Egypt mission summary
Feb. 5th, 2018 09:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wynnDimitri, Lis'sa, Riddick, Ella, Phineas
The Knights were briefed on their mission by Lis'sa: she spoke of a temple of Four Pharaohs of Ascension who had forged a pact between them to protect their lands via magic, linking their life energies. This backfired when one fell ill and they turned on him, but they decided to build the temple afterwards to house them as they ascended to godhood. The temple was believed lost but unearthed by the arrival of an earth elemental beneath the sands. Treasure hunters were racing there, and Wynn had learned of a man named Raegos who had set eyes on the pyramid. Lis'sa wanted them to get to it first, to keep dangerous magical artifacts out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them.
They arrived in Cairo, where Raegos' agent, the Mithral Scarab, said she would meet them at an antiquities auction. Wynn gave them gold to blend in at the auction, where they noticed a rough looking halfling and half-orc hanging near the exits. Seven large gold coins from the dynasty of the Four Pharaohs were sold to an aristocratic man with a magical rod. Ella won a bid for charcoal rubbings from the lesser pyramid, with many references to the Four Pharaohs. A weathered stone figure of a sleeping noblewoman put Ella in a bidding war with the aristocrat, but it ended up going to a man called the Crook Bearer. Lis'sa identified the aristocrat as Paracount Julistar Thrain, and the Crook Bearer as a prominent collector who had a rivalry with the curator of Cairo's exhibitory, the Arch Docent. Ella went to speak to the Paracount as the Crook Bearer and Arch Docent got in a bidding war over some veinstones. Julistar entered into the bidding war, and explained to Ella that his title meant he had rendered special services to the Crown. They flirted a bit as the Arch Docent won the stones. A bronze sculpture of a man with a cobra head was next, and they followed the instructions that were meant to draw the Scarab's attention. Indeed, they saw a woman watching them, and Phineas went off to speak to her as Julistar won the statue. He flirted with her as well and she offered her services as a translator for the rubbings they had acquired. 11 Papyrus scrolls, starcharts from the Pharaoh of Numbers, went up next, but Julistar went up to examine them and announced they were fakes. Despite this, Ella got in a bidding war for them with the halfling near the door. He finally won, as Phineas promised the woman, Neferet Anu, that she could come on the expedition with them. Dimitri noticed that she looked strangely like the woman in the sleeping figurine that had been auctioned off. A white-shawled woman approached - the actual Mithril Scarab and they followed her to a tent, where she insisted they leave any pieces of paper on their person outside to satisfy Raegos' paranoia.
Inside the tent, they met Raegos, who was blind-folded, and who explained that he had been hired onto an expedition with ten others by a man named Imivus who was obsessed with the stars being properly aligned for the journey. The man insisted the pyramid was hidden on another plane of existence and the Pharaohs had designed a funeral mask that could call it back into this world. When Imivus put on the mask, which he claimed was it, the massive temple appeared in the desert. They saw a warning that anyone who saw the four symbols of the Pharaohs inside would be cursed to remain a guardian of the tomb forever. Indeed, one of the others saw all four symbols, turned into a mummy, and killed Imivus. Raegos was the only one to escape alive, with the mask. He sold it to a merchant in Cairo, happy to be rid of it. He has lived in fear of seeing the final symbol since. At that moment, Riddick and Dimitri noticed a shape lurking outside the tent. Riddick cut a hole in the tent and grabbed the figure - the halfling from before, who claimed he was working with others, and was clearly a thief based on what they found when they searched him. Phineas realized his journal had been stolen, but the halfling did not have it
Dimitri and Ella discovered that the mask had a replica in the Arch Docent's Exhibitory, but that the real one was in the Crook Bearer's collection. Ella decided to ask the Paracount to help them go steal it, and secured his cooperation (and the gift of a beautiful new necklace).
At the Crook Bearer's Estate, Julistar met them along with several of his companions, a rifleman and the half-orc from the auction, named Hroken. After the Knights had substantial difficulty climbing into the place via Julistar's rope, Hroken lowered the rifleman, Ella and Dimitri into the building where the mask was. The rifleman helped them to steal the object, but Dimitri saw him planting a small book behind the case as well, and picked it up. They got out, and Julistar admitted that he knew the location of the pyramid, proposing a joint excursion. Dimitri discreetly showed Lis'sa the book, which she recognized, and showed to Phineas. Realizing there was some shady shit going on, they agreed to travel together with suspicions raised.
