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Whoa! They look *freaky*! What are those things? Pai's too busy trying to stare without looking like she's staring to reply. The creature-guards seem to grow taller the longer she looks at them; it takes several seconds for her to realize that's because she's not paying attention to her flying and is slowly descending toward the ground. "Oh! Hehe! Silly me. Uh, hi!"
"The entity known as Hao-Jin is serving in the empty court at the authority of the Godmind. Contact is forbidden without adequate reason. Please wait while we summon the proper authorities to process your request."
One of the guards begins casting a spell for an extended period of time.
The other guard waits and watches the Pathfinders while the first continues spellcasting.
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"What? Is *what* one of theirs?" Pai stares at the spot Sukit indicates like she could burn a hole right through the fabric of reality.
"OHMYGOSH! It's a little ball-thingy! Ooo--and it moves around with me! Gee, if that wasn't so creepy it'd be kinda cool. What the heck is it? Ugh! It won't leave me alone! What the heck?! Go away, doofy thing!" Pai bobs up, down, and all around, trying to shake the nearly-invisible tag-along. Eventually she gives up with a huff about twenty feet in the air.
"Wait--" She glances down to the guards. Oh no. Am I stepping in it right now? "Is this yours? 'Caaauuuuse...I don't want to break any laws or anything, so..." Consternation and confusion are written all over her face.
"It is not. Scrying sensors in public areas are not restricted, but this incident is unusual and has been noted for future reference in case of related crime."
After 10 minutes, the guard finishes casting the sending spell. "Eleven-Sun-Truth, please report to the Empty Court gate. Visitors seek an audience with Hao Jin."
"Eleven-Sun-Truth is Hao Jin's case manager, and will be along shortly.
Please wait for its arrival."
After an additional fifteen minutes of waiting, a flying metallic sphere about a foot in diameter with one eye, two decorative wings and a pair of arms materializes from the same flame gateway the pathfinders used to get to the Empty Court. It flies over the pathfinders, bobbing up and down through the air.
"Greetings, mortals. This one is classified Eleven-Sun-Truth and represents the one classified Hao Jin in all matters before her Tribunal. I have been informed that you have business with said individual but must inform you that the one you seek is not accessible on orders of the Godmind itself. How else may this one be of service?”
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"Greetings Eleven-Sun-Truth, I am Lorian, Lorian the Peacemaker. We seek an audience with Hao Jin in order to help prevent a cataclysm from occurring. While I am not sure of the exact magical forces that is happening to cause the Tapestry's collapse, we have been tasked to prevent the deaths of thousands of beings that reside in the demiplane. We seek Hao Jin's help as she may be the only one to fix it and time is fleeting to prevent the chaos that will occur.
Seeing that the Scrying sensor is sticking around, Pai moves away from the group so whoever is snooping doesn't get to see or hear much.
"A planar collapse of the Hao Jin Tapestry? Oh dear, oh dear, that is serious. Planar stability is a priority of the highest order. Despite the artificial and reckless initial construction, allowing it to degrade at this point would be unacceptable. I will take you to Hao Jin. Please, follow me."
Eleven-Sun-Truth floats over to the gate and the guards. "Please open the gate. I will take responsibility for the visitors." The two guards bow, then move to open the gates.
Shortly into the walk, distance skirmishes are visible in the empty court, strange outsiders fighting in the distance, sometimes with explosive magics. "Ever since Aroden fell, this area of Axis has been without law. Angels, Devils and all sorts of other outsiders are still attempting to lay claim to the terriory within. Hao Jin has been tasked by the Axiomite Godmind to examine the Empty Court to search for clues regarding Aroden's death and disappearance as part of her sentence."
Pai notices the scrying sensor continues to follow her as the group moves through the Empty Court.
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Pouting at the circumstances, Pai continues to hover far enough away from the group that the scrying sensor can't pick up anything. To relieve her frustration at *not being able to hear what the heck is going on*, she makes goofy faces at it as she trails behind the group. At one point she smirks at it. "You know, you're not going to find out much following me around. I'm onto you, you nosy what's-your-face! Stick a pig up your nostril--the whole thing!" More goofy, grotesque faces are aimed at the sensor. Anyone unable to see it would surely think she's certifiably insane.
