Firstmonth 26, 1759 – Secondmonth 4, 1759
Rellik, Captain Blank, and Sorern escaped up the chimney, and tried to get to Captain Blank’s ship, Ocean’s Blade, by jumping across the rooftops. Sorern failed immediately and fell into an alleyway; Captain Blank failed on the last roof, but was able to catch up with Rellik on the ship before the guards could get to them.
Sigrid, meanwhile, had stayed in the room and surrendered to the guards. The guards also quickly surrounded and captured Sorern, and took both of them back to the castle. There, they were interrogated by the same giant who had been in charge at Sa-Follen’s house, who decided that they weren’t important and let them off with a warning and a fine of 100 gold. (She seems to think that Rellik and Captain Blank were responsible, since they were the ones who actually escaped.)
Sorern and Sigrid met up with the other two at the ship. They all joined up as Blank’s crew, and he made a quick trip to see Taevin Brightfind, the quickling faen he had come to Ao-Manasa to meet in the first place. Taevin told him about a collector interested in relics from a particular tomb, and offered him a job bringing back those relics, for a payment of 1,000 queens for each interesting item.
They set sail on the Ocean’s Blade, to inform their various patrons of the results of their missions, and make some money.
First, they went to the dragon’s Mixastomere’s island. She was satisfied with the result, and allowed Sorern to go on his way, with the understanding that she might call upon his services in the future.
They then stopped off at an island housing a Knight of the Axe stronghold, where Sigrid spoke with Morek. He was similarly satisfied with the results of Sigrid’s mission, although he also gave her a few instructions she hasn’t shared with the others.
Only Rellik knows what his contact’s reaction was. All he’s told the rest of the party is that he was given a new mark.
With all that taken care of, they sailed to the island Taevin had marked on Blank’s map. They located the tomb, but had to fight some monstrous crabs to get to it. The crabs ganged up on Captain Blank in a very unsportsmanlike (unsportscrablike?) way, and nearly killed him before Sigrid dragged him to safety. Once the crew had finished off the crabs, they inspected the tomb and the giant head nearby, and determined that neither were magical. They also discovered, written across the top of the entrance, an inscription that read, “. . . name is Ozymandius, king of kings: Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair.” (The “. . .” was a result of their battle with the crabs. Sorern cast a spell that broke off a bit of the tomb and smashed it into the crabs.)
They entered the tomb. The entranceway was dark, and covered with carvings, presumably of Ozymandius and his life. It opened into a larger room, with a domed ceiling and more carvings on the walls, these mostly scenes of an Empire rather than personal exploits of a King. They stood on a walkway that ran in a semicircle around the chamber, with a passage off to the right, and what presumably had been a passage to the left before it collapsed into rubble.
In the center of the room was a statue of some kind, on a sort of stone peninsula extending from the opposite side of the chamber, surrounded by a pit filled with water. Directly across from it strange lines were inscribed on the walkway, but no obvious way to get from the walkway to the central pillar. So they improvised: Rellik tied a rope to the rubble on the left side of the chamber, threw a grappling hook to attach it to the statue, and climbed across. Sigrid and Captain Blank were going to stay on the walkway, but changed their minds when the other two started investigating the statue, which turned out to be a sarcophagus and three relics: a crown on its head, and two pieces of a broken scepter.
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