Julistar led them on what he called a shortcut through the desert, led by the rifleman, who was introduced as Scepter. Dimitri realized they were being led straight into a sandslide and warned them against stumbling into it. However, at that moment they were attacked by a Hieracosphinx, Keten Hamu, guardian of the pyramid. Julistar cast a fog bank on them all and then headed off, mask in hand, leaving them to fight the creature. Phineas managed to headbutt it anyway through the fog with his ram horns from his Amon binding. Lis'sa revealed to them all that they had tried to frame Phineas back at the scene, and they gave chase. Hroken slammed his shield into a dune, creating a sandslide to slow them down, and they had to find another way around.
They finally found their way to the Pyramid, which Julistar had already summoned. The entrance was 300 feet up on one side so it took them quite a bit for Dimitri to climb and drop a rope and then everyone else to follow. The entryshaft was etched with tens of thousands of names in hieroglyphics, which Lis'sa believed were the names of all their subjects. At the end of the shaft, they read a rune marked "Point of No Return", and were attacked by a mummy and they managed to destroy it, noticing that it had a note attached to its back: "With love, the Expeditionary".
They found runes that had been destroyed on the walls with acid, presumably by Raegos' expedition. They branched off to the left at a split, and found 4 different runes crudely painted on the wall: which Ella read as the Rune of Fealty, of Subjugation, of the Desert, and of Reckoning. They discovered a chamber covered with hieroglyphics on every wall and the ceiling, which told of the curse of the four encircled runes - if anyone saw all four, they would be cursed to undeath. Neferet blanched at one wall, which read that Ankana's true line would be known by the symbol they bore - which matched a birthmark on her back.
They moved on to find something almost like an elevator shaft of green stone and Dimitri noticed a platform parked at a higher level. As Dimitri began climbing up, Julistar gave the command to send the platform down on the back of the golem that controlled it - which matched the figurine Julistar had won at the auction. He was pushed down below the others' level and trapped in the shaft and they realized how to control it, all heading down below to meet Dimitri on the ground floor. There, they discovered a sea of treasure, and Ella ignored Lis'sa's warning not to touch any of it, attracting the attention of the guardian of the chamber - a large mummified blue dragon which killed her in one bite, tearing her body apart. They tried to fight it, but found it too strong, and Lis'sa yelled for them to get Ella's body and flee. However, the body turned to dust and ash in the dragon's teeth, and Lis'sa ordered a full retreat. The dragon unleashed a breath of lightning at them, and Neferet collapsed on the platform as they rode it up to safety.
They headed up to the higher level, and ran into the Paracount and his crew, who asked if they needed help. He offered use of their healing wands, revealing that the way out was blocked, and asked that they put aside their rivalry to find a way out of the place. Julistar healed them all, and then revealed that "Neferet" was actually Lonicera, a spy they had placed in the Knights' ranks. He believed that there must be a way of breaking the spell to exit the pyramid in the burial chambers of the Pharaohs.
They headed further up, to a windowed corridor. Outside the windows, they could see the illusion of a city from Ancient Egypt. They followed it to a rainbow colored chamber, where a woman rose from a sarcophagus - Ankana, one of the four Pharaohs. She said she would let them live if they could best her in a contest of strength, and became trapped into the room, which transformed into a giant scale, threatening to crush them if they didn't keep their side balanced. A golem on Ankana's side began removing weights from the wall to lower their side. Julistar summoned a giant mantis to help them pull down weights as Lis'sa created a pulley system to bring down weights. Annoyed at their progress, Ankana summoned a second worker on her side, and they continued to pile on weights - until the two golems were crushed on Ankana's side. They realized Ankana had fled, and searched her sarcophagus, Dimitri grabbing the book within. They pursued her up a ladder, and Dimitri unfortunately noticed one of the Four Runes on the rungs of the ladder, warning the others, who all avoided looking at it except for Julistar.
