Wisps, Zad, and Chim rally to help their friend. Dozens of voices cry out at once as the golem finally crumbles to dust—a sad, plaintive wail that trembles with fear and anger, then rises with sudden and unadulterated joy. It fades away like birdsong.
Glittering amid the dusty old pieces of shale are many power cores, faintly pulsing. These contain the stolen souls of all those whom the golem captured and dissected. As you sift carefully through the rubble, you also find some blackened orbs, darker than the emptiness between stars. Not all the automaton souls survived the thing’s corruption.
--
A simple ivory rod with steel caps lies in the rubble. To untrained eyes, it seems a mundane little thing. But Chim and Zad see the hidden words of power etched into it—words of subjugation, binding, and control. You remember the hallucinatory vision the golem created, of Jistkan artificers hammering over a shimmering forge…
Jistkan Artificers wrote:
Stubborn steel, living ivory: know my skill’s command.
Bend to the will behind your master's hand.
The Golem was trying to show you something with that illusory scene. Some memory of the making of the artifact cradled inside its body for these long ages. A distant echo of the golem's original purpose, or perhaps a fading memory of a mind trapped within?
This is indeed a Rod of Command: a tool to break wills and destroy minds.
But if you can break the will of the spells bound within this artifact — bend this thing to a greater good — your ritual will have plenty of potent magical fuel.
Of course, the rod would be destroyed in the process.
Take a breath. You learned some things, you have some automaton power cores, and a powerful artifact on hand.
I believe you will take 1d6 bludgeoning damage as the fall = 10 feet with T in acrobatics + cat fall; why not grab the edge and then drop the last 10 feet with cat fall to avoid the damage, though?
Zadiki chooses to believe, and walk up the wall he does. He drops to the other side and raises his shield.
He sees Chim fly across the wall like a comet… one ill-aimed. miss
----
Indranthine. Indranthine. Indranthine. Different faces each time, pleading, unable to see where Kiri is hiding.
Perception:1d20 ⇒ 9F
Indranthine. Indranthine. Indranthine. The golem, is beginning to fall apart.
Perception:1d20 ⇒ 8F
Pieces of stone flake to the floor. It's these trapped and confused motes of consciousness, pleading for their lost friend… it's so tragic; this pathetic charade will to an end soon.
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 7
Party Conditions: Inspired, Wall of Imagination Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature, Wall of Stone ────────── BOLD IS UP!: ──────────
Lithic Devourer (-138 HP) │ 30' Aura, 2d10 p. fire, Stupefied 1, 1 power core left to pry out ➤ Alrinkiri(84/148 HP) │ Immune to Aura ➤ Chimwemwe(136/204 HP) │ Immune to Aura; touch of moon (Full Moon), Quickened, Shield -39 ➤ Wisps(152/162 HP) │ Heroism, immune to aura ➤ Zadiki(160/160 HP)
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Each 10-foot-by-10-foot section of the wall has AC 10, Hardness 14, and 65 Hit Points, and it's immune to critical hits and precision damage. A destroyed section of the wall can be moved through, but the rubble created from it is difficult terrain.
Chim pulverizes more rock, sending the creature reeling. Wisps makes some of the stone muddy, slowing it but for a moment.
Surely it's on its last legs. I'm coming, Indranthine. It burrows down and under the wall of stone… Burrow 20 = 5 down, 15 diagonally down, 5 up, 15 diagonally up.
Note, fort DC is 42, so I tink that fails byt 1 unless I am missing something that changes my fort dc.
GM, Kiri:
Fire:2d10 ⇒ (1, 7) = 8 Flat:1d20 ⇒ 16
The fire goes out. It does not see you yet.
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 6
Party Conditions: Inspired Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature, Wall of Stone ────────── BOLD IS UP!: ──────────
Lithic Devourer (-258 HP) │ 30' Aura, 0 power core left to pry out ➤ Alrinkiri(84/148 HP) │ Immune to Aura ➤ Chimwemwe(136/204 HP) │ Immune to Aura; touch of moon (Full Moon), Quickened, Shield -39 ➤ Wisps(152/162 HP) │ Heroism, immune to aura ➤ Zadiki(160/160 HP)
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Each 10-foot-by-10-foot section of the wall has AC 10, Hardness 14, and 65 Hit Points, and it's immune to critical hits and precision damage. A destroyed section of the wall can be moved through, but the rubble created from it is difficult terrain.
Wisps sends soothing energy at the Champion and maintains her inspiration; once again Chim's hands slip before he gives up and hammers at the golem again. Meanwhile Zadiki distracts himself with his own tune and Kiri does a little bludgeoning damage to the golem, who does not seem immune to nonlethal as it has a strange spirit inhabiting it. All in the mind of the beholder…
Another voice:
"We will be with Indranthine. They do not understand, but they will be happier with us. And we will understand!
The golem gestures, raising a wall hung with decorations and banners in jistkan, bisecting the place.
And another old friend…
I will come to you, soon, Indranthine. They shall not interfere. You will see. As it speaks its feet begin melding into the stone e.g. it has not moved, but you note it can burrow. Not very fast, but it can.
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 5
Party Conditions: Inspired Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature, Wall of Stone ────────── BOLD IS UP!: ──────────
Lithic Devourer (-207hp) │ 30' Aura, 2d10 p. fire, Stupefied 1, 1 power core left to pry out ➤ Alrinkiri(84/148 HP) │ Immune to Aura ➤ Chimwemwe(136/204 HP) │ Immune to Aura; touch of moon (Full Moon), Quickened, Shield -39 ➤ Wisps(152/162 HP) │ Stupefied 1 ➤ Zadiki(160/160 HP)
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Each 10-foot-by-10-foot section of the wall has AC 10, Hardness 14, and 65 Hit Points, and it's immune to critical hits and precision damage. A destroyed section of the wall can be moved through, but the rubble created from it is difficult terrain.
Wisps shoots and arrow away, and feels the pull of madness… she's not having a great day!
Kiri breaks free and escapes.
Zadiki remember Inspire fires an eldritch shot at the creature — a stolid think knicks away shale from its bodh, but it also resists some of the piercing damage.
Chim peies out another power core; this time; there's an effect accompanied with the backlash. The freed energy ripples across the creature's stone hide, weakening the bonds forged by ancient Jistkan artificers. Resistance 10 to P and S reduced to 5, one core left
----
You won't prevent me from being reunited with my friend.
The spirit possessing the golem is frustrated, lashing out again at Chim
1d20 + 33 ⇒ (18) + 33 = 51 Bludgeoning:3d12 + 19 ⇒ (6, 1, 11) + 19 = 37either 59 damage and shield breaks as it pushed your threshold past 60 or 74 damage. Will put Chim roughly around 100 hp either way.
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Invoke Spirits: Basic Will Save DC 35 mental:2d4 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6 voic:2d4 ⇒ (2, 3) = 5 Creatures that critically fail the save are frightened 2 and are fleeing for 1 round.
Wisps inspires the party, even though her voice shakes as the howling spirits surround her.
Kiri slashes at the creature; their claws meeting resistance against the stone resist 10
Zadiki pulls yet another clutch spell out of his bag of tricks, freeing Chim. The inventor's first strike misses the tough, off-guard creature and his hands slip as he tries to pry out a power core.
Don't take me away from my friends! squeals another voice. His second strike lands solidly, and the champion is please to find the stone creature is weak to bludgeoning damage. In addition, a power core pops out of its face. Occult energy is released, cracking the original making of its stone body. Stupefied 2
The Lithic Devourer Seeks, multiple faces burst forth from its body, looking for their dear old friend "Kiri," or as they remember, Indranthine.
