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Spreading his arms mockingly, he laughs. "This is no place to discuss such vital matters. Please join me at my camp. It is only a short distance from here and there I can summon you a sumptuous feast and entertain properly. You can tend your many wounds, as well." He nods at your still bleeding wounds.
"Although you may want to look for the beasts' nest before we leave. You may find something you like there and you have certainly earned it."
---------------------------------------------
When you arrive at Reysha's camp, you find it sparse yet strangely comfortable given the harsh surroundings. Even after decades of exile, he retains the proud and regal bearing of his esteemed ancestors. He summons a lavish dinner for you to enjoy as he arranges his weapon carefully near the fire in the center of his tent.
"To truly appreciate what news I will share of your friends you must know of my history first. I do not patrol the Crystal Womb by choice. Rather, I am an exile from the Opaline Vault -- the grandest metropolis throughout all the planes. My family loyally served Sultana Ashadieeyah bint Khalid before we were either cast out or imprisoned following accusations of dealing in bad faith."
He pauses to control his frustration at even speaking those words. Shaking his head, he continues.
"Ah, but that is a tale of sadness to make the very rocks weep! To speak plainly, my family was innocent -- someone framed us. When I am not hunting those crystal beasts, I look for whatever scant evidence I can to exonerate my family."
His eyes find yours.
"And this is where our stories meet. Not too long ago, two of your kind stumbled into my lands, lost and trapped in the Crystal Womb. They called themselves Sorrina and Grave Treader, and I found them in fair health but poor spirits. I offered them my hospitality and aid in exchange for their assistance, much as I do now. Once it became clear that Sorrina could speak my language, I offered her a wish that would return her to some place called Absalom in exchange for her entering the Lucent Archive—an esoteric library warded against those who consider the Earthplane home — and uncovering the location of three jewels that my family had lost."
"Since Grave Treader possessed no knowledge of my language, I offered her a different deal: to serve my extended family in the Opaline Vault for 1,000 days in exchange for her weight in silver and a return trip to this Absalom at the end of that term. Now, both women initially refused, though as their situation became more dire, they finally accepted the deal...
"So, you see, both have traveled where I cannot -- yet I know where each now dwells. Each agreed to perform services for this humble jeweler in exchange for assistance, but Sorrina has yet to honor our deal. She has had ample time to do so, but I have received no word. I do not suspect she had betrayed me. No, something has befallen her. Perhaps you would be willing to visit the Archive in her footsteps and fulfill my destiny and to discover your friend's ultimate fate."
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Dana will insist on taking any pathfinders’ remains with them.
Dana folds her arms.
”Thank you for your hospitality! You surely have given us a lot of information and we are grateful that you want to provide us assistance to find our two companions! At the same time we understand that you have your own motives so please let us negotiate the specifics of the deal!“ the Ifrit says.
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Arrius sits cross-legged on the ground, listening while his inner high seeks a solution.
"A situation most intriguing! Questions of family honor, mysterious warded vaults, and our missing Pathfinders faced with an impossible choice. But no knot is so tight it cannot be untied--with patience and time. Mayhaps we could enter into an arrangement by sharing information? We speak many different tongues, and I am not conversant with the 'Lucent Vault' or the 'Opaline Archive.'"
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"I'm not sure who these two fighters are, but they bravely charged in to defeat the crystal creatures. And who are you?"
"Hey, pay 'ttention! The [Orcish word for 'lawn ornament']'s talkin' about US!"
"Hey, you think big purple man's got a carpe-OH! Oh, hawhawhawhawhaw, we're no Pathfinders, we're just..."
"...we just dropped by to repay a debt."
"Yeah."
"Uh-huh."
The two's demeanor actually turns sober for a moment.
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Dana nods at her comrades and chooses her words wisely to accomplish the mission objectives.
“We wish to find all our remaining comrades alive and wish to return to Absolom together unharmed and with our belongings with us. To make it more difficult to twist my words, I’d wish for … “ she says and formulates the requirements to accomplish their missions.
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The shaitan stares into the dark distance. "I will only laugh and smile again when my family's honor is restored, young gnome."
Then he turns to the kineticist. "If it were so simple, it would have been done. But even a wish cannot succeed even more powerful magicks. The Archive is warded with such. I have heard that those who made this place,” says Reyshal, motioning to the great cavern and its crystalline vista outside his tent, “also left the archive as a record of the past and a way to record the ages to come. It seems that those creators also distrusted the creatures of Orv, for its grand galleries are warded against shaitans, elementals, and other true beings of earth. We cannot enter, under any circumstances. As a person of flesh and bone, Sorrina could both understand the language of stone and enter unharmed to learn the fate of Sairazul’s Tears.”
Dana and Arrius continue to review the situation and please the shaitan with their linguistic skills, weaving in subtleties of his language into the evolving terms that have become quite even more favorable for you and the Society. Reyshal uses his magic to imprint the the formal deal onto a copper tablet and asks to clasp hands one of you to seal the contract.
