"Well done!", Shadrach exclaimed, as Anklebiter simplified another set of equations.
He carefully studying each of the equations and tried to work out a solution.
Shadrach is able to decipher the earth ring, but the others will require further attempts.
It's not her strength, but Sercha looks them over and tries her best to wrap her head around the arcane information.
Lilata likewise peeks at the sigils trying to untangle their information, but is puzzled by their complexity.
Sercha manages to decipher the runes around the water dial, but air and fire remain frustratingly out of reach.
Elly moves up to the fire and air runes. "Let me see."
Elly touches the correct sequence of runes on the remaining dials, causing them to shimmer and glow. The symbols of each element rotate so they are racing the door, and the door grinds open.
Glowing hieroglyphs shimmer on the walls of this oddly shaped room. Now and then, one of the hieroglyphs shimmers and changes, or it even vanishes altogether, while new glowing glyphs manifest elsewhere where none were previously. Slowly rotating circular diagrams are interspersed with these glowingr unes. Along the walls lean the rigid, immobile shapes of several mummified human bodies, the mechanism by which the dead remain upright not immediately apparent. Portions of the room appear unfinished, with building materials still cluttering the corners. Another body floats limply near the ceiling of the far room, wearing a metal mask over its face. It doesn’t look mummified like the others,
and its long hair dangles limply.
As you enter the room, four of the mummified corpses lurch to dust unlife! Groaning, they move towards you menacingly.
Shadrach cast a spell, causing three illusory duplicates of himself to swirl around him. Then he started to sing.
I was working in the lab late one night
When my eyes beheld an eerie sight
For my monster from his slab began to rise
And suddenly to my surprise
Lilata narrows her eyes at the closest of the corpses and steps forward, her twin swords flashing as she tries to decapitate it.
Lilata stabs the mummy twice, both blades finding their mark.
The creatures swing their fists at the bard and the ranger. One of Shadrach's mirror images is destroyed, but the half-orc takes a solid hit as well.
Anklebiter throws a flask of alchemist's fire at the mummy engaging Shadrac before launching into the fray themself, clawing, biting and punching in a whirlwind frenzy.
Shadrach continued his song, and swung his sword as he emphasized the word "smash".
(He did the mash)
He did the monster mash
(The monster mash)
It was a graveyard smash
(He did the mash)
It caught on in a flash
(He did the mash)
He did the monster mash
After he swung, he cast a spell to raise a force shield.
Sercha steps up and extends her staff towards the aromatic undead. A sheet of fire leaps forward.
Lilata unleashes a flurry of blows on the mummy she was attacking, assuming a defensive stance as she does so.
Elly move sin past Sercha, and casts burning hands on the other zombies.
Anklebiter's alchemist fire catches quickly on the mummy's brittle rags. As it is engulfed in flames, the goblin chomps down on it, causing it to crumble to dust!
Sercha's and Elly's burning hands scorch several of the remaining mummies, burning them quite badly. Shadrach tears into the one assaulting him, while Lilata finishes off the one she was attacking before switching targets and stabbing the other one once.
The two remaining foes attack Shadrach and Lilata, but neither one hits.
Lilata switches targets, focusing and slicing into the undead.
The singing half-orc tried to finish off the mummy in front of him, while maintaining his force shield.
From my laboratory in the castle east
To the master bedroom where the vampires feast
The ghouls all came from their humble abodes
To get a jolt from my electrodes
Shadrach cuts down the mummy with another mighty swing of his sword. Lilata lands a critical hit, cutting the last mummy nearly in half. It's a simple matter to finish it off.
Now that you have a chance to look around more, you notice that the majority of the hieroglyphs on the walls represent numbers. The numbers on the wall in fact represent a single enormous number that appears to be in the process of counting down. Unfortunately, damage to the wall combined with the room’s incomplete nature means the countdown wall is somewhat faulty, and thus it’s frustratingly impossible to determine when the countdown began or what and when it’s counting down to.
The masked figure floats in the air, surrounded by faintly shimmering tendrils of magic. Studying it closer, Sercha determines that the magic has decayed in power over the centuries. Removing the man's mask should free him from his suspended animation.
"Who wants to remove the mask? I think the rest of us should be ready just in case he comes "alive" and attacks us."
Shadrach do you want some healing?"
Shadrach offered his opinion, "I think the mask needs to be removed very carefully. It seems to me that Anklebiter might be best at that."
