The comm units of the Starfinders present chime in unison, and a hologram of Ehu appears as his message plays. “Good work, Starfinders! Reports indicate you’ve almost reached the site’s inner sanctum. All strange temporal fluctuations we’ve recorded center around this point. All teams, please rendezvous at these coordinates so we can try to find a way in.”
An unusual crate of equipment has appeared in the Sanctum.
Numerous entrances converge on this semi-circular hall, which curves around another chamber within, surrounding it on three sides. The only entrance to the inner room is an immense door built of pitch-black stone. Scrawled on this door’s sliding panels are six glowing glyphs, their light pulsing in a steady pattern. The door into the inner sanctum is made of magically-treated stone, which is extremely hard and cannot be physically broken.
To open the door, you must arrange the glyphs into a specific pattern. The door is trapped with several other defenses that you need to bypass to safely open it. You can take one of several roles to help open the cipher door.
Calculate Cipher Solutions: Computers
Decipher the Glyphs: Culture
Disable Mundane Traps: Engineering
Nullify Magical Defenses: Mysticism
|
After a bit of examination of the glyphs Teka tells the others, "I don't believe these are words or letters from any language, but are rather are mystical symbols. I don't think there will be a nice little word we can rearrange them into."
"I think I could take on most of the bits of these, although the nature of the mystical isn't something I've picked up on. I could pick up on trying decipher what these glyphs mean. I have been rather slow at it before though, still I hope I may have picked up a little now."
|
|
"You would be correct Zargothrax." Nodding to Maxamax, Teka will pull out her datapad and begin taking notes on the glyphs. "Sometimes one has to buckle down and not take shortcuts, let me see if I can parse this bit by breaking down the little glyphs into smaller parts. Hopefully that will give us the direction we need."
While everyone eagerly awaits Daata's engineering roll to help open the cipher door, a crate materializes right next to all of you!
It's a huge wooden crate that has been stamped with a circular mark.
Inside are more wooden boxes!
BOX ONE
The first wooden box inside of the supply crate contains six thin bottles filled with blue liquid and stoppered with pieces of porous wood.
BOX TWO
A second wooden box holds six round-bottomed bottles filled with a red liquid.
An unfortunate person who tries to drink the liquid takes fire damage before forcefully vomiting to expel the rest of the liquid. Spicy indeed!
These function as mk 3 incendiary grenades.
BOX THREE
A third wooden box holds three sacks made of a plant‑based cloth and secured with a plant-based rope. They smell vaguely pine-scented.
Each of these sacks functions as a stickybomb grenade III.
BOX FOUR
The fourth box you find is tiny, velvet and hinged. Inside is a humming violet crystal ball that you soon identify as a Purple Sphere Aeon Stone.
THE OTHER CONTENTS OF THE CRATE
The crate also holds a bow, a hatchet, and a longsword that are well-balanced despite their archaic materials of wood, steel, and sinew. All three weapons are adorned with glowing magical runes.
These function as an advanced battlebow, a sintered handaxe, and a sintered longsword, respectively. I do not advise that you try to drink them.
|
|
"Oh this is a lovely surprise. It looks like these bits gear are back from the Pathfinder Society. It looks like we found a supply of their gear."
Teka begins examining the set of bottles as she notes, "it looks like these are a chemical-based grenade. This would create some nasty burns, although not as bad as what Zargothrax has been throwing out." Teka takes one of the explosive bottles and may scavenge some more once others had a chance to examine them.
Click. Whirr.
Still needed:
Computers
Culture
Mysticism
You slide and work on the door like it was a puzzle box, while other Starfinder teams work on calculations to solve the other locks!
|
Zarg goes back to check out the loot crate.
"So uh... old paffinder stuff? Lemme see..."
"Ooh! This one's medicine! Like a healing serum. Says 'cure moderate wounds' onnit... that's a weird way 'o puttin it."
"Yeeeup! Ah concur! Big badaboom juice! Dun drink that."
Zargothrax nearly glues his hands together but somehow deftly reassembles a bag.
"Glue bag! Prolly fer throwin... not openin'"
With a hum, the glyphs in the door flash blue as they realign, a wave of energy shimmering over them. The door swings open, revealing a massive chamber containing a tall archway made of red stone.
