Salighara gives you the directions for ending up in Roslar's Coffer. "Be sure to remain on the roads as leaving them will deposit you in The Boneyard."
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"So you left me a mess to clean up. I suppose you will be in need of a stamp at this point." She produces an ornate device and stamps each of you. "That is the third and final stamp. You should be able to return to your home now. Do your best to evade Mictena. She is determined to rid this realm of any anomalies which would be you." She looks at Valdis and after a few moments a smile breaks out. She reaches into her dress and produces an elaborate red and black quill. "You might find use for this. Now be on your ways and be careful."
"What do you mean by take down?"
When you get outside, Salighara is standing there looking at you with folded arms. "It sounds like you found my stone of alarm. What else did you do in there?"
"It would be easier to shut it down that to calibrate it. You seem like an intelligent group. You should be able to turn it off. "
"No, no, no. Rotating the hoop would bleed your life force into the Dimension of Dreams. I am surprised you survived that maneuver."
"She calibrated it to a specific portion of the plane. That is no easy task. It sounds like she is truly up to no good. The gate injured you? How did that happen?"
"And why would you shut down my dream gate?"
"I thought I made that clear. Perhaps she has done something to you. And, you look terrible. Are you sick? Mictena came to me and asked me to slay you. I refused and she replaced me with Mrs. Pedipalp. Should you dispatch her, I will stamp you so that you may move forward on your journey to Golarion. She is trying to get you to do what? Why are you negotiating with her? You are here to dispatch her are you not?"
"Well, were you successful? There were four of you."
Salighara etches a glyph on Tally's arm. "Hopefully you will not need to use it and it will simply fade away after three days." Tally feels that he now knows the spell called "breath of life" and could cast it.
"Gentlemen, you do not understand. It gives you a spell like ability to raise another."
"I can loan one of you my ability to regenerate if you would like. It will allow you to revive someone the moment they die. They will be restored to life in a silk cocoon. Would anyone like to borrow this ability?"
"Tooth fairies..." Salighara looks down and concentrates for a few moments. She exhales a large breath before looking back at Don and then the rest of the party as she says "That is my doing and most likely whatever happened at Nine Eves. I had no idea how mischievous fey can be." "I built this scriptorium here along the Dead Roads for the privacy it provided, and for the thinness of reality in this location. The thinness of reality I originally sensed turned out to be a conjunction—a planar anomaly that can enable travel between planes—with the Plane of Dreams." "In addition to my duties copying minutiae from courtroom records, I dedicated my free time to studying this unusual realm. My earliest attempts to open a planar window accidentally breached the First World, releasing dozens of fey who continue to pester my stretch of the Dead Roads. Hence, your usurpers, Donovan." "My more recent attempts have created the Dream Gate, an observation window through which I can examine the dreaming minds of mortal creatures, and even bring forth denizens of the Dimension of Dreams to examine and interview. It does not work the other way. There is no way to enter from here. A one way road should you entertain such." "It was through the Dream Gate that I first met Mrs. Pedipalp, who seemed like a kindred soul, and Mrs. Pedipalp in turn encouraged me to take on students— mostly the tireless wyrwoods who found themselves stranded in the Dead Roads after a teleportation accident— so that I could dedicate more of my time to oneirology. I had no idea that the seemingly kindly old woman I befriended was a creature of nightmares who plotted to corrupt my research to sate an endless curiosity about nightmares and cruelty." "So, Tally, I would expect she has been bringing forth nightmares and nightmarish creatures. Be of strong will and keep your feet firmly in reality should this be the case."
She asks Don "What usurpers do you speak of?" She points to Tally and nods as if to indicate she will respond to his question momentarily.
Outside the scriptorium, you see a female humanoid with a grim expression, looking forlornly at the building. When she sees you, she introduces herself as “Salighara, a scholar and scribe of no small repute among the esteemed psychopomps.” She makes you the following offer, in her characteristically long-winded manner. “If I might hazard an educated guess, you seek to leave the Boneyard and return home to your world. To do so, you need my approval. I know why you would want to leave—Mictena has set her sights upon you as abominations. She wants to see you well and truly dead. I know all this because, frankly, she told me. Mictena came to me a short time ago, explaining that I would be well advised to see you slain. I’m a creature of logic and process, and Mictena’s pleas were more impassioned than logical. In fact, I outright refused, insisting that I had more critical work to do. She was not well disposed to that response. My current field of study is dreams, and how mortal dreaming intersects with their fates and their desires. Don’t assume I’m going on a tangent here—my conversation is scrupulously intentional, you’ll see. My chief assistant and associate researcher, Mrs. Pedipalp, had been using my research equipment for her own studies into nightmares—things that terrify mortals. I wouldn’t abide by it, and although I knew she coveted my Dream Gate, I’d assumed her distractions were mere... frippery. Well, after I declined Mictena’s offer, it seems she went right to Mrs. Pedipalp. The rattletrap ousted me and appointed my assistant. My assistant! Mrs. Pedipalp is now master of the scriptorium, my staff, and my Dream Gate. An outrage! Well, her time as my assistant is finished. I will make this deal with you—if you enter my scriptorium and dispatch Mrs. Pedipalp in whatever manner you see fit, I will give you the stamps you need to continue on your journey home.” |