The City of the Specter, Atem's Palace

[metagame]

The corpse sinks to the floor
Even the brightest gold, even the sharpest blade
Becomes sand, becomes dust

Comments

[metagame]

The guards and their baboons take you to the palace gates. It takes them some finagling, but they manage to get word to a Great Priest inside. And not a moment longer, the gates open for the exchange of prisoners, a disgruntled looking man with several guards behind him waiting on the other side. If you saw a picture of Mafuyu's horrible looking puppet, he might even seem familiar to you!

"Hn... so these are the so-called conspirators? They don't look like much," the priest sneers, disgusted by your very presence, "Come along."

And into the palace you go! Congratulations on the successful (???) infiltration.

As you're lead further into the palace, you may notice along the walls are various elaborately painted murals, and thanks to Braphine's magic you are able to read the hieroglyphs also present.

The priest stops right outside what's probably the throne room, and turns to address his guards, "Keep them here until I send word and court is in session. They escape, and its your heads I'll be showing the Pharaoh instead."

Wow, that guy is CRANKY. And gone before you're able to interact with him. Sorry I am not playing a Kaiba-face for more than this post. Bite me.

> investigate the mural?

[prozaic]

[Never one to stay away from ART, Shalem is letting go of Soujuurou's wrist to immediately study and appreciate the mural. Y'all can go negotiate or explore or whatever, he's gonna look at this for a while.]

[townmusician]

[Well, since the sniddies are currently covered, the murals are the best thing to look at. What do we have here? Any cool lil guys?]

[bloodweapon]

[Wow, can't believe you'd deny us the chance to interact with a Kaiba-face. But yeah, let's check out that mural! Fray's specifically looking at the hieroglyphs to see what they say.]

[emptyself]

[ well if his death is imminent but his presence is ignored, then... is the entrance to the throne room closed? ]

[metagame]

It is! But roll a perception check, maybe Soujuurou can find the way inside.

[emptyself]

[ what can he get with a 12 🤨]

[metagame]

They sure are two large doors.

[beautifulknight]

[ ...Geez, someone rolled up on the wrong side of the Nile.

But, anyway, yes, let us investigate and see what's going on mural-wise! ]

[pointzeropercent]

[He'll talk to the guards instead of Kaiba-face, still keeping up the scared act.]

What's gonna happen to us?

[metagame]

"You don't know? The Pharaoh and the Six Priests will decide your fate with the Millennium Items. If you're truly innocent, you'll go free... And if you are conspirators against the throne, then... Pick a god and pray."

[pointzeropercent]

Has anyone been decided as innocent before?

[metagame]

The guards grimace.

[moodwrecker]

[Checking the mural, sure! There's nothing else to do while they wait.]

mural enjoyers

[metagame]

You may not recognize many of the figures present on the mural, except for various animals such as snakes and birds—some even with human heads or feet—and one person in particular: Atem. Though he's hard to recognize at first with the lack of his perfectly coiffed hair, instead the mural portrays him as he was a child, mostly bald with a single tied knot of hair customary for the time. His reddish eyes are impossible to miss.

Atem stands at attention beside another seated figure, taller and quite older, in what appears to be the palace's throne room. The seated figure is Atem's father, Pharaoh Akhnamkhanen, and he wields the Millennium Pendant Atem usually wears in his hand. Six other figures, all priests, stand in a row holding other similar-looking items.

The purpose of the mural becomes clear; it depicts a court proceeding with Pharaoh Akhnamkhanen presiding as judge. Another figure, a criminal, stands before the king. Though their crime is unclear, the punishment is not. As your eyes trail down the mural, following the sequence, you see Pharaoh Akhnamkhanen and his priests extract a shadow, a Ka—what Atem frequently calls the Persona you have all been granted—from the criminal and locks it away. And without his Ka, the criminal perishes.

Justice is in the Name of the Gods.

[townmusician]

[...Hm.]

Hey.

[He looks over at the other people looking over at the mural.]

So, like... what are we going to do if they try to execute us?

[Also...could they remove their personas from them?? That would be a horrible nerf, but...]

[bloodweapon]

I was hoping someone had a plan after dragging us into this.

[Clearly that was too much to hope for.]

[beautifulknight]

If they do not listen to reason, we engage them in honorable combat.

[ Argenti refuses to die in here...! As for if they can take away their Personas, though? uh...hm. ]

[prozaic]

[Well, that's.

That's messed-up, isn't it? Not a single bit of what Atem told him even alluded to such a thing... But then again, why would he ever tell Shalem? That bit about extracting souls-- no, wait, Ka, as he put it-- is so obviously immoral and terrible, who wouldn't want to keep it a secret?

He crosses his arms over his chest, and taps a finger on his elbow.]

Enlightening. [His characteristic softness is gone, he's more stern now.] And perhaps a valuable clue to solving this entire place and saving Atem.

[chimken]

[ Falin also tilts her head at the mural. ]

It is enlightening. I am...a little nervous that this is what he's going to do to us in this palace. It may make it hard.

Should we try to think of a strategy to combat this? Can we?

[cleansewithfire]

[ This sure is something for her to be looking at when the state of her soul is Something. ]

...Hm.

[finalmix]

[ anyway when all of that is done and dusted and they're all in the palace joshua is just going to, sit down on the floor. ]

Never doing that again.

[ he's grumbling. he will let everyone else take a look at the mural instead. ]

[privatedomicile]

Wanna know what else don't look like much...?

[Jesse grumbles, and stares at the mural, surprised he can actually read. Wait a second...]

Did Josh just sign us up to get soul sucked?

[finalmix]

I only signed us up to get us in here. That was about the limits I could do anyway.

[ vague hand gestures]

[ledbythewind]

According to that mural, the soul sucking would be what comes next.

[LIKE. Honestly. Why.]