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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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<blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 6898236" data-attributes="member: 8530"><p><strong>Chapter 91, “Wizard Battle at the Pyramids ” September 11, 1882, 9:00PM.</strong></p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "Uh, either we get on our horses and try to outrun them or Freya, how do you feel about unleashing some retribution right about now? These are the wizards who were firing on the palace earlier and who were inside the dirigible we took down. They are probably pretty afraid of that dragon they saw earlier..."</p><p></p><p>"Everyone take cover or fire back with what you have." orders George as he pulls out his gun and loads the unknown magical bullets. Freya meanwhile nods her ascent, a green fire in her eyes at the thought of vengeance against the French wizards who wronged her. Both French wizards begin to cast spells in the direction of the party. Ruby exclaims, "Fine, be that way!!! Nana, let's blast them! Obviously we're not going in unheard at this point.</p><p></p><p>Mina quickly follows that with a magic missile to whichever human looks less injured. The spell from the first man strikes Mina. It is a very bright Light spell that illuminates the entire area, centered around Mina, who is temporarily blinded by the spell. Montgolfier continues his enchantment, this spell apparently having a longer casting time.</p><p></p><p>Ruby whips out one of her fireball wands, points it at the two of them, and…..then becomes mesmerized by the rainbow of colorful hues flashing before her eyes in a fascinating pattern. Freya is also enraptured by the streams of color coming from Montgolfier's hands. All other party members are unaffected. Meanwhile, the other French Wizard begins another spell.</p><p></p><p>George fires his weapon. The bullet strikes the man in the thigh for a non-lethal wound, which causes enough pain to disrupt him from finishing his spell. The sound of the gun firing echos though out the whole area. George fires a second time, this time at Mongolfier. Abby stands up next to George and adds a shot from her rifle to his, also aiming at Mongolfier.</p><p></p><p>George’s shot hits the center of the man's face and he falls dead. Rather than instantly blinking out, the mesmerizing colors continue for another minute and then begin to fade. The other wizard successfully manages to get another spell off, this one pinning Freya, Mina, Abigail and Ruby to the wall of the building they are next to with a two-inch thick sticky spider web. The web partially covers George as well but he is able to move forward and out of it</p><p></p><p>"I am sick of these French bastards." mutters George his gun hand free as he fires at the remaining wizard. The man staggers only slightly after being hit by a perfect shot in the torso that should have been fatal. The wizard then reaches down for something on his belt.</p><p></p><p>Ruby blinks a couple of times, coming back to reality. She looks around from her position on the wall. "What the Hades happened?" She sees Mongolfier lying dead. "What did I miss? A good party, eh?" She tries to moves her arms but they won't budge. "Spiders? Not spiders... I HATE spiders!" "Better than snakes my love." quips George.</p><p></p><p>Watching all this occur, Fish has a moment, actually about 20 seconds, of insane courage and takes a running leap off the roof aiming to land heels first by the wizard. Fish manages to distract the wizard as he lands at his feet. The man has removed from his belt an object that looks to be a metal rod, with a hilt like that of a dagger and the head shaped like a cobra with its mouth open and ready to strike. Fish rolls away from the man and his snake like rod, zigzagging his way clear.</p><p></p><p>Ruby manages to get one arm and hand free, but the rest of her remains pinned. Luckily, it was the hand that had her wand in it. Still gripping it tightly she carefully aims at the wizard making sure Fish is clear and speaks the command word.</p><p></p><p>The sound of the fireball fills the air as the man is engulfed in flames. He struggles but then falls, screaming all the while. The webbing remains even though the man has perished. The fireball igniting managed to scare Montgolfier's mount, with it running off to the east. The other man's horse remains asleep. "Well, now someone has definitely heard us. We need to get out of this web before we leave ourselves here to be caught. A little help?" Ruby asks to those who are free.