Howard bites and claws at the creature, sending green ichor splattering all over the place.
Havigan dashes in to stab the Chuul but does not manage to get through it's chitinous carapace. He then gets out of range. "We need to help Sir Amrivast!" Havigan cries out.
The Chuul heals slightly and continues to squeeze Sir Amrivast,"It's just a matter of time..."It says, then transfers him to its mouth.
Sir Amrivast fights off the poison, and snarls at the Chuul, then rips into it, "Die, abomination!"
He only manages to get one claw through.
Howard bites the Chuul into two with its massive jaws. As it goes down in spore clouds, it utters, "The Inmost Blot will consume you too. Glory to the Star Seed!"
With its death, the party feels a little more enlightened.
"Thanks Howard. Those creatures cracked my ribs."
"The Speaker of the Deep you just slew was a Chuul who claimed to speak for Xhamen-Dor. In truth, the Great Old One provided him nothing but undead oblivion. He's been spending ages deluding himself and the other inhabitants of the Snarl. Pretty much everyone in the Snarl rejects of moral principles, dismisses existence due to what they have gone through."Aeptolinu explains. "You have found what you sought. If you were wise, you would go away - the ritual you propose will only corrupt you and draw this world into the hands of the Forces Beyond."Aeptolinu reprimands Howard.
"I remember this lake...when I was infected, I kept dreaming of it..."Havigan looks at the lake, his eyes distant.
"Not now," Sir Amrivast gives Havigan a shake on his shoulders.
"Oh sorry," Havigan shakes himself all over. "I lost myself for a moment."
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Howard sighs ruefully.
"Unfortunately, one hasss already gone thisss way, who doesss indeed ssseek to draw thisss world into Carcosssa's embrace. In order to ssstop him, I must follow in hisss footssstepsss... up to a point. Thisss Ritual isss a meansss to an end, but only becaussse there isss no other way."
He then turns to Havigan.
"That may be true, but you had alliesss who thought enough of you to ssstop you, until you came to your sssensesss. You have worth. Never forget that."
"Then you will join him down his dark path and be the harbinger of Golarion's doom."Aeptolinu pronounces morbidly. "I suppose I could show you more of the Snarl since you're so slow to learn."
"Howard,why are we constantly saddled with doomsayers?Is it something in the water that makes everyone think the world is ending?" Sir Amrivast rolls his eyes upwards, "Look, sir, since you've at least been polite about things, I will say I disagree with your viewpoint."
Sir Armrivast lifts a fragment of debris and dumps it in another direction. He points at the debris moved, "You see? I changed something in the universe. So yes, we can all change things if we were to put an EFFORT to do so. The evidence is in front of you."
"But humanity is self-centered and greedy. Even if they put an effort to change things, it's always greed and egoism that drives them. Like how the Lumber Consortium oppressed citizens of Bellis. And inevitably they change things for the worse."Aeptolinu argues back.
"Yeah thanks for bringing me back to here and now."Havigan fervently thanks Sir Amrivast.
"Yes he's so perfect he cares only about what he deems as his own physical and mental perfection that his followers don't really care about the state of the world but only what they perceive as physical and mental perfection. Is that not another expression of egoism?" Aeptolinu replies.
Nonetheless he leads the party on.
Hundreds of boulders are piled here, creating a crude, twenty foot tall altar that leans against the east wall like a crumbling ziggurat. Expired candles and a variety of skulls perch atop the stones, and designs of fearsome red ochre decorate the facade.
The party sees a Biped, bristling with spiny ridges, coral horns and needle sharp teeth, but Sir Amrivast and Howard see another four fly-like creatures that emit a sickly smell of feral musk, rotting flesh, and acrid sweat flying 30 feet in the air.
Howard recognizes the biped as a Ghawwas. It has DR cold iron and good, a poisonous sting, rough hide that will cause any creature striking it with an unarmed strike or natural attack to take 1d6 damage.
It has the following spell like abilities:
Constant—detect good, detect magic
At will—control water, curse water, deeper darkness, dimension door
3/day—hallucinatory terrain, stinking cloud, summon parika , quench
Howard recognizes the flies as Druj Nasus
"Howard what's that weird spiny thing and those fly things?" Sir Amrivast asks Howard.
"Wait, what fly things are you talking about, I only see the spiny."
