Leeara takes the orb and the group brings the woman to the temple of Erastil upon their return to town. The antlered-priest looks at your entrance and sees the woman and cordially greets you. "Ah! It seems that you have found Leeara. She seems a bit different, but I can't quite place it..." he says as he strokes his chin.
Vladek breaks the curse over the woman and her features quickly revert back to that of a human woman with no abnormalities. She blinks twice and shakes her head as if shaking out the cobwebs.
"What happened..." she says, confused. As you ask her about her recent past, she recounts her tale to you. Leeara explains how she followed the four strangers south into the hills one night several days ago. She managed to follow them into the Nesher Mine, all the way to a room where she watched the strangers meet with a tall woman dressed in a dark, sparkly robe.
They spoke in a language she didn't understand. Several strange orbs and crystals were sitting on a nearby table. Thinking these objects might have something to do with the strangers' nefarious plots, she grabbed one of the orbs, but she was spotted and the tall woman shot her with a crossbow bolt. Leeara fled and managed to escape the mines, but realized that the bolt had apparently been poisoned-her mind was clouding over and her body was starting to shake with pain. Soon after escaping the mine, she realized she was transforming, and that whatever had been on that crossbow bolt was something particularly sinister. As she began to transform into a feline mutant, she fled to her hideaway, after which her memories are nothing more than hazy snatches of life as a feral half human-beast.
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"Well miss, that is a good question. We don't know all the details but that there orb seems to be connected. We know of a couple involved with a scheme and the device is in their hands. But we don't know what they got cookin. But I bet coins to crumpets it ain't no good. You said four were involved? Can you describe the them?."
Grimdoc scratches his beard and pulls out a trail ration to gnaw while he thinks.
She describes them, but you only recognize the woman and her bodyguard.
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Ali breathes a deep sigh of relief. "Well, at least you're better now, Leera. And thank you for the information! We've already had a run-in with the woman and her bodyguard, as Grim here said, but perhaps you can help us out by keeping your eye out for the other two and alerting us if you find them. In the mean time, I think I'm finally convinced that we need to get that device back from those goons. Clearly they are connected to the transformations and that device may only be accelerating the process for all we know."
Leera nods. "I will keep my eyes out." she says, taking a drink of water from a wooden cup brought by an acolyte.
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"Perhaps the adventuring life has left me hearing a certain narrative cadence to life - I don't want to say it's made me cynical - but I am pessimistic, shall we say, about reasoning with her. I think she's here on behalf of the Dominion of the Black, and they are mad and ruthless. Who else would hide in a mine, consort with spectres, be lusting so keenly after that orrery, AND be haunting this poor, dusty hamlet, of all places, when they could obviously afford to live elsewhere?"
"We must prepare to properly inter those spectres - no room for mistakes or shortfalls this time, I'm certain you'll agree. I'll prepare my strongest wards tomorrow - and try to keep us all free of the curse, of course - but I don't have enough power to protect us all."
A slender smile twists Vladek's mouth. "I might have enough power to set that woman to rights, though."
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If she is indeed up to no good, or evil as you say, then Ennoia I would think you'd be all for getting some answers too.
Grimdoc pulls out some jerky and gnaws for a bit.
I don't remember very good, going back to some mosquito issue I had recently, but did anyone recall if the ornarareum had more than one missing globe?
Do we have any other leads? I suspect she may be looking for some other globes.
You bought out the store's supply, however the magician-owner is more than willing to sell you a scroll of Death Ward the next day, though he can only craft one per day.
The group returns to the mines and finds that little has changed. As you descend on the rickety elevator, you feel the chill of the underground. Grimdoc is soothed by the feeling, but the rest feel a bit cold.
You move towards the trapped area and quickly cross as you did before, choosing to move south to where you encountered the woman and her retainer once before, but it appears that they have cleared out of the mine shaft, at least this room.
Peering into the room to the north, you see that the bodies of the two men still remain, though they have aged a bit. That being said, the chill of the mine is helping to preserve them somewhat, so they are quite as ripe as expected.
