Kanthuun fades into visibility with a trussed up Hanethes. His hair is somewhat more mussed up than usual and his eyes are a bit goggly. He looks at Drovya and then the party.
"We're doing well, then," he quips. "Is there a way to fix them, Rohini?"
"Sadly, no way that comes to mind, within my abilities. I think the plan is to leave this place, and re-assess."
The party ventured back under the canopy to find a place to regroup away from prying eyes. It was easy enough to do after having as casual a conversation as possible given the circumstances with the drow in question, though Haka couldn't help but notice the dimmer of the two drow still couldn't stop cracking wise. At anything, really, including the way the adventurers moved to leave the camp.
They quirked a few eyebrows, but obviously none of anyone too important, as they were able to slip away.
Once the spell was cast and the group pulled themselves into a temporary hidey-hole, a more thorough check of Hanethes and Drovya revealed a relatively high fever in both. The former murmured things in an panicked pigdin of Elvish and Aklo... the latter being some proof of possession. Moments of lucidity would pass over the rogue, but his fellow half-elf was too far gone to awaken without assistance. This did give the group plenty of time to bind him and place Black Ivan out of his reach, though.
It is easy to glean that Hanethes is suffering through many different nightmare scenarios within his own mind's eye.
You've heard of similar things occurring in places of great spiritual trauma... It wouldn't be too strange to think that a place that manipulates souls could create haunts if the entities in question weren't devoured yet.
The mens' symptoms sound like they came from a ghost story penned by Ustalav's very own Ailson Kindler... The protagonist Heiflynn managed to save his lover from the ghosts in her head by force-feeding her purified salts dipped in holy water, but one has to doubt anything that is written for the sake of entertainment.
"Are they gonna be okay?"
"I don't think they are in any immediate danger, Talon, but I think it is beyond my abilities to restore their sanity. I think it's critical that we watch over them and keep them bound, because they are a danger to us and to themselves in their current states. Perhaps we should take some time to rest and reflect on the situation."
As the group checks over Han and Drovya more carefully, Haka listens closely to Han’s fevered, polyglot mutterings. ”Gods, I almost wish this ring didn’t make it so easy to understand him. If he’s seeing what he’s talking about, it’s no wonder he’s acting mad. Babies with goat heads doing unspeakable, impossible things…cats and dogs living together…and a vaguely musical ensemble called One Direction. What can it all mean?”
He lays a small, comforting hand on Han as he struggles against his nightmares and continues, ”That pyramid is some sort of vortex of spiritual trauma, where terrible things have been done, souls manipulated and devoured, and the residual evil is tearing through them. Such a place could easily breed haunts – perhaps in our friends, or able to exist outside of them.”
*~*blergh*~*
Illyata and Nyota brought their gazes from the fellows on the ground to stare and Haka critically. Somewhere, a fourth wall crumbled in a rumble of thunder, and a gm looked up a band she had never heard or witnessed to find them more mediocre than their viewing numbers suggested. However, that was not so much an issue here compared to the other things at hand.
"Although I'm stating the obvious at this point, both Hanethes and Drovya have had their minds broken, and based on what Haka is saying, it appears they're being forced to relive someone else's horrifying agonies. Sadly, this state of insanity is permanent unless cured by some very powerful magic. And, as I warned before, it is entirely conceivable they could kill themselves or others in his state, so we need to keep them in control and need to keep Black Ivan far away from Drovya."
"As I said, I know powerful magic is required to fix these two, but my Lady only reveals her mysteries to me as I become a better servant to her, so the specific nature of the magic is unknown to me. Perhaps you have an idea, Talon, as it seems you have more book learning than I. My knowledge is only that which I have picked up in my travels, or revealed to me by my mistress in my dreams."
"That all sounds awful, just awful. No wonder he went insane."
Within his punch-drunk and well, absent state, Drovya can hear Ivan speaking in a voice not entirely like his own within his unconscious haze.
"By the eighth configuration of the Zialendesh, we were so close to finding the answer! Those fools should have this humiliation visited upon them a hundred-fold!"
Black Ivan, as the ego could be called, manifested in the magus's mind's eye much as he imagined him (and arguably in such a way because of how the half-elf had predicted him to look). His ranting echoed between dim dreams of the ordeals of others.
