Eloy rummaged in his pack, and started preparing more Alchemist's Fire. Gorfang watched him, shook his head, and muttered something about 'bigger missiles'. He jogged purposefully off down the collapsed corridor that had once led to the tomb of Queen Kalra.
Left alone, the human glanced around, and his eye fell on the archway marked 'Priests'. His previous plan of enlisting the aid of the ex-priesthood of the Khabran gods returned to him, and it seemed now was the time - a mummified priest could perhaps dismiss the hostile mummies back to their coffins. He turned and strode off down the passage.
Reaching the rockfall, Gorfang selected a nice hefty rock, around the size of his mighty torso, and pulled it out of the heap. For a shifty moment, stones rattled and slid, and he wondered if he'd brought the roof down on himself. Then it stopped and he lurched off back down the passage lugging the block.
He reached the top of the stairs just as the two mummies rounded the corner and started up the last flight of stairs. Grinning nastily, he hefted the rock over the parapet and let it drop.
Eloy paused at the doorway of the priests' tomb. The square chamber was sectioned into four, with coffins of the priests of Hektis, Gennen, Isetbashyat and Nepthis in the quadrants. Murals and writings on the walls in each section commemorated the achievements of generations of priests. A collective shrine with various holy ornaments stood in the centre. What he didn't see was anything, anything at all, associated with Sabath - the god whose regalia he was wearing. He suddenly had the uneasy feeling that he might not be personally welcome in this tomb. He muttered rebelliously; the belt had brought him nothing but trouble, what good was it?
He turned to leave, but as he did he stepped just a little further forward - and his boot came down within the tomb. A coffin lid grated, over in the corner dedicated to Hektis, and a wizened figure climbed out. Eloy started to back up the pasage. As he did so he heard a heavy crash from the stairwell.
As the stone block plunged towards them, one of the two mummies twisted out of the way. The other just managed to look up in time to see the block as it struck him, smashing him flat onto the stairs. The one who'd escaped carried on up the stairs. A few seconds later, Gorfang's grin slipped slightly as the mummy under the block reached up and siezed it in his hands before snapping it in half, freeing himself. Gorfang drew the Veldrin and prepared to meet the first of his foes.
Within the passage, Eloy cried out to the oncoming undead priest of Hektis. "Follower of the Mighty Hektis, why are you pursuing me?" A grating noise came from the priest's chest, as if he had not used whatever provided speech for such creatures for a very long time. Finally he responded; "To eject or destroy you, follower of the Corrupt One!" Negotiations having failed, Eloy hurled two of his firebombs at the priest. The flaming fluid spread across the undead's chest, and his head tilted down to look gravely at it. 
Then he looked back up, lifted his arms, flexed his bandaged fingers - and cast a spell, speaking two words of Selasht; "Fear me."
In an instant, ice-cold terror washed over Eloy. In his life, he'd been scared, nervous, worried, startled, afraid from time to time. Never anything like this. Withering, unmanning fear dominated his every iota, leaving no room for any thought but flight. Dropping the unlit oil flask he had unpacked to smash on the floor, he spun and bolted from the passage.
Battling away, Gorfang saw Eloy sprint past from the edge of his vision, running full pelt across the stairwell and disappearing down the unexplored passage that was further than any of the others from the Priests one. Gorfang thought a moment. What had Eloy said that that one was? Ah - concubines. Oh, dear.
Redoubling his efforts, the orc fought back, his black blade tearing more holes into the dead princess of Khabra he was being attacked by. The second, its' face distorted by the crushing impact of the stone block, was just reaching the fight when the orc finished his first foe. Unwilling to be in line-of-sight to a spell-caster, he plunged down the stairs to meet it, taking himself below the parapet and out of range for a few more seconds. He could hear the priest's heavy tread behind him, though, and knew he didn't have long.
