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The rich scent of palm wine, cinnamon, and myrrh fills this magically illuminated storehouse. Each wall has deep slots filled with papyrus scrolls. A white-and-black marble altar enveloped in faint wisps of faerie fire sits squarely in the center of the room. A ladder to the south leads up to a walkway, with more shelves and a golden sarcophagus
Miko tries to get some last pieces of information out of the Elemental:
You're not supposed the protect the next room, are you? Do you have any idea what is there, or what is in any of the other rooms, here?Miko keeps chattering with the elemental until the spell runs out, and sighs when the it finally ends. What a nice creature. She says, elated. We should really help her to get free.
What you all standing in that room for? Miko slowly phases back into reality.
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"My instructions are only to prevent tampering with the door. Since you were able to open it correctly you have free access to what is inside. As I am bound to this room I have no idea what lies in the rest of this place. Perhaps there may be a way to release me else where."
Inside the sarcophagus are the mummified remains of what looks to be a man. There is a small shrine next to the sarcophagus which have some notes that Miko can probably read.
There is also a chest up on the walk way.
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Miko reads the notes.
Oh. She just says, slightly tired from her long chat with the elemental. Oof.
So, She takes a deep breath, about these notes.
They appear to be... interview questions. With this gentleman. Apparently the sarcophagus functions as some kind of... conduit? These are notes, of questions and answers, about the jewelled sages, and their magical jewels. Apparently, this sarcophagus allow you to speak with the dead remains inside.
I.. I don't know. I'm not sure what I should be doing... asking... And I don't speak... dead... Miko stutters, slightly panicked.
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"We have one scroll that allows us to talk to dead people, and we have this sarcophagus... Hmm..."
Dylara ponders, thinking about the large amount of dead people she's seen and which of them to talk to. "If we have two shots, I'd say we use those to talk to the dead Pathfinder and this dead gentleman. We can probably learn the most from them."
"Do you all agree? If so, let's first think about the questions we want to ask. We want info about the jeweled sages, and we want to know how to free the elemental. Do I forget something?"
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"I can ask couple questions, same can be achieved with scroll, ant I think sarcophagus will allow us to ask couple as well. So, it's six or seven total. Let's discuss what should be asked first", said Khismia. "I think, that one should be about Pathfinder's name, so we can inform Grand Lodge on his discovery and death details."
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The notes are from an interview with the remains about the saved jewels. If anything the interviewer might have been one of the pathfinders, but the remains in the sarcophagus are likely older then - why else would the pathfinder have interest. Don't we want to know what happened to the sage jewels.
Miko reads the notes once more, to see if the last set of questions revealed something, We should avoid asking double questions... who would want to be called from the grave only to answer the same question over and over again.
Miko pauses for moment, pondering.
And we may want to figure out what killed those pathfinders first...
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Miko learns from the notes that the man inside the sarcophagus was long dead before who ever was interviewing him took the notes. Meaning he probably has no knowledge of what this place is or what may have happened here.
The group take care to gently remove the remains from the sarcophagus and place the remains of the alleged pathfinder inside.
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"Let me try it first", asked Khismia. She paused for a moment and asked: "Au".
As woman touched body, light breeze ran along her body, moving loose desert dress and corpse's eyes opened.
"Please, my fellow colleague," Khismia demonstrated her signed ring with Glyph of Open Roads, "honestly answer my question: What is your name, alliance and other details, that should be announced to Pathfinder Society together with fact of your death?"
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Tuich stands from her squatting examination of the ex-Pathfinder before Khismia moves forward. "There's no trauma. From the way he's slumped it appears he was very weak when he passed on. Given what Miko relayed from that water woman, I think she just doesn't understand that living creatures need nourishment. She kept him trapped here, and the poor man simply starved to death." She shudders. "What a horrible way to die."
She moves back as her sister oracle steps forward, though watching with interest in the hopes of learning something about talking to spirits.
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Kiras Lithron... I've seen that name on the Wall of Names, in the Grand Lodge, memorial to all fallen Pathfinders.
Kiras Lithron, she quotes from the epitaph Seeker of secrets among the scarabs. His last grain of sand has fallen.
For a long time, Osirion didn't allow Pathfinders in. The scarab seekers were active anyway, but when they got into trouble, they couldn't get any help from the Grand Lodge. One member of this expedition, that's probably this V. L. that keeps popping up, survived. He had to drag himself all the way to Katapesh through the desert, burnt and scarred from the ordeal.
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I tried not to show it, but at this point I was mentally completely at the brink. I had left Razmiran to flee the false god, to see the truth behind the veil of lies. This was my mission, where I wanted to go was who I wanted to be. I went to Cheliax, then to Taldor when I found out that Egorian didn't agree with me. I was free, I was young. Happiness and disappointment, I learned to sing in Cassomir and took my rejection from entering the Kitharodian as a reason to set out in the wider world. Oh Cassomir! I drank it all. I could go where I wanted, from Mendev to the Eye of Abendago, and I longer to see it all, all of Golarion.
