Royo takes the virus "I suppose such viruses are just too common when dealing with technology and electronic data - one never has such problems with books" Royo muses, smugly.
Janilla starts reading the strange scrolls...
The scrolls hold terrible secrets not meant for mortal minds to bear. These terrible truths tear at your mind!
DC 15 Will save.
Success: the unwholesome knowledge fortifies Janilla's mind, granting her a +2 bonus to Intelligence checks for the remainder of the adventure.
Failure: take 1d3 Wisdom damage from the mind-wrenching, indescribable knowledge contained on the scrolls.
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Janilla's eyes glaze over a little...a tiny trickle of blood comes out of her nose. She continues to read the scrolls however.
Shaking her head to break her out of it...she shudders and quietly says, "Powerful figures over a table, with endless books and papers. The world is nothing but randomness, a dice throw. All for their amusement. We are nothing but their playthings...."
With that, she smiles a little. "Oh well, we do the best we can do, and just keep on working to make the world a better place. Let's get that veggie doggie back into its kennel."
Moving up through the next level you see a room filled with ancient books, each bound with a cover made from a different type of skin, and on the other side of the stairwell, a room with a dozen scrimshaw drawings, each carved into the 6-foot-long tooth of some gigantic beast.
Aside from being unique and incredibly fascinating, the current displays are more just 'general interest'.
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Lynn pats Janilla's back in concern as the mystic seems to be going through some kind of mental revelation. When her tone turns less prophetic, she gives her a smile "Phew! Are you OK Jannie? You were whispering something about being a plaything. If you need counseling, there's definitely a great place called the Respite back on Absalom Station."
Once the misunderstanding is cleared up, she follows along with a skip in her step, occasionally waving the glitched and infected comms device through the air. She doesn't pay the ancient books and drawings much mind, and simply advances up towards wherever this ksarik is hiding.
Ignoring the displays and keeping a focus on business, the Starfinders ascend the next staircase in the tower of the Oma. Strange puddles of acid have formed on the floor in places...all the way up to the eighteenth floor.
On the eighteenth floor, glowing runes line the walls of the winding corridors, filling the hallways with orange light. Alcoves, each about a square foot in size, cover the walls of this side vault; these alcoves are empty, as the Curators have yet to fill this vault.
You determine that the runes are part of a powerful divination spell. The runes
have caused the walls to become extremely volatile. A creature that briefly brushes a wall takes 1 fire damage. A creature that comes into full contact with a wall (by being bull rushed into it, for example) takes 2d6 fire damage
Around one of the corners you hear a low rumbling growl, which is then followed by the humming of a lilting melody.
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Careful where he puts his feet down Rocket takes care to avoid the puddles of acid.
"Does one of you brainier types know anything about those glowing runes?"
"I think they are providing light..but I know runes, they never just provide light.."
After which Rockets ears perk up and twist as he picks up the sounds coming from around the corner.
Rocket then switches the big gun he's been carrying for his static arc pistol
"Set to stun right?"
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Lynn pauses and taps a finger on her lips. "Mmm. I'd say keep away from those runes on the wall. They're part of some kinda divination, something complicated. Oh, and they'll definitely explode if you touch them."
"Umm, hopefully we won't need to stun it at all. Just give it some snacks to eat and the big 'ol ksarik will be happy. Right?"
She fishes out the vines the group harvested earlier and holds them up in one hand. "Anyone here know how to feed plant monsters without them licking your hand off?"
Lynn follows Rocket around the corner once the ysoki is ready.
Rounding the corner, Rocket can see the Ksarik (who is almost certainly able to see him), it sniffs the air.
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Janilla sees Rocket go ahead of her, so she assumes he knows how to handle large plants that look like creature.
Whispering to Rocket, "Try this...it might make it more like you as a person vs. food,". With that she hands Rocket some of the atienus her and Lynn harvested,
"I will try to see if there is anything I can do to help you." With that said, she does her best to appear non-threatening and likable.
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Lynn steps into the ksarik's view and dangles a tasty looking vine in the air "Umm, come back to your cage! We've got plenty more tasty vines for you!" She sounds fairly unsure of herself and her strategy.
Rather than possibly insult the beast somehow, she begins humming a calming melody to try to help Rocket.
Rocket recalls watching some wildlife documentary once where they had a species he thinks looked a lot like a tamed Vindurth (or could have been a dog, it was a long time ago) and manages to make the right overtures.
The Vindurth playfully hops around Rocket and follows the party. It was looking like the things was going to happily start licking Lynn in thanks for offering it some food, but Janilla and Dora managed to distract it at the last minute!
