Torean and Pai open the far door with purpose, as the stone swings open to reveal a rich scent of palm wine, pipe smoke, and cinnamon wafting out from the chamber beyond. The odor seems to fill the room, whose center is mostly cleared and empty space even as the walls are lined with smashed and broken shelves and wood.
A clear exception to the clutter is an enormous clockwork device that takes up the room's Southeast corner. The contraption has a wide spherical base, covered in dials, while atop it sits a jumble of gears and orbs attached to thin rods. Unlike the rest of the room, this object is in pristine condition.
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"Something has rampaged through here. " says Chaul, stating the obvious.
"Presumably whatever it was got past both the golems and the ghosts. As they are not destroyed, one can only assume that it was allowed past, or was here to begin with..."
He peers from the doorway at the clockwork.
Could that have done it?
"This must be recent, for surely the wine would have long ago evaporated."
Torean mutters an orison as he observes the device. The dwarf finds himself overwhelmed for a brief moment as his spell causes the object to glow like a bonfire to his sight. Heavy evocation magic engulfs the device, tinged with flares of all four of the core elements. An aura of divination also sits upon it, and Torean senses a strange abjuration residue around it as well.
While the dwarf interprets his magic, suddenly the wall to the side of the clockwork seems to melt. It softens just long enough for a large, towering humanoid figure to step out before the stone closes back behind him. Breastplate sits over the being's onyx-like skin as he shifts a massive earthbreaker studded with crystal shards.
He calls out to you in a strange tongue.
Liam and Pai recognize the figure before you as a Shaitan, a genie outsider associated with the earth. In fact, as he steps more into the light, this figure strikingly resembles the Shaitan prominently featured in the previous room’s mosaics. Capable of melding with earth and stone (and at times able to force others into it as well), Shaitan are smart but tough, utterly immune to electrical assaults and possessing magical talents for shaping stone. The full scope of the strange device escapes the three of you however.
As Chaul tries to speak out to the genie in various tongues, he cocks his head at you and frowns.
He shifts his stance slightly, letting the head of the large earthbreaker fall to lie between you and the clockwork contraption even as he rubs his forehead with the other hand.
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Not normally accustomed to Jistkan and its speaking styles, Kiku has a difficult time getting a read on the creature. Unsure of herself, she falls back to apologies and formal manners, bowing deeply and speaking in a reverent tone.
"Greetings, Friend of the Earth. I apologize for any rudeness on myself or my companions. We are honored to stand in your presence, and would ask for your forgiveness for any sleights we may have made against you."
Torean advises discretion in your approach as Chaul tries again to communicate. The shaitan looks at the Aasimar curiously, but does not respond.
Kiku then steps forward and bow, talking to the genie in one of the tongues he may be more familiar with. Her words seem to calm the creature for a moment, but as the Varisian steps forward portions of the clockwork device seem to flare in a ghostly light that reveals a strange script before fading.
The genie's head swings towards the contraption, then back to Kiku.
Sleights? Rudeness? Was that rude? Customs, yes - you do not speak like the Masters, imperious until not. But you: I have seen that jewel you carry. Oh yes, I have seen the destruction it can wreak.
Keeping a close eye on the spiritualist, the genie loosens his grip on his weapon - a bit.
Not Jistka then? No, not mostly. But you say friend: we do not know each other, do we? All I knew are dead or gone and think nothing to return for me. Except the one friend. And the one who will not die to free me. Like a hammer who keeps missing the nail? Yes. So, who are you then, in realtruth?
Damage? the genie looks around at the wreckage around him, seeminging re-seeing it for the first time. Oh. I couldn't destroy the Guage you see. It would kill me. Unless it lets me leave. But I can't touch it all the same. So I had to get rid of the rest to see if that would work. It didn't.
As for myself? I, I am, The shaitan looks off for a moment, struggling beofre a smile breaks out across his stony face. Illaton. Illaton! Yes.
