The Ossuary

[Earl of Purple]

Edge, Heading West

The Vile Necromancer waits a few moments to be sure that Khannie's gone before they approach the bone giant. They caress the immense carcass reverently, before swallowing and starting a prayer-chant as necromantic energies build and swirl around their shrouded figure, their robes swirling and blowing around.
"Awake, O dead, for there can be no rest for ye beneath the earth.

Let the splintered bones burrow from the grave pall.
Let cold fingers grip time-worn blades,
and unseeing eyes survey the fields of slaughter.
For your time has come once more.

And the Dead shall Walk."

Any dead thing near enough to hear the Vile Necromancer's strident voice will be bound to their will, emerging from where they're hidden and approaching. Some particularly potent undead- or lesser undead already controlled by something greater- may be able to resist, and try to confront the Vile Necromancer about it. They also specialise in physical undead, so spirits might not even notice their attempt.

[Rebonack]

[The Edge]

Nothing quite like chanting bodies back to their feet, right?

The Vile Necromancer's spell will reveal something quite unlike what he might be accustomed to. There's... something here. A formless malevolence. A will to dominate. It's centered on the ziggurat in the distance, but it feels unfocused. That necromantic power permeates the Ossuary, imbuing even immobile structures like the bone walls with a measure of impetus.

Bound as they are, they remain immobile.

The skeleton giant, however, just had its anima removed. That abomination rises under the Necromancer's control.

Meanwhile!

Khannie approaches the salt temple cautiously, moving in a circle around its pillar taking pictures. Since the sun is high in the sky there really aren't that many roaming undead to worry about. It isn't like she would come here at night or anything.

She isn't DUMB.

Khannie moves closer to examine the pillars and realizes quite suddenly that they are all, or were, people. Transformed into pillars of salt.

"Gross."

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley is scarcely aware of the fire, despite receiving some minor burns as the snake tears itself apart to escape the flames. No, he's utterly focused on his fight.

Dangling from the beast's jaws, hardly able to see, he laughs madly as he cuts and stabs at the hair around the cube, trying to crack it or cut it free. It's not often he gets to fight things without having a moral debate on the ethics of killing them, and he's not going to back down from an opportunity like this.

Or maybe it's just that he doesn't actually have a good way of escaping now that it has hold of his helmet. It's not like he can just take the thing off. So either way, the cube is his best bet. If he can just get it out or destroy it before he suffocates from the disgusting burnt hair smoke.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

"AHHHH!!!"

Raheeda screams and flails her arms around as the arm of her robe have caught fire.

Then she pratfalls.
Or she leaps at the snake.

It isn't clear if she managed to turn the pratfall into a jump or the other way around but now the burning Raheeda is attempting to grapple the detached portion of the snake as Harley is stabbing his way towards the cube.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Apparently the hair snake just can't deal with this level of bad decision making.

The smaller portion of it gets set on fire as well AND Harley manages to carve the cube out of it. As soon as the cube is cut loose the rest of the construct just sort of... falls apart. The cube is a deep lavender color, nearly black, and glows with unrestrained malevolence. It smells like salt, death, and rotten egg farts.

Really not the most pleasant object in the world.

So!

Upside!

The hair snake has been vanquished!

Downside!

Raheeda is still on fire.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley crows with glee as he rips the cube free, even as the snake collapses beneath him and he slams into the ground. He pulls his head free of the remains, shaking himself free of the disgusting hair remnants. Glancing down at the cube, he tosses it to the ground, ready to stomp it to dust.

Then, as the bloodlust fades from his eyes, he suddenly realizes that Raheeda is on fire. Oh no! Dropping his knife, he swiftly rips off his jacket, running over to try to smother the flames with it.

What was the rule of thumb? "Fall down and roll around!" Hopefully the robes can be put out before Raheeda is burnt too badly.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda rolls off the snake as it dies. Or more accurately she falls off.

Either way, she is rolling on the ground and Harley didn't even have to tell her!
This part she knew.
Hopefully she won't just spread the fire further by rolling around near all that hair though...

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Well goodness, Raheeda, DO you just spread the fire around more?

Hopefully not.

That wouldn't be very conducive to your long term survival.

