From the journal of Kenari Sanura
It doesn't take long for me to find the temple, as the symbols of scales and her symbolic feather are hard to miss if you know what you're looking for. On the way there, I hear Vedis mumble that the doors to the library of Thoth are closed again.
Once inside the temple, it's hard not to notice the large set of scales on the back wall instead of the usual statuary. Making a sacrifice seemed to help with the temple of Ra… so on the off chance that Ma'at is ticked at the burnt scrolls, I take out my conspiracy charts and place them in the bowl on the altar as I kneel.
"Forgive your servant in her clumsiness, great Goddess… I offer these scrolls of my own creation in hopes that I may help restore the imbalance that I accidentally created."
As soon as I finish my benediction the scrolls burst into flames and the room becomes brighter. Vedis and Lenata come up to offer their own sacrifices… but I have to bite my tongue when Lenata takes a dagger to her braid. Such beautiful hair… but quite the personal sacrifice in my opinion; I only hope the gods appreciate it.
With each sacrifice the room becomes brighter lit. Taking that as a good sign, we try to leave… only to find ourselves blocked by a magical barrier. "Great," I mumble. "It's never that easy, is it?"
"It looks like the scales are magical," Ef Utan says after his eyes glow for a moment. "Considering what you've said about her, Kenari… perhaps we need to get in the scales?"
Goddess forgive me, but my first instinct was to say no. I like to assume that what I am doing is for the sake of something better than myself… and after all that we've been through, I don't know if I want to hear how I've been royally cocking up my afterlife.
It seems my answer didn't matter, though… as Ef Utan takes it upon himself to try his theory out and climbs into the left scale. In the meantime, I keep trying to convince myself that I won't have to get in there by looking to the hieroglyphs for information or instructions.
With a flash of light a gray feather appears in the right scale, which is just little lighter than Ef Utan. The air shimmers for a moment as Ef Utan gets off the scale. One by one the others get on the scale, with Vedis being balanced, and Lenata and Word being heavier than their gray feathers.
Eventually I can't ignore the expectant stares of the others… and I grit my teeth as I get into the scale. Big surprise… I am way heavier than my feather. As I rejoin the others the room becomes lit with an amber light and radiates magical energy through the hieroglyphs.
Suddenly 14ft tall ephemeral images of Ma'at, Nepthys and Bast appear in front of the scale, and I drop to my knees in supplication. I am too nervous to even look at what the others are doing. Will I finally get a chance to ask my goddess the questions I seek? Where has she been? Why has she left us?
"HOW SHALL I TASK THE TRANSGRESSORS?" asks Ma'at as she looks to the two goddesses with her.
"The dreamer is innocent," Nepthys replies.
"The loud mouthed one is mine, and on a long path," replies Bast. My fingers curl into the dirt as I bite my tongue till it bleeds. I try to reply… but it seems that Bast doesn't want to hear from her servant. I don't know why I am surprised, really. First she leaves her people, and when I finally cross galaxies to find her she won't even let me ask her why. A part of me wants to mutter how Murlynd was willing to talk to me… but it's just as well that I am silenced. The last thing I need is to get smitten today.
Apparently they are willing to hear the rest of us, though… and Word and Lenata were able to plead our case rather eloquently in my opinion. In the end they decide our punishment for removing the scrolls from the temple is to stay in this sphere until we find out what happened to the people. Ironic really… because the only reason we took the scrolls in the first place was to find out what happened here.
Just to be safe, I keep my criticisms about their judgment to myself as we return to the ship and finish translating the scrolls.
After a while we finally finish our task and find that many of the scrolls are the usual dogma, rituals and stories, though some of them are about their relations with Nova Roma and their trade with other planets in the sphere.
There are about 10 magical scrolls that relate to the divine embalming process of mummies. Not exactly something we need… at least I hope we will never have use for them. I've heard how they remove the innards for the Canopic jars…. ewww. Really… it's quite gross.
The information that really strikes me is from some personal scrolls written soon before the strange occurred here. They speak of a 'strange, misshapen visitor looking for a pulsing heart' before mentioning a great wrongness as things begin to change and the orbits of the planets halt.
