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Howard shudders.
"Well, I ssssincerely hope that you don't experience it again. Playing around with the timeline can be a very dangerousss thing to do..."
He then grins ruefully.
"For example, that may have been a pre-dessstination paradox..."
Howard then looks at the figure calculatingly, before shrugging, and dropping his illusion.
"Hello. You don't ssseem hossstile, but I am aware that foulnessssss can lurk behind a facade of fairnessssss, essspecially in a place sssuch asss thisss. Are you friend or foe?"
"So you mean he sent us to the past? How is that even possible?" Havigan asks Howard flabbergasted.
"What is a pre-destination paradox?" Sir Amrivast asks Howard, scratching his head. "And why couldn't I rip that doppelganger apart? It deserved to die for torturing others!"
Once Howard drops his illusion, the figure stares at him irritated. "Oh. So there WAS someone here, afterall. I kept feeling disturbances in the ether, but each time I came over, I saw nothing."
"That question should be one I should ask you - if you go around invisible - it normally indicates that you have something to hide. Now why don't YOU tell me what your purposes are down here, after disturbing the etheric currents on and off for two days?" She grumbles at Howard.
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Howard raises an eyebrow.
"Well, for ssstartersss, we are on a hossstile planet, sssurrounded by creaturesss like flying polypsss, and the Herald. Taking additional precautionsss to ensssure that we ssstay alive ssseemsss like a good idea, no? Asss to why we are here? Well, we are here to ssstop Lowlsss from feeding our planet to the Unssspeakable One."
"If you are here to stop Lowlss from feeding your planet to the Unspeakable One, then you are his enemy, and therefore my friend." The feminine figure answers. "I am Queen Cassilda - what is left of the ancient city of Yithil. Long ago, my city and I were deceived by the yellow Stranger and fell under the influence of the Yellow Sign. I managed to look away in time, but my subjects were less fortunate. As they tore themselves apart, and Carcosa begin its cannibalization of Ythil, I opened my mind and absorbed all their tortured souls, so that one day they may be restored."
"Carcosa is like a vampire that feeds on civilization itself and uses the Stelae as its fangs. They transmit psychic energy through even the distant void of space. As Carcosa is fed, so in turn is the King in Yellow. (I fear that he will soon no longer be fettered here. You must break the connections, not only to save your city, but perhaps save us all."
"Carcosa will eventually reach a critical mass in its growth and Hastur will then ascend to become an Outer God, and his hunger will spell doom on all existing life on Carcosa and worlds beyond."
"You need to server the connection each of the Star Stelae have with Thrushmoor. They are at the cities of Aevan-Vhor, Bohlvarai, and Paris. The Aevan-Vhor’s stela is the least stable and Paris’s is the strongest. You may want to seek the one known as "the Musician.” He is a traveler known to visit other worlds who has enjoyed some success sidestepping some of Carcosa’s many threats. He was recently a guest of a Lord Eldarius of Aevan-Vhor."Queen Cassilda explains.
"Towards the east out of this grotto lies the Star Stelae. I cannot aid you overly much as it will incur the wrath of the Unspeakable One,who would swot me out with as much emotion as one swats an annoying fly."
"If you have any questions, ask now, for my time is brief."
"Aevan-Vhor is about 6 hours east from the grotto, populated by a scant population of the living and mostly deluded intelligent undead."
"Bohlvarai is 7 hours north away from the grotto and is an ancient, elder thing city abandoned after an experiment of theirs went wrong. The conditions there are harsh. It is freezing cold, like on a snow capped mountain."
"Paris is 8 hours south from here, a human city pulled from a planet called Earth after a failed attempt to perform the King in Yellow. It is now populated by Leng ghouls and some humans."
"As for how you destabilize the link,how did you get yourself here? Whatever means you used to get here, reverse them to untether the connection."
"The deluded dead are almost universally unaware that they're already dead. This obliviousness is the result of a powerful curse over this nexus and is more than a mere hallucination. It is a delusion, one which they return to again and again if it is temporarily shattered. When something challenges this perception, the delusion compensates.For example, ghosts attempt to consume imaginary food, see the city as it was before they died, and perceive themselves and others as normal and corporeal.As a result they think and behave as if they had a chaotic neutral alignment and are no more predisposed to violence or bad acts than normal people."
"However if attacked or provoked they will remember what they truly are."
