You're invited to a slumber party at the Blakros Museum!
The Blakros Museum rises into the night sky, its single black spire severing the full moon in twain. The black iron gates surrounding the exhibition hall grind in protest against the wind. Beyond, the museum’s large oaken doors stand wide open, a silver-gray mist belching forth from the cavernous darkness within. You wonder how you ended up here, standing at the precipice of unknown terrors, and instantly Venture-Captain Adril Hestram’s wide looming face is conjured into your minds’ eye. His booming words ring out from memory as clearly as he spoke them only one hour ago:
“The Blakros Museum is cursed. Some darkness has descended upon the place and those who enter are blasted with evil and left raving through its halls, more beast than men. The curator, Nigel Aldain, is an old associate of the Society, though he chose to leave our organization some years back after a disagreement.”
Adril looked sheepish then, as if remembering some distasteful incident from his youth. “Nigel has long denied the Society access to the Blakros Museum’s considerable collection of relics and scrolls, using his extensive contacts to nab several excellent finds right out from under us... he always had a nose for the hunt. Whatever is past between Nigel and the Society, he needs our help now. Perhaps if we can come to his aid, he may think on rejoining the Pathfinder Society, or at least offering to share his discoveries with us.”
“Apparently the trouble at Blakros Museum began this morning, shortly after a wayward Pathfinder named Lugizar Trantos returned to Absalom after months spent in the Mwangi Expanse. Supposedly, instead of coming straight to the Lodge to report in, he went to Blakros, sold his finds to Nigel, and then disappeared with a hefty sum of gold. The few who glimpsed Lugizar claimed he was much changed by his time in the Mwangi... gaunt, his eyes yellowed and unfocused, a strange rasping cough that seemed to wrack his now wasted frame. Whatever he brought back with him, we believe it is the cause of the Blakros Museum’s ills. Root it out.”
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Brewslee stares upon the Museum with a sense of awe. By the gods I don't even remember traveling here the man states with a nose as red as a rose and a crooked smile upon his face
Patches of the conversation with the Venture-Captain lapse back into his memory as he begins to recall what he can. Remembering all of the conversation can be difficult for Brewslee as he talks to a lot of people and is in a near constant stupor.
This place looks hugeBrewslee states as he rasps a flask at his bandolier and takes a large drink from one of his eight flasks that he has on his body. Is anyone else seeing mist coming from the building or is it just me? With each breath the party can smell a waft of ale from the slender man.
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Valtyra says with a smirk, "I'm not sure exactly what you see Brewslee, but there is a somewhat beautiful mist emanating from the door. Does anyone have an idea of the nature of the mist? I hope it doesn't frizz my hair. Also, I'm curious if this is the only entrance or if there is any indication of what to expect inside?"
Upon meeting each-other and raising questions about the building and most of all your purpose here you remember a few things...
Adril gave Valtyra a map of the museum and suggested the group head to the offices first to find Nigel as he may have some insight into whatever foul curse vexes the place.
If you decided to do a bit of reconnaissance prior to arriving at the museum:
The Gorilla King’s dread city was founded hundreds of years past by cultists who bowed to Angazhan. It is said they captured the souls of monkeys in the wood-grains of strange idols called Tik Taan. The monkeys’ tormented spirits became the slaves and playthings of Angazhan, who murdered their playful whims and replaced them with a deep-seated hate and wild madness. These Tik Taan are rumored to shred the sanity of anyone who spends too long in their presence.
The cultists who created the Tik Taan were hunted by a brave tribe of the Mwangi called the Jambala Jaeg. The Jambala Jaeg created ritual knives, crafted out of bone handles and obsidian blades, to slay the demons inside the Tik Taan. Legends speak of the deadly mists of the Tik
Taan, ill humors that invade men’s hearts by seeping into their mouths. Anyone wearing a scarf or other protection against the airborne menace is immune to its effects.
Lugizar Trantos spent the better part of a year in the Mwangi. At first he wrote letters to his brother and wife, but after a few months these stopped coming and most gave him up for dead.
His letters spoke of a lucrative find at one point, three idols of dark wood carved in the shape of bearded monkeys.