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"The fly-thingsss are Druj Nasssusss Divsss - evil outsidersss that dessspoil the corpsssesss of mortalsss, and take a perverssse delight in targeting worshippersss of Good faithsss. Ssspiny isss another type of Div, and hitting him isss going to hurt, ssso it isss probably best if I handle him."
He then tries to do precisely that!
Howard pounces on the Ghawwa div and rips it to pieces, though he gets poked a little in the process.
Seeing Howard take out the Ghawwa div, all the Nasu divs scatter.
Howard manages to grab the red one.
The red one, seeing its trapped, tries to claw Howard.
The rest fire enervation at Howard.
Their black rays are blocked by a green shield.
"Ok, I see the spinies now, but they're 30 feet in the air and I can't get to them."
Havigan takes out his handcrossbow, moves, then loads it.
Sir Amrivast flies around the corner and tries to grapple the yellow fly, but it slips away.
Howard rips the fly creature into two with a bite and a claw.
The yellow druj nasus moves away from Sir Amrivast, who tries to claw it, but falls short and fires another enervation at Howard.
All beams bounce off Howard's green shield.
Havigan moves to the closest one, then shoots at it.
His crossbow bolts hit but do nothing. "My attacks aren't doing anything!"
Sir Amrivast pounces on yellow,but only manages to get a claw, his hind claw and his wing buffets through and doesn't seem to be very effective.
"Mine aren't doing too much, either."
Howard rips the unbordered Druj Nasus into two. They both fire enervations at Howard.
This time one of the black rays penetrate Howard's shield and he feels weakened.
They both retreat further.
Seeing Howard get struck by the black ray, he calls out, "Howard, are you all right?"
Havigan moves up and reloads his crossbow.
Sir Amrivast pounces on yellow again.
He manages to land a claw, a hindclaw and a wing buffet on the creature.
Howard rips blue apart.
Yellow, having run out of enerverations, bites and claws at Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast gets nicked by one of its claws.
Havigan finally manages to catch up with the druj nasus and fires a crossbow bolt at it.
Sir Amrivast tries to tear it apart,hitting it with 2 claws and a wing.
Howard bites the last fly div into two.
Most of the trinkets atop the altar are of negligible worth, such as broken holy symbols dedicated to good-aligned gods from across Golarion. Howard does eventually find after some digging a a corroded bronze bastard sword that he recognizes as Teralindar’s Honor.
"See, I told you everyone is self centered - what was all that destruction of holy symbols for? Just because they can. And it pleases them."Aeptolinu remarks.
Physically, this patch of fractured basalt is little different from the rest of the passage. The party spots a rusty greave pinned beneath an immense chunk of rubble.
Howard and Sir Amrivast hear the Snarl grow suddenly quiet and realized they have flown into a haunt!"This place is Haunted we need to get out of here!"
Howard realizes this haunt is the echoes of Earthfall and will cause everyone in the vicinity to experience the trauma of what has occurred.
Havigan does not seem to notice the haunt.
"Grab Havigan and dimension door out, I'll leg it!"
Sir Amrivast more accurately wings it, as he flies off at top speed. Howard grabs a surprised Havigan, who goes, puzzled, ”Uh, what?” then dimension doors them out of the way. The party sees time seem to crawl to a stop as the collapsed buildings fade from view, replaced by intact towers with a desert plain beyond. A Casmar woman in a stylized breastplate steps into view on the stone street, plants her greataxe in the ground, and calls out to the god Rovagug. She receives no response, but as she turns away, the sky blazes with fire, and something crashes into the ground. As one, the towers begin to collapse as a searing wave of fire and debris obliterates the woman, and engulfs Aeptonlinu.
”Oh sh*t. Thanks for pulling me there. That’s another nasty end you’ve saved me from.” Havigan points at the scene of destruction.
Strangely enough, Apetolinu is not affected by the cataclysm and stands there scratching his head on why the party ran off in such a hurry."What IS the matter again?" He asks the party. "You're jumping over nothing?"
Howard realizes that on heading back, his monstrous physique spell has worn out.
Recesses carved into basalt walls support a wealth of tomes, treatises and scrolls. Several dozen other volumes lie open upon stone lecterns and improvised desks, amid which hide an assortment of ink vials, quills and styluses. However the place seems rather cold and dark, somehow.
The uneven floor here has buckled at unpredictable angles as the many towers gradually settled over the millennia.