Above, they found another sarcophagus in a room covered in mathematical formulas, where Ankana was summoning something. They tried to stop her, but out of a whirl of sand manifested... Ella, though she was now undead. She fought off Ankana's attempts to control her, however, and an angry Ankana broke the seal on the sarcophagus beside her. They attacked her, as the lid broke open, releasing a mummy that disintegrated into a cloud of ashes, which poured itself down Dimitri's throat, ripping at his internal organs. Lis'sa thought it might be a belker, but was unsure, and Dimitri managed to cough it out so they could keep fighting it. They managed to destroy both the Pharaohs and they made sure that Ella was alright, so to speak, before searching the tomb, while Julistar voiced some concerns about what Ella might have come back as.
Lis'sa demanded to see the mask, which now had two cracks in it. She suggested that if they destroyed all four Pharaohs, they could escape. They found a telescope pointed at Jupiter and Lis'sa photographed the room. In the next chamber, the wall was covered with hieroglyphics that seemed to change - they realized that it was a countdown clock, to something that was going to happen relatively soon, although it had to have been counting down for centuries.
They proceeded to confront the fiend pharaoh, who had been chopped into 56 jars of entrails, which animated into swarms and attacked them. They made a plan to take on the dragon below, and with the help of the Expeditionary, destroyed it, although Hroken was killed by an exhalation of electricity from the beast. Realizing that the mask still had not cracked, they found a false bottom in the sarcophagus, full of pieces of blue dragon scale and obsidian, that created a puzzle. Ella nearly put together an image of one of the Four Runes, but stopped herself, and Dimitri created the hieroglyph for "exit" with the blue dragon pieces. The mask shattered and the pyramid began rumbling around them. They raced towards the exit through a gauntlet of traps, and the Expeditionary's selfish approach to escape backfired on them when they all fell in a pit. The Knights risked their life to get them out and escaped at the very last second from the Pyramid, climbing down the treacherous outside. Phineas nearly fell to his death but was saved by Riddick, and Lonicera was caught by Dimitri when she fell.
Julistar, however, also fell, and though Ella managed to grip his hand for a second, he slipped free, plummeting to his death below. The pyramid sunk into the sands below and they headed back with Hroken's body, Scepter, and Lonicera, who blamed them for Julistar's death. Lis'sa spoke to Ella about her strange undead condition, believing it to be some sort of lost necromantic art from centuries ago. She said she would try to discover the truth. Back at the castle, Wynn spoke to Ella about it as well. He gave her a ring that would allow her to disguise her new condition.
The Knights were briefed on their mission by Lis'sa: she spoke of a temple of Four Pharaohs of Ascension who had forged a pact between them to protect their lands via magic, linking their life energies. This backfired when one fell ill and they turned on him, but they decided to build the temple afterwards to house them as they ascended to godhood. The temple was believed lost but unearthed by the arrival of an earth elemental beneath the sands. Treasure hunters were racing there, and Wynn had learned of a man named Raegos who had set eyes on the pyramid. Lis'sa wanted them to get to it first, to keep dangerous magical artifacts out of the hands of those who shouldn't have them.
They arrived in Cairo, where Raegos' agent, the Mithral Scarab, said she would meet them at an antiquities auction. Wynn gave them gold to blend in at the auction, where they noticed a rough looking halfling and half-orc hanging near the exits. Seven large gold coins from the dynasty of the Four Pharaohs were sold to an aristocratic man with a magical rod. Ella won a bid for charcoal rubbings from the lesser pyramid, with many references to the Four Pharaohs. A weathered stone figure of a sleeping noblewoman put Ella in a bidding war with the aristocrat, but it ended up going to a man called the Crook Bearer. Lis'sa identified the aristocrat as Paracount Julistar Thrain, and the Crook Bearer as a prominent collector who had a rivalry with the curator of Cairo's exhibitory, the Arch Docent. Ella went to speak to the Paracount as the Crook Bearer and Arch Docent got in a bidding war over some veinstones. Julistar entered into the bidding war, and explained to Ella that his title meant he had rendered special services to the Crown. They flirted a bit as the Arch Docent won the stones. A bronze sculpture of a man with a cobra head was next, and they followed the instructions that were meant to draw the Scarab's attention. Indeed, they saw a woman watching them, and Phineas went off to speak to her as Julistar won the statue. He flirted with her as well and she offered her services as a translator for the rubbings they had acquired. 11 Papyrus scrolls, starcharts from the Pharaoh of Numbers, went up next, but Julistar went up to examine them and announced they were fakes. Despite this, Ella got in a bidding war for them with the halfling near the door. He finally won, as Phineas promised the woman, Neferet Anu, that she could come on the expedition with them. Dimitri noticed that she looked strangely like the woman in the sleeping figurine that had been auctioned off. A white-shawled woman approached - the actual Mithril Scarab and they followed her to a tent, where she insisted they leave any pieces of paper on their person outside to satisfy Raegos' paranoia.
