While it is clear to you that the floor in that area is compromised, you are unsure how to go about remedying the situation or what it would take for a collapse to occur.
|
Atronia nods, but before moving anywhere, she takes off her backpack and pulls out a long rope from it. "I wouldn't want anyone to fall through the floor. I suggest everyone ties themselves or at least hold on to the rope as we go through this place. Erhun, be ready to hold on if anyone else falls. I'll do the same."
With rope in hand or tied to you, Atronia takes a careful step forward towards the door. Again, the wooden floor creaks and groans dangerously under her weight, but this area holds too. From her position, she can peer through the narrow opening and sees...
There are all sorts of weird shadows cast from the light on your sword, but you are pretty sure there is some sort of humanoid figure about 10ft from the door and 5ft in the air. Something doesn't seem right though... it looks like something is poking straight out of it in several places.
________
|
[To Atronia]"The uncanny sight you describe has provoked my curiosity. If it be not our missing colleague, I may surmise it could be the cause of his disappearance. Hither and fro my speculation runs rampant, ceasing only upon confirmation. Pray advance, with caution warranted, and lay my inner turmoil to rest."
[To Etienne]"Your query is beyond my ken. Alas, I suffer the concern of the general without the relief of the specific."
As the door opens up and light is allowed to shine through unabated, a horrific sight can be seen by all who choose to peer within. Strange, organic-looking patterns wind across the walls and ceiling of this chamber, and the stone walls look as though they had grown winding tendrils that enshroud the area. At the chamber’s center stands a massive, rust-covered device of gears and arms about fifteen feet across. The end of each arm supports a different colored sphere. Strange projections and barbed arrows point through each of the globes, their directions seemingly random. Opposite from the chamber’s entrance, a naked and clearly dead body is impaled by a rust-red arrow. The corpse faces a gray, wooden door, which stands ajar.
The device in the room is called an orrery depicting Golarion's known solar system.
|
|
"Many a night when I was but a youth in Outsea did I stare up at the heavens and dream of what lay beyond the confines of the spherical prison we all call home. An orrery, but a trifle compared to the one in this chamber, did I build to speculate upon the paths of those heavenly bodies. To see such a magnificent device reduced to this rusted hulk saddens me, but not moreso than to witness the violence inflicted upon the corporeal remnants of a now-departed soul. Mayhaps this is the Pathfinder we seek? If so, we answer one mystery only to spawn another."
You hear Atronia scream in pain after she disappears from view!
________
Initiative
Round 1 (For this, I will resolve your posts in initiative order. There are no obvious foes. Be mindful of that orange rectangle ;) )
Etienne
Atronia (7 damage)
Erhun
Arrius
The acid sears Atronia for a few final moments before dissipating into the air. Shortly thereafter, the rest of the party manages to make their way into the room one by one, treading carefully over the treacherous floor.
Even a cursory check of the body reveals that this corpse is pretty fresh. It is currently being held up by the orrery's jagged barbs and warped gears.
Something has feasted upon the corpse, devouring much of its skin and cracking the skull open to devour its contents. The corpse's clothing and effects are nowhere to be seen.
The body is partially frostbitten in places.
Those of you who investigate the room the corpse has it's gaze locked on, find scattered scraps of parchment and torn bindings cover the floor of this small chamber. Scratched glyphs cover its stone walls and even span part of the ceiling. A foul reek hangs in the air, like the stench of something long dead. In the corner of the room lies a shiny Wayfinder with the name "Anumet" inscribed within.
You manage to piece together the scrawled messages, learning the beast’s name to be "The Devourer of Reason" as well as its desire to unleash further horrors from the Dark Tapestry upon Golarion, though its exact plan remains a mystery.
________
|
|
Atronia doesn't quite understand what is going on, but she knows she's in pain. "I'm just glad there isn't actually a ghoul here," she says before asking "Does anyone have some means of healing? Some kind of haunt affected me and made me see things that aren't there, but that acid felt very real." She waits for someone to answer, not quite daring to head into another room without first doing something about the painful wound she received.
|
|
[To Atronia]"The influence of the mind on the body is a subject of great fascination to me, and your visions of a ghoul match goodman Etienne's examination of the corpse."
[To Etienne]"Believe you this is the mortal coil of Anumet? And will it too, arise as a ghoul given its wounds? The Wayfinder, at least, we should return to his kin."
Arrius will collect the Wayfinder.
|
While the group ponders the body and the bizarre state in which they've found it, the sound of footsteps emanating back from the direction in which they'd came can suddenly be heard. Growing louder, they stop and then a feminine voice can be heard calling from somewhere outside the room.
"Um...hello? Is there anyone in there? Venture-Captain Dreng sent me to catch up and Master Aldain said that he'd sent everyone up here..." the voice trails off; whoever is speaking sounds anxious but also a little out of breath, as if they'd rushed up to the attic in quite the hurry.
|
|
Atronia thanks Etienne with a deep and extravagant bow. When she hears the creaking from the footsteps, however, she turns very serious again. She looks towards the door and puts her hand on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it. She eases quite quickly when she hears the other pathfinder, however. "We're right over here. Be careful, though, the floor isn't quite solid in some places." she calls from the room.
|
|
"I see that," the voice calls back in reply. "I just wasn't sure if the rope was put in place by you or by Master Aldain or by someone else. Ah...give me a moment, I'll work my way over..."
