Living Sands: So Close, Yet So Far
Aug. 7th, 2005 11:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aithneWe had come to the exit to the upper world, and discovered that we were beneath a temple of Anubis, a large and active one headed by a formerly undead pharaoh named Amunhotep.
Five hundred Anubites stood between us and freedom, and I had a feeling no matter what we tried, we were going to have to go through them...
3 Koiak, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (October 19th, 1275 BCE)
We spent the night in the doorknob at the foot of the stairs. I fell into what must have been the first deep sleep I've experienced since Usi died, and managed finally to sleep through the night. In the morning I awoke, and for the first time in what seemed an eternity the thought of carrying on did not seem like a heavy burden. I was apprehensive about what we would find, however, in the temple above us.
We were met on the other side of the door by Bden. Terik said something very thoughtless to him about the fact that Sekath had changed him from evil to good, but fortunately, he didn't seem to get angry. We did drag Terik away from Bden, though. We can't take him anywhere.
Menes evidently didn't like Bden's change of heart, and trapped him down here. We spoke to him for a bit about what was above us, and then Grrrbek had the bright idea to tunnel out. We tried, and found that our way was blocked by a force shield that would not let us through. I tried to dimension door through it, only to find that it was twisted, somehow. Amunet tried it, and evidently found something terrible on the other side. Fortunately, he had the teleportation dagger with him, so we hoped he had decided to go back to Abbodos.
(I hoped, at least. Oddly enough, I've grown quite fond of Amunet, quite against my will. He isn't particularly noble, and his moral system has a few failings, but I am seeing many things with new eyes lately. That and he seems to be treating the rest of us more nicely these days.)
We decided to go into at least the basement of the temple, and see how difficult this would be.
The smell was indescribable. Anubis demands the sacrifice of intelligent beings, and beings of all sorts were caged down here. There were two ugly stone statues near the door, one looking across the doorway and another looking down from above. The first seemed to melt away anything that came close, and the second one simply disappeared anything that came into its gaze.
The first one took three of my scrying mirrors (good thing I've been collecting them, trying to find one I really like!) to reflect its gaze back at it and melt it. The second took a few hits from the others, and it fell to the ground, useless.
Under an invisibility sphere, we waked down the corridor, peering into the cages as we went. People of all descriptions were dead and dying down here, and the smell only got worse as we kept walking. We discussed several plans, but Mayet came up with the best plan--she could plane shift us to the astral, we could walk out, and then tomorrow she could plane shift us back. This sounded like a capital notion, and we decided to try it.
I had a feeling it wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try.
In the beginning, all seemed to be going well. But then Grrrbek spotted something off in the distance--a pair of creatures that seemed to be both on the astral and the material. Demons they were, and they attacked when they saw us. They managed to hit Pepy, and instead of hurting him, it sent him back to the material. Seeing this, Pepy used the blood of the other one to send himself back to help.
All of us chose to go; I stayed behind for a few minutes, to arm myself for battle. Raam flew off for about a mile or so so he could come back in a place of his choosing--outside the walls.
I came back and found a wealth of targets to choose from. Grrrbek was methodically destroying the Anubis temple (having a god around is useful sometimes!) and the others were fighting priests of various sorts. Raam was in battle with someone who looked large and nasty, and once the temple was collapsed, Grrrbek trotted over to help the half-giant.
(I have my suspicions about what Raam actually is, now. While the thought that he's a girl is amusing, I have an idea that he's something else entirely...something large and fire-resistant, to be exact. But I keep my suspicions to myself.)
We fought, and fought some more. A priest cast something on me that I recognized as a Harm, and I fled the battlefield to heal up. When I returned, my compatriots were mopping up the last few stragglers, Amunhotep having died reasonably soon after I'd been driven off. Evidently, Wadjet the small red dragon has quite the breath weapon on him.
We managed to take a prisoner, who told us that he had never been allowed into Amunhotep's room, and told us where it was located. A bit of digging later and we found some scrolls that might have interesting things in them. Grrrbek dug down to rescue the prisoners and the red dragon who had been trapped down in the labyrinth, and Bden came out as well. We got Amunet back from Abbodos, as well (I had no idea that he took bubble baths!), and once we were all together we spoke to Amunhotep's corpse.
Amunhotep had been making sure the red dragon continued to produce baby dragons, and had also been selling weapons and armor to the Nubians. He had sent much of the dragon armor to Nubia, with four large shipments being sent to Thebes.
