GM supervillan's 5-23 Cairn of Shadows [Outpost V] (Inactive)

Game Master supervillan

Silgil pauses in his riffling and considers.

"You are right. Time enough to go through their things after we have left. What about him?"

Syllyn barely nods in the direction of the obviously insane horselord chained up and groveling to a dead person.

Makras shrugs. "He seems happy enough. I could use a drink. Let's head back to that tavern and 'finish the mission.'"

Syllyn quickly spots a fist-sized hunk of rune-carved obsidian on the person of the 'Master' - as well as a weighty book. No doubt he has more objects of interest...

"D...d...dead?" Telendrak says meekly, his eyeless gaze dropping to the floor.

You can free Telendrak if you wish, with a Disable Device roll or by breaking his chains. Let me know if that's your plan, and who is carrying who/what if you're heading out.

The whole cairn shudders again.

John thinks back to the briefing. It was a couple weeks ago, but he shouldn't have that much trouble recalling their purpose here. Now what was it again?

"Dammit, I'm tired. All that climbing and that lady at the bar and then our traveling overland. Alright, we are... here to stop some bad shadowguys from... entering this tomb, right? Taking something I think? Anyone know?"

He thinks for a bit, "Feels like we should maybe take Telendrek out though, if he can go with us and won't eat our faces."

He starts dragging the master out of the cairn, including his two items if no one else grabs them.

”Agreed. Delay we cannot. “

Waki will cut short his attempts at healing with the instability of the cairn.

"UM hm. Dead. Or soon will be dead. so the question is - do you want to leave this place or die here with your master. Choose quickly because I have a feeling we don't have much time."

Turning to the other Pathfinders he adds, "He may be no artifact, but the life experiences he have will send some of the history wonks in paroxysms of glee. I wouldn't mind collecting a few stories for my repertoire myself."

Do we have an easy way of freeing him from his bonds or is Syllyn going to have to adamantine the chains?

Your adamantine 'key' will work just fine :)

If there is a lock, Waki can try to pick it

Disable, hero : 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (1) + 14 + 2 = 17

bleh…or let the adamantium key do it’s thing’s

Your adamantine 'key' will work just fine :)

Does the horselord reply to Syllyn's question?

The horselord does not reply.

Waki tries to unpick the chains, but without success. It looks like you'll need to use adamantine if you want to take Teledrak with you.

Syllyn gently nudges Waki aside and starts smashing the chains.

Waki shrugs and steps aside, looking to pick up anything dropped nearby before an expected speedy departure.

The Cairn continues to shake, and the swaying chains above and around you rattle ominously, but Syllyn's skymetal scimitar makes short work of the Horselord's bindings and in a matter of seconds you're on your way back out, back to Golarion.

Malaz scoops up the 'Master' on the way.

Though the chains over the bridge continue to slash at you and might cause some small wounds, but nothing life-threatening they cannot prevent your escape. As you leave, the passage behind you seals, becoming a sheet of featureless obsidian.

Outside, as your eyes adjust to the light, Golbrier Frosh greets you. "Desna be praised! You're back! All of you! Wait, no, there's two more of you than went in. Hang on, that's Lord Maravan!" Frosh points to the unconscious 'Master'. "Did you find the shadow obelisk? And who's this other poor soul? Surely not one of the Onyx Alliance?"

Telendrak remains silent, his head down. Syllyn takes out the strange black talisman that the Master held - only to see it fade away like smoke.

The Whispered Song agent gets you to the town of Albatross, where you catch ship back to Absalom to make your reports. You have captured Lord Maravan of the Onyx Alliance, and brought back Telendrak the Last Horselord and all his knowledge of Nidal as it was before the Midnight Lord's dominion. (And though you later learn that he was not the original Telendrak, but a prisoner of the Cairn crafted in Telendrak's image by physical and psychological tortures, his knowledge was passed down through the millennia by a succession of Telendraks going back to the original, first prisoner of the Cairn). Liberty's Edge do their best to rehabilitate Telendrak whilst the Society's historians question him at great length.

Lord Maravan's spellbook is filled with esoteric lore pertaining to shadow, pain and torture, and Paracountess Zarta Dralneen is delighted to claim it for the Dark Archive.

This ends The Cairn of Shadows! Feel free to go on with more RP here, I will put some additional notes in Discussion.

Once he has time, Syllyn crafts a story weaving in shadowy monsters and flashy heroes. The horselord becomes a doomed figure of ominous prophesies cloaked in chains while the master pulls the puppet strings until the heroes bring him to a bloody end. All accompanied by music and rhythms and played by some bardic buddies of his.

”Not a pleasant place. Pain and shadow found there. Interested in returning I an not. “

Waki does not fondly recall the chain bindings nor the denizens of the place. Little more does he say until the others provide the main story.

"I gotta hand it to those Zon-Kon-whatever folks," observes Makras between swallows of ale. "They really figgered out ahead of time how terrible things are gonna be once the 'pocalypse comes. Might even be tomorrow . . ." With that, the dwarf waits to see which comes first: the end of the world, or another mission for the Pathfinder Society.

"I like to believe that good and evil will always be at odds, neither ever getting the upper hand for long."

The handsome sorcerer smiles as they come out into the light, "A total and utter success, I say so myself. We rescued a poor horselord and defeated a terrible enemy. Can't do much better than that. Now let's get out of this country before we really celebrate."

Back at the lodge he gives his report, simply staying that he used his god given natural talents to help out with the first part of the mission, then that he used his warped cursed talents to help out with the second. Though he downplays his own contributions to uplift everyone else's. As they leave he offers his services to Syllyn as musical accompaniment.

"Let us hope that is the way of things Syllyn, because if good can get an upper hand, so can evil. And that would be bad for everyone. But as my friend Makras expects, we will all probably die soon, so we might as well go celebrate!"