"This is some sick stuff." Darius says looking at all the jars.
"Interesting, even the Chelish don't do things like this. Must be some twisted cultists to perform this kinda of surgery and science." Stam says, Stam's eyes shift to the magical spectrum.
Why would something want to preserve brains? Or what would do that?
So are they some kind of delicacy or something?
"From what I can see and have heard about, they can still think and if we play around with the dials we can make them see and hear as well, maybe even speak?" Stam moves into the room cautiously towards the closest brain in a cylinder, turning the dials to what he hopes is right.
"Hello can you hear me?" Stam says.
I have a bad feeling about this..
Spugnoir lends Stam a hand
Stam waves Spugnoir over and between the two of them they get the controls figured out.
Be careful... I think the Dark Tapestry has taken over the cult of Dagon... That machine looks to be more of the Tapestry's work then the cults.
But in either case the brains there are probably all cult members, maybe held as some strange form of library... Given what we have seen so far, you may not like what you hear.
Stam plays on the dials of the brain container until suddenly it springs to action and a croaking voice comes out of the device. "Noooo. Stop it, no ... you're not them. You are, ... I know your voice ... you're too late. Now I for sure won't pay you anymore." then it breaks out in maniacal laughter.
"The mayor. How did they find you out? I bet it was the Constable who sold you out." Stam says
"Who cares about the sheriff. He probably is still clueless!" the brain tells between mad cackling.
"About who really runs the town?" Stam clarifies. "you never answered my first question. How did they find you out?"
Spugnoir whispers to the others. You know, the old man who owned me long ago did stuff in his lab with putting brains in bodies. I just might be able to get him back to..well not his old self. But much better than this.
"The streets at night. On my way home. Bad luck."
What happened? And how can we make sure this never happens to another person again?
Grergof asks horrified.
"A long armed monster grabbed me and disappeared with me. And here they cut my head open."
Stam, Darius,Varsk. If I can get some formulas to help and we preserve their bodies we might be able to help them. Plus there is that lab where we fought with The Beast after defending him.
"Back at Count Cromac's house?" stam says
Besides the mayor which you know from a former meeting, you might have a hard time to assign the right bodies to the brains. The few that are left and not shredded yet.
'I don't think we can help more than getting what we can from them then putting them out of their missery so they do not suffer." Stam says almost wincing hoping the two more holy members are not against it.
I have a feeling the Priests of Pharasma would not look kindly on that. Father Redgrave, is there not a spell that brings those dead back to life?
Well we can ask some things about gender and age to help. Yes, at Count Carmac's. I can use Restoration extracts to heal mental trauma and alchemy for keeping them calm and stable. They aren't undead, just separate from their bodies.
Darius thinks hard. "I...It can be done. But there are some strict requirements. Only if they have died very recently, a fee days at most, and the spirit must be willing to return and they will be significantly weaker versions of themselves."
He turns to Stam. "Ask them how long ago they died."
"How long ago did you die?" Stam says quoting the present date to them.
Well I don't know if they are really dead since we are talking to 'them' and not their spirits.
The bodies in the other room sure look dead. It seems to me like they trapped their souls in their brains so they can't move on as is natural.
"I'm not dead. Not at all!" the brain protests and cackles again madly.
Since they can't hurt you now you can speak freely. Who needs to be protected in town, and who should we watch out for?
After seeing what the cult did, I think we can say with certenty that they are not working for the towns best interest... So we may as well rip the cult out of the town, and in doing so it's probably going to be bloody. I'd prefer not to catch good souls in our net as we winnow the wheat from the chaff.
They are just corporeally challenged
Stam awaits the answer
"Good souls, hahaha, in Illmarsh, haha, evil ones and stupid ones maybe."
We will probably have to play it by ear. If we go after the leaders, the cult will no doubt vanish.
"Hopefully. Shall we press on?" Stam takes out a note book and marks where the dials were for the next time they come.