</p><p></p><p>George sighs. "Two more wizards dead. And Mongolfier, such a waste. Ok let's get out of this stuff" says George putting away his pistol and drawing a knife as he cuts the others free. "Fish! Rifle through those two and get anything of value. We need to hurry as I am sure we just drew some attention" Freya then transforms to her dragon form and rips through the webbing with ease. She says, "My thanks to you George Eastman for your assistance in my vengeance"</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "It's not like we want to kill anyone but anyone who is going to take our life, well, we're just not going to let that happen, are we? Of course not. Wizard or not. Now, how to get where we need to without being seen... we need to hurry, I bet there is going to be a lot of guards coming from there really soon. What can we do? Freya, do you think you can fly up without being seen? Then you could look overhead for the best route for us to take."</p><p></p><p>The group hears sounds of people in the distance. The noise appears to be coming from approximately a quarter mile to the northeast, from the eastern side of the largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Khufu George says, "Freya up in the air with you, stay in the shadows of the pyramid, but where you can see us if we need to signal you to come in. The rest of you, help me drag the bodies back behind this building and let us see who is coming and lay an ambush as best we can." Freya replies, "With those sphynx on guard, unlikely. If I take to the air at all they will probably swarm me, which would attract more attention."</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "Okay, no air for Freya, stay with us. We should leave the bodies here or maybe set them up quickly so they look like they killed each other, then maybe, just maybe that will throw them off looking for us. Even if just for a little bit. If we hide them they will definitely be looking for whomever hid them, once they find them, or whatever happened, if they don't." George says, "They? There is more than one? Fine stay here and stay in the shadows here. Good idea Ruby. But let's position the men so that they faced each other and it looks like they were attacking each other. Fish have you finished rifling pockets yet?" The group manages to reposition the bodies.</p><p></p><p>Distant shapes start to appear from behind the smaller buildings south of the Great Pyramid so the party has to quickly move around the building they are beside, back through the gap between it and the Kafhre pyramid and to the south wall of the building. They hear sounds of several people moving in the direction of the battle, as additional lights begin to illuminate the area.</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "Okay let's get going on that. Let's try to go over the sand too and cover up some of our footsteps. I know this seems impossible on this little amount of time but if we work together we might be able to get it done. Plus we have the cover of night, perhaps Chons will be looking out for us and help us." The group quickly pushes and pulls the charred bodies to look like they battled and killed each other, the best they could do on quick notice.</p><p></p><p>Fish scrambles back up to the roof to get a better view. The rest keep an eye around the corner to see who is investigating. Fish gets a good view and picks up snippets of conversation. After 10 minutes he climbs back down the south wall and tells the others. "It was a large group of mostly Egyptians, probably close to two dozen. Most were guards but I saw that Vizier wizard guy there too. Four Frenchies were with them, with that Daguerre guy apparently in charge."</p><p></p><p>He adds, "They found the bodies but aren't sure what happened. Daguerre identified the two bodies as Montgolfier and someone named Viollet-le-Duc." Mina comments, "Okay, that makes sense. He was the only architect with the wizard group. If the Dreadnaught's job was to destroy the palace an architect's skills would have been able to direct the cannon shots to the most vulnerable points."</p><p></p><p>"Eh" shrugs George "I always felt that his Gothic Revivalist facades were pretentious. But onto more pressing matters. We still have some wizards to deal with. And this group seem to still be pretending to be on the King's side since the Vizier was with them, that or the Vizier has betrayed the King." "Are they still there or did they leave?" whispers Ruby. "Did they buy our little ruse?" He says, "Most have started to head back towards the Great Pyramid but a half-dozen or so are still there. We may need to find another way around."</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "Or maybe they really ARE with the King? How do we know that they aren't?" "Why would they bomb the palace if they were with the king? No, they have been duplicitous too many times to be on the King's side. Plus at least some of them are actively plotting against him as Abby overheard. I hate to damn them all for the sins of some, but without any way to tell one faction from the other I see no alternative than to assume they are all deceiving the King." replies George.