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]

[Not the smartest move, but Phineas can't breath fire for a few seconds, so he charges and gores the mummy with his ram horns.]

Yeah I've got it's spell right here!

[Atk: 22, Dmg 5] [Did you imply Phineas was "self-respecting"? You should re-evaluate your stance on that.]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri follows Phineas' attack up with one of his own, hoping to bring down the creature, but apparently his companion is kind of in the way (atk 17).]

[sorceresslite]

[ omg you cows get out of the way. ella fires off another disrupt undead. (ranged touch atk 22, dmg 6) ]

[lissatrinall]

[ riddick is considered holding action until christine gets a chance to tag. the mummy goes for dimitri again, but crit fails and gets... stuck on phineas' ram horns. he has to spend the round pulling himself off from them?? lis'sa shoots again (atk 12/9) ... neither of which hit. ]

[thesleeper]

[Did I mention there's a like several turn delay between fire breaths. Phineas needs a minute, until then he's got horns. He gores again with an atk of 23 and 8 Damage]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri attempts to take advantage of the mummy's mistake, stabbing at it again, but he's likely too worried about hitting Phineas since the thing is being...gored or something (atk 13)]

[sorceresslite]

[ ugh fuck this undead piece of trash, ella casts scorching ray and shoots a jet of fire right at the mummy. (ranged touch atk 20, dmg 18) ]

[lissatrinall]

[ the mummy flails as it burns, and when it turns in place, they'd have just enough time to spot a piece of paper stuck to its back with a dagger that reads: "With Love, the Expeditionary", before it too is consumed, and the mummy destroyed.

lis'sa lowers her gun in disgust, and walks past ella, down the hall. ] Your friends have a sense of humor.

[sorceresslite]

Oh shut it, y'harpy. I know it's my fault, we all know. No need to rub it the fuck in.

[ she's only so snappish because she knows she made a mistake trusting that julistar wasn't complete shit. serves her for trusting a man. she tries to glower as she follows the other woman, but she's clearly abashed and the expression barely manages to stay on her face for a moment. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ the hall terminates in a t-section. a corridor of pillars stretches to the left and right. inscriptions cover the eleven pillars - or did, as many of them seem to have been burned off, as a spot check of 15+ can attest. lis'sa runs a hand over one such scorched symbol. ] Acid. Someone worked to obscure these markings, sometime in the last century.

Perhaps Raegos' expedition.

[likeagod]

[Dimitri is more focused on preparing for more fighting or something I guess (spot 12).]

How will we decide which way to go? Splitting up might not be a wise choice.

[sorceresslite]

Splitting up is probably never the right choice. But I think Dimitri is right, it might be the only choice..

[lissatrinall]

They already outnumber us. We need to be careful and on our guard for traps. And don't forget what Raegos told us, about seeing the runes he was so afraid of. [ she decides to go left and if other bitches wanna split right she won't stop u ]

[likeagod]

[Yeah, no, splitting up bad. He turns left, following after Lis'sa and attempting to keep a look out for said traps (spot 27, listen 15)]

[thesleeper]

[Phineas is 100% on the "Don't split the party" train.]

What was all that terrible shit I threatened to do to him when they stole my book? I'm too angry to remember right now - but whatever it was, I'm doing it when we catch the little bastard. [Phineas seems extra angry, for his normally detached self. It pairs well with Ella's snappiness, the group morale is great right now!]

[lissatrinall]

[ dimitri doesn't notice any traps - but as they turn another left after lis'sa, he would see crude runes splashed on the walls in black ink, that look like:

]

[likeagod]

[Dimtiri makes a single snap of his fingers to get the others' attention before he points out the runes painted on the walls.]

[sorceresslite]

[ moving closer, ella peers at the runes for a moment before she casts read magic, her lilting gaelic an echoing whisper in the tunnel. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ ella reads them as the Rune of Subjugation, Rune of the Desert, Rune of Fealty, and the Rune of Reckoning, but lis'sa eyes them warily, before averting her gaze. ] The paint is fresh.

[likeagod]

They could be close, then. Stay sharp.

[lissatrinall]

[ the hallway ends in a large chamber, whose walls, floors, and ceilings are blanketed with a dizzying wash of hieroglyphic characters. lis'sa stares up around it in awe, raising a light to examine every direction, while neferet pushes past, drawing a book out of her pack absently as she starts to look between her translation texts and the walls. lis'sa steps backwards to read the text on the raised platform that they entered on. or to try to, because lmao she... crit failed. ]

[thesleeper]

[Knowledge Arcana 21 - Phineas can't translate, but he's got his eyes peeled for anything that looks magical - or better, any obscure seals or symbols to copy into his journal]

What's it mean?

[lissatrinall]

[ he definitely sees the symbols that were outside in the hall here, and neferet looks over the text, to say: "It speaks of the curse of the Four Encircled Runes: unwary invaders are condemned to undeath, conscripted to become to the tomb's guardians for eternity. Throughout the pyramid, you can find these four symbols - each one representing one of the four pharaohs. An identical death ring - the circular glyph representing undeath - overlays each symbol. Individually, they are harmless, but if anyone sees all four of them becomes... beset by the curse." ]

[thesleeper]

[Cue disgruntled face.]

This day is just getting better and better. So what do we do? Blindfold ourselves like our addled friend Raegos?

[lissatrinall]

We'll simply have to be cautious about what we choose to look at.

[ neferet's focus shifts to the wall, pulling out another scroll and staring at a section of hieroglyphs, growing slightly pale. ]