GM Screen:
Perception vs DC 38:1d20 + 33 ⇒ (8) + 33 = 41
Another familiar-to-kiri face appears in the creature's back — this automaton is militaristic, commanding, and remembering something from the past. It spots kiri slinking behind an illusory workbench. Remember that Illusory Scene is playing over and over
Caedifex Indranthine. The Tekritanin League approaches! Why do you hide?
The Locus forgets all about Invoke Spirits Stops sustaining and walks over to Kiri.
Kiri Will vs Phantasmal Internment DC stupefied 2 DC 33, Resist Magic:1d20 + 21 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 21 + 1 = 28
Kiri finds themselves restrained. The crushing weight of time, stone… all they have forgotten. How many lives? An automaton smiles down at them. Shhh. You will understand soon enough. We'll remember together. We'll finally understand.
Fire:2d10 ⇒ (1, 9) = 10 Flat:1d20 ⇒ 9
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 3
Party Conditions: Inspired Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature ────────── BOLD IS UP!: ──────────
Lithic Devourer (228/315 HP) │ 30' Aura, 2d10 p. fire, Stupefied 1 ➤ Alrinkiri(84/148 HP) │ Immune to Aura, Restrained (Escape DC 35) ➤ Chimwemwe(165/204 HP) │ Immune to Aura; touch of moon (Waxing Moon), Quickened, Shield -39 ➤ Wisps(152/162 HP) ➤ Zadiki(160/160 HP)
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Invoke Spirits: Basic Will Save DC 35 mental:2d4 ⇒ (4, 1) = 5 voic:2d4 ⇒ (4, 3) = 7 Creatures that critically fail the save are frightened 2 and are fleeing for 1 round.
Kiri barely manages to hide. Another face appears as the other one is subsumed back into the golem's body. This time it's an automaton's face with feminie features. The face pushes forth from the golem's own mouth. In another voice:
Where did Indranthine go? You villains will not prevent us from being reunited.
The golem swings at Chim:
Stone Fist:1d20 + 33 ⇒ (17) + 33 = 50 B:3d10 + 16 ⇒ (2, 4, 5) + 16 = 27Block 14 for 39 damage to shield and self
Will:1d20 + 23 ⇒ (5) + 23 = 28
When Chim is whalloped by the lithic fist, he has a sense of being entombed, claustrophobic and suffocating. He finds himself trapped under the weight of stone and time. Restrained; this is illuisory however, unlike the normal Lithic Locus creature. Chim can make another will save to disbelieve as an action on his turn, or escape using the usual skills. Allies can assist with an action using Intimidation, Performance, Religion, Occultism. DC is 35.
Another face appears in the creature's shoulder. We only want to understand. We will share what we know.
The Lithic Devourer's body glows with red energy as it summons the ghosts of the automatons and Jistkans that the entity possessing it has driven mad. Faces swirl around Wisps and Zadiki, warped smiles, dead eyes. They whisper nonsense: Zitáme tin apelefthérosi . . . We saw the garden behind the stars. Cisternsturn antianthropoeidés . . . The outer planets . . . Echoume alláxei!
Invoke Spirits: Basic Will Save DC 35, Wisps Zadiki mental:2d4 ⇒ (3, 1) = 4 void:2d4 ⇒ (4, 2) = 6 Creatures that critically fail the save are frightened 2 and are fleeing for 1 round. Will be flagged in Notes & References
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 2
Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature ────────── BOLD IS UP!: ──────────
Lithic Devourer (276/315 HP) │ 30' Aura, Sust. Invoke Spirits ➤ Alrinkiri(148/148 HP) │ Immune to Aura ➤ Chimwemwe(204/204 HP) │ Immune to Aura; touch of moon (new moon), Restrained ➤ Wisps(162/162 HP) │ Frightened 1, DC 35 vs Invoke Spirits ➤ Zadiki(160/160 HP) │ DC 35 vs Invoke Spirits
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
Invoke Spirits: Basic Will Save DC 35 mental:2d4 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3 voic:2d4 ⇒ (3, 3) = 6 Creatures that critically fail the save are frightened 2 and are fleeing for 1 round.
Kiri can’t remember who this automaton was, or is, but their voice and personality feels true.
It is an automaton speaking from inside the golem. This golem is not only dissecting automatons but ingesting their essence, their minds and memories, and making them a part of itself. Perhaps even the automatons’ souls are merged into this creature. Where individual automaton ends and golem begins is not clear at this time. But what is cheat is that you don’t want this happening to yourself.
Ifyou could knock out or pry out those glowing power cores it might disrupt its mind You could try to pry out a core with a hard DC 35 crafting or thievery check
Dimari-Diji unseals the well and lowers a ladder made of vines. It is rather deep. He hesitates. Call if you need help.
---
Down below, it's pitch black and you cast light spells revealing a large, bare stone chamber with no exits. A pile of rubble against the far wall twitches.
A humanoid-shaped creature made of potsherds, mud, and limestone is waiting here. Three power cores fire to life in its face. Their cool glow illuminaes a dead iron arm hanging off its shoulder. A metallic leg dangles from its back. A hand sticking outfrom its thigh wiggles its fingers. An iron cheekbone glints from its shoulder.
Stone and mud churn, and as they do glimmers of metallic body parts appear and disappear… parts of the automatons this creature has dissected and subsumed into itself as it tries to learn what an automaton is… how they work.
Stone grinds against stone, and a harmonic sound fills the chamber. You've heard a similar susurrus before, in the botanical garden where the Inperantike went mad. Only Kiri and Chim are unaffected, Chim because his soul alone has traveled the darkness between the stars, and Kiri because they were immune to the original effect. Based on your will saves from that scene
The creature stumbles toward Kiri. The bare stone space starts melting around you, morphing into sun-lit Jistkan artificer's chamber; golden tessellations glimmer on the white marble floor, stone workbenches laden with strange metalworking tools line the walls. A sweaty, clean-shaven artificer chants above a white-hot rod as he hammers upon it. The heat turns the air into a velvety curtain. He coos at the rod over and over:
Stubborn steel, living ivory: know my skill’s command.
Bend to the will behind your master's hand.
This is the forging of the first Ivory Baton. A tool of control and subjugation. Like the smoky air above the master smith, the scene becomes hazy as you realize it's merely an echo of the past, an illusion. As if thge golem is trying to show you something. Move, cast Illusory Scene
The golem's stomach cracks open. Inside is a face of a soldier-automaton. It stares at Kiri and calls them by another name. And to Kiri the voice and the face of the subsumed automaton is familiar… this was a friend once…
"Indranthine. We have not seen you in so long. Please, help us remember. We want to understand how they controlled us. Then we will all be free, together. Indranthine. Indranthine. Help us remember."
☀☀☀ The Nemesis Well Round 1 Environmental Notes: 30' aura around creature
At the start of a creature’s turn in the aura, it attempts a DC 35 Will save.
Critical Success: Unaffected and immune to Maddening Susurrus for 10 minutes.
Success: Unaffected.
Failure: Stupefied 1 until the start of its next turn.
Critical Failure: Stupefied 2 and stunned 1 until the end of its turn.
"Has little Jatembe been gone long? Only a few thousand years! I suppose it depends on who you ask, he's visited us a few times. I thought everyone in the Mwangi knew where Jatembe was. You should visit him!"
[/ooc]
Kiri pauses fr a moment at this. "I should very much like to visit him, if he still lives (though that is quite a long time for a human). His whereabouts are not so well known as you might think, though. Could you tell us where he is?"
"We can talk abot that later. Let's focus on the task at hand!
----
Based on the description Dimari-Diji can give, Chim believes this sounds like a unique Lithic Locus with additional occult powers.
