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

[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.]

[paracount]

[ dimitri begins the climb, doing a solid job of scaling the slippery rock, but as he gets up further, a listen check of 15+ is all that's necessary to hear a voice - a familiar, paracount type voice - speak something in ancient Egyptian, in a commanding tone.

a hideous rumbling noise above echoes through the shaft, as the lower part of the platform above begins moving. closer now, dimitri would be able to see that the base of the platform is actually a giant stone figure, carved from the same veinstone as the pyramid itself, with a head shaped like an Egyptian cobra. a lifeless serpent's tail hangs between his legs. make a spot check!

also, the golem? is moving down. right towards dimitri, lowering the platform that it holds aloft as it basically bullrushes towards him (opposed str check 24) ]

[likeagod]

[His spot check was a 19, so hopefully that's enough to get him some info because lol he's going to probably take some intense damage or something from this stupid platform (str 9).]

[lissatrinall]

[ he doesn't see anything but he also doesn't take damage - just gets pushed back downwards, past the platform where the others stand, oh snap. the platform parks there, trapping him below it in a shaft that goes down. ] Dimitri?

[likeagod]

[Oh. Welp.

He'll just...try to shout from where he's stuck below to answer?]

He spoke some kind of command in another language I assume to be Ancient Egyptian. It sounded like-

[And then he tries to repeat whatever he heard above (int 20 total)?]

[lissatrinall]

[ LMAO and it rumbles again, starting... to go down. lis'sa jumps out onto the platform, barely keeping her balance but shouts for the others: ] Come on! [ as dimitri gets pushed further down below the golem. he'll have to make a jump check to get off the platform before he gets crushed as it hits the ground floor... ]

[likeagod]

[SHIT HE SAID IT TOO WELL OOPS.

His jump check is a mighty 14. Hopefully he doesn't die horribly.]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella takes the jump like an ungainly lamb, but finds her balance almost immediately (balance 20 total). ] What's the Egyptian word for up!