[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 55: The Search for the Sky Pharaoh

Before the Ruby Scarabs set off to face Hakotep, Azzaria insisted that Hutt teleport them to Sothis again to acquire magic items for Sula, whose disinterest in material possessions had led to purchase few magical accoutrements up to now.

With the party now fortified by more magic items, they returned to the pyramid and prepared themselves to face the pharaoh and his last wave of guardians and allies. They took more time to cast protective and preventive spells on themselves than they ever had before, Sula using the magic ring she shared with Nyema to give them both the ability to walk on air, bark-like skin, and the power to navigate by echolocation rather than sight should they be blinded or trapped in total darkness. She also gave her comrades the ability to pass over difficult terrain with ease, using her enchanted rod to make the spell last longer than normal. Uto cloaked everyone in a ward against lightning, and Azzaria used a wand she had acquired to give Kaa flight, as his own limited flying ability wouldn't last long enough.

After they re-entered the pyramid, the Scarabs proceeded to the chamber where they had met Shendakut, the undead sphinx who had agreed to aid them in defeating Hakotep a few days earlier. Shendakut had not changed his mind and joined them as the proceeded on toward the Sky Pharaoh's final bastion. Kaa ensured that the anti-flight trap in the central shaft wouldn't send them all tumbling to the bottom. When the reached the floor they found that the metal disk trapped with life-destroying magic was now gone.

The group descended approximately a hundred feet down the tunnel the metal disk had hidden, until they reached a room containing several towers that appeared to be made of glass. A cloud of pink smoke filled one area of this chamber. Uto motioned for them all to wait until he could shroud them with another protective spell. Kaa flew into the room to check for traps and enemies. Hutt examined the glass towers and determined that they held a magical aura of transmutation, and the tower where the pink smoke accumulated was damaged.

Suddenly a cloud of blue-white vapor coalesced behind Hutt, gradually taking the form of a wizened old woman who appeared to be of Garundi origin. She spoke to the entire group, communicating directly with their minds rather than with a physical voice. She told them that her name was Sehela, and she was a Shory engineer who had been bound here even in death to attend to the machinery that granted the pyramid its power. As she spoke of this she tapped a mechanism with the walking stick she carried, but because she was immaterial her action had no effect. Hutt used his own staff to tap where Sehela directed, which seemed to cause some malfunctioning part to operate correctly.
Azzaria asked Sehela, "What binds you here?" to which Sehela answered that she was bound to the generators and could not pass on as long as they continued to operate. Uto then told her that even though she was a spirit without physical form, he would speak for her in his capacity as a Speaker for the Dead. Hutt asked Sehela where the Scarabs would find the pharaoh, but Sehela never left the generator room and knew little of the rest of the pyramid.

Sula had been left out of this conversation because she had never learned to speak the ancient Osiriani tongue, but Uto used a magical tablet he carried to share the languages he knew with her so she could understand. Kaa commented that a red stone block that prevented them from advancing had an inscription on it very similar to that on a pectoral they had acquired earlier from one of their foes. As they discussed their next action, Sehela warned them against a woman called Ain-Mekh, who was apparently the woman who had spoken from the top of the pyramid when they first reached it. Sehela thought that Ain-Mekh might not be human, though she didn't know what other sort of creature the woman might be. Sehela also cautioned them against Hakotep's wife, who she claimed "consorted with darkness." As a final piece of advice, the ancient woman told them that the generators could only be destroyed from the pharaoh's throne room.

The Scarabs said farewell to Sehela with the hope that she would soon be free of her millenia of bondage. As they moved on Kaa checked for more traps. The group proceeded around a left-hand turn, and then headed north. After some sixty feet they came to a dark block bearing the image of an archer and the impression of a huge handprint. Uto magically enlarged himself so that his hand would fit in this imprint and the block descended into the floor.

The removal of the block revealed three a room filled with mummies. Three figures were suspended from the ceiling. The walls were marked with glyphs that appeared to be written in blood. Hutt observed that these glyphs seemed to be mummification rituals, but they were incorrect. There was also a series of glyphs expressing the displeasure of Ain-Mekh, presumably with whomever had failed to write out the mummification rituals accurately.

While the Scarabs were looking at this gruesome scene, Kaa realized that the door block would only remain open if there was weight on it. He placed one of his immovable rods on it to keep it open, then went into the room to remove the golden buckles worn by the mummies. There were some piles of rags on the floor that proved on closer examination to be decaying priestly vestments, with several silver symbols of the god Set scattered among them.

The Scarabs left this room behind, proceeding on to a second block door. When this door was opened they found themselves looking into a chamber that smelled of blood. A male statue with the head of a jackal stood on the floor, surrounded by scattered corpses and body parts. On one wall was a circular device composed of gemstones. Before they could take in any of the other details of this space, they realized that a woman and eight mummified warriors wearing the armor of the Akhumen, the pharaoh's personal guard, occupied the center of the room. The mummies all held bows with arrows nocked. The woman was Ain-Mekh. Her entire body was drenched with dried blood.

Hutt immediately granted magical alacrity to all of his companions. Shendakut bounded into the room. Kaa entered and breathed a blast of flames at the enemies. Sula flew up toward the ceiling. Ain-Mekh lunged forward swiftly, tearing off her own skin as she moved to reveal a form without skin over the muscles and tendons. She was also larger than a human, making her hideous appearance even more disturbing. Her frightful presence left Azzaria and Sula shaken. Uto responded by casting a spell on them to remove their fear and make them temporarily immune to other such effects. Ain-Mekh clawed at Kaa but failed to connect with the wily tengu. The mummified archers fired on Sula but their arrows did little harm. The four mummies in the front rank droppd their bows and moved forward as they drew swords. Sula sent a snake of fire at the four that didn't move.

Azzaria warned her comrades that Ain-Mekh was a kind of demon called an ecorche, which liked to take the skins of fallen foes and wear them. The four mummies that had moved forward rushed with great speed to surround Kaa. In response, Hutt summoned five lillends into the room, rapidly ordering each one to perform a different action. One began to sing, her voice heartening the Scarabs, while others attacked the mummies or took up positions to aid the members of the Ruby Scarabs. Azzaria had surrounded herself with images, but the mummies destroyed all of them quickly. Kaa destroyed two mummies in return, while Uto became invisible. From his unseen vantage he sent out a wave of positive energy to harm the mummies, taking care to avoid Shendakut.

