The entrance room is decorated with Shelynite iconographic carvings.
These are actually subtle heresies, twisted just enough to de le the goddess’s name while still appearing legitimate
Yes! Food, and drink! You must be tired after long travel. Let us move to the reliquary of delights, where we stock our food. Once you have strengtened yourself, you can meet our mother here.
The robed figures he party to the southern area of the shrine. This seems to be a storage area of sorts, which house a wide variety of exotic foods.
Among the food, you identify preserved Hikat pickles from the Mwangi Expanse, dried Katapeshi chilies, candied fruit from Tianjing, and dried fish smoked in Qadiran sandalwood
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Nalshene leans over to Pad and whispers "That religious imagery is all corrupted... a true Shelynite would be appalled to see that. I've studied those works myself, and they make MY skin crawl..."
To their hosts: "We are actually doing fine at the moment... We just ate... my friend here just has an insatiable appetite. We would rather speak to your "mother" now, please."
See the mother? If you are full already... We haven't shown you the garden of plenty one of the robed people says, pointing to the next room, which holds a beautiful garden, lush with huge, ripe fruit and produce.
The party is led through the garden. Take! the robed firgure says invitingly. Next is a room filled with reflective glass, casting multiple images of everyone in the room. Cushions litter the oor, surrounded by scented candles burning in ornate silver candleholders.
In the next room, the walls are carved with mouths, from which blows a constant, so wind, creating an eerie song of sighs. Luxurious furs litter the oor of this otherwise bare chamber.
Another is filled with hundreds of musical instruments, ranging from simple pipes and flutes to lutes and complex horns. Most are rare and beautifully made, and are of masterwork quality.
A large steaming marble pool lies in the center of the central room, surrounded by graceful marble pillars. The pool is very warm and heavily perfumed. Several bottles of perfume stand on a shelf along the north wall, below which sit several clothes chests with keys.
Amsheagar immediately spots a triggering mechanism in the floor, that would lower something there.
Don't you want a rest? A bath? the robed figure says. We have all the time in the world here...
Let us bring you to the mother then.
A single robed figure activates the secret lever, and a part of the room descends to form a stairwell down. The stairs descend into a library. Every inch of the walls of this chamber is lined with bookshelves groaning with tome a er tome, most of which seem to have been preserved here since the days of distant antiquity. Comfortable leather seats are positioned back to back in the center of the chamber, while reading desks occupy the four compass points of the room.
In the back is another room, surprisingly austere. An arcade of arches fills the room’s outer wall, overlooking the hard, dark stone of the tower’s supporting rock formation. Through some magic, the dark glass provide a clear view of the stars and Golarion. An incredibly complex telescope sits by one of the arches on a silver stand, pointing directly to Golarion in the dark sky overhead.
The investor Thashkrell was famed for his innovations in optics over 300 years ago. He disappeared without a trace from his workshop in Absalom at the height of his influence.
Lying on a bed in the room is a middle-aged woman with a noble air, who sits up at the sight of the group, and says ah, my guests. She says to the robed figure Thank you for bringing them here, please close the door behind you.
As the robed figure leaves and closes the door, the woman changes shape into a demonic form and says Welcome to the realm of my queen Izmiara. Why have you intruded in this tower? she asks without any attempt at guile.
That can be arranged, of course. The queen will gladly grant you an audience. You will have to be properly... prepared... though.
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Pad fills his belly with exotic nuts and berries while floating though the gardens and down the hidden stairwell.
Yum, yum. It feels like I am on a rushed vacation. Can't we delay our mission just a bit? I wonder what the telescope is aimed at? Can I take a look?!
He requests moving ever closer to the huge instrument.
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Nalshene turns to see Pad eating the items that were proffered to him, and her eyes widen, but she says nothing out loud. That damned fool, doesn't he realize that this could all be a trap??? she thinks.
"In what way would we need to prepare, my lady? I would think we're fully prepared right now to speak to her majesty. We are, after all, emissaries from the Society, and SOME of us have been trained as such. Even that one," she indicates Pad as he's oohing and aahing over the telescope and stuffing his face, "is a skilled sorcerer and has his uses."
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Ezrek only half listens to the conversation, still thinking about the scantily clad people. I'd like to give those two blondes some exotic nuts....
Shaking his head to clear it, he tries to focus on what Nalshene is saying to....whoever it is their talking to now.
"Prepared? Prepare what, for what?"
She laughs you are coming here for an audience with the queen? What queen allow a troop to stand before her, armed to the teeth?
