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Van takes a potion and immediately starts searching for a maker's mark, then opens it to take a quick sniff before stoppering it. "In Ustalav they season these vith garlic. I vas vondering if they add salt here."
"Let's rest a night at the minimum, longer if necessary."
"Is Pamari around, I'd rather first impressions vith her be over a bottle of vine than over a battlefield with Voidstone present."
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Van Vische knows what there is to know about Voidstone, and even urges a little more information out of Grave Treader. He learns that Jathune Voidstone indeed carries a large flaming sword, that he's an oread, and that he's often seen dumping mutagenic liquids down his throat in an effort to improve his strength. Despite being powerful, he is quite slow on his feet.
"Pamari isn't here, and given her relationship with Jathune Voidstone, she can only be at his camp. Up there," she moves her hand to indicate a bluff high above the camp you stand in right now. A long staircase winding around a pillar of stone extends some 80 feet above the cavern ground.
At Rostam's request, Grave Treader snickers. "Unfortunately, I don't carry such items. This isn't a shop, you know," she quips.
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After resting as much as you can, Grave Treader leads you down a series of complex, twisting earthen paths, ensuring she avoids those where the Plane of Fire most exerts its influence. Before long, you come to an enormous cliff with no visible way through. Grave Treader walks up to the wall, feels around the side of the stone, and casually blows the dust off the exact spot where a keyhole had been concealed. She takes a key from her pocket and unlocks the secret door. "A little help here, please?" She says with a glance at Uesugi and Gallix.
The six-inch thick stone door opens up to a large chamber. Intricate bronze-and-silver etchings of three-armed and three-legged creatures glimmer on the dark stone walls as faint light shines down from crystals in the ceiling. A line of alternating gold and silver triangular floor plates leads to a wide staircase opposite the temple’s main entrance. In the left end of the room, a large clockwork contraption looms over a dark pit, while at the right end, strange machinery and parts lie strewn across tables.
Etchings in precious metals decorate the temple’s dark stone walls. These etchings depict servants, worshipers, and a god. The servants, depicted in bronze, are the most numerous. The silver worshipers are placed above the servants, but subservient to a golden figure on the ceiling. Both the bronze servants and silver worshipers have squat bodies, three hands, and three legs. The creatures look awfully similar to Ohm and the other xorn back at the pillaged caravan.
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Van stretches, cracks his fingers and smiles as he gets to work inspecting everything.
Van mutters out-loud as he inspects and records key findings, sharing the info with the group.
Heading to the workshop table, Van is overwhelmed by curiosity, and looks to see if it is possible to assemble the construct pieces. Pausing he looks back the the group; "Oh, umm, do ve vant to explore the rest of the complex first?"
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After their long march through the perilous Crystal Maw Pass, Gallix settles in to sleep early, finding himself a comfy corner of Grave Treader's tent to bed down in. The next morning, Gallix gets up and spends some time doing morning stretches before joining the march to the temple.
Inside, he stays close by Sirettis, watching her back in case any unexpected threats show up.
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You move ahead to the next chamber. The line of gold and silver floor plates continues across this chamber to where a pair of raised stone platforms flanks an enormous metal gate. The gate is adorned with an etching of gold and silver gears around a large bronze gear. A small silver panel is built into the wall to the left of the door. Staircases lead up to the raised platforms, but one of these staircases has collapsed, leaving rubble strewn about on the floor below. A silvery glint rises from the top of the one platform, while a golden shine emanates from the other.
"There," Grave Treader points to the gate. "That's the gate. The puzzle." She looks up at the massive markings.
On the door are a set of complex markings consisting of gears and keyholes. See Slide 4.
The gate is 45-feet tall. There are two 20-foot-high platforms containing the gold and silver dials.
If you look at the map on Slide 3, you can reach the silver dial by going up the stairs. To reach the platform with the gold dial, you require a DC 20 Climb check, Acrobatics to leap across, or a more creative solution to close the gap.
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The small silver panel opens easily to reveal another set of gears. The mechanism inside looks complex, but Grave Treader steps forward. "I'd managed to glean a little details about how these gears work from my research."
Van approaches the silver dial, but finds that it's broken.
Sirettis flies up to the golden dial, and finds that it can be rotated clockwise and counterclockwise.
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Van makes quick work of fixing the silver dial before returning to the panel.
"There was a fascinating doctor at the University of Lepidstadt, he vent on and on about v'at he called the scientific method and empirical results. The his abstract being; if in doubt, pull the lever and see v'at happens!"
With that Van attempts to activate the panel mechanism.
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When Van Vische activates the panel mechanism, a bright light shines from the top of the image of the bronze gear on the door.
As Sirettis rotates the golden dial from the east clockwise to the north, she hears the faint sound of a gears rotating within the door. The light that Van activated follows a counterclockwise pattern within the bronze gear at the same speed at which she turns.
When she lets it go, it slowly rotates back to its original position, and the sound stops.
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Van look back across the room from the elevated platform; "Sirettis, lets follow the pattern of the the triangle tiles on the floor. Gold to the right, silver to the left, silver to the right, gold to the right, ah excuse me Darth and Gallix, silver to the left, gold to the left, gold to the right, silver to the right.... Lets see v'at that does."
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Van Vische and Sirettis double team the dials, and the light moves back and forth clockwise and counterclockwise with each twist. After the final turn of the silver dial, the mechanism emits a loud CLICK, and the room shakes as the heavy gate lowers into the floor.