"Most of the humans are deranged lunatics or unfortunate souls who read the King in Yellow and hide behind boarded up windows and doors just to survive. The Leng ghouls mostly don't bother them since there are corpses a plenty from those who seek death then live a tragic existence in Carcosa."
"So wait, the undead don't know they are undead?"Sir Amrivast stares at Queen Cassilda with his mouth dropping open. "And they'll mostly leave others in peace?" He slaps a paw on his forehead. "Oh gosh, what a pickle."
"I liked things better in Golarion. See undead, just kill them so they don't harm the living. But now you have this moral dilemma because they don't even know they are undead, and don't act like undead. So what are we going to do with them?" Sir Amrivast asks Howard while shrugging his shoulders.
"And Leng Ghouls again?" Sir Amrivast frowns. "I don't trust them, not a whit. Not after what they did to the Yithians and Kalathath."
"Urm Sir Amrivast...this isn't Golarion..." Havigan adds in. "I'm not sure how...committing genocide here, or wiping out entire cities is going to help us further our goals..."
"Besides the general location - we don't even know where exactly the Stelae are - which means we'll probably have to ask some locals..."
"Good luck with your quest. You'll need it. If you should manage to untether the Star Stelae, we will meet again."Queen Cassilda answers cryptically, then greater teleports away.
"Why can't things be in black and white, instead of shades of grey..."Sir Amrivast complains. "As for discretion I'll follow your lead in this."Sir Amrivast says reluctantly. "I may need to atone for what I do though...working with a lesser evil to stop a greater one."Sir Amrivast admits.
The party then continues on.
The wind-carved basalt walls part here, opening into a large, empty space. Tall, irregular towers riddled with holes like titans’ flutes jab at the sky. On the northeast wall of this canyon is a sunken relief sculpture of a massive, robed humanoid, exquisitely hewn from living rock and thirty feet tall. A passage that leads to the east reveals a wide chasm and rubble where it looks like the ground split open. A cold, dry wind blows constantly.
The party sees a nauseating tapered tower of flesh, eyes, and tendrils coils through the air, surrounded by a strange vortex of sucking wind. This one seems more muscular then the others.
Havigan charges at the flying polyp but does not manage to stab it through its hide.
Sir Amrivast predictably, pounces on the flying polyp.
Two of Sir Amrivast's claws sink into vital spots.
Havigan tries to stab the creature before it can react, but his blade does not penetrate its rubbery hide.
As Howard rips the flying polyp apart, it gives a dying scream the party finds themselves being restrained by sucking winds.
Howard and Havigan are slowed, but Sir Amrivast fights off the effects.
The path comes to an abrupt end here as a chasm splits this alien city. It is a twenty-foot-wide expanse that drops down into darkness, with no discernible way across. The chasm drops to a rubble-strewn floor 70 feet below.
A enormous, bat-like creature is shaped from utter darkness, its eyes tiny red stars in the blackest night, attracted by the scream, flies out to investigate.
It sees Howard, and casts greater dispel magic on him, but no buffs pop off.
Howard and Sir Amrivast recognize the creature as a nightwing,a type of undead. They have DR 15/good and silver and have the following spell like abilities:
Constant—detect magic, magic fang
At will—contagion, deeper darkness, unholy blight
3/day—confusion, greater dispel magic, haste, hold monster, invisibility
1/day—cone of cold, finger of death, plane shift, summon (2 greater shadows)
Sir Amrivast flies forward to engage the nightwing.
Havigan slowly airwalks forward.
"It's like my faith in Iomedae has always been a part of me. I don't know what I'd do without it."Sir Amrivast replies, troubled. "Whenever I didn't know what to do... I'd look at the paladin Code and it'd clear matters up. And now, I can't. "
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Howard nods thoughtfully.
"You have ssstriven throughout your life to date to live by the Code. It hasss given you a purpose, and a moral compassssss, but no-one sssaid that it would alwaysss be easy, or fair. Sssometimesss, you are left with an impossssssible choice. The important thing isss to realissse thisss, and do the bessst you can, with the sssituation at hand."
He then grins ruefully.
"Now, whilssst I may have made sssome (persssonally) dubiousss decisssionsss at timesss, have I ever deliberately led you, persssonally, assstray? Think on that. If you can't trussst your alliesss, whom can you trussst...?"