Putting the brain back for later use the group moves on to the unexplored jelly door. pressing through you find yourself in a room with four of these flying insect like creatures. The view within this strange metal dome is mind-numbing. All manner of incomprehensible equipment has been set up around the chamber, including a pair of bloodstained metal operating tables surrounded by racks of instruments for vivisection sitting in the center of the chamber. The walls at the base of the dome are transparent, giving a clear view of the dark waters of the lake bottom, but forty feet above, the dome displays an image of a mysterious dark gray planet orbiting a burning orange star never seen in Golarion’s skies, which gives the entire chamber its lurid glow.
Four mi-go are currently at work in the laboratory. Two of them attend to their own unfathomable experiments, while the other two experiment on a human male, stripped naked and strapped to one of the operating tables with metal straps. Numerous needles and clamps attached to hoses and leads extend from the man’s body to a bank of cylinders, levers, and dials on one wall. The man strapped to the table is none other than the Dark Rider from Feldgrau whom the group have been pursuing.
AC 17/12/15 (21/14/17 with mutagen)
Saves F11/R11/W7 9 Fear Poison Immune
Weapon in hand:Mace+1
Special effects: Mutagen, (Heroism)+2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks.
Bombs:9/15
SPugnoir quaffs an extract of Shield(+4 shield ac) and an extract of Ironskin(+5 to my natural ac for 27/16/24) Before they enter the room
Spugnoir wastes no time and holy bombs a Mi-go, avoiding trying to explode anything
Spugnoir easily hits the unprepared Mi-Go and wounds it badly with the two bombs. Another one comes forward and attacks Darius, causing him a minor wound and holding on to him.
Grergof brings the flail down on the thing that grabbed Darius.
Grergof almost kills the Mi-Go in one go. But it is still holding on to Darius.
Darius hacks at the Mi-Go until it is dead. The other wounded alien finishes some operation of the machinery attached to the Whispering Way cultist. The other two come over to keep the intruders at bay. But their attacks are highly ineffective.
Meanwhile the body of the cultist starts bulging, the eyes come out of their sockets and his head looks as if it is about to explode. And then it explodes. Bloody, meaty tentacles come out of the neck and replace the head, that is now in pieces all over the room and the devices. It is the same transformation that you have seen in the Undiomede House when the high priest of Dagon had his metamorphosis.
Watch out another one of those things is SPAWNING
Grergof yells as he swings at the creature in front of him.
Darius holds his hand out and unleashes a ray of searing light at the tentacles headed abomination.
CASTING
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S
EFFECT
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect ray
Duration instantaneous
Saving Throw none; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
Focusing divine power like a ray of the sun, you project a blast of light from your open palm. You must succeed on a ranged touch attack to strike your target.
A creature struck by this ray of light takes 1d8 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d8).
An undead creature takes 1d6 points of damage per caster level (maximum 10d6), and an undead creature particularly vulnerable to bright light takes 1d8 points of damage per caster level (maximum 10d8).
A construct or inanimate object takes only 1d6 points of damage per two caster levels (maximum 5d6).
AC 17/12/15 (21/14/17 with mutagen) (27/16/24 with all buffs)
Saves F11/R11/W7 9 Fear Poison Immune
Weapon in hand:Mace+1
Special effects: Mutagen, (Heroism)+2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks.
Bombs:7/15
Spugnoir Holy Bombs the Mi-go again with a bomb each
Grergof beats the Mi-Go two times badly wounding it and Spugnoir finishes it off with a bomb. The other bomb damages the alien in front of Darius.
Darius shoots a ray at the former cultist, now alien monster that is still tied down to the metal table.
Stam sends a crackling line of electricity on its way and through that tentacled alien. The Dark Rider undergoes another metamorphosis. The equipment in the laboratory dome suddenly activates with a riot of flashing lights and buzzing alarms. Rather than spawning new slugspawn, the rider’s entire body instead darkens and swells.
The Mi-Go get éxcited and continue to annoy the group in hopes to protect their experiment. The one in front of Darius has no luck with its attacks, but Grergof gets to feel the pain .
The creature on the table suddenly bursts like an overripe tomato. A hoofed, treelike abomination with writhing tentacles and gaping mouths comes out of the rider’s ruined corpse, bursts the restraints and bloats to its full monstrous size.
Stam looks dumfounded at the scene that is happening.
"I thought the Devils were bad, you outer planar beings are Ruthless."