Sula transformed herself into a huge bipedal dinosaur and clamped her massive jaws on Ain-Mekh. Kaa then hit her with a punch so powerful it could shatter bones, and the demoness collapsed. A moment later Kaa eliminated the last two mummies that hadn't been destroyed by Shendakut or Azzaria. Ain-Mekh's skinless corpse proved to bear a very precious pectoral, but no other items. Hutt determined that the jeweled circle on the wall was how the demoness had cast her voice and image on the outside of the pyramid, and Azzaria realized that one of the other walls was capable of transmitting written messages like the pillars they had encountered in the temples of the elements.
A further search of this room led to the discovery of three gold masks of Set and a scroll containing a long-lost spell to accelerate the mummification process. This scroll was damaged, but the spell it contained might still be recovered. The undead Akhumen warriors were all stripped of their fine armor and weapons before the Ruby Scarabs left this gory chamber behind.

As the Scarabs proceeded on through more passageways into the depths of the pyramid, they encountered several images of jackals or jackal-headed humans on the floors. Kaa suggested that these might indicate the presence of a false wall. Uto then used a wand he carried to shape a small opening in the wall and peer through to the opposite side. Beyond he observed a rectangular chamber with smooth undecorated walls. A wide column of what appeared to be white smoke rose from the floor. Within this column writhed humanoid figures, rising and falling. The magical aura he felt from this strange apparition was one of conjuring creatures or objects. Kaa tossed a pebble into the column of smoke but this appeared to have no effect. Then Hutt looked into the chamber and realized that on the floor at the bottom of the column of smoke was a circle of teleportation.

After looking into the teleportation chamber, the Scarabs decided to check out the rest of this passageway. Another hidden room was revealed in which stood the sarcophagus of a woman in regal finery, the room's walls painted with heiroglyphs that told the story of the Sky Pharaoh's generosity to this woman. Some of the Ruby Scarabs recognized her name as that of the pharaoh's sister. Beyond that room was another crypt, this time of a man, with similar decoration. Beyond that were two more crypt chambers.  The last room they checked bore images of Hakotep and his queen, along with pictures of an acrobatic dwarf. The sarcophagus in this room was smaller, presumably holding the remains of the dwarf depicted on the room's walls. The Scarabs decided not to enter any of these rooms as many of their magical protections had limited duration and they could explore the crypts once they had accomplished their objective.

They returned to the room containing the teleportation circle, as the passageway didn't seem to lead to any exit that would take them to Hakotep. Rather than using more charges from Uto's wand or having Kaa expend his power to open walls, they chose to break the wall with strength. Azzaria and Kaa hammered it into rubble. Hutt examined the teleportation circle for a few moments, and then to the surprise of everyone else he stepped into it. Not wanting to become separated from their impulsive rougarou wizard, the rest of the party hurried after Hutt.

The Scarabs emerged in another room, which smelled of blood. A large statue of a figure with the head of a vulture looked over a small room stained with blood that was still wet. The Scarabs exited from this room into a passage some twenty feet long before turning to the left. There they came to a vulture painted on the floor, as well as several glowing cartouches. There was evidence of a struggle in that space, and signs that the struggling creature had been dragged out to the north. Kaa led the way as they moved out of this area to their left, traveling another thirty feet before coming to a larger chamber.

On the floor of this large chamber a painting depicted a man with the head of a dog. Four statues with the heads of baboons occupied the room. On a dais stood a large altar holding a gold effigy of the dog-headed figure, along with more splashes of blood. Azzaria decided to take out a magical cartouche amulet she carried that would cast a shielding spell and looped the cord around Sula's massive reptilian neck.

This room was identified as a temple dedicated to the god Set. In addition to the baboon-head statues there were four statues of Set with rubies set in their eyes. Kaa examined one of these and confirmed that it was a type of construct. Uto activated a spell to allow him to perceive things as they truly were, while Azzaria, who had been studying with Kaa, checked the room for traps. Hutt pointed out that there was something magical on the bloody altar. While Azzaria looked at the construct, Hutt told her it was a guardian of Set and could be damaged  by adamantine weapons. Sula smelled the blood, trying to determine what creatures it came from. Uto spoke to Shendakut, but the undead sphinx had settled before the altar in a supplicating posture and told Uto to be quiet as he was praying to Set.

Azzaria then discovered a secret door exiting from the shrine. After Kaa confirmed there were no traps, the door was opened to reveal a small entry into another thirty-foot passage. This one led to a circular chamber. Kaa checked it first, observing a strange arcane design on the floor, along with some blood and twisted bones. Another narrow corridor led our from this room. When Hutt came forward he explained that the strange sigil on the floor was an archaic type of device for summoning creatures. Uto noticed that it appeared something had left the room going to the south. Hutt added that something had also gone to the east. The group decided to proceed south, but because the passageway was too narrow for a huge dinosaur to pass through, Sula and Nyema remained in the shrine with Shendakut.

A longer passage led the rest of the Ruby Scarabs to the south through darkness. At the far end a purplish light issued from another room that appeared to be round. When Kaa when to check this he caught a scent of ozone and something burnt in the air, and heard a strange noise.  He crept forward silently to peek inside. Suddenly he heard a crashing sound, and a bolt of purple lightning shot out of the room at him!

Next: part 56, The Sky Pharaoh's Queen

Death Is Not the Only Challenge

Lately I've been watching a number of YouTube videos about tabletop roleplaying games: gaming tips, rules information, advice, alternate rules, that sort of thing. And in watching a variety of different channels, I've become a little frustrated by one particular idea that seems to be stuck in everyone's minds as the most important challenge player-characters should overcome or avoid in ttrpg's: death.