Civilizations die, buried by time, but their memory may yet linger in shattered pottery, collapsed edifices, and destroyed artwork. At times, this history walks again as an avatar of an extinct people when awakened.
A lithic loci represents the triumphs and folly a society. Speaking to one is speaking to a witness of an archaic time. A lithic locus's persona expresses their culture in all dimensions, and thus the attitudes of lithic loci vary greatly. Their appearances show the aesthetics and technology of their time, suspended in a cloud of stone.
These creatures like to bury their victims, as if planting them into an archaeological site, potsherds interred under the weight of limestons, shale, and time. Bury: Any creature hit by the locus's Strike is partially buried in a tide of earth and rock, becoming immobilized (escape DC in teh 30s).
They can also cast occult spells as echoes of the past, controlling the terrain with illusions, dominating other creatures, building walls of stone, or invoking spirits.
Again, however, this creature likely has slightly different abilities as its base type is infected with an otherworldly being that wants to spread madness. Likely it has consumed automaton cores and is drawing more poower from their trapped souls.
"You require an artifact—one of the coveted and dangerous Ivory Batons of the ancient Jistkan Imperium." He turns to the Nemesis Well. "Such things should not be trifled with, but you have earned the trust of the people here, and you have heard their voice."
"Down there, in the Nemesis Well, I have captured something. It followed the automatons here. Originally, it was a lithic construct made by powerful Jistkan artificers. I believed its purpose was that of a reliquarian."
"However, the outside force that infected the Hanging City of Teskra with madness has possessed this creature. Whatever it is, it wormed its way into the golem over many years, as it lay inert in some forgotten place. A fragment of the thing that destroyed the souls of those humans so long ago found a way to infect a golem. It now seeks to understand and unravel the minds of these automatons, which have so far resisted it."
"When it captures one, it disassembles its victim methodically until it finds and absorbs the power core, ingesting the victims' memories. It is trying to learn what an automaton is, learning how to unmake an their minds as it unmade the minds of the Jistkan humans."
"It is the thing that drove the automatons from their home city, and it followed them here. I've had it trapped below for a few thousand years while I study it. For, I fear that whatever entity possess this creature will return to our world. As you saw in the Botanical Gardens, the madness spread like a plague. We are fortunate that the Hanging City of Teskra was so isolated. Contained."
At any rate, embedded in its body are several artifacts from the Jistkans, including an ivory rod of command. Fate is telling me that the time of study has come to an end; the only way to remove this rod is by destroying this strange creature once and for all."
DC 39 arcana/crafting for base type of creature based on description; difficulty +2 for secondhand knowledge
"Has little Jatembe been gone long? Only a few thousand years! I suppose it depends on who you ask, he's visited us a few times. I thought everyone in the Mwangi knew where Jatembe was. You should visit him!"
"Well, I would be interested to hear about this "teacher" "Janatimo" later and how THEY know my friend Jatembe. But first things first…" He looks at the Nemesis Well. Dread seems to well up from within as you gaze into the black spaces where the stained glass is broken.
I'll update a bit later with a detailed description.
Dimari-Diji smiles after you explain to him. "I think you will be able to carry the deepest and most important learnings with you, even if the details are gone. And, Alrinkiri would not forget. At least, for a few thousand years."
"Is it not fascinating, that these people have found such an interesting way to invert the magic that once controlled them? Perhaps before you go you can create a memory terrarium, something that captures the history of this place while keeping its secrets."
"When you return to Jatembe I am sure he will safely help you squirrel away such an artifact."
If you have not picked it up yet Dimari-Diji knows nothing of the Magaambya and believes you came here directly from Jatembe.
As you walk to the Nemesis Well, you recall the plaque from the second-to-last garden.
plaque wrote:
"It followed us here, it found us after so long. We looked back to the first botanic gardens, and learned. We know not what it was, but we know it followed. Dimari-Diji cast Nemesis into the well."
___
The Nemesis Well is located in a part of the canyon that is unclaimed by automaton civilization. It's a shadowy part of the canyon, on ground level, behind a cluster of drooping trees and hanging vines. A roiling bank of blue-green haze conceals a wide shaft. The well is covered by a dome of stained glass, but many of the glass panels are broken or missing.
Among the trees is Dimari-Diji. The breeze ruffles his leaves, the only movement. RThe ancient being is meditating, and likely has for all the time you've been here. Dimari-Diji is nothing if not patient.
He opens his eyes. "Jatembe's disciples have returned. And none too soon; time is growing short, I can feel it. Tell me: have you listened and learned, Magic Warriors, how to best serve the people of the Second Suspension?"
CS on organ (ler's call it a +3, F, S via Hero Point for a bonus round on initiative, S on automaton lore check for ritual assistance
Chim investigates the ancient organ, and combines his knowledge of astrology and pattern-making to repair it as best he can +3 on your checks
Zadiki deposits himself int he observatory and gets to work, repairing the scrying devices and integrating them with nature unobtrusively.
Kiri and Wisps lead community repair rituals. Wisps finds the strange, out-of-time automatons a little hesitant about her performance. however Kiri succeeds in teaching a group how to repair their own public works.
They learn that the citizens here are most comfortable with a ritual to alter memory; to many, forgetting is just part of existing as an automaton. But, they will accept placing a geas on the area if advised. They are least comfortable with outright fighting to destroy all invaders.
Regardless, what you are missing is an ivory rod. There's one place left to visit, the Nemesis Well, where Dimari-Diji is meditating.
Now, your instinct tells you time is running out. You can help the citizens repair the city as you prepare for invasion.
DC 32 Crafting or Nature to repair the Observation system and get it set up, for a free round of buffs before the invaders come, as you will be forewarned
DC 32 Crafting, Occultism, or Arcana to jury-rig the pipe organ engine for a +2 circ bonus on your ritual check (gear or forgetfulness), if you decide to try it later
Lead Community Repair ritual (remember than from book 2!?) to earn more goodwill from the citizens. Maybe you'll learn something too. Just make a perform or Society or Automaton Lore check because ritual rules are still silly :)
You find a chapel-like space devoted to "observance": little altars with globes. Likely they showing various areas of the jungle near the gorge. This would be useful in forewarning against invaders, were it repaired.
In a half-collapsed cul-de-sac, you find an old studio of wax and wire. Shelves hold half-finished faces; a cracked mold that looks suspiciously like Kiri.
Deep below, past a flooded stair at the bottom of the canyon, is a vault where massive bronze pistons and hanging chimes form a kind of mechanical pipe organ. Some still move sluggishly, powered by residual magic. Moving the pistons makes the whole hanging city resonate. This could be the place for a powerful ritual, but at the heart is a broken control bracelet, inside which is a shattered ivory baton that is beyond repair. You could jury-rig this place up to perform the ritual.
In search of answers, you explore more of the Second Suspension. Wandering among the decaying bridges, you nee nature taking over as the population has dwindled.
Survival, Nature, Society, Crafting, Automaton Lore, History or similar
You learn a bit of history, and of automaton-making from these scrolls.
Priest-artificers of the Imperium were revered as much for their connections to the Outer Planes as for their prowess with divine magic, and they often practiced their prayers and miracles at vast temple-forges where they bound spirit and metal into one.
Judge-artificers commanded the legions of golem and automaton soldiers that served as Jistka’s armies, and it was they who first started using the Imperium’s legendary ivory batons to control the automaton and golem troops.
These scrolls were taken from the Priest-artificers; they contain knowledge of a both a potent geas and of subtle mind control. To make the gardens, the plants were given a geas of how to grow, and illusory scenes and alternate realities made the gardens seem so realistic for visitors.
