Reaching his arm out, Qhude found that the same force field still protected the stairwell.
As your mind slowly recovered from shock, the implications of some of the things the others said are beginning to become clear to you.
The proverbial Pandora's Box is now open; if these people and their nation or employer could find this place, Angazhan and his followers could too. For better or worse- this location would no longer do to defend the artifact that Arioch stole from the Ravenous King. Not unless it could be shrouded and mind-wiped once more, or if these strangers belonged to a faction with the strength to defend it.
In addition, you do recall the structure's basic floor plan. The level of the structure directly above this one essentially acted as a formidable defense gauntlet and killing zone, in the case of attack. This floor (the 3rd level) once served as the living quarters, training rooms, library, armory and other general purpose rooms.
You remember there are 6 levels in total, each larger than the last.
In reply to Tebati Akirra remarks, Perhaps the occupant was released like I was.
Watching Qhude testing the barrier Akirra asks, When did the barrier drop? After you opened the cell doors?
"The defenses of the upper levels were intact," Tebati informs him. "If he was released, it was not by someone coming in from above."
When did the barrier drop? After you opened the cell doors?
"We don't know. We came down the stairs and began to investigate, and the first time we tried to go back, we could not." She stops and thinks a moment. "Yes, at least one of the doors had been opened. But it could just as well have closed behind us when we first stepped off the staircase." She turns to Kieran. "Could there have been something on the first door Ansha opened that triggered the trap?"
Ansha calls to Akirra from her position beside the fountain, "The magic of that last chamber was either unused, or its occupant was released very early on in your tenure here. The veins of magic are much healthier than the other two--or your own."
Glancing down the eastern corridor, she continues, "There are passages down here that I didn't notice before. I see more plaques and not a few statues. Kieran, come with me while I check the first one or two out?"
As Kieran checks the stairs Akirra offers, We could try just closing the all the doors to the chambers. The barrier may not be designed to hold things in on this level, but rather to keeps things out. I am starting to recall the structure's basic floor plan. The level of the structure directly above this one essentially acted as a defense gauntlet and killing zone, in the case of attack. This floor once served as the living quarters, training rooms, library, armory and other general purpose rooms.
To Ansha he replies, By your admission the structure recently, and inexplicably, appeared after laying hidden for untold centuries. Something changed. Maybe the magic is failing, or maybe not. Perhaps someone or something penetrated the defenses without disturbing them unduly?
" We could try just closing the all the doors to the chambers. The barrier may not be designed to hold things in on this level, but rather to keeps things out."
"Good idea. We can see to proper burials once we find the way out."
Jakob moves rapidly from cell to cell. He does a quick headcount before he closes each door, just to be sure.
"I am starting to recall the structure's basic floor plan. The level of the structure directly above this one essentially acted as a defense gauntlet and killing zone, in the case of attack. This floor once served as the living quarters, training rooms, library, armory and other general purpose rooms."
"Do you remember what this structure is for? We have recovered bits and pieces but we still do not really know if this is a prison, a vault or someone's summer home."
"I am Jakob by the way. I am glad that we reached you before the magic failed."
"Well, it seems you are no longer the oldest member of our merry little band, Ansha," Kieran remarks with a little smirk, the quip comprising more or less the sum total of the half-elf's reaction to the awakening of a centuries-old memory-deprived Mwangi from what more or less was a death-like sleep.
She turns to Kieran. "Could there have been something on the first door Ansha opened that triggered the trap?"
"I suppose it could be," the rogue replies with a shrug after a moment's thought. "Considering, however, we are dealing with an ancient civilization and one quite adept in the use of magic, your guess is as good as mine, love." Another shrug. "Magical traps are, quite unfortunately, not my area of expertise."
"It was completely explicable," Ansha replies to Akirra. "The magic--the illusion--cloaking it was dispelled intentionally. After someone initially stumbled through it by accident. The magic of your chambers is definitely failing, though. Including the one you were in. If we hadn't seen fit to release you, you would have probably awakened in another few millenia, trapped in here like two of your comrades. Perhaps you would have died of starvation after clawing at the door for hours...or perhaps you would have fallen upon your sword only to be raised as one of the undead. Both were fates that befell your companions."
