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

4/-

[paracount]

[ julistar exchanges a look with lonicera, who shrugs and rolls her eyes slightly like whatever. with another glance at dimitri, he reaches into his jacket and withdraws the mask. hroken takes a single step closer behind him, scowling back like don't get any funny ideas (intimidate 16). ] Here it is. [ he holds it aloft for them to view - and they'd immediately be able to notice that there are two large cracks in it that weren't those before. ]

5/-

[lissatrinall]

Look. [ lis'sa nods at the cracked mask, glancing at the others in her party ] We destroyed what must have been two of the four pharaohs and the mask has been damaged. It's bound to their life force, and it's what's keeping this pyramid here - and all of us.

6/6

[paracount]

And what exactly are you suggesting? [ he quickly stuffs the mask away like 8| LEAVE MY PRETTIES ALONE ]

[sorceresslite]

That we destroy the other two, y'twat. [ her eyes flicker to lis'sa like ...that's what you were suggesting, right? ]

[lissatrinall]

It may be the only way to get out of here.

[likeagod]

Then it doesn't seem as if we should argue about it.

[Looking at you, Julistar.]

[paracount]

[ julistar stares at him for a few beats, clearly trying to work up a good argument, but in the end, he at least concedes for now. ] Fine. Then I suggest we get looking.

[ he wheels around to move into the next room, and hroken continues staring at them for a moment longer before turning to follow, curling his lips over his fangs.

lis'sa moves to follow, assuming the others will come as well.

in the next room, a gigantic black metal spyglass juts out of the wall, its tip hanging in the middle of the room. a veinstone chair rests on a raised dais in front of the lens, and julistar is approaching it with lonicera, cautiously stepping around to examine it.

"What do you think it is?" she asks. ] It's a telescope.

[sorceresslite]

Of the four, which ones do you think are left? There's the Cerulean Pharoah, the Fiend Pharaoh, the Radiant Pharaoh, and the Pharaoh of Numbers.

[ you'd think she just knows these things, but no, she googled it before they left tbh. she's not going to say their full names out loud in case it's like with gods and that zooms in their attention. ]

I didn't really get a proper introduction back there, you know.

[likeagod]

The first one made us play a game that involved weights and a large scale. If I had to guess, I would say she was probably the Pharaoh of Numbers.

[But, again, he's just guessing.]

The one made of black smoke, perhaps that was the Fiend?

[paracount]

Why are you raiding tombs when you clearly have no interest in Egyptian history? [ scorn rides on julistar's lip as he glances back at them ] That snake woman of yours told you that the woman was Ankana, the Radiant Pharaoh. [ he nods back at the room they just came from ] And perhaps you didn't notice the mathematical formulas covering every spare inch back there? Or perhaps two and two is too difficult an equation for some of you.

[sorceresslite]

[ she literally jumps to dimitri's defense, striding forward between the giant and the paracount. ]

He was a little busy fighting it, while you... Well. [ there is disdain, and there is the utter contempt dripping off that thoughtful word. while you disappeared. ] We're not raiding anything. The items in this pyramid could be cataclysmic in the wrong hands. [ like his. ] We're here to keep that from happening, to keep people from continuing to die within these walls.

[ she takes another step forward, vibrating with irritation. (intimidate 24) stop being rude!! ] Her name is Sir Trinall not "that snake woman".

1/2

[lissatrinall]

[ with a nat 20 will save, he just rolls his eyes slightly, and exchanges a look with lonicera, who snorts, but lis'sa speaks up before they can make another comment, examining the telescope. ]

This has to stretch some 200 feet out through the walls of the pyramid, to get a clear view of the sky. It's focused on something... Jupiter, it appears.

[paracount]

And entirely unhelpful. [ he moves to start heading into the next room tbh ]

[sorceresslite]

[ ella is like bye felicia, hope you get eaten. she remembers something about planets, but it's also unhelpful? (wis 16) ] Raegos said his leader was proper fussed their expedition take place when... Saturn was, uh, in it's ascendancy. Should have bought those fucking star charts, I knew it.

[lissatrinall]

[ lis'sa takes a moment to photograph the room, before she quietly goes to step into the doorway to the next. they can hear lonicera asking julistar: "What does it mean?" and lis'sa's eyes narrow as she looks at what they're examining, before finally stepping in to examine it closer.

those who follow her would see that this otherwise empty room seems to be devoted to a huge panel of complex hieroglyphics. hroken is scowling at it, as if personally offended by all those words he doesn't speak, as scepter looks around with narrowed eyes for anything they might be missing. julistar and lonicera are both standing close to the wall, trying to translate it, but to no avail. ]

[likeagod]

[Dimitri gives literally zero fucks what these people think. He's not a historian. W/E

He moves into the room, staying close to Lis'sa, speaking quietly.]

Can you read it?

[sorceresslite]

[ ella begrudgingly follows dimitri after giving the telescope one last look. peaks out from behind his bulk tbh. maybe it's magical writing tho? so she casts read magic under her breath and PEERS MORE INTENSELY with a spellcraft of 29. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ it does not seem to be magic! but... she can make a spot check while she stares at it so intently. ] ... It's a number.

[ lonicera whips her head around, raising an eyebrow skeptically. "Numbers? Of what?" ] I said number.

All the symbols on the wall comprise a single number, such as when someone makes a large mosaic out of smaller images.

[sorceresslite]

[ spot 17! SQUINTING INTENSIFIES. ]

[lissatrinall]

[ the images are changing every once in a while, rearranging into a new giant number. 8) ]

[sorceresslite]

It's changing though. They're shifting into a new number... like a clock, maybe.

[lissatrinall]

[ lis'sa studies it for a moment longer, before she seems to come to some conclusion ] ... One that's counting down.

It has to have been doing this for... centuries.

[sorceresslite]

A countdown? To what? [ and WHEN. ]

[lissatrinall]

Something relatively soon, it looks like. Within the next ... quarter of a century, perhaps.

[sorceresslite]

[ ella sags a little in relief. at least it's not, like, the next twelve minutes. that would be unfortunate. ] Maybe the next time they can ascend or whatever. Except two of 'em are dead.