World Tree MUSH

    Things have been quiet in Pandemonium as of late. ... Until rumors of an archeological expedition to Egypt start to run the rumor mills. At first it's all good news: they found and uncovered a new pyramid. Eventually they found a way inside the pyramid... And then things went sour.
    Whispers of curse soon began to spread, and that members of the expedition team and their families began to disappear from the site, cursed to wander into the pyramid at night and face the retribution of some ancient king or somesuch.
    Soon the rumors turned out to be true, when the foreman of the expedition, an Egyptologist by the name of Howard Carter has called for help.
    Mister Carter stands at the entrance to the tomb- a recently excavated pyramid still half buried under the sands, a torch in hand, a tall elf with a bushy mustache in a fine suit, staring into the darkness as he awaits for any who would heed his call for aid.

Mariam Highscribe has been back home since the whole affair over in the other world. It left a sad taste in her mouth, and decided she had to go home for a few. So she did, promising to 'catch back up' because she was angry at whoever was involved in destroying the place.

Thusly, when the call comes for help, of course she shows up, because she's Mariam 'Goddamn!' Highscribe and she arrives from the sky on her broom. Instead of her usual witchy wear, she's wearing a brimmed hat, a fashionable vest over a blouse and shorts because it's the desert you see. She's also wearing boots. She also still has her broom.

"Maybe there's something useful down there..." she says looking away from Mister Carter over towards the Pyramid, and then back. "Hello. I'm Mariam Highscribe! I'm here to help." she says as she looks back again, to the buried tomb.

"That must had taken a while to unearth..." she says.

    Emily is in the form of a silver-haired woman with glowing purple eyes and horns, dressed in a pinstripe suit and a matching red tie. Her hair is in a pixie cut, with massive holographic twintails that move in a slightly unnatural manner and clip through the ground. She strides forward in a sort of reverse-moonwalk, where her legs are going through the motion of walking backwards but she's gliding forward (hovering very slightly over the ground).

    "Looks like you get the cooler of the two Highscribes today," she says, an amused and faintly smug smile on her face. She nods ponderously to Mr. Carter. "Elf Howard Carter, huh. Ohhh boy~!" She lets out a high-pitched snicker.

    After the last adventure, well... Weiss had ended up in the wrong place then, so was now attempting to take a shortcut back. Either through happenstance or because of Emily's own portal hopping the Vine, the young fencer has instead ended up here. In the desert.

    With a heavy sigh, she quietly reinforces her aura to make her a little more resistant to the heat. She can still get heatstroke quite easily but at least it makes it a little more bearable. This being the nearest encampment, she crosses her arms and sighs, having figured out by now that the Tree is just messing with her.

    "What's going on here, anyway?" Grumble. The wandering do-gooder is more Ruby's thing than hers.

    A wandering scholar approaches... or at least as first blush it's a scholar! White robes flow around the figure, their face obscured by the pulled up hood. Only the glint of metal at the hip would tell a different story. That and Weiss and Emily would probably know who it is.

    Piera Forta, Assassin, approaches the growing group with little fanfare, like a desert wanderer. Once she gets close enough, she lifts her head and looks at those gathered. A couple of familiar faces, but mostly strangers. Interesting.

A haunted pyramid sounds like a perfect chance for Holly to make new friends. She doesn't really care if they're living or dead after all. Plus she's on Summer Break now so she doesn't have to worry about classes. Mariam isn't the only witch to show up on a broom, but she's accompanied by Servis and Lavaux. She smiles and waves at her friend as she flies closer to the dig site. "Hi Mariam!" She then notices Emily's present as well,

 "How do you do that with your hair, I know you're not a ghost." Speaking of ghosts it seems like that Weiss is also present, she knows she's not one but she certainly does resemble one. "People have been going missing here!" Piera doesn't get her attention right away she hasn't met her before.

    The first instinct of many people in dealing with extreme heat is to shed layers. To strip off heavy clothing. Lian knows better. In a proper desert like this, you want a nice, big cloak or robe to block out the sun. Something light and airy, sure, but sun exposure is death in a place like this.

    Turns out her usual travel outfit is well-suited to the clime.

    Aside from her arm sticking out, making ample use of her walking staff, the woman is exposing as little of herself as possible, keeping her cloak more-or-less closed and her hood up. She'd not heard any particular calls for help until she got relatively close to the world, but she's been following her instincts for a fair bit longer than that, on the vague notion of 'feeling like it was the right direction'. And so the Force has delivered a 'seer' to a tomb that may be cursed, and people in need of rescue. Right place, right time. She'll take it.