"Yes, Elya; I would appreciate some healing, thank you."
Anklebiter shrinks when pointed out, not much liking the suggestion. It was all well and good to be sneaky and tricksy some of the time but this was starting to be a pattern, and they would hate to fall back into old habits, or to be expected to be like this all the time.
"Erm, did the lady wot hired us say anything bout such as this?"
Shadrach waited a moment for Elya's healing, before stepping up to the body floating in mid-air. "Be ready to catch the body if it falls," he suggested, before reaching for the mask and removing it.
Lilata moves up to stand beside her companion, holding her swords, but ready to drop them at a moment's notice.
As Shadrach removes the man's mask, the magic holding him and the other mummified bodies aloft finally gives out. He drops to the floor, but Lilata catches him and sees him down gently.
The otherworldly man gasps for breath, but recovers quickly. He is deeply tanned with wavy blonde hair, but his glowing blue eyes mark him as something more than human. He looks around the chamber with an expression of shock. He murmurs something in an unfamiliar tongue, then switches to an ancient dialect of Osiriani. Shadrach can understand him.
"So much time must have passed... I do not know why you chose to free me, but I thank you, mortals."
Shadrach greeted the man, "Hello sir! My name is Shadrach. Are you Tular Seft? For that is the name the person whose tomb this is supposed to be." He bowed.
"We have come here to find an artifact known to us as a 'Countdown Clock.' It is reportedly a large gemstone with a series of shifting hieroglyphs glowing inside it.
"A group of dangerous cultists called the Night Heralds are apparently coming here seeking the gem as well."
The man frowns and shakes his head. "I am called Mabar. You may not have met a janni before; we are of geniekind. This is the tomb of Tular Seft, who was once my friend. He imprisoned me here—stealing my natural magic to use toward realizing his ambitions. Once his mind became enthralled with the dark places between the stars, all people became but tools to serve his own purposes.
[b]"I do not know of this countdown clock, but it may be interred with his body. There’s a hidden door to a chamber meant to be his resting place. I can open it for you, though I dread what you might find."
Shadrach replied to Mabar, "Ah, I see. It does make more sense that it's not your tomb, given that you're living and all.
"If you could open the door to his burial chamber, we would be grateful."
He healed his wounds first, and then enchanted Lilata's weapon, case there was some sort of guardian beyond the door.
Mabar nods and leads you to a cleverly concealed door in the wall. Pushing it open reveals the chamber beyond,
This tiny, bleak chamber has unfinished stone walls. One wall is lined with shelves filled with musty, leather- bound books.
In the center of the room, an ancient mummified body sits at a stone-topped table, posed as if in meditation or study. Iron bars hold the preserved corpse in place, with cuffs holding its moldering hands on either side of a massive gemstone, within which glowing hieroglyphs shift and change. A brace across the front of the body holds the face forward, staring at the far wall with empty eye sockets. On that wall, a large, ornate mirror frame is filled with a sheet of absolute darkness—black beyond night.
"Save your magic, Shad." Lilata says, "I've been saving these." and flicks her wrists, magic swirling down the length of her swords.
Lilata approaches the body inside the room, poking it with her longsword, then trying to break the iron bars with her enchanted blades to retrieve the gemstone, "You think this is it?" she asks.
Shadrach was about to cast his spell, but stopped, since Lilata seemed to have other means to enhance her weapons. He moved inside the room and looked around, studying the bizarre scene.
"That's Tular. Or what's left of him," Mabar says solemnly. "When we first met, he was studying the Elemental Planes and the connections between those planes and our Material Plane. He was respected and wealthy, and he was a dear friend to me. This tomb was my monument to the man he was. But when his eyes peered away from the Elemental Planes and to darker realms, that all ended. I don’t know the man interred here."
Lilata pokes the body, but it does not move. The ranger is able to pry the gemstone out of the corpse's hands.
Shadrach studies the scene. It looks like the mirror is a scrying device, directed towards the dark spaces between the stars. The half-orc notices several runes along the frame indicating a link between it and some distant entity--he feels it would be a very bad idea to peer too closely into its surface.
The musty, leather-bound books here are all focused on lore concerning the Dark Tapestry and the depths of space, most couched in obscure ritural language. The books would be invaluable to the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye.
Elly studies the gemstone carefully. She does not look at the mirror.
Shadrach told the others, "I'd say we got what we came here for. Don't look into the mirror; that way lies madness!"
