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With or without your new friend, you return to Dreng’s hideout in the Quiets. The Venture Captain informs you that he has indeed managed to track down both of the missing items: the Cerulean Nemes and the Oda Painting.
”They’re both at an Onyx Alliance warehouse in the old Wightir House. That house was once the coterminous connection point between the Material Plane’s Blakros Museum and the Shadow Plane, you know. But ever since Nigel used the shadow obelisk to restructure the museum’s layout a few years ago,” he pauses to roll his eyes, ”the House has shared no link with the museum beyond still holding onto its former structural layout.”
Dreng scratches at his fake fetchling nose and points out the location of the Wightir House on the map of the city he gave you. ”I don’t mind disguises, but I’ve been wearing this one for so long, it’s starting to get a little old.”
”Head over there and recover the objects. I’ll be in the area, so I’ll know how it turns out. No need to report back to me, just take all the objects back to the Blakros’,” he says handing over the Crusader’s Blade to you.
When you arrive at the imposing structure, you notice that the Wightir House certainly bears some resemblance to the Blakros Museum, but it is definitely not an exact copy. You also notice that the double doors stand wide open.
Great pillars of hewn black stone support the vaulted ceiling of this building’s grand entryway, visible through its open double doors. Braziers mounted on the pillars cast dull blue light from their flickering flames. Two decrepit taxidermy dinosaurs stand vigil in the northern corners of the chamber, their forms tattered and broken in several places. A ten-foot-wide hall extends past the two sentinels, with two doors near this chamber and one at the far opposite end of the hall.
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Bon Jon stares at the open doors. "that seems odd, doncha think?"
Before entering, he spends one ki to activate bark skin on himself and also asks one of his comrades to use his wand of mage armor on him.
Mindful of how terribly he messed things up earlier, Bon Jon waits for the others to decide the best approach. "I could try to sneak in stealthy-like. What do you think?"
Taking normal precautions, you find no traps or obvious magical emanations. As you enter the atrium, Linorn King wax golem in tow, a sheet of waist-high blue flame suddenly cuts across the chamber from east to west, sectioning the area in two. A circle of similar flame a foot high rises between the two immense statues at the chamber’s northern end. Then, as though emerging from water, a raven-haired woman with skin of near-alabaster white appears. Dressed in a stylish, dark violet dress armor that shifts as though it were oily liquid, the woman looks out with glowing yellow eyes. Her image is just translucent enough to be readily obvious as an illusion, though clearly a real-time projection of her from wherever she actually is. After a moment, she introduces herself.
”Welcome to Wightir House, Pathfinders. I am Sarnia Blakros.” She bows slightly and gives the fact of her family name time to sink in.
“I suppose this is the moment where most of your ‘villains’ would gloat about their plans and how you’ve fallen into their trap. Well, I like to think I’m not a villain, and I would ask that you review your own organization’s history, not to mention that of the Blakros family. I’ve appeared here to let you know that, under my leadership, the Onyx Alliance has little interest in pursuing a vendetta against the Pathfinder Society. Assuming, of course, that you break off your ties with the Blakros family.
“This of course leads into the ‘why’ question. So, I’ll spare us all the pedantic headache and summarize: For over six hundred years, the Blakros family had an agreement with the Onyx Alliance. The Alliance provided their considerable resources to assist with the Blakros’s early smuggling operations. In exchange, the Blakros family offered up a hefty number of slaves and their eldest daughters from each generation. Without recounting a whole history lesson, my name is Sarnia Blakros, and I am one of those daughters sacrificed on the altar of history and contractual obligations.
“Why would I reveal all of this? Well, because unlike the Onyx Alliance leadership who preceded me, I like to think that my opposition isn’t completely inept. In fact, I fully expect you to overcome the challenges set forth in this building and return to the Material Plane with all the objects that I acquired from the Blakros... from my family’s museum. I even promise that beyond the walls of this building, you’re safe to return with all the items free of any Alliance interference.”