Character death is pretty rare in the gaming group I've been playing with for the past 25-ish years. Admittedly, death isn't always permanent in fantasy games. There are magic items and spells that can bring a character back from death. They're costly and sometimes difficult to come by, but they exist. Our group does not rely on those exclusively, though.We have a house rule in some of our games that states that if a character dies and another character can get a healing potion or spell to the fallen character within the same turn that the death occurred, the character's spirit hasn't yet left the body and the character can be brought back to life immediately without any detrimental aftereffects. It's equivalent to giving a person a shot of adrenaline to restart the heart.

I know that thought might be offensive to some players of fantasy ttrpg's. What good is the story if the characters can't die? Won't they lose all sense of caution? I'll admit my roleplaying experience is almost exclusively with this group, and I haven't played with a group where character death is a common and accepted part of the roleplaying experience. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't enjoy that, and I think most of my friends feel the same else we wouldn't be using that house rule. When we create a character, we want to play that character until the end of the story. We want our characters to be the heroes, to save the day, to be friends and comrades by the end of our shared tale. They can't do that if they die permanently.

There are those who will say that not having permanent death as a consequence makes tabletop games too much like console and computer games, where you can restore from a previous save to prevent your character from dying. To that I say, what's wrong with that? When I've invested a lot of time in my Skyrim character and I want to find out what it will be like to play that character all the way through the main plot of the game, I don't want to have to start over with a new character because my original character died. And when I'm involved in a tabletop game I feel the same way.

I generally have a concept that I want to follow with that character, and I want her to make it to the end of the story. I don't want to have to come up with a new character and find a way to fit her into the existing party, and I don't want my GM to have to go through all kinds of story contortions to do that either. Our group often play pre-written adventure modules, and in many of those it can be challenging to find a way to fit a new character in. Just recently we've been working our way through the Pathfinder Adventure Path 'Mummy's Mask', much of which takes place in various ancient pyramids and tombs in the midst of a great desert. That makes it a bit difficult for a new character to show up. If the party doesn't leave the pyramid for days and doesn't have the magical wherewithal to teleport to the nearest city on a shopping trip, how do you introduce a new character into the group?

Recently the issue of adventure paths/modules has made me even more aware of the problem of making death the primary challenge. What happens if you're in the last chapter of the module and one of the PCs dies? What happens if you're in the middle of a dungeon when that occurs, and the rest of the party can't or won't leave? Now you've got a player who's doing nothing, or running an NPC in whom the player has no investment, or quickly trying to come up with a new character on the fly that they'll only be able to play for a short time before the campaign is over. Where's the fun in that?

If I continue to take Mummy's Mask as my example of how using character death as the primary challenge: in our group's campaign the party is currently inside a huge pyramid trying to stop the Big Bad. They don't have any NPCs with them, and every other creature within the pyramid is an evil servant or ally of the main villain, so those NPCs can't suddenly become player-characters. What would happen if one or more of the player-characters is suddenly slain and can't be brought back? What if the entire party is killed? They fail to achieve their goal, the Big Bad goes on to take over the world, and the players are unhappy and dissatisfied.

My argument here is that there are other ways to challenge the players and their characters without constantly using the potential for death as the motivator. There are many other things the characters could lose besides their lives: family or friends, reputation, self-confidence, wealth or power, home or homeland. I certainly don't expect the game to let them walk through every challenge without a struggle, but the ultimate threat doesn't always have to be their demise. The characters can still exercise caution if they're running low on resources, or they're trying to make a good impression on someone, or they want to adhere to a certain code of conduct. In my group we all want our characters to survive to the end, so we work hard to avoid getting killed because we don't want to miss out on the experience of going through the entire campaign with that character. If making that possible requires a house rule or some dice fudging on the GM's part, that's all the better. The point of the game is to have fun, and for me having my character die in the middle of the story isn't fun.

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 54: A Journey Into the Past

As soon as he entered the workshop, the finely dressed man commanded the Ruby Scarabs to kneel. Naturally the members of the party all refused, which caused him to draw his sword. Kaa stretched out his arms and demonstrated one of his new abilities as a swarm of bloody crows appeared to attack one of the devils. The man began to cast a spell, surrounding himself with identical images of himself. Then his eyes glowed and a sphere of flames shot out, burning Sula. She had been in the midst of summoning the lightning and the magic was lost. Azzaria also surrounded herself with images, while Hutt sent several beads of force into the man.

One of the devils maneuvered behind Azzaria to aid the man, while a second attacked Kaa. Kaa blasted it with lightning. Sula positioned herself to aid Kaa against the devil. The man backed up and began casting again, but Azzaria followed him and destroyed one of his images. He hurled a ball of fire at his own feat, burning everyone nearby. Two of the workmen had already been slain by his first blast, and now the third cowered behind a pillar, blocked from escaping the chamber by the presence of Nyema.

Azzaria warned the others that the man seemed to be healing rapidly and she suspected he was not human despite his appearance. Hutt send more force missiles at him, while Azzaria took up a flanking position with Sula. Kaa blasted both the man and a devil with lightning. Sula had entered the chamber in the form of an earth elemental, and she slammed a stony fist into the man, augmenting it with her inate lightning. The man tried to cast a spell but Hutt countered it. After he missed a slash at Sula he threw another ball of fire at his feet. The Azzaria dropped him to the ground, his throat slashed, and turned her attention on one of the devils.

Sula called Nyema to her, allowing the remaining artisan to flee. Seeing that Kaa was about to breathe lightning at a devil, Sula descended into the floor so it would pass over her. One of the devils dropped, but not before it frightened  Nyema and caused her to flee into the far corner. Azzaria brought down the second devil.

The fallen man was not quite dead. As Azzaria had seen, he was healing quickly and might recover with time. The Scarabs didn't know how to overcome his regenerative power, so they decided to bind him, sever his head, and put him in one of the empty sarcophagi. As they went about this gruesome task, they heard sounds coming from beyond the doorway through which he had entered, that sounded like a party taking place. They healed their own injuries before exiting through the doorway to seek the cause of the noise.