The last of his letters evidenced an unhinged mind, and was covered in strange sketches of monkey paws. He described dark eyes glaring out from the mists. Shortly after his return to Absalom, the monkeys and apes in
the Absalom Menagerie attacked their keepers during a feeding and fled the grounds into greater Absalom.
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Another cursed tomb! Nicolae spits on the floor.
Should never have left my kin. Damn you Irina. He thinks with displeasure.
The word on the streets is that the Lugizar fellow brought with him from the jungle to sell here three bearded monkey idols carved in dark wood. Says the young varisian.
That may be what we are looking for.
As you knock on the door it slowly creaks open, the cool mist lightly caressing you as it falls out the door,
Upon entry the mists here congeal into a thick and silvery fog that cools the lungs. A giant warrior looms from the haze, his arms crossed at his chest, his helm solemn and still. Beyond lie sarcophagi of varied designs, and a few glass cases wherein withered dead are held upright by rods and string, grim exhibits of long-dead citizens whose fallen empires were erased an age past.
"It's kinda rude for Nigel not to greet us. Shall we wander around a bit to find him?"
When you reach the middle of the chamber, you hear groans coming from within the fog and then you are beset upon by animated corpses. One is a withered, mummified thing from beneath Osirion’s sands bearing a jeweled scarab on its chest among its spiced wrappings, a scarab seer and warrior-priest of an old pharaonic age. Another is an armored warrior of a long dead empire, clad in heavy discolored bronze plates and helm. A third is a hulking skeleton, a towering ancestor of the Kellid race who wields a greatclub fashioned from a mammoth’s ivory tusk. The fourth is a shrunken emaciated corpse wrapped in rotten silks and holding a silvered Qadiran scimitar in one bony fist.
The skeletons slash in tandem towards Valtyra with broken scimitars!
...clanking as they swing by...a swirl in the thick mists catches your attention.
The Ghoul, not distracted by the mists bites the inebriated Brewslee!
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Will holds his holy symbol aloft as he readies his shield. All the while, he falls into a sermonic tone and starts speaking, "O' Balm-Bringer, please let your healing hands be upon us, not only to cure the wounds inflicted upon us by these vile skeletons from the mist of pestilence, but to also prevent us from being taken to that vulgar undeath that these creatures have fallen..."
Nicolae drops the 'Ghast wannabe' to the ground with one fell swoop of his deadly shiny mace. An audible 'THUUDDD' is heard throughout the room.
A uncharacteristically swift zombie attacks the holy man!
, yet misses...floundering within the mists.
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Brewslee stumbles his way towards the southern skeleton. He states ahead not believing what he sees. this ish just unnatural!. As he moves near the skeleton he gets swiped at which causes his leg to jerk as he stumbles striking at the skeleton.
As Brewslee regains his footing he finds his spot as he swings his elbow in a wide arc and the abomination.
Brewslee moves in a manner similar to the zombie but somehow stumbles over to the shambling duo!
When he nears the closest skeleton it swings ...
yet the blade slices wide as the monk dodges, elbowing retaliation.
Unfortunately in his inebriated state the 30' sojourn befuddled Brewslee's precise movements and his elbow swing initiates a graceful pirouette.
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Attack
non-lethal
You are skilled at causing fear in those you brutalize.
Prerequisite: Intimidate 1 rank.
Benefit: Whenever you deal nonlethal damage with a melee weapon, you can make an Intimidate check to demoralize your target as a free action. If you are successful, the target is shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt. If your attack was a critical hit, your target is frightened for 1 round with a successful Intimidate check, as well as being shaken for a number of rounds equal to the damage dealt.
"These creatures are so... uncivilized"
One skeleton is brutally knocked to the ground by Valtyra's slap and 'intimidating' words. It lays in a shivering heap upon the ground.
The other skeleton seeing it's buddy slapped silly reacts aggressively to the dancer!
Ghoul - dead
Skel 1 - down
Skel 2 -
Zombie -
The zombie takes a sound pounding from the stealthy rogue!
"THUUNNKK" The zombie slowly falls dead to the floor creating yet another ripple within the mist.
With slaps coming from all directions the second skeleton collapses as the first had. Twin piles of bones...albeit still 'alive' piles.
As you recover from this unexpected romp with the undead your heavy breathing allows the mists to coat the inside of your lungs, spreading through bronchial trees...