The Forgotten God (Table 3) (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

Not unless you wanted to completely spoil the effect of the outfit. On the other hand, unless you do something incredibly dumb, you won't need to worry about your armor class while you're here. XD

After taking another moment to get your name - always important when introducing yourself to guards - the other one checked against a list he was holding and waved you through. With that done, it didn't take long at all to actually enter the castle, where more guards were able to direct you through the halls and into a large waiting room. "Sir Teldas will be with you in a few minutes." One of them said through their metal visor. "If you need something, ring the bell over to the side and one of the maids will be along shortly." With that, the guard returned to his post, leaving you within a large chamber decorated with trophies from past Molthuni conquests.

That wasn't much of an issue - far more important was the way you could feel an increase in psychic pressure as you moved deeper into the building. The pressure seems to be coming from a room deeper inside, probably on this floor, but it's impossible to be more precise without getting closer to its source.

Harath paces the walls of the large room, seeing if the pressure increases in a particular direction. If he has not been given leave to exit the room, he will stay within the confines of the room for now.

There's a faint increase in psychic pressure along the western wall - barely noticeable even to you, and you're considerably more sensitive to such things than most. However, it's not long before the doors open and Sir Teldas - the younger, not the leader of the nation - walks in. He's dressed considerably better than the last time you saw him and doesn't look much worse for wear after the ordeal he went through. "Ah, there you are! Magnificent, aren't they?" he asked, looking around at the trophies hung up on the walls - weapons, armor, art, even a few mounted heads. "Men fought hard in campaigns for each and every one of them - the least we can do is remember their service by holding a memory of their battles."

"Indeed, they are magnificent, Sir."

A man in the uniform of one of the army's officers came in, holding a clinking bag of coins. "This is just a small thank-you for your efforts. Father always believed that those who did well ought to be rewarded - for one thing, it encourages others to work hard, too. Anyway, I'm curious - how exactly did you come to be there last night?"

You've been offered a bag containing 2500 GP.

i want to make sure that this would be true according to Harath's knowledge before i say it: "I heard that Besmaran pirates were trying to take nobles as slaves, and set out to stop it." essentially, i want to make sure not to incriminate the bossman or Adrietta.

also, i'd like to use an autohypnosis check to see if i remember the boy having been at the secret auction by delving into my subconscious memory: autohypnosis: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

You do remember him being at the auction, albeit inconspicuously - many of the guests were dressed to show off, and he faded into the background a bit. You won't be incriminating your allies.

"Sir, I heard that Besmaran pirates were trying to take nobles as slaves, and set out to stop it."

"Yeah, we'll have to find a way of dealing with those scum for good. Privateers are one thing, but the ones who truly follow Besmara just can't be reasoned with... ah, but that's not your concern." The rest of the meeting goes smoothly enough, though he does add that you're welcome to drop by the offices if you're ever looking for more work - they did have a problem that needed solving. He was a busy man despite his youth, though, and headed out a few minutes later. Getting back into the castle won't be very easy once you leave - if you'd like to explore, finding a way to do so now would be a good plan.

The current trophy room only has the large, main doors leading out into a major hallway - the entire area is heavily-traveled, so stealth may be difficult. Other options include simply asking to be lead around, pretending to be lost, or simply getting creative.

Harath will look for someone walking around that looks to be a member of the hospitality staff, a servant or the like, and ask to be given a tour of the grounds, explaining that he had just had a meeting with Sir Teldas and as an out-of-towner was interested in the architecture and history of the castle. Imagining a servant wouldn't be well-versed on the history of the building, he expects that they could at least refer him to the correct personnel.

It doesn't take long at all to find a servant who's quite willing to show you around the place, and about an hour later - after touring several of the rooms - you enter into a chamber that's overflowing with psychic pressure. The energy seems to be radiating from an almost impossibly-smooth crystal sphere that's hovering in the middle of the room, several inches above a pedestal. This is another trophy room, with multiple other prizes hanging on the walls, and your escort (a young human male) just smiles as he shows you in.