Ansha starts to walk down the eastern corridor toward the nearest plaque.
Qhude remains silent, the current predicament not playing to his strengths, and watches. Quite deliberately he seems to be lagging towards the rear of the group, rather than taking point as he usually does.
Akirra smiles at Jacob, I am Akirra. It is a pleasure to meet you Jacob. And I am glad as well. Certainly preferable to the alternatives so happily pointed out in detail by Ansha.
I do remember the purpose of this structure, but, and please forgive me for saying so, I hesitate to share as the free exchange of information so far has been somewhat skewed in one direction. Perhaps we can resolve to share everything we know, without omissions?
In reply to Ansha's correction Akirra responds, Ok then, "accidentally discovered" as opposed to "inexplicably appeared". Which in my mind does not change much. Until I am certain the discovery of this place was an accident, I shall remain open to the possibility that it wasn't.
As I am currently relying on that which you choose to share with me, please forgive me for any erroneous conclusions I might draw from the limited narrative I have heard. Let's pretend that I have been asleep for hundreds of years, and I need a bit of catching up...
To that end, which of you stumbled upon the ziggurat and which of you dispelled the illusion?
Can you say for certain that the magic is failing? As opposed to being purposely withdrawn? Or siphoned off? Diverted elsewhere?
His hands still held in a non-threatening manner, Akirra looks back at Qhude for permission to follow Ansha and any others down the hallway.
Qhude gives Akirra a neutral expression and does not respond to his seeming request for permission... but neither does he act in opposition.
I do remember the purpose of this structure, but, and please forgive me for saying so, I hesitate to share as the free exchange of information so far has been somewhat skewed in one direction. Perhaps we can resolve to share everything we know, without omissions?
"Your employer made sure your 'exchange of information' would have certain 'omissions,'" Tebati points out. "Convenient, no? Should we not extend our employers the same courtesy of not sharing what they might not want shared?"
What you say is true and not without merit, but no I wouldn't say convenient at all. Not for me now, at this time. Obviously the Order did not foresee this particular scenario. Or did not concern themselves with it if they did. And now there is likely nothing I can do to reverse the effects. I wish things were different, but it is beyond my control.
My underlying mission remains unchanged however, so I guess we are at an impasse at the moment. Until I can be sure about what is truly happening here... and which side you are on, I shall remain silent for the time being.
If you will allow me to help you return to the outside, I would be willing to assist in whatever manner I can.
Akirra falls silent for a bit before asking hopefully, I don't suppose anyone would be willing to give me a brief history of the world since I have been asleep while we explore?
Ansha answers brusquely as she walks-and-talks and investigates one of the nearest plaques in the eastern corridor. "The Azlanti don't exist any more; not after Earthfall, when meteors hit the planet. Thankfully, the elves saw that coming and avoided that fate. The Last Azlanti"--it's obvious by the way she inflects it that this is a title--"managed to become a god, but even he is dead now."
"From the ruins of Earthfall," Tebati picks up the tale, "a great man arose from among the descendents of your own people. Old-Mage Jatembe established a great arcane academy in the Mwangi Expanse which still stands today and Song-Wind City around it, a bastion of learning and culture, at peace with its neighbors and feared by its enemies. That is where I was born."
In response to Ansha, Akirra shakes his head slightly from side to side. Charming...
Akirra smiles gratefully at Tebati's interjection and adjusts his stride to walk with her hoping to hear more.
Until I can be sure about what is truly happening here... and which side you are on, I shall remain silent for the time being.
If you will allow me to help you return to the outside, I would be willing to assist in whatever manner I can.
Qhude frowns as the woken one speaks in what he sees as being with a forked tongue. He is the most vocal silent man he has met, while offering to help in any manner he can... despite stating that he can not. Seeing the retelling of the world's history as pointless to their situation as it stands, Qhude does not entertain it.
