Legacy of Fire SoP/SoM/PoW IV: With A Vengeance (or 2 if they're on sale)

[digiman619]

She doesn't particularly know about the surrounding area; she and her kin can only leave this sub area for brief periods before they are drawn back here, so she doesn't have a great detail on what's there.

If there's no further objection, she brings you to an adjoining room and instructs you to get into one of the glowing pools; she can use it to teleport you to the Isle of the Dead rather than try to steer the boat back up the impossible waterfall.

[stack]

"How will we get between islands without the boat?" Akaash queries en route to the pools.

[digiman619]

Sharazad pipes up "I'd venture that we use the charm that we used to summon boat in the first place"

[lostsole31]

Malak looks to Lahapraset. "You wouldn't happen to have charts or anything to help our navigation, would you?"

[digiman619]

She shrugs, "No, but the ship should have all the charts you would require"

[bcool999]

Rowan

Ready to be off, Rowan hops into a pool. Faintly hoping that it will be heated like a bath.

[pfm1995]

Alssariq nods, ready to leave but more than happy to let Rowan test the waters, as it were. Adrift, it's not as if they have the option of not trusting these strange 'proteans'.

[stack]

Akaash also enters the pool. "The sooner begun, the sooner ended."

[lostsole31]

Malak gives a curt, nodding bow to Lahaska-piranha and heads out, Oddity following quickly behind.

[digiman619]

In an instant, you are transported to a Y-shaped pier; just long enough for a longship to dock in the middle of. It's at the lowest point on the island and a flight of marble stairs lead up a gentle slope into the island interior to the north.

Rowan, Akaash, Malak: You feel a sense of serenity; something about this place just seems to easy any worries about your situation away, leaving you feeling tranquil and a bit more at peace.

[stack]

Akaash looks around for a moment, eventually setting his face toward the stairs. "Onward and upward, I suppose."

Spoiler

Show

first instinct: I feel at ease...DANGER! Seemed wrong to play it that way though

[bcool999]

Rowan

”Lovely place for an Isle of the Dead. Rowan comments before following Akaash.

[SwordChucks]

"Right, I'll take point then. Hopefully 'Isle of the Dead' doesn't prove prophetic."

Goma readies his shield and marches up the staircase.

[pfm1995]

"Lovely what?" Alssariq murmurs, following them up. "They're just stairs."

[digiman619]

To the north of the pier, you see a massive stairway forty feet across, its treads and risers seemingly unscarred by the erosive hand of time and pristinely free of mark or debris, climbs the modest slope of the island toward the fields above. To either side of the stairs runs a row of columns of the same white stone, each column surmounted with a statue of golden marble that bears a mask of polished brass. All the statues bear the face of the archwizard Nex, but each displays him in the trappings of a different role: astrologer, explorer, scholar, teacher, poet, scribe, ruler, hunter, and warlord. As you walk up the stairs, you get a slight tingle up the back of your spines for a moment, but you otherwise feel fine. At the top of the stairs, you see a somewhat mangy cat who stands there waiting for you, only to dart off to the northeast as you start to approach.

What's the plan?

Spoiler: New map

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Forgive the map quality; it's a big map that I had to zoom in.

[pfm1995]

"Okaaaay..." Alssariq drawls, looking at the others. "What are the odds that there's a perfectly ordinary cat lounging around the Archwizard's special pocket kingdom?"

[stack]

Akaash watches the feline for a moment. "Not very high. Possible he was a cat lover, but given the recent residents here, it seems unlikely that any mundane creature would survive."

He looks to the cat, speaking tentatively, "Hello?"

[digiman619]

The cat looks at you for a few seconds before suddenly running to the northeast. Whether this is because it holds secrets or if it's just a cat that got bored, you can't say.

[SwordChucks]

Goma pulls out a bit of hydra meat from his pack and walks after the cat, hoping his animal magnetism earns him a feline friend.

"Here kitty, I have a treat for you."

Spoiler: Cat Empathy

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(1d20+9)[22]

[digiman619]

The cat cautiously approaches, taking a bite of the exotic meat. It seems to pause for a second after the first bite, but it then decides to eat it with gusto. The cat then rubs against Goma's legs for a second before heading northeast.

