knightsoflegend | egypt ♔ is this called living or something else

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egypt ♔ is this called living or something else

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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

...

[Phineas whispers to Lis'sa;]

If this is an illusion, then what the hell is she?

[ she murmurs back, eyes never leaving the woman. ] I don't think she's part of any illusion.

She's Ankana. One of the Four Pharaohs. You remember the story about the insects we read?

That's her. [ julistar says something else, and now lis'sa speaks up sharply as well, as if overriding him. ankana turns to look at her with a tight frown, before speaking again. ] She says she'll let us live... if we can best her in a contest of strength. [ ankana reaches behind her, touches a stone in the wall, and there's a large shifting sound in the floor beneath them. a green veinstone wall falls in place behind them, cutting off their exit. with a few words from the pharaoh, a wall behind her opens, revealing a towering throne that fills a small chamber. behind the throne, a wide-runged ladder composed of veinstone ascends to the blackness above. a finely sculpted statue, with a muscular body topped with the head of a feline predator steps forth from this alcove. its stone parts are composed of veinstone, while its wooden parts are a blackened darkwood, its metallic components a well-polished bronze. her sarcophagus floats back into this alcove and she steps back with it, to sit upon the golden throne. she leaves the door panel open to observe the 'contest' as it were.

the arrival of the heavy panthereon golem causes ankana's half of the floor - on her side of the near-invisible line bisecting the room - to descend a few inches, and for the ground they're all on to rise the same amount. everyone must make balance checks or fall over from the sudden movement. lis'sa catches herself by gripping phineas' sleeve, and julistar and lonicera grab onto each other, while scepter hardly budges. big ol' hroken, however, lands on his orcish ass.

a smug smirks works its way onto ankana's imperious expression as she gives them a moment to let this sink in. ] It's a scale. [ ankana says a few words to the golem, which turns to head towards one of the walls on its side. they would see that these walls are honeycombed with dozens of slitlike alcoves, each containing a giant circular weight. the golem pulls one out and sets it down on his side... and again, his half of the floor sinks, and theirs rises, although they are now prepared enough to not trip over themselves from it. lis'sa looks up at the ceiling that's about thirty feet above them, hissing: ] It's going to try to crusssh us!

Then let's make sure it doesn't!

[And his strength check is a ~~16, action point says~~ 21 to help pull down weights.]

[ julistar draws out of his pocket a tiny emerald statuette of a jade mantis, whispering a few words to it and then setting it on the ground... where it grows into a giant man-sized mantis, which he directs to go start pulling out some weights b/c it's stronger than he is, tbh.

scepter manages to lift quite a few of them despite his skinny frame (str 18), even more than hroken (str 15). lonicera can barely lift one, and strains audibly to carry it, dropping it with a gasp that says she's had about enough of this already (str 3). ]

[ lis'sa starts pulling shit out of her pack and jury-rigging some kind of mechanical pulley system to do the heavy lifting for her (craft mechanical 39). it takes her whole round though. ]

[ with their combined prowess, they easily heft more weights than the golem with its strength check of 12, and they gain thirteen feet on their side of the scale, as the floor begins to lower significantly, sending the golem almost halfway towards the ceiling.

round 2! julistar's mantis skitters about to add some weight to their side (str 18), which is better than his own subpar efforts (str 11). scepter continues to heft them with ease (str 19) and the half-orc finally gets in the swing of it, grunting as he starts piling more rapidly (str 21). lonicera again can't even lift a single one (str 3). ] Don't stop now. We'll crush the bastard yet!

[Dimtri's not slouching in the slightest, and it seems like their progress has bolstered his resolve (str 24).]

[ lis'sa's machine manages to move a few (str 12), but ankana does not seem pleased with this turn of events. she angrily shouts some words in ancient egyptian, and a creature manifests from sand on the golem's side, a seven foot tall, well-muscled egyptian laborer composed of the same colored stones that composed the chamber's mosaic. his weight along helps the golem's side, and their combined str check 25 & 24 make progress over the heroes and their reluctant assistants, causing them to lose three feet.

round 3~ the mantis steps up its game (str 22) but julistar is quickly tiring (str 6). scepter continues to work with steady diligence (str 19) but hroken slows slightly, growling at the way ankana's cheating (str 15). lonicera manages to lift ... as much as phineas but that's not very impressive (str 10). she still looks rather proud of herself. lis'sa's machine hefts with consistency (str 16) ]

[Dimitri slows this round (str 15), beads of sweat obvious on his brow.]

I didn't realize this contest of strength wouldn't be fair.

[As he glares over at Ankana.]