With the deal concluded, Reyshal assures you that you may use his camp as a place to rest, if desired, and he will guide you to the archives the next day.
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In the morning, Arrius goes through a series of stretches and exercises to achieve stillness and focus on the task ahead. When he's finished, he looks calm, and says to his allies "A challenge that Sorrina Westyr, a true adept of the arcane, could not overcome is one that must be significant indeed. We must not be as flies hurtling into darkness, only to be trapped in the same spider's web."
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Elby can lay on hands 8 times, which will heal 14 damage each (or 4d6, if we can't use the average out of combat). So I think she would use it thusly if we are resting overnight:
Zeno -32 damage -> Full HP (2 LOH plus sleep)
Ellyjoybell -26 damage -> -3 HP (1 LOH plus sleep)
Arrius <force shield> -57 damage -> -6 HP (3 LOH plus sleep)
Elbe -36 damage -> Full HP (2 LOH plus sleep)
Dana (fast heals everything)
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It takes the better part of the day for Reyshal to lead you across the crystalline wastes to your goal.
The sparse scrubland of rose-hued crystalline fans ends several hundred feet from a small cave entrance that glows softly with white light.
Within, the cave opens into a steeply sloped shaft hundreds of feet in diameter and crisscrossed with multifaceted prisms—some laced with veins of metal. Many of these pillars extend only several feet from the ground, creating a jagged staircase that leads to especially large columns near the bottom of the cavern.
"And this is as far as I can journey, I am permitted no further. Find what you can about my family and help me prove their innocence. I trust you will do what you can to find your friend as well. I wish you true luck on both endeavors." the shaitan speaks without a glance, but with an unaccustomed earnestness.
-----------------
Entering the strangely illuminated great cavern, you are struck by the sheer size and solemnness of the empty structure, although several vaguely anthropomorphic crystalline statues dot the broad tunnel entrance.
As you progress further into the archive, a sound can be heard. It is a soft humming being generated in the distance by a grey skinned woman with platinum blonde hair very slowly brushing her moistened finger along the surface of a pillar.
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After several minutes of stretching and taking in her surroundings, she returns to her full mental faculties and breaks free one slow leg at ta time from where several glassy filaments had rooted her in place.
She then experimentally opens her jaw a few times before announcing in a deep, feminine voice, “So, someone has finally followed in my footsteps. Welcome to the Crystal Womb. I am Sorrina Westyr, Master of Spells for the Pathfinder Society of Golarion. May I ask -- who are you and why have you graced the Archive with your presence on this day?”
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"Oooh, Sorrina! We're here looking for you. We really do need a new Master of Scrolls since our last one had a tragic accident. Well, our last one who isn't you, since you disappeared and we needed one in the meantime. But you look different than you used to. What happened to you? Why are you still here? Can we help you get out? Is your friend here, too? Anything we should keep an eye out for?"
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She looks at her new grayish skin, more fascinated than uncomfortable.
"It seems this place has changed me."
She considers the gnome's litany of questions for a pregnant pause before responding in kind.
“I have barely scratched the surface of what resides here. Soon after I arrived, the fey guardians and I negotiated a deal, allowing me to remain as long as I pleased so long as I did not trespass in the library’s deepest reaches. With Nethys’s magic, I created my own meals, yet long ago my hunger for knowledge supplanted my hunger for food."
"Yet, I have not yet discovered the location of Sairazul’s Tears, though I have traced where that information might appear: an area I am forbidden to enter, called the Sapphire Stacks. The fey guard it vigilantly, though I have not seen them recently.” She studies the nearby pillars for a moment before adding, “Several of these hum with dissonant tales, and this one has developed surface cracks, almost as if the Lucent Archive were suffering. I had assumed that the fey were giving me room to work, but perhaps they are instead combating this malady instead.”
“I have never actually been inside one of the towers, and if the information contained within is physically anchored, you may need to research and transcribe it as best you can. If there is a way to disrupt the wards, that might provide me a chance to enter and find what we need. If you can extract the records in a way that won’t harm them, that would be simplest. Once you have seen and overcome any dangers within, we can assess the best course of action.”
Sorrina hesitates before continuing.
“As for my Pathfinder friends... Braethin perished while defending us from xorns soon after we arrived. We were later assaulted by screeching fiends who separated us with darkness and pack tactics, and I managed to reunite only with Grave Treader; I do not know what became of Nissira and Setik, who had the wayfinder we needed to return to Absalom. A shaitan genie found the two of us, and we negotiated our passage back to the Grand Lodge in exchange for our service. As a linguist, I was able to research this conundrum of his in this place. My Shoanti friend instead agreed to serve his family—an opportunity she felt would help her understand a distant land. We are a party no more.”
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"Very well then, let us head to the Sapphire tower and see where fate leads us."
