The statue does nothing else, but whipser the same phrase every few minutes.
Weiman notices no traps.
Moving into the room to the south, Weiman sees that it is a library. As soon as he walks in, he notices a unnatural silence, as if the room is under a silence effect.
A winding balcony corkscrews up this library, spiraling seven times before it reaches the roof some eighty feet above. Bookshelves line every wall from floor to ceiling, brimming with crumbling tomes, tablets, and scrolls. Shafts of light descend from the stained glass ceiling, sparkling with paper dust. Two modest desks stand in the brightest light, each with a chair, a pile of tomes, a sheet of blank parchment, and an inkpen. The air here feels unnaturally dry.
Suddenly a woman drops down off the balcony and makes a hand motion at the party, indicating you should surrender. Above you on the balcony, you see three other men watching you closely.
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Weiman looks momentarily for any identifying features, insignia, or whatnot, and will use his Lore Master "T20 on a knowledge as a Standard" on anything he sees.
If anything hostile, he'll drop into a totally cool-looking, but impractical kung-fu stance and instruct her (silently) that we she should surrender or we will 'fight like they do in Jalmeray' and that he is a 'master of the Justice Animal Martial Arts".
Weiman notes the the woman appears to be a paladin of Irori, while the men are all monks, and followers of Irori as well.
The woman looks askance at Weiman's stance and shakes her head "no", then makes the "surrender" sign again, followed by a humorous mime depicting a book thief.
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"Maybe I should let the the other Iroran Paladin in and actually parley." Weiman's subconscious thinks, though when has that ever stopped this halfling?
Weiman gestures "one moment," draws a small meat hook (from his Chef's Kit), and mouths the word "Hook?" in an attempt to amuse himself with wordplay/rhyming schtick that he's sure a Paladin of Irori is going to LOVE.
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Faraz holds up his hands in a gesture of peace to his Brothers and Sisters of the faith. He bows before them and points to the door leading out of the library, indicating that they should go out there to speak.
Once out of the silence effect, Faraz begins, "Greetings to you. I am Faraz Aram, a Champion of the Faith. These are my associates, Pathfinders, and we have come here looking for a missing set of scrolls. We were accused of stealing them and are quite confused about what is going on here."
Faraz will also ask them if they will allow him to Detect Evil if he allows their paladin to do the same.
The paladin nods, motions to the monks, and follows the party back to the antechamber. "I detect no evil among and I see you are a follower of Irori as well." She says to Faraz. "My name is Pradnyara. What is your purpose here?"
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"As I was saying, our vaults were broken into some time ago and three pages from a manuscript were found to have been stolen. We have already spotted one of the pages in the tree in the temple but did not want to remove it until we had determined what was going on in this place. It seems a foul spirit has gotten ahold of the minds of several of the monks and tainted them against us. They accused us of being thieves, although we were the victims of the thieving."
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"Yeah, the Silent Reader is being a big jerk. Plus, she's breaking character."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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Desmond stands back, watching Erin work her dexterous fingers on that piece of gold. "Nice trick... wish I was so good. But these sausage links are only good for swingin' and shootin' a bow." Desmond looks around at everyone and rolls his eyes a little at Faraz's diplomacy. "Can't we just kill 'em all and search for these papers unhindered?" he thinks to himself.
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Taiko bow to the paladin and add to Faraz speach.
I am Xian Taiko Paladin san. We are Pathfinder, seeker of knowledge. As Faraz san said, one of our tresury, a book named The "Fleshforge Manuscript" which details how Nex’s fleshforges in Ecanus supplied monstrous beasts for its ancient war with Geb was stolen from one of our lodge.
The knowledge it contains is dangerous. We are here to recover this manuscript and be sure it doesn't end in the wrong hands.
Can you help us to fulfill our duty ?