Sarnia entertains your questions, offering herself as an engaging conversationalist. She can afford to be nonchalant knowing that you can’t harm her.
She reveals that she was one of the last Blakros daughters to be offered up to the Onyx Alliance before the Society ended that arrangement .
She then goes on the explain why you’re really here. “While I recognize that you’ll likely triumph here, I still need to provide some challenge. I heard you took the Crusader’s Blade from the messengers I’d sent to meet with Drandle Dreng. Oh, don’t look shocked, of course I knew it was him.”
She pauses and examines her perfectly manicured ebony fingernails. ”Besides, if I just gave you all the items back, your superiors would assume that was my intent all along. Once you return, you’re going to report back that I expected you to take back the items, so they may think that anyways. What can I say; I like to keep my opposition on their toes!” Sarnia smirks.
”That being said, I certainly didn’t prepare for that... thing… to take the headdress to the western rooms. Don’t ask me about it. It’s really something you need to see and experience for yourself. The painting is in the northernmost room, though I suggest you investigate the eastern and western wings before going there. You’ll be better prepared if you do so,” she hints with a smile.
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Bon Jon rubs his forehead as if trying to stave off a migraine. "The master used to pose us riddles like this too - oh how they made my head hurt - I suppose that's why he used to say that it was only good for breaking boards..."
Turning to the apparition of Madame Blakros, Bon Jon enquires, "So you're saying that you don't want to fight us so you'll let us take all the stuff that we came for but you know that if you don't fight us the Society leadership will be suspicious... which is just what you want!?! Did I get that right?"
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"I neither know you nor the Blakros museum! But I know your agents from the Cairn of Shadows and the guy we had to fight was evil! I dispise any kind of slavery and thus I have to admit that I am not fond of your family either. What are your plans for your organization now that you are the leader?"
Suussmaar casts Defending Bone [7 hours], bless, Weapon of Awe, Resist Energy (cold), and Shield of Wings [all 7 minutes].
He waits for her answer and then walks to the eastern room.
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Sarnia smiles at Bedisa. ”And I don’t want to be your enemy either. Especially in light of how you helped to end that infernal accord. My family had no right to keep sending us here, generation after generation. Making us slaves, essentially,” she finishes with a look to Suussmaar.
“Now then, I suppose we should get this over with. Best of luck.” Sarnia’s image and the associated flames immediately disappear in blast of smoke. A moment later, one of the triceratops statues activates and begins advancing towards the party.
Bold May Act
Wightir House Dino
Elenial
Bedisa
Dino
Bon Jon
Suussmaar
Grunjar
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Beidsa feels the power rush through her veins. The black of her eyes change to an eerie icy blue. "Thank you Grunjar," a voice that isn't Bedisa calls out.
()
The half-orc shaman pounces up towards the dinosaur, forgetting all her worries, and slashes it across the chest.
But she tumbles and slashes the air instead.
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Elenial sinks an arrow cleanly into the dino. There seems to be something strange about this particular piece of statuary, as if perhaps it was assembled hastily or by an amateur.
Sadly, Bedisa misses with a rage fueled blow. And the dino now finds an easy target right in its face.
Everyone May Act
Wightir House Dino
Elenial
Bedisa
Dino
Bon Jon
Suussmaar
Grunjar
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Suussmaar peppers the dino, every arrow easily hitting and shredding its hide. Bedisa in turn smiles, lines up her attack, and with all of her strength does in fact decapitate the cloth construct. Its heavy horned head drops to the floor, and its body slumps to the ground, all semblance of animation gone.
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This larger chamber probably once contained quite a bt of furniture or other items, but it appears that Sarnia had her agents clear it all out in anticipation of your arrival. Now the large storeroom is empty, and the two doors on its northern wall stand ajar.
Those doors lead to rooms that the Onyx Alliance converted into makeshift storage and quarters for visiting agents. The western of the two is little more than a meeting room with empty boxes and barrels used as makeshift tables and chairs. The other, smaller room contains several stalls with upright beds for Alliance agents staying here. Neither of these spaces contains anything of note.
