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Bation's opportune chop is off mark.
Unlucky as it is, the golem deftly dodges Ackuda's ball of web.
It doesn't matter in the end, as Bastion's subsequent chop carves it down the middle, leaving the floor littered with pieces of glass covered in mist. The chunks quickly dematerialize into the dreamscape.
From here, the glass portcullis that the golem appeared in front of looks immovable but quite fragile.
Beyond that, there are two paths to the west and east. The path to the east looks familiar to you, as it had previously transported you to the room with the gaseous demons.
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You head west down the path, a mirror of the other side of this layer, and you're suddenly transported to another layer. In front of you is a door that slowly opens as you stand before it.
As the door opens, a familiar bell tinkles overhead, letting Palhuna Murqual know that his shop has visitors once more.
The setting has changed subtly since earlier; while the shop's layout remains the same, the wares previously displayed in cases and on the walls are missing. In their places are keys of all shapes, sizes, and construction.
The back curtains begin to stir. Palhuna Murqual comes forth, smiling unctuously. Something about him doesn't seem right as his form flickers and he tends to jump from one location to another.
Murqual produces a golden key from his pocket and gestures to a door - a door that wasn't there a moment ago - pointing the key towards it.
Cirri finds a scroll in her pocket that also wasn't there a moment ago. Upon it is a clear drawing of Wulessa's face.
Murqual holds out the key towards you and makes a haughty "give me" gesture with his other hand.
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Murqual holds two flat palms up towards you, then shakes his head and waves his finger in a "no" gesture. He doesn't seem interested in your words or working with you, only his deal.
He exasperatedly throws his hands up, and he and the door that was once there disappear. The facsimile of Murqual's shop shimmers like a heat mirage, transforming into the familiar meeting room in Farseer Tower. Familiar, at least, in shape. The furnishings are different, more resembling a grandmother's cozy tea room than the stark, studious place where this journey began. Intricately brocaded sofas and poufs clutter the room, while elaborate tapestries cover almost every inch of the walls.
One of these, a floorlength cerulean silk curtain, is embroidered with a portrait of Wulessa Yuul. Her arms are folded across her chest, and a look of distaste resides upon her face.
After a moment, she turns within the hanging and speaks to you,
"When I first became Venture-Captain and took charge of Farseer Tower, this was how the place looked. The whole tower. My predecessor was more concerned with frippery and luxuries than with hard-won knowledge and diligence. If this becomes my final view of the tower, it might be the greatest indignity of all."
She shakes her head and addresses you directly,
"I think you are close to the end. I can feel the archivist pausing its work with me to face you directly. The shadows you fought before now were a reflexive response, like sweeping cobwebs from one's face. Now I think you have its full attention. I don't think it can appear directly. Its essence is split across all the archive's scrolls, but whatever form it takes will have considerably more power than the things you've fought before now."
"I am able to provide you with one spell manifested as a potion of your choice. That's all I can do while I'm in here."
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"Enlarge person might be a good idea..." Cirri ponders. "Bastion's really good at smashing stuff!" She pokes her thumb at the half-orc.
"A shame it didn't want to work with us...having an archivist like this would have been valuable." Cirri shakes her head, and pulls a wand of shield. "Well...let's do this."
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Ackuda nods regretfully and sighs. He opens up some scroll tubes and digs around in them before doing the same for his backpack. "Let us see what I might have to help us in the final battle..." he mutters. He looks up and grins. "Not much." The mad Witch then draws out his augur bones and tumbles them onto the floor. He chuckles. "Chaos will be with us, I think. Eheheheheheheh..."
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The hanging of Wulessa opens like a door, opening back to the corridor you had been traveling down before being transported to Murqual's shop. The passage opens upon a tunnel to oblivion. The smooth glass walls stretch fifty or sixty feet, ending abruptly in a maw open to the void.
The crystalline structure floating in the void's heart somehow hovers mere feet away from the tunnel's end. From this close, it resembles a torus of jagged crystals, slowly revolving around a core of flashing light and mist.
The creature strides across the void and stops at the end of the hallway. You see a copy of yourself where the structure is, except it possesses four arms, and it's head is a crystalline torus hovering above the shoulders.
It mocks you by summoning images on the wall of your family and friends looking disappointed, shaking their heads, and sighing in frustration, then holds its spear out, ready to attack.
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The Archivist is a four legged unfettered eidolon. It resists cold and has the evasion defensive ability. SR 11 vs arcane, SR 10 vs divine. The eidolon's abilities reflect and counter the party's abilities through its custom evolution called reflection. It appears to hold a longspear but can also use its claws to attack.
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Ackuda does produce one scroll to use, and casts a third Enlarge Person on Bastion. "Go get him, big guy." he says with a grin. He fills the others in on what he knows about the creature, then says, "Oh yes. It can counter and reflect our abilities. I'm not sure what that means, but no sense not experimenting..." He turns to it and points, closing his right eye and focussing his will on it, an unnerving cackle rising from his chest.
