[IC]Shadow over Stygia

[Kurama314]

"I vote we get out of this hellish place, the longer we stay the more shit we get into."
Velasco will grab some lizard meat and tear into it.

[Ancient History]

Nekka delicately slices off a rack of ribs and proceeds to strip the meat off the bones with her teeth, then crack the bones and suck out the marrow, tossing the broken fragments into the fire.

"So this is all about a sorcerer and a book? What are you afraid of?"

[Ancient History]

Onward to the Forbidden City
Having debated your best course of action, on the advisement of the sorcerers you decide to seek out Mogul, the Hill of Black Sorcery, north of Kheshatta. Examining the map on Nekka's back by firelight, you find that the overland route is arduous and fraught with dangers, through the Vale of the Serpent Woman and far from any listed oases. However, you recall also that Karanthes mentioned a passage, an underground road that led from Mogul to the forbidden valley of the shrine, and you resolve to see if you can discover this entrance.

You sleep at night amid the camels, with only the chittering of insects in the darkness like maddened demons to haunt your dreams.

In the morning, you load up the camels - even the "wild" ones seem docile and follow the rest at their own pace - and set off back to the valley, past the campsite where poor B'min was consumed by elemental fire, and strike north along the rim.

The sun is not yet at its full height when you discover the entrance - a great arch of carved stone, set into the hard-packed earth, the road of well-cut stones partially covered with sand and dust. Strangely it looks not like any mouth of hell, but simply an ancient but sturdy piece of engineering, as if its weathered inscriptions have allowed it to escape the strange atmosphere that permeates this corrupted land.

Moreover, you find you are not the most recent to come this way...for there are tracks in the sand and the dust, leading out and down into the valley, of men and a great cat, and a winding trail like a giant serpent...you recall how when you came here Katemshetsut had already arrived, and now you think you know how he made such speedy time in coming to this alien fane...better still, it is obvious from the tracks that he did not choose to come back by this route, but went overland. The way, then, should be clear...though what dangers may lie ahead of you remain unknown.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

"It is fortunate that the passage opens some distance from the temple to Tsath; I didn't relish the idea of encountering those ape-creatures again."

Neb quickly looks to see if any of the external inscriptions are not so abraded away as to remain partially legible. He's also curious as to how the camels react, if at all, to being near the arch. If the animals aren't skittish, and he doesn't see evidence of an overt warning/curse, then he'll pass through the gate.

[Ancient History]

The inscriptions you can see clearly enough were in the language of ancient Acheron, but are too faded now to make out more than a few daemonic characters. The camels, for their part (particularly the wild ones), seem eager to be away from the valley.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Fixing a hand lamp to a low but steady flame, Neb. leads his camel under the arch, and out of the valley.

[Prak]

"Nekka, please mind the camels for us again." Kamoses turns to the others, "I suppose, unless it's completely unfeasible, that it might be best to return to the surface towards night, or whenever we judge night to be coming, rather than spending the night in there. That still gives us more than 12 hours."

[Ancient History]

Karlus gets into a loud argument with a rock. The camels, already spooked, begin to run for the tunnel to catch up with Neb and his camel. Karlus picks up a rock and goes running after them. Nekka shrugs and follows them in, ignoring Kamoses.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Neb, paranoid that the party might newly share in his vices after the events in the sunken shrine, walks some distance ahead of them before availing himself of a tiny snuff box and bone spoon*, secured together in a fold of his robe.

*What the hell, the spoon is carved from a toddler's second metacarpal.

[Kurama314]

"This is definitely going to end well."
Velasco will follow the others, leading his camel through the arch and down the road.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Neb lowers his viper to the ground, so that it may range ahead of the group freely.

(at +5 listen/spot, the snake is a far better scout than Neb, whom is likely to remain negative in those for the duration.)

[OgreBattle]

Taotie will scout ahead with his snake buddy too

[Ancient History]

As Taotieh and the snakes scout ahead, and your eyes and other senses adjust to the dark, you can all well believe Karanthes' tale that this tunnel - as broad as a Stygian highway, and ten feet in height, so that the camels can walk erect easily, made up of master-cut stones that fit together tightly without mortar - is nothing less than a subterranean highway that goes for miles beneath the desert. The tunnels are remarkably clear of vermin or remains for the age, though the bones of men and rats cluster in gullies along the walls where once waste was swept.

Branching tunnels open up in the darkness every mile or so, but Taotieh clearly sees by the signs in the dust that the party of Katemsetshut did not explore these passageways, but kept to the main highways. Over a long and careful ten miles, you come to a large side-chamber, with a shaft of open stone over the remains of a fire and signs that men and animals have been here within the last week - one corner having been used as a cess-pit. It seems obvious that this is a rest-area of sorts, and perhaps a good place to spend the night before continuing on.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

"I am suspicious, but am willing to rest here provided we are fastidious about having people not currently insane on watch."

[Kurama314]

"I can agree to those terms."

[Ancient History]

Karlus holds the rock he's been arguing with to his chest and looks into the darkness. "Someone is watching us."

[Nebuchadnezzar]

"Karlus... who is there?"

[Ancient History]

Karlus points into the darkness, where Taotie has his back to the rest of the group.

[Kurama314]

"Do you see anything Taotie?"

[OgreBattle]

"There's a dog-skull masked priest making a ritualistic (like what Neb and Kamoses do) gesture at us"

[Want me to try and jump behind it? Those gestures could be to make rodents crawl out of our mouths]

[Prak]

"Wait. Dog-skull?" Kamoses turns to address the shadow, "Priest of er, Th’mumathph or Yinepu, please, come and speak, we mean no harm and are merely travelers on this road!"

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Neb, in the hopes of establishing eye contact, will attempt to direct the handlamp's illumination closer to where Karlus has indicated, moving if necessary.

[Ancient History]

Neb raises the light, and something skitters back away from it, but in the pale glow a shape begins to define itself against the darkness - a tall figure robed in a funeral shroud, whose head appears to be the half-mummified skull of a dog, parched lips drawn back from yellowed fangs, deep sunk eyes in the bony socket strangely...human.

One claw-like hand makes a gesture before it, which <Knowledge (Religion) checks pass> Neb and Kamoses immediately recognize as belonging to an obscure and sometimes forbidden funerary cult; the sign demands a countersign, which both Neb and Kamoses know.

[Prak]

Kamoses gives the counter sign. Better to talk with funerary god cults than anger them and advance the date of one's own funeral.

[Ancient History]

The sign marks the robed stranger as of the priesthood of Mordiggan, which is allied to Nebthu, the ghoul-jackal-sphinx of Chaos whose great black statue stands guard of the royal tombs and pyramids far to the north. The teeth clack as a voice in strange, heavily archaic Stygian speaks.

"You are permitted to pass on the road of bones, but know that all dead things here are offerings to Mordiggan; let all that has breathed its last lie as it fell, and you will enjoy the protection of the ghoul-god."