"The heavens. The stars and planets above," the construct replies. "This is also a museum dedicated to the history of the Shory people. I apologize for the state of things. Somebody should be along shortly to begin the process of tidying up."
"It is a noble calling to be certain, to spend one's years in study of the stars above and the lives behind. However, our calling is in the service of fates that are not yet certain. We believe the tyrant, Trexima has besmirched this place by concealing a shard of his twisted soul within some reliquary on these grounds. Do you know ought of what I speak?"
The construct responds. ”Yes. I awakened recently to find an undead intruder here. I do not know his name, but it is likely the tyrant of whom you speak. I drove him off, but I can feel the fragment of himself he left behind somewhere to the east. I am too large to fit within those chambers, however. If you can remove or destroy this fragment, then I shall see fit to reward you.”
Visna bows her head in respectful agreement. "We would be most pleased to rid you of this husk. Once that is accomplished, I believe we may have further matters of fate upon which we must confer, yet the first task before us is clear."
"Also I would be interested in a viewing the museum. After the task has been accomplished." Pen says with polite enthusiasm.
The construct allow you to pass further into the building. On the far side of the observatory is a rubble-strewn area with cubicles flanking a smashed stone double door. Water trickles out of one cubicle, trickling back toward the mezzanine. Beyond is a large chamber in a shambles. Furniture made from metal, crystal, and stone lies scattered and scorched. Near the back of the room, above a slanting pile of wreckage, is a hole in the ceiling.
Amid that detritus here are implements and devices that suggest an arcane lab and crafting center was set up here recently. Within a hollow in the floor is a cache of 1,500 gp as well as several onyx gems worth 3,000 gp in all and 1,000 gp in other rare components.
The ceiling hole is 20 feet from the floor. A circular brass plate on the floor sits below it; it’s a nonfunctional lift, its magic long gone. The shaft is open, however, and relatively easy to scale, so you climb or fly on up!
At the upper end of the shaft is a chamber of white stone covered in the remains of dead vines, moss, and clinging plants. A broken wall breaks the room into two sections. A few empty pedestals line the outer walls, along with faded runes etched on the walls near them. Larger symbols have been painted on these surfaces, but they look like recent additions.
The runes painted on the wall are in a wide range of languages, primarily Shory, although some are Auran, Draconic, and even Necril. They speak of minerals and jewels once on display here.
Only three of the runes are in Necril. But as they begin to slither across the walls, you realize that they are not just runes, but animate creatures!
Tahi summons swirling rain and sleet, leaving everything near the companions slippery with ice. "Don't worry, duckies, this ice won't get in your way, but hopefully it'll trip up the...whatever these things are!"
Then she summons a blast of water, thundering toward the three animated runes.
Tahi's blast batters the living runes, one of which is slowed by the force of the crashing waves that slam into it. Despite this, the runes respond, glowing and pulsing as they conjure magic! One unleashes a prismatic spray that washes over all of you, while the other two release crackling blasts of chain lightning!
"Eeeeaaarrgghh!" Visna cries out in shocked pain as the lightning courses through her. Instinctively she surges forward, delivering a stone-shattering backhand with her hatchet to one of the offending runes.
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Success: The target is unaffected.
Failure: The target is dazed and can barely vocalize. It's stunned 1 and its speech is raspy and hard to understand. It must succeed at a DC 11 flat check to use linguistic actions or supply verbal spellcasting components until the end of its next turn.
Critical: Failure As failure, but the creature is stunned 3 instead of stunned 1.
Briar registers the danger as the runes rise up, her hackles splaying wide. "Cover! She manages to get out just before a flurry of attacks errupt from the creature. Shrugging off the brunt of the spellwork she rushes in as is her usual and begins snaping at the rune binding the nearest enemy.
Pen nearly falls to the floor as her body is wracked with pain and poison. Only a barely managed stumbling behind the broken wall saved her life.
Her mind tries to find purchase through her blackened seeping agony. She wouldn't last another blast, so she had to help as quickly as she can without the ability to focus on a target.
So she unleashed her own lightning on the creatures.
Tahi–surprisingly nimble for a woman of her age–dodges with the manages to avoid harm. As she does, she unleashes another torrent of freezing waters to batter them.