You herd the ksarik back into its cage with relative ease.
***
The top floor of the tower is a single open chamber. A lone pedestal rests in the center of this space, with a small cube floating atop it. Complicated ridges cover the surface of the cube, forming a maze that somehow moves in on itself. The object glows with a faint blue aura.
Royo scurries over to the pedestal to examine the cube and lets out a gasp "The cube is a mind maze. Made by the chitakin, a now-extinct race from a distant corner of the galaxy, the indestructible mind mazes are the last remainder of that civilization. The chitakin used these devices to store valuable information. I can recall only the most basic details of how mind mazes work If I remember correctly they send people into a trance and can be quite dangerous"
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Janilla is quite happy watching Rocket dealing with the Vindurth. Seeing that he literally has it eating out of his hand (but not eating his hand), she follows behind, attempting to soothe the beast if it gets irritated.
As they get it into it's cage she lets out a deep breath. "Well...that is done, lets go get the information."
Looking at the lone pedestal with the cube Janilla wracks her brain to see if she has read anything about this cube.
Janilla manages to deduce how the maze works...
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Lynn raises her hand as Janilla explains "Lynn'll handle this little puzzle, no sweat!" She gives Royo and her allies a wink. "You guys just give me some tips from out here and we'll find our way to the info we need in no time!"
With no hesitation at all, she extends a hand and touches the surface of the mindmaze.
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Rocket scratches his right ear from the inside with one of his finger nails as he follows the illusionairy Lynn with a finger of his other hand while very carefully making sure he isn't going to touch the cube himself
Muttering
"...so if she goes...
before telling Lynn
"Go left!"
"Go there"
".....No the other there.."
"Look at where I'm pointing"
"..oh, just go back"
"Almost there...maybe
Clearly Rocket is great at providing outside insights on how to move through a maze and explaining directions
As you get to the centre you see...
A trinary star system—a place you instinctively know to be the Scoured Stars—floats in the center of the maze. Many of the planets around the three stars grow green, representing an abundance of life. Suddenly a dark presence, felt more than seen, descends on the room and hungrily encircles the stars. One of the worlds pulsates with a golden aura that continues to grow. Eventually, this vast golden shield covers all the worlds of the region. The clawing darkness recedes.
Time passes, generations come and go in the blink of an eye. Gradually, the golden shield lowers. Soon after, eight groups of ships, their shapes too intangible to make out, depart into the cosmos beyond. Each fleet travels through the void on a different path. The home of these eight fleets soon goes dark, and over the coming generations the last vestiges of life in the Scoured Stars disappears.
Sometime later, eight small objects hurtle out from the lifeless planet that summoned the shield. Each object, a relic of immense magical power, follows the course of one of the previously departed groups. The objects disappear along their trajectories, and the vision abruptly ends as the worlds of the Scoured Stars fade to black.
And then you 'return'.
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"Umm...not certain....maybe look around?"
"Nope...still no clue, sorry."
"Over there...Rocket was right!"
"Hmm....what neat geometric patterns...huh? Sorry...was seeing the maze in a different way."
"Yeah, go back, but hang a left at the blue circle"
"Man....I am so lost...."
"I am SOOO glad I didn't go in....I would be so confused...."
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Lynn observes the secrets of the Mindmaze and returns back to her own body, where she immediately makes a big show of looking thoughtful. "Hmmmmmm, that was super interesting. Though its also super confusing... I mean, what's with all the weird relics zooming off into space?" She crosses her arms, extending a finger to tap at her cheek. "We can't write anything down, so I'm going to just tell you what I saw, and you guys do your best to remember it, OK?"
She relays the vision from the mindmaze to the rest of the party, including Royo.
As Lynn touches her cheeck with one hand, she realises there is something in her closed other hand - eight green gems.
***
Suddenly a small flying clockwork drone, roughly a foot wide, whizzes into view and rapidly approaches. A holographic projection of Albryan the Curator emerges from the top of the drone and begins to speak.
“Starfinders, I am glad that I have reached you. The Order of the Pyre Hellknights who accompanied you to Athaeum have destroyed the lore wardens in a nearby tower and are burning one of our most ancient book collections! We have more wardens on the way, but they will arrive too late to save our books. Please, hurry to the Tower of the Ellicoth and stop the Hellknights from causing further harm! If you do so, the Curators will waive your research fee entirely and offer whatever assistance we can!”
