The Eye of Anubis: Book Four

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"Wunderbar." Otto grins slightly, taking a hacksaw from Charles. "Let us treat this dismantling as a practice for Menetnashte's tomb, yes?"

"I do wish you wouldn't say such things out loud, what with the Anubite out and about," Lia rasps, shaking her head. "That walking, talking maggot Cavendish is not our only concern, after all ..." Lia takes a step back from the door, raising a hand to her chest. "Alright, ready when you all are," she states. "I will try to divine the presence of undead as soon as you have the door out of its frame."

[lostboy]

Khalil nods as Andre does whatever it was he just did in front of the door. Lookign more closely it was an imposing piece of lead true, but it didnt suddenly seem quite as impossible a task as before.

He still had nerves, the events of the last night having shaken him badly, but the desert guide was a pragmatist, the best cure is in action he thinks. Sheathing his scimiatr he grabs a crowbar and goes to help the others.

Pausing for a second Khalill examines the carved door, runnign his hands along the edges looking for points of weakness. Finding what appears to be such a point to one side of the door he jams the crowbar behind it, feeling the metal push into the right position to lever the door out.

"I think I can open the door, please stand back, if this falls it will be most heavy!" he calls over his shoulder then adding "be ready for whatever may be awaiting us on the other side, mistress Lia now would eb a good time to cast your detection spell."

Waiting a moment for the others to make their preparations he pulls with all his strength.

{OOC: 20 on the first throw! I did send NT 7 throws, but only needed one! So does the door squash me or is there something evil about to jump out ]

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lia clenches the fingers of the hand currently pressed against her chest and lowers her head, her mind and senses questing for ... something ... inside the tomb of Ibn Sayyid. "A moment," she says out loud, "a moment ..."

After a few moments, Lia makes a sound of distaste. "I sense no undead here right now," she declares. "But they have been here, of that I am certain. And the sapient kind could resist the scrying. Go carefully, all of you."

[NeoTiamat]

The Tomb of Ibn Sayyid, The Necropolis of Phiraz
May 24th, 761, 6:11 PM; Day 68 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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There was a dull whine of metal as the Dragoman put his back into it, pulling the vast lead sheet away from the Tomb of Ibn Sayyid. Ishaq and Tomas caught it and along with the two hulking Confessors who had escorted the Judge, lowered it to the ground.

The inside of the Tomb of Ibn Sayyid was dry and cool, the air almost pleasant after Phiraz's scorching heat. The small mausoleum was a rectangular room, the far end occupied by a magnificent sarcophagus in brass and lapis lazuli, the floor a tiled mosaic of color still glorious by the dying light of the day. A half-dozen rooms along the sides of the tomb were the final resting places of Ibn Sayyid's greatest vassals.

Most interestingly, however, was the large hole that had been magicked open in the floor just outside the mosaic. Crude handholds had been carved into the sides of the stone tunnel down, and you couldn't quite see the bottom.

"Desecration most foul." The Judge shook his head in somber disapproval, though there was a faint light in his eye, perhaps excitement at the prospect of finally closing with the Angra Mainyu. "Let us search these side-rooms so there are no unpleasant surprises. Abdul, Malik, with me."

And suiting words to actions, the Judge entered one of the side-rooms, the two Confessors following him. With an exchanged glance, Michel and Guy checked one of the other side-rooms, Loup eagerly trotting along.

"I've heard worse ideas in my life." Michel commented.

[OOC: I'd like four Search Checks for the remaining four rooms, from whoever does the searching. Also, going down the stone ladder is a DC 10 Climb Check.]

[Nathan of the FoS]

Charles moves forward quickly, actually being the first into the tomb. Glancing into the rooms lining the main hall of the mausoleum, he tsks at the hole in the floor but saves a trip into the depths for later. He, too, steps into a side room, starting at the far back right side, stepping within and observing the contents of the room. It is dominated by a sarcophagus on which a life-size figure has been carved in stone, although, curiously, the bracers on its arms are made of black steel and gold.

