The Ossuary

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Rebonack
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The Ossuary

Post by Rebonack »

Okay.

This place is seriously spooky.

Nestled between two desolate, jagged mountain ranges, squatting atop a salt flat like a vulture over a corpse, stands the Ossuary. A sprawling necropolis of crypts bleached white in the sun. Obelisks and tombs and monuments as far as the eye can see with a massive ziggurat rising above the plane at its center. A place of mournful windswept silence where not a single living thing dwells.

Now, granted, creepy graveyards existing in the Nexus isn't anything new. Especially not creepy graveyards with mausoleums forming a veritable city of the dead. It's a pretty classic biome for finding undead monsters.

This place, though?

It takes that theme and raises it to the power of SKELETON.

Every single one of those mausoleums holding the bones of some ancient entity of great power?

Yeah they're made of bones.

The dead, sheltering the dead, forever.

Or at least until some jerk necromancers show up to steal remains.

This place is, in fact, a common haunt for necromancers in search of old and potent bones. Just mind yourself if you're an adventurer, since necromancers aren't always very discerning about sourcing their skeletons.

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Re: The Ossuary

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[The Ossuary]

Dena has learned an important lesson today.

Assume your team mates have no idea what's going on and bring all the supplies yourself.

So!

What are our definitely not heroes going to do? The safest route into the ziggurat, without question, would be the entrance at the peak. If they head in that way they won't have to wade hip-deep through skeletons to get inside.

[The Ossuary]

Dena already knows this but she didn't think she would have to be planting explosives!
She's invisible though so she should be safer than the other two doing this.

So she's going to head back to the control rods and see if she can lower down some small remotely detonated bombs without being seen and then head back to Pania and Cantata. Then they can the ziggurat from there at the top which at least Cantata already should be inside. Violet will join them there as well of course.

[The Ossuary]

Cantata is there at the entrance when the two arrive, nodding in acknowledgement towards each one as they join her. She seems ready to delve deeper, but looks towards the drone and gestures a couple hand signs. "Can they give us any light if we need it?"

[The Ossuary]

Pania steps in to join Cantata, and moves slightly ahead- not out of sight, but she wanted to see what lay before them. She was still content to follow orders though, so that was as far as she went. Best to wait for Dena, both to look good on her report on her first job for MERC and for the fact that Dena was basically acting as a translator between her and Cantata. Normally she'd want to push forwards fast, but she was smart enough to know that this kind of situation required communication.
And so our Not-Heroes gather at the apex of the pyramid shortly after some friendly bombs get planted around the skeleton control rods. When those things blow the rods won't know what hit 'em!

Also the skeletons will all go berserk.

Probably best to save that for the most opportune moment. Too early and it won't provide them with the distraction they need. Too late and, well, they'll already be up to their necks in skeletons. And no one wants to be up to their necks in skeletons.

Assuming the slab at the top of the pyramid is pulled away, the mercs will be met with a pretty spooky looking flight of stairs descending down into the dry, dusty darkness. The interior smells of dust and salt, the sharp scent strong enough to sting the nose.

Or...

The tongues.

In the case of Dena's head-snakes.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Her snakes don't seem too pleased by the smell as they start squirming in an agitated fashion. But it's not especially dramatic so I'd be hard to miss in such a tense situation. Generally only people that knew her well, like Kirk or Tina, could pick up on it.

Dena herself certainly isn't showing any agitation as descending down a spooky staircase leading down into a temple full of hostile undead used to almost be an everyday event to her.
"Violet takes the lead, she can scan for traps and hostiles." Dena declares as they begin their descent.

"But keep an eye out, she can only scan a small area at the time." Which happens to be right in front of them and occasionally the walls to their sides. If there were traps or creatures hidden higher up than that the drone would miss them. Thus that's what Dena is keeping a close eye on.

What Violet is trying to detect are hidden mechanisms, magic of various sorts and heat. While they were up against beings that didn't give that away it honestly made it even more useful as the living beings that occasionally controlled them stood out much more.
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Arkhosia »

Cantata wrinkles her nose as they descend further down into the eerie structure. What an unpleasant place to find herself in. Of course, unpleasant places are certainly a hazard of the job, and it could be woese. The fewer missions she gets running through sewers, the better.

