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A hulking Half-orc enters the room and looks around as if expecting attack before stepping in, a soft jingle of his polished scale as he walks across the carpet. Corded muscles barely concealed beneath a tight storm gray robe which smells faintly of seaweed he places his cold iron trident on the ground before slouching into an available seat and pulls out a pot of dark Kohl from his backpack and begins applying it to his face, creating a demonic visage.
"The name's Samildanach" he says gruffly once he has finished topping up his war-paint, "Chosen of Ioz'om, the SKy Father. Here for some trouble in a museum?"
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"I'm Omrijka. Protecta of pretty things. I'm with the pathfinder so sy et tee to discover and protect pretty things and possible get ideas for making more pretty things" she fingers a silver songbird round her neck. "And of course I protect the pretty things and them as find em with my slashy and pointy sticks like my old master Lathathi Whitewing taught me after I first borrowed his songbird" she takes the silver figure and kisses it. "So that's me warrior of Shelyn"
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Silgil steps in the room, then quickly backs up a step, saying "Dang. Looks like we have the muscle pretty well taken care of here. No wonder I was invited"
After catching a glimpse of the diminutive gnome, previously hidden by one of the three hulking half-orcs, he adds "A gnome! I love gnomes! Got any good jokes? See any good practical jokes lately?"
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A medium man with a brute semblant enters the room. He has a brown hair that fills his head and his mistreated beard.
Besides his rude aspect, he displays many weapons on his body - spear, falchion, bow, and others. Despite this, his eyes have something strangely different and he sustains a sneering smile.
Behind him stands a feline, with a pale yellow coat, and is patterned with black rosettes. Her head, lower limbs and belly are spotted with solid black. She watches everyone in the room with a predatory look.
"Haliphod! I haven't seen you since we visited the northern icy lands. How are you?", he seems really happy to see that one of his companions of the north's onslaught is still alive, after so long.
"And you guys? Seiran, Silgil, what's up?", the ranger smiles to them. There had not been a long time since the last mission with them.
"It seems that Seiran brought his brother and his girlfriend this time, huh?!", Peter says referring to the half-orcs who he still did not know.
"I also brought a new member: Juhah", he points to the leopard and then makes a fondness in her head. "Isn't she beautiful?"
The Blakros Museum rises into the night sky, its single black spire severing the full moon in twain. The black iron gates surrounding the exhibition hall grind in protest against the wind. Beyond, the museum’s large oaken doors stand wide open, a silver-gray mist belching forth from the cavernous darkness within. You wonder how you ended up here, standing at the precipice of unknown terrors, and instantly Venture- Captain Adril Hestram’s wide looming face is conjured into your minds’ eye. His booming words ring out from memory as clearly as he spoke them only one hour ago: “The Blakros Museum is cursed. Some darkness has descended upon the place and those who enter are blasted with evil and left raving through its halls, more beast than men. The curator, Nigel Aldain, is an old associate of the Society, though he chose to leave our organization some years back after a disagreement.” Adril looked sheepish then, as if remembering some distasteful incident from his youth.
“Nigel has long denied the Society access to the Blakros Museum’s considerable collection of relics and scrolls, using his extensive contacts to nab several excellent finds right out from under us... he always had a nose for the hunt. Whatever is past between Nigel and the Society, he needs our help now. Perhaps if we can come to his aid, he may think on rejoining the Pathfinder Society, or at least offering to share his discoveries with us.”
“Apparently the trouble at Blakros Museum began this morning, shortly after a wayward Pathfinder named Lugizar Trantos returned to Absalom after months spent in the Mwangi Expanse. Supposedly, instead of coming straight to the Lodge to report in, he went to Blakros, sold his finds to Nigel, and then disappeared with a hefty sum of gold. The few who glimpsed Lugizar claimed he was much changed by his time in the Mwangi... gaunt, his eyes yellowed and unfocused, a strange rasping cough that seemed to wrack his now wasted frame. Whatever he brought back with him, we believe it is the cause of the Blakros Museum’s ills. Root it out.”
Adril also handed you a VISITOR'S MAP of the area, a welcome change from your normal task of exploring something unknown.
Much of the Mwangi’s darkest interior worships a demon lord namedAngazhan, who is described in the Book of the Damned as a thing of primordial darkness, a foul-breathed demon who grunts prophecies of blood to apes and madmen. The jungle is his beating heart.
