This is a visual aid for GM Ventiine’s Ruins of Azlant virtual game table.
It is NOT intended for redistribution or sale.
The Flooded Cathedral
Part I
In the morning following the ugothol attack, Ramona Avandth summons the party to her residence for a private meeting about the missing colonists. The atmosphere in Talmandor’s Bounty is glum, and most of the colonists are busy burying bodies and repairing the damage caused by the faceless stalkers.
It feels like a long walk. Settlers who arrived from the Peregrine mourn collectively for the absence of missing villagers like Alba Divenvaar, Andvara Jeclair, Carver Hastings, Kereda Harper, and Sandra Ganis who, it was revealed, were all replaced by faceless stalkers. Some may even be reflecting back on the signs that now seem all too obvious: Alba suddenly closing her shop, Andvara’s hunger strike, and Kereda’s recant of his attempted abduction.
With soot on her face and blood on her jacket, Ramona Avandth wearily nods a greeting when she opens the door to her house. “Thank you for saving our colony and dealing with those... monsters. If it hadn’t been for your efforts and bravery, we would have lost many more of our people. But as you probably guessed, I didn’t ask you to meet me only because I wanted to thank you. We mustn’t give up hope that there may still be a way to find the people that those aberrant horrors had taken. I feel that they are still alive somewhere.
During the last few weeks, you’ve shown your importance to the colony, and many of you have exhibited incredibly useful talents that can help us further. I would like for you look for clues about the missing colonists’ whereabouts. Studying the bodies and equipment of the shapeshifting creatures you defeated may reveal something useful. It’s also possible that people here in the colony might have seen something that may help you. Last, you might want to search the colony and the surrounding area for any suspicious-looking tracks, signs of struggle, or drag marks that might point us to the right direction, but it may be like trying to find a needle in a haystack unless you have an idea of where to start looking.
“I’m afraid I have to ask you to hurry, since we don’t know why these monsters were kidnapping our people. If they wanted food or destruction, they wouldn’t have taken the victims alive. As you can imagine, everyone tends to assume the worst, and every passing hour is painful to those whose friends and family are missing. Please bring me back good news as soon as possible, but at the latest in six days from now. I don’t believe I can keep the people calm much longer than that, and those taken might have died from hunger or thirst by then.
“I must return to my duties—I’ll try to do whatever I can to help the people recover from the attack. The recent events have caused morale to plummet in the colony, and some people just want to go home. But before I go, please tell me if there is something I can do to help you with the investigation.”
Questions You Can Ask
Who should we talk to?
“Try to find people who saw Carver Hastings—or the impostor pretending to be him—doing something suspicious. Where it happened and what he was doing may give us some clues. People who were close to the kidnapped people and spent time with the impostors without realizing it may also remember something useful.”
Where do you think they were taken?
“There are many possibilities. Ancorato is a fairly large island and there are many smaller ones nearby, so that’s a lot of ground to cover. We need clues that help us narrow down the possibilities. Don’t go searching blindly unless all else fails and you run out of leads.”
Can we rely on other colonists’ help to find them?
“Most of them are too distraught by the recent events to be much help right now, but our most seasoned trackers and other specialists may be able to help you if you lack the skills to find the clues. You can ask around and ask them to lend their help if you need it.
Questions You Can Ask (Continued)
Are you injured?
“My injuries are the least of your problems right now, and anyway, most of this blood isn’t mine.”
Can we do something to boost the morale in the colony?
“Leave that to me. I’ll rally the colony here. Finding the colonists is the best thing you can do for Talmandor’s Bounty right now.”
What equipment do we have at our disposal?
“A lot of our supplies were destroyed or lost because of those monsters, and what we have we’re going to need in the long run in case things don’t improve. I’m afraid you must make do with whatever you have. That said, you may use the colony’s ship’s boat if necessary.”
Finding Clues
Ramona has tasked you with finding the missing colonists. Doing certain things will help discover clues. The more clues you find, they quicker you’re able to discern the possible location of the missing colonists.
To Do List
There several different things to investigate.
Profession Sailor 15 or Survival 15: You predict there’s a storm brewing that will affect the region later in the day.
Searching The Bodies
At Ramona Avandth’s orders, the colonists have carried the faceless stalkers’ bodies to one of the thatched houses so that they won’t be out in the open and remind everyone in the colony of the horrors they have just faced.
Inside the thatched house, you find the bodies neatly placed in a row on the floor, including the faceless stalker that had been impersonating Carver Hastings.
Heal 20 or Knowledge (Dungeoneering) 20 or Perception 25: You notice numerous little pockmarks likely resulting from burns and blisters, suggesting that the creatures are native to an environment where radiation or heat caused frequent burns. You also learn that the creatures’ flesh and cartilage offer increased protection against blunt trauma, which means that one of the most reliable—though not safest—ways to reveal a faceless stalker disguised as a human is to see how its body reacts to bludgeoning damage.
Searching The Bodies
Spellcraft 16: You identify Thanaldhu’s breastplate has been glamered. Perhaps to allow the faceless stalker to more easily imitate the appearance of Carver Hastings.
If Spellcraft 16, then Will 11: It’s the armor’s appearance that is masked with illusions. The illusion appears to be make armor look like that worn by the colonial soldiers.
Thanaldhu is still wearing an explorer’s outfit consisting of a voluminous cloak with many pockets, gloves of supple leather, well-worn leather breeches, a thick leather belt, a cotton shirt, and a pair of muddy but sturdy boots—all taken from Carver Hastings.
Knowledge (Geography) 20 or Knowledge (Nature) 20: You notice purple flower petals stuck to the soles of the boots and remember that these flowers grow in patches in a number of
places on the beach. CLUE
Searching The Bodies
Knowledge (Geography or Local) 20 or Perception 20 or Profession (Soldier): You notice Thanaldhu’s crossbow bears the initials “C. H.” and other personal markings that strongly suggest the item belonged to the real Carver Hastings.
Appraise 25 or Craft (Weapons) 25: You notice the masterwork sword’s design and decorations are similar to ones frequently used by Pathfinders, especially those interested in ancient Azlanti weapons.
Thanaldhu was carrying a number of minor magic items, such as a pouch of dust, oils, and potions.
Appraise 20 or Spellcraft 20 or Perception 25: You realize they are of an unknown origin and are stored in strange containers, which suggests the faceless stalker owned them before it assumed Carver’s identity.
Searching The Bodies
The mirror on Thanaldhu’s body is square and palm sized and has a hole in the center.
Knowledge (Geography or Local) 25 or Perception 25: The markings suggest this mirror belongs to Saymor Landis, not Carver Hastings.
Appraise 20 or Craft (Glass) or Profession (Sailor or Soldier): You identify the mirror as a signal mirror. Because such mirrors are generally useful for long-distance communication in relatively open terrain, you can easily rule out locations where Thanaldhu would not have been able to use the mirror. CLUE
This spyglass bears a number of dents and its lenses have small scratches on them, but it still seems to be completely functional.
Knowledge (Geography or Nobility) 20 or Perception 25: You realize the spyglass bears a small golden symbol that indicates it must have been issued to a high-ranking crew member of the Liberty’s Herald.
Thanaldhu was also carrying a backpack, a belt pouch with a flint and steel inside, and a waterskin.
Knowledge (geography or local) 20 or Perception 20: There is nothing out of the ordinary about the items, which means they probably belonged to Carver Hastings.
Interviewing Colonists
You can attempt Diplomacy check (DC15) to gather information in order to find suitable persons for answering your questions. (Unless you’ve taken the time to get to know the settlers.)
You ask around and gather a list of names.
Interviewing Colonists
Jacques Hughon claims he saw Carver Hastings doing something suspicious.
Two days ago, when Jacques Hughon was checking his rabbit snares a few miles north of Talmandor’s Bounty, he saw Carver Hastings in the distance. When asked about it, Jacques says, “Aye, I saw him two days ago there. I thought he was lost because I couldn’t think of any other reason he would have wandered that far from the colony. I think he was holding something in his hand, maybe a scroll tube or something of similar size and shape. I followed him for a while but lost sight of him after a few minutes. Afterwards, I didn’t think much of it because Carver was a strange duck all along.”
Jacques says “Aye! Come to think of it, it probably was a spyglass.” Learning the location where Jacques spotted the fake Carver Hastings counts as a CLUE for the purpose of finding tracks that lead to the peninsula.
Interviewing Colonists
Colson Werton spent a lot of time with an impostor without realizing it until yesterday’s attack.
This colonist was developing a budding romance with Sandra Ganis when the latter’s behavior suddenly changed—unknown to him, she had been replaced by a faceless stalker impostor. When asked about the relationship, Colson says “She was always such a sweet lady, but a few days ago she suddenly started asking me about meeting her alone in the strangest of places after sundown. I didn’t understand what was going on, and I had a lot of work to do, so I just said no each time. I didn’t want her to be cross with me, so I didn’t ask too many questions. I’m sorry. I should have known something was wrong.”
He just keeps mumbling “Let me think, let me think...” over and over again, and tears start welling up in his eyes.
Diplomacy or Intimidate 20: You coax or bully Colson to think harder. After a moment’s hesitation, Colson exclaims, “The scent! I remember she smelled different two nights ago—like sea lavender.” Having previously explored the island, you remember a number of places where sea lavender grows on the beach. This discovery helps you narrow down where the faceless stalkers were conducting their sinister business and counts as a CLUE for the purpose of finding tracks that lead to the peninsula.
Interviewing Colonists
Saymor Landis is a sailor so he would be a good resource to ask about signal mirrors and spyglasses.
After assuming the guise of Carver Hastings, Thanaldhu stole a signal mirror from Saymor Landis.
When he sees the mirror that was found on Thanaldhu, Saymor exclaims, “Hey, that’s mine! I thought I had dropped it somewhere and had already written it off as lost. I used to be a sailor, and mirrors like that one are handy at sea where you can see the signal flashes several miles away on a sunny day. You can keep it if you want it, I don’t have much use for it anymore here in the colony.” This counts as a CLUE for the purpose of finding tracks that lead to the peninsula, as though you had successfully identified the mirror in Studying the Faceless Stalkers.
Saymor is also willing to help the you find tracks, but refuses to accompany you off the island.
Visiting the Locathah Camp
Koloshkora and the other locathahs tell you they have seen people near the coast, but didn’t realize that something strange was afoot, explaining, “We thought that they were just admiring the beauty of the sea.”
The locathahs’ information counts as a CLUE for the purpose of finding tracks that lead to the peninsula.