You could use this magic in a two ways:
1. set a geas so that those who leave this place can never spread knowledge of it unless they find a way to remove the geas
2. create a false memory of this place being nothing but an empty gorge
However, you would need to invert the magic, so it affects only non-constructs instead of constructs.
This means your own party would be affected by the magic once they leave.
In the longer term, you could plant an illusory garden at the city's entrance, blocking it off and protecting it. But that would take as long as a garden to grow… too long before the Shadow Magaambya finds this place.
In either case, the magic of the Priest-artificers requires a component from the Judge-artificers: an Ivory Rod of Control. Their makings are lost to time. You would need to find a such a rod to complete either ritual.
Perhaps exploring or learning more will yield more clues, or give you other ideas if none of these options are amenable.
Where to next? Repair public works, or explore the city?
Kiri leads you through the Second Suspension by instinct, across dizzying mezzanines, tessera-tiled walkways, and forests of vines that drape into the depths below. They lead you to a ledge tucked behind a curtain of greenery. The ledge leads to a square stone doorway.
Behind the doorway is a tunnel. Rows of automatons line passage, standing on either side as if in states of rest or recalibration. You have all seen Kiri recalibrate themself, standing stock-still as they restore and stabilize the energies within their core. Each of these automatons rests in a similar position, as if they might come to life at any moment. They are strong and sturdy as the day of their making, even after 8,000 years or more.
But this is a graveyard full of corpses that will never decay. Their power cores have been deactivated. The constructed bodies, now empty vessels, will remain standing vigil here under the mountain on a geologic timescale.
This is a sacred place and it demands silence. No one even whispers. You spend a long time twisting and turning among the shells of thousands of automatons. The Hanging City of Teskra spanned a mountain range of 21 peaks. It was a massive megopolis. Seeing the number of departed, it hits home just how tragic — and triumphant — this lost history of the Jistka Imperium is. After a while, the tunnel empties out out. Bare stone now, space waiting for more.
The way slopes down and down, the walls becoming rough, then natural. Water seeping down through the bones of the mountains made this place.
Deeper in, Kiri looks to the left. Here, a passageway cinches to a shoulder-width black circle. Two leaning ten-foot slabs of black rock — more marble than limestone — run off into shadow, angling toward one another. You enter, feeling you’re stepping into a deep-time space. The slabs of rock here was were pushed up up tens of millions of years ago.
The sense of confinement is severe. Soon, the space grows even more confining, and you’re crawling. The deep-time space is becoming a a deep-time vice. This is a fascinating and terrible place, and not one that can be borne for long. The air is heavy and stale, hard to breathe. It’s no place for the living.
Luckily, you do not need to bear it much longer. At the terminus of the passage is an opening, and you can stand again. On the floor of this small room is a simple clay urn. Kiri knows not to unseal the urn. There are things in there that are not appropriate for you to know. This is a place of containment.
Behind the urn is a hidden niche, cleverly carved by Nomena the Witness. Inside is a foot-long casket; a kist, a small sarcophagus. Its outer layer is pitted bronze; it resembles the surface of a moon.
You turn and move back through deep time, each part of the passage re-opening in turn, in order. By the time you return to the low corridor, it’s a great relief. It woul be a nightmare being lost in here, forever, wandering among the twisted balack rocks and among the bodies of decommissioned automatons. Is it a blessing or a curse to live as long as an automaton does?
The dead automatons seem more like guardians than ghosts now, watching the over a hungry dark of deep time. That hunger snaps at your back as you step out into the light at last.
Many of the epic myths and histories you studied at the Magaambya concern hazardous descents into darkness in order to reach someone or something consigned to the realm of the dead. You realize you have made just such a journey yourselves.
____
The bronze kist is neither sealed nor cursed.
After resting in the open air for a bit, you carefully open it and find sheaves of old scrolls. It will take days of careful study to even begin unraveling their secrets. Make a magical tradition check (any of Nature, Arcana, Occultism, Religion).
Kiri recalls where the scrolls are hidden, a particular niche in the wall behind an urn deep within the Columbarium Ledge, on the far side of the city.
The magic used by Nomena the Witness is rooted in Ekujae tradition (or something older) as well as the control magic of Jistkan artificers. These memory trees grow, coaxed to the shape of their recollections. Could ask Dimari-Diji later for sure!
From the process of her work, and the secretive nature with which Nomena the Witness treats those Jistkan scrolls, you understand this is potent magic that could also be turned against living minds, making them not only remember, but remember the wrong things… swapping out memories so the victim would never tell the difference.
If you could find those scrolls, could might remake this magic. Perhaps it could be used to bolster the city's defenses, or even remake the memories of would-be intruders, forcing them to forget the city even existed and never speak of it again.
Potentially useful, but also incredibly dangerous magic!
Kiri:
You see glimpses of yourself in the jungle, protecting the automatons caravan over the decades lost in the green. A partner who wanders off, never seen again.
In the Second Suspension you become a quiet leader among your people, reliable, trusted.
Fleeting memories of whispering to these trees yourself, and you see yourself with Nomena the Witness carrying those Jistkan relics deep into the ciry, to a hidden place… make another automaton lore check to try ands remember more clearly, and perhaps you can easily locate this cache of scrolls in the Second Suspension.
There are several gardens left to explore. You see the automatons' journey away from the Hanging City of Teskra and to this place.
First, they wander the mountains and then into the jungle. At times, some drift off but there's still a large group of them a few thousand on this exodus.
After decades lost in the vast jungle, they make their way North, back into the mountains. They like this place. They decide to settle here and build a city. Another hanging city, but smaller in scale. Where the Hanging City of Teskra was built as a statement of hubris, the Second Suspension is a hidden gem. Beautiful, and not for the world to see. Secret, safe, and its craftsmanship and its stories only for its inhabitants.
An old tree teaches them how to mine the mountains and to hide their home, forging a canopy of stars above and hiding the trails below.
A scribe named Nomena the Witness has carried with her the scrolls and strange writings of the Jistkan mages whom she served. She does not want to forget, but she knows she will. These scrolls contain spells to control and twist minds, but they can me modified to create pocket realities.
In a room on a terrace she plants a magical seed given to her by Dimari-Diji. She spends weeks bent over, singing to it the words of her memories, and the memories of her community. Other automatons come and do the same, contributing their own memories and perspectives. The seed listens and takes root, growing and spreading. It blossoms into a replica of the Hanging City of Teskra. The first garden you visited.
She plants more gardens, door after door. The automatons whisper the story beats of their pasts, their perspectives, their present viewpoints. Each door is given an inscription like a museum-piece. Afer all, that's what these are.
Nomena the Witness smiles, thinking of the Inperantike's pleasure-gardens. These are better.
And she imagines herself forgetting herself, watching herself watch herself in the strange garden she's planting as she imagines herself forgetting herself. The visual recursions in this particular garden make you dizzy.
____
As you progress through the final rooms — and through aeons of history — the Second Suspension grows from a single arch into a maze of buttresses and mezzanines. The automatons find a peace and contentment they never had with the Jistkans, living free and unbothered by the outside world.
But as the history progresses, the magic of the garden fades, the memories getting blurry and then stuttering or flashing in and out. The automatons forget a little, and then a little more, of the special magic needed to make a memory garden.
The second-to-last garden has a plaque. "It followed us here, it found us after so long. We looked back to the first botanic gardens, and learned. We know not what it was, but we know it followed. Dimari-Diji cast Nemesis into the well."
Inside this penultimate garden are simply swirls of color and disembodied voices whispering gibberish. Broken.