    "I'm Lian," the woman calls out as she approaches the pyramid's entrance, not far behind Piera. "Seer and adventurer, wandering meddler of sorts." She regards Holly with a curious look, then turns to Weiss. "I've heard tell of some manner of curse, people being abducted by whatever spirit calls this temple home." She glances at the tomb, then Mariam, then her broom, then the desert around them. "...you've quite a bit of work ahead of you, there."

    As the group begins to arrive, spearheaded by Mariam Goddamn! Highscribe, Carter doesn't turn away from the opening that leads into the pyramid, his lips pursed into a grim frown.
    "Good of you to all come." He says at length, turning his head to better regard Mariam at first. "Did you say Highscribe?"
    She definitely said Highscribe, as confirmed by Emily, and his frown seems to deepen.
    "A witch in red going by the same name went into the crypt. She hasn't returned since yesterday." He explains before shaking his head and beginning to explain for the sake of wandering meddlers, heiresses, and ghost-befrienders.
    "Nevertheless, my name is Howard Carter. My excavation team spent months digging this pyramid out of the sand. We believed it to be the tomb of a king or a high priest, but when we went inside... We found a single sarcophagus. Surrounded and partially submerged in mercury; with statues of warriors pointing their weapons towards it. We should have realized it was meant to keep something IN rather than keep invaders out." He mutters, cursing himself.
    "Ever since then, members of my expedition have gone missing. The family members that accompanied them also vanished. I believe something spirits them off into the pyramid at night to do terrible things... If you're going in, the best I can do is give you a basic map and wish you the best of luck."

Mariam head tilts when the man says another 'Highscribe' went in the night before and she face palms. "Goddess dammit, Salome what the heck are you doing. How do you get to these things before me...!?" she says more to herself and sighhhhhs. "That would be my twin sister yes." she says bluntly. "Well , Mr. Carter, we'll do our best to figure out what's going on...." she frowns.

She looks to Emily and Holly and smiles. "Hi Emily, Holly! Holly, are you on summer break already? I bet if you write an essay about this you'll get some summer credit. I used to do that..." she says tapping her bottom lip.

She doesn't know Weiss or Lian or Piera so they get a wave. Lian gets a side eye'ed look. "The broom is NOT for sweeping." she says, hefting it up and grabbing the handle of the shotgun like business end.

"We should head in carefully." she says, starting to walk towards the entrance, though, others can feel free to get in front of her easily enough. Or behind her. Whichever they prefer.

"A spirit that kidnaps people? Well, if that's the case it should show up for Holly before along. It might be a good idea to keep an eye on her." Servis can't help but to point out that they have the perfect ghost bait present.

 "Maybe they're just lonely? I would be if I were trapped in a tomb for thousand of years. You hang out around around graveyards too? Neat!" The young witch sounds way too excited about this.

 Hearing the description of the other witch, Lavaux can't help but to point out, "It sounds like Salome pissed the wrong person off. This could get really awkward with Mariam here."

 "Well, we can't just leave her down there, what if she's in trouble?" The two ghosts would facepalm right now if they still had hands.

    Emily turns to Weiss. "Didn't I tell you?" she says innocently. (She didn't tell her.) "We're gonna go bust some ghosts! -- Oh, here's the slayer." She shoots Piera a brief smirk.

    Holly's question gets a chortle. "They're holograms, kiddo," she says. "Illusions made with magic and science instead of just magic."

    She raises an eyebrow. "I'm Nyx-model Emily," she answers Lian's greeting, her amused and faintly smug smile in full force. "Everyone has quite a bit of work everywhere! ... wait, you actually thought it was for sweeping? Wow."

    And then Mr. Carter reveals that Salome is here, and Emily facepalms with one hand. "Aaaaaand we've got the worse of the two Highscribes here too, goddamn," she says with a smirk. "This is gonna be ... interesting! In the way things usually tend to be here."

    ... She materializes two more arms, and adds the remaining three to her facepalm in response to Holly's last comment, thus doing the work for Servis and Lavaux.

    A map and luck, eh? Lian looks faintly amused. "Mm. I can't say I've ever believed much in luck." She steps forward, though, and rests a hand on Carter's shoulder. "Don't worry. We'll have them back." She falls into an easy step beside Mariam; there's no comment on the name Salome, but she does file away their relationship mentally - particularly the witch's grousing about her sister's speed. Instead, she replies to the objection about her broom's purpose. "Ah, my apologies."

