Hassari blasts Garam and the Bird, much to his dismay. He feels he has fulfilled his task, and is no longer under control.
The bird looks hurt.
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Aru then lays in a sneak shot into the bird. The bird doesn't look good.
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Unwilling to take its one action to command the chain, it continues on Golsan.
It flails around a little.
The priest snears at the witch no being taken out. He casts a spell at Garam.
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- Bolded Characters May Post Their Turn
White Mutated Serpentfolk (dead) - Blind (Persistant), Other Mystery Spells?
Hassari (-9) - Mage Armor
Aru (-2)
Blue Serpentfolk (-36) - Chain, Staggered, Other Mystery Spells?
Garam (-36) - Mirror Image (2), Delay Poison, Mage Armour, Overland Flight, See Invisibility, Heroism, Investigative Mind, Freedom of Movement
Orange Mutated Serpentfolk (dead) - Mirror Image (1), Other Mystery Spells?
Yellow Mutated Serpentfolk (-59) - Mirror Image (4), Other Mystery Spells?
Red Outsider (-116) - Blind (Persistent), Mystery Spells?
Lightfoot Raven (-12) - Fly, Hype, Mage Armor
Golsan (-13) - Freedom of Movement, Protection From Evil
Garam hits the bird with a snowball. It's all it needs to flop to the ground.
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- Bolded Characters May Post Their Turn
Hassari (-9) - Mage Armor
Aru (-2)
Blue Serpentfolk (-36) - Chain, Staggered, Other Mystery Spells?
Garam (-25) - Mirror Image (2), Delay Poison, Mage Armour, Overland Flight, See Invisibility, Heroism, Investigative Mind, Freedom of Movement
Lightfoot Raven (-12) - Fly, Hype, Mage Armor[/s]
Golsan (-13) - Freedom of Movement, Protection From Evil
[s]Red Outsider (-138) - Blind (Persistent), Mystery Spells?
Golsan moves up to get better position. The Serpentfolk attacks while he goes around.
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Lightfoot Raven stabs at the priest, hitting hard and disabling it. It still looks like it has some fight left.
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- Bolded Characters May Post Their Turn
Hassari (-9) - Mage Armor
Aru (-2)
Blue Serpentfolk (-72) - Chain, Hampered, Staggered, Other Mystery Spells?
Garam (-25) - Mirror Image (2), Delay Poison, Mage Armour, Overland Flight, See Invisibility, Heroism, Investigative Mind, Freedom of Movement
Lightfoot Raven (-12) - Fly, Hype, Mage Armor[/s]
Golsan (-17) - Freedom of Movement, Protection From Evil
Hassari tries to attack the priest, but the spell proves ineffective.
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Aru readies for casting.
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He casts a spell. Aru hits him with an arrow.
He successfully casts an Inflict Serious Wounds and tries to touch Golsan.
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Hassari (-9) - Mage Armor
Aru (-2)
Garam (-25) - Mirror Image (2), Delay Poison, Mage Armour, Overland Flight, See Invisibility, Heroism, Investigative Mind, Freedom of Movement
Lightfoot Raven (-12) - Fly, Hype, Mage Armor[/s]
Golsan (-17) - Freedom of Movement, Protection From Evil -
You study the remains of the mutated Serpentfolk and the more put-together priest. You find out that Serpentfolk come in two castes, the "Purecaster" (noble) and the "Degenerate", (aapoph, or "Chaos made Flesh"). This is not a bloodline, as Two Purecaster parents can hatch Degenerate offspring, and vice versa. Purecaster Serpentfolk are taller, smarter, elegant, more capable of higher learning, and have brighter and colored scales, while Degenerates tend to be shorter, tougher, brutish, and mutated, sometimes have extra (or less) limbs or other such qualities.
- amulet of natural armor +1 (x3)
- ring of protection +1 (x3)
An Azlanti man walks out of one of the corners of the room. He is wearing chain mail and has some medals of honor adorned to him. He has tired eyes and an expression of concern.
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After about the third minute of this man droning on, Golsan whispers over the message spell, "Does anybody know what this guy is saying?"
Golsan will walk up to the general and point at his medals, pantomiming being impressed. He'll then flex, draw his sword, and begin demonstrating a training regimen he learned at the barracks.
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A crack of thunder and the tang of ozone cut through the complex. The figures before you, and indeed the walls, the floor, even the air itself seem to crumble and fall away like glittering sands through an hourglass. Unfamiliar figures—their heavy, hooded robes embroidered with the symbol of a winged eye—stand about the field, their hands crackling with lightning. Dozens of Pathfinder spellcasters lie dead at their feet. A gargantuan image of a woman appears and shimmers like a desert mirage. She has a regal bearing, but her features are lined as if by years of endless duty.