____
The final doorway is a work in progress. "Four Magic Warriors came to the Second Suspension. One of these was returned to us. They bore the teachings of Jatembe, and a sign of "
A sickly seedling is planted in the dirt; the stone inscription is not finished.
Crafting, nature, arcana, automaton, or perception checks!
The automatons file out, but get no clues this time.
Unfortunately the citizens of the Second Suspension have forgotten this part of their, which is why they created these magical memory-gardens. So, whatever details you can find must be learned here.
Something tugs at your minds, whispering pure unearthliness. The hungry silence of dark doors that have never in all eternity closed. A hint of that same vile grin seems to spread across Wisps and Zadiki's faces… but then it's gone.
Kiri knows they were caught off-guard, but still, they feel nothing. Automatons are immune to this effect.
----
You leave the terrible vision. The next door's inscription:
stone wrote:
“Markus Selaezios — then general of Jistka’s Third Legion — proclaimed a general fast following the events of the feast, and a public penance for the infractions of the thereafter departed ruler. The citizens were made to gather sharp mountain stones and spread them carefully upon the paths of the Hanging City, and upon them they were made to put upon sackcloths and tread barefoot upon the rocks.
After exacting the appropriate expiation from the populace, Markus justly surmounted the throne and departed with his soldiers to the frontierlands."
**
Inside this garden, time moves faster; the faces are blurs, the details fuzzy, as if the remembering is harder. Perhaps this garden was made later than the others, when centuries after the fact when the automatons' memories began to fade.
The streets are almost empty. Jistkan humans stay inside, afraid of something. The pleasure-gardens silent, growing wild. Many of the automatons rest in their gilded cages like paintings or hang upon the chains like gargoyles. You wander a bit, shivering and looking over your shoulder or into the empty windows. Inhuman eyes are watching you.
**
The walking-stones are grimy. The pastel towers are faded. The golden leaves on the parapets are flaking away.
Jistkans gather in the concourses, commoners and nobles alike. They ritualistically shed their clothes and walk out of Teskra, into the wild mountains.
**
The wind tumbles through broken towers. The sun warms the flying buttresses. Many of the terraces are broken, fallen into disrepair. Others are in poristing condition.
The city is too large for the automatons to maintain. It reminds oyou of the current, much smnaller, iteration of this city, the Second Suspensino. Nonetheless, the automatons move about their daily chores, keeping up appearances.
**
The automatons are vanishing. Some wander off. But something else lives in the empty city with them. It's been here since that terrible night. It moves to a cadence outside time, slower than most mortal thought, but surely.
Every so often, an automaton vanishes without a trace.
**
Jistkans gather in the concourses. There are no nobles or commoners, they are one people. They have gathered treasures and scrolls of the Jistka.
Like the humans, they file out into the mountains. But unlike the Jistkans, these ones need no food or water. These will make it far indeed.
A last look at their home. A place of terrible beauty. The only home they knew.
DC 32 Perception checks all around as you observe the automatons.
After exiting, you gather yourselves and move across the tesselated floor to the next doorway.
Here, another stone inscription:
Stone wrote:
“When Inperantike Rakiendos entered the 12th year of his reign, he celebrated the anniversary of his accession by opening a lavish debauch in his newly completed Pleasure Gardens above the Hanging City. The vaunted bridges Teskra resounded with mad screams and laughter, the wealthy citizens becoming like wild beasts cavorting among the hanging gardens.
But sometime in the last night, an odd susurration was heard, and the Inperantike, emerging from some recently planted bushes, became unknown to all goodly powers and mortals.
----
You step over the threshold into a starlit garden on a balmy evening. A thin sickle moon hangs in the clear air; constellations as they were 8000 years ago sparkle in the sky. A decadent feast is laid upon the tables; nobles dance and cavort along the paved stones and velvet cushions scattered along shadowy garden paths, a veritable orgy of decadence.
The Jistkans seem a little too tall, and the ground seems a little too close, as if the perspective is warped or low to the ground.
The revelers fall silent. A disquieting harmonic fills the night sky above. Dreaful and alien is that terrible moaning, as if the void between he stars has come down and gazed on the Hanging City. Even in recreated in this simulation, it carries a hungry power.
Everyone make a will save against a control/emotion/auditory effect or counter perform
In the silent moments that follow, an old man wearing a delicate platinum circlet and fine purple robes stumbles from the rose bushes. His arms and face are bleeding from the thorns. His eyes are empty like stones, and strange little vulgar grin spreads on his lips as he notices his royal guests…
…the scene blurs as if the viewer is turning flee.
As the vision fades to black, the screaming begins.
Markus is lean and athletic, and his stride is long; people move out of his way and look down when his stern gaze rakes across them. He quickens his pace. "Faster, soldier." You obey.
He soon arrives at a guardhouse and gate placed before colorful spiral steps that rise to the highest of all tiers; above, pastel minarets soar into the clouds, and lush trees and vines dangle over the dizzying edge. The guards jump to attention and sharply salute Markus. You stand at attention.
Marcus speaks with formality: "Hereby I, Markus Selaezios, Legatos of the Third Legion, reassign Indranthine, ex-rank Caedifex, demoted to rank Munifex, to the Inperantike Menagerie. I place them into your custody and command."
He continues with a shrug, dropping the ceremonial tones. The soldiers relax a bit too. As you have been taught, the most skilled military leaders are able to talk informally with those under their command, when appropriate. This garners loyalty.
"Rakiendos desires a warlike-looking beast among his flock, a little danger prowling the vivarium." He shrugs and gestures at your once-self. "Such is their assignment, and such is their demotion to rank Munifex, lowest of the low."
"Mark you well: this automaton has served adequately for several hundred years since their creation from a crippled footsoldier. However, a defect or flaw in their making has now become apparent. For they have refused to exterminate a trading caravan of the Tekritanin League." Your once-self, a well-trained soldier, betrays no emotion. The general walks out.
The soldiers relax after several moments, once they know the Legatos is out of sight. One of them looks at you kindly. "Indranthine, there's far worse punishment than being caged in the royal gardens. But you won;t be traveling to see the world on the borderlands, neither. Maybe that stings, eh? Well, I wouldn't want to do what they must on the borderlands either, too much killing of people who maybe don't deserve it. Come now, follow me." Your once-self, again, hides whatever emotion they feel. The soldier leads you away, up the stairs.
You can only wonder who created this scene with such fidelity. Was this from your own memory? Did you help make this place?
You try to follow, but the rainbow stairs are empty.
As Zuma has taught you, sometimes the ugly truth lies in the meaning behind the message, or hides in plain sight. The stone has glossed over — or perhaps encoded based on automaton cultural norms — a more disturbing truth.
Things seem pleasant at first, until someone asks Chim why he lets Kiri go about without a leash.
The menagerie is not clockwork, as the legends say. They are living automatons. Each has a power core, a soul that was volunteered to the magesmiths, or captured.
A man in robes carrying a silver rod walks into a park, and the automatons cower before him. You recall the automaton Hycanth's supposition, that her sole purpose was to be beautiful and crack walnuts for the emperor.
Suddenly, the place seems a lot less pleasant. The smiles of the wealthy Jistkans make you sick to your stomach.
You have, perhaps, learned enough for now and take your exit.
Before you leave…
Kiri, crit success:
Sitting inside a mage-forged loop of chain, you look down and catch a glimpse of… yourself. Prowling alongside a a man in general's regalia, as if you are his bodyguard, the same body you ever had, but with a fearsome harness painted with the colors of Jistka. A tame killer.
Someone hails him as Markus Selaezios, Legatos of the Third Legion. You could stay a moment, and see if you learn your original name and demeanor. Or, you could leave.
