[Gameplay] 5. Best Left Buried

Once you’ve had time to recuperate, Ptemenib arranges another meeting with Sebti the Crocodile and Nakht Shepses to guide your initial search before you venture into the necropolis.

At the Grand Mausoleum, the three priests meet with you once more.

Sebti the Crocodile is the most keen to see mortal investigators resolve the crisis, and agrees to let you keep any riches you might find in the necropolis, though she urges you to remember the three rules of your earlier explorations in the necropolis.

When you agree, she continues, "I must entrust you with one of our greatest secrets. When the necropolis was first walled off nearly 1,800 years ago, more than a dozen necromantic detectors called elegiac compasses were concealed inside. These devices can sense large sources of necromantic energy, and church inquisitors have used them to track and subdue fell influences in the necropolis. As of 30 years ago, the last time they were used, five elegiac compasses remained functional and could possibly be used to triangulate the source of the undead uprising. I don’t know whether all of the elegiac compasses are still operational, but I am providing you with a map to their locations." She gives you a rough map.

"I suspect that a cult of atheist lamias called the Amushet might be behind the undead uprising, no doubt agitated by the church’s ill-advised exploration program. The lamias know bizarre magics and have been known to take paramours from the city’s populace, releasing them only after blinding them and driving them insane. The Amushet inhabit the Cenotaph of the Cynic in the necropolis, treating it as their personal playground." He indicates on the map where that is.

In his investigations of Wati’s grave-robbing gangs, Ptemenib regularly visits the necropolis, and has made contact with a clan of dark folk called the Xotl who dwell beneath Vizier’s Hill. Ptemenib suggests, "Seek out the Xotl leader, named Unwrapped Harmony, in the old villa of the Asetiti family. Among the less dangerous of the necropolis’s denizens, the dark folk are tolerated by the church, and I believe they could have information about the outbreak of undeath in the city." He sketches a quick map showing the villa’s location.

Ptemenib also suggests, "The Silver Chain likely had ways to enter the necropolis unnoticed, and any contacts or captives you have from your dealings with the gang might be able to tell you of such a means of bypassing the armies of ghouls and zombies besieging the necropolis’s gates."

To help you in your task, Sebti provides you with a lesser ectoplasmic metamagic rod from the Grand Mausoleum’s treasury.

Khadi is silent as she looks over the map trying to absorb all the information being given. Of course it wasn't going to be as simple as entering the Necropolis and there was the source, but it was all a little overwhelming as the reality of what they were going to hit her. Not that she could show it outwardly while Nakht was in the room. Her friend were strong, they would keep them all safe while she kept them standing up right. A simple enough plan, what could go wrong.

'Friend's always sound good she points to where Ptemnebib did. [b] If we make our way here while going to any of these compasses on the way?' She looks to her companions for their thoughts.

Tabat nods. "We will go see this Xotl leader and seek out any of the elegiac compasses you marked on the map. If found, what should we do with them? Are they similar in size to normal compasses? It sounds as though we may need to activate them within the necropolis itself - is there anything we should know about how to activate them?"

"They are large and somewhat fragile, or at least delicate. As big as a sarcophagus. Once you find one, then activate it and it would indicate the direction to the largest source of necromantic energy. Find two and you'll pinpoint the area by where those lines cross."

"Excellent. Thank you, Your Holiness. We'll set to work right away."

The elegiac compasses are at: G,K,L,M,O. The Xotl are at Vizier's Hill, Area I.

Normally, entering Wati’s necropolis is a relatively simple matter. Two large gates provide access to the city of the dead, and provided they have the permission of the priests of the Grand Mausoleum, mourners and visitors generally have free access to the necropolis during daylight hours. A few undead have always roamed the necropolis, but generally keep a healthy distance from the gates and the ever-watchful eyes of Pharasmins. Following the necromantic pulse, the gates have been sealed to keep the small army of ghouls, skeletons, and zombies now swarming each gate from entering the living half of the city.

