FRIDAY, MAY 8TH - KINGDOM OF KESHANAR : SESSION 8 RECAP
The party took time to bind their wounds, taking a short rest in an effort to recover their wits and decide what to do next. Searching the armored adornments that fell to the stone floor when the sand golem was defeated they found a human sized gold death mask. Zafira picked it up and put it in her pack thinking it may be worth something.
The three siblings looked at the dark archway that led out of the room. They passed one of the sol stones past the portal’s edge to try to see what lay beyond, but found that some sort of thin, cold membrane stretched across the opening obscuring their sight of what was on the other side. They could pass a hand through it, but the penetration of the membrane provided them no insight of what lay ahead.
Taking a deep breath Zafira jumped through before her brother or sister could stop her. Fearing for her, Khephri leaped through a few steps behind, followed reluctantly by Kharu.
The three found themselves in deep shadows, the could see the ground beneath them, a strange, yellowish white stone like substance, but they could not see walls or ceiling. A cool wind blew, carrying a smell of stale air, like a room where no fresh breeze had been in some time. Their meager light from the sol stones they carried seemed dimmer here, as if the shadows themselves were absorbing it.
Zafira thought she saw movement in those shadows, just beyond the edge of their light, and then she heard them. Voices, soft whispers that she could not quite make out, but there nonetheless. She warned her siblings, who then began watching the darkness, their ears straining to catch the whispers and make sense of what they said. It was maddening and it went on for some time.
Eventually Khephri had had enough. Never one for patience the Paladin reached within and found the spark of the Phoenix and she willed the fiery wings of that herald of hope, spreading them wide, their light driving back the darkness. She leapt into the air, the wings sweeping with powerful strokes to propel her upwards, through the murky, dark fog like air. She flew straight upward, seeking to learn the height of the shadows, or perhaps find a landmark visible above the darkness. After climbing forty feet she broke through and found herself looking at a clear, evening sky filled with stars. She saw the four familiar moons of Keshanar aligned smallest to directly above a familiar looking pyramid. The structure was made of gleaming white stone, a crystal capstone shining atop it, a column of light streaming up into the night sky toward the moons above it.
This alone was breathtaking, unbelievably beautiful and mystical, but it was what else she saw that horrified and fascinated her at the same time. The dark mist ended several miles ahead of them and from that missed stretched an enormous skeleton, larger than anything she had ever seen. Looking back the way they had come she saw skeletal feet protruding from the fog, The remains were miles long, impossibly long. What could it mean? What could have been this large? A god? Something more powerful than a god? She felt her mind reeling, trying to comprehend what she was seeing.
She felt that the limited magic of her wings would soon end so she flew back down into the cloud to find her siblings and tell them of what she had seen. She found them where she had left them and told them all she had been able to discern above the cloud. They stared at her as if she had gone mad. Had the darkness and whispers gotten to her?
They discussed what the implications were of what Khephri had seen. Was the pyramid truly the pyramid of Ra-Memnon? How was that possible? There was no signs of the city of Keshanar anywhere around, but the pyramid bore an uncanny resemblance to the final resting place of the first pharaoh. Why here? It seemed obvious the edifice was their destination as nothing else had been seen by the paladin in the near distance.
As they pressed forward, the whispers began again, pressing in from all sides, but the siblings could not discern what was being said. Out of the corners of their vision they would see movement, but when they moved their glowing sol stones in that direction, they found nothing but shadows. Zafira felt fear, irrational terror of what she could not see, she turned to see her brother and sister moving further away, unaware she had turned back. As she turned to follow something reached out of the darkness and long taloned hands, black as midnight grasped at her, pulling her back into the waiting mists.
Zafira cried out, but even as she did the clawed hands ripped at her, their icy cold touch robbing the follower of Khonshu of her strength, she felt her life ebbing away. Her fearful cry caused her siblings to turn back, their questioning looks turning to looks of horror as they saw the shadows pulling apart, black, misty humanoid shapes assailed them.
The fight was quick and furious, the party fighting for their lives, trying not to be pulled into the shadows where they filled the light of their sol stones, and perhaps their very lives would be snuffed out. Each of the siblings suffered the chill touch of the Shadows, each feeling their strength being pulled from them, but in the end the spells of Zafira, the Eldritch blasts of Kharu, and the mystic khopesh of Khephri proved stronger and their foes were dispatched.
Feeling the weight of their wounds the party decided to take a short rest while they decided what to do next. Fearful of the shadows they could still see flitting in the darkness beyond the light of their stones, they pulled more sol stones from their bag and set them around them to drive back the black.