The saboteur is all too happy to let Violet scout for them. While she had some capabilities in that manner herself, they were rather useless when it came to skeletons, magics and mechanical contraptions. "I'll try not to touch anything," she assures
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: [Outside] The Ossuary

Post by Meowmai »

The cramped, dusty atmosphere was awful, and the smell was even worse, so as Pania stepped inside she visibly reacted with distaste. But it did not take her long to adjust to it all. For the musty tomb had nothing on the scent of bleach and blood in white corridors that haunted her dreams.

She too, has no objections to letting Violet take the lead. Pania had the sharp eyes of a hunter, but hers were similarly untrained for the environment they found themselves in.

"Let us hope this place does not have a curse like before," she muttered aloud. It would not be ideal if everyone's bones were ripped out as they had seen happen to that one poor necromancer.
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Re: [Outside] The Ossuary

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Given that the walls are made of stones instead of bones it is unlikely that the bone-stealing curse isn't active here.

Not IMPOSSIBLE.

But certainly not likely.

The walls surrounding the mercs are caved with bas-reliefs depicting figures ascending stairs to the top of the pyramid. Prisoners marched to their dooms. Everything is caked with dust and salt, making the details difficult to make out unless someone feels brave enough to scrape the obscuring patina away. Clearly this temple wasn't used for terribly nice things.

Chances are everyone figured that part out already thanks to the bone stealing curses and undead.

Violet's scans don't reveal any mechanical components to the surroundings, they're nothing more than blocks of stone stacked on top of each other. The pyramid itself appears to be without magic, or at least without magic in the immediate area. This is.. odd. To say the least. Given the thick laers of necrotic spellwork that hangs on the rest of the Ossuary like Spanish moss on the branches of trees.

The descent takes some time, but eventually they'll come to the inner chamber of the pyramid; a huge sarcophagus surrounded by four thrones. Each throne houses a skeleton, stooped and covered in ancient arms and armor. They're of colossal size, easily twelve feet tall. Some kind of ancient, antediluvian magic clings to them, causing their souls that should have long since departed to fill the air around their remains like a greasy black fog.

Based on the description their employer provided, the remains they're after are in the sarcophagus.
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Re: [Outside] The Ossuary

Post by Shadowcaller »

Well, this looked bad.
Though hadn't what they were after already been taken by the necromancy company? She could't detect any signs of the extraction team but the pyramid might have completely devoured them for all she knew.
"Keep together and don't touch anything. It looks like we're going to have a hard time avoiding this fight unless one of you can interact with that sarcophagus without getting close to it?" She looks to the others, hoping for some more insight.
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Re: [Outside] The Ossuary

Post by Arkhosia »

Cantata takes Dena's request very seriously, and will remind Pania if needed. Knowing how to keep your hands to yourself and limit the detectable footprint you left behind was an important aspect of her initial training and career as an agent for Aeon Entertainment, and while her style of freelance work tended to have less emphasis on confidentiality and the lack of a trace nowadays, it was still prudent advice in a realm where arcane enchantments and traps could abound.

Still, there could be something to the artwork of this tomb, Cantata thinks, doing her best to study the bas-reliefs as well as she can without touching them. She briefly considers attempting to sense for lingering empathic traces that could give her a clue about the history of this place and what dangers might remain before dismissing it out of hand - it would most likely be simply pain and death, with nothing cognizant or informative.

"My powers are mental, not physical," the empath advises through sign, regarding the skeletons with concern. "I can't do much to trick these things, and I don't know if I have the equipment to make much of a dent against giants." She does, however, look over to Pania next, glancing between her and the coffin before attempting to give her a meaningful look. If she doesn't clue in, Cantata will sign to Dena, "Think she has the fine control for what you need?"
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: [Outside] The Ossuary

Post by Meowmai »

[The Ossuary]

Okay, well, if they were handing out any awards for spookiness this place was definitely going to be nominated. Pania looked about warily. Dena's warning, and any reminders from Cantata, were ultimately unnecessary. The warrior had little desire to touch anything at all in this place. She doesn't seem that interested in the wall carvings, either.

