Unfortunately, Simon doesn't find anything that might offer clues as to how to use the device properly, nor does he discover anything else hidden here.
Terana claps Valentine on the back with a grin. "I'm very glad you didn't stay dead." She says with a smile, before taking up her glaive once more and standing watch while the sharp eyed people search for things.
Valentin smiles. "Desna had welcomed me into her embrace. I was dancing with my mother in a field of wildflowers and butterflies under a sky filled with stars."
He looks around and laughs good naturedly. "This is good too."
With the shadows dealt with Ema reached out and stroked Baucrade's metallic cheek after his celebratory swim and cheer. She turned to look at the machinery and reached out with the engineer's gloves to touch the mechanism to try and determine how to operate it.
With the magic of the gloves, Ema instantly determines that the planar gate here is naturally occurring. The archway around the gate and the careful geometric designs engraved on the room’s walls keep the opening stable. The gate generates arcane power as a side effect, and Auberon has harnessed this power to create the arcanovallation that wards the key portions of the Alabaster Trident.
The iron hemisphere is the control mechanism for the arcanovallation, which somehow involves several magically enhanced magnets, a pair of immovable rods, and a cube of force. Ema is fairly certain any tinkering with the device without extensive knowledge of how to operate it will simply result in the tower's magical defenses dropping completely.
Ema found the whole device fascinating once she understood the basics of what it did. She looked at the others and said, "This was built," she gestured indicating the mechanism, "around a natural planar gate to stabilize it," she gestured at the portal itself. Ema's hand gestured out and up the tower as she added, "The excess energy the portal generates is used to power the towers defenses. It would be a bad idea to mess with it as we would likely end up disabling the defenses we were trying to keep in place."
Ema looked back at everyone and said, "Sadly that means that wherever this portal goes it isn't changing destinations. We either need to find another portal that might take us where we need to go or go through this one and see if it takes us to where Aubron is."
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Simon, even though he has learned a lot, still has only been studying Arcane and Planar theory for a couple of months.
His mouth drops open and he stares between the device, the gloves, and Ema, not sure which is the most flabbergasting.
"It is unfortunate that Auberon didn't harness this power to protect Azlant. It might have been able to prevent Starfall, if he had worked with the rest of his society."
Looking around the room helplessly, he proclaims. "It appears the only other option is to turn around and give over attempting to save the world."
Clenching his teeth, he walks through the portal...
Terana follows right behind Simon. If she'd had a moment's more warning she'd have gone through first but the half-orc is impulsive so she just have to follow through behind him.
Ema was shocked to silence when Simon just walked through the portal into whatever lie on the other side. How could he be that stupid!? Before she could even respond Ema saw Terana go through right after him! Ema realized that it was far too late to warn them not to just go through until they knew what was on the other side.
She looked to Baucrade and asked quickly, "Do you know what is on the other side of this portal Baucrade? Is this where Auberon resides or does this lead elsewhere?"
”I don’t know,” Baucrade admits. ”But it would seem your friends have already made up their minds!”
"...f$%~ing hell." Victrix curses before looking at Ema.
"Stay or go?"
Shrugging, Valentin moves past them. "It seems there is only one way to figure out what is on the other side. It doesn't appear to be a plane full of poison gas, at least."
Following Simon, he steps through the gate.
Ema muttered in response to Valentin, "Or so we hopes." Ema Took a deep breath and held it then quickly swam through the portal.
Victrix promptly follows.
You step through the portal and emerge into dry air. The other side of the gate is a dense forest crowded with massive trees. Each tree has golden bark bearing whorls and cracks in strange runelike patterns. The trees extend hundreds of feet overhead, their leaves and branches allowing only diffuse sunlight to fill the forest. A few lodges built from gold-colored wood stand deeper in the forest, connected by a winding path of fresh wood chips.
The seawater drips off of you, making the path muddy beneath your feet. Behind you, you can see the flooded room you left, though the image is blurry and indistinct.
Baucrade flops about on the ground, fins flapping. "Ack! A little help?"
Ema found herself suddenly strandded like a fish out of water in her merform so she quickly deactivated her belt and rose to her feet. She heard Baucrade's cry for help and turned to it as she said, "She, it's alright Baucrade calm down so I can pick you up." Once the mechanical fish had stilled enough she could safely pick him up Ema knelt down and lifted him into her arms.
She nestled the fish against her bosom and said, "Now isn't that better? Let me think if there is anyway I can help you get around here..." After a moment Ema's shoulders slumped a bit and she said, "Of all the times not to have a spell to make people fly." She looked at her friends and asked, "Anyone got an idea how to help Baucrade get around here without carrying him?" She stroked the construct's head soothingly as she awaited an answer.
"Yes! Much better!" Baucrade says, snuggling up against Ema's chest. "It's soft and warm! Like being in between two pillows!"
Terana seems a little confused at why people seem to be having so much trouble - being naturally amphibious makes her oblivious occasionally.