Hmmn… my guess is that the 'pulsing heart' is the "silver diamond-like key that beats like a heart within a red celestial body." …which brings up a rather large question that I don't think anyone of us has bothered asking yet.
The EIN has ordered us to bring them the key to the Witchlight Marauder to keep out of Scro hands, right? But if this key is somehow the thing that powers the sun in this sphere… could we in all good conscience condemn this sphere to this continued pseudo-existence? For that matter… could we bring the key to the EIN if we even wanted to, considering the task put upon us by the gods here?
I don't have any answers yet… but something tells me we're going to be damned one way or the other.
Once Vedis is finally healed from her bout with Mummy Rot, we gather up all of the scrolls that we've finished transcribing and head back to the temple of Thoth to return them. As I go through the process of undoing the ever increasing difficult traps and unlocking the library door I go over a passage from one of the scrolls in my mind.
Portals to the other worlds are deep in the waste caverns.
Where could these portals be? We're in one cavern already… could they be those bigger portals that we saw when we came in, or could the entrance to the caverns be somewhere else? Perhaps investigating the Great Pyramid in more detail is in order once we're done.
I set the scrolls back in their cases and notice with some curiosity that the traps have mysteriously moved out of the way in expectation of the scrolls return. What good is the knowledge of the universe if you don't share it with people? I never could understand the gods.
Once we've finished our business with Thoth we all agree that since we're here… the Great Pyramid is as good a place as any to start looking.
Making our way up to the entrance, there is an arched shape door with just the slightest detectible shimmer to it. Using what I've learned in my studies of portals, I am able to analyze it to see that it's just a basic pass wall… no teleportation magics involved at all. I'm almost disappointed, to tell the truth.
I offer to take point as usual to check for traps, with no complaints from the rest. Inching my way along I don't find anything… but I do start to hear a noise, something like heavy breathing down a large set of spiral stairs at the other end of the room. I slowly creep down the stairs, feeling along with my toes until there is a soft sploosh noise. Grimacing and shaking my foot, I realize it's me as I stepped into water at the bottom of the stairs.
I wait for the others to join me, and after testing the water with pebbles and sticks we decide to walk through it to the next room. Well… they decide to walk through it, I decide to ride on Word's back as he hovers over the water.
The next room is blissfully dry… but seems to be occupied by the creature that I heard breathing earlier. Sitting on a mound of dirt and bones in the middle of the room with passages in each wall is a ragged old Sphinx with drooped head and torn wings. As we enter, however, it looks up at us with still sharp eyes and speaks.
"If you would pass then you must answer my riddle. Think well, travelers… for I am very hungry."
"Very well, creature," Ef Utan replies. We wish to head east from this room, so ask your question."
The Sphinx takes a deep breath and shifts into what was once an imposing pose before it begins.
My creator wants me now, and much in dread will I be bought. My cold embrace is fiercely fought, most all who need me know it not. What am I?
When it finishes it sighs and lays its head upon its paws as it waits for us to decide our fate.
"Well? What do you think it is?" Lenata asks as we huddle together.
"Hmmn… I think it's death," Vedis replied. The rest of us shrug and nod, as it sounds like a good answer to us.
"Is it Death?" Vedis asks as she steps away from us to address the Sphinx. Suddenly a pattern appears under her feat and glows, causing Vedis to drop to her knees in pain before it disappears. "Guess not…" she mutters.
Ef Utan steps over to check on her before addressing the Sphinx. "Is it Fear?"
I wince as the same thing happens to him and shake my head. "Damn… those would've been my first two guesses."
Lenata hurries over to tend to the both of them as Word decides to take a turn. "Is it a tomb?"
The Sphinx sighs and gestures to the doorway. "You may pass. Should you come this way again, however, I will question you again… and then perhaps you will be more satisfying to my empty stomach."
We make our way down the east tunnel to find it gradually getting covered by more and more algae and moss. I almost miss it when a large patch of it on the ceiling begins to twitch. I hold up my hand to signal the others to stop and point to the ceiling some 50 ft down the corridor.