    Then, the cloaked woman regards Holly with an arched eyebrow. "In my experience, when a spirit is sealed so heavily in a tomb, the result is less 'loneliness' and more 'mad spite and hatred'. Don't be trusting of anything you see down there," she cautions the girl. "Especially if it acts friendly."

    Emily teases her about the broom, however, and her response is an unruffled, "You'll have to forgive my ignorance. There's a lot of different worlds out in the Tree, I'm still getting used to it all. What else would a broom be for?"

    Weiss sighs at what Emily says. She has noticed Piera, but... as Piera was introduced as an Assassin, she isn't sure she should acknowledge her yet. But Holly, she knows, and the things being said make her-

    "Highscribe? Where have I heard that before?" But Weiss is too distracted to remember Salome by name unfortunately. Sigh. "All this magic and ghosts and all that, I'll be happy to be home where only like five people can use magic."

    Piera nods solemnly at the explanation, she then quirks a brow at Emily's smirk. She shrugs and remains mostly quiet as the group starts to file into the structure. She soon enough seems to vanish into the shadows and movement, becoming part of the whole and not being clearly noticable unless she wishes to be seen.

    "Spirit, ghost, phantom, I don't care what it is, as long as my people are returned..." Carter mutters as the group starts making their way into the pyramid, he offers the map over for anyone who wants to take it. It is rough, but gives a basic idea of what is where in the pyramid, and the first room the group should reach after taking an ascending passage is called the 'Grand Gallery'.
    The grand gallery is pitch black, hopefully someone brought a source of light along, or can see in the dark. But the walls are decorated in myriad hieroglyphics and artworks depicting a recurring image and theme of a man talking to a jackal-headed god.
    It's stone silent, save for the scuffle of the group's own movement on the stone floor below...
    A path beyond diverges heading up and down to rooms marked on the map as the Mercury Pit, and the Shrine.

Mariam looks back to the others as she says. "It's a broom, but I'm a witch. Witches use broom as travel and a spellcasting device sometimes." she says. When they enter the dark room, she casts a spell of fire, puts it into the broom, then pulls back the lever to keep a torch-lighter-like effect going as a light.

She looks to Holly and the others and frowns. "The other girl with the name 'Highscribe' is my sister and she's a scoundrel." she frowns heavily.

"No good can come of her being here." she says softly. "Where curses are involved." she insists.

That might be hyperbole but really, why is Sally here, she thinks to herself, as she continues walking.

"Just...be careful." she says as she eyes the map.

"So. One group. No splitting up. That isn't any good. Do we go to the Shrine, or the pit?" she asks with a frown.

She hopes no one splits up, at least! That's...that's not how you do explorations by the book! The very thought makes her huff under her breath.

"I'm not a kid, I'm 24." Then again Holly's still the youngest one here except Weiss so that doesn't help her argument much. "Well, they could be sealed away because they have powerful magic." She frowns a bit as she says that.

 "Holly..." Servis knows who she's referring to that with their remark.

 She quickly changes the topic though, "Flying of course!" She hops off her broom figuring it'll be kind of difficult to steer it in narrow corridors, she has enough trouble of that as is. "Besides what if Salome unleashed something dangerous and the spirit is just trying to protect them?" She looks at the hieroglyphics curiously trying to read them but isn't fluent in ancient Egyptian. 

 "I think it's much more likely that Salome's working with the spirit or at least released it. My money's on the shrine." Lavaux is assuming that's where the spirit would have came from.

    "I agree about splitting up," Weiss speaks up suddenly, having gotten the rough idea of it. Wait why is she doing this instead of continuing? Because... because. Okay she has reasons, really! She doesn't seem to be contributing much to the battle readiness though, because her rapier is still sheathed and she doesn't appear to have any other-

    Her 'phone' that she uses is held up high and with a little flare, begins shedding some light. It's not a real heavy-duty light... it's basically a cell phone flashlight, and about as powerful, but it's something.

    "I have no idea what these say," she admits. "Must be a language that doesn't translate."

    Emily rises off the ground, and cheerfully answers Lian, "Flying, obviously!" ... It's obvious that she knows that this is non-obvious, but she leaves the full explanation to Mariam and Holly.

    She looks around the darkness, and increases the brightness of her holographic twintails so that they cast a slightly harsh light on the room. "Lemme take a look, Schnee," she says, practically peering over Weiss's shoulder. "Hmm, interesting!" She pauses, then adds, "Yeah I dunno what the fuck this is."

    She turns to Mariam. "Well, my nonexistent made-out-of-nanomachines gut says we should try the Pit." She shrugs. "Also, I don't mind splitting up, whiiiiiich probably means it's a good idea if we don't."

