What may once have been a small kitchen now lies in ruin. Humanoid bones, strips of decaying flesh, and clusters of oyster shells and tangled seaweed cover the counters. The entire room smells of sweat and brine mixed with a tangy, sulfuric musk. A twisted nest of waterlogged cloth, partly dried seaweed, and gnarled animal carcasses fills the middle of the room.
Within the tangle of carcasses rests a single pewter cuff bearing the seal of Andoran.
Victrix glares at the pewter cuff and starts to approach it, her axe at the ready. She keeps her eyes open for trouble.
Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary here.
Victrix picks up the cuff. "Looks like we're definitely in the right place."
This spacious room contains the shattered wooden frames of beds and some dilapidated, threadbare cloth mattresses placed in a pile, atop which a foul nest of animal bones, seaweed, and other watery detritus is heaped. A battered and rusted tower shield emblazoned with the spiral-and-star symbol that was on the door serves as a "headboard" of sorts. Behind it, you discover a small assortment of gemstones, worth 350 gp total.
Victrix growls and starts to make her way to the last door, throwing it open.
Much of this cavernous library lies in terrible disrepair. The stone shelves set into the walls are cracked, chipped, and split, and heaps of ruined, ancient tomes lie scattered across the floor. A tile mosaic in the room’s center depicting a spiraling comet with a star at its center has been shattered by multiple blunt impacts from fragments of marble slab shelves. What few books remain on the shelves have crumbled into illegible scraps of long-lost lore.
Searching through this room will take quite some time, an hour or more.
"Well, no more trolls in here." Victrix snorts.
"You want to search this place?" She asks Ema and Simon. "I'll keep an eye out."
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"Yes, we should definitely search it. However, we should keep moving for now while the elemental and my shield are still active.
These books have been here for ten thousand years, another hour won't matter.
Let's head upstairs, as Ema suggested."
Simon moves over to the stairway behind Desna, waiting for the others before ascending.
Two sprawling bas-reliefs decorate the second-floor landing. The interior wall is engraved with depictions of a robed Azlanti man bearing a sword and an unmarked shield, battling a colossal demonic creature in a hellish landscape. The outer wall is likewise carved with a dramatic bas-relief etched with the finest details, in this case illustrating a turbulent ocean. In the image, shattered pieces of land are spiraling down toward the center of a massive whirlpool, each with fragmentary pieces of crumbling cities atop them. A single shaft of light or energy lances up from the middle of the whirlpool to the top of the relief.
A pair of staircases wrapping along the outer walls ascend and descend the tower, while double doors embellished with images of Desna and Pharasma are located in alcoves at the top of each staircase.
The relief on the outer wall is more open to interpretation. It either shows the destruction of Azlant (though by differenr means), or it depicts an event that has not yet transpired. It is clearly showing the destruction of an island landmass as the ocean floor collapses into an impossibly large vortex.
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"That robed figure there is Aroden. Which would make the demon lord Deskari.
But.... that event happened thousands of years after Starfall. We've been assuming that all of the Azlanti were killed or fled after the cataclysm. How could this engraving have been made, if that were true?
This other carving seems to show the destruction of Azlant, but that is not how it happened.
Could this facility been an Oracle of some kind, making predictions of future events?"
Simon makes some quick notes in his journal, reminding himself to come back and take more detailed notes later.
"This is truly fascinating, but we need to keep clearing the facility before we study."
Putting away the journal, Simon looks for traps and listens at the eastern doors before opening them.
"Well, maybe the Pathfinders didn't find everything here after all, eh?"
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Simon smiles at Victrix's attempt to make him feel better about their explorations.
"Perhaps. It is also possible they found it and hid the knowledge.
I suppose either way we'll be able to report the discoveries first. It should make the book more interesting, and perhaps even encourage others to visit."
A long-collapsed oaken table litters this room, along with the dilapidated and ancient-looking remains of several chairs. The far end of the room opens onto another chamber.
Here, an enormous marble basin sits on a stone dais flanked by iron braziers. The inside of the basin is caked with dried blood, and dark splotches mar the steps leading up to it. Behind the dais, an etched mural depicts the goddess Pharasma with her head down, cradling the light of a single star between cupped hands. Desna is depicted standing behind her, arms wrapped around Pharasma's shoulders and butterfly wings outspread behind her. Opposite this dais is a pair of enormous stone doors engraved with arcane writing and geometric shapes.
As they continued their explorations they found the kitchen where the trolls had been eating...ugh! People! It was horrifying but at least those two creatures wouldn't be doing it again.
At the discovery of the library Ema felt a wash of excitement. While she itched to explore the library right away she knew they needed to clear out any dangers first. "Yes Simon, let's keep exploring, we can always entertain ourselves with the books later."
