"The Research Room"


Scarab Sages

Scarab Sages

Inside the Grand Lodge, toward the archives, a right before the double doors, down the hall, and finally the fifth door on the right. "The Research Room", a slipshod sign hangs slightly off center above the old wooden door.

This dank room hosts a great number of interesting things..unless scrolls and journals don't interest you. In that case this room is barren.

Behind a mountain of scrolls, barely visible, stands a heavily bearded aassimar pouring over some papers.

"Hmm..I wonder if Grundersnutt want to look at new report on psychic magic?" the older humanoid grumbles to himself while scratching his bearded chin."It really might link the gap between arcane and divine magics." Folding it slightly, Sasha tosses it into the air, mumbles and makes a short gesture, and the paper moves slowly across the room. The paper sails over a couple unorganized stacks of scrolls and papers, over very neatly organized stacks of papers onto a clean orderly desk.

"I wonder how Grunder keeps such order?"

Scarab Sages

A weathered and strangely fastidiously dressed gnome with sensible dark-blue (almost black) hair showing just a few twinges of white enters the room bearing a human-sized journal. The book looks particularly massive compared to the diminutive gnome. He makes his way over to Sasha's desk and offers him the book.

"Ah, good, you're here. I came by earlier and someone said you were teleporting some pathfinders about. Anyway, you were always better at codes and cyphers than me. Some Junior pathfinders have found an ancient cashe of lore from a long-forgotten pathfinder that chose not to share her knowledge. You speak Azlanti right? She wrote down her findings in a cypher in Azlanti, and Dreng wants this translated as soon as possible".

The gnome hands off the book and begins shuffling towards his desk. "I swear, it's like we keep getting incidents like this every few weeks".

Halfway through his shuffle back, he turns as if just remembering something and shouts back to Sasha. "Oh, and I thought you said yo were going to fix that sign, it's still crooked."

Scarab Sages

"Oh, yes of course. I was informed by Drendle that one might be showing up."

Sasha begins flipping through the journal.

Linguistics: 1d20 + 23 ⇒ (8) + 23 = 31

"Huh..it slightly more complex shift cipher Grunder. One second.....two...twelve..fourty-two..Ah ha! Here Grundersnutt. You see, with any shift cipher all you have do is find modification based on modular of full alphabet of language. In this situation modular of Aslanti is fourty-two. And with that.." Sasha trails off and is silent for several minutes.

"What!? Sasha exclaims leaping to his feet propelling scrolls in all directions."Grunder, journal speaks of location of possible Azlanti location here on Kortos!"

Scarab Sages

Grundersnutt's eyes roll back in his head as he starts muttering to himself.

Knowledge-history with trance: 1d20 + 31 ⇒ (6) + 31 = 37

He comes out of the trance with a nonplused look on his face.

"Yes, of course there are Sasha, this was an Azlanti city before the starstone fell. There should have been a city just a few miles northeast of town, just beyond all the redoubts. I do not know why you think this is particularly exciting. We could contact that leather jacket fellow, the one with the whip and gun, whassisname, and set up an expedition? I understand he hasn't been up to much recently."

Scarab Sages

"No, no Grunder! I knew that, it just how it correlates to some research I have been assigned to recently by Krighten! This could work!"

The bearded aasimar yelling and quivering with excitement bolts out of the room. His voice heard yelling down the hall,"Krighton! Brighton!"

Scarab Sages

"To the right after the double doors... If I only knew what did that old man have in his mind..." - thought the young man to himself, looking for potential ambushes in the colossal space of the hall. Not that he actually awaited attack in the center of Avistan, but he got used to be ready for battle anywhere. Less cautious - or just less lucky - humans just won't survive on icy streets of Chillblight, no matter if you are Jadwiga or not.
Still, there was at least one creature who felt Omyt's emotions...
"Want me to look ahead, master?" - asked his speechless servant. Telepathically, of course. And the feeling of this connection brought Jadwiga to his usual calm.
"No need for it, at least for now. Better don't show yourself, there could be eyes everywhere..." - answered Omyt mentally and stepped forward...
"So, this is it..." - thought the scion of Irrisen, looking on the door. Fifth door to the right, as it was said.
"Okay, give the letter and go away. I didn't go all that way through to be someone's gofer..." - he whispered to himself, seized his walking stick under the handle and was going to knock on the door with it... when the doors suddenly opened, forcing Jadwiga to step backward not to get hit, and then he got shouted in face with some strange bearded man, who was calling for someone Omyt didn't know.
Rossohovich tried to stay calm, though his eyebrow twitched a bit...
"I suspect you're... emm..." - the young man looked on the letter in his hand, - "Grundersnutt?" - his green eyes looked on Velinznrarikovich...
Even the surfaced look on that young man showed something... unusual at least - he was very pale, weared eyeglasses... and his hair were not just white, but white-blue, as if someone tried to give ice the form of hair...