"Let's see if we can give that green slime the hint that it needs to go elsewhere," Vedis says as she steps up and stares intently at the monster.
Within moments a spot on it begins to boil and catch fire. It's twitching becomes much more obvious, enabling Ef Utan to target it with a telekinetic punch. I hold my breath as the corridor rattles and thank the gods for sturdy architecture. For a final touch I throw a flask of alchemist fire onto it, which finally gives it the hint that lunch would be better found somewhere else. After a few minutes it shambles down the corridor and out of sight.
"I'm glad that's gone," Lenata says as she brushes the dust from the ceiling out of her hair.
We carefully make our way down the rest of the corridor, keeping an eye out for the green slime. Eventually we come to a locked door, but thanks to my improved skills, it doesn't stop me for long. In the room is a muddy floor with different glowing balls hanging from the ceiling. For some reason I can't seem to shake the feeling like I've seen this before… but I just can't place it. In the meantime, Vedis scans it for psionics but comes up with nothing.
"Could they be magic?" Ef Utan asks, when suddenly the door slams and locks behind us.
"I hope so, because this door isn't going to open again," I say after checking the handle.
Lenata begins to search through the mud on the floor, looking for any signs or sigils on the floor underneath. A good idea… but unfortunately she comes up with nothing.
I start checking the glowing balls for traps, while Word uses his abilities to float above them for a visual inspection.
"They don't seem to be trapped," I call out. "At least not from the outside, anyway."
"Interesting… these spheres seem to be hung in a way that corresponds with the worlds on our map of this sphere. In fact… they have symbols on top of each that match the map!" Word calls out excitedly. He reaches out to touch one of the wires holding up the spheres in curiosity, but gets flung back as the wire sends a charge through him.
"Perhaps they are teleportation devices?" Lenata suggests. "Maybe we should all touch one together?"
"Sounds like a good suggestion to me," Ef Utan says with a nod as he checks our map. "How about #6 – The Sweet Forests? It sounds relatively harmless in comparison to the others."
The rest of the group shrugs and nods as we all gather underneath the sphere and touch it… except nothing happens.
"Hmmn…maybe it requires an activation word?" I mutter to myself. "Let's try this…"
With a flash of light we all look around to find ourselves on a floating rock surrounded by other smaller rocks held together with miles of dead plants…. with no other life other than a pod of large space whales floating nearby.
"Well this is just great," Ef Utan complains as he whips out a scroll and casts a Message spell at the whales, hoping that they understand his plea for help. No such luck.
Vedis and Lenata start whispering together and make me wonder if I should worry. They then nod to each other and begin singing a sweet little song that reminds me of much more peaceful times. To my surprise the whales seem attracted to this and the bull whale, some 110ft long, comes close to our rock to observe.
Lenata tries one of her language spells to see if she can talk to it… but all she picks up is curiosity and pleasure over the singing. She tries one of her cantrips to conjure up an image of the green pyramid sun that we're trying to get to… but her gestures with it soon turn into some kind of interpretive dance between her and Vedis and that's where I just can't take it anymore.
"Ok, this isn't going to go anywhere anytime soon," I mutter before I take a running leap and land on the whales back with a whoop. Unfortunately I don't have anything to hang on to him with before he bucks me off and launches me with his tail into Ef Utan and we both tumble into a pile against the rocks.
"Still better than interpretive dance…" I mutter before I pass out.
I am gradually woken up from my dream of sunbathing at my favorite oasis back on Gheldeneth by the healing energies of Lenata's magic and a bright flash of light.
"I can't see!" Vedis exclaims as Word cautiously floats down to us and reaches out to make sure we're there.
"It is now noted that space whales have the ability to shoot out the light they absorb from their underbellies," he states matter-of-factly before sitting down and meditating.
I was just able to turn my head away from the light, so it only takes a moment for me to blink and get my vision back. I catch a glimmer of something shiny in the distance and have to blink a few times to make sure I'm not seeing things before I scramble to stand up and take a closer look.
"Hey Word… when you're able to see again… do you think you could take me out to investigate some of the rocks in the distance? I think I see a possible sign of civilization out there."
