1-01 - The Round Robin Absalom Initiation (Inactive)

Game Master Tyranius

"Marcos Farabellus is the Master of Swords, Kreighton Shaine is the Master of Scrolls, and Sorrina Westyr is the Master of Spells. Those were our teachers," Isurus says. "Eando Kline of the Vigilant Seal sent us to determine if the ritual this researcher is performing is safe or dangerous."

Ogren bounces up and down at the mention of being allowed in the place cause of being a Pathfinder. He never got to go anywhere exclusive! Beaming he bounces up next to Isurus, "Also Gorm Greathammer is a distant cousin! I'm adopted, of course! Why I don't have a great beard and am a goblin not a dwarf! But anyways we heard there was some sort o' ritual going on here and make sure it's safe to be performing! Can you let us in?"

The man nods at Isurus: "Hey, you had me at Marcus Fabarellus! Only Pathfinders know that name.
I'm, Chayron."
He waves you all on in and past him.
As Ogren comes up, the man leans over and whispers:
"The ritual is safe, and VERY important. You can perform it yourself!"
He offers his broom to Ogren.
"You can finish cleaning this room first."
Then, he laughs:
"I'm sure you imagine have more important things to do!
Follow me."

He moves through the museum, and you see the exhibits in a couple rooms--
--a medical exhibit, after a fashion, that focused on bizarre occurrences and freakish anomalies preserved in liquid. Very creepy!
--a perennial draconic-themed exhibit that includes an alabaster obelisk engraved with Draconic runes, dragon hides, and a taxidermied wyvern!
--before you arrive at an unobtrusive staircase in the museum's northeast corner, behind the stuffed wyvern.
"Ms. Tavvar has been performing her research on the third floor.
That's two floors up.
Do be careful. I mean, I am somewhat troubled by the odd manifestations in the museum, there's stuff appearing, and dust collecting fast, but I assume she has matters under control.
You Pathfinders always do!"

Alaric turns to look at the man, not dropping his gaze. "We would like to watch this ritual if we can. Can you arrange that?" He inquires.

Alaric turns to look at the man, not dropping his gaze. "We would like to watch this ritual if we can. Can you arrange that?" He inquires.

Ogren pauses for a second, "Aren't we headed to see the ritual on the third floor? ...OR! are you wanting to see Chayron's Broom Ritual? I kinda want to see it too, but we should look into Tavvar's first!" He springs up the stairs, two at a time (impressive for a little one) and rounds the corner at the top. Gazing through the darkness to find another set of stairs, he starts looking around for where to go.

"My broom ritual... I do every day."
He sighs.
"Every day... So you can see it whenever you want.
But, that's the only ritual I can arrange for you to see.
For watching the other ritual, upstairs, go on up and ask her to see it, I guess. I'm sure she won't mind. Might even be happy to."

Ogren rushes on up-- and reaches the second floor.
Rounding the corner he sees a big hall, a small corridor behind him, a door in front, some other corridors opposite him, another door there... plenty of things, but no more stairs.
Where to go?

Sniff sniff... there's a faint aroma of bad smell, coming from behind the door just behind the stairs. top side of map, marked with yellow sign
The smell of a ritual? Some bodily fluids being used... people sacrificed?

Put new map on slide 1

Ogren sniffs the air and makes a face. "Ain't smelled things like this since I tried to visit where Meemaw said my family came from. The Gravelands STANK!" He bounces from foot-to-foot as he comes up to the door. Giving a knock he loudly bellows "HELLLOOOO IN THERE! ARE YOU DOING A RITUAL? IS THIS THE THIRD FLOOR? IS SOMEONE DE-, DECOM-, DE-WRITING-MUSIC IN THERE?"

Slightly concerned/intrigued about having a such a large map when the ritual is just in one room...

Jaxon follows Ogren up the stairs. He face darkens as he smells the aroma. "Can't be for certain, but it's close to some of the smells that would come from the cells where guards would beat people." He draws his morningstar, but keeps it low along his side. He follows Ogren up the stairs, prepared to push his way in if needed.

Perception +5; Society +3; Arcane +3 to recognize the smell

"We need to find the next stairs up, come on."

