The Forgotten City XXXV
General Summary
Disturbed by the beneficent energies Antonious Ignis, a ghul that had been nesting the charnel pile sprung forth agitated and fleeing the paladin. It lunged at the callipygous Riven Telstandis and scratched her; she felt burning at the site of the wound. She was startled by the sudden and furious onslaught and it attacked her again as two more ghuls were attracted by the commotion. The Jiam loosed a stone at the ghul but missed as Khufumernuteru prayed that Kham might drive them from his presence. One fled from him. Xamherkhepeshef attacked but missed. Elissa bas Sisa did great damage to one with her spear. Khufu brought his hammer into the battle and a ghul did scratch at Elissa.
As the battle continued the burning in Riven's scratch spread to numbness across her body. Antonious saw her grow unsteady and pulled her to a corner away from the battle and laid her in a pile of bones as she sank to the floor.
Herk and a ghul attacked each other. Herk missed and received a scratch for his efforts. Elissa stabbed at a second ghul.
Riven stared at the ceiling noticing what she assumed was femoral head wedged under her low back and thought about how nice the mosaics on the ceiling were. She attempted to move the bone out form under her before realizing that she could not move. She attempted to make a face of vague frustration, but realized that her face too could not move. She returned to studying the mosaics.
Herk and the ghul traded attacks once again, Herk felt tingling in his wound and feared that he too would be taken by paralysis, but it subsided and he brought his axe down into the hunched forward spine of this enemy splitting his torso in twain. Antonious and a ghul attacked each other. He was scratched and bitten and succumbed to the paralysis of the scratch, damaging his word in the process. Elissa ran through the last of the ghuls as Antonious froze.
While they waited for Antonious and Riven to recover from their paralysis the Keb tended to the wounds of Riven and sharpened Antonious's blade. Once recovered Antonious laid hands on Khufu in gratitude.
Continuing along the halls, the party found an emblem of Kham carved into the floor and facing a particular alcove. They searched the alcove but it seemed normal aside from a sunk-relief panel depicting Kham. The Jiam with his keen Alvi eyes saw nothing and the party continued checking the other alcoves finding a brass star chart dedicated to Anum-Riakh, another panel with a scene of hunters, pottery and a brass buckle. They came upon a stone coffer, but Khufu was wary fearing that it might have been trapped. He slid a small shim, gently along the opening until he felt it snag on a wire. He deftly held it in place while removing the lid and disabled the trap. Inside were many coins including copper, silver and electrum.
They found Elissa still staring at the marking in the floor and muttering that the seal on the floor faced the alcove but there had been nothing special in the alcove and it seemed wrong. She asked that the Keb with their canniness for stone look once more. Khufu noted that the walls did seem unusually thin compared to the others as he tapped in various spots and Herk found a spot where the stones did not line up quite right and slid a small shim into the space where it caught and the panel slid away. Khufu was not amused by the hint of a smirk his cousin wore.
Inside the chamber was a sarcophagus looked over by a mosaic of the Aelosian Trinity set in a night sky watching over the chamber. Khufu and The Jiam compared the night sky depicted in the mosaic to the star chart of Anum-Riakh; though interesting the slight differences in the depiction were not useful. Antonious indicated that the coffin was the legate of the Legion and forbade anyone from disturbing it. Elissa attempted to share a knowing glance with Riven that they would tell Alex of the secret chamber, but Riven did not acknowledge it.
Returning to the t-junction they found another set of stairs heading up and after their encounters with the ghuls were keen to acquit themselves of these dungeons and return to the cave to rest for a time. They headed up the stairs to find themselves in a colonnaded room they had not previously seen with dead Yafwadi tied to each of the columns.
Elissa expressed disinterest in being attacked by newly arisen undead and moved to slice the heads off of each of the Yafwadi while The Jiam, Khufu and Herk looked in the apse of the hall for a what seemed like an obvious space for a passage, but found none. As Elissa finished her grizzly work Riven made the hand sign for "quiet, listen" and the heard steps moving toward them. Elissa moved to the hallway and the party formed up with her as Yafwadi guards shouted for them to show themselves.
Elissa responded that they had been sent by their masters to learn more of the ways of the god of the sundered name and that they had been told by those upstairs that there was much to learn about the paths of Reshpu in these halls. The lead Yafwadi guard offered that they might embrace so that Elissa's unblemished skin might become pockmarked and blistered and she might truly walk the path of the Fetor of the Depths and the Leprous One Below, but Elissa demurred and they were allowed to continue without harm. They turn right and find that there was indeed a door hidden in the apse, and end in a hall with that door, a hallway with a barricade of broken barrels and some torchlight and another door to the south. The Jiam stepped into the edge of the torchlight and a surprisingly alert guard began to sound the alarm.
Rewards Granted
- 5000 copper
- 5000 silver
- 1000 electrum
- A sunken-relief depicting Kham (400sp, 10lbs)
- Brass star chart of Amun-Riakh (14gp)
- Goods including a brass buckle, pottery, stone panel depicting a hunt (10gp)