Seemingly fused with a monstrous throne of iron skulls, an impossibly corpulent being floats several feet off the ground. Trappings cut in mockery of holy vestments do little to cover the thing’s pallid, leaking rolls of blister-pocked girth. Worthless, club-like hands waggle like maggots, directing a cloud of weathered scrolls and blasphemous tomes that orbit its bulk. Barely distinguishable amid its mound of chins squints a pair of glassy black eyes, riding above a disproportionately wide mouth curled into a perpetually lecherous grin.
Howard recognizes the creature as a heresy devil. 5 DR/good.
”I greet you mortals.” The creature says genially, ”I know I may look rather odd, but don’t be alarmed. I am a book collector,” The creature gestures at his library. ”And I’m always interested in rare books. Of course, if you happen to have inclinations towards the intellectual, I have quite the collection here, of which some may catch your fancy.”
”That’s Eshimal. Or what he tells us to call him. He’s one of the Snarl’s most rational inhabitants.” Aeptonilu notes. ”But you might want to watch how you deal with him, you know the devil in the details.”
"Howard, what the heck is that?" Sir Amrivast asks.
Howard pounces on Eshimal hitting him with a bite and two claws, though the tail slap bounces of a black shield.
A shocked Eshimal stares at Howard. "Hey I didn't even do ANYTHING to you. Such prejudice, mortals."
Then he disappears in a puff of black smoke, and a loud Bamph sound.
"I say those devils are really good at running." Sir Amrivast glares at the offending puff of black smoke, then flies towards Howard."Any way of tracking him down?"
In the library Howard finds a book of infinite spells on its sixth to last page (currently lightning bolt), a manual of quickness of action +2, spellbooks containing every wizard divination spell in the Core Rulebook of 5th level or lower, five original manuscripts for common on a racy series of nine romance novels set during Even Tongued Conquest and depicting the dramatic exploits of one Viscount Allesande as he seduces his way across a crumbling Taldan empire. The author, Remaio Eround, perished in a duel before he could finish the tenth and final volume, and these preserved originals could easily fetch 5,0000 gp from a collector.
A smoothed swath of rubble ascends in a lazy spiral to a large throne constructed of uneven basalt slabs.
Upon the throne is a yellow-orange wearing shrouded reptilian nightmare with two pairs of stretched and veiny leather wings adorn its back.
"Bow down before me, for I am the Saffron Prince and you enter my throne room!"It commands imperiously.
"He's delusional. But again we all have our coping mechanisms for dealing with the knowledge of seeing the world end."Aeptolinu remarks.
"Believe not the naysayer, for he is but a gnat who does not comprehend my glory."The creature retorts.
Howard has no idea what the heck the creature is.
Sir Amrivast stares at the creature, "What is that thing?"
"For the last time...do not do anything to the Star marked pillar. I have seen the future that it will deliver Golarion to the realm of the Unspeakable One." Aeptolinu chides Howard.
As Howard turns around to leave the yellow shrouded reptalian nightmare rises from his throne, and screams a battlecry, "Then prepare to die for your impudence!"
"That's what I was afraid off...when egoism and delusions are combined." Aeptolinu sighs.
Howard bites and claws into the creature as well as slapping him with his tail but is unable to grab him.
The creature curses Howard, "Just you wait...I'll get even!"
And it disappears in a puff of yellow smoke.
"Again?!" Sir Amrivast furrows his eyebrows.
"The Saffron Prince thought he could amass personal wealth and power necessary to suppress the Unspeakable One by feigning obedience then overthrowing him later. A large part is due to the yellow robe he picked up from some pilgrims which feeds the wearer's delusions of grandeur, which he already had quite a bit off to begin with." Aeptolinu notes clinically.
"I think the kindest thing to say about everyone in the Snarl is they should be sent to an asylum." Sir Amrivast answers."Except for those divs and devils, which should be slain so they don't cause trouble."
Howard goes back to the Star Stelae and begins to perform the Beckoning the Stars ritual.
"I, Howard Philips Lovecraft, seek to journey to the distant world of Carcosa. "
"I channel my will to create a tether between Golarion and Carcosa."
"Let the anchor to support the path to black stars rise upon this Star Stelae as a focus."
As Howard begins the ritual, Aeptonilu moans, "All you're doing is d@mning yourself to the Unspeakable One's hands... and he'll use you as a pawn to bring Golarion into his realm. Why won't you listen?"
Sir Amrivast and Havigan stand guard over Howard as he performs the ritual.