Inside the tent, they met Raegos, who was blind-folded, and who explained that he had been hired onto an expedition with ten others by a man named Imivus who was obsessed with the stars being properly aligned for the journey. The man insisted the pyramid was hidden on another plane of existence and the Pharaohs had designed a funeral mask that could call it back into this world. When Imivus put on the mask, which he claimed was it, the massive temple appeared in the desert. They saw a warning that anyone who saw the four symbols of the Pharaohs inside would be cursed to remain a guardian of the tomb forever. Indeed, one of the others saw all four symbols, turned into a mummy, and killed Imivus. Raegos was the only one to escape alive, with the mask. He sold it to a merchant in Cairo, happy to be rid of it. He has lived in fear of seeing the final symbol since. At that moment, Riddick and Dimitri noticed a shape lurking outside the tent. Riddick cut a hole in the tent and grabbed the figure - the halfling from before, who claimed he was working with others, and was clearly a thief based on what they found when they searched him. Phineas realized his journal had been stolen, but the halfling did not have it
Dimitri and Ella discovered that the mask had a replica in the Arch Docent's Exhibitory, but that the real one was in the Crook Bearer's collection. Ella decided to ask the Paracount to help them go steal it, and secured his cooperation (and the gift of a beautiful new necklace).
At the Crook Bearer's Estate, Julistar met them along with several of his companions, a rifleman and the half-orc from the auction, named Hroken. After the Knights had substantial difficulty climbing into the place via Julistar's rope, Hroken lowered the rifleman, Ella and Dimitri into the building where the mask was. The rifleman helped them to steal the object, but Dimitri saw him planting a small book behind the case as well, and picked it up. They got out, and Julistar admitted that he knew the location of the pyramid, proposing a joint excursion. Dimitri discreetly showed Lis'sa the book, which she recognized, and showed to Phineas. Realizing there was some shady shit going on, they agreed to travel together with suspicions raised.
Julistar led them on what he called a shortcut through the desert, led by the rifleman, who was introduced as Scepter. Dimitri realized they were being led straight into a sandslide and warned them against stumbling into it. However, at that moment they were attacked by a Hieracosphinx, Keten Hamu, guardian of the pyramid. Julistar cast a fog bank on them all and then headed off, mask in hand, leaving them to fight the creature. Phineas managed to headbutt it anyway through the fog with his ram horns from his Amon binding. Lis'sa revealed to them all that they had tried to frame Phineas back at the scene, and they gave chase. Hroken slammed his shield into a dune, creating a sandslide to slow them down, and they had to find another way around.
They finally found their way to the Pyramid, which Julistar had already summoned. The entrance was 300 feet up on one side so it took them quite a bit for Dimitri to climb and drop a rope and then everyone else to follow. The entryshaft was etched with tens of thousands of names in hieroglyphics, which Lis'sa believed were the names of all their subjects. At the end of the shaft, they read a rune marked "Point of No Return", and were attacked by a mummy and they managed to destroy it, noticing that it had a note attached to its back: "With love, the Expeditionary".
They found runes that had been destroyed on the walls with acid, presumably by Raegos' expedition. They branched off to the left at a split, and found 4 different runes crudely painted on the wall: which Ella read as the Rune of Fealty, of Subjugation, of the Desert, and of Reckoning. They discovered a chamber covered with hieroglyphics on every wall and the ceiling, which told of the curse of the four encircled runes - if anyone saw all four, they would be cursed to undeath. Neferet blanched at one wall, which read that Ankana's true line would be known by the symbol they bore - which matched a birthmark on her back.
