Nime returns to babbling before regaining her wits. Theodric bashes himself one more time with his rod before the confusion runs its course. In the meantime, Calendula does what she does best, arms elongating as she reaches over the magic circle to attack the qlippoth. It shrieks and rails in anger and pain, but there's nothing it can do to stave off the paladin's assault. Soon enough, her blade has done its work, slaying the vile fiend! Its body lies bloody and still within the circle.
Shenuska nods firmly as the creature is slain.
"Not pleasant but necessary. Now it can't be found or freed by anyone else who may come here."
She kneels to examine the circle, interested in its construction before rising again.
"So we know who the leader of this cult is and where they are going. We should finish exploring and banish the ghost and then pursue them. Perhaps our Pathfinder allies could help with transport?"
"Yes, but he's going to be very angry when he comes looking for us again in a couple of hundred years," Nime says with a slight frown."In regards to transport, I'm sure Sursha will be happy to accommodate us."
Looking around, Nime doesn't see any other exits. So she turns and with a tap, tap, tap, continues back towards the secret door they passed.
"Keep an eye out for remains." Shenuska says as she scans the passages. "The ghost must have a manifesting point somewhere. Usually their mortal remains."
"Hopefully it's not her fingernails," Nime says, shivering a little. "I can't stand fingernail clippings."
Rudrik (switching back to the common tongue) says, "Hey I ain't gonna be here in even one century, so not a big deal really."
Rudrik (switching back to the common tongue) says, "Hey I ain't gonna be here in even one century, so not a big deal really."
Nime's steps falter for a moment and she looks at Rudrik. Her gaze then travels over all her friends faces. "No, not a big deal," she says in a hollow voice as she strides forward again.
As his wits returned to him, Theo looked at the now slightly-bloody rod in his hand. "Oh now who- ooohh, nevermind." Apparently there was a delay on him noticing the headache.
The secret door opens at Nime's touch. A narrow gap in the wall allows one to peer out over the large pit in the room to the south, while to the north, in a shallow alcove, sits what appears to be a flickering, ghostly image of the city of Magnimar. The image is hazy and indistinct, whatever magic creating it seeming to be failing after the passage of millenia. In the past, the image might have had more function, but now it is little more than a curiosity.
Another secret door is set in the east wall. Beyond, a tumbled mass of large blocks of stone and a bewildering tangle of gears and clockworks blocks the northern portion of what once was apparently a much larger chamber. A rubble-choked corridor leads to another door.
Nime seems caught up in her own melancholy and pays the image of the city no mind at all. Moving into the next room and past the destroyed mechanics, she makes her way towards the other door.
As Nime heads down the corridor, the collapsed gears appear to suddenly rise up and fill the room, grinding away with the deafening sound of clangorous clockwork and pounding thunder. Nime is filled with the conviction that something enormous and massive is stirring deep below the Gecko!
Nime turns to the others. "It doesn't really matter does it," she says in a voice dripping with sadness. "You're all going to die and then I'll be alone. Again."
Rudrik somehow manages to shake off the effect. Perhaps because he's been through the gears before, struggling to survive as a poor half-orc.
Seeing Nime about to do something ill-advised, he lunges forward to grab her!
"Hey now. That just means you need to get all the hugs you can while the gettin' is good."
Calendula also moves in, helping steady Nime and offering care and support.
Rudrik and Calenduls bravely plunge into the magical scar, pulling Nime free before she suffers a grisly fate!
"There, there, we got you, Blue. It's okay. That won't do no one no help."
Shenuska is too distracted by the fading magic of the city to react quickly enough although she glares at the gears as Nime is pulled away and Theo can practically feel her fingertips leaching magic from the air.
"I'm sorry Nime." She offers.
"I'm sorry," Nime says wiping her eyes. "I'm not sure what came over me. I try not to be a Sad Sally. Sometimes it just hits, me though." She steps forward and takes Theo in a hug.
"I'm going to miss it all so much some day. Your smiles."
She releases the man and then steps to Shenuska to wrap her arms around the woman. "Your laughter."
Nime steps away and attempts to embrace Rudrik in his armor, but only succeeds in putting her arms over his shoulders. "Your friendship."
She pats the metal skin and then moves to stand in front of Calendula. She doesn't take her in a hug as the others, but looks into her eyes. "Your love," she says softly. She looks as if she wants to ask something, but then leans forward and presses her lips against the woman's scarred forehead.
"But time is fleeting," she says, pulling away and turning towards the unexplored tunnel. "And you'll all be dead eventually. We have a world to save before you are."
"My mother always warned me about forming relationships with X̀xnxæ xyū̀." She says, looking back. "Sorry, that's a demeaning term for the short-lived. She said 'You don't see human's marrying their dogs, do you?'. I tried to explain to her that we don't choose who we love." She frowns. "Well, we do, but we don't. Does that make sense?" She shrugs and waves her hand. "Time. Fleeting."