Ilmryn will check the first corridor

"Upward, if we are to assess the ritual before it is complete," Isurus says. "Let us find the stairs."

Alaric begins to look down the hallways and peek in a couple of rooms. "Let's find the stairs to the third floor, spread out."

Ogren bellows-- but there is no answer.
Nothing.

Jaxon recognizes the faint aroma of... urine-- coming from behind the door close to him. (the one with the yellow mark)

Ilmyrn checks the first two corridors on the opposite side.
They are both long, all the way to the outer wall.
The first one has a bunch of doors opening into it, on both sides.
The second one has some openings in it, and, at the end, some big stairs going downstairs.

There is then an opening into some room-- that Alaric passes by, quickly glancing at. It seems this room has some prints or pages on the walls and display cases in the center.
There seems to be someone muttering something inside.
Where Alaric stops, there is a corridor like the one Ilmyrn saw, that leads to some stairs going down.
In front of Alaric, a big room with some doors in it.
The big room has a gigantic reptilian beast ion display in the center of what is an expansive gallery.
The beast seems to be ferociously leering over a collection of taxidermy animals and monsters.
Alaric sees shadows flit between the displays, and he sees some probable museum patrons.
When, SUDDENLY--

--SUDDENLY you hear a distant shriek echo off the walls, as--
--the shadow of a stuffed owlbear lashes out at one of of the shadow-visitors with its talons!
The visitor falls to the ground, crying!
And-- the shadow of the tyrannosaur in the room’s center, the shadow of this beast simply moves away from its source!
The shadow leaves the tyrannosaur!-- and the shadow snaps at the misty image of yet another patron!
The patron is swallowed hole!
Other shadows snarl and hiss, scuffling amongst themselves as shadow-guests panic and run toward the exit, racing straight towards Alaric.
They whimper and mumble... "Someone is de-- decom-- de-writing-music!"

Samna has been on edge since she arrived in the museum, and this certainly isn't helping.

"Do you think this is all caused by the ritual? We need to find that researcher!"

Do the big stairs at the south end of the building lead up to a different floor?

"We're opening this door. At least something is behind here." Jaxon rubs his nose, trying to get rid of the scent, but to no effect. He glances back to wait for the others to gather, then he opens the door to see what is causing the urine smell.

I'll wait for others to gather before I open the door. I figure we got to start somewhere.

"It certainly doesn't bode well if the ritual is not causing it." Alaric shudders as they shadows move and speak. "There are stairs down this way, lets keep moving."

"What are they? Illusions?" Isurus asks.

Samna sees that both big set of stairs, the ones seen by Ilmyrn and by Alaric, are the ones they said go downstairs. Back to the ground floor from where you came.

Jaxon opens the door-- and the whiff of urine is a bit stronger.
(room revealed on the map)
He is facing the restrooms.
Several stalls, a bit over a half a dozen.
Buckets of water to rinse them out.
And the odor that goes with old toilets.
The place is empty.

The stairs Alaric moves to, are the stairs that he saw go back down to the ground floor, just like he noticed when seeing them.
Looking back towards the center of the room behind him, Alaric sees--
(room revealed on the map)
--that the carefully framed spellbook pages hang along all this room’s walls.
And the small display cases in the room’s center-- hold eldritch relics.
Also, in the cornerss, shadows hang thicker than the rest of the room--
--and Alaric sees a boisterous half-orc woman with a pirate's hat standing in one corner, surrounded by vague figures.
She welcomes Alaric, her voice thin and reedy, but eerily familiar:
“Congratulations! Let me spice up that punch a bit for you — to celebrate, of course!”
And she pours some liquid from a little flask.

Still downstairs, Isurus wonders what people are talking about...

"Seems like these are reflections of our memories or at least events we experienced recently. But she's got to be here somewhere. Isurus, get up here!" Jaxon moves over to the room to the south and opens that door.

"I'm not any kind of knowledgable about the arcane, but it seems likely that the ritual is not going as intended if shadows are re-enacting the past. I doubt this shadow-stuff is completely unrelated to the ritual at any rate."