    Lian will take a map, of course, and after briefly glancing it over, she tucks it away in her bag. Once they're inside the pyramid, she can draw back her hood, and the soft tap-tap of her staff marks the woman's steady pace. She's largely quiet, listening intently to both her physical senses and her connection to the Force. But she does, at least, shift her attention to the group's explanation of brooms. "Fascinating." She regards Mariam in specific and asks, "A matter of cultural preference, or is there some magical significance that makes brooms better-suited to magic?" She can at least indulge her curiosity while she's here!

    With no knowledge of Salome, of course, Lian has no clue how likely any of this conjecture is. But everyone seems to think her the sort of person who would release, or work with, a dangerous spirit. Good to keep in mind. After a moment's pause, the woman adds, "I think the Shrine is the the right way, yes." She sounds oddly sure of herself on that.

    Though most of the writing on the walls is in hieroglyphics, as the group progresses, and decides to head down to the Shrine, there is writing in ancient Greek above the entry into the descending passage. And for anyone who doesn't know ancient Greek, someone wrote under it in fresh soapstone:
    'Do not enter. Set's realm lays below.'
    It's about now that Lian might spot something on the floor on the way down, but as the group begins to progress down the descending path, the imagery in the hieroglyphs begins to take a darker turn. The same figure that had been talking to the Jackal-headed god gets captured by others, and mummified alive before entombed in a pyramid very' similar to the one the group is in now.
    That can't be a good sign.
    Or perhaps the shuffle of another pair of feet from the darkness beyond might be the worse thing right now... As a single elf shambles out of the darkness. But something isn't right. The hungry groan that rises from his parched lips isn't... It isn't something a living person would make, as the walking dessicated corpse staggers into the light and takes a swipe at the first person it can get into range with, tattered cloth wrappings streaming off its body as the mummy tries to take a bite out of Weiss.

Mariam looks to Lian. "Peer pressure from our ancestors." she says. "That is, 'tradition'." she says softly. She listens to the others and looks Weiss. "Yes, we haven't quite translated ALL this language yet here!" she says. She looks to Holly and nods! "Holly is studying at the magic college here where I studied! She's not a kid!" she says. "I was valedictorian!" she says. "I bet Holly can be one too if she applies herself really hard!" she says.

She gently looks to Emily and the others. "Shrine seems to be the main consensus...." she says, as she starts to walk down that way. "Besides it sounds like these people already explored the Pit and found bad magic already."

When they get lower, she looks to the pictographs as she frowns and takes notes in a big book, before she suddenly catches the figure maybe too late!?

"Weiss!? Look out!" she calls out, she looks to Holly.

"Holly, can you call it off at all?" she asks, as she readies a fireball spell quickly, incanting under her breath incase Holly can't.

    Shining the light around, Weiss would probably wonder why the writing is in ancient Greek for an Egyptian tomb if she knew what Greece or Egypt was. Not only does she not know Greek, she doesn't know her world's equivalent of Greek, because that really isn't well-known. She's still pretty distracted though. The warning is definitely needed.

    "What?!?" Weiss yelps, twisting about at the last second. She does avoid any nasty physical harm, but doesn't get away unscathed. The bite snags her dress, tearing it a little, and everyone can see the faint flare of light as it also depletes her precious Aura.

    Her hand goes to her blade, but she hesitates, stepping back warily to see if the others have a more reliable solution. "I'm not sure how good stabbing a dead thing will work, and I don't want to burn it in this corridor."

    Sadly, the question-and-answer session on witches will have to wait until later. As they walk, Lian's foot stops just before it would come down on something. Lifting it away instead, she crouches down briefly to pick up the object, examining it in the light of Mariam's spell. "Hmm." It's a small metal cylinder - something those of most worlds would readily recognize as a shell casing. She pulls it forward to give it a little sniff, then murmurs, "Propellant of some kind..." Almost like a slugthrower round.

    Holding it out, the seer asks aloud, "Am I correct in guessing this is spent ammunition?" It's almost rhetorical. There's not much else it would be. But, it's best to ask, just to be sure.

    So they're in enemy territory. That gets Lian moving much more warily. No longer does her staff tap-tap against the stone; she walks with it held at her right side in a slightly tense grip, as if a weapon at the ready. Even before the mummy comes lunging out, the seer is suddenly on her guard, looking left and right as if anticipating an attack- and so it comes.

    In an instant, she's acting. Her left hand sweeps out, open palm, in the direction of the mummy; calling up the Force, the Jedi unleashes a split-second push intended to shove it away from Weiss - and everyone else, for that matter. "I can feel its pain. Its rage. Is there any way to revert what's been done to it?" Somehow, despite the situation, her voice remains calm. Urgent, but calm.