Briar's teeth scrape painfully against the wall as the rune dodges her attack, but Visna manages to score a critical hit, cleaving into a second rune. Pen blasts the runes with lightning and Tahi batters them with water again, causing one of the runes to sputter and disperse.
The remaining two runes send blasts of electricity at Visna. The first one misses, but the second one catches her with powerful blasts.
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Briar still can't seem to get any reliable purchase on the runes to help break them down, perhaps teeth just aren't good at harming stonework. Is what she would think if she wasn't blinded by the anger fueling her righteous fury to protect herself and her allies.
Finally it seems she finds good purchase however and begins tearing and ripping at the monument with fang and her powerful fists, prying her fingers into any resultant cracks and tearing the work away to disrupt the edifice's magic.
The chaos of lightning and waves stuns the anxious elven wizard for a moment, The searing brightness tearing across the dark room, reflected across the thousands of clear teardrops of water filling the air after the deafening crash of Tahi's brutal waves. Combined with the near perfectly melding of grace and strength of fang and ax...
If Pen was an artist, instead of a doodler, this moment would be one to paint. The colors alone would be breathtaking...
But she is not, and the moment passes. And then fire joins the elemental barrage on this day.
Visna tosses her head back, crying out in pain and in exultant joy as the elements crash around her.
As wind and lightning dance around her, Tahi keeps the torrent battering down on the remaining two.
With a devastating assault of weapons and spells, you make quick work of the two remaining runes. With the final one's destruction, a burst of green energy erupts from it, vaguely shaped like a screaming skull that resembles Trexima. The energy dissipates, momentarily chilling you as it washes over you. Then it is gone. Pen is able to retroactively determine that the rune actually was Trexima's soul cage. With its destruction, the lich is gone for good.
When you report back to the construct in the main observatory, it thanks you for your service. It offers you the card that had been stuck within its inner workings: The Bear.
Pen helps retrieve the card, using her cautious grace to do so without disrupting too much. Then after handing the card away, she chats with the construct about the museum, asking so so so many questions that anyone other than a construct would have expressed at least some annoyance at.
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With the rune stones and supposedly Trexima dealt with Briar waits till the group has collected the card and stepped out for a breather to look at everyone's wounds.
"Can't be walking around tour or otherwise with those burns. I'll see what I can scrounge to craft up an ointment."
Briar scrounges from the rather lush vegetation and returns with a thick grayish sticky paste. She applies it to some clean cloth and gently presses it onto the lightning burns.
"We should tell the Ysoki that they're free. But I would enjoy that tour from the astrolabe person-thing too."
"Battles of honor may be fought with whatever wounds lie to the fore, yet glory is best sought with sharpened weapons and clear minds. The hadis will surely be glad to here of their liberation once we have learned what can be told of this place."
The construct shows you around the observatory. Unfortunately, there isn't much to see--the majority of the relics that once stood here have either been long ago looted or fallen into ruin.
You return to the hadis to inform them of their freedom from Trexima's tyranny. They are overjoyed and thank you profusely for your service to them.
"The death of a tyrant is a service to all," Visna says with a smile. "Now, it grieves me to say that our wyrd means we cannot tarry here long, but is their aught else that holds you back from the lives you should live?"
The hadis assure you that they will be fine now, able to make a good live for themselves once more here in the ruins of Kho.
Pen feels a warmth in her chest for once again helping people. Something her companions keeps helping her do, since she was more likely to ball herself in the past.
Pen nods at Briar's observations. Her mind moving toward helping in the future, which makes her wonder "What do you think happens once we secure the deck from danger? Do we continue to live in our realm, able to travel with the ease we are now?"
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Visna smiles down at Pen, but her musings drag the line of her vision up and off to the horizon.
"It is a realm of... many comforts. When the doom of fate itself does not imminently draw me onward though, I fear hwaet I would miss the ache of a long day's swim, or the dust of the road. How simple life becomes when it is merely a collection of destinations, of the largest marks upon a traveler's charts. But that simplicity seems to me more a seduction than a mark of wisdom..." She trails off, still searching the days to come for her answers.
"I suppose we shall see, in any case, what tolls must yet be paid before the glory road comes to its end."
At that moment, watching the warrior muse into the sky, Pen feels the desperate urge to sketch, to never forget the lighting and wistful soft sheen... but drawing someone while in their presence is a leap beyond the reserved elf. So she collects the details, nods in agreement, and promises to herself do her best later.