As for the cube, it gets tossed on the ground and (apparently) swiftly forgotten. It definitely isn't doing anything nefarious down there. No sir! Just sitting around stinking of power that's been rotting in a hole somewhere for untold ages. Apparently the smell of rancid power is pretty similar to rotten egg fart smell.

Who would have guess!

While our heroes are busy being distracted several strands of hair begin extending down from one of the trees, groping about blindly in the general vicinity of the cube. Probably with the intent of retrieving it.

That would be, almost without question, bad.

[Earl of Purple]

The Edge

The Vile Necromancer does feel the malevolence deeper within the Ossuary. But they aren't worried, exactly. Well, they are. It feels like the time they had a brush with Keter. But they won't let that stop them, since now they have a giant skeleton to defend themselves with. The Necromancer instructs the former gate guardian to kneel, and uses the opportunity to scramble up the immense corpse to the shoulder, before ordering it to straighten up and march inside seeking the centre. No matter how malevolent, this Ossuary has never faced a Vile Necromancer before. Well, they hope.

The Vile Necromancer cackles madly as their immense mount strides towards their goal.

[Rebonack]

[The Edge => Toward the Ziggurat]

Well, maybe not immense. About twelve feet tall. But compared to the bent form of the Necromancer that's pretty big for sure. And we aren't talking a tall lanky sort of twelve, either. This skeleton has roughly human proportions so a regular human is like a child compared to it. Definitely shoulder ride worthy.

So!

VN and his new buddy set off. The ziggurat, an immense structure built from blocks of rock salt. Six steps rise toward the heavens, though the seventh and final step is left incomplete, some disaster in the past having long since halted construction of the enormous project. The Necromancer will pass the temple of pillars on the way, where the disguised spirit appears to be busy examining the architecture. Clearly she isn't particularly interested in the nebulous will to dominate that broods in the heart of the necropolis.

It's at about this time that the Necromancer will encounter something that might strike him as interesting. Just outside a smaller crypt made completely out of bones with a roof-peak of skulls there lays a skeleton. Judging from the bolts (made of bones of course) sticking out of the skeleton's back it's pretty clear this once-person was moving away from the crypt when shot. The skeleton looks to have collapsed on top of something they were carrying, a deep violet, nearly black cube just the right size to fit inside a skull's eye-socket.

Necromanctic power wafts from the cube, filling the air with a scent like death and sulfur. From a distance it was undetectable, but now that the VN is nearby it's almost overwhelming.

Meanwhile!

Khannie watches the necromancer stride past and scowls.

"Beans. Should I do something about that guy?" she asks the pillar of salt she's standing next to. The pillar, its face twisted into a mask of agony frozen in time forever, doesn't reply. "He seems creepy and he's definitely a necromancer. But he isn't really hurting anyone right now."

He might hurt people LATER though.

Necromancers seem like they come in two main types. The ones that are oogy but don't actually try to hurt anyone and the ones the are oogy AND don't care about killing people to obtain undead slaves. 'cuz that's basically what necromancy comes down to. Magical slavery. Well, or magical robots. It kinda depends on whether the original person is trapped in the body, right?

Khannie is pretty sure that the only thing in this place are ghosts; echoes of Names. The actual people have moved on like what the priests at Inari's explained to her. But is that how this creepy old guy's powers normally work?

In spite of her musings the pillar of salt has no input.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda rolls off the snake as it dies. Or more accurately she falls off.

Either way, she is rolling on the ground and Harley didn't even have to tell her!
This part she knew.
Hopefully she won't just spread the fire further by rolling around near all that hair though...

[The Tome of Eliander]

Well goodness, Raheeda, DO you just spread the fire around more?

Hopefully not.

That wouldn't be very conducive to your long term survival.

As for the cube, it gets tossed on the ground and (apparently) swiftly forgotten. It definitely isn't doing anything nefarious down there. No sir! Just sitting around stinking of power that's been rotting in a hole somewhere for untold ages. Apparently the smell of rancid power is pretty similar to rotten egg fart smell.

Who would have guess!

While our heroes are busy being distracted several strands of hair begin extending down from one of the trees, groping about blindly in the general vicinity of the cube. Probably with the intent of retrieving it.

That would be, almost without question, bad.