The yellow shrouded reptilian being appears in a puff of smoke, rather blurry, 30 feet above the ground. He is still severely wounded from what Howard did to him earlier. "I have come to reclaim my Kingdom!" It proclaims, then attacks.
Then it stares at Sir Amrivast, moves up him and claws him.
Sir Amrivast gets clawed by the creature.
"Look we're in the middle of important business, so freaking get out or deal with the consequences!" Sir Amrivast snaps, then responds in kind.
Sir Amrivast hits the creature with a single claw that does not seem too effective, but nonetheless knocks the creature out.
Havigan then calmly walks over, and stabs the creature in the heart.
"Why did you do that for?" Sir Amrivast asks Havigan indignant. "He was attacking us because he was delusioned..."
"Howard can't afford to be interrupted during the ritual. And if he's attacking people because he's delusional, does that mean we're going to let him kill everyone in the area because he's not of sound mind?" Havigan answers.
"We might have been able to take off that cursed robe - it might have cleared him of his delusions..." Sir Havigan says sadly.
"Or not. I'd say he's some kind of fiend...reptilian..."Then he gives the ritual casting Howard a sheepish look, "Ooops, no slight meant to present company."
"I guess what's done is done." Sir Amrivast still looks at the body slightly regretfully."I wish we could have found another way, though."
Sir Amrivast then heals himself.
Eshimial appears, this time with two friends, who look like carrion-fed insect and withered cadavers. Eshimal has fully recovered from the beating Howard gave him, and now there are...6 of him. They are all 30 feet in the air.
"And what do I find here? The thieves who LOOTED my LIBRARY, now are trying to attune the Star Stelae. Which requires the Necromonicon. Which I've always wanted to acquire." He gestures to his bony friends,"Get them, boys!"
"If you hadn't fled the first time we met, devil, I would have ended you. I thank Iomedae for the chance to destroy fiends like you!"
He declares smite evil on Eshimal, then closes in with him.
The bone devils lash out at him as he approaches, recoiling from him at the last moment.
Sir Amrivast strikes one of his mirror images, causing it to shrivel.
"Oh Scheiße, du bist erledigt!" Eshimal glares at Sir Amrivast," Töte diesen Menschen dort drüben, nimm seinen Dolch und ersteche diesen Lammasu." He commands the bone devils.
Oh shit, you're warded.Kill that human over there, take his dagger and go stab this Lammasu.
"Ich werde mich selbst mit diesem Narren beschäftigen müssen.
I'll have to deal with this fool myself.
The bone devils fly down to Havigan, which Sir Amrivast starts clawing at the red one, but it sidesteps.
Then they start flanking and stinging Havigan. Havigan gets stabbed in the side by one of their stings but fights off the poison.
Havigan tries to tumble out of flank, which he manages to, then stabs at red.
Even though the dagger stab is not fully effective, the creature looks at Havigan, surprised that a human could wound him.
Eshimal casts deeper darkness on his amulet, then flies around Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast moves up to where the darkness originates from and tries to claw Eshimal.
He manages to land a nasty claw onto Eshimal.
Meanwhile, the red bone devil begins to attack Havigan.
The other bone devil moves up to Havigan and stings him.
Havigan hastily retreats out of the way, but gets tripped.
He takes a total defense action.
Eshimal retreats, then spits a ball of bile at Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast gets slightly acidified.
Sir Amrivast moves up to Eshimal, continuing to claw him.
The bone devils continue to attack Havigan and he goes down.
The other bone takes up Havigan's dagger.
Eshimal begins to attack Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast tries to strike back at Eshimal.
One of the bone devils gives Eshimal flanking.
The other flies off to find boulders to throw at Sir Amrivast.
Eshimal continues to attack Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast continues to attack Eshimal.
One bone devil continues to provide flanking for Eshimal, while the other throws a boulder at Sir Amrivast.
Eshimal continues to attack Sir Amrivast.
Sir Amrivast lays on hands himself, then continues attacking Eshimal.
One bone devil continues to provide flanking for Eshimal, while the other throws a boulder at Sir Amrivast.
Eshimal and Sir Amrivast continue their deadly duel, with Eshimal zapping Sir Amrivast with electricity.
One bone devil continues to provide flanking for Eshimal, while the other throws a boulder at Sir Amrivast.
Eshimal and Sir Amrivast continue their deadly duel.
Sir Amrivast finishes Eshimal off with a claw.
As Eshimal dies, the bone devils vanish like they never existed.
