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After Katsu un-paralizes he will walk up to Hayden Greyrun.
"Thank you for keeping me alive sir. I am . . . shamed that my body cannot take as many scars as my godess. If you need more magical healing, I have this wand. I can only activate it some of the time, but I have a feeling you might be able to use it with more regularity."
You move on to the next administrative structure.
This small, aged office building is where the residents of the shrine would conduct the day-to-day business of managing the compound. A pair of low writing desks as well as several shelves packed with books and scrolls cram the sparsely decorated space.
Angela and Golthwur locate a number of texts detailing various rituals employed by the shrine and records of when they have been performed. You find a number of lesser talismans and charms in this office. Together, the talismans and the silk and thread-of-gold charms.
You identify the ritual components necessary to call upon the power of Zepha’s talisman.
Additionally, Angela, Sothkoro and Golthwur also find a strange bottle and a book.
Bottle of Messages
Lesser book of extended summoning (good)
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Hayden looks at the various talismans and charms. "Some of these can be be used in the ritual for Zepha’s talisman. I think we could perform the ritual with what we have here."
He glances over to some of the other items too. "Oh, that's a Lesser book of extended summoning (good). Good outsiders summoned with it stick around for quite a while."
With nothing else to locate in the administrative building you finally look towards the shrine.
The path leads to a short set of stairs ascending to the entrance of the main shrine. What must have once been a place that inspired reverence is now darkened and exudes menace. Faint light spills out from the torn and tattered window covers.
"I think you are right ... it is best that I do not go inside. This place is overflowing with evil, where it was once filled with light." Mitoko explains as she clutches her kimono.
*
This simple, darkened entryway is used to store sandals and boots. Several pairs are scattered in front of the step up to the interior’s wooden floors. Though the shoes appear to be covered in dust, the wooden floor is strangely clean and waxy, given the state of disrepair evident throughout the rest of the grounds
Beyond the entry way is a room covered in straw mats and lit by a pair of hanging lanterns. A low table sits in the north of the room. To the south, a scroll hand-painted with mountain scenery hangs, flanked with bamboo vases that once held flowers. A sliding door leads north.
This room appears to be a place where the shrine’s attendants would take their meals. A large set of ornately decorated doors leading to the east are shut, while sliding doors lead to rooms in each other direction.
The pathfinders are about to walk into the room when Angela stops them. She knows that they would have triggered a magical trap and would have been hit with a wave of confusion.
You could try to disable the trap.
Katsu is incredible!
He immediately identifies where the magical runes have to be disturbed so that the confusion spell does not hit those that enter the central room.
After you look at the central room you move to the southern area.
A row of beds are in this room, some of which appear to have been slept in recently.
Katsu and Angela immediately spot a hidden door in the southeastern wall.
Behind the door is a small storage room containing a large chest.
Within are religious tools decorated with shining gold and silver inlays, as well as a collection of potions and scrolls.
The most notable item is a teardrop-shaped jade bead the size of a normal human’s palm. The collection also contains a silver holy symbol of Andoletta, three potions of cure light wounds, and two scrolls of bless. There are also two scrolls of blessing of courage and life.
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Hayden takes the scrolls gently from Dawn with a 'try not to hurt yourself' look. "These are indeed useful. Whoever they belong to may want them back, but if they help us cleanse the evil here, they would be used well." He passes the potions out to Dawn, Katsu, and Sothkoro. "Angela, you can read these, yes? Do you want one of these scrolls?"
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Angela pauses as she notices the trap. There's no way I could angle just Golthwur into that sooo, "Watch out, there's a trap there. Katsu you probably have a much better handle on these types of things than I do."
Once the trap has been disabled, she takes a good look through the other rooms and pushes a well worn plank of wood at the back of the room to reveal a secret door. "The architecture suggested there was an empty space there. I'm glad to see the designers of this place didn't create a large dead space."
She trundles into the room and takes a look at the things in it. "Oh, relics and a stash of supplies." She looks through the room and looks over the scrolls and tries to read it but sadly her training to read magical writings didn't cover Tien magical writings. "I could try to read them, but I think these are all kinds of magic I can't distill into an elixir. I believe you would need to call on some divine power for it to work."
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Angela looks somewhat bemsued at the idea of a library of scrolls in a temple to a god that most decidedly has probably never been to a library. "This is a temple to Hei Feng, I'd be less surprised to find a fully stocked tavern and casino here than a library of any sort, but it could happen. But let's keep moving, we need to find a good spot for that ritual and find this 'Storm Prophet' before he ruins the Hei Feng faith here completely."
She moves up behind Dawn and readies her longspear to help in help is needed.
This remarkable find is not magical.
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You enter the next room.
This smaller shrine is dedicated to Hei Feng himself, patron god of the tengu race.
At the south end of the room is a 3-foot-tall offering box with a slatted cover over the top, behind which a huge statue of a tengu sitting cross-legged rises nearly to the ceiling.
The statue holds the hilt of a sword in one hand, as if it had once held a sword across its knees.
The statue has been shockingly vandalized.
White paint and what appears to be blood has been splattered over the god’s stern countenance, while the sword it once held in its right hand has been broken off at the hilt, and the blade of the nine-ring sword has been driven deep into the statue’s back.
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Angela takes a long look into the room and makes sure there's no traps or things lurking in the shadows waiting for them to get in close.
She the strides up to the statue and tries to make sense of why it would be defiled in this manner. Was there an intent behind it other than purely to defile? Was it used for some ritual? Was there a meaning for the way this was done?
Angela and Hayden think about the religious implications: If you held any lingering idea that the Storm Priests worship Hei Feng, this room dispels it.
Angela and Katsu discover a hollow space in its base that appears to be locked by a strange mechanism. Further investigation reveals that the sword in the statue’s hand is removable, and that the blade and rings line up with a somewhat T shaped aperture in the base.
Dawn can pull the sword out!
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"Alright, stand still Hei Feng. Normally I'd ask about internal bleeding, but you're made of solid marble. So..."
Dawn yanks the blade out in one clean pull. "There we go. Now, to clean the blood off of you..."
Dawn turns to her teammates. "Hey, should we do the ritual here? Gods like it when you worship them directly. Plus we should get the blood stains off." She climbs back down off the statue.
"Oh hey, do you think the blade fits into this base?" Dawn tries to fit the sword into the T shaped aperture (unless someone wants to stop her.)
Dawn pulls the sword out effortlessly and places the blade in its home and hears a click.
A hidden drawer to slide out of the statue, presenting a beautiful ritual sword with a hilt and pommel styled in the shape of two celestial dragons entwined.
In addition to its use in religious rituals, the blade is a magical silver short sword.
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"It would seem to be some artifact--one well beyond the understanding of any mortal being." he suggests.
"Wow..." Dawn takes the short sword and notes the balance. "A gift from the gods, then? Cool!" She turns to give the Hei Feng statue a quick bow.
A very respectful, thankful bow, held just long enough to show deep respect without turning to mockery.
"Well Hei Feng, I won't let you down!" She turns to her friends. "Anyone wants this? If not, I'll carry it around."
You continue your search.
This room has an open and highly polished wooden floor. Hanging along all the walls are an assortment of weapons. On the southern wall hangs a portrait of an old tengu with silver-gray feathers. A deep gash has been cut across the painting, ruining it.