Sorrina guides you for a few minutes through the labyrinth of tunnels and chambers that make up the Archive. You seem to be the only ones here, save for a few crystalline statues that appear every few hundred feet. Sorrina slows down as several especially large, octagonal formations jut from the bottom of the Lucent Archive. Unlike the other prisms you have encountered, these are hollow and contain one or more rooms each.
"I believe this one holds the secret I seek."
It has a high-peaked set of double doors made from blue-tinted glass and silver. Only the tower’s northernmost facets are visible, for the rest of the structure is within the cavern’s wall.
As she approaches the tower, Sorrina’s stony flesh begins to crack and fleck. She grimaces. "I could become quite the liability if the wards become stronger, I shall wait here. If some of you would like some magical protection, my spells are slowly coming back to me."
She can cast each of these once each. Let me know which ones you take.
-------------------------
The doors open automatically for you as you approach.
Triangular designs etch the floor of this octagonal chamber, whose smooth walls of bluish crystal rise eighty feet to a peaked, eight-sided dome. A pair of two-foot-tall triangular daises of blue-tinged stone stands between double doors set into the north and south walls. Stacks of hundreds of inch-thick glassy plates tower higher than the doorframes.
Three pechs occupy the chamber, they turn in horror at your arrival screaming a litany
You also sense a dissonant hum that sends faint vibrations through the entire tower.
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Elly perks up at the spells. "I would love to get Air Walk on Bobble. I've been training her to stop panicking when she sees all that air under her hooves and it's been going really well. So far." She looks slightly dubious at her proclamation, but pats Bobble's neck.
---
Elly waves at the pech, smiling brightly. "But we aren't agents of Hsur...Hushr...Hurschur...That Person. We would like to be friendly."
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Zeno's acquaintances are long-gone by the time the party stirs for their new day.
He prepares his customary wards ...
...as well as finally getting around to using his strange wand from yesterday on himself, looking through it as though it were a kaleidoscope.
He accepts the blessings of magic vestment and remove fear from Sorrina, whose transformation he can only marvel at silently from the back before they move on.
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Zeno's expression remains almost as stony as the vault around him.
"Ah, Pechs. Faeries of the deep earth," He announces with surreal calm. "I hope everybody's brought cold iron; magic doesn't take to them with ease, but if anyone could bring a good bright flash of some sort to bear, I would suggest it."
For his own part, Zeno concentrates upon his bow while sprinkling powdered magnesium across it, and even those just standing near him can feel it begin to pulse with unnatural power.
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The archer readies his bow to deal death while the psychic speeds up the group's actions. One of the pechs races to the front of the dais and raises its chiseled hand toward the gnome. "You first, fey traitor!"
Red pech leader
Zeno <mage armor, false life 11, gravity bow>
Dana
Orange pech
Xuan Fung <aid>
Ellyjoybell <air walk, spell resistance, shield of faith> <Need a will save before taking your turn>
Yellow pech
Elbe <freedom of movement>
Arrius
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Elly's eyes start to drift close.
But she shrugs off the suggestion, shaking her head. "Hey, I haven't even set foot in your library! I get the feeling they don't like me. Ride like the wind, Bobble!"
She kicks Bobble who takes a second then charges past the red pech, stepping into the air to make the transition to the upper level easier.
for
"Ha, take that!" she exclaims as Bobble wheels around for another pass.
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Buoyed by the winds that perpetually surround him and quickened by Dana's magic, Fung finally allows himself to rise into the air and flies towards the same target that Elly went after. He keeps himself high enough to be out of reach of the creature, while manifesting
[ooc]Air Wysp Aura, Elemental Overflow, Haste, Aid
Burn: Kinetic Whip (+2), Infusion Specialisation (-2)
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Fung glides over the leader to deliver a blast. The pech is prepared and avoids the first strike. She is not as lucky with the powerful charge that follows.
Her partner angles the same drowsy hex... but this time at Bobble!
Red pech leader -46 damage
Zeno <mage armor, magic vestment, remove fear, false life 11, gravity bow>
Dana
Orange pech
Xuan Fung <aid 16 hp, fly 10 feet up, kinetic whip>
Ellyjoybell <air walk 5 feet up, spell resistance, shield of faith> <Need a will save from Bobble>
Yellow pech
Elbe <freedom of movement>
Arrius
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Elbe advances and swings mightily but the pech witch is too deft. Arrius slides in using mental anguish against the besieged leader and she reel in pain.
Determined to destroy the opposed kineticist she carefully weaves together a storm of crystal shards into a whip of her own and lashes out at the floating foe.
Red pech leader <kinetic whip> -59 damage
Zeno <mage armor, magic vestment, remove fear, false life 11, gravity bow>
Dana
Orange pech
Xuan Fung <aid 16 hp, fly 10 feet up, kinetic whip> -42 damage
Ellyjoybell <air walk 5 feet up, spell resistance, shield of faith> <Need a will save from Bobble>
Yellow pech
Elbe <freedom of movement>
Arrius