[Background] Mummy's Mask 2: Empty Graves

Statboy

Resident Cueball
As we start the second book, I thought if might be good to migrate us to the Tabletop section of the Forums.

The Party:

Party Loot
Farside-Aech-Android-Spiritualist (Investigator)
Hex-Idessa-Lamia (snake people)-Paladin
TC-Memsie-Gnome-Witch
Lumberjack-Zanros Ipabar-Halfling-Mouser (Swashbuckler)
Sol-Isal-Elf-Cleric
Vintage-Mavruk-Half-Orc-Fighter
RIP Grognak & Orin
Magic items for sale in Wati

The Story So Far
1,000 years after the Plague of Madness nearly decimated the city of Wati, the once walled off Necropolis reopened for Adventurers to seek fortune and glory. Eager for both our heroes known collectively as The Iron Covenant were among the first to sign up. A raffle was held, and exploration sites were given to each group. The Iron Covenant first drew the Tomb of Akhentepi, a mighty war lord who they discovered perished a decade before the plague of madness gripped the old city. Their second draw was a manor house belonging to the Pentheru family, a noble family who was wiped out during the Plague of Madness, when there house was overrun by those afflicted by the plague.

The final draw for the Iron Covenant was the Temple of Erudite Eye, the old temple to Nethy's. Before reaching the tomb our heroes were attacked by gang or hired mercenaries who were soundly beaten and interrogated. The group learned there orders were to "make sure nobody reached the temple", and that they had been hired by someone whose description matched Valery's. Valery the leader of the Scorched hand had once bought drinks for all the adventurers, but was openly wanting to explore the temple themselves.

Once inside the temple, odd things began to happen. Starting with a recently slain pack of jackals rising from the dead as the Iron Covenant arrived at the front entrance. Only a powerful necromancer could have performed such a feat, but he must have been close by at the time to do it. What's more is the entire temple seemed to radiate necrotic energy. Inside the temple had already been sacked and most of the loot taken. Though our heroes found the Scorched Hand deep in the temple, they were not able to confront the Scorched Hand about raiding the their site as two of their party had already been slain in the basement of the temple, and the Iron Covenant was forced to make a hasty retreat. But not before discovering a mysterious note that indicated that a relic was hidden in the temple for safekeeping, by Pharaoh Djederet II who was Pharaoh some 6,000 years ago.

All was not lost as the teams mighty Android had been able to secure the services of the temples undead captain of guards Senenmerek. The Iron Covenant informed the Grand Mausoleum of the Scorched Hands misdeeds, resulting in all four members of the Scorched Hand being arrested. The Grand Mausoleum confiscated all items taken from the Temple of the Erudite Eye as they had been ill gotten, and forced the Scorched Hand to pay a fine. They also forced the Scorched Hand to pay restitution to the Iron Covenant, but without any money left the Scorched Hand had to hand over gear they owned as payment.

Senenmerek told the Iron Covenant of the five who had invaded the temple before our heroes. The first being an invisible man who only went into a secret room, that until that moment even Senenmerek hadn't known about. The Iron Covenant ventured into the Temple of Erudite Eye for a second time to investigate further. This time the necrotic energy of the temple had nearly faded away. Back in the basement the heroes made two discoveries. First in the most elaborate tomb separate from all the others was buried Djedihepet, who died during the reign of Pharaoh Djederet II and was described as a wise counselor, trusted keeper of secrets, and a good friend of the Pharaoh. The second discovery was made in the room the invisible man went into. In that room was a statue, that appeared to be missing its mask. Hieroglyphs in that room gave a dire warning about plundering "The Reliquary of the Thrice Divided Soul" saying "His Ka cannot be appeased and it shall call forth legions of the dead and the damned" and giving another warning to turn away it says "For if not the Forgotten Pharaoh shall consume you body and soul".

The next Story; Empty Graves
In three days time the Iron Covenant along with other adventurers and the Grand Mausoleum, will hold an auction in order to find higher value for the goods retrieved from the Necropolis. You can spend this time however you wish. Septi and the Grand Mausoleum would be interested to hear of your findings in the Temple of the Erudite Eye and have a library that could be utilized to help research topics pertaining to the history of Wati and Osirion. Certainly the first book left off some unanswered questions.