Reaching the second floor she looked at the reliefs but couldn't make heads or tails of them, fortunately Simon could and she couldn't help but be amazed. "It could be that they had some forewarning of what would happen later, prophecy used to be a very reliable thing so maybe that's what they patterned these off of."
Reaching the next area Ema looked around in interest at the designs of Desna and Pharasma. The markings on the door caught Ema's immediate interest and she began to head towards them to try and see what the gyphs might mean.
Ema realizes that the glyphs on the doors seem to be unintelligible ramblings, but several of them constitute a symbol of scrying. The doors are not locked, but opening them will activate the symbol, alerting whoever created it and allowing them to see into this chamber.
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"A symbol of scrying? That reminds me of that spybot we accidentally destroyed when we were first exploring the village.
I wonder if this was placed by the same person."
Fishing for his lock picks, he sets them out and starts analyzing the lines of the symbol, looking for the key place where the symbol can be safely deactivated.
As he does so, he continues, "Then again, there was a symbol in the facility where we found Eliza. Was that symbol placed by the aboleth? We certainly don't want THAT to know who we are."
Harnessing his training in how to disable magical traps, Simon reaches out and tries to break the flow.
Simon is able to destroy the symbol without triggering it. The door should be safe to open now.
The floor of this massive, octagonal room is etched with an elaborate circle consisting of magical symbols, concentric rings, and silver-inlaid grooves, all stained with smeared blood. Four supports in the room have iron spikes driven into them, connected to thick iron chains that lead to the center of the circle.
Chained to the spikes is a bald giant with a single gaping eye socket in the center of his face. He would be nine feet tall if he wasn't hunched over. He appears to be emaciated and weak, with numerous scars and bruises decorating his body. He groans feebly, but makes no move to interact with you.
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Mumbling under his breath as he quickly examines the runes, Simon contemplates how this facility was used.
"A sky map? Based on what we presume to be prophetic murals, perhaps Astrology played a part in how they predicted the future."
Examining the chained creature, he speaks to the group. "That is a Cyclops. Some think that cyclops can see glimpses of the future, which seems to fit with the rest of this facility."
Switching to Giant, Simon raises his voice to get the cyclops' attention.
"Hello there. Are you all right? We have food and water, if you need some. We can also remove those manacles, unless there is some reason you require them to stay on."
Simon will ask Kip for a couple of the extra goodberries, and will prepare to hand them and his water flask to the cyclops.
The cyclops winces at the sound of Simon's voice. He replies in Giant.
"No! No, my lord, I would never dream of attempting to escape. As always, I remain Helekhterie's humble servant, eager to serve at her whim."
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In Giant: "Do you speak other languages, perhaps the Azlanti language? I think my friends might have some questions, and they don't speak the tongue of Giants."
In Common: "Says he doesn't want to escape and remains the hag's servant"
Simon approaches with the goodberries and water, presenting them to the cyclops.
"I speak your common tongue as well, my lord," the cyclops says deferentially. He tenses up as he hears Simon approaching, as if expecting to be struck.
Victrix's fury abates at the sight of the blind, enslaved cyclops.
"...yes. Give him the food and drink." She nods at Simon before addressing the cyclops.
"Don't worry--we're not here to hurt you. We're here for Helekhterie--or, rather, for her head. And the colonists she's abducted. If we free you, can you tell us anything that will help us kill her?"
The cyclops's demeanor shifts, and he tries to straighten up as he turns his unseeing gaze on Victrix. "Yes. I know much of Helekhterie, for she has kept me prisoner here for nine years now. During that time, I have been bled, mutilated, and tortured. And now she has taken my eye! I would love nothing more than to see her ripped apart for all the indignities she has forced me to suffer.
"I am Aeroclyse. Release me, and I will share my knowledge with you."
Victrix grins. "Simon? Can you get him free?"
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"Yes, of course, right away.
Aeroclyse, very pleased to meet you. I am Simon. You've spoken with Victrix, and our friends Kip and Emalliandra are here as well.
Here, if you'll open your free hand, I'll give you a couple of Goodberries. They are small, but contain powerful magic that contains all of the nutrition you need for the day as well as minor curative magic.
I'll set a water flask right here by your foot. Now, just give me a moment and I'll have that manacle off."
Simon gets his tools out again, before carefully examining the manacle for traps.
When she realized what the sigils were Ema told Simon so he could disarm them, something that was beyond her skills to do at the moment. With the scrying sigils out of the way Ema's elemental rumbled to her and she gestured, opening the rift for it, and the elemental stepped through and returned home.
As they entered the octagonal room and saw the blinded cyclops Ema gasped in surprise and sorrow. The poor being, chained like it was and even worse blinded, she began to approach it but Simon beat her to it. Given that he seemed to have things well in hand Ema began to look at the various runes and sigils.