Your team returns to the hallway, and readies itself to enter the western doorway.
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Grunjar places his hands upon the door and closes his eyes. Desna slowly reveals to him an image of the room beyond.
A few benches rest along the side walls, while several training dummies occupy the center of this spacious chamber. A partly opened wooden door leads out of the room to the north. The room is unoccupied.
The chilled air here speaks to some kind of magical refrigeration, though it has little effect beyond misting your breath.
Once a cold storage chamber used by the Onyx Alliance, the area has been repurposed into something of a training and break area with magic to cool off the hard-working participants. A cursory examination of the dummies shows that they were used recently and bear marks from a variety of different slashing and piercing weapons. There are no weapons or armor in the room. Clearly Sarnia's plans didn't include leaving you anything useful.
Elenial, Grunjar and Suussmaar all note the subtle smell of raw sewage wafting in from the open door to the north.
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The pungent stench of sewage fills this next small, dark room. Tipped over crates fill the southern end of the chamber, some leaking a rainbow of muted colors onto the floor. Once a storage site for alchemical items, this chamber has found a new purpose thanks to its sole occupant: a peculiar otyugh with a rare additional tentacle. Even more strangely, two of the otyugh’s tentacles sport hats on the ends. One of those is in tatters, and another is clearly an ancient Osiriani headdress.
”Oh, Hello!,” the otyugh says as Elenial peeks into the room. He initially appears friendly, but quickly grows guarded. ”You’re not here fer mah Hats are ya’? Cause I just lost one,” he says dejectedly. ”I put sum o’ this bright green paint on Willuh,” he says waving the remnants of an Andoran tricorn around. ”And then he So now I only have one Hat left!”
A quick look shows that the “paint” applied to Willuh was in reality an alchemical acid.
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”Willuh was a naice Hat,” the strange otyugh cries softly. ”Do ya’ really think you could get me a new one? Are there any others ‘round here?” he inquires. ”Oh, no, I don’t let anyone dash my habers,” he says looking confused at Bon Jon’s use of such a big word. ”They’re all very special to me.”
You continue to banter back and forth about what might be in the rest of the Wighter House and your interest in trading him for the Nemes.
"We’ll wait here,” he finally says after meeting the wax golem and seeing his big horned Hat. ”We talk about Hats.”
”And then you will lead me to the Linorn,” King Fahrstad states emphatically as he settles down on a crate on alchemical supplies. You realize that you can easily gather several of each of the most common* alchemical weapons and items from the crates.
Having placated the friendly otyugh and left him to play with the reticent golem, you make your way down the hall to the final doors……
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Grunjar again places his hands upon the door and closes his eyes. Desna once more graces him with a vision of the large unusual room beyond.
Harsh, cold blue illumination fills this space, coming from braziers hoisted up on the ceiling some thirty feet above. A cracked-wide ebony pyramid rises ten feet off the ground in the chamber’s center, covered by a thick layer of dust. Small cases line the joins between wall and floor along the northern edge of the room. A series of paintings hang from the northern wall, each depicting a somber scene in muted colors.
Clearly, once the site of a ritual chamber and eeriely familiar to Bedisa in particular, the broken pyramid in the room’s center is something of a relic that Sarnia ordered left undisturbed due to the historical significance it had to the Alliance’s association with the Blakros family. Of the three pictures mounted on the wall, the Yamada Osa painting rests at the center. As Nigel Aldain’s inventory list indicated, the image portrays the somber view of a Tian Xia village situated between a mountain and a forest.
In addition to the creepy painting and eerie pyramid, a duo of golems guards the portraits and treasure stored in this chamber. These icy statues stand a head taller than a normal human. A rime of frost coats them, and razor-sharp shards of ice adorn their limbs.
Bold May Act
Wightir House Boss Fight
Grunjar
Bon Jon
Blue
Green
Elenial
Suussmaar
Bedisa
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(...)