Lugizar Trantos spent the better part of a year in the Mwangi Expanse. At first he wrote letters to his brother and wife, but after a few months these stopped coming and most gave him up for dead.
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"It seems that this Lugizar Trantos spent the better part of a year in the Mwangi Expanse. I heard that he wrote letters to his brother and wife at the begining, but after a few months these stopped coming and most gave him up for dead".
"Now is the better part: Much of the Mwangi’s darkest interior worships a demon lord named Angazhan, who is described in the Book of the Damned as a thing of primordial darkness, a foul-breathed demon who grunts prophecies of blood to apes and madmen. The jungle is his beating heart".
"Certainly what Lugizar Trantos sold to Nigel did this to the museum. Let's check it and make our Venture Captain happy", he says with a smile on his face and a bow in his hands.
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"It seems that Seiran brought his brother and his girlfriend this time, huh?!", Peter says referring to the half-orcs who he still did not know.
Samildanach rolls his eyes from the droll, unimaginative statement Oh look, another dumb racist he sighed inwardly, fixing the man with a bored stare, his demonic visage highlighting his races' natural ferocity. His boice is just as cold as his look.
" Well done on your stunning observation, how very droll."
He slips his shield onto his left arm and tightens the straps before collecting his cold Iron Trident in the other, the darknpoints gleaming in the moonlight.
"Let us press on, how do we want to go about this? I am happy to stay up front or second rank, no farther back."
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"And you guys? Seiran, Silgil, what's up?""Good to see you again, Peter. And I see you picked up a new friend," he says as he gestures to the leopard. "Looks like you have been busy since we last met. Well, nothing to it I guess but to go on in. Hope we don't go mad."
"Man, those spirits really scared me", Peter confesses. "Now it will be different... at least that is what I expect".
"Indeed, I was busy in the last weeks, when I met Juhah. You must to see her slashing things, wow man, it's amazing!", he says with a shining eyes.
"Let us press on, how do we want to go about this? I am happy to stay up front or second rank, no farther back."
"Well done. And what is your name?"
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"And you guys? Seiran, Silgil, what's up?", the ranger smiles to them. There had not been a long time since the last mission with them.
"It seems that Seiran brought his brother and his girlfriend this time, huh?!", Peter says referring to the half-orcs who he still did not know.
"I also brought a new member: Juhah", he points to the leopard and then makes a fondness in her head. "Isn't she beautiful?"
"Indeed It is good to see you once more though I've being getting strange dreams of late. None of you I assure you. This new companions are fortunately for them, not my brother and girlfriend though I do think you should apologise to them if they're insulted. I'll feel obligated to patch up your wounds but I have no qualms laying into you with them if they so wish it." his smile takes away the sting of his words.
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Haliphod, seeing his old friend, grins broadly and performs a little bow. "Peter! How nice to be able to meet in a less frigid environment! I have finally defrosted all of my gear, and spent some time training with the local summoners around here. I learned some new tricks! Just don't let you cat eat them when I call them out to play, ok?"
Meeting everyone else, he beams when Silgil asks about practical jokes. "Ah! A dwarf after my own heart. I always have said dwarves have a fine sense of humor - it just needs to be hoaxed... er, I mean, coaxed... out of them!"
"I am happy to lead the way! Unless, of course, you are expecting trouble. Then I am happier to back you all up..."
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"Indeed It is good to see you once more though I've being getting strange dreams of late. None of you I assure you. This new companions are fortunately for them, not my brother and girlfriend though I do think you should apologise to them if they're insulted. I'll feel obligated to patch up your wounds but I have no qualms laying into you with them if they so wish it."
"These good boys..."
"Wow, really? It seems that I committed a mistake, I'm sorry, my friends" Peter makes a sign as if taking a hat from his head to greet Samildanach e Omrijka.
"I hope you have more sense of humor than Seiran", he smiles to them.
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"Peter! How nice to be able to meet in a less frigid environment! I have finally defrosted all of my gear, and spent some time training with the local summoners around here. I learned some new tricks! Just don't let you cat eat them when I call them out to play, ok?"
Peter laughs to Haliphod.
