Cladissa clears her throat softly as they begin to ready the airship for the trip back. "Should we make haste back? I have a teleport prepared. If you do as well, Argor, we could all return swiftly and perhaps catch him unawares, if the real Hestram is still lurking around." She doesn't sound as though she holds much hope for that being the case. "Just once I'd like to get out ahead of him."
”I would theorize that he is not here himself. Had he been present, I would believe he would have taken the opportunity to confront us here, where he had command of an entire nation of soldiers at his command to attempt to eliminate the threat we pose to his plans. He likely has long returned to Golarion, perhaps even well before we met with him at the Galtan Lodge. Your Highness, can you tell me how long you me people have been held captive by this man?” Argor asks in an attempt to confirm his theory.
She relates a period of time consistent with Adril's body disappearing from the Woodsedge Lodge after the Red Raven killed him several days ago.
Using the airship, it is a simple journey back to Arl. When the group arrives back in the city with the rescued princess, Arl turns out to welcome them as heroes. They are cheered as they travel to the palace by throngs of red skinned Akitonians.
Princess Verrish fulfills her brother’s longtime goal of uniting Arl beneath an Akitonian ruler by assuming the throne as Thurok. She immediately puts a new cabinet and council in place.
In a public gesture, she relinquishes the Starsword to the Pathfinders from her palace balcony and declares to the people of Arl that the time has come for them to shrug off the coarse mantle of their superstitious barbarian ways and become a civilized people. Many in Arl grumble about this change and things are neither perfect nor peaceful as the Pathfinders prepare for their return to Golarion, though they are better than the city’s short time under the Beast.
As the Pathfinders are being celebrated near the pyramid, they see someone come through the portal at the top. The person sprints down the stairs until she comes into view. It is none other than Eliza Petrulengo.
"Thank the gods I found you! We found Hestram! He's in the Grand Lodge! His assault is already underway. Come with me at once, we must hurry to Lodge or the future of the Society may very well be no future at all." Assuming they will follow, she turns on a heel and runs back into the portal.
”No rest for the weary,” Argor sighs before turning to the new Queen. ”Thank you for your kindness and understanding in this matter, Your Highness. I do hope to return and speak with you in better circumstances and perhaps bridge the diplomatic gap between our people.”
He then turns to his associates and says ”Let us go. Hestram is in his endgame now. Time to remove him from the board.”
He then flies off to the portal.
When Eliza bursts in, she summons her broom which leaps to her hand. She sits on it, Cole taking his place on the bunch of bristles, and flies off after Argor.
The glowing red portal from Akiton to the Maze of the Open Road on distant Golarion rises from the pinnacle of the towering pyramid ahead, as howling, icy winds tear across the red sands, whipping them into an angry, biting torrent. Venture-Captain Eliza Petulengro rushes up the structure, turning back only briefly to ensure that she’s being followed.
Reaching the top of the massive structure, she turns to speak, but pauses for a moment to think. Her voice wavers with a twinge of desperation and fear. "“I… we… We will never catch up to Adril if we take the Maze back. He’s already in Skyreach.”
Slowly, her pained expression surrenders to resolve. “I’m going to rift the portal. It’s the only way…”
"What are you talking about? Argor and I can teleport. We step through, then we jump straight to the Lodge. What's the problem with that?"
“I’m going to attempt to tear a rift into the portal chamber at Skyreach. It is an extremely risky technique of tearing a hole or 'rift' in a portal, temporarily damaging it with teleportation magic such that individuals can slip in between dimensions connected to the portal and exit almost anywhere between the two connecting points. Usually it’s used to make a stop in between two portal points, but I think I might be able to use the same technique to bypass the Maze and pry our way directly into Skyreach’s famed portal room."
"The portal chamber is a sort of foyer in the tower’s upper chambers — those reserved only for the use of the Ten and their most trusted aides. It should be the easiest chamber to access, as it doesn’t actually exist in Skyreach. It’s more of an extradimensional hub connected to several dimensional corridors that run through the Grand Lodge. If and when we arrive, we shall be partially insubstantial. The Decemvirate uses this property to keep their identities obscured from one another when exiting and entering their private chambers. While the Decemvirate can enter and leave the chamber at will, we shall be visitors. In order to enter, each of us needs an envoy. Within the chamber stands a basin containing a small number of special ioun stones called eraminho. These stones act as vessels for the souls of the Society’s most trusted protectors, some even former members of the Decemvirate."
"By activating the eramhino, we can connect with the spirits to gain access to the inner chambers. Once inside, we should seek out the faction rooms first, and use them to make contact with whatever allies of the Society we each may have outside the Ten themselves. These rooms are the only neutral rooms within the upper tower, so even if Adril seizes command of Skyreach, the faction rooms will remain somewhat of a blind-spot. After that, we need to get to Shemis and protect her at all costs."
"All set?"
"It still sounds recklessly dangerous. If we don't succeed in this, we could be flung even further off course -- if it's not fatal."
She looks very uncertain and turns to look at Argor's reaction to Eliza's plan.
"It is true, I can not guarantee the safety of anyone who comes with me. I won't think any of you are cowards if you refuse to follow. But I won't wait for you to decide long, the fate of the Society is at stake. If there were a safer way I'd take it, but it's not easy to get into Skyreach, much less the portal room."
[dice=Knowledge Arcana]1d20+25
[dice=Spellcraft]1d20+33
"I love this plan! I'm excited to be a part of it!" Cladissa says as she lends Fortune to Eliza and cackles madly.
Hearing no more immediate inquiries, Eliza strides up to the portal and sets to work. She casts some complex variant on a teleport spell. As soon as it finishes, her spell tears a lightless hole in the portal's undulating, glowing red surface. A bone-numbing blast of frigid energy shoots from the rift.
