Suddenly the source of the noises was revealed as a swarm of many black insects that looked like across between spiders and centipedes rushed out and clambered all over Kaa, stinging him. Some of them had wings. Azzaria immediately produced a bead of fire and hurled it into the mass of insects, but it appeared to do them no harm. Uto advised the others that these creatures were living things. Meanwhile the swarming insects had caused Uto's invisible spirit companion to vanish, and they spread out into the hallway stinging Sula. She realized that she had been poisoned. To avoid being stung further she retreated into the floor.
Hutt backed up to the intersecting hallway and sent a burst of lightning at the scurrying insects. Kaa followed this by splashing them with acid, and remembered that he had heard of such creatures before. He warned his companions that if they should fall unconsciou or die, the insects could inhabit their bodies and control them like terrifying puppets. In response Uto jaunted himself to stand beside Hutt.
The insects had stung Kaa badly by this point, and he had been scorched by Azzaria's fire bead. Azzaria drew out a potion and handed it to him, then moved away from the room. Sula had by this time recovered from the insect's poison and pushed her face up through the floor to see what was happening. She began to summon a storm of lightning. But before she could bring the lightning down on the insects, the combination of Hutt's lightning and Kaa's acid eliminated them all.
Once the unnatural darkness in the room was gone, the Scarabs could see that many of the canopic jars inside had been smashed. They saw no sing of more insects within, so they left that room behind and crossed the hallway to the next doorway.
The chamber across the hall was rectangular in shape, with two alcoves in the corners at each end. These alcoves were occupied by stone sarcophagi. On the walls to either side of the door were a bas reliefs of children and elders being pursued by horrible creatures. Hutt recognized that these were representations of a legendary creature called a Kalnaka, which in old stories would feast on children and disobedient slaves. On the wall opposite the door was a huge map of the Sekrephrenet. Eleven tiny lights glinted on the map.
Uto walked across the room to get a better look at the map. As soon as he did so, the lids of the sarcophagi in the alcoves flew off and mummified creatures that closely resembled the the kalnaka sprang out. Sula had never cast her lightning spell at the insects but still had the magic within her grasp, and she immediately sent a bolt at one of the mummified kalnaka, but she could only see two of the creatures not all four. Two of them rushed at Uto and began clawing him. Kaa entered the room and blasted one of the kalnaka with lightning. Azzaria surrounded herself with images of herself and moved in to attack the first kalnaka that had charged Uto. Uto flew up toward the ceiling to get out of their reach. Hutt cast a spell on Azzaria, Uto, and Kaa to grant them increased speed.
One kalnaka exploded into dust after being struck by another lightning bolt from Kaa. A second was badly injured. The lightning seemed to be very effective against the creatures. The fourth kalnaka turned on Hutt, seriously wounding him. Uto flew over to Hutt to channel the healing power of the spirits into his body, but that wasn't sufficient to prevent the kalnaka from dealing the rougarou wizard another serious blow. Hutt took advantage of the paired magical rings he and Azzaria wore to exchange places with her. But as soon as he had appeared where Azzaia previously stood, another kalnaka moved in to attack him again and dealt him a fatal wound. To Uto's horror, as soon as Hutt exhaled his last breath his body disintegrated into a pile of dust.
Uto moved himself within range of the kalnaka's claws. The bracelet in the form of a serpent that he wore reached its fanged head out and bit the kalnaka, injecting it with healing magic, but because the kalnaka was undead the magic harmed it instead. Azzaria slew another kalnaka that was nearest to Uto. When all four of the kalnaka were gone, Uto took out one of the precious vials of oil the Scarabs had found and carefully gathered up Hutt's remains to pour the oil on them. Within moments Hutt's body had been reconstituted, though all of his possessions still lay on the floor beside him.
