Wandering among ten thousand tombs - Game Thread

[Ramsus]

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I'm a little confused. What was the roll for specifically? It sounds like the roll was for the everyday task of just attaching the horses to the chariot. Which would be somewhat like having to roll to tie your shoelaces. If that is the case, I also don't know what a failure would look like or how it would be possible without my character just magically suddenly being completely incompetent at a mundane task she's had to complete hundreds of time without failure to do the things its established she's done.

[Tibbius]

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I'm a little confused. What was the roll for specifically? It sounds like the roll was for the everyday task of just attaching the horses to the chariot. Which would be somewhat like having to roll to tie your shoelaces. If that is the case, I also don't know what a failure would look like or how it would be possible without my character just magically suddenly being completely incompetent at a mundane task she's had to complete hundreds of time without failure to do the things its established she's done.

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The roll is for trying to do the task quickly, i.e. in a manner that would be challenging for the moderately skilled professional. Failure just means that she takes longer than everyone else - so she's far behind them when she gets going.

[dojango]

Tarkasan usually let his servant do this sort of thing... but he still remembered how, of course. He harnessed the horses to the yoke of the chariot, made sure the reins were passed through the guidelines, and the wheels were set. He climbed up and saw that Anki was already lashing his horses forward, eager for battle. A good man. "Neis, shield me."

Spoiler: Chariots

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Chariots are usually used in two-three man teams, a driver and one or two warriors. So if Neis wants to ride on my chariot as the warrior, that means she can fight better without having to drive herself. Shamoise is on Anki's, and can be his archer.

[Ramsus]

Neis watches as her driver struggles to harness the horses quickly and sighs. "I would rather not leave my horses here considering the situation. Do not worry, I will be right behind you." she replies to Tarkasan.

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I would have come with you on yours dojango, but the Heka thing I want to do later involves my chariot and it'd be kinda hard to do that if later I don't have the chariot.

[Captain Cap]

''Hold on a second, Anki, I have one last thing to check.'' Shaimose asked the group of priests, ''Priests of Saqqara, is there anything important stored in the Osiris Temple?''

[Tibbius]

"Many valuable scrolls and indices," responds one of the older priests. His jowls waggle as he talks. "And our personal effects!"

[dojango]

Tarkasan wave his hand dismissively at that. "I can't see what the dead would want with all that. I'm sure it will still be there once we figure out whatever in the name of Amun is going on."

[gryffydd65]

Anki whips the reins once more as he realizes the truth in Tarkasan's words. We need to stop the dead, recovery will come later.

[Captain Cap]

''Texts and scrolls ... Tarkasan's skepticism is reasonable: what could the dead possibly seek ...?'' Shaimose was rubbing his shaved chin, pensive, as Anki kept driving the horses; the whole thing was an inscrutable puzzle and the physician's mind was avid for answers.

''My fellow, I suggest we stay on the temple side while advancing: maybe nothing important is happening there, but in case we notice an oddity, we'll be able to investigate.''

[Tibbius]

As Neis again instructed her driver how to harness horses (and wondered how she'd been tricked into picking this particular fellow), Anki and Tarkasan swiftly approached the long column of ragged figures shuffling toward the small town of Saqqara. There were more than hundreds of marchers in the column, which moved with a creaking sussurus of fabric and dust. They seemed oblivious to the chariots.

Now it was time to do whatever they planned with the ropes.

[gryffydd65]

Anki looked to see if it was an unruly mob with no direction or did it in fact have a purpose for coming towards the town.

[Tibbius]

The mob of mummies marched in almost military order toward the town. They were about fifteen minutes away at their pace; about two thousand cubits. They seemed intent on doing something in Saqqara. None of them strayed from the column of corpses.

[dojango]

Seeing the... living mummies march in formation gave Tarkasan an idea. He snapped the reins of the horses, driving the chariot forward, and in his best battlefield voice shouted out, "Company! About face! Company! Halt! By order of the nomarch!"

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(2d6+2)[8]

[Tibbius]

The column of mummies surged and swayed in disarray. Some tried to reverse course - others shoved them back on track. If the dead could be confused, they were. But overall, the mummies progressed toward the town.

[Captain Cap]

Thousands of dead bodies marching untiringly in an endless procession; a terrific sight that could have stroke fear into the hearts of many men, nevertheless sublime source of nothing but immense amazement for the intrepid physician: what arcane mechanism was producing the corpses' motion, replacing the ordinary activity of muscles and tendons? how much of the original mind and soul was still inhabiting the decayed flesh? was the herd moving of its own volition or by the will of higher powers?

Shaimose's mental processes were abruptly interrupted by Tarkasan's shouts and the ensuing reaction, ''What a spectacle! They're not completely mindless, it seems ...''
A smile of hope appeared on his face. ''Despite your din, Tarkasan, the horde still displays little to no interest toward us,'' he said out loud, so that the friend could hear. ''Perhaps they don't care about the living at all, thus evacuating Saqqara may be enough to keep everyone safe, at least temporarily.'' Then he yelled to the dead, with a bit of smugness, ''You don't care about us, right?!''

