Ema shuddered at the thought of what they were talking about when they found the portable hole. "The interaction is very specific and I don't know if it would interact this way with handy haversack but if a bag of holding is placed within a portable hole, a rift to the Astral Plane is torn in that place. Both the bag and the cloth are sucked into the void and forever lost. If a portable hole is placed within a bag of holding, it opens a gate to the Astral Plane. The hole, the bag, and any creatures within a 10-foot radius are drawn there, the portable hole and bag of holding being destroyed in the process." She frowned thoughtfully and then added, "It might be something that could be weaponized with an arrow of some kind but it would be incredibly expensive to do so."
As they moved on and found the library Ema thought they had hit the jackpot. She looked at the man who approached them warily and said, "I'm rather surprised anyone is alive down here. How have you survived all this time?"
"Magic," Axloral says simply. "My lifespan is far beyond that of a normal human's."
"Reading these books," Axloral says, gesturing to the shelves. "I have read them many times, again and again and again. The knowledge contained within is unique and invaluable. Your people could benefit immensely from it."
Simon doesn't sense any falsehood in the man's words. However, as the custodian speaks, the half-orc spots a brief glimpse of a forked tongue in his mouth...
Interpreting Simon's nudge correctly Terana looks at the man, engaging both her magical senses.
"I had none," the man admits with a sly smile. Terana can sense a strong aura of evil coming from him, but he is not an aberration.
Based on the serpentine feature, Simon guesses that this might be a fiend known as a xacarba. Fiends hailing from the darkest reaches of the Abyss, xacarbas are manipulation and destruction intertwined. Many serve the demon lord Abraxas, and while they are able to change shape into humanoid forms, they always possess a single serpentine feature in these forms that they cannot fully hide.
Ema was rather surprised at everything the man was saying. She wasn't quite sure what was happening, or why Simon and Terana were acting so strange. Hells, Simon could be touchy in general if he thought someone was trouncing over his historical territory. Maybe that was what was going on here?
Assuming the worst about Simon again, as "siblings" were want to do, Ema shifted and stepped between Simon and the Archivist and glared at the half-orc, "This isn't one of your angry at being out knowledgeds again is it Simon? If it is knock it off." She looked at Terana and then said, "Don't let him drag you into this too, he gets grumpy when he thinks his life's work is being threatened."
Victrix appears to be just as clueless as Ema is.
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Simon will smile at Ema, reach out and easily lift her up, pivoting to place her behind Terana and himself.
"Ema, don't let appearances cause you grief. I am simply trying to get to know our fiend, heh, heh, friend here."
Turning back, he asks, "No official role, Axlorl? Does that mean you came here after the fall? That is a very impressive feat. Later, I'd like to hear your story.
For now though, we did come here to learn about the research into the Synchrony Device. Can you tell us what purpose the Azlanti meant to use it for?"
Terana walks past Axlorl as though she's heading for the nearest bookcase and then suddenly whirls and cuts sharply at him with her glaive.
Axloral narrows his eyes, but before he can answer Simon, Terana’s glaive slices into his side! He hisses in pain. ”Very well, paladin. I will respond to violence with violence!”
Simon recalls that xacarbas can redirect spells cast by those nearby!
Ema finally caught on to what was going on when Terana attacked the scholar. The being's own words reached the mage in dawning horror given where she was and she was having none of that! As she stepped forward Ema tore open a crack in space and walked through it so that she would appear behind Simon and Victrix and keep them between her and the archivist.
Ema wasn't sure what they were facing so she kept her eyes the archivist and was ready to counter him if he cast anything even as she cast a spell to speed up their perceptions.
Victrix blinks. "...okay, I guess we're doing this now!"
Then she runs up and swings her holy axe!
Axloral dodges Victrix’s attack, then suddenly grows and changes. In an instant, he has become a towering, three-tailed, six-eyed beast that seems like three rune-backed serpents partially melded together into one body. He lashes out at Terana with his poisoned fangs and heavy tails!
Moving behind Terana, Valentin converts a spell into healing magic.
Ema's eyes widened in shock as the archivist changed into something monstrous and she quickly tried to figure out what it was.
Realizing what she was up against Ema quickly moved back to get out of the range of it's ability to redirect her spells and then tore open a whole in reality to let a summoned creature through.
An angel steps out of the crack with smooth skin, a muscular body, large golden wings, and wielding a large morningstar. It lashed out three times at their monster with the weapon in it's hand.
Shelyn's divine power protects her servant and Terana sets to work.
Victrix keeps on swinging, maintaining control of her temper!
With your full force focused on the towering xacarba, the battle doesn't last long. Simon scores a critical hit with his spear and Terana slices and dices the fiend with her holy glaive. Victrix lands a powerful blow with her axe, then Ema summons an angel just as icing on the cake. The celestial being delivers two brutal blows, and with a last hiss, Axloral collapses to the floor, bloodied and beaten!
With the fiend slain, the library is now yours to peruse. Though with so many books, it's going to take quite some time to research here. And somewhere among the stacks must lie one of the three ioun stones needed to access the Doomsday Stores.
[ooc]Researching in the library will take 8 hours and require a Knowledge (arcana, dungeoneering, history, or religion) check.
"...well. That was quick." Victrix says as she stretches, planting her axe on the floor.
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Simon stares in awe at the longsword from the museum, amazed at the devastating wound it dealt. Carefully stowing it, he looks around at the library and the task ahead of them.
