So in the past week, we had been exploded, shot, been hit with swords, had zombies attempt to eat us, and blew up the largest diamond in the world.
Things were about to get quite a bit worse, as the enemy began to extend their reach...
13 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 2nd, 1275 BCE)
Usi identified one of the books I picked up--a spellbook with second level spells in it, and don't get me started on why Usi knew not only that it was a spellbook but what spells it had in it--and Amunet identified the other one as a spellbook with fifth through ninth level spells in it. The elf also got the identify ring we made yesterday, and Tetikare got the ring of healing. We picked up and headed south, towards the tomb that the Unas were living in.
About noon, Terik called from up ahead, and we all hurried to catch up. There were four bodies, mostly headless, and it appeared that they'd had collars around their necks that had somehow exploded. One appeared to have been a minor noble of some sort (complete with jewelry, which was suspicious as most bandits who bothered to take captives would have stripped those they caught), and the others were slaves. There were four bodies and five collars, and it appeared that one had escaped, though not without injury.
We went after the injured one, supposing from the fact that the blood we saw was greenish instead of red that the one we trailed was an Unas. We finally found him, and Mayet healed him enough to rouse him, and he came to muttering, "No more slave...no more..."
We talked to him for a while and got some sense out of him. He'd been with a caravan that had been attacked, with his master who was going to the Valley of the Kings to visit his wife's tomb. Their attackers were strange people, and the one who led them had a white-painted face and a scar down the side of his face that was green, for some reason.
Pepy noted that white-painted faces used to be worn by the clerics of the god Nu, a chaos god from the deep south. It fell out of favor a while back, as the clerics discovered that being so visible made them a nice shiny target, as well as for the practical reason that the paint is hot.
Raam consulted with Stongen in a low voice, and then the dwarf handed the Unas one of his nuts and told him to eat it. He complied, and briefly the Unas' eyes rolled back in his head, and then he straightened, clearing his throat. Raam asked, "How are you feeling?"
"Different. Better!" And the Unas began to tell us more about those who had captured him, now in a voice that was much more intelligent than the one he had been using before. The nuts clear out a drug in the systems of Unas and make them as they were before they were captured, evidently.
(At that point, I resolved to talk to Sekath about how one might grow these nuts into trees. Just as an experiment, mind you. I think I'm too old to live in an Egypt where the Unas are revolting.)
The cleric of Nu was definitely in charge, and those who followed him were probably toulican, the vampiric daywalkers that we had encountered before.
I smelled burning wood, brought to me by a passing breeze, a ways off. Burning wood in the desert usually signifies burning wagons or other structures, so we walked off to see what was on fire. Evidently, my nose has gotten very good indeed, as the fire was five or six miles off.
We found five burning carts, of the type that are usually camel-drawn. The camels, oddly enough, appeared to have been loosed. There were a number of bodies scattered around, including several Unas. One of the drivers had been killed on his cart but fallen free; there was a dart embedded in his neck that was likely responsible for his death. Looking at the dart, I saw that its purpose was to conjure a poison specific to the species of the person it hits. A nasty little weapon, that.
Under one of the carts that was mostly burned out, there was a hole with the remnants of a box within it. Near as I an tell, a fireball had been contained within that box--a trap for a cart, more likely. Nasty.
We retreated a bit, since it was just past noon and the sun was blisteringly hot, and settled down for a midday sleep in the basin of a small wadi. Tetikare, who appears to not feel the heat as badly as we do, kept watch.
Tetikare saw a white-cloaked figure at the mouth of the wadi, and nudged Pepy awake. At that point, they noticed that there were six more figures at the top of the wadi, all with arrows. We were surrounded.
This, clearly, was serious.
Pepy did as Pepy usually does, and charged in to attack. (Well, he first summoned a glowing red battle-axe to strike at the enemy. That was pretty impressive.) A scuffle ensued that ended with an arrow in my shoulder and seven dead toulican. They all had those poison darts (one of which missed me by just the barest amount) and the lead one had a necklace that cast an illusion that made him look like a man with a white-painted face and a green scar.
Terik indulged that habit of talking to the dead he has, and got some useful information; namely that these were sent by a person named Huni, who was a pharaoh about 1200 years ago. He was a cleric of Nu, liked to use assassins, and he's currently in his desert tomb in the Wadi of the fig, about twenty miles to the west of here. They were after both Terik and that stupid longsword, Terik not because of who but because of what he is--an Osirean ranger.
Huni, by the way, is a 2500 year old vampire. Which means he was undead when he was sitting on the throne of Egypt.
Words fail to express the extent to which this disturbs me.
We were fairly close to the tomb where the Unas live, so we took the one we had healed and went there, to spend the afternoon and evening.
14 Thuthi, Inundation, Year 4 of the Reign of Rameses II (August 3rd, 1275 BCE)
Mayet and I both studied those books I got from Ahmose's study, and it was late indeed when we were finished with that.
Tetikare later reported that the first sign she had of trouble was Pepy's voice, holding what sounded like a conversation. When she crept close, she saw a misty form bending over Pepy, saying, "The sword that the ranger carries, take it, take his head, bring it to me and you will be rewarded well." Pepy then rose, moving towards the sleeping Terik.
Tetikare, of course, slapped Pepy. When he shook his head and kept going, she threw his blankets over him, entangling him soundly and then tying him up. This, of course, attracted the attention of those of us who were awake and woke the sleeping ones.
I decided to cast a quick magic detection spell, and as I did so I felt cold fingers on my head, as if someone tall were standing behind me, trying to sink their fingers into my brain. I heard a voice say, "You don't want to do that."
