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]

[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. ]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella focuses on neferet, moving forward with concern on her expression. ]

What is it? Aside from the death and death like symptoms we've got 'round the bend.

[lissatrinall]

[ "It... it says Ankana's true line will be known by the specific mark it bears." she points a shaking finger at a symbol on the wall. a spot check of 15+ is all it takes to notice the back of her shirt riding up ... where the same symbol runs across the small of her back, a birthmark half hidden by her clothes. ]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri's spot of 23 is more than enough.]

You mean like the one you carry on yourself.

[And given how she's shaking, he has to think she knows. That she's not just afraid of this curse.]

[lissatrinall]

[ neferet pales a bit, turning around so that her back is to the wall.

"I-it's nonsense. It has to be a coincidence."

lis'sa frowns, turning her attention to another wall of the chamber. ] Ankana. It speaks of her here. How she forced her closest servants to swallow the eggs of fiendish insects procured from Hell itself. Those who successfully demonstrated their loyalty or curried her favor before the end of the incubation period received her blessing in the form of a cure disease spell to abort the hatching. Those who did not--

Well. They were devoured from the outside in. [ she raises an eyebrow at neferet ] What charming ancestors you had.

[thesleeper]

Perhaps we should press on to the next horror... before that visual fully forms in my head. [A shiver goes down Phineas' spine.]

[likeagod]

We can't let them get too far ahead if possible.

[Also, gross. Even Dimitri is creeped out by that. Seriously.]

[sorceresslite]

Too late, it's been proper visualized. That's gross.

[ she's saying what everyone is thinking, but she forges ahead, keeping her eyes peeled for people she's going to beat the fuck out of, not really paying much attention to the walls

or, say, for traps. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ they've pretty much reached a dead end here, and while neferet clearly wants to stay and read more, they head back to explore the halls they haven't touched yet, finding a hollow triangular shaft composed of the same smooth green stone, extending at an angle both upward and downward into the darkness. it almost looks like an angled elevator shaft. without the elevator. ]

[thesleeper]

Well... up, or down? [How angled is it? Is it climbable?] If I recall my studies correctly, I believe we'd want to go up...

[sorceresslite]

We could up. Then if we fall, we'll be going down anyway.

[ ha! ]

[lissatrinall]

[ it's about a 45 degree angle. it's possible, but it wouldn't be easy. ] There has to have been way for them to ascend and descend. A platform.

[sorceresslite]

Hmmm. Well, I might be able to illuminate the problem. [ crouching down, ella plucks up a pebble and casts light on it, squinting against the bright light that blossoms from the rock. and then she chucks it up into the shaft so it illuminates upward before it begins to fall down to the bottom. ]

Keep 'em peeled.

[ alas, she doesn't actually catch anything with her spot check of 7. SHE TRIED. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ her spot check isn't much better tbh :( ]

[thesleeper]

[These crazy ram horns give Phineas Darkvision: 60ft, but he's got a awful spot of 8, so he probably is worthless.]

[likeagod]

[Hopefully Dimitri's spot check of 22 will be enough to save them.]

[lissatrinall]

[ yep, thank fuck. there IS a platform up higher, but it seems to be parked at a higher level.

as if someone took it there already. 8|

there's also no visible way to call it back down ]

[thesleeper]

[Phineas folds his arms.]

Well, I was right about the going up part. I hate when I'm right... I wonder if there's a command word or something?

[I wonder if it understands common? He'll give it a go;] "Down." [He orders the platform. It's worth a shot, right?]

[lissatrinall]

[ they all stare upwards for an extended moment, before it's clear that there's no response. lis'sa intones something in another language - probably the same command in ancient egyptian, but again nothing. her lips tug down further into a frown, and she sighs. ] It looks like we'll have to climb.

[likeagod]

I can attempt to send a rope down.

[If he can...get up there.]

[lissatrinall]

Then let's try it. We're wasting enough time behind them, as is.

[likeagod]

[Burned an action point like a boss, but hopefully 22 is enough to make it up there by himself.]