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"Wiffle? Wiffle! Sounds good! Wiiiiiifflflflflfle!" sings happily Pandoor.
"Wait it really sounds familiar. Like... like someone tries to say Whistle but gets interrupted. Or or or, what if it's like someone suddently sneezes! Wiffle!" The sorcerer looks at his companion faces for approval, but when he sees Paeter's face, he quickly stops and walks along, silently.
The party travels back across Absalom to the Society Grand Lodge, to the Wall of Names. Created in 4330, the Wall of Names, sitting on the expansive grounds of the Lodge, is a curving wall of black glass that stands atop a small hill at the western edge of the lodge's grounds. Trees surround the hill, providing ample shade and privacy for those visiting the wall to remember fallen comrades. Carved into the wall are the name and date of death of every Pathfinder killed in th ecourse of duty since the wall's construction, and most entries include a sentence or two summarizing either the agent's greatest accomplishment or how she died.
Following Adolphus' notes, you find the part of the wall that has the false names. Reading them, you find the following:
Doulgolnir Caskmail
Deceased 4332 AR
Sought out the jade idol of
ten thousand faces
Now, but another sacrifice
to the chara-ku of the
Mwangi
Hollis 'Evil Grin' Thorne
Deceased 4331 AR
Enjoyed the many excesses
of Katapesh
Ended by a drug-induced
hallucination
Karina Clamp
Deceased 4330 AR
Fought up all, but one step
of the Storval Stairs
Blade shattered at an
inopportune moment
As you read the inscriptions, you notice the words; sacrifice, drug-induced hallucination, and blade are all underlined.
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Paeter thinks for a moment. "You Flaxseeds need to spend more time in Absalom instead of the Lodge in Cassomir. There is a place called the Shrine of the Failed that should bear these inscriptions rather than here. We should investigate the Shrine for these underlined words." the Linseed surmises.
He leads the group to the Shrine of the Failed, happy that he showed some prowess in this adventure.
Leaving the Lodge grounds, the party heads to the Shrine of the Failed. As you round the corner to your location, you see crowds gathered a short distance away, watching what appears to be a Mendevian crusader attmpting to ascend to godhood. As you get to the entrance of the shrine, you all see the knight rear back his horse and begin racing toward chasm outside the Starstone. As such, you find the shrine empty as you enter.
Erected centuries ago by an unknown organization, the Shrine of the Failed is a dour complex that pays homage to those who failed in their attempts to overcome the Test of the Starstone. The building houses numerous altars, each dedicated to a specific failed aspirant.
Moving into the antechamber, this monumental chamber stretches eight feet from end to end, with a ceiling suspended thirty feet from the floor by great pillars. Seven arched passages lead to humble rooms, each of which contains a polished stone altar dedicated to one of the failed aspirants. As you move further into the room, the sound of screams and disappointed mumurs floats in from the outside, indicating the knight will soon have an altar housed within the building.
As you begin searching the altar rooms, you find that each altar stands upon a raised dais and bears a small brass nameplate identifying the aspirant and the would-be-god's areas of interest.
At the western end of the chamber you find the three names you found on the wall.
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Jonah is humbled by the sheer grandeur of the monument. He cannot help but address a quick prayer to Desna for these unfortunate souls who didn't live up to their expectations. Raising his head, his eyes catch glimpse of a small something.
"There! There is a secret door - an illusion no doubt. Maybe an irony linked to the drug-inducing end Hollis met?"
As Jorac examines the secret door, he notes the altar's nameplate appears to move. Sliding it open, he finds a miniature chalkboard and thin piece of chalk. He also sees no way to open the secret door.
Falco scrawls the word "wiffle" on the chalkboard. Suddenly the illusion is gone and you see the secret door slowly slide open revealing a large chamber behind.
Moving into the chamber, you find it appears to a natural stone cavern. The ceiling sheds dim light from some sort of spell effect. The cavern stretches to the north where you notice a smaller room adjoining the cavern.
Moving north to the small room, you see several desks are arranged along the northern and eastern edges of this small stone alcove. Whereas the stonework leading to this chamber is rough, the walls in the alcove are polished. A single gem rests among the neatly filed papers on the desk, emitting a soft luminescence that brightens the small room.
The gem on the desk is a cut alexandrite worth 550 gp. Falco realizes it glows thanks to a continual flame spell. Searching the area, you find that the paperwork on the desk is a priceless collection of Pathfinder Society lore and information describing dozens of unexplored sites. Most are written in an Azlanti dialect further encrypted using an old cipher employed by the Society centuries ago.
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"This looks like quite a breakthrough! I agree with Paeter, we should report at once. " says the halfling as he pockets the magical gem without any second thoughts.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Gathering the documents, the party heads back into the shrine proper, heading back to the Lodge. As you enter the shrine, you notice four individuals, Chelish by the looks of them, waiting in the chamber. Seeing you, one puts out a hand. "You can stop right there and hand over whatever it is you've found." He says, menacingly.
The man cracks his knuckles. "I guess we are going to do this the hard way. Get them!"
The arcane looking man acts first, moving east and casting a spell, as he fans the party with flames!
