Conall nods, "Aye, is a good idea, Nkruma.  If the griffins come, let them feast on the scum.  It is better than they deserve." 

Thamyron stands silent, transfixed by the patterns in the vril nearby. He tries to sort out where it is stored, and how much.


OOC: Sorry for fading out, my work hours and schedule have changed making keeping up on things harder.

Brude shrugs and stops cutting wood for a pyre. Instead he begins to pile the corpses of the Nethermen onto the wagon. When he gets a full enough load of bodies he will deposit them about 100 meters from the ziggurat. He will repeat this process until the area is clean. He also goes through the belongings of the dead searching for valuables.

Fernao really wants to get to the wine drinking part of the adventure, so he helps his old friend load the corpses onto the wagon. As they check the bodies for valuables he says, "It is not so much unlike picking flowers, Broood. Even in a meadow covered with them not every flower will be worth picking. One must search out carefully for the loveliest, which are the ones one wants to weave into one's art. So, it is the same as we pick through these for things worth value, I think."

Conall sets to, jumping in to give Brude and Fernao a hand with the pile of deceased Nethermen.

Nkruma too helps with dragging the bodies of the Nethermen away. When Brude starts to go through their belongings, Nkruma starts to object. The Orixa Exu forbids the removal of items from the dead. But, then Nkruma remembers beseeching Exu to turn her face from these ragged slain and snaps his jaw shut instead. Villains such as these do not deserve the sanctity of death.

After this is done, he casts his eye around for a source of clean water. Surely this strange fortress ziggurat has some source of water, he thinks.

THe party manages to stack the bodies far from the ziggurat and gather up what little valuables the Nethermen had managed to collect. The horses have also been collected. A ple of inferiro weapons and armor as well as a small cache of coins lies within the walls of the ziggurat thanks to the hands of Brude. Ten of the horses are also recovered and are now within the walls of the ziggurat.

Nkruma fins an old well near the back wall of the structure and manages to coax some clean fresh water from it's old Atlantean pump.

Thamyron can feel the energy of the building yet no one has yet opened the oaken door.

Brude still stained with the blood of the dead Nethermen stands before the oaken door, the entrance to the ziggurat. He inspects it and looks for both traps and locks.

The door is wide, about 5 feet across and tall, nearly 10 foot. Very old and it looks thick. There is no handle of visible lock. There are a large number of shallow cuts and gouges in the wood.

Fernao moves to the door and looks at it closely, "I think I could open it. It does not look like it is trapped!"

OOC: Of course, our Tauran hasn't much in the way of theifly skills and knows nothing of engineering, so what's he know about traps?

Koryos walks over to the door and looks it up and down then looks at Fernao..."Maybe you can open it at that my friend!"

After a quick inspection is is almost certain that there are no traps connected to the large thick door. It does provide a great deal of resistance as Fernao begins to push against it with his might bovine shoulder. Seeing the trouble the great beast is having with the door, Koryos also lends a shoulder and between the two of them the door creaks open.

When the door opens it reveals a pitch black room, windowless and very very stale. You really can't see but a few feet into the building from the outside.

Upon seeing the mighty Fernao and Koryos push open the oaken door, Brude grabs a torch from his pack and flint and tinder and gets to work making a light. After a few seconds of struggle he stand, torch on his left hand held high and hatchet in his right hand ready to strike.

"Let me be the first to enter this ancient temple!"

Fernao grins, "Ah, go ahead, Broood, I'm close behind you, though!

As he speaks he is readjusting his gear and pulling his shield from behind him into a useful place on his arm.

As the Pict and the great Tauran move towards the door, Nkruma backs off. He seems to be a little spooked by the ziggurat. He was fine until now but now that the door is open he is having some seconds thoughts about this whole misadventure and a more spiritual and cosmic scale than just a bit of fear.

"Explore but take care, this place has suddenly made me uneasy. I wills tay here and watch for the Nether Scyths return."

Sabetha nods towards Nkruma..."I too will stay here on the outside and watch. I will also break into our stores and work on a  meal fit for adventurers such as ourselves."

Brude stops at the doorway and turns, "Yes Nkruma and Sabetha, stay here and keep watch. I fear the Nether Scyths will return." He then looks at the others, "Thamyron, Conall, Koryos, you will join us yes?"

The big Kurgan warrior smiles as he snatches up his axe and ques up behind Fernao, ready to enter the ziggurat. "Of course I will join you! Do you think I helped this great brute open the door so you two could get all the glory of raiding this dusty tomb alone?"

In reply to Brude (msg # 187):

A feral grin spreads across Conall's face, "Aye, this was why we came, was it not?"  He steps forward to join the others.

The party heads through the wide doorway with Brude in the lead, followed closely by Fernao, Koryos and Conall. Thamyron and Vranu bring up the rear.

They find themselves in a very large room. A statue of a strange giant lizard human crossbreed stands in the middle of the room with an ancient altar in front of it. The room seems empty besides these two items. There is a door on the opposite side of the room.

Koryos finds some wall mounted oil lamps that seem to have some oil left in them and lights them illuminating the 40'x40' room.

Now that the room is lit, there seems to be some items on the altar.

Seeing the statue b r ings Tamron to a halt.  His head snaps quickly to regard it, then moves quickly to observe the rest of the room, alert ft or signs of magic.

Fernao stands ready to defend or attack, but is uncertain what to do otherwise. After all, he's a fighter, not a thinker. At least not too much. Nor too quickly....

Koryos heads over tot he altar and takes a closer look but does not touch anything, like Fernao, he is a fighter, he will leave the artifacts for those of a more learned nature to inspect. He does turn and take a closer look at the statute standing behind the altar...it is a bit over ten feet tall and very menacing. I holds a great axe in it's claw-like hands.

Holding his torch high, Brude the Pict, joins the Kurgan at the altar.

When Brude joins Koryos at the altar something happens...he feels his left foot sink a little just as Koryos feels his right sink. They were standing with one foot on the same pavers on the floor which depressed slightly. The room shimmered for a second as some ancient magic was released and the energy filled the room.

Just a second later it became apparent to all in the room that the door had slammed shut and the great lizard man statue just a mere 5 feet behind both Koryos and Brude, was no longer just a statue.

Steam shot from it's nostrils and a dull fire burned in it's dark eyes. Much faster that it seemed possible the great lizard beast brought it's axe across in a sweeping blow hitting both Brude and Koryos. Both were able to dive out of the way but still the great blade caught them both. The armor of Koryos stopped all the damage while Brude sustained just a small flesh wound.