[Gameplay] 7. The Search for the Forgotten Pharoah

Iseret considers the thin bridges carefully. "I think I can make it, but I'm not sure about the rest of you."

'Do we have ropes? We can set some upnas a precaution..and I canngo really slowly.

"Rope..." Iseret responds quietly. "I knew I was forgetting something."

You can't take 10, as there are dangerous consequences for failing (two DC 17 acrobatics checks or fall potentially quite far).

You can crawl carefully, removing the need for a check, but taking a -2 penalty to the research rolls for the day, as it takes much longer to follow the clues you find.

Tabat and Jaware each have 50' of rope. You might be able to fashion a safety line in case you do fall, like a simple loop you could tie around each bridge that you're crossing. A survival check DC 10 would construct that.

Tabat looks over the bridges and peers down at the potential fall height. "I don't care much for this. My armor and gear is heavy, and I'm not the nimblest on my feet on the best of days."

Jaware scratches his nose, contemplating the strange bridges. "Leaving our armor behind would make that easier. Yet, we are not pressed for time and we've found numerous deadly foes in these archives. Perhaps those of us who are less nimble than dear Iseret," he bows to the rogue, "should proceed with caution?"

'Caution sounds best for now. I would rather not be tending to broken bones from falls.' If they even survived..,

"Yes, caution is best, I think," Tabat says, stepping back from the ledge. "Well, these scrolls aren't going to read themselves. We best get started."

Research works as follows. You will collectively earn Research Points by making a roll. Each roll represents a days work.

One complication here is that all of the works in the Spiral Archive are written in Ancient Osiriani hieroglyphs. To attempt a Research check in the Spiral Archive, characters who don’t speak Ancient Osiriani must succeed at a DC 30 Linguistics check (DC 20 if a character speaks modern Osiriani) or have magic such as comprehend languages.

Complexity (DC) is 20. Research check: Knowledge (history), Knowledge (nobility), or Knowledge (religion); Knowledge bonus +3, ca

Bards reduce a library’s knowledge points by 1d12 + the character’s Intelligence modifier. Particularly scholastic characters, such as alchemists, wizards reduce a library’s knowledge points by 1d8 + the character’s Intelligence modifier. All other characters reduce a library’s knowledge points by 1d4 + the character’s Intelligence modifier. For every 5 by which a Research check exceeds the library’s Complexity rating, the library’s knowledge points are reduced by 1 additional point. Rolling a natural 20 on a Research check acts like a critical threat. If the researcher confirms the critical hit by succeeding at a second Research check with all the same modifiers (this takes no additional time), the resulting knowledge point reduction is doubled.

Iseret and Jaware speak Ancient Osiriani and so can make the Knowledge checks easily. I'm not certain about Khadi or Tabat.

Lastly, if you're taking the bridges easily to avoid falling, then remember a -2 on the Knowledge checks (not the Linguistics checks).

Khadi gets to work, already feeling underprepared as she starts to look through scrolls of the ancient language. Perhaps tomorrow if they need to do more digging in her prayers she can ask Khepri for aid.

Tabat begins carefully perusing the many volumes of work in the library, though he quickly finds he is incredibly underprepared for the task ahead.

Iseret considers the hieroglyphics while she crosses the bridges.

EDIT: To add her score to the library rating.

+2 for Iseret's Int modifier, +1 for beating the check by 5+. Total 11.

Library Knowledge points: 14/25

After a days research, Iseret is the only ones of the crew who had success in the research. She's finds an index catalogs all of the scrolls copied from Hakotep’s library, but the scrolls have clearly been moved or hidden and are not where they are supposed to be.

Eventually you locate the missing scrolls from Hakotep’s library, a huge pile containing several references to the Sky Pharaoh and his participation in some ancient war. The Sky Pharaoh is represented by a very distinct hieroglyph of a winged pyramid. According to the scrolls, the Sky Pharaoh was convinced that an attack was coming from enemies who lived in cities in the clouds, and that he was frantically searching for a weapon to defeat them. Apparently, the pharaoh eventually succeeded in finding this weapon, but all that remains of the scrolls that detail this weapon are a handful of ragged papyrus scraps depicting confusing geometrical patterns. Khadi understands that these scrolls should be here, but have clearly been removed.

At the end of the day, you're all tired from the strange bridges and ready to leave. Do you want to leave, find some magical assistance in deciphering the texts, and return the following day? Or stay all night? Or something else?

'I believe I may be able to ask Khepri for aid if we wish to keep searching tomorrow, so my and Tabat can be of more help. She looks across over at the bridged. 'Perhaps help with traversing as well. Or we buy a lot of rope.'