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Luurg stops short when he sees Fimbrik back in the study again, then sees Ekanta and his sickly self stride up. "He's one real fast old gnome guy! I hope I'm still that fast when I'm..." Luurg presses his bulbous nose up against the glass window to get a better view, pauses then breathes heavily on the window and wipes it off, again peering into the room. "HEY! That's no gnome, that's a fake magic gnome! Dat's how its so fast, there must be fake magic gnomes in the rooms!" Luurg gives Ekanta a celebratory punch to the shoulder as he rushes back to the rest of the group to revel (as well as reveal) his discovery.
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A large sofa sits awkwardly near the entrance, facing toward the center of the room. Sets of chairs and tables are arranged throughout, and statues of grandiose gnomes occupy the corners of the room. A set of stairs at the northern edge of the chamber leads down, possibly to the cellar, while a second set of stairs leads up.
Just as you step into the room, what had initially appeared to be a circular design on the floor below the coffee table suddenly starts to glow ominously and in a flash of green light, 3 beetle-like creatures appear and attacks the party!
Raevin's rapier finds a chink in the creature's carapace and strikes deep, although not deep enough.
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Selima does not know what the creatures are, but she suspects they will not stand against a tiger's might. She reaches down and strokes Thirsty's fur as she imbues him with magical protection. Then she steps into the room and points out the creature and speaks in Kelish, giving him the order to attack.
The white tiger gives a feral snarl as he lopes into the room and around the couch. He closes on the vermin and lunges, chomping down with his strong jaws.
Once everyone has made it into the room, Selima reaches back and closes the doors, to prevent prying eyes from wondering what they are about.
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Thirsty's mighty bite crushes the carapace of the remaining beetle, sending greyish goo splattering everywhere (and into Thirsty's mouth).
With the vermin called forth by the hidden summoning circle destroyed, you are able to conduct a thorough search of the house. As suspected, the house is completely deserted other than the two programmed illusions of Fimbrik in the eastern rooms, as discovered by Luurg. The cellar is unnotable except for stacks of newspaper neatly piled up, while the stairs leading up reveal an unfinished second floor. Those who summon arcane sight reveal the cause for the tidiness of the house - a permanent unseen servant. This invisible housekeeper has been keeping the house spotless, and has been moving the newspapers from the doorsteps to the cellar. It seems that the publishers in recent years have increased the thickness of the papers, and the servant was no longer able to pull them through the door slot, thus settling for stacking them neatly beside the front door.
In the northeastern gathering room, you find two forgotten potions sitting on the windowsill.
In the same room, an examination of the table in the southwest corner reveals a neatly penned letter. Underneath the letter is a hastily scrawled note in similar handwriting, which contains the name Karina Clamp.
Thirsty shakes his head, trying to rid his tongue of the foul bug goo. Selima obliges by cleaning his mouth with prestidigitation and gives him a chunk of meat for a job well done. The tiger gulps it down quickly and then yawns. Having returned to his usual stoic boredom.
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Selima looks over the bottles on the windowsill, but cannot find any label to identify them, so she casts detect magic and examines them more carefully.
"Ah! This one is a potion of cure moderate wounds and the other is a potion of lesser restoration. Do you think we should take these notes, or leave them for the next group of curious Pathfinders, if we should fail our task?"
She takes a moment to commit the name Karina Clamp and word 'Wiffle' to memory, regardless.
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Luurg hops down off the midget sofa after Jaxx, Feuer and Thirsty all make quick work with the beetles, a look of slight disappointment on his face. "Bugs squished so fast, I didn't even to get stab one. Oh well."
Luurg spends some time with the rest of the crew giving the house a good once over. A fair bit of that time Luurg spends checking out the beds and couches for 'clues' or maybe testing the cushions or hoping for loose change. Once they do gather up all the clues though he's pretty interested. "Dats nice he went to find his friend, this wall of dead pathfinders must have something sneaky in it, we should take a look sooner than later." He then looks about the group for some form of agreement and head nods.
When Selima inspects the potion vials he watches keenly as she casts a spell and studies them. Once she's finished with them he'll take a look himself, but a bit differently. One by one he'll pop the top and take a deep sniff then dab a bit on his tongue and breath heavily through his mouth and nose.
"Mhhmmm, ya. Dis first one strong healy med'cin, good stuff! This other one I've never smelled something like that. I'll remember it.. lesser restoation? More healy med'cin?"
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You head back to the grounds of the Grand Lodge, where the Wall of Names resides. Created in 4330 AR, the monument is a curving wall of black glass that stands atop a small hill at the western edge of the lodge’s grounds. Trees surround the hill, providing ample shade and privacy for those visiting the wall to remember fallen comrades. Carved into the wall are the name and date of death of every Pathfinder killed in the course of duty since the wall’s construction, and most entries also include a sentence or two summarizing either the agent’s greatest accomplishments or how she died.
Baron Rysalius Starnon, Deceased 4715 AR. Died heroically to protect his fellow Pathfinder from a tentacled horror.
Admiral "Dent" Zhebugbug. Deceased 4712 AR. Lost with his companions Ksenia and BaddaDing in the bowels of the Blakros Museum.
The group of you take some time to scour through the names, and eventually find the three names mentioned in Adolphus’ note supposedly of bogus Pathfinders, scattered about the wall. Strangely, certain phrases were underlined.
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Raevin is also able to recall and share with the party the names of some of the more well-known failed god aspirants and what would have been their portfolios if they had succeeded in the Test of the Starstone.