Following Your Clues
Following the clues you have found (or through sheer persistence), you find tracks that lead to a small peninsula located some three miles west of Talmandor’s Bounty.
Perception 20: You notice a place that looks quite suitable for mooring a boat and find a few hemp fibers on the ground near a large rock with marks where algae and moss have been scraped off in bands, suggesting that a rope was recently wrapped around it.
After you spend a few minutes studying the peninsula, you start seeing flashes of light in the distance. It is easy to see the flashes without special equipment.
Use Spyglass: The flashes of light come from what looks like a partially crumbled stone building on an island some 12 miles to the West.
Intelligence 10: You recognize that the flashes follow a particular pattern that might be a coded message.
Characters who speak Aquan get a +4 circumstance bonus to their rolls and can make the Linguistics check untrained:
Intelligence 10, then Linguistics 20 or Sense Motive 25: The message reads: “Status? We must go. Leaving Karnax behind. It is waiting with instructions.”
Intelligence 10, then Linguistics 16 or Sense Motive 21: You catch fragments of the message: “status,” “go,” “Karnax,” and “instructions.”
You report back to Ramona with what you’ve discovered.
After you determined that Thanaldhu used a spyglass and mirror to communicate with someone on a nearby island, Ramona Avandth ask you to explore the island where they saw the signals coming from.
Unfortunately, the Argent Cornucopia, which had recently arrived to resupply the colony, is too damaged to make the trip in its current state. You’ll have to have to use the Peregrine’s ship’s boat, which your party traveled in when you first investigated Talmandor’s Bounty.
Consulting Saymor Landis, a settler experienced in sailing, the island Zanas-Tahn is 15 miles from Talmandor’s Bounty. So it will take approximately 7-1/2 hours to row to the island. From the peninsula west of Talmandor’s Bounty where the faceless stalkers ferried the colonists away, the distance is only 12 miles, but you’d have to carry the boat there or sail the coast which would take longer.
Ramona Avandth warns the party that they should not abandon the boat, because it may be the only way to get the kidnapped colonists back to Talmandor’s Bounty.
Thunder rumbles in the distance. Ramona walks to the window and peers out. “There’s a storm coming. You can go now, but you’ll have to sail through it. Or you can wait for it to pass.”
The terrain on Zanas-Tahn is predominantly trackless forest, hills, and swamp, which means that the PCs’ overland movement speed on the island is halved.
Your party knows the kidnapped villagers were taken to the island Zanas-Tahn, but you don’t know where specifically. You’ll need to explore several areas of interest. Hopefully the colonists will be in one of those areas.
To recap...
Time is of the essence. Ramona has urged you to bring back good news within six days. Morale is low in Talmandor’s Bounty and if the kidnapped colonists are alive, Ramona fears they’ll only remain alive for a limited number of days.
You successfully followed clues left behind by the faceless stalkers, which have led you to Zanas-Tahn, an island immediately West of Ancorato where Talmandor’s Bounty was established.
Hollow Forest
In order to get to A2 from A1, you must pass through an area marked on the map as “Hollow Forest.” As you enter into the forested area, it seems...different.
Hollow husks of crooked, leafless trees grow from the blackened ground in this forest. The bark on the trees is marred with wound-like cracks that weep blackish sap.
Knowledge Arcana or Religion 27: This area is bathed in necromantic energy, causing the trees and vegetation to grow crooked and strangely hollow.
Detect Magic: A moderate aura of necromancy suffusing this entire area.
Knowledge Nature or Perception 22: It is eerily quiet in the area and animals are conspicuously absent, even insects.
Hollow Forest
Two hollows appear and attack! Their gaunt, shadowy bodies appear to be little more than tangles of insubstantial, tattered cloaks. The most disturbing feature is their gaping mouths, seeming to go on forever and hungry to devour the souls of living creatures.
Perception 20: In a particularly large, hollow tree, there is a humanoid skeleton overgrown with bark. The unfortunate skeleton is wearing lenses of detection and a necklace of adaptation. Near its feet lie other possessions: a scabbard of many blades holding a +2 longsword, two potions of cure serious wounds, and a wand of alter self (34 charges).
A1 Watchtower
An ancient, square, stone tower stands in the sand at the water’s edge. The tower’s battlements show few cracks and little wear despite the construction’s apparent age, but the tower’s upper stories have crumbled away, and only a broken stump and piles of rubble remain.
Knowledge History 15: This tower was one of many watchtowers the ancient Azlanti built on the slopes of the sacred hills of ZanasTahn. Its purpose was to offer travelers protection against outlaws and to collect road taxes from pilgrims and merchants passing through.
Just outside the building, you can easily spot a boat similar to the Peregrine’s ship’s boat. Closer examination reveals that the boat is in fact the Liberty’s Herald’s ship’s boat! When the Liberty’s Herald sailed back to Andoran, the crew left behind the ship’s boat for the colonists to use, but the ship’s boat hadn’t been seen since the second wave of colonists arrived.
Perception 15: It appears the boat has been pulled ashore only a day or so earlier. You can conclude that this boat might have been used to transport kidnapped colonists from Talmandor’s Bounty.
A1 Watchtower
In the moist sand outside the tower, it is easy to notice recent footprints, and though they are partially smudged, it is evident that most of them belong to Medium humanoid creatures, but one set of footprints belongs to a bigger creature.
Perception 15 or Survival 15: You also notice the most recent footprints lead West.
Knowledge Dungeoneering 24 or Knowledge Local 20: You can identify the smaller prints as belonging to faceless stalkers and humans, respectively
Knowledge Nature 27: You realize the bigger prints were made by an unusually large skum.
The tower’s wooden double door has long since rotten away. A steel ladder (Climb DC 5) in the courtyard leads up to the tower’s battlements at the height of 20 feet. Despite the advanced building techniques the ancient Azlanti used, Earthfall and millennia of erosion have caused the tower’s upper floor to collapse, and now only the crumbling remains of the lower floor remain.
A1 Watchtower
Inside the tower, a large copper plaque mounted on the wall has a map carved into the layers of thick verdigris encrusted upon it. The map originally depicted the sacred hills of Zanas-Tahn, but after Earthfall, squatters modified the map to reflect the fact that the area became an island, carving a coastline around the parts of Zanas-Tahn that are still above water and scratching out the numerous points of interest that were destroyed or claimed by the sea.
A1 Watchtower
A long mouth peels open on the front of the desk, revealing sharp, pointed teeth. A gravelly voice in Aquan emanates from the desk.
Aquan: “Come on, you’re home. Time to drop your ridiculous disguises.”
Treasure: Hidden amid the rubble is a
ring of swimming. The backpack on the table
is Karnax’s handy haversack, which contains
only a collection of smooth rocks.
A1 Watchtower
Knowledge Geography 20: You can confirm that this is a map of the island. It is evident that the area looked very different in the days of Azlant. The lower half of the plaque has crumbled away, and what remains of the map shows only four locations on the northern half of the island, which correspond to the watchtower itself (area A1), a rudimentary drawing of a stick figure (area A2), an equally poor drawing of a cave - likely done by the same artist (area A3), and an astronomical device (area A4.)
Linguistics 18 or Azlanti or Aquan: The labels read “Watchtower III” in Azlanti (area A1), “Shipwrecks + ENEMIES” in Aquan (A2), “Home” in Aquan (A3), and “Wheels of Heaven” in Azlanti (A4), respectively. Furthermore, the words “Hollow Forest” have been carved in large letters in Aquan over the general area Northeast of A3. The maps itself is labeled Zanas-Tahn, an Azlanti name that translates roughly to “sacred hills.”
If Linguistics 18, then Knowledge History or Religion 20: The name Zanas-Tahn suggests the existence of multiple temples and other religious sites in the region.
A3 Twisted Cavern
A crack in the hillside opens into a spacious natural cavern. Horrific screeches resembling those of a panicked animal echo within the cavern.
Survival 22 (outside): You spot tracks of creatures leading West to the river, and can guess they probably waded up or down the river to avoid leaving further tracks.
Knowledge Nature 10: You identify the screeches as those of a frenzied rat.
Knowledge Nature 15: You realize there is something horribly unnatural about the sounds.
Perception or Survival 15 (inside the cavern): You notice the cave’s most recent inhabitants appear to have left in a hurry very recently, leaving behind all kinds of miscellaneous junk collected from the bodies of their victims.
Perception or Survival 20 (inside the cavern): You can deduce that approximately a dozen faceless stalkers lived here until quite recently.
A3 Twisted Cavern
After investigating the area, you can reasonably conclude the faceless stalkers had captured the two chaos beasts and kept them trapped in a small chamber with a narrow opening in the southwestern part of the cavern. To amuse themselves, the faceless stalkers must have fed the chaos beasts small animals so they could watch the animals suffer as their bodies turned unstable and amorphous and their minds abandoned all semblance of sanity. When the faceless stalkers left the cavern, they intentionally removed the junk blocking the opening, allowing the chaos beasts to escape.
Amid the filth, grime, and junk that the faceless stalkers left behind, there is a ring of the troglodyte and a 1-foot-tall jade statue of a humanoid-serpent hybrid creature (worth 1,000 gp). With a successful DC 25 Knowledge (religion) check, you can identify the statue as a depiction of Ydersius, the patron deity of the serpentfolk, who were one of Azlant’s chief enemies. Anyone who succeeds at a DC 25 Appraise or Survival check realizes the statue must have been in the cavern for over 10,000 years.
A3 Twisted Cavern
As you approach the opening that leads to the small chamber, they see what looks like a giant rat writhing and thrashing in the water as if in great pain. Suddenly, the creature’s neck twists around itself, and a pair of legs grows from its stomach, only to melt away a moment later. For a moment, the rat looks normal again, but then the horrific convulsions start anew.
Make a Knowledge Planes 27 check.
Shallow water fills the southern end, which ranges from one to three feet deep. It counts as difficult terrain.)
A4 Wheels of Heaven
A 20-foot-tall building has been built into the slope near the summit of the island’s tallest hill. The interior of the building is a machine consisting of thousands upon thousands of gears. A giant tube similar to a spyglass rises from the center of the contraption.
The ancient Azlanti used a combination of magic and technology to build great machines capable of revealing the secrets of the universe. They also made great advances in mathematics and physics, which made it possible for them to calculate the positions of planets and other celestial objects with great accuracy. This observatory is an example of that technology: a massive analog clockwork mechanism designed to calculate and display astronomical information, such as the positions of the sun, the moon, other planets, and a number of constellations.
