Nomen Infernale XLX: Cast Great Stones from Heaven
General Summary
After the success of Brother Theophilus and his mace, La Compagnia realized that chipping away at the remaining living statue with axes and arrows would be fruitless. Asbjørn tied a lasso out of a length of rope and howled "Betcha can't swim!" as he loosed it and ululated the traditional herding cries of his people. His aim was true and he pulled the loop tight around the shoulder of the statue, but it moved its great stone form unnaturally and slipped free of the rope. Kegho grokked Asbjørn's attempt and as the statue was freeing itself of the rope he shoved it toward the water, but it was too heavy even as Kegho strained his mighty thews. Alexandru moved to get a clear line of sight, but still managed to miss the hulking creature while Riven attempted to calculate a throw of her hand ax so that the haft would strike rather than the bit. The awkwardness of the throw was too much and it splashed into the pool between them. Teleptyon sent another bolt of the Ar careening toward the creature as more fissures spread from the point of impact.
The stone guardian continued its assault on Kegho, and a gout of flaming stone sprayed Kegho's chest. He grunted his annoyance that the burns would require the touch of Theo's gods. Theo was tending to his own seared chest at the moment but Lamos was conservative in his gifts.
Elissa saw what Kegho had attempted and moved beside him. She threaded the haft her spear to the left of Kegho and to the right of the statue. As they both set their feet to attempt to combine their might, Asbjørn launched himself from one stair way across the pool to the other, Riven's trusty crowbar in hand and brought it down on the back of the statue's head. The cracks across the statue deepened with a subtle glow of the Ar animating the statues thrumming wildly in the fissures. Riven thinks to use her grappling hook, tied to an arrow to pull the construct off balance while Kegho and Elissa pushed, but the hook caught a chink in the stone form, and it exploded. She shrugged as Elissa and Kegho stumbled backward into each other from their braced position as the resistance had disappeared. "Uh good game" Elissa said before patting Kegho on the ass and wandering away awkwardly.
Theo came for Kegho, feverishly uttering prayers to Lamos and touching himself and then Kegho and then himself again. Kegho's skin crawled with the touch of the divine but the welts and blisters across his flesh subsided and were replaced with fresh skin, slightly paler than the sun-darkened flesh around it.
Her hook having fallen in the water, Riven dredges her hand ax back up and announces that the pool is approximately as deep as a man is tall and then mutters "1.738349 meters to be precise" under her breath. The party decided to return to the camels to retrieve their pickaxes lest there be more living statuary and Yahi prepares food. When they return they agree to explore systematically in hopes of finding a way to retrieve the scepter of the Rusati lord. They stopped at the door to the right of the entry hall and Riven stared blankly at Asbjørn until he became uncomfortable and realized she wanted the crowbar back. He handed it back to her saying "I can open the door." but he had barely finished the sentence when her arms bulged and the door popped open. From the doorway La Compagnia could see mummified forms in the shadow, a broken stool, a bed in the same style as their precious sofa and a large coffer. Theo entered and threatened violence on any who despoiled the grave goods. Alex moved into the room to examine the coffer for traps as the priest thwacked his mace in his hand in an imprecatory fashion. He noticed that the mummies were for cats and each had a cartouche. One on the far side of the room was labeled Mal Nofre, the King of Cats. As Alex worked, he suggested that the priest would have them wander in the desert without the key to the lost Rusati oasis unable to remove the two parts of the plague god's name from he and Teleptyon until they all died and the necromancer could collect it from their skin. He finished his work and stated flatly that the chest was not trapped. Asbjørn entered and took a game-board from the room stating it was his now, which Theo seemed unperturbed by. "Typical Mătăhălos double standards," Alex grumbled by theatrically relenting and suggesting they move to the next area. He walked Theo out of the room relented an walked with the priest to the next area, an archway near the stairs where they had fought the statues. As he left the room he caught Riven's eye and signaled she should search the coffer once the priest was clear.
As Alex moved into the hallway beyond the archway a loud WHUMP resounded through the crypt. Elissa, behind the rest of the party turned back to find Riven, but she appeared around the corner. When Elissa asked what the sound was, Riven stated "nothing." and moved to join Alex in exploring the hallway. She whispered "About 500 gold, a round black stone and a gold cone topped with a horse." Alex nodded and stepped into the place where the hallway ended in a T-junction. With a sinking feeling in his stomach he felt the floor wobble underneath him. He paused and gingerly stepped back. The floor was definitely trapped but his weight had not been enough to trigger it. Riven and Alex crouched and looked under the mechanism to see a spring holding a latch at tension. They decided to use some of the wood from the broken stool to shim the pressure plate into place, but accidentally triggered it. A crash and a huge sphere of stone rolled from the north end of the hallway into the doorway at the end of the hallway. "So spherical!" Riven stated gleefully.
Asbjørn stripped off his shirt and raised a pickaxe to clear away the stone, but after reshaping it and oiling it to make it easier to remove he realized that removing it would cause the ceiling to cave in. While Asbjørn worked on that Alex wandered up to the top of the hall to make sure there were no other surprises. In his search for hidden traps he noticed that the wall to the west of the end of the hall is unusual and realized that part of it is a stone buttock. He reached up and touched it and the statue guarding the main central statue slid away. When Alex peaked out near the central statue, he waved to Elissa and pointed at the identical statue on the other side and then mimed the international handsign for touching someone's butt and giggling like a school girl. She nodded, mounted the stares, noticing that the grand statue was anatomically correct under its šnḏyt, and was able to reveal an identical secret passage on the western side of the raised platform.
