9 Tarsahk 1361 D.R., continued yet again
Haley's problem must have been very useful at that point, since she was still cold, but the rest of us were burning up! I quickly removed my armor (I was wearing the chainmail that we'd picked up at the Cracked Keep, and I was pretty sure that wearing chainmail in a desert was unwise), and we started off toward what appeared to be an oasis several hours away.
It was a very long several hours, let me tell you! In addition to the monstrous heat (and us with only a few waterskins, courtesy mostly of me), there was the boredom (after a while, all sand dunes look the same), the unpleasantness involved in putting up with Dulcimae's swinish brothers, and so forth. Also, Tolec and Samar weren't bright enough to remove their armor, and I think they both passed out from heatstroke at some point; certainly we had to waste a lot of water on them, and they were ridiculously weak for the rest of the trip into town.
This was very unfortunate, because at some point, we ran into a small pack of giant scorpions! Since Tolec and Sam weren't very capable of fighting them off, it was up to Pri and I to save the day. Alas, I slipped in the dirt, got stung by one of the darn things, and passed out myself, cursing my lack of armor. Apparently, the rest were able to drive the scorpions off, but not before Liss, in saving Prihelm's life, drained himself too much and died, and one of Dulcimae's brothers got stung and died as well. Or whatever it is that ghosts do when they stop being undead. Prihelm was stricken with guilt, declared himself no longer a true paladin (apparently, he'd done something to displease Torm in all of this), put up with the unjust suspicions of the others ("He's turning into Darkhelm," they said. "Let's watch him very carefully," they said. Humans. Puh!), and eventually, on we went.
We hadn't gone too much farther on before Prihelm stumbled (literally, as always) across a dead body in the sand. Seemed to me like it must have been there for a very long time, given how desiccated it was, but I didn't want to look too closely, so we reburied it and kept on heading towards that oasis. I wish we'd paid a bit more attention to it...
Eventually, we made it into the town, and while Dulcimae and her remaining brothers set up camp outside of town, the rest of us went in to get some water. Very strange water it was, too; the villagers informed us that as long as we drank it, we would have no need of food, which must be very convenient for them, since I can't imagine trying to farm in a place like that! Unfortunately, they wouldn't let people refill their waterskins, and even made me dump my water in! Such bizarre customs these people have! A youngish woman stepped forward to explain it all to us, however, and to offer us a place to stay; apparently, she was the local priestess (Isu by name) and was going to take us to the temple. Judging by the looks she cast at Prihelm, she had ulterior motives for this....
Well, I wish I could say the tour of the temple was exciting, but really, it wasn't. She did tell us a bit about the local religion (and very dreary it all was, too!) and some legend about an undead pharaoh named Anhktepot (more on him later!), but other than that, there wasn't much too it. So after leading us to one of the temple's guest rooms and advising us not to explore the inner sanctum, she left us to our own devices. Naturally, we turned around and went right back to see if we could get Dulcimae into town, since the legend of Anhktepot convinced us that staying out of town would be pretty dangerous. I suppose I ought to tell the story, since I keep on referring back to it. This entry just keeps getting longer and longer! Haley was writing this all down as we went, so I think this is pretty much what Isu told us:
"The pharaoh Anhktepot ruled centuries ago in the land of Har'Akir. This nation encompassed the entire Abal river valley in the great Akir desert. According to our beliefs, the pharaoh is the link between man and the gods. The pharaoh is himself a god of this land. The pharaohs ruled by the divine grace of Ra, the sun god. Anhktepot greatly feared death. It was known that when a pharaoh dies, he becomes a servant of Ra in the underworld, exalted above all other servants. For some unknown reason, Anhktepot did not want to die. Maybe he feared the wrath of Ra should the sun god discover that Anhktepot had been a false pharaoh. Anhktepot commanded his priests to find a way for him to cheat death. Many slaves and prisoners died horribly as subjects in Anhktepot's gruesome experiments in immortality.
"Frustrated by his lack of success, the pharaoh had several temples burned and razed. He stalked into the Kharn temple, greatest in all of Har'Akir, and cursed the gods for not granting him his heart's desire. Ra answered Anhktepot. He told the pharaoh that when he died, he would live, though he might wish otherwise. However, for cursing the gods, Anhktepot would suffer eternally. Ra did not say how this curse would be manifest.
"Anhktepot left the temple elated but confused. He still did not know how to cheat death. That night, when he touched Nephyr, his wife, she died instantly. Everyone he touched that night died. His wife, several of his servants, and his eldest child all died by his hand. According to our customs, they were mummified and entombed in great buildings in the desert. The funerals took over a week. Anhktepot soon understood that after the sun left the sky, his touch was death. So long as Ra shone upon him, he was safe. But once he was no longer under the sun's watchful eye, whomever he touched died horribly.
"Shortly after the final ceremony of his wife's funeral, he was visited in the night. A mummy wrapped in funeral linens entered his chambers. By the vestments he knew it was Nephyr. Unable to speak, the mummy tried to embrace Anhktepot. Horrified, he screamed for her to leave him forever, which she did. Nephyr walked into the desert and was never seen again. Her tomb has remained open and empty through all these years.
"Anhktepot was also visited by the mummified bodies of those he had killed. He came to understand that he controlled them utterly. They did his every bidding. He used their power and his own deadly touch to tighten the reigns of his evil power over Har'Akir. He killed many priests, making them into his undead slaves. Occasionally he would find one of his mummies destroyed, burned from the inside out. Some scholars believe Nephyr was responsible for the destruction of Anhktepot's mummies, but no one knows the true answer.
"One day, the priests rebelled against Anhktepot and murdered him in his sleep. He was still the pharaoh - a god and blessed of the gods. The priests gave him a funereal befitting his station. Shortly after the funereal, the Walls of Ra appeared cutting us off from the rest of Har'Akir. All that remains of the life we once knew is Mudar and the tomb of Anhktepot which lies a short way through the desert. All of this happened many generations ago.
"Occasionally the villagers say they have seen the mummified body of Anhktepot staggering across the sand dunes. They blame most of their ill luck on him and use his name to frighten small children. I don't know what has happened to Har'Akir or if Anhktepot truly does walk the land as one of the living dead."
Very exciting, I'm sure. Also more than a little bizarre, but then, that's humans for you. Be that as it may, though, it seemed best to stay in town. Dulcimae and her brothers, the silly fools, decided not to heed our warning, and we spent a bit too much time trying to convince them. I mean, when you try to convince people to come into town where they'll be safe from attack, it is wise to not wait around for the attack to come! But in our zeal, we managed to do exactly that.This time, it all came in the form of a bunch of undead who looked a lot like the corpse we'd found earlier in the day. They would swarm around people, trying to drag them underground, and once that was done, the gods only know what they did with their victims! Sam was almost one of these victims himself, but fortunately, he was able to free himself in time to keep from drowning in the sand. Alas, not all of Dulcimae's brothers were so successful, and by the time the attack was beaten off, two of the four of them had been dragged away to what seemed to me to be a justly deserved fate. Since Dulcimae actually loved her brothers, however (a thing I wouldn't have believed possible, but then, Dulcimae was a girl of strange, perhaps even morbid, tastes), I refrained from pointing this out.