"The colonials came from Avistan many years ago," Tebati goes on, glancing at Kieran and Jakob. "They seized control of part of the Expanse and made the Mwangi their servants ... sometimes their slaves. The government today claims to want Mwangi and Avistani to live as equals...," she trails off, her expression and tone of voice indicating her less than wholehearted trust of their expressed intentions.
"We do not know which side we are on," she tells Akirra. "We are too much in the dark. Our employers don't know what lies within this structure; they merely hope for treasure or some great artifact of power. Those who attack us refuse to tell us why they want us dead. It may well be that this place would be better left alone -- although now that its veiling illusions have been stripped, even if our party were to retreat, surely others would come -- but we have no way to judge."
"I know which side I'm on--ours," Ansha remarks quietly. Mine.
Qhude frowns as the woken one speaks in what he sees as being with a forked tongue. He is the most vocal silent man he has met, while offering to help in any manner he can... despite stating that he can not.
Continuing his conversation with Tebati, Akirra offers, The Azlants treated us Mwangi much the same, but those within the Order began to see us in a different light. They freed us, taught us to fight and eventually integrated us fully within the Order. It took a while admittedly, but we achieved equal, or near-equal, status, with many of the Order's heroes and honoured members being Mwangi, like myself.
To Tebati's admission of sorts, Akirra raises an eyebrow. You truly have no idea what lies within these walls do you?
After some contemplation Akirra slowly adds, I think it best that we find our way out of here, that I may meet with your employers. What is here is not to be trifled with. And as you say, now that some of the defenses are down, it will only be a matter of time before others know of its location. Those we sought to hide from may already be arraying against us.
Continuing his conversation with Tebati, Akirra offers, The Azlants treated us Mwangi much the same, but those within the Order began to see us in a different light. They freed us, taught us to fight and eventually integrated us fully within the Order. It took a while admittedly, but we achieved equal, or near-equal, status, with many of the Order's heroes and honoured members being Mwangi, like myself.
"'Near-equality,'" she scoffs mildly. "Is that not the dream of every oppressed people: to be only slightly inferior to their masters?"
You truly have no idea what lies within these walls do you?
After some contemplation Akirra slowly adds, I think it best that we find our way out of here, that I may meet with your employers. What is here is not to be trifled with. And as you say, now that some of the defenses are down, it will only be a matter of time before others know of its location. Those we sought to hide from may already be arraying against us.
"If we succeed in raising the invisible gate, we will only be sent further in," Tebati replies. "And I do not think you will succeed in convincing our employers to give up their quest. They have already lost too many men and invested too many resources. They are desperate, and their desperation will convince them that they are powerful and responsible enough to handle whatever secrets lie buried here."
She sighs. "I am no friend of the Ravenous King. But merely opposing him is not enough to make the Order my ally."
Akirra's words continue to damn him for the longer that he demands answers from the group without offering any real information of his own.
Ansha catches the deepening scowl on Qhude's face. Catching his eye, she nods her head curtly in agreement.
It wasn't like that Tebati. Within the Order at least, we were not treated as inferiors.
And I do not presume to convince them. From what you have told me, it would seem futile indeed. It might be that that they are my best option, but I don't know who they are.
Catching the looks of Qhude and Ansha, Akirra sighs and falls silent.
It might be that that they are my best option, but I don't know who they are.
"No," she agrees readily. "You neither do nor can. If we told you, you still would not know them. Our employers are a people that did not exist when you succumbed to the sleeping spell, as are their enemies. Even the gods have changed while you slept." She stops and turns toward him. "We were sent into the pyramid by Sargava. There. Now what great insights into their character and worth do you draw from those syllables?"
"This debate is giving me a hangover worthy of Cayden," the easily bored half-elf quips with a soft chuckle. Although the words are spoken in jest, there is a hint of impatience in his tone. Still, at the very least he is keeping himself occupied in a way, accompanying Ansha around the rooms and corridors and examining the plaques that adorn them.
Looking up and down the corridor, Ansha and Kieran spotted two doors to the west and two to the east; with three statues on each side of the wall on the same side as the apparently magical fountain.
