From the journal of Kenari Sanura
Okay…focus, Kenari! Once I'm over the shock of seeing a little bit of home in this strange shadowsphere my mind springs into action and we all gather in the helm room after I grab Dassam and a few things out of my room.
"If this Egyptos settlement is like my homeland, there's a few things everyone needs to know. Ra is the main god of our pantheon. He's an 'all-father' type and represents the sun. If we happen to go into any tombs or temples, don't take anything. The people here take a particular offense to that… as in they will kill you. Seriously, guys… that's why I left home to be a rogue. They've probably never heard of guns here, and last of all…" I point to Ef Utan, "YOU have to be the representative leader of our group if we meet people."
"Wait… why Ef Utan?" Vedis asks with a frown.
"Because religion is all-encompassing for them and according to their culture, humans are the creations of their gods… and every other race… well…_ isn't_." Dassam steps up and hands me my temple dancer outfit as I walk over to Ef Utan. "You're the right race, Ef… but we're going to have to fancy you up a bit."
After some minor protestations from Ef Utan, he became much more compliant when he realized that a bunch of women were going to be all over him as they turned him into a noble from Mulhorand. Thank goodness Dassam's sewing skills applied to clothes as well as sails, or this might have ended up with us all laughing on the floor. After an hour I finish the last touches of kohl around the eyes and step back to view our accomplishment.
"Fit for a pharaoh's throne," I say with a grin. "If we get questioned by anyone, we are your slaves and I will talk to anyone while you look imposing and put-out that anyone would interfere with what you're doing."
"If they insist on talking to me alone, I'll be sure to cast a 'Message' spell on you so you can whisper my lines to me," Ef Utan says with a nod.
Once we all got our stories straight, we exited the tunnel into the large spherical chamber with three other large tunnels bisecting it. As we're admiring the small city spread out in the flattened area in the middle of the chamber a bright light from the tunnel opposite catches my attention. It gradually grows brighter until a flaming ball of light rises out of the tunnel to soar above the chamber towards us, and I can just make out the outline of a chariot within the light.
"Gods above…" I whisper then turn to the others. "Okay… I think we need to move the ship so we can get out of the sun's way…"
"The sun?" Lenata asks curiously as we head towards a lake near the large pyramid in the middle of the city.
"Th sun," I say as I point to the travelling fireball. "I don't know if Ra is actually here or if they made it somehow… but that's his flaming chariot up there doing its part to provide for the city. I suggest that we head to his temple after we land… all things considered."
Lenata brings the ship in for a smooth landing as usual, and the five of us disembark to explore the city. We check a few of the homes, but find no people. Everything has a coating of dust, which means there hasn't been activity around here for a while. The temples seem to be along the main street of the city, so we head there after brushing the dust out of my fur.
I know I suggested Ra's temple… but I just have to know if Bast came here after she left Mulhorand. At the very least… maybe there will be some writing that might give me a clue as to what happened? I eagerly burst into the temple, half expecting to find priestesses dancing and laughing in joy. My hopes are quickly dashed to join the rest of the dust, however… as everything is coated in the thick layers of time passed.
"Damn… I was hoping…" I whisper to myself as I kneel before the altar and blow dust out of one of the offering bowls. I reach into my pack and pull out the small container with what is left of my Halfling Leaf and place it in the bowl with a prayer to Bast that she may someday return to her people. "Goddess protect your children as they follow your tracks, and may your embrace be warm when we join you once again."
It isn't until I'm kneeling and meditating at the altar that I am able to pick up the faintest sound of breathing. I hurriedly finish my prayers and follow the sound until I find the source… two humans sleeping on a pallet in a back room of the temple… and covered in dust. I call Lenata over and she looks them over with curiosity.
"Well they aren't dead or paralyzed… it's almost like they are just sleeping. This is no normal sleep, however, and beyond my ken to wake them."
Vedis kneels down beside one of them and places her hands gently at their temples while she concentrates. After a moment she frowns. "I can't pick up any surface thoughts, either… so this must be a magical deep sleep that they are in."
"Hmmn… here's hoping that Ra's temple will provide more answers."
After a bit we make our way inside the largest of the temples to find the walls and columns covered in hieroglyphs with a large statue at the altar and a winged scarab plaque behind it on the wall.
"At least these are somewhere to start," I mutter to myself as I scan the images. "Perhaps one of these sections will tell of what happened here, or that red celestial body that we're looking for."
"Fascinating pictographic language," Word says as he comes up behind me. "Would you mind if I study these with you?"
"By all means," I say with a wave of my hand towards the walls. "Let me know if I can help."