Harath steels himself against the pressure, stepping just inside the room.

do i think this is the source from earlier, or a different source? can i detect any precautions having been taken to shield this item from the outside (such that would suggest they realize the emanation) or no?

"What an... interesting artifact, what can you tell me of this one?" Harath asks of the man, pointing to indicate the hovering crystal.

This does seem to be the source of the psychic pressure you've been feeling. You can't see any obvious security measures, but on the other hand, you haven't used any powers...

"Hm? Oh, the Orb of Terror?" the servant asked, walking over. "About six hundred years ago, a crazy wizard found it during a planar jaunt and brought it back for study. As it turned out, he was able to amplify certain emotional spells by using the crystal as a focus - used them to spread supernatural terror throughout the entire region. Bit of a dimwit for a wizard, actually - he just tried to frighten anyone who didn't pay him tribute, and it wasn't long before some mercenaries sorted him out. Orb's changed hands a few times since then, but we eventually took it for the collection in a skirmish, and it's been here ever since." He pat the orb cheerfully, and every time he did, the psychic pressure in the room rippled. "They talk about using it for battles every now and then, but most warriors aren't actually as easy to scare as people think, so it's more of a curiosity than anything else."

"Hmm, quite interesting. And it doesn't harm people, just being here like this?"

"Do you?" Harath projected the question to the orb itself.

"Nah, it's pretty safe as long as nobody's casting a spell at it." Your guide said, looking vaguely amused by the question. "Anything that was actually dangerous all on its own would be in one of the secure vaults to dampen its power and stop it from causing trouble." Meanwhile, the psychic pressure within the room ripples as you direct your attention towards the orb, but it doesn't otherwise react - and despite how dense and powerful the aura is, the servant doesn't seem to have noticed it at all. If they had been able to sense the energy within the crystal, they probably wouldn't have left it out in the open like this.

"And what happens if someone casts a spell at it?"

The servant shrugged. "No idea. They did some tests when we first acquired it, and it sounded like the orb just kind of let them focus the direction of the spell a bit better. I don't know too much about magic, but they didn't seem to think it was terribly useful." Some things weren't. The real issue, of course, was being able to examine the crystal in more detail... without being bothered by anyone else. A diplomatic effort might work here, assuming you could talk them into leaving you alone.

"Hmm, do you know who I could talk to about research of this artifact? I'd be interested in hearing more from the folks who researched it, and maybe look into it a bit myself. I am fascinated by such things."

"The Master of Trophies knows more about these things than anyone else in the castle." the servant explained, looking quite pleased by your interest in Molthune's finery. This nation clearly had no qualms about showing off. "I don't know if he's busy right now, but we can always head over to his office and find out - it's only two halls down."

"That would be great. If he is busy, maybe I could make an appointment."

The servant nodded and walked out into the halls, leading you through the cited passages. The first was obviously a public path, but the second hall had a simpler stone floor, and seemed to lack the decorations on the walls common to the rest of the castle. About half the way down, your guide knocked twice on a wooden door, waited for a moment, and peeked inside.

Sitting at a large desk was an aged half-orc with thinning white hair - a particularly complex set of goggles covered his eyes as he looked through them at a small item that he occasionally poked and prodded at with a tool. "What'cha want?" he asked, not even looking up from what he was doing.

"Guest of the Castle to see you, sir. He'd like to know more about the Orb of Terror."

The Master of Trophies looked up, and after a few seconds he pulled the glasses away from his face. "Bah, boring hunk of crystal." he said, but he waved you forward. "Still, always nice to see young people taking an interest in history. Anything in particular you'd like to know?"