Scarab Sages

"Oh!" Sahsa exclaims as the young figure seemed to appear in front of him. Pausing for a moment, Sasha regains himself and answers, "No, no. I not Grundersnutt. He is Grundersnut," Sasha leans over to reveal a person through the door in the room.

Know. Planes: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19 //to identify Omyt's race
Know. Local: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (7) + 14 = 21

Scarab Sages

The young man before Sasha was... human! Yes, just human, not an aasimar, or sylph, or any other type of half-blood, though his hair were still very strange...
"Thank you." - said the young man and went to the gnome, giving Grundersnutt a letter, - "I was asked to bring you this letter. Now, if I can't be of any help - have a good day." - it was obvious that the young man was going to leave as fast as possible.

Scarab Sages

Click, Click, Click
A very tall garundi man wearing osirioni garb, a mithral breastplate, and covered in various alchemical items strides forward walking with a cane, that clicks loudly with each step.

He mutters to himself. "The fifth door on the right, hrm that looks like the right sign." He seems to read the crooked sign despite the fact that there were two people between him and it.

Looking at the two people in front of him.
Knowledge Local: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (15) + 12 = 27 plus Free Inspiration: 1d8 ⇒ 1
Knowledge Planes: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (3) + 10 = 13 plus Free Inspiration: 1d8 ⇒ 2

"Hrm, an Aasimar, that tracks with what I have heard of Venture Captain Velinznrarikovich, it is an honor sir. A Jadwiga, now that is unexpected, but it tracks that one would be educated. I have had quite decent relations with Jadwiga in the past, looking for Sky Key pieces. A pleasure to meet you both. I am Khalid."

Khalid bows before the two.

"I have heard of a research room and have tracked you down to provide my assistance. I versed at least some in all schools of knowledge and have proven to be quite a successful field agent as well. My specialties include historical knowledge, architecture, traps, alchemy and languages, but I do dable in most other subjects as well.

Grand Lodge

A soft tumping of a small beings' feet comes rapidly down the hall, followed closely by an equal paced flapping of leathery wings. Soon enough a red-headed Gnome runs into the room, having weaved around the taller folk clogging the doorway, her arms full of all sorts of papers, books, charms, and other items that may be involved in research she may be performing.

"Oh! Hello Mr. Grundersnutt, nice to see you again." She exclaims with cheer between breaths. Flying above the heads of the folk who are clogging the doorway is a small silver-scaled dragon, several items being carried in its forelimbs, who proceeds to land on the one empty spot on the table beside Wyra. "I suppose I should've guessed that such a studious Gnome like yourself would be found here. If you're curious, I have put that 'overcoming fire resistance and immunity' research on the shelf, as it were. Oddly, magic hasn't provided us an inverted form of protection to energy spell yet, which is rather unfortunate..."

Wyra frowns slightly as she finds an open desk to put her research materials down upon. "Now I'm looking into the occult, specifically how certain magic can create such disgusting monstrosities as an inverted ogre. Ever fought one? They look horridly unpleasant, and seem to be driven by ancient Thassilonian magic. Speaking of which, I need to learn Thassilonian, that'd be a good idea..."

Scarab Sages

The small gnome is obviously annoyed and flustered with the recent flurry of activity going on in the usually-quiet halls of the research room. He tries to compose himself.

"Ah, Wyra . . . yes, good. He takes the scrolls from her, as well as the ones she has put on the shelf, and begins neatly aligning them in some sort of unfathomable organizational system.

(Knowledge Local take 10 with a primer=22, enough to know about level 12 bloodrager powers)
(Knowledge local take 10 with primer=22, enough to know about level 12 keneticist powers.)

"I've looked into the research a bit myself. It seems that a certain form of rage-magic might allow for bypassing energy resistance. It's not a spell that can do it though, it's rather. . . well, I don't know. It's a rare bloodline that allows certain . . . shall we call them 'bloodragers' of sufficient prowess to overcome resistances and even immunities. Additionally, there are reports of psychic-type people 'burning away' a creature's immunity to certain elements. These, however, are not spells but rather individually-developed talents."

The gnome dislodges himself from the desk and walks over to the doorway with the crowd of people. "Yes, yes, is there a letter for me?"