The doors to the west bore the same neatly scripted writing on a single plaque between them, while the door to the east mirrored this arrangement perfectly with its own plaque. Kieran was quite sure that neither set of doors bore any traps.
Relaxation Chamber
Rare Botanical Specimens: No Unauthorised Entry
At both ends of the mosaic floor corridor, the hallway turned a corner to the north. Ever burning torches set neatly into sconces continued to provide light to the group.
Ansha frowns as she inspects the plaques on the statues. "Rare botanical specimens," she reads aloud as she opens the nearest door to the east.
The plaques beneath each statue each bore a single name. While the names themselves might be relevant to a historian, they meant nothing to the group; not even Akirra recognised them...
Throwing open the door, Ansha saw what had clearly once been a well maintained, if extremely exotic, garden. Crushed fences and restraints had been thoroughly broken over time by vines, roots and vegetation. The internal walls of the large room were near-covered in different varieties of moss, vine and fungus. The floor was coated in rich, thick soil that served as a home for hundreds of different kinds of plants and trees, of various sizes. It was not immediately obvious how these plants were provided water, or how the soil was kept full of nutrients.
It was clear that this room was once well segregated, with space used efficiently to keep the various plants contained and separated from one another. However, it seemed that it had now been shaped to the designs of something else.
That something else could only be the two man-sized, floating spheres of tentacled moss staring back at the Elf with red eyes spaced almost randomly across their plant-like, spherical forms. In addition to the two spheres, two shambling, green-skinned zombies each had a pair of the same glowing red eyes and they seemed to be tending the garden.
As Ansha's eyes took in the lush colors set against the presence of something clearly sentient and quite alien to Golarion, a small plant twenty feet from the doorway spat thorns at the Elf from their respective mouths, punishing the Elf's haste to peer inside. Perhaps the plant was intelligent enough to understand the concept of a "warning shot", but it was not clear what it had been intended as. Nonetheless, Ansha cried out in pain as several thorns, like miniature arrowheads, pierced her stomach before she could throw herself against the wall by the door, out of sight.
Tebati is distracted from her conversation with Akirra by Ansha's sudden action. "Shut the door!" she commands, hurrying down the hallway toward the elf.
Tensing in pain, Ansha complies wordlessly, shutting the door and risking a look at the thorns jutting out from her corset. "Some sort of plant zombies and some rather sinister-looking tentacle-plants in that one," she grits out.
"Let's just assume," Tebati says testily, "that anything behind these doors is going to try to kill us and not simply open them on a whim in the future."
Ansha gives a weak smile, leaning heavily upon the wall adjacent to the door. "It seemed like a good idea at the time?"
Seeing Ansha take some toll from her rash actions gives Qhude a wry sense of justice... but his primal instinct is for defense. He tenses, ready to surge forwards if Ansha is unable to close the door in time.
Akirra looks at Tebati absolutely crestfallen. In a quiet, and slow admission, he replies, You are absolutely correct. I know nothing. Less than nothing. That which I did know either no longer exists, matters or has been erased. I have woken to a world I no longer recognize nor understand. Everyone and everything I held dear is long since gone. The world has left me behind. Of the men under my command, who followed me into statis, two died a horrific death, and one is missing.
After a long pause he adds, Perhaps it would have been best... if I had perished as well. I am but one man, with no memories. What possible good can I hope to achieve?
At that moment, Ansha threw open the door before crying out in pain. Although Akirra's finely honed warrior instincts urged him to action, he did not move. Paralyzed by doubt and the threat of Qhude's weapon, Akirra remained motionless...
The thorns in Ansha's flesh were uncomfortable and jarred painfully as she moved. They would definitely need to be removed.
Whatever fired thorns at her had been well hidden within the undergrowth and she did not get a good enough look. She did, however, recognise the strange floating moss-balls and their servants...
The two things were Plantoids; extra-planar creatures not native to the Material Plane. They share class skills with abberations as a result and are intelligent, with a powerful force of will.
