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."
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