Rogar and Vordrek emerge from the doorway. Both of them are gasping for breath, but Vordrek collapses to the ground clutching his chest.
"One can learn a great deal from careful experimentation, wouldn't you agree?" Marouf smiles. "You seem a little tired, friend. I wouldn't risk any of the other memories, just in case. Except for the Palace Reception: you are sure to find that one both relaxing and informative."
"Aryana Tahari, the Black Moon, we beseech you!" You and your fellow courtiers kneel before the powerful Usij in her palace at the capital. The Pharaoh has raised her up high for her service and knowledge. "The war is over, and you are the one who has made it so! Let us not now lose the peace. Many of our citizens died for the knowledge that brought this victory. Now our farms lie untended. Those labourers who were not sacrificed to the plague run to the Sarenites, and a famine will soon overtake the empire. We humbly ask that you cure the plagues, so that the peasants will return to the fields without fear. We offer you many gifts! Accept our homage and our plea, for the sake of the empire!"
Your servants bring chests full of gold and jewels, rare herbs and spices, and the finest silks. Aryana Tahari rises from her seat and inspects your offerings. "Gold?" she scoffs. "What need have I for gold? Knowledge is the only currency with value, and you have none to barter with. My knowledge, my plagues, brought low the Imperium and my power will destroy the Sarenites also! You do not care for your labourers, only for your own comfort. You are no greater than those peasants. All fall before the plague!"
Tahari gestures, and a thick green fog fills the room. You and your fellows choke, coughing up blood...
Enora walks to one of the sites that the Div presented as dangerous!
Rogar emerges from the Palace Reception memory coughing violently and clutching at his throat.
Enora goes to another door.
"No little friend!" cries Marouf. "You will surely experience much suffering beyond that door! Please, remain here!"
Enora's mind is made up though.
A few seconds later, Enora returns to the shared mindscape of the village square without harm.
Enora angrily looks at Marouf and shouts ”You are a liar! This was a memorable and heroic moment and not dangerous at all! Everybody!! This is the tale of the Paladin of Osiris ...“
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Vordrek, coughing, struggles to his feet again. "It seems," he says as he gathers his strength, "that everything our friend says is a lie. Which is... unfortunate, but not without its uses. Since we know they can hurt us after all, we'll just need to be careful."
He turns to Marouf. "Which memories are safe, and which are dangerous?"
"Bu.. a... I... you have witnessed all of the safe ones! The remainder hold great danger!" Marouf looks pained.
As you enter the remaining doorways, Marouf grows apoplectic. Yet, he takes no action against you.
”Mistress, all is ready” you tell her. ”The shaitan called Marouf is prepared for your next experiment. I will bring him to the memory chamber now.”
You collect Marouf's body – you killed the diseased genie earlier – and await Tahari. When she enters the memory chamber, you drop the genie's corpse and attack her! But the necromancer is prepared. A contingent spell shifts her away from your grasping claws, and she laughs. She sends her undead bodyguards against you. ”Mistress, I have only ever wanted to serve you!” you lie, and you conjure a hail of detritus from Abaddon to crush the woman and her pitiful creations. Such pain! You cannot understand what has happened. As you call the ruinous storm of destruction you grow weaker. What has she done? Tahari aims rays of black energy at you, which you easily deflect. You summon fire, then ice, to destroy the undying soldiers that prevent you reaching the object of your hatred. With each attack you make, your energy wanes. Tahari waves her hands over the corpse of Marouf, and transforms him into a Ghul! Marouf leads a fresh attack against you. You fire a disintegration spell at him, and again your life energy diminishes. Prevented from using your magic safely, you plan to tear apart Tahari with your bare hands. You teleport behind her, even though it costs you more life energy. She laughs again, and dimension doors to the memory extractor. You follow, and claw at her. But you are weak now, so weak. She gestures, and the bronze manacles clasp your wrists and ankles. You pull against them, but you have used so much magic that you are too weak to break free. Tahari manipulates the levers and the crystals of the device.
”Treacherous Kabede!” she says ”I have no more use for your deception here. But I am a merciful mistress. I send your mind to my memory store, where you may still serve a purpose. If any but I should come after you, I grant you leave to amuse yourself with them.” She adjusts another crystal. You scream, and lose consciousness.
"I deceived her! I wanted to come here. Kabede is the slave of Black Moon. I am Marouf of the Opaline Vault! Here I serve no master! Here I am free! I allowed the necromancer to think she defeated me so that she would not trouble me again. I weaved an illusion around her so that she imagined that I was weak. This is my realm now, my kingdom! I am free!"
In addition to the various doorways, you note a distortion in the air on the edge of the village square. This would seem to be a way out. Kabede/Marouf seems unaware of it.
Enora nods and starts walking to the distortion that hopefully leads them out!
Enora steps into the distortion and vanishes.
"What?" cries Kabede. "Figments of my imagination, all of you. No fun at all really."
Kabede fades away into nothingness, and you follow Enora out of the mindscape.
Rogar, you know enough to realise that Kabede was being dishonest but you could not work out more than that.
Back in the necromancer's vault, Dhiara is performing kata whilst Kramac and Jino watch for any signs of change. As each of you returns from the mindscape your bodies respond normally, and you are whole again, save for those of you who suffered ill effects from the dangerous memories.