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Cirri flips through her book, arriving at one of her favorite spells. She doesn't like that longspear, though.
She steps 5 feet forward and engages a mix of magic and offense.
Instead of transforming into a bird or elf or half-orc, Cirri feels the magic fade away without effect. "Awwww."
She takes a swing with her quarterstaff.
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The Archivist is able to avert its gaze as Inkita attempts to get into its mind.
Because of Inkita's hex, Bastion is able to get through The Archivist's defenses, and chops at its four limbs with his weapon. Bright rays of light emerge from the eidolon's body as the half-orc slices and dices it.
Cirri's spell fizzles, but she manages to pummel the eidolon on its head with her staff.
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The Archivist is overcome with horrible luck as Ackuda cackles and hexes it.
It appears to power up somehow, then holds its spear up at Bastion in an intimidating display and strikes at the paladin, finishing its attack with two punches from its other limbs.
Ackuda's hex is just too effective to allow the Archivist to land any hits on Bastion at all.
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The Archivist swings at Cirri as she tumbles by, but fails to have its spear land. Cirri manages another thwomp on The Archivist's head with her staff.
With the help of Inkita's hex and distraction, Bastion's chop carves a deep gash across the eidolon's body, splattering the ground in glass and mist. It wavers back and forth on its four legs but it fights on!
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Goupil falls down on a knee.
"No!" he cries with a touch of despair in his voice. "When this torture gonna end?"
His left hand springs into the direction of the eidelon like he is showing something in his empty palm.
"Look!"he exclaims."Even with the mighty blows of our warriors, the monster is still up! "
Tears appear on Goupil's eye.
"Oh goodess of art! " he sobs. "Why do you torment us like that! We only wish to protect those we love. What can be wrong from this? "
-Posted with Wayfinder
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In a strange twist of luck, the Archivist is able to resist the bulk Ackuda's latest hex, but still finds itself worse off for attacking for the short time ahead as its grip on its weapon seems to loosen.
Seeing itself surrounded, the eidolon steps next to Cirri and has at her with a full attack.
With a barrage of hexes unleashed upon it, The Archivist has little hope of landing a single hit on the magus. Cirri easily dodges left and right as each strike and punch is thrown her way.
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Inkita attempts to distract the eidolon with her spear but it's not fooled at all. Regardless, Bastion unleashes another powerful chop with his gandasa, cleaving two of its legs off in a flash of light and metal. Cirri follows it up with two magical strikes of her staff, each one freezing and knocking off its other legs. Its two-armed crystalline center floats in the air for a moment before falling to the ground and shattering into a pile of crystalline dust covered by mist. The sound is deafening.
Before long, the remnants of The Archivist begin to bend and fold with the light, and you're surrounded by a bright hazy aura, obscuring the entire mindscape. All that you hear is Wulessa's voice in the distance, and when your vision returns to normal, you notice a single wooden door at the end of the void.
Peeking through a crack in the door, you catch a glimpse of the seance circle back in the material world.
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Cirri hops back and forth, striking the archivist twice quickly. "Woo! What a thrill." The sound of the archivist crashing into the floor causes her to wince and cover her ears.
"I thought it would be an observer. But instead, the archivist was a jailer..." Cirri shakes her head.
Cirri approaches the door and looks through some of its worn boards. "Huh...yeah. It's time to get out of here. Who's coming with me?"
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Cirri leads the group back through the door. Blinding light is all that's on the other side. Your thoughts shift and waver, and suddenly, you feel the floor beneath you pressing upwards and the smell of candle wax in your nose. You notice that your hands are holding other hands. You're back in Farseer Tower, still clasping hands with Wulessa in the seance circle.
She slowly opens her eyes and lets out a huge sigh. She releases her grip from yours and relaxes.
"Whew... That was close. I am so sorry for misjudging the Archive." She picks up the Monadistic Archive and places it back in the chest from whence it came. "I need to study this a lot more closely before ever attempting something like that again, especially researching the proper safeguards."
"Thank you so much for your services, Pathfinders. And for my... Release." She shudders, but smiles at you as she offers her sincerest thanks. "I managed to glean an understanding of The Archivist's nature while I was being... transcribed, so at least I have that."
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"The Archivist was a material construct of the aeon. Once the aeon realized conversation and deal making was off the table, it created an eidolon to stop you by force." Wulessa glances at each of you as she speaks and grins. "Little did it know it was dealing with such skilled and powerful Pathfinders."
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Wulessa nods. "Let this be a lesson to not go in so blindly when it comes to magical artifacts. My understanding of the archive's inner workings was clearly incomplete. At least the Society now has the chest in its possession, and we can study its lore and nature as needed." She shuts the lid on the chest and smiles at you. "It seems I won't need a full report this time, given that I saw the events unfold with my own ... Mind. Thank you again for your service to the Society."