We asked then what he knows of Sekath, since his name had come up again recently. He said that he was an old and powerful druid, perhaps the high druid for this area, and he'd been methodically culling the pharaohs that had come back, cutting their numbers from almost thirty to seventeen at the beginning on this year. They had a theory that he had some sort of relationship with Imhotep, and they suspected that he might be a gold dragon in disguise.
Interesting, indeed. I'll have to talk to Imhotep about him.
The red dragon didn't try to kill us, though she was sorrowful when we told her what had become of all of her children. She'll lair around here, still, take some time to dig her things out from the labyrinth and take the treasure of the temple here at Amarra.
Bden had some other information for us, including that in less than two weeks' time, there will be a meeting of at least three of the old pharaohs, somewhere Dahshur, which is somewhere south of Cairo. This happens twice a year, and the meeting moves around.
The other interesting thing that Bden said was that Nefrusobek, another old pharaoh, was somewhere in the desert outside of Amarra, searching for something--Bden thought it might be a temple or a tomb, but he wasn't sure. He's been looking for it for three years with no success, but it brings him within our reach.
And I and Isu would dearly love to run the deserts again. Perhaps we will have the chance to go running in the hard, cold night air, the stars glittering knives above us in Nut's dark firmament...
Quotes:
"Hey, Bden's here!"
"No killing him!"
--Grrrbek, Raam
"It's the poor man's teleport."
"It's like the poor man's internal combustion engine--legs."
--Graham, Bryan
"The characters don't know they're in a Storm campaign, but they may be beginning to suspect."
--Kris
(after Storm explains to Graham that he can't go attack Amunhotep because he's surrounded by enemy clerics)
"You're going, 'hey, let me past! You are beneath my notice!"
--Derek
"He was a high priest of Anubis. He never made pharaoh."
"Slacker."
--Storm, Laura
"How does a non-Egyptian become a high priest of Anubis?"
"Very carefully."
--Bryan, Derek
"Amunhotep is ignoring you and trying to kill Raam."
"I am AFFRONTED!"
--Storm, Grrrbek
"I am angry."
"Well, be really angry, because if you can do 140 hit points you've got him."
"Not that angry."
--Grrrbek, Storm
"For some reason Amunhotep doesn't like me. Maybe it's my face."
--Raam
*Sitefnut scries on Amunet, trying to determine if he got out of the temple before it collapsed*
"Amunet is taking a bubble bath in Abbodos."
"My eyes! My eyes!"
"At least the bubbles cover everything…"
--Storm, Kris
"I whiz on the altar."
--Grrrbek
Five hundred Anubites stood between us and freedom, and I had a feeling no matter what we tried, we were going to have to go through them...
3 Koiak, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (October 19th, 1275 BCE)
We spent the night in the doorknob at the foot of the stairs. I fell into what must have been the first deep sleep I've experienced since Usi died, and managed finally to sleep through the night. In the morning I awoke, and for the first time in what seemed an eternity the thought of carrying on did not seem like a heavy burden. I was apprehensive about what we would find, however, in the temple above us.
We were met on the other side of the door by Bden. Terik said something very thoughtless to him about the fact that Sekath had changed him from evil to good, but fortunately, he didn't seem to get angry. We did drag Terik away from Bden, though. We can't take him anywhere.
Menes evidently didn't like Bden's change of heart, and trapped him down here. We spoke to him for a bit about what was above us, and then Grrrbek had the bright idea to tunnel out. We tried, and found that our way was blocked by a force shield that would not let us through. I tried to dimension door through it, only to find that it was twisted, somehow. Amunet tried it, and evidently found something terrible on the other side. Fortunately, he had the teleportation dagger with him, so we hoped he had decided to go back to Abbodos.
(I hoped, at least. Oddly enough, I've grown quite fond of Amunet, quite against my will. He isn't particularly noble, and his moral system has a few failings, but I am seeing many things with new eyes lately. That and he seems to be treating the rest of us more nicely these days.)
We decided to go into at least the basement of the temple, and see how difficult this would be.
The smell was indescribable. Anubis demands the sacrifice of intelligent beings, and beings of all sorts were caged down here. There were two ugly stone statues near the door, one looking across the doorway and another looking down from above. The first seemed to melt away anything that came close, and the second one simply disappeared anything that came into its gaze.
The first one took three of my scrying mirrors (good thing I've been collecting them, trying to find one I really like!) to reflect its gaze back at it and melt it. The second took a few hits from the others, and it fell to the ground, useless.
Under an invisibility sphere, we waked down the corridor, peering into the cages as we went. People of all descriptions were dead and dying down here, and the smell only got worse as we kept walking. We discussed several plans, but Mayet came up with the best plan--she could plane shift us to the astral, we could walk out, and then tomorrow she could plane shift us back. This sounded like a capital notion, and we decided to try it.
