Orhan 4 Day 37 TE 6065

Haeraan stabs him in the ear... His Eyes and Staff burst into flame. He tries to destroy the staff. Oathar and Haeraan take a last shot at him. Oathar having attacked him, gets smote by the flaming counterstrike and heads back to Orhan. Haeraan takes a 10C fire and get conflagrated. Good bye armor.

The staff falls to the ground unharmed.

Imre picks up the staff.

Then people stand around wondering if looting is possible. Imre prays to Oathar for a looting roll. He determines that the most valuable obvious items are the jewelry on the mummy. Sadly, that's just the stuff that's visible. If they were willing to take the curse and actually search, they might get another chance.

Haeraan pushes through the coins and stuff looking for something cool enough to risk the curse for, so that it can be kept away from the Alliance.

In the back of the pile of extreme loot, Haeraan finds a wooden chest with gold fixtures, and a pair of sphinxes on top. Yup, that's an Ark. The box is covered with symbols of royal power. Imre removes curse on the ark and seems to succeed. Then Haeraan disarms the trap and opens the ark.

Inside it's purple velvet lined. In the bottom is a golden stand holding a sun disk about a foot in diameter. The stand are falcons holding the sundisk up. It has continual utterlight at command, 50 power points a day of Ceremonies. Guarantees that the possessor will have at least one male child. Sense Ambush 10-ft radius.

It must be kept from the Alliance.

Haeraan attunes to the sun disk from the Ark. The falcons supporting the sun disk look at him and say Caw. Then they land on his shoulders. Then they fly back down.

Then he casts Invocation! After a moment silence, there's a dull roar in the distance. The roar builds and builds and the walls shake and dust falls from the ceiling. Yup, that's an underground cavernous earthquake.

There's a huge explosion and the roof of the chamber bursts open, and a beam of pure sunlight comes down from the sky and bathes the room. Then, silence once more.

From the light beam emenates a voice, "WHO CALLS TO ME!" Lo, it is Haeraan! "WHY DOES MY DARK BROTHER'S SERVANT CALL TO ME?" We give you the lootz and ask for guidance! "YES, THE STAFF. WERE YOU NOT INSTRUCTED AS TO WHAT TO DO WITH THE STAFF." We were instructed to give it to the high priest of the temple. "THE STAFF IS OF THE REALM OF MEN, NOT OF THE GODS." Then I have erred great lord. "PERHAPS IT IS WISE OF YOU TO ADMIT THAT."

By this time Alliance soldiers are running in, but a big golden dome appears, keeping them out. "I SEE." The light beam swivels around in a circle examining the area. "WELL THEN." Individual beams of light illuminate us all. "INDEED, MY SIBLINGS HAVE BEEN ACTIVE IT SEEMS." Then he says, "VERY WELL." To Imre: "YOU MAY HAVE HIM BACK WHEN YOU WISH AS PER OUR AGREEMENT." Then to everyone else "NONE OF YOU ARE SUITABLE TO BE THE NEXT GREAT KING. TURN OVER THE DISK TO MY HIGH PRIEST. GO NOW AND DISTURB ME NO MORE."

Oathar points out that all the stuff is no longer cursed. Scooping commences. Looting madness! Up in the sky are five beams of light, then four, then three, then two, then one. Oathar teleports a big pretty gem to Neela.

Loot:

• High end cosmetics case Gold and Ivory: +25's to seduction, acting, disguise, etc.
• Golden Bow and Quiver of arrows: +20 bow, arrows of +20 and Of Stunning (2-20 rounds)
• Cut crystal decanter with a set of matching glasses with gold platter. All cold to the touch: Chill liquid, detect poison, refilling from larger container
• Big bronze battle axe: +20, ???
• A matched pair of mirrors. Circular mirror with gold filagree outline: Speak in one and hear from other, Commune-like short answer 1/day mirror A, Soul Trap mirror B
• A set 6 of small clay pots with some ointments inside: 3 doses each 1) 2) ??? 3) 4) Healing X 5) 6) frost/burn relief
• A pair of golden daggers slightly curved with jeweled hilts: 1) +15 dagger, +25 to Ambush 2) ??, ???
• A minature chariot with a pair of golden horses: full sized war chariot 1/week
• A golden sphynx statuette: Guess 1/day, Intuitions II 1/week, Dream I 1/week
• A diorama of an oasis with some buildings. Like a Settlers map but no hexes: A GPS travel map. It will record where you are and creates a map of where you've travelled. A little scouting too with zoom, etc.
• A pair of golden wristbands: +15 DB, Using a full action - Spell Deflect
• A falcon amulet with jeweled gold chain: Fly III 2/day, Levitate at Will

All teleport, to Selkai.

Orhan 4 Day 38 TE 6065

They head over to the high priest of Phaeon in Selkai, give him the two major artifacts (Sundisk and Staff). The High Priest says, "Huzzah the staff, you found it!" The high priest takes it and bows. The high priest says the sundisk will be very useful when they restore the priesthood. The high priest also takes the 10,000 gold.

They feed them breakfast (sunny side up eggs) and hear their tale. They airbrush Salah and Kyrik in the House of Veils, but other than that tell them all. The priest tells them to make good use of those items. Oathar notes there's an implicit bargain there, and now they owe Phaeon one.

Imre goes to make a donation at the temple of Teris to see if they can help with the finding of Tradewind. They bring the Falcon Amulet to the temple to donate for assistance. They give sacrifice the amulet and ask for help finding and a blessing to offer Tradewind for more service.

One of the sky captains at the temple comes by and suddenly gets confused. His manifest for something (Santa Vallandra to a University, etc.) suddenly changes into a scroll that says "Drop off passengers at volcano in the spine in the mountain. House Melora Trading Company, prepaid. Leave at the end of the day."

Meanwhile, the priests send Haeraan to an exotic pet shop where there's a ranger, Vanya, who will be able to help. They explain the story to Vanya and comes back with a bird collar. It's more like a little harness, and offers it to the party. It allows the bird to speak human languages at will. He asks 1500 gold. They pay it.

Then they nap and Haeraan dreams about Salah. "It's a close up of Harrison Jones' face. He's smiling. Then it pans back and his shirt is torn and he's scuffed up, and he's tied up on a stake in sand up to his chest and there are fire ants going towards him."

Then they catch the ship for the volcano.

Orhan 4 Day 39 TE 6065

On the sky ship, the captain demonstrates his newly invented "parachute" to Alynna. Apparently Byron designed it.

Orhan 4 Day 40 TE 6065

Alynna parachutes into the volcano. They look around the volcano area. Alynna and Haeraan see Tradewind and call to her.

Kyrik caws to her and she circles in and lands in a tree. They throw the magic harness over to her. She puts it on. Yay! She can talk!

After some fierce negotiation, she decides she wants a nest egg. You know, a nice place of her own up on the roof. Big, fancy and with shiny things in it. Plus a stash for her share of the loot. A deal is struck, although there's probably no actual share of the loot.

They teleport back to the villa, and Imre lays out her birdhouse.

Then they get Arisia and head over the to the temple.

They cast a lifegiving spell and Oathar falls from the grace of Orhan back to Kulthea.

Oathar is raised! But he'll be out of it for 23 days. (That's how long he was dead and they used Lifegiving IV.)

They take him home and feel him broth.

Meanwhile, Kyrik picks up his orc-slaying porn.