A4 Wheels of Heaven
Knowledge History 20 or Disable Device 20: The device also includes a large telescope whose optics were some of the most sophisticated in the Azlanti empire. The telescope’s lenses were destroyed during earthquakes accompanying Earthfall. However, the advanced telescope still retains certain functions. A user can feed data into the clockwork mechanism by pointing the telescope at any celestial object. With just two data entries, it is possible to calculate a linear trajectory and the object’s speed, and by adding more data, the machine can calculate curved and elliptical paths while refining its initial calculations to be more accurate. Once a trajectory has been calculated, the user can set a dial to indicate any point in time in the past or future, and the mechanism calculates the object’s location at that moment, automatically rotating the telescope to point in that direction if the user so desires. These calculations are stored in a gem called an ioun memory node. The mechanism also has an output panel comprising thousands of metal pins mounted in a frame that allows them to slide up and down. The mechanism can display data about the objects being observed by moving the pins so that they form letters, numbers, or three-dimensional graphs; by pressing symbols formed from extended pins, the user can feed additional data to the device
A4 Wheels of Heaven
You think you can operate this ancient technological device with a bit of time and knowledge. Others can make a Strength check to aid by removing junk and debris from between the gears.
An hour making temporary repairs and Craft Clockwork or Knowledge Arcana or Engineering or Use Magic Device 25: You’re able to activate the mechanism!
It takes 1d6x10 minutes studying it, then a user is able to learn the central operating principle and can use it to make simple calculations. The current simulation without changing the parameters, that the last user used, shows a mass of objects traveling through space at a great speed on a trajectory to collide with Golarion!
Continuing to go through the data entries stored in the device, you discover A5 which the pin panel (see slide 41 for picture of pin panel) shows the word “pillars” in Azlanti and displays a three-dimensional representation of the location’ topography.
Because of the observatory’s high elevation, this location is an excellent place to use a spyglass to scan the surrounding terrain.
Spend 30 minutes and Perception 20: You spot the top of a pillar (A5)
A4 Wheels of Heaven
Each planet’s location relative to Golarion at any given moment is also stored in the mechanism. Curiously enough, much older data entries include two planets orbiting at a distance between Verces and Eox, and the panel displays the names Damiar and Iovo for these entries.
Knowledge Geography or History 25: You know these planets do not exist in Golarion’s solar system as modern astronomers know it.
Knowledge Geography or History 30: But, you remember stories about the Twins— the planets Damiar and Iovo—that were destroyed long before Earthfall, and whose remains form the asteroid belt known as the Diaspora.
A4 Wheels of Heaven
The whirring and clatter of the device awakens something!
Perception 13: You hear meteors screaming through the sky accompanied by a bright flash and rumbling ground
If Perception 13, then Knowledge Geography or Spellcraft 25: The sound is caused by falling meteors!
The roof of the observatory is blown away, revealing two meteors in the sky approaching at a high speed! At the same time, a ghostly image of an Azlanti woman wearing a priest’s vestment appears hovering in the air, screaming a drawn out “No!”
You can see the shadows of the meteors, which reveal the squares they are going to hit. You have one round to move.
See page 20.
A4 Wheels of Heaven
The ghostly woman disappears and the observatory looks mostly intact again, just as it did before the ghostly meteors fell.
Treasure: You can remove the mechanism’s ioun memory node with a successful DC 25 Disable Device check. Using brute force to pry it free destroys the node. In addition to its story value, the stone is worth 5,000 gp.
A2 Hullhold
Broken remains of ships and boats on the shore form a perimeter around heaps of barrels, crates, and other items that look like salvaged cargo. Additional ladders, nets, ropes, and weights have been attached to the ships and boats. A crimson flag on the mast of the largest ship proudly blows in the wind.
Four wyrwood archers stand on the decks of the shipwrecks nearest to the entrance, guarding the village. The decks are high enough that the archers have a clear advantage. They start shouting at you when you’re within 60ft of the gates.
Azlanti: “Reveal your true form, spies! You can’t fool us!”
You need to show evidence that you’re enemies of the faceless stalkers or Knowledge Geography or Local 25 or Perform Oratory 25 to speak convincingly about the faraway lands you come from.
A2 Hullhold
The Wyrwood are extremely xenophopic and the party must pass a series of checks in order to gain the Wyrwood’s trust. (See pages 16-18)
The Wyrwood could become trade partners and offer up information about Zanas-Tahn if the party convinces them. Or the party could decide to slaughter them.
GM SCREEN
DO NOT GO PAST THIS SLIDE!
The Flooded Cathedral
Part II
You are now level 8!
A1 “Watchtower III” in Azlanti
A2 “Shipwrecks and Enemies” in Aquan
A3 “Home” in Aquan
A4 “Wheels of Heaven” in Azlanti
A5
A6
A7
“Hollow Forest” in Aquan
A1
Hollow Forest
A1 “Watchtower III” in Azlanti
A2 “Shipwrecks and Enemies” in Aquan
A3 “Home” in Aquan
A4 “Wheels of Heaven” in Azlanti
A5
A6
A7
“Hollow Forest” in Aquan
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
Hollow Forest
Oozes
The next area of interest that was marked on the Watchtower map is A4. The party heads south, skirting the rocky peaks of Zanas-Tahn on the east side.
Knowledge Dungeoneering 20 or Perception 30 or Survival 30: You notice telltale signs of the oozes’ presence: slimy excretions on the ground and on the leaves of trees and shrubs, and moist drag marks on the grass in wide patterns, as if the ground had been intentionally flattened. While these tracks are not enough to deduce the exact type of ooze in question, they are sufficient to allow the party to simply avoid the slow-moving creatures should they choose to do so. However, choosing a safe route doubles the time required to move through the ooze-infested area.
See page 90.
A1 Watchtower
A2 Hullhold
A3 Twisted Cavern
A4 Wheels of Heaven
A5 Pillars of Long Shadows
A6
A7
Hollow Forest
Ooze Encounter
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
Hollow Forest
Oozes
A5 Pillars of Long Shadows
Seven pillars of stone, each taller and thicker than the previous one, stand in a spiral-shaped formation. The pillars bear many intricately carved symbols inlaid with a silvery metal and lines of a crystalline material, and each pillar is fitted with a ring-shaped, metal dial with similar symbols carved into it. The entire area seems unnaturally chilly and dim, as if a great shadow lay over the land.
The smallest pillar here is 10 feet tall, and each subsequent pillar is 5 feet taller than the last, with the central pillar standing 40 feet tall.
The area within 60 feet of the pillars is one level of illumination lower than it would normally be and 20 degrees colder.
A5 Pillars of Long Shadows
Seven pillars of stone, each taller and thicker than the previous one, stand in a spiral-shaped formation. The pillars bear many intricately carved symbols inlaid with a silvery metal and lines of a crystalline material, and each pillar is fitted with a ring-shaped, metal dial with similar symbols carved into it. The entire area seems unnaturally chilly and dim, as if a great shadow lay over the land.
The smallest pillar here is 10 feet tall, and each subsequent pillar is 5 feet taller than the last, with the central pillar standing 40 feet tall.
The area within 60 feet of the pillars is one level of illumination lower than it would normally be and 20 degrees colder.
A5 Wheels of Heaven
From studying the observatory you were at previously, you know this place and the observatory were intended to be used together in some way.
Knowledge Acrana 20: The symbols resemble what modern spellcasters use in teleportation magic.
Knowledge Geography or Planes 25: Some of the symbols depict extraterrestrial locations. You know it would require days, weeks, months, or even years of research to determine the precise calculations required to use the device as intended.
The tallest pillars are the higher than the surrounding trees. You think you could use the spyglass from atop one of them to scout the surrounding area.
On top of the taller pillars and Perception 20: There are giant bees flying over the forest to the east, and to the south, there is a curious formation of stone blocks in the marsh (A6)
Foraging Bees
As you explore the southern portion of the island, you occasionally spot a giant bee looking for nectar in large flowers endemic to the forests and swamps on the island. The bees are not particularly aggressive.
Knowledge Nature 20: These bees seem like normal bees except they are noticeably larger. Almost like they were selectively bred to be bigger.
A6 Will-O’-Wisp Garden
Six twenty-five-foot-long stone blocks, each tapered like an arrowhead, are arranged in a vaguely flower-shaped formation in the moist ground. Some of the ancient stone blocks are cracked and splintered, while others are half-sunken in the marsh.
The large, flower-shaped monument in the ruined garden bears two sets of carvings on its stone petals. The first set depicts the sun setting near the stone monument and a few radiant globes flying overhead in a complex and attractive formation, suggesting that something happens after dusk. The second set of carvings shows a bee flying from a hexagonal building to what looks like a temple, suggesting that there is a connection between the bees and a temple.
As the sun sets upon the ancient stone monument, one by one, dozen upon dozens of lights appear in the darkness, hovering like ghostly lanterns above the fetid waters of the marsh. Four of them notice you and start flying in wide circle around you, observing and edging closer and closer.
Knowledge Dungeoneering 25 or Sense Motive 20: You determine that the creatures aren’t immediately hostile. If anything, the glowing balls of light seem to be curious about the visitors.
A6 Will-O’-Wisp Garden
Knowledge Dungeoneering 25: You remember a few flight patterns that will-o’-wisps use to greet one another. You gain a +5 bonus on checks to perform a suitable greeting. You can use a torch or other mundane light source with a successful DC 25 Acrobatics or Perform (dance) check to correctly perform a greeting.
A dancing lights spell or any other mobile light source is even more impressive, but a successful DC 20 Fly or Spellcraft check to steer the light is needed to impress the creatures. If you succeed at either of these checks, you gain a +5 circumstance bonus on later checks to influence the creatures.
If spoken to, the Will-O’-Wisps respond in Alko.
If the party fails to communicate, the will-o’-wisps start behaving more threateningly.
A6 Will-O’-Wisp Garden
If the party starts asking the will-o’-wisps questions, they laugh, “why should we tell you anything?”
Bluff, Diplomacy, or Intimidate 30: You persuade the will-o’-wisps to listen to you.
In Alko, one demands, “as payment for information, you must slay the hounds!” “Slay the hounds! Slay the hounds!” The other three echo, all while continuing to fly wide circles around you.
What can you tell about this island?
“The humans called this place Zanas-Tahn. They built all kinds of buildings, machines, and temples here. It was once a group of hills, but when their end came and the sea swallowed the continent of Azlant, this island was all that remained of Zanas-Tahn.”
What is this stone monument?
