The walls and ceiling of this chamber bulge outward, continuing the grotesque architectural style of the antechamber, as if you were standing in the leviathan’s stomach. Queer, glowing nodules protrude from the walls at seemingly random intervals, bathing the room in their sickly green glow. A tall, free-standing, almost organic-looking archway carved from a strange, glowing blue-green stone stands atop a low dais in a wide alcove at the far end of the chamber. The center of the arch is empty, revealing the wall behind it, but the space occasionally flickers with curtains of starry darkness, as if somewhere else lies just beyond the portal. A susurrus of ghostly whispers seem to issue from the gate, their language and meaning unclear, but fraught with a sense of wrongness.
A dark-skinned young woman stands staring with rapt attention at the stone cylinder mounted on the wall. With the exception of the tentacles burrowing into her flesh at her hips, neck, and ribs, she would be quite attractive. The whole chamber thrums with power.
A single animated dead guardsman stands at attention.
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Stepping back a pace from the curtain, Terrill raises his sword and his eyes, running his hand along the stone blade and calling on Desna's blessing.
Terrill charges through the curtain, attacking the undead guardian, in the hope that they can somehow still save Imrizade from whatever strange control she is under.
Terrill's blade opens a massive hole in the undead guard's torso - wound that wound have easily killed a living man - but it still stands.
Moving further into the room, Linark notes that the tendrils burrowing into the Blakros girl appear to be separate living creatures, not part of her.
The girl reels from Bo’alo’s blast of darkness. In the next few moments the party easily dispatches the zombie (1 hp left) and subdues her.
The portal hums with some kind of otherworldly energy.
The tentacles rooted in Imrizade’s flesh seem to be agitated and switch sporadically.
Linark’s blade makes quick work of the rubbery ropes of flesh. Imrizade collapses to the ground and though her eyes remain shut, she speaks with a sinister voice that is very clearly not her own.
”The girl is mine. This world is mine. Flee now or suffer my terrible wrath.”
The canister mounted on the wall vibrates with obvious malevolence.
Prying at the cylinder produces no results - it seems to be held in place by some sort of powerful force - but smashing it proves effective. As Terrill's blade hits, it bursts open like an egg spraying fine white dust into the air.
Imrizade suddenly becomes still and a moment later, the fragments of the ancient canister slide from the wall.
With the canister's destruction, the portal fades away leaving a plain unadorned wall.
Imrizade appears to be breathing normally.
Imrizade moans in pain.
"I want... to go home..."
The rest of the museum is quiet and noticeably more 'at peace'.
Arriving back at the entrance, Nigel's eyes go wide at the sight of the Blackros daughter safe and relatively sound.
"You did it!" he says. "Thank you!"
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"Our pleasure sir. The society is happy to help you. She is very weak, but will surely recover. Unfortunately the guards are all dead, and we had to put some things down. Would you care for a tour in the place? There are some fungus you should be aware of."
When Imrizade awakes I would like to know what happened to her.
A couple days later at one of the Blackros estates in Absalom, the party is allowed to visit Imrizade just after she's finished another check up by the finest physicians and healers money can buy. She greets the party warmly and welcomes you all to sit.
"That thing I recovered - the cylinder - it contained the brain of a long dead sorcerer who lived thousands of years ago. I knew this when I dug it up. What I didn't know was that he was somehow alive in there."
As the dark-skinned beauty speaks her brow furrows. It seems recalling the details is difficult.
"Somehow, his consciousness was able to overpower my own and he used my body to activate that portal that was in museum's basement. I think he built that place a long time ago, long before someone came along and built the structure we're using as a museum on top of it. That portal lead someplace terrible. Some of his memories still drift across my thoughts, he called it 'The Dark Tapestry'. You did a great thing by stopping him."
"Even better you did it without killing me!" she adds with a laugh.
***
Venture Captain Hestram is initially upset that you failed to recover the canister but that disappointment fades as praise and thanks are piled on him and the Society from the powerful Blackros matriarchs for seeing their daughter home safely. Begrudgingly, he calls the party into his office again to make amends and congratulate you all on a job well done.