"Good day, Master of Trophies. I would be interested to learn what battery of tests and observations the crystal underwent when it arrived. You see, I perform magic, of a sort, a different sort than most folks. I've been warned against using any powers in the castle, and I haven't yet. Being skewered by the guards hardly sounds fun, after all. Anyway, I could sense the Orb's... massive mental presence even without the aid of powers. I find that very interesting, as that is potentially dangerous, and I speculate that if that tidbit was not already discovered, then perhaps the right tests were not performed."

The Master of Trophies looked at you for a few moments, gathering his thoughts, then grabbed a piece of paper and began to sketch a diagram. "The tests began with the stories of its use in the past." he said, drawing a circle on the paper. "Most spells only work when you target the right sort of thing, yeah? Rock-shaping magic, for example, won't do a thing to a normal person no matter how powerful the caster is. The orb kind of bends the rules a bit - something about it lets certain types of mental magic have it as a target. When a caster is holding it..." he drew a few lines on the paper to represent a cone. "...they can move the effect through the orb and into a wider range, targeting multiple people at once. Unfortunately, doing so dilutes the power of the spell - target two people and you get half the strength. Target four people and, well, you're lucky if anything at all happens. We think it's a failed attempt to enable spell duplication, but magic's kind of funny about not allowing things like that. The mental presence you're feeling is probably part of whatever makes it work."

"Hmm, I see. Are you aware of any sort of disturbance in dreams that has been taking place in a wide area in this city? This seems like just the sort of thing that could make that happen, if a certain powerful caster were to have access to it."

sense motive: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (12) + 6 = 18

The half-orc raised an eyebrow. "Who doesn't know about that?" he asked. "Tar-Baphon himself wouldn't have the energy needed to redirect power onto the whole city, though. Only the gods have that kind of strength, and I doubt they'd need a defective toy if they wanted to send dreams across a city."

"Hmmm, any other theories on that phenomenon? I find it very interesting. Perhaps another artifact in play? Or the artifact has a synergy for certain magics? I just wonder, because it is happening, with or without this artifact. I just thought an item such as this would be a useful means to that end."

"Nothing we've been able to find." the Master of Trophies said, sighing and shrugging. "Still, you're welcome to examine it in one of the safe rooms if you want to. An outside opinion might be quite nice to get on this matter. I believe room seven's clear." he added to your guide, who simply nodded. "Just try not to break it, yeah? Honestly, it wouldn't be much of a loss, but totally cleaning those rooms of lingering magical auras is always a pain."

"Thank you for such a wonderful opportunity." Harath will definitely take him up on the offer to examine such a device.

Your guide leaves the room, only to return a moment later with a cart and several basic tools. The overseer of the collection absentmindedly waves you out, and it doesn't take long at all to carefully place the item on the cart and wheel it towards your destination, one of several similar-looking chambers deep within the castle. As you step across its threshold, you can feel an almost alien sense of cleanliness in the air. This is a chamber clearly designed to be sterile in as many senses of the word as possible - even a totally untrained peasant would be able to note the lack of background power. The sphere in question - still floating of its own accord - is set on top of the table a moment later. It doesn't seem inclined to roll around or move at all (except when pushed), and the assistant backs away to give you room to work.

Harath observes the crystal ball, attempting to activate it in a myriad of ways.

1. touch it
2. project thoughts at it again
3. try to use Autohypnosis in conjunction with touching/mentally connecting with it
4. manifest Mindlink into it
5. manifest Sense Minds into it
6. manifest Empathic Connection into it
7. use magic device: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24
7a. if 1-6 do not activate it in some way (giving me a +2 bonus to UMD) then i will use mythic surge surge to that UMD roll: 1d6 ⇒ 2

As it turns out, touching it was all that was necessary to provoke a reaction from the crystal sphere. As you do, the psychic pressure emanating from the sphere thickens, then rushes into your mind. Distantly, you can hear your observer shouting, but his voice sounds almost impossibly slow as you're finally able to piece together what's happening. The stories about this orb were quite simple because the wziard using it, to put it bluntly, was doing it wrong. That's not really surprising, given that it's a psychic item instead of an arcane one, but all the power within the item rushes into you as a fragment of your divinity returns. This is the part of you that truly focused on spreading fear to others - and unfortunately, it's not going to be easy to control until you've gotten much stronger, but it's a major step forward.