Sir Amrivast drags Eshimal's carcass away and with it, the deeper darkness effect and spots Havigan lying motionless on the floor, with multiple puncture wounds on him.
"D@mn."Sir Amrivast curses as rushes to his aid, then heaves a sigh of relief when he finds him still alive.
Sir Amrivast begins to tend to his wounds, but he doesn't wake up. Sir Amrivast notices some greenish substance at the site of the puncture wounds then utters, "Poison."
Sir Amrivast begins to heal the effects of the poison and Havigan stirs groggily, muttering, "The lake...it calls...for more to join...the swarm..." Sir Amrivast gives him a good shake on his shoulders, and he snaps back to himself."Oh wow I'm still alive," He gives Sir Amrivast a weak smile,mildly surprised.
"Yes, but that was closer then Id care for."Sir Amrivast answers.
"And he's still at it?"Havigan points at Howard. "This is going to be a very long 30 minutes."
Sir Amrivast helps Havigan to his feet.
Aeptolinu declares, "I can't let you doom this world to the Unspeakable One!That's what they all day, best of intentions but the end result is still the same!" Then his features melt away, revealing a bronze-skinned Azlanti nobleman in bloodstained clothing with empty, scarred eye sockets and a body torn and bleeding from self-inflicted wounds.
Everyone is unaffected at Aeptolinu's horrific Visage. He then moves towards Howard, then fires a blast of mental energy at him.
Howard partially resists the burst of mental energy but still gets a headache.
"No, Aeptolinu! Haven't you been listening?!" Sir Amrivast gasps horrified, "We're trying to deal with the madman Lowls who Already is in Carcosa!We can't let you disrupt the ritual!"
He then pounces on Aeptolinu.
Sir Amrivast manages to land 2 claws on him despite his movements making him hard to spot, and his claws not being fully effective.
Havigan circles around Aeptolinu, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Aeptolinu tries to then touch Howard, showing him all his years of torment.
Sir Amrivast claws him as he tries to move away.
Howard resists the agony inflicted on him.
Sir Amrivast moves over and claws at Aeptonilu.
Havigan also tries to stab Aeptonilu.
Aeptolinu takes a 5 ft step back then attempts to mindblast Howard again.
Howard manages to resist the mindblast, but still ends up with a headache.
The runic inscriptions on the Star Stelae begin to glow yellow, as Howard channels his lifeforce into the Star Stelle.
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”Nooo…I have failed…" Aeptonilu bemoans despairingly. "No matter – you will not activate the rest!”
"You're a misguided idiot!" Sir Amrivast retorts back. "We're trying to save the world, not doom it!"
Sir Amrivast moves up to Aeptolinu and tries to attack him, managing to land a claw.
Havigan darts in and stabs at Aeptolinu with his dagger in a vital spot, before darting back out.
Aeptolinu tries to fly out of the way, taking into the sky, but is smacked but not grabbed by Howard.
Sir Amrivast claws at the retreating Aeptolinu, but does not manage to connect.
"Better that you die here then you get corrupted by the Unspeakable One in his realm and doom us all! " He declares, before firing another mindblast at Howard.
This time Howard doesn't manage to resist the mindblast and feels his mind engulfed in a white-hot blast of agony.
As Howard lands the killing blow, Aeptolinu gasps out, "Oblivion...at last," then his body falls into the lake below, staining the water briefly red.
Howard searches Eshimal's body and finds a spell book containing the following spells:
burning gaze, contact other plane, detect undead, dream, erase, finger of death, glitterdust, mage’s lucubration, magic missile, misdirection, stone to flesh, true seeing, waves of fatigue, bull’s strength, command undead, detect thoughts, fox’s cunning, mirror image, charm person, comprehend languages, floating disk, identify, shocking grasp, true strike, arcane mark, detect magic, mending, read magic, and all other wizard cantrips except those from abjuration and conjuration school.
Sir Amrivast sighs, "Why did he even attack us in the first place..."
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Howard sighs regretfully.
"I don't know, but given hisss true form (assssssuming that isss what he ssshowed usss at the end), he wasss quite a tortured sssoul."
He then pats Amrivast comfortingly on the shoulder.
"Come on - let'sss find where the next ssstela isss."
Howard nods to Havigan.
"By the way, you ssseem to be acquitting yourssself reasssonably well; it looksss like ducking in and out of melee isss probably the bessst option for you."