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
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