“The humans who once lived here used this place as a lure to capture my kind in glass globes. Do you know why? To use us as lights! Lights for their entertainment!”
Have you seen humans on this island before?
“Many humans lived here in ages past, but they’re long gone. Rocks came from space and killed all of them.” After a brief silence, the will-o’-wisps burst into derisive laughter, then continues, “We have heard more humans have come here recently. We think the ulat-kini have them in their broken temple.”
A6 Will-O’-Wisp Garden
What can you tell about the skum living on this island?
“The fish-faced ulat-kini live in a half-sunken temple on the east coast. They like it in the sea and don’t come on land very often, but when they do we like to scare them. So delicious is their fear.”
Where is the temple? “It is located on the east coast of the island, near where the river meets the sea. You should seek out the House of Bees first and continue due northeast from there.”
What can you tell about the faceless stalkers living on this island?
“The ugothols live in caves in the north, or they used to. We heard they’re on the move. We thought you were them when you first arrived at our garden. Wherever they’re going, they’re smart enough not to come here.” After saying that, the will-o’-wisps laugh mockingly in unison.
The will-o’-wisp information is accurate enough for you to find A7.
A7 House of Bees
Two thirty-foot-tall hexagonal stone towers, perforated with many even rows of square holes, flank a third, similarly hexagonal building only ten feet tall. A loud buzzing echoes throughout the structure, and the air is heavy with the sweet scent of honey.
Knowledge History 25: Followers of Amaznen cultivated bees and giant bees both for their religious significance—the bee was Amaznen’s sacred animal—but also because the highquality honey they produced was a luxury product that fetched a good price. The advanced social behavior of honey bees was seen as a symbol of working together toward a common goal.
Knowledge Geography or Local 25: Bee honey was a prominent ingredient in the cuisine of Shaval-Kehn, and it was also used in herbal medicine and for the production of honey wine. You know few old Chelish and Taldan honey-based recipes that are allegedly Azlanti in origin.
A7a House of Bees
The building in the middle looks like it was used to be a break room and a storage room for the beekeepers’ equipment.
There is a dormant clockwork spy lying on the floor. Unlike most modern-day clockwork spies, this ancient specimen is shaped like a bee rather than an arachnid. It even appears to have two compound eyes and three simple eyes like bees do!
Treasure: The beekeepers’ protective equipment included fine, lightweight suits of mithral chainmail, and two suits of +2 mithral chainmail are still stored in one of the two stone cabinets, along with 3 vials of antitoxin that are still viable. The other cabinet holds a few pieces of bee-themed jewelry carved from amber and gold (worth 1,500 gp) and a golden key (worth 500 gp) that can be used to wind up the clockwork spy in the room.
Use the key or Disable Device 20: The clockwork spy plays back what’s currently stored on its recording gem:
In the message, punctuated with panicked screams and a bustle of movement, a distressed Azlanti man says “We are forsaken! Flee while you can!”
A7b House of Bees
The walls of the hives have holes for the bees to fly in and out. The bees store their honey in niches in the walls and seal them with beeswax. These hives appear more wild and natural than a well-maintained hive. PCs who happen to be from Bellis or who are apiarists can immediately tell that this hive hasn’t been tended by anyone other than the bees in a very long time. The floor inside the two hives is sticky with honey and counts as difficult terrain.
Treasure: Each beehive contains 10 pounds of royal jelly. (For more details on this substance, see page 43 of Pathfinder RPG Bestiary 2.) The rare substance is worth 100 gp per pound.
A1 Watchtower
A2 Hullhold
A3 Twisted Cavern
A4 Wheels of Heaven
A5 Pillars of Long Shadows
A6 Will-O’-Wisp Garden
A7 The House of Bees
B Temple Grounds
Hollow Forest
Ooze Encounter
Foraging Bees
A1
A2
A3
A4
A5
A6
A7
Hollow Forest
Oozes
Foraging Bees
B
The Flooded Cathedral
Part III
You are now level 9!
To recap…
The party landed on Zanas-Tahn and quickly discovered the watchtower which was a hub for the faceless stalkers kidnapping schemes. From the watchtower’s vantage point, the faceless stalkers could use a signal mirror and the surrounding beach served as the drop-off point for captured settlers.
Zanas-Tahn isn’t as big of an island as Ancorato but there was plenty of ancient history to discover. The party realized the Azlanti people had technology (A4) to study the stars and at least one person predicted the incoming Earthfall. The ancient Azlanti people were also apparently trying to work on a means for teleportation (A5), but there technology wasn’t complete when Earthfall happened.
Despite all of the Azlanti advances in technology, the Azlanti were not faultless. You learned the Azlanti created Wyrwood using ioun stones to serve them and cultivated will-o’-wisps in a garden so they could then trap them to use as street lamps and other illuminated decoration. Both groups somehow managed to survive Earthfall and still remember the history of their enslavement.
To recap…
The party also discovered the faceless stalkers’ home, a twisted cavern, which was hastily abandoned. Peons like Karnax (slide 382) may not realize what’s happening, but the individual in charge of the kidnappings seem to think the party will come after them.
After talking to the will-o’-wisps and exploring the last notable point of interest, three hexagonal stone towers built for beekeeping and honey collection, the party can reliably infer the colonists are probably being kept at the nearby temple.
B Temple Ground
You follow the will-o’-wisps’ instructions and make your way to the temple.
The temple complex seems to have been originally built into the slope of the sacred hills of Zanas-Tahn. You can imagine how the structure must have loomed over the city that surrounded it. Today, the temple sits at the edge of the water; part of it is out of the water, but the rest is submerged. Most of the complex surrounding the cathedral itself is completely ruined. You can see the outline of walls where a number of outbuildings once stood within the temple ground.
A bronze statue of a bearded man lays collapsed and in pieces on the temple grounds between the outbuildings. You can estimate by the size that the statue is probably 100-feet tall. Both hands seem to have broken off from the fall, but are oddly missing. Based on the torso positioning, it looks as if the statue was raising something in the air with one hand and holding something in the other.
B Temple Grounds
The rectangular platform upon which the statue once stood is 10 feet high. Climbing the sides of the pedestal requires a successful DC 15 Climb check. The oval platform beneath the statue’s feet is only 1 foot above the pedestal.
The rubble-filled squares count as difficult terrain. The 2 squares with rubble next to the pedestal cost 4 squares of movement for Small and Medium characters to move into because the characters also have to squeeze between the statue’s severed legs and the pedestal.
The body of the fallen bronze statue is 10 feet high on average. Climbing onto the once-smooth but now corroded statue requires a successful DC 20 Climb check. The uneven surface of the statue counts as difficult terrain
The walls of the ruined buildings are 15 feet high. Climbing the jagged remains of the walls requires a successful DC 15 Climb check.
B Temple Grounds
After four rounds, six faceless stalkers carrying javelins appear.
After another four rounds, a third wave of stalkers emerges, wielding large
curved swords!
C1
C2
C3
C9
C7
C4
C8
C11
C10
C6
C5
C12
C13a
S
S
C1 Cathedral of Amaznen
Sturdy, ornate columns line this wide corridor, but cracks mar their surface and a few of them have fallen into pieces on the once fine marble floor of the cathedral. At the south end of the corridor, water spurts out of a broken fountain.
Four faceless stalkers and their pet are waiting for you when you enter this area!
See page 29-30.
Knowledge History or Religion 20: You remember readings about ancient Azlanti temples and are able to make sense of this entrance. Priests of Amaznen who lived in houses within the temple complex usually entered the cathedral through this corridor. Before going to the sacred areas of the temple, the priests washed their hands and faces in the fountain. This ritual of cleanliness and spiritual purity represented leaving behind the secular outside world.
Perception 25: You spot a seam in the wall that appears to be a secret door! You gain access to C3.
C2 High Priest’s Office
Finely crafted but timeworn marble furniture adorns this spacious office. Inside the desk, you find a locked strongbox. The key seems to be missing or perhaps it was lost long ago.
Knowledge History or Religion 10: In the time of Azlant, this room was the office of the high priest, who was at the head of the cathedral’s hierarchy. The high priest supervised the religious functions and resources of the cathedral, and held considerable political power in the twin cities of Kalas-Ti and Shaval-Kehn.
Disable Device 35 or force the box open (hardness 10, hp 30, break DC 25): The high priest’s locked strongbox contains an extend metamagic rod and a pair of fine silk slippers that turn out to be slippers of the triton.
C3 Alchemical Stash
This small storage room, crammed full of jars and scientific equipment, smells of salt and slime.
Treasure: The storage room contains a fully stocked alchemist’s lab as well as the following alchemical items: three vials of antitoxin, one vial of alchemical glue, three vials of armor ointment, 5 doses of bloodblock, and four sunrods. There are also 15 full jars of aboleth mucus extract in the room.
C4 Sacristy
Battered steel chests lie scattered across the floor of this vault, their contents strewn throughout the room. The thick stone walls are reinforced with steel bars and look nearly impenetrable, but the door to the vault has been torn off the hinges.
Knowledge History or Religion 10: From your knowledge of temples, you can confidently piece together what this room’s function was. In this room, the resident priests stored coins and other valuables given as offerings to the church of Amaznen. Relics and items used during religious services and festivals were also stored here.
Survival 23: The way the coins and other valuables are scattered suggests that whoever looted the place must have grabbed only the most obviously valuable items but was in too much of a hurry to be thorough, leaving a considerable amount of treasure strewn throughout the room.
Perception 28: The coins and other valuables looks unnaturally lustrous.
Treasure: Only a fraction of the riches once stored in the treasury remain. A total of 124 pp, 856 gp, and 352 sp in ancient Azlanti coins lie scattered on the floor, on the shelves, and in the chests. Collecting all the coins takes 30 minutes for four characters, or half that time if a character succeeds at a DC 25 Perception check. A small pewter box in the northeast corner of the room contains two lustrous pearls: a bluish pearl of the sirines and a dark pearl of power (3rd level).
C5 Half-Submerged Corridor
The steep stairs in this wide hallway connect the upper temple to the lower temple 30 feet below.
The water is up to a human’s waist in the topmost water-filled squares in the staircase. These squares count as difficult terrain. In the rest of the water-filled squares, creatures have to attempt Swim checks to stay afloat or move through these squares.
There is a flickering light in the stairwell. It seems as if it may be getting power from somewhere.
See page 31.
C7 Library
Many long bookcases of fine marble stand side by side in this room. Some of the shelves have been smashed to pieces, and countless marble fragments and remains of ancient documents are strewn about the floor. The few surviving books and other documents on the shelves look wrinkled and fragile. The air in this room is stale and reeks of mold.
