Davo offers the party hope against the escaped creature and starts a scary song which he hopes will frighten the creature away. Chun Hei prepares himself and strides boldly into the mist.
Timber rushes into the room, sniffing out the creature along the back wall while everyone else hesitates, unsure how to pursue the enemy in this environment.
Bishop knows that there is a device in the back of the room that seems broken and is spewing gas and giving off electrical sparks; Davo noticed this earlier but did not take (or really have) the time to fix it before the qlippoth started biting its way free.
With Chun Hei facing it, the disgusting extraplanar spider creature attacks the nagaji!
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Chun Hei takes quite a beating but does not begin to stink up the place.
Chun Hei speaks, "You'll not defeat me foul spider."
Chun Hei shouts back, "I'm working on it back here, but it hits like a brick shiit house! If you need to me backup just say the word."
Chun Hei will then lay on hands herself.
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Hearing Chun Hei is engaged in a difficult battle, Thorgan advances cautiously through the smoke, searching for whatever foul creature waits.
"Ahl'right, make way... dwarf comin' through."
for
Thorgan Status:
HP: 147/147
AC Normally: 22 (T 12 | FF 20)
(can add: +3 when judgement of AC is up, +6 vs crits)
Spells Remaining Today
4th - 3/4
3rd - 3/5
2nd - 5/6
1st - 6/6
Spells/Effects Active:
Greater Magic Weapon +3
Heroism (ext), Keen Edge (ext), Freedom Of Movement, Perceive Cues
Abilities:
Bane Left: 12/12
Judgement Left: 3/4
Judgement Surge Left: 1/1
Dispelling Attack: 1/1
Swaying Word: 1/1
Winged Boots: 3/3
Possible Modifiers:
Power Attack -3/+9 YES
Judgement of Justice +3/+0 YES
Judgement of Destruction +0/+3 YES
Heroism +2/+0 YES
Outflank +4/+0
Greater Magic Weapon (+3): +2/+2 YES
Holy +0/+2d6
Greater Bane +2/+4d6
Base Attack (BAB +9 Str +4 Weapon +1 Power -3): +11/+6
Base Damage (Str +6 Weapon +1 Power +9): +16
Buffed Attack (+2 Hero +3 GMW +3 Judge): +19/+14
Buffed Damage (+2 GMW +3 Judge): +21
Chun Hei, although her blade is not wholly effective against the chaotic monster, still manages to wound it quite a bit. Thorgan moves and swings but has less success. The rest of the party moves about and prepares for something more dramatic.
---
There is a deep gargling laugh from the extraplanar spider as Chun Hei taunts it. She hears a deep scratching voice in her head as it attacks again:
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Tamerius finishs his convocation and a large Air Elemental appears next to him.
Mighty Elemental, disperse this fog to let us see what's behind.
He commands to the elemental.
once done he calls for Hell to help.
May Asmodeus help his servant to fight Chaos. I call Hell's guardians to me !
After his call, in a *puf* of red sulfuric smoke two three headed hounds appears in each side of the creature and begin to bite it !
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Thorgan hesitates, glancing over his shoulder despite only being able to make out rough shapes through the fog.
Any chance th' fog's bein' fixed up?"
He hesitates only long enough for a reply before turning his attention back towards the monster trying to eat Chun.
for
for
Thorgan Status:
HP: 147/147
AC Normally: 22 (T 12 | FF 20)
(can add: +3 when judgement of AC is up, +6 vs crits)
Spells Remaining Today
4th - 3/4
3rd - 3/5
2nd - 5/6
1st - 6/6
Spells/Effects Active:
Greater Magic Weapon +3
Heroism (ext), Keen Edge (ext), Freedom Of Movement, Perceive Cues
Abilities:
Bane Left: 12/12
Judgement Left: 3/4
Judgement Surge Left: 1/1
Dispelling Attack: 1/1
Swaying Word: 1/1
Winged Boots: 3/3
Possible Modifiers:
Power Attack -3/+9 YES
Judgement of Justice +3/+0 YES
Judgement of Destruction +0/+3 YES
Heroism +2/+0 YES
Outflank +4/+0
Greater Magic Weapon (+3): +2/+2 YES
Holy +0/+2d6
Greater Bane +2/+4d6 YES
Base Attack (BAB +9 Str +4 Weapon +1 Power -3): +11/+6
Base Damage (Str +6 Weapon +1 Power +9): +16
Buffed Attack (+2 Hero +3 GMW +3 Judge +2 Bane): +21/+16
Buffed Damage (+2 GMW +3 Judge): +21
Tamerius' aerial ally starts to clear the room of the impenetrable fog as the combined martial might of the rest of the party finish off the dreadful monster!
Davo is then able to take his time shutting down the device so that no more fog spews into the room.
"I tried to warn you," the roper says in Aklo as it shakes its own bonds. "Now can you let me out? I need to get out of here."
Chun Hei heals and the roper gives a quiet thanks as it starts to make its slow way out of the laboratory, seeking shelter in some other dark place.
Davo hears nothing but alarms to the east and finds no traps on the door.
Thick glass columns filled with brackish liquid and masses of stringy flesh occupy numerous niches along this hall. At the end of the dim hall, books and sheaves of loose paper cram a wall of shelves.
In addition to the failed experiments, the room also holds notes, case files, reports, lab journals, workbooks, schedules, scribbles, and the like—hundreds of thousands of pages of text, in both the finest and sloppiest handwriting imaginable.
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Thorgan smacks himself in the head with a mailed fist.
"Ach, this is th' most headache inducin' room ah've come across yet!"
Frowning at the sight of the stringy flesh, he takes a couple steps alongside Chun Hei and eyes the room's contents.
"Anyone 'ere come along with Kreighton Shaine's perusal magics?"
