Several statues of an adult Garundi woman at varying ages are displayed, each with a plaque describing an important event or reward. While there are no statues of her youth, there are several honorary pedestals with placards honoring major events from her childhood as well, with the name on each artistically scratched away.
A statue of her alongside a golem‐bodied individual stands out from the rest. Even from outside the garden, extraneous magical lettering is shimmering and visible on top of the mundane description on its placard.
Do you approach the statue or move on?
As soon as Yuan approaches the statue, a series of complex magical structures form around all of you. You first see the statue begin to slowly sink into the ground, and almost immediately thereafter it seems to recede an impossible distance away, along with the walls of the house and other features of the garden.
Walls of shimmering arcane energy rise up all around you, far too many to normally fit in the garden’s space. A ceiling forms above, trapping you in this complex maze. The terrain itself has stretched and warped to accommodate this strange, arcane labyrinth.
Every time you think you spot a path out, the walls shimmer out of existence, reappear elsewhere, and alter the paths of the maze.
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Rose takes few steps forwards and finds her path to be blocked ... She turns right and walks there same ...
She kicks wall angry, then she turns left looking as the path closes...
Then she darts forwards, just as the path is closing
She tries to squeeze in, but bumps into it, she immediately do pivot on her right leg and runs right after few steps she turns left again, and right
Bumping into the wall in front of her...
Rose attempts to nimbly jump about to predict the motions of the shifting maze walls. They are just a little to fast for her and several bonks and many curses later, she hasn't made much progress.
Shayna reflects on the occult nature of the maze and gains just enough understanding to manipulate a section of it with her mind. Just as she's leading the party beyond it to the next section the shifting walls get hyperactive, but she's quick on her feet and jumps through several walls that attempted to trap her.
Yuan seems to pick up on Shayna's lead and is able to comprehend the nature of the maze's magic, manipulating sections of it three times in a short span.
The maze is really starting to open up for the party and feel manageable. Just a little further and they might reach the sinking statue in the middle...
Lady Alya and Klara each step forward and try their hand at it, manipulating a final two sections of the maze. The way opens and the statue is revealed to all of you.
Using your combined understanding of the maze it occurs to you what all of this is. It was right there in the name of the garden. Touching the statue, the illusion is dispelled, undoing the distortions and returning your senses to perceiving your very real place in the Illusory Garden. The also very-real descent of the statue is halted and it returns to its original position on the ground of the garden.
The deceit of the illusion is gone as if it had never existed, which imposes a deep sense of self-doubt. Did any of that even happen?
Now with time, you investigate the magical lettering, which is easily deciphered into a command word that causes the placard to slide down, revealing a hidden compartment containing one fragment of Alyreha’s research.
Where to next? One of the remaining locations on this floor or upstairs? Touch base with Alyreha?
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Klara sips some waterm sniff air and touch some real things.
-Is everybody here? Was it a trap or only an illlusion? Or is this place connected to other plane of existance?
checking posessions and considering things are going with a usual level of awkwardness Klara agrees to follow to Divination hall thereafter...
she's writing few lines in a notebook as she walks, licking the pensil occasionally.
The team arrives at the Divination Lounge...
This room is completely bereft of windows and lit only by dim magical orbs mounted on each wall. Two perfectly smooth crystal balls lie in the center of two large tables, near the center of the room. The other furniture in the room has been tossed, the shelves have been ransacked and a pair of mirrors on the far eastern side lie shattered on the floor, revealing an empty indentation in the eastern wall. On inspecting it, you find that it is empty.
Lady Alya De-Quinn, Klara, Shayna, and Yuan Wu find that they are able to interact with either of the crystal balls due to having some level of magical training .
The eastern crystal ball displays important cities and landmarks around Golarion, including the Starstone Cathedral, Lepistadt University, and the Husk Beetle at Sothis, among several others.
The western orb is currently active and displaying the front entrance. You can see Alyreha, still atop the statue you placed her on, manipulating the arcane energies that hum around her.