The room is dominated by murals showing scenes in which a slender man of medium height is depicted in a variety of situations; listening outside a door to a group of plotters, stealing upon a ferocious lion and shooting it from a dangerously close distance, winning a game of dice, standing behind a regal figure (Ibn Sayyid?) and whispering into his ear as he sits in a judgment hall dispensing justice...and thrusting a short sword through a human-like creature with a leering skull for a face and taloned hands.

I know you, Charles says to himself. You're a laughing rogue. Every great general needs a spymaster, after all. His eye goes to the arms of the figure striking down the ghoul, and he sees the black bracers with gold swords emblazoned on them there on the figure's arms.

His breath catching, he looks from the mural to the sarcophagus. They are the same.

Stepping forward quickly, he snaps the bracers from the arms of the stone figure and places them on his own wrists, pulling down his shirtsleeves to cover them. "I'm sure you understand, old man," he mutters conversationally. "Maximize your resources! If all goes well I may bring them back...in a few years...but you've nothing but time."

Sketching a salute to the figure, he turns and leaves the way he came, ducking quickly into the other rooms on that side of the main hall and finding nothing of interest there.

[Kaitou Kage]

Kuzan took the blade from Tomas shortly after the doors opened and held it gingerly in one hand. He passed his other hand over the blade and murmured a soft prayer. A dull light emanated from his palm, flowing into the blade. Where his hand moved, the blade itself became suffused with a cool, grey radiance.

When he finished, he handed the weapon back to Tomas, hilt first, as if bequeathing a holy relic.

"This should help in the coming battles," he said, "The walking dead will cower before your blade with my blessing."

He smiled. "Shall we investigate a room?"

The priest pulled a scroll out of his satchel and recited it. The magic writing gleamed and vanished off the page as he read, and then the entire parchment disappeared in a dim flash of golden light. That done, he strode purposefully into a room.

He found little at first, but as he passed his hand along the wall behind the sarcophagus, he felt a mild electric shock. He pulled his hand back and peered inside. Something small and blue winked back at him, and he reached in and took it...

...A moment later, he returned to the main room.

"Lia? Andre? Otto?" he called quietly, "I found this, do any of you recognize it?"

The priest held up his hand. On one finger, he wore a small lapis lazuli ring with a yellow thunderbolt engraved on it.

Updates pending.

Casting undead bane weapon on Tomas's sword.

Against undead, the blade's enhancement bonus is considered 2 higher and he does +2d6 points of damage when striking undead. In addition, the weapon is considered good aligned for the purposes of overcoming damage reduction.

[The Whistler]

Meanwhile, Otto moved a room on the other side of the hallway from Charles, stepping in to give the space a quick once-over.

Tsk...you'd think they could *sweep* in here once in a while...

...Okay, think that statement through.

He poked his head out to address the rest of the group. "Nothing of much is here: the standard sarcophagus and some carvings--I am no expert on these things. However: the dust within has been disturbed before I was entering. If it had not been made already apparent that someone before us had intruded within this place..."

Seeing Kuzan emerge from his room, he strode over and peered over his spectacles at the indicated ring.

Is this an Appraise check, Knowledge: arcana, or what?

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"I am sorry, Kuzan," Lia says, shaking her head after giving the ring an intense look and chanting a brief spell. "It is moderately magical, but I can tell you no more than that right now. Andre?"

[NeoTiamat]

The Ossuary of Ibn Sayyid, The Necropolis of Phiraz
May 24th, 761, 6:23 PM; Day 68 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"Nothing." Michel said as he and Guy left the little room that they had been searching. At the same time, the Judge exited, flanked by his two cronies, and likewise shook his head. Nothing.

"Shall we leave for the depths then, and hunt down this beast who steals the souls of men and denies them the Prophet's true grace?" Judge Jalil al-Shirazi intoned, though once again, you notice the twinkle in his eye, and the slight spring in his step. The man seemed younger, almost.