"Curious. I shall be able to aide you momentarily," he replies as Lenata finishes with her spell of mending. "Thank you for your assistance, Lenata."
"No problem," Lenata replies. "I guess I'll take care of Vedis and Ef Utan while you all check it out. Be careful."
"All right, then!" I exclaim as Word stands up and I hop on his back. "Let's go that-a-way!"
About 1,500 feet out I can begin to make out more details. The shiny object I saw fills the side of a disc-shaped asteroid about 40-50 feet across. "A structure, perhaps?" I ask out loud.
"Undeterminable at this juncture," Word replies. "I do see an object that seems to be heading for us, however."
I am just able to readjust my position on Word's back to free him up for combat when a strange metallic spheroid appears in front of us with a collection of strange eyes and tentacles. We freeze and the thing just seems to be… waiting, I guess.
"It doesn't appear to be scanning us," Word offers.
"Try backing away slowly," I whisper to him. I think I've read about these things when I was in the Seeker library. What were they…yes… Storm Clouds of Thon.
Unfortunately backing away was something it didn't like as it starts to glow and its tentacles start whipping about. With a snap the tentacle lashes out and jolts Word with an electrical burst. Odd… it seems to leak green goop from a gash in its side when it uses that attack. I shall have to note that for later.
I grip Words sides with my legs and whip out my guns over his shoulders as I fire off two rounds into the creature before it lashes at me with its hooked tentacles. After a few more rounds with it the creature's eyes glow green as it scans us, then launches away into the distance.
"Perhaps we should return to the others before we go any further?" Word suggests. "We should tell them of what we discovered." We're both not doing so well after that attacks, so I nod and we make our way back to the others.
Eventually we make it back and Lenata expends a spell to give us all food and water as we rest and share what we learned with the others. While that ring I found so long ago keeps me from being hungry or thirsty, there is something said about the act of breaking bread with companions.
After a few hours we come up with a plan using some rope that will enable Word to help us get to the shiny structure in the distance, and thankfully no encounters bother us along the way this time.
Eventually we make it to the flat disc-like asteroid to find a strange structure that seems organic… yet not. As we land I do a double-take as out of the corner of my eye I swear I saw an Illithid in black leather with glowing eyes looking at us. When I look around, however… there is nothing. I make my way through some jagged rocks to find a place to sit as I rub my arms nervously. As the others settle they request some rest time before further investigation, so Word and I take watch. While only needing to sleep 2 hours a night is useful… it usually means I also get watch duty.
Everything seems to be going smoothly for a while… until suddenly I see a face full of teeth before me that just as quickly disappears. I don't like this at all.
"Get up get up get up!" I mutter as I look around nervously and nudge Lenata and Ef Utan with my foot.
Wisps of fog start to form around us drastically limiting our vision, and a green glow begins to radiate from the ground as we all huddle back to back to prepare for the worst of what might come.
I draw my guns nervously a I peer into the fog when suddenly the mouth full of sharp teeth once again shoots towards me and then recedes. Shaken and scared out of my fur I shoot into the fog in hopes that I might have hit the thing. I try and listen for movement in the fog, but hear nothing other than the chants of the others as they cast spells on their weapons.
I can see out of the corner of my eye that Word is loading his hand crossbow, when suddenly there is a grinding noise and a TWANG. I reflexively duck out of the way and wince at the noise it makes as the bolt imbeds itself into Ef Utan's shoulder.
So of course… that's when the monster decides to come out of the mist again. Of course. This time, however, it's not the mouth full of teeth. The strange creature materializes out of the fog and begins to mutter something in a guttural tongue that I swear I've heard before. Slow? I think that's what he said… I look to my left and have my suspicions confirmed as Ef Utan staggers and grabs his head.
I focus my search on Ef Utan's side, as I fear the creature is preparing an attack on him… when a choked cry comes from above. With a screech the monster swoops down and bites Ef Utan on his wounded shoulder before it sends Word flying with a swing of its arm.
….did I mention that all of the others were still tied together with that rope we used to get here?