- Gobru, god of fish and the bountiful sea
- Mellag, god of rot
- Oggo, god of the sixteen poses
- Plokkis, god of spoiled food and wastefulness
- Spuchasta, goddess of hallucinatory incense and herbs
- the Muted God of silence and serenity
- Zimpar, god of the screaming fear
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You have uncovered all the clues that you can from the leads left behind by Foster and his assistant, Adolphus, and all of them point you towards the Shrine of the Failed in the Ascendent Court district, which is where you head next.
Along the way, there is great excitement and flow of human traffic along the streets. It seems that Sir Reinhart, the Mendevian crusader you heard of earlier being intent on becoming a god, has chosen this very moment to attempt the Test of the Starstone. People you pass by on the streets are exclaiming that the valiant knight is preparing to charge his steed across the chasm outside Starstone Cathedral, and are making their way there to watch the spectacle. That in turn have provided you unrestricted access to the Shrine of the Failed. The city guard and what few caretakers the shrine has have left to watch Sir Reinhart’s attempt.
Erected centuries ago by an unknown organization, the Shrine of the Failed is a dour complex that pays homage to those who failed in their attempts to overcome the Test of the Starstone. The building houses numerous altars, each dedicated to a specific failed aspirant. Black-robed acolytes are usually present to protect, clean, and maintain the halls as well as the few trinkets left behind by the aspirants, but they have now left. The shrine is a stone edifice with several levels that contain altars to the failed aspirants. You are able to access the Shrine via a large set of stairs at the side which leads to a basement annex. The rest of the shrine is closed because the caretakers have left.
The large monumental antechamber that you enter stretches eighty feet from end to end, with a ceiling suspended thirty feet from the floor by great pillars. Seven arched passages lead to humble rooms, each of which contains a polished stone altar dedicated to one of the failed aspirants. Each altar stands upon a raised dais and bears a small brass nameplate identifying the aspirant. Glancing at each of the alcoves in turn, anticlockwise starting from the northeastern one, you see the following names in this order: Oggo, Zimpar, the Muted God, Silmar, Demuran, Plokkis, Spuchasta.
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Luurg shuffles into the room with the group, looking obviously uncomfortable and out of place in such a clean and polished building. Seeing he's tracking lots of mud inside he'll look around with a guilty smile on his face, but seeing no attendants he shrugs it off.
"This place makes me nervous... its too... clean. Lets do what we need to do for the bossman then get back outside. We don't want the caretakers to come back and see us doin something they don't like."
Looking around the room at the names he'll point out the ones that Raevin said had portfolios matching the Wall of Names eulogies. "Oggo, Plokkis and Zimpar right? Now what we do?" With that he'll start looking around the alter to Plokkis for any clues.
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Selima and Thirsty both crowd in with Luurg, the former glancing about while the latter sniffs around.
"Aha!" The sorceress exclaims and slides the nameplate aside, revealing a small chalkboard. "Hmm, do you suppose that's for the password?" After taking a moment to scan with detect magic to be sure there are no nasty surprises enchanting the hidden door and letting Thirsty sniff about for threats, she picks up the piece of chalk and writes the word "Wiffle" in her scrawling, feminine script.
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As Selima scribbles the word on the uncovered chalkboard, a door along the west side of the wall slides back with a low grinding noise, dispelling the illusion of the wall that was disguising it. You enter what appears to be a natural stone cavern beyond the secret door.
This cavern is dark but dim illumination emanates from the northeast from an alcove. Several desks are arranged along the northern and eastern edges of this small stone alcove. Whereas the stonework leading to this chamber is rough, the walls in the alcove are polished. A single gem rests among the neatly filed papers on the desk, emitting a soft luminescence that brightens the small room.
Looking through the paperwork left behind, even the unschooled can tell that they are priceless collections of Pathfinder Society lore and information describing dozens of unexplored sites. Most are written in an Azlanti dialect, but appear further encrypted. This collection is clearly a goldmine of great scholarly importance, but understanding the true scope of the discovery would require several weeks of careful study by researchers at the Grand Lodge.
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"Why didn't I tink of that.." Says Luurg in his nasaly voice as he claps Selima on the back. "Good one pretty lady. I tink you've done this bafore"
After exploring the cavern and finding a gem sitting atop the pile of papers Luurg gasps "Ooo what's dis? Treasures?" He says as he is the first to reach for the gem. After some inspection and many finger prints he puts the gem back down and shrugs.
"So why all dis stuff been hidden away in here instead of brought to the Pathfinders in the first place if a pathfinder took all dees notes? Maybe because its soo hard to read... they didn't want to get laughed at for their bad writin'. We should bring it to bossman though. I can put it in my dry bag so the rain don't ruin da ink."
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"Not a natural cavern, no.. nor carved by tools... probably made with magic that affects the form of stone. And yes, we should take the papers, AND this gem back with us..." Raevin picks up the gem and carries it for now because of the light, though he will stash it in his pack after we get out of here and back into a lit room.
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You gather up all the notes that you could as well as the glowing gemstone, and make your way out of cavern back to the shrine. However, just as Ekanta who is leading the group exits the alcove, you are ambushed!
Ekanta did not notice the halfling wielding a rapier, pressed flat against the wall on his right when he exited from the alcove. Jax, however, caught a glimpse of her. Unfortunately, the halfing is quicker on her feet and strikes first, and stabs Ekanta! She then steps away from the wall.
"The Aspis Consortium sends its greetings, novice Pathfinders! And bids you to leave here what you have found in the chambers if you wish to leave here with your lives!" the shrill voice of the halfling calls out.
Ekanta feels a wave of divine energy surrounding him protectively.