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An average build half-orc walks through the door. His skins is uncharacteristically pale for one of orc descent. His cheekbones are high, and he appears to be well groomed in aspects of facial appearance, and clearly looks of noble descent, but does not dress the part. Although he wears a noble's outfit bearing grey and black colours, his outfit is missing it's jewelry, and is somewhat dirty and untidy. He also has an odd limp when he walks.
He looks around the room in a somewhat disheartened stare, sighs, and talks to seemingly no one. "What are we doing here? I don't fit in with this 'society'."
A voice audible only to him, and possibly others that can speak the to spirit world, with a proper voice tells him "Master Brayne, this is your promise to me. It was your dark experiments that caused my demise should I remind you. Without me, however would you handle life on your own, I'm afraid this is for your own good."
The half-Orc then walks to the room, attempting to put on a face, and briefly introduces himself to the group. "Greetings and good day, my name is Brayne, of the Malgorian mountains. I believe we shall be unlikely allies in this.... whatever this is."
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Garduk looks up from his book long enough to greet Kulga and Bookah a familiar twisted grin.
When the newcomer enters the room, Garduk is surprised to find himself looking forward to working with another half-orc; it has been quite a while since he has been around any who shared his heritage. Although to look at him, this Brayne did not grow up with the northern tribes.
A bit scruffy, but I'm not one to judge. At least he isn't another damn barbarian. Those guys give all of us half-humans a bad name.
In Orcish, he says,
"bochmeH wa'DIch Dajatlh HoS jachpu'DI', Qo' SoH DaSov?"
"You know you said that first part out loud, don't you?"
He continues in Common:
"Nice to meet you. I'm Garduk the... I'm Garduk."
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Kulga gives the man and his untidiness a hard, unimpressed look. I agree. You are an unlikely ally. I am Kulga Gruenakslag. My blood carries the strength of kings from before we chased your ancestors screaming into the sun. I hope you turn out more like this on- more like Garduk, than you seem.
Grumpy and out of sorts, she takes a seat and begins ostentatiously oiling and sharpening her axe.
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Brayne understand the language, but he gives Garduk a puzzled look before a slight breeze hits only the back of his head, brushing his hair.
"Oh...Right...I forget that most people aren't haunted by the malevolent spirit of their butler. Even within death he annoys me." He notes chuckling.
Turning back to room, he continues a somewhat light hearted discussion."Well, it's nice to meet you all. So what is it that the society do? Find missing children in woods? Save a damsel from a Dragon?"
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Venture-Captain Drandle Drang looks tired as he calls an emergency meeting in the middle of night at his chambers in the Grand Lodge.
Much to discuss, much. He looks a little confused before continuing, I’m sorry to call you in on such short notice and on such a dark night, but a friend of the Society needs your help immediately. From an adjoining chamber, an elegantly dressed woman of middle age with olive skin and long, straight black hair and piercing eyes steps into the room. Allow me to introduce to you Hamaria Blakros, of the esteemed Blakros family, whose name I’m sure you all know.
Hamaria sits at Dreng’s side, smooths her satin dress over her knees, and speaks in a clear though pained voice. I’m afraid my forebears made a terrible mistake, and I need you to help remedy the situation. When the Blakroses were first gaining a financial and social foothold centuries ago, my ancestors made a pact called the Penumbral Accords with a strange organization on the Shadow Plane called the Onyx Alliance, which granted us trade routes through its dark realm to avoid unpleasant searches, tariffs, and questions among the many parties with whom we traded. At the time, this was an invaluable service, but as our wealth and influence grew, the benefits became less pronounced. Now, almost five centuries later, we no longer want to pay the ongoing price of this agreement. Since that time, we’ve been providing a steady stream of slaves to the Onyx Alliance...including the eldest of our daughters each generation. This year we have two eldest daughters—my twins Eleanir and Michellia—and I refuse to let them be taken!
But we can’t actively break the Penumbral Accords ourselves. We don’t know all the details other than our end of the bargain, which requires us to deliver slaves to our very own Blakros Museum on the night of each new moon—and to deliver the eldest Blackros daughter of each generation on the new moon after her 21st birthday. We are told to stay away until dawn, and have honored this command thus far. In every instance for generations, we’ve returned to find no sign of the slaves or our own heirs left in the building. They’ve got some device that lets them take our daughters to their plane, something that only functions one night a month, and only until dawn. That night is tonight, and my Eleanir and Michellia are already there! I need you to get in before the sun rises and deactivate or destroy whatever allows them to keep stealing our people. If that prevents them from ever threatening us and holding the Penumbral Accords over our heads again, even better.
