Husarq squeezes through the small, human-sized doorways and into the northernmost room Uncle Hubbub has opened. He stares at the weird face hanging from the wall.
"How beautiful a trophy," he says upon examining it carefully. "This Sevenfingers fellow knows how to flay. Usually the face is very hard to remove without destroying."
Harrow follows Husarq into the room. "What you find? Everything look old."
[dice=perception]1d20+16
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The piece of skin with the beard, that's hung on hooks "talks" as soon as Pandora touches the scrolls.
Ahoy, villains! Though my eyes are
long gone, I can still tell when I’m in the
company of rascals and thieves! What brings
you wretched scalawags to Sevenfingers’s
tomb? And have you brought old Thael
Shivers a nip of grog to share?”
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Hubbub starts laughing: "Ahahahahahaha! It called all y'all villains! Ahahahaha*"
The dwarf's laughter suddenly stops: "Hey, ye with the face! Ye take that back about the elveses in the party. They ain't no villains!"
"I, Hubbub of Desna, declare that ye should apologize an' tell us all about this place. 'Tis the least ye kin do ta make amends fer hurlin' insults at those ye don' know."
Persephone rolls her sparkling green eyes at Oberon's attempt at humor.
"I'm afraid I have no grog, but I'd be happy to offer you some conversation. It must get lonely here."
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Pouring some rum down the skin's face. He "lightens up"
"Arrgh me hearties thank you!"
Sevenfingers and I were heated rivals. He won, I reckon.”
Leng. Been gone for months now.”
seeks the Mines of Baol-Kataar.
That’s where he hopes to find some
magical rubies.”
he gathers enough of them, he
can build an engine that’ll give his
ship the power to sail between the
planes and to other worlds.”
intentions?:
tell you that! His first stop will
be here to reclaim his prized
possession, the Voracious. Then
he’ll feed the engine the right
rubies and pay the Shackles a
little visit. Yes, Old Sevenfingers
has big plans for the Shackles,
he does. And big plans for the
rest of Golarion!”
to Leng?:
ruby ring that his friends in
Leng gave him. He uses it to
jump between here and Leng.
“With help from his friends in
Leng, Sevenfingers transformed his body and is immortal
now. He’s an unnatural creature, but if he’s undead or some
other kind of monstrosity, I don’t know. Wish I could describe
him for you, but as you can see, I seem to have lost my eyes!”
or collector of esoterica would pay 500 gp for the entire
collection of scrolls and books.
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Helgar can see that those scrolls and books are valuable.
"Some of those scrolls are interesting. In fact I might want to keep a few of them myself. However we do not have the time to read them now but we should peruse them before we do leave the tomb. Time permitting of course."
Despite Theal's assurances Helgar quickly looks for traps on the secret door to the North (Perception take 10 of 39 in the Gloomspire).
"Everyone ready to check out the secret room?"
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Having already detected no magical auras, Oberon helps the team gather up the collection of books and scrolls for later research and possible sale to an interested buyer.
"Thank you for sharing your knowledge of Sevenfingers with us, Thael Shivers," Oberon says, peeking behind the spoilers. "With any luck, you may have the last laugh on your former rival."
"It seems safe to assume Sevenfingers will show up soon with enough magical rubies from the Mines of Baol-Kataar to reclaim and restart the engines of the Voracious."
"Ready."
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Opening the secret door, you find this must have been a treasure vault. All that's left is single coffer containing a
cache of strangely flawless deep red gemstones.
The coffer is
labeled
or Knowledge (planes):
Persephone hovers over the coffer, trying to decipher the label, too.
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Pandora casts comprehend languages from a scroll "It reads Material Plane Resonant. Mmmmm... that is interesting. Perhaps those rubies can be used as some kind of focus related to interdimensional travel to the Material Plane?"
If nothing else is found, the woman moves to examine the door back at the corridor, and if it seems clear of danger, she opens it once everyone says its ready to proceed (she will specifically wait if someone ones to call a spell).
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Helgar sees that the "northern door" isn't trapped.
Stone tables, workbenches, and shelves furnish the room,
many of them crowded with ancient alchemy equipment and
empty containers. There's enough gear to create an alchemical lab. Nothing else of interest
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Heeding Helgar's wish to avoid a lengthy study of the books and the scrolls, Oberon had helped anyone else so interested to gather them up for later study.
Then he follows Husarq toward the now-open northern door, peering inside and checking for magical auras, as per the team's SOP.
"Anybody want to give me a hand gathering up this alchemical laboratory equipment?"
"Here, let me help, too." Persephone the sage familiar says, licking a thumb and turning a page.
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Helgar feigns amazement at Harrow's helpfulness in an attempt to please the Half-Orc (Bluff 27).
He then starts going through the scrolls and books conferring with Oberon and Persephone during the study period.
Helgar auto-aids Oberon on the Knowledge-Arcana. If we need individual rolls than he will take 10 for a 25 Knowledge Arcana.