Upon further inspection, someone in the party realizes this room once held an impressive collection of arcane, legal, religious, and scientific texts, but moisture and 10 millennia of neglect have rendered most of the books illegible piles of dust and lumps of moldering organic matter that have long since formed their own tiny ecosystems. A small number of texts carved on clay, metal, and stone tablets—as well as documents protected with magic—have survived. However, still less
than 10% of the contents of this library are in usable condition.
C7 Library
Nestled between the crumbling shelves against the north wall (indicated on the map with an “x”) is a strange patch of mold that has been infused with magic lingering within the cathedral. Known as prismatic mold, this multicolored fungus faintly glows with swirling patterns, casting dim light in the corners of the library.
Knowledge Arcane 15: Volatile and easily disturbed, prismatic mold emits a colorful burst of spores when a creature moves within 5 feet of it. Each of these spore clouds is a different color and fills a 10-foot area centered on a corner of the mold’s square. The spore clouds each manifest a different effect related to the color of the spore cloud. Targeting a prismatic mold with dispel magic instantly withers it into mundane and permanently inert (albeit still colorful) mold.
C7 Library
Despite the condition of this library’s contents, you think you’ll be able to learn about several topics listed below by performing some difficult and unconventional research. You can attempt to study a topic for 1d4 hours and roll the associated skill check to attempt to decipher the texts in the section and learn some of the hotly debated subjects in ancient Azlant. A person who doesn’t understand Azlanti will have to rely on illustrations alone (where they exist) and takes a -5 penalty to their skill check. You can make more than one check, but each check comes with the associated 1d4 study hours.
The topics available for study are:
C7 Library
Bookcases in the Artifice section are marked with a symbol consisting of two interconnected gears.
Artifice - Craft Clockwork, Knowledge Arcana or Engineering, or Spellcraft 20: You learn the books in this section discussed the creation of clockwork creatures and machines, ioun stones, and other magical technology. Because of rapid advances in both magic and science, a famous philosopher of the time claimed the line between the two was blurring, arguing that technology and magic could both produce the same results and thus should be integrated. One of the most popular subjects was discussion of whether clockworks—an obvious improvement over golems, an already ancient form of construct—should be modeled after a type of living mechanical creatures from beyond the Material Plane known as inevitables. A great deal of debate took place on whether machines should be granted the burden of conscious thought, even free will, or whether these creations were simply destined to become humanity’s eternal servants.
C7 Library
Bookcases in the Knowledge section are marked with an eye-shaped symbol.
Knowledge - Knowledge Any 25 or Profession Librarian 15: You determine this section once held encyclopedic material about nearly any subject imaginable. The collection also included a holy text called The Sacred Knowledge, according to which protecting knowledge from outsiders was of utmost importance for the survival and wellbeing of the people. Additionally, the goddess Lissala’s teachings were considered treacherous and heretical, and many priests of Amaznen had conflicts with her followers in Azlant, with some demanding that her worship be outlawed entirely. The books also discuss sacred architecture, including the theory that every temple of Amaznen should have secret areas and that knowledge of these should be restricted even within the hierarchy of the temple. This information grants you a +2 circumstance bonus on checks to find secret doors within the cathedral.
Bookcases in the Law section are marked with a symbol of a balance scale.
Knowledge Local 25 or Profession Barrister 20: You notice that the books in this section included volumes on the laws ruling the Azlanti empire, treatises on religious law, and philosophical texts on morality and justice. One of the most hotly debated subjects was how much influence religion should have on the direction of the state, while also addressing other influences upon the rule of law and whether law should ultimately serve the people or the empire.
C7 Library
Bookcases in the Magic section are marked with a symbol depicting three motes of energy.
Magic - Knowledge Arcana or Religion or Spellcraft 25 : You find this section discusses the origin of magic and the relationship between magic and the divine. According to a theory presented here, all magic is divine, and all that is divine is magical in nature. According to this source, the first mystic theurges were priests of Amaznen who learned to create and manipulate both types of magic as though they were one.
Bookcases in the Protection section are marked with a symbol of a watchtower.
Protection - Knowledge History or Profession Soldier 25: You determine this collection included a detailed history of the serpentfolk wars and, more recently, records of spy games against a group referenced as the “veiled masters,” the true enemies of the empire. As a solution to this threat, Azlanti politicians proposed researching and building various kinds of doomsday weapons.
C7 Library
The few books that are still intact can be sold for a total of 10,000 gp to the government of Andoran. Furthermore, a number of magic items have survived and are easily found with detect magic. An insightful scroll case contains a scroll of resist energy (electricity), a scroll of water breathing, and a page of spell knowledge containing dispel magic. On one of the bookshelves, you find a blessed book decorated with a symbol depicting swirls of energy surrounding two interconnected gears, the larger of which has an eye inside of it. Between the pages of the book is a scholar’s ring.
Knowledge Religion 30: The symbol depicting swirls of energy surrounding two interconnected gears is the holy symbol of Amaznen.
C7 Clockwork Storage
The smell of oil and grease fills this room, where armor-plated statue heads, limbs, and torsos as well as gears of all sizes have been placed on stone shelves. A nearly complete body consisting of similar gears and armor plates lies face down on a stone table with a large key embedded in a clockwork mechanism in its back.
Craft Clockwork or Knowledge Arcana 20: The body parts in the room once belonged to clockwork creatures.
Upon closer inspection of the contents of this room, and the expertise of a party member knowledgeable in Craft Clockwork or Arcana, you discover more about its contents:
Beautifully crafted plates of platinum and intricately gilded steel covered their bodies like armor, giving them the appearance of roughly human (albeit emotionless) faces and musculature, but their exposed backs revealed hundreds of fine gears of chrome and steel.
A combination of magic and advanced corrosion-resistant steel alloys has kept the clockwork components here in almost pristine condition despite their incredible age, their proximity to the sea, and the high levels of airborne salinity. However, all the automatons wound down long ago, and most of them are little more than heaps of severed body parts.
The clockwork creature on the table is mostly intact; only one of its legs is missing.
C7 Clockwork Storage
When you wind clockwork mechanism on her back, she animates. After spending a few moments observing her surroundings, she tries to stand up, but gives up once she realizes that one of her legs is missing.
First in Azlanti, the clockwork greets, “Well met, visitors. I am Aoinse. What brings you here?” Then, she repeats the same greeting and question in Elven, then Aquan.
She introduces herself as Aoinse. “How long have I been dormant? What’s happened in the time I was sleeping?
Aoinse has a pleasant and helpful personality, but her tone and sense of humor are quite flat, which some might read
as her being cold and aloof. While knowledgeable and
intelligent, she never responds to uninformed questions
or beings of lesser intelligence with condescension.
C7 Clockwork Storage
Aoinse says she would like to drive out the monsters and restore the cathedral to its former glory, or at least protect the place’s secrets from the enemies of humankind. She promises to help you find the missing colonists if you help her first.
She wants you to find a clockwork servant that can repair her, or, if you know what you’re doing, use the clockwork forge to repair her. The repair on her leg will take an hour and 1,000 gp worth of clockwork parts (available in this room) and a successful Craft Clockwork 25 check.
She also requests that you find a way to power up the cathedral’s ioun circuitry (C11), so that various systems within the building start working again.
See page 35.
Treasure: The clockwork body parts found in this room are worth 3,000 gp.
Questions You Can Ask
Where could the colonists be?
“The only way to find out is to start looking. You should know that there are secret areas within the cathedral. The priests were always so secretive about them that even I don’t know where they are.”
What happened to your leg?
“I think my body was damaged when the cataclysm occurred. Apparently, someone brought me here; this is where the priests stored malfunctioning servants.”
Why don’t the other clockworks in the cathedral have keys like yours?
“I served astronomer-priest Imosele, and she wished me to be less easily controlled like all the other clockworks, which can be wound up and reprogrammed at the winding station.” The clockwork forge/winding station is not working. How can we power it up? “The power generator units must be malfunctioning after such a long time of disuse. They are located in a large chamber east of here.”
Questions You Can Ask
What is the last thing you remember?
“I remember the cataclysm. It was late afternoon. The sky was on fire and rocks burned through the atmosphere on their way to the ground. There were earthquakes and forest fires. The Kelveth River that flowed between Shaval-Kehn and Kalas-Ti was choked with burning debris. It swelled beyond its banks and rushed back upstream. Ash and deadly gases filled the air, killing many of the priests. Some of them were able to leave the cathedral in time, but since they never returned, I can only assume they perished, too. I couldn’t feel my connection to Amaznen—I still cannot—and I suspect it was the same for the other priests.”
What can you tell about the various parts of the temple?
Aoinse can tell the party the original purpose of each room in the temple, as provided in the room descriptions. She doesn’t know the locations of any of the secret areas, nor does she know anything about the current state of the temple, such as that the temple is partially flooded or that monsters have taken it over.
C8 Service Corridor
This long hallway, some one hundred fifty feet in length, runs from the bottom of the courtyard stairs just north of the cathedral to another set of stairs in the south, leading deeper into the temple. Other corridors open from this one at right angles, and several doors line the walls.
Compared to the other hallway (C1), this hallway must have been mainly used by clockwork creatures and priests who maintained the power units and other clockworks in the temple.
Eight soldiers dressed in Andoren armor are waiting for you in the hallway - well, four soldiers and what looks like their twins. They look identical in every way.
“You’re too late! They’re all dead!” One gibes.
Another one sneers at you, “What took you so long? Onthooth needs more test subjects!”
Something very strange is going on. Once during the encounter as a free action, you can make a Perception check. Each successful check may reveal information. (DC 27, 32, 37, 42.) Or, if you had more time, perhaps studying the soldier for an uninterrupted minute with a Sense Motive check could reveal something.
C8 Service Corridor
The Andoren soldiers tell you they arrived on the Liberty’s Herald and were supposed to ensure security at Talmandor’s Bounty. They also inform you the southern half of the cathedral is flooded, and that there is a strange laboratory somewhere far below, where the colonists are being held inside cells behind glowing green sheets of energy. However, while the soldiers were underwater, it was too dark to see much most of the time, and therefore they cannot describe the route to the laboratory very well. The soldiers are too frightened to enter any of the water-filled parts of the temple, but otherwise they offer to help in any way they can, such as by guarding a room while you sleep or holding the hallways once the you descend into the flooded parts of the temple.
