Chojin Patriarch
Veteran Lurker
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2019
- Messages
- 2,381
- Likes received
- 36,125
A notable difference between original and reboot, I'll note. The original Thundercats had a high-tech lair (that they built themselves in a very short time,) an armoured tank and hover boards. And of course the spaceship they used to get to Third Earth...Day 383
A rather nice pyramid ship
After so much time living in rural primitivism, the hard lines and perfectly flat surfaces of the White Pyramid are… Jarring. Not unpleasant -honestly I find myself more relaxed than I've been for a while- but a major change from what I've been seeing for the past… Year.
The cats are a good deal more on guard. Panthro aside, they've only started encountering advanced technology in the last year, and he doesn't have much more experience than they do.
It's unlikely to be incompatibility, unless the pyramid works solely on magical methods.I try reaching out to the pyramid's computer systems again, and am once more rebuffed. Not by anything in particular; there's no voice saying 'access denied' or anything like that. Just a vague sense of my probe being turned aside from its target. I suppose that I might be able to force a connection, but I'd rather not risk breaking things just yet.
Egyptian gods all, though. Fitting for mummies."Hey, look!" Wilykat points at a group of decorative statues in the next chamber. Some sort of… Ritual space, perhaps? The sarcophagus chamber should be almost directly above here. "Evil Spirit statues! It's like that place where Mumm-Ra made his sword!"
That would be a rather odd design choice if true. The room has a raised decorative pool of water at one end with a decorative fountain in the middle. The four statues face outwards from the same wall, and spreading out from there are raised beds of plants, some of which are currently fruiting.
Lion-O frowns as he takes in the statues. "Mumm-Ra had a lizard, a jackal, an ape and a vulture, not… His brow flattens. "That's a cat."
And I wonder what the cats make of the cat goddess? They aren't exactly more than funny-coloured people with strange ears, whereas the gods are, well, humans with animal heads.It is, though considerably more feline in appearance than the Thunderan cats. It-. She's in the Egyptian style of putting the head of an animal -a lioness in this case- on the body of a human. Her clothing looks… Egyptian enough that I can't tell the difference. The headdress is topped by a.. round disk whose meaning I don't understand. That design of headwear is shared with the other three: cobra-headed, ibis-headed and cow-headed. Hopefully that means that they're not more of the Ancient Spirits of Evil that Mumm-Ra deals with, but it might just mean that whoever lives here happens to prefer different patrons.
Given she's the cleric of the party, that's a reasonable question. (not exactly a healing cleric, though. More of a battle monk.)Wilykit stares up at the lioness. "She looks mean."
Tygra's looking at the others. "I don't recognise them." He turns to Cheetara. "I don't suppose Jaga taught you anything about this?"
Heh. Probably safest given the kind of things Mumm-ra worshipped.Cheetara actually glances at me for a moment before replying. "Training as a Thunderan cleric didn't involve a lot of… 'Comparative theology'."
"How closely does this resemble the ritual space Mumm-Ra used?"
Well, it can be both. The four points can be on the circumference of a circle.Lion-O drags his eyes away from the statues and looks around. "Not much. Other than the four statues. And his were in a circle."
Tygra glances aside. "Four statues makes a square."
Who knows what effect the water would have on someone?"I mean the space was a circle! And the statues were around it!"
"Then this probably isn't a ritual space. We should move on. Unless you're especially thirsty."
Heh. I kinda think they wanted to try the space water, though...Wilykit and Wilykat look at each other, then take a step towards the fountain. I put a yellow barricade in their way, then take a pair of water skins our of subspace and float them in front of the kittens. They look up at me.
"Your mother insisted."
Neither known for accepting what's offered when they could go for something more interesting.Wilykit looks away, shrugging. "Now I'm not thirsty."
Wilykat similarly turns his nose up. "Hm."
Children. And.. cats.
Probably Wadjet, a goddess of protection for rulers, the land and other deities. Though the cobra isn't her only depiction... It fits best here.Panthro looks up at me. "This place only wanted to let you in. Do you recognise these statues?"
"They look Egyptian." I point at the cow. "Hathor." The cat. "Bastet." The ibis. "Thoth. I don't recognise the snake, and I don't remember what they were gods of."
Some of the most good of the Egyptian deities. Guardians, rulership and wisdom, it seems. Definitely not a villain's patrons.