</p><p></p><p>The next forty-five minutes move quickly. Once there appears to be no more activity to the south Sabah heads around the southern wall and rejoins the party with their mounts. They continue east-southeast, staying to the south side of the causeway structure running over 1500 feet from the building east of the Khafre pyramid to temple dedicated to Khafre at the other end. Once around that, there are a large number of buildings comprise the tombs to the priests and lesser royalty situated due east of the Great Pyramid for close to 1000 feet square. This gives the party plenty of cover to move in the direction of the pyramid without being seen.</p><p></p><p>They eventually wind up at the three smaller subsidiary pyramids on the lower half of the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, similar in size to the trio that had been south of the Menkaure pyramid. There appears to be some activity on the Great Pyramid side between the southern and central of these three smaller pyramids.</p><p></p><p>Sending the party's stealthy scouts, Ruby and Fish, they can see that on the opposite side there is an even smaller pyramid between this trio of structures and the Great Pyramid, which appears to be where all of the activity is centered based upon the amount of noise and light coming from the opposite side facing the Great Pyramid. Multiple Groups of seven Egyptian military soldiers, comprised of an officer and six enlisted personnel move clockwise in patrols around this smallest pyramid.</p><p></p><p>Once they report this back to the party Sabah says, "I believe that structure, unlike these nine larger pyramids, is mostly hollow inside rather than solid. The King has held private ceremonies and religious services with the High Priests there during his prior visits to Gizah. The only opening to it is on the side facing the Great Pyramid of Khufu." Lawrence taps his chin. "That's gotta be the place to be. We'll need a big distraction to draw away the patrols." "I'm better'n sneakin' than I'm makin' noise!" offers Fish.</p><p></p><p>Watching for around fifteen minutes it appears that one of the three separate patrols has stopped. Where it had been that the groups were generally in sight of each other there is now a short gap of a little more than a minute between sighting the two remaining patrols. Lawrence whispers, "Or we can rely on some luck. Follow me." He sets off in a half-crouched run with Fish right behind him. George looks to Ruby with a look half way between astonishment and what the hell and crouching, runs after Lawrence and Fish. "Sure, I guess let's just try to get between them!" Ruby motions to the others and they make a run for it. Abby shrugged and, since she didn't have any better ideas, followed the others out. Sabah, Mina and Freya remain with the horses.</p><p></p><p>The five manage to successfully scurry across and get down behind a low sandbank before the next patrol comes around. They all hold their breath as the patrol reaches the area where their tracks intersect the soldier's path but none of the men appear to notice them. This group eventually moves around the next corner of the pyramid and out of sight. The other three have a better view of the prior corner where the next group will be coming around from and Mina gives them the "All Clear" signal.</p><p></p><p>Staying close to the pyramid and using the low sand dunes that had built up by the base of it, the group circumnavigates around in a clockwise direction going from the western side then along the south side, stopping and hiding whenever the roving patrols approach. They eventually reach the east side (the side facing the Great Pyramid) and can see what is going on better.</p><p></p><p>The front of the pyramid opens up by a pair of large stone doors, creating a doorway 30 feet wide and 20 feet high. Magical light shines out from inside. From the angle that the party is at they are unable to see what is inside the doorway. However, a large canvas canopy with a wooden framework is covering approximately 40 feet on each side, has been erected in front of this doorway heading towards the Great Pyramid, the area lit by lanterns. There are at least 60 people milling about in this area. Several appear to be servants, but there are at least a dozen guards and also the Grand Vizier. One man is dressed in western European garb, and is probably another French wizard, but not one that they have met up until now. Ruby also recognizes one of Neferka's sisters also in this area, being guarded by an ogre.</p><p></p><p>Lawrence crouches in the shadows. He whispers back to the others, "That's too many for us to handle. Do you think the wizards would recognize us if we just walked in?" Ruby says, "I think anyone would recognize us as outsiders if we just walked in. We may need to dress as guards or servants or find another way to sneak inside." Lawrence says, "Then we'll have to draw enough of them over here."