"So this is where he's hiding?" She muses. "I hope the aboleth hasn't got here yet!"
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Simon is peering toward the lodges and the trail of wood chips as he responds to Terana.
"Perhaps. We could stop by those buildings over there and ask. There appear to be living residents, as I can't think of any reason Auberon would be chopping wood."
Looking over his shoulder and noting that everyone has arrived, he puts away his weapons and begins walking to the lodges.
Valentin breathes in the fresh air, and looks up to the open sky happily. Wringing out his scarves, he begins following Simon. "I do hope whoever lives there won't mind us making camp here for a little while. I really could do with a rest and a chance to dry off."
A tingle of warning in the back of his mind reminds Simon to check for traps before proceeding. And indeed, he discovers a ring of runes around the gate, set to blast unsuspecting creatures with waves of concussive force. Fortunately, with his skills, it is a simple matter to disable the trap before proceeding.
The nearest lodge to you is built on an enormous scale with a vast wooden porch. Its entrance is hung with a gauzy sheet ten feet square instead of a door. The lodge’s construction is crude, as though assembled quickly, and it appears recently made. The only item not built to the gigantic scale is a podium on the edge of the porch, about four feet high and sized for a human.
Three hulking cylcopes in leather armor relax inside the lodge, though when they notice you, they snarl and get to their feet, hefting axes and shields. "You do not belong here!" one declares in Azlanti.
"We fear that your master is in danger and have come to warn him!" Terana says in their language, her arms spread wide to show peaceable intent. "An aboleth, the enemy of both our peoples, is coming!"
Put off by Terana's dire words and overwhelmingly friendly demeanor, the cyclopes hesitate and lower their weapons. The one-eyed spokeswoman for the trio speaks. "We have not seen such a being in our visions. We would know if such a threat to the illustrious Auberon were on its way. Who are you to arrive here with such dire tidings, and from whence does your knowledge come?"
"We come from the remnants of mighty Azalant." Terana replies. "Through ill fortune an aboleth was released by human colonists and now seeks to finish their great work and destroy life on Golarion. We know that they intended to come here seeking ancient weapons to help their cause from interrogating their lesser servants. Please, can you help us?"
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Simon interjects, giving Terana a meaningful look. "Truly, we care not if Auberon lives, but this aboleth is a threat to us all and we learned that it was attempting to gain some weapon of great power from Auberon.
Perhaps that theft has already happened, but Auberon so far refuses to talk to us."
Simon glances around at the lodge and the cyclops. "This is not your home is it? Auberon has imprisoned you here? We rescued another cyclops, named Aeroclyse, from a hag who had blinded her in an attempt to steal her sight. Perhaps we can help you escape and unite you with her. I know it would be a great boon for her."
They've not been together long but Terana has already come to appreciate Simon as an insightful and capable companion. If he's taking the conversation in a new direction there must be a reason for it, so she nods firmly.
"Yes, the Azlanti enslaved us long ago, and we have been prisoners here for millenia," the cylcops says. "The nature of the Omen Dominion amplifies our oracular insights, but once Azlant fell and Auberon took control of this place, he has proven to be an even harsher master. He demands the locations of aboleth, aquatic elf, and merfolk enclaves to punish, blaming them for the catastrophe that destroyed his empire. We desire very much to slay him and be free of this place."
"We need to speak to him first." Terana interjects firmly, "But I have no truck with slavery. If you give your word that you hold no grudge against the world outside this place then we will help to free you."
"We can barely conceive of the world beyond this realm! We only desire our freedom," the one-eyed giant affirms.
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Simon nods. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. As long as you don't become the enemy of my friends, that is. Perhaps we can help you forge peaceful e relations with the human settlement on Ancorato. If not, we will do what we can to assist you in moving where you like."
Simon smiles, happy to find someone who isn't trying to kill and eat him. "Let us talk of our shared problems. Seeking the Veiled Master is our primary goal, tracking down what it might have stolen is secondary. It goes by the name Ochymua. Does that mean anything to you?
As for the problem of your enslavement, is there some magic that traps you here?"
"We do not know that name, but Auberon did have another visitor recently," the cyclops says. "A human man who sought to become the lich's apprentice. We do not know all that transpired between them, but when the apprentice left, Auberon flew into a rage and became increasingly paranoid. He locked himself in his lodge here and has not emerged since.
"No magic specifically binds us here, but the only portal out of this realm leads into the lich's flooded tower, and we cannot breathe water. Plus, when Auberon realizes we have left, he will come for us, and his power far outshines our own abilities."
Valentin grips Simon's shoulder, but can't hide a look of fear.
"The right thing to do is rarely easy, no matter how experienced we may be. The good news being that if he is refusing to leave his lodge, we should have a day or two to rest and prepare."
Ema heard what the cyclopes had to say and felt sympathy for them. Being enslaved for that long was wrong and she suspected letting them know of her own origins would not be wise. She did add, "While I can't help you breathe the water I think we can get you safely out of her to somewhere else dry. We may need you to hold your breath briefly so I can do so and the only place I could take you would be our settlement so we'd need your agreement to get along with them at least until we could find somewhere else for you to go." She smiled and said, "But I doubt that is too much to ask of you."