The chamber they find themselves in is even more ominous, and Pania visibly tenses up, watching the huge skeletons and the strange soul-fog intently for any sign of movement. She felt increasing out of her depth here, unsure of what necromancy could accomplish. But if it could bring huge numbers of small skeletons to life, than surely it could bring a few large skeletons to life. If that happened... well, Pania had a lot of strong abilities up her sleeve, but she wasn't sure how they'd fare against something like this.

Looked like Dena wanted some of those skills now, though. "I can." She answered. "What do you need me to do?"
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Re: The Ossuary

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The central sarcophagus is still sealed as the bulging rim of pitch between the lid and body attest. If it had been opened already the seal would be broken.

Our heroes lawfully hired mercenaries eye the four enthroned skeletons cautiously, as is well deserved. This definitely has the smell of one of those traps where you approach the goal and then all of a sudden a whole bunch of nasty boss skeletons stand up and rattle you. Looking a bit closer, the four giants seem indescribably ancient in some difficult to place way. They aren't just old, they're older than old. From some distant time lost to history.

That lack of magic in the walls...

It may be that the pyramid is older than the rest of the Ossuary. Perhaps the vast graveyard was built around this cyclopean monument.

Cantata pokes at the walls with her mind since she knows better than to physically touch anything. The carvings appear to depict the purpose of the pyramid. Sacrifices. Unimaginable cruelty. The whole world choked by a single man's ambition. A desire to cast down the stars themselves and trample them underfoot. The pyramid was a throne of ascendancy. But something stopped the ritual, aeons ago. The carvings shed no light on what thwarted the scheme.
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Re: The Ossuary

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"I need you to try to get what we want our of that sarcophagus-" Dena points them out. "-or at least confirm that the remains we want aren't there without actually getting close to those giant skeletal guards." In case the necromancers had already been here and managed to take what they were after for themselves. "But failing that, you could always throw something in there as a distraction while I get the remains."
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Re: The Ossuary

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"Easy enough." Probably. Pania steps slightly ahead of the others, although she's careful to still stay as far from the weird big skeletons as she can. "Stand back."

After her instruction, she turns her gaze to the sarcophagus. Breathe. Focus. Feel, not think. Her eyes alight in a vivid sea green, and a pressure starts to build in the room. Ignore the whispers in the corners of your mind, but don't ignore the pain. Draw from it, feed off it. Her hands extend, and the lid begins to shake. The world was hers, and it would bend to her will.

It would take some effort, but presumably- unless the coffin's seal is extra strong or otherwise supernaturally sealed, of course- the lid would begin to lift, tearing away from the pitch. Pania's headache returned as the psychic energy coursed through her though, and as she exerted her will through pain and emotion out it could leak into the minds of the others close by. This is why she advised everyone stay back.
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Re: The Ossuary

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There comes a sound of stone grinding against stone as the heavy lid of the sarcophagus is pulled away revealing-!

A mummified body decked in gold and wearing a bronze mask depicting an austere man with a thick, tightly curled and perfectly sculpted beard. One of the eyes has been torn away with great violence, likely the cause of the king's death.

A small, shriveled thing.

Could this be the man who made the nations tremble, so many years ago? Reduced to nothing more than a husk, his works lost to the teeth of time.

That's what they're after. A tyrant. A conqueror. The first person from his world to call himself Emperor.

The first king of kings.

In spite of the fact that the mummified corpse is little more than fragile remains there's still a heavy feeling of authority that hangs over the body. A sense of domination. Of conquest. Of rule. It's understandable why the necromancers would want access to such a body and the symbol it represents.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Pania does her best to let down the heavy slab gently, but it's clear she's not used to slow controlled movement with her telekinesis. So, the stone lid to the coffin still ends up making some noise as it hits the floor, and she lets it go.

She does not like the corpse she uncovers. For one thing, this manner of burial was unfamiliar to her. But that would have only really been mildly troubling. What got to her was the aura seemingly hanging around it. Almost... challenging her. It threw her off. Her own powers were built on dominating the reality around her, so for a moment she struggled to push against that vague feeling lingering around the corpse that countered her. But then, the corpse would start to lift, and she would drag it through the air towards them.