</p><p></p><p>"Yes, you are right Lawrence." Ruby squints her eyes. "I wonder, does it look like there are any areas of that tent, any small corners that are not guarded?" She takes a moment to give it a good look. "I wonder if the other side is similar to this one, though I think it would take us too long to get around over there to see for ourselves."</p><p></p><p>The canvas is more of a pavilion than tent. The guards are looking mostly to the southeast, in the direction that the earlier trouble was from which the party is to the northeastern corner of the structure. The Grand Vizier and some of the guests head back inside. There are now only four people within forty feet of the party. One is the man dressed in western garb. The other man is an older Egyptian man dressed in very fancy robes. Two other Egyptian women are beside him, acting as servants.</p><p></p><p>There looks to be some commotion, as guards bring back to this area the bodies of the two Frenchmen that had been recently killed (by the party). Most people under the canopy either look or move to the southeast to get a glimpse. Neferka's sister wants no part of this and heads back inside the pyramid with her bodyguard. Interestingly, the Frenchman near the party appears disinterested and continues his conversation with the old Egyptian.</p><p></p><p>Ruby says, "We could draw off some of the guards and then what? Perhaps we should just... go inside and get involved. I don't think they will kill us on sight. It looks rather grim as to how we can get inside without..." her words grow slower, "... being... seen..." She ponders for a long moment. "I realize that the palace would have a lot of magical protections but I wonder just how much magical protection that tent would have. Thoughts?" She looks to her group with a grin.</p><p></p><p>George nods slowly. "Ok, I think that is worth a shot, lets give it a go. Ideally with some kind of distraction to the side to help us." Lawrence says, "Ruby, can you cast an illusion or make a noise away from the entrance? We need to keep the crowd's attention away from us." She replies, "Yes, I can do that once we are ready. I will cast something in the far distance and then we can try to run in this area. Ready?"</p><p></p><p>Once her companions are ready, Ruby casts dancing lights approximately 170 feet to the southeast, in the area where the guards are already looking. She tries to motion to the remaining group but doubts they have any clue what is about to transpire. "At least there is someone left behind to help us if we need it," Ruby grins, "Which of course we won't because my plans always go according to, well, plan. Let's go!" she whispers, leading her friends towards the tent in a quick dash, finding a loose area to try to sneak up underneath it. She listens next to it trying to find a quiet area then finally peeks underneath.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Silver Moon, post: 6898236, member: 8530"] [B]Chapter 91, “Wizard Battle at the Pyramids ” September 11, 1882, 9:00PM.[/B] Ruby says, "Uh, either we get on our horses and try to outrun them or Freya, how do you feel about unleashing some retribution right about now? These are the wizards who were firing on the palace earlier and who were inside the dirigible we took down. They are probably pretty afraid of that dragon they saw earlier..." "Everyone take cover or fire back with what you have." orders George as he pulls out his gun and loads the unknown magical bullets. Freya meanwhile nods her ascent, a green fire in her eyes at the thought of vengeance against the French wizards who wronged her. Both French wizards begin to cast spells in the direction of the party. Ruby exclaims, "Fine, be that way!!! Nana, let's blast them! Obviously we're not going in unheard at this point. Mina quickly follows that with a magic missile to whichever human looks less injured. The spell from the first man strikes Mina. It is a very bright Light spell that illuminates the entire area, centered around Mina, who is temporarily blinded by the spell. Montgolfier continues his enchantment, this spell apparently having a longer casting time. Ruby whips out one of her fireball wands, points it at the two of them, and…..then becomes mesmerized by the rainbow of colorful hues flashing before her eyes in a fascinating pattern. Freya is also enraptured by the streams of color coming from Montgolfier's hands. All other party members are unaffected. Meanwhile, the other French Wizard begins another spell. George fires his weapon. The bullet strikes the man in the thigh for a non-lethal wound, which causes enough pain to disrupt him from finishing his spell. The sound of the gun firing echos though out the whole area. George fires a second time, this time at Mongolfier. Abby stands up next to George and adds a shot from her rifle to his, also aiming at Mongolfier. George’s shot hits the center of the man's face and he falls dead. Rather than instantly blinking out, the mesmerizing colors continue