Chapter 1: Shunet El Zebib

Jana can understand the wasps communicating with each other via pheromones and flight patterns. They are saying, "Guard the hive! Guard the young!"

With the Swordsman in the lead, flaming sword held high, you step into Shunet El Zebib.

Music

Murals cover the hallway's limestone walls depicting the deeds of the long-forgotten god-pharaoh entombed here, but the images have long become too faded to make out any details. The hall slopes gently downward, then is abruptly broken by winding stone steps descending into the earth.

At length, you come to a small, limestone chamber. On the far wall is 12-foot tall statue of the god-pharaoh seated on a basalt throne. In the pharaoh's lap sits an unlit brazier. A stone leopard stands sentry against each wall to your left and right. There are no obvious exits from the chamber other than the one through which you entered. Could this be it? You came all this way for what? On the floor, in the middle of the room lies an old skeleton, a scrap of rotted fabric, a rusted pickaxe head. Probably a grave robber. He must have been just as disappointed as you are right now.

What do you do?

This place is very, very old. Ancient. But Akh senses magical residuum here. Behind each stone leopard, and yes, behind the god-pharaoh too! Three hidden doorways! But how to open them? It has something to do with the brazier.

Studying the bones, Jana finds numerous tooth marks. This man was mauled by one or more ferocious beasts. A leopard, for example.

What do you do?

Nothing happens. Perhaps it needs some real fire?

In the flickering light, it almost seems like the stone leopards have twitched, but you know it's just your eyes playing tricks.

What do you do?

Soro and Jei'nine confirm the location of the three hidden doorways. Not by detecting magical residuum, as Akh did, but by listening to the shape of echoes in this chamber, and the air currents as evidenced by the eddying of dust blown by Jei'nine 's snuffling. Soro's own examination of the bones reveals a fragment of stone tooth, embedded in the skull, that perfectly matches the chipped remnant in the upper jaw of the statue on the left. All evidence points to a mauling by the stone leopards. But what activates them? And how does one gain access to the doors? Might triggering the latter also trigger the former? There are no secret switches anywhere. The Swordsman might have been on the right track, but the magical flames dancing around the Sword of Vengeance does not burn, and cannot ignite anything.

What do you do?