Lets hope this doesn't set anything off.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Even as she stands back to watch Pania work, it's hard for Cantata not to pick up on the negative sensations radiating from the enmitic in front of her. The sensations tingle at the edge of the empath's mind, little pinpricks spiking into needle points - and then railway spikes.

Cantata's knees buckle and she clutches her head with one hand, slumping against the wall to stay upwards as the pain and emotions radiating from Pania reach their apex. She refuses to let herself fall to her knees, though - a practical insistence that the other psion's radiating force of will poetically helps magnify.
"Are we living a life that is safe from harm? Of course not, we never are. But that's not the right question. The question is: are we living a life that is worth the harm?"
~Welcome to Night Vale
SliiArhem wrote:Arkh I may be slightly delirious but I don't think that would make sense even if I was coherent.
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Re: The Ossuary

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A Mausoleum

Today's location is one of the smaller buildings in the Ossuary. Not too tall, not to wide, just a small crypt made of mildly horrific skeletal remains loosely in the shape of a mausoleum. A single entrance exists: a round door made of (you guessed it) bone, burned brown to have a cursory resemblance to wood.
Surely no one sane would come here. And lo, that will probably remain the case today.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

"It smells here. The air is rank and still, and the stench of death lingers." The ossuary was nothing like home, where the warm, sweet winds would carry the scent of fresh flowers right to Nambra's nose. As she creeps quietly through the forgotten halls before her, Nambra whispers the Elvish names of the village flowers she could remember. The repetition calms her nerves, as do the fond memories of a world long since left behind, but despite all her pleasant reminiscing, the elf cannot shake the feeling that something terrible was going to happen to her.

"Amin delotha lle, Nambra! You are lost!" She hisses, cursing in her own tongue. "What is the use of looking where I am going when all I see is stone?" Her silver eyes, narrow and pupilless, scan the walls in desperation. Everything looked the same to her, and she was starting to fear that she had lost her way. There was no going back now. Nambra had been sent by her father to this accursed place with a task to perform, and the elf would rather die than return empty-handed. And so, the elf, all skin-and-bones, and clad in a torn green robe, continues onwards.

Nambra turns a corner, and by chance, stumbles upon a great round door of burnt bone. Her eyes widen. She reaches into a satchel at her side and retrieves a roll of parchment, which she begins to read off of once unfurled. "You... will come to a door... as bright and round as the moon... but of bone as brown as baked clay." This was the door, it had to be. Nambra kneels down, pressing her bare and bandaged feet into the stones, before crouching closer to the sealed entrance as if approaching a wild animal. There is fear in her eyes, but fear won't stop her now.

With great care, Nambra taps at the door with her crooked, driftwood staff. The bone shard at its center starts to hum, and seconds later, a pale green light emanates from its top. The light starts to bleed into the door itself, and magical tendrils begin searching for dormant magicks to choke and throttle. The elf sought to dispel any dangerous enchantments before creeping inside. She knew from her father's teachings just how violent protective magicks could be, and she was determined not to have come all this way just to die.

Shortly after, Nambra holds her staff in both hands. With whitened knuckles, she peers at the door in search of an obvious outward locking mechanism. A padlock, perhaps.

"Amin en sina, I did not come all this way to be stopped by a door."

--
► SHOW SPOILER
Last edited by Spectre on Sep 16, 2022 2:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

There were no wards on the door. But there is a lock. A small one made of a tiny skull. Within its mouth is a hole.
If only Nambra had brought...a skeleton key.

Or a hammer. Or even a metal shim. Or a basic lockpick? Frankly this lock doesn't seem like it would hold up to any kind of attack.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

"One lock? Is that all?" Nambra blinks and scowls. "No magick? No guardian creature?" With a suspicious look, she brings her scroll up before her eyes, centimeters from her face. Father's notes didn't mention a guardian, but there were many cryptic hints suggestive of some kind of arcane trap. Yet her spell had failed. There was no magick present in the door, at least none that she could detect with her spell, and the locking mechanism had entirely failed to impress her. For a brief moment, she considers her options, but as she becomes more impatient, Nambra decides to act!