I lose track of time as I become absorbed in the history splayed across the walls. It isn't till I almost trip over a cat flopped at my feet that I manage to break myself away from the wall. "I guess you're the one we heard meowing?" I say with a smile as I bend down and pet the friendly cat.
"No you can't keep it," Ef Utan says as he comes up to me. "That being said, I managed to find some secret doors that are heavily trapped near the altar… and it looks like the bowl and that plaque are magical. Find anything in the text?"
"Nothing about the red celestial body… but I did find that this is a colony from Alhamut, and they came to this world in ships. While I've never been to Alhamut… it seems that this land may be have been the original source for Mulhorand as well. More things to ask that priestess if I ever meet her again…" I mutter to myself. "In the meantime, though… if that offering bowl is magical, then maybe we should leave an offering and see what happens."
I do a mental checklist of all of the things I have stored in my pack, and realize I might have something that will work. I kneel down before the bowls at the altar and pull a Sunrod out of one of the side pockets, holding it out before me as I pray to the creator of the gods.
"Oh great father, source of light and life for your people… we make this offering of light to you that we may receive your guidance in our time of need."
Once the prayer is finished the Sunrod activates in a flash of light… and then the light dims. As I gingerly pick it up, it feels really good in my hand… like a rush of positive energy has flowed through me. Turning to the others with it, I notice that it flashes brighter and then dims again. Hmmn… waving it again produces a similar effect, but only when I am pointing in a certain direction.
Suddenly I get it and can't help but snicker at the humor of the gods. "It's a Divining Rod!"
Vedis groans and Ef Utan slaps his forehead before chuckling to himself and leaving a bottle of Mead in another bowl. "Come on, let's see where this thing leads us," he says with a wave of his hand toward the exit.
Eventually we make our way down the main thoroughfare of the city until it opens up into a large cul-de-sac with the Great Pyramid at the other end. As I step into the cul-de-sac, however, the rod crumbles to dust in my hand. "I guess we're at our destination," I say as I brush the dust out of my fur. Looking around, I notice the temples to either side of us at the end of the street. "We've also got the temples of Sekmet and Nepthys. I wouldn't recommend Sekmet, however…" I glance to the temple and then lean in to the others and whisper, "she's a real bitch."
"What about Nepthys?" Vedis asks. "I don't know why… but she seems like I should know her."
"Nepthys would be the closest we have to a Goddess of Dreams, Vedis, so maybe that's why. She's the sister of Isis who married Set and gave birth to Anubis, the guide of the dead and finder of hidden ways."
"My money is on the Great Pyramid," Ef Utan offers with a nod toward the structure. "Lets check it out, and then we can come back to the other temples if need be."
As we enter the Great Pyramid I can't help but be attracted to the multitude of hieroglyphs along the walls. As I take a closer look, I decipher that the ancestors of the people here took the "scarlet pyramid" as a sign and settled here, forming the colony called Rhedoneth.
Interesting… so the 'red celestial body' as mentioned in the script given to us by the EIN could very well be the pyramid sun in this sphere. Thing is… it's not red anymore, is it? Now that it's this sickly green, everything seems to have stopped and been put into stasis to keep it alive.
Maybe if we can find more texts, we can figure out when this change happened… and how. I turn to Ef Utan to voice my idea, but he's suddenly too busy to hear as he runs outside the temple yelling "I think I saw somebody!"
I quickly take off after him in the hopes to find a living person around here who might answer our questions. As I turn through the alleyways, unfortunately all I manage to find is a lone white cat rolling on the ground. Feeling frustrated, I take a piece of jerky out of my pack and keel down to the curious cat. "I don't suppose you've seen anything, have you?" I ask as I hold out the food.
"Not since the monkeys fell asleep," the cat replies.
"Oh really?" I ask as I pull another piece of jerky out of my pack and kneel down to scratch the cat's head. "How long have they been asleep?"
"Six generations of my kin have come and gone since the monkeys," the cat replies before it snags the jerky out of my hand and walks away.
Interesting… considering the life span of cats, that has to be at least 90 years or so ago. So… what better place to consult the history books than a library? And when we needed a library at home we went to…
"We need to find the Temple of Thoth," I say as I rejoin the others. "It's bound to have library where we can look for more information about what might have happened here."
"Makes sense… let's check it out," Ef Utan replies.
As we enter the temple of the crane-headed god of knowledge Word takes note of the painted ceiling. After further study it seems that the ceiling mosaic is also a star chart of this system akin to the map we were given… but this one again shows the red sun.
At the other end of the temple are a set of locked doors. Considering there aren't any scroll racks readily observable in the main area, my bet is that the library is somewhere beyond. After careful inspection of the door I manage to disable a rather nasty swing blade and crack the door open to take a peek.
