Uto asked the sphinx if he was truly devoted to the Sky Pharaoh. The response was that the sphinx had served the pharaoh well as a general in his armies and his undead existence was his reward. The implication seemed to be that eternal unlife was not what he had desired. The sphinx then told the Scarabs that if they could answer his riddle, he would allow them to use the crystal pyramid power supply.
Next to the pyramid stood a pillar engraved with heiroglyphs. Uto, Kaa, and Hutt studied this pillar as the party considered what to do next. The sphinx did not interfere with them. It soon became apparent that the pillar was similar to the wall they had seen in the pyramid that attacked Wati, a communication device that would transmit any message written upon it to other pyramids. The pillar's current command was to send other pyramids to Sothis.
While the others discussed the riddle the sphinx posed, Kaa and Azzaria looked at the pyramid. Kaa asked the sphinx what would happen to him the pyramid was destroyed. Would he be freed of the Sky Pharaoh's control if Hakotep truly died?
Then Kaa used the command phrase for the pyramid to open it, revealing the controls concealed inside. Meanwhile Azzaria tried writing a command on the communication pillar, telling the recipients to travel to open desert and wait. Uto added to her message, but aside from receiving a demand to know who the message was from, there was no other response. As this exchange was ongoing Kaa determined how to decrease the power output from the pyramid. Uto wrote a message ordering the other pyramids to obey or suffer a power cut. There was no reply.
Uto asked the sphinx if he wanted the pharaoh to die. If the Scarabs attacked Hakotep, would the sphinx stand aside? The sphinx replied that he would wait while the Scarabs opened the other crypts within this structure. Before the party left to pursue that goal, Kaa took out his adamantine 9-ring sword and smashed the communication pillar.
As the Scarabs retreated from the chamber, the sphinx spoke to the two elementals in a language the party members didn't understand and the two beings of lightning began to clash with one another. The sphinx himself settled down on the edge of the platform as if to watch.
The Ruby Scarabs descended from the platform and returned to the door from which they had entered the pyramid. As they passed through the passage filled with the gas that had caused Sula and Hutt to become confused, everyone held their breath. Sula carried Nyema through to keep her safe. Once they had exited the pyramid they walked around to its north face and climbed up to the opening there. The platform outside the entrance on that side was only five feet deep, thought it was twenty feet wide. On the stone in the opening were red tiles marked with flame glyphs. The stone was warm. The inscription on the tiles revealed that this entrance led to the part of the pyramid that was held by a balor demon called Okarer Sendef.
Kaa detected a trap on the entry and told the others to back down the staircase a short distance while he disabled it. Uto prepared by casting a spell on everyone to protect them from fire. When Kaa disabled the trap he heard a ticking sound, which concerned him. Everyone descended further out of caution, but the sound turned out to be the noise of the mechanism that lowered the door stone. Hutt looked through the opening and described to those behind him what he saw. Waves of heat emanated from inside, and beyond the doorway pools of lava roiled beneath stone walkways.
At the end of the walkway from the doorway stood a square chamber, with a black iron statue in each corner. The statues resembled images of the god Ra, but distorted into pot-bellied creatures with four legs. As the Scarabs were about to enter this area, Hutt realized that the stones leading to this platform were affected by magic to make them slippery as grease, threatening to cause any unwary person to slide off into the lava.
Sula had already assumed the shape of an earth elemental and she carried Azzaria over the slippery spot, while Uto lifted Nyema over it, and Kaa leaped across. As they set foot beyond the greasy spot, the four statues began to move. Kaa flew across the platform to deliver a punishing kick to the statue in the far left corner. Azzaria turned on the statue in the opposite left-hand corner. Sula charged the statue on the far right and slammed her fists into it, the blows flaring with both fire and lightning as she summoned the powers of the celestials and her own djinni ancestry. Uto and Nyema were left by the statue in the near right corner. Hutt cast a spell on everyone to speed their movement and warned them that the four "statues" were actually advanced constructs, tougher than living creatures and immune to fire.
