The following morning after Hutt had made sure he could safely teleport back to the chamber where they had found the ankh key, the Ruby Scarabs emerged and climbed back up to the surface. Uto levitated up, using his enhanced strength to carry Nyema since the lioness couldn't climb up a rope. Once they were on the surface level of the strange earthworks, the Scarabs intended to seek out the guardians they would have to eliminate or disable before they could activate the power that would allow them to bring down Hakotep's flying pyramid.
They had hardly begun when Uto received a another magical message from the priest Ptemenib in Wati. Ptemenib told him that the Scarabs' former comrade Igby, who had parted from them before they left Wati to travel into the desert, had returned to the town. Realizing that to have another person with them would make it easier to activate the structure known as the Khepsutanem. Ptemenib told Uto that he had a priest of Nethys with him who could teleport himself, Igby, and Ptemenib to the Khepsutanem with Uto's direction. Uto agreed to this and provided as much detail about the Khepsutanem's location as he could, advising Ptemenib that they should teleport to the river bank where Hutt had placed the Scarabs when they first teleported to the location. After he finished the communication, Uto told his companions to expect the arrival of Ptemenib and Igby soon, and they headed toward the river to greet the new arrivals.
At a bend in the river that was nearest to the Khepsutanem, they found a small group of people, including two men wearing the half black, half white robes of Nethys' priesthood, and a tall muscular brown-haired man wearing the holy symbol of Iomedae over his armored breastplate. This was Igby, who the Scarabs greeted warmly and introduced Hutt to him. Meanwhile one of the priests of Nethys became very interested in the mask of Hakotep that Uto wore and asked if he could examine it, which Uto firmly declined to permit. After greetings and introductions were done, Ptemenib showed the Scarabs an image of the five-pointed star that appeared on the face of the flying pyramid that had appeared ove Wati. None of the Scarabs recognized the significance of the emblem. They questioned Ptemenib and the other priests about the appearance of the pyramid, and wondered if it was truly Hakotep's pyramid or if perhaps there could be more than one flying pyramid in existence. The command combination Chisisek had given them was only designed to bring Hakotep's pyramid. If the pyramid over Wati wasn't the pharaoh's own structure, the combination wouldn't work against it.
As they spoke further, Igby mentioned that the pyramid over Wati looked as thought it had been ripped out of the ground. It was described as a smallish pyramid, perhaps 500 feet along each side. Uto speculated that it might not be as powerful as Hakotep's pyramid. The more they talked, the more the Scarabs began to feel that they should return to Wati and try to eliminate whoever was controlling the pyramid before they attempted to activate the Khepsutanem. The Nethys priest who had teleported their group to the Khepsutanem explained that he didn't have the magical capability to teleport the entire group to Wati himself. He shared his memory of Wati with Hutt, who had never been there, so Hutt could teleport the rest of the group.
When Hutt cast his spell, the Scarabs found themselves standing outside the temple of Nethys. One of the priests told the Scarabs that the priests had been unable to dispel the pyramid's power of flight - it was too powerful. The Scarabs would have to attack it in the air.
Hutt then cast a second teleportation spell, carrying the Scarabs to the portico of the pyramid overhead. Because it was a tiny portico and they didn't know what they would find inside, Sula remained in her normal form with Nyema secured in her pouch as a figurine. They found themselves standing before a dark opening. Just inside, something moved in the darkness. As their eyes adjusted they saw several mummified winged figures, their bodies blackened, standing guard. Two of these creatures had longbows. Then they heard a feminine voice commanding them to leave their weapons and armor to appear before "the general." The voice was intimidating, but no one obeyed its command. Hutt responded by sending a blast of fire down the passageway, but it seemed to have no effect on the winged creatures. None of the Scarabs recognized what manner of creatures the sentries were.
