In Defiance of Heaven

"The city is certainly large.  How are we supposed to find Lowls, or the Star stelae?" Paullus wondered after Barnabas had returned from scouting.  "He says that there are toppled buildings and standing ones but it is very strange looking.  Twisted and abnormally formed buildings. If that is what they are."

"Do you know anything about where to go in Neruzavin," Ciprian asked of Mother Grim Moon.

"I know that one of the standing pillars is close to the western edge of the city.  But I will not give any more help to those who would prevent the condemnation of the world," Mother Grim Moon repeated again.

"The camels will not move any closer to the city.  I will have to keep them here away from the evil influence," Hassad noted with relief.

Without any further help to determine where to enter the city the heroes started walking in toward the east.  They had no idea of what to look for, other than the star stelae as seen in Thrushmoor.  As soon as the group entered the city their senses, especially sight and sound, were taken for a trip with the garden of towers surrounding them.

The "streets" seemed to be plain igneous rock, flat and unmarked and weathered bare all but for the most stubborn lichens and shrubs.  The city seemed to be carved out twisting towers, claustrophobic streets, and asymmetrical plazas in a cruel mockery of “civilized” life. Millennia of erosion and seismic aftershocks had gradually toppled some of the towers and senseless arches, but even so, many of the edifices remained. Averaging 400 feet high, they loomed far taller than any city the heroes had seen. When combined with the narrow roads—each carved with uncanny precision in mockery of humanoid trails—the heroes sometimes lost sight of the sky except when looking straight up.  Occasionally a green fungus was seen growing haphazardly along the streets.

Despite its enormity and former glory, Neruzavin feet utterly abandoned. Anemic clouds silently whipped by overhead, far above lifeless streets practically untouched by the desert winds, as though any hint of motion would offend the barren terraces, towers, and tiles. Streets bent at irregular angles and ended abruptly as if such mundane thoroughfares were never intended to be functional. Walls seemed to retract inward out of the corner of one’s eyes, only to bulge uncomfortably upon closer examination, like malignant architectural tumors granted unholy animation by optical illusions. And yet, even these oddities are easily confirmed by touch. In all, the flying polyps’ city is an otherworldly masterpiece of chilling impracticality and illogically towering heights. A baffling number of towers have no entrances or windows, and several attempts to break in by utterly fearless adventurers from past ages show that at least some of those towers are solid stone.

Without any markers or guide the party was walking somewhat easterly across the city, their movement slowed by the twisting and turning of the streets.  At a crossroads, Erevel caught sight of a traveler turning down one of the paths. Somewhat later, Gavril saw two travelers turn down an alleyway and the group heard a phantasmal proclamation, “We’re turning right here; I have foreseen this path before,” echoing several times.  Investigation found nothing down either street or alley.  Armania determined that the voice sounded like Count Lowls. Even later, the group heard the screaming of a delirious person from just out of sight and his comrades’ worried observations that tendrils are growing from his skin and that they must burn the body. When Erevel reached the likely scene, all she found was a charred stain on the ground, and once again, the hallucinatory travelers turned out of sight ahead.

While traveling through Neruzavin Ciprian was detecting magic with no luck in finding any. He checked carefully around the charred stain with no luck, other than determining that it was human sized.  Following the voices was not what Ciprian wanted to do but Gavril and Erevel kept getting distracted by the voices and the fact that they seemed to be heading somewhere.

The visions led to a dark, basalt tower 400 feet tall with severe corners and concave sides that nonetheless appeared to bulge outward. Most notably, the tower has a broad set of stone double doors—an anomaly in the alien city. Standing before the doors were two of the indistinct travelers. For once, they do not run. They spoke to one another in distorted voices, seemingly unable to see the massive entrance nearby. From the distance, the shadow-shrouded travelers appeared to be more of Lowls’s phantom hirelings, but as the party approached, the outsiders’ forms come into focus.

Ciprian knew immediately that the two were Exscinder archons, like the Keeper in the Mysterium. These two did not have the shattered Broken Soul corruption around them.  The two were looking at the building apparently trying to find a way in.  Gavril was mightily confused as he could see a set of double doors directly in front of them.  As the two moved to possibly circumnavigate the building they noticed the party staring at them.  They leveled flaming swords toward the new arrivals. 

"Why are you visiting this forsaken city?" one of them inquired.

"We are trying to find an evil man who is attempting to destroy Golarion, or at least pull it into Carcosa,"  Ciprian responded.

"Is this the man who stole the Necronomicon?"

"That certainly is a possibility."

 "Do you have information that might assist in the recovery—and subsequent destruction—of that vile
tome?"

"We are only after the man, Count Lowls, he needs to be stopped before he completely destroys Golarion."

"If he stole the book we demand that you signal and deliver it to the two us immediately once you find it."