Interacting with it, you cycle through the rooms of the manor. You can easily see images of each room on the first floor as they were when you visited them, including a view of the outside entrance and the Illusion Garden.
As you continue to cycle into what should be the second floor rooms, you notice that nothing is visible... The name of each room appears, but the view of the room itself is missing. What could be wrong?
The labeled 2nd-floor rooms:
- Necromancy Study
- Home Office
- Reading Room
- Teaching Hall
- Enchantment Auditorium
- Evocation Atrium
- Transmutation Showroom
- Scrolls Storage Room
You note that there is no entry for the tower atop the manor, that you observed before entering.
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What do you do? Head to the second floor? Touch base with Alyreha to ask questions?
Heading up the stairs, another floor opens up. You find access to the rooms that had displayed as dark in the crystal ball.
B1. Necromancy Study
B2. Home Office
B3. Reading Room
B4. Teaching Hall
B5. Enchantment Auditorium
B6. Evocation Atrium
B7. Transmutation Showroom
B8. Scrolls Storage Room
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Klara wanted to be a solo or a leading hero somwhen, but since she is not so risky and naive anymore - she enjoys giving mates a space to work and supporting other investigations with hints and advices.
When Cragon suggesting Necromancy Study - the brave halfling second to enter.
-Should we expect haunts of some sort or a mummy? Or maybe a ghost? What do you think?
As usual Klara might see something odd around, right?
When you enter a new location, such as a room or corridor, you immediately notice one thing out of the ordinary. The GM determines what it is, or whether there's nothing reasonable to pick up, skipping obvious clues that can be easily noticed without a check or specifically looking for them. You learn only that an area or object is suspicious, but not why it's suspicious. For example, if you entered a study with a large bloodstain on the ground, the bloodstain is so obviously suspicious it's evident to you already, so the GM might note that there's something suspicious about the desk drawer instead. You would then need to investigate the drawer further to find out what specifically is out of the ordinary. That's Odd doesn't reveal whether creatures are suspicious.
You don't typically get any benefit when you leave and come back to a place, though if a major change has happened there and time has passed, the GM might determine that you do.
Yuan studies the image of the Abjuration Display room and then quickly jogs over to the real room. He is able to pinpoint the area where the image's point-of-view should originate from but he finds that it doesn't resolve to any visible object...
To the Necromancy Study! Looking through the doorway...
Two small desks lay on the eastern and western sides of this small study room. The western desk hums with a soft, soothing sound while the eastern one buzzes with an unsettling low noise. On either desk, numerous crafting and repair supplies lie scattered about, and prototype golem frames are piled up against the northern wall. The shelf on the southern wall contains several books in an array of unusual languages. On all four walls, arcane runes shake and spark with instability.
Klara notices something that is odd... those wards are obviously very active but also something seems off about the nexus between all of them.
What do you do?
As Yuan approaches the study the energy thrums even more chaotically, as if it's eager for him to get too close.
Yuan concentrates his focus on the nexus, but he's unable to coax the energy to disperse.
Klara and Shayna approach the entrance to the small study, focusing their occult energies on the swirling presence in there.
They hear a voice in the back of their minds that both taunts them and beckons them to step further into the study...
The energies are not yet dispersed.
Rose tries to derive a technique from her many gathered lores and knowledge. She doesn't quite get a handle on the necromancy, but she does get a feel for what it would take.
Having seen everybody try an attempt, Klara thinks she has it figured out...
Stepping back to the entrance she focuses on the necromancy nexus and disrupts its workflow, causing it to disperse for now.
The small study falls silent. You're all able to enter and safely search the room. You find that some of the books on the shelves have marks along their spines. The three books in question are written in Celestial, Requian and Necril. Each has further markings in its table of contents and in certain marked passages.
Thought the books seem a little damaged (was someone here before?) Yuan and Rose are able to decode the cypher being used and reveal a fragment of Alyreha’s true name research hidden within the text.