"Don't worry, my little friend. I'm anxious to see what kind of new jokes you got!"
Everyone is on the map sooooo....
Haliphon opens the door to the museum. An unnatural cold permeates this chamber and the tendrils of silver-gray mist flowing out the front archway into the courtyard beyond seem to effortlessly pierce the flesh and gently caress the bone in a cold embrace. The grand entrance way’s vaulted ceiling is supported by six great pillars of hewn black stone. Braziers mounted on the pillars cast white radiance from balls of continual light. The light glimmers eerily in the silvery haze that fills the atrium, giving the impression of something alien watching from the glowing fog.
As of this moment, everyone is outside. It seems whatever is causing the fog limits it to the confines of the museum...
It appears the mist is getting in the way of Juhah's ability to pick up a scent. Peter doesn't detect any traps from outside.
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"What do I know?" asks Omrijka
"I know Ludzgar has a sister. I aint her" she says answering her own question. She then moves up beside Peter and whispers to him "Are you and Seiran brothers then?" before looking through the opening for traps
In a louder voice she speaks to the whole group"I dont fink they puts traps on museum entrances"
Omrijka doesn't see anything that hasn't been noticed yet.
Amildanach steps in and breathes the mist in after Haliphod gives him some divine Guidance. .
The pair coughs, but nothing else happens. Silgil casts a detection spell as Haliphod steps in . He has no problem either.
Meanwhile Silgil detects the mist having a faint transmutive aura to it.
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Seiran as always steps in with all the grace of a drunk elephant. It seems some things never change. His skin though to a determined observer seems to have a copper tinge to it though it's so faint that it could be assumed to be his natural pigment.
He looks around and attempts to sweep the area with his divine senses for the taint of evil.
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Coughing up a lungful of weirdly oppresive mist, The half Orc pirate lets the mist swirl around him with a grin, causing a dairly disturbing sight of tusks and war-paint. He waits impatiently for the others to follow into the foyer so they can get on with their investigations.
"This little bit of mist is nothing compared to that around the Eye of Abendego. Let us get a move on"
Seiran looks on, his tinged skin shining a bit in the mist, detects no evil, though the atmosphere, literally, is far from comfortable.
It appears that everyone manages to withstand the efffects of the mist. Everyone except Juhah. The animal's attitude changes, and muscles ripple with barely contained ferocity.
Juhah gains a +2 bonus to its Strength and Dexterity scores. Additionally, the creature becomes immune to fear, gains a +10 bonus on Climb checks (and a climb speed of 20 feet), and gains a +5 bonus on Acrobatics and Stealth checks. Unfortunately the primal nature of the beast now makes Handle Animal checks harder, DCs are now +5 (I'll trust you to make the checks and track the new DCs.
With the party now in the museum, the question is, where to now?
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It appears that everyone manages to withstand the efffects of the mist. Everyone except Juhah. The animal's attitude changes, and muscles ripple with barely contained ferocity.
** spoiler omitted **
With the party now in the museum, the question is, where to now?
Normally the Handle Animal checks to do something are so low that they're not often rolled. In this case, pushing the animal to perform a trick it doesn't know is +5 (net +7 if it is hurt.) I'm not going to make you roll for tricks Juhah knows.
The museum is lit with everburning torches in most places. So far everything you can see is lit that way.
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Samildanach surveys the foyer, glad of his time spent upon a ship, as the fires do little to inconvience his sight. Seeing the big cats mystical transformation he curses involuntarily.
"Well that was unexpected! Is it meant to do that?! Well, when you've stopped with the steroid treatment, shall we get on with this? Where's the curator?"
Samildanach takes out the map and looks for the curator's office and starts heading down towards the corridor.
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Peter looks to Juhah and instantly notice that she was showing strange behavior, a more wild behavior.
Trying to hide his concern with his companion, he answers to Seiran: "No, she's like that, don't worry". Nobody need to be an expert to realize that the ranger was not comfortable while uttering those words.
Now inside the room, Peter again tries to search for something hidden, and he gives the command to Juhah to sniff out some 'prey' in the place.
Silgil can't determine much without the source of the mist on hand, but it looks like it causes creatures to regress. It's some kind of forced atavism. They grow stronger at the expense of their reason... That's all the dwarf can tell from here (though it is a lot.)