After a short time, the shuffling of footsteps, and the creaking of the floorboards, a young undine woman dressed in an armored coat and carrying a longspear comes into view. She steps into the room, throwing a nervous glance over her shoulder before turning to face the rest of the group.
"I don't like heights...or implied heights, either," she says with a shudder. "Sorry I'm so late...I only just got back from a trip to Osirion late last night and so I overslept and missed the briefing," she sighs with embarrassment. "I'm called Callah. Have I missed very much?"
|
|
Arrius is pleasantly surprised to see a fellow undine on just his second mission for the Society. He bows courteously to Callah, and says "Indeed, yet your aid is as welcome as the cooling surf at midsummer's peak. Arrius Vext, Emissary of Outsea, stands before you, accompanied by companions both brave and bold. In search of a missing liaison from the Society we were, when faced with the grim mystery that permeates the air around us. A tragic end, I fear, has befallen Anumet, unless this body belongs to another."
|
|
Callah's expression grows from surprised to incredibly pleased and happy to see another undine. "Hello! Hello and well met, Arrius Vext," she smiles broadly, offering a bow in return. "Thank you and I'm glad that I'm not too late. It's wonderful to meet another from Outsea! I wish I'd been on time to the briefing so we'd have had a chance to speak more. As it is..." her expression grows grim as she spots the body, "...it looks as if it's right to work for the moment."
Carefully approaching the body, Callah tries to see if she can discern anything of note from its condition.
And after a few moments, she looks up at the rest of the group - horrified. "Something has feasted on the body. See, the missing skin? And the skull cracked open, missing its contents." Callah then frowns as something else occurs to her. "Wait a moment...there's no clothing or other personal effects. Besides that wayfinder, I mean. Something or someone must've intentionally stripped the body for some reason."
|
It may be that the "Anumet" who left the museum earlier was in fact this ghoul, somehow magically disguised. I suggest we take a little more time to gather the scraps of parchment, search for any secret compartments, and bring our comrade's body down and ask Nigel to arrange for proper internment.
If we are to track where this ghoul went, we may want to go to the Forae Logos and look at a copy of the book he examined before he left and took the musuem's copy
|
|
Atronia bows extravagantly towards Callah when she finally reaches them. "Welcome, Callah, and I certainly hope we will get the chance to speak more and share our stories later. But you're right, for now, we have more urgent matters."
When Callah mentions the fact that the body isn't just naked, but has been stripped, she has a worried expression. She turns to Erhun. "Could a ghoul be walking among the people of the city in another's guise? Do they have the ability to do such a thing, or would it be someone mad enough to use a ghoul for his ghastly purposes?"
|
Ghouls are cunning, and stealthy. Would they be able to deceive someone up close, I don't think so. I haven't yet encountered one, so far, but heard stories about them. They stink of the grave, and of the dead they devour. I'm not even sure if they can talk, but they surely can understand basic orders. Hunger is most of their world.
|
|
"Yes...but maybe this ghoul isn't an ordinary ghoul? Either that or it has someone or something else helping it," Callah remarks as she climbs to her feet. "Those are the only two options that make any sense to me."
Assuming that the others take a moment to brief Callah on what they've learned so far, she tries to think back and see if she can fill in any missing gaps...
...but isn't sure that she can recall anything new.
"Is this as far as we can go? If so, then we should tell Master Aldain what we've found and then go to visit this Forae Logos," she suggests.
Having searched the space incredibly thoroughly, you are confident that you have found everything of significance and depart from the horrific attic space.
As you tromp down the ladder, a smiling Nigel is seated at one of the worktables. Standing, he greets you. "Have you managed to learn anything of import? Do tell, what was Anumet up to in there? Perhaps you have a plan now too? Ah, yes, I see you found the friend you left behind or whatever her excuse was for tardiness," he quips, rather smugly for the curator of a dilapidated museum.
________
|
|
Callah gives Nigel a withering look, but otherwise doesn't acknowledge his little poke at her expense. "I'm sorry to say that Anumet seems to have met his end at the hands of a ghoul...or some sort of ghoul-like creature," she explains rather bluntly. "Whoever or whatever left here earlier must either be under some sort of enchantment to appear as Anumet or..."
Or it took his skin, somehow.
|
|
"If, with verity, it can be said that the malevolent evil now posing as Anumet was besmitten by passages contained within Jackdaw’s History of the True Art, it must be ventured that little choice have we but to inspect a copy of said tome at the Forae Logos in order to discern the creature's ultimate purpose. Unless, perchance, anything else have you to add, caretaker?"
Whatever confidence Nigel had appears to have only been fleeting, almost crumpling back into his seat. "You mean... Anumet... He has been walking around... I've been speaking and standing so close to... A GHOUL?!" he almost shouts, beginning to visibly perspire. Wiping his brow and the space where his collar meets his neck with a cloth, he continues. "Please! You must find the beast before it comes back! As you have correctly stated, the collection at Forae Logos will have a copy of the text. A relatively new professor at the Arcanamirium is a self-proclaimed expert on Absalomian history and may also be able to direct you to wherever such a thing would want to go. Maren... Fuln is his name. Of course... such an oddity is also likely to have been noticed at some point by the laypeople of this city..."
Nigel shivers briefly, likely contemplating the thought of the ghoul being back in his museum, or perhaps somehow being held responsible for the thing's actions. "You must go, as the red haired one says! I'll have the attic cleaned up by my staff. Do let me know when it is safe to leave here, would you?"
________