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Forlorn sidles up to the doors, having ceased his warbling. "Huh, what's this? Gobber lesson number two: It's never jus' glass. It might look like glass, but it ain't. If you think it is, well, that's just playin' into the glass's hands. Gixxonar!" With another arcane word, the little Pathfinder raises a hand at the new door, illuminating it with ruby light.
Forlorn scans the door in front of him and sense strong, but strange abjuration magic, baked not only into the door but suffusing the walls and floor.
The halfling thinks he can detect two distinct but similar effects of the wards around the chambers. The first is some form of siphoning effect that draws strength from earthen creatures, which is then used to repair and restore the surrounding crystals. The other is a stronger barrier that damages and wounds especially unnatural infiltrators.
As you gather by the door and Fornlorn explains his findings, the faint hum in the background begins to grow in intensity. Not so faint anymore, the noise rises as ahirlines fractures begin to appear on the walls.
The conscious pech continues to focus on his hands on the floor as he speaks to himself.
Eventually, someone opens the door.
Swinging open, you are able to see that a two-foot-high triangular dais occupies the center of this octagonal chamber, and shallow grooves ripple outward from the platform. Stacks of red-hued crystalline plates are scattered throughout the room. A thrumming buzz causes minute distortions in the air, and the ruby walls seem to flex and bend slightly from invisible forces.
As the doors swing open, the low noise rising suddenly rings out loudly. Sound echoes dissonantly throughout the two chambers, the acoustic differences between the rooms causing a screeching resonance that starts to crack the crystals in each tower.
Simon blinks as he notices somehting unusual floating in the air above the chamber's stacks. A faintly glowing ball of light bobs gently in the air, the nebulous image of what might be a skull visible somewhere in its depths.
None of the rest of his companions seem to notice the bobbing light, even as it floats right up to Jötunn and strike the Ulfen, shocking him.
for
Initiative
Forlorn
Numair
Irizati & Numair
Simon
Jötunn 41/42 hp
The creature rages as Simon's motes appear not only to hug and illuminate it, but also blind it. The gnome recognizes that the 'intruder' before you is a will o'wisp - nasty aberrations that feed on fear. The small and naturally invisible monsters are immune to most magic.
Simon also notices that the wisp seems slightly unusual for its kind, but can't quite put his finger on why. Numair, caring less about the differences, simply takes advantage of one of the wisp's few weaknesses to pepper it with a pair of force blasts.
Initiative
Forlorn
Irizati & Nagani
Jötunn 41/42 hp
With the wisp suddenly illuminated, Jötunn steps up and swings with all his might, calling upon Iomedae's strength to stop the terror before the party. Blinded as it is from Simon's spell, the wisp drifts confused and agitated, putting itself right in the path of the paladin's blade. With one clean slice that hits perfectly home, Jötunn slices the aberration in two.
As it falls, the thrumming noise throughout the chamber immeadiately begins to fade. While cracks remain in the crystals and walls, their spread halts. Seconds later, a pair of leg-like structures emerge from the walls and floor. Each crystalline, spiderly 'leg' turns as if scanning the room, but then melts back into the tower just as suddenly as it emerged.
Looking around the room, Irizati notices a pale blue rhomboid ioun stone lying behind a set of stacks. Meanwhile, Forlorn spies a pair of coin-sized chunks of blue-quartz that when the halfling brings them close together, seem to greatly enhance his eyesight. .
As Simon scans this new room, he sense much of the same preservative magic that Forlorn described. The part of the wards barring earthen creatures from entering appears to be disrupted. The gnome estimates it will return in time, but for now the Sapphire Stacks and Ruby Tower lie open.
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Confused at the ease of the creature's defeat, and the momentary appearance and disappearance of the "legs", and the sudden quieting of the loud vibrations, Jötunn simply pauses to breathe.
Then, turning to his companions, he adds, "We should find the information we agreed upon with Reyshal, before the rest of the Guardians wake."
The five of you start to look at the crystal plates stacked within. Unfortunately, all of the text is in Terran.
Jötunn's spell enables him to understand the text, but each one of the hundreds of crystal plates is incredibly dry, with no apparent rhyme of reason as to why a record of a massive earthquake that collapsed a Darklands cavern is placed right atop the journey of a single pebble.
After a few minutes of searching, you hear a familiar voice.
"Pathfinders, is something wrong? All of the sudden the repulsion field seemed to give way!"
Looking back through the set of double doors, you see Sorrina cautiously inching closer to the entrance to the blue chamber. The remaining pech starts grumbling.
"Oh my," Sorrina hurries forward to examine the fallen creature. "These markings: this was a Thunder Wisp. Their type generally live near nexi of the Plane of Air; what was it doing down here I wonder?"
As she stands up from kneeling over the dead aberration, the ex-Master of Spells looks around in wonder at the stacked plates around you. Dashing from column to column, she calls out "This is simply a treasure trove of knowledge! Here: these crystals seem to refer to various famed jewels. Help me take a rubbing! Or pack a few of these disks away!"
"I thought you knew." Sorrina replies to Forlorn as she continues to quickly document a handful of plates while carefully placing others into a pack. "I saw cracks begin to form outside and a strange noise, but then it stopped and the protective magic seems to have dissipated. For now at least. Still, Pathfinders should never decline a bit of fortune, should we? We certainly get the wrong end of it often enough."