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Lorian looked at Eleven-Sun-Truth and pondered at the notion angels and devils fighting over the Empty Court. We might be able to talk our way past any angels, maybe even try to get a few to join us. Lorian said before turning to the other side of the coin The devils can be a problem. Might have to get them to think that we are a force too hard for them to deal with. Since you are a case manger, you are a representative of the Godmind and I will defer to you as to dealing with them. For all we know, they could be interfering with Hao Jin in completing her task. he added.
"We should be safe from them. Most of the fighting takes place further from Axis, and they have learned to leave Hao Jin alone. She can be rather impressive when she has cause."
"Regarding Hao Jin's case, she traveled to Axis over 333 Golarian years ago. She had finished her demiplane creation, and wished to consult with the minds of Axis regarding the preservation of history and lore. What she failed to comprehend at the time was how her actions violated cosmic law in how she created her demiplane, the planar instability generated by her actions and the acquisition of that which was not hers to take. The initial verdict was that the demiplane would be destroyed, but Hao Jin bargained her services and bound herself to never again violate the same unspoken strictures again in exchange for allowing her demiplane to continue to exist."
"She has upheld her end of the bargain admirably."
After about 20 minutes, the Pathfinders approach the Amphitheater of the Last Azlanti, an ancient, multistory theater built into the side of a hill. The structure’s outer walls bear faded murals of Aroden’s life: his mortal life as a blacksmith, his leading of the Azlanti survivors from the ruins of Earthfall, his planar travels, his raising of the Starstone and creating Absalom, his battle with the wizard Tar-Baphon, and more. Inside, the amphitheater’s stadium-style seating partly surrounds a raised, stone stage where a small tent is pitched next to a campsite.
Nearby sits Hao Jin, who is studying and sketching several dozen broken sculpture pieces made of throneglass, a magically hardened glass associated with certain ruined cities in Azlant. She looks up with curiosity as the PCs approach and greets them with a courteous nod without breaking eye contact.
“Welcome, Eleven-Sun-Truth. You have not brought me visitors in some time and certainly never from my home world. What calamity has befallen Golarion that you come all the way to the Eternal City to find me? Has the Whispering Tyrant escaped his confinement? Has a new spawn of Rovagug been released in Casmaron? Or has Arazni perhaps decided to stir from her torpor and lay claim to Garund? What is the matter? I see the strain of grave news in your faces.”
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Lorian pondered at the Cosmic law and if there had been planes of similar nature that the creator did not get taken to task like Hao Jin had. If the plane was to be cleared out and collapse, would Hao Jin be free of the sentence? he thought as the group made its way through the Empty Court.
"Greetings, Hao Jin. I am Senator Lorian Therian, Marquis of Urfa-Halij, Ambassador of Taldor. I am known as "Lorian the Peacemaker". The Pathfinder Society seeks your input in preventing the Tapestry from collapsing." Lorian said before introducing the others. "Sorry, Pai over there is a bit occupied as someone has been scrying on our activities. I am not sure who has done so." he added.
"Here is documentation for you concerning our activities in the Tapestry and hope you might be able to identify what is required to save it." he said as he presented the satchel.
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Watching from afar, Pai waves vigorously as Lorian gestures to her, shouting: "Hiiiiiiiiii!" Then she goes back to making faces and blowing raspberries at the scrying sensor. "You know," she adds conversationally, "I wonder if I'm any good at stand up comedy. Let's give it a go, shall we?" She thinks for a minute, then launches into a truly pathetic series of disappointing jokes. Either she has no idea how bad she is at this, or she's trying to motivate the scryer to cancel the spell so they don't have to hear it.
"Well, now that is somewhat rude. Allow me." Hao Jin casts a spell, and the sensor dissipates. "There. Now, collapse of the Tapestry? That is serious. Let me review these." She takes the documents and begins reading through them, pausing to look up mid way through. "I am familiar with the Pathfinder Society, but this Aspis Consortium has been created since I came to Axis. What can you tell me about that? And do any of you have personal experience traveling in the Tapestry? What did you see there?"