Jackpot! I open the door carefully to find the walls of the room lined with shelves stocked with scrolls, and decorated sarcophagi at each end. The coffins don't seem to be trapped, and the names on them don't seem to be of much import… so I leave them alone to check out the scrolls.
It's when I'm carefully unrolling and examining each one that Ef Utan makes a comment about just grabbing the lot and reading them later. Frustrated at our lack of clues, I threw caution to the wind and swept my arm across a shelf, scooping the scrolls into my bag. Unfortunately… this is one of those times when I should've been more patient.
With a soft click and a woosh of air alchemist fire lights up the scroll case and I have to dive out of the way to avoid burning my fur. Fortunately I was able to save 6 (and a 1/2) scrolls for later investigation while Vedis used her psionic abilities to put out the fire.
It's while we're busy with the fire that Ef Utan decides to investigate the sarcophagi. I have to wonder what is up with him today. Is the ambiguity of this place getting to him as well? Because I've never seen him act so… so… like me, I guess.
Before I can reach a hand out to stop him, he's cracked the lid to the coffin and the smell of moldy linens and death wrinkles my nose. No…no…no…don't let it be…
With a crash the lid is launched aside and the moans of the mummy within send shivers up my spine.
Do as I say, Ef…not as I do…
I quickly grab one of the remaining bottles of Alchemist Fire from my pack and dive into a roll. "Set it on fire!" I yell as I come to my feet and toss the flask at the shambling mummy.
Word calls his weapons to him and Vedis smiles as she rears back before forcefully pushing out with her hands at the approaching monster. With a red flash of light and a sickening rush of flaming energy the mummy is slammed into the wall before she drops to her knees. Unfortunately it's instinctual lashing out at the sudden pain was able to catch her across face before anyone could get to her.
With a roar of his own, Ef Utan unsheathes his swords and leaps at the mummy, decapitating the moldy guard with a few quick slices. Looking from his angry stance to Vedis collapsed on the floor has to make one wonder… but we'll leave that for another day. I scoot over to the Maenad and roll her over before cringing back in surprise. _That… doesn't look too good. _
"Word! Can you provide any help for her? I think the mummy might have cursed her or something…"
While Ef Utan and Word look to Vedis, I decide to take a look at what's left of our mummy… because I could swear I saw the flash of jewelry on the thing while we were fighting it. The mummy didn't leave much after it died other than a pile of rags and goo… but after carefully sifting through it I manage to find three or four nice pieces that should help us get new medicinal supplies to prevent whatever is afflicting Vedis from happening again… if we make it out of here.
"I suggest we take her back to the ship so that Lenata might tend to her," Word says as he picks her up and begins to float.
"Go on ahead, and we'll bring what scrolls we've salvaged to see if we can translate anything useful," Ef Utan replied.
From the journal of Vedis Valentine
It seems strange to be inside a planet, and yet still have sun. We've come to a place with Aegyptos-style architecture. Kenari's in seventh heaven, right now.
We spent a good deal of time before landing discussing how we were going to try to blend in with the locals. We even dressed Ef up in a ridiculous disguise, complete with pleated linen kilt from Mulhorand, darkened skin, and khol-rimmed eyes. Kenari was to be his 'slave'… actually, all the females were, and I was to wear the full veil ensemble to try to look human. Apparently in Aegyptian culture, non-male is bad and non-human is worse.
In the end, it was all for naught, as the humans here have all fallen under an enchanted sleep. All that's left are some cats and mice, some unseen servant who keeps closing the temple doors behind us and resetting the traps (golem, maybe?) and the temples themselves.
We entered into the Temple of Thoth to try to find out information about what happened to the people here. We got away with some singed scrolls (trapped bookcases with alchemists' fire… how novel!) and I got my very own case of mummy-rot. Oh joy.
I've confined myself to quarters and get daily visits from the doctor (Lenata). She's made some headway in curing me, now that the curse is removed, but there's still the… ugh… rot to contend with. I'm absolutely hideous and I smell like putrid flesh. Simmi doesn't mind, but everyone else is steering clear. I don't blame them, I would steer clear of me if I could.
I'm not really contagious, but I don't want anybody to see me like this.
So, they've been making forays out to the other temples, learning what they can, and I've been getting reports during my daily doctor's house calls. I feel so useless. I'm trying very hard not to resent Ef Utan for opening that sarcophagus. It's not really working. Damn fool man.
I'm bored, depressed, and hating pretty much everyone right now. I've been snippy with Lenata, and I'm sorry about that. No one else comes to see me and I'm taking all my frustration out on her, while she's only helping me. I'll apologize properly when I'm feeling better…