The space beyond the workshop was a large arena with tiered stone seats set well above the sandy floor. As they entered they saw two wretched slaves equipped only with staves fighting a hideous large creature made of bones and sinews without skin. Above the arena a man wearing a headress sat on a throne-like chair, with a woman adorned with fine gold jewelry seated beside him. As the Scarabs stared in surprise at this scene, Kaa sent a bolt of lightning at the hideous bone creature. This had no effect. Kaa then flew across the sand to kick it and began to pound it with his fists. Its ribs snapped at him like a pair of vertical jaws.

Sula, still in the form of an earth elemental, began to climb toward the box where the two people sat on their thrones, taking Nyema with her. Other audience members seated on stone benches moved away as they approached. The man stood and began to speak in tones of anger, but Sula didn't understand his words. Kaa sneered and shouted something back at him. Then the woman touched an amulet she wore, which glowed. A portcullis opened at the other end of the arena, and a bronze minotaur appeared in the passage behind it.

Hutt took flight and gestured, and the bronze minotaur floated up into the air until it struck the ceiling. Sula moved toward the man on the throne, and Nyema leaped onto the dais to grab him with her claws. The woman leaped to her feet, screaming, then stamped her feet and touched the man, causing him to pull easily free of Nyema's grip. He picked up a weapon from beside his seat and Nyema bit him. Azzaria also began to fly, charging the woman, while Kaa blasted her with lightning. Then Hutt cast another spell and the woman burst into a cloud of dust.

The man cried out in outrage at her destruction. The minotaur crawled along the celing until it reached the edge of Hutt's magic and fell to the floor. Sula and Nyema both attacked the man and Sula shouted to Azzaria to tell him to make the monsters go. The man called out that he yielded, and Azzaria told him to make the minotaurs yield as well, to which he replied that he couldn't as only the woman could control them. Azzaria picked up the necklace that was all that was left of the woman and tried to use it to command the minotaur, for there were two more of them emerging from the tunnel. The minotaurs retreated, and an instant later the Scarabs all experienced the same nausea and disorienation they had felt outside the workshop. Then suddenly the arena was empty. It seemed older now.

Kaa found a hidden compartment under the man's throne that held a suit of armor, a belt, a spiked chain, and five potion bottles. The woman's throne had a similar compartment containing a cloak, a ring, and a pectoral in the form of an ibis. Uto rendered an opinion that the party had been caught in a repeating loop of time, which they had somehow broken.

There was no exit from the arena except the one they had entered from. The tunnel from which the minotaurs had emerged proved to terminate in a stone wall. The Ruby Scarabs went back into the workshop area to find that the walls and sarcophagi were now fully decorated and clearly much older. The sarcophagus they had imprisoned the man in was now dedicated to him, as they had heard the artisans speak his name before he arrived. They removed his jewelry, including a scarab-shaped amulet that would allow a person to speak with vermin, which was given to Sula.

The Scarabs returned to the tunnel to seek an exit. The gel-coated room still smelled of acid and the acid hadn't damaged the scrawled writing on the floor. The tunnel through which they had entered was gone, or so they thought at first, but then they realized it was only difficult to make out. Now they could see a little light coming through. Kaa and Azzaria took turns burning off more of the red gelatin.

Then the Scarabs moved on, coming into a circular space painted with a blue lotus on the floor. Hutt realized the lotus room could heal those who remained within it for a time. Beyond this room was another round chamber full of ushabti figures, with a recumbent lion painted on the floor. A third round room had nothing in it but a cobra painted on the floor. It held a faint aura of magic, and Kaa detected a mechanical dart trap which he disabled.

To the west of the three circular rooms lay another round room with a figure of a pharaoh painted on the floor. Hutt realized that there was a magical aura in the chamber, and the inscription on the pharaoh's crown told how to bypass the trap, which would teleport a victim to another area. Kaa disabled the trap and the party moved on into a large chamber containing four pillars. At the far end they saw an orange crystal pyramid and another communication pillar. There was also a humanoid figure near the pyramid. Kaa called out to this figure, saying that the party had come to stop the Sky Pharaoh.

The person came forward, revealing itself as an old woman whose skin was covered in burns and scabs. She wore a robe encrusted with gemstones. She spoke to the Scarabs, saying, "Please tell me my suffering hasn't been in vain!" She told them she was a priestess of the god Osiris who had been imprisoned and tormented there by Hakotep. Kaa approached her to offer her a curative potion, which she told him would do no good. Other members of the group noted that the last message on the pillar gave a command to take position over the city of Ipeq.

Azzaria and Kaa began to discuss what message they should send to the other pyramids. While they did this the woman stated she needed to begin a ritual, a prayer to Osiris. But Hutt warned that she wasn't praying, she was summoning a creature. When she completed her spell a gong sounded and a low voice intoned, "Not this day." The woman appeaed angered by this. Suddenly she transformed from a disfigured crone into an attractive form, but when her jeweled skirt fell away it revealed that rather than legs she had numerous tentacles. Nails like knives extended from her fingers. Kaa shouted out that she was a devil. She rose into the air as Kaa breathed a spray of acid at her. Sula transformed herself into a huge dinosaur. Nyema clamped her teeth on the devil. Azzaria also begain to fly, and Hutt granted everyone but the devil greater speed. She swirled around the room, striking out with her tentacles as he Ruby Scarabs attacked her. Then she grabbed hold of Kaa. Sula moved closer and cast a spell to allow him to escape her grasp, then blasted her with a beam of intense sunlight, blinding her. Hutt dispelled some of the magic with which she was empowered. She tried to teleport away but was unable to do so. Azzaria knocked her down and slew her.

When the devil was destroyed, Kaa disabled the orange pyramid. Then the Ruby Scarabs gathered up the devil's jeweled skirt, as well as a headband she had worn, several potions and a scroll, and a magic ring she wore. Now their only task was to find and face the Sky Pharaoh himself.

Next: part 55, The Search for the Sky Pharaoh

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 53: Chambers of Mystery

As the roar echoed out from among the plants, Sula was cowed by the sound. A creature burst up from beneath the water to stab at Kaa. Hutt cast a speed-enhancing spell on everyone, and Azzara began to rage, her body no longer where it appeared to be. Sula transformed into an elemental of air and slammed the beast. The creature retreated into the plants and Kaa sent a broad spray of acid at it, discovering that the plants were illusory! The pool was a very deep one. Hutt warned the others that the creature in the water was a type of entity called a div, which could best be harmed by blessed weapons or those made of cold iron, and it would resist attacks with acid or lightning. He then cast a spell of flight on Azzaria.

