"Oh dear! How tragic! I suppose there won't be any party for him." Turning to the the Shrine, he says solemnly. "I suppose he name will be enshrined here...."
With the crowd still entranced by the gory spectacle of Sir Reinhart’s failure, the party heads down the stairs into the lower level of the Shrine which will some day include his name among the aspirants. The stairs descend to a monumental chamber that stretches eighty feet from end to end, with a ceiling suspended thirty feet from the floor by great pillars. Seven arched passages lead to humble rooms, each of which contains a polished stone altar dedicated to one of the failed aspirants who attempted the Test of the Starstone.
Each of these lesser chambers contains a small stone altar to one of the failed aspirants. Each altar stands upon a raised dais and bears a small brass nameplate identifying the aspirant and the would-be-god’s areas of interest. The names and their domains appear in this order: (from a to g on the map linked above)
Mellag: Survived the horrors of Nemret Noktoria.
Returned to rot from the inside.
Oggo: Travelled to distant Jalmeray.
Failed to maintain the necessary Sixteen Poses.
Silmor: Fought up all but one step of the Storval Stairs.
Blade shattered at an inopportune moment.
Spuchasta: Enjoyed the many excesses of Katapesh.
Ended by a drug-induced hallucination.
Muted God: Wrote in solitude for 101 days.
Lived a long life of silence and serenity.
Plokkis: Sought to brave the Path of Aganhei.
Spoiled rations and wastefulness ended that dream.
Yepyari: Followed the last Linnorm King to Valenhall.
Lost at sea, last seen in a great tornado.
F Dwarf Wizard 2 [ HP 16/16 (0 NL) | AC 15 Tch 11 FF 14 | Fort +2 Ref +1 Will +4 | CMD 14 | Init +1 | Perc +2, darkvision | Effects: mage armor ]
Rokdor moves from shrine to shrine, then returns to the main room to scratch her chin thoughtfully. "Plokkis and Yepyari seem to be two of the three," she mutters, "but where's the third? The one about sacrifice? And what does it all mean?"
The inscriptions on the name plates were supposed to have underlined portions, indicating the portfolio of each god wannabe, but they didn't work in my post. Yepyari's underlined text was "great tornado" which doesn't have anything to do with clues you've found so far. So you can ignore that one, meaning you only have a clue relevant to one of the aspirants. Sorry for any confusion.
Wicket - where are you poking around? It's a big place. Nice roll, though!
Nome Drooid 1 l HP: 7/11 l AC: 17 [T: 14, FF: 14] l Fort: +4, Ref: +3, Will: +4 l Init: +5 l Per: +8
Resources:
Lightning 4/5
Buffs:
None!
Wicket frowns and shakes his head in disappointment at Rokdor. Her poking technique was all wrong!
”Silly dwarf. You’ve got to poke like this”, he explains with one pudgy little finger. ”Poke, poke, prod. Poke, poke, prod. Didn’t they teach you this stuff?”
F Dwarf Wizard 2 [ HP 16/16 (0 NL) | AC 15 Tch 11 FF 14 | Fort +2 Ref +1 Will +4 | CMD 14 | Init +1 | Perc +2, darkvision | Effects: mage armor ]
"Can't say they did..." replies the dwarf, shaking her head and standing back to watch the gnome work. Poking walls is something that gnomes are taught? No... far too illogical. Just this one, I think.
Sobestian ponders the clues for a moment, the holds up a finger. "In the gnome's house, there was a note about Karina Clamp, right? And on the wall on names, Clamp's epithet mentioned spoiled rations and wastefulness, right." He muses, pacing back and forth. "Look here, at the shrine of Plokkis. See here where it mentions spoiled rations and wastefulness? Maybe we should search around here." He finshes, as he begins to peer around the shrine. "Spoiled rations and wastefulness, what an odd thing to be the diety of...."
Wicket’s expertise in poking rises to the challenge! On the western wall of the small shrine dedicated to Plokkis, his pudgy finger pokes, pokes and prods right through an illusory patch of wall! Feeling around a bit, he finds a small handle that, when pulled, causes the engraved nameplate to slide to one side. Revealed behind it is a miniature chalkboard, with a thin piece of chalk resting on a tiny ledge.
As Sobestian finishes the last letter of ‘waffle’ then quickly rubs it out and writes ‘wiffle,’ the illusion concealing the door vanishes and the wall behind the small altar slides out of the way, revealing a rough-hewn stone passage.
DC 15 Knowledge (dungeoneering) or Spellcraft:
You can recognize the walls of the passage are not natural; rather, someone cleared this area using stone shape spells.
