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Yes, brother Sage, you are right. Your experience is limited. I have heard the words 'dark tapestry' used by fearful peoples ignorant of the nature of reality and illusion.
As an elf, you are amongst the Chosen of the True Gods. For who can doubt that it was Their will that guided the creation and the use of the aludara, that transported us across their domain between the stars?
Teleportation is not new to Quenly - but the colourful practitioner of culinary crafts who provides the service on this occasion raises a smile.
Younglings? I should think that all save Eadie have already outlived him.
Now, as for our hosts, I doubt that any of my mercantile contacts are present but it's probable that my reputation will have preceded me and should suffice to guarantee a warm welcome. Nevertheless we might prepare for the unexpected.
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Not actually hearing a refutation, but culturally unwilling to debate Quenly's personal object(s) of worship, Lichaam lets the matter lie.
Though perhaps he should take another look at what aludara research he'd scrounged up with that possible connection in mind. And perhaps see if he could get permission to get some research time with Isirah Tana.
The platter is entirely non magical and it does not appear to have been part of the teleportation items. It is covered with a few flakes of pastry, some icing and sugar paste.
You do not need to worry about merge familiar. Caleban can take all of you.
Lichaam employs his magic to try and spy on their enemies.
Muhlia seems quite easy to locate. The mirror shows her sat on a mat of woven grass in a small, simple square stone room. The walls are lined with empty cubbyholes and she appears to spend much of her time meditating.
Thurl however is a different matter. Twice you try to pierce the veil to locate him but both times your spell fails. It is unclear why...
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"Wow! I had no idea the Grand Lodge kitchens were so cool! Usually, whenever I see how the sausage gets made, someone’s ended up dead."
I wonder if it’s worth trying to Pathfinder this place this time next time I want a midnight snack?
Eadie locks eyes with Caleban and decides, Maybe not …
For who can doubt that it was Their will that guided the creation and the use of the aludara, that transported us across their domain between the stars?
Well I most intimately can! Everyone intimately knows it was intimate Abadar that intimated those intimate things Quenly thought-said.
At night, he casts magnificent mansion to give everyone a good meal and a warm and comfortable bed.
“Wow, Lichaam! Thank-you! I could get used to this.”
Eadie accepts the blood-boil pill from Korin with a little curtsey (not easy to do in full plate), removes her helm and freshens up before going to meet Kolm.
The group are escorted through the camp to a large, central tent. Entering, you find it lit by a brazier of hot coals and several hanging oil lamps. The warm interior of Kolm Durrendar’s tent is a welcome break from the cold wind coming off the mountains outside. The scarred,
middle-aged dwarf has a full, square-cut beard that hangs just past his belly. His pale-blue eyes are friendly, though worry lines and signs of fatigue mar his otherwise handsome features. He wears a suit of battle-worn plate armor under robes that identify him as a priest of Magrim.
“Thank you for coming,” Kolm says. “Ambrus said we could rely on you and I’d trust that man with the lives of my children.” The dwarf gestures toward the tent’s south wall, in the direction of the cave mouth. “That cave marks the entrance to Taal Mornat, an ossuary sacred to the followers of the Taskmaster. Your enemies have sealed themselves inside and conjured up a magical labyrinth that has my forces confounded. The labyrinth was here when we arrived a week ago. Since then, I’ve sent five well-armed squads inside—that’s fifty veteran soldiers—and only one squad returned, and they lost more than half of their number. The survivors reported that a labyrinth of tunnels and halls now blocks the way between us and the ossuary complex.
They were trapped in the maze for hours and eventually ambushed by a band of demonic minotaurs. After witnessing the slaughter and capture of their comrades, the survivors fled. Once again, they wandered the labyrinth for hours before they staggered out of the cave entrance. But that’s not the worst of it. An hour after the survivors emerged from the ossuary, these horrors appeared.”
Kolm gestures to a large pile of blood-smeared, oddly calcified bones lying nearby. “Three of these things—towering skeletal giants constructed from petrified bones and draped with bloody ribbons of flesh—fell upon my army. They slew twenty of us before we finally brought them down.”