"Surely you have figured out by now that you, fool boy, are the only one remaining out of a crowd without an inkling of my duty! I-we-are incomplete, and that bastard priest knows something! We were so close! We could have walked through the proverbial front door and finished it! No more need for these degenerates with which you've allied-,"
"Eilarune... I hope that these dreams cannot come from a living mind." Nyota nearly whispers, her words cryptic but somewhat fearful, brought on by the realisation of the tortures that likely happen to the still living and cognisant in the outer planes.
Illyata kneels next to Han, adjacent to Haka, and regards the one who removed the chains from her person with concern.
"Surely the Lady hasn't left you, blessed Rohini... She doesn't abandon lightly. After all, did she not send you to our aid? Is there not something you can do...? Your daily gifts are not so limited as ours."
"I'm sure you're right, Illyata, she wouldn't abandon us in such a time of need; there must be spells she would grant me that would help us. Let me pray on it."
Rohini retreats to a corner and enters a state of deep contemplation and prayer. After an hour she rejoins the group.
"Blessed be my Lady -- two ideas have come to mind. If I rest and pray for it, I can cast a divination spell and inquire as to whether the spells we need may be found on this plane. The downside is that the retrieval of such magics could be hazardous indeed. Perhaps even better, I could summon a Janni to shift us all to the material plane. We would have to give it some payment, but it shouldn't be more than 200-400 gp. That would also release Illyata and Nyota from this place -- they have suffered enough. The only downside is it might take us some time to travel to Katapesh once we are on the material plane -- do we have any quick means of travel if we find ourselves 500 miles from Katapesh?"
Drovya's fingertips twitch and spasm as his eyes roil violently behind the shade of their lids, threatening to vibrate straight out of the half-elf's skull.
Great-grandfather? Drovya's voice echoed timidly within his own mind, tinged with fear and indecision. In his own mind's eye, Drovya was a young and slight reflection of the physically powerful reality of his true body. Your duty? He asked, voice rising. Your duty was to your family, but you cared naught for them! You slaughtered them until grandfather stopped you! And despite all that, I would help you! Because you are all the family I have left! But you tell me nothing! How can I help when you purposefully keep me in the dark? If only you would tell me! We could work together, we could heal you! Make you whole! The half-elf's young self-image slumped. But no matter my strength, or the secrets I unlock, always you oppose me, refuse to trust me. How can I help if you will not let me?
Black Ivan regarded Drovya like an unwelcome parasite, though there was a flash of... something... that crossed his face almost too quickly to be detected.
"You persist with the belief that there's something left, don't you? That you would 'heal' me?! The condition of the raw mortal is flawed, can't you see?! I am not a man, and I certainly cannot be saved in your petty frame of mind. You persist in calling me with the title long since taken by the work, by the need to finish this!
His family was weak. They would have prevented the work or have died terribly anyway; you know this. It was not by my design that they were cut down in more recent years...so much as in my design."
"Whatever power and knowledge you possess, I cannot trust you with all your remaining naivete! You refuse to accept the true nature of existence and cling to the basest sentimentalities... I could not trust you to do what must be done without allowing you to chase a blasted carrot tied upon a stick."
He stared at the boy, his eyes piercing like daggers. "You yet grow, and this might you have striven for certainly has not eluded you. A worthy vessel you are, but one filled with other, useless things."
He snorted, features softening ever-so-slightly. "But perhaps... perhaps you'll survive what will come to pass... what must come to pass. The Oblivion clock turns ever on, you know. You may yet prove worthy enough to reach this epiphany... or you may yet learn on your own."
A hound archon could definitely take Haka to Katapesh if the error in the plane shift spell is a problem.
Illyata twitched a little at Rohini's sudden revelation, simply because it became obvious that there had been a way out of the nightmare realm for some time, now. Had she more knowledge of the clerical ways of advancement, she might have been able to make this suggestion before. This did not mean she begrudged helping the adventurers, though. It was still a logical step.
On that note, the azata had some dealings with tedious travel before. Ebhanazor had boasted of one surefire way to cross ridiculous amounts of terrain in a day.
"A hound archon could take the small one, I'm sure, by way of his magic, but for the rest of you, I cannot be sure."