for another minute and then begin to fade. The other wizard successfully manages to get another spell off, this one pinning Freya, Mina, Abigail and Ruby to the wall of the building they are next to with a two-inch thick sticky spider web. The web partially covers George as well but he is able to move forward and out of it "I am sick of these French bastards." mutters George his gun hand free as he fires at the remaining wizard. The man staggers only slightly after being hit by a perfect shot in the torso that should have been fatal. The wizard then reaches down for something on his belt. Ruby blinks a couple of times, coming back to reality. She looks around from her position on the wall. "What the Hades happened?" She sees Mongolfier lying dead. "What did I miss? A good party, eh?" She tries to moves her arms but they won't budge. "Spiders? Not spiders... I HATE spiders!" "Better than snakes my love." quips George. Watching all this occur, Fish has a moment, actually about 20 seconds, of insane courage and takes a running leap off the roof aiming to land heels first by the wizard. Fish manages to distract the wizard as he lands at his feet. The man has removed from his belt an object that looks to be a metal rod, with a hilt like that of a dagger and the head shaped like a cobra with its mouth open and ready to strike. Fish rolls away from the man and his snake like rod, zigzagging his way clear. Ruby manages to get one arm and hand free, but the rest of her remains pinned. Luckily, it was the hand that had her wand in it. Still gripping it tightly she carefully aims at the wizard making sure Fish is clear and speaks the command word. The sound of the fireball fills the air as the man is engulfed in flames. He struggles but then falls, screaming all the while. The webbing remains even though the man has perished. The fireball igniting managed to scare Montgolfier's mount, with it running off to the east. The other man's horse remains asleep. "Well, now someone has definitely heard us. We need to get out of this web before we leave ourselves here to be caught. A little help?" Ruby asks to those who are free. George sighs. "Two more wizards dead. And Mongolfier, such a waste. Ok let's get out of this stuff" says George putting away his pistol and drawing a knife as he cuts the others free. "Fish! Rifle through those two and get anything of value. We need to hurry as I am sure we just drew some attention" Freya then transforms to her dragon form and rips through the webbing with ease. She says, "My thanks to you George Eastman for your assistance in my vengeance" Ruby says, "It's not like we want to kill anyone but anyone who is going to take our life, well, we're just not going to let that happen, are we? Of course not. Wizard or not. Now, how to get where we need to without being seen... we need to hurry, I bet there is going to be a lot of guards coming from there really soon. What can we do? Freya, do you think you can fly up without being seen? Then you could look overhead for the best route for us to take." The group hears sounds of people in the distance. The noise appears to be coming from approximately a quarter mile to the northeast, from the eastern side of the largest pyramid, the Great Pyramid of Khufu George says, "Freya up in the air with you, stay in the shadows of the pyramid, but where you can see us if we need to signal you to come in. The rest of you, help me drag the bodies back behind this building and let us see who is coming and lay an ambush as best we can." Freya replies, "With those sphynx on guard, unlikely. If I take to the air at all they will probably swarm me, which would attract more attention." Ruby says, "Okay, no air for Freya, stay with us. We should leave the bodies here or maybe set them up quickly so they look like they killed each other, then maybe, just maybe that will throw them off looking for us. Even if just for a little bit. If we hide them they will definitely be looking for whomever hid them, once they find them, or whatever happened, if they don't." George says, "They? There is more than one? Fine stay here and stay in the shadows here. Good idea Ruby. But let's position the men so that they faced each other and it looks like they were attacking each other. Fish have you finished rifling pockets yet?" The group manages to reposition the bodies. Distant shapes start to appear from behind the smaller buildings south of the Great Pyramid so the party has to quickly move around the building they are beside, back through the gap between it and the Kafhre pyramid and to the south wall of the building. They hear sounds of several people moving in the direction of the battle, as additional lights begin to illuminate the area. Ruby says, "Okay let's get going on that. Let's try to go over the sand too and cover up some of our footsteps. I know this seems impossible on this little amount of time but if we work together we might be able to