While Simon worked on the cuffs Ema said, "I know these symbols, these are nine ancient constellations and those ones," she pointed at a few of them, "are still recognizable as part of the Cosmic Caravan. The rest of them don't exist anymore, at least not in the same configuration."
Finding no traps, Simon swiftly pops the manacles open. Aeroclyse rubs his sore wrists and ankles and thanks the half-orc profusely. He gobbles down the goodberries and chugs the water.
"Ah! I feel much better now... Though alas, I am still in no condition to be of much use to you in a fight. It will take some time for my atrophied muscles to recover, to say nothing of my missing eye. But I can tell you all I know.
"You will find Helekhterie at the top of the tower. The sea hag is deranged, convinced that she is the vessel through which the broken art of prophecy will be brought back to the world. She believes my presence here will somehow help her achieve her so-called destiny. She is accompanied by two aberrations called vampiric mists, amorphous creatures that drain blood from their victims.
"If you have not been to the tower's basement yet, you will find Helekhterie's alchemy lab there. There is a secret compartment where she stores her excess treasure. You might find something there that could help you when you confront her.
"As for missing colonists... I assume by your language you are humans? I don't know anything about any humans near her. Sometimes she locks other prisoners in here with me, but they are all aquatic creatures--locathahs, merfolk, sahuagin, sea elves and the like. They usually don't last long before she cuts them open and uses their blood and entrails for her divination rituals."
Victrix nods. ”What other servants does she have here?”
"A trio of scrags--sea trolls--serve her, though one hasn't been back to the tower in several months. They usually guard the lower level, so if you're up here, I assume you've already dealt with them."
The berserker nods in understanding, even though the cyclops cannot see her.
"Really? I thought she also had some faceless stalkers serving her. I suppose they really weren't allowed in her domain..."
Aeroclyse scratches his head. "Hmmm. I don't recall any such creatures ever being here, but I suppose it is possible."
Don't get my hopes up.
Victrix turns to the others. "Any of you have any questions for him?"
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"Aeroclyse, we don't have any ability to heal your eye currently, but we do have a friend who is blind and may be able to help you cope with the transition.
If we survive the coming battle, we will be glad to help you to leave the island and introduce you. Or, if you prefer, we can attempt to help you return to your people.
Did you live on this island before the hag captured you, or did she transport you here?"
"She abducted me from my tribe on an island in what you humans call the Shackles. I long to return to my people, and will be grateful if you could get me back to them."
Simon knows that vampiric mists are strange monsters with unclear motives, though they are primarily driven for their desire to hunt prey. Their bodies are composed of equal parts fluid and air. They resist nonmagical weapons, but they are vulnerable to fire.
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Simon shares his knowledge with the others, then thinks more about the issue at hand.
"We will do what we can for you. Getting to the Shackles may require a trip by ship, and I am not sure how well you can travel on a human ship, but we can discuss the issue when our next supply ship arrives.
Regarding the tower, do you know how many levels there are between us and the hag's lair?
What can you tell us about her magical abilities?"
"Helekhterie commands magical power, though I am uncertain to its nature. Her powers usually involve celestial lights, as if she commands the heavens themselves! I have not been higher than this level of the tower, so I don't know how much further her lair might be."
"I'm sorry you've been mistreated so, Aeroclyse. As Simon introduced me, my name is Kip, and I can't stand those who inflict such pain and misery on others. After we've dealt with Helekhterie here, I'll be happy to look into if there's anything we can do to restore your eye. And we're not all human, though a large portion of our group are. I'm a grippli!"
"Do you know if she usually keeps anyone guarding her alchemical lab downstairs? Or are the two nasty trolls the bulk of it?" Kip thought for a moment, then added, "If her claims at prophecy have any basis in reality, it seems likely that she'll be prepared for our arrival. We should probably equip ourselves the best we can before we attack her. If she can create lights... Ema, any idea on how we can protect ourself from... light?"
"I didn't see any guardians in the laboratory when I was down there, but that was several years ago," Aeroclyse says to Kip.
"That's fair. We'll be on our guard. Do you want to stay here while we clear the place out, or would you rather come along and stay in the back?"
"I'll wait here. In my current state, I'd be more of a liability than anything else if I accompanied you."
"Sounds good. I want you to be wherever is safest for you. We'll be back soon, and soon after that, we'll be getting you out of here to freedom!"
"Guys, how do you suppose ol' Hel the Hag managed to get to the Shackles? Does she have a ship of her own? Aeroclyse, do you remember how you got here?"
"She had a small ship. Her scrags knocked me out and dragged me aboard it before bringing me back to this tower."
Victrix frowns as she ponders the logistics of getting Aeroclyse the Cyclops back home by ship.
"Well, we've got quite a bit of work ahead of us if we're to kill the hag. Anything else?"