Eloy 
fled down the passage and into the tomb of the king's concubines. His eyes registered the content and detail of the murals on the walls despite his terror, and other ancient instinctive reactions began to compete for his attention. The magically-induced fear could not be thrown off, but the hot human reaction triggered by the explicit pictures beat it back a fraction and an ounce of rationality returned. He dived in between two of the stone coffins lining the back wall and folded himself up against the wall. His heart hammered but his head told him he had to be safe here.
Then, from above him, on either side, he heard the ominous grate of stone on stone, as the coffins he was sheltering between slid open...
As Gorfang fought on, he heard a sullen whoomph! and realized that the priest's mummy, still on fire, had stepped into the pool of oil left when Eloy dropped his last firebomb before running away. The footsteps didn't slow or stop, however. The orc shook his head, and pushed his foe another step down the stairs as they battled.
Eloy looked slowly up, feeling that his heart was going to explode with terror. Two mummifed figures rose slowly up from the coffins; similar to the mummies seen before and yet awfully different. Once, these had been the most beautiful of courtesans. They were still dressed in their skimpy outfits - but beneath were merely dried skin shrunken onto old bones. The horror increased as the two undead vixens assumed seductive postures and began trying to coax the warrior to come and be relaxed.
Eloy's own terror of these new apparitions mounted to the point where it actually competed with the magical fear cast by the priest, and he ran across the concubine's tomb in the direction of the stair-hall. Mid-way, however, the two drives found a balance, and he stopped, cringing and trapped in the middle of the floor. In his mind's ear he could hear the heavy stamp of the approaching priest (though it was his imagination), and the concubines began to sashay towards him from the other direction.
All hope was gone. Eloy gave himself up for lost.
Then 
the belt around his waist emitted a pulse of light, and a brief wash of pain flowed into Eloy from it. All of a sudden he was not alone. A tall figure - half again his height - was standing next to him. Its' skin was slick, smooth and coal-black, its' body muscled. It was dressed in the style of the ancient Khabrans, but its head had nothing of the human; it was the head of a jackal, but a jackal imbued with a fearsome intelligence and power, and with glowing red eyes.
"Will you pay the price for my aid?" it asked, speaking Selasht in a voice like acid over gravel. Eloy did not hesitate for an instant. "Yes!" he cried, like a drowning man offered a boat ride.
The demon smiled a wide, toothy smile, although Eloy was pretty sure he'd not said anything funny. It half-turned and waved a hand nonchalantly at the concubine mummies. Without hesitation or protest, they turned and climbed back into their coffins.
Turning back to Eloy, the sable figure flicked its finger rather contemptuously against his temple. In an instant, he was himself again, the fear and unnatural lust dispelled. "Thank you!" he managed to gasp, as the demon bowed slightly and vanished.
Somehow, he didn't think mere gratitude was going to be enough to pay the unknown price of his rescue. Eloy drew his sword and dashed out of the tomb in the direction of the sounds of continued combat.
Gorfang lunged forward and struck, and the last mummified prince disintegrated under the force of his attack. He turned and looked up as the priest reached the top of the stairs and looked down at him. He braced himself, but the attack did not come. Instead, it spoke to him.
From the shadows at the edge of the stair-hall, Eloy heard the words; "Bearer of the Regalia of Hektis, slay the follower of the Corrupt One!". He considered shouting a translation but decided against it.
Gorfang, unable to understand a word, looked up at the mummy and shrugged eloquently. There was a pause. Then the mummified priest said; "Very well. I leave it in your hands. Do not betray the trust of our God!", before turning and disappearing back in the direction of his tomb.
Eloy strolled out into view, looking a little smug. Gorfang glanced at him. "Thanks for your help," he said sarcastically, "I noticed the complete lack of swordplay. What did he say?" he finished, gesturing in the direction the priest had departed.
"It said: 'Follower of my God, I will leave you alone', said Eloy. Gorfang glared suspiciously at him; although the words seemed to square with what had happened, he was pretty sure the human wasn't telling him the whole truth. "What happened in there?" he demanded, pointing down the Concubines' passage. Eloy explained that the lusty pictures in that tomb had 'taken his mind off' the fear. Again, Gorfang was unconvinced, and the pair then fell to bickering over whose fault the battle was - Gorfang's for stealing the crown or Eloy's for disturbing the priest.