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The Consortium is similar to the Pathfinders in its stated mission, but they are unscrupulous in their execution, attempting thievery, blackmail, and murder if they think it will further their ends.
As for the tapestry, I just visited. We had some trouble with our exit portals while we were trying to negotiate with a tribe of ratfolk under Round Mountain. The Aspis found a way to enter the demiplane without using the tapestry and were trying to sweeps depose the leaders to take over.
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"Oh! Hey! It's gone. Cool!" Pai gives Hao Jin a thumbs-up as a thank you and zooms over to join the group as Hao Jin begins perusing the documents. Of course, she isn't the most patient type, so she twitches, fidgets, and whispers small talk/random thoughts with her teammates.
As soon as Hao Jin asks for input, Pai is ready to blurt everything she knows, but years of teamwork have given her enough patience to let a couple of other people get a word in edgewise first. Just two, though, before the words come tumbling from her mouth like a torrent that cannot be stopped. "Ooo, I've been to the Tapestry a bunch of times. Once, there was this evil whats-it-thing that had taken over a temple leader's body, so the people there thought they were worshiping this one god, but they were actually being tricked into worshiping this evil god or something. They were eating nasty food and thinking it was delicious, and getting mutilated and whatnot, without even realizing what was up. So we killed the evil thingy-impersonator and got them on the right track. And then this other time, like, the whole thing was collapsing, and scary nasty things were attacking us as we were trying to fix things, and it was awful! Oh, and I've dealt with the Apsis, too. Totally tricked some of them into thinking we were Apsis agents, too, and completely undermined their set up in Magnimar. They were so sketchy! Like, they totally didn't care how we did things, as long as they got done. That's awful, you know? People could die. Innocent people. They're such jerks, I swear."
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As the others have said, they have no morals, and don't care who they hurt as long as they get what they want. I've had a few run ins with them. I hope our pleas, and documents are enough to persuade her to help us... Vrothum puts his hand on his chin and eyes his team as they speak and watches HaoJin for any sign of emotion.
"I can see that. Both the backdoors created by the Pathfinder Society and the Aspis Consortium helped with the destabilization process and undermined the plane."
Hao Jin thinks for a minute before responding.
“Although I cannot hold the actions of the Pathfinder Society and its rivals as blameless in the Tapestry’s demise, I know that at least the Society did not commit them out of malice. In the end, responsibility for the demiplane’s condition is mine. My time here on Axis has shown me how reckless I acted when I created the demiplane. I did not fully understand the implications and long-term consequences of my actions, but what is done is done and cannot be taken back.”
She lowers her eyes and lets out a long sigh, before continuing. “If I understand you and the documents you have shown me correctly, I’m afraid there is nothing I can do to save the Tapestry;it has unraveled beyond the point of repair. There may, however, still be a chance to save the places and people inside it. My memory is not what it once was, but I believe that I could perform a ritual that reverses the process I first used to transport various sites into the tapestry, thereby returning a site to its original location. In that way that site could serve as an ark to carry any plants and creatures aboard back to the Material Plane.”
"Unfortunately, there are two obstacles to performing the ritual. The first that the ritual would need to be performed on the Material Plane and reasonably close to where the structure would be deposited. That would not be a problem, except that I have agreed to my penance here in Axis. Fortunately, I believe the Pathfinder society could field a sufficient contingent of powerful spellcasters to work the magic in my place."
"The larger problem is that I no longer know how to perform certian parts of the ritual. When I bargained with Axis to preserve the Tapestry, I allowed select memories and technical knowledge to be extracted in the form of Memory Engrams, which ensure that I cannot recreate the violations I performed, and so that they may be studied by scholars to learn from my experience. If the engrams were returned, I may be able to reassemble the rituals to allow for a final transposition."
"However, reclaiming these memories would potentially be a violation of my agreement with Axis. Eleven-Sun-Truth, could you clarify if this would be permitted?"