You make your way to the districts of the Gardens. There is a covered walkway with a wide arch. An automaton explains: "On either side of this corridor are chambers, and each chamber is a bioscape. Please understand: the chambers within are wider and longer than the span we stand upon now. Some of you may find that disconcerting. We have built these bioscapes at certain times, but have lost much of craft over the eons."
Inside, the air is fragrant and damp. The walls to either side of the tessellated floor are glass; leaves and flowers can be seen through the walls, wavering as if in an aquarium.
Next to the first door is a stone. on the stone are chiseled words:
Stone wrote:
"When the Inperantike Rakiendos finished the 10th year of his reign, his majesty commissioned the building of the Hanging City of Teskara, suspending it precariously above a deep canyon to dramatize his achievement. Teskara soared above all adversity.
The Inperantike then commissioned the landscaping of a massive park to house his collection. His artificers wrought a menagerie for him, with which to populate his garden: leopards, parrots, baboons, bats, gazelles, and other creatures built from brass and copper gears, stone, and metal. This menagerie dwelt throughout the sprawling Pleasure Gardens of Rakiendos, as well as within the city itself, when appropriate."
----
You step into a fabled place of the Jistka Imperium as it was 8000 years ago. Bright, airy light dazzles your eyes. A cold mountain breeze ruffles your hair. Hundreds of stone suspension bridges and vast marble tunnel networks flow into the distance, connecting 21 mountaintops that surround the massive valley below. This "chamber" must be miles upon miles wide. Perhaps you are walking in circles, an illusion recalibrating itself with every step you take. Or perhaps is this a larger place, a pocket dimension outside of time and reality. Or perhaps you've been transported back in time…
The cool balconies and cunningly lit chambers of the Hanging City’s interior are hewn into the rock and supported by chains of mage-forged cold iron. Magical nets and walls of stone-hard glass keep the menagerie in their place.
The city is crowded with people, all human, all garbed in beautiful but strange clothing. They rub elbows with you as if you were one of them.
They can offer nothing but superficial pleasantries, often repeating the same bits of small talk over and over again. While disconcerting, you can take comfort you have not actually been transported across millennia.
Make an Acrobatics check to explore more quickly, Athletics to climb chains, a Crafting or Religion check to learn about the automatons (or Automaton Lore), or sell me on something to delve into living (illusory?) history
We can assume over the coming days/weeks you all can repeatedly cast 4h level translate or similar, and find an automaton in the city who can cast other spells to help with languages
Rumors swirl in the city with your arrival, while the Second Suspension is sparsely populated there are still a significant number of automatons here, and you are the first visitors in a very long time. The city grows tense over the coming days as word of a potential threat spreads among the populace.
Chim has a difficult time getting used to this place, the lights in the sky forming strange constellations. He loses focus on the mission for several days as he obsessively pores over star-charts, coming to the discovery that the magical lights in the netting above are arranged as the constellations once were approximately 8,000 years ago.
Zadiki visits Calibration Terrace, where ex-soldier automatons gather to repair and rework their bodies. "We forswear violence. Will you protect us from these intruders?" He also hears that too many of the people in this city have forgotten the art of repairing their magical chains and mezzanines. If only there were a way to recapture that knowledge, or find assistance. Perhaps your group could help, if you knew of crafting, magic, or rituals that repaired public works.
In the Coil Market Wisps talks to a concerned elephant-shaped automaton. They trumpet: "I hear there may be people coming to attack or spy on us. What good will it do to fend them off? We must kill all survivors, or imprison them here for all time. That seems like a terrible thing! But if we do not do this, survivors will tell others of this place. Then more more will come. And eventually the Second Suspension will fall, or be infected by the outside world. This is our doom."
Kiri pads in the soft light among their people, up the chains to the netting above, down to the lower levels. At times they almost recognize faces, tips of names on their tongue, pastel memories that never quite come into focus. Many automatons stop and stare at them — recognition? — before turning away. Some hide from them. Others talk. They tell them to not only go to the Botanical Gardens where there are writings on the stones, but to venture into the abandoned places deep in the city. The old places are haunted, but there are also many things there that are lost.
What the people want:You have learned that the citizens not only fear an attack because they are not very war-like, but the longer-term repercussions of an attack. They worry about word getting out, and want a solution that keeps this place secret but is as nonviolent as possible, though if needed they understand acting in self defense.
Goodwill:You've gotten a way to earn the city's goodwill by helping them repair public works.
New area:You've been encouraged to explore the abandoned places of the Second Suspension.
----
Where to next? Seems like Kiri wants to visit the Stones in the Botanic Gardens
Looks like we're heading to talk to the people of the city
You explore the habituated sections of the Second Suspension, moving high above the gorge among the chains and vines. While beautiful in its strangeness, the city more functional. Its design blocks rain and wind; the air here is still, and the city dim with the lights twinkling overhead.
There are no inns or restaurants or temples; automatons have no need to eat or sleep, and few gather for communal events. As you move along you see automatons seemingly frozen in place in the middle of walkways or among the vines. When the automatons need to rest they simply stop wherever they are and recalibrate for however long they want. In the still air and unchanging dim light, time here seems to move at a different pace.
You are assigned an unused mezzanine along the rock wall, where you can set up camp. It's not the most comfortable of lodgings, but at least the air is still and warm here.
As you explore the city, you see that many of the automatons have been designed as if they were part of a menagerie of "exotic" animals or fearsome soldiers. However, many of them have modified their own metal-and-stone bodies to participate in this grand public works project of building and maintaining the Second Suspension.
There is a long moment of silence as you contemplate.
Eventually, the conversation turns to the threats at hand. He listens carefully to your report on the shadow Magaambya and their nefarious intent. You show him the letter you found on the fetchlings; in particular, this sentence seems nakedly insidious: "Once we capture the city, we shall utilize these power cores in a variety of new and exciting ways to fuel industry and magic."
The old tree rumbles. "They would remake the Jistka Imperium once again, for themselves."
He thinks for long minutes. "When the sun came back after the long darkness, I befriended an old human who sought knowledge. I shared what I knew, but this man sought more. And so, together we slowly unraveled the secrets of magic, such as the craft and art of making masks such as yours. But while I helped this person fulfill his destiny, I merely pointed him to the correct locations. Jatembe’s efforts in learning magic were entirely his own."
"Likewise, and as I mentioned earlier, the people who built this place were pointed to certain locations or learnings. But they have made this place their own. I have no ownership of it. The decision is not mine, though I am here to advise."
"In regards to this shadow-threat, I have noticed little gnats circling about our environs, but I did not know who or what they wanted. Now we now. They are not too close yet. We have some time. Therefore, I ask you disciples of Jatembe to follow in his footsteps and serve the people of this place."
Dimari—Diji's voice grows stern, like the roots that break the rock. "You are powerful forces come here, disciples of little Jatembe. Destruction can come from good intent as easily from ill, especially without understanding."
"Learn the history of the people here, and in so doing acquire knowledge of if they will accept your help and what that help may look like."
He sighs. "I too must meditate on this. When you are ready, perhaps in several weeks, find me at the Nemesis Well."
____
Skill Challenges
We'll have some small scenes that will function like Practical Research, giving Kiri the opportunity to uncover more of their past, as well as how you can help the Second Suspension. Below are the first two options.
1. Talk to the people of the city (You can use any social skills, performance or storytelling… or sell me as usual.
2. Visit the Botanical Gardens to learn about the history / read the "stones" the automatons have mentioned (use your branch's related skills), or sell me on a cool idea
Noting the natural erosion of the city, he asks, "Time seems to, mm, be undoing your engineering. Have you lost the hands to maintain the city?"