C9 Clockwork Forge
Gears, hammers, shears, springs, tongs, and plentiful other tools and components lie scattered on shelves and on the floor of this room. The room’s main features are a large hearth with a darkened metal hood and exhaust duct above it, and an anvil placed in front of it. A single steel gear is lying on the anvil, and right next to the anvil is a stack of metal tablets with cogwheel-shaped indentations of different sizes on them.
Craft Clockwork 10 or Knowledge Engineering 15: You notice that the high-precision equipment and metal-casting molds in the room are intended for the maintenance of clockwork devices. Rather than being fueled by wood or charcoal, the forge converts energy from the power units (area C11) into heat. A lever activates the forge. Using the equipment in the room grants a +5 circumstance bonus on Craft (clockwork) checks to build or repair Medium or smaller clockwork creatures and other devices of similar size.
Treasure: Lying around in the clockwork forge are gears, mainsprings, pendulums, and other clockwork components of Azlanti origin. The clockwork parts are worth 1,000 gp in total. Furthermore, a pair of blue engineer’s workgloves and a traveler’s any-tool rest on top of the hearth.
C10 Winding Station
The walls of this gear-shaped room have seven alcoves, each five feet deep and fitted with a horizontal metal shaft. Each of the hollow, cylindrical shafts has six notches cut around the outer edge. In three of the alcoves stands a trio of intricately sculpted metal statues, one in each alcove.
Craft Clockwork 25 or Knowledge Arcana or Engineering 25: You deduce the vaguely human-shaped indentations in the walls are docks for different sizes of clockwork creatures. The Azlanti built winding stations to reduce the amount of manual work required to keep a large number of clockwork creatures operational. When a clockwork creature runs low on energy, it can place itself in a winding dock and pull a lever that inserts a key into a slot in the creature’s back. The key starts rotating, winding up the creature’s clockwork mechanism. A winding station also makes it possible to run automated program updates—when a clockwork creature returns to the winding station to be wound, while it is docked it also receives new instructions if the controller has supplied new programming.
C10 Winding Station
The central pillar has a metal pin panel similar to the one you saw in the Wheels of Heaven (A4.)
Three clockwork creatures are still docked in the winding station. With their backs against the wall, their gears are hidden from view, and only their front sides with beautifully sculpted armored plates are visible. One clockwork is designed to look like it’s dressed in robes, another resembles the clockwork you found in the Mechanics Bay (P6) of the Spindlelock Research Facility (Book 1 of the adventure), and the third clockwork is designed to look like it's wearing full plate armor. All three appear to be in pristine condition, although they are not activated at the moment.
C11 Power Units
Three fifteen-foot-tall cylinders of polished bronze each stand on a dais in this long, curved room. The bronze shells look sturdy and heavy, and sizzling arcs of lightning can be seen and heard dancing along the surfaces of the containers. Silvery lines set into the floor connect these containers, and tiny embedded crystals pulsate with a dim light every few seconds.
You can see dim waves of light coursing outward from each of the three power units through the ioun circuitry in the floor, but each pulse of energy stops at the levers installed on the wall near the power units.
Knowledge Arcana or Engineering 20: This room contains three seismic power generators. The generators were designed to trap energy resulting from the planet’s rotation and other vibrations of the earth’s crust, using ioun circuitry to convert this mechanical energy into magical energy. This magical energy can then be stored and used to power the cathedral’s magi-technological systems, including the lighting, the clockwork forge (C9), and the winding station (C10). The cylinder in the middle is the largest and the main generator, while the two smaller cylinders act as auxiliary generators. When falling meteorite fragments during Earthfall, it must have caused a massive amount of seismic activity. The device must have overloaded and automatically shut down in order to prevent a catastrophic system failure.
Knowledge Arcana or Engineering 25: You realize opening the containers will result in a violent burst unless the party is able jury-rig the ioun circuitry so that the excess energy is released slowly. Jury-rigging the power units appropriately requires a successful DC 25 Disable Device or Use Magic Device check.
C11 Power Units
Operating the levers one at a time has no effect. To release the excess energy, the levers must pulled simultaneously. They are located in the northwest, northeast, and southeast corners of the room, respectively.
With a loud metallic screech, the bronze containers start opening, revealing a system of clockworks, coils, springs, and crankshafts. Arcs of electricity begin to discharge from each container, and little by little, the clockwork gears start turning, shafts start moving back and forth, and coils start buzzing with energy. Inside each of the three containers, electricity starts converging into vaguely humanoid forms that sizzle with energy and seethe with rage.
C11 Power Units
In Auran, the lightning elementals start shouting insults at you.
Diplomacy 35 in Auran: You’re able to convince the lightning elementals to leave the cathedral without a fight.
A gentle hum begins echoing through the temple once the power is turned on. The party soon realizes the magical lighting in each room of the cathedral blazes to life, providing normal illumination.
Treasure: When the largest power unit opens, a minor ring of energy resistance (electricity) falls from the power unit’s bronze shell. In addition, a brass spider lies beneath the lever in the southeast corner of the room.
C12 Robing Room
Two stone cabinets stand against the south wall of this chamber. A few ancient robes lie crumpled in the room amid fine, colored dust and other debris.
Priests of Amaznen donned their vestments in this chamber before religious services and stored them on the shelves here, along with hangings and altar linens used during the service. The colored dust is all that remains of the mundane robes that were once stored in this chamber but have disintegrated over the span of thousands of years. The double doors to the east lead to area C13a.
Treasure: One of the surviving robes is a mnemonic vestment sewn from blue silk. An eye-shaped symbol is embroidered on the vestment in silver thread. Decorated in the same way and constructed of wool dyed a similar hue of blue is a shocking robe and a robe of useful items that appears more orderly than most robes of that type. The robe of useful items contains 13 additional patches: bag of 100 gp, gems, iron door, minor scroll (dispel magic, CL 5th), mule, open pit (2), potion of cure serious wounds, rowboat, war dogs, window, and wooden ladder (2). On one of the shelves, an unfettered shirt is decorated with similar embroidery.
C13a Holy Ambry
Stone shelves on the walls of this storage room are full of jars and vials of different sizes. A sweet but musty smell hangs heavy in the air.
Knowledge History or Religion 15: This seems like a sterotypical room you’d find in a temple. You can guess the priests of Amaznen used this room to store oils related to their deity’s domains and the sacred functions of the cathedral. Oils were used for many purposes, such as flavoring holy bread and anointing priests during their ordination. Furthermore, the priests used healing oils to cure the sick and a special kind of oil for lubricating sacred machinery and protecting clockworks against corrosion.
Perception 35: You notice a faint creaking sound amid the constant echoes.
Perception 35, then Engineering: The floor of this chamber could collapse even though it looks undamaged.
Treasure: Rummaging through the items on the shelves, you find a bottle of air, a block of incense of meditation, 2 oils of align weapon (law), 4 oils of magic weapon, 3 oils of protection from chaos, 3 oils of resist energy (electricity), 5 oils of shield of faith (CL 6th), 3 oils of touch of the sea, 3 oils of water breathing, and a platinum pitcher shaped like a giant bee (worth 2,500 gp).
C13b Burial Chamber
Many stone coffins rest on shelves built into the walls of this submerged chamber.
This nearly 30-foot-high chamber is half flooded with 15 feet of water. A successful DC 20 Climb check is required to scale the walls of the burial chamber.
Perception 15: If you are unable to climb out, there appears to be a secret door that can be opened from the other side.
Treasure: On one of the shelves, a skeletal hand still wears a ring of protection +2. Furthermore, one of the mummified bodies clutches a candle of invocation.
C14
C15
C16
C17
C19
C18
C20
C21
D
S
S
C14 Drowned Colonnade
A row of caryatid columns divides this long, flooded corridor. The sculpted figures are covered in spiny yellow coral and tentacled pink polyps, partially hiding their facial features and intricately detailed hairstyles, and gives them an eerily inhuman quality.
Knowledge Engineering, Geography, or Local 22: You notice many similarities between the caryatid columns here and those in modern Absalom, Cheliax, and Taldor, where some nobles consider it fashionable to imitate Azlanti architecture.
Perception 30: The east wall of the colonnade has a secret door that leads to a secret storage room.
Knowledge Nature 25: The coral growing over the statues is venomous, and that it reacts to changes in water pressure and extends its spines when a creature is nearby (5ft)
C16 Offering Hall
This domed chamber has multiple exits and large niches in its northeast and northwest sides. Three openings in the south wall lead to a ruined and submerged courtyard, and a staircase on the north side of the chamber leads down to a larger chamber.
Knowledge History or Religion 20: You are pretty sure this area was once an entrance hall through which lay followers of the church entered the cathedral. The two niches flanking the entrance to the sanctuary (C17) each contain a large brass pot where visitors deposited coins and other valuables in hopes that they would receive oracular advice from Amaznen, be graced with his guidance in research or construction efforts, or otherwise have their work looked upon favorably.
A skum with a band of alchemical flasks strapped across his chest and four bare-clawed skum are waiting for you here.
See page 42-44.
C17 Sanctuary
This otherwise round chamber has rectangular alcoves at even intervals, forming a shape reminiscent of a gear. At the center of the chamber stands a grandiose, four-foot high altar shaped like an eye with two cogwheel halves forming the eyelids. Two ten-foot-tall metal rods, each tipped with a silver-hued torus, stand on round platforms on either side of the altar.
Knowledge Arcana, Engineering, or Religion 25: The altar bears many similarities to the holy symbol of Amaznen—it resembles two pieces of a large cogwheel. The shape symbolizes invention, science, and technology, each of which is an important aspect of Artifice, one of Amaznen’s divine domains. The two curved halves of the altar and the round table between them form a shape reminiscent of an eye, which represents Amaznen’s thirst for knowledge. Finally, the two metal rods represent Amaznen’s divine connection with magic.
C17 Sanctuary
The priests activated these rods during services, creating arcs of electricity leaping between the two devices. Not only were these arcs of electricity an imaginative way to illuminate the sanctuary, but they also served as a form of religious entertainment for the masses. During services, the priests wore conductive magic rings, and when they raised their arms, the arcs of electricity would curve downward to touch their fingers. The priests then used their magic rings to weave the electricity into beautiful shapes, inspiring awe in the faithful.
Lay followers knelt between the cogs in the altar to pray to Amaznen, usually asking for flashes of insight and inspiration or knowledge of the secrets of magic and the universe. While praying, the people were symbolically connected to Amaznen, like the cogs of the metaphorical wheel that is humankind.