Holding up a set of plates, the oread squints, then smiles to Simon. "I think these may hold the answer to his questions as well. It will take me some time to fully translate, but this slice mentions the Tears right here!" She puts the plates away and turns to Jötunn. "Are the pech all still alive and stable? Then they will recover. I can leave them a potion or two. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but they're fairly committed to the letter of their deal. As best I can tell, a Vault Builder set them their charge (or something they believe to be a Builder anyway), and they refuse to disappoint it if it ever returns."
So finishes packing and turns to the party. "Now we should return back to go over these with Reyshal then. I'm not certain exactly how long the abjurative field will be down and it would be a shame to crack and splinter just after a success."
With notes and several plates in tow, Sorrina and the rest of you exit the Lucent Archive, making the climb out of the cavern's depths and setting on the path back to Reyshal's encampment. As you arrive, the shaitan seems mildly surprised to note your arrival so soon. Still, the genie prepares another sumptuous feast for you and provides roomy accommodations as Sorrina pores over the transported texts and translates her findings.
It takes a few hours, but eventually the oread emerges and reads off her discovery.
"Reyshal ik Jalman, wayward son of the Opaline Vault, it has been an unexpectedly long ordeal, but I believe that I have finally uncovered the information I promised you. The jewels you seek - according to these records they left from the Plane of Earth approximately a century ago. Now, Sairazul’s Tears reside in the City of Brass." Sorrina looks frustrated for a moment. "I'm sorry that I cannot pinpoint the location any closer than that, but the tunnels of earth the thieves took the necklace through echo with a name. Does 'Bralkashik' mean anything to you?"
At this, the shaitan pounds his fist into his massive hand. He fumes for several seconds before taking some deep breaths and calming.
Reyshal bows low to Sorrina, and then to you five.
The shaitan excuses himself to make plans for a planar departure, though he offers you use of the camp for as long as you like. Sorrina turns to the rest of you five. "A kind offer, but if its been as long as you say, perhaps its best if we return home." She frowns. "Of course I suppose that's its own complication. Do any of you know teleport?"
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Numair bows to the shaitan.
"It has been a pleasure to have been able to reach such a mutually beneficial accord, and to have met such a great personage, as yourself."
When Sorrina poses her question, Numair shrugs.
"No, but we *do* have the special Wayfinder, and the Ioun Stone needed to open the Gate..."
Reyshal calls out to Forlorn from inside his tent.
Sorinna's eyes widen as Numair mentions the wayfinder. "The Wayfinder of Many Paths - you still have it? And the stone it needs? Wonderful!"
---
The trek back to where the wayfinder deposited you is mostly uneventful, though by the time you return to the linked clearing you are all exhausted. Setting the stone in its proper place and uttering 'ANUVRIS', a rent in the air rips open once more. As the six of you (and Nagani) quickly move through the warped space, you see two young and yawning men snap to attention in surprise and run out of the room and down the hall.
It is not long after that Kreighton Shaine's form comes rushing down the hall. "Ah, you've returned already I see. Excellent! I'll have Zarta stop preparing the recovery team's recovery team." The elf look down at the addition to your party. "Oh, and you brought someone back. Hello dear. And who might you be?"
Sorrina clucks her tongue, producing a faint grinding sound as stone grates across stone. "Shaine, you're getting blind in your old age. Or did that night you decided basilisk eyes would make good lens have longer effects than I thought?"
Shaine looks on in marvel at her. "Sorrina? You've...changed. Remarkable! you must tell me what exactly you've been up to. Oh, but of course I should fill you in on what's happened here. Ten years...why so much has happened it feels like even the laws of reality could have changed in that time." Shaine turns to your party and smiles. "Pathfinders, this is Sorrina Westyr!"
A feast is set up indeed, though with the number of Pathifnder leadership and Venture Captains eager to debrief Sorrina you find yourselves shunted away from the main event. Still, the food is good, and each of you is congratulated in turn for your service in this time of need.
--
Some days later, the five of you meet one more time, as Sorrina Westyr herself calls you into he office - the Master of Spells' chamber. The oread smiles as you enter.
"Ah, you came. Good. I wanted to thank you all again. You travelled into the unknown to rescue me and my team. Nothing can repay that."
She ducks down beneath her desk and hefts up a stack of crystalline plates, carefully putting them on the desk's surface. "But while it's far from paying our debt, I did find a few other interesting things in the library's prisms that may be important for you to know. First," she points to a sheet of blue glass, "Simon, this has a series of earthen based spells inscribed on it. I think the text itself has absorbed some of the magic as well. Peruse it if you like."
"But more ominously," she looks up at each of you "some of the retrieved stacks apparently had a storage layer near the surface. I came across records of a great tragedy on the Plane of Earth— or something associated with it — much like a volcanic eruption might coat the entire planet in a thin layer of ash. It spoke of a great treasure that gave one power over the air itself disappeared during that catastrophe. The records stop there unfortunately."
She frowns. "But that alone is a clue: it means whatever this relic was is beyond the reach of stone and soil. The trail may be cold for now, but keep your eyes open. Keep a watch on the sky..."