Pradnyara nods. "You are free to search the library if you think it will help you." She goes on to tell that life at the monastery has changed since the papermaking workshop shut down a year ago. Many have reported sacred visions, or the “presence of Irori” guiding their words and hands. Only the master and the priests are allowed inside the temple now. The priests seldom emerge from their “meditation.” When they do, they journey to the far corners of Golarion, returning with documents to study. Indeed, Priestess Isa returned several days ago from a trip to Ecanus and Andoran. She carved the “thief ” bust soon after her return. The master insists the scribes use parchment in place of paper, and inkpens instead of quills. Worst of all, the theft of dozens of books and scrolls has plagued the library. Strangely, the thieves stole both priceless works and valueless notes, but none from within the silenced area
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Weiman gives a cursory search, though will get bored at a 20-minute search and practice his "martial arts" in the courtyard.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Searching the library, the party locates a 4,000-year-old legend of a dryad whose dedication to her forest’s survival was so strong, she sacrificed herself to save it from Geb’s necromantic blight. Researching ghosts locates a scroll that suggests ghosts with an obsessive dedication to a goal can be laid to rest by either destroying their goal, or helping them achieve it. It cautions that a dedicated ghost who has not been able to achieve her goal yet may be a poor judge of the best way to accomplish it.
Lastly, the party locates the topmost section of the Fleshforge Manuscript hidden in a pile of other incomplete documents on the library’s third tier.
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"So, all we have to do is punch Geb until he's dead? Lucky us; we're already halfway done! Ha! That, or we could punch all the trees. Either or."
-Posted with Wayfinder
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It seems the "forest spirit" is the one of this dryad. Why would it want to gather books ?
Does the book we're looking for have answer ?
Intrigued, Taiko began reading the topmost section of the Fleshforg Manuscript trying to find if it was cut with purpose or without.
As for Weiman's suggestion he said
If even Death couldn't take his toll to Geb, I don't think we could
Taiko examines the book and thinks it was torn apart, though for what purpose, he does not know.
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hum, may be some of the papers were made from the dryad's forest ? But only those old enough are brought here being rare of not doesn't matter only what they are made of matters !
May be there is a way to explain the ghost'dryad that her quest is vain ?
In my home land we make paper with rice rather than tree.
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"Hm, I think you may be on to something Taiko. The tree in the temple is perhaps an attempt to reconstruct the dryad's form after it was cut down? And you said the paper shop hasn't been used in some time! The spirit is clearly controlling these poor monks to do its bidding, ending the paper manufacturing and trying to collect the pieces of its body that were lost."
"So. . . assuming your theory is correct, what can we do to appease the spirit? We need the manuscript back and we can't allow it to keep control over these monks, especially if it is forcing them to commit thievery, something Irori would not tolerate."
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Fendahl wonders if there is something they have missed.
"Hrrmm. I am not sure what else this library holds. I suspect there is still something we missed . " unless search the room or dialog with the Iomaede crew breaks down, he will take Kirrah and check the SE room, path and terminating statue or headstone or shrine...whichever it is
Going back out into the yard, Fendahl searches the garden, but finds nothing of interest. While moving back through the courtyard, he notices a bundle under the robes of the monastery master. Checking, he finds the third section of the manuscript!
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"Once we grab the third section from the makeshift tree we will have accomplished our mission but I fear that will not lay the dryad's spirit to rest and it will continue to haunt these poor monks, maybe even sending them to steal the manuscript again. We should confront the dryad and see what needs to be done to restore the forest and her spirit."
The party returns to the temple, but is greeted only with silence.
Eventually you hear an angry voice and look up to see a translucent dryad, lithe, graceful, and obviously once beautiful, but now horrifically disfigured—her skin tattooed with mutating words, and impaled with nails and quills. She carries a crooked wand. "I tire of your meddling, thieves! You will suffer my wrath!"
Taiko drinks an extract and then vanishes as he sends Kyofuu for the last piece of the manuscript.
As Kyofuu nears the "tree", he(?) notices an aroma of a pine forest....., then turns and returns to his master.