Cueball's second shot causes the final ooze to fall motionless.
As combat ends, Kyrsine instructs their mystics to look over the Starfinders.
Following the battle in the pit, Kyrsine addresses you again. "For the Trial of Knowledge, you are tasked with demonstrating your understanding of the history at work here in Gadrathar Fortress and how the copi and copaxi play into it. Each of you individually must make your own statement before us." The agents believe they could try reciting either historical facts about Tabrid Minor or discussing how Triune’s Signal affected the planet, the tragic history of the robots, the ecological importance of the copi, the Starfinder Society’s involvement in recent events, or anything else that is relevant to copaxi or Gadrath history.
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"My understanding of it is the copaxis lived idyllic lives in their magic floating cities. Sounds kind of lazy to me, and likely leads to bad habits. Then the signal came and messed everything up, Sounds like there was lots of fighting. Then the copaxis got greedy and used their technology to industrialize. I get that being lazy is bad, but this is overcompensating, and harvesting the copi trashed the planet, from what I've heard, if things don't change this planet is going to turn into a survival situation that's not going to be a fun camping trip if you know what I mean. I'm just here to keep the campers happy, the rest of the team is here to do the talking."
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Cueball hooks a grappling line to something and swings back and forth on it for a visual aid.
"The locals seem REALLY swingy. Its not the worst thing in the world.. if they didn't move at all that would just get BORING. But when they up and get going They go and keep going. One century they're ruled by a magocracy, they revolt with technology , then revolt on that technology" She swings herself left, right, left, going further and further each time until the grapple falls off and she unceremoniously falls to the floor with a THUD but without interruption.
"I wonder if that's because they're the only sentient biological species on the planet. I can't imagine the sense of entitlement that's got to give a species.. like.. Its just you. The smartest thing in the universe. Every decision you make controls your entire planet. And you can because its yours ALL yours. The universe is here for you! Honestly I'm surprised they're as sanish as they are. "
"They seem like they need some outside perspective to let them know when they're tilting too far."
Gadrathar Fortress hold information about ancient magical traditions involving the copi needed to rekindle ancient copaxi magical traditions to prevent as Obozaya called a survival situation that might be better summed up as an ecological disaster here on Tabrid Minor.
The problem gets more complicated because the copaxis abandoned their flying cities and developed robots to expedite the dangerous mining of the copi, then to put it mildly abandoned the robots that had developed sentience. Gadrathar Fortress here was at one time one of those cities and is now home to some of the remaining sentient robots.
Obo is not much of a speaker, but she has clearly done her research. Cueball and Navasi also get nods of approval at their understanding of the situation. Delea doesn't add much in the way of detail, but her general understanding is all-encompassing.
Kyrisne speaks up after they are all finished. "You are truly learned, Starfinders. I do believe you comprehend the challenges before us. Now, for the final trial - the Trial of Balance. Please show us ypur ability to manipulate the forces of balance that govern Gadrathar Fortress itself."
"If the Fortress is willing to listen I can make things right."
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"Hey delea, you got a fireball or something you can chuck at me? Its really easy you just convert the kinetic energy of ALL the superheated air molecules around and turn it into the kinetic energy of YOU going forward.... "
Cueball does a reenactment of the ooze fight with some convenient rocks, and shows off stellar rush with more enthusiasm than explanation. She'd need a target to show off dampen though....
With the completion of the trials, the Gadrath visibly relax. They explain that most of the fortress towers are collapsed in on themselves and cannot be entered. They occupy those few that are still intact, while the core “remains in the care of those who came before.”
They also note that various places inside the core are occupied by elementals who have taken over copaxi places of residence and by undead copaxi who never left the fortress. They express hope that the Starfinders are able to retrieve artifacts and images of the fabled copi gardens and “water spheres” the ancient occupants of the fortress used as meditative foci.
They also tell you that that the last copaxi master of the fortress supposedly still resides at the heart of Gadrathar’s core, reaching out through the copi veins to observe and manipulate events to their whims. As such, the Starfinders should expect that everything they do inside the core of the fortress will be observed.
Finally, the Gadrath offer to create copies of their records and knowledge for the Starfinders to give to the Coenocopi Foundation as potential allies. These records should be ready by the time you are ready to depart the fortress.
Their solarians escort the Starfinders to the proper entry point and post guards outside, indicating that when you are finished with your exploration, they will escort you off the premises. They also show interest in talking to you once they you have completed their exploration.
