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The moment that Dran’Thul removes the ring (and presumably the key, too), the furniture starts to glow with a lambent hue. It floats off the floor and circles around the room, blocking both exits, though it seems to be menacing Dran’Thul particularly.
You can discern a few options for how to escape the room:
DC 18 Acrobatics or Athletics check to dodge the randomly flying furniture.
OR you can attempt to walk through the furniture maelstrom without a skill check, simply taking damage and toughing it out.
Of course, it appears that if you Critically Fail in your skill attempt to dodge, you’ll take a pounding from the debris (double the damage below). A critical success, though, would also create enough of an opening that another of your teammates can also leave without having to make a check or take any damage.
At the end of each round, a rather large piece of furniture hurls itself at whomever is holding the ring before rejoining the furniture maelstrom. This deals 4d10+6 bludgeoning damage (DC 27 basic Reflex save).
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Everyone manages to twist and dodge through the flying furniture, with Dran’Thul creating an opening for Kaz to follow.
The walls in the area beyond the out-of-control furniture store give way to bare earth, with a purple light emanating from the orbs. Implanted within the western and eastern walls are a variety of long humanoid arms, each set reaching out toward the other side of the hall. The limbs seem to lack any sensory organs, appear to be made of a flesh-like substance, and move with deftness. They begin to lash out and flail about as soon as anyone approaches.
Studying the grotesquery, you surmise there might be a few ways through:
You can simply walk down the hallway without taking any means to protect yourself as the arms lash out, dealing bludgeoning damage with a basic DC 26 Fortitude save.
You could again try to safely slip past the arms with a successful DC 25 Acrobatics or Stealth check.
You could hack and slash your way through with weapons that deal slashing damage and just cutting some of the arms from the wall. Since it’s clear you would have to cut more than one arm off, you think you might have to make three successful consecutive melee Strikes against an AC of 28, and if you succeed at all three strikes, then you can dart through the hallway before the arms regenerate.
You could also just use magic; a cantrip isn’t strong enough to damage the arms, but casting any spell that both deals damage and requires a spell slot will clear the way enough to allow you to pass without taking damage.
Failure at the skill check or the hack-and-slash incurs the same damage listed above with the same check to mitigate it, but either way you make it through. And yes, you each have to do a thing.
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"Weird. Gross," says Zak, "But I can do it!"
"I'm sure you could, but why risk it when you don't have to?"
Kaz directs a hand at Zak, and then closes his fist. Zak vanishes. He then directs his hand at the other end of the hall and raises it up, and the sprite reappears. "Boring!" he huffs.
The kobold then frowns at the obstacle. "I could just use a fireball. But I can probably make it without. Should I... ?"
"That's boring! DO IT!"
Kaz probably shouldn't be convinced by that, but...
"Oh... uf... why do I listen to you?"
"I honestly have no idea."
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Dran’Thul jumps and weaves through the corridor as Betel’s force missiles whizz past his head.
Kaz gets Zak through but then gets pummeled himself when he tries to join the sprite.
Shayla disappears into the shadows and seems to simply reappear at the other end, and Meadow follows suit.
Whether you take a break to heal Kaz up or not, a thick metal door interrupts the corridor. Whatever it’s made of seems to resist all damage—and it possesses no apparent lock. Instead, it has a row of eight small gems inlaid in a circle upon its surface. Each gem is a different color: red, blue, green, yellow, purple, white, black, and orange.
Simply examining it, you note they can be pressed into the door.
If you use the aeon stone to communicate with Zinthyra:
Bear in mind that retracing your steps requires you to succeed at the challenges again. Or you can just review the previous posts your memories of what you saw in the previous rooms.
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Betel pushes 3 buttons and nothing happens. After a minute or so, the buttons slowly release themselves. Perhaps you simply didn't choose enough colors
The colours of the lights in those three rooms we went through.
The dwarf tries an answer: **We be desintegrated?**
Shayla's spidey- rogue-sense kicks in and warns you that getting it wrong will certainly have painful repercussions. Though perhaps not to the level of disintegration. Meanwhile Kaz is still hoping that someone not pushing buttons will Treat his Wounds.