The Tome of Eliander

Harley tosses his coat down on the ground next to Raheeda, hopefully giving her a surface to extinguish herself on that doesn't spread the fires more. Of course, as long as she's put out, it's not a problem if the horrible grove burns.

But the trickster's attention has been drawn by the scrabbling hair tendrils, his foot tapping the ground in alarm. Whatever that cube is, it's bad, and it would be just awful if another hair monster was created after all the work they put in to destroy the first one.

So Harley dashes over to the cube, kneeling down beside it and bringing his mask crashing down on it. After all, some magic items can't be destroyed by mundane weaponry, and his knife isn't enchanted. The helmet very much is, so maybe it'll be effective in smashing this thing- but it's not exactly a weapon, so maybe not.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

She certainly isn't trying to set fire to more of the hair.
But when you're attempting to roll around to put out fire you're hardly in the business of making rational rolling decisions.

Either way, the fire on her is at least put out. Making Raheeda finally relax and settle down on the ground right on top of Harley's coat.

"Phew."

[Earl of Purple]

Toward the Ziggurat

The Vile Necromancer does feel the cube as they're carried towards it, and slows their ride down and bids it kneel so they can disembark. They approach the skeleton with its bone-arrows cautiously; it may well have been close enough to respond to their initial chant, so the hooded and robed figure does not lower their guard and clutches their gnarled staff tight, as they try to use it to roll the corpse over. Hopefully it won't stand up and start attacking; that would really put a dampener on the Vile Necromancer's efforts. For now, they Direct their gigantic minion to keep an eye out for threats and to defend them from any such thing.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

HEADBUTT!

Harley crushed the cube into a powder, the scent hanging around it growing unbearably intense for a moment before dispersing. The probing tendrils of hair abruptly shudder and withdraw. Whatever that thing was, the horrible hair trees appear to have lost interest now that it's gone. Or at least the horrible hair tree that was relatively close to our heroes.

Raheeda, meanwhile, lays on the ground.

The sky is pretty tonight, full moon that it is casting the world in a pale glow. The stars twinkle overhead, cold specks of light gazing down at the world with pitiless indifference. The stars aren't moved by your deeds, Raheeda. But then again, they weren't embarrassed by your fumble, either. Maybe that's for the best.


[Toward the Ziggurat]

And lo, the Villain engaged in the time honored practice of poking a dead thing with a stick.

No doubt Raheeda would be proud.

Flipping the skeleton over, the Vile Necromancer can see that this is a relatively recent corpse, in so far as any corpses in this place are recent. It still has shriveled, mummified flesh that has become crusted with salt. The reason why the corpse didn't respond to the necromancer's call is clear. There's a power bound up in the dark cube sending tendrils of influence into the corpse, gradually knitting together metaphysical sinews to animate it. That power resists foreign influence upon the corpses here and may well be the source that motivates them.

Depending on how good the Vile Necromancer's vision is, he might be able to see bolts loading into the sockets of the skulls atop the nearby crypt tracking him.

Meanwhile!

Khannie decides to continues her investigation of the temple for now.

...all the 'furniture' inside the building is people that have been turned into salt contorted into horrible shapes. This place definitely isn't very cheerful, but then again she wasn't expecting it to be. Pictures are taken none the less. At the center of the shrine, atop a lectern made of grasping hands, is a book.

Yeah!

Written accounts are definitely the sort of thing she's looking for. It might contain the story of this place? Or maybe it's just an oogy magic book. Only one way to find out, right? Sniffing around the lectern she can definitely tell there's a magical trap hooked up to the thing. Transmutation, probably? No doubt some awful spell for turning people into salt furniture. She begins working at disabling the trap.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley staggers to his feet, and uses the heel of his boot to grind the dust of the foul smelling cube into the ground. Good riddance! And also, a rare but exciting victory. He's not sure what that thing was, but this seems like one of those times where ignorance is bliss.

He wanders over to where Raheeda is laying, kneeling down beside her. "You doing okay? Not too burnt, I hope?" Harley is pretty bruised up himself, but certainly nothing serious. He glances up at the sky, smiling underneath his mask at the moon. It's a comfort, no matter how indifferent it might be.