get it done. Plus we have the cover of night, perhaps Chons will be looking out for us and help us." The group quickly pushes and pulls the charred bodies to look like they battled and killed each other, the best they could do on quick notice. Fish scrambles back up to the roof to get a better view. The rest keep an eye around the corner to see who is investigating. Fish gets a good view and picks up snippets of conversation. After 10 minutes he climbs back down the south wall and tells the others. "It was a large group of mostly Egyptians, probably close to two dozen. Most were guards but I saw that Vizier wizard guy there too. Four Frenchies were with them, with that Daguerre guy apparently in charge." He adds, "They found the bodies but aren't sure what happened. Daguerre identified the two bodies as Montgolfier and someone named Viollet-le-Duc." Mina comments, "Okay, that makes sense. He was the only architect with the wizard group. If the Dreadnaught's job was to destroy the palace an architect's skills would have been able to direct the cannon shots to the most vulnerable points." "Eh" shrugs George "I always felt that his Gothic Revivalist facades were pretentious. But onto more pressing matters. We still have some wizards to deal with. And this group seem to still be pretending to be on the King's side since the Vizier was with them, that or the Vizier has betrayed the King." "Are they still there or did they leave?" whispers Ruby. "Did they buy our little ruse?" He says, "Most have started to head back towards the Great Pyramid but a half-dozen or so are still there. We may need to find another way around." Ruby says, "Or maybe they really ARE with the King? How do we know that they aren't?" "Why would they bomb the palace if they were with the king? No, they have been duplicitous too many times to be on the King's side. Plus at least some of them are actively plotting against him as Abby overheard. I hate to damn them all for the sins of some, but without any way to tell one faction from the other I see no alternative than to assume they are all deceiving the King." replies George. The next forty-five minutes move quickly. Once there appears to be no more activity to the south Sabah heads around the southern wall and rejoins the party with their mounts. They continue east-southeast, staying to the south side of the causeway structure running over 1500 feet from the building east of the Khafre pyramid to temple dedicated to Khafre at the other end. Once around that, there are a large number of buildings comprise the tombs to the priests and lesser royalty situated due east of the Great Pyramid for close to 1000 feet square. This gives the party plenty of cover to move in the direction of the pyramid without being seen. They eventually wind up at the three smaller subsidiary pyramids on the lower half of the eastern side of the Great Pyramid, similar in size to the trio that had been south of the Menkaure pyramid. There appears to be some activity on the Great Pyramid side between the southern and central of these three smaller pyramids. Sending the party's stealthy scouts, Ruby and Fish, they can see that on the opposite side there is an even smaller pyramid between this trio of structures and the Great Pyramid, which appears to be where all of the activity is centered based upon the amount of noise and light coming from the opposite side facing the Great Pyramid. Multiple Groups of seven Egyptian military soldiers, comprised of an officer and six enlisted personnel move clockwise in patrols around this smallest pyramid. Once they report this back to the party Sabah says, "I believe that structure, unlike these nine larger pyramids, is mostly hollow inside rather than solid. The King has held private ceremonies and religious services with the High Priests there during his prior visits to Gizah. The only opening to it is on the side facing the Great Pyramid of Khufu." Lawrence taps his chin. "That's gotta be the place to be. We'll need a big distraction to draw away the patrols." "I'm better'n sneakin' than I'm makin' noise!" offers Fish. Watching for around fifteen minutes it appears that one of the three separate patrols has stopped. Where it had been that the groups were generally in sight of each other there is now a short gap of a little more than a minute between sighting the two remaining patrols. Lawrence whispers, "Or we can rely on some luck. Follow me." He sets off in a half-crouched run with Fish right behind him. George looks to Ruby with a look half way between astonishment and what the hell and crouching, runs after Lawrence and Fish. "Sure, I guess let's just try to get between them!" Ruby motions to the others and they make a run for it. Abby shrugged and, since she didn't have any better ideas, followed the others out. Sabah, Mina and Freya remain with the horses. The five manage to successfully scurry across and get down behind a low sandbank before the