    Emily cackles at Mariam's definition of 'tradition'. "That is the best definition of 'tradition' I've ever seen," she says. "And, yeah, fine, I'm fine either way!" (Emily's gut doesn't hold a candle to the Force.) "Anyway, basically I think WHOA GOD!"

    She glides backward away from Weiss and the mummy-elf. "Releasing Capacitor Seal Three!" She's surrounded by three distinct auras, one silver, one gold, and one pearlescent; the first one shatters, and the other two fade, and her holographic twintails gain red streaks as a black version of Weiss's sword with a blood-red blade materializes in her hand in a swirl of what appears to be silvery glitter. She holds it defensively between Weiss and the mummy as she says, "I mean, my recommendation would be 'aim for the head', but I don't know how much mummies differ from zombies!" Beat. "We didn't even have either one before my world ended!"

Holly smiles upon hearing Mariam's comment. "I'm not nearly as talented at magic as you, Mariam. I study really hard but that can only get me so far..." Her magic is quite unpredictable. "I mean I want to be a great witch of course, but there are others at it who are better than me." It's pretty unlikely for her to get valedictorian. Of course it seems likely they have bigger problems than her classwork at the moment as a mummy seemingly out of nowhere attacks Weiss.

 "Please stop!" She tries to cast a spell to get the mummy off of Weiss but she's not sure if it can even understand her. At least the state of decay implies it's not one of the people who went missing.

    Unfortunately all of that pain and rage that Lian feels is utterly mindless. Which means that Holly asking him to stop... Well... It doesn't work. It's just ceasless pain and rage as it tries to claw the snowy-haired heiress only to be shoved away by The Force.
    Unfortunately as the tattered cloth sloughs away with its every movement, this reveals the clothing beneath- a tan vest and durable slacks. Durable but fashionable and a little posh. The kind of clothing many of the expedition members were earing.
    And where there's one mummy there is always more as the shuffling sound of feet soon surround the group on their way down toward The Shrine.
    "There's no fixing them now." Says a voice from... Pretty low to the ground.
    A sleek black cat appears from seemingly nowhere, and anyone who knows Salome will recognize Pierce; her Familiar.
    "Hi. So like. I got separated from my boss. Can you all take me to her? Preferrably past the mummies." He asks while rubbing against Holly's ankle, as cats do.

Mariam frowns at the casing. "Can I see that? Sall----" pause. "Salome uses two Revolvers. If she was through here shooting..." she mutters. "I'd know her casings. She basically hand packs each herself..." she says quietly to Lian.

"I just buy my shells from the adventurers market in town..." she says. She frowns though, as she looks to Weiss. "Mummies burn easily." she says. "But it'd be better to immobilize it first so it's not walking around on fire." she says.

When it's revealed to be a team member she grimaces, but she frowns as she ughs... it's Pierce.

"Cat. Where's Sally." she says. Using the more casual name. "-and what was she doing here?" she asks. She looks around as shuffling escalates. She sighs as she frowns. Hooty was left outside somewhere, overhead. She makes a call for him to return.

Hopefully he can make it down here. Still, she frowns. "We should..."

"Start moving." she says.

Holly gasps as she sees the vest, this wasn't right. "Even if I did override the curse, I don't think they can be saved..." Their bodies were far too decayed at this point. How could they rot so fast? The witch's heart is beating quite fast at this point. She tries to calm herself down by petting Pierce for a moment but's quite clear that she's devastated. She was hoping that they could rescue everyone before anything bad happened. Instead she balls her fists and screams at the top of her lungs, "Where is Salome?!"

    Emily peers at the casing; she recognizes it as the same type that Salome uses, but Mariam would know better, so she leaves it to her.

    She glances down at the cat. "Oh! It's ... you!" she says. "Hi, uh ..." She furrows her brow. "... wanna say ... Macavity? Mariam what is this cat's name."

    She looks around at the sound of the shuffling, and rolls her eyes. "Welp, releasing Capacitor Seal 2." The gold and pearlescent auras appear around her; this time, it's the gold one which shatters, and five golden bolts of light appear over her head, and a second sword appears in one of her other hands. "As for burning them, let's just say I can shoot, I just can't 'fire', so to speak. WAUGH!" She recoils in a somewhat cartoonish manner from Holly's sudden shout.

    No fixing them. The cat declares it, Holly confirms it.

    Lian's frown is soft - her eyes almost pained. "I see." Still calm... but softer.