The angry dwarf’s body trembles with the memory of the slaughter. After a long moment, he unclenches his fists, clears his throat, and regains his composure. “Ambrus tells me you can breach this infernal labyrinth. I implore you to do so immediately and put an end to this threat. I shudder to think what would happen to my people if an army of these things emerged from that damnable place, much less what your foes are doing to the bodies of my predecessors.”
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"I'm sorry for your men. Were they able to stay together in the maze, or did it try to separate them?"
"It could be traps that got them. We need to be careful as well."
Korin will eat his blood-boiling pill to prepare for the upcoming labyrinth-delving, and signal his teammates to do the same. He also use Alchemical Allocation and potion of Greater Magic Fang to give himself Greater Magic Fang for 10h.
"I'm sorry for your lose. We will try to rescue your folks, should we encounter them in the labyrinth."
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Maze is such a BS spell.
“Dwarven Father, I too am sorry for your losses. Your opinion of Venture-Captain Valsin is quite different to that of some others. Have you adventured with him in the past?”
As she examines the giant bones, Eadie look over at Quenly.
“I’m not sure these are undead. Could they be some kinda construct made out of bones lashed together with muscle sinew?”
“If not, Quenly what was the name of that dehydrating bone giant I took down during the ‘Everybody’s a Sage now except me’ Mission? I think it started with a ‘G’.”
Eadie screws up her face as she thinks. “Also, isn’t there a wizardy spell that protects people from another spell? Would it be worthwhile having a few of those prepared against maze?”
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“I’m not sure these are undead. Could they be some kinda construct made out of bones lashed together with muscle sinew?”
“If not, Quenly what was the name of that dehydrating bone giant I took down during the ‘Everybody’s a Sage now except me’ Mission? I think it started with a ‘G’.”
Eadie screws up her face as she thinks. “Also, isn’t there a wizardy spell that protects people from another spell? Would it be worthwhile having a few of those prepared against maze?”
"Are you talking about a gashadokuro?" Lichaam asks, looking up from his study of the bones. "I believe those are still undead. Perhaps some version of bone golem, though?"
He pulls out a couple of other references and checks against them for good measure.
"As for protection from the maze spell... that kind of protective abjuration does exist. However, as maze is extremely powerful, so too must be its protection. It would fall under the second-most-powerful category of discrete mortal spells, and is not available to wizards anyway."
"There is a lesser-known spell created by Aroden before his ascension. He created it for wizards, but it's extremely powerful and complex, on par with wish. Sadly, it's far beyond my current capabilities."
"Antimagic field would work, but that has its own issues." Lichaam lights up and adds "Oh! Dimensional anchor should work. It only lasts a matter of minutes, though."
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"Are you talking about a gashadokuro?"
“That’s it! A gash-a-whatever-u-said. Quite nasty, but possible to solo in a round or two. I think the name sounds vaguely Minkaen.”
Eadie scratches her chin. “I’m also thinking whatever these are is going to be tougher than them.”
“Man, I also HATE antimagic fields, and I’m not even a caster! If dimensional anchor works, that might be worth considering I-M-O.”
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A gashadokuro, yes. That is what we faced before Eadie. You handled it admirably.
An anchor would prevent entrapment within a Maze spell - but also would prevent the target teleporting. A risky proposition. Also, a spell that would only serve if applied before the Maze spell struck. A potential Contingency though. I could apply it via a scroll.
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Yanndu silently activates a myriad of spells and magic items while the group talks. Once the enchantments are in place, he mentally awaits Lichaam's mental information regarding the horrors they're about to face...
Long buffs:
Telepathic Bond x2 (covers the entire party)
Detect Scrying (24 hours)
False Life 14/14 (12 hours)
Mage Armor (12 hours)
See Invisibility (120 minutes)
Heightened Awareness (120 minutes)
Vermin Repellent (4 hours)
Antitoxin (1 hour)
Antiplague (1 hour)
Soothe Syrup (1 hour)
Saving the see invisibility, heightened awareness and alchemicals to the end of the briefing just before stepping into the dungeon...
