[Gameplay] 3. The Sanctum

Tabat turns his attention on the other status and swings the heavy flail with all his might at it.

Tabat cracks the creature shaped like Arcanotheign with his adamantine flail, the weapon unharmed by the assault.

Jaware fires two more arrows... and does some small damage to it.

The creature focuses on Tabat, its stone longsword swinging precisely... but doing only minimum damage to Tabat.

Initiative Order: Tabat, Jaware, Statues, Khadi, Iseret, Idorii

DR 5/-, AC 14
Yamasha: destroyed
Arcanotheign: 12/36 damage

Khadi reloads and fires off another shot, hoping to aid in slowing chipping it down.

Khadi's shot misses.With the broken sorry sword now useless, Iseret backs off a step and fires her light crossbow. The hit does no damage.

"Okay, big guy, you and me!" Tabat lowers his defenses and swings with all his might at the creature.

As Tabat smashes the statue hard, Jaware fires more arrows... And the first arrow shatters the statue.

Combat is over.

Tabat allow the head of the large flail to rest upon the ground. "Well done," he says loudly to the others, "Everyone alright?"

The statue room: The two statues each dropped a masterwork longsword.

The fountain room: in the south side you say a fountain win blue flames behind bars. Once you gain access, there is little to be found other than a secret door. Inside is a huge keystone (560 pounds) that can control an ankhet on the grounds. It is too large to move.

The Catacombs: you didn't fully loot the catacombs, but if you spend time to do so, you would find: six golden funerary masks worth 100 gp each.

And lastly, The Hidden Reliquary: this formerly hidden chamber is just slightly open, and within, a stone effigy of a humanoid figure stands at the north end of this room, its arms spread in a gesture of supplication, or as if commanding an object to rise in the air. The figure’s face is devoid of detail, with only vague contours where the eyes and nose should be. An extensive series of hieroglyphs covers the western wall, opposite a stone bench that stands against the eastern wall.

A glyph of warding has gone off inside, and blood spatters the area. This is the source of the bloody footprints you saw earlier. Someone had come down here, snuck inside, and then made off with ... what? There are a few clues, including some poetry:

Woe to you who would plunder the Reliquary of the Thrice-Divided Soul. Turn away, lest the harsh judgment of the Forgotten One fall upon you and your descendants for a thousand generations. Turn away, for his ka cannot be appeased and it shall call forth legions of the dead and the damned. Turn away, and may the All-Seeing Eye and the Lady of Graves take pity on you, for if not, the Forgotten Pharaoh shall consume you, body and soul.

The "ka" is one component of the ancient Osirian concept of the soul, which was divided into five parts. The ka contains a person’s "vital spark," that which distinguishes the living from the dead.

Examining the effigy, there are subtle indentations that tell you it was wearing something, a mask or headdress.

Lastly, the Detect Magic-ing you do tells you that there is a lingering necromantic aura. Whatever was in here must have been collosally powerful to leave such a residue even after it's been gone for at least a few hours. This must have been what the Scorched Hand was looking for.

Congratulations on Earning Level 4!The Scorched Hand
You have the Scorched Hand at your mercy, to leave or to deliver to the priests of the Grand Masouleum - they will take this seriously and you would be asked to speak directly with the High Priestess Sebti the Crocodile.

You also have a debt to settle with Idorii, who helped you with the Scorched Hand in exchange for a share. She'll be satisfied with 1,000 gp worth of loot or coin.

Rest and Recovery
You have time to rest and recover, regaining your spent spell slots, etc., and any simple shopping (anything masterwork or lower quality can be easily purchased).

The Auction
If you're interested in selling any of the items you found, you hear of an upcoming auction in Wati where you might be able to get good prices for your treasures, and the see (perhaps purchase) items found by other adventuring parties. (This is how book 2 starts off.)

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Lastly, we will need to talk about Book 2. Are you interested in continuing? Should we speed up the dungeon crawls by glossing over less critical encounters?

A few things to wrap up then.

You don’t receive hearty congratulations from the priests of the Grand Mausoleum, but High Priestess Sebti the Crocodile is genuinely intrigued (and just a little alarmed) about any information you choose to share concerning your adventures. Of particular interest to the high priestess are the mysterious item stolen from the Reliquary of the Thrice-Divided Soul and of the stone tablet in the library containing Pharaoh Djederet II’s decree *, though she has no other information about those two items or the questions that they raise. They do confirm that since you found the Scorched Hand in the Sanctum you were assigned, they consider all of their gear tours for the taking. The Velriana, Azaz, and Khelru are taken to prison to further pay for their crimes, with that sentence to last at least until the event is over.

Just some thoughts on our outro stuff for this adventure -
Seems to Tabat that some holy relic was here that may have been 1 of 3 parts of an ancient lich necromancer's, the Forgotten Pharaoh's, phylactery. From the context, clearly it was (or was part of) a mask or headdress.
We could give Idorii the Apprenctice's Cheating Gloves, or just 1,000gp - whatever works there.
I say we save selling our more special/magical items until this auction and see what happens. Anything of more historical import. If we can get some more gp out of it, great! Tabat will save any of his share of coin and might hope to find some slightly better armor, or start looking into the standard Ring of Protection / Cloak of Resistance options.