Crack Open a Cold One

Goodmonth 3, 594 CY
Pharaoh’s Rest

I awoke in one of those damn igloos. My companions had been unable to heal me magically, but after about seven or eight hours I guess I’d had enough rest. Keth had been saved too, but had gone back into the temple to chat with a scorpionfolk called T’Tith who had, for reasons of his own, spared our lives. Keth made sure that it was okay for us to be in the temple (and apparently, this is a different definition of “okay” than I would have used), and, after a few more futile attempts to heal me, we descended some spiraling stone steps.

A bit of wandering later, and we found ourselves in a chamber containing four columns and a large, bronze, bull-headed statue brandishing a menacing-looking bronze axe. The runes on the floor around it were warning enough; we circumvented the entire area.

There had been three other means of leaving the chamber. One was no longer accessible due to a cave in, and another was a set of locked doors with an ankh-shaped indentation on the surface— and ankh that would be shaped just like the one we’d found in the last temple. Keth was carrying it, and as usual, was no where to be seen. It took me a while to convince Pyotr that we had a key. While we were investigating the final doorway (which lead to a room containing a lit brazier and three sarcophagi), the double doors were opened. Apparently Keth had been in the area.

After opening the doors further, I slipped inside the room before anyone else. The room contained two rows of columns and statues, and a sarcophagus at the far end. I leapt from one column to the next, avoiding the floor, till I was able to get to the end of the room. As I did so, I could hear a commotion in the outer chamber. In the doorway, I could see my companions had managed to activate the bronze statue and at least one large fire elemental.

I hopped down off of the last column onto the sarcophagus and pushed the lid off. I was hardly surprised when the mummy it contained rose up. I shot it with my crossbow and leaped back to the column. For a moment, a wave of fear passed over me and I was unable to move. I could see that Keth was actually in the room with me, Holli was in the hall fighting off the bronze statue, and Pyotr was now in the room. I had intended to rain fiery bolts down on the mummy till it burned up, but Pyotr had other ideas, and began to cast spells at it.

The next few moments seemed like a nightmare. I could see the bronze golem fighting a fire elemental in the outer chamber now— how Holli managed that I am not sure. I could see Keth behind the mummy near me and I could see Pyotr raising his hands to cast a spell. Before I could shout a warning, he cast it. He wounded the mummy severely, but unfortunately, his wildly-cast spell caught Keth, killing him instantly. I was screaming to Holli about what happened as I decided whether to shoot my next bolt at the mummy or the offending sorcerer….