If you wish to craft during these 3 days off, you can take 3 days of crafting for each day off that you devote entirely to crafting (this is a change from what I had said earlier, live with it, 3x more crafting is fair).

Please post your downtime here, I would like to open with the start of the auction next time we play. At the end of the last session Ptemenib dropped by your house and gave you a list of the auction attendees and what they are publicly doing at the auction. The list of attendees is inclusive but what their business is, is not, they may have more they are looking to do at the auction. You can visit each attendee and attempt to get more information from them, or try to talk up the price of goods you are selling (Bluff or Diplomacy). Everything you want to sell should be grouped together in packages that pertain to certain people you hope will buy. Please give a list of everything you wish to sell in the auction before wednesday, and how it will be grouped together.

Other Notes
Book 2 makes special note of 2 spells created for this campaign:
Summon Lesser Psychopomp (Cleric 5/ Witch 5)
Summon Vanth (Cleric 6/ Witch 6)
Our witch and cleric have access to these spells once they can cast that level. Also this adventure introduces Psychopomps. A Psychopomp is a very general category of creature, such as Undead or Humanoid. It specifically denotes creatures created by Pharasma on the plane of purgatory, that handle the day to day business of the the dead and their spirits, they essentially run the afterlife while Pharasma is the manager. They have a wide range of intelligences and uses, they frequently look like undead but are not actually undead. Followers of Pharasma have been known to take psychopomps as familiars.
 
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Before I forget again, since you didn't defeat the Scorched Hand, you finished 15 xp shy of level 4. But I'm going to go ahead and spot you guys those points, so level up to level 4 those who haven't already.
 
I have discussed this first point with TC.

Memsie and Zanros will go into town on shopping pretenses. When not with anyone else from the group, we will sneak back to old temple of Nethys. We will begin collecting all of the gold masks. Zanros will suggest to Memsie we try placing the Obsidian mask on that statue.

Zanros will have sent his valet Thomas to gather information. Explicitly to garner information about any wealthy jewelers, or herbalist making expensive oils. As well as ascertaining if there are any powerful clerics or druids within the city.
 
I've got nothing particular I wish to sell, but I'm fine with selling anything from the party stash. :)
 
I'll spend day 1 around the city and discreetly inquire about the members of the scorched hand and whether anyone knows anything about the fifth invisible man that was observed with them.

I'd also like to spend some time with our skeleton friend in the temple to determine whether anything was taken by the scorched hand/invisible man.

Edit: Probably futile but I'll also see if I can learn something about the stone guardian/maintainer that we destroyed. Specifically if it could be repaired in order to aid in returning the temple to its former glory.
 
Zanros: There are a number of jewelers, though none of any great renown. They mostly set up shop in the Sunburst Market (19 on the map). As for oils there are a great number of perfume and incense dealers, though none are the equal of Threshed Souls Fragrances (22 on the map). Thomas hears rumors that Threshed Souls Fragrances deals in mummia oils (oils and perfumes made from mummy's, illegal in Wati). The most powerful known Cleric would probably be Septi the Crocodile in the Grand Mausoleum, perhaps the Church of Pharasma has more powerful clerics, but they don't attempt to challenge her. Namely the Inquisitor Nhakt Shepses, who is the leader of the Voice of the Spire, which is the militant wing of the Church of Pharasma in Wati.
side note: Inquisitor's cast spells from the Cleric spell list.

Mavruk: The only thing known about the Scorched Hand currently is that they have disappeared after being released from jail. Grand Mausoleum records indicate 4 members in their party. Diplomacy check to learn more about them or gather information about the invisible man. Senenmerek now believes your house is the new temple to Nethy's, while he's happy to answer questions and provide any information he knows, he believes his duty is to protect the new temple and he refuses to leave it. Documents found in the library at the Temple of Erudite Eye have shed insight into the creature that maintained the Temple. The priests called it an Akhat, and its creation required a number of wizards and sorcerers working together. The text indicates that the soul of the creature is trapped in a "keystone" this keystone must be apart of the building and removing it dispels all the magic. The creature is able to manifest anywhere within the building, a creature that is able to cast greater mending was used by the priests in order to maintain the temple. Perhaps a sufficiently powerful summoner could use the current keystone to create another Akhat but it would only function in the Temple of the Erudite Eye.
 