Howard grimaces, and casts Monstrous Physique II, before (slowly) Shifting closer to the creature.
"I trust you, Howard, and you've never deliberately led me astray, but sometimes you trust things too much. Like those two leng ghouls - you allowed them to walk free - but who knows if they were part of the group that ate up the Yithians?" Sir Amrivast asks.
"I hope I do not end up with impossible choices." Sir Amrivast sighs.
Havigan quirks Howard an eyebrow, as if to say, 'Aren't paladin codes so troublesome?'
Sir Amrivast catches the look and turns to face him. "I saw that one. "
"The vows you swear to become a paladin is not something that you take lightly. You have to truly believe in changing the world for the better, believing in the Code, before you even think about it." Sir Amrivast lectures Havigan. "Yes, as paladins we are granted endurance beyond the norm by her Grace, the power to smite evil beings, but with power comes great responsibility. That is what the code is for - so that we can never be using our powers for selfish reasons, for personal gratification. "
"The Code is not something that you can just change out of like a pair of clothes,"Sir Amrivast continues. "By taking the vows to become a paladin, you live by the Code, and it permeates every fibre of your being. The Code is your strength, and your guiding light in your fight against evil. And at the end of the day, should you fall, you know that you have lived your life as a Champion of the Light. There will be regrets, certainly, but at least you know you fought the good fight, you have finished the course and you have kept the faith.
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"But what if sssticking purely to the letter of the Code forcesss you into needlessssss conflict, which resssultsss in your death, which allowsss a greater evil to flourisssh? For example, we *could* sssimply kill all of the undead, but that would take (presssumably) a reasssonable amount of time, even if we *did* end up being sssuccessssssful, which might give Hassstur the time he needsss to consssume Golarion. Sssure, the Code would be sssatisssfied, but millionsss of innocentsss would die. Isss that fair?"
"No, it is not fair." Sir Amrivast replies. "I do not think the Code would be satisfied in that situation either. It definitely does not want Hastur consuming Golarion. The Light is not as inflexible as you think, but again it seems like there are no clean solutions to the matter. Whatever choice we make - it seems that some innocents get the short end of the stick." He sighs.
Howard manages to fight free of the sucking winds but now Sir Amrivast and Havigan are slowed.
The nightshade moves up to Sir Amrivast and attempts to planeshift him, but Sir Amrivast refuses to budge.
Sir Amrivast pounces on the creature, getting snapped by it, but the teeth bounce off his armor.
Only 3 of his claws hit the creature, and both wing buffets do no damage to the creature.
Havigan slowly labours forward.
The Nightwing bites Howard as he approaches, but doesn't get through his hide.
Howard badly wounds the nightwing with his bite, claws and tailslap.
The sucking wings continue, but Howard and Sir Amrivast manage to resist it. Havigan is still slowed.
The nightwing tries to use finger of death on Howard, but cannot maintain the concentration required.
Sir Amrivast continues clawing and wingbuffeting the creature, but does minimal damage.
Havigan moves slowly towards the creature.
Howard does manage to bite the night wing into two, and eventually the party manages to get out of the area of the sucking wind into the nightwing's actual lair.
Amid a tangled pile of skeletons, tarnished mundane equipment, and half-rotten packs, the party finds a luckblade (1 wish remaining), a cauldron of resurrection, a white kineticist’s diadem, potions of cure serious wounds (2), and a sealed container filled with rare and expensive material components worth 10,000 gp in total. Additionally, the party discovers a platinum ring worth 3,300 gp, a set of diamond earrings worth 2,290 gp, a pair of silver armbands worth 340 gp as a set, and various gemstones worth 4,900 gp and 512 pp, 7,690 gp, 34,160 sp, and 85,400 cp of coins.
The party reactivates their rings of invisibility before moving on.
The basalt walls widen to form an artificial gorge. A massive, twisted willow tree stands here. A strange azure moss grows in patches over and in between breaks in its ebony bark. Beyond the tree and in the distance to the south, the ravine rises and flattens out as the basalt structures give way to an entirely different landscape—as if this were some environmental demarcation point.
Howard recognizes the tree as an advanced dusk willow. It has 10 DR/magic, fungal spores and poisonous blood.
Fungal Spores Poison—inhaled; save Fort 29; frequency 1/round for 6 rounds; effect 1d2 Con damage and fatigued for 1 minute; cure 2 saves.