But the smell of burning hair is a little distracting. That's right, Raheeda may be out, but the grove still has some fire here and there. "Should we get out of here?" he says, getting to his feet and offering a hand to his fellow traveler.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

The arm of Raheeda's robe has blackened and her arm has probably been hurt as well. But despite that, she seems to be in a relatively good mood.

"It's fine, it's fine. We just oughta get out of here. We haven't even found those cultists and we're already in need of some healin'. Don't suppose you can shake out of some divine-stuff out of that mask can you?" Raheeda has started to walk out of the hair grove. Beckoning Harley to do the same.

She looks up at the sky, at the same thing as he is. "Or can you ask that moon for some? I was always told the moon was nice." A beat. "What's your relationship with the sun anyway?"

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Harley gladly follows Raheeda out of the grove, after retrieving his knife. Of everything he's seen since coming to this land, that was undoubtedly the creepiest.

At the question of healing, he shakes his head sadly, rapping his mask with a knuckle. There's a dull, hollow sound. "Even before getting all locked up, healing wasn't really my thing. And I'm probably not unlocking this anytime soon, I haven't made anyone really happy since getting here. Aside from maybe that dragon," he says with a gloomy shrug.

Looking up at the moon, he sighs wistfully. "My moon was nice. I can't imagine a moon that isn't." He pauses for a moment, then speaks in a low, almost reverent tone. "Blessed moon, if it be thy will, bestow thy light of respite upon us, so we may be cleansed and healed."

A beat.

"Well, it was worth a try, I guess." He thinks for a moment. "Oh, and regarding the sun- I did kill her in my world. Not directly, but I was responsible, which is why I got punished in the first place. So, uh... our relationship is not good?"

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda nods in response to his helm-knocking. "Figures." She adds as he explains. "You were still super-brave talking to it. I was getting ready to launch a surprise attack y'know? Maybe distract it for a moment. So glad it was nice."

Her gaze is then drawn back to the moon again.
"Maybe it's just too far away to hear you." She reasons while rubbing her burnt hand. Judging by her expression she quickly regrets this decision. But at least that shows her pain receptors weren't burnt away at least.
"...figure it would be impossible to hear anything from up there. So don't feel bad."


Then at his last statement Raheeda's eyes widens. "Oh!" She exclaims as he mentions that he killed the sun.

"I didn't mean-" She pauses, searching for words. "I meant, uh, before that." The yuan-ti let's out a small sigh. "But I also didn't think about it either. So sorry Harley. I shouldn't have asked that. I just made you sad which is the opposite of what I should be doing."

[Earl of Purple]

Toward the Ziggurat

The Vile Necromancer raises a crude defensive barrier- akin to the one used when talking to Khannie- and bends down to pick the cube up. They don't spot the bolts being loaded, but this is a dangerous place- as this corpse attests- and caution is always warranted. They'll reach down and try to pull the dark cube out of the skeleton's cold, dead hands whilst reaching out with their Name, probing the corpse to try and figure out how long it has been dead.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

A request is made of the Moon.

These sorts of things are always interesting, when the Nexus is concerned. How many moon gods (or goddesses) are there, anyway? Probably three, at least. Maybe even more! So when you ask the Moon for help, who are you asking? Which spirit are you entreating? That's a good question, right? It probably depends, at least in part, on where you are.

Right now our heroes are in the Ossuary, a place of both death and preservation.

And something hears.

Gazing up at the moon, a streak of white light appears to fall from it, descending to earth and crashing in the distance in a pure white flash and a muted rumble that causes the ground to shake.

Huh.

Well.

That wasn't healing light, exactly.

But it was some kind of reaction, right?

An omen at the very least? Judging from the glow whatever just landed over there is still over there. It definitely isn't cultists but who knows what it is? It would be kind of rude to ask the Moon for help and then not check it out.


[Toward the Ziggurat]

Several things happen at once here.

First?

The cube is picked up. This immediately ends the cube's influence on the corpse. It could be raised pretty easily at this point.

Second?

The cube is, in some fashion, part of something far greater. A source of power and a vague impression of will. It wants but its wants are nebulous. It wants to preserve, to grip existence with avarice. But the fragment of power in the cube (which on closer examination appears to be dark colored salt) can be easily shaped and directed with the right rituals. Placed into the eye-socket of a corpse, it will animate it.