This is mortal work, Illaton gestures to the whole structure surrounding all of you, Jistka work, but Jistka are mortals and so couldn't do all the work. I helped make this Deep Sky, I and my friend and the Master's mademen. But the mademen made the rest go away but I couldn't. I COULDN'T LEAVE!
The dwarf's spirits are eased by the lack of Evil auras within the room.
He peers at the clockwork machine and frowns at its design. There are definitely etching and carvings amongst the gears and measures that represent the elements, but Torean is unable to determine how it functions at a glance.
Illaton bows his head at Liam's question.
When the binders fell and died the rest of my kind fled, with joy in their hearts echoing through the veins. But the Master is still here, so so am I. He and that thing shackle me to the earth!
With no warning the shaitan slams out a fist toward the clockwork machine. It smacks hard against the wall with an echoing thud as his arm misses the device by millimeters.
But you Jistka should know this, the Gauge was your design after all, built to your exact details. Are you mocking me? Wait, no, you're not Jistka. Just other...mortals...
The genie clenches a fist and taps his head, as if he is struggling to remember something.
The Gauge gauged. Power - fire earth and wind and rain. It saw the storm and fed from it, and could feed it. I do not know the workings. There is something about it...trapping, or maybe it could release.... Illaton drifts off and shakes his head. But it the point is moat: I cannot destroy it and cannot change it. It has been so long, I fear I may only exist because of it.
And the Master? If you have not seen him, perhaps he is down below with his fallen friends. They fell quite far. Or...with Korj. They were together often, even after. Korj always did fixate on him after. Why? What was he doing? The shaitain snarls and begins pacing.
Jaizun was destroyed? Illaton asks, befuddled for a moment.
Oh, yes, They had said Weary Sky fell. So they came to Deep Sky - a refugee of final resort. But the storm was far beyond them, born of nature pushing against their works and tipped by the King Fiend. The Guage was watched, and would have told them....something...
BAH! the shaitan spins on a silver piece and whirls towards Chaul. Korj? FAILURE, LIVING FAILURE! He is free, truly free, and with them all dead he can leave and live wide. But he stays, flitting about to and fro. Why does he stay? IS HE MOCKING MY CAPTURE?
And the Jistka? Some went *pop* the shaitain makes his best 'poof' motion with his hands. The rest fell to the floor. and then were made to fall again. He walks towards the gap in the wall and looks out over the deep chasm splitting the structure.
Yes. A Jistka like the rest. Like you - mortal. He gives a harsh laugh. That word: irony than bites and chains like iron.
But you are not Jistka, and do not know of the Gauge. Who are you then. Why have you come?
Explore then? Explore EXPLORE explore. Take a look then, looks on their works and despair! Illaton gestures around the smashed room and out into the black abyss and towards the cracked platforms.
But the Master should have died long ago? Is that right? the shaitan thinks. A smile begins to splay across his face. Yes, that is true. You mortals flit about like turtles. He would be gone, wouldn't he? With a grin, Illaton closes his eyes, arms at his side. He stands still for a moment. Then another. Then, opening his eyes, his gaze lands on you and the room again and his mood sours quickly.
ARGH! STILL HERE! STILL HERE! Alive he should be dead. Dead I could be free. Yet I am stay still!
The shaitan rants and paces for a moment before before abruptly calming and replying to Chaul's last question calmly and slowly, as if he labors to get his answers out.
And Korj? No, not like I? He is...a mademan? No, was. He is free. The first one free. And he can leave, I know it. But Korj does not. Can't he see, see the gift he squanders?
Illaton looks seemingly through one of the room's stone walls, at a point just above and to the right of the clockwork machine - towards where the double doors would seem to lead to.
I...I don't remember. Octavia, Ochoe, Ooo...the name fades... Illaton slumps down.