Sula flew over the div and transformed herself into a crocodile, diving into the water. The div dived also and summoned a cloud of stinking gas at the other Scarabs. Kaa made a flying kick out over the water to pummel the div. Then Hutt flew over to the creature and cast a spell, and the div, shouting, "Trout!" In response, the div suddenly turned into a fish! Azzaria immediately slaughtered the fish, and Kaa devoured its head.

Beneath the water where the div had dwelt the Scarabs found a blue crystal pyramid and a communications pillar. The most recent message inscribed on the pillar told the party that the other flying pyramids were off the coast. After deactivating the pyramid, the party left the water chamber and went back to try again to access the room beyond the black iron bars.

Though they heard a distant grinding noise, the bars still did not open. Hutt, Kaa, and Uto joined together to examine them, determining that they held some enchantment that could cause them to become extremely hot without melting. Kaa tried putting one of the gems he'd recovered up to his eye to see if it revealed any hidden devices or inscriptions, but he saw nothing. The party began to discuss whether it was worth their effort to try to enter this room, as the only things they saw beyond the bars were three pools, several statues with the heads of animals, murals of river herons, and some small bones that Sula identified as remains of juvenile crocodiles. Then Kaa dived into the canal to see if there were any inscriptions under the water. He found none. Sula offered to use her ability to transform into a small cloud of whirling sand to pass through the bars and investigate the room. The others were reluctant, as no one else but Uto would be able to join her. But they were all tempted by the presence of what appeared to be an inscription at the bottom of the pool.

In the end Sula did enter the chamber, and Uto used one of his magical abilites to reappear beyond the bars. At the far end of the chamber stood two statues with the heads of crocodiles set on a dais, their bearing and iconography regal though they wore no crowns. But their heads were sculpted in a manner that indicated they could have had crowns. This intrigued the Scarabs, as the crown Hutt had taken from the elf statue had crocodile iconography also. Uto noted that these statues and the wall behind them held some magic.  He approached one of the statues and set a crown upon the head of one.

A rush of hot wind filled he chamber and the statues began to crack. A masculine voice spoke in the ancient Osirian tongue, asking if this was wise and warning that intruders would reap their reward. A greenish gas began to issue from the nostrils of the statues and the bars at the other end of the room turned red-hot. Sula transformed herself into an elemental of earth. Uto flew past her toward the glowing bars. The cloud of gas expanded, reaching where Sula stood. When it touched her the elemental vanished, replaced by a young crocodile that immediately dived into the nearest pool.

Uto left the chamber, took out the air-cleansing candle the party had found earlier, and used it to dispel the green gas. The candle did not have any effect. Hutt had jumped into the water and transformed himself into the shape of a jackal as he paddled about. He realized that the gas's effect had been suppressed, but in his jackal form he was unable to speak. Uto re-entered the chamber and managed to capture the transformed Sula, although she had no more intelligence than a crocodile and struggled and bit him. The cloud began to move again and Uto barely escaped through the bars with Sula in hand. He cast a spell on her to break the enchantment and allow her to return to her natural form. Once this was done, the party members decided that they had done enough fighting and avoiding the dangers of the pyramid this day. They went outside the pyramid to rest and recover.

After they had retreated from within the pyramid, Hutt announced his desire to acquire a new familiar to replace his lost Little Anubis. The Scarabs decided to make another trip to Sothis to accompany him. While they were away, all of them realized that they had acquired new capabilities. Hutt obtained a familiar in the form of a tiny blue elephant, which he named Blue. Azzaria revealed that she could now assume the form of a young dragon and breathe dragon breath similar to what Kaa could do.

When they returned to the pyramid on the following day, the Scarabs made their way to the last unexplored area, the temple of earth. There they expected to face another div named Kaahbek. The door block required them to recite praises to this being for several minutes before it turned to sand. Inside they entered a circular chamber that smelled of earth. A large scarab beetle was painted upon the wall. Uto cast a spell on Kaa and Azzaria to enhance them. Kaa detected no traps in the vicinity.

The next space they came into was covered in a red gelatinous substance which was translucent and gave off a sour odor. The floor beneath this gel was covered in scrawled glyphs. When Kaa touched the red substance it did him no harm, though it was difficult to penetrate it and caused a slight tingling sensation. An inscription in ancient Osiriani read "Like to like opens the way."

Hutt decided to cast a fire spell into a corner of the room to see if it would damage the red stuff. This created a blackish-red gas and did damage some of the gelatin. Azzaria then turned into a dragon and breathed acid on the gelatin, which turned it to powder where her breath struck it. Uto recalled that acid was the energy of the element of earth and cast a spell of everyone to protect them from acid.
Azzaria breathed acid on the walls again, and Hutt decided to test lightning against the gel. This time the lightning bounced from wall to wall, electrifying the room like the exterior of the pyramid was electrified by the protruding iron rods.

After this, the group members decided acid was the most effective method for removing the red substance. Azzaria and Kaa cleared a route to a tunnel ahead, from which Kaa heard voices. He proceeded ahead of the group to see what was there. At one point in the passageway he experienced a moment of nauseation and dizziness. Then he peeked into a grand chamber full of stone sarcophagi, where the decorations on the walls appeared to be freshly painted. After observing this he returned to the rest of the group to report what he had found.

The whole group then went down the passageway together, experiencing the same nausea and dizziness that Kaa had felt. Because he was most experienced with magic that could manipulate time, Uto suspected they had met with some sort of time travel.

The room of sarcophagi proved to have three artisans in it, working on the decorations. They seemed oddly unconcerned by the presence of such an unusual group of individuals, assuming them to be other slaves and warning them of trouble if they didn't return to their own work area. Just as this conversation took place, a block of stone at one end of the chamber descended into the floor and a well-dressed man entered, followed by three spiny creatures the Scarabs recognized as devils.