    Needless to say, Lian will pass the casing to Mariam. Then, without an ounce of hesitation, she shifts her staff to her left hand, and reaches down to her waist with her right. She unhooks a cylinder clipped to her belt, a device of metal wrapped in strips of leather to give it a better grip - almost like the handle of a weapon. And she's sure holding it like one. "I'm not sure if what I have will count as fire," she observes idly to Mariam. "But it might. We'll find out."

    And now Holly is shouting. "-please, calm down! We don't want all of them descending on us at once." But there's no time for more than that. No time. Many of them are coming already. Mariam's right; they should move. And unless anyone steps out in front of her, Lian will be stepping out to take the lead, at a brisk pace.

    Weiss stares in horror, showing that despite her combat-hardening, she wasn't prepared for THIS. She looks a little queasy as she realizes what this thing is... a previous member of the expedition, now rotting and mindless. "R-right..."

    Looking pale now, she turns around, and narrows her eyes at Pierce. Ah well. "Oh... now I remember." Yeah she knows Salome, and with a sigh she pulls out her rapier, drawing it and spinning the cylinder. "Well, if fire won't work safely, maybe ice can hold them in place." And do something about the smell. She's notably less enthusiastic as she falls into step behind the others now.

    "I have a name, you know." The cat replies to Mariam and Emily with a snooty twitch of his whiskers. "It's Pierce. And whatever is between you and my boss is just that. Between you and her, so please don't drag my fur into it." He says, purring while holly gives him a petting. At least until she shouts, causing the cat to jump a good ten feet in the air.
    "Geeze, you don't have to be so loud, she's--"
    The sound of gunfire in the chamber beyond may answer multiple people's questions. "Just up ahead." Pierce finishes his sentence.
    As the team moves, having to evade the grasping claw-like hands and vicious bites of the mummy horde to get to the next chamber, they'll sure come in on a sight to see.
    Most of the mummies are old- ancient and decrepit. Some are... Sadly newer. But most of the expedition team and their familes are huddled in the corner of the Shrine, watching Salome Highscribe in a pitched duel against an honest to goodness Mummy Lord.
    "Dang it, it took y'all long enough." she snaps as the group arrives. "I was just about out of bullets!"

    Lian's eyes pass around the chamber. It takes her half a heartbeat to take in the situation.

    At approximately the time the word 'about' is leaving Salome's mouth, the Jedi is hurling herself across the chamber. Her staff and cloak both clatter to the ground beside the door, but the woman herself is already moving in a superhuman leap that will take her halfway across the room, towards the huddled survivors.

    In mid-air, there's a sound like a pressure valve suddenly releasing, except it's accompanied not by rushing water, but an energy hum. A bar of sky-blue light erupts, and by the time she lands, her lightsaber is fully ignited. The weapon starts lashing out almost immediately, quick and graceful strikes aimed at heads or hearts, the absolute minimum necessary to clear her path.

    She's aiming to get herself between the survivors and the mummies. There's not much she can do to actually help them; but 'preventing a single mummy from reaching them' is absolutely within the realm of possibility.

>> SUMMARY[Lian Kamoya] >> Tear-assing across the room as only a Jedi can. Trying to put herself between survivors and mummies.

Mariam frowns. These are indeed, Salome's bullet casings. She eyes Pierce and says. "Ugh, she's not your boss! You're her familiar, it's like! Not like that at all!" Hooty would totally disagree, but the bird has arrived and landed on Mariam's shoulder as she digs through his feather fluffy and pulls a cylinder out and shoves it into the broom's mid section, as she raises the b(r)oomstick and fires off a shotgun shell into one of the older mummies.

She frowns and eyes Salome. On the other side, as she uses her more slower, but more spreadworthy, shotgun end-of-her-broom to shoot into another mummy.

"SALOME." she calls out. "WHY ARE YOU EVEN HERE." she calls out.

She evokes some water magic and throws a storm of healing water into some of the undead. Healing undead should...hurt them. Right? Still-- she has to do something. It's not like she has unlimited ammunition, either!

    Emily doesn't seem particularly concerned about the death of the members of the expedition; her eyes go straight to the cylinder in Lian's hand as she glides forward above the ground, her twintails still casting their white and slightly red light. "Hmm. Interesting weapon," she remarks, dispelling the bolts of energy for now. "I kinda can't wait to see it get used."

    (... Nevertheless, Lian might sense that she's bothered by the whole situation, and doing her best to hide it.)

    She nods to the cat. "Pierce! Got it," she says. "And yeah, I get that, I've just never heard your name before."

