"I suppose if you wish to keep your neighbors out this is one way to accomplish that goal. Do the levelrs squeak remove the sludge or summon more? I dread the thought of the latter. Where does all of it come from? Some magical porta to a place of such filth that the mind can hardly comprehend?"
"My Uncle Harry always used to say 'Levelers are for pulling.' Wise man of few words, my Uncle Harry. In any case, we can always come back if we need too."
The party starts trudging (and flying) into the room to get a better sense of the levers, which Rissi presumes each has a different function but the labels are so covered in grime that she can't read them. Before you can test any of them out, however, some of the sludge begins to move and you realize that you are not alone! The muck itself seems animated in the hideous shades of two half-melted men!
The monstrous animated poo creatures instantly transport themselves through the liquid to reform in front of Seal, slamming their sopping limbs into the dwarf!
Evanya recasts good hope, bringing warmth to the heart of our heroes!
Lucian immediately echoes her encouraging blessing, empowering his companions and friends with a familiar prayer of his own.
"Omox, filth demons. Vulnerable to very squeak little, save that what is holy. Be gone, harbingers of filth."
Lucian and Evanya give out blessings and hopes all-around! Miana tries to kick at the sludge demon but slips in the muck. Rissi then disperses one of them with a wave of her paw, sending it back to the wastes of the Abyss!
Trying to hold back his retching, Kufieno flies up over Miana and attacks the remaining demon from above.
"Poo-man. Poop-Man! POO-AAARGGHppphbbbb"
Sealman is swollen is sludge and feces as the mud men get the drop on him. All of his exposed skin is badly burned as he is nearly pulled under the river of wastes.
"Thunderppargghhh!"
Thunderpuss squeezes into the room and paws around to flank with the rogue and monk.
Sealman begins to rage and tries to break out of Slugie's grapple.
If Seal wins the contest, he'll 5' step back behind Miana.
Kufieno slips in the poo and misses his target but Seal is able to break from the animate-poo demon's bearhug. The demon then focuses on dirtying Miana a bit.
Lucian approaches and touches Miana's hand, imbuing her with almighty freedom.
Sealman continues his rage and re-grips Isoult. Even though the metal did not scorch from the acid, it bends ever so slightly under the dwarf's new found strength.
Thunderpuss does what he can and assists the party with his flury.
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While Miana is pummeled twice, she's too evasive for the creature to grab her. "Thank you Lucian, now I can move for what I want to do." Staring at the ooze-like demon, Miana makes a quick prayer to Irori. "Oh Master of Enlightenment, grant me the power to defeat this foe. Ametoufu." The sulijann then moves effortlessly though the muck to deliver the last six of the eight Iroran kicks.
The filth demon doesn't stand much of a chance against Seal and Miana and quickly falls back into the sludge, just another formless blob again.
Sealman rages one more round to heal himself a bit, then leans on to Thunderpuss for a moment of support. The battle cat ignores the dwarf and tries to lick himself clean. After a few licks, Thunderpuss has enough and just sits patiently.
"OK, who's for pullin' some levers?"
Sealman notices all these little potions of healing that he must have been holding onto for what feels a year. He groups them all together and gives them a big chug.
Lucian nods at Miana, smiling faintly as he feels incredibly good after the paladin's kind words.
"Great Desna, renew our exhausted bodies, so that the journey may live on!"
Then he continues to use wands to cure Sealman of his grievous wounds.
Kufieno alights on the ground and raises his eyebrows at the Miana and Seal. "Nice Work!"
Looking around, he points to the east. "That way?"
"Hold on a moment Master Kufieno. We still have these." Rissi tries the leftmost lever, gingerly and ready to throw it back in place quickly.
When Rissi pulls the left-most lever, all of the grates which were previously beneath the sludge rise up, allowing much easier access throughout the complex.
Kufieno smacks his thigh. "Well done, Miss Rissi! Your insights know no bounds! I'm glad your on our side!"
Once everyone is ready, Kufieno begins moving east, keeping an eye out for traps.
"But there are two more levers? Shall we not try them first?"
Having had good success with the first Rissi bravely pulls on the next lever.
Bravely testing the levers blindly rather than cleaning the grime from the labels, Rissi pulls the middle lever and slowly the rate at which the sludge is flowing into the chamber begins to slow, eventually stopping all together.
Rissi prestidigitates the labels clean, and examines the third one.