Based on Grimdoc's expert analysis, he thinks that they likely returned close to when they escaped with the orrery, but gathered the rest of their stuff and immediately fled.
The group, wary of the spectres, avoids the northern room, but remembers that there is an entirely separate wing to the mines and heads that direction.
Moving west at the juncture just north of the elevator, the group heads into the unexplored areas of the mines and finds that the passageway widens into a larger cavern. Remnants of a mine cart track lean against the wall to the north, while a tunnel slopes down deeper into the ground at the west side of the room. The cave floor is cleared of debris, save for a few drifts of dust and dirt, while the ceiling above is obscured by a thick tangle of cobwebs.
Grimdoc, utilizing his dwarven expertise, notices that the minerals in the wall are a bit more plentiful. The eastern section seemed devoid of ore, but this direction must lead to the remaining ore deposits.
As stated, the passageway continues with a tunnel that moves further underground on the west side of the room.
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"But this place is still rich right? And yet no one seems to have worked it recently. Why? Maybe they uncovered something powerful and that's the real reason for the transformations. But that doesn't explain the connection to the space ship. Or maybe these crazy cultist types just scared the miners away. Hopefully there are answers below!"
As the group moves forward, Grimdoc realizes that there might be more traps down here and ends up seeing the telltale signs of rigged piece of stone in the floor.
Grimly*, he looks up and sees the shine of a pendulum blade set to swing down if the trap is sprung.
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"Good spot, Master Grimdoc!" Ali comments. "But... um... how do we get by? Aren't you dwarves good with stone? Maybe you can turn off the trap. Or maybe we can just jump it..." Ali thinks for a moment about this last possibility and then remembers that he is a magician, not an acrobat. "On second thought, I'd rather not jump without assistance. Let's just lay something over the stone so we can walk through, shall we?"
Joesef, assessing the trapped floor, moves up to the area and pulls open a secret compartment and begins to tinker with the mechanisms inside.
A few clinks and a single clank later, the group feels confident to proceed as they traverse the small cavern after Joesef's tinkering. As they reach the other side, Grimdoc's sensitive ears pick up the sound of a woman singing further into the cave system. The voice is unlike any he has ever heard and the language is unknown to him.
Vladek listens and finds that he would be the only one to understand the words as he hears the lilting voice.
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"I hear her," Says Vladek as he listens. "She's singing in Aklo. Definitely a hymn to the Outer Gods, from the sound of it. 'The Eye watches...above and behind the sky...it sees our dreams...it wants the planets back...it can see us now...it will be with us soon...the Eye watches....'" He stares into the ceiling for a moment, as if contemplating the endless void far above.
[dice=Knowledge (Religion) to possibly know who or what "The Eye" specifically refers to]1d20+12[/dice]
You have never heard of this phraseology in regards to the Outer Gods, however it is possible that this has escaped your grasp as the Outer Gods are very rarely worshiped or studied in Golarion, as far as you are aware.
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"But what does all that mean? I ain't no Astro-theologian or nothing. Do we want to talk to her or stop her? I wonder if alignment has anything to do with our missing space-pipe-chime thing? ."
Grimdoc assumes the party will confront her unless one the stealthy volunteer to go first to check her. He will cast protect circles vs evil on himself before hefting Amanda and motions he will approach
The woman seems to be affected heavily by the curse as she is clearly much more advanced into the change into an animalistic humanoid, her totem animal being that of a bat apparently as you see her leathery wings stretch out from her back.
As you to sneak around, you accidentally kick a stone across the floor and it skitters into the room, causing you to freeze and her to look directly at you.
Joesef warns you that he is going to try to sneak into the room to spy on the woman, so you should remain back in this room. He ventures off into the darknened tunnels of the mine and, after a minute, you hear a shriek from the direction of your comrade.
Initiative:
Initiative:
1st: Ennoia; Grimdoc; Vladek; Qadathra; Joesef
2nd: Woman
3rd: Ali