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As Rocket's jaw starts to drop at the drone delivered message and he seems all surprised by this turn of events he realizes that the flying clockwork drone most likely won't pick up on his facial expressions and his fellow Starfinders ain't fooled by his acting either. He steadies his resolve and says.
"Lead on little drone"
before enabling his armor's environmental protection in case he'd end up coughing his lungs out at some point otherwise. After all, where there's fire there's a good chance there will be smoke
"I suggest you also enable your protection..it can't hurt to keep out any possible smoke"
It takes about 10 minutes to travel to The Tower of the Ellicoth from the Tower of the Oma via a series of connecting bridges. You arrive across a bride at a large pair of double doors - you can smell fuel and fire wafting from behind it.
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On hearing that the Hellknights seem to have caused...issues, Janilla just rolls her eyes. "Of course they are burning books. Probably some kind of pyre for one of their religions issues. Oh, Iteration-177, what have you gotten us into? And here I was starting to believe that they were actually on...well not the up-and-up, but at least not on the path of the ancient Aspis Consortium. Even if they denounce the Hellknights, I just won't believe them."
Janilla pulls out a fire extinguisher from her Starfinder backpack. "I only have one, but it might help." With that she hurries after her companions, mentally going through a list of items in her backpack.
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"I have one of those in my backpack as well, within easy grasp. But we might need to deal with those Hellknights first...if they just keep setting things on fire while we put them out, we're in a loosing fight"
Rocket wields his artillery laser with under barrel grenade launch and makes sure it's loaded with the grenades he standard carries around in there before kicking open the door
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Lynn seals up the environmental protections on her armor (just in case all those priceless unique texts are giving off some hazardous smoke), then heads right across the bridge. She beams at her team showing off their fire-fighting gear. "Wow, you guys are zetta prepared! I'll be counting on you two to protect us from those awful looking flames." She pauses, then brightens "OH! I guess I could sing some fire resistant scales for us?"
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Lynn begins ♫♪humming♫♪ in a rather fast-paced fashion as she looks up the exterior of the tower. The air around her begins to ripple in cascading waves - ones she shapes into invisible bonds between her and her team members. She gathers the remaining energy to herself, and in a glow of white light her skin grows a haze of delicate violet scales.
Target grows heat-resistant scales across their exposed flesh and shrinks to make themselves a smaller target
Type: Humanoid
Size: Small
Defenses: Resist fire 2
Speeds: 30ft land speed
Nat Attacks: Bite +4 (1d4+3+Str)
Skills: +1 size bonus to all DEX based skills
The smell of petrol and smoke fills the air here. Cracks and blast marks pit the floor, all of which surround a gaping hole in the wall. A stone control console covered with metal dials rests in the center of the room. The floor-to-ceiling glass windows to the southwest overlook a library filled with shelves, flames, and billowing smoke.
Two Hellknights are just finishing working over a computer/control panel, and they look like they intend to work you over next.
Lynn
Janilla
Dora
Rocket
ENEMY
R1
Janilla
Rocket
Dora
Lynn
ENEMY
Will
The Hellknight's mind is overcome with a strong mental blast, but he remains standing!
R1
Janilla -blast!
Rocket
Dora
Lynn
ENEMY
R 0
O 29
Rocket comes in firing!
The Hellknight is struck squarely and drops.
R1
Janilla -blast!
Rocket - pew!
Dora
Lynn
ENEMY
R 0
O Fallen
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Lynn taps a button on her headset to begin playing music, then points a finger at the remaining Hellknight. "Oops, you're last, huh?" She smiles impishly and begins to ♫♪ hum along ♫♪ with the opening bars of the song streaming from her headphone speakers.
A cascade of watery-looking globes of force wiggle out of the walls next to her and stream towards the hellknight!
The missiles slam home, and you can now see the Hellknight is already injured, indeed, it looks like there is a hole in the wall beside him which is the result of explosives and small-arms fire.
Dora fires her pistol
Attack
damage:
The Hellknight lobs a grenade at you all.
Incendiary grenade
Attack Fire
Damage:
DC12 Reflex for half. Failed save you are also on fire.
R2
Janilla
Rocket
Dora
Lynn
ENEMY
R 20
O Fallen
The missiles slam home, and you can now see the Hellknight is already injured, indeed, it looks like there is a hole in the wall beside him which is the result of explosives and small-arms fire.
Dora fires her pistol
Attack
damage:
The Hellknight lobs a grenade at you all.
Incendiary grenade
Attack
Damage: Fire
DC12 Reflex for half. Failed save you are also on fire.
R2
Janilla
Rocket
Dora
Lynn
ENEMY
R 20
O Fallen