The chamber beyond the Cipher Door is enormous. Its most prominent feature is a round archway of luminous crystal set atop a red stone platform at its center. The arch crackles with veins of light, providing surprisingly bright illumination. Pillars arrayed beside the door lead in and around the arch, and an empty fountain stands to the right of the entrance. Next to the archway, carving symbols into the crystal, is a summerborn ryphorian woman dressed in a jaunty traveler's outfit. At the sound of the door opening, she turns around, surprise evident on her face. “Ah, hello,” she mumbles hesitantly. “Can I…help you?” She chuckles nervously, then shakes her head. “Sorry. I haven't been around people much lately.”
Her voice sounds familiar. Didn't you hear it echoing when you were in the time loop a while back?
Daata looks at the rhyphorian ponderously. "What is your name? How long have you been here?"
“My goodness, you're a serious sort, aren't you? My name is Felise,” the ryphorian says with a mischievous smile. “Dimensional explorer extraordinaire—or at least, I was.” Her expression dims momentarily. “Lately I've been more focused on theoretical research. As for how long I have been here... that's a really hard one to answer right now. I could tell you with equal accuracy a few hours subjective time or goodness knows how many millennia objective time.”
"I uh... thought ah might've herdja earlier... Ahm Zargothrax McDonald! Lookin inta some stuff 'bout time goin' bonkers. Seemed like this was the inner sanctum. Ya know anythin' bout that?"
“I should hope I do, or this has been an entire waste of -- er, time. This is the Eternity Arch. As far as I can tell, it's a portal to the Dimension of Time, built eons ago, though I have no idea who originally constructed it. Its primary purpose seems to be psychic transference, allowing people to communicate briefly across time, but I'm trying to modify it to physically bring someone through instead." Then she glances worriedly again at all of you. ”Wait. None of you are time travelers, right? Because I am trying bring someone completely different, and don't want to pull anyone else out of their time."
Felise looks wistful for a moment, then sighs. “I want my dragonkin partner, Heraxia, back. Years ago, we were exploring a temporal passageway when we were attacked by hounds of Tindalos. We escaped but got separated in the process. I was able to get back home, but Heraxia wasn't so lucky. We've been able to stay in touch intermittently with empathic communication through our bond, and from what we can tell, she's in the distant past—on Lost Golarion, if you can believe that!” She glances to the archway, brow furrowing. “It's been a long time. I just want to get her back.”
She glances hopefully at all of you. "Studying and researching the ruins? Which school are you from? The Arcanirum? SENOT? U of Q?" She looks you all over, appraisingly. "Do you know anything about attuning an Eternity Arch?"
|
|
"Ahm from the Veskarium school 'o hard knocks! So ahv got me a pee-aych-dee in fakin' it 'till ah make it!"
He straightens out his party hat and beach towel archwizard apparel and waggles his fingers while he looks over at the Eternity Arch.
"So uh... ah hate ta say it but ahm a thinkin' that there's been lotsa things blipping 'round in time here. Prolly wanna get this thing attuned quick-like or shut 'er down... before we find ourselves dead in an hour last century."
"Oh, I'd love the help, but remember there can be side effects from messing with time."
Anyone assisting Felise with repairing and attuning the Eternity Arch can attempt an Engineering or relevant Profession check for the physical repairs or a Mysticism check for the energetic attunement.
With Zarg's electrical expertise, you are a third of the way there. Is anyone else trying?
However, you also get this neat side benefit: A PC who succeeds at their skill check for sanctum mission 1 infuses themself with a touch of temporal energy. Once during Part 3, they can gain the benefit of haste for a number of rounds equal to their level.
"Oh I've heard of the Starfinders! Keep going! Whatever you are doing is working!"
However, you also get this neat side benefit: A PC who succeeds at their skill check for sanctum mission 1 infuses themself with a touch of temporal energy. Once during Part 3, they can gain the benefit of haste for a number of rounds equal to their level.
However, you also get this neat side benefit: A PC who succeeds at their skill check for sanctum mission 1 infuses themself with a touch of temporal energy. Once during Part 3, they can gain the benefit of haste for a number of rounds equal to their level.
You can help secure the surrounding outer chambers against intruders by attempting an Perception check to spot potential weak points in the defenses or a Stealth check to sneak around enemies or an Engineering or Survival check to set traps around the area.
One item of your level or lower (PC’s choice) is stolen by the creatures unless you succeed at a DC 16 Reflex save.