The woman moves east and draws a scroll!
Pandoor casts a spell, bathing two of the thugs in a rainbow! The woman's eyes roll back and she falls to the ground, while the man seems to shake it off!
Falco begins casting a spell!
The two men rush Pandoor, as one manages to land a strike!
Paeter swings his shield, but misses!
Jonah fires his crossbow, hitting the mage and nearly dropping the man!
The mage steps behind a column and casts a spell. Pointing at Jonah, he pelts him with a missile of force!
Pandoor sprays two thugs with color, dropping them both!
Falco's bird appears and claws the mage to submission!
With all the thugs unconscious, the party easily subdues everyone and is able to turn them over to the authorities.
After surviving the ambush, the party is able to leave the Shrine of the Failed and deliver Eylysia’s cache to the Grand Lodge. The crowd gathered around the Starstone Cathedral has disbanded, and many of the locals are still horrified following Sir Reinhart’s attempt to vault the chasm on horseback, which ended with a fall into oblivion.
Drandle Dreng personally thanks the party for your successful investigation, indicating his interest in your future careers as Pathfinders. If anyone has yet to complete their Confirmation, the venture-captain promises to speak with Master of Scrolls Kreighton Shaine to have the process expedited. Dreng assures party members who have already completed their Confirmation that they will receive further assignments soon.
Several days later, you all receive a missive....
Pathfinder,
Your recent investigations and recovery of agent Eylysia’s papers have already yielded results. Under my direction, a team of scholars has tracked down the long-retired Society ciphers the gnome used and translated many of her entries. Although many of these records present valuable leads, one is especially timely and exciting.
Several months ago, the Pathfinder Society recovered an incomplete relic called the Sky Key. Its missing components disappeared millennia ago, carried by dwarven refugees to the far corners of Avistan and beyond, and the Society has struggled to follow these faint trails to piece the potent device back together. It appears Eylysia may have found one of the pieces centuries ago! She writes of a visit to Tar Kuata in Osirion, where she not only met with the Iroran devotees there, but also the curious order of dwarven monks known as the Ouat. According to her journals, some of the resident dwarves’ ancestors arrived long ago from the distant north bearing a broken treasure of wire and steel. Based on additional context and several magical divinations, I have reason to believe Eylysia—and you—may have found one of the lost pieces of the Sky Key!
I have contacted Venture-Captain Norden Balentiir in Sothis to prepare for an expedition. You have already demonstrated your resourcefulness by uncovering this information; when I assemble a team to travel to Tar Kuata, I hope you will consider joining the expedition.
Highest regards,
Venture-Captain Ambrus Valsin
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Before you, 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 no more than one hour ago:
"Flaxseed family! Your exploits precede you now! I heard many good things about you recently." he said, a smile across the face. After a few instants though, his face expressed only pain and disgust. "You were called because 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."
Adril also gave you a map of the museum and suggests that you head to the offices first to find Nigel as he may have some insight into whatever foul curse vexes the place.
monkeys.
paws. He described dark eyes glaring out from the mists. Shortly after his return to Absalom, many of the monkeys
and apes in the city’s menageries attacked their keepers and fled into greater Absalom.
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"The Blakros Museum? I've heard much about it but I'm not sure what to think of it really. Is a natural history museum a proper place for Pathfinders? I can't help but wonder. Well, of course we'll go Venture-Captain! I love dinosaur skeletons that are totally not going to animate to eat us and the like!"
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Falco remains stern in his expression. "Fantastic." he sighs in monotone. "Mwangi taint in the museum. At the very least I hope this gains me some influence with the Blakros family; access to their vaults would be quite the boon to my research."
Falco furrows his brow. "Do we know what Lugizar Trantos was trying to research or what he had sent back before he disappeared?"
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"I heard of a few stories relating to this museum. Apparently, a few monkeys escaped there after some darkwood idol of apes were found in the Expanse. We should be wary of these animals when we investigate." Paeter surmises.
Once everyone is ready, he will lead them to the museum and take point to enter the place.
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You enter the building together. An unnatural cold permeates this chamber and the tendrils of silver-gray mist flowing out the front archway into the courtyard beyond seem to effortlessly pierce the flesh and gently caress the bone in a cold embrace. The grand entrance way’s vaulted ceiling is supported by six great pillars made of black stone. Braziers mounted on the pillars cast white radiance from balls of continual light. The light glimmers eerily in the silvery haze that fills the atrium, giving the impression of something alien watching from the glowing fog.
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The door on the left (top of the map) has a placard above it that reads "The Honored Dead" in blood-red calligraphy.
A large placard above the entryway to the opposite hall reads "Hunting the Beasts of Legend" in great block letters.
At the end of the hall, you can barely make out a sign that simply says "North Exhibit Hall".
Indeed, Falco detecs nothing magical.
Without waiting on his cousins, Jonah opens the door on the left. On the other side of the door, there is a large exhibit hall. The mists here congeal into a thick and silvery fog that cools the lungs. Arranged throughout this large hall are exhibits on the funerary traditions of several civilizations, along with preserved corpses arrayed in grim stillness. 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.