The runes in the gemstone are much simplified versions of the numbers counting down on the incomplete walls, but deciphering them to understand the countdown's target date will require several days of observation and study.
With your objective secured, you leave the tomb of Tular Seft behind and retrace your steps down Pale Mountain and back to Kelmarane. Mabar willingly accompanies you as you report back to Lady Vord. He's thankful that she sent someone into the tomb, though he has little desire to stick around in Kelmarane or continue to accompany you further. Once he feels his obligations are completed, he uses plane shift to take a solo sojourn on the Plane of Fire.
Lady Vord pays you your promised fee, plus a bonus for the tomes on the Dark Tapestry. With the countdown clock in hand, the Esoteric Order can start working on determining their next move in combating the machinations of the vile Night Heralds.
Two Years Later...
Chapter 3: Affair at Sombrefell Hall
4711 AR
You are each attending to business in Rozenport, a bustling town located in the south-west of the county of Versex in Ustalav perched high on the steep cliffs above the Danver River. One by one, a messenger finds you and hands you a rolled-up scroll bound with a wax seal. Impressed on the seal is the telltale symbol of a scarab beetle with a single eye on its back--the sigil of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye.
The letter reads as follows:
Faithful Friend,
Your sisters and brothers of the esteemed Palatine Eye are at a loss. We need the assistance of a specific expert, but to get it, we need help from you.
To explain. Two years ago, from an ancient tomb in Katapesh, our agents retrieved a most sinister gem called a "countdown clock." Within its facets dance shifting runes that chronicle the elapsing of time. Our scholars have recently determined that these shifting runes are counting down to the year 4718. This is most alarming, for we have also learned that this year is of significance to the Dominion of the Black. Beyond these facts we are stymied.
The Palatine Eye needs to know what we face. Specifically, we need the research skills of one Dr. Verid Oscilar, Ustalav's foremost expert on the Dominion of the Black and a vaunted professor at the Sincomakti School. The good doctor, however, is not currently in residence at his post.
We understand that he has gone on sabbatical at Sombrefell Hall, a manor his family owns on the southwestern shores of Lantern Lake. Some say that his research into the Dominion has left his mind in a delicate state. If there were any other way to thwart the evils we face, we would not bother the good professor.
Along with a group of like-minded and pious partners we've assembled, we ask you to travel to the professor's retreat and humbly ask for his aid. Dr. Oscilar knows the horrors the Dominion would visit on us better than anyone, and he respects those dedicated to thwarting them. He is, by all accounts, a religious man, and we hope he will listen to you, consider our case, and help us, despite the rest he is undertaking.
Please, without delay, meet the others at the Hungry Fog in Rozenport Square on Oathday, noon. Gather the supplies you need and travel together to Sombrefell Hall to beseech the doctor. Should he agree, we can arrange for a stipend to pay him for his services. We humbly request your utmost alacrity—we know not what we face, nor is there time to waste.
Yours in the Unexplained,
The Eye
As it happens, Oathday is tomorrow. You have a bit of time to make any preparations you need to before gathering with the Order's other agents at the Hungry Fog.
Esrian arrives at the inn early, not having too far to travel, and waits at a larger table, figuring that other Palatine clerics wouldn't be hard to spot, and curious as to whether she'd recognize any of them.
Nibiru Jones reads the letter once, twice, three times and begins cackling in the village square. "I was right!" the little woman shouts. "I was riiight! Doom is upon us, my fellows, and the clock ticks down down down, steadily! T'waards dee-struction! Are you safe? Aare yoour children?"
The next day she arrives promptly to the Hungry Fog, a familiar face and presence for many in town, certainly, but not an overwhelmingly friendly presence. For one, she's kind of hard to look at, small and unimposing but with big yellow eyes, always spread wide open, and her pallid, papery skin. Her fascination with death and undeath has led her closer and closer to totally bleaching much earlier than most gnomes: at a mere 77 years old, the only dram of color left on her is a single line of gray in her white hair. Folks say she's always been like that, always just on this side of death or total insanity.
Nothing she does can stave off that reputation, either, always preaching in the streets about how the end is nigh and we are only days away from total annihilation, garbed in thick black half plate, with a hammer at her side and a mask with the face of a fiend on the back of her head "So's nothin can sneak up on me."
She sits down beside Esrian and awkwardly slides her copy of the letter forward, displaying the scarab seal. "Uh, you heere to stop the end of the world too?" she asks by way of greeting.
