The blob stops moving. Basil starts shooting at a stationary blob, making the blob look like a bulls eye target.
Basil wrinkles his nose in distaste.
"I can honestly say, those things are probably one of the most disgusting types of creature that I have ever had to put down. I wonder where they came from? I doubt they were part of the standard exhibit..."
He then moves to carefully explore the room, skirting the remaining goo and acid as much as possible.
"Most of my arrows are elven-crafted, and built to last. Sadly, my blunt arrows were made by humans, and, well... the craftsmanship is just not the same..."
He gratefully accepts the quiver.
Both of you decide that since the Goo will be just around about 1 min, both of you wait for Goo to evaporate(with an awful stench), then step into the Hall of Legendary Beasts. While you're both waiting, a sudden thought occurs to Basil, that those formless blobs...seemed a bit of an amalgamation of many animals as opposed to being formless blobs. And there were whole bunch of taxidermined beasts being torn apart...
Basil spots secret doors and . Both of you see the door to another room to the western most side of the Hall of Legendary Beasts.
Its an elevator shaft down.
This is a storage room and it stores supplies for maintaining the hall’s various taxidermy beasts, as well as a well-loved pesh pipe hidden in a box labeled “spare eyes.”
This is a small, well-stocked research library exists for donors and visiting scholars to use. Nearly a third of the shelf space is dedicated to cataloging the museum’s collection.
Basil shudders when he realises where the creatures came from.
"What manner of creature was it that turned dead flesh into a horrible parody of life!?"
Searching the rooms, he chuckles when he finds the pesh pipe, but wordlessly leaves it where he found it.
He then nods in appreciation at the contents of the library, before stopping at the door at the southern end of the room, which he carefully opens (after searching for traps).
Basil doesn't get any strange things popping out of the room to eat him. There's only the stairs up that remains unexplored.
Valda moves upwards without too much sound, just a few soft thuds of her boots against the spiral stairs, and then she runs into a wooden oak door.
With a nod, Basil carefully inspects the door for traps.
If he finds none, he will use Remote Viewing to see what is on the other side.
Door is not trapped.
A mosaic of the night sky and winter constellations covers the domed ceiling of this circular chamber. Rich embellishments fill the walls, and a plush carpet covers the floor. Heavy antique furniture has been overturned or broken, much of it incorporated into a series of sparking devices. You see the back of a humanoid figure that once might have been an elf (looking at the pointy ears), working feverishly over the sparking devices. Where his skin and clothing should have covered him up, there is only a musculature of a humanoid. A turquoise glow emits from where his hair and bones bones should have been, and you can see streams of turqoise nanites dangling like wires from his arms, legs and shoulders. His ankles and knees are bent in positions unthinkable in a normal human being.
Valda's ascent is a little noisier this time, and some clanking can be heard.
Basil's expression sours.
"The roof of the room inside is decorated to look a bit like the night sky. I think we have found our remaining missing member of the museum staff... or at least what is left of him; it looks like his skin has been removed, and his body is infested with some sort of nanites."
"We should be ready for anything."
So saying, Basil starts buffing.
Following all of that, he will motion for Valda to open the door.
A mosaic of the night sky and winter constellations covers the domed ceiling of this circular chamber. Rich embellishments fill the walls, and a plush carpet covers the floor. Heavy antique furniture has been overturned or broken, much of it incorporated into a series of sparking devices. Both of you see the back of a humanoid figure that once might have been an elf (looking at the pointy ears), working feverishly over the sparking devices. Where his skin and clothing should have covered him up, there is only a musculature of a humanoid. A turquoise glow emits from where his hair and bones bones should have been, and you can see streams of turquoise nanites dangling like wires from his arms, legs and shoulders. His ankles and knees are bent in positions unthinkable in a normal human being.
Both of you see one of those robots you have fought on the first floor next to him, its red eyes blinking ominously, but just standing as a silent sentry...for now.
Now both of you are in the room, both of you can see that despite the fact he seems to be fully concentrating on his "work", his turquoise nanite filled eyes are wide with horror and his mouth is opened in a silent scream.
You think that part of him is still there, horrified by the abberation that he's become
You identify it as an empowered cyber plasm.
As a standard action, a cyberplasm can attempt to inhabit a Large or smaller corporeal creature. The cyberplasm must move into the target’s space, and the target must succeed at a DC 18 Fortitude save to avoid being infested.
An infested creature retains its physical ability scores, hit points, natural and special attacks, and natural abilities, while the cyberplasm uses its own mental ability scores, base attack bonus, base save bonuses, alignment, and mental abilities. The host is considered unconscious while infested, and can’t take actions or control any of its own abilities as long as the cyberplasm inhabits it.