Next: part 54, A Journey Into the Past

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 52: Within the Crypt of Water

The rippling water from the canal threw reflections of the torchlight onto the ceiling overhead as the Ruby Scarabs negotiated the fee with the three skeletal boatmen in their reed boats. These boats were only large enough for two passengers at a time, and Sula had to transform Nyema into a figurine so the large lioness could ride with the rest of the group.

After the Scarabs boarded the reed boats, they very soon spied a statue of a man with the head of a frog, holding a trident in one hand and an inverted ankh symbol in the other. The boats took the left-hand turn at this statue, then a turn to the right to reach a small landing. This landing felt colder and mist filled the air. The chamber beyond the landing was rimed in ice, though murals of winged serpents could still be made out on its walls. Kaa disembarked from the boat and looked into the L-shaped room, reporting that beneath the ice he could see a large red winged serpent. Also below the ice was a wooden sarcophagus. Floating at about his height above the ice was another crystal pyramid. Kaa quickly discerned an icy trap on the pyramid and disabled it. But when he took control of the pyramid and attempted to disable it he was uncertain of his success.

The other Scarabs searched the icy room while Kaa worked on the pyramid. Kaa then suggested that they all back out onto the landing while he used his dragon's breath ability to try to melt the ice. But when he breathed, his breath seemed weaker than usual and had no effect on the ice. Azzaria suggested that this might be because this was the temple of water and fire and water were opposite elements. She tried making a fire herself, which briefly melted a bit of the ice but it quickly refroze. When it seemed that heat couldn't melt the ice, Kaa decided perhaps brute force could shatter it and took out his sword. The ice didn't reform as he began to chop through it.

Eventually Kaa was able to expose the wooden sarcophagus. The inscription on the outside told the name of its occupant, a woman named Khesem who had been a trusted adviser of the pharaoh. When the cover was removed the mummy of a dwarven woman was revealed. Within the sarcophagus Kaa found a metal flask and some quite valuable jewelry. The flask proved to be magical, capable of producing a never-ending supply of cool water.

After leaving Khesem's burial behind, the Scarabs moved on into a passageway and through a large opening into a room centered on a pool with a mosaic at its bottom. On the far side stood a statue of red stone depicting a elf woman with a water jar on her head. The domed ceiling overhead was painted blue, giving the chamber the feeling of being underwater.

The Scarabs noticed that the statue of the elf woman wore a necklace that wasn't merely a sculpted depiction of a necklace. She also held an ancient Osirian crown of war, which like her necklace was a real object and not a sculpture. Uto observed that the crown bore some magic. While Uto was looking at this, Kaa leaped across the pool into a side area of the chamber where there was a small pool shaped like a coffin. He spied a mummified woman in this pool, and there was a second such pool in the same area. An alcove on the opposite side of the chamber held two more such pools. Uto took flight and hovered over the pool holding the mummy, informing the others tat while he sensed something undead it didn't appear to emanate from the mummified woman. It was the bottom of the pool itself that seemed to radiate this aura.

Hutt decided to examine the red stone statue more closely, flying across the larger pool to approach it. He read the name Nailah on the cartouche carved on the statue. Some of the materials the Ruby Scarabs had read previously had told them that this person was the adopted sister of Hakotep's wife. Hutt tested the crown she held for magic and determined that whatever aura it held was being partly suppressed. He pulled the crown free of the statues hands. Immediately four mummified women rose from the small pools and a spectral figure of an elven woman appeared, attacking Azzaria. Sula drew out her spear to attack one of the specters. The elven woman turned on Hutt. Azzaria leaped into the large pool and reported that Hutt was behaving oddly. Azzaria used an enchanted bandolier she carried to grant protection to the others. But it was no use against the elven specter's scream. The moment her screech rang out, Sula collapsed, clearly slain in an instant.

Uto flew to Sula and cast a spell on himself to grow larger. The specter tried to touch him but was unable to do so. Kaa leaped over to Sula's body and sent a line of lightning at the elf and one of the other specters that were hovering near the statue. The elf's screeching ceased. Hutt began to attack Azzaria, and was able to connect even though she was not quite where she appeared to be. Azzaria reacted by flying away from him and toward the elven woman.

Uto pushed Sula's body behind his enlarged form and brought out an oil he had acquired in Sothis that could restore the dead to life, annointing her with it. A moment later Sula breathed again and got to her feet, taking cover behind Uto as she summoned lightning to blast the attackers. Uto summoned positive energy to harm the undead specters while Sula's lightning bolt struck the elf. One of the specters managed to take possession of Azzaria's body, while the specter that had possessed Hutt abandoned him. The elf woman vanished and the other woman reacted with terror at her departure. Despite their fear, one of them attempted unsuccessfully to possess Sula.

Hutt had been forced to dive into the water by the specter possessing him, who had apparently been attempting to drown him. He climbed out of the pool and warned the others that now it was Azzaria who was possessed. Azzaria plunged into the water. Kaa and Sula both directed more lightning at the remaining specters while Uto called on more positive energy to harm them until only one remained, the spirit possessing Azzaria. Kaa tried to grapple her but was unable to hold her, having forgotten she wore a ring that prevented this. Uto then used one of his rings to knock her into the pool with a burst of force. Hutt turned his body to iron and punched her with his iron fist, and Uto followed this by casting a spell that temporarily caused her to cease to exist. When she returned a few moments later Kaa pummeled her with his fists until the specter was finally defeated and Azzaria was free.

After all of the specters were gone, the Scarabs removed the valuable necklace from the statue, as well as an ivory cartouche. With these items and the crown in hand, they returned to the boats and continued along the canal. Eventually they came to another frog-headed statue, this one twice as large as the first, but Hutt and Uto detected no magic in it. A third statue they encountered bore the head of a hippopotamus with long fangs, wielding a spear. This statue depicted an underworld demon named Ekutamun. Kaa noticed that the hippo's jaws were hinged, and a large blue sapphire had been mounted in the back of its mouth.Of course this was protected by a trap designed to snap the hippo's jaws shut, which Kaa easily disabled. He had a bit more trouble with a magical trap encasing the jewel itself, but after a few moments of repeatedly disabling traps he realized that it was merely a spell to make the gem appear endlessly trapped.