You now have six fragments of her research.
Where to next? You can still check in with Alyreha about what you've found, or else continue through rooms on this floor.
Klara leads the party back downstairs to the entry room so that she can ask Alyreha about the texts.
Of course I know these languages! But it seems that two of you were able to work out my cypher anyway without fully knowing the languages! Smart cookies... What else have you found?
She's quite excited to learn that you've recovered six fragments of her research!
I'm quite excited to learn that you've recovered six fragments of my research! she exclaims, obviously.
This is great! I can recover my True Name and I have enough information to restore the wards from my research tower! With this sixth fragment I know enough to conserve some of my power for holding the wards together, and provide some magical support for all of you! Listen up...
Alyreha will teach each of you a single-use command word that has the manor release a burst of positive energy.
I wonder what I could do with even more research fragments. It's so good to get my work back!
She looks around at all of you, waiting for other questions.
Well?
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Cragorn scratches his head. Er, ah...how much more of your research is there to find? I mean, you probably don't know, so I'm not even sure why I'm asking...
Once Alyreha answers that question, almost certainly frustratingly, Cragorn will follow up with asking about the crystal ball display for the second floor.
The skull turns slightly to the side slightly. Perhaps she's considering the question.
I don't recall... Given what I've reconstructed so far I can't imagine too much more...?
More questions for her before you head back out into the manner? Or where to next?
In addition to my research though, I'd be very interested in a report of the state of the tower. Also, you mentioned that my crystal balls couldn't see into all of the rooms. Somebody didn't want their activities being observed on the upper levels. A damage report of those places would be nice too!
What room would the party like to explore next?
The party quickly passes through the Transmutation Showroom to hurry to the scroll storage room.
It's more of a closet, containing several dozen scrolls. As you begin to dig through them you find most of them to be half-finished. Many are odd experimental spells that cannot be used by you and would not have any value if sold. Every scroll in the room is appropriately labeled with the name of the spell being scribed into it.
However, just one of these is labeled "comprehend language". It's rolled up with an ornate paper tag attached to the string that says, “For the promising apprentice”.
And since you just passed through it, we may as well see what the group sees in the Transmutation Showroom.
Taxidermied animals and beasts on display cover most of this large showroom. On the southern end of the room, a set of stairs leads upwards, and a small door on the northeastern wall is the scroll storage room you just picked over.
You notice a single model of an owl hanging from the ceiling in the very center of the room.
Shayna, Rose, and Klara spot an ornate scroll lodged firmly within its beak.
But how will you get up there to retrieve it? It's obvious the taxidermied heads and models in the room are sturdy enough to climb on.
Some obvious possibilities include:
* Athletics to climb and leap
* Crafting to build makeshift platforms
* Acrobatics to balance on narrow surfaces (e.g., animal models)
Who will try?
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Rose looks up at the scroll "The Owl scroll! Whoever reads it will have power of the Owl!" mocks Rose looking up
She stands next to a animal model of a Bear "I will try to lift you Cragorn, then you climb on back of this one, jump to that animal with a long neck, climb on its head, and maybe with your gun, you should be able to free the scroll."
Rose cups her hands and makes an initial foothold for Cragon, who easily vaults himself upward onto one of the taller models, a dweomer cat up on it's hind legs, stretching upward "pawing" lifelessly at something on the wall. Perhaps Arclords entertained themselves by leading it around with dancing lights.
In any case it gets Cragorn much of the way upward, and now he needs only make a maneuver towards the middle of the room.
That suspended strix model looks positioned in a flight pose that leaves her wings creating a nice flat(ish) surface on top. Jumping to it seems to get one right up to the owl...
Will Cragorn make it, or fall and have to start over?
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Cragorn measures the distance in his mind, once, twice, thrice, then makes a leap, and realizes he forgot to carry the one...
CRASH!
But as close as he made it, surely the next try will work!