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After Betel enters the correct combination into the gem door, and Dran'Thul takes care of Kaz, you find another door standing shut before you. There are no gems on this one, but there’s an obvious keyhole. The door to this room is locked; though it’s pretty obvious from the shape that the red-stone key you found fits it.
This room was once a grand library but is in shocking disrepair. Water leaks heavily from one wall, pouring across the floor, thankfully draining beneath a shelf, so the millennia of neglect hasn’t submerged the entire room. The moisture has despoiled most of what was once an impressive collection of scrolls and bound tomes. There may have once been hundreds of texts, but now they’re mostly crumbling and illegible. However, one table holds a small cube of hazy fire; it’s semi-translucent and glows with arcane blue flame. Within, you can see an ancient book of considerable value that looks to be in exceptional condition.
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"Well, let's try a torch before we do anything more drastic, destructive, or dangerous. I've got one here somewhere." Kaz takes off his backpack and digs through it. "I don't think I've ever actually lit a torch. Wayfinder is more practical when you need light... here we are!"
It takes him a few attempts, but the kobold gets the torch lit and touches the fiery cube with it. "Hopefully this doesn't explode."
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Zak’s torch causes the box to EXPLODE…
In a shimmer of sparkly lights, leaving the ancient tome (and the Pathfinders) undamaged. It’s clearly valuable to the right collector.
Moving onward, as you enter the next chamber, it becomes immediately clear this is the source of the water that trickled into the library over centuries and despoiled it. This chamber is heavily flooded. The ceiling here is illuminated with small, star-like gemstones, and the walls are covered with lush plants. The room is dominated by a deteriorated swimming pool, featuring several fountains. In its time, this chamber was a luxurious spa, but the marble tiles and clay bricks have cracked and crumbled over the centuries.
You quickly notice a small statuette underwater in the pool reflecting the starlit ceiling. The statuette depicts a figure dressed in glistening scale armor made of an untarnished silvery metal.
You (meaning Betel, really, cause she’s got the Swim speed) can dive in to retrieve the statuette. Because the water is 20 feet below the surface, you must Swim down to reach it. Once within range, the swimmer finds the statuette jammed between two rocks. It must be pried free. Freeing it would easily take 12 seconds (counts as 2 rounds for the purposes of holding your breath.)
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"She can't get it," says Zak.
"Could you?" asks Kaz.
"...maybe."
Kaz is dubious, but shrugs. "There are advantages to having our life forces linked."
After a moment's focus from Kaz, Zak's wings take on an appearance of fins, and gills form along his neck. He dives into the water and... seems unsure of what to do next.
"He really doesn't know what he's doing," Kaz observes, but the fishy fairy offers some magical guidance as he holds the rocks steady.
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Betel does eventually get it out while the rest of the team either tries to help or takes a break. The statuette doesn’t seem familiar to anyone so into the bag it goes for an expert or collector to catalogue.
Moving further into the tunnel complex, you find that the next area has no illuminating orbs in this 10-foot-tall hallway, making the area dim light. Several broken forms line the corners of the room; at first glance, they resemble bodies, but they’re oddly proportioned. On closer inspection, you realize they’re automatons. Most appear to be some sort of household staff, but they show no signs of life as their power sources have long since worn out.
One automaton is still barely functional but shows no outward signs of life until it unexpectedly gives a mechanical whine. It clearly doesn’t have enough power to move or act in any way other than create these sounds. Upon further inspection, you note that it’s clutching a cloth-wrapped item, unable to open its hand to release whatever it’s holding.
You can attempt any of the following, as well as any appropriate creative solutions you may think up.
A DC 25 Athletics Check to Force Open: You can pry the hand open, allowing you to take the item.
A DC 25 Deception check to Create a Diversion or Performance check to Perform: You distract the automaton, allowing you to grab the item.
Anyone who speaks ancient Azlanti or Thassilonian can urge the automaton to open its hand with a successful 28 Diplomacy check to Request.
A DC 21 Crafting check to Repair made by someone allows the automaton to move its hand, and it gives you its item in gratitude.
The item turns out to be an aeon stone (envisioning).