Rissi cleans the areas around the levers and can now read the Thasillonian markings clearly: The left plaque reads “Access Control.” The middle lever's plaque reads “Portal Control.” The right lever's plaque reads “Warning: Cleaning Cycle.”
"Hmm... This last lever is labeled with *chhh* 'warning: cleaning cycle'. Well, perhaps we are done here after all; best quite while ahead." Rissi flies over to join Kufieno.
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"Those were two lucky pulls, Rissi. Maybe when are done here we should go to the cat-sino."
Sealman then just stands there with his mouth agape, pausing, waiting for some reaction to his joke.
The ratfolk tsks. "Please, dear, this place is crawling with all manner of filth. We can squeak work on your mastery of the Taldane languages double meanings later."
Kufieno chuckles at Seal's horrible joke despite himself, then laughs out looud at Miss Rissi's response. "Which way, then?"
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"That's rat-diculious. Arh, Arh, Arg," Sealman bellows.
He then starts to lead the party east.
"Ever the experimenter, but not foolhardy, eh Rissi? Too bad, I would have liked to know what that cleaning cycle would do. Fair enough, let's go Master Sealman. Lead on."
Further in, the worked stone of the tunnel gives way to a natural cavern connecting two walk- (sludge-?) ways. A twenty-foot-wide gap breaks the walkway, while the rough stone walls are caked with a riot of color—ooze and fungi of all colors in the rainbow grow thick here in a foul-smelling profusion of beauty.
The remains of a long-dead unfortunate lay on the ground here. Most of
his gear has long since been ruined by the waters and little more than a skeleton and some rotten pieces of flesh remain, but his rod of extend metamagic and bag of holding I remain.
Past this in the southeastern corner, the surrounding stone has fallen away into a large, curved cavern. Here and there, foul water cascades into the room from intersecting tunnels, tumbling ten feet to the frothy surface of liquid below. Through the (now mostly-drained) goop there are doors to the north.
Sealman readies his wands and ioun stones. He's even debating activating Thunderpuss's dire collar. Doors in a sewer just aren't right. The dwarf decides against it, but is ready to become enlarge and in charge once the party is ready too.
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Rissi is quiet for a moment as she drifts along behind the others. "Fine, fine. Your puns are adwarfable. Satisfied?" Almost casually, she casts a heroism on herself as an afterthought.
Lucian grasps the rod they've just found - if only temporarily - and starts opening a gate to another world. Moments later, a magnificent Lillend Azata appears, playing her harp to bolster the party's resolve with her heavenly tune.
After Seal embiggens himself, he throws the doors open. The room reeks of strange chemicals. A five-foot-wide metal walkway looks out over a large pool of foamy, filthy water ten feet below, from which five metallic pipes emerge through the walkway above. Four of these pipes are five feet in diameter and extend up in the four corners of the room to a height of about a foot above the balcony; each is filled with a different colored bubbling fluid. The fifth pipe is twenty feet wide and extends up to the north—this pipe is filled nearly to the rim with shuddering, glowing green sludge. Thin streams of fluid flow through the air from the four corner pipes to drain into the central one. A stone throne floats in the air above this slime.
Sitting upon this throat is a massive and bloated man of indeterminate years. The man's chest is split open, revealing a hideous magical heart of slime beating slowly. The jelly running through the four pipes seem to writhe as he stirs his head and mumbles something, as if they are intricately part of his being now....
The sounds of slopping bile may permeate the sickening throne room, but the are suddenly washed away by the sound of thunder. Rissi's palm holds a small piece of wood, the component for her thunderstrike spell.
Kufieno peers around Seal's big ass to get a look at the guy. "Do you think electricity will hurt 'im, Miss Rissi?"
Upon opening the door, Sealman cocks his head to the side like a confused child. "Papa?"
After seeing the chest peel open to allow the slime to hemorrhage out, the warrior steels himself and calls Thunderpuss to battle.
"Rage with me, friend! RAGE! WHO WANTS SOME! Sealman cries at it echoes through out the stone throne room of filth and waste.
Sealman and Thunderpuss dash forward toward the aspect of Sloth, mouths frothing in a rabid rage. Thunderpuss darts around to the back of him while Sealman takes a side leaving the forward position open for his friends.
Rissi recognizes the goop feeding into him as four ochre jellies. They are not harmed by electricity, mind-affecting effects, slashing or piercing damage. The man, meanwhile, is Azlanti. They carry no natural defenses but like most Thassilonian wizards of his power he probably had his own defenses prepared.