Scarab Sages

A slightly invisible and tiny object floats pass the doorway before returning and hovers in front of it. A few seconds later, a loud pop happens and there is a man in neat explorer's outfit with various items attached, and within a nice haversack. *Cough*"Excuse me. You are Grundersnutt? I heard you wanted to see research about planar eddies and such, right? I have just returned from my exploration of the Emerald Spire and its various magical effects within. I have many journals worth of information of all that I have encountered so far in the delve of the site." He walks forward to a table and begins to pull book after book out of his handy haversack and places it on the table. One looks like it has been soaked, one looks like it has been singed, and possibly one is glowing with otherworldly energy. "There. All penned by me. Gordan Sinclaire. In clear flowing script that should be easy to follow. Oh, and don't mind the appearance. They only look that way due to exposure to planar energies of the Spire."

Scarab Sages

The gnome is becoming increasingly incensed by the constant interruption of his normally quiet work environment. "What is this? Was there a scholar's convention scheduled to take place here and I wasn't consulted?" He rudely shouts exasperatedly.

He takes a moment to calm himself and looks back to Gordan.

"Apologies Mr. Sinclaire, as you can see it has recently gotten a bit hectic here. Yes, thank you. Though I think it was actually Venture Captain Sasha who wanted the planar texts. I'm the religious and arcane scholar here. Nonetheless, yes, thank you. I'm curious how you heard about our foray into extraplanar energies? The venture-captain and I were only tossing around the idea of planar eddies as a research topic a few weeks ago. I don't recall telling too many people about it . . ."

Scarab Sages

"Ah, I see." As Gordan replies while nodding his head. "The energies of the Spire tend to warp the surrounding area. But for this case, someone sent me a Sending spell to let me know. I made sure to asked someone within the grounds here to keep me updated for anything interesting. Also.... I assure you know of various divination spells as well." He lets out a sigh before continuing. "But that Tapestry works quite well when you have to get info and other things around."

Scarab Sages

The situation started to be a bit nervous, as more and more people came to the research room.
"Omyt," - Jadwiga introduced himself to Akil, not sure if he heard his name through all these sounds. And Rossohovich really didn't care about it too much.
"Yes, here it is." - he gave the letter to the gnome and turned to go away.
"To Grundersnutt," - was written on the postal envelope on Common... and something under it, looks like ancient Osirion.
"Don't let that young man go away. I want you to recruit him in Scarabs. A."
Omyt, meanwhile, tried his best to get through the crowd.

Grand Lodge

A rather disappointed expression briefly appears upon Wyra's face before she shakes her head and moves on to a journal she had been storing in her hood. The journal, tattered not from age, but excessive use, has several scrawls on the cover and seems to be horridly disorganized on each page, but with little issue Wyra flips to one of her most recent entries.

"Ok, so, that's unfortunate, to know that there are ways, but I am horridly unqualified, or physically inadequate, to make use of them. Whatever. Next thought, Thassilonian Runes and magic. Not that I wish to subject myself to that folly, looks like it can easily backfire, nevertheless, there seems to be some powerful magic that they possessed, after all, that magic barrier we found..." Wyra begins saying, dwindling to a mutter as she notices Grundersnutt's discomfort towards the buzz of activity, "Hmm...maybe. Bears a need for more research...Flix! We need to find chronicles on Thassilonian magic, runes, and...well heck even the Runelords themselves!"

Wyra begins sifting through the hundreds of chronicles, encyclopedias, and other materials, returning them to their proper place when done with each.

Grand Lodge

Flix sighs despondently as he carefully places the materials he was carrying down on the table by Grundersnutt.

"I apologize Mr. Grundersnutt, sadly she's been in a buzz ever since our mission to Averaka. I suppose encountering Thassilonian magic and its effects firsthand was inspiring for her." Flix finds an empty spot to land and seat himself, procuring a much more neatly managed journal of his own, "She said that the research hall would be much less active today, though I suppose with an organization as big as the Pathfinder Society, one can never predict when and how much activity there will be in any one place at any one time."

He thumbs his way through his journal to his most recent entry.

"I believe the strangest thing we encountered there was a automatically resetting magical trap that bestowed the oddest effect to those with a weak will. Essentially it provided the effected being with Spell Resistance, but only against spells that would be described as harmless." Flix scratches his chin, "Perhaps Wyra wants to try to channel that sort of magic into something useful." He mutters before flying over to lend Wyra a hand.