Godfrey read the letter with curiosity. Why had he and Esrian been contacted for this mission? Presumably the professor had not responded to previous attempts to contact him; Why not send a single agent to talk to him? Did the Order anticipate particular difficulties that would necessitate sending a couple of clerics of Sarenrae, and others?
He was in Rozenport to help Esrian expand the church of Sarenrae in Ustalav. He had journeyed here a month ago from the city of Kintargo, which had recently gained its independence from Cheliax. Things had now settled down there enough that he could be spared for other church business.
He arrived the inn with Esrian, and waited with interest to see who else would be at the meeting. When the greyish gnome woman greeted them, he replied, "I wasn't aware that doomsday was at hand! My name is Godfrey, and this is Esrian."
"One should always expect doomsday," Nibiru nods. "Of all the prophcies there ever were, this is the last. None may know how, but the daay will come when the world will end, and when evry last livin soul has been judgd, Groetus, the moon what cast a paale shadow oer the cityy of the dead, shall consume all. Nothin we do can stop it." She points a thin bony finger at Esrian "Are you saved?" she asks, before turning her finger to Godfrey, "or you?"
"Godfrey." Esrian greets her colleague with a nod, "Good to see you again. It's been a while."
She looks at the gnome with a bit of skepticism, "Doomsday may always be at hand, but Rovagug remains firmly locked in his prison, and until the day comes when he escapes, we remain safe, purging the world of evil."
Nibiru leans in conspiratorially and whispers loudly. "There's more than one way fer the woorld to end!" She pulls back and renews her earlier vigor and prostelytizing. "Anything could start a sequence openin a treacherous slope twaard extinction! You speak of Rovagug as if the Slumberin Beast is to bee th beginnin, but naay, I say he is to be the end! There be a myriad o waays the world could head twaards ruuin, an we here in Ustalav know that better'n most. Tar Baphon is on our doorstep, friends, safe in his tower, yes, but still knock knock knocking away, whilin awaay the hours afore he launches another unholy campaign against our very souls. Or perhaps a straange astronomical event will fire by us oerhead, rendin the very earth in twain! And it could happen at any time, I tell ye, there is no guarantee of safety."
Elis is hard to find. She's outside of town when the messenger finally tracks her down. Reading the letter she sighs. "Of course. The end of the world is coming. Again." The next morning she leaves her small garden and heads to the Hungry Fog at the appointed day and time.
Entering the pub she looks around and notices Nibiru. This must be the place. If the end of the world is nigh she will be in the middle of it.
She walks to the table. "Hello Nibiru. I take it you got the same letter." She takes a seat and introduces herself to the others.
"Elis Daayra" The young looking elf says in way of greeting. She's wearing leather armor and has a wooden shield on her back.
The haunting strains of a violin drift through the crowd as a tall man with a chiseled jaw draws close to the table. He brings the sombre music to a halt, stows the instrument and bow, and smiles at the gathered people.
"Since the world is coming to an end that means there's no reason not to have another pint, right Nibiru?" he says with a smile at the pale gnome.
"And whom do we have here?" he says in a less jovial tone as he sees Esrian. He reaches out to take her hand in greeting. "William Fair, m'lady, and the pleasure is all mine."
"Yess, eeat drink and be merry, fer t'morrow we die," Nibiru nods, not picking up on the sarcasm. "The woorld is ending and this time, this time, I have proof! A 'countdown clock,'" she reads from the letter. "Countin down ta seven years. What else could it be, if not a sign of th eminent and forthcomin apocalypse?"
"Well, hopefully, not tomorrow," William says, not taking his eyes off Esrian. "Then there wouldn't be time for more pleasurable ... pursuits."
Esrian looks as though she's considering about saying something, but stays silent, shooting Godfrey a slightly exasperated look.
What happened to pious? she thinks.
Godfrey intervened to redirect the bard's attention. He reached out his hand, introducing himself, "Godfrey, Church of Sarenrae. Pleased to meet you, William!"
William waits a beat for Esrian to respond. When it's clear that she has no intention to do so, he nods his head and smiles a friendly smile. "So, Lady Mystery it will be then."
He then turns to Godfrey.
"Pleasure to meet you, Godfrey," he says, taking the outstretched hand in a firm but companionable grip. "William Fair, man of many talents, consumer of alcoholic beverages, and ... " With his other hand he pulls from a pouch a letter similar to those the others have received. "Apparent fellow preventer of Doomsdays."