Rissi ignores the jellies, though, and instead hits the wizard with a blast of sound that leaves him stunned! Seal then rushes in and bashes the fatty on the back of the head, nearly caving his skull in.
With the wizard severely injured and not able to move, the party quickly neutralizes him. Luckily the jellies are incapable of splitting in their tubes, although they can reach out tendrils to about fifteen feet.
handy haversack, ring of protection +2, diamond dust worth
500 gp, ivory plaque worth 50 gp, silver mirror worth 1,000
gp, a scroll of planar ally, a scroll of teleport, and a scroll of stone to flesh) and a manual of gainful exercise +2 (didn't have the energy to read), spellbooks
Prepared spells:
8th—quickened dimension door, summon monster VIII (2)
7th—quickened dispel magic, power word blind, summon
monster VII (2)
6th—quickened acid arrow (2), disintegrate (DC 21), greater
dispel magic, summon monster VI
5th—cloudkill (DC 22, 2), dismissal (DC 20), feeblemind (DC 20),
quickened shield, summon monster V, telekinesis (DC 20)
4th—confusion (DC 19), dimension door (2), mnemonic
enhancer, scrying (DC 19), stoneskin, summon monster IV
3rd—dispel magic (2), fly, stinking cloud (DC 20, 2), suggestion
(DC 18), summon monster III
2nd—acid arrow (2), false life, glitterdust (DC 19), hideous
laughter (DC 17), resist energy, see invisibility
1st—charm person (DC 16), grease (DC 18, 2), mage armor,
obscuring mist, ray of enfeeblement (DC 16), summon
monster I, unseen servant
0 (at will)—acid splash,
And all spells up to 4th level except evocation and illusion. All conjuration spells up to 6th level
Jordimandus’s “floating” throne doesn’t precisely float at all. The 6-ton throne is in fact supported by two immovable rods fitted into its base—removing these rods sends the throne plunging into the liquid below.
An investigation of Jordimandus’s spellbooks reveals far more than spells—while Jordimandus hasn’t left this room in well over 9,000 years, he’s spent a significant amount of time using scrying to spy on Runeforge’s other inhabitants. While most of what Jordimandus has scribbled in his margins is useless gossip scrawled on the inside cover of his largest spellbook a significant bit of information—his suspicion on what components would work best for the crafting of runeforged weapons . Jordimandus hopes (hoped) someday to forge multiple runeforged weapons, arm summoned champions with them, and take over all of Runeforge—he’s done most of the research needed to make the weapons and frequently mentions these plans elsewhere in his spellbook, but, fortunately for Runeforge’s inhabitants, lacks the energy and drive to follow through on the plan. Fluid from the central pipe in this room suffices as a runeforged weapon component.
RUNEFORGED WEAPON COMPONENTS?
SLOTH admixture of the four humors
GREED waters from the pool of elemental arcana
ENVY vial of ethillion?
LUST one of Delvahine’s personal toys, perhaps?
PRIDE a shard from any of the mirrors Vraxeris has looked in
WRATH ashes from anything in the Halls of Wrath
GLUTTONY some of that delicious Inib wine
"I believe this is the final puzzle piece we need! Here we have the key to crafting the tools to grievously injure a Runelord or their servants" Rissi coos as she quicky flips through the notes. "Now is the time to use this knowledge for the greater good of Golarion!"
"How long does it take to make a runeforge weapon and which Runelord do we gotta hurt?"
Kufieno chuckles and pats Seal on the back. "Nice job there, buddy!"
Turning to Rissi he says, "What sort of weapon does it forge? Do we need a forge? Or a blacksmith? Is it actually a weapon you wield, like a sword?"
"Imbue, perhaps, is a better word then forge. I believe the ritual should *chhh* imbue a weapon with one of the metaphysical virtues of Thassilon. One should, one reasons, ideally choose a virtue or vice in opposition to the greed of Karzoug - Pride and Lust. A charming thought, we five embracing one flaw to fight another. I also hesitate to think how Delvahine's 'aids' will properly be incorporated into Isoult."
"Does the process even work on a magic weapon, or should we start with the mundane? This I do not know."
"Excellent teamwork, everyone! Now onto those Runeforged weapons, I understand your theory Rissi, and I have no idea if it would work - or wouldn't work - on already magical weapons, for that matter. Why don't we try it out? How many runeforged weapons do we have material for?"
Seeing the manual lying about, the Varisian pats Sealman on the back.
"Come, friend, I think time has come for a lesson that we could both benefit."