Hynikon explains: "Over the ages, certain of our brethren become possessed by an itinerant ghost; they depart to wander the world. Fewer and fewer of these return. Others desire an eremitic existence; they, too leave us, and few return."
Finally, you surely understand that our kind burdened with functional immortality. Some become infected by deep melancholy as the eons go by. A few wish to be put into a long sleep. Others wish to be permanently decommissioned, the magic of their power cores gently undone, freeing the spirit to at long last rejoin the River of Souls."
The city reveals itself as you approach. The gorge is miles long; balconies and cunningly-lit chambers are carved into its walls. A labyrinth of walkways suspended from massive chains crisscross above, hanging from a net of camouflage that is speckled with lights that provide the city its only light. Long vines, growing from the netting, drape down hundreds of feet among mezzanines and walkways.
Kiri:
A flash of memory, a similar place, its walkways far more elegant than functional… golden rococo spires and pastel towers soaring into the blue sky. But this other place's nets could cut. Its walls were made stone-hard glass. Things to keep others out… and lock you in place.
Dimari—Diji leaves the topic of Old Mage Jatembe for now. He waves a massive, creaking limb at the city above.
"Impressive, what a lost menagerie can build, eh? They built it themselves. You helped, Alrinkiri."
"So did you, Dimari—Diji" Chirps Hyacinth from his shoulder.
"As with little Jatembe, I merely provided a little know-how. You had to find your own way, and own it. Everyone here worked hard in service to others… just like our visitors here."
Hynikon nods. "Indeed. At great effort we have made ourselves anew, forged from a forgotten past. I shall provide an instructive example for the edification of these visitors." The automaton transforms his any-tool arm into a teacher's pointer, and gestures at the macaw-shaped automaton on Dimari—Diji's shoulder. "Consider Hyacinth. We believe she was once part of the aforementioned menagerie. Examine, if you will, the colorful rainbow plumage and extremely powerful beak. Our supposition is that she created as a pretty thing whose sole purpose was to perch on some gilded bough in a palace, cracking walnuts for the Inperantike."
Dimari—Diji continues. "This is the story of many peoples of the Second Suspension. These automatons are the refugees of some ancient terror that struck some forgotten place. We know it was a place of extreme decadence and terrible brutality."
Changing his any-tool into a spade, Hynikon continues. "We escaped that place after our masters perished, one and all. We know we were a menagerie of playthings made to entertain. Or kill. We recall little but what is written on the stones, but our original purpose, our masters' intent, is encoded into the very functionality of our bodies. We have learned to alter that purpose, and to find our own way. I have beaten my sword into a plowshare, so to speak."
Dimari—Diji cuts in. "And now Hyacinth soars free, and uses the new-made hands we've made for her, to arrange the very constellations in our sky. Very clever indeed!" Hyacinth proudly preens her colorful wings with a human-looking hand. A macaw with human hands instead of claws may be disquieting to some of you, as would a greyhound with an expandable rib cage. However, this culture has its own concepts of beauty that have evolved without influence from the greater Mwangi. As automatons they probably value on functionality over aesthetic form.
You begin making your way up switchbacks, toward the first and lowest terrace. The city of the Second Suspension seems empty. Many of the terraces look unused. Walkways are being reclaimed by the environment, covered in creeping vines and eroding. Only a few automatons can be seen moving about above, far fewer than you'd expect for a city of this size.
Chimwemwe's Nature (E):1d20 + 19 ⇒ (7) + 19 = 26treant it is lol
Chimwemwe wrote:
"Did you know Jatembe, great one?" he asks follows, working to keep his balance as the ground shakes.
Thre "treant" rumbles, a deep chuckle as you move through the gorge, winding up a gentle incline.
"Of course I know little Jatembe. Did he never get around to telling his disciples about his first learnings, when the dust of the long dark was finally clearing from the heavens above? Well, Jatembe is rather unassuming. Some may say to a fault… but it is an admirable trait, if you ask me." Dimari—Diji winks. "Fret not, I will not share gossip that he would mind you hearing!"
Hynikon nods. "I am glad you understand. And that you too know what we might feel like. These are the proper words, but we shall see what Dimari—Diji"
A rumbling bellow comes from the forest.
“What Dimari—Diji says?"
The automatons turn and wave at a massive tree moving gently through the green, greatly relieved help has finally come. The approaching creature looks like a massive old tree, moving at slow and deliberate pace.
The tree-person bears the face of an old man, with hundreds of cracks and whorls about his eyes and mouth. He stands over fifty feet in height, even with his gnarled and hunched posture. He looks down upon the gathering, a slight smile on his face. Art on slide 1 Hyacinth the automaton perches high in his boughs.
DC 60 Nature, DC 58 Plant or other Lore to identify this creature:
This is one of all Golarion's oldest living creatures
Dimari—Diji lowers his voice, and when his knobby lips move they do not match the words you hear; it's a little disconcerting. All of you should know this is a manifestation of Truespeech; this ancient creature also does not know Mwangi common. However, he seems prepared to talk to all living beings.
“Well, I am here now. Hynikon, be easy."
The tree-man walks closer and peers down at you for long minutes, his ancient face hovering very close to you in the hushed silence. Whoever this creature is, he emanates ageless power and the power and timelessness of the oldest forests… best to stay still and wait.
At long last, Dimari—Diji nods. "Yes. I see your spirit faces, little ones. I see them in your masks! Even the masks you try to hide! I see them, there is no hiding it. Those carvings tell me of your journeys. They show me exactly who you are. Such things are powerful by way of their paradoxical nature; that's how we designed them in the first place. A mask effaces, but it is a thing we choose make and to wear. As such they are also a ’ reflection of who is underneath, and even a visualization of who the wearer hopes to become.’
"Jatembe taught you fairly well."
Slowly, he twists around to the automatons. "Put aside your worries, my friends." Hynikon relaxes.
"These are friends, and they should be welcome to the Second Suspension. I am interested to hear about these intruders." Dimari—Diji nods at Kiri. "Also, I know one of these guests from before. They one lived here when we first strung the Latticework of Stars across the gorges. They walked the first tightropes high above the canyon, hanging seedlings of vines in the sky."
"Well. Let us walk to the city of the Second Suspension, and we can talk."
”Now we can speak together. But will we understand one another?
I shall do my utmost, pitiful envoy that I am. I am called Hynikon. This is Kyon. Hyacinth is fetching Dimari-Diji. We will wait for him. And while we wait, I will try to help with understanding.”
”We of the Second Suspension,” the automaton gestures to the partially hidden city in the distance, wish to be separated from the world. The oldest stones here contain writings that we ourselves chiseled aeons ago, and that we ourselves forgot. We have seen the constellations in the sky change over the centuries, and in the centuries, we make new memories and forget the old. But the writing on the stones help us understand who we once were: the killers and playthings of a forgotten people. The stones speak of rods of command, used to shackle our souls in the cages they made for us. We do not wish this for ourselves again. We wish to stay hidden.”
”All this is to give you two understandings: first: why we wish to be left alone, and second: that we are not equipped to fight intruders. Our way is to stay hidden, forgotten.
Hynikon taps his any-tool-arm. When I first awoke after my long sleep, this arm was a keen battle-blade. It could do nothing with it but cut. That was how they made me. That was who they told me to be. I have since re-forged that blade into something kinder. This is who we are. And you come here, to say others come who will do us harm. This does not spark joy in my power core.”
"Εσύ... μπορεί να ήσουν κάποτε αδερφή ή αδερφός... ποιος μπορεί να το πει αυτό; Κι εμείς έχουμε ξεχάσει τόσα πολλά. Σε αυτό το μέρος, είμαστε όλοι οικογένεια. Και έχουμε τους Βοτανικούς Κήπους για να μας βοηθούν να θυμόμαστε."