The necromancer can already animate the dead, sure. But can he animate them with a spark of divine power?

Third?

The corpse on the ground is less than a day old. For mummification to have set in as much as it appears clearly some power is at work here. Likely the preservative power of the black salt.

And finally?

Bone bolts are fired out of the skulls at the necromancer. They don't carry any more force than a small crossbow, but even a small crossbow is enough to slay an unarmored person at this range.

Meanwhile!

"Okay just tweak that spellwork there aaaaaaand-"

There's a fizzing pop from the lectern, pulling a grin from Khannie.

"Got it!"

Traps are fun in an exciting 'they blow up in your face if you don't solve the puzzle' sort of way. It's a sort of puzzle Khannie has found to be really enjoyable, matching her wits against those of whoever created the trap. With the danger past she takes some more photos of the book and then caaaarefully opens it.

You never know how brittle ancient books are. If it seems like the pages are going to stick then you want to leave it closed and then do some SCIENCE! on it to make it so you can read it. But, to her surprise, the pages are well preserved and turn smoothly. Inside she finds-!

"Huh. Looks like funerary rites?"

Not quite a history of the place, but you can still learn a lot from funeral rituals. Looks like the people who built this place were really into mummification. But that raises a question. If they're into mummification then what's up with all the skeletons? Clearly she's still missing some important information.

She takes the book off the pedestal and stows it in her pack-
-and is immediately attacked by several salt pillars that just animated.

Of course.

They're slow and clumsy and dangerous if they grab you like most undead, but they amount to a minute or two worth of distraction. When your fists can shatter hard stone then flesh that's been turned to salt is no big deal. Several exploded skeleton-filled statues later Khannie is on her way out of the temple and-

There's the creepy guy with his bone giant. Messing around by a crypt? And getting shot at by skulls!

"HEY! Watch out!"

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

"Me, brave? Look who's talking!" says Harley, gesturing at Raheeda, "You're the bravest person I know." He follows her gaze up to the moon. "Yeah, definitely too far away, now that I can't fly. Maybe if I had a megaphone," he jokes wistfully. Those grapes are definitely sour.

At Raheeda's apology he blinks in surprise, then shakes his head. "Hey, no need for that. I should apologize, I'm the one being all depressing. My past makes me sad sometimes, sure, but you never do. Quite the opposite, in fact." Harley reaches out to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly, then peers at the burns on her hand. "Hey, that looks really, uh... painful. Do you want to leave, and come back after we find a healer? I'm sure those cultists can wai-"

Then something is falling from the moon.

Harley snaps his head around, breath catching in his throat, unable to take his eyes off as the white light crashes into the earth. He stands still for a moment, almost shaking with tension.

"She heard me. The moon heard me," he says, in a dazed, dreamy tone of voice. He seems to have forgotten that this is a different moon, in a different world, than the one he used to know. Then, without a moment's warning, he breaks into a dead sprint towards the fallen light, oblivious to anything except reaching whatever gift the moon has sent down.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

"What's a 'megaphone'?" Raheeda inquires as he reaches out to squeeze her shoulder which seems to confuse her. As if she doesn't understand the gesture. Yet then she just smiles at him. "But it's fine to be sad. Better to be sad than to not feel anything at all. I don't mind it. When I'm sad I don't also want to be sad about being sad. That just makes you sadder. Better to be okay with it and accept your feelings as they are." Raheeda closes her eyes for a moment and gives him a sage-like nod.

"But-" She then starts as he did bring up a good point about the burn. This was why you usually had healers in your party.

However, before she can finish the thought she spots what Harley had already seen. Truth to be told she only did cause of the rumble as her attention had been more at him than the moon.

She looks back at Harley only to see him starting to run towards what had descended from the sky.

Having already investigated stuff falling from the sky she's less enthusiastic about it but she didn't have enough experience with it to actually stop him. It could be something nice this time, right?
So she simply tags along and runs after him to see what they'll find.

[Earl of Purple]

Toward the Ziggurat

The Vile Necromancer reminds themselves it would be a bad idea to eat it. At least, not without some form of ritual to contain it and channel the power within safely. For now, it's going into a pocket of the robes for further study. As they straighten, they hear Khannie's call, turning in the teenager's direction and not paying attention to the tomb whose skulls are shooting them.