And so you departed down the tunnel to the levels below the Tomb of Ibn Sayyid.

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For all that it had a rather odd construction, the tunnel, or perhaps shaft would be more appropriate, was an easy climb. Some eight feet in diameter, the handholds were large enough, and prominent enough, that even Lia and Andre, not people known for their athletic skill, had no trouble descending. The bottom of the shaft was some hundred and fifty feet deep, and brought you to what in Dementlieu would've been called an ossuary.

Bones. everywhere you looked, bones, bones, bones. At one time they had been stacked up in neat and orderly rows in alcoves in the walls, but now, time and rats had scattered the bones into huge piles along the floor. Nevertheless, a tunnel stretched out ahead, and you could see light coming from the distant end of the tunnel. Raising a finger to his lips in a gesture of silence, Michel crept forward, toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

Pondering briefly where that unfortunate turn of phrase came from, you followed him.

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The first thing you noticed was the soft, muffled screaming, the wailing of utmost agony and despair, coming from somewhere beneath your feet. It was the same anguished screaming Tomas had heard at the

The long tomb into which the tunnel opened up was a room of rectangular dimensions, maybe twenty five paces across and seventy five long. Sarcophagi were arranged in two graceful rows along the center of the room, while more sarcophagi lined the walls. Huge piles of bones dominated the room in places, but it was the far end of the room that caught your eye.

On a raised platform, a single stone sarcophagus stood above the rest, in a place of honor. Once a respected burial for someone, perhaps Ibn Sayyid himself, now the sarcophagus was used as a table, and you could not help but recognize the three items laid neatly atop it....

...A length of slightly reddish-black wood, the end of it splintered and sharpened, the other end topped with a handle or carved, yellowed bone.

...A black, silk, top hat, like a gentleman from Mordent or Zherisia would wear, a little dusty.

...A pair of black spectacles, the lenses made of some night-black crystal, the frame a dull silver metal.

But most disturbingly was what was just behind the altar. An iron gibbet, hanging from a chain attached to the ceiling, its prisoner softly moaning in time to the maddening screams below. Clad in the tatters of a white robe, the prisoner of the gibbet looked up as you entered, and despite everything, his gaze was sharp and clear. Even in captivity, Judge Jalil al-Shirazi retained his wits.

The other Judge al-Shirazi smiled as your heads whipped to look at him, and even as he approached the altar he asked in that oily, insane voice you had grown to hate.

"Guess who?"

[DocBeard]

There is, daresay, a majority of Tomas that wants to scream, lunge forward, and ernestly work towards the admirable goal of relieving Cavendish's shoulders of ten pounds of dead weight. His sword is out before he can stop himself...

...but he stomps his foot forward, stopping the lunge mid-instinctual movement. There's something more important, here. He has time for this later. Much later. Tomas's brain marvels at how he can extend the amount of time he has to hurt Cavendish, with a little ingenuity.

"Why are you working with it." Tomas pants, fury spilling out through his voice, "And how do we stop it and free its victims's souls."

[The Whistler]

For the smallest fraction of a second, a single thought slams through Otto's mind, rocketing up through his consciousness from the lowest portion of his brain--lower even than the mass of calculations underlying his surface personality. That thought is:

Oh, you UTTER-- [Needlessly complex seven-syllable Lamordian compound word, which Otto learned from a sailor; lends unprecedented nuance and linguistic depth to the concept of "man of low moral fiber engaging in relations with his half-sister's livestock"]

It is an extremely petulant thought, mentally expressed as if to someone who has knocked over one's pint of ale. And yet, Otto thinks it, because he is fundamentally the sort of person who likes to be able to figure things out, and dislikes being unable to figure things out. And because he has just proven unable to figure out that he has walked into a trap, and Cavendish is responsible for his failure. This, to Otto, is UNSPEAKABLY annoying.

