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As you begin to travel towards the main entrance, Rhuul and Umaro notice a soft wind, almost like there is a draft running through the cathedral.
Suddenly, the very air around Maldoc seems to spring to life. At first, it just begins to blow hard, causing papers to fly off shelves, but it soon forms a whirlwind all around him. It draws in loose material nearby and begins to buffet him with it. The winds try to lift Maldoc up and toss him, but fail, and move away from him, slowing slightly to reveal a pair of eyes seeming made of electricity.
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Round 1
Whirlwind Creature
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Umaro, Sarephta, Rhuul, Kryssa, & Maldoc
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The Air Elemental, almost with what you think might be an expression of thankfulness, dissolves away into nothingness, returning to its home plane.
Travelling further, you come to a double door at the southern side of the cathedral. A splendidly carved marble corridor cuts through the center of this chamber, connecting a pair of huge bronze doors to the south to a pair of colorful wooden doors to the north. Freshly painted images of the sun cover the latter, while a massive barricade of broken shelves and upturned tables blocks the southern doors—clearly the main entrance to the cathedral. Oddly, the piled furniture actually cuts through not only the arches lining the corridor but also the columns that support them, as if they were insubstantial.
Beyond these arches, two dim stone rooms flank the central corridor, packed with pile upon pile of books, tomes, and scrolls. Although dozens of shelves stand throughout, most of the books are scattered haphazardly on the floor, many torn or otherwise damaged.
Originally the Cathedral of Aroden’s antechamber, this room was converted into a library by Wystorn Telfyr, who believed the massive trove of knowledge merited surroundings as lofty as these. In order to maintain the fiction of a grand entrance, he used several variant illusory wall spells to create the grandiose central corridor, decorated with famous scenes from the Pathfinder Chronicles. The library visible though the arches is meant to impress visitors, although the most valuable tomes are kept elsewhere.
All but the southeastern corner are trashed, with most shelves broken and turned over, (if not used for the barricade. Oddly, the southeastern corner seems to be devoted to the life of Aroden. You being to remove a bit of the barricade, but quickly discover that the outer door is locked, and it seems far beyond your skill to open. From this room, you also see a spiral staircase leading up.
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Once the elemental is defeated, Umaro stows his scythe to retrieve his hammer.
"It seems our enemies have some powerful allies. To be able to summon an elemental to serve as a guard."
Looking around the entrance, Umaro notes the pristine condition of the one corner of the library. He moves over to the area, keeping alert for any more threats, to see if there might be a reason.
"Anyone know why people who lost their senses, would leave a section of this place alone but destroy everything else?"
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"Why do we think they took leave of their senses? Unless you think that Aroden possessed them and turned them on each other as retribution for using his temple in such a manner?"
Rhuul looks at the untouched bit.
"So many illusions.. but why would they make the barricade an illusion?"
He then goes to inspect the 'barricade' and in particular the parts that seem to go through the walls and archways.
Realisation hits "So the corridor is an illusion... I wonder then how many of the other things here are illusionary?"
Rhuul twiddles his fingers and mutters in Dwarvish.
He then starts to run his hands down the various walls with his eyes shut, searching for some other exit.
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As you search through the area a bit, you turn up a sheet of paper that reads: “sunset: 4–4–3–9–9–7–2–1–”.
Heading up the stairs, you enter a choir loft. At the southern end of the congregation hall, an ornate choir loft sits twenty feet above the ground, joined to the narrow balcony encircling the nave and dome. The richly decorated wall panels depict scenes of strangely dressed men, while the low marble balustrade shows human figures celebrating. Many of these scenes have suffered recent damage, with stone shards and a broken bannister littering the floor. Several smashed glass cases line the room, numerous swords of widely varying styles and construction poking out of them.
Along the Cathedral’s south wall, a ten-foot-wide rose window glitters with the sun, bathing the loft in light. A number of red figures surround a strange white shape against the window’s blue background. A spiral staircase leads down and a pair of doors lead east
and west.
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Maldoc takes a good look around. The window and its stone frame are riddled with minute cracks. The stained glass window shouldn't even be standing in place. Something isn't right here. Looking closer and using his knowledge of the arcane he quickly states, The window is actually an animated object! Oddly, it seems to be the shards of broken glass rather than the actual window itself, indicating that it was previously shattered. Be on your guard!
EDIT : Uh-oh, I had a double post and deleted one but it changed my rolls. I had a 9 for Religion, a natural 20 for a 27 on the Perception and an 18 (+2 for 20) on the Arcana check.
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The dwarf looks on with interest.
"Summoned elementals and animated windows. This is more than just a hobgoblin raid on a society party. someone has put a lot of effort and energy into this."
He looks hard at the windows
"Are you sure? It just looks like the cathedral windows to me. Oh don't look at me that way Elf, I beleive you, I believe you."
He steps back from the window. "What are the chances that it will activate if anyone tries to go through one of those doors?"