"What gives you the right to demand anything?"  Gavril piped up.

"Upon hearing rumors that the vile Necronomicon might have escaped its mortal custodians, the forces of Heaven dispatched us to secure and obliterate the offending tome."

"Forces of Heaven! Who in God's name is that?" Armania now added her confusion to the discussion.

"The Great Library of Harmonious Scripture on the fourth tier of Heaven is the authoritative archive of holy rites, angelic knowledge, and planar law. Within lies the Vault of Correction, a no less important but far less famous institution where Archons like us keep guard over dangerous texts—and put the most impure to the torch in Heresy Ovens."

"What will you give us for recompense if we return the Necronomicon to you?"

"You will be allowed to live and continue your foolish search for this man.  If you still desire it."

Ciprian had signaled Ursina to check on the alignment and truthfulness of these two as the discussion continued. Ursina determined that the two were not evil, probably good characters.  But she also noted that the Archons cared little about Lowls and stopping his plans in a timely fashion.

"Can you detect Lowls or the Necronomicon?" Ciprian continued.

"The man does not seem to be in the ruins but the Necronomicon is apparently in this building.  How we do not know since there is no way inside."

Ciprian called the group together for a discussion and heard what Ursina had to report.  He suggested that he and Gavril make a circuit of the building looking for a door or opening into it.  They would start to the right of the doors ignoring them at all costs.

Gavril was wary of offending the Archons and thought the group should do as they asked.  Ursina agreed with Gavril.  Erevel was ready to fight but Gavril reminded her that they had barely survived against one of these creatures before.

Finally Ciprian Gavril pulled their ruse with Ciprian even levitating ten to twenty feet in the air searching the walls.

The Archons were still pressing the group to promise to promptly surrender the Necronomicon.  Ciprian bluffed his way to assuring this very diplomatically.  He added his assurance that the group understood the Necronomicon’s dread power and that they comprehend the dire consequences of the text being out in the world.

Mollified, the celestials departed to search other parts of the city. "Be assured that we will meet again!" 

After the Archons had exited the area, Paullus whispered to the others "You do see the doors, don't you?"

"Of course, but we do not need some angels following us around. There must be some reason they cannot see the doors," Ciprian responded.

Erevel and Gavril headed directly to the double doors which Gavril checked for traps.  As he gently probed the doors he found that they swung inward with relative ease.  The interior was dark as no windows pierced the tower.  Erevel could see part of the way into the twisted chamber before Ciprian moved up and threw a sunrod into the room to cast away the doom.

The walls of this hall bulge and curved with unsettlingly organic concavities. Thousands of sinuous etchings traced their way down the walls, as if the walls were scarred by roots or marred by burrowing worms fleeing some peril from above. Three staircases arched, dipped, and intertwined as they ascended dizzyingly to a series of hexagonal passageways.

Standing at the east and west walls the group saw a female with a longbow and another with a throwing axe.  They seemed pale and stood still as the Gavril and Erevel peered into the chamber.  They did appear to have tendrils and fungus growing out of their bodies at various places.

Gavril moved toward the "person" on the eastern side of the room as Armania entered and held her action until some attack began.  The woman with the bow fired arrows at Erevel and Armania responded with magic missiles.  Erevel, enraged, moved up next to the archer and attacked as Paullus moved into Gavril's empty space and fired arrows at the same archer but seemed to do little damage.  The other enemy then threw her axe at Gavril and after hitting it came flying back to her hands.  

See this mess the invisible Ciprian entered the room and identified the creatures as undead.  He then began a Bardic Performance.  Ursina cast invisibility and moved into the chamber just as Black Tentacles began appearing from the floor grabbing her, Ciprian and Armania.

Paullus, Erevel and Gavril had to fight back their Phobia of Tentacles as the battle continued.  Gavril moved around the axe thrower while the archer stood back and fired away again at Erevel even as some of her wounds healed.  Armania took Ciprian and stepped to the back of the chamber where they saw a cocoon laying on the floor.  It was about human sized and there was slight movement inside it.  She then cast a Flaming Sphere on the cocoon which slowly began to burn.  Erevel stepped up and wailed on the archer dropping her to the floor.  As she hit the floor her body burst open and the air around was filled with spores which were inhaled by Erevel, even as she exalted the kill.

Paullus changed his aim to the axe man but again did little damage.  The axe wielder now attacked Gavril as her wounds also closed up. Ciprian not seeing anyone else to attack moved and hit the cocoon with flaming arrows from his bow.  Ursina successfully extracted herself from the Tentacles and moved up to try and give Gavril flanking.  Then a fireball rained down from above.  Ciprian stopped performing to give Armania a new save to jump out of the way.  He also bemoaned that he had attacked the cocoon incorrectly. The magic user was not in it.

DM's Notes: There were no XP for the evening.