They returned to the tomb of the princes and princesses, now that the occupants were all gone, to check for further loot. Interestingly, everything of value was already gone; gold pried out off coffin inlays, jewels removed and so on. Only the crown had remained; probably, they guessed, because that was the trap for the unwary.
Returning to the priests' tomb, Gorfang entered carefully, and headed to the common shrine in the middle. One item caught his eye; a gold-and-lapis statue of the God Hektis. It was a bit human for his tastes but wonderfully dynamic in composition; he reckoned around 500gp worth of metal but thousands as an art piece. Calling back to Eloy, he asked for the Selasht words for "Please may I take this statue of our God", and then addressed these to the coffins of the Hektis priests.
After a moment, the word 'Tabuttis' echoed from inside the coffin. Gorfang returned the words for 'thank you' and took 
the statue.
Gorfang next took a look inside the tomb of the concubines. Sure enough, there were the murals, humans mating. He scoffed, and glanced around for loot - same again, everything valuable had been removed. He turned to go, and took a last look at the explicit illustrations. Actually, there were one or two ideas he tucked into the back of his sloped skull, for the distant day when he fought his way to ownership of a harem of females...
The last unexplored passage was that leading to the tomb of General Aklimah. The fact that this worthy seemed to have a tomb all to himself seemed significant. The word 'General' interested Gorfang; perhaps some martial treasures might lie inside? He strode in boldly; Eloy, still nervous after his encounter with the priest of Hektis, hung back at the doorway.
Aklimah's 
tomb was completely different to the others. Nearest the entrance was a collection of life-size statues of warriors, carved from the same stone as the pyramid, each different - probably representing individuals, it occured to Gorfang. He lingered for a moment, weighing up their equipment. Hide armour, light but flexible and cool in the furnace heat of Khabra; large shield; spear or axe, the latter moulded in one piece; a peculiar-looking recurved bow, short but probably very powerful.
Behind them, a single mighty chariot bulked in the gloom. Mummifed standing up in it was a single figure, wrapped in the classic bandages but with heavy and beautifully decorated bronze half-plate strapped on top of them. On his back was worn a bronze khopesh, and Gorfang's eyes were drawn to that. Not only a (probably) magical weapon, but a large and hard-to-use one as well; just his sort of thing.
 Khopesh |
Around the walls were murals and writings, depicting the deeds and triumphs of Aklimah the warrior and tactican. Gorfang reflected that here was a man who deserved his own exhibit in the Museum of War and Conflict! A thought struck him, and he glanced over; unsurprisingly, Alklimah was wearing a medallion inscribed with the golden vambrace of Hektis.
He called back to Eloy, "Come here and tell me if there's any magic!" The human stayed where he was and called back, "Yep, I can detect magic on all of it!" Gorfang glared at him out of the dimness, and then stalked back. "You can't detect anything at that range," he pointed out accusingly. "Get in here and check it properly!"
"Nothing doing," answered Eloy, "I'll die in there." Gorfang snorted. "Lend me Bereloth, then," he demanded. "All right; you lend me your sword in case anything happens while you're over there," responded Eloy. "If anything happens," countered Gorfang, "it'll happen over there not over here." Eloy yielded and passed over the glassteel blade. 
Gorfang took it back down the tomb and waved it around. Sure enough, Aklimah's armour and sword were both enchanted, and a deeper enchantment radiated from the mummy itself. Detections complete, Gorfang turned and made as if to toss the sword back to Eloy, but seeing the look on his face, walked over and passed it back.
Together they worked out some words for Gorfang to say to the General, and the orc memorized them carefully. Then he turned and marched purposefully back towards the chariot, halted and addressed the General.
"O great General Aklimah, respect and honour to your name and achievements; grant me the gift of your sword that I might use it to smite the enemies of Hektis." As he said this it did flash across Gorfang's mind that one potential enemy of Hektis was standing behind him translating all this... but he dismissed that thought.