While infesting a host, a cyberplasm can’t access its host’s thoughts, skills, or mental abilities, and it loses its swarm traits (including immunity to weapon damage) and use of its extraordinary abilities. Any damaging attacks or effects affecting the host deals half of the damage to the host and half of the damage to the cyberplasm.
Any electricity damage dealt to the host deals full damage to the host and the cyberplasm (and the cyberplasm is still subject to its vulnerability to electricity).
A cyberplasm deals 1 point of Constitution damage every hour it is inside a host. If the cyberplasm reduces its host’s Constitution score to 0 in this way, the host’s body dissolves into gray dust and is destroyed (similar to a disintegrate effect).
A cyberplasm can end its infestation as a move action, appearing in any space adjacent to the infested creature.
If the host is slain, the cyberplasm is immediately ejected and is dazed for 1 round. A remove disease spell has a 50% chance to force a cyberplasm from a host, but the creature receives a saving throw against this effect. Anytime a creature infested with a cyberplasm is subjected to electricity damage, it can attempt another DC 18 Fortitude save to eject the cyberplasm.
The elf looks up, and a string of incomprehensible syllabus spills from his open mouth,"01000111 01100101 01110100 00100000 01101111 01110101 01110100 "
The robot is thoroughly shocked by your sudden attack, and you put a very large dent into it, but it does not go down. "Intruders detected. Termination Protocols activated."
"He is currently infested by a type of swarm called an 'Empowered Cyberplasm', which will eventually kill him if it isn't removed, as it slowly drains its host's vitality over the course of about half a day. Electricity has a chance to eject it from its host, as does a Remove Disease spell. We will need to be careful - once removed from its host, it will probably try to infest one of us..."
Basil declares Bane on the infested creature, and then shoots a blunt arrow at it, trying to knock it out.
He then tries to finish the job.
The first shot hits his shoulders, but yet the elf does not gasp, the other hits him squarely in the head, and he collapses on the ground. Yet you do not see anything coming out of him.
The remaining shot hits the robot in the head and it blows up next to Valda. Both you and Valda see those turquoise nanites flow out from the elf's ears and they attempt to slither into Valda.
I get to control your character. Mwahahha!
You're nauseated for 1 round.
17/74
As the turquoise nanites flow out of the elf, he regains his normal colour, and could almost be said to be sleeping except for the unnatural angle of his shoulder and the deep dent on his forehead. And the fact that he's naked.
Each character may reroll a single d20 once in the scenario - this is to make up for swinginess of encounters with only 2 players.You may not transfer rerolls, nor use them on anything other then your PC.
Throwing a worried glance in Valda's direction, Basil focuses all of his attention on dissipating the swarm.
Basil's first shot hits the centre of the swarm and blasts it apart. Both of you are now standing in the wrecked gallery.
Breathing a sigh of relief, Basil moves over to check on the Elf, attempting to restore him to consciousness.
Frowning when his wand doesn't appear to be as effective as he would have liked, he tries again.
The elf slowly stirs to consciousness, and he opens his eyes, tries to focus, and squints at the light. You notice that his pupils are of uneven size."M' ead hurts. Shulder too."He slurs."Wat 'append?" He looks at you, disorientated and confused.
"Careful... you might have a subdural haematoma. Just a second..."
Basil pumps some more healing into the elf.
"Well, it looks like you got infested by some sort of intelligent swarm, which was using your body as a meat suit to manipulate its environment. Fortunately, we were able to see the blighter off..."
As Valda taps on him a few more times with the wand, he becomes more lucid. " Im Pendelton.Oh my god. I'm in the museum. The attack. Then those nanites going into me..." He turns pale and starts shaking."Are they all gone?" He looks at both of you desperately.
Basil nods.
"They are definitely gone. Thoroughly destroyed."
"Oh thank god...I'm saved." He looks relieved. He looks almost about to embrace Basil, then decides against it. He pauses, then looks at you."Did the rest of the staff manage to get out?"
He looks down on the floor,"I don't really want to talk about it. I'll be having nightmares for the rest of my life." He shudders, then starts breaking out into cold sweat.
"Can you get me out of this hellhole, now?" He insists firmly.
"Yes yes, I didn't see anything." The elf is all too happy to agree.
All of you return triumphantly to the Pathfinder Society. Drandle Dreng is pleased with the way you have dealt with the matter, and is glad to be free of Nigel's debt. The Blakros family thanks you later with a grand dinner, of which you both walk off with stuffed stomachs.
The following day, a delivery boy passes you a letter,"I am grateful for your assistance in rescuing my nephew and my staff, but couldn't you have not pathfinderized the museum? The whole incident caused me 1,000 gp in repairs cleaning up the blasted parts, vegetative matter, goo and all. You're both banned from the museum until you've both paid your dues.- Yours truly, Nigel"