And what is it, I must add, that interests the Society so that they send a team here?
Pad looks through the eyepiece. The telescope is pointing at Golarion, aimed directly for the city of Korvosa, at the Academy of Secrets, to be precise.
Thashkrell's eyepiece. Wonderful instrument, isn't it?
Thashkrell was famed for his innovations in optics over 300 years ago. He disappeared without a trace from his workshop in Absalom at the height of his influence.
The woman then answers to Glauring Oh, such heavy topics to discuss with a queen.
With that, the woman smirks and changes tone: Let me spare you some time: you are in her realm now, and there is no hope for escape for you. It would be best if you just surrendered and be brought before her.
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"Oh sweetie, we've escaped from worse places than this. I mean, at least here we have beautiful scenery." Nalshene is of course referring to all the naked beauties that the group passed earlier. "But seriously, you don't want to give us a reason to start slinging spells and elemental energy around. You will regret it."
Oh, I would not keep you against your will. You have entered here on your own accord, have you not? Or did my sisters lure you in?
There is need to get so hostile, I would want my queen's prices to get hurt, now.
She doesn't quite initiate combat, but seems to be at the ready, letting a silence fall for a moment. Something seems to be stirring in the far room.
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Nalshene
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Woman
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Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
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Very well then, follow me. The woman says, still dropping long silences and tarrying a lot.
She leads the group to the stairs above, to where the full group of robed figures seems to have gathered, roughly twenty in total.
Meet my brothers and sisters, intruders. Do you see now, that you stand little chance against such an overwhelming force? I'm asking for the last time: surrender now or feel the consequences.
A few of the robed figure do not seem to understand what the woman means, though the majority of the people present get the cue and take a fighting stance.
--
Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Woman
Robed figures (x??)
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A wave of shock courses through the crowd as Jebediah lays waste to the woman, killing her outright with a gory combo of sharp fangs. As she dies, he return to a most demonic form.
--
Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figures (x??)
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Nalshene rolls her eyes, used to the carnage from the grumpy druid, though she finds it less than useful in some circumstances. "You just HAD to rip her apart, didn't you? Oh well..."
Nalshene casts a Persistent Tenebrous loathsome veil. Loathsome Veil
They will all need to make two DC 27 Will saves, failing either means they are affected as if they had 11 fewer hit dice.
Nalshene conjures up a loathsome spell, and the room is covered with nauseated acolytes, spilling their guts into the water basin.
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Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figures (Nauseated x7)
Robed figures (x??)
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Pad vanishes and moves back to the stairs,
Ezrek drops a bomb on the nauseated mass. Several of the hooded figures die instantly in the blast, their faces contorted in horror, blood spreading out over the floor.
--
Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figure - Red (naus, 41)
Robed figure - Blue (naus, 7)
Robed figure - Green (naus, 15)
Robed figure - Yellow (naus, 15)
Robed figure - Black (naus, 15)
Robed figure
Robed figure
Robed figures (x??)
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As a storm starts brewing overhead, Glaurung brings down an infernal cold, that freezes most of the demons in her path. A single robed figure is still standing, motionless save for the evil glare that she casts at the party, while the dead acolytes slowly revert to their true forms: alu-demons.
Not all of them do, though. About half of the robed figures - the first to die - remain in human form.
As the wounded robed woman stares, the adventurer's minds are filled with dark suggestions.
Stabs your friends! Blow them up! Kill them, they are not who you think they are! Hit them with all your might!
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Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figure - Blue (naus, 27)
Robed figure - Brown (20)
Robed figures (x??)
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"Oh my," Glau says when she realizes some of them are human. She is not particularly bothered by the accidental murder of innocents-she had no way of knowing, after all, and Asmodeus is not one to quibble over such things. Nonetheless, she has no desire to kill more innocents. Seeing more coming in from behind, she simply raises her spear and commands them, "Sit down and stop fighting us!"
Jebediah rips at the disguised fiend with complete disregard for his own safety, following which Nalshene dispels her veil.
Narshala pounces through and takes down the next one. Meanwhile, Glaurung spins her suggestion, and sure enough, the remaining robed figure - about fifteen in all - sit down shut up.
Ezrek delays, while Pad conjures a spectral hand.
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Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figures (x??)
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The storm clouds above Amsheagar solidify into a aggressive thuderclound which he holds there, ready to strike the first foe to attack....
The robed figures are all sitting down, docile, not a hostile action from them....
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Pad
Jebediah
Glaurung
Ezrek
Amsheagar
Nalshene
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Robed figures (x??)
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