The construct beside Uto grabbed him and its beak-like mouth distended, revealing its red-hot interior. Its jaws distended as it prepared to swallow him, but Uto blinked out of its grasp to reappear a short distance away. Sula attempted to push her opponent off into the lava pool but was unable to shift the construct. Azzaria cut her enemy in half and its torso fell into the burning pool. Kaa's fists and feet pummeled the construct in a frenzy and it crumpled into an intert heap of metal, its fires gone out. Azzaria turned to face the construct that had attacked Uto, while Kaa went to join Sula. Hutt cast a spell on her weapon to make it more effective against the construct's iron skin. Uto activated a ring he wore and slammed a blast of force into the construct that had tried to swallow him. Kaa's foe was in bad condition after dealing with the tengu's blows. Azzaria's freshly enchanted weapon dropped the third construct, leaving only one still standing. Hutt drew a wand and sent five missiles into the remaining construct, and it toppled into the lava.
In the remains of one construct that hadn't fallen from the platform, Azzaria found a brass object that proved to be an amulet. When Hutt examined it he determined that when worn the amulet could transform the wearer's fists into fiery adamantine, and the person would also be protected from heat and fire. Kaa checked the remains of the other constructs but only the one had born an enchanted object within it.
From the platform where the constructs had waited, four hallways led off into the depths of the pyramid. The Ruby Scarabs decided to go to the left of the entrance. This passage led them to a chamber in which twenty-four statues of the god Anubis stood. To their horror, chained to each one of these statues was an emaciated, nearly naked person.
Uto detected magical auras within the chamber, but the chained people did not appear to be undead. When he approached one, the person pleaded faintly for water. The Scarabs were wary, for they had already met a disguised demon once who had begged them for water before turning on them. The person also seemed slightly translucent. As Kaa approached another person, Uto reminded the others of that previous trick. Hutt responded by giving another person his water bottle. Uto decided to produce a bucket and use his magic to fill it with water to see what would happen. More and more of the prisoners began to call for water, their voices growing louder and louder. Azzaria tried asking another person where hey were from and what was their name, speaking in the modern Osiriani tongue rather than the ancient one, but she received no reply. The cries for water were now so loud that the chamber was filled with a cacophony of pleading voices, much louder than seemed natural. Nyema began to bite at her own leg in response.
Kaa began trying to unlock the chains binding the prisoner nearest him, while Uto had his invisible servant carry water to someone else. Upon seeing what had happened to Nyema, Uto began to wonder if the vision of chained prisoners was a kind of haunting. He channeled divine energy into the room in an attempt to halt the effect of the rising tumult. Azzaria used her weapon to smash one slave's chain. At the same time Uto realized that his healing power had no effect on the miserable slaves. He then attempted to use the same power to harm them, but that also failed to affect them. Sula cast a spell on Nyema to heal her self-inflicted injury, but almost as soon as she did so the lioness bit herself again. Kaa also began to show signs that the noise was disturbing his mind as well.
Hutt cast the spell to create his mansion and began to move some of the captives inside. As soon as he did so, they transformed from living people to desiccated corpses, naturally mummified by centuries in the heat. Sula picked up Nyema and attempted to carry her out of the chamber into the passageway, but because Sula's elemental form filled most of the passage this was difficult. Kaa ran into Hutt's mansion to escape the maddening cries, then darted back out again to fetch one of the prisoners. After a few moments of struggling with Nyema, Sula changed her mind and carried her companion into the magical mansion instead.
After Azzaria destroyed the last of the shackles, the chamber fell quiet. But by this time the noise had driven Hutt and Kaa mad as well as Nyema. Nyema attacked Sula. Azzaria took a set of shackles and used it to bind Hutt. Uto examined them and realized that the insanity effect caused by the haunt had become permanent. Uto was able to cast a spell on Kaa to heal him of the madness, but he didn't have sufficient magic to heal them all. Nyema began to yowl loudly. Kaa offered to stun her to give her temporary relief, but Sula was instead able to coax her back into the mansion and then calm her enough to let Sula transform her into a figurine, where she would be safe until a solution to her madness could be found.
The Scarabs decided to bury the corpses of the long-ago slaves who had died suffering inside the pyramid, and then Hutt would transport them to Sothis to purchase magic scrolls to heal everyone since they couldn't fight the balor while half the party were afflicted with insanity.
Next: part 51, Fire and Water
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