After a few minutes of browsing, the remainder of his mutagen fades and his features soften to normal again. Beginning to pick out possibly meaningful books, he grunts to the others.
"This is going to take a while. You might want to make yourselves more comfortable."
After research, Simon will also use the Scholar's Ring to cast Legend Lore on the Synchrony Device.
"I'll look for Ioun Stones." Terana offers and sets to work on a thorough search.
Ema was relieved to see the fiend go down and turned to the angel. "Thank you for your assistance Gadriel. I doubt we will run into trouble again any time soon so please, return to your purpose." With that Ema tore open reality again and the angel nodded and went through.
Once the portal snapped closed Ema's eyes flashed as she consumed one of her prepared spells and she began to search the archives. If she remembered right there should be some kind of catalog that would help somewhere. She just needed to find the access.
A thorough search would take quite some time, and Ema's initial efforts to locate a catalog don't bear fruit. Instead, helping Simon to pore through the tomes to research would likely produce better results. You spend several hours reading and looking through the stacks, taking breaks to rest. Eventually, you learn some bits of pertinent information about the Spindle Solution and their leaders.
The Spindle Solution is an offshoot of the Ioun Imperative, an Azlanti intelligence agency. Grand Arcanist Jazradan left a prominent position in the Ioun Imperative to found the Spindle Solution.
Among the Spindle Solution’s senior membership is Rashimos the Eastern Blade, who led Azlant’s failed invasion of Arcadia. Ambassador Harighal of Thassilon serves Runelord Xanderghul and has pledged his support to the Spindle Solution in defeating the veiled masters. Lurisian, champion of the common Azlanti, maintains the organization’s depositories of research material. Finally, the elf Varliss provides elven magical sciences to augment the Spindle Solution’s efforts against the veiled masters.
The clockworks of the Compass report to an overseer unit installed in the testing wing. This clockwork goliath is an immobile construct that retains information reports filed by the clockwork defenders of the facility. Its destruction would cause discord among the stationed clockwork units within the Compass.
The Synchrony Device is a weapon held in the lower Doomsday Stores, capable of overlaying a portion of the Material Plane with a portion of another plane. Documentation here provides information on how to safety deactivate the device, granting a +10 circumstance bonus on skill checks to power down the weapon.
Hidden among the documents of the library in a lead-lined book, you at last find a radiant blue sphere ioun stone, which acts as one of the three keys to the Doomsday Stores.
Simon's spell gives him a wealth of information about the Synchrony Device
Terana stacks books as instructed, and grins when the whole thing folds up and can be carried just as easily as before. "I love magic!" She says with a grin.
You return to the Compass's central chamber. Once more, Jazradan's image manifests before you. "Excellent! You have obtained one of the three ioun stones needed to access the Doomsday Stores. Keep up the good work, and soon, we will be able to stop the veiled master's plans, once and for all."
Victrix takes out a coin and flips it.
It comes up heads. "I vote we go to Testing."
Terana nods and follows Victrix, she doesn't care much either way.
Once the rotating halls line up properly, you step through the door and into the hall of the testing wing. After a short walk, the entry hall splits into two identical halls, curving to run along the edge of this section of the facility. Doorways branch off at regular intervals, opening into sharply curving hallways.
A patrol of four clockwork soldiers approaches from down one of the halls. They stop and level their glaives when they see you. "Only authorized personnel are allowed in the Compass. Identify yourselves!" one commands.
"Lurisian has been gone for centuries. Intruders must be eliminated!" the clockwork replies, not falling for Simon's deception!
"Oh for f!$#'s sake..." Victrix sighs before walking up to the nearest one and swinging her axe.
Ema saw the clockwork guards coming and thought they would just be ignored. Unfortunately they weren't and Simon managed to tick them off. Ema was rather cross that they would have to end these constructs but there would now be no choice. Ema chanted and gestured, weaving the magic together, and her eyes flashed as she released a thunderous bolt of lightning that lanced out at the closest clockwork and then forked out to trike at the others as well.
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Shaking his head at the failure of his ploy, Simon draws the longsword and moves toward the closest construct.
"We apologize for the attempted deception and for this unfortunate violence. It is obvious that your programming is in error and Jazradan thought you might respond better to Lurisian's name.
We do not seek your end, but are prepared to perform our duties regardless."
Only one of the clockworks manages to dodges some of Ema's lightning. The other three take the full blast, leaving them badly damaged. Simon and Victrix rush up to meet them, working together to cut down one of the clockworks.
The remaining three attack with their flaming burst halberds!
The red rage overtakes Victrix once more, and she starts swinging like a maniac!
Ema saw Simon nearly killed by the flurry of blows from the constructs and knew that she had to thin the herd some more. She hadn't wanted to use another spell of that magnitude again but she felt it was now necessary if they were to survive this fight. Ema cast the same spell again, focusing her primary strike on the construct that seemed the least damaged, and let fly another shadowy chain lightning.
Ema's lightning rips through the three remaining clockworks, causing them to fall to the floor in smoking heaps!
Valentin rushes forward, ready to cast a high level healing spell, just in time to see Ema finish off the constructs.
Smiling gratefully, he gets out a wand instead and begins a slower healing process.
Terana doesn't even get a chance to swing before Ema has zapped the clockworks into oblivion, so she keeps guard while the rest of the group patch themselves up.