Poisonous Blood Fungal Blood or Flesh: Poison—ingested; save Fort; frequency 1/minute for 6 minutes; effect 1 Str damage, 1 Dex damage, and nauseated for 1 minute; cure 2 saves.
The tree does not appear to notice the invisible party.
Sir Amrivast mouths to Howard, "What is that tree?"
Howard bites into the horribly bitter plant and starts clawing large gnashes into its bark which oozes greenish ichor.
"This place is really screwed up. Even the plants are evil." Sir Amrivast pounces on the dusk willow as well.
Sir Amrivast's hindpaws and wings manage to damage the plant, but its tough bark defeats his front claw strikes.
Havigan charges and tries to stab the plant, but doesn't manage to get through its tough hide.
Howard rips the plant apart and finds that tangled among the roots of the of the night willow is the corpse of a creature it apparently chose not to swallow. The body is almost entirely decayed but the skeleton does not resemble any humanoid creature anyone has ever Seen. .The body wears warden of the woods armor, and a handy haversack, and carries a staff of healing (7 charges). Also on the body is a platinum pendant set with blue sapphires, worth 2,500 gp altogether. Inside the pack is a scroll of dimensional anchor and a scroll of locate creature. Also inside the pack is a nonmagical white gold scepter worth 5,140 gp, as well a cache of coins: 1,237 pp, 4,765 gp, 17,140 sp, and 19,100 cp.
Howard leads the party east of the Grotto towards Aevan Vhor. The ravine flattens out into a barren wasteland, with dead blackened husks of trees interspaced occasionally on the gray sands.
The party sees an enormous animate mass comprised of dozens of armed and armored corpses undulates forth, like a living siege tower of steel-girded flesh. Where this mangled army of broken blades and rent flesh passes, the ground is torn and soaked in blood.
Howard recognizes it as a warsworn, a massive, undead amalgams, its ever-shifting, chaotic bodies composed of countless deceased soldiers and their armor and weapons. They have DR 10/magic and bludgeoning and their slams can energy drain and they can throw scrapballs with a range of 20 feet. They can also trample.
Sir Amrivast pounces on it, managing to get 3 claws and a wingslap onto it, the rest not getting through its bony exterior.
Havigan waits for Howard to get out of the way.
Howard reduces the warsworn to a small pile of bonechips.
The party activates their rings of invisibility and travel across the baren wasteland.
The party sees a strange—almost beautiful —purple ooze thrums with powerful energy and glows with an eerie light flying around 5 ft above the ground.
Howard recognizes it as an immortal ichor. It is an intelligent mass of blood from a dead evil deity. It has DR 15/- and blindsense 60 ft.
'What is that?' Sir Amrivast mouths.
The immortal ichor lands on the ground and readies to cast a spell.
Sir Amrivast pounces on the immortal ichor!
He manages to get 3 claws onto the immortal ooze, his wing buffets beating on the ooze harmlessly.
Havigan also charges at the immortal ichor.
His dagger also does not penetrate the immortal ichors otherworldly shell.
The immortal ichors readied action of casting creeping doom takes place.
A swarm of centipedes engulf Sir Amrivast and Havigan and the surrounding region.
Havigan and Sir Amrivast are swarmed over by centipedes. Sir Amrivast is fine except being bitten, but Havigan is less fortunate and is both nauseated and poisoned by the swarm as they both get bitten.
Howard pounces on the ooze, biting and clawing at it, but his tail slap lands against its exterior ineffectively.
The ooze heals up a little , then tries to attack Sir Amrivast. It lands a lucky blow but does not hit anything vital.
Sir Amrivast feels its corruption muddle his thoughts.
Sir Amrivast flies to the back of the ooze, getting out of the swarms range, then tries to claw the immortal ichor.
The immortal ichor tries to slam him but bounces off his armor.
His claw falls short of the ooze.
Havigan, still puking his breakfast out, moves up and away from the centipede swarms.
The poison works its way through Havigan's system, causing him to feel sluggish.
Howard manages to bite, claw and rend the immortal ichor, sending sploches of purplish ichor flying all over the place. It tastes like sulphuric acid.
The immortal ichor heals a little , hovers upwards, trying to attack Howard, but Howard dodges.
Sir Amrivast continues clawing at the immortal ichor, slowly whittling it down.
Havigan, deciding since he doesn't have any weapon that can actually damage the divine ichor, stays out of the fight. He does manage to fight of the poison.