But he waits in there, and so does Korj. Perhaps he likes it here, with naught but the quiet and the silent-kin. I...the earth here, it is not the Earth. I barely remember it's coarseness, its thrum. I would return there.
I cannot slay the master. I cannot leave without his release. I am sealed, sealed in stone...
As the shaitain begins to morosely slink slowly back into the floor, Noro moves to listen against the large set of closed double-doors. The pirate thinks she detects a faint sound of trickling water beyond, but the thick doors make further details hard to hear.
Illaton. I think I am Illaton. The shaitin says as he continues to sink into the floor.
His descent stops just before his head submerges as Kiku speaks out. The genie stares at the spiritualist, his face shifting between several emotions. Your words are soft, your other words imperial. If you can free me, free me. But that smooth stone - I've seen its surface before. I will not be looses to be bound again.
Before Kiku can respond, Illaton resumes his melding, disappearing entirely into the stone.
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The two doors swing open into a wide room filled with a fine mist. A silver metal rune pulsates with an iridescent light in the chamber’s southeast alcove, giving the whole chamber a silvery glow. To the south is an impressive crystalline fountain with water spraying high through the air in jets, though cracks in the fountain's base are causing some of the liquid to spill out over the floor. In an alcove to the southwest is a statue of a man in robes, his face contorted in a surprised sneer.
Standing beside the fountain you see two other figures. One is a towering golem constructed of stone. As you open the doors, it looks at your party, clenches one fist, the turns its head towards the other being in the room: a humanoid form of vibrant green light around which chunks of rock are orbiting.
Floating and somewhat translucent, the green figure looks to you and speaks
After several moments silence , he continues again in another tongue.
The green figure stares indifferently at Chaul as he attempts to communicate with a litany of tongues. It is not until his tone and gestures are repeated by Kiku however that the creature seems to react. The brightness of his green glow dims slightly to a less harsh color.
Explorers then. Your claims of peace are true: I have seen as you spared the golems and Illaton. You are different than the mortals I knew. I am Korj.
He drifts a bit closer to you. But Deep Sky was made to be hidden. And the storm's power still grows. Who are you to journey so far? And what is your intent in this place?
Torean thinks that the being is speaking plainly and truly. He seems intently curious about your party. Chual, for his part, suspects the green figure may be a ghost, but Pai and Liam recognize the truth: this is an Ozimat, a creature that can be formed when an elemental spirit is freed from a golem it had been bound in. Incorporeal outsiders, they can merge their spirit-body with stone and earthen creatures to take such a body as their host. Their touch can calcify those who anger them, causing Dexterity damage that can temporarily petrify their enemies.
The disturbance does remain. Korj says. His words are slow and methodical, and his voice sounds like gravel being stepped on. The Jistka and forced those they brought here in shackles of endless servitude to make the elemental gauge to monitor it. They wanted to know when then storm would abate, and they could return to Deep Sky. But they were hungry with power, and activated it once Deep Sky was sealed. The energy...reverberated. The ozimat's face grows into a deep smile.
The energy trapped within is still building. If you wish to release it, I can teach you how. Then when activated, I will shape the power. I require your assistance. And your investigation needs my knowledge. An exchange.
Korj looks at the stone golem standing at the fountain’s edge as he speaks.
I once inhabited a construct prison, as my siblings still do. When our captors activated the gauge and diverted some of the storm’s power, the energy weakened our fetters, allowing us to take control of our own fates long enough to rise up against our Jistka enslavers.
The ozimat glances to the statue in the room’s far corner, then down at his own glowing limb before staring back at your group.
I was even able to survive shedding my physical form, though only I. At the time I was uncertain as to why, but I can only guess that the elemental storm’s resonance disrupted my binding. Since the day of our first liberation, I have worked the help my siblings achieve their second - to free their own spirits. But no other method has succeeded, and I our masters made sure we could not operate the device itself. Do so, and I can use the elemental guage ’s power to save my brothers and sisters.