egypt ♔ is this called living or something else

[lissatrinall]

♬ amsterdam - daughter

WHO || Lis'sa, Riddick, Phineas, Ella, Dimitri, Raegos, the Mithril Scarab, and more [Closed]
WHAT || The Knights head to Egypt to try and ascertain the location of a lost pyramid
WHERE || Cairo, Egypt
WHEN || Jan 21st, mid-day[forwarddated]
HOW || Actionspam. Single thread, don't worry about maintaining tagging order.

The party arrives in the bustling city of Cairo around mid-day, where it's a beautiful 70 degrees outside compared to the cold London January they came from. Along with whatever gear they brought individually for tomb raiding*, Wynn has also sent them with a chest of 2,000 gold pieces - because the woman who has promised to take them to meet Raegos (the only living man who can claim to have seen the lost tomb) plans to meet them at an antiquities auction.

Wynn has pre-arranged with the woman, who goes by the name of the Mithral Scarab, to recognize the party by the fact that they will cast several bids at the auction - and all of their opening bids will always be exactly ten gold more than the starting price. Once she has recognized them, she will find a way to show them a symbol of the Knights of the Silver Dragon discreetly to identify herself, and they are to follow her away from the crowd. Raegos' rumored paranoia concerning anyone else learning his location seems well demonstrated by the levels of security embedded in Scarab's directions.

The auction itself is a direct result of the recent elemental-driven storm that has unearthed a number of structures long buried in the desert. Some industrious tomb raiders have already taken to looting the lesser pyramids, and this underground sale promises to deliver some of the discovered goods into the hands of eager collectors. Wynn's generous supply of furnished gold was delivered to them with explicit instructions to purchase anything that they thought might be an item of actual valuable historical or magical significance, to become the property of the Knighthood.

* Don't forget to make a list of all items your character is carrying in an entry in their journal before tagging into this post! Please try to stick close to your character's maximum carrying capacity.

Comments

[thesleeper]

[I doubt that a Reflex of 13 and a Strength of 4 will catch anyone. Nevertheless, he will try, as he is a moron. Maybe, if he's lucky, he'll throw Riddick off enough that they all look as stupid as he would - were he visible - which he isn't. :D ]

[notafraidofthedark]

[and thankfully riddick is as badass as ever. A strength check of 18 and a reflex save of 20 (not nat) means he is able to catch lis'sa easily, his arm snagging her around the waist and slamming her against his chest, back pressed to the wall as he twists the rope between his feet. the grip of his other hand tightens, but lis'sa is so thin he hardly notices her added weight.

He surveys her face a moment, eyes unreadable behind his goggles]

You okay? [his voice is a quiet, barely audible rumble, uttered in her ear.]

[lissatrinall]

[ lis'sa lets out a gasp as he catches her before she even gets near the ground, and she stares down for a moment before dragging her eyes back up to his, a hint of gratitude there. she nods the slightest bit, twice, gripping him back as she looks up and waits for ella to signal that the guards have moved past. ]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella waits until the guards are gone and waves her phone to get their attention again. carry on, my wayward sons. ]

[thesleeper]

[Fuck this rope.]

[Phineas takes another 20 seconds or so (Took me three rounds to roll above 15...) Luckily there's still that silence spell going, so falling on his ass doesn't make any noise - and he's invisible so no one sees his utter failure.]

[lissatrinall]

[ the team can finally head across to the black reliquary, where julistar and his men have already scaled to the roof. julistar seems to be reading off some kind of scroll... and as they climb up, they'll find that the silence spell has been removed now. ]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri makes his way over as the team finally makes it onto the roof in one piece (gr8 job guys), attempting to take a look at the scroll from a short distance away without actually...looking over his shoulder like an asshole. (spot 16)]

[lissatrinall]

[ unless dimitri can read magic, it won't do much good anyway. BUT IT'S DEFINITELY MAGIC. it becomes clear what it's doing soon anyway, as a smooth hole appears in the ceiling's center, at the neck of the ankh shaped building. the giant half-orc takes a rope off his belt, which julistar's pencil-mustached friend grabs hold of. julistar looks at the others, eyebrow raised. ] Probably shouldn't send more than two of your lot.

[likeagod]

I'll go.