I had a feeling it wasn't going to work, but it was worth a try.
In the beginning, all seemed to be going well. But then Grrrbek spotted something off in the distance--a pair of creatures that seemed to be both on the astral and the material. Demons they were, and they attacked when they saw us. They managed to hit Pepy, and instead of hurting him, it sent him back to the material. Seeing this, Pepy used the blood of the other one to send himself back to help.
All of us chose to go; I stayed behind for a few minutes, to arm myself for battle. Raam flew off for about a mile or so so he could come back in a place of his choosing--outside the walls.
I came back and found a wealth of targets to choose from. Grrrbek was methodically destroying the Anubis temple (having a god around is useful sometimes!) and the others were fighting priests of various sorts. Raam was in battle with someone who looked large and nasty, and once the temple was collapsed, Grrrbek trotted over to help the half-giant.
(I have my suspicions about what Raam actually is, now. While the thought that he's a girl is amusing, I have an idea that he's something else entirely...something large and fire-resistant, to be exact. But I keep my suspicions to myself.)
We fought, and fought some more. A priest cast something on me that I recognized as a Harm, and I fled the battlefield to heal up. When I returned, my compatriots were mopping up the last few stragglers, Amunhotep having died reasonably soon after I'd been driven off. Evidently, Wadjet the small red dragon has quite the breath weapon on him.
We managed to take a prisoner, who told us that he had never been allowed into Amunhotep's room, and told us where it was located. A bit of digging later and we found some scrolls that might have interesting things in them. Grrrbek dug down to rescue the prisoners and the red dragon who had been trapped down in the labyrinth, and Bden came out as well. We got Amunet back from Abbodos, as well (I had no idea that he took bubble baths!), and once we were all together we spoke to Amunhotep's corpse.
Amunhotep had been making sure the red dragon continued to produce baby dragons, and had also been selling weapons and armor to the Nubians. He had sent much of the dragon armor to Nubia, with four large shipments being sent to Thebes.
We asked then what he knows of Sekath, since his name had come up again recently. He said that he was an old and powerful druid, perhaps the high druid for this area, and he'd been methodically culling the pharaohs that had come back, cutting their numbers from almost thirty to seventeen at the beginning on this year. They had a theory that he had some sort of relationship with Imhotep, and they suspected that he might be a gold dragon in disguise.
Interesting, indeed. I'll have to talk to Imhotep about him.
The red dragon didn't try to kill us, though she was sorrowful when we told her what had become of all of her children. She'll lair around here, still, take some time to dig her things out from the labyrinth and take the treasure of the temple here at Amarra.
Bden had some other information for us, including that in less than two weeks' time, there will be a meeting of at least three of the old pharaohs, somewhere Dahshur, which is somewhere south of Cairo. This happens twice a year, and the meeting moves around.
The other interesting thing that Bden said was that Nefrusobek, another old pharaoh, was somewhere in the desert outside of Amarra, searching for something--Bden thought it might be a temple or a tomb, but he wasn't sure. He's been looking for it for three years with no success, but it brings him within our reach.
And I and Isu would dearly love to run the deserts again. Perhaps we will have the chance to go running in the hard, cold night air, the stars glittering knives above us in Nut's dark firmament...
Quotes:
"Hey, Bden's here!"
"No killing him!"
--Grrrbek, Raam
"It's the poor man's teleport."
"It's like the poor man's internal combustion engine--legs."
--Graham, Bryan
"The characters don't know they're in a Storm campaign, but they may be beginning to suspect."
--Kris
(after Storm explains to Graham that he can't go attack Amunhotep because he's surrounded by enemy clerics)
"You're going, 'hey, let me past! You are beneath my notice!"
--Derek
"He was a high priest of Anubis. He never made pharaoh."
"Slacker."
--Storm, Laura
"How does a non-Egyptian become a high priest of Anubis?"
"Very carefully."
--Bryan, Derek
"Amunhotep is ignoring you and trying to kill Raam."
"I am AFFRONTED!"
--Storm, Grrrbek
"I am angry."
"Well, be really angry, because if you can do 140 hit points you've got him."
"Not that angry."
--Grrrbek, Storm
"For some reason Amunhotep doesn't like me. Maybe it's my face."
--Raam
*Sitefnut scries on Amunet, trying to determine if he got out of the temple before it collapsed*
"Amunet is taking a bubble bath in Abbodos."
"My eyes! My eyes!"
"At least the bubbles cover everything…"
--Storm, Kris
"I whiz on the altar."
--Grrrbek