I had always been fascinated by the stories of ancient Osirion. The land of the pharaohs! The marvels of Garund! The sphinxes, the monument, the ancient secrets. And I could just go there. I could be a part of it. When we set off from Eto, I was the desert princess. Forget my Razmiran birth, forget my Tien heritage, forget the Fey blood that flows through my veins: I lived my dreams, and in those dreams I rode through the desert on the back of a camel.
The oppressive of the Razmiran priesthood, and their lies about death had always confused me. I had no problem in Varisia, in the pits of the Pharasmin priests: what I saw there was no so different from what I was used to. Dead people and empty words. Death as a means of communication, as a means of implanting your ideas in the brains of your followers.
Then came the cold, hard reality of Seekers Folly. We slowly put together the pieces: a team of pathfinders, all dead, save for one - left to his own devices. No wonder the man is so bitter! Were they on the same mission? We had no indication we knew any more than they did at the time.
And then the dead. I had grown used to Tooley, and the fact that he might actually be real. Ghosts, spirits, haunts, I can cope with those. I'm not afraid of necromancy, but when Khismia spoke to the bones in that sarcophagus... Death had never been such an absolute reality to me.
When the veil was pushed back, it shook my beliefs. I had been so invested in them, so determined in denouncing the Razmiran practice, that I had never considered this harsh reality, and I felt vulnerable. Would we be the next? Who of us would straggle back to civilization, scarred and burnt? Would I just perish and lie there until the next group would ask my bleached bones what happened to me?
For the first time in my life, I was afraid to die.
----Miko Teppen, Personal journal
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The Corpse of Kiras replies. "Happened upon this place by chance. Thanien thought it was a good idea to see what was inside. Wait no, no let me out my friends need help!" The corpse falls silent again.
Dylara leads the group back to the room she scouted out earlier.
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Leaving corpses behind, Khismia felt herself better. She took her shield and spear, preparing for strange Osirion monster to be waiting ahead. She still remembered, how suddenly two-headed snake appeared near Eto.
"Ayu, how are you?" she 'quietly' asked inside her mind.
"I feel myself dirty! I think I felt the smell of burned flash all the time and when I left that body - it was trying to catch me" at least now the haunt answered without mockery and threats.
Oracle knew nothing about how to help her involuntary companion. But, she were totally inclined to find out, how to help her group and she followed them deeper into this dungeon.
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Vincent does a sweep of the room and finds nothing useful and no hidden doors.
Dylara leads the way to the southern doors and pushes them open. The ceiling of this natural cavern sparkles with thousands of tiny crystals, while the center of the cave is split by a chasm that wends deeper underground. A stone bridge stretches over the gap. At the center of the bridge rises a black granite obelisk, covered with gems and hieroglyphics. The obelisk is a masterpiece of sculpture, with flawless lines and beautifully rendered images of the past. Large double doors provide an exit to the north while an open archway to the south is covered with wall carvings and leads to a hallway.
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"Ooh, pretty!" says Tuich as she gazes up at the ceiling. She walks forward while staring at the ceiling for a bit, enjoying how the reflective patterns shift with the light. Then, knowing she's walking towards a crevasse, she drops her gaze to the bridge.
Not wanting to step onto the bridge without the others, she stops near its end, peering first at the obelisk and then down into the chasm.
"Hey," she says as she leans a bit more over the edge, "there's light down there."
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Vincent moves closer to the obelisk slowly, looking at the hieroglyphics on it with some amount of interest. At the mention of something glimmering in the chasm, he pats the hilt of his drawn sword reassuringly. "On the off chance it's a small glittering monster, Melon is still welcome to bring it right back to us."
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A wave of desert heat washes over the room and an ethereal presence flies out of the obelisk at Vyk!
on Perception checks and –2 penalty on initiative checks. In addition, the cursed creature treats all creatures more than 10 feet away as having concealment.
Visions cloud everyone ones mind for several seconds. In these visions they see the dead rising up from ancient tombs, armies of divs marching forth from a massive structure of black stone and a plague of locusts sweeping over the land.
After everyone regains their senses Dylara sends Melon down to fetch the source of the light down below. Melon soon returns with a wayfinder inscribed with a scarab which still seems to have it's light spell active. Though the spell seems to be fading after being active so long and is now down to the light from a flickering candle.
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Tuich's silks whip about madly as she staggers back with a startled gasp. "What...?"
Once the visions are past and her racing heart begins slowing, she realizes she has her aspergillum in hand... and her knuckles are white from the death grip with which she's holding it.
"Did... did anyone else see that?"