”Arrogant Pathfinders! Your ridiculous Society spends fortunes and lives to reassemble a treasure that turns time itself like the pages of a book—a key that could undo all the misery and suffering our world now knows—and you use it for this? Poking at snakes and playing at heroism? Golarion knew a true hero once! Our Lord Aroden—who raised the Starstone from the sea and imprisoned the undead tyrant Tar-Baphon—could already walk the world again were it not for your petty games and delays. Every death in your hours of playtime now hangs as a weight around your collective necks, you spoiled children.
“I am Lady Arodeth, and on behalf of the Harbingers of Fate and the God of Mankind himself, I have seized your Sky Key. Its defenders threw their lives away trying to stop compassion and destiny from returning to this world. I advise you not to throw your own lives away attempting to do the same.
“Behold the return of the Last Azlanti! Behold Aroden!”
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Recognising the Azlanti language Garam introduces the man to his companions, this is Krahnaliara Lac Suhn, a general of the Azlant, it seems we may be in the midst of some sort of rebellion
Turning to the Genral he says, in Azlanti, greetings, we are travellers from very far away, can we help you?
Garam also wands himself a few times with a cure moderate wand.
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Aru, stowing her bow away, walks over to the general, recognizing his speech in both Elven and Draconic.
She speaks in Draconic to the general, trying to come off open and polite. "We thank you for your service, sir, but it appears we are on the same mission. Is there anything you can tell us about the Azlanti culture? I think it may help us and the task at hand."
The robed Heralds begin casting, and arcs of lightning leap to the rods made of skymetal. A deep thrum from somewhere below reverberates with chest-tightening force, then the earth begins to heave and quake. Emerald green miasma lashes out, snaking back along the arcs of arcane lightning and infecting hooded casters throughout the crowd. Your body—or perhaps the whole world—crumbles to dust and you hear a distant scream of “She’s overloaded it!”
And just as swiftly, the world is whole again, but in place of a flower-speckled field stands the sprawling marketplace of a small city. Ivory-white buildings and columns feature reliefs and endless statuary all depicting physically perfect human specimens in poses of glory over serpentfolk. A chiton-clad crowd of gawkers stares, both at you and at the roiling dome of green light that encompasses nearly a square mile of territory, beyond which this strange city stretches on.
Robed Heralds panic as they sprint beyond the edges of the glistening dome, only to collapse just beyond its border. There they scream and writhe, their bones cracking as flesh and sinew age to dust in mere moments. Meanwhile, those unfortunates consumed by the green miasma scream and stagger, their features warping and bloating as if the power seeking refuge within them were too big for mere flesh to contain.
And high overhead, a looming stone glows with a light visible even in the growing light of dawn.
(Took 2 minutes to study the Mutated Serpentfolk)
Since First Fight with Statues: 1 hour 5 minutes.
Since Leaving First Temple Area: 1 hour.
Since Starting Studying the Columns: 58 minutes.
Since Leaving the Temple Plaza: 38 minutes.
Since Battle with Snake & Serpentfolk: 32 minutes.
Since Leaving Shrine: 30 minutes.
Since Finding the Tablet: 28 minutes.
Since Leaving Temple Interior: 23 minutes.
Since Battle with Troglodytes: 13 minutes.
Since Leaving Slave Pens: 11 minutes.
Since Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey: 2 minutes.
There is a growing Azlanti crowd around your party, as they look on your with curiosity, and some with anger. They especially look upon Golsam and Garam with unease, and are skeptical to Hassari.
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As the world begins fading, Raven scoots closer to Golsan.
"I think... there was something... in that last dose. What's going on?"
"Hey! It's the Starstone! Maybe we can all become Gods!" Raven hops excitedly before noticing Golsan's reaction to the crowd.
"Oh, got it..." Raven says and flourishes his agile spear.
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Via message, in Taldane err, everyone, I think we are in Azlant just before Earthfall, this seems like a really bad place to be, we only have a couple of hours before impact
Stepping forward and floating upwards so he can look down on the crowd Garam addresses them in perfectly accented Azlanti adopting his most reassuring voice. Everyone please be calm, all with be well, the authorities are dealing with the current situation, please return to your homes and await the all clear signal, once again, everything is under control, all will be well
Between the calming of the crowd by Garam and the imminent threat posed by Golsan, Hassari, and Lightfoot Raven, the crowd backs off from you.
A familiar figure limps out from between two buildings. The weight of years seems to hang over Kreighton Shaine, the Pathfinder Society’s illustrious Master of Scrolls, his face more deeply lined than it was this morning.
“My apologies for not reaching you more quickly, but I have been quite distracted,” he pants. To the left and right across the ancient marketplace, other versions of Kreighton Shaine are speaking to other, equally bewildered Pathfinders. “It seems redundant to say so at this point, but the Harbingers of Fate have seized control of the Sky Key, and we all appear to be trapped in what the Isle of Kortos used to be eons ago. The same sort of temporal bubble that brought the serpentfolk city of Sessegishoss to us now keeps our forces pinned down here.