I felt as if something had been thrown over my head, grasping at my soul. I sorted. "Yes, I do." I shrugged off the hands and cast my spell, and the chill presence slid away.
Vampires have got nothing on a four year old for persuasive abilities. I learned how to say no to my children, I can certainly say no to vampires!
I found that there was a magical aura around Pepy, but it was fading and would surely wear off soon. Usi nudged me. I smell blood, outside.
We popped up to the surface briefly to discover that someone had slaughtered five hyenas, leaving them around the entrance of the tomb. We were unable to investigate, because a shout from within drew most of us back inside.
Pepy had shaken off the compulsion, and was apologizing to Terik. He seemed shaky; that vampire had to have been in the room with us to try and cast those compulsions.
This was when things started happening very, very quickly. Tetikare came fleeing in, saying, "The walls of the entrance tunnel are oozing pitch!"
This was not a good sign. Pitch plus fire usually equals crispy critters.
We fled out the back door, and came around the front to discover that there were four toulican standing near the entrance. Several of us hit one of them, who very quickly fell.
And when it fell, the rest fell with it, sprawling awkwardly on the sand.
Raam said, "Those are not toulican--"
We blinked, and it was four humans, one dead, with some more of those exploding collars on, chained together. They had those illusion pendants on, that made them look like what they were not. I have to admit that I felt quite guilty; like the rest, I rushed in to attack without attempting to speak first. Amunet came in handy once more, managing to free the rest without blowing their heads off.
There was no time to brood over the dead one, as the misty form we had seen before reappeared. Tetikare, of course, attacked it, and it retreated. Terik and Amunet followed, and Mayet, Raam, Usi and I elected to stay behind, refusing to give chase.
Very soon, we heard screams coming from over the next rise. Looking at each other, we ran to help the others, who appeared to have gotten themselves in trouble.
When I crested the rise, I saw four toulican, each with a string of captives with exploding collars on them. Amunet was busy freeing one string, and the rest were busy being hit by the vampire. I did what I could, but in the end I had to cast Invisibility and retreat a bit.
One by one, we all went down, Mayet doing her level best to keep everyone standing but even her best efforts weren't quite enough. The vampire was quite handily kicking all of our asses, but Amunet was making inroads into the toulican, thankfully.
Raam went down and Mayet brought him back to conciousness. Evidently, this (the blow fromthe vampire, not Mayet's healing) pissed him off slightly. With a single blow from that great sword of his, he split the vampure literally in half, stem to stern. After that, the fight was more or less over, Raam having saved us once again.
(Definitely still on the list. Must find out exactly what favor he did for Rameses.)
Bedraggled, we brought the surviving captives back to the area of the tomb, but did not bring them inside. The vampire had a number of interesting things on him, including a dagger, a very evil longsword, a shield, two of those poison darts, twelve potions, and a key to the exploding collars. Terik, curious, questioned the corpse. The dead vampire said that if the Osirean longsword were quenched in the blood of an Osirean ranger, the sword would turn into a cursed weapon, doing exactly the opposite of what it's doing now--turning corpses into the undead.
He also said that there are four more undead pharaohs running around the world that he knows of. And that Menes, the first pharaoh and perhaps the most evil, was the one bringing them to life.
The dead were no longer content with the afterlife, it seemed. They now wanted the living world, too.
I spent some time studying the hyena corpses. Obviously, they were meant as a message--for me, for Usi, or for both of us. It was as if they had been very gently set down where they were--no footprints were around them except ours, no marks from the bodies being dragged in the sand. All of their throats had been torn out, with claws or teeth, not blades. They were arranged in a pentagonal pattern, and all of their heads were pointed southeast.
In the approximate direction of my home village.
Warning? Suggestion? Both, perhaps? Usi was as clueless as I; we had no idea who the message was from, and no way yet of telling what it meant.
But when I looked at them with my magical sight, each hyena had a small stone, glowing brightly, embedded in its neck.
I elected to go find the others, and see what they thought...
Quotes:
"Grandmother, we never saw so much murder back in the village."
"I think it's the company we're currently keeping."
--Mayet, Sitefnut
"Why am I holding your wine?"
--Ray
"Why are the pharaohs all coming back? We give them all this stuff to send them off into the afterlife, and they're supposed to STAY THERE!"
--Tetikare
"Was it obvious they were going to attack us?"
"Well, no..."
"So much for subtlety. Or selling them something."
--Laura, Derek, Ray
"I'm not an idiot."
"Sure you sure?"
--Pepy, Mayet
"I'm blowing the guys on Pepy."
"Get back to fighting, lady! What are you, a temple priestess?"
--Tetikare, Raam
"There's one spinning around inside Tetikare."
"All right, then!"
--Storm, Laura
"This a distinctly unsatisfying fight. They must be undead."
--Pepy
"The lead one has a necklace."
"Oh, this one's the fashionable one."
--Storm, Laura
"They're bringing back pharaohs to pit them against each other in an arena!"
--Tetikare
"I'm making sure that nobody's sneaking up to stick their fingers in my brain."
--Tetikare
"You don't want to do that."
*Sitefnut makes her will save*
"Yes I do! Hmph!"
--Storm as Huni, Sitefnut
"I want to make it a mist."
"You want a holy humidifier?"
--Terik, Pepy
"Put it in a squirt bottle. Bad vampire! Bad!"
--Kris
"What did I say? I said, 'I'm not following him'! And then the screaming started and then I had to come save you!"
--Raam