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With the aeon stone secured, you move on deeper into the dungoen. You eventually enter a room lined with mirrored walls. Each wall reflects the opposite side, creating an illusion of a series of infinite, repeating chambers. Aside from the doorway into this room (which has a mirrored back), at first glance, there doesn’t appear to be any other exits.
From somewhere between the images reflected in the mirrors, a figure appears to move. It slides through the reflected surfaces, as if it were another person who’d entered the chamber, features blurred and dimly lit. Then, it stands among you; a living shadow, emerged from the mirrors. A congealed shadowy magic swirls around it. Its features become clearer; that of a human Azlanti woman in her late 30s.
“Non-Azlanti thought patterns detected. Auto translation magic enabled. Greetings. If you are speaking to me, you’re within the laboratory of Lesolethe. Please confirm that you’re authorized to be here by stating the approval phrase.”
Asking Zinthyra (who is supposed to be the expert, after all) results in this less-than-helpful response: “Approval phrase? Like a password? What word would mean a lot to Lesolethe?”
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Now having wandered around the tunnel complex for some time, Kaz begins to put some things together. He recalls that Lesolethe’s accolades earned her and her family considerable recognition throughout the Azlanti Empire. Then in a moment of pure inspiration, he remembers seeing a reference in an old Azlanti saga to a respected female wizard named “Elosalo.” This woman was known to have been the daughter of a powerful runelord of teleportation magic, and one whose family became very secretive over the years and guarded and hid away all of their discoveries on an uncharted and magically cloaked island!
The shadow woman waits patiently for someone to say the “approval phrase” (or word.)
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”That is correct. Welcome to Lesolethe’s laboratory. Be advised that the mistress is not currently in attendance,” the shadow says with a smile as she pushes aside one of the walls to reveal another doorway behind its mirrored surface.
As you walk past her, you spot what is clearly a magical wand. Picking it up you note the small inscription that indicates it is a 2nd-rank wand of continuation.
The large dome-ceilinged room is as meticulously tidy as it is busy. The grand laboratory of Lesolethe is filled with enormous apparatuses: alchemical filtration tubes, mineral refining canisters, vats of long-dried concoctions, along with countless other pieces of scientific and magical investigation equipment. Numerous tables are covered in bewildering pages filled with hand-written notes in ancient Azlanti, with peculiar diagrams which are as clear as the day they were first drawn. But even more amazing is the ceiling itself; a gigantic panorama of what at first appears to be the night sky, but on closer inspection resembles a nautical chart, with thin silver lines between the celestial bodies: a map of the stars, drawn as though charting a course.
Zinthyra’s crystal lights up with a projection of her face. “Okay team,” she states eagerly, “This must be the laboratory! The key has to be around here somewhere. I’m not sure what it looks like, so the best thing to do is to start searching. I’m sure it’ll be somewhere here. Be sure not to step on any teleportation circles. They probably take you outside, but I’m not sure you’d be able to get back in.”
A teleportation circle, looking like a better-preserved version of the one above ground, is obviously glowing on the floor next to the farthest wall from the entrance.
The mechanisms in the laboratory are large, difficult to move, and many are attached to the structure with materials and magic far beyond your capability to break. The “bundle” of notes, though, is incredibly valuable and worth at least 240 gp to the Society. There’s also a strange floating stone, similar to, but distinct from aeon stones. A prototype, perhaps. It’s equally valuable.
After a quick exploration of the room, you locate a small gold box on an otherwise empty shelf. It isn’t locked, and if opened, you find three interlocking amethyst rings which levitate when removed from the box. They orbit one another and eventually twist and intersect to form a key.
“That’s it!” Zinthyra’s gem announces ecstatically. “Definitely the key to the structure beneath Kaer Maga. The pattern matches those on the seal, but this key is peculiar. It will take some time to figure out how to apply it…”
Suddenly, Zinthyra’s face in the gem glances to one side, then another. A tone of panic enters her voice. “Um!” she stutters. “Oh no! Pathfinders, we have a bit of a problem… Get back to the ship as soon as possible, please! I think we’ve got pirates, and they don’t look friendly. If this lab is like any of her others, Lesolethe should have a teleportation circle keyed to go outside.”