It seems that your first step in uncovering the secrets within this room is to understand the facility records, which might reveal the history of experimentation performed here.
During the research you find several passages in the Dark Folk language but luckily Nikolai is around for translations.
The majority of the files here document research conducted by or under the direction of one Professor Kramolag. The earliest work focuses on aquatic creatures, but increasingly turns to include subterranean flora. The objective ranges from simple documentation to practical uses of rare natural distillations. Supplementary notes allude to Kramolag conducting and later funding expeditions into the Darklands. One refers to an encounter with dark creepers and their dark stalker leader, people who refer to themselves as the caligni. An anthropological diversion documents at least 30 communities of caligni living in the Darklands beneath Nidal, along with much of their biologically distinct caste system, culture, and religion.
One of Kramolag’s agents reports having lived among the caligni—an arrangement a settlement of dark creepers supported but that was opposed by the leaders of the community’s faith. Nikolai, who can read Dark Folk, also learns that the caligni priests are often referred to as dark called, and they do not worship conventional deities of darkness but rather a strange god creature that lives among them.
Kramolag, with the support of well-funded backers, continues to finance raids on caligni communities. At several of the sites, her agents have captured creatures called owbs, which are enigmatic natives of the Shadow Plane that exert a strange influence over the caligni. Professor Kramolag redirected her resources toward understanding owbs and their inexplicable powers. Her research slowed to a crawl as she paid a favor to someone named Suliji Peshar, but her work soon resumed.
Kramolag’s exhaustive study of the owbs’ unique physiologies, their fundamental connection to the Plane of Shadow, and bizarre psychologies yielded encouraging results. Those who can read Dark Folk also learn that Kramolag posited that owbs are “splinter deities,” fragments of one or more mysterious, otherworldly consciousnesses that could be pieced back together like a broken vase. She suspected that by drawing upon her distant funders’ deep pockets, she might gather the resources to succeed.
In order to properly experiment on the owbs, Kramolag invested in new equipment for her private laboratory, which she refers to as the “god lab.” A packet of dense and meticulously written notes detail complex experiments involved in the small, seemingly unimportant room in the facility’s southeast corner. Written in a different hand are the following instructions: “To access the god lab, remember that when in the ethereal southeast, the lurker at the threshold shall be mine.” You also recover a scroll of see invisibility and a scroll of true seeing.
Nikolai also finds a report in the Dark Folk language that says that the owbs seemed knowledgeable but resented their captivity. They were able to listen to conversations and sometimes even conversed with researchers who dared to express their dislike of Kramolag and her strategies. He learns that the dark columns here contain the owb experiments, and it is possible to learn unrecorded secrets from them as if they were a second library.
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Nikolai whistles.
"Zey vere certainly investigating some razer esoteric stuff here. I vonder why zis Kramolag called her facility ze God Lab...?"
He then moves over to one of the columns, and addresses it formally.
"Greetings. I am sorry to here zat you have been kept here against your vill by zis Kramolag. Believe me, ve are nozing to do vith her. Vhat can you tell us about vhat has been happening here?"
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Thorgan shifts a bit as details of the caligni, owbs and "God Lab" are relayed by Nikolai. Clearly he's not nervous, but rather anxious.
"Ye know, ah've been sent t' more tha' mah fair share o' strange things, but ne'er anything as bizarre as piecin' together some sort o' dark lord..."
Sighing, he resigns himself to exploring this area of the lab, knowing no doubt they'll be expected to return whatever they find there.
"Ahl'right, let's proceed n' investigate. What d' ye make o' th' ethereal... southeast was it? Will'ah need t' be planes walkin' t' visit th' place?"
Nikolai takes the lead on the next part of the investigation, which seems to involve speaking directly with the owbs rather than sorting through piles of documents. Each owb appears to be the upper halves of two humanoid bodies made of tattered ebon matter and conjoined at the waist, back or head, clearly some foul experiment to conjoin them. A
The owbs appear to be comatose, yet something in Nikolai's questions seems to amuse them and one slowly begins to answer the sorcerer. "Kramolag? She is the Remaker in Pain to us. We listed as she dictated the notes in her 'God Lab' and it was clear to us that she sought to distill the divine essence within each one of us to create something greater and whole."
There is a long pause, one which only eternally meditating beings might consider appropriate during such a conversation, and then another conjoined owb continues, "The Remaker in Pain claimed success in her research by distilling several of our kind into a vital but volatile essence brimming with potential. Her curiosity was not sated, however, and she repeated the process."
"She voiced frustration about someone named Suliji Peshar and corresponded several times with someone named Doctor Mais."
Nikolai is then overcome with a strange sensation...
However, something-or many somethings-seems to take notice that you have gained this knowledge and you hear a voice reverberate in your head: "Do you accept?"
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"Professor Kramolag... Doctor Mais... ah, yes, now it's coming back to me. I must say the esoteric traditions section of the Pathfinder Library at the Grand Lodge has so many wonderful agent reports. I do recall reading of "Doctor" Mais before, mentioned in relation to the organization known as Conference Z; as well as Professor Kramolag."
"The combination of reagents being collected here is fascinating. Sun orchid elixirs, divine essence of shadow beings. What could possibly be the endgame here? What next, the flesh of the Spawn of Rovagug?"
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Nikolai shrugs.
"Vell, ze Elixir extends life; I dare say zat divine essence vould do ze same - I would guess zat immortality vould be a reasonable guess..."
His voice trails off, as his body is wracked by a sudden spasm.
Then, shaking himself from his torpor, his speaks, urgently.
"Zere is somezing more at vork here... I can't put it into vords, precisely; it may be a concept zat exists beyond ze realms of language... but in ze process, I felt a presence... many presences... and zey are avare of us!"