Deep beneath the Pathfinder Society’s headquarters in Absalom’s Grand Lodge, an otherwise austere stone chamber now teems with activity, as Pathfinder scholars scamper across several levels of wooden scaffolding surrounding a large tapestry laid out in the center of the floor. Some examine the five-by-seven foot tapestry with magnifying glasses or magical lenses, while others work diligently at small work desks, consulting ancient tomes and performing complex arcane mathematics. From the crowd steps the Master of Spells, Aram Zey, who motions to a relatively clear and quiet corner of the room. Arriving in the corner, he speaks in a hushed voice.
“I am very busy, Pathfinders, so I’ll keep this short. Before you lies the mythical Hao Jin Tapestry, the result of all our efforts to win the Ruby Phoenix Tournament in Goka this year. I know it looks like a ragged piece of abstractly woven cloth, but Pathfinders of your experience should know that looks can be deceiving. Within that rag lies an entire world, a demiplane created by the sorceress Hao Jin to hold the most massive and dangerous exhibits in her world-renowned collection of wonders. In addition to housing the extraplanar museum, the tapestry also acts as the sole portal into that wondrous world. And now it is ours to explore and research as much as we want with no risk of interference.
“My scholars have been hard at work analyzing the tapestry itself, and the Society’s diviners have located a number of treasures within the demiplane that we want investigated firsthand. Among them is the long-lost Dog Pharaoh’s Tomb, for which we’ve been searching for decades. It turns out the deserts of Osirion were the wrong place to look. Hao Jin moved it into the tapestry a thousand years ago!
“Your mission is to explore the tomb and recover any treasures you might find particularly valuable from the Dog Pharaoh’s doubtlessly substantial horde. Along the way, keep an eye out for any information on the Dog Pharaoh’s life, as details on him beyond his name are scarce. If you are successful, this could be among the most significant finds in recent Pathfinder history, so don’t disappoint me.
“Any questions before you go into the tapestry?”
|
Ernest is a Osirian/Chelish man-boy, sporting a paler skin than most Osiriani while still retaining their facial structures. He is a moderately tall man, but is (now only somewhat) overweight. He carries with him a backpack of gear, has a set of wands with an imprint of the Osiriani royal scarab embedded in it located on his belt.
The above described individual comes bolting into the room, wearing sweat-stained clothes (which itself is adorned with a fancy Wayfinder; not one of standard stock.) "Oh, uh, sorry! I couldn't decide whether or not to go to Dreng's 11:47 seminar, but got halfway and ran back and forth for a few minutes! I assume you asked for questions already; did I miss the trademark snarky response yet?" He pants for a moment and gazes at the Tapestry while a pig wearing a wig-and-glasses set also huffs into the room. "Oh, wow! The Tapestry! What location, and is this a clear-out-resistance or gather-artifacts mission?"
Aram Zey sighs at the questions, clearly annoyed. "This is a gather-artifacts mission. Go to the tomb of the Dog Pharaoh and recover the treasure and any other information you can about the mysterious figure. No one else has been there. And surely Pathfinders of your skill can tell treasure from trash?"
"Well, shouldn't you be going now?" Zey says, tapping his foot on the ground.
|
|
Ernest nods and moves towards Zey for tapestry direction. "Understood; no more questions." He puts his hands on his hips ! "Certified Pathfinder Field Agent Ernest Kalthet is on the mission!" He turns around, face scrunched up in delight and the two make various oink-noises while the still tired pig crawls up onto the man's shoes.
Snouts: "That's bad and you should feel bad. Go buy me some snacks. Why have we cut down on snacks? Buy more snacks."
Ernest: "Nope! We have to cut back so I can be a hunk!"
Snouts: "I liked you better before this obsession with the one lady. Did she tell you to stop buying me snacks?"
Ernest: "Wh-what? This has nothing to do with Lin! Sh-shut up!"
Ernest gets frustrated by the end and blushes, as if somehow only the last line of pig noises was embarrassing, and picks up the pig. "So cool, though..."
|
A Keleshite woman, her head covered with a black naqib, bows her head slightly at the new Pathfinders. "Greetings to you both. I am Sahar Hasna, I do not believe we've met before. " She is dressed in mithral armor, with a longsword at her hip and a longbow slung over her shoulder. As she speaks, a small fox slinks into the room and moves around sniffing here and there, taking quite an interest in the pig.
|
|
"You are not snacks. Do you have snacks?" The professor returns sniffs from the arms of his "master".
-Posted with Wayfinder
At Aram Zey's insistence, the party travels through the Tapestry to get on with their mission.
A grimy sandstone building rises from the swampy water, hemmed in by mossy, drooping trees whose roots look to have been grinding away at its foundations for centuries. What must have been an impressive wooden door has rotted away to the point of nonexistence. Only giant rusted hinges show that it once covered the dark entrance to the tomb. Mere hints of intricately carved pillars and false arcades are barely visible underneath the moss, creepers, and mildew that now cover the structure. Two fetishes flank the tomb's entrance, each the skin of a fox or small wolf stretched over the flayed fork of lashed bones and painted in strange pigments, topped off with reptilian skulls carved with illegible writing.
|
Amiri shivers a bit after stepping through the tapestry. "I tell ya, I'll never get used to that!" Then she quiets a bit as she takes in the scenery.
"This looks...welcoming," she deadpans. She sidles herself over to Ernest.
"So, Field Agent Ernest Kalthet...what do you make of all this?" She waves her hand to indicate the entrance and the fetishes.
She bends down and gives a portion of her trail rations to the pig. "Cute little guy...here's some vittles for ya."
|
|
"Hmm, well, I'd say this from roughly around 2800 before the Ascension of Aroden, so that puts itwell between the First and Second Ages of Osirion." Ernest continues, close examining a section of smooth wall. "I also reckon that the Hao Jin wasn't really thinking about keeping it in mint condition when she put it in a swamp. There should be carvings on the outside..."
The party enters the front of the tomb. This cubic chamber is full of stagnant swamp water to a height of a foot and a half. The walls are shallowly carved with a complex Osirian motif, with hundreds of ancient pictograms overlapping in an intricate pattern, the outlines of which can barely be made out under the grime. A door in the north wall is decorated with a scene in bas-relief: a jackal-headed man holding two matching kukris, around whom a throng of bestial warriors bow. There is no obvious mechanism to open the door, but there is a gap between it and the wall as if it is being held partially open. Water sluggishly trickles through the gap, flowing deeper into the tomb. Empty doorways open into two rooms to the east and west.
Ernest notices that a portion of the bas-relief is strangely indented,
in a way that does not fit the rest of the sculpture.
Shin notices that there is a pit trap in the middle of the chamber.
As Sahar directs the party to the west, everyone hears distinct splashing as water begins to ripple from that room. A large plant creature begins to shamble into the central chamber with two smaller reptilian creatures behind it.
*plants and oozes are my favorite monsters of all time. Which is why Elven Entanglement is one of my favorite scenarios, even though I'm performing horribly in it with Tektite right now.
Amiri runs up and cuts into the giant plant creature! It responds by slamming into her!
Sahar and Shin slog around in the water. Shin is more successful with his snowball than Sahar is with her attack.
The lizards , reach up and shock the plant monster, invigorating with electrical power!
|
|
Ernest creates a pit and the lizards fall in. The shambling mound falls on top of them.
The lizards are going to shock the mound again.