[bcool999]

Rowan

"Well, now that Goma has befriended it," Rowan says after observing the byplay between the cat and Goma, "Perhaps we should follow it northeast. It may possibly be our guide here."

[pfm1995]

Alssariq shrugged. "As good as any other direction."

[stack]

Akaash concurs, "Agreed. If a guide-cat is the strangest thing we find on this island, I will be surprised."

[digiman619]

As you follow the cat, you see a trail throughout the island, forming a "T" junction from the stairs. Following the cat down the eastern path, you pass through an open wood of dead, leafless trees. The more botanically savvy of the party recognize them as myrtle and olive trees and it gives the island a bit of an ominous cast. Those of you felt unusually calm before now find it has passed, but if it's an effect of these trees, you can't say. The sound of rasping wood in the wind is all around, and the dry branches seem to twitch when viewed of the corner of your eyes.

Eventually, you reach a hilltop, covered with landscaped dirt and gravel, smooth swept earthen pathways, winding among graveled expanses, raked in curves, whorls, and intricate patterns and studded with larger boulders and artfully trimmed dwarf trees places sparsely throughout. Surrounding all is a rim of naked rock, roughly hewn and surmounted by thick, imposing limestone columns carved in relief, each capped with a stone griffon, dragon, lammasu, shedu, or similar winged beast. To the southeast rises a towering brass mausoleum, its facade depicting scenes of a powerful wizard working strange magic upon the world, although the carvings appear partially melted. A pair of large brass doors stand ajar in the mausoleum’s northwest side, and embedded in the bronze are blasted and blackened fragments of a human skeleton.

Spoiler: DC 20 K:Nobility or History

Show

The figure depicted on the carvings are the Wizard King Nex

The cat rushes inside the the building, but before you can catch up with it, a sudden wave of anger and menace washes over you as you see a strange half-formed humanoid composed of the four elements. In a booming voice, he bellows at you.

"Why do you come here? What do you seek? This place was made for those who are dead. Why do the living trouble the endless sleep, the final dream?"

[bcool999]

Rowan

Seeing the Brass Mausoleum, Rowan shakes his head and comments, "I hope these carvings weren't suggested by Nex himself. It would be unbearably tacky to demand depictions of himself."

When the odd elemental appears, Rowan waits warily for the more diplomatic members of the party to speak. Though Rowan stands ready to deliver fiery oblivion upon the creature if needed.

[SwordChucks]

Goma does his best to stay near the Khwaja and Rowan, but otherwise tries not to provoke the elemental any further.

[pfm1995]

"Well, I suppose we know where the efreeti were staying..." Alssariq asides when he sees the melted stone. The elemental, however is enough to banish his jocular mood. Even in Khatapesh, home of perhaps the greatest elemental-binders on Golarion, he'd never seen anything like this. Though, what else was to be expected when raiding the treasure-realm of an archmage?

"We seek the spirit of Andrathi," he proclaims in his best barker-voice, "in order to learn more of the one called Jhavul, and so that we may leave this place in peace."

[digiman619]

"Learning. A worthy goal, but elusive. Sometimes you find it best looking inside yourself. Other times your own counsel is the last you should heed." And with that, the elemental dissipates, though you hear his voice distantly near the door. “Truth is the most terrifying thing in the world, and the most enchanting. Dare you face it? Dare you use it? Answer truthfully and enter.”

So what's the plan?

[stack]

Akaash pauses to consider the statement a moment before replying, "The truth is true regardless of whether I wish it to be or not. And it it is truth, we should not shrink from using it."

[lostsole31]

Malak smiles, the cracked side of his face perhaps reaching higher in a smile. "Spoken like a true scholar dedicated to the search for truth. But one who has had to act as interpreter and storyteller to various tribes - and realizing that what is 'Truth' is not universal - one must realize that just because one speaks truly, doesn't mean they likewise speak truthfully. The greatest damage is done with truth wielded as a weapon - wholly or partially - by the viciously mendacious."