After resting and recovering, you prepare to assist the derhii Shanaca. The winged ape has provided you direction to the ritual stone to try to discover what is corrupting the lake in the Sunken City.
The lake’s surface sparkles, broken only by the outcroppings of rock and crystal in various sizes that poke above the lapping waves. Here, one such stone, hewn flat, juts several feet above the surface. On it lie strewn tools, clay storage jars held in depressions in the rock, a slab or altar, and an iridescent slick of fragrant grease. This oil forms a similar sheen on the lake water around this platform, while deeper down, under the water, an enormous shadow looms to the east of the rock.
An examination of the tools and supplies reveals the accoutrements are implements and reagents for an obscure form of oil-based embalming. The tools are oversized, designed for larger subjects and a large creature’s hand.
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Brair hadn't thought of what would happen after they collected the deck to it's ebtirety, and Visna's words seem enough for the Barbarian to nod and agree with a grunt.
Sniffing the air by the lake and gazing over the waters Briar wears a worried look. "I don't like the look of this. Sisters what could cause all that?"
She kneels by the lake, far enough that she could escape if something dangerous lunged out, but close enough that she might commune with the local spirits.
Consult the Spirits(Nature)
You have learned rites or meditations that enable you to perceive minor, invisible spirits within a place. Nature allows you to contact the spirits of nature that form leshies, who are born of pure life essence rather than spiritual energy and can answer questions about natural features like the location of nearby water or plant life.
Spend 10 minutes and attempt a check to Recall Knowledge with the chosen skill; the DC is determined by the GM (usually a very high DC for the level of the highest-level creature you might encounter in the area). If you're legendary in the chosen skill, you can use this feat once per hour, instead of only once per day, but you can't use it again on any area that overlaps a previous area.
Special You can select this feat multiple times, each time picking a different skill in which you have the master proficiency rank. You can use this feat with each skill once per day (or once per hour, if you're legendary).
Critical Success- The spirits reveal themselves to you and have a helpful attitude toward you. Only you can perceive these spirits. They answer three simple questions about the environment within 100 feet of you, depending on the skill you chose and thus the type of spirits you contact. Their answers are almost always a single word, and their knowledge is limited to within their area of interest.
Success As with a critical success, but the spirits are indifferent to you and answer only one question.
Failure You are unable to contact the spirits of this place.
Critical Failure You contact one or more malevolent spirits. They are hostile toward you, though they may not immediately appear so. They answer up to three questions but give you information that is harmful to you in some way, as determined by the GM.
Pen rests her weight against her staff and watches her friend commune with the spirits, an act she finds as fascinating as she finds disconnected from her own mindset.
So she simply observes.
"Ah! I have encountered a stone such as this in the past. It was used for a process I had thought would be the preservation of mortal remains, but was instead ultimately perverted into their destruction, once the new undead were foolish enough to provoke the bite of my Smile. The husks were made ready in the manner of the Mushfen goblins, but the oil you see here bears the taint of undeath and deliquescence, a taint they will all too gladly pass on to their victims."
Pen nods and asks "So do we destroy the stone? And in doing so does it return the lake to its previous natural state?"
"I believe that it is the creations of the stone that have tainted this place. Still, there is no need to leave the tools of their creation to be so misused."
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Briar stands and returns to the others casting her gaze back to the oily waters, "That is concerning on several levels. I know those of Osirian are known for these sorts of rites, but to have them be tainted as such."
Looking to Pen and Tahi she lowers her head, "I can allow myself to breath in the murky depths for a time. I believe Visna may do the same in her true form. Would either of you be able to join us should we delve deep? Or shall we draw their attention to the shores instead?"
This morning, when curled under a soft quilt, drinking tea, while covered in cats, Pen contemplated her spellbook. Invisibility sphere was a staple, one never knew when she'd need to hide from a massive monster... hmmm, but Visna Crownbreaker and Briarthorn would have charged the poor beast and beheaded it before Pen would have gotten half way through the first chant.
"Are they not heading to a flooded area?" the elven wizard asks her little elephant slumped like pudding on her shoulder. Puck looked longingly at his mistress's lap since there was a feline pile already there, but he did press his trunk against her cheek in agreement.
So invisibility sphere was replaced in her consideration for water breathing level 3 that lasts 8 hours and can be cast on multiple party members... not that Briarthorn or Visna Crownbreaker would need it.
