Victory in the Ruby Phoenix Tournament earned the Pathfinder Society a pick of the legendary treasures of the Tian sorceress Hao Jin, and the Decemvirate knew just what item to select: a frayed and dirty tapestry hidden deep in Hao Jin’s vault. This unassuming tapestry acts as a doorway to another dimension in which Hao Jin stored her most massive items, including entire buildings, battlefields, and the ruins of ancient civilizations. The Pathfinder Society is now methodically exploring and cataloging the diverse locales tucked within this extradimensional space.
Deep beneath Absalom’s Grand Lodge, the Pathfinder Society’s Master of Spells, Aram Zey, gestures at the tapestry hung on the wall, surrounded by ladders and scaffolds. Scholars and diviners scurry around the tapestry, analyzing its abstract patterns and comparing insights.
Zey snaps his finger to quiet the room and speaks rapidly. "The aasimar nation of Tianjing contains a handful of temples to Korada, Empyreal Lord of forgiveness and foresight. The Pathfinder Society is interested in exploring these holy sites, but the aasimar disciples in Tianjing are reluctant to grant the Pathfinder Society full access to their faith’s secrets. Fortunately, the custodian council of Tianjing gifted one such temple to Hao Jin centuries ago. This temple—the Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment—now sits vacant within the museum demiplane of the Hao Jin Tapestry. We need well-trained explorers to survey the isolated and abandoned site.
"We will transport you to the Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment within the Hao Jin Tapestry and provide you with a small cache of supplies. We need a complete report on the temple with a focus on four key locations. First, locate the temple’s meditation room, find evidence of any meditative techniques described there, and record any effects of performing those techniques. Second, prepare a comprehensive catalog of all works in the temple library. Third, find the temple gardens and draft a detailed plan of the garden’s layout. Finally, enter the temple’s crypt and take rubbings of the carvings on each sarcophagus.
“You will enter the tapestry within the hour. Any questions?”
"Yes, yes, divination. We have not been able to scry effectively through the tapestry, more than finding out, in a painstaking process, what each symbol or set of symbols on the tapestry represents. From that and comparing to other historical records, we know that this must be the Temple. And so, we will have to explore it directly."
Knowledge (religion)
Korada is the Empyreal Lord of foresight, forgiveness, and peace. (In other words, Storn's worst nightmare - perhaps this is why Storn became who he is today? He does know an awful lot about Korada...) He is a force of good, dedicated to peace and contemplation. Korada spends his time meditating in the Dream Lotus on the plane of Nirvana, balancing the spheres of existence in his mind and conversing with other enlightened beings.
Devotees of Korada are scholars and mystics who are often contemplative pacifists. Korada’s worshipers meditate by spinning small glass spheres in their palms. Practiced disciples spin three glass spheres in each hand simultaneously while meditating.
The Spiral of Korada is a symbol sacred to the Empyreal Lord. The Spiral of Korada is an out ward-sweeping arc balancing three circles. The circles represent reflection on the past, focus on the present, and contemplation of the future. This symbol is often prominently displayed in temples to the Empyreal Lord, and devotees take care to keep the sacred symbol unobstructed.
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"Oh Korada Empyreal Lord of walking poodles and knitting! Bah! Enlightenment - that isn't even a word. What do enlightened people talk about? How great it is to have inner peace? What kind of monster wants peace in this world? We'd kill each other with nobody to fight!"
Storn continues angrily muttering about Korada and his stupid spheres.
“I expect a full exploration might take several days, depending on the condition of the temple. Take all the time you need.”
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Wuliem begins backing out of the room.
Two hours, you say? Oh, my, I need to pack!
He drops his notebook as he fumbles with his quill and ink jar.
He bends to pick the notebook up, spilling a blob of black ink onto the carpet.
He pauses--coughing--and quickly gathers his things.
Reaching the door, he glances back at the VC with a smile on his beeming face!
I know just the item to remove any stain. Just let me know after this venture.
He exits the room. "Take all the time you need", you said?
"Wait! You leave in less than an hour!" Zey calls after Wuliem.