Scarab Sages

"Oh for the love of . . . this day can't get worse." Grundersnutt exasperatedly shouts. "You there, Jadwiga, yes you." He tries to push himself through the throng of people into the corridor with the fleeing man. "Yes, listen, I need to talk to you. "

Scarab Sages

The bearded aasimar chuckles and backs up more into the hallway. "My apologies Grunder. I did not believe that we would get such rise out of academic populous after notes I left around." After a few more moments of silent chuckling he composes himself and turns to the neatly dressed man. " Yes, there are some records of Spire. It would be quite interesting to compare findings with those that have been recorded as well as with any powerful magics from ancient Thassilon or Osirian."

Sasha turns his head to his shoulder,"Go see if Grunder needs help Rid."

"Hmm...now that we have more people here.." Sasha begins while scratching his bearded chin,"This quite possible may be applicable to all present. So! Based on my experience with both arcane and divine capabilities I have find that many avenues in common." Sasha pulls out a rod.

"Example!" Sasha flicks the rod and the stone floor next to him warps into a thin, 3 foot high pillar."As everyone surely know that used divine power. Thanks to Nethys. However this-" Sasha pulls out some substance that looks like clay, mumbles, and traces some symbols in the air. After he finishes, the pillar goes back to its original state."use arcane power. The point I lead to ladies and gentleman, which did any or all ancient civilizations use?!" Sasha exclaims dramatically."Where did spell power come from? Was it arcane? Divine? Psychic? Or mixture?"

Scarab Sages

Gordan ponders a bit before pulling out one of the scrolls from his haversack and looks it over. "My experience has shown while different methods exist, doesn't mean it can't be pulled from the same source." He puts the scroll back into the sack before continue. "The Mana Wastes for example. It blocks all forms of magic. You could say it blocks all forms of mystical energy in reality from the basic of natural life." Gordan then shrugs. "Or it makes crazy chaotic things happen that is not able to be accountable to any sort of school or method of thinking."

Scarab Sages

"Hmm..yes..the Mana Wastes.."Sasha again scratches his beard and then goes silent for several more seconds."..Maybe all come from same place. Maybe divine goes through divine beings who get from same place as arcane and psychic.."

"I should ask Nethys." Sasha concludes.

Sasha turns to the quiet Garundi man keeping to himself,"What of you Khaled? Though you seem more of non-magical knowledge, surely this subject directly affects all your areas?

Scarab Sages

"Hrm Spells, Magic, Arcane, Divine, Psychic?"
Spellcraft: 1d20 + 19 ⇒ (15) + 19 = 34free inspiration: 1d8 ⇒ 8 Total Spellcraft 42

The tall Garundi man stops to ponder this question for a bit.

"Well I think all magical effects must share some sort of common source. Including the more esoteric aspects of alchemy. My conclusions on this are based upon both the effects of certain areas of the Mana Wastes as noted by Mr. Sinclaire here, as well as the effects of the spell antimagic field. That said there must be some differences as I believe there was a spell that could block just a single type of magic, such as divine or arcane. The name of that spell escapes me at the moment.

I don't actually cast spells myself. I just mix ingredients that resonate with my personal aura to create some spell-like effects on my person. For me this processes is a mixture of alchemy, arcane lore, and religion as I see these extracts as ways to make myself more perfect."
Khalid then moves to take out a journal and start writing down some of his new thoughts and theories. After a little while he pauses.

"Hrm, how much to you folks know about time. There have been some fairly interesting developments regarding things that can alter the flow of time or even enable travel into the past. I wish to explore this further as there might be some astounding application to the study of Osirionology."

Grand Lodge

Flix emits a terribly audible groan as Wyra whips her head around in a painful looking manner.

"What do I know about time? I helped collect..." Wyra pauses, counting slowly on her fingers while trying to remember her past adventures, "...three of the Sky Key pieces! I even got to study the ancient serpentfolk empire firsthand, and witnessed the fall of the Starstone. A shame I couldn't study the immediate effects of Earthfall, but I suppose I shouldn't complain, as I was at ground zero. Since that event, it appears Kreighton and the Decemvirate have been rather careful about any further use of the Sky Key. I would certainly like to see all sorts of amazing historical events and circumstances. The high point of the Ancient Jitskan Empire, the glory days of ancient Osiria, oh, and especially the emergence of the first Golarion Gnomes! I'd love to see how my, and Grundersnutt's, ancestors handled the initial acclimatization of life on Golarian!"

Wyra continues rambling off events and periods she'd love to visit, but at this point it seems like incomprehensible Gnome ramblings of whimsy, and paying attention to it will likely cause others to feel confused.

Scarab Sages

"Hmm..this is quite crowd. Maybe I should establish that Pathfinder lodge Osprey suggested?.." the bearded aasimar scratches his chin mumbling to himself.

"What do you think?" he asks to no one in particular. "It would be a little place for experiments and research.."

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