The boats next took the Scarabs to a landing where the opening was blocked by heavy bars of black metal. There were no traps on these and Uto detected no magical aura. Kaa attempted to open a passage, but this failed. Uto then cast a spell to speak with the stones that held the bars, but the stones were uncooperative and unimpressed by the regal mask he wore. He attempted to meld himself into the wall as well, but was prevented from doing so. When they could find no way to get past the bars, the Scarabs moved on.

The next chamber they came to had murals depicting river scenes, pools, and hieroglyphs representing crocodiles. Two figures sat on thrones, and there was something else on the floor they couldn't quite make out. Around a corner was another figure with a sapphire in its mouth and more of the same type of traps Kaa had encountered on the hippo-headed statue, which he was able to overcome easily. After the gem was removed they heard a low grinding noise. Hoping that removal of the gem had opened the bars, they returned to that landing, but found the bars still in place. Instead the grinding had come from twin openings they had passed earlier that had been blocked. Now they saw a flooded chamber that smelled of salt water. Huge plants rose from the water to the ceiling, making it impossible to see what lay beneath the water. A crystal pyramid floated above the water.

As Sula began to summon a water elemental to investigate under the water, there was violent motion among the plants and some unseen creature issued a mighty roar.

Next: part 53, Chambers of Mystery

[Pathfinder] Mummy's Mask, part 51: Fire and Water

When their journey to Sothis was completed and those of the Ruby Scarabs who had been driven mad by the by the noise of the haunt had been healed of their trouble, the Scarabs returned to the pyramid and prepared once again to enter the fire temple.

Before they continued, Hutt cast a spell on Nyema to give her some protection against any other maddening effects. The party then re-entered the chamber where the haunting had occurred. Kaa discovered a hollow wall. He smashed it open with his nine-ringed sword, revealing a crypt containing a golden sarcophagus and a figure wielding a battle axe. This crypt was labeled the tomb of Inhetef, by whose iconography it seemed was an assassin. Kaa shouted out to the crypt to ask if Inhetef had any desire to help destroy the Sky Pharaoh, but there was no response. The crypt was empty but for a beaded robe of purple fabric and twenty sealed vials that Uto sensed no magic aura from. Kaa found a compartment beneath the sarcophagus that held a staff adorned with the head of a cobra. This staff did radiate protective and necromantic magics.

Kaa discovered nothing else in Inhetef's crypt and the Scarabs moved on. To the east of the crypt they came to a large circular chamber. A narrow passage led from the south of that room. The round room contained sparkling elements in its floor, which Kaa recognized as part of a trap that would create a blinding glare if living creatures entered. After he disabled the trap to allow the group to cross, they followed the narrow hall to another similar room, and then on to a third such room. The second and third circular chambers were also equipped with traps that Kaa disabled without difficulty.

Beyond the last round room they came to a basalt block, which was not equipped with any trapped devices though it was locked. Kaa picked the lock and there was a grinding noise as the stone block descended. It revealed a long hall lined with glyph-covered pillars and alcoves containing two green basalt statues depicting seated human figures with the heads of animals. A third statue of a man with a camel's head descended into the floor as the block in the entrance descended, revealing an exit from the chamber beyond.

Once the block and the statue had stopped moving the group could see that one of the statues in the alcoves bore the head of a camel and the other the head of a cat. The cat-headed woman held a bowl in her lap in which lay the remains of dried flowers. The floor beneath her bore a painting of supplicants bearing offerings. The camel-headed man was smaller, also holding a bowl in his lap though his offering bowl was empty. There were three more alcoves in this hall, but they lacked statues. Two of the empty alcoves contained only paintings of bowls, one of them empty and the other full of flowers like the bowls the statues held.

The party members spread out to look over this hall. Those of the Scarabs who could read the ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs determined that the inscriptions on the pillars spoke of how to please the gods, which meant  little to the Scarabs as only Azzaria worshipped one of the ancient gods of Osirion and the others followed different faiths. Hutt noted that the painted flowers on the floor were all varieties that had a strong fragrance. Kaa observed that the glyph for perfume was inscribed on the statue of the cat-headed woman. Uto took out a magical tablet he bore that let him better comprehend the inscriptions on the pillars, and found that it spoke of taking offerings from one god to give to another. This cryptic piece of text gave the Scarabs no ideas of what they were meant to do here, and Hutt suggested that perhaps they should return to the furnace room to see if they could find more keys there. Uto noticed that there was a fine gap around the base of the camel-headed statue, which led him to suspect that the statue was meant to descend into the floor. The cat-headed woman proved to have a similar space around her, but the Scarabs couldn't determine how to trigger the statues to move.

The room beyond this pillared hall was hotter than the hall. Uto cast a spell on his companions to protect them from fire before they entered the next room. Kaa found no traps there. An inscription spoke of how mortals could cool the ire of a fiery god and made mention of the ancient seat of a fire sorcerer who had sought to find balance by bathing in icy water, but there were no clues regarding the previous room's puzzles. The party members with more knowledge of Osirion's ancient religion knew only that there was no known deity with the head of a camel, and the cat-headed woman did not represent the goddesses Bast or Sekhmet.

The Scarabs went back into the room with the two statues, and it occurred to them based on the inscription Uto had examined earlier that they might be able to trigger the statues to move by putting offerings in their bowls. They first tried pouring perfume into the cat-headed woman's bowl of flowers. The flowers in the bowl seemed to be revived by being doused with perfume, and the statue began to descend into the floor. Behind her a small opening appeared, holding small clay bowls and jade cat figurines, two black pearls, a candle, a small case, and a crown made of flowers. Uto recognized that all of these items bore some type of magical enhancement. After the objects were removed from this niche, the statue rose again and the bowl held more flowers.

The case proved to contain vials, which Hutt explained could be used to mix alchemical agents. The candle could repel gases, and the pearls curled be hurled to create a burst of pure force. The cat figurines had magical auras but no enchanted properties. The crown of flowers was made up of the same variety of blossoms as those depicted in the painted bowl on the floor.

