The Wayfarer's Inn

At the end of the short passage leading away from the pit lies the arched entrance to a room, 30 feet square, with a small exit about 5 feet wide and 7 feet high in the west wall. The room is dominated by a colossal statue of Rahotep in the far lefthand corner of the chamber. It stands upon a 4-foot plinth and holds a great iron rod in its hands. On the floor in the center of the room is a circular mosaic showing the 12 divisions of the sky, with a bronze dial in the center and a pointer topped by a bronze knob. The walls and ceiling of the room are inscribed with many forms of writing and illustration.


Statue.jpg [ 248.61 KiB | Viewed 3988 times ]



Rahotep's Tomb.PNG [ 794.69 KiB | Viewed 3988 times ]

How big is the pointer? Does it seem movable? Are there any inscriptions on the plynth?
Kherim does not move, and does not step on the circle.

Sol will move around the edge of the chamber to the small corridor to the right carefully avoiding the circle and look to see what is down there.

The pointer seems to be movable, but there are no inscriptions on the plinth. Does anbody want to accompany Sol?


Following is a more detailed description of the zodiac wheel and the statue:

Inlaid in the center of the stone floor is a circle of bronze, 20 feet in diameter. Bronze strips divide it into twelve wedges of equal size. Each wedge is fashioned of inlaid stone and tile to depict one of the houses of the ancient Khemitian zodiac.

Attached to a large bronze dial in the center of the circle is a 3-foot-long bronze pointer. Gold markings are inlaid in a field of black near the center; these are Khemitian numeral hieroglyphs, one for each wedge of the circle. The marks of twelve lie in the wedge nearest you.

Between these numerals and the depictions of the zodiac are thirty-six gold-gilt cartouches, three in each wedge. These apparently give the names of deities but none that you recognize in the slightest. Furthermore, strange male deities are depicted in brillant color at four points outside the circle. All of them hold oddly shaped devides in their hands, and each has a human body, but multiple heads and wings. These are as follows:

At 12 o’clock: Four ram heads, four black wings.
At 3: Ram and beetle heads, four gray wings.
At 6: Lion and scorpion heads, four red wings.
At 9: Serpent and hawk heads, six green wings.

And finally, there are the twelve depictions of the zodiac itself. These are as follows, starting with the one nearest to the entrance, and proceeding clockwise:

12: Straight-horned blue ram, crowned with four plumes (red, white, blue, and gold), on a pale green field.
1: Pair of great fish with pearly teeth, one coral-hued and the other silvery-gold, against a dark blue background.
2: Man with white skin, crowned by green leaves and red flowers, pouring silvery waters from two golden chalices into a deep blue background.
3: Three-horned goatfish of silver and white, upon a field of dark green.
4: Winged black centaur with scorpion tail, wearing a red crown and flanked by two gold feathers, drawing a bow; royal purple background.
5: Dark-red scorpion, with claws and stinger of jet, crawling on a pale blue ground.
6: Golden solar disc; a falcon in its center supports the beam of a balance, from which two iron pans are suspended by silvery chains; background is black.
7: Priestess with pearly-hued flesh, wearing a golden headdress and bearing a gold scepter, standing on a deep brown field.
8: Bronze-maned lion, adorned by a double crown of purple and gold, on a blue-green field.
9: Orange scarab beetle with claws and mandibles of silver, upon a field of dark gray.
10: Two humans of pinkish hue, raising hands to touch one another; the male’s headdress is of gold feathers, and the female’s is a golden sun and uraeus serpent; background is indigo.
11: Black bull with pearl blaze, ruby red hooves and horns, bearing a silver crescent and white moon-disc upon its back, upon a variegated field of light blue, light-green, and violet.

The huge statue appears to be made of red sandstone, painted and gilded to give it a lifelike appearance. It is 24 feet tall and 9 feet broad. It must weigh tens of tons! And that means it was probably carved right here.
From its sandaled feet, linen kilt (girded with leather), and gild on above to the ornamental collar and headdress (clasped by the uraeus serpent), this figure appears as a giant replica of a Khemitian of old. There are gilt rings on its fingers, armlets of gold and red on its arms, and even a knife and some strange sort of Ankh, both painted realistically and carved to appear as protruding from the girdle. The natural coppery hued sandstone is used to show the flesh, as is typical for males depicted thus. The eyes are strange, of course, for they are of some crystalline substance.

A massive 19-foot iron rod extends from the statue’s base up through the hands, which are carved so as to hold the thing. Upon the tip of the rod, which reaches to the middle of the statue’s chest, is represented some beast’s head, perhaps a camel’s. The rod was evidently slid into position when the statue was completed.

Zodiac Wheel.jpg [ 757.9 KiB | Viewed 3978 times ]

Ivid stares at the strange construction...

"Wow... So ancient. Yet so well-thought and advanced."

Then he laughs, somewhat nervously.

Kherim looks stupidly at the mystic disc.
"I can't make any sense of this. If someone brighter than me can, please shed light on what this disc means." He looks at Sol going to peek at the other door, but for some reason he doesn't move and stays put by the wedge of the ram.

Ahi accompanies Sol. Eilkahn will inspect the pointer with interest, taking her time, trying to make sense of it all.

Gaderon will step forward and while not steping onto the strange dial or touching anything suspicious he will cast from his wand to locate traps or secret doors.

While Ahi and Sol move around the circle towards the opening in the righthand wall, Gaderon activates his wand (OOC: I suppose that he wants to search for both, secret doors and traps, which means that he has to spend two charges from the wand). The wand immediately points towards the statue, indicating a secret door beneath it. It also detects a trap on the statue...

The area past the archway is dark and dusty. A narrow 5-foot wide corridor runs straight ahead, showing openings to the left and right.


Rahotep's Tomb.PNG [ 792.34 KiB | Viewed 3966 times ]

Gaderon informs the others and then from a distance that will let him examine them he will begin to examine the wheel, statue and other pieces of this puzzle. He begins to look for incongruities and other important or relevant information about the images and or scripts written into the stone here.