Plantoids are creatures from another dimension or plane of existence, occasionally summoned forth into the Material Plane. The eyes are not magical, but the long strands of moss trailing after the plantoid have a very dangerous ability to enslave anyone caught within them. The soft, mossy consistency of plantoids makes these creatures immune to blunt weapons.
The plantoids can snap their mossy beards out like whips, attempting to touch a potential victim. Their tendrils can inject a mind-altering substance; putting a victim under direct control of the plant. Someone under the control of a plantoid loses their sense of self after a full day has passed; eventually becoming the mindless servitors you spotted tending the garden.
Plantoid servitors are humans (and their ilk) who have fallen prey to a plantoid. It is possible for a plantoid servitor to operate independently of a plantoid, in which case the eyes will not glow. Plantoid servitors acting independently from one of the plantoid masters are capable of following only the simplest of instructions, such as “attack anyone entering this room,” and the plantoid is not able to give further instructions until it can once again gain physical contact with the plantoid servitor.
The servitors themselves are also dangerous; the poison that runs through their mossy bodies can turn others into servitors themselves; or in rare cases, another full plantoid. They are also incredibly tough; possessing both the Diehard and Toughness feats.
Closing her eyes for a moment and grimacing at the pain, Ansha pauses. After a moment, she says, "The tentacle-plants were plantoids, I think. Blunt weapons will be useless, and they have a...poison they can spread through the tentacles that will turn someone into its slave--which is what those two plant-zombies were. The poison in the plantoids is in their servitors as well."
"Didn't see what shot me with thorns though." She opens her eyes again. "We should bar this door or barricade it or something. I think I'd want a lot of fire to deal with these things."
"Someone help me get these thorns out?" she asks, wincing as she half-heartedly tugs at a thorn.
"A plant that creates undead?" Tebati repeats, her expression conveying her disgust at the concept of nature making a mockery of nature. "What do you suggest we use to bar the door?" she asks looking up and down the hallway. "Could one of these statues be moved? How heavy are they?"
With a non-uncompassionate sigh, Tebati looks back at Akirra. "You might easily have died. But you did not. As a result, you are faced with more difficult choices than your fellows, whose freedom was limited to the manner of their death. There is no longer anyone to issue you orders; now you must choose your own path as you move ahead."
"Come here Ansha." Jakob walks towards her drawing a dagger from his belt and only fumbling it a little. "Perhaps the Relaxation Chamber might have been the better choice?"
Ansha nods in agreement, still grimacing in pain. "After this, I'll need it anyway. We could also see if we can't prop a table or two from the cells in front of this door, if they're not nailed down."
A little time passes as the thorns are removed from Ansha. But if the plants inside had any intention of pursuing the delvers, they were certainly taking their time about it.
You only caught a glimpse, but you do suspect that the plants inside that room are exceedingly rare and likely to be incredibly valuable for alchemical and herbal purposes. The collection might even include plants common to pre-Earthfall Golarion that are technically extinct.
"I'm not sure how to deal with these things, and they're certainly not in a hurry to attack us, but I'm a bit wary about leaving them behind us unchecked," Ansha says after the thorns are removed. Ansha frowns, lamenting the damage down to her corset and bodice--puncture marks still clearly visible. She then glances at Akirra. "And I'm guessing there are some rare plants in there as old as our new friend."
"And they can stay in there.. A live and let live attitude seems the best response to this place. At least until we have no other choice."
"Recovering the plants is tempting but a little more waiting will do them little harm."
"I tend to agree. Even if the plants are likely incredibly valuable...it's not like we can do much with them until the plantoids are gone," Ansha replies, pushing off the wall and inspecting one of the nearby statues. "Qhude, can you try to move one of these?"
Wary that the plants have not yet pursued them, Qhude circles the entrance to their chamber towards Ansha. Before he makes any attempt at shifting the statue he asks "To what purpose?"
Ansha motions at the door she had just shut. "To block those things in--or at least provide us a warning if they come out."
Qhude looks over the statue, gauging whether he thought his bulk and strength would be enough to snap the statue at it's ankles - or whether a bludgeon would be needed.
Akirra nods his head slightly at Tebati's remark.