They moved on to find something almost like an elevator shaft of green stone and Dimitri noticed a platform parked at a higher level. As Dimitri began climbing up, Julistar gave the command to send the platform down on the back of the golem that controlled it - which matched the figurine Julistar had won at the auction. He was pushed down below the others' level and trapped in the shaft and they realized how to control it, all heading down below to meet Dimitri on the ground floor. There, they discovered a sea of treasure, and Ella ignored Lis'sa's warning not to touch any of it, attracting the attention of the guardian of the chamber - a large mummified blue dragon which killed her in one bite, tearing her body apart. They tried to fight it, but found it too strong, and Lis'sa yelled for them to get Ella's body and flee. However, the body turned to dust and ash in the dragon's teeth, and Lis'sa ordered a full retreat. The dragon unleashed a breath of lightning at them, and Neferet collapsed on the platform as they rode it up to safety.
They headed up to the higher level, and ran into the Paracount and his crew, who asked if they needed help. He offered use of their healing wands, revealing that the way out was blocked, and asked that they put aside their rivalry to find a way out of the place. Julistar healed them all, and then revealed that "Neferet" was actually Lonicera, a spy they had placed in the Knights' ranks. He believed that there must be a way of breaking the spell to exit the pyramid in the burial chambers of the Pharaohs.
They headed further up, to a windowed corridor. Outside the windows, they could see the illusion of a city from Ancient Egypt. They followed it to a rainbow colored chamber, where a woman rose from a sarcophagus - Ankana, one of the four Pharaohs. She said she would let them live if they could best her in a contest of strength, and became trapped into the room, which transformed into a giant scale, threatening to crush them if they didn't keep their side balanced. A golem on Ankana's side began removing weights from the wall to lower their side. Julistar summoned a giant mantis to help them pull down weights as Lis'sa created a pulley system to bring down weights. Annoyed at their progress, Ankana summoned a second worker on her side, and they continued to pile on weights - until the two golems were crushed on Ankana's side. They realized Ankana had fled, and searched her sarcophagus, Dimitri grabbing the book within. They pursued her up a ladder, and Dimitri unfortunately noticed one of the Four Runes on the rungs of the ladder, warning the others, who all avoided looking at it except for Julistar.
Above, they found another sarcophagus in a room covered in mathematical formulas, where Ankana was summoning something. They tried to stop her, but out of a whirl of sand manifested... Ella, though she was now undead. She fought off Ankana's attempts to control her, however, and an angry Ankana broke the seal on the sarcophagus beside her. They attacked her, as the lid broke open, releasing a mummy that disintegrated into a cloud of ashes, which poured itself down Dimitri's throat, ripping at his internal organs. Lis'sa thought it might be a belker, but was unsure, and Dimitri managed to cough it out so they could keep fighting it. They managed to destroy both the Pharaohs and they made sure that Ella was alright, so to speak, before searching the tomb, while Julistar voiced some concerns about what Ella might have come back as.
Lis'sa demanded to see the mask, which now had two cracks in it. She suggested that if they destroyed all four Pharaohs, they could escape. They found a telescope pointed at Jupiter and Lis'sa photographed the room. In the next chamber, the wall was covered with hieroglyphics that seemed to change - they realized that it was a countdown clock, to something that was going to happen relatively soon, although it had to have been counting down for centuries.
They proceeded to confront the fiend pharaoh, who had been chopped into 56 jars of entrails, which animated into swarms and attacked them. They made a plan to take on the dragon below, and with the help of the Expeditionary, destroyed it, although Hroken was killed by an exhalation of electricity from the beast. Realizing that the mask still had not cracked, they found a false bottom in the sarcophagus, full of pieces of blue dragon scale and obsidian, that created a puzzle. Ella nearly put together an image of one of the Four Runes, but stopped herself, and Dimitri created the hieroglyph for "exit" with the blue dragon pieces. The mask shattered and the pyramid began rumbling around them. They raced towards the exit through a gauntlet of traps, and the Expeditionary's selfish approach to escape backfired on them when they all fell in a pit. The Knights risked their life to get them out and escaped at the very last second from the Pyramid, climbing down the treacherous outside. Phineas nearly fell to his death but was saved by Riddick, and Lonicera was caught by Dimitri when she fell.
Julistar, however, also fell, and though Ella managed to grip his hand for a second, he slipped free, plummeting to his death below. The pyramid sunk into the sands below and they headed back with Hroken's body, Scepter, and Lonicera, who blamed them for Julistar's death. Lis'sa spoke to Ella about her strange undead condition, believing it to be some sort of lost necromantic art from centuries ago. She said she would try to discover the truth. Back at the castle, Wynn spoke to Ella about it as well. He gave her a ring that would allow her to disguise her new condition.