"Yes, a demiplane. Like a plane but smaller. Hao Jin created her museum demiplane with an environment identical to Golarion’s. It has air, weather, and gravity just as you’d expect, and time passes normally. However, in the centuries since Hao Jin’s disappearance, the weather patterns within much of the tapestry demiplane have shifted, so we’re uncertain of the precise environment around the Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment."
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As VC Zey discuss the Empyreal gods, Herman wracks his brain for any stories he knows of this Korada or Hao Jin. Unfortunately, his expertise in more happenings on the continent of Avistan than the Tian Xia.
"I don't know much about this, but if the temple is empty, as you say, this mission could be a cakewalk. Go to an empty place, take some notes about different places, come back...easy!"
Herman shoulders his pack, ready for the teleport to the Temple in question.
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Turan finds himself rather dumbfounded at the explanations provdied however to him striving for enlightment certainly leaves room to venture to demiplanes.
As the big man stands in the clumsy half orcs way he inquires.
You have much to carry. Do you need someone stronger than yourself to aid you in lifting?
Herman doesn't remember anything useful from his history classes, but knows a bit more about the geography and studies of the nobility and notable personalities.
Herman is able to relate a little about the lands Hao Jin was a powerful sorceress who lived in the city of Goka, on the continent of Tian Xia. She was also given the title, the Ruby Phoenix, for her bright red hair that grew an ever brighter shade of red whenever she arose from the dead by resurrection magics. As a mortal follower of Abadar, her tapestry was an attempt to make a mortal equivalent of the First Vault.
Tianjing is a nation of aasimars in the Dragon Empires. The empire of Lung Wa protected, rather than conquered, Tianjing, allowing philosophy and arts to flourish in the aasimar nation.
The Hao Jin Tapestry is a centuries-old tapestry, measuring 5 feet by 7 feet. It is dirty and quite worn around the edges, though careful examination shows the wear to be structurally stable—the tapestry is in no danger of unraveling, and may have been woven that way on purpose to deter potential thieves. The patterns of the tapestry are highly abstract with lines, shapes, and patterns in a variety of colors, none of which are attractive on their own or in conjunction with each other.
The Venture-Captain points out the extra supplies provided to you for the mission, including plenty of food, water, ink, charcoal, parchment, rice paper, a couple of blank journals, a mapmaker's kit, and measuring twine.
When you are ready, Aram Zey escorts you one by one onto the scaffold and instructs you to place your fingers upon a symbol of three linked circles in the tapestry’s weave.
You arrive in the Hao Jin Tapestry instantaneously, finding yourselves standing atop a forested hill in front of a large, wide building of burnished white stone. The sky above is bright and the air smells clean and fresh.
Behind you floats a 2-foot-diameter sphere that, upon conversing with others, you discover that you can only see your own sphere, and that it remains behind as you go down the hill.
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Hagan opens up his backpack and says, "Sure. Toss it in, Jani."
The rest of the extra gear he tosses into his faithful burlap sack. Never leave home without it.
***
The trip to the demiplane is as mentally exhausting as he was worried it might be. But at least he didn't throw up.
"Heh. These are kind of cute. Do they do anything useful, you think?" he says as he admires the floating ball.
The temperature is a pleasant morning temperature, about sixty or sixty-five degrees, with a light breeze. It seems to be spring or early summer, about 9 am - similar to the time you left Golarion. There is a dew on the grass as you walk down the hill, with bees and butterflies attending to wildflowers. A variety of birds can be heard chirping in the forest behind you. (Jani sees one of an exotic plumage she remembers from a treatise on birds of the East.)
Wuliem believes that the blue spheres are "planar eddies", left by each of you upon entering the tapestry, and that they are the way you return to Golarion. An eddy should remain as long as the person who created them remains alive, and they are unique to each individual.
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After he explains that the blue spheres are "planar eddies",
Wuliem begins to move toward the building.
I suppose that the temperature--the entire environment--has been personally selected by the demiplanes creator.
The more we know of him, then the more we will know of this place.
Wuliem walks with a vial in each hand.
The Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment is a wide structure in a meadow atop the forested hill, about 130 feet wide, about 100 feet deep, and 20 feet tall with a central area about 30 feet tall. The graceful building has no sharp corners; the white marble walls are carved with soft, round edges. The edifice appears well-scrubbed, but despite this obvious care black flecks of mold cover its surface. A gravel path leads into an airy courtyard and up to a pair of large wooden double doors. The doors are carved with an image of four spheres resting inside an open lotus flower.