[He's good at being sneaky, at least. And he wants to keep an eye on these 'helpers' while they're in there.]

[sorceresslite]

Aye, and me. [ her nose wrinkles at the scroll bc she's a judgy ho. but her eyes cut to lis'sa like yo is that cool beans? ]

[paracount]

[ lis'sa nods almost impercetibly, and julistar nods to the rope ] Wonderful. Now if you'll just hold on, Hroken here will lower you in. [ strength checks for holding the rope, it's just a dc 8, and then spot checks too from you two! ]

[sorceresslite]

[ weee str 5. and i action pointed that. twice. :| gd negative str score. I DO NOT THINK SHE CAN HOLD ON TO THAT ROPE OK.

spot 16 if she hasn't just fallen to her death whoopsie daisy. ]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri will swiftly lean forward and reach out to wrap a hand around her wrist to hopefully steady her on the rope (reflex save 19, strength 15) so she can...try again?]

[lissatrinall]

[ she falls far enough before dimitri's hand snaps out to grab her wrist that she triggers... something. the ghostly image of a giant scorpion floats through the air from the ceiling beside her, nearly skewering her as it flies by. it dissipates however as it goes past her. lis'sa purses her lips, watching the spectacle unfold, and everyone holds their breaths for a moment as ella dangles there, in dimitri's grasp, before he pulls her back over to the rope so she can try one more time. ]

[sorceresslite]

[ well, go figure, she nat 20'd her climb check this time, shooting dimitri a grateful look and a quiet: ] Thank you!

[paracount]

[ julistar's man lands below with ease, looking around the room as he waits on the others.

the stone figurine that the crook bearer purchased at the auction is on display here.

a spot check of 15+ is enough to see the mask in question: locked in a case on the wall is a golden mask, decorated with a headdress of 56 feathers, a golden snake rearing out from the band. the pencil-mustached man takes a few slow steps across the room, taking his time to examine everything else as he goes. ]

[likeagod]

[He just gives Ella a silent nod at her thanks before he watches her descend down the rope, doing the same behind her (str 17). He notices the mask easily (spot 18), and he motions silently toward it before he heads after the other man, keeping any eye out for anything that might trigger another trap like the one Ella did when she nearly fell (spot 18 again).]

[sorceresslite]

[ spot also 18, ella veers straight over to the mask. because gold. it's gold and she wants it. SURPRISE. and then she gets distracted by the figurine. which she also wants. so many choices of things she wants, which is all of them. but her will save was decent enough to not reach out and fucking grab it, so thank god for that. ]

[paracount]

[ both of them also notice something else, since his roll was an amazing... 6. pencil mustache man drops something out of his hand behind a pedestal down here - that looks like a small book, obviously trying to hide the fact that he's doing it, before moves to join them casually.

"I brought a glass cutter," he says helpfully, pulling one from his coat and extending it towards them. ]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri gives Ella what he hopes is a purposeful look, because wow that was kind of shady Mr. Mustache.]

You two retrieve the mask. I will keep an eye out.

[More like he wants to check out whatever the hell he so 'casually discarded.']

[sorceresslite]

On it, mate. Come on, Chuckles, let's steal a mask. [ she shoots the mustachioed man a disarming smile (cha 22) before flouncing closer to the case, peering at it closely to see if there are any glyphs or spells inscribed in the glass. (spot 14) ]

[paracount]

[ he smiles back at her smarmily and then pulls out a glass cutter. ella sees nothing to indicate any spell-traps whatsoever, and on her signal, he cuts it free, and reaches in to pull out the mask. he raises a hand to cast a mending spell, resealing the hole, and nods towards the rope.

while he's doing this, if dimitri wants to check out what he dropped he can make a move silently and sleight of hand to go pick it up ]

[likeagod]

[Apparently, Dimitri is a sneaky bastard today. Making up for that crit fail on that rope idek.

He slips back a few steps (move silently nat 20) before he moves to pick up the book (sleight of hand 22).]

[paracount]

[ the small book is full of bizarre looking drawings, and a bunch of occult scribbles, etc. there are notes about 'binding', and cipher codes and things. ]

[likeagod]

[Odd?

So he'll just...slip the book into his duster jacket and confront them about it once they're safely out of the building with the mask. He'll just...think of it as insurance?]