She regarded Rohini with a wry smile. [b]"
Nyota seemed more stunned than irritated. Whether it was at the fact that a Janni could have come to their rescue for some time or that she was going to be separated from Talon left some room for debate, however.
"Well we just need Haka to go right? He can get some scrolls of whatever we need to heal them up and then come back right?"
"Do I understand you right, my friends? That you would all stay here, while Rohini summons a Janni to shift me back to our home plane, along with a hound archon - something I've never seen, and certainly never expected to ride - so that I can get to Katapesh and acquire the magics needed to heal Drovya and Han? I'm willing to go, though I am somewhat loath to leave you all here in this place. But if it's what is needed, so be it. Is there anything else I should bring back from Katapesh?"
After a pause, he asks, "And how do I get back, and find you all again?"
"Well if you're quick enough, you can just get them to take you back. Or you can pick up a scroll to take you back here. Or even better, you can talk to the church to bring you back here."
"No, no. My idea is that we would ALL go back to the material plane with the Janni. At the very least we need to get Illyata and Nyota out of here, and I'm sure we all could use to be out of this place for a time. I know I long to see the night sky, even for a moment. Once back in Golarion, I would summon the hound archon to get Haka to Katapesh quickly, although I would prefer even more an option that would get us ALL to Katapesh quickly. That would also allow us to return with more precision, I think."
"By the way, Illyata and Nyota, I apologize for not thinking of this plan earlier. Although my Lady has blessed me with some power, I am truly one of her more humble servants. I have had no formal religious education, and that education I had before She came to me and called me to her service taught me nothing of magic or the creatures who roam other planes. I never even gave much thought to other planes of existence before I was brought to this place against my will. I was merely a traveling cleric searching out and restoring my Lady's most remote and forgotten shrines."
"Oh, well that makes a lot more sense I guess. But you're right that we need to get them out at least."
Drovya's thrashing continues, and a quiet groan escapes from his gritted teeth and locked jaw.
Drovya narrowed his eyes, as unbeknownst to him, his self image increased in size and stature.
He shakes his head, emboldened by anger and frustration. You are wrong though, I am no vessel. I am the master, and I will master you, or break you. I know the secret to it, and do not think I would not. If you will not serve, you will be shattered.
However, Ivan's earlier words struck him, and a thread of doubt crept in. What do you mean, "in your design?" His voice becomes low, and dangerous. What do you know of my parents' death? And what is this Oblivion Clock?
Illyata shook her head, hair shifting across the ground.
"The frustration is just as much mine as yours. Sitting and reading to learn is not a strong point of our kind. Had we learned more to serve our purpose, this might have gone differently. Be not ashamed."
She placed a calming hand on Hanethes' forehead, though her eyes do wander to the thrashing Drovya.
"I, too, wish to bask in the starlight."
Nyota grabbed Talon's forearm with a sure grip and pressed her head against his shoulder.
"I... I didn't mind, sister, but it will be good to see the sky again..."
A curl of a smile crossed Ivan's lips at Drovya's growth and edge.
"I was not made for you... I was not made for the hands of a half-elf whelp. Perhaps the one originally slotted for the privilege of wielding me grew irate, even as they waited for my completion.
Do you think your fool parents would simply hand me over knowing how loyal I am to my cause? Or that they would sell you out, for that matter?"
Ivan loomed, pacing around Drovya as he forces the image of his elven mother watching motionlessly from a dark corner as her son took Ivan from his secured space.
"Is it not suspicious that she let you go? That she begged me to take you after reading and burning a letter but a couple of days prior? The letter whose envelope still spurns you forward?"
Talon looks to Nyota as she grabs his forearm."I'll make sure we'll see it again. Together."
That earned Talon a weary smile, to be sure.
---
The next eight hours were surprisingly uneventful, though Kanthuun's wayfinder ceased to stop buzzing and shaking incessantly. Left alone, it would probably prevent most from sleeping peacefully.
Kanthuun awakes and slaps the wayfinder like an anachronous alarm clock. "I feel like I've been sleeping for days," he says.
Drovya shakes his head, denying Ivan's insinuations with every fibre of his being. Same old Ivan, same old lies. You always try to twist the blade, and of course you would bring Mother into this. But for all your hints and grand pronouncements, you're just as in the dark as I am. Drovya spares one, forlorn look at the mental construct of his mother before turning his sneer back on Ivan. You will never be complete unless you work with me, and that is a promise, Vanya. No matter who you were made for.