Navasi addresses the Gadrath
"We shall not disappoint, we will retrieve the artifact and images. Do you have any more information on what the artifacts are and how many of them there are?"
Navasi turns to the rest of the team.
"We ready for this? Should be easy just some undead and elementals to deal with should be easy, what could go wrong..."
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"Look, when a bunch of identical towers built at the same time collapse it means you need to up your building inspects and start building some new ancient towers. "
"I speak most of the elemental languages mom thought a fire elemental for a baby sitter had a better chance of surviving these guys gonna talk or they gonna be all "you are on our sacred grounds die for your impertenence fleshbags" type elementals?
she technically takes a quarter of it.
The Gadrath have not challenged the undead, as their combat capabilities are not as advanced as yours, but they say that they elementals they facedwere insubstantial as the wind.
"Obozaya, I'm not too worried about you hitting undead or not, we're going to need a good plan if we have to hit something as insubstantial as the wind. Cueball, Delea either of you got experience or advice for fighting the wind?"
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"Obozaya, I'm not too worried about you hitting undead or not, we're going to need a good plan if we have to hit something as insubstantial as the wind. Cueball, Delea either of you got experience or advice for fighting the wind?"
"What you really want to do is to not fly directly into it or directly against it. You kinda zig zag at a 45 degree an.. OH you mean literally? Lasers work ok ish. There's a trick you can do to attack the ghosts very existence but I only just picked it up after YEARS of concussions and visions. Obo has a good start but its still not something I can just show you...Theres something you can buy to do the same thing but I didn't see a gift shop out front" cueballs entropic strikes count as force , and she has an acid pistol she can lend out but you'd probably want to unload the healing serums from it first.
After spending time with the Gadrath, the Starfinders enter the core sections of Gadrathar Fortress. Fractured into spherical lobes, the core is constantly rotating, subjecting the PCs to changes in gravity and orientation on a regular basis, though with unpredictable outcomes.
The first chamber the Starfinders enter has the look of a communal meeting and dining hall, though the tables look a bit strange. Each table has a bowl-like depression set into it where dishes of stew could be served, or where incense-laden poultices could be steeped. To study the great hall and learn more about it through context clues, you can make a Bluff, Culture, Physical Science, Sense Motive, or relevant Profession check.
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Cueball wheeees and finds the center of the room and floats there for a bit, getting a better understanding of the room.
"If I was going to have a spinning room, I guess a soup bowl would have a chance of floating off without you. Building it into the table must make it harder to clean than a bowl, but easier than scraping it off the ceiling."
"Anyone hungry kind of looks like a dining hall of some kind."
The Starfinders can confirm that Gadrathar Fortress did not originally rotate, and that it was not designed to. Almost all of its rooms did, however, lean into interlocking circle motifs. The original inhabitants used these circular designs to help center themselves metaphysically in their daily lives. The great hall originally hovered above a powerful ley line that the fortress’ builders discovered emerging from the south pole of Tabrid Minor. The fortress was built in its original position specifically so the ancient order’s founders could try and find points of inflection and connection within themselves and the copi of their world. Masters of their way could then better manipulate gravity on (and above) the surface of their planet. Some records even suggest that copaxi who attain higher levels of spiritual consciousness might one day be able to control the gravity of other celestial bodies such as moons, planets, and stars.
You discover a compartment near where it feels like one could give sermons or watch over a flock. Inside are two pairs of gauntlets that function as blaze ignurso knuckles.
Moving on, the Starfinders reach a strange room is spherical and made of steel, clearly given both chemical and magical treatment to resist the elements and the passage of time, yet no clear markings give the Starfinders a clue as to its purpose. No traps can be detected, nor can anything be learned about the room from the outside. Once you enter, the door snaps shut of its own volition, and the room rapidly begins to fill with water from multiple directions. Because of the gravitational gyre surrounding Gadrathar, this means that the water moves from the outside in toward the center. Magical sensors line the walls of this room, which is a complex meditation chamber.
You wait it out safely (if uncomfortably).
"No traps here that we can find, I think we are meant to just go with the flow here."
Navasi relaxes and lets the water lift her to float.
"I could get use to this"
"I'll go with enhancing the experience."
The Starfinders decide to trust that the Gadrath wouldn't voluntarily drown themselves, and allow the water to cover them. Although startling at first, the experience is peaceful, and they can breathe as well as if they were in air.