Howard manages to finally splatter the immortal ichor.
"Well...you said it was a blood of a dead evil god...so its best dealt with, no?" Sir Amrivast says.
"Says the lammasu who didn't get poisoned by biting centipedes. Or ended up puking." Havigan grumbles.
"Ooops. Ok I'll fix that." Sir Amrivast apologizes.
"And Howard, you really should get me a weapon that can do...other kinds of damage. Everything I had on me wouldn't have done anything to that creature." Havigan adds.
Sir Amrivast casts lesser restoration on Havigan.
The party continues across the barren wasteland - seeing no sign of natural life, no birds, nor animals, but only skeletal husks of trees.
Then the party hears a rumbling noise and sees three enormous, long-legged worms crawling on the ground. Writhing tentacles sprout from their throats, below a circular,toothy maw dripping with luminescent spittle. Despite having no eyes, they seem to sense the party too.
Howard realizes they are shrike worms. They have 10 DR/magic, can grab and impale with their tentacles.
Impale (Ex) If a shrike worm begins its turn with a creature grappled with its tentacles, it can attempt a grapple combat
maneuver check as a free action to try to impale the grappled creature on one of the spines on its back. If the shrike worm succeeds, the grappled creature takes 6d6+18 points of damage and is pinned. Once a creature is impaled, it loses the grappled condition and the shrike worm can use all of its tentacles without penalty. A shrike worm can have up to six Medium or smaller creatures impaled on its spikes at a time. An impaled creature can remove itself from a spine by succeeding at a combat maneuver or Escape Artist check as normal. A creature that is removed from a shrike worm spine (either by its own efforts, those of its allies, or magic) takes 3d6 points of bleed damage and is sickened for 1d4 rounds.
Sir Amrivast mouths, 'What is that?'
Havigan freezes in the air, mesmerized by their iridescent spines.
"Do you see those gems? Ruby, Topaz, Emeralds and Sapphires... I've never seen such perfect specimens before."Havigan states at the shrine worms, mesmerized.
Sir Amrivast pounces on one of the shrike worms as it attempts to slap him with a tentacle as he comes close, but bounces harmlessly off his armor.
Sir Amrivast manages to land 3 claws and both wing buffets onto green.
Seeing Sir Amrivast get attacked by one of them snaps Havigan out of his trance. "Oh my God!" Havigan gasps in horror. "Those weren't gems they're horrible worms!" He moves up and prepares to skirmish with the green one.
The red worm moves up and breathes a 30 ft cone of scintillating colours at Havigan and Sir Amrivast.
Havigan starts screaming in fear while jerking invountarily, "Arrrrghhh they're all over me!!!"
The unbordered worm takes a 5 ft step and attempts to strike Sir Amrivast with its bite and tentacles.
It lands a lucky tentacle strike on Sir Amrivast and grabs him.
The green worm takes a 5 ft step and does the same, but does not manage to hit Sir Amrivast.
Red tries to smack Howard with a tentacle as he pounces, but Howard ducks out of the way.
Howard pounces on read hitting it with his bite, claws and tailslap, wounding it badly.
Sir Amrivast, seeing that, kills off the badly injured shrike worm with a single claw, then turns to the shrike worm grappling him.
It's tough hide defeats his attacks.
"They're crawling beneath my skin!!" Havigan remains in place, viciously scratching his own skin, as if trying to deal with something underneath.
The green shrike worm tries to impale Sir Amrivast on its spines.
"Ow!" Sir Amrivast yowls in spite of himself, after he gets nastily impaled.
Then it begins to attack Sir Amrivast, managing to land a bite and a tentacle slap.
The other shrike worm tries to move up and attack Howard with a tentacle, but gets deflected off Howard's green shield.
"Whhhaat...?Oh...! They're gone...all those little shrike worms...Thank goodness." Havigan heaves a sigh of relief. "They were eating me up from the inside..."
Howard shreds Green up with his bite and claws, and it collapses to the ground dead. He whacks the remaining shrikeworm with his tail for good measure.
Sir Amrivast painfully pulls himself off the dead Shrikeworm's spine, and touches himself with a paw. He still looks rather sick, though.
Havigan, determined to make up for his fiasco, walks in and tries to stab the last shrikeworm, before stepping back. He manages to give it a decent shanking.