|
"There’s trouble at the Blakros Museum again," Venture- Captain Adril Hestram growled when you first entered the meeting room in the Grand Lodge earlier this afternoon. "The museum’s curator, Nigel Aldain, came to me this morning asking for help. Apparently, a wayward daughter of his illustrious patrons, the powerful Blakros family, has disappeared, along with a few of the museum’s watchmen who went looking for her. The Society has helped him in the past, and he wants us to find her, before he loses his job, or worse. Now Nigel’s an old friend, and a former Pathfinder, but this kind of missing person case isn’t really our bailiwick. Normally I’d tell him to find the district guard and leave the Society out of it. But then he made me an offer that was too good to pass up. Not only will he allow the Society access to the Blakros Museum’s extensive and very private library, but apparently this same missing daughter just returned to Absalom with a pack full of ancient relics collected throughout Osirion and northern Garund. And Nigel promised the Society first pick of any of those pieces that catch our fancy. I don’t need to tell you what those kinds of things might be worth, so it looks like you’re heading to the Blakros Museum tonight."
"The missing daughter is named Imrizade Blakros — half-Osirian herself and a pretty successful adventurer and fortunehunter by all accounts. She just arrived in Absalom out of the blue a few days ago, after a couple of years’ worth of tomb-raiding in the Osirian deserts, and carrying an odd metal cylinder covered in hieroglyphs, like nothing Nigel has ever seen before. Nigel says she went straight to the basement of the museum to do some research in the family’s library, muttering something about ‘whispers in the dark’ and ‘old tapestries,’ or something. He didn’t hear from her for a couple of days, which isn’t unusual when someone is deep into their research in the archives, but he got worried when strange noises started coming from the basement. He sent a watchman down there to investigate, and when he didn’t return, Nigel sent a few more. That was last night, and they haven’t come back up either."
"Go to the museum and find out what happened to Imrizade Blakros and the watchmen. Nigel would prefer them alive, of course, especially the Blakros woman, but the Society is more interested in what she brought back with her. I’ve got a hunch it wasn’t just grave goods and pretty jewelry. Whatever she found, the Society wants it, or at the very least some information about it."
|
|
Siddhārtha Gautama rattles off what he knows...
"In the early days of Absalom, the Blakros Museum was originally the stronghold of an eccentric wizard. Abandoned for centuries, it was later bought by the Blakros family, who turned it into a museum for their impressive collection of curiosities from across Golarion."
"The wealthy and prominent Blakros family is a large, extended clan of eccentrics with trade contacts rivaling those of the Aspis Consortium who make most of their money selling valuable antiquities across the Taldor-Qadira border. Their daughters are known far and wide for their beauty, and marrying a Blakros woman is a sure path to power and riches.
Rumored to be originally Taldan by blood, the Blakros have since intermingled with bloodlines from all over Golarion, by marrying daughters to a succession of Qadiran trade princes, Vudran rajahs, and even the occasional Tian noble and Mwangi chief. Gifts from these foreign potentates (and the sale of illicitly gained secrets) provide the foundation for the Blakros fortune and their famous collections.
In reality, it is the many daughters who bear the Blakros name that are responsible for the family’s wealth. Although beautiful and amazingly fertile, wedding a Blakros daughter has significant conditions — the daughters always keep their maiden name, all children must be raised as Blakroses, and the husband’s family must offer a considerable dowry for the privilege of marriage. Once married, the Blakros daughters join an unparalleled spy network that keeps the family well supplied in secrets and priceless artifacts."
|
"Hey Kevin, if you want something to use other than that toothpick, let me know." Urktar motions to the array of weapons sprouting from his back, including a heavy flail and longspear, the latter of which has a tendency to scrape against ceilings under 10' high. You do believe he's quite sincere in his offer.
Urktar leans in conspiratorially, and whispers rather loudly to the rest of the group. "He did say bring people back alive if we can, but he didn't say we couldn't trash the place, right? Sometimes Bert gets out of hand..."
Urktar cocks an ear, as if listening to an unseen voice. After a moment, he snorts derisively. "Okay, maybe it was Clobber who did the real damage to that apothecary" then he pauses to pat his heavy flail affectionately; clearly it's the aforementioned Clobber. "But we did smash those skeletons...eventually. And they burned right up, along with the rest of the shop. So, when do we start?"
|
|
"I don't know anything about that object, but if the Blakros daughter retreats to study it for days it must be a very rare or very powerful item. Get out that Blakros woman, the guards AND the item!" Hestram answers.
Once you are finished with Hestram, you proceed to the Blakros Museum where you are greeted by a clearly flustered Nigel Aldain, the curator of the museum. He ushers you straight away to the North Exhibit Hall and opens a secret door in the ziggurat there to reveal a ramp down into the library below. The basement’s walls are hewn stone, carved from basalt, and mirror the gothic architecture found in the rest of the museum, though of a simpler design.
"Welcome! I'm glad Hestram could find a group of Pathfinders so fast. Please follow me down into the basement." Aldain says and moves down the ramp.
The 50-foot-long stone ramp concealed beneath the miniature ziggurat in the museum’s North Exhibit Hall descends 25 feet to the basement. Wide enough to accommodate a draft horse moving large exhibits to and from the basement storerooms, the ramp ends at two sets of double doors, facing each other to the east and west. Wooden placards on the doors are marked “Storeroom 1” and “Storeroom 2.”
"They are all somewhere inside. Since I already sent in two groups of guards the others refuse to enter the storerooms beyond these doors. "
|
|
"I'd be happy to say nothing since there are only old exhibits and tomes stored behind these doors, but since the incident with the monkey masks a few years ago I'm really careful with any advice. I don't know what keeps the guards from coming out, really. Behind the doors are mainly stuffed animals and statues with old or exotic armor. The library behind these rooms hold only ald texts. They are rare, but I don't think they are dangerous." Nigel answers, obviously nervous.
Looking around Bonifacius drums on his weapons haft.
|
|
The doors open onto a vast hall draped in shadowy cobwebs and filled with haphazardly placed statues. The air is heavy with dust. Any noise echoes hollowly among the figures, some swathed in thick coverings like misshapen beasts, others bare and uncovered, all coated in a thick layer of dust. Leering visages loom out of the darkness, fearsome wooden and stone faces carved in grimaces and scowls.
This room has a 20-foot-high ceiling and holds a dazzling collection of sculptures, effigies, and statues of different sizes, some draped in sheets, others coated with a thick layer of dust. Unlit oil lamps hang from brackets in the center of each wall. A wooden sign on a door in the southern wall reads “Scriptorium — Quiet Please.”