Fortunately, their defensive spells hold, the bolts apparently hitting a solid wall half a metre from the Vile Necromancer. That draws the figure's attention and they raise a finger to point at the offending skulls and speaks a single word. "Destroy." The word has no power, and does not have any direct effect upon the skulls, nor the crypt. It is, however, an order and direction given to the former gate-guardian, instructing it to stride forward and smash the crypt with its immense polearm.

[Rebonack]

[The Tome of Eliander]

Life advice sure is nice. There's a place for sorrow, certainly, but one had best be careful not to be consumed by it.

But our heroes aren't going to be focusing on that for very long because something apparently just fell from the moon. As they sprint toward the impact site and the soft silvery glow grows steadily in strength our heroes might notice that they're running into strands of silk drifting in the air? Like long drag lines rather than full sticky webs. It's subtle enough that someone who isn't paying close attention likely wouldn't even notice. But the closer they get to the crater the thicker the drifting lines of silk become and, strangely, the more difficult they are to notice.

Soon they'll reach the edge of a crater where the salt flat has been blasted by the impact, but strangely there's no heat to speak of. The lambent glow sufficing the area is cool and soothing rather than bright and burning. Like moonlight. Like walking into a dream. Nestled at the center of the crater is a... chrysalis? Cocoon? Strands of silk stretch away from it, the whole object aglow with silvery radiance.

Did the moon just send them a sack full of spider babies?

Hopefully not.


[Toward the Ziggurat]

Yes.

Do not eat it.

Probably don't grind it up and use it to flavor hardboiled eggs. That would be bad.

So! Smashing a crypt with a polearm. Or maybe more of a poleaxe? But not a PROPER poleaxe because that has a much longer haft and a smaller blade and a hammer on the backside. The bardiche is just a really BIG two handed axe. Which the skeletal giant introduces to the crypt with emotionless, mechanical precision. The crypt isn't that large, but it'll still take some time to demolish it. Given that the bolt shooting skulls are on TOP those will be the first to go and the hair of bone bolts quickly stops.

Khannie, meanwhile, jogs to a halt nearby. "Oh. You've got spell shields I guess. You've gotta be more careful in places like this there are traps all over. I just shut one down that turns meat into salt and I'm gunna bet force screens wouldn't have helped."

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda's wise advice about sadness does, in fact, make Harley feel better. And he'd certainly have some things to say about it, if he weren't utterly distracted by the moon drop. Perhaps he'll think about it more later.

But for now he's running over to the crater, completely oblivious to the silky strands that hang in the air. He has eyes only for the light, and the chrysalis that seems to be at its source.

Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and the feeling of the cool moon glow on his skin sends Harley back to a long distant time. He falls to his knees at the edge of the crater, gazing down with a look halfway between desperation and reverence in his eyes. Behind the mask, tears are welling up, dripping out of the metal grate that covers his mouth.

He seems oblivious to the fact that this moon might be a weird spider baby trap, instead of the sign of forgiveness he seems to be envisioning it as.

"I give thee thanks Mother Moon, that thou has blest this unworthy one with thy light. I give thee thanks. I give thee thanks," he mutters, unable or unwilling to actually go down and examine what the cocoon might actually be. He's acting very strange indeed, even for Harley.

[Shadowcaller]

The Tome of Eliander

Raheeda on the other hand does notice the weird webs but she doesn't make the connection to the meteor. After all, she had already seen plenty of creepy stuff out here so for all she knew it had already been out here before the impact. Just like that creepy hair.

Plus, meteors were hot so of course they didn't carry web with them.

She was far more concerned about Harley than the fallen space object. Especially when he started to cry and pray at the sight of a... sack?
Raheeda had many times seen spider-moms carry all their little babies on her backs and she found that endearing rather than creepy.
Spiders weren't that different from those weird wolves humans kept around in Raheeda's opinion. They only ate meat and they could sometimes be dangerous. Yet humans treated the wolves with adoration and spiders as monsters. Probably since they hadn't been able to enslave them the same way.

Very unfair.

"Maybe there's some baby moon-spiders in there?" She suggests once Harley isn't praying. "They might be cute. Perhaps you could adopt one since it's like a gift, right?" A tame spider would be really cool in her opinion. Imagine all the clothes it could make with its webs.