You have recovered the [Frightful Presence] Divine Ability. Prerequisites: Cha 24. Benefit: Whenever the deity attacks, they can activate this ability and all foes within a 30-foot-radius burst must make Will saves (DC 10 + deity’s Charisma modifier + deity’s divine rank). Foes within the burst, but not the deity’s immediate target, become shaken for 3d6 rounds if they fail their saves. Creatures the deity attacks when it activates the ability become panicked for 3d6 rounds if they fail their saves. Foes who make successful saving throws are unaffected by this ability for one day.

Notes on Divine Abilities: In this game, Divine Rank and Mythic Tier are interchangeable terms. The cost to use any divine ability is 2 Mythic Power, +1 additional Mythic Power for every prerequisite you do not meet. Active abilities - such as this one - can be used as their description describes, while passive abilities typically activate as a free action and last for two rounds per mythic tier. Yes, this ability is a rather inefficient use of power at this time - though I suspect some of your Dread abilities (i.e. Aura of Fear) will make it more practical - and that's actually intended. Mortal bodies cannot easily handle divine powers, and most of them will show their true worth later in the game.

In addition - and I'm sure you'll get more immediate benefit from this bit - you've reached Mythic Tier 2.

As the torrent of divine energy began to subside, Harath turns his attentions to the here-and-now. Remembering the observers yelling, Harath turns his eye in the man's direction.

Even as you turn to look at the man, reality seems to return to its normal speed as he staggers forward, looking concerned. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking you up and down in an apparent attempt to check for injuries. "What happened?"

"It is a psionic artifact alright, not an arcane one. That would explain why wizards weren't able to peer into it much."

did i uncover any more details about the object specifically that i can tell them? also, does the item still have power?

The psychic pressure seems to be fading as the lingering energy dissipates into the air - whatever power the sphere had came from the fragment of divinity embedded within it, and it didn't seem like it was good for anything else now that your power had been restored... not right now, anyway. As a crystalline focus, it was possible that it might well be a good component in crafting... assuming you could convince them to let you have it, of course. That would probably take weeks at a minimum, though, given how many bureaucrats would be involved.

"A psi- huh. I see." he said, looking interested. "Those have always interacted in strange ways, haven't they?" Some things worked, some things didn't, but the powers of the mind had never been truly widespread on Golarion, and there weren't nearly as many practitioners able to analyze potential relics as some nations would like.

"Yes, as soon as one versed in the powers of the mind came in contact with it, the energy exploded at me, or I guess... into my mind. It seems the power has dulled since. Perhaps it is recharging. It is difficult to tell. I suppose my research into this artifact has ended, for now. It is not the culprit i sought, it seems."

The servant blinked in surprise, but soon retrieved the inert sphere, getting ready to bring it back to the chamber - and sighing a bit at the need to clean up psychic residue. Still, it probably could have been worse, and at least you weren't needing to flee the castle with the guards hot on your trail. Now that your investigation here was finished, though, it was probably time to decide on your next course of action - though given the odd ability of the sphere to project energies at range, it may have been more involved with the strange dreams than anyone suspected. It was quite possible to stay with your current lodgings, or bid farewell and head somewhere different. The ability to choose one's course of action was actually a strange one - most gods were the ideals they embodied, and at a certain level, that meant their choices made them as often as the other way around. Mortality, with its freedom to choose, was... odd.

Jury duty this week. Probably gonna be replying slower until at least Friday.

By the time you're done gathering rumors, you've managed to pick up quite a few of them. Outside of the complaints about dreams - which most people haven't realized has already been resolved - you're able to pick up several interesting bits of choice information. There seems to be an issue happening with a keep up on the border with Nirmathas, and it's clear that the Molthuni army would like to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, though details are unfortunately scarce here in the capital city.