The passage twists and widens, then ends in what appears to be an office or study area. Several desks are arranged along the northern and eastern edges of this small stone alcove. Whereas the stonework leading to this chamber is rough, the walls in the alcove are polished. A single gem rests among the neatly filed papers on the desk, emitting a soft luminescence that brightens the small room.
Rokdor frowns, gripping her warhammer tightly. "Magicks at work here," she mutters, moving carefully into the room and beginning to look around. Catching sight of the gem, she studies it in particular. Detect all the magicks!
Rokdor's dorfish knowledge and her magical sense tell her that the gem is a fine specimen of a cut alexandrite, which is imbued with faint evocation magic. That is all the magicks detectable in this room.
The papers on the desk represent a treasure trove of historical documents related to the Pathfinder Society. Even at first glance, it is clear that this is a priceless collection of Pathfinder lore. Even with Tog crowding in, Rokdor is able to determine that much of the cache of documents is written in Azlanti, though it seems to have been encrypted with some sort of complex code as well. It is clear that understanding the true scope of this discovery will require several weeks, even months, of careful study by researchers at the Grand Lodge.
Nome Drooid 1 l HP: 7/11 l AC: 17 [T: 14, FF: 14] l Fort: +4, Ref: +3, Will: +4 l Init: +5 l Per: +8
Resources:
Lightning 4/5
Buffs:
None!
Wicket becomes as excited as Sobestian. "What color will they burn?" he asks with joy.
A unanimous glance of disapproval from his peers later, the gnome tables the suggestion. "I guess we could return them to the Lodge..." he says glumly.
With the decision made to return to the Grand Lodge with the valuable documents, the party makes their way back through the tunnels and through the hidden door. Just as Tog reaches the doorway from the small shrine into the main chamber, Wicket hears something! (Other than his own incessant humming, that is.)
Before he can act, however, a small figure steps out from behind the door frame and strikes at Tog, muttering fiercely, ”The Book of One Thousand Whispers must come true!” At the same time, Tog can hear someone speaking in a low voice behind a pillar to his right.
Wicket gets an action in the surprise round, then the last baddie, then we go into initiative.
Initiative:
Halfling
Tog
Half-Elf
Wicket
Sobe
Rokdor
Human
Nome Drooid 1 l HP: 7/11 l AC: 17 [T: 14, FF: 14] l Fort: +4, Ref: +3, Will: +4 l Init: +5 l Per: +8
Resources:
Lightning 4/5
Buffs:
None!
Oh, I misunderstood the initiative. I thought Wicket was before the sneak attackery. In that case, Wicket will heal Tog instead of giving him a guidance.
"Oh no! Oh no! Tog you're bleeding everywhere!"
The gnome mutters a spell and touches his mighty orcish companion with a healing spell.
A voice cries out from behind the nearest pillar, ”The omens must not be interfered with!” A human woman, clearly not afraid to end a sentence with a preposition, steps out from behind the pillar and moves next to the halfling.
For his part, the halfling stabs again at Tog, then steps to one side of the doorway.
As Tog steps closer, the halfling’s eyes slowly climb up the towering half-orc’s body, filling with fear as the great, double-ended axe is raised. Those same frightened eyes close abruptly as the axe cuts deep into the little man’s shoulder, dropping him to the ground, his petite rapier clattering across the polished stone floor.
F Dwarf Wizard 2 [ HP 16/16 (0 NL) | AC 15 Tch 11 FF 14 | Fort +2 Ref +1 Will +4 | CMD 14 | Init +1 | Perc +2, darkvision | Effects: mage armor ]
Rokdor nods in approval as the big orc cuts the wee halfling down to size. Drawing her own weapon, she forms her other hand into a thick fist and swings it at the other visible foe! Telekinetic fist!
Pew pew ranged touch:1d20 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4 :( Sad dorf is sad.
A female half-elf peers from behind a pillar, points a finger at Tog, and sends a dart of energy flying his way!
Magic Missile damage:1d4 + 1 ⇒ (2) + 1 = 3
The human woman standing next to Tog says, in a blend of desperation and disbelief, ”No! The world must be set right!” She swings her morningstar at Tog, and the expression of disbelief on her face grows more profound.
The woman reels under Tog's mighty blow as it cuts her badly, but she still stands. She seems somewhat refreshed by the breeze from Rokdor's hammer passing some distance away from her.
"We must make the book's prophecies come true," she says in wild-eyed response to Rokdor's question, "We must set the world right after Aroden's death!"
Initiative:
Tog
Wicket
Sobe
Rokdor
Half-Elf
Human (-8 hp)