Rohini rests and meditates to prepare the needed spells, and she suggests that Haka and Kanthuun reflect on their spell selection, to the extent they have any selection. In the morning, she gathers around everyone: "Are we ready? Our plan isn't perfect, but I think we all need to return to the material plane to regroup, and this seems like the only way to do it at this point. I'm afraid we need to ensure that Drovya and Han stay unconscious, so they don't resist the plane shift in their madness. Talon, could you please make sure of that with the least amount of harm and suffering? Kanthuun, please be prepared with a rope trick once we do shift, in case we land somewhere where we need an immediate sanctuary. And, again, I'd love any suggestions for how we can all get to Katapesh once we return."
With that, Rohini begins to prepare to summon a Janni. "You know, it occurs to me that we will not be able to return to this place by summoning another Janni, because, although they can shift us to the material plane, they cannot shift us to Abaddon (). Thus, it WILL be necessary for all of us to somehow return to Katapesh to be able to return to continue our mission. That does not change my resolve to move forward with this plan, because I am not confident of our ability to locate means to heal Drovya and Han in this place, but I wanted to let you know of that additional difficulty."
"I think I can handle that." Talon responds as he pats Stark. "Let's get it done. As far as getting to Katapesh goes, we could walk?" He shrugs.
"I can also fly and flag down a caravan...it beats dying of heat and jackalwere attacks," offers the sorcerer.
Being that Jann's tastes differed from individual to individual, Rohini was more or less forced to depend on the group's versatile nature to gain the aid of the elemental outsider.
Rohini laid out the appropriate offering, which in this case was straight coinage, into a circle in the murk just outside their shelter's confines.
It wasn't too terribly large; just large enough for a single man-sized creature to stand in.
The spell itself took a long while to cast, and Rohini was pulled into a necessary trance in which she felt her consciousness soaring and calling out into what must have been a wide view of the universe and the planes therein, churning and making her seem infinitesimally tiny. However, after about ten minutes of this, she felt a pair of eyes look back to her calling from somewhere impossibly far away.
As she snapped back into her body, the party witnessed what could only be considered a 'birthing' from the muck and the molten remains of Rohini's initial offering. It seemed almost sinister, at first, watching the shape rise from the murk, but within a few moment, the veneer of filth slipped off like a soiled kaftan to reveal a beautiful bronze-hued man wearing crimson robes far too fine for any adventuring in this marshy portion of the Forest of Arrest. A creeping tattoo of intercrossed blue lines ran from his neck to the center of his face.
His golden eyes flickered like fire as he cricked his neck and regarded his summoner. His face was thankfully familiar enough that any creature looking on knew it brimmed with amused curiosity.
"I heard a voice call from the dark... I hadn't imagined it would lead me here, but I suppose it's not that bad." he announced.
"I've never been here, before. For all of my posturing in swearing to heed the calls of the starred matron's flock, they are typically surprisingly unvaried in their positions of peril."
He smiles with exceeding (and perhaps excessive) earnestness at Rohini.
"And to come out here at the behest of such a lovely lady," he punctuated the words by grabbing her arm and kissing her wrists.
"Dear mortal, I am smitten in your fast-burning presence."
He will probably proceed to smother Rohini with compliments if left alone. Of all the jann you could have encountered, it had to be this one.
"At least this one's friendly."
Rohini knows this sort VERY well, and she will patiently tolerate a fair amount of effusive complimenting and wrist-kissing as long as it doesn't cross into actual groping.
"Thank you for heeding my call, honored one. I'm glad that our present environment is not overly disturbing to you. I suppose with your ability to shift from one plane to another you have the comfort of knowing that you won't be stuck in any unpleasant place you find yourself, although with your finely tuned aesthetic sense I imagine the sheer ugliness of this place leaves you little desire to tarry. And, indeed, it is for your facility with planar travel that reason I have sought you out. For we are in difficult circumstances and all need to return to the material plane, as close to Katapesh in Golarion as you can take us. That is all I ask of you, likely child's play for a being of your natural gifts and -- it appears -- formidable experience, and I hope you have found our offering to your satisfaction."