[Earl of Purple]

Toward the Ziggurat

Earl forgot what weapon the giant skeleton had, just remembered it to be some long-hafted weapon. So he was generalising.

"I have some defensive wards, yes. A curse to turn flesh to salt? Nasty." The Necromancer leans over again, and runs a hand over the mummy's face and whispering. "Raise." They're activating one of their Aspects, to reanimate the bones and return it to a mockery of life under their control. They're whispering to try and keep it hidden from Khannie, though the power redolent within the word may make it heard regardless.

[Rebonack]

[Toward the Ziggurat]

It's okay, there are way too many polearms in this world. Killy thing on the end of a stick is just a very useful general design.

"Yeah there were a buncha pillars and furniture and stuff that looked like they used to be people. Animated when I picked up a book," Khannie reports, brushing some stray salt fragments off her shoulder. She perks up when the word of power is uttered. Her hearing is pretty good AND come on. Words of power are pretty much by definition things meant to be heard. By the world if not by anything else.

The mummy stands to its feet, a withered thing with the lips pulled away from the teeth. Not a perfect mummy by any means, but definitely not pleasant in any way. In life, the mummy was a thief plundering the crypts here for riches. A wizard had heard that the strange black salt of the Ossuary could be used as an alternative to onyx for the creation of undead and wanted a sample. Sadly the thief wasn't as tricky as he thought he was.

Khannie feels some sense of revulsion when the mummy stands up again. She isn't shocked by it, not really. But it's still gross and weird. Dark, as that nice lizard paladin she met would put it. Her own abilities are pretty dark, she would admit. But there's something about turning corpses into puppets that's just bone-deep wrong.

The necromancer can probably tell that Khannie isn't a big fan of what he just did, but he's probably accustomed to that attitude. On the upside, though, Khannie isn't immediately attacking him for it.

"So are you just here looking for bodies for making undead or something?" Khannie asks warily. "I guess better here than somewhere else."


[The Tome of Eliander]

Now deep within the crater, having largely ignored the silken strands drifting through the air, our heroes will find that the world seems to shift and bend and flow. Colors smear together like a dream and suddenly both will find themselves in a safe, familiar place. Though each might disagree on exactly what that safe familiar place is. There's a certain hypnotic, surreal quality to it such that the sudden transition from a crater in the Ossuary to this place of refuge likely won't strike them as strange or unexpected. Much like a dream it feels perfectly natural.

And, of course, in the middle of that safe place stands the chrysalis, steadily waxing greater in both size and brightness. It, too, is a familiar and safe thing. They have nothing to fear regarding it.

~Did someone call for help?~

It's less a voice than it is an impression. From... the chrysalis? From the Moon? From your own mind? It isn't clear which.

~I'm sorry, this is a little embarrassing. I must have fallen asleep into the Moon again. Where are you?~

It's possible to escape this waking dream. Quite simple, really. All one would need to do is brush the stray strands of silk away.

[quillpleasant]

The Tome of Eliander

"Moon... spiders?" Raheeda's question seems to break Harley out of the trance he's in, and he blinks, looking around as if only now really taking in his surroundings. "I, uh... sorry, was I crying?" He shakes his head to clear it before returning his attention to the chrysalis.

It's dawning on him that this is not, in fact, a divine gift sent by his Moon. It's still deserving of reverence, because any moon is sacred, but this strange new moon shouldn't be making him feel all these emotions. Nor should he necessarily trust it.

Swallowing hard, Harley speaks hesitantly, unsure if the owner of the strange voice can hear him or not. "I did implore thee- uh, I asked for help. Yeah. Who... are you?" Could it be spiders? Harley is pretty neutral on spiders. They're not scary like rats or foxes.

[Earl of Purple]

Headed Toward the Ziggurat

"The Count of Tagiria thinks he has power, because he has a host of fantassins and his cousin married into House Milenan. I'll show him real power, teach him not to run off wizards because the peasants don't like us." The Vile Necromancer sounds very angry at this Count of Tagiria, whoever that might be, and turns abruptly away and gesturing with a hand for their minions to follow them- in this case, the desiccated mummy and the former gate-guardian. Khannie might tag along as well, but that wasn't intended as an invitation.