    Gunfire. "Oh, there she is!" Emily says cheerfully, and she picks up the pace as she enters the chamber. "Hi, Sally! You seem like you're having fun!" There's a faint needling in her cheerful tone. Her grin widens as Mariam joins in.

    Her amused smugness returns as Lian jumps forward. "Hey, Lian, don't leave me hanging!" she says. A signet ring appears around her lower left ring finger, covered in glowing runes which flicker in a glitchy manner, and she charges forward. "I can actually extract them!"

    In a sphere a couple dozen feet wide centered on where the ring was at the exact moment of activation, colors invert and everything becomes frozen in time -- except for Emily herself. Those within and without can still see Emily's movements, however.

    The sphere itself is immobile, however, and Emily reaches the edge before she reaches the survivors. In fact, it's just short of Lian's position. "Whoops. Uh, hm, I don't think I've ever done this before ..." She shrugs, and plunges through; the sphere promptly disappears with everything reverts to normal. "Ah, that went better than I expected!" She grins at the survivors. "So, uh, who wants a lift?"

    (Lian would definitely sense that Emily's cool is mostly an affectation there.)

>> SUMMARY[Emily Nyx] >> Timestopping her way to Lian and the survivors.

    Obviously keeping the people safe is the best idea. Weiss really doesn't want to touch anything icky like that though! She whips her sword about and concentrates... then gets an idea. As the others are rushing to the rescue, she starts making quick, slicing gestures, sending sparkling waves along that erupt into spiky walls of ice.

    "Got it!" she calls, as she quickly tries to make a 'maze' of ice walls to delay and split up the mummies, allowing the group to divide and conquer.

Holly manages to calm down a bit upon seeing most of the hostages are still alive. Still Salome was going to have to explain in detail what happened after they get out of this mess. The witch tries to figure out what she can do to help, she doubts she can take control of the Mummy Lord after all would it even be able to understand her if she does so? Fire was likely not a good idea in the close quarters and it would likely spread. She then notices the sarcophagus, maybe they could get it back inside somehow? The witch rushes over to it and begins to lift the massive coffin taking a great deal of strength even from her to do so.

    That's a good question, what is Sally doing here?
    "What does it look like I'm doing?" She spits. "Fighting a Mummy Lord to stop his death curse from spreading over the world, dangit." Is her reply
    A lot happens though, and it all turns the tide of the fight fairly quickly. With Lian interposing herself between the mummies and the suvivors, the mummies turn their focus on the seer beginning to shamble towards her- only to have a maze of ice to distract them courtesy of Weiss, which will take the mindless undead... Far longer to traverse, sizzling under the holy water rain of Mariam's healing waters.
    Hands all raise instantly as Emily reaches the shocked survivors. Everyone looks like they want a way out.
    Goodness though, what does Holly intend to do with the coffin?
    But it's about now that Salome's revolvers resound with a loud CLICK CLICK.
    "Ah dangit. Looks like it's all on y'all."

Mariam frowns. She....doesn't believe for a second that's what's going on because she trusts Salome about as far as she could throw her without the use of magic. Which would be about maybe... a foot? Regardless, she sees this, and switches out shotgun shells for casing a water spell into her broom and then---

Spraying down undead from the firehose she's created of healing water as she lets out a gleeful witch cackle for a moment...okay... she can do this well enough.

Still, she'll try to catch the Mummy Lord in some of this to both weaken him, and make it easier for Holly to do what she has to do- she doubt she can defeat this thing on her own anyways, even with the water evocation going strong.

    "I'm never happy about using it," Lian calls out to Emily, settling into a defensive position. "But when I must, I shall. Do what you need to, I'll keep the creatures at bay until they're secure." The sphere of halted time is an exceptionally curious little trick, but the elder Jedi hasn't got time to be fascinated by it.

    Even with Weiss setting up ice walls and Mariam raining down healing water, there will be mummies that make it through. And Lian handles them with the matchless precision of a lifelong warrior. A step becomes a strike, a shift in momentum becomes a perfect slice; she wields her lightsaber one-handed, every movement graceful, controlled, expending little energy and wasting none of it. It's like watching a master fencer at work, calmly dispatching anything that survives ice and healing water long enough to reach her.

    The Mummy Lord seems like the lynchpin, doesn't he? "Did you get them out of the way?" Weiss calls that to Emily and Lian, but it's a bet they did. Now she can... do something else. Running forward, Weiss springs off one of her ice walls, leaping high in the air to flip upside down-

    A glyph briefly flares into sight where her feet hit midair, and with a spin of the rapier's cylinder, Myrtenaster's blade bursts into flame, her downward THRUST carryingnot just momentum but fire toward the Mummy Lord, trying to come in from behind.

