As the
Guardians of Golarion waited for
Reh to return from her research trip within her pyramoid, the party returned to the Cypher Lodge to rest.
Liam approached Telith and Godric looking for guidance. He had recently been given some information and he wasn't sure what to do with it.
Elias had told him
Satsui's background and the possible reason for his murder, not knowing that Satsui had accidentally been killed by an out-of-control
Fjord in his monstrous goliath form
Elias admitted that Satsui had been the one to kill Reh's father Damian. However, he had been instructed to perform the act by Clegg Zincher. He was also supposed to kill Damian's child (Reh), leaving Damian's wife destitute and primed for slavery. All of this because Damian refused to make a ring for Clegg. Since Satsui refused to kill the young Reh, he was marked for death. Liam now was not sure if he should tell Reh, or if it mattered at this point. He had been a man looking for redemption. The followers of Iomedae told him to hold onto the information for the time being.
The next day, the party met for breakfast in the cafeteria.
Veturius Aldysh, dressed in his militant uniform, told the Guardians that his associated
Clodius had questioned someone throughout the night and came up with some information. The soul coin they were hoping to obtain was now "out of play". That meant that the coin had either been used or was now in possession of a devil far too powerful to confront or deal with.
Overlord Cromarcky has issued a decree that Elias has three days to hand over Arcaan or sanctions will be issued against the Cypher Lodge. Veturius said that he had to meet with Elias, and suggested that the Guardians make all haste in finding whatever demonic evidence they could. Clodius wished to speak with Godric privately, and motioned to the armored figure standing by the cafeteria doorway.
Once Godric stepped into the hallway, Clodius hugged him and pulled off his helmet. Beneath the helmet was
Winifred Aldysh! She told him that her father had spent most of the family fortune to resurrect her, just so she would take the test of the Hellknight. Fred relented, knowing that not even death was an escape from the test. Now she was tasked in getting her family out of debt.
Fred told Godric that she would look into the Pnakotic Manuscript for him and was about to teleport back to Cheliax to look into matters. She wished him luck and departed.
The Guardians, joined by Reh, made their way to the Broken Hammer tavern to look for clues. They examined the ruins nearby call the "Temple." It could barely be considered ruins, just a few pillars on a stone floor. Kuuro etched "Zalatas Rules" on one of the pillars.
The tavern was abandoned. The windows were boarded up, everything inside was cleared out. Behind the bar was a trap door leading into the cellar. The cellar was a small room with a secret panel in the wall. The panel opened into an old cave system much like the one below the Gold Goblin. The cave led to a large pool of water that had been filled with a toxin called "demon plague". The contaminated water was known to infect animals, but rarely humans as the water looked very unappetizing to intelligent creatures. Above was the well located behind the bar, hinting that perhaps the water from here had been used in the Broken Hammer.
The caves were also filled with demon plagued zombies - humans infected by the demon plague virus. They were scraping the walls, smoothing them for some reason. The heroes discovered a magical device known as an abyssal anchor, which would allow a portal to the abyss to be permanently opened in the cave.
Further, into the cave system, the Guardians faced off against a succubus who repeatedly tried to control the handsome Telith but the cleric would have none of it. The succubus fled deeper into the cave and met up with a kalavakus slave master who told her to hurry, as the ritual was about to begin. The succubus disappeared and the kalavakus fought the Guardians.
After dispatching the demon, the Guardians discovered an old lift that lowered much deeper down into the earth. Once they reached the bottom of the shaft, they found themselves standing in a large dome. The sand beneath their feet was loose and a shade of red that looked like old crumbled blood, but appeared undisturbed. There was a spot of light off to the north that led to another corridor.
Near the entrance was a pair of broken-down tents and a rickety wooden box. They all displayed the sigil of the Twilight Empire. Investigating the box caused it to collapse in a heap of scrap but revealed a wide metal tube inside. The tube held a beaten metal scroll made of copper. The scroll was a contract which tasked the removal of “the cyst” and its return to
Aurorathal by way of a teleportation gate beneath an outpost east of Riddleport.
After hours of walking, the sand gave way to a stone path. The tunnel opened into a much larger chamber, easily a half-mile across and just as wide. A massive structure dominated the landscape in the middle of the chamber: an inverted pyramid piercing a stone dome, made of black stone and seemingly carved from a single piece. The walkway led directly from the tunnel towards the structure.
The ceiling of the dome was covered in clouds, wispy and grey at the edges, but dark and rippling in the center, hovering over the top of the pyramid. The exterior of the dome and even the surface of the pyramid showed massive symbols of a left-handed spiral and a star made of chains.
The doors to the dome were nearly ten feet tall and stone, but easy enough to open. The interior of the dome was hollow, but there were some interesting elements inside. The tip of the pyramid has pierced the dome and immediately below the tip was a stone dais measuring 12 feet across and 3 feet tall. All of the surfaces here—the floor, the walls of the dome, the tip of the pyramid—were decorated in the same series of repeating symbols as the exterior. Between the doors and the dais were two seemingly ancient canvas and leather tents that long ago decomposed opposite a large metal box. The box once held leather cushions inside, as if intended to safely transport small delicate objects, but those cushions had all turned to dust and brittle scrap. The tents match the design of all the tents previously found.
The dais had twelve metal channels carved into the top. The channels all fed into a central silver bowl. There was an inscription written around the dais in Abyssal: “From the gift of life, knowledge.”
Rooker sat before the dais and cast Legend Lore, hoping to glean information about what was before them. The clouds above him rolled, and forty minutes passed before Rooker finally fell to the ground. Desna had pulled back the veil. Apparently they had discovered a temple of the mad god
Tharzduun, a creature of such power that the gods had tried to purge all mention of him from Golarion to prevent him from gaining any foothold in the Material Plane. Judging from the temple before the party, the gods had failed in their attempt.
Rooker cut himself and allowed the blood to pour into a channel. A necrotic beam emerged from the tip of the pyramid and struck him in the wounded arm. He managed to cut his other arm and drained his blood into the other channel. Another beam fired from the tip of the pyramid, locking him in place. Everyone else did the same. Blood poured into the silver bowl and began to boid. The tip of the pyramid shifted and stairs lowered from the structure above, coming to rest on the top of the dais. A booming voice echoed out in Abyssal: “The portal will close in 5… 4…”
The heroes, now free of the beams, quickly ascended the stairs and entered the Tomb of the Mad God
Tharzduun.