The creatures with bows fired at Kaa, who stood at the lead of the party. Then one of them began to sing and some of the members of the Scarabs realized they must be harpies. That didn't help Sula, who was immediately entranced by the song and began to move toward the singer. Hutt cast a spell to grant alacrity to everyone and then flew down the passage. Igby moved forward to engage with the nearest harpy. One of the harpies flew toward the Scarabs. Azzaria became enraged and used the power of the river to rush toward a harpy and attack it with both her kopesh and her mace. Sula encountered a barrier that halted her movement toward the harpy. A cloud of green gas filled the passageway, burning with acid. A magical field covered the exit. Uto suspected there was an invisible creature in the passage and directed one of his invisible spirits to kick sand at it to reveal it. Hutt cast a spell to dispel the magic, then surrounded himself with a field that would repel living creatures, forcing any creature near the entrance to be repelled. One of the harpies flew past Azzaria and suffered a blow from her, while another harpy flew up out of the green fog. Kaa pummeled a harpy with his fists and she dove at him.
Uto headed down the passageway but was blocked by the same unseen force that had stopped Sula's progress. This same barrier did not appear to affect the undead harpies. Uto dispelled the barrier with his magic, and the acid fog disappeared as well. One harpy collapsed when Hutt sent magical beads of force at it. Kaa tackled the harpy whose song had enthralled Sula. Uto sent one of his spirits to push a fallen harpy off the portico and attacked another harpy but missed his strike. The harpies who had been firing their bows dropped the weapons and drew their kopeshes to attack Kaa. Igby moved to Kaa's side to battle them. After another harpy fell and did not move again, Hutt ordered Little Anubis to stand guard over it. Azzaria's furious blows destroyed another harpy.
Sula was suddenly freed of the effect of the harpy's song and withdrew behind the bronze sentinel, drawing the figurine of Nyema out of her pouch to restore the big cat to her normal form. She then cast a spell on both of them to harden their skin into a barklike consistency. The remaining harpies began to move more rapidly, as though they had access to the same magic that Hutt could command. Uto channeled his healing power to injure the undead harpies. Igby pinned one of them in the corner of the passageway. Hutt moved back to the entrance and searched the body of a fallen harpy, finding a stone tooth in its belt pouch. Then the last remaining harpy fell to Kaa.
The Scarabs searched the bodies of the other harpies that Hutt hadn't examined but found no more stone teeth. They took the armor and weapons the creatures had borne and put them in the floating sarcophagus that followed the bronze sentinel. Two more of the harpies carried stone teeth like the one Hutt had found. Azzaria went to check around the corner in the next hallway and observed that on the walls was a message formed of tiny feathers. There was also a mural at the end of the hallway depicting Osiriani warriors looking up at the message. Azzaria also found a small room containing a statue of an armored woman. Kaa discovered a panel behind a five-pointed star emblem like the one Ptemenib had shown them. Inside the panel was a map of the interior of the pyramid, indicating that there was a deadly trap in another hallway. The map also showed that the pyramid contained various rooms dedicated to military purposes, such as an armory and a parade hall.
The next corridor was approximately sixty feet long. The map Kaa had found indicated that it contained no traps, but the tengu checked for them anyway. He noticed a seam in the floor that might indicate it could be caused to open. On examining it further he realized that there was a continuous panel in the floor that extended right up to the door. The floor was also decorated with a mosaic of the sun and inscriptions of blasphemous prayers. The door was the trigger to open the floor panel, which the Scarabs assumed would cause the victims of the trap to fall through the bottom of the flying pyramid and plummet to their deaths. Kaa disabled the trigger for the floor panel. Beyond the next doorway was a twisting corridor with an archway in the shape of a serpent's head. Three fangs were missing from its open mouth. This did not have any traps Kaa could detect with his not inconsiderable skill. Kaa took the three stone fangs the harpies had carried and inserted one of them in one of the empty sockets in the serpent's mouth. The Scarabs heard a grinding sound from the far end of the twisting tunnel. The other two sockets closed. When Kaa removed the fang, they heard the grinding noise again and the two closed sockets reopened. Kaa then went to the other end of the tunnel and observed that the turned and ascended. One of the other fangs caused the tunnel to slide forward and descend slightly, ending in a door. The third fang made the tunnel extend about forty feet and end in an archway flanked by two doors on either side. Through the archway the Scarabs could see a long pathway and a swath of open blue sky.
Next: part 42: Against the General
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