Brayne does detect some magic, and concentrating for a bit allows him to determine that the whole statue is magical.
The aura is moderate.
There are no other magical auras evident in the room.
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Garduk pulls a scroll of heightened awareness from his haversack and quickly reads it off, then gives himself another tap with his wand of shield.
"Let's see how things look on behind this ugly thing." Garduk - hopefully joined by one of our tougher party members! - begins walking around the statue, checking behind it and examining the runes on the floor.
With a relatively quick search, Wolfgang is the first to notice that a small tome—ancient sheets of vellum between worn leather covers—sits beneath the thing's tentacles. The eyes of the idol are made of polished obsidian, but are set in orbits overlapped by stone and cannot be removed without breaking the statue or somehow reshaping the stone,
When Kulga touches the tome she feels a cold, damp, yet invisible tentacle wrap itself around her neck.
Kulga manages to pull the book away and break the invisible tentacle that was slithering along her neck!
She has in her hands a book titled It Crawls in Darkness. it is physically intact, yet most of its pages are blank; those with text are scattered at random throughout the book. The tome contains references to the Seer's, Mines, and Monuments districts of Jormurdun. In addition, the tome acts as a scroll that contains the following spells: Haste and Prayer.
You wander for a couple of minutes and come across another site that looks interesting.
Plaques at the entrance of this space identify it as a shrine to Torag, patron god of the dwarves of Jormurdun. The bas relief carvings on the stone walls are viciously defaced, not by the ravages of time, but by the work of impious vandals. The adamantine anvil-altar is scarred, and ritual instruments are scattered around the floor. Strangely, the glow of fire still pulses from the sacred forge on the west wall.
When Brayne touches the statue he feels a cold, damp, yet invisible tentacle wrap itself around his neck.
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Garduk manages to catch the book without dropping it into the pool of slime, although it's a close thing. He immediately starts skimming through it.
"It Crawls in Darkness? That sounds interesting. Hmmm, these pages are scribed like scrolls, oh, that's a good one. What's the rest? Some kind of code? Maybe I can figure it out..."
Absently, he calls out, "Did you say something, Brayne?"
Brayne grasps at his neck while giving a gurgling sound.
Kulga is searching for the invisible tentacle around Brayne’s neck just as he feels it break apart.
You wander for a couple of minutes and come across another site that looks interesting.
Plaques at the entrance of this space identify it as a shrine to Torag, patron god of the dwarves of Jormurdun. The bas relief carvings on the stone walls are viciously defaced, not by the ravages of time, but by the work of impious vandals. The adamantine anvil-altar is scarred, and ritual instruments are scattered around the floor. Strangely, the glow of fire still pulses from the sacred forge on the west wall.
Wolfgang thinks the damage here is ancient.
The interior is slathered in painted blasphemies and gouged by picks. From where he is, Brayne can tell that the holy water font south of the battered anvil-altar is cracked and dry.
It looks like there are inscriptions on the anvil which in a shrine to Torah would also serve as an alter. There are also implements spread out in the area.
Garduk detects no magic from where he is in the hallway leading to the forge, but part of the area would be blocked by the stone walls.
The group moves deeper into the large shrine.
Garduk does not detect any magic other than what his companions are carrying.
Kulga gets to the font and sees a crack in it. She pauses before pouring her water in, realizing the font would not hold it.
You all notice that the ritual instruments (a pair of iron chalices, tongs of silver, a jeweler's loop and chisel, blacksmith's gloves, and three pieces of coal) have been deliberately marred and broken.
There is an inscription in dwarven on the forge, but it i has long scratches through the text, making it difficult to read.
Chandrabha may act in the surprise round.
Pathfinders have claimed the Temple District!
The Seers’ District and Miners’ District are discovered.
Reinforcements arrive in the Temple District wherever Pathfinders are still involved in an encounter. (GMs, please allow your players to finish any in progress encounters, but please look at the top of page 12 to see the consequences of the reinforcements)
Suddenly flames explode from the forge in a 20’ radius. Everyone except Brayne is caught in the flames! You hear a hateful cacophony of screams as the flames burst forth.
There is a scream in dwarven coming from the forge.
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Kulga whips her shield up in front of her, sheltering her exposed flesh from the blast.
"Hells. They're trapped here by their failure. If we put things back in order here, we might have an easier time with any other spirits floating about. But if the flames start flickering again - get out of here!"
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"AAAAARGH!"
The flames blast Garduk back against the wall. His face and hands, and any other visible skin, are horribly charred where not completely burned away.
Gingerly, Garduk pulls a vial from his bandolier. He hisses as more of his burned skin rips from the meager effort required, and pours the potion carefullly into his now-nearly lipless mouth.
The very worst of his burns heal over slightly, but the minor magic in the potion is overwhelmed by the extent of the damage. Gritting his teeth, Garduk yanks free another potion and tries again.
This time, the healing potion does its job, and some of the half-orc's blackened skin fades back to blue-green, while the rest scabs over. He can move without too much pain now, so he pops the wand of infernal healing and taps himself with it to repair the rest of the damage.
Garduk takes a long swallow from his waterskin, then growls, "Anybody else need the wand, let me know. If not, let's get this place cleaned up if we can and put these poor bastards to rest, otherwise we need to get out of here before they explode again."
Just after the blast, a friendly band of Pathfinders comes through and helps heal your injuries.
You spend about 10 minutes cleaning up the site as best you can. After you are done, you feel good about what you were able to accomplish.
Your character is a worshiper of a dwarven deity or casts bless or a similar spell to help cleanse the shrine, the enhancement bonus of any weapon he wields increases by +1 for the rest of the adventure.
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Garduk is still slightly traumatized from the haunt's explosion, despite being fully healed, and he quickly agrees with the first person who suggests they move on.
"The Seers District - that sounds interesting. I'm curious about the kind of magic the ancient dwarven diviners used to peer into the future, back when divination really worked."
As they ready themselves to go, Garduk pulls a scroll out of his pack and reads it, casting false life on himself again, since it has already saved him once.