Still looking at the items, Amadeen replies:
"We take them. Either to use ourselves - or to show off. I have no doubt that we'd find a buyer. But I also have no doubt that we have something unique here."
"Let's see what else is down here. Maybe we'll find the alien fungoid equipment. How about left?"
Johund examines the western door and hall for traps.
"How 'bout a tap o' ter healin' wand?"
"Oh yeah. I could use a little myself!"
Amadeen pulls out a wand and taps herself, then Johund, then Eluvias, and not Barek as he is uninjured.
A carving over the door to this room, written in Azlanti, reads, “Enigma of the Sky Seeds." An upraised dais in an alcove to the south holds a four-foot-diameter geode that’s been cracked into two halves. The inside of the geode glitters with strange green crystals. A mound of green crystalline fragments and twisted strips of flaking green metal lies to the west.
Three hairless blue lions each twin twin tentacular tails look at you. Dozens more thick tentacles quiver and twitch where its mane should be.
Caught off guard as still in the tunnel only one can reach you the others begin to climb up the walls and stay out of line of sight for now. The closest one barrels down the corridor first begining to move along the wall before biting at Johund but can't get through his armour.
Akatas hail from a strange, distant planet that long ago succumbed to a cataclysmic end. Countless akatas clung to fragments of the dead planet, entering hibernation and riding these asteroids until they eventually crashed upon a new planet—akatas’ cocoons protected them from the impact, and they soon awoke to seek out suitable hosts to spawn their young. Left untended, an akata scourge can quickly grow into a significant threat.
Having survived the depths of the void clearly cold is not an issue for them nor is the need for air. They're highly resistant to heat.
You heard a tale of a fisherman who managed to knock one of these creatures into the ocean and for some reason it began to burn. It could not have been the water alone as it was raining at the time and did not harm it.
Amadeen
Eluvias
Barek
Johund
Monsters
Amadeen spits on the ground, glaring at the foremost beast.
"Akatas! Starspawn from a dead world! They resist both heat and cold and breed into a pestilence! Kill them ALL!"
Johund scrapes his blades together, producing sparks, then stabs at the strange felines!
Johund destroyed the first foe, and Eluvias followed through. Exploiting the gap he stabbed his sword into the second, a grim smile on his face as he watched the creature die.
As two fall quickly Barek takes aim at the last and fires.
Eluvias manages with two blows to take his target down. Amadeen hexes the other which is quickly impaled by one of Barek's arrows. Injured as it is it fails to strike at Eluvias effectively.
The green crystals in the geode are fragments of metal. A half-hour’s work chipping the metal from the geode yields noqual ore.
This a skymetal called noqual, a substance valued for its resistance
against magic. It is worth 1,200 gp.
Amadeen peers at the material - and grins.
"Noqual. It's a sky metal, magic resistant and worth oooh, 1200 gold. Between this and killing those things, I'm damn happy!"
"I say west, then north, then back across the museum room to the east."
"Why sell it? It would make a useful suit of armor. Johund, I think that it would show your new station quite well."
"Sell it? No, Eluvias, you have the right idea."
A carving over the door to this room, written in Azlanti, reads, “Enigma of the Midnight Sun.”
A vast field of stars lays before you such that one feels perched at the edge of an infinite gulf.
Become fascinated by the surreal view and struck with a strange conviction that she could step out of the room and fall into the sky.
"Enigma of the Midnight Sun...wait, what's that?"
She begins walking forward, clearly fascinated.
”It’s nothing but decoration. Would you like one for our monument? We should not tarry here.”
"Careful Amadeen..." Johund grabs her by the shoulder.
"But...I could step out of the room, fall into the sky..."
Amadeen's tone is quite a bit hazier than usual.
"That's an unhealthy thing to have hanging around." Barek growls suspiciously.
Amadeen is standing in the room... it feels nice. She should stay here for a while.
"This is a nice room. Pleasant. I'll stay here for a while."
A brilliant flash of light fills the center of the room as an impossibly distant and impossibly cataclysmic event results in a traumatic explosion.
Take points of Charisma damage as an overwhelming sense of loss fills her mind.
Amadeen wails suddenly
"It's gone!"
She is quite upset.
After a moment to collect herself, she turns to the others.
"Let's get out of this room. It's too miserable to remain in."
“Enigma of the Dark Tapestry.”
This large chamber is overgrown with foul-smelling mounds of strangely colored, shuddering fungi, many of which glow with a sickly green luminescence. A large alcove to the west seems less overgrown. Metal bars wall off this alcove, but a door in the bars hangs ajar.
Two swollen, brainlike bulbs encrusted with fungal shelves squats atop several ropy legs. Wide mouths bisects their bulb’s crowns.