next patrol comes around. They all hold their breath as the patrol reaches the area where their tracks intersect the soldier's path but none of the men appear to notice them. This group eventually moves around the next corner of the pyramid and out of sight. The other three have a better view of the prior corner where the next group will be coming around from and Mina gives them the "All Clear" signal. Staying close to the pyramid and using the low sand dunes that had built up by the base of it, the group circumnavigates around in a clockwise direction going from the western side then along the south side, stopping and hiding whenever the roving patrols approach. They eventually reach the east side (the side facing the Great Pyramid) and can see what is going on better. The front of the pyramid opens up by a pair of large stone doors, creating a doorway 30 feet wide and 20 feet high. Magical light shines out from inside. From the angle that the party is at they are unable to see what is inside the doorway. However, a large canvas canopy with a wooden framework is covering approximately 40 feet on each side, has been erected in front of this doorway heading towards the Great Pyramid, the area lit by lanterns. There are at least 60 people milling about in this area. Several appear to be servants, but there are at least a dozen guards and also the Grand Vizier. One man is dressed in western European garb, and is probably another French wizard, but not one that they have met up until now. Ruby also recognizes one of Neferka's sisters also in this area, being guarded by an ogre. Lawrence crouches in the shadows. He whispers back to the others, "That's too many for us to handle. Do you think the wizards would recognize us if we just walked in?" Ruby says, "I think anyone would recognize us as outsiders if we just walked in. We may need to dress as guards or servants or find another way to sneak inside." Lawrence says, "Then we'll have to draw enough of them over here." "Yes, you are right Lawrence." Ruby squints her eyes. "I wonder, does it look like there are any areas of that tent, any small corners that are not guarded?" She takes a moment to give it a good look. "I wonder if the other side is similar to this one, though I think it would take us too long to get around over there to see for ourselves." The canvas is more of a pavilion than tent. The guards are looking mostly to the southeast, in the direction that the earlier trouble was from which the party is to the northeastern corner of the structure. The Grand Vizier and some of the guests head back inside. There are now only four people within forty feet of the party. One is the man dressed in western garb. The other man is an older Egyptian man dressed in very fancy robes. Two other Egyptian women are beside him, acting as servants. There looks to be some commotion, as guards bring back to this area the bodies of the two Frenchmen that had been recently killed (by the party). Most people under the canopy either look or move to the southeast to get a glimpse. Neferka's sister wants no part of this and heads back inside the pyramid with her bodyguard. Interestingly, the Frenchman near the party appears disinterested and continues his conversation with the old Egyptian. Ruby says, "We could draw off some of the guards and then what? Perhaps we should just... go inside and get involved. I don't think they will kill us on sight. It looks rather grim as to how we can get inside without..." her words grow slower, "... being... seen..." She ponders for a long moment. "I realize that the palace would have a lot of magical protections but I wonder just how much magical protection that tent would have. Thoughts?" She looks to her group with a grin. George nods slowly. "Ok, I think that is worth a shot, lets give it a go. Ideally with some kind of distraction to the side to help us." Lawrence says, "Ruby, can you cast an illusion or make a noise away from the entrance? We need to keep the crowd's attention away from us." She replies, "Yes, I can do that once we are ready. I will cast something in the far distance and then we can try to run in this area. Ready?" Once her companions are ready, Ruby casts dancing lights approximately 170 feet to the southeast, in the area where the guards are already looking. She tries to motion to the remaining group but doubts they have any clue what is about to transpire. "At least there is someone left behind to help us if we need it," Ruby grins, "Which of course we won't because my plans always go according to, well, plan. Let's go!" she whispers, leading her friends towards the tent in a quick dash, finding a loose area to try to sneak up underneath it. She listens next to it trying to find a quiet area then finally peeks underneath. [/QUOTE]
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AGELESS Campaign Episode 2 - Temple of the Cat-Goddess
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