The chest's magical runes are inscrutable but the latches appear simple and chunky, easy to open with two hands.
Lucky Luli can telly that these runes are simply magically imprinted to last a long time.
|
Luli frowns as he studies the runes, then pulls out his wand again and taps himself with it before squinting again. "Something about a traitor..." he murmurs. "Punishment... eternally... Hmm. Given even that little, I would not be surprised if there was a div or something similar inside." He shudders slightly, remembering the bones found earlier. Or maybe something else...
The chest opens smoothly.
Within are three curved horns.
You are in the presence of a woman dressed in Ancient Osiriani garb. Any distinguishing features of the woman blur and shift, as if either magically obscured or remembered poorly. When she speaks — in the same voice that addressed you all when you entered the ruins — you recognizes that she is speaking Ancient Osiriani and somehow you can understand her perfectly.
The woman stands surrounded by the aftermath of a great battle in the desert. She examines the wounded and dying with interest, ignoring their cries for help. She kneels by a dying man, places her hand on his forehead, and says, “Were you one of ours? One of theirs? It matters not. The Plague loves all of you the same. Do you feel it? As your body dies, does your mind cling to life? Yes — I sense it. Wonderful! I must try again. Soon even the Lady of Graves will have no hold over my fate.”
You are in the presence of a woman dressed in Ancient Osiriani garb. Any distinguishing features of the woman blur and shift, as if either magically obscured or remembered poorly. When she speaks — in the same voice that addressed you all when you entered the ruins — you recognizes that she is speaking Ancient Osiriani and somehow you can understand her perfectly.
Screams echo around dark halls as the woman snarls. “They die too quickly! There is no time. I need healthier subjects.” She looks up, but her features remain obscured. “Go to the training grounds. Tell the captain I require another full squad of his most able-bodied guards for the Dungeons of the Ever-Dying. Perhaps they can survive long enough to further my studies. No—not one squad. A dozen fresh recruits each week.”
You are in the presence of a woman dressed in Ancient Osiriani garb. Any distinguishing features of the woman blur and shift, as if either magically obscured or remembered poorly. When she speaks — in the same voice that addressed you all when you entered the ruins — you recognizes that she is speaking Ancient Osiriani and somehow you can understand her perfectly.
Feelings of intense pain and desperation accompany this vision. The woman mockingly waves one of the horns into view. “What better material to preserve a memory than the horn of a creature fundamentally obsessed with knowledge? Perhaps I shall find others like you, take their essence, and perfect my magic. Pain? Yes. There will always be pain for you. I will leave you those memories. A suiting gift for a traitor.”
|
Lara ponders, rubbing her chin as Giovanni recounts his experience. The Taldan then reaches for the middle horn, curious if it repeats a similar one. "...'Dungeons of the Ever-Dying.' That must be where we're at now. And it seems she started taking her best guards in as experimental subjects," she recounts as she comes out of the vision.
|
|
”But we’ll never know unless we try, right?” Luli grabs the last horn and pauses, his cloudy eyes unfocused. “What... better material to preserve a memory than... the horn of a creature... fundamentally obsessed with knowledge? Perhaps I shall... find others like you, take their essence, and perfect... my magic. Pain? Yes. There will always be... pain for you. I will leave you those... memories. A suiting gift... for a traitor.” His voice is halting, as if repeating something he alone is hearing.
You realise that you have explored every corner of this ancient place and have much to report.
After clearing the site, you head out to the surface. Kel and Obahar are waiting anxiously for your news, "Tell us, what did you learn? Any clues to help you track down that floating head?"
Obahar shakes his head, "I'm not sure. All of this talk of undeath and the Lady of Graves... perhaps you could try The Thrice-Shrouded Necropolis? Unless you have any other leads to follow."
Meanwhile, the crew are grateful that you have made the site safe.
Obahar nods, "I will remain here and map out the remains more thoroughly. If you find any more clues to the Doru's location, or the woman's, then let me know. I might be able to help you."
Obahar smiles, "It is the great temple of Pharasma. Clerics of the Gray Lady should know more about these things than I."