...A millisecond later, he remembers that Cavendish has killed upwards of twenty people in the space of the past several months--two of which people he knew personally, and liked--and his principles kick in. Thereafter, he is angry for the correct reasons.

By that time, however, his pistol is pointed at Cavendish's head.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Lia feels slightly torn. 'I could blast him now. I could blast him now. But where are his pets? If I Fireball him, I might hit the Judge. And where are his pets? I don't want to hear another word out of his foul mouth. I could blast him now. But ...' And a very, very bad thought occurs to her. Two very, very bad thoughts.

Eyeing the two large Confessors suspiciously, Lia moves to stand next to Kuzan and quietly points a finger at him. 'Stay in control, Kuzan!' Lia's voice whispers in Kuzan's ear. 'Do not release the tulpa, we -- I need you sane and in control. Please ... remain calm. And ware treachery from the Confessors!'

"So, John Lancaster Cavendish," she says out loud. "Or maybe I should call you Johnny. We've been eager for each other's demise for long enough, I imagine. So, Johnny. Here we are again, in one of your cute little set-ups. What's the speech of the day? I imagine you must have a fine one planned, or we wouldn't all be here, you'd have tried to bump us off while we were on the road."

[Nathan of the FoS]

Played for a fool!

The thought burns through Charles' mind like a stroke of lightning, illuminating the past several days in a harsh, unyielding light. How long? Was the ghoul standing among them even as Ulsaon breathed her last? When they were presented before the Prophet? His thoughts flash back to the meeting in the Library, where the judge had been reading a book on Akiri inheritance laws. Even then, perhaps...Cavendish and the Anubite, sitting next to each other in the library like two school friends...

Deceived.

The gullible are quickly swept under and destroyed in the salons of Dementlieu; Charles has, until the present time, taken confidence in the preparation that environment, deadly in its own way, has given him for this struggle. It seems his confidence has been misplaced.

In the meantime, Charles discovers he has drawn rapier and dagger. Some of his instincts remain intact, apparently. Only the knowledge that Cavendish has obviously staged this scene carefully keeps him from throwing himself at the creature immediately; he might spoil the performance, but Cavendish doubtless has his grand exit already prepared; in the meantime, he has doubtless prepared other amusements.

Saying nothing, Charles moves to the door, where he can see the whole room, and waits for the "maestro" to announce today's performance.

[steveflam]

OOC : Instantaneous rage........ Unsheathing great sword

Ishaq is only confused for a moment as he realises that the Judge with them is actually this Cavendish person he's heard of. ANd he is a tricky one. HIs hands go to his great sword and he removes it, a crystal apparent on it. Growling he says "It ends here, Johnny"........ Ishaq appears to have grown before your eyes and it looks like his rage is focused on Cavendish.

[Kaitou Kage]

I thought as much, Kuzan's mind was surprisingly unsurprised by the revelation, There was something a little too convenient and foreboding about you showing up with two strange men. But if we hadn't played along, we never would've found what you were up to.

He clutched his staff in one hand and raised his shield with the other. Holding the new guard up in front of himself, he began to move carefully toward the real Judge al-Shirazi. With any luck, he could free and heal the man and keep yet another victim from falling to Cavendish's depraved practices.

The priest caught wind of Lia's words and nodded, whispering back. The room is likely to be filled with the dead soon, he urged, Possibly even Ibn Sayyid himself. Be ready and watch out for the 'allies' that came with him.

He said nothing else, his face an impassive mask as he focused on the present and the reality. With any luck, he would be able to keep the tulpa out and still exact the divine punishment due to the man.

Entering full defense and moving toward the gibbet with the real al-Shirazi. However, Kuzan will not move far enough away to be able to be separated from the group when the attack comes. He will stop in one of the two following conditions:

1.) Taking another step would no longer have him adjacent to an ally, or
2.) He will stop immediately behind either Ishaq or Tomas if they are between him and the real judge.

Hopefully that makes sense. If you need clarification, you know where to reach me.