Grave Treader gasps in wonderment. "You've done it! We're in!" Unable to contain her excitement, she runs into the inner sanctum. Wide stairs lead up to the sanctum, where a forty-foot-tall statue depicting a woman with three hands, three legs, and a three-eyed mask of bronze towers overhead. Before the statue is a clockwork altar, and five circular bronze floor plates are arrayed in a curve around the staircase. Narrow strips of bronze connect the plates, altar, and statue. Mechanical clicking and whirring sounds echo from the chamber’s walls.
Grace Treader rushes to the altar and looks on. "The Clockwork Cipher.. It's here!" She looks upon the cipher, a bronze winding key with spinning gears and wheels within its structure. Mysterious runes run across the handle that ends in a gear.
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Sirettis hops down, letting the wind break her fall (Flight Hex = unlimited Feather Fall) and watches Grave Treader run around like a child playing with her new toy. "Congratulations on your discovery. The Pathfinder Society is always ready to help those in need."
"May we analyze the cipher? We would like to report our findings and return anything else of value."
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Van comes down the steps, initially cautious but emboldened by the lack of death and maiming Grave Treader is experiencing.
"Hmmm, a strong pattern a threes followed by five bronze plates. And these runes, v'at are they? Did your research reveal the purpose of this artifact."
Van starts retrieving his journal and follows the group once they give the all clear.
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While the others work out the puzzle, Gallix is furiously writing in his journal. "Man, D! Peppers is gonna be mad he missed this place! Cup too! I'm trying to take some good notes to take back to them."
When the door finally opens and Grave Treader rushes in, Gallix is quick on her heels. "Hold up there, GT! Man, I thought you were an experienced Pathfinder. Don't you know you never rush headlong at the long-sought artifact? Geez!" Gallix takes some time to peer around the room, trying to figure out if there are any traps nearby.
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Man, D! Peppers is gonna be mad he missed this place! Cup too! I'm trying to take some good notes to take back to them
"That is possible. Along with the notes, you should thoroughly describe it in words, when you see them next time. A different expression might be on his face then, like surprise or sadness of missing this."
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Despite the warnings from Gallix and Uesugi, Grave Treader has her long-sought relic in sight, and she cannot hold back. As soon as she touches the altar, a jolt of electricity spreads from the altar through the bronze strips into the circular plates. The electricity causes no more harm than dragging your feet over a fluffy carpet would, but then, the room begins to shake. The four plates rise up out of the ground to about ten feet. On top of them stand four clockwork guardians.
"Pathfinders, buy me some time! I've researched enough to know I should be able to control the constructs with the cipher, but I need to extract it from the altar first!" She leans over and begins to tinker with its bindings.
Two of the guardians whirr to life while the other two sit in place, inactive.
-- Bold is up --
D.Arth, Rostam, Gallix
Guardians Red and Blue
Van, Sirettis, Uesugi
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Party Members, let's concentrate on one to bring it down quickly! I'll follow your lead
Alright Kadris, let's show them how it's done in Mendev
Swift Action: Spring loaded wrist sheath to grab my wand of shield.
Standard Action: Cast shield on myself. New AC is 24.
Stay where I am, until I know which one the blue or red we are concentrating on.
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Van recalls a dusty tome he'd read wherein an adventurer wrote about his encounters with xorn clockwork constructs. They posses two special abilities.
A xorn clockwork guardian’s integrated hammers are primary natural attacks that deal bludgeoning damage and can’t be disarmed.
As a move action, a xorn clockwork guardian can jump up to 30 feet into the air. The guardian can convert up to 20 feet of the height into horizontal movement in 5-foot increments. A xorn clockwork guardian takes damage from falls as if they were 30 feet shorter than they actually are, preventing it from taking damage until it falls 40 or more feet.
D.Arth is strictly business when it comes to combat, and at the first sight of danger, he fires an incredible burst of energy at one of the creatures, causing it to explode into a pile of gears and metal. Grave Treader quickly glances back in awe of the blast, then continues working on the cipher.
-- Bold is up --
D.Arth, Rostam, Gallix
Guardian Red
Van, Sirettis, Uesugi
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Gallix manages to scale the platform and finds himself standing before the clockwork enemy. Its robotic arms whirr back behind its head into attack position, and then a pneumatic release triggers them to extend swiftly in an attempt to pummel Gallix three times.
-- Bold is up --
D.Arth, Rostam, Gallix (-38)
Guardian Red
Van, Sirettis, Uesugi
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** spoiler omitted **
knowledge(arcane), heroism: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 12 + 2 = 19
knowledge(arcane), heroism, investigative mind: 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 2 = 30
"Vow! I had no idea they could hit like that. The applications of these construct in mining vould be revolutionary!" Van is briefly in awe of the engineering before remembering the plight of the team: "Go for the hydraulic lines!.. That's the bronze tubes!"
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Sirettis continues to fly.
Realizing she is having trouble maintaining stability in this earthy environment, she lands next to Rostram.
Upon seeing the machines, she tries to recall any facts she learned about it. Perhaps she remembers one of Miss Poshkettle's or Mister Pepper's ramblings?
She mumbles arcane words and lifts her hands from the floor to above her head. A vicious gust of wind erupts underneath the automata clobbering Gallix.