C17 Sanctuary
A large skum wielding a crossbow is positioned at the far end of the room.
Undercommon: The large skum commands the others: “Kill them but leave the caster for me. I want to rip them in two and feast on their insides!”
Perception 40 or finish exploring C: The round table between the gear-like altar halves has a hidden node in which an ioun stone can be slotted. The ioun circuitry built into the table can be activated inserting any type of ioun stone (even a dull gray ioun stone or ioun torch)
C18 The Shunned One
At one end of the corridor stands a statue depicting a hooded figure with four arms. Her armor and mask are sculpted to give her the appearance of a woman, but the spaces between the plates of armor reveal that her body consists of clockwork gears. One of her arms is extended, pointing an accusing finger at a statue at the opposite end of the hallway. The other statue, standing in a semi-circular alcove behind thick steel bars, depicts a stern woman with no mouth.
Four skum guard this hall.
C18 The Shunned One
The four-armed woman looks somewhat similar to the clockwork mage in the winding station (C10.)
Knowledge Religion 25: This figure represents Eyndea, one of Amaznen’s servitors. A powerful kolyarut inevitable inquisitor, Eyndea punished those who broke their oaths of secrecy or shared any secret information that would harm the church or the people of Azlant.
The mouthless woman is an interesting statue.
Knowledge History or Religion 25: The mouthless woman as Lissala, an evil deity of obedience, reward of service, and runes.
Knowledge History or Religion 30: You remember that in ancient Thassilon, Lissala was better known in her more warlike form, resembling a human woman with a snake’s lower half, six feathered wings, and a Sihedron rune for a head. Historians studying Azlant know her best for her rivalry with Amaznen, but according to some stories, there was a time when the two were close allies. It is said that Amaznen stole her mouth so that she would learn to keep secrets safe. Modern historians largely dismiss these stories as apocryphal, but the presence of the statue in the cathedral and the tableau it forms with the statue of Eyndea may lend some credence to such tales.
C19 The Pantheon
On a large dais occupying the central position in the room is a statue of a man sitting on a throne and holding a hammer in one hand and a closed book in the other, but the statue’s head is missing. Beside it stands another statue, and four others yet remain standing among the crumbled remains of other statues that litter the floor.
Knowledge History or Religion 30: The man on the throne as Amaznen, the primary god of magic worshiped in the ancient Azlanti empire. The other statues in this hall depict deities of the Azlanti pantheon with whom Amaznen was believed to have maintained friendly or at least neutral relations. Amaznen’s followers considered their god the leader of the pantheon, a notion that worshipers of other deities did not necessarily reciprocate. According to myth, Amaznen sacrificed himself to lessen the blow of Earthfall and save Golarion when a rain of meteors threatened to end all life on the planet. There are many stories about Acavna—another Azlanti deity—and Amaznen having been star-crossed lovers, and Acavna’s death may have been one of the reasons Amaznen sacrificed himself. The story goes that after Acavna sacrificed herself to weaken Earthfall’s wrath, Amaznen appeared before the onslaught of meteors and siphoned away the corrupt aboleth magic empowering them, vanishing forever in the process.
C19 The Pantheon
The second statue on the dais depicts a muscular woman wearing a helmet with a Y-shaped opening for the eyes and mouth, wielding a nine-foot-long spear and a large, round shield adorned with a symbol reminiscent of a crescent moon.
Knowledge History or Religion 30: You identify the warrior as Acavna, a long-dead goddess of the moon and defensive battle.
Knowledge History or Religion 35: You remember a myth according to which Acavna pulled Golarion’s moon from its orbit to shield the world from a meteorite that would have annihilated all life on the planet. Acavna died as a result of the impact, and despite her sacrifice, the fragments of the shattered meteorite destroyed Azlant and plunged Golarion into the Age of Darkness
C19 The Pantheon
The statue standing left of the dais depicts a beautiful Azlanti woman with a look of mourning on her face, carrying a harp and a knife.
Craft Sculpture or Knowledge History or Religion 20: This is a statue of Shelyn.
You remember in the days of Azlant, she did not yet have her brother Dou-Bral’s glaive, which she acquired after her brother was transformed into Zon-Kuthon. This statue represents Shelyn after she and Dou-Bral had their conflict that prompted him to embark upon a journey to unknown realms. During this time, prior to his monstrous return as Zon-Kuthon, she was often depicted as being in mourning for her lost sibling.
The statue in the northeast corner depicts a bearded man in a flowing chiton, wearing a gilded laurel wreath and holding a large key in his hand.
Knowledge History or Religion 20: You identify the man as Abadar. The ancient Azlanti saw him chiefly as a god of cities and gold, rather than of law—Amaznen held that position in the Azlanti pantheon. According to a legend, Abadar acquired the Law domain from Amaznen after that god died.
C19 The Pantheon
The statue in the southeast corner depicts a distant woman with long, flowing hair and skulls hanging from her toga. Her arms are crossed defiantly across her chest.
Knowledge History or Religion 20: You know this statue depicts Pharasma, goddess of death, prophecy, and rebirth.
Treasure: The statue of Amaznen is wearing a ring of spell knowledge II
Perception 30: There is a secret door in the north wall. Its mechanisms are stuck, and opening the door requires three successful DC 25 Disable Device or Strength checks. With each successful check, the door opens a few inches.
C20 Drowned Colonnade
A statue of a warrior wrestling with a giant serpent stands on a two-foot-high pedestal in this columned hall. The serpent is coiled around the warrior and has locked its jaws around her upper body. The woman holds her sword high, ready to strike the serpent’s neck again. She has cut nearly all the way through, and only a thin piece of skin keeps the head attached to the long, sinuous body. Magical light radiates from the blade of the sword, illuminating the statue and the chamber. Jagged columns of coral stand among finely carved marble columns. The remains of the south wall lie in broken pieces, allowing full view of the ocean beyond.
A small school of great white sharks swims near the southern end of the broken chamber. The sharks’ bodies bear many scars. When you enter into their area, the sharks start restlessly swimming back and forth but do not approach.
Knowledge Nature 25: You identify one shark as being the leader of the school. You gain a +5 to Handle Animal.
Handle Animal 25: You persuade the sharks to calm down and thereafter largely ignore you. You think you’ll be able to move around in this area without conflict. The sharks keep a 60 foot distance from you.
C20 Drowned Colonnade
Knowledge History or Religion 25: The large statue depicts the Azlanti heroine Savith locked in a battle with Ydersius, god of the serpentfolk. You recall Savith, a mortal warrior, decapitated Ydersius, but the serpent god’s bite later killed the heroine. This statue was erected to honor her memory. After this great victory, Savith’s name was on everyone’s tongue, and many stories and songs were written in her honor, even if the majority of the Azlanti people didn’t fully understand the extent of the war with the serpentfolk and the threat they posed to the world at the time. The empire had many enemies, and the Azlanti leadership used these threats to convince the populace that dedication to the empire was paramount.
Bas-relief carvings on the columns in the hall depict scenes of war and strife involving evil deities and demon lords, with mortals and outsiders alike battling demons and other monsters
Knowledge Planes or Religion 25: You identify the horrific demon lord Abraxas, Achaekek the Mantis God, the evil sun deity Nurgal, and Zura the Vampire Queen among the evil creatures.
Treasure: The sword in the hand of the Savith statue is actually a +1 aberration-bane keen longsword. The sword sheds light equivalent to a light spell. Removing the weapon from the statue’s grip requires a successful DC 30 Strength check, but due to some element of Amaznen’s magic lingering in the statue, a human attempting the check gains a +10 circumstance bonus. A human character who has chosen the Azlanti scholar campaign trait receives an additional +5 bonus on this check.
C21 Abandoned Apparatus
Beyond the collapsed wall, other ruins of the temple grounds spread across the seafloor, many crumbled beyond identification. In the sand next to a collapsed building, what appears to be a large, metal cylinder crusted with barnacles lies partially buried.
A brightly colored giant mantis shrimp resides in the ruined building. It emerges from its hiding spot as you approach.
Treasure: Half buried in the seafloor is a clockwork vehicle made by the priests of Amaznen who lived on the temple grounds. This device is similar to an apparatus of the crab except it can hold four Medium or Small creatures and contains a constant flow of fresh air.
The large metal cylinder is actually a partially functional apparatus of the crab. The apparatus is partially buried in the sand, and 1d4 hours of work are needed to free it from the seafloor’s grasp. Using tools such as shovels, pry bars, and levers reduces the time required to 1d2 hours. You can attempt a DC 25 Knowledge (engineering) check to halve the amount of time required in either case.
In its current condition, the apparatus of the crab can move once it is freed from the sand, but its other functions, such as opening portholes and manipulating the pincers, are inoperative. The device is damaged and requires either the use of magic such as make whole or 1d12 hours of work and 1,000 gp in clockwork parts to regain its full functionality. Aoinse can assist you in repairing the apparatus and provide advice on the best approach to restoring the device.
To recap...
There’s been a lot to exploring in the large, half-floored temple complex. Since arriving, you’ve barely had a chance to catch your breath from all of the creatures that are patrolling the ruins.
Plenty of skum were stationed in various areas, including a particularly ancient skum, named Glorandral, and his first lieutenant, Uot. And then, there were faceless stalkers, who you faced down in a gauntlet fight outside of the ruins and again inside. Both groups were familiar enemies who you took pleasure in bringing down.
Along the way, you found more ancient Azlanti technology, including a sentient clockwork named Aoinse who is one of the few allies you have in these ruins.
You exploring has led you to the Sanctuary, where you faced off against the skum leader Glorandral. By interacting with the round table using an ioun stone, you unlocked a staircase that leads even further down into the depths of the building. Perhaps this is where the colonists are being kept.
D2
D1
D3
D6
D4
D5
To C17
D1 Entrance Hall
This appears to be the entrance hall to the secret laboratory. A lever in the staircase opens and closes the floor panel that hides the stairs from view in area (C17.)
Eight mutated colonists bob in the water. When they see you, they rush to attack!
D2 The Mutation Mechanism
Strange machinery and tubes in the walls make up the interior of this room. Embedded in the wall nearest the entrance is a large metal pin panel whose surface ripples at regular intervals; with each wave that sweeps across the panel, new symbols appear on its surface.
The panel is similar to the display on the astronomical device (C4) and the controls for the Winding Station (C10) but 10 times larger. The display alternates between two different messages in Azlanti, one after another. The first one reads “Status: Unstable,” and the second one displays the text “Composition” and shows a bar graph.