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Suddenly breaking away from the window's frame, a figure made of breaking stained glass stands before you, an emotionless expression on it's face contrasting the happy figure the glass is meant to show
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ROUND 1
Kryssa, Serephta, Maldoc, Umaro, & Rhuul
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Stained Glass Golem
As the thing moves, the sound of broken glass grinding upon itself stings your ears, and you know that anything close has probably heard this, if it hadn't heard you already.
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Rhuul waves the pathfinder flag in the air, reminding everyone of who we represent.
Seeing the other pathfinders lay into the golem with mighty blows, he keeps a careful eye on the doors in case further company arrives.
"What did the Golem say to the condemed man?" calls out Rhuul.
"I'll granite you one last request!"
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Along the wall, you see a small assortment of ceremonial weapons, each representing one of the major heroes of Aroden's faith. Amongst them, you also find a masterwork bastard sword with a wolf's head on the hilt.
you also locate a small hidden trove of assorted fine jewelry. Finally, a gleaming mithral short sword with intricate scrollwork on its blade lies along the west wall.
The two doors in the room are both locked. Bursting the eastern one open, you find it leads you to a small tower, with three levels. The first is a storage area, containing crates of supplies and equipment for the lodge. A well hidden stairway leads to another floor. The middle level contains Greudemoffit’s laboratory, filled with large glass chambers, tubes, benches, and a number of weather experiments. These range from the distillation of rainwater to attempts to create clouds.
Another stairway leads you to the uppermost level which contains an office, with an enormous oak desk littered with papers and logbooks. These notes belong to Greudemoffit, one of Telfyr’s senior apprentices, who has developed an fascination with meteorology and weather prediction. A nearby table contains a stack of books detailing magical theories of weather.
The tower’s roof is edged by a low crenellated wall and contains several pieces of meteorological equipment: a brass wind vane shaped like a bird in flight, a water-filled glass chamber containing a number of colorful glass bulbs (three of which float on top, one on the bottom), a rainwater gauge, and a spyglass mounted on a tripod.
Go back down, and trying the other western door, it is likewise locked, requiring you to break it down to enter.
At the center of this twenty-foot-square room stand eight stout glass receptacles filled with fluids ranging from clear liquid to green jelly. Warty, fleshy blobs, resembling tiny humanoids, float inside each one. In one tube, a large black eye blinks up and down repeatedly, while in others a creature’s arms wave frantically and a strangely pretty doll-faced creature floats calmly. Heavy wooden benches ring the room, overflowing with alembics, beakers, ovens, tubes, and alchemical equipment of all sorts. Stout doors stand along the room’s western and northern walls, and a narrow staircase leads upward along the north wall.
This must be Wystorn Telfyr’s homunculus laboratory, where he has created dozens of the creatures, and which none are normally allowed. The blobs incubating here are his works-in-progress, some of which are bizarre variant homunculi built to resemble particular people or creatures.
After a quick inspection of the small room, you see nothing and begin to proceed, when suddenly, you hear something crash. It sounds like a small beaker stand was nocked over, causing the small vials to shatter on the ground. . .
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"We should have entered via the weather stations, that would have saved some time!" he grunts
Rhuul idly looks through some of the books and papers to see if they can give him a clue about what was happening.
The dwarves eyes light up at the mithril sword. "Now that is a nice piece of craftdwarveship." He'll heave any items that people don't want to pick up into his bag. "I guess we'll need to return these to the society, but we can use them in the meantime."
After entering the laboratory, Rhuul takes on a more cautious stance.
Without wanting to get too close to the disgusting contents, Rhuul peers towards the fallen beaker, looking at what was in it - or what pushed it over.
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Umaro casually flips through the weather notes.
"Ha, this one thinks he can control and predict nature. It's admirable."
Once inside the other lab, Umaro's features harden as his eyes move from beaker to beaker.
"What kind of abominations is this man creating?"
Seeing the Rhuul looking at something, Umaro steps up next to the dwarf and tries to spot it as well.
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Sarephta tries to see what Rhuul was pointing at.
"It's okay to come out...we won't hurt you,"[b] she says. [b]"Or, you can stay hidden. But we will do you no harm. Is there anything you can tell us of this place or those that attacked it?"
After waiting a few moments for a response, Sarephta turns to Kryssa. "Yes, let's try this door."
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Two of the tiny homunculi step out to be seen, while the last cautiously stays hidden. In response to Sarephtas last question, it holds up three fingers. It then points up to the ceiling, then stops and looks around for a moment, trying to think of something.
Finding a bit of leather string, it gets the other two to come out, and the three mimic a scene. One takes the leather string and holds it in to hands like an odd weapon, swinging it around at both ends, vaguely like a whip. Another acts like he is sneaking up on the third, holding a rusty nail like a club. It wonks the unarmed one, that is acting like he is reading, then the other two grab it, and drag it off a few inches.
They then all get up, and look at you, hoping you understood.