Not subtle about her status, that's for sure.I look around-. There. A door decorated with an image of the local primitives venerating a divine figure in white and gold floating above them, with the four deities leaning down to bless… Her. The disk behind the central figure is the same as that on the gods' headdresses. Which makes her the owner, I assume.
I suppose it ultimately depends on how she treated those she ruled. And given they seemed prosperous before Mumm-Ra showed up...The image suggests profound arrogance, but… Mumm-Ra literally has dealings with the 'Ancient Spirits of Evil', so it's not impossible that whoever rules here was genuinely empowered by these gods and was their vassal on this world. Not a modest woman, certainly, but perhaps not on the Mumm-Ra 'kill-a-stellar-cluster-to-get-a-neat-sword' level.
Because who wants to walk up that many stairs? Definitely a ruler's tomb, that's for sure, if the murals are anything to go by.I land in front of the door, and it opens to reveal a broad staircase leading upwards and curving back around to where I expect the sarcophagus chamber is. I fly-
"Hey! Wait up!"
-directly up the stairs, the door at the top showing an image of the White Pyramid and the white/gold woman standing behind it and gesturing at a group of primitives who are hard at work building a city. I land and it opens, revealing…
And Lion-O just looks at Tygra and goes 'See? Circle!' Once he catches up, anyway.A mummified body. Arms and legs are wrapped in preservative bandages while the torso is wrapped in a blue cloak. It -she?- is splayed out on the floor as if she was reaching for the white and gold sarcophagus that it the room's focal point. Statues of the four gods are positioned around it in along the edge of a circle drawn in the floor.
So... Put her in and see what you get, or let her rest?Scan.
Distortions all around. Powerful magic I assume. No movement or sign of life from the figure on the floor. Pretty clear where she was trying to get. I drift forwards-.
Assuming she's kindly disposed towards you for reviving her.Cheetara appears next to me, and takes in the scene. "She was their ruler."
"And that's her sarcophagus. If we want her knowledge we're going to have to wake her up."
And she'll still be weakened after revival. It wouldn't take long to work out if she's good or bad. Watch how much she rants..."How do you know she's not another Mumm-Ra?"
"I don't. This will probably be easier if she is, because she'll be focused on getting revenge."
...For now. Mumm-ra didn't exactly look like a spring chicken most of the time either.I pick up the.. remains with a construct gauntlet and lift the sarcophagus lid with another. The body has had part of its chest and face smashed in, and generally appears to be as free of moisture as Mumm-Ra's base form. I'm not sure if the organs have been removed in traditional Egyptian fashion or if their disappearance is just a product of her injuries or age but this is very clearly a corpse.
...Of course, if it doesn't revive her, then at least you've given her a proper burial."We should check with Lion-O-."
I put the body into the sarcophagus and close the lid, and Cheetara draws her staff.
Well, guess that's what he stole from it.I scan as we wait, but I'm not detecting any change in the distortions or in the sarcophagus. I lost the ability to scan the corpse once I put it into the sarcophagus, but more mundane detection in the form of hearing and sight suggests that nothing is happening.
I float closer, looking down on the sarcophagus. Ah. In the middle of the head end there's a mounting for something that appears to have been forcibly removed. The scratching there is the only damage I've seen is this entire pyramid. The mount is a circle… The exact size of the tech stone. Which is currently in Mumm-Ra's possession.
If it has space for an energy source... Well, you have a nice big one right there.
So, he's found some way to recharge without it? A Personal Lantern he's keeping hidden, or just in a Malvolio-esque 'tapping into the yellow current of the universe'?I draw the sword of Plun-Darr and consider the Soul Stone. I suppose… It makes recharging easier but it's hardly essential. And if she only needs it to rejuvenate herself then I can just take it back afterwards.
"Hey!" Lion-O runs up the last few steps and into the sarcophagus chamber. "We-."
And brace for trouble if things go poorly."I found the mummy. It looks like it requires a power stone to reanimate her. Do you intend to volunteer the War Stone?"
"Ah, no?"
"Fine." I pull the soul stone off my sword and place it in the mount, which after a brief delay reshapes itself to accommodate it. "Now let's see if that works."
Well, at least this will be a nicer meeting with Mumm-Rana than the Eighties' version, assuming she doesn't attack on sight because cat-folk. And once the initial 'let's you and him fight' tussle is passed, they can get down to the business of fighting Mumm-Ra. So their little field trip won't be a complete waste, at least.
The scratching there is the only damage I've seen in this entire pyramid.The scratching there is the only damage I've seen is this entire pyramid.