Ras Nsi eyes them. "I'll seek out my own proof," he says. "Unless you want a fight: leave. But I will provide you the cube as your ninth and final, when I feel satisfied."

Zerri turns to the part with a look of confused 'should we... leave? yes? no?'

"We'll leave," says Rune, "And we'll hold you to that."

She waits for Ras Nsi's acknowledgement, then turns on her heel, apparently unconcerned about Ras Nsi's guards.

Leaving!

"So, that went-- well. No cube yet, but no bloodshed either."

"And we'll be better prepared, with our full group, next time we meet him."

"Yeah-- I mean, we could probably have taken him there and then, but higher numbers are always good."

"He had guards hidden around us. We would've won, but it would've been an annoyingly hard fight."

"Ooh, hidden guards. Clever. ...and annoying.

Do we want to meet back up with the rest of the party, or head on to talk to Emes?"

"Honestly it might be best to talk to Emes without my mom there. They fight, sometimes, but Emes likes me."

"If you two get along, it seems best to send you along, then. And if we head there, we might run into the other half of the party on the way."

She nods. "Sooner started is sooner done. Let's go."

And they head! In a reasonable guess of what direction Emes is in.

She's findable, and apparently orders her people to let them through. She's in what seems to be a field command center on the outskirts of Omu, bent over a table with a map. She glances up when they arrive, but just regards them silently.

Awkward charm offensive: initiate! "You must be Emes; it's a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure is all yours. What do you want?"

"Well, we're here to propose a-- mutually beneficial pooling of resources."

"You mean the cubes."

"Well, yes. I'm assuming you're here because someone wanted Mr Lich to go down and hired you to do so? We want that too, and the more the merrier, et cetera."

"You presume a lot."

"I mean, presumably you aren't... pro-death curse?"

"Presumably."

"Acererak is my enemy." For now. "But I haven't been convinced you're my allies."

"We pretty much want no death curse, and no Mr Lich, and we're willing to help other people achieve that. I'm not sure what else you'd need to convince you--?"

"I have no confirmation you'll stay out of my way, and I have sources that indicate a large group would be deleterious in the Tomb itself, anyways." Not to mention her sister's a busy-body and would object to Emes' plans.

"More people might be a problem in the tomb, but warm bodies would be helpful in the last fight, and we're definitely more use than just warm bodies, if I do say so myself.

And depending on what you mean by being in your way, I can't see any reason why any of us would... want to? We want the death curse ended, we don't necessarily want the glory for it."

"Forces that aren't familiar with each other are prone to tripping over each other."