Cerebric fungi are a race of carnivorous, intelligent fungi native to a distant planet. Although they are one of the lowliest life forms on their homeworld, the fungi still possess an alien intellect far beyond that of most terrestrial creatures. Cerebric fungi display great curiosity about other races and species when they visit other worlds, asking endless, apparently senseless, questions and engaging in disturbing experiments. Some eccentric scholars claim to have learned unsettling secrets from these interrogations.
Although capable of fine manipulation with their prehensile filaments, cerebric fungi normally forgo the use of weapons in favor of their natural attacks.
They are vulnerable to sonic damage.
Amadeen
Eluvias
Funky Fungus
Barek
Johund
“Enigma of the Dark Tapestry.”, Amadeen mutters without enthusiasm as she walks in.
And then her gloom evaporates.
"Cerebric fungi! Guard your minds! Use sound to break them!" , she yells.
And yells.
“Enigma of the Dark Tapestry.”, Amadeen mutters without enthusiasm as she walks in. And then her gloom evaporates. "Cerebric fungi! Guard your minds! Use sound to break them!", she yells.
And yells.
Eluvias darts forward to try and cut down one of the fungus and though his blade sinks into it's fleshy body it remains functional.
One of the fungus tries to shake off Amadeens attack. The other one shudders and everyone can feel disturbing and confusing images flood their minds. A shrill screach begins to rise from it which is becoming increasingly disorienting.
[DC 14 Will Save or...]
Take a -2 penalty on attack rolls. This is a mind-affecting effect.[/spoiler]
Barek
Johund
Amadeen
Eluvias
Funky Fungus HP -9, HP -12
Amadeen glares at the fungus, and starts her signature cackling.
Eluvias stumbled back, a hand over one of his ears. A pained look was on his face.
”Such aggravating creatures do not deserve to live!” He snarled while swiping at it with his blade.
Barek is shaken by the unsettling attack, his arrow going wild. Mong howls in distress as his ears hurt.
Barek is shaken by the unsettling attack, his arrow going wild. Mong howls in distress as his ears hurt.
Johund find the noise just as disturbing as Mong.
Amadeen glares at the fungus, and starts her signature cackling.
Eluvias stumbled back, a hand over one of his ears. A pained look was on his face. ”Such aggravating creatures do not deserve to live!”[/dice] He snarled while swiping at it with his blade and letting it collapse to the floor.
If you fail you are nauseated for 1d4 rounds.
[b]Barek
Johund
Amadeen
Eluvias
Funky Fungus HP -9. -2AC for 1 of 2 Turns.
Amadeen keeps glaring, as if daring the fungus to strike at her, all the time cackling.
A wave of nausea rolled over Eluvias. He swiped with his blade, trying hard not to gag.
Barek grits his teeth as his gorge rises. "Will you shut the hell up!" He growls.
Again his arrow flies wide.
The disturbing effects of the fungus are put to a permanent end. Once you recover from their effects you are disappointed to find nothing of value for your efforts... just an unsettling encounter.
”That was horrible. Such vile creatures. Almost lost my meal from that thing.”
Amadeen continues glaring at the now-deceased fungus.
"Carnivorous, intelligent fungi from a distant planet. Sod that! Let's keep moving."
A sinister statue looms in an alcove to the east. The thing is ten feet tall with a human body, but with the head of a deformed, fanged bird and two coiling serpents for legs. The statue clutches a flail in one hand, and holds a large, open book in the other.
This statue depicts the demon lord Abraxas.
"Anyone have a clue what that is?"
”Nothing pleasant. Doesn’t look valuable either. Let’s keep an eye out if we meet any.”
Doors sit in every wall of this short hall. Those to the north and south are double doors, and those to the east and west are barred doors beyond which empty rooms can be seen.
From each room to the side comes a malignant cloud of shadows boils in the air, its skeletal maw eerily babbling as the creature’s claws manifest from the darkness.
...be fascinated for 2d4 rounds.
As the disconcerting babbling claws at your mind the strange figure reach out for Eluvias and Johund.
Monsters
Amadeen
Johund
Barek
Eluvias
This creature is an allip, the spectral remains of someone driven to suicide by madness. This result reveals all undead and incorporeal traits.
Though it can cause no physical harm, an allip’s touch can drain away a victim’s willpower. Also, an allip babbles incoherently to itself, and those who hear this babble can become hypnotized. Allips cannot, however, speak intelligibly.
It is dangerous to try to connect mentally with an allip, be that through thought detection, mind control or telepathy as an allip’s mind is so tortured as to damage any other mind that touches it.
Barek stares blankly.
Johund begins to drool.
Eluvias would have resisted...if not for the draining touch of the creature. He stood there, eyes glazed...helpless.