Besides these ornate double doors to the west, there are two set of more functionally designed doors, a single door to the northeast of the courtyard and a set of double doors to the southeast.
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Wuliem slides over on to the path.
I just so happen to have an extract mixed that would allow me to view hidden entries and such.
Or we could search the entire wall for an alternative point of entry?
As he nears the edifice, he notices the mold.
Also, Wuliem makes note of the carved image, attempting to relate them to his studies.
My isn't this wonderful!
Wuliem has the state of one on holiday!
Wuliem is unable to exactly identify the mold, but it seems to be of a normal type.
Storn shoves the big doors open and sees a large entry room with 20' foot ceilings and the continuance of the white, rounded and burnished architecture of the outside of the temple. On the ground is engraved a large spiral pattern with three spheres - the Spiral of Korada, although it is badly scuffed from what may be centuries of foot traffic. There are four additional exits to the room: a door to the south, a set of double doors directly ahead, and corridors at the northwest and northeast corners of the room.
Initially unnoticed by the big Kellid man is a very small individual, a Tian halfling boy who was playing with a crude hoop and stick and iswearing a simple, white tunic with small bells sewn in to the hem and sleeves. The child looks at Storn and the party with big brown eyes for a moment before dropping his toys and scampering off to the northwest, yelling, "Mom! Dad!" in Common.
A few moments later, a human Tian female open the double doors, saying, "Tamtei? Is that you dear child?" Seeing you, she smiles broadly, puts her hands together in front of her, bows, and says, "My apologies for Tamtei. He is very shy, and we do not get many visitors here. My name is Di Duang. Welcome to the Temple of Empyreal Enlightenment!"
She has a pock-marked face - a sign of some past illness - and a tunic with small bells like Tamtei's. You also happen to notice that she is missing two fingers and half of a third on her left hand.
Hagan does not detect any evil in the rooms or in Di Duang.
"No, we don't expect visitors - I am quite surprise to see you, I must say - but they are always welcome! And we're not related, he is the son of Wei and Liso, and has two brothers, Paulo and Xifen. ... Anyway, the last new person was Gastidem, a holy pilgrim, and that was ... oh, 10 or 11 years ago now. Other than him, we have all been here all of our lives, seeking enlightenment in Korada, the Empyreal Lord of foresight, forgiveness, and peace, given to us through the words of his most holy servant, Dakang."
"May I invite you to hear Dakang's words? He will be giving a sermon just after the common meal. Silly me, I suppose you must want to hear his words and learn about divine Korada as I don't know why else you would be here."
"Oh, and you must be hungry, I would imagine! The meal is in near three hours, and the sermon is after that. (If you are elsewhere, don't worry: you'll hear the bell for the meal.) If you come to the meal, you will be able to meet all of the humble that you haven't yet."
They appear to be simple humans (and halflings, several especially diminutive ones of which are now staring at you curiously around the corner), not some planetouched race.
(After a few more moments, a maternal voice is heard, shooing the curious boys away.)
"Why certainly, a tour would be fine."
"Let's see... Behind me is the dining room, or 'refectory', as it has been called, where we have the common meal." The room can be seen to contain a massive slab of a white wood.
At the southeast corner of the building, is what was once a stable, and there still remains some tack and blankets for horses, here laying discarded here. It has obviously not been used for a very long time, perhaps centuries - based on the dust and age - although, as with everything, there appears to be preservative magics in the air. (The whole demiplane may be subject to such.)
Next, to the south, there is a room containing mundane stores used by the temple’s inhabitants. These include blankets, bandages, tools, empty barrels and crates, some wooden stools, several empty shelves, and rolls of the same white cloth the worshipers’ robes are made of.
"Here," indicating the entryway, "we use as a gathering place."
She shows you the bedrooms and living quarters, which are simple, spare affairs, some of which are internally divided with thin, paper walls. Each compartment contains bunk beds (about half of which seem to be in use) and a basin for water. The halfling family, of which you have yet to meet Wei, the father (who is out for a walk), lives in the middle room . The middle-aged mother of the three boys, Liso, wrangles the boys with her left hand (missing two fingers completely, and parts of two others), while rotating three glass spheres in the palm of her intact hand.