Party status
Enora: ghoul fever
Vordrek: ghoul fever, 6hp damage, 1 negative level
Karos: Fort save pending
Nithrandyl: down 6 temp hp
Rogar: 1 negative level
Kramac and Jino: no ill effects
Those of you who entered the mindscape were gone for around 10 minutes.
"Did you learn anything? Whose memories were contained in the device?" asks Dhiara.
Enora provide Dhiara with all the details.
”I would suggest that I go into the cleansing room again. Same procedure and if it goes wrong I jump out of the room again!“
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"According to the scholars, it is the mind of a div named Kabede," says Karos. "He lied constantly. But I wonder if that could not be made to work for us. Surely some memories in the device would be useful to know and perhaps not all are harmful."
"In any case, Enora, what are you trying to accomplish in this 'cleansing' room?"
"A div? One of Black Moon's servants." says Dhiara. Once you have recounted the various memories, she adds "Some of those are certainly helpful. You've learned a little of what this complex holds. The holy warrior was mentioned in Tahari's notes; a shame that his brave uprising ultimately failed. And it seems that substance number 14 holds some special meaning for Tahari, even though her notes describe it as a failure. A ninety-percent fatality rate and she called it a failure. This is the enemy that we are dealing with Pathfinders. Enora! Please proceed."
Enora enters the cleansing room again, whilst you wait for the system to complete its cycle.
The green runes activate and seal the room with walls of force.
The blue runes activate, bathing Enora in a soft glow.
This time the cleansing is successful! The red runes merely pulse once, to no effect. Enora sees thin slats open in the roof of the chamber, and the air in the chamber is recycled before the walls of force vanish. Before the system can recharge, everyone returns to the crossroads.
Party status
Enora: OK
Vordrek: ghoul fever, 6hp damage, 1 negative level
Karos: OK
Nithrandyl: down 6 temp hp
Rogar: 1 negative level
Kramac and Jino: OK
You take the eastern branch of the crossroads, and quickly come into another room.
Thousands of bones fill the shelves in the centre of this chamber as if they were books. Tiny pictographs cover the surface of each bone. The pictographs chronicle the infection and death of the creatures that the bones belonged to.
One door leads out of the chamber to the north.
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What, no one wants to explore the Doorway to Oblivion? Ha! Seems prudent. On to the archives.
Kramac will join his companions in searching the archives for anything of interest. He will keep an eye out for references to '14', seeking to learn more of the most deadly disease the necromancer ever produced.
You have to translate the contents of the scroll that Rogar finds from the original ancient osiriani, but once you do so there is much useful knowledge within...
To create a dose of the cure you will need a quantity of the "crystalline aether", and a sample of the disease from a victim or from the lab. Retrieving a sample of the disease without exposing oneself to infection will be difficult.
It would take only 5 minutes work in an appropriately equipped laboratory (such as Tahari's) to make one dose of the cure. You estimate that you have enough crystalline aether already to produce 3 doses. Consuming a cure does not prevent re-infection, but does substantially reduce the probability for 24 hours.
You also learn from the notes that Tahari discovered how to use the crystalline aether to distill a substance of surpassing power, which she calls Blood of Nethys. The refining process for Blood of Nethys is much more complicated than that needed to produce cures for Fading Light. Twice as much crystalline aether is consumed and the process takes 15 minutes. Blood of Nethys has the following properties :
• If consumed, any spells affecting the imbiber are treated as 5 levels higher for the purpose of being dispelled, and such spells function even while in an antimagic field or area with the dead magic planar trait; this effect lasts for 1 minute.
• If poured on the ground as a standard action, the fluid covers a 5-foot-radius area and suppresses any antimagic field in that area for 1d4+1 rounds.
• The flask can be thrown as a splash weapon against the caster of an antimagic field, and on a direct hit, the fluid suppresses the antimagic field for 1d4+1 rounds.
• A spellcaster can use blood of Nethys as an additional spell component to increase the caster level of that spell by 2.
Consuming blood of Nethys also grants immunity to the disease Fading Light for 24 hours and cures that disease if the imbiber already has it.
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Quite an interesting find Rogar. This might be quite useful... lets carry on with our exploration.
Once the room is searched, Kramac will lead the way into the next room.
As a general rule, Kramac will do what he can to search for traps as we move, even knowing he isn't terribly good at it. Do you want me to roll as we enter new rooms, or would you just rather roll for me if it becomes relevant?
”Rogar, your skill is really unbelievable! That you found this is a blessing! But it also reminds me that Nethys sometimes is only interested in new magical discoveries and less in the morality involved!“ Enora says a little sad.
”But I have to research this topic and would very much like to try the process to create a cure against “fading light” and then I want to try to distill “Nethy’s blood”!!“ Enora says excited.
”Would you support me??“
No skill check is needed to manufacture the cures, only to safely handle the disease sample. I should add that any character with the Poison Use class feature can automatically safely handle samples, though I don't think any of you have that.
A skill check is needed to make Blood of Nethys; this does not require a disease sample, only the crystalline aether. But it takes twice as much crystalline aether per dose.
You can absolutely use Aid Another, and any magic you might have that boosts skill checks.
Kramac, unless you guys decide on a "standard door-opening procedure" I will just roll perception for whoever opens a door, working on the assumption that the PC checks over that door. I'll also stick to the Rule of 3 before going ahead with the door opening, (so 3 of you need to agree to move on).
”Then let us go!“ Enora agrees a little sad.