Slowly, the general shifted, stiffly and clumsily at first, then faster and more smoothly as he stepped down and drew his khopesh. "I fear," he ground out, "we must fight for it." Eloy translated, then fed back for Gorfang to say, "Is a fight really what you want?" The general shifted his balance. "You have claimed the Regalia of Hektis," he said to Gorfang, "I must ensure the claimant is worthy to hold it. This is my task, it is why I am here beyond death and time."
Gorfang shrugged and drew his sword. Eloy unbagged some Alchemists' Fire bottles and a pot of his magical healing ointment, which he tossed underhand to Gorfang. Bickering was all very well, but this was battle... Then he lit a cheroot and settled back to watch events unfold.
Gorfang and the general circled each other. The orc noted that the undead warmaster was moving more and more swiftly. The mummies they'd fought before were fast - for mummies - nearly as fast as a human; but the general was faster than that, and probably faster than Gorfang himself. All the power, whatever it was, that drove the other mummies to endure for milennia and defend their tombs when needed was in Aklimah gathered and concentrated into this one battle. Even were he to win, he would not exist beyond today. Gorfang needed all the advantages he could get; he called on the power of the Wristband and hurled himself into the attack.
 DM Note: Poor old Aklimah scored a 1 on his first Initiative, and 2 of his 3 attacks in the first round. Monsters must dread being run by me! |
Their blades clashed and skirled. The Veldrin tore several rents in the bronze armour, releasing a cloud of mummy dust which floated around Aklimah. The general struck back, his huge khopesh crashing against Gorfang's defences. His inital attacks were inefectual, however, and Gorfang began to cherish hopes that Hektis was pulling for him. A Lost God has no worshippers, and the faith of those worshippers and their eventual Soul Harvest provide a God's power; Hektis had none left - except possibly Gorfang. Would he aid the orc to ensure at least some hope for his future?
Then the tide of battle reversed; Gorfang was beaten back by a succession of terrible strikes that showered black blood into the dust. His own attacks flailed in empty air, and he staggered briefly before recovering his balance. Real anger flooded his mind, and suddenly the fragile structure of civilized behaviour that rode uneasily like a thin crust over the lava of his true orc nature shattered. 
Gorfang reverted to type.
Eloy watched in uneasy awe as the orc started to foam and stamp, growling and snarling like a feral creature. His eyeballs suddenly went red as small blood vessels burst under the pressure. His defence dropped away, his shield almost forgotten, he hurled himself forward, utterly committed to the elemental choice of triumph or death.
A rain of mighty blows smashed down on the undead warmaster, and great slashes were carved into his armour. A return cut tore a wound in Gorfang's arm so hideous that Eloy was sure the orc couldn't possibly continue to even hold a sword, much less fight on - and yet he ignored it, snarling and tearing as if determined to break the mummy with his bare hands. Aklimah was beaten back, his guard gone, his limbs unravelling. The bandages and helmet had been shorn from his head, and for just an instant the remains of his face were visible. He stepped back for a moment, and spoke; "You are indeed worthy; bear the Regalia well!" he ground out. Then he glanced up at Eloy, and added, "You are without honour, and you will be dealt with later." He lunged forward again, but his defence was gone, and the final blow fell and his skull exploded.
Gorfang turned to Eloy, and gasped as the frenzy left him. His ruined right arm twitched, and the sword fell from his suddenly nerveless fingers to clatter on the floor. Eloy hastened forward and applied his magical ointment, restoring the arm to functionality but leaving Gorfang still quite badly wounded. None the less, he picked up his sword, sheathed it, and turned his attention to Aklimah's khopesh.
Like his ruined armour, it was coated in the dust of the crumbled mummy, and both knew that this would be deadly if breathed. How to dissipate it? In the end, they ran lamp oil underneath it and set it afire, the flames consuming the dust.
While it burned, Eloy set about picking some of the gold inlay out from the chariot, ending up with around 500gp worth of gold and gems.
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