Kolm grimaces, I dont know what they were but they were hard to kill. I have never seen their like before.
As for my men, that's as much as I know. I have no idea what you might find inside the labyrinth however there is certainly a trap inside the ossuary. The magma deep below the earth still pushes upward in places, and I know that Taal Mornat boasts a magma chamber with a deadly trap of some form. I believe a family of lava drakes has made that place their home there and occasionally leave through a fumarole in the mountainside high above.”
Examining the bones you dont know what these things might have been. They are too badly damaged and piled together to really make any sense of.
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Lichaam pulls out and pours a vial into his ear. It had to have time to start working, and the entrance was close by. He also swallows Korin's pill and taps himself with a wand before turning away from the mess of remains.
"It's unfortunate that these remains were heaped like this so haphazardly, but understandable. You may wish to burn them, if possible, and get a priest to give them some kind of rites. Spontaneously-rising undead aren't common, but usually occur with unburied or desecrated bodies." He gestures to the corpse-pile. "This might count as such."
What would the lore suggest for this? Hmm... "Is the labyrinth the only way inside? Is there perhaps a side entrance we could use?"
Kolm looks concerned. I suppose you could try and find your way through the fumarole but it would expose you to searing flames, toxic gasses and would mean trying to clamber through winding narrows passageways of an active volcano in the pitch black. But, you never know, Ambrus always said that you Pathfinders were a resourceful lot but I wouldn't risk it. It also means my men left behind in the Labyrinth would be lost...
He looks thoughtfully up at the plume...
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So either the fumarole opened up too far in to make backtracking reasonable, or the dwarves were being held inside the labyrinth itself. Tricky.
"The front door does seem to be the only reasonable option." At least the labyrinth would allow time for the Clear Ear to start working.
Maybe he should have prepared getaway this morning... too late now. It would have left behind the captured dwarves anyway, so maybe it was for the best.
As the group enters the front door Yanndu places a fire resistance enchantment on everyone.
The group gathers together at the cave entrance and make their various preparations. Inside seems normal enough, a plain tunnel except that a few feet from the mouth the cave’s natural features are abruptly replaced by a hallway formed by countless bleached white bones—skulls, femurs, rib cages, and more—harvested from all manner of humanoids and beasts, creating a thick solidified mass. A dozen paces farther, the macabre hallway is bisected by an archway resembling the maw of an enormous fiend. Roughly gouged into the bone-work above the archway are the following words in Common: “May your bones join those of a million others.”
This, it seems, is the entrance to Thurls protective labyrinth. Stepping through, you find the area lit by an unsettling pale light of unknown origin. It casts the bone walls into pale shadows. Looking behind you, you are alarmed to see that the entrance has vanished. Behind you a long corridor stretches away into the distance.
Eadie feels the token in her pocket grow warm. Taking it out she feels an intrinsic connection to the Labyrinth. With it she simply needs to will where she wants to go and the token will lead her there. It will however still take some time.
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Just before stepping into the labyrinth, Lichaam casts one of his two prepared heightened awareness spells. The dwarves had apparently been wandering for "hours", but perhaps the token would shorten that time. Barring that, it could help spot any sign of the dwarves.
Once inside, when the entrance vanishes, Lichaam scans for signs of the magic responsible. He also tries to remember if he's heard of something like this before, consulting a few books as appropriate.
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Eadie feels the token in her pocket grow warm. Taking it out she feels an intrinsic connection to the Labyrinth.
Eadie doesn't break noise discipline.
Holding her falchion in her off hand, she shows the others the token, and makes a mild burning disarm shake of her wrist while pursing her lips.
She then pockets the token, hefts her blade and continues on.
Quidditch will use the wand of Shield Other on Eadie and Korin, then goes into the familiar satchal.