When the flowers were moved from the woman's bowl to the bowl held by the camel-headed man, that statue also descended, opening a new exit from the room. Kaa checked this room, which  held ledges around a pool of lava, and a pillar on which sat a small greenish-black gem. The waves of heat rising from the lava seemed to stop at an invisible barrier. Uto and Azzaria took flight to investigate this barrier. Uto told the others that there were two walls of force extending down from the ceiling of this room to a point about the height of a man above the lava. Kaa then donned a magical glove in his possession which allowed him to manipulate small objects from a distance and used its magic to remove the gem from the pedestal. The pedestal descended into the lava. The barriers also disappeared, replaced by an invisible bridge across the lava pool.

Across the lava, Kaa found and opened a secret doorway that led into a tall but very narrow passage, just large enough for the Scarabs to pass through one at a time. Through the opposite end of this passage Azzaria spied the tip of what appeared to be a red crystal pyramid. She also heard a sound of something moving about. Uto joined her to peer into the next room. They could see the red crystal pyramid hovering above the floor and hear the sound of some creature speaking the verbal components of spellcasting.

Kaa shouted to the unseen creature that it should allow the Scarabs to pass unmolested if it wished to be free of the Sky Pharaoh. Everyone moved up to the entrance of the crystal pyramid chamber and Uto cast spells. Inside they could see a man-like figure, alongside another pool of lava. As in the rooms where they had found other floating crystal pyramids, this had one on which communications could be written to send messages to the other flying pyramids.

The man inside this room shouted, "Feast!" in the language of long-ago Osirion. The Scarabs moved into the room, finding it wider at the ends than in the middle, with a rectangular alcove where the control pyramid and communication pillar were located. The pool of lava ran lengthwise down the center of the oddly shaped chamber. Azzaria sensed some other presence in this room, but saw no one. Kaa entered the room and aimed a burst of lightning at the man. In response he was struck by an arrow that appeared out of nowhere. A creature suddenly appeared, flying at Kaa. The man who had been spellcasting drew an axe and ran across the surface of the lava to attack Kaa as well.

The creature that attacked Kaa was of a type that the Scarabs had seen before, a skeletal creature. Uto saw two more of them appear. Sula sent a lightning bolt of her own at the man attacking Kaa, while Hutt cast a spell to allow himself to perceive invisible creatures. One of the skeleal creatures struck him and he was immobilized. Azzaria drew out a weapon that was especially enchanted to harm undead and hit one of the bone things with it. Uto healed some of the wounds the man and the skeletal creature had dealt to Kaa, and Kaa crossed the lava to attack the man. He was joined in this by Azzaria. The man suddenly transformed into a whirlwind of bats. Suspecting that he was trying to escape to a place of sanctuary, Sula blocked the exit and blasted the bats with lightning, while both Kaa and Azzaria attacked them and Uto used the Pharaoh's funerary mask to fire a ray of green energy at the bat swarm.

Azzaria destroyed one of the skeletal creatures, while Nyema was rendered immobilized like Hutt by a howl from the bat swarm. Sula transformed herself into an elemental of air to pursue the fleeing bats, but they weren't troubled by her whirlwind attack. By this time the "man" had been recognized as a vampire and the Scarabs knew that they must keep him from getting to his sarcophagus to regenerate his wounds. Sula flew ahead of him to delay him, but he was able to get past and reach the sarcophagus. That availed him little, for the Scarabs all pursued him and he was beheaded before he could begin to recover from his injuries. After the vampire was slain, the Scarabs took from him a suit of fine lamellar armor made from horn, a very sharp battle axe, an enchanted cloak, and a pair of slippers that had enabled him to walk on lava without being burned.

With the vampire eliminated, the party returned to the pyramid room and wrote a message on the pillar telling the other five pyramids to go to Wati and Tephu and wait. Kaa deactivated the red crystal pyramid and disabled the pillar after this message was sent. The Scarabs then searched the rest of the fire temple, failing to find the balor who supposedly held it. When they were confident there was nothing else to find, they departed and descended to the bottom of the pyramid to enter the water temple.

Like the other elemental temples, the temple of water had a massive block of dark stone as its door. The glyphs on this door told them to "slake the thirst of the one honored by this crypt", whose name was Aluash Imnah, a kind of water demon. They understood that "slake the thirst" meant to bathe this demon's green sigil with blood or unholy water. All of the Scarabs contributed a small amount of blood so the way could be opened. Uto had acquired scrolls containing a spell of water breathing in Sothis, and used these before they entered. After the sigil was splashed with blood, the stone block began to sweat, then burst into water, flooding the area. Most of the party members had backed up and were not harmed.

The corridor inside held a canal about as wide as the length of a man's arm. There was something odd about the water. Just as the Scarabs noticed this, three large creatures of mud appeared and attacked them, one near Kaa and another near Uto. Azzaria became enraged. The bronze sentinel was buried in mud, immobilizing it and trapping Uto within. Azzaria began to attack the mud creatures with a weapon enchanted to harm creatures of earth. Uto managed to use the sentinel to break free of the mud. Sula began to cast a spell, but when Kaa and Azzaria slew two of the mud creatures she halted her casting. Kaa and Azzaria then joined forces to eliminate the third creature.

As the three mud monsters were destroyed, a reed boat appeared floating down the canal. Within it stood a skeletal creature. Two more such boats bearing skeletal boatmen appeared from side passages. As the first boat came close to where the Ruby Scarabs stood, the boatman extended one fleshless hand and intoned, "Toll."

Funnies from this session:
When the Scarabs were in the chamber with flowers and perfume, Uto's player remarked, "It's Ankh body spray for men!"
The other players began to tease Uto about how much time he spends in the bronze sentinel. 
GM: "Do they make diet cure light wounds potions?"
Kaa: "Your belly's probably huge from no exercise."
Uto: "Have you seen my biceps from moving the levers?"
Other players: "The inside of that thing probably reeks because you never come out. The legs are probably full of discarded snack wrappers."

Next: part 52, Within the Crypt of Water