She turned her gaze "deeper" into the demi plane she suspected they were in and said, "We need to deal with Auberon. That you haven’t seen the Veiled Master is not a huge surprise, they have more than earned that name by being able to stay hidden even from magic. In fact it wouldn't shock me if the human 'apprentice' was actually a Veiled Master in disguise." She sighed, "Or at least was likely one of it's agents. Either way this isn't good."
"If the apprentice came and left again, driving Auberon into a rage then we're too late." Terana agrees. "No doubt they got what they came for and that's why the lich is so angry. But his destruction is a good of its own - it frees these oceans of a dangerous threat and liches are a perversion of the natural order. We must fight him."
She does nod at Valentin's suggestion. "Indeed. Let us rest and take the fight to him when we are at full strength!"
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Turning to the cyclops again, Simon asks. "Is there anything you can tell us that may help us to battle Auberon? Do you know of any defenses he has around his lodge?
Have you ever seen him in battle before to know what types of spells he prefers?
Does he have any wards on that lodge that would prevent us from simply burning it to the ground?"
"The podium here, and in the other lodges, are places of power," the cyclops says. "Stand at them and look to the trees, and you will see visions that might give you insights or show you scenes of those who have been in the lodges before.
"There are no wards on Auberon's lodge that we know of, but he keeps several clockwork mages as guardians. You could try to burn it down, but that will only likely make Auberon more angry. The lich has a great command of all types of magic, including spells to both incapacitate and to kill."
Having been savouring the sensation of being in open, dry air again, Victrix doesn't add much when negotiations begin.
"Alright... how're we doing for resources? If we're going to go for his lodge, it'd be a bad idea to go in there half-spent."
The podium is not trapped. As Simon looks at the surrounding trees, he sees the runes come into focus together as a single image. As the leaves of the trees rustle and the runic images on the trees shift, the image appears to be moving. The scene is only a few seconds long, like a short shadow play, and starts over at the beginning when complete.
Standing at this podium reveals a scene of the three cyclopes cowering in fear from the lich Auberon, who strides imperiously away from them along the path.
Ema was curious to try one of the podiums as well and approached one of them while still carrying Baucrade. When she was inplace Ema tried to figure out what she could see and if it would be of any use.
Terana, on the other hand, seems to have no desire at all to use the podiums and stays well clear.
You move on to the other lodges. The next one is new-looking and sized for a human. The lodge interior is a single room with several alcoves. Near the door is the slumped and broken body of a clockwork mage whose crystalline head bears Auberon’s features. A thin film of dried slime covers the floor and furnishings.
Ema stands on the podium, and the trees shift to play out a scene. In this scene, a young, dark-haired Taldan man stands next to the lich Auberon inside a building; the man points at a wall map questioningly, and Auberon turns to point out a spot on the map (the details of the map are indecipherable in the image). As Auberon turns away, the young man quickly stealing a large yellow jewel from Auberon’s robes.
The other lodges are empty, each showing generalized scenes of Auberon and the Taldan man walking and talking together.
Auberon's lodge is the largest, and its gold-colored wood is etched with graceful geometric patterns accented with silver and platinum. The lodge has a wide porch like the others, but the porch roof is missing, leaving its sharpened support beams in place as tall spikes that thrust upward from the porch’s edges. Each spike bears impaled corpses of elves and merfolk. Wide double doors leading into the lodge are shut.
A podium at the edge of the porch is covered with crawling runes. Standing here, Ema sees Auberon bursts out of his lodge door, frantically looking from side to side. He races to the door to the second lodge and throws it open. Seeing it empty except for the destroyed construct, Auberon drops to his knees and silently wails with frustrated rage.
Ema watched the various scenes with growing trepidation as she saw the first image. The mucus like substance told her quite clearly that they may already be too late. Seeing the course of events she actually felt a bit sorry for Auberon, being betrayed as he was, but she also knew they needed to know what the stolen jewel was. Once she had seen the last of the images Ema relayed everything to her friends and then said, "I understand now why Auberon has become so focused and crazed and I can't say that I entirely blame him given the betrayal he has suffered." Her shoulders slumped as she realized that this act had truly driven the lich mad. "There is no choice but to put him down I think and we have to find out what was so important about that gem..." Her face blanched completely as a thought came to her and she said, "Gods, I hope that wasn't his phylactery, if it was we'll never be able to lay Auberon to rest."
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Not comfortable standing so close to Auberon's lodge, Simon retreats to the slime lodge before responding.
Simon looks at Ema doubtfully. "Carrying his phylactery in his pocket would be very dangerous. I would imagine a lich of Auberon's power would likely keep that in some inter-dimensional pocket that only he could access.
My guess is that the jewel is a key to opening whatever he was pointing to on that map. Likely the location of this weapon we think the veiled master was looking for."