With a stifled grunt and a gasp, Nambra strikes the old lock with her staff, surmising that a bit of force ought to break the thing outright. The noise echoes strangely through the halls, causing the hairs on her arms to stand up. The lock endures. Gripping her staff even tighter, Nambra strikes it again. This time, the sound bounces painfully about her drooping, pointed ears, forcing a grimace onto her face. Still, the lock did not budge. Nambra raises her staff high for the third time, and with a restrained yell, brings it down like a hammer upon the lock, knocking it right off the door to clatter noisily.

Very noisily. The disturbance sends a chill down her spine. Had anyone, or any-thing, heard her? "Ikotane mori sinome—sound carries strangely here." With a frightened look, Nambra whirls around to ensure that nothing had snuck up upon her! Her eyes take in everything and find nothing. She seemed to be all alone, deep in the ossuary's bowels. The elf kneels down beside the broken lock before tossing it into a corner, disappointed by the damaged apparatus. Nambra then pulls her fur-lined sleeves up and presses her small, pale-gray hands to the door of burnt brown bone.

After a series of unflattering grunts and groans, and quite a bit of bare-foot scuffing upon the stone floor, the round door starts to budge. Eager to move on, the elf continues to push with all her meager strength. "You are walking into a trap," she couldn't help but think to herself as she pushed, "and you know it."
Last edited by Spectre on Sep 16, 2022 2:09 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

Inside is-
Well, a mausoleum. Rows of skeletons lay in their final places along the walls, shielded by their brethren that make up those walls. A lamp hangs from the ceiling, burning with a pale blue flame. Somehow it swings very slightly, casting shadows across the hallway.
There's nothing to worry about. Surely.
Except maybe the pair of basketball-sized spiderlike creatures that leap out of Nambra the moment she crosses the threshold.
But Mister Narrator! Spiders can't be skeletons they don't have those! Tell that to the spiders. Maybe they'll courteously stop existing.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

The round door comes to a stop after grinding hard upon the stone floor. The room beyond is dim, and although her eyes functioned well enough in the dark, Nambra is grateful for the pale blue flame of the hanging lantern overhead. Only, as it sways, the flickering fire casts unsettling shadows in the mausoleum's farthest corners. The shades that form there seem as lively as the flames themselves. The effect is unnerving, but not quite as unnerving as the many rows of skeletons laying up against the walls. Their grisly, weathered remains stick out in Nambra's mind.

The chamber beyond reminds her somewhat of Father's dungeons, dug into the earth deep in the woods. His dungeons had always frightened her, but the screams she would hear behind his laboratory doors were what would keep her up at night. For one reason or another, those screams were all she could think about, now. The skeletons ahead of her, did they scream before they died, too? She didn't know. "Delotha lle, lighten your mind, girl, before you lose it." Nambra steps into the mausoleum and looks around for any signs of movement apart from the lamp swinging above.

Her Elvish eyes catch the first spider, and so she swats at the oversized creature with the upper half of her crooked staff, desperately trying to knock the thing right into the adjacent wall. The second spider leaps forward, and at that, Nambra collapses, caught off-guard. "Auta lle, auta uuvanimo!" She screams. "Off, you disgusting thing!" Her staff had fallen to her side, so Nambra reaches for the curved knife at her hip. Now flat on her back, Nambra squeezes the dagger tight between her palms and stabs upwards at the spider-creature.

She's desperate to rid the ossuary of one more monster, especially one that had ambushed her.
Last edited by Spectre on Sep 16, 2022 2:10 am, edited 3 times in total.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

The first spider is batted away and cracks to pieces as it collides with the wall. The second leaps onto her chest, snapping its tiny fangs at her. It's not venomous, but they are quite sharp.
Still, unless potential lacerations stops her attack, Nambra successfully pierces its abdomen with her knife. The spider crumbles to dust, leaving a harmless but unpleasant parting gift all over her.
The tomb is once again deathly quiet.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

The sound of the first spider cracking to pieces would have put a small, pursed smile on Nambra's face if she wasn't in the midst of grappling with the second. Her first upwards stab misses, and the second spider punctures her along her collarbone, taking advantage of her poor form. It hurt a lot, and it brought warm tears to her silver eyes. Choking up, the elf suddenly found she could not speak, and so she screams instead. Like a madwoman, she thrusts her knife upwards a second time, and this time, she met her mark, burying her cold steel deep in its abdomen.