The arbiter's eye rotates slowly in thought before snapping back to stare at Hao Jin. "In the cosmos, law is the ideal, not the absolute condition, thus requiring some interpretation from the inevitables who enforce order. Likewise in this situation, there is no one answer. How you interpret it reflects your identity as the judge.”
Hao Jin scowls in response, and considers the possible ramifications. "What do you think, Pathfinders?"
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Lorian pondered for a bit. "Whatever path that would cause the least harm to the Cosmic Law is the best option. However, given that there has been centuries since it was created, would the locations in the Tapestry be able to be safely returned without causing more chaos in the process? he asked Hao Jin and Eleven-Sun-Truth.
"As for the Tapestry, unless Hao Jin is allowed to have the missing ritual components and travel to the Material Plane to close it, option B might be that the ritual be transferred to a scroll or such, along with instructions. We can take try to close it ourselves, however, it might require someone more skilled in magic to do so. My knowledge of magic is mostly useful to keep my drinks cold and mud off of my clothes." he said with a sly smile.
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Pai huffs and exclaims in outrage: "Well, if we don't do it, countless people will die. Refusing to save people's lives just because some rules make it tricky to manage the logistics...ugh! I'm pretty sure that wasn't the intent of those rules to begin with. You gotta think about the spirit of the law too, not just the letter of it, you know? Otherwise you're just...evil." She crosses her arms across her chest and glares a righteous challenge at Eleven-Sun-Truth and Hao Jin.
Hao Jin nods. "The engrams could be returned when the task is done. And, indeed, I belive we should act. But cosmic law is important, for more than just following the rules. They were there for a reason, and if I had not been so reckless in my creation, we would not have reached this event."
She pauses, then seems to come to a decision. "I will honor my commitments to continue to work here, in the empty court. But I can and will transcribe the necessary ritual information for the Pathfinder Society to perform the ritual, if you retrieve the memory engrams. Eleven-Sun-Truth, is this an acceptable compromise?"
The floating sphere bobs up and down in thought. "It is the decision you have made. Time will tell if it is a correct one."
Eleven-Sun-Truth produces a number of small electrum badges for each Pathfinder. "These will mark you as Hao Jin's advocates. You will need to retrieve the engrams from their current borrowers."
“There are three engrams of note, which are part of a more extensive library system. One engram stores a portion of my client’s creative innovation, and as an experiment, authorities in the Adamantine Forge granted it to now somewhat…” Eleven-Sun-Truth scowls with disappointment. “…eccentric inevitable in order to explore new inevitable-forging techniques. That inevitable frequents the domain of demigoddess Chaldira Zuzaristan in its downtime."
"Another engram contains elements of my client’s magical theory, and it is in the Stylite.” The arbiter winces and looks skyward before pointing to a floating building miles away. “There. You should just be able to present your credentials and be done. [b]“The last of the engrams I suspect she would need pertains to my client’s childhood and their first death. It was last checked out by Yakomo, an Iroran acolyte. Given the hour, I expect him to be busy with religious devotions for several hours yet, after which he would likely return to his home just outside the Serene Circle, Irori’s realm.”
"Do you have any questions about this task?"
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"I mean, I could go alone, but we like to work as a team, you know? And, uh, you kept saying 'inevitable' like it's a name, not like a word for something that can't be avoided. Is it a name? I don't want to get off on the wrong foot with anyone. --Oh! I hope they don't refuse to give us the engrams. We don't really have time for a ton of going back and forth on things. What do we do if they refuse? Come back here and file nine tons of paperwork while the demiplane collapses and hope it goes through in time?" Pai's gestures get more expansive as she gets more exasperated, culminating in an impressive eye-roll/huff/wrist-flick combo at the end.
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Mörök has been listening carefully and remained silent to point of creepiness. "We will go as a team, without question. It is almost certain that whoever has spied on us, will try something sooner or later. Now that the issue of inevitables came up, I have once met such creature and our dispute with him was resolved without violence."