“We are attempting to uncover the Sky Key Vault now. While the vault itself seems to be here in this time period, our entrance to it wasn’t projected back, and we’ve lost our bearings relative to its location in this new landscape. What’s more, I worry simply reclaiming the Sky Key will not be enough to allow our escape— that green surge we all witnessed seems to have invested many of the Harbingers with enough of the Sky Key’s energy to maintain our chronological exile.”
Shaine looks worriedly up at the sky. “We will need to work together to uncover the vault and cut the tethers that anchor this time period to the Harbingers’ spellcasters. We must do both so we can use the Sky Key to escape.” A crack of thunder sounds overhead as the dome of green light twists and arcs down to the surface with a thunderous crash, and strange, hairy beasts stride where it struck. “And we would be wise to move quickly.”
He takes out a Potion of Cure Serious Wounds and hands one to EACH of you.
"Now, do you have any questions?"
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Well, this is a right fine mess says Garam as he accepts the potion.
So, how do we cut these tethers and what the hell has happened to you? Also you realise we only have a couple of hours before we are all obliterated?
As he speaks he idly flicks through his scroll collection hoping to find something which might get him out of here...and fails to do so.
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Aru looks around at what has happened and accepts the potion with a weird look on her face.
"Well, this is awesome. What ARE we going to do? Do we just run in all 'willy nilly' or do we make a plan? "
She too looks through a separate bag of hers, sighing as she finds nothing suitable for the situation.
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"Oy, I have a coupla questions!
"What the bloody hell happened? Who is this 'Harbgingers of Fate' cult?
"This 'best kept secret' of ours was clearly not kept very well. Now I suppose it falls to us to undo it. Tell me the nature of these 'tethers'. Surely it won't be as simple as applying proper force and..." he grips the pommel of his sword "...leverage?"
"How do we stop the tethers? That’s the lovely part: I’m not completely sure. Advanced magical theory was always more Aram’s bag. But then, it does seem to be a sort of magic, so anything you have to shut down magical effects should do the trick. And if it is a magical effect, it will certainly expire upon their deaths—tragic, certainly, but better than all of us dying here. Then again, these Harbinger spellcasters must be of some relative skill based on the spells they performed. You may be able to coax them into dismissing the effects themselves, though their temporal investitures seem to have made them a bit… erratic."
Keighten Shaine seems to not totally understand the question. "Oh, you mean the multiple copies of me? It’s part of a rather questionable ritual I uncovered and performed in the Grand Lodge several years ago. It allows me to repeat a recent period in time so long as I do so close to Absalom. The eldritch power appears to function across time, but I have thus far been unable to extend its benefits to anyone else. Certainly hope there are no unspeakable consequences for it…"
Shaine gives a dismissive hand gesture, "Yes, yes, I realize we will be obliterated soon, which is why we need to act!"
"We need to find the vault, and we need to stop the tethers! You must choose which is more important, but other Pathfinders are already doing their part!"
"I believe that this Harbingers of Fate cult overloaded the Sky Key and created temporal disturbances... or something. Of course, that's just wild speculation and I don't know that for sure. What I do know is that it seems like we are stuck here until we fix the problem! I don't know much the cult itself other than they worship Aroden."
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Golsan shifts on his feet. "I'm not familiar with Kortos from this time. In fact, I don't know anything of this place at all! I'd be useless searching. But if that's what's wanted, I'll guard the brains over there."
"That said, if slaughtering a few wizards is all it takes to get us home, then I'll cut then all in half!"
"I’m not sure how to find the vault either to be honest, as it’s made of steel and sky metals, but also buried approximately 30 feet beneath the earth, which shields it from most of our available divinations, although stronger ones may work. I remain open to suggestions."
Kreighton looks concerned. "I'd like you to avoid slaughtering if you can help it, as they are people afterall. But if that's what it takes, then so be it."
This version of Kreighton Shaine nods to you with your decision and comes with you on your journey.
You head out, searching for anything that may call out to you as a tether. As you wander around, you see other Pathfinders searching about, either by casting divination magic or just plain looking around the premises, to varying effect. You also see some of them fighting strange and weird creatures, summoned from the temporal anomalies all around through flashes of lime green lightning, and others still trying to talk down individuals outlined in a strange lime green aura.
You eventually come across a human man who glows with a lime green radiance all around his body. This glow is the exact same color as the dome surrounding you. There's no doubt... this man is somehow connected to the massive magic surges happening around here.
He appears to be wearing blue robes and has a holy symbol of Aroden at his side. As he walks around, he shouts out, arms spread wide to the sky, proclaiming, "This is the true power of my god! All of this! You should bow before him, and before me as well, as I am an avatar of Aroden!"