The humans live in the more northerly room , currently occupied by two resting humans, Hamada, a man with a large nose, and Ziya, who appears to be wearing a wig. Both get up quickly when they hear the tour, saying "Visitors!" with some surprise, bowing and shaking your hands. (Both are missing fingers and sections of fingers.) Since there are six beds in this set of rooms and some privacy divisions, Hamada and Ziya (and Di Duang), offer to stay with the halflings while you are here, if you would like to stay.
Gastidem, the gnome pilgrim, lives in the southern, small room , though you are not shown inside the last as Gastidem is tending the garden.
There is also a door where Di Duang knocks softly and waits, with the door opening to reveal three aasimar "attendants", Salathir, Phaneon, and Devyna. The two males and a female are all armed and armored, with breastplates, spears, and what appear to be tanglefoot bags. They tell you "welcome" sincerely and politely and bow formally, but are decidedly more stern than the other inhabitants of the temple. Di Duang does confides that they are guards for Dakang, but that they are a ceremonial guard, with violence never having happened within the Temple, at least for the generations that anyone can recall, "Blessed be Korada, Lord of Peace."
You are then shown the central chapel. Unlike the other rooms in the temple, the chapel’s ceiling is 30 feet high. Tall windows look out into the riotous overgrowth of the 'garden'. Twenty evenly spaced prayer mats cover the floor here. An elaborate stone font stands at one end of the chapel, although the font is empty. In the chapel’s northwest corner, a balcony 15 feet above the floor contains a podium from which Dakang gives his sermons, with his private rooms behind.
Proceeding around, there is a meditation room, a lofty, open space. The stone walls are carved with several figures in various meditative poses. A few large mats cover the stone floor. The only other furnishing
is a rack containing a few wooden staves and several stacked glass spheres, each no bigger than a plum. The attendant, Zhuang, an older human, greets you and bows, inviting you to come meditate before returning to his own, sitting on a mat and effortlessly rotating three glass spheres in the palm of one hand and, it appears, quietly reciting some mantra.
North of the meditation room is the library and library office. The library is spacious room is crammed with narrow bookshelves and large tables. Many shelves are empty and the remaining scrolls and tomes seem tattered and sagging, although thousands of items remain. A small open door looks into the tidy office. The room is clean and bright despite a general atmosphere of abandonment. Several windows look into a garden to the west. A young human woman is here, pouring over a book. She introduces herself as Miriya and, while pleased to see you, it is obvious she is eager to return to her reading.
The temple garden is badly overgrown with tangled vegetation. Vines and briars climb the temple walls on three sides, surrounding the large windows into the chapel and the smaller windows into the library. The garden itself is a profusion of flowering bushes and weeds. Except for a clear space in the center of the garden, the dense weeds grow taller than an adult human. At the center of the garden sits a crumbling fountain, long dry, with a statue of a noble turtle in the center. Heaps of foliage choke two similar fountains, each with a large stone orb resting in the fountain’s center. (Well, none of the fountains is functioning, although each seems to have a supply of stagnant rainwater.)
Gastidem is a pleasant enough gnome, quite gregarious, and he picks up on any interest in gardening and herbalism with glee. He also asks, "And let me know if anyone speaks Gnome or Elven - it has been such a long time! I just talk to myself and the plants, but I feel I am getting out of practice even with my own language!" You notice that he is constantly chewing something, perhaps in the habit of some farmers, and seems a bit tired, wiping his brow with a cloth. He also says, "And, if you should like, may I offer you our most holy ritual? It is the Kiss of Korada, here at the fountain. It only takes a moment, if you think you are pure and holy enough."
(Not mentioned by anyone are the doors leading to the areas to the north, which are boarded up, seemingly for ages.)
"Yes, let's see," he says, "It must be 2214, according to the Imperial Calendar, which would make it ... 4714 AR to you westerners, if I remember my dates right. There isn't much use for dates, here, though, but people hang on to traditions for centuries after they no longer matter, don't they?" he adds with a wink.