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Back in the present, Pen answers "Yes, we can join."
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Briar nodded, "Good then we'll begin shortly. Seeing as we need to destroy the creatures... hmm.. in the water. I should take some time to get used to these currents actually while staying under won't be much of an issue keeping up with Visna on the other hand will be."
Briar utters a short series of prayers to her ancestors before they go diving and her eyes take on an unearthly glow.
Pen nods and casts a spell on her and Thai
You dive into the waters, following the sheer sides of the monolith as you swim down to the bottom of the lake. The ritual stone projects upward through the water from a ruined gateway still attached to sections of wall. Around and beyond this gateway, shadowy water shimmers and bubbles, blurry with turbulence and forming a domal structure.
Once you reach the lake bed, you find the gate is open, leading to a 10-foot-wide water-filled “tunnel” of sorts that passes through the shell.
As you draw near, however, three horrible tentacled monsters surge forth to attack! Their large bodies consist of an oval abdomen, eight hollow tentacles, and a thick, tail-like limb ending in a ventral tube, which resembles a lamprey's mouth. However, their many eyes are milky white and empty, and their flesh is preserved in oils. They have been mummified!
Visna swims out to the monolith with sure, measured strokes, almost using her long powerful arms as oars to propel herself rhythmically forward, slipping through even these tainted water with a quiet joy bubbling up from within her.
She cannot speak, but her joy still thrums through the water as she knifes towards the fallen creatures, a fresh rune blazing into being across the bite of Maiden's Smile.
Visna's axe slices deep into one of the mummified monsters, causing a cloud of smoke to rise from the wound even as she follows through into a second foe.
The injured creatures angrily retaliate, stabbing with their tentacles! The third one swims around to flank Visna with its allies, lashing out and managing to bash Visna once.
Saving Throw DC 33 Fortitude; Stage 1 carrier with no ill effect (1 minute); Stage 2 10d6 negative damage and clumsy 2 (1 day)
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As she completes the casting of her spell, the flesh on Briarthorn's neck and around her collar bone splits and flexes opening into gill-like slits. She takes a few test breaths with them before feeling comfortable. She smiles wearily, "I suppose not all her 'gifts' are bad when you get to choose when to use them."
Briar ferries Tahi and Pentella as they need, towing them via a strung line of rope as she swims through the water. Until the group is ready to follow Visna into the depths, Pulling the mithril longspear from her back as it's her only weapon useful for underwater combat. Using the monolith as a guide is a great idea not knowing how deep the waters really go.
When they encounter the squirming squid-like creatures she bears witness to the foul undeath of these creatures. The dead should stay dead and honored so she drops off her companions higher in the water and swims down to the one flanking visna. Her raging howl sounds strange and garbled, the majority of the noise swallowed by the waters.
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Pen's anxiety is rather high under so much crushing weight, knowing if the spell falters or is dispelled her and her companion is dead, hovering in the black nothing like debris unable to move quickly or having any place to hide.
Just breathe, she tells herself and almost laughs at the absurdity of that thought.
The creatures she can focus on at least. She goes over her spell list, attempting to decide on their effects underwater, but then decides that spells are not constrained by the natural rules of their effects.
So she lets a blinding tear of electricity rip through the water at the nearest tentacle beast.
You discharge a powerful bolt of lightning at the target, dealing 8d12 electricity damage. The target must attempt a basic Reflex save. The electricity then arcs to another creature within 30 feet of the first target, jumps to another creature within 30 feet of that target, and so on. You can end the chain at any point. You can’t target the same creature more than once, and you must have line of effect to all targets. Roll the damage only once and apply it to each target (halving or doubling as appropriate for its saving throw outcome). The chain ends if any one of the targets critically succeeds at its save.
Tahi lets the waves guide her forward, getting ready to assault their latest foes, but as she gets closer to the horrifying things she feels an unnatural fear grip her, and freezes.
Visna is forced to battle on in near silence, jaw clamped shut against the agony of their questing tentacles. For a moment she considers a brief retreat, trying to draw them onwards rather than continue to struggle within their maze of tendrils, but then through the water she feels Tahi go horribly still, and a fear and rage nearly the equal of Briar's impels her onwards, snatching at the horrors around her and savaging them with the sizzling edge of her hatchet.