[Tibbius]

By contrast to their confusion at Tarkasan's order, the mummies showed no interest in Shaimose's taunting inquiry. They continued toward Saqqara, their bandaged bony feet raising dust that hovered around their legs as they marched.

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What was the plan with the rope?

[gryffydd65]

Anki swiftly turns his chariot around looking for wagons that might be over turned to steadily funnel the undead army away from the majority of people.

[Captain Cap]

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What was the plan with the rope?

Well, it seems that no one of us has a rope, so I guess the plan will just be to observe right now (by the way, the idea was to "capture" one of the undead).

[dojango]

Watching the stream of mummies lurch unsteadly towards town, Tarkasan reached a decision. He'd seen the snares that the hunters of the delta used to catch prey, and the the larger ones that the horse-tamers used on their horses. He had grabbed a rope from the stables as he had prepared his chariot and fashioned it into a crude lariat. He manuevered his chariot so that he could beat a hasty retreat, and then tried to snare one of the lurching mummies. Once done, he made the lariat fast on his chariot and snapped the reins of the chariot to send the horses trotting away from the rest of the horde.

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This is a rules-light system, so we can just say, 'of course I have X' as long as it makes sense. Not like say, pathfinder or something. [roll]2d6+1+2[/roll] to lasso one of these duders.

[dojango]

He grinned triumphantly. "Got one!" he shouted. He turned to make sure that the thing was still moving... only to notice that the lariat had come undone and was dragging uselessly behind him.

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dagnabit. (2d6+3)[6], one for hunter and two for agi.

[Tibbius]

Tarkasan's ploy had effect. The rear part of the column branched now. Most continued toward the town, but a dozen or so veered toward the chariots instead, trying in their clumsy way to chase down he who had attempted to snare one of their number.

Meanwhile, some armed men fled screaming from the temple toward the river, as directly as possible away from the column.

[dojango]

"Hey, you wanted to study one! How about studying a dozen!" shouts Tarkasan as he leads the small group away from the column. Once they're far enough away, he'll stop and take stock. Are they armed? How do they move? Strongly? Weakly? Trying to identify their weaknesses...

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(2d6+1)[9]

[Tibbius]

About two hundred yards from the column, Tarkasan's chariot had drawn about a hundred yards ahead of the dozen mummies, who continued to lurch toward him at a shuffling pace. While those in the main column moved with their arms down at their sides, those approaching the chariot had their arms extended in front as if readying to grasp something with their hands. Their eyes glinted white in the sunlight, brighter than living eyes. They were slow-moving and uncoordinated; their postures suggested aggression.

One of the mummies wore an axe on a belt, but seemed oblivious to the weapon. Like all the rest it stumbled forward with arms stretched out ahead.

[Captain Cap]

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The group of undead is only chasing Tarkasan's chariot, right?

[gryffydd65]

Anki slows down to look for wagons or other large pieces of furniture that could slow down the undead.

[Tibbius]

Anki doesn't see anything sufficient to form a barricade to the column, which could simply walk around such a structure in the open land.

[Captain Cap]

''There's no way we can stop the horde, Anki,'' the physician commented, ''and diverting the column doesn't seem to be a feasible solution either, given the limited results of Tarkasan's attempts: in other words, I don't see any reason for the two of us to run around the dead any longer ...''

Shaimose paused for a moment. He was partially satisfied with what he could observe, closer examinations would have been preferable, of course, but he had to be content; the opportunity to test the mummies' response to damage, for example with arrows, wasn't out of his reach, however, the resulting chase might preclude other options, especially the one the man was most tempted by.

''Thus, I propose we give a peek into the Osiris Temple, instead of being useless out here.''

[dojango]

"Yes. And see to the safety of the town." Leaving the shambling mummies behind, Tarkasan flicks the reins of the chariot, sending the horses forward at a gallop towards the town.

[Tibbius]

Anki pulled up the chariot before the marble steps of the Osiris Temple, sparing a glance over his shoulder toward the soldiers who had stopped their panicked flight to turn and watch what happened next.
. . .
Shaimose noticed the temple was quiet and motionless. It was not apparent what had driven the soldiers away.
. . .
Tarkasan proceeded rapidly back toward the town, quickly getting ahead of the column of mummies who now were only a thousand cubits from the town.
. . .
Neis, whose driver finally had gotten the chariot going, faced a choice: proceed to the Temple, passing Tarkasan on her way, or wait at the town for Tarkasan to get back in a minute or so?

[Captain Cap]

Shaimose took a look at the column of wandering corpses: before deciding the next course of action, he wanted to be sure the dead were still ignoring the two visitors.