An inhuman shrieking emanates from the rift as it sucks in everything around it. Eliza tries to yell something to the Pathfinders as she goes into the rift, though her message is wholly unintelligible, overpowered by the shrieking of the void. She vanishes into the blackness, followed seconds later by the Freaks.
***
All is darkness. There is no time. There are no Pathfinders. Only the multiverse stretching and whirling away in the infinite black.
Eventually...instantly? The darkness thins only slightly, ebbing into a deep, blackish purple twilight. The surrounding space appears without clear definition or form. Distance is difficult to judge, though there appears to be some sort of a perimeter marked by darker, shadowed arches.
Within this strange foyer, all occupants appear as medium-sized silhouettes without distinctions of body shape, gender, voice, or even wielded equipment. The Pathfinders can not recognize each other.
Hazy and indistinct. Fuzzy thoughts. Silhouettes.
What just happened? Am I dead? Is this the Boneyard?
"Hello? Did it work?" ::Did I say that out loud? Did I just think out loud? Does it matter? Hello?::
"Who is that?"
"I am Thrassk."
"Um, me? Cladissa? It worked, didn't it? We're in the hub? Let's find those ioun stones and get out of here."
”This...this is Argor. That was as nauseating as it was fascinating. Even so, everyone be on...ugh...on your guard.”
Another form is leaned over and clutching its abdomen, ”Oh...that...that was terrible...” it says.
"Gianluca, Grommesson, Eliza, sound off if you're here," one of the indistinguishable voices says.
The beast who is Grommesson follows the crew around. Just happy to be here.
"Where are we? I don't recognize your voices. This is Grommesson."
"It's me, Eliza. We're in the Foyer of Worlds," another identical voice chimes in.
"That's a relief." She counts the shadows, comparing it to the number that entered the rift.
"Gianluca? I hope that's you," says the shape that had previously identified itself as Cladissa.
"Oy, yes, sorry. This is...quite disorienting...though I think seem to have shaken off the worst of it."
As the Pathfinders get their bearings, and turn towards the northernmost point in the chamber where a small stone column supporting a basin filled with a pale translucent gas sits, the figure which identified itself as Eliza suddenly shifts. With a blur of motion its arm lashes out and stabs at Cladissa with some shrouded implement.
====================================
Initiative:
Eliza 16
Party 9.5
Without hesitation the shrouded person continues their assault on the team's witch, first with one hand, then the other!
The attacker stabs Cladissa seven times in the blink an eye. She crumples in on herself, her expression shrouded by the chamber's enchantment. The mysterious assailant steps back and vanishes into nothing.
He's hiding in plain sight two squares below Cladissa/two squares left of Gianluca.
Cole touches his witch with his shadowy paw.
The beast who is Grommesson roars which sounds the same as Cladissa. "Invisible!" He steps forward and swings his furious falchion.
Gianluca-blob blinks twice and then swings at the invisi-blob, but fails to connect.
On his blobby face are blobs of frustration.
Gianluca and Grommesson attack the air but their blades don't connect with anything.
Argor snaps his head towards the form that attacked Cladissa, glaring right at it despite it's attempt at hiding. He works some arcane magic and attempts to shift the creature into a slug.
Meanwhile, Adrenia uses a wand to give everyone in the team enhanced speed!
Thrassk cries out as Cladissa falls. "No!"
He steps forward and snaps at the space indicated by Grommesson.
He bites twice into a shadowy form, claws it twice, and then rends it open with his powerful muscles. Blood splatters on the floor, but whatever he hit appears to still be hiding.
Argor quickly casts a spell to make such a ploy far more difficult to perform against himself, and soon multiple nondescript copies of himself appear around him.
Without hesitation the shrouded person continues their assault on the team's witch, first with one hand, then the other! The attacker stabs Cladissa seven times in the blink an eye. She crumples in on herself, her expression shrouded by the chamber's enchantment. The mysterious assailant steps back and vanishes into nothing.
Cole touches his witch with his shadowy paw.
The beast who is Grommesson roars which sounds the same as Cladissa. "Invisible!" He steps forward and swings his furious falchion.
Gianluca-blob blinks twice and then swings at the invisi-blob, but fails to connect. On his blobby face are blobs of frustration.
Gianluca and Grommesson appear to attack the air but their blades don't connect with anything.
Argor quickly casts a spell to make such a ploy far more difficult to perform against himself, and soon multiple nondescript copies of himself appear around him. Meanwhile, Adrenia uses a wand to give everyone in the team enhanced speed!
Thrassk cries out as Cladissa falls. "No!" He steps forward and snaps at the space indicated by Grommesson. He bites twice into a shadowy form, claws it twice, and then rends it open with his powerful muscles. Blood splatters on the floor, but whatever he hit appears to still be hiding.
================================
Feeling the pain of Thrassk's attacks, the veiled assailant materializes from the shadows to assault the dragon-man.
While he does a little damage to Thrassk, the assassin has a hard time piercing the Pathfinder's scales.
Adrenia swoops down to the form that fell, and uses a wand of healing on it.
Argor leers at the man and quickly retrieves a lodestone and pinch of dust from his reagents. He works the incantation and points a finger at the man, saying forcefully ”Whoever you are, you’ve assaulted the wrong people!”
As he speaks, green energy begins to build at the tip of his finger. ”And for your mistake, and for attempting to murder my friend, you now face the wrath of Argor Constantine!”
The beam surges forward, a spiral of green energy wrapping around the green ray as it strikes the man directly in the heart!
The Pathfinders are treated to the odd sight of a person shrouded by the foyer's enchantments being partially disintegrated under Argor's spell.
The beast who is Grommesson swings at the hidden assassin.