamber.
In the next room stood an ornate sarcophagus. Tetisurah confirmed that it held the mummy of Chisisek. The Scarabs opened the sarcophagus with the sphinx's permission to make certain the mummy hadn't been removed or damaged. Chisisek appeared complete, still wearing the finery with which he had been interred. Tetisurah, having achieved her mission to recovery the body she and her mother had been charged with guarding, was now ready to part from the Ruby Scarabs, though when Azzaria expressed hope that she might be willing to help them destroy the evil of the Sightless Sphinx she gave a cryptic response that might have meant she was willing.
Uto decided to question the masked woman about what the cultists had intended to do with Chisisek's mummy. He tried using the effigy of Anubis he carried, but the woman's spirit resisted the effigy's magic. Meanwhile Hutt went downstairs to tell Rubila what had happened and make sure she wouldn't be offended if the Scarabs ate some of the emperor scorpion's meat. When he returned, the Scarabs decided to rest within the Sphinx. Hutt created a tiny hut for them to spend their rest inside. While they relaxed they examined the items taken from the woman's body. After determining what the falcon crown did, everyone agreed that Sula should take it, though Kaa was attracted to it since it was in the form of a bird's head.
Later on while the others slept and Kaa and Uto stood watch, they suddenly heard a woman's voice loudly casting a spell to call a column of flame. Flames roared down through the roof of Hutt's magical structure. Most of the Scarabs managed to avoid the full brunt of the flames, but Nyema was badly burned. A woman suddenly appeared in the corner of the room, saying, "Did you really think you could destroy my Pharaoh and not pay the price?"
Next: part 35, Speaking With the Stones
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