When you get closer to the pin panel to investigate, suddenly, the text on the pin panel goes flat, and a humanlike face emerges from it. A harsh, metallic voice and a soft, friendly voice speak in unison, spreading through the water. The lips on the face move, but the voice isn’t completely synchronized with the movement. “Welcome. I was expecting you. There is much to talk about.”
“Where have you traveled from?”
Knowledge Arcana or Dungeoneering 30: With 8 hours of study, you think you’ll be able to understand the device enough that you’ll be able to reverse mutations by using it.
D3 Experiments
Two shimmering fields of force each seal a different airtight chamber, keeping the water outside. On the wall next to the force fields are two levers.
Three people are locked up in these cells. As soon as they see you, they start banging on the force barrier and shouting, trying to get your attention. While it’s difficult to hear their voices, it’s easy to see them mouthing the words “help us.”
D3 Experiments
Who are you?
“I am Armin, and these two are Celia and Jaram. We’re all Andoren colonists who sailed to an island called Ancorato on a ship called the Liberty’s Herald. We were founding a colony there. We had over twenty homes and buildings! But one day things went terribly wrong and we were brought here. Thank you for saving us from the horrible fish-thing that has been keeping us here! But... Who are you and how did you know we were here?”
What happened to you?
“Back on Ancorato, things seemed normal at first. We had plenty of hard work to do, but everything was coming along fine and we had made some good progress. After a time, people started to act strangely and go missing. Everyone was frightened and suspicious of one another, and that’s when the stranger came into the colony. He had dark hair and purple eyes. He seemed friendly enough at first, but he had some power or something. With just a glance, he climbed into my mind and controlled me like a puppet. He looked human, but now I realize that he was something else—what that is I can’t tell you, though. He commanded me and many others to sail to this island and submit to the fish-thing that lives here. At least I think that’s how it all went down. I think it affected my memory in some way, because it all seems vague and distant now.”
D3 Experiments
What can you tell us about the fish-thing?
“When it wants to ask you questions, it gets inside your head and causes pain until you just tell it everything it wants to know. I don’t know what it is, but it’s bigger than any shark I’ve seen. It has three glowing eyes on its ugly head and lots of sinuous tentacles growing from its body. I could swear I heard its minions call it Onthooth.”
Armin’s description is accurate enough for a person who succeeds at a DC 27 Knowledge (dungeoneering) check to know what Onthooth is.
Where are the rest of the colonists?
“The rest of the colonists—those that survived—are in weird cells like these inside a huge vault. The fish-thing took us here to run some tests on us in the room right next to here.” What’s beyond the large gate at the end of the hall? “There’s a huge vault behind the gate; it’s flooded like everywhere else down here. The fish-thing’s lair is there, and there are also more of these horrid prison cells within the vault. That’s where the others are.”
D4 Oculus Gate
At the end of the corridor is a round 20-foot-diameter metal door. A large lever sticks out from the side of the door’s octagonal frame. The door is composed of triangular metal sheets, the tips of which meet at the center.
A whirring system of gears of many sizes transmits power from the lever to rails on which the metal sheets are mounted, enabling a person of average strength to open the massive door weighing approximately a ton. When opened, the metal sheets slide outward, creating an almost-circular hole in the center. When fully opened, the metal sheets form a serrated ring around the opening, evoking the shape of an eye with eyelashes like saw teeth.
The door is locked, and opening it from the outside requires disabling the analytical engine.
D5 Vault of The Eye
In this large, flooded chamber, the water is mixed with a viscous, transparent slime, the source of which is a bizarre, 25-foot-long, primeval, fishlike creature—the aboleth Onthooth. Three slit-shaped eyes on the creature’s bulbous head glow red and twitch as it vigilantly scans the area. A crescent-shaped fin at the end of its long tail whips back and forth to maintain the creature’s position, while four tentacles on its flanks undulate with the flow of the slowly moving water.
D5 Vault of The Eye
As the creature speaks, powerful vibrations in the water carry its carefully articulated words, echoing like a resonant whisper. “Retribution—is that why you are here? Or do you seek to understand designs infinitely larger than yourselves? You have no idea what is about to transpire. You puny creatures have released a veiled master, and when it gets the weapon it is looking for, your cities and your civilization as you know it will be gone. And yet, here you are, looking for petty revenge.” With a disgusted shake of its head, the creature lets out a long, condescending sigh that echoes in the water for a moment, after which it continues, “Be that as it may, I cannot suffer you to leave after what you have done to my home and servants.”
The creature’s eyes give off a flash of bright red light, and its four slimy tentacles shoot forward to crush the life out of anyone they can reach.
Sense Motive 15: The creature doesn’t try to hide how much it loathes the veiled master it mentioned.
D5 Vault of The Eye
Although the fleeing priests of Amaznen took many of the vault’s treasures with them, some items of great value still remain. An ancient rod of the aboleth and a wand of make whole (48 charges) are stored in a titanium box. Sticking out from a pile of fallen debris is a lesser maximize metamagic rod.
D6 Prison
Dozens of people cower in the three cells behind shimmering force fields. Few of them lift their eyes from the floor, and fewer still show any kind of emotion. Some are so weak and starved, having eaten only meager amounts of seaweed and raw shark meat during their imprisonment, that they have to hold one another for stability.
Of the original 60 colonists that arrived on the Liberty’s Herald, 13 have died or were terribly mutated in Onthooth’s experiments. Some of the original colonists have survived Onthooth’s ministrations and bear misshapen bodies, additional limbs, gills, and other aberrant mutations of their humanoid flesh.
All the colonists from the second wave who arrived with you and were abducted by the faceless stalkers are still alive, though some of them need medical attention. Carver Hastings, the alchemist Alba Divenvaar, Soran Vigaldo (who was kidnapped while out fishing), and Andvara Jeclair all seem particularly relieved to see you.
Onthooth and its minions tormented the colonists in many ways, and when you arrive, many of the prisoners don’t even believe that you have come to release them, believe you are faceless stalkers who have come to mock them or take another prisoner to Onthooth’s laboratory never to return. One of the prisoners starts screaming “No! No! Don’t take me!”
Gradually, the prisoners realize that the aboleth is dead, and they start voicing expressions of gratitude. They are too tired to even smile, but their quiet, approving nods and tearful eyes speak volumes.
D6 Prison
Sitting on the floor away from the other prisoners is a tall, pale elf with long white hair and piercing blue eyes. When approached, he introduces himself.
“I am Nieran Codali, a ranger of the Mordant Spire. You did well in this risk to rescue your people, and you have my thanks. I was captured while I was investigating why so many skum and other creatures have recently crawled out from their holes in this region. I should have known an aboleth was involved. Do you know what the aboleth was planning to do with all these people? Is there something else I should know?”
“I trust you intend to track down this veiled master and kill it. I imagine it won’t be easy, but I suggest that you start looking for the answers to your questions in the city of Talasantri. Seek out Rillkimatai—I believe she can help you.”
See page 56.
D6 Prison
Now that Onthooth is defeated and the prisoners are free, the PCs have to figure out the logistics of getting them safely back to dry land. It’s probable that some of the colonists have enough stamina to hold their breath and swim to the surface, but others will certainly need magical or mundane assistance to get out of the submerged portion of the cathedral.
Once freed from the cathedral, you must then begin the long process of rowing groups of colonists a few at a time back to Talmandor’s Bounty.
Nieran goes back to Ancorato with you and colonists. Once there, he uses animal messenger to send word to his fellow Mordant Spire elves to pick him up. A day later, an elven skimmer with two masked rangers on board arrives to take him back to the Mordant Spire.
Questions You Can Ask
What can you tell about Talasantri?
“It is a free city deep beneath the waves, built partially from the ruins of an Azlanti city and partially of carefully grown coral.” He eyes your equipment briefly and continues, “Besides the information you are looking for, you can find better equipment there. I should warn you, however, that many citizens of Talasantri are likely to be suspicious of outsiders, and some groups and races are particularly intolerant of surface dwellers in their city. Observe their laws and stay out of trouble.”
Where is Talasantri?
“It is located 90 miles to the southeast from our current location. Once we get out of this dreadful place, I can draw a map for you. Because the city is located at the bottom of the sea, you are going to need some kind of magic that helps you breathe underwater. How you intend to do that—well, I’ll leave it to you to figure out.”
Who is Rillkimatai?
“He is the leader of Talasantri. A very old aquatic elf and an oracle of some renown, he knows much about this area and what goes on both beneath the sea and above it. Find a way to ingratiate yourselves with him and other respected citizens of Talasantri, and you will find it much easier to find what you are looking for.”
Questions You Can Ask
What is the Mordant Spire?
Nieran raises his eyebrows and narrows his eyes slightly, staring at the PCs quietly until he voices his answer slowly and deliberately. “We— the elves of the Mordant Spire—are the true guardians of the ruins of Azlant, and the bastion that stands against the threat of the alghollthu.” He casts a sidelong glance at the rescued colonists, then at the party. Anyone who succeeds at a DC 15 Sense Motive check realizes that Nieran would like to say something mean about the humans, but has decided to hold back.
Who are the veiled masters?
“They are a particularly dangerous race of alghollthu capable of walking among humans unnoticed, their true forms veiled with powerful magic. They are spies, infiltrators, and manipulators easily capable of fooling the weak minds of humans.”
Who are the alghollthus?
“‘Alghollthu’ is the aboleths’ name for themselves, and for others of their aberrant kind, including the veiled masters, and other, stranger creatures of the deep. They manipulated the Azlanti empire until its destruction, and still they manage to be even more a threat to this world than most surface-dwellers know.”
Concluding The Adventure
Having defeated Glorandral and Onthooth, the party has removed the greatest and most immediate threat the colony of Talmandor’s Bounty has faced so far. Most of the colonists kidnapped by the faceless stalkers are safe, and many of the first wave of colonists that arrived on the Liberty’s Herald are still alive. Although the road to recovery may be long and arduous, it is possible for the colony to survive and even thrive.
The general attitude in the colony is grim, but people gradually begin to recover after the dead are buried. It is evident that defeating Onthooth and rescuing the colonists from the aboleth’s prison is only a temporary victory. It turns out kidnappings and Onthooth’s experiments were a small piece of a much bigger plan, set into motion when a veiled master was released from its ancient cell.
However, for now, it is time to return to Talmandor’s Bouty. You have earned the respect and land you’re being given. Enjoy it heroes, and may all your future adventures be a success.
The Flooded Cathedral
Fin
You are now level 10!
I hope you enjoyed the table!