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Sorting through the scrolls, you realize that Sevenfingers
is currently obsessed with obtaining magical rubies from a
location in Leng called the Mines of Baol-Kataar. According
to his notes, Sevenfingers believes that these rubies have the
ability focus to planar travel and send casters of such magics
across the planes or to other worlds. Sevenfingers’s notes also
detail his plan to build a fleet of pirate ships (his “Nightmare
Armada”) outfitted with arcane engines powered by these
magical gemstones. He claims to have enough rubies to send
several ships to the Material Plane, and to be nearing a large
enough collection of rubies connected to the Maelstrom to
reach that plane as well.
increasingly horrified by the idea of the old pirate returning
to Golarion at the fore of an armada of plane-hopping pirate
ships. When she mentions aloud that something must
be done to stop Sevenfingers, “I can send you to the Voracious—Sevenfingers’s flagship and my recent prison—using the machine,” Hrethnar says, gesturing to the strange contraption. “The Voracious sits in a pocket dimension
between Golarion and Leng now. Once you board the ship, I can
reconfigure the machine to once again act as the ship’s engine.
That will leave you in Leng with a functional ship. I also know
where the Mines of Baol-Kataar are located, so I can plot a course
so the Voracious sails right to them.”
Hrethnar’s face then darkens. “That will put you on
Sevenfingers’s trail ... but it is impossible to know what dangers
you will face when you get there. And once again, I will not be
able to join you. Time still flows in Leng, and my body would
immediately age to dust if I travel there.”
Benarry grins, “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t jealous of you. What
an adventure! But it’s not my adventure to take. Someone has
to stay behind and make sure Hrethnar’s all right after he lost all
that blood.”
Persephone raises a skeptical eyebrow. "Anything else we should know, before we go?"
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The party believes, that Benarry still doesn’t fully trust Hrethnar, so she believes it’s her duty to stay behind and watch him to make
sure he doesn’t interfere with you in any way.
"No, I don't think you need anything." says Benarry. She continues and tells the party to buy anything they need from Kakikko, and then ready themselves for a dangerous journey.
"My ship," says Hrethnar, "Is the “The Voracious" and it has a special "engine" that can return you here to this plane."
Husarq is silent the entire time Benarry speaks. Especially when she speaks of traveling to Leng across planar barriers. His only reaction is a quirk of the mouth, perhaps a smile or a doubt. Which, it is impossible to tell.
To anybody watching, it is curious that the exact same quirk of the mouth appears on the ifrit, Mareq. Smile or doubt?
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Hrethnar turns to the party. "When you are ready, we can set off on my ship"
- - - -
The party starts to makes its way to his ship.
As Hrethnar steps off the wooden platform and crosses the
slime-covered floor, he pulls a large key made of glossy black
stone from his robes. He inserts the key into the machine, and a
glowing spatial rift appears in midair. “Now,” he says, gesturing at the rift. “Step through the
portal to reach the Voracious. I will then need about an hour to
reconfigure the engine and plot the course to the mines for you,
after which I will send the engine to the Voracious. Once you’ve
dealt with Sevenfingers, feed Sevenfingers’s special rubies into
the engine and the ship will return to Golarion. If you’re lucky, it’ll
be somewhere in the Shackles, but don’t count on being able to
return to Leng once you’ve come home. You’ll have one chance to
do this right.”
- -
Once onboard he stands up on deck, looks around. He needs to reconfigure the planar engine. The ship drifts in the roiling gray sea within Leng.
"Make yourselves comfortable Pathfinders and keep watch for the strange creatures of his plane!"
After an hour, the ship moves a bit. Then, a great gust of wind suddenly envelopes the Voracious and it lurches forward through the choppy gray sea.
suddenly materializes and attaches itself with an array of suckermouths and tentacular-like growths to the rear wall of the
ship.
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As the group steps through the glowing portal, Mareq follows his master Husarq towards the glowing rift. As Harrow steps through, Mareq moves up, equal to Husarq. As Uncle Hubbub steps through, Mareq's face twitches, in anticipation? Husarq, lost in his own thoughts as he stares at the portal, doesn't notice Mareq or his facial twitch.
As the last of the Pathfinders step through, Mareq takes a sudden stride forward and steps into the portal before Husarq. He lands upon the deck of the Voracious and turns to watch Husarq step through.
Husarq snarls angrily at Mareq's temerity and steps forward into the portal -- and disappears.
Upon the deck of the Voracious Mareq smiles. Then chuckles <heh heh>. And then he laughs out loud. Louder and louder, bending over with mirth.
He rubs the collar about his neck, grinning happily when he feels the etched rune of servitude has disappeared.
Mareq, grinning, turns his face towards Hrethnar and walks over to him.
"So, you say this ship's engine can take me, err, us to whatever planes we desire, so long as it is fed the right jewels, eh? Excellent. Exxxxxxcellent."
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As he readies the ship Hrethnar turns to Pandora. "I'm sure he'll find us!" Hrethnar doesn't follow you into Leng.
With its engine reconfigured, the Voracious picks up speed
and the sea and the shoreline of Leng quickly become blurry
outlines.
When the Voracious lurches to a halt, the ship is floating adjacent to
a crumbling stone shore. Though no dock lines or other equipment secure the ship, the Voracious remains safely docked to the quay.
A single-masted vessel much smaller than the Voracious is docked
at an adjacent outcropping. Both stone quays extend to a gray,
rocky shore that quickly rises to form a series of steep hills. A
well-worn path of black stones leads away from the shore and
forms a zigzagging trail that eventually leads to a yawning cave
mouth several hundred feet up the hillside. An eerie red glow
emanates from the cave mouth.
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"Okay, this is a bit of a conundrum. Where to go first, check out that single-masted vessel or go straight into the mine? Is it wise to leave the Voracious unattended during our absence?"
Oberon considers the options. "I'd probably opt for a quick check of the vessel first, then head for mine. What do the rest of you suggest?"