Once Hutt had been resurrected, the group members examined the map of the Sekrephenet more closely. Sula noticed something odd about the mouth of one of the sculpted kalnaka on the wall, which led Kaa to discover that there was a hidden compartment behind it. Inside the compartment were a wand with a lightning bolt symbol engraved on it that represented one of the ancient Osirian gods, a silver and jasper anklet, three gems that could be used to summon elemental creatures, an enchanted kopesh with the name 'Duhua' engraved on it in ancient Osiriani, and a foot tall malachite statuette of a jackal-headed man. Inside the statue Hutt detected something magical that was revealed to be a scarab enchanted to keep golems at bay, which could have been very useful to the Scarabs if they had found it earlier. The wand with the lightning symbol proved to be capable of casting a lightning spell, and the Scarabs realized that it could also be used to activate the map.
Now that the Scarabs had the activation wand in their possession, they considered a method of gaining more information about the Sky Pharoah, the Sekrephrenet, and the pyramids. The canopic jars in the bottle-shaped room held more of the kind of creatures that had attacked the Scarabs earlier, though not the flying and stinging variety. The insects in the jars were creatures called cenovaths, which could store memories. It was an application of a technique developed by the Shory Empire, though Tef-Naju had mentioned that the ancient Osirians hadn't fully mastered it. Uto decided that it would be worthwhile to see if the memories stored within the cenovaths could be retrieved by consuming the creatures.
After some thought, all of the Scarabs but Hutt decided they would be willing to try eating a cenovath. Uto went first. The cenovath clawed at his mouth and throat as it was consumed, but when he swallowed it he felt his mind fill with information. Azzaria learned better how to wield a kopesh. Kaa and Sula both learned how to deal more harm to undead creatures. Uto tried eating a second cenovath to learn more, but got nothing for his trouble but a headache.
After they had eaten the cenovaths, the Ruby Scarabs decided it would be wise to pay a visit to Sothis and purchase some items to help them fight the Sky Pharaoh after they brought down his flying pyramid. First they went to the sun disk to tell Tef-Naju and Aivara what they planned to do. Then Hutt teleported them to Sothis to do their shopping and relieve themselves of some iems they had collected in the Sekrephrenet but had no use for.
When the Scarabs returned to the Sekrephrenet the following day, they immediately went to the map room to activate it with the lightning wand. Then they met Tef-Naju and Aivaria again at the solar disk. The entire structure began to crackle and spark with lightning. As the hum of power increased, the Scarabs realized that the myriad bones scattered around the earthworks were rising up and combining to form bizarre constructs, ten to twelve feet tall and equipped with multiple pairs of arms. As they formed these things were surrounded by elemental energies: acid, lightning, fire, or water. These bone elementals began to move toward the sun disk where the key had been placed.
The wind around the structures began to rise along with the thrumming power that surged through it as a storm formed over the earthworks. Uto called the lightning to strike one of the bone creatures, while Hutt sent a blast of flames at another. Aiverai began to sing, heartening them with her song, and Tef-Naju drew his swords. Sula also called lightning, and she, Hutt, and Uto concentrated their attacks on one bone elemental at a time while Kaa and Azzaria attacked the creatures that came closer in range. Kaa leaped through the air, his wings emerging, and hurled himself feet first at the creatures. The elementals responded by breathing out blasts of elemental energy mingled with fragments of bone. When the creatures were destroyed they left behind heaps of shattered bones.
Gradually the elementals were destroyed one by one. As the supply of bones was used up they grew smaller and less threatening. In the meantime Hutt surrounded the solar disk with a wall of iron to protect the key. He put himself inside the wall to defend him against the elementals. The wall became infused with lightning that struck anyone who stood too near, including Hutt.
As the power emanating from the earthworks reached a crescendo, the Scarabs saw a huge black pyramid crackling with lightning approaching from the southeast. As it lowered itself to the ground a great wave of sand rose up beneath it. The Sky Pharaoh had arrived.
Characters are now 15th level.
Next: part 48, The Sky Pharaoh's Pyramid
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