[ ankana ignores dimitri, snapping directions at the two creatures who combine to a 17 str check, meaning that they gain five feet again, putting the creatures exactly halfway towards being crushed by the ceiling.

round 4! the giant mantis slows a bit after its great effort last time (str 13) and julistar all but collapses against the weight he's trying to pull (str 2), and lonicera isn't much better (str 4). scepter looks worn out by his efforts finally (str 10), and even the half-orc can't keep up the pace (str 7). lis'sa's machine, at least, gets in a groove (str 24). ] We can't give up now.

[He slows further, despite Lissa's prodding (str 12), the weight of the objects clearly taking their toll.]

[ with a 24, the combined efforts of the golem and the elemental are impressive, but the team still manages to gain 2 feet! 13 more, and they will crush the two...

round 5! the mantis crit fails and drops a brick on its own arm, trapping itself there. julistar grimaces and decides he has to fucking make up for his fail beast... and gets a nat 20!! which is only a 19. shhh. scepter keeps up a 15, but lis'sa's machine breaks down with a crit fail D: and hroken is clearly winded (str 7). ]

[Dimitri sees Julistar being a badass and Lissa's machine breaking and is apparently filled with renewed vigor as he hauls ass (str 24).]

[ this time, their combined total was only a 20! They gain 6 more feet, leaving just 7 to go \o/

round 6! as ankana scowls on, i roll another round of a million str checks and am just gonna do the notable ones: the mantis frees itself, julistar 16. ]

[It's another bad round for Dimitri, who's probably sweating through his clothes at the effort (str 9).]

[ combined, they only managed an 11, which means they've gained another 5 feet! two feet from the ceiling now, the golems have to all but crouch to continue their work. ] Keep going! We almost have them!

[ round 7! lis'sa moves to start lifting herself, but can't even lift one stone, which is probably why she tried to save herself the embarrassment by building a machine. the mantis gets a 14, but lonicera pulls a 17 out of her ass, perhaps bolstered by how close they are. ]

[With just that small bit of space to go, Dimitri pulls out another str 24. Looks like he found something to give him that extra push toward the finish line.]

[ the panthereon and his elemental pal are really losing steam (str 13), which means they have more than enough just from dimitri alone...

ankana lets out an anguished cry as her golems are smashed to pieces against the ceiling. when the floors finally reset, only crumbled dust remains where they once were. the pharaoh, however, is nowhere to be seen. her sarcophagus, however, remains there, and lis'sa and julistar both head over that way to investigate even as the door they entered through finally grinds open. while julistar gets hroken to push the lid aside, lis'sa stares up at the ladder on the wall. ] She ran. [ she frowns, clearly disturbed by the potential implications of this, but the expeditionary is more interested in seeing what's in there. julistar runs his hands through the numerous silver coins nestled within, and scepter lifts out an ornate silver flask. julistar doesn't seem to notice the large book nestled there yet.

[Hopefully a spot 18 is high enough for Dimitri to see it instead, and he moves to snag the book before the others can get to it.

Information is better than jewels, if they're going to get out of here.

He moves to give the book to Lis'sa, considering he might not even be able to read it, and she's in charge.]

Should we pursue her?

Edited 2015-07-07 03:32 (UTC)

[ she gets a nat 20 sleight of hand to stick it in her pack before anyone else sees her, before nodding. ] Let's go. [ spot checks as they ascend the ladder plz! ]

[Sneaky teamwork ftw.

Dimitri starts for the ladder, heading up first (spot nat 20 woot).]

[ ahahahaa welp.

the 45th rung of the ladder, 11th from the top... has a small rune engraved on it that dimitri can't help but see. :') ]

[tmw your awesome spot check is actually a really bad thing.]

One of the runes is on the rung of the ladder here. Don't look at it.

[because he already did :')]

[ the rest of their party can avoid seeing it, thanks to his warning, but julistar crit failed, and as his party proceeds to climb up behind them, they could hear him swear the moment he sees it.

the ladder tops off in a small alcove, whose secret door has been left ajar by ankana. moving forward through it, they would find a black sarcophagus etched with hieroglyphic numbers standing upright in the center of the room, facing away from them. the walls, ceiling, and floor are covered in carefully scripted mathematical formulas.

ankana stands in front of the sarcophagus, reciting some kind of spell, her voice resounding off the symbol-covered walls. a bunch of sand is swirling beside her, coalescing into some kind of form... ]

[suck it julistar

He catches sight of Ankana, and whatever she's doing can't be good, so he tries to close the distance between herself and him, stake out and ready.]

Stop what you are doing!

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