Outside of that issue, Molthune seems to be quieting down, though you did pick up a few rumors about new discoveries in the city of Xin-Bakrakhan, an ancient location up in Varisia. Nobody you speak to is entirely sure what's going on there, but it certainly seems to be generating a lot of archaeological interest.

Finally, it seems like there are some quiet rumors going around about the faith of Razmir, and how it's been growing more active in the town of Tamran up in Nirmathas. Exactly what the priests are doing is unknown, but more than a few locals have expressed the hope that it will be hurting them - there's no love for Nirmathas in Molthune.

Harath, intrigued by something being dug up from ancient times, looks into Xin-Bakrakhan more. He will start by going to the library and reading up on it, and check some maps to see how far away it is and what the intervening terrain is like. Then, he will see if any caravans are headed that way.

The city is located around Hollow Mountain, which is found on an island in the Varisian Gulf. The easiest way to get there - outside of teleportation magic or long-term flight - is by ship. While it's not the most popular destination, there's enough activity exploring the city that ships regularly depart for it. It's probably fastest to actually sail the whole way, going north from Canorate, then west at the northern border of Nirmathas to sail to Korvosa. Getting to Magnimar from there - and finding a ship to the island the Hollow Mountain is on - would be a comparatively simple matter. You'd have to pay your way, of course, but your current funds would easily cover the cost of passage. You could also walk, of course, but that would take rather longer.

hmm, i need to get a cloak of CHA before i go, and i dont think i have enough money.

By general wealth and purchasing rules, you shouldn't be grabbing an item like that until at least Level 5 anyway. Don't worry, I'm using a scenario here, so everything within should be level-appropriate. ^^

ah, i was planning on my item being a cloak. poop. unless it could be a cheaper magic item that gets the +CHA added later...

Honestly, my concern is less about having the item and more about opening up ability bonuses in different item slots, since Pathfinder intentionally restricted that in order to force players to make some harder decisions about what to equip. However, "flavor" is a perfectly good justification for a lot of things, and I'd be willing to swap around all headband and cloak items (so, for example, you might have a Headband of Resistance +3 at some point), all at the same prices as before. That gets the flavor without causing mechanical issues.

Ah. Hmm. Well I guess I will continue forward and let the legendary item work itself out (read: you figure it out)? hahaha

Harath looks around the dock area for work on a ship headed towards his destination. He prefers work on a merchant vessel over work on any sort of pirate vessel, and pays especially close attention to avoid the ships with any sort of Besmaran influence.

Given recent events, anyone loyal to Besmara is quietly not advertising the fact. Fortunately, the city is a fairly bustling destination for traders - of many kinds - and it's not very difficult to find a ship heading towards Varisia with a load of goods. The captain, a middle-aged halfling (of all things) just looks up as you mention working your way to your destination. "What'cha good at?" he asked, glancing over his nails as he filed them. "Ever sailed on a vessel before?"

"I'm alright in a fight, healthy, I see well enough. I know a little about a lot of things, if a smart guy is what you need. I haven't sailed in a loooooonnnng time, I'd be surprised if I remembered anything."

The captain just raised an eyebrow. That... probably wasn't the right sort of thing to tell to a potential employer, true or not. "Well, I 'ppreciate your honesty." he eventually said. "Any good at fixin' things? Lots of little stuff breaks on a ship, an' I could use someone to mend them while we're underway."

yeah, didnt want to lie about it (even if i could have pulled it off) and then spend a long time with the crew and actually not be able to do anything... also i don't have any repair/craft skills... unless knowledge: engineering would count?

"I know my way around moving parts well enough. I also know my way around a map."

Nope.

"How 'bout performance or entertainment? Average crew can use some motivation to keep going, an' a decent show is great for morale." the Captain inquired. It was clear that he was searching for something of value, and a reasonably decent performance might be enough to convince him to let you onboard.