!roll 1d20+1 #diplomacy
 
[trigger]diplomacy: 3[/trigger]
[trigger=by]For: VintagePC Re: #7[/trigger]
 
since I'm spending all day, can I either take 20 or roll more times?
 
With Diplomacy checks, you can never take 20 cause taking 20 assumes you've done the worst case scenario at least once. I give away freely the information you could get by taking 10, which I consider well known information. You can re-roll a Diplomacy 24 hours later or once you get new information.
 
Day 1: Idessa mozies around the city a bit, asking about the Scorched Hand, and later goes back to the Grand Mausoleum to see if the prison guards know anything about them. While she's there, she does a little research into the Erudite Eye, looking especially for anything about a secret ancient artifact, or references to the cryptic warning in the secret room in the temple's basement. When she gets home, perhaps she'll have a chat with Aech and Senenmerek about doing some basic restoration (cleaning the foyer, putting up actual doors, getting all those corpses out) to the Erudite Eye, and life as an ancient undead guardian.

I'll be putting together all the items we have and arranging them into lots and hollaing at buyers sometime

!roll 1d20+9 #Diplomacy (Gather Information) on the Scorched Hand
!roll 1d20+9 #Diplomacy (Gather Information) on the Erudite Eye et at al
 
[trigger]Diplomacy (Gather Information) on the Scorched Hand: 15[/trigger]
[trigger]Diplomacy (Gather Information) on the Erudite Eye et at al: 20[/trigger]
[trigger=by]For: Hexalan Re: #12[/trigger]
 
Idessa: You learn from the guards that the Scorched Hand was released from prison the day after their arrest. Though they made no mention of where they would go. The guard seems to think that only 3 of them were members of the Scorched Hand and the fourth was a hired sword, he laughs "apparently even magic elitists need good hard steel".

Septi tells you that she knowns of reports about the Temple of Erudite Eye, and even remembers reading something about a Forgotten Pharaoh. She suggests the Grand Mausoleum archives would have more information (knowledge history check to research there)
 
Having heard Idessa is also out fact-finding I'm going to catch up at the end of the day to compare notes and see what we've learned.
Since my diplomacy is crap I'm going to suggest one of the party attempt to find info not about the specific invisible person but rather more about the sort of person with that skillset in general and how common they are.

Additionally, research on what sort of magic would cause that overwhelming sense of death that made our party's detect undead/magic just overload and why it would have vanished suddenly (suspicion: invisible man may have stolen an artifact...)

If someone with already good diplomacy is open to pursuing I'll be happy to do aid another on that (if possible) for a +2, or go along for intimidate on less-than-cooperative people.
 
Waiting to see if Memsie puts the mask on the statue for Zanros. More importantly I want to see how the Halfling and Gnome are going to reach the face of a 7-8 foot tall statue (including 1 foot base).

It would be a knowledge Arcana check to research "what sort of magic would cause that overwhelming sense of death" same with the skillset the invisible person demonstrated. If nobody has a sufficient knowledge Arcana you can attempt to diplomacy/intimidate a mage at Wati's local magic school/funeral parlor The Hall of Blessed Rebirth (number 9 on the map) and use their knowledge arcana score instead.
 
Waiting to see if Memsie puts the mask on the statue for Zanros. More importantly I want to see how the Halfling and Gnome are going to reach the face of a 7-8 foot tall statue (including 1 foot base).

It would be a knowledge Arcana check to research "what sort of magic would cause that overwhelming sense of death" same with the skillset the invisible person demonstrated. If nobody has a sufficient knowledge Arcana you can attempt to diplomacy/intimidate a mage at Wati's local magic school/funeral parlor The Hall of Blessed Rebirth (number 9 on the map) and use their knowledge arcana score instead.

TC hit agree on my post, so I think we are definitely putting the mask on the statue. I have a 10' chain, and I think Memsie has rope. I'm sure we could figure it out.
 
Memsie: After some climbing and possibly a harness, you scale the statue with the onyx mask in tow. Closer inspection of the face of the statue reveals small indentations were a mask would slip in and hold firmly. The onyx mask does not fit the indentations very well though and won't stay attached to the statue.
 
I'll poke around looking at the back of the other mummy masks to see if they have any similar markings. If any of them fit the bill, they get slapped on the statue.

!roll 1d20+10 #Knowledge (Arcana) on the overwhelming dread source
 

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