Jistkan:
"You… you may have been a sister or brother once… who can say? We too have forgotten so much. This place, we are all family. But we have the Botanical Gardens, which help us memorialize. We cannot remember, but we can memorialize."
The three tense up as Kiri continues speaking.
"Υάκινθε, φέρε Ντιμάρι-Ντίτζι!"
Jistkan:
"Danger? Hyacinth, please bring Dimari-Diji!"
The bird-automaton nods, flexes her hands, and flits away into the distant city as fast as she can.
"Θα περιμένουμε τον Ντιμάρι-Ντίτζι εδώ, στον Μακρύ Νάρθηκα, που είναι αυτό που ονομάζουμε αυτόν τον ελικοειδή δρόμο προς τη Δεύτερη Αιώρηση· αυτό είναι το μέρος για όσους δεν έχουν γίνει ακόμη δεκτοί. Έχετε μαγικά που θα επέτρεπαν στην οικογένειά σας να μου μιλήσει και εμένα?"
Spoiler:
"We will await Dimari-Diji here, in the Long Narthex, which is what we call this narrow path to our home. Ahead lies the beautiful Second Suspension, our name for the home we've built. Do you have magics that would let your family understand me, or speak to me as well?"
Moving along; you can cast a spell to translate/understand if you have something.
In any case, the lost city may be in danger! Nothing to do but find it and hope Master Ok and the Shadow-Magaambya have not found it.
You spend days wandering, but soon Kiri's own power core tugs them deeper and deeper into the mountains, guiding your group like a compass.
____
After a twist in a winding gorge, the way opens into a massive cleft between sheer cliffs.
Huge burnished chains glimmer high in the air above the treetops, lit by soft yellow orbs woven into the massive links. They are distant still, and must be hundreds of feet high. The late afternoon sky is masked behind a miles-long green latticework of leaves and vines that sparkle with magical lights. This thick canopy seems to glimmer with stars from below, and is likely excellent camouflage from predation above.
The tops of covered walkways, balconies, and cunningly lit chambers can be glimpsed hanging from these chains… but no more. Not yet.
Three creatures, made of metal and stone, slip from the tangle of brush ahead. Each is shaped like something from a menagerie… but with unique modifications that seem designed to serve building and labor. A greyhound with an expandable ribcage that can carry gear, a macaw with hands instead of claws, and a humanoid whose right arm is a built-in traveler's any-tool. In the center of each forehead is a single, alien eye. Much like Kiri's own power core. They stare at Kiri for long seconds.
The plowshare-armed one speaks.
"Αδελφοί... πώς βρήκατε τη Δεύτερη Αναστολή; Θυμάστε τον δρόμο της επιστροφής; Γιατί, λοιπόν, φέρνετε και αυτούς τους άλλους μαζί σας?."
Jistkan:
"Brethren… how did you find the Second Suspension? Have remembered the way back home? Why, then, do you bring these others with you?"
They point the other arm at Wisps, Chim, and Zadiki, one, two, three, accentuating their words.
"Σίγουρα το ξέρεις αυτό. Αυτά είναι απαγορευμένα."
To ble clear it seems like the Shadow Magaambya is are trying to locate the lost city, like you are… but to nefarious ends! The dagger is just some random loot they had.
You accept Zadiki's vague response; many a scholar protects their own research and this is nothing new to you. In the meantime, with the cleric's help you are able to back to the fetchlings. The desiccated corpses lay in the grass like empty leather bags, drained of fluids by the Kilia Mwibos.
They wear black student robes and the featureless, impersonal masks of the Shadow Magaambya's Lore-Takers. One carries 2,000 gp in gems—likely ill-gotten, but impossible to return at this juncture. The other carries textbooks from the Shadow Magaambya:
Archaeology of the Living: The Present Is Merely an Inconvenience Cultures as Commodities: A Ledger-Based Approach to Appropriation Monetizing Myth: Liquidating Tradition into Private Property A Gentleman’s Guide to Plunder (for the Educated Fetchling)
These terrible textbooks are a reminder that while the true Magaambya strives to share knowledge, bridge cultural gaps, and empower everyone, its twisted shadow counterpart seeks to leverage knowledge as a means of control, profit, and power.
DC 32 Perception:
You locate a ritual carving knife, dropped by one of the students as they fought against the carnivorous trees. The knife is a jet-black +2 greater striking kukri with a greater flaming rune—fiery veins twisting along its blade.
Tucked into one of the textbooks is a written assignment… from none other than Lore-Master Ok! dun-dun-dun!!!
Extra Credit Assignment wrote:
Students,
I have located the region of the fabled Golden City; it is not in the Screaming Jungle, but rather on the other side of the Material Plane from Mwangi. HAHAHA!
For extra credit, you shall scout this place out, finding its exact coordinates so that we can stage an effecient extraction of all goods therein. Likely the city has defenses, so we require reporting opn this as well.
Since you pathetically failed so many classes, even the basic “Historical Plunder 101,” I must remind you: as with many myths and legends, this is not a literal golden city; rather, it is a metaphor of the power held by its people.
What is a metaphor you may ask? It means the treasure is not literally gold, but rather that the gold represents something far more special. In this case, there are many power cores glowing with energy, shining with light like gold, that can be removed from the creatures therein, who have been hiding out of time and history for aeons. Ripe for the picking! Once we capture the city, we shall utilize these power cores in a variety of new and exciting ways to fuel industry and magic.
I tell you this plan not for your own edification, but because I know how greedy and foolish you are. The treasure is something far more valuable than mundane currency, and neither of you have the wherewithal to profit from without the help of the Shadow Magaambya. Your puny brains simply cannot comprehend how to make use of these power cores! Therefore: scout only, find me the lost city’s coordinates, and do not attempt to enter the city itself.
Finally, be wary! You know of Soomdevi and his shadow-dancing friend, Noxolo. These two continue to hamper our efforts. How I regret my association with a certain someone from the Magaambya. Do not engage with these two if you encounter them.
Now, you blithering fools, do your homework and adhere to the high standards of the Shadow Magaambya, or suffer the consequences.
And burn this written assignment after you read it!
— Lore-Master Ok
____
Looking Back
Some of you may remember the notes Binji pilfered from Koride's office. It was so long ago, but one of them seems related…
Letter from Lore-Master Ok wrote:
Koride,
Your little “pet,” Soomdevi, has been pestering our school, interrupting supply lines of repossessed artifacts. Were you not instructed to guide him? Why is he here on the Shadow Plane, disrupting our operations?
He will be disposed of soon enough. Perhaps I’ll send you a piece of his shattered mask to remind you that the Shadow Magaambya is not to be trifled with… or, better yet, send it to Takalu Ot or Learned One Janatimo. Wouldn’t they like to know what you’ve sacrificed to pursue this line of inquiry, hmm? I imagine they have many questions…
In the meantime, we have uncovered rumors of a mythical City of Gold located in a hidden ravine nestled on the edge of the Screaming Jungle. I have searched our archives, and I believe the concept of a “golden city” is a mistranslation; rather, the city shines with a “golden light”—not from the sky, but from within the bodies of the people therein. It is a place of endless and abundant energy. Imagine if one could find this place and leverage this source of power!
My spies have informed me that a delegation is currently traveling to Mzali, no doubt on some fool’s errand to improve the lives of their citizenry or some such nonsense. Join their pathetic delegation, worm your way into the temples, and learn what you can of this Golden City. Do so, and I will consider sparing Soomdevi… or at least not sending pieces of him to the other teachers at your school, exposing you for what you are.