Lichaam examines the walls. It is not at all clear what has gone on here but you now appear to be in a portion of Baphomet's Abyssal labyrinth. You are not in the Abyss though, it seems that part of the labyrinth has been brought into being here and you are now stuck in it. Lichaam knows of no magic that could do such a thing unless Thurl somehow has access to Wish....
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"This is a copy, or perhaps portion, of an Abyssal realm. But it's not actually of the Abyss. Thurl either has access to wish, or a powerful ritual custom-built for this purpose."
Lichaam checks if any of the floor- or wall-bones are loose, and stashes one in his sack if so. Who knows what kinds of secrets it could reveal? High-level space-altering plane-mirroring magic could have a wide range of uses, depending on how it worked.
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It is not unlike the Shadow realm, which lies over the Material plane Quenly muses.
Perhaps there exists a Shadow Labyrinth? How that miscreant Thurl accesses it we can only guess at.
Lichaam considers this. "Possibly..."
"The Plane of Shadow is something of a reflection of the Material Plane off the Negative Energy Plane. But those are very close together, cosmologically speaking. The Abyss is not."
"What if..." he says slowly, "The Abyss can sometimes be described as cracks in the Maelstrom. Very distant, but... if a crack aligned correctly, and reflected off a different distant plane..."
He looks back to Quenly. "The Boneyard. The Spire's base rests in the Styx, and runs opposite the Maelstrom's Antipode. This could be a reflection off Pharasma's realm, reinforced and brought into existence by an extremely powerful magic."
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"He could have, true. The magic for such a reflection would need to come from somewhere, and one or more wish spells would be good candidates. Thurl and Koth'vaul apparently worked together on that invasion of Absalom, so he could easily introduced some of his vassals."
"If this was a situation like the Worldwound, I would have expected more leakage. This doesn't feel like the Abyss. Still, records on the early state of the Worldwound are non-existent, so maybe the leakage starts out slow." Lichaam pulls out a book and makes a few notes on the ambient energies.
The group discuss metaphysics as they navigate the horrific labyrinth lead by Eadie's hunches. The scenery doesnt change from bleak, bleached white bones which occasionally ooze blood or a disgusting smelling black pus. Lichaam is able to collect the occasional sample and you come across the odd sign of prior visitors, a scuffed boot mark, a bloody handprint on the wall, a piece of discarded gear, signs of the previous dwarven expeditions perhaps....
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At one of the bootprints, Lichaam kneels down to examine it. "Do we have a minute?" he asks. "I have a scroll that can confirm what left this print. Whether it was a dwarf, or whether there is someone else in here with us."
After all, there was no guarantee that Thurl didn't bring guardians along with the labyrinth.
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"OK Lichaam."
Keen not to be left out of the conversation, Eadie offers, "Just remember, people who live in glass houses should get dressed in the dark."
When the group is on the move again, she is happy to defer to Korin, gently guiding him with a hand to the shoulder, in accordance with her attuned senses.
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Lichaam pulls out the scroll of residual tracking and begins casting, teasing out a mental image of whatever had left the footprint.
The footprint was left by a stern looking dwarven warrior, marching stoutly through the labyrinth, weapon and shield at the ready.
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Seeing Lichaam uses a scroll of the footprint blablabla
Hearing Lichaam's report, Korin goes"Nothing substantially informative, but at least it means that we're probably on the right track, either to our dwarf friends, or to whoever went through the effort to fake footprints trying to fool us."
Since Korin is leading the group, formation wise, he would like to hold on the token.
Korin takes over leading the group, it seems that having the token present with anyone who has attuned to it is sufficient although it is still Eadie who has the sensation of which way to go. The passageways of the labyrinth remain relentlessly grim and constant. Bleached bones, blood, gore and the continuous feeling of being lost or travelling in circles. You find a few more signs of previous passage, a patch of stinking fur torn off on a protruding horn, a broken shield and, oddly, a single foot still inside its sturdy iron boot.
It definitely smells like Minotaur.