It turns to dust, and as it does, Nambra sputters. Taking deep breaths, she draws her sleeve up over her mouth, so as to avoid breathing in the strange powder. She continues to lie there on her back, choking, bleeding, and sputtering for several seconds until she manages to force herself up into a seated position. Shifting her body weight to lean her hip against the stone floor, she begins to poke at her puncture wounds. "Nrgh. Stupid thing." Nambra pulls her fingertips back from her injuries and sees blood. Still fighting the throbbing pain, she reaches into her satchel once more.

Nambra retrieves a small pouch of herbs and some treated cloth cut into strips. The herbs within the pouch are spicy and black. The elf pours some of the flakes into a strip of cloth, which she gingerly presses against her collarbone, sealing her small wounds beneath the treated cloth. As she presses the cloth down, she mutters an arcane word, and a tendril of pale green light pulses out from her palm into the wound, further purifying it. Now content with her attempt at medicine, Nambra creeps forward into the mausoleum. No spiders to distract her now.

Quietly, the elf begins to search the tomb ahead, taking the time to kneel down before the skeletons. Perhaps one of these poor fools had something that would guide her deeper into the tomb.
Last edited by Spectre on Sep 16, 2022 2:10 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Mausoleum

The skeletons in the alcoves seem to have been left with very few gifts. There are several candles she could swipe. Each are made of unidentifiable black wax that smell oddly floral.

If she looks very carefully, there is a faint red glyph hidden amid the dust of the floor of the hall ahead.
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Spectre »

Mausoleum

Nambra isn't enjoying this part of her expedition into the ossuary. Creeping from skeleton to skeleton made her feel something like a tomb robber, or worse. Something about the gruesome task before her made her think of her first week-long journey down into the deeper marshlands of her homeworld. She had gone in search of drowned bones to collect for use in her first animation ritual, to be performed at Father's behest. The biting insects that were native to the marshes would sting at her eyes, and the nights were very dark, but the worst part was her stop at the mourning pools: shallow, watery sinkholes that would draw in victims, and leave their bones strewn about, muddied and forgotten.

Nambra can almost feel her hands sinking into one of those watery graves, even as she searches the ossuary skeletons for hidden treasures. The elf shudders and reaches up to run a hand through her wispy hair, as dark and blue as the ocean at night. "You needn't jump at ghosts that are not present," she hisses to herself while reaching into a skeleton's pocket, "for by Holone's light, the bones that are here will not harm you." If the skeletons meant to hurt her, they almost certainly would have by now. Not the most comforting of thoughts, but thoughts that are had in ossuaries rarely are. With delicate fingers, Nambra fixes the largest black candle to the small branches that crown her crooked driftwood staff.

Inching closer to the candle to breathe in its unusual floral scent, the elf allows the ghost of a smile to form on her sunken face. That's when she notices the faint red glyph in the dust. Thinking back to Father's teachings, Nambra retrieves a small, waterlogged journal from her satchel, within which are sketched many different runes. Kneeling down about ten feet away from the glyph, she'll attempt to match it to one of the journal's runes."There must be something of use here!" She muses, holding the journal upside-down and side-to-side in an attempt to more easily match the symbols. "Perhaps you are to be the trap Father spoke so cryptically of," continues the elf, narrowing her silver eyes.
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Keeper
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Keeper »

Mausoleum

The glyph is unquestionably the trap she was warned of. Were living flesh to pass over the circle around the glyph it would explode into oily fire, surely destroying whatever intruder had entered the place.
Nambra has identified the glyph!
...so what does she do now? Does she have the means to disarm it?
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Spectre »

Mausoleum

"At last, a triumph." In a rare display of utter satisfaction, Nambra taps her sharpened, claw-like fingernail against an unusual rune of warding sketched and documented in her journal. But what could bypass a glyph like this? If Nambra were in charge of inscribing the glyph herself, she would ensure that the invisible circle that triggered it would entirely envelop the hall along its width, thus restricting the intruder from simply creeping along the walls to avoid it. Of course, there was no telling if the deviser of this trap was as devious as her.