"No sense getting wrapped up in it now while we're still here," says Rudrik. "Let's figure this thing out and finish our job!"
Nime touches her nose with one finger and points towards Rudrik with the other hand.
She releases the man and then steps to Shenuska to wrap her arms around the woman. "Your laughter."
"You don't have much faith in me do you Nime?" Shenuska asks with a smile, kissing the blue-skinned woman on the cheek. She doesn't elaborate on the statement but makes a gesture towards the gears. "Besides, you have to buck up or we'll be saving the world without you. And that's not a world worth saving."
Pep talk delivered, Shen heads for the next door, cautiously.
Finding no traps, you open the door. The walls of this long hall have been decorated in a tangle of red-and-green swirling patterns. To the south, these patterns end in fanged mouths, while to the north they all converge into a single gaping fanged mouth within which leers a single bloated eye. You've seen this image before, in Hollow Mountain--a depiction of the qlippoth lord Yamasoth. Doors line the walls of the room, with one in the north set directly under the eye’s glare. Tables fitted with straps to restrain those lying atop them stand here and there in the room, while several empty crates and boxes rest stacked in an alcove to the east.
Most of the doors lead to small rooms that serve as quarters. Searching the north door, Rudrik discovers a magical trap--a glyph of warding inscribed upon it that will trigger if the door is opened.
"I can attempt to dispel it." Shenuska offers. "Unless you want to try your luck Rudrik? Either way we should get out of blast range."
Nime stays back this time, taking a moment to use some healing on herself.
"Someone has a horrible eye for decorations," Nime comments at the murals.
Rudrik says, "I'm always wary of dungeon halls with many doors. I wonder if there isn't more than just the glyph trap. I'll give it a whirl..."
Rudrik is able to disable the glyph without incident. A simple table stands in the next room next to a bedroll on the floor. The walls are painted with horrific images of distorted, tentacled shapes feasting on hapless humans, although a closer inspection makes it apparent that many of the feasters are themselves partially transformed humans. A camp fire, its ashes cold, once burned near the southern wall.
On the table are several ledgers and journals filled with notes in Abyssal. Amid the scattered notes are three other noteworthy pieces of information. The first is a report from an unsigned investigator who confirms to that Clegg Zincher did indeed purchase three scrolls of true resurrection in the year prior, and that said scrolls are believed to be kept under lock and key somewhere in his tenement in Riddleport.
The second is a parchment bearing a list of prices offered by ships for passage for 21 people north to Riddleport. Somebody has underlined the least expensive option—passage on a ship called Sea Moth, which, according to the notes, was scheduled to depart for Riddleport yesterday. There is also a date on the sheet, 9 days from today, circled and labeled “ZINCHER’S AUCTION.”
The third is a copy of a report from Pathfinder Society agents ripped from a volume of the Pathfinder Chronicles that details the results of a dangerous mission undertaken to defeat the return of Runelord Krune. Near the section that details the death of a newly arisen Runelord Krune, somebody has penned a disturbing gloss: “Dead for now, but if we can return him to life, a thankful Runelord of Sloth may just give us the support needed to bring the polymorph plague to the breath of every city it touches!”
"Wow," Nime offers. "So it really looks like Riddleport is our next stop."
She looks up thoughtfully. "I wonder if I could pass as a pirate?" A shrug follows. "We should let the council know about this and then be on our way. Oh, we can take an hour or so to appreciate Ayavah's sculptures as well."
"Hold on Nime. We need to finish up here first." Shenuska cautions. "But yes, we all know where we're going next. Now let's carry on and deal with the other doors."
Nime tips her head as she gazes at Shenuska. "I thought we found out what we need to know here." Her eyes widen a little and she grins. "Oh! Do you have a door fetish? It's ok if you do. Fetishes are harmless." She leans a little closer to whisper. "Just as long as they don't interfere with a healthy sex life."
As the group approaches the next door, Nime waves her hands towards everyone else. "Give her some room. Let her enjoy this." She winks broadly at the psychic. "Go ahead, have fun. No judging here."
The oracle watches in anticipation.
"I'm not an objectophiliac." Shenuska replies, her eyebrow quirking at Nime's conclusions. "A bibliophile yes, but that's different."
She examines the door carefully before attempting to open it.
You cross the dungeon complex and open the southwest door. The smell in this room is cloying, enough to make the eyes water and the throat close up involuntarily. Drifts of rubble, refuse, and waste lie scattered about the room’s floor. The southeast corner of the room has partially collapsed, leaving a hollow in the space above.