Dreng leans forward. You understand, I’m sure, how valuable our relationship with the Blakros family is to the Decemvirate. Their assets at the museum are immense, and assisting the Lady Hamaria tonight will go along way to ensuring that both her family and our organization can form a long-lasting alliance that will benefit all parties. He glances at Hamaria, who nods once in agreement.
Hurry to Blakros Museum, friends. There isn’t much time!
In recent years, the Blakros Museum has been the site of a number of strange occurrences, many of which were handled quietly in the dead of night by agents of the Pathfinder Society.
In the early days of Absalom, the Blakros Museum was originally the stronghold of an eccentric wizard. Abandoned for centuries, it was later bought by House Blakros, who turned it into a museum for their impressive collection of curiosities from across Golarion.
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"A device that can take you to the dark planes! How very intriguing. Oh, apology for my rudeness, I am Brayne, of the Malgorian mountains, I recall crossing paths with the Blakros once at a party, but that was a long time ago." He extends his hand to Hamaria, like any noble gentlemen would, and kisses the back of her hand. After a moment of pondering, Brayne grins, one of a mischievous grin, as if looks pleased with himself.
"Oh what a noble cause this is indeed, and if I may ask, what do we know of this device, and of the pact itself, is it a piece of parchment we can destroy? And WHO are the Onyx Alliance?"
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Hamaria extends her hand for Brayne and accepts the kiss like it's completely expected.
Well I wish I could tell you more, nothing of the device, other than it only seems to effect the museum. As I mention we are required to deliver slaves on the night of each new moon—and deliver the eldest Blackros daughter of each generation on the new moon after her 21st birthday. In past centuries we used the shadow plane to transport goods, but we have no need of that now. No parchment to destroy as far as I'm aware, perhaps destroying whatever device allows the shadow plane to overlap the material plane. And to the best of my knowledge the Onyx Alliance is a major player in Shadow Absalom. She reveals.
At Bokkah's comment, Well we didn't dare ignore the pact, until we know it can be broken, for fear of retribution.
To Kulga, Well, we've brought it up in the past, but to be honest it seems only the Onyx Alliance understands many of the finer points, and we have been able to find a way to formally break it.
Exactly, she says to Garduk. If I understand it correctly, more deaths would follow if we didn't honor our side of the bargain.
Garduk recalls that the shadow plane is similar to the material plane, but everything is veiled in shadow, a Shadow Absalom exists as well as many other cities and places have shadow counterparts.
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Blakros Museum is a large gothic building that rises out of the night like a great looming shadow. You approach and after inspecting the door, you insert the key and open the door. Great pillars of hewn black stone support the vaulted ceiling of the Blakros Museum’s grand entryway, visible through its wide, double doors. Braziers mounted on the pillars cast white radiance from balls of continual light. A fossilized dinosaur skeleton occupies the northwest corner of the room.
Upon crossing the threshold, the air ripples and all visible surfaces shimmer as if they were momentarily composed of still, reflective liquid. As soon as the effect manifests, the strange sensation ends, leaving thick shadows covering all surfaces. The white light of the braziers glows an arcane shade of blue, illuminating the shadowy form of a different skeleton that overlays the more solid dinosaur from moments ago.
You recognize that a convergence of the Material Plane and the Shadow Plane seems to be occurring, things in both planes can be interacted with, things from the shadow plane seem appear dark and insubstantial.
A shadowy plaque on the southeast column declares the Shadow Plane version of the building to be “Wightir House, Experimental Laboratory of Onyx Alliance, Authorized by Order of Argrinyxia, the Shifting Lady of Ebony Scales.”
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"Yeah. Nutty," Garduk says, absently. He feels as though he is missing something important about this room, but try as he might, he doesn't have any idea what it is. "What in the Hells was that at the dooway? What happened to the lights? And the skeleton?"
Idiot. A real wizard would know the answer immediately. Who do you think you're fooling? Just look at Oret's replacement - he has "magical academy graduate" written all over him.
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One of the downsides of being a noble, Brayne never had to strain his eyes, and thus never gained the ability to see in the dark. He takes a while to look for his lantern but eventually find it to light up the darkness. "I can never find where my butler puts my things..." He grumbles to himself as he was searching for the lantern.
Brayne walks over to take a look at the skeleton, but more importantly, he doesn't shout, but just says in his regular old voice. "Eleanir ?Michellia ?" Turning to the group, "They should be around her somewhere right?"