It was a risk, one that didn't seem worth it. Not when she knew of a simple illusory magick, one that masked the living for the dead. After a second or so, Nambra rises to her feet and grins, her dark gray lips parting to reveal rows of white teeth—jagged like thin, sharp stones. Her lips, though delicate, jut outwards slightly as a result of them. "Tinechor amin tuulo, ndu kalina..." Evokes the elf, her faint whisper of a voice contrasted by the harsh inflections she takes as she casts her spell—each word laced with stubborn illusory magicks.

The last echo of her spell dies down and silence washes over the tomb. Nambra's pallid face becomes far paler and her facial features tense as if pulled taut from behind. Where silver eyes once were, there were now icy blue embers that spoke of a supernatural hatred unique to the undead. Now disguised as one of these creatures, Nambra says a short prayer and carefully, after several deep, almost panicked breaths, slips over the rune, crossing her fingers in the hope that her illusion will have fooled the glyph, and that she won't feel fire, next.

"Please, please, please don't kill me!" she insists, all in her head.

Only stifled murmurs escape her lips.
"What is blood for, if not for shedding?"
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Keeper »

Mausoleum

One might question this plan. After all, would an inanimate circle of magic really be fooled by illusions? Would something that has no sense of sight or smell and only a simple enchantment to detect life itself not recognize her under her charm?
...
she isn't dead-dead, just fake-dead, so I suppose so.

Beyond the glyph is a square room with a door. This one with a massive metal lock with no keyhole at all. Instead a octogon is drawn upon it.
Scattered throughout the room are a multitude of candles. At least forty of them. All aligned in a perfect grid.
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Re: The Ossuary

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Rebonack wrote: Sep 05, 2022 4:28 pm There comes a sound of stone grinding against stone as the heavy lid of the sarcophagus is pulled away revealing-!

A mummified body decked in gold and wearing a bronze mask depicting an austere man with a thick, tightly curled and perfectly sculpted beard. One of the eyes has been torn away with great violence, likely the cause of the king's death.

A small, shriveled thing.

Could this be the man who made the nations tremble, so many years ago? Reduced to nothing more than a husk, his works lost to the teeth of time.

That's what they're after. A tyrant. A conqueror. The first person from his world to call himself Emperor.

The first king of kings.

In spite of the fact that the mummified corpse is little more than fragile remains there's still a heavy feeling of authority that hangs over the body. A sense of domination. Of conquest. Of rule. It's understandable why the necromancers would want access to such a body and the symbol it represents.
Dena for her part doesn't catch any of these negative vibes, which perhaps is to her advantage.
She had been in plenty of tombs like this already. Not quite as big or grandiose perhaps (or rather, grandiose in a different way) but that still promised all sorts of unpleasant fates to those that dared to disturb them.
So on one hand she had gotten used to it but on the other one could never get over the tenseness of watching someone fiddling with a trap. Especially a person she hadn't properly evaluated the competence of yet.

Not that Pania was supposed to be trained for this sort of thing in the first place. Which while good for her evaluation didn't exactly make her feel more secure. But all she could do right now was what she always did. Hope for the best while preparing for the worst.
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Re: The Ossuary

Post by Rebonack »

[The Ziggurat]

The lid falls to the floor of the chamber with a grinding thunk as the psychic pressure of domination redoubles. To Dena the room will likely feel heavy in some difficult to describe way, but to the others who are more mentally attuned the sensation of conquest will be all the more acute. Even dead a powerful psychic presence still hangs over these remains. This king of kings isn't some lich or death knight or mummy. Simply a corpse that once had ambition great enough to choke the stars themselves.

As soon as the body begins lifting out of the casket the four giants occupying the four thrones rise to their feet, fell magic flickering in their empty eye sockets. They don't attack. Or speak. But their hands are on their weapons and the threat appears to be clear. If that body is removed from the casket then someone is going to be having a bad time.

Moments ago the giants seemed empty of thought and emotion.

But now Cantata will be hit by a wave of intent.

Not hate. Not fury at their beloved ruler being stolen away. Not even concern for the desecration of the dead.

No, the emotion the empathy will feel is a desperate sort of anxiety and fear.

They must prevent the body from being removed from this place.
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