Grunjar will gladly stock up on alchemical items. "A few tanglefoot bags and also some vials of alchemist's fire may come in handy, won't they?"
After getting a good look at the northern room, Grunjar informs the others of the situation on the other side of the door.
"Beware of the two icy golems guards! They're a head taller than a normal human and are covered in razor-sharp ice! Maybe we can glue them to the ground?"
He then draws his tanglefoot bag and starts casting some buff spells in the following order:
Finally, Sussmaar gets a bit of luck before the door is opened.
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The door opens onto a scene exactly as Grunjar described to you, the ice golems standing ready beneath the high-ceiling .
Grunjar finishes up his buffs as Bon Jon rushes forward and kicks the Blue tinted one. It seems that his kick barely fazed it, but the fire certainly took a toll. However, the ice of its body is so intensely cold that Bon Jon’s feet are injured by it, even through his shoes. The shock of the cold causes the monk’s flaming sword to miss.
It immediately retaliates twice against the closest target that also happens to have melted it some:
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The first slam hits solidly, but the second misses, the golem distracted by the fire of Bon Jon’s fists.
The other golem seems to have been made with old seawater with Green algae in it. It steps closer to Bedisa and unleashes a blast of icy air at her and Grunjar
Everyone May Act
Wightir House Boss Fight
Grunjar
Bon Jon
Blue
Green
Elenial
Suussmaar
Bedisa
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Suussmaar currently has five burning wings that grant a fly speed but he is on the ground currently.
He 5 ft steps, casts a swift spell with his fervor and activates his boots of speed. He then starts shooting at the ice thing in front of the monk with clustered shots!!
"WOW! I feel lucky Grunjar!" Suussmaar shouts.
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Elenial’s arrow hits her target, but seems to take only a small chip out of it’s shoulder.
Bon Jon shifts position and waits for a teammate to join him in melee. Before that can happen Suussmaar lets a volley of lucky arrows go, every single one of them striking their target(s). The first several arrows all hit the same spot on Blue drilling into its icy form. Shards of ice fly all over Bon Jon, but then to everyone’s surprise, the monk is suddenly caught in an ice explosion!
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Suussmaar shifts targets even as ice and hail pummel Bon Jon, and again all his shots hit true. And like its partner, Green explodes catching Bedisa and Grunjar in its blast.
plus
A quiet falls over the room after the last of the ice shards settles to the ground. There are no enemies remaining as far as you can tell. Only an eerie painting on the far wall awaits…..
Bedisa May Act
Wightir House Boss Fight
Grunjar
Bon Jon
Blue
Green
???
Elenial
Suussmaar
Bedisa
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Bon Jon twists and drops to one knee as the blast passes completely over him. Bedisa, though, is not as lucky. Standing like a wall she catches the full force of both the breath weapon and the exploding golem’s death throes. Blood diluted with melting ice drips from multiple wounds in the big lady, but she’s still up! Grunjar also dodges most of the explosion, then quickly channels a burst of healing which Bedisa surely appreciates.
But it’s not nearly enough as, suddenly, from out of nowhere, a searing beam of light strikes the Desnan cleric.
Elenial realizes that the shooter is maintaining invisibility but moved after firing. The quarry is now not far from Bedisa, but would be very difficult to hit.
Everyone May Act
Wightir House Boss Fight
Grunjar
Bon Jon
Blue
Green
???
Elenial
Suussmaar
Bedisa
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Suussmaar is easily able to identify the location of the enemy after Elenial had pointed it out. Ragathiel’s holiness overcomes the arcane invisibility, and a female half-elf suddenly appears. And she appears quite surprised, too!
”What the…?,” she gasps as her situation dawns on her. ”Damnit, you Path-losers are always sooo over-prepared. No wonder everyone hates us…, I mean you all, so much.”
Bold May Act
Wightir House Boss Fight
Grunjar
Bon Jon
Blue
Green
Chalos
Elenial
Suussmaar
Bedisa