Will check the room with the dinosaur.

"They could be some sort of illusions? But they seem so real." Alaric reaches out for one of the shadows.

Ogren springs into the bathrooms looking for a ritual and or a dead body. He bounces around the place, and after a moment, comes plodding out, disappointed he was so mistaken about the place.

After a moment he rebounds and tries to come up behind Ilmryn, sneakily.

Stealth, untrained: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Thinking he might be sneaky enough, he tries to spring on the half-elf with a ROAR!

Intimidation, untrained: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

He laughs and comes abreast of Ilmryn. "Did I scare you?"

Jaxon opens the door, revealing a long, narrow presentation space that has seating for around thirty guests.
And there are thirty guests present-- or, at least it seems as though the shadows of an audience still fill the plush seats.
Jaxon can close his eyes re-open them, try to cleanse his mind of illusions-- the shadowy figures remain. They all face a low stage at the south end of the room.
And a chill draft sweeps through the room-- while a whispery voice echoes from the podium.
“--and rather than engage in a responsible, controlled study of the codebook, Yargos Gill decided — imprudently — to simply execute the signals listed therein...”

Ilmyrn moves into the the room with the dinosaur, as shadowy figures finish running out of the room, screaming faintly, darting all around him to get away.
Suddenly, the shadow of big tyrannosaur - nowhere near the tyrannosaur itself - pounces at Ilmyrn, landing in the barbarian's shadow, and trying to bite and slash at his shadow.
At the same time the shadow-dinosaur seems to leap at Ilmyrn-- but ends up attacking his own shadow... something behind Ilmyrn ROARs at him.

Alaric sees the shadow move over his hand, just like a shadow would.
He feels nothing-- but neither does this seem to be an illusion.
It seems to simply - but strangely! - be a moving shadow. A shadow of a man running away. A detached shadow, without anything to project it... An independent, autonomous shadow.

Isurus reasserts his agency and:
--climbs the stairs from the first floor to the second floor.
--identifies where his allies are located and that they are not in danger
--moves systematically through the open areas of the second floor
--identifies the shadow scenes
--assesses them to not be aggressive or dangerous
--continues moving systematically through the open areas of the second floor until he finds a set of stairs leading upwards.

Isurus finds his way to a large room with a reptile in it, and stairs at the back of the room leading up.

There is a gigantic reptilian beast is on display in the center of this expansive gallery, ferociously leering over the collection of taxidermy animals and monsters. Shadows flit between the displays, meandering and shuffling shapes reminiscent of museum patrons. Then a distant shriek echoes off the walls, as the shadow of a stuffed owlbear lashes out at one of the shadow-visitors with its talons. The shadow of the tyrannosaur in the room’s center departs from its source and snaps at the misty image of another patron, tossing its head back and seeming to swallow its meal nearly whole. Other shadows snarl and hiss, scuffling amongst themselves as shadow-guests panic and run toward the exit.

As everyone looks around they swear that there used to be a sixth member of their party, but they can't quite remember who . . . like there was a weird time hiccup and suddenly there were only five of you.

Ogren stands in the middle of the hallway, blinking for a moment as he finishes up roaring at an open room. After a moment tears start welling up in his eyes as the deep dreadful sense that a good friend just stopped existing washes through him.

He looks about the place, there are the four others he came in with, but there was definitely someone else... Tall, dark, handsome for an... what was he.. she? The momentary grasp of memory starts to fade like a dream after waking up. The goblin tries to grab onto it, but it goes like a wisp of smoke in the wind. After a moment of crying, he starts to wipe his tears and plods into the room after Isurus. Pulling on the azarketi's shirt, Ogren looks up at him with glistening eyes. "Did we lose someone? I think we lost someone? Maybe? I can't quite remember them though..."

Isurus draws one of his tridents from over his shoulder and turns toward the source of the shriek. His heart races even though he has seen these shadow images earlier and they proved harmless. "I think--," he begins to reply to Ogren, "these shadows are manipulating our minds."

He waits for the others to gather. "Here is another set of stairs."

"Yes, let's push forward, and stick together! Things are getting strange in here."

Samna follows Isurus closely.