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"Sounds like we have our work cut out." Lorian said as he jotted down the locations and people they needed to contact. "Before we depart, is there a good wine shop in the area? I have a feeling that I will need a few bottles, for medicinal purposes, given the amount of talking I may have to do." he added.
The arbiter floats a little higher while proudly responding, “As the foundation of order itself, Axis is an expanse of districts and departments, each connected to key partners by means of myriad forms of public transportation and sets of portals. I can provide you clear written directions to all three locations. Regarding the people who have them checked out. The Maker, the Inevitable I mentioned, is somewhat peculiar, though I would not expect her to give you any trouble, she has been less stable recently. Yakomo should be easy to work with, I would expect him to return the engram upon request.”
Hao Jin speaks up. "Eleven-Sun-Truth, can you provide an escort back to the portals, and those directions?"
"Of course. Follow me, please. The arbiter begins to float back towards the gate.
"Good luck!" Hao Jin calls out as the group leave.
The trip back is uneventful, and true to his work Eleven-Sun-Truth provides detailed directions to all three locations, as well as a high end wine seller and a note that the eccentric Inevitable is usually found at the Hearth-Grown House, which sells excellent vintages.
Since you are acting as advocates on behalf of Hao Jin, would you be willing to lend your mortal perspectives to interpreting Hao Jin's past actions, her present disposition, and her future potential? Though a host of outsiders have examined her actions, they approach her deed with certain biases. As mortals and individuals who have interacted with her creation, you have a certain perspective that would be valuable. If you would be willing to examine the engrams to experience the memories within, I would be most pleased to interview you after the process and discuss your persepctives."
The group makes it out of the Empty Court, past the two guards who give a nod. Eleven-Sun-Truth bobs up and down in the air, blinking slightly. "You should be able to make your way from here. Please, do not hesitate to call on me if additional information regarding Hao Jin is required, or if you intend to visit her work in the Empty Court. The guards should be able to contact me as necessary." With that, he flies off through one of the portals.
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"If you would be willing to examine the engrams to experience the memories within, I would be most pleased to interview you after the process and discuss your persepctives."
"I'd want to see what Hao Jin thinks of that first. And make sure we're not wasting precious time. And have--" She stops herself short of saying "a lawyer present". She has the presence of mind to avoid mentioning how she doesn't always fully trust law enforcement. Sometimes they're such sticks-in-the-mud that they can't tell the difference between a crime and a harmless prank, and she really doesn't want to let slip anything that'll get her in trouble here, because people could *die* if demiplane isn't stabilized ASAP! "You know what? We're wasting daylight, as we say back home. Let's go! Should we go to that Hearth-Grown House first? I want to meet an eccentric inevitable--'cause it sounds cool and 'cause we have to--and Lorian wants wine. Two birds; one stone!" She chirps brightly.
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Lorian smiled at the comment from Sukit. "That sounds like a plan." he said as they said their good-byes and headed out. "Since there is someone or something that has taken interest in our activities, we might want to get into a traveling formation for mutual protection. Maybe Sukit and Vrothum in the front, followed by Pai, with Mörök and myself in the back." he suggested.
The Pathfinders make their way to the Hearth-Grown House, a short trip through a few portals offered by Axis' excellent public transportation.
The Hearth-Grown House is a series of connected apartments, feasting halls, gambling parlors, inns, and courtyards that constitute the unofficial domain of the halfling deity Chaldira Zuzaristan, demigoddess of battle, luck, and mischief, located in a small corner of Abadar's domain of Ajtun.
The travel portal deposits the Pathfinders on a side-street a short distance away. The narrow alley is crowded with petitioners, all of whome seem to be heading for a single destination: a large, wooden gate in the twelve foot tall hedge wall that surrounds Chaldira’s divine home. Past the gate is a large, grassy common area surrounded by numerous large and inviting structures that look like the homey country taverns found in Golarion’s more peaceful hamlets and towns. A singing voice accompanied by string instruments and flutes can be heard from within.
Lorian the Peacemaker
Mörök of Darkland
Pai Shecks
Vrothum