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As you move forward to examine the skeleton, you notice it's still a dinosaur, but while one on the material plane is definitely fossilized remains. The one on the shadow plane is bone sure enough, but looks much more solid and then it starts to move!
Initiative
Round 1
map
Bokkah
Brayne
Kulga
Dino
Garduk
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Garduk keeps wandering around the room. He looks at the blue lights, trying to discern what kind of arcane fire powers them.
"I don't know. Where would a couple of frightened young women wait after being locked in a spooky old museum at night to be given over to slavery on another plane of existence by their own families?"
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As the dinosaur rises, Brayne maintains a composure, "Hold that thought Garduk, it seems we have unexpected company!" Without warning, Brayne starts to glow emanating a black aura. But as soon as Kulga bashes the skeleton before his eyes, the aura stops immediately with nothing exciting to observe.
He then turns towards Garduk and asks him, "A game of hide and seek then? Oh my, I wouldn't know where to begin to look." Moving then towards the corridor, he peers down and extends his arms. "Ladies first?"
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The door to your left (west), has a sign over the door bearing bright lettering reading “Treasures of Distant Goka,” while a shadowy sign occupying the same space reads in dark, block letters “Cold Storage—Perishable Specimens Only.”
The door to your right (east), has a large placard above the entryway which reads “The Evolution of Dragonkind” in bright, elaborate script while a shadowy sign next to the door describes the room as “Pain Laboratory—Tests in Progress.”
Bokkah notes that the room to the left is quiet; but to the right loud whimpering from several different voices can be heard.
Brayne does not detect any magical auras.
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Garduk nods. "Agreed. But please give me a moment before we go in."
He pulls several scrolls out of his box of combat scrolls, and quickly casts Mage Armor on himself. This time, the glow rising up from his feet to cover him is the same eerie arcane blue as that emitted from the braziers in the entry hall.
"That's... a disconcerting coincidence. I hope."
To the others, he adds, looking particularly at Kulga and Bokkah: "I have four scrolls of Protection from Evil that I can cast on any of you, and which should be useful in any close combat. But I only have these four, the effects last only for a single minute, and we do not yet know what other threats we will face here tonight. With that in mind, do any of you want the added protection before we open this door?"
Because I know that if I were going to be first through a door marked "Pain Laboratory," I would want as much protection from the evil inside as I could have.
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Brayne shakes his head, "Thank you for your concern my good man, although I shall not intend to engage in such antics. I'm not a warrior. But you are right, we should as prepared as we can be knowing there could be dangers at every corner." Turning to the group he touches each of them lightly, providing them some magical help.
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Only if something turns me against the rest of you.
Garduk barks out a short, nervous laugh, but quickly cuts it off. He pops out his wand of Shield and casts that on himself, too, then puts the wand back into his spring-loaded sheath and draws his club.
"Fine, I'm ready. Shall we investigate the 'Pain Laboratory'?"
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You enter the pain lab - this room is filled with ancient tapestries of chromatic dragons besieging castles and battles between Dahak and Apsu at the dawn of time. An alabaster obelisk covered in Draconic runes occupies the far corner, surrounded by a spread of various dragonhides of all colors and thickness, and a taxidermied wyvern hangs from the ceiling above, its stinger flexed above its head. Umbral chains drop from the same ceiling on the Shadow Plane; gruesome hooks at the chains’ ends hold long dead skeletons. The southern wall sports a massive wheel with shackles along its edge, for holding writhing subjects in place during tests. Two human in brightly colored clothing are currently shackled to the wheel.
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"Well that's something you don't see everyday in the comfort of your home huh Elfred." Brayne takes a good look around, as he speaks to his invisible ghost butler, unsure what he was expecting as the door opened. He stands still and waits for everyone else to move in before doing so himself. "Are you fella's alright?" He says from a distant.
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The people look like they are from the material plane; but the shackles seem to belong to the shadow plane. Brayne feels they can be trusted, they truly look miserable and in despair.
The man calls out, I'm Creel, I was sold by my household to the Blakros's and was brought here, I don't know what is happening the creepy creatures are here, the place became strange, oooh!
At that moment Garduk spies a shadow looking humanoid with a long sword drawn, hiding in the many shadows, he seems to be edging slowly your way.
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Garduk growls a warning to his friends, then takes a few steps to bring the figure into range. He barks words of arcane power, gestures with one hand, and pulls a handful of colored sand from a pouch on his belt with the other. As he tosses the sand at the figure, a bright blast of light in a rainbow of dazzling colors erupts from his outstretched hand.