The party stood wondering where they actually were. What were they supposed to do and how? Where would they go next?
"I am in need of a restoration and can supply healing for everyone who was damaged," Ciprian began.
"I am in great need of healing," Armania said hurrying over to Ciprian.
The rest of the party moved to surround Ciprian as he began the Greater Paths of Glory. After that was accomplished, Ursina cast a restoration on Ciprian healing his Wisdom damage.
"Do we need to squeeze through these cracks?" Erevel asked.
"There is a wider passage down here in the southeast," Gavril added.
"Let me levitate up to the top of the buildings to see if I can get a wider view," Ciprian suggested.
The sky was cloudy and the moon only provided dim light. At the top of the towers some 300 plus feet above the bottom of the canyon the group appeared to be in, Ciprian could see the tops of other towers in all directions. He could not tell where the city ended or some other city or area started.
Returning to the ground level he indicated that the best way forward may be the passage to the southeast. Hearing this Erevel began moving forward in the passageway as she had the best darkvision.
The passage led into another canyon that had passageways north and south. Erevel kept moving to the south which opened into another artificial canyon. Drifts of sand accumulated along the numerous crevices that led away in all directions. The wind moaned as it reverberated along the rock wall.
In the center of the canyon a crowned woman floated in the air. She wore an exquisite gown of white, gold, and purple. Her long blond hair floated about her face as if she were underwater.
"Please come an talk with me. I sensed your arrival and traveled here by magic to meet you," the woman spoke.
"Ciprian we need your expertise up here," Erevel called out.
Ciprian dropped his invisibility and moved to speak with the woman.
"Who are you and why should we trust you?" Ciprian queried.
"I am Queen Cassilda. I need to know if you have sworn fealty to the King in Yellow or if you stand apart?"
Ursina tried to Sense Motive in the interaction between the woman and Ciprian. She felt that the woman was being entirely truthful with the party. She was definitely interested in the allegiance of the party. Both Ursina and Ciprian could sense a very subtle disgust as she named the King in Yellow.
"We stand apart. We are here to track down a certain Count Lowls." Ciprian responded hopefully.
"I am so pleased. I offer you my aid as I can to any enemies of Hastur and his victims alike."
"This Count Lowls probably passed through this area before us. Did you note his passing?"
"There was a disturbance previously but it was so filled with evil that I did not greet whoever it was."
"Unfortunately that was more than likely Lowls. Are you a citizen of Carcosa? Or are you from elsewhere?"
Suddenly the air was split by a trumpeting cacophony blast from the towers above. It then trailed off into silence a few moments later.
"What was that? Gavril interjected.
"Merely the wind flowing through the fluted towers high above. It happens occasionally, with no ill effects," Queen Cassilda responded.
Cassilda then began to tell the party of her past.
"I was once the queen of Yhtill, a city locked in a tense political stalemate with its neighbor Alar. This situation demanded that I name a successor, in case of assassination. My daughter Camilla resisted all attempts to be named the heir, for fear of a prophecy that the Yellow Sign would be found by a successor to my dynasty. Once found, the Yellow Sign would then be “sent for” by the King in Yellow, the mysterious ruler of the abominable city of Carcosa.
A stranger offered a method by which I could safely name Camilla as my successor and still have the
deed go unnoticed by the King in Yellow. Unfortunately, this was a ruse to lure the nobility of my court to attend a masquerade held to commemorate the event. The entire assemblage was then tricked into looking upon the Yellow Sign, whereupon the stranger revealed his true identity as the Pallid Mask, Hastur’s servant. A wave of madness swept the city and triggered a mystical chain reaction that caused Carcosa to begin its cannibalization of Yhtill.
I looked away just in time to escape the madness and then opened my mind to the tortured souls all around me and absorbed them, preserving their essence so that our ancient, beautiful city—and its people—might one day be restored."
Ciprian recalled the names Yhtill and Alar as being linked somehow to the stelae at Neruzavin. "What is this place?"
"This is the Neruzavin Nexus in Carcosa, the realm of Hastur,"
"We know of a Neruzavin on Golarion, our home world. There were three stelae there that we used to travel here." Ciprian mused.
"And we know of three stelae in Thrushmoor also, the home city of Lowls," Gavril spit out.
"Carcosa is like a vampire that feeds on civilization itself and the stelae are one of its fangs. They transmit psychic energy through even the distant void of space. As Carcosa is fed, so in turn is the King in Yellow. I fear that he will soon no longer be fettered here. You must break the connections, not only to save your city, but perhaps to save us all.” Cassilda imparted.
Specifically, she explained Carcosa will eventually reach a critical mass in its growth and Hastur will then ascend to become an Outer God. When that occurs, she believes that Hastur’s ravenous hunger may spell utter doom for all life on Carcosa and beyond.
Finally, Cassilda offered to help the heroes learn the location of the three nexuses that are connected to Thrushmoor. Her Imperial Diadem had powerful divination abilities, and she offered to use its ability to cast vision to discover the locations of the Star Stelae the heroes need to deactivate. However, she needs to be within close proximity to a being or place of special significance to Carcosa to ensure accuracy. She offered to accompany them for a while in order to locate such a thing.
"What other creatures are in this 'Nexus'? Ciprian asked.
"There are other Polyps and the Night Willow which guards the border of Neruzavin. They will attack any who are moving around the Nexus." Cassilda responded.
"Which way shall we travel?" Ciprian inquired.
"The only true path is to the north."
The oppressive basalt walls wind through the Neruzavin nexus. The rock walls are rough and uneven
and riddled with peculiar protrusions and shapes. After a short trek, the passageway again opened into a wider area. As they moved into the chamber they observed a solitary figure who stood in the moonlight as if waiting for them. This humanoid creature dressed in what might be voluminous pale-yellow priestly robes. His face was a genderless, featureless white mask, with slits to represent where a mouth and nose surely must exist and openings for his blue eyes to peer out.
“I would parley. The King in Carcosa knows you travelers and thus so do I. You are delivered into the hands of the Unspeakable One, but you already belong to him. Carcosa is his child, and he is Carcosa. Carcosa birthed Xhamen-Dor, who is now one with a certain Count Haserton Lowls, with whom you are well acquainted. You were marked long ago.”
Cassilda standing close to Gavril whispered to the company, “It is the Pallid Mask, the King’s emissary. It is he who brought damnation down upon all of my people, including my daughter. There are unwritten rules that govern us both. I dare not oppose him directly, for the King will punish that affront. Yet the Stranger has learned his horrid master does nothing when I defend only myself. So we are at a stalemate. I may discover something of the stelae you seek, though, while he is distracted with you. So play his game. Just be wary.”
"Why would we worship the creature Hastur. You must be very deluded." Erevel responded. "Bring us to Lowls NOW."
The Pallid Mask took the position that the heroes are already damned because of the actions they took in service to Count Lowls and the sacrifice of their memories in the Dreamlands.
“You took his coin, supped at his table, and drank from his cup. The service you gave Lowls was in service to the King, to Carcosa. Accept your fate, because you will not avoid it in death.”
"But we had no choice, we were enslaved." Ursina responded.
“You always had a choice. You simply didn’t like the choice you had. Saints and martyrs know better.”
"We will do no such thing," Paullus yelled out from the rear.
The Pallid Mask shook his head and said, “I do not know how you are here, alive, but this is where your quest ends. I will see to it myself!”
DM's Notes: No XP were earned for the evening.
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