There are three ways to enter the dead city: find and use the purported smuggler tunnels, climb the wall, or go through the gate and fight the assembled horde.

While I am all for fighting undead I don't think the front entrance is a good idea right now. Khadi muses as they discuss ways in.

'This compass is near a wall.. We could try and get some rope and go over near there... You might need to help me. Or we look for some silver chain to see if they know about tunnels .

"It's a good plan, Khadi. Over the wall there, and if we're quiet about it, we shouldn't draw any attention. On the note of the Silver Chain, the two men that surrendered to us - I wonder if they would know a way inside as an alternative. Depending on where it leads, it could be a safer alternative, but who's to say where we might find them again? They did not mention where they were going, did they?"

Updated the map above - the Xotl are at Area I.

The walls are steep and relatively smooth. Climbing the wall will require 4 DC 20 climb checks, 2 checks only if you start from the roof of an adjoining building, plus 2 more DC 20 checks to climb down the other side. Of course, once one person has gone up, ropes can make the effort easier for those following.

As to the Silver Chain, you kind of sent them off to 'stop selling death sticks and to go home and rethink their lives'. Finding them would require some sleuthing (a DC 20 Knowledge Local check).

"I'll volunteer to go up and over," Iseret says. "Although, I may know where to find our friends in the Silver Chain."

You recall the man you'd spoken to at length, and after speaking with some of the local vocabulary, find him at an inn that Silver Chain had been known to frequent.

He's grateful to you, glad to see you again, and for the price of a pitcher of beer, tells you where you can find the smuggler tunnels they used under the wall.

You can access through the gang’s now-abandoned brickworks headquarters that you investigated. From the master's chamber, where you fought Ekram Iffek, there's is a secret door in the southeastern wall that you missed that opens into a swampy network of unused tunnels that eventually leads into the dried-up and bricked-over canals of the necropolis known as the Dry Veins.

The tunnels will exit into the necropolis close to one of the Pharasmins’ elegiac compasses (area G).

Tabat thanks the man, buys him another round and claps him on the back before leaving to rejoin the others. It took nearly 4 hours to find the information, but it seemed good.

"Sorry I was gone so long," he says upon returning to the others, "but I got a lead on the tunnels." He explains who he found and what he learned.

"Now, we can still climb the wall, if you both think it presents less danger. There could be dangers in the tunnels below the necropolis just as well."

'Tunnels sound good... I was nit looking forward to getting over that wall.' Khadi jokingly lifts and arm as she speaks showing the lack of muscle. 'You two were probably going to have to pull me up.'

"I feel that the tunnels may be a better choice. Who knows? We may find that luck is with us and they are not guarded."

With your shopping done, and the plan set before you, you leave early in the morning, heading for the brickworks where you rooted out the Silver Chain.

You find the secret door, a tough feat even knowing where to look, and then find a tunnel that leads to the north. Following that you cross over into the dead half of the city.

A portion of the tunnels' stonework has collapsed here, exposing the winding crypts beneath to the harsh sky above. Shallow alcoves line each wall, stacked high with artfully arranged human bones and skulls. In the center of this subterranean chamber, a jumble of bronze springs and copper plates lies tangled in a pile of fallen stone.

Iseret's first thought is an obvious trap. but that seems too obvious. She approaches the pile carefully, being certain not to touch anything.

"Perhaps what we are seeing are the underpinnings of a trap, something rigged to make the ground above us give way?" Tabat remains observant but follows behind Iseret as she checks things out more closely.

Jaware looks at it from behind where he normally keeps watch, and says, "I think that's the remains of the compass we came to find." He points at the springs. "That's what they described, anyway. I think the roof collapsed and crushed it."

Tabat nods and pulls out the map they were given. "Hmm. You're right, I think. Should we try to maneuver east, then? We can try to find the next two (K and L) along the way before seeking out these Xotl."