A horrid monster shuffles forward, a man half-transformed into a grotesque otyugh! As he shambles towards you, he begs in a guttural voice, “Save me! Feed me! I’m sorry! So hungry! Save me! Help me! Kill me! I’m so hungry!”
The thing lumbers up to Rudrik and bites, but the half-orc easily sidesteps the attack.
"Stop that now!" Shenuska says sternly. "We can feed you, but no biting!"
Shenuska's spell falters. It seems this man is too far gone to be considered a humanoid any more.
Disappointed that she'll see no displays of what door-love looks like, Nime follows Shenuska into the room.
When the creature moves forward and attempts to bite Rudrik, she pales and steps back. Unsure how she can help, she simply invokes a prayer to her goddess.
Calendula stares at the pitiful creature, hoping to glean its soul. Nonetheless, she attacks, answering its call for the mercy of death.
The twisted creature does not radiate an evil aura. Calendula's sword slices into his mutated form, and he whimpers in pain! "I'm sorry! Feed me!"
Rudrik pushes away from the sad beast for a moment, gaining just enough room to bring his sword to bear. Nevertheless, he hesitates slightly before striking.
Nime cringes at the beast's apologies. Her hands clutch at the pole-arm held in front of her.
Rudrik's sword slices open the mutated man. With a slobbery groan, he collapses, lifeblood pouring out to stain the stone floor. He's not quite dead--yet...
"Nime, save him!" Shenuska commands, taking advantage of the chance to dig in her pack and extract some jerky. "Rudrik, Calendula. Be prepared to end him if we must, but this is worth trying."
Once Nime has prevented the creatures imminent expiry Shenuska offers him the jerky. "Eat. And tell us what happened to you."
The pitiful creature regains consciousness when Nime heals him. He eagerly gobbles down the jerky, long tongue smacking.
"Th-thank you, friends. My mind is clear--at least for the moment. My name is Isiah. I was ambushed in a back alley in Underbridge, knocked out from behind. I woke up strapped to a table in a long room, the walls of which were painted in swirling patterns of green and red. A frightening woman welcomed me and thanked me for 'volunteering' to become one of the Polymorph Plague's children. She force-fed me a foul, black concoction of slime.
"I blacked out again, only to awaken later to have a new dose of the stuff fed to me. I'm not sure how many times this happened. The stuff made me sick in various ways each time until a final dose made me so violently ill I blacked out. I woke up here, trapped in this horrible new body with memories of endless hunger.
"Now and then, the frightening woman and her companions stopped by to admire me, compliment my twisted shape, and feed me other horribly mutated things. My memories aren't clear, but I know the woman hasn't visited in several days. I ate the remains of the other creatures in here, and now... Now I'm so hungry..."
Isiah shudders, his tentacles waving in the air. "Please! You have to help me! You have to get me out of here!"
"Can we reverse these effects?" Shenuska asks, aiming the question more at Nime than Isiah. "Perhaps 'Break Enchantment' or some other magic?"
A break enchantment spell or more powerful effect can reverse Isiah's transformation.
"This effect can be reversed." Shenuska tells Isiah after conferring with Nime. "We will leave, attempt to procure the spell and return to help you. You can't leave in the meantime though - if you were seen in the city you'd be lynched. But if you are willing to help us finish clearing the tower that would be helpful."
"Nime, save him!" Shenuska commands, taking advantage of the chance to dig in her pack and extract some jerky. "Rudrik, Calendula. Be prepared to end him if we must, but this is worth trying."
Nime steps forward and looks down at the perversion of life. Tears flow from her eyes. "You poor man," she says before brutally plunging her glaive into his faltering heart. "I saved him," she says, looking up at Shenuska.
The image is vivid in the oracle's mind as she steps forward. She looks with curiosity at the weapon held in her hands before handing it to the Psychic. She drops to her knees and places her hands on the distorted flesh, allowing the spark that always lingers just under her skin to pass through to keep him alive.
She rises to her feet and retrieves her weapon. "He's saved," she lies, before walking away.
"I can't... I'm sorry. I can already feel the hunger returning. I'd be more of a liability than anything else if I went with you. Leave me here so I can't hurt anybody... But please, come back for me!"
Leaving Isiah in the room, you head through the final door in this complex. This room contains dark curtains draping the walls and two workbenches covered with grisly looking tools, bits of bone and decaying flesh, some alchemical equipment, and a few scattered scrolls. A skull covered with runes written in what looks like dried blood sits on one table within a softly glowing circle of magical sigils. A pile of bones, stacked as if discarded, lies in one corner. To the southeast, a wide opening in the wall leads to the huge dark pit in the complex's center.
A pale man with white hair and sharpened canines stands near a workbench, but when he sees you, he snarls and rushes to attack!
He darts towards you and bites at Rudrik, but the half-orc's armor protects him from harm.