As the water recedes, the remaining copi alive in this area impart knowledge to them— knowledge that suggests that the order of mystics and solarians used generational and biological memory. They passed on magical and gravitic genes through polyps that were shared between copaxi of the order. You also intuitively locate a small records room (with plates similar to those kept in the library) that has the names of disciples who fled the fortress and returned to the surface of Tabrid Minor when the masters made their last stand. Based on the descriptions in these records, the Coenocopi Foundation may be able to locate some copaxis with genetic material directly inherited from the lost disciples of Gadrathar Fortress. Among the records is a silicon armor casing upgrade.
The Starfinders dry off after the water finishes draining. For some reason, despite the relative sense of inner calm, it feels like the locker room after phys ed class in prep school. Refreshed and rearmed, they continue, passing through a number of empty rooms.
The fortress library is unique on Tabrid Minor in that all its texts are preserved in magic hexagonal plates of copi, willingly bound in place with the knowledge of a book or with an individual’s memory permanently stored within its matrix. To access this knowledge, one must hold the plate and meditate, absorbing it and breathing it in—the more spiritually balanced the individual is, the faster they can “read” the text. The secret of making these texts, whose “length” is measured in segments not unlike tree rings on a forest planet, is long forgotten, but the collection here is vast and valuable. Even creatures who do not understand the copaxi language can still absorb the meaning behind the words stored within each plate, ensuring that the lore kept in this place is accessible to all.
"This is starting to feel more like a vacation than a mission. All you got to do is relax."
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"What do you mean relax? I am relaxed can't you tell!."
"I'd be even more relaxed if we were fighting something."
Obozaya paces around for a bit then sits down
"Now I get it maybe this is like waiting patiently to ambush someone. effective, but I'd still be happier just charging right in, but I'll practice my ambush skill if that makes everyone happy."
"Never did like ambushes too much waiting."
The Starfinders learn that the masters of the order were the final living occupants of the fortress when pro-industrial revolutionary forces launched their attacks. It feels like they are still watching the goings-on here.
These mechanized assaults caused major damage to the copi connective tissue that secured the fortress towers to the core of the structure. This in turn created rifts between the towers and caused massive destabilization.
As the fortress seemed to teeter on the edge of collapse or invasion, the masters created mighty illusions and gravitational anomalies to deter their enemies, allowing their disciples to escape back to the surface of Tabrid Minor, where they could maintain their traditions in secret among the populace. It was hoped that the ancient ways would stay alive as a moral compass within these disciples and the polyps that they would pass down to later generations, while the masters and senior-most members of the order stayed behind in a last-ditch effort to save the fortress.
On display in the library is a surprisingly functional suit of journeyman mageplate armor.
The team passes another pair of seemingly empty rooms before reaching a small workshop. It is an absolute mess, but because its materials are sturdy and expertly made, there are still things the Starfinders can discover. Curved benches and work tables line the walls around a depression where a podium stands—a place for a teacher to give lessons, eyes always on their students. Each table has old gear suggesting that crafting took place here, such as holders for lamps, magnification glasses, and more.
"Unfortunately living things from a hundred years ago that are still walking might not still be living, thus the warning we got about undead around here. With everything seeming so relaxing and peaceful here, we might get lucky and encounter undead that are happy to help turn some wrenches."
The Starfinders learn that the copaxis who came to Gadrathar Fortress learned to commune with the evolved copi that lived within themselves and to channel their awareness through both magical and non-magical ritual foci that they created. They would use this to connect on a metaphysical level with the soul of their world itself—the primal awareness of Tabrid Minor’s collection of copi, the same copi that is currently at risk of ecological collapse. Besides spending their time making items to help them focus their meditations, the mystics and solarians also crafted many magical relics.
You find a single bauble that retains mystic power. This is a minor gluon weapon crystal.
The team passes through a number of other empty chambers, though the sensation of unseen eyes upon them only continues to increase.
Finally, the Starfinders come to the only area of stability (free from somatogravic illusions) that exists within Gadrathar Fortress—the last of the living copi gardens. This circular chamber is directly beneath an unmoving tower and is still free enough from debris to allow natural light to shine directly in from high above. Now that they can see one of these gardens still clinging to life, the Starfinders can easily surmise that each tower must have boasted one of these wonders beneath it in the past.
The copi here looks like a stunted and bleached coral reef that barely clings to life. You may be able to coax the copi into better health and retrieve a very interesting-looking set of coral tubes that appear to be growing from the garden.