Obahar directs you to the temple.
You arrive at this huge graveyard and temple complex at midday, yet the sun seems to shine rather weakly and sounds are muted. Even your souls feel becalmed.
A priestess with long, dark hair and curling facial tattoos greets you as you arrive, "Do you come to make abeyance to the Mother of Souls? Pharasma welcomes all."
The woman smiles, "That would be Renofre, I reckon." She steps forward and offers her hand, "Pleasure to meet you. Let's here your ancient history then?"
She gasps, "A doru, of course!"
She gestures and begins to head further into the building, "Come with me. I have someone you should meet."
You are able to chat and properly introduce yourselves as you walk through the necropolis.
The priestess leads you to an ossuary. No bones sit on the shelves but a heavy padlocks holds the door closed, "This is Manetho, an acolyte who attended a sighting of a headless spirit. Since then he has... changed. He was recently found digging up a corpse and has been restrained here while we seek to mend his troubled soul."
Sitting in the corner with his arms around his knees is a young man in stained priestly robes. He glances up as you enter, then looks down at the ground again.
Renofre nods, "Perhaps he can help you and you can help him."
"Mantho, these are pathfinders. They have questions, and maybe some answers as well." the priestess steps back and lets you talk.
He scowls up at you, ”You wouldn’t understand!”
The young man looks into your eyes and begins to well up, “The Lady of Graves could not help me… I was powerless! It promised to reveal its secrets to me. It asked me to dig up graves. It said that she who wears the spiral of death would come for me… so I am waiting. It said she would take me east, beyond the Seven Crypts, to the Ever-Dying.” Tears flow down his cheeks.
Renofre frowns in thought, "The Seven Crypts? That is an ancient shrine to Pharasma. I might be able to dig up the location with a little time in the archives."
It only takes around half an hour in the archives to get the information.
Unfortunately, it narrows things down to about a quarter of the city.
The Temple of the Redeeming Sun is the largest in the city. It boasts a massive courtyard where the faithful congregate to pray under the open sun. The gold plating on the surrounding buildings focuses the rays of the sun inward on a tremendous altar at the center of the courtyard - it is said tha the heat at the apex is so intense that the priests require protective magic to survive giving their sermons.
When you arrive looking for Mauta, you are eventually introduced to a young priest called Herhut who escorts you to an annex of the hospice facilities. As you get close, wild screams in a garbled tongue fill the air. Herhut begs your patience, "This is Mauta, she started rambling in garbled Ancient Osiriani shortly after arriving at the temple. We are doing our best to care for her, but are unable to ease her wild ramblings and hallucinations."
When you arrive, Mauta is seems almost not in control of her own voice, pushing the words out of her body.
The woman responds to Luli's soothing tone. She snaps from her reverie, becomes silent for a few moments and then speaks in clear common, “I seek she who wears the spiral of death! I sense her presence! The Servants of the Sun tried to hide the Dungeons, but they remain! Where are they? Where are they?!”
She begins to smile at Luli but then the smile contorts into a sneer and then a scream and she cries out again in Ancient Osiriani. Retreating back into madness.
Herhut is flustered by Giovanni's quick-fire questioning, "I, um, well... I don't know. 'Servants of the Sun' is a name I have seen in my studies, I'm sure..."
The cleric confers with several other priests and they confirm that this seems to refer to Sarenrite priests hiding or destroying something but, unfortunately, they have little detail that they can offer.
The alchemist is not hard to find: the sudden closure of his shop, the disgrace of his brief arrest... word gets around.
The gossiping mother of a guard confirms that the amateur alchemist Sokari closed his shop in disgrace when the authorities discovered his concoctions were sickening consumers. There was no proof Sokari was intentionally harming anyone, so the guards made no arrest. However, he is banned from selling wares, and they took note that he mentioned a “demon’s face” when first confronted.
When you arrive at the shop, the sign has been taken down and the shutters are closed but you can see through the gaps that someone is inside. As you approach the door, a voice calls from within, "Go away! Shop's closed!"