After patching up their wounds and taking stock of their resources, the group decided it was safer to press on and put the shadows behind them. They moved as quickly as they could, carrying the light emanating sol stones to illuminate their way. After what seemed an eternity, but was really only a couple of hours, they emerged into what appeared to be the desert at night, the great pyramid in front of them.
They looked for a way into the pyramid, but found only an obsidian sarcophagus, taller than a man, filling what appeared to be a narrow tunnel. Investigating the stone coffin, they found it unadorned, but where the death mask should be, there was only an empty space. Zafira reached into her bag and pulled out the gold death mask dropped by the sand golem. Looking at Kharu, who nodded, she placed the mask in the empty space where the face should be. With a grinding of stone on stone, the obsidian coffin withdrew into the pyramid, revealing a narrow passageway leading inside.
The three looked to one another, before Khephri stepped forward to lead them inside. It did not take long before they found themselves inside the pyramid, which they found to be hollow. A narrow stone path led from the entrance to what appeared to be a large platform on ground level, surrounded by sand. Thinking it might come in handy, Zafira reached up and removed the gold mask from the obsidian sarcophagus as she passed. She watched as the dark stone moved back into the passage closing off the exit.
Looking out at the sands they saw what appeared to be bleached white bones of humanoids, broken weapons, and discarded equipment. Zafira started to step out onto the sands to investigate, but Kharu, suspecting something was amiss, stopped her by grabbing her arm. Taking a one of the scraps of bone she had picked up earlier and tossing it out onto the sand, the siblings watched in fear as the sand around the bone erupted upward, as scarab beetles boiled out of the ground like some sort of living volcano. The scavengers swarmed the bone, and then borrowed back into the sand.
Being careful not to step off the stones, the three made their way to the platform. There they found a large stone sarcophagus, this one lying down adorned with pictographs and an effigy of a man lying in state, his hands grasping a large khopesh, but his face blank, no death mask in place.
“The mask Sister,” Khephri said quietly.
Zafira placed the gold mask onto the faceless carving and at first nothing seemed to happen. Kharu started to push the lid, but as he did the lid lifted as if by invisible hands and then moved to the side where it settled to the ground with a loud, echoing thud. As the three siblings leaned forward to look into the now opened coffin, a withered, mummified hand lifted from the confines to pull an armored corpse from within. The mummy wore gold armor fit for a pharaoh, and as it stood, it drew a dark metal khopesh and lifted a heavy black iron shield with a grinning skull. The shield of Set that they sought,
The battle that raged was desperate, the party throwing their most powerful spells at the monster. Zafira using Guiding Bolt to set up her sister Khephri to strike with her enchanted sword and unleashing her divine Smite to great effect. The bite of the mummy’s sword carried the creature’s mummy rot, but Zafira and Khephri both were able to shake off the effects of the disease. Kharu was nearly pushed into the scarab filled sands by enchantments of the Shield of Set, but in the end the party was able to triumph, destroying the mummy and taking the Shield, placing it in their bag of holding.
As they tried to decide how they would get out, there was a great rumbling and as they watched in horror the sands began to rise. No, the sand wasn’t rising, the pyramid was sinking into the sands. They moved back to the tunnel and found it still blocked by the obsidian sarcophagus. They used their skills to coax one another to move faster, to avoid falling blocks of stone and to finally force open the stone coffin blocking their way and hurled themselves out into the bright light of day, the sands of the desert around them. The heat of the sun warming their chilled flesh.
There was no sign of the mists, the enormous skeleton, the four moons or even the pyramid they had just escaped from. Their packs with all of their supplies and the Jug of Alchemy that could supply them with water had been left on the dusker camels before they had entered the portal that took them to the hiding place of the Shield. They looked around in despair, but they did not recognize the landscape and saw no landmarks that might tell them where they were. There was no sign of their mounts or supplies, and they were weeks from home at the minimum, if they were even on the correct plane.
“What about the pouch the Pharaoh gave us?” Zafira asked. “He said in a time of great need we could use it.”
Khephri had forgotten the pouch, but reached into her pack and pulled out the plain black leather pouch. Opening it, inside she found a red ruby the size of a large grape. A single rune marked one facet. Crush me in a time of need, it read. She placed it in one gauntleted hand and brought the hilt of her khopesh down on it and with a sound like breaking glass, it shattered. A red mist rose from her hand and a figure formed, a dark haired woman dressed in silks appeared.
“Free!” she shouted. “At last!”
Taking in the three battle weary figures in front of her she smiled.
“Ah, you are in need,” she said in a voice dripping of honey. “Speak your wish and I shall grant it.”
We will leave off here. Stay tuned to see what the siblings wish for, how will they escape the grasp of the desert. Will they see the City of Keshanar again. Check back later this week to find out. Thanks for reading and we will see you back here soon in… The Maze.