    "You owe me for this one, Salome!" She calls out.

    Emily grins. "Then let's take it hooooome!"

    Her internal systems kept track of her location, and now she holds her current location in her mind relative to the pyramid's exit. She adds an extra bit of flickering glow to her twintails as she concentrates, and then opens up a staticky portal, leading right next to where Mr. Carter was standing -- about ten feet wide, plenty of room for multiple people to go through.

    "Getting it out now!" Emily calls back to Weiss. And while they're doing that, Emily joins in the defense, firing golden bolts at any mummies that approach. Only five bolts are out at once, though ...

Holly's carries the sacrophagus over to the Mummy Lord and attempts to slam the monster back into it after the others wear it down. It's unlikely they can exorcise it at this point so the next best action would be to reseal it. Hopefully, that would stop the other mummies as well. They would likely need to rebury the tomb as well but one step at a time.

    Some mummies eventually do find their way out of the ice maze. ... These are swiftly cut down by Lian's graceful, almost artistic, fighting style, and Mariam's jets of healing water.
    "Oh I owe you princess?" Salome quips back to Weiss as the heiress lunges from behind the Mummy Lord, flaming rapier piercing it from behind long enough to stun the powerful and ancient magic-wielding monster.
    All while Emily opens up a portal to the outside of the pyramid- a very confused Carter on the other side, but definitely grateful looking as the men, women, and children begin to flee through the opening the Eudaemon created.
    And then... Holly.
    Holly just slams the sarcophagus down on the mummy lord hard enough to crush brittle bones, the coffin closing around the ancient wizard and locking shut once again...
    And once it does the rest of the mummies collapse to the floor, turning to dust and sand...
    Leaving Salome and her cat standing among a bunch of heroes.
    "Heh well great job locking the Mummy Lord back up and stopping yet another world ending death curse from falling on the world. Because as if one wasn't bad enough, right?" Pause. "Anyway bye."
    Oh hey look at her and that cat vamoose through Emily's portal.

Mariam watches Holly slam a mummy tomb on top of the escapee and everything stops, but before she can stop Salome she...runs away... argh. "YOU CAN'T JUST RUN EVERYTIME SALLY!" she yells through the portal before it can shut or close, softly frowning as she turns around to the others.

"Let's let the head archeologist know what happen and then maybe, tell them to lock this place back up." she says. "Because coming back down here is a bad idea." she says bluntly.

She'll start to leave unless someone tries to stop her.

Holly looks a bit surprised herself as she sets the coffin back down. "That actually worked?"

 Lavaux lets out a cheer for the witch, "I'm proud of you Holly, I couldn't have done it better myself.

 "That still doesn't answer the question of what happened though. What was Salome doing down here to because with? Oh well, I'm tired from all that. The sacrophagus was heavy. Thanks for the help everyone." She certainly couldn't have pulled that off on her own as follows Mariam out.

    The mummies fall as their master is slammed back into his prison. All at once, Lian is utter stillness, holding her posture for a split second; and then, smoothly, her lightsaber shuts off, and she starts to make her way out of Weiss' maze. This ends up taking her right by Salome, but the 'seer' has nothing but a vaguely surprised look for the fleeing witch.

    "I think I concur with Mariam," she remarks with a dry tone, eyeing the sarcophagus. For now, the Jedi intends to simply walk back over to collect her cloak and staff, then head outside as well.

    Weiss sighs, her flame extinguished, and she twirls her rapier to sheath it. With a little shakes of her head and scowl, she turns to walk away as well. Mariam is the only one who gets a comment from her, though a thin smile is given to Holly for saving the day, and she'll wait for Lian because Lian seemed pretty competent.

    But Marian? "Sister, huh? Well... you can't really pick your family, huh?" A wan smile.

    Emily peers at Holly. "Wait, is she ..." She breaks into a wide grin, and this time her delight is genuine. "She is! Hokey smokes, Bullwinkle!" She bursts out laughing as Holly just seals the Mummy Lord back into the sarcophagus, doubling over for a moment.

    She takes a deep breath (even though, as a robot, this doesn't make sense), and then sighs theatrically. "Well, we heard Sally's explanation for all this," she answers Holly, "notwithstanding her usual ... Salome-ness."

    She makes no move to stop Mariam, and just looks around. "Nice showing all around, though! That definitely held my interest."

    (Lian might sense dishonesty there, regarding Emily's motives ... perhaps she cares more than she's letting on?)