Chapter 7 - The Air Labs

Part 8: The Air Labs

Once the party discovers that they can use Ciuq’s stone key and earth ring to teleport back to the Waypoint complex or any of the brothers’ labs, they can use it to travel to the air labs and the final encounter with Nyl and his new companion, a young blue dragon named Lazuli who has taken the form of a pretty, black-haired human female Oracle. Lazuli has successfully allied herself with the fragile Nyl and has learned their story, but does not know exactly what has transpired fully as Nyl has blocked the tragedy from his conscious thought.

The Air Labs were an unusual design of a dungeon level. I wanted to create the aesthetic of an open space area with parts that float in the air, but I still needed game-usable mechanics to allow the party to travel around the encounter areas.

The first step was to draw an outline of the whole area and then fill in the details with close-up maps.

This 'level' required a lot more backstory since it was a bit complicated. It had a mentally-damaged former elemental mage and his relationship with a female blue dragon oracle who was also very unusual for her kind.

Nyl’s Creation

The Air labs are much more unusual than the mundane labs of his brothers. Nyl took advantage of a vast subterranean cavern complex and cleared out several adjoining chambers to create huge open areas to perform his research. In addition, using his research, he fashioned a unique transportation system within the chamber complex. When Ciuq’s invoked devastation struck, the Air labs fared well, but huge chunks of the cavern were dislodged and now float about in the unique environment along with debris that has been caught in the travel vortices.

Properties of the Air Labs:
-   Normal gravity
-   Feather Fall contingency when someone falls closer than 100’ from floor of caverns
-   Travel vortices are 5’ wide and can move a small creature or someone under a Levitate spell along at a speed of 60’
-   Entering or exiting a vortex is a DC8 Acrobatics check and can be done at any time, with its own possible perils depending on where the person exits
-   Outside of the vortices in open air is dangerous for most flying creatures due to strong, unpredictable wind gusts and rogue debris dislodged during the upheaval. Each round a character is in the open air, there is a 50% chance they are threatened by one of these phenomena (50% each).

o Strong gust: Fly check DC 15 or moved a random direction 4d8 feet (1d6 - up, down, north, south, east, west). If a solid object is struck, the character will take 1d6 dam per 10’ moved (as per falling damage)
o Rogue debris: a random sized object moves on a collision course toward the character, 1d4 size (small, medium, large, huge) and acts as a single attack +10 with damage according to object size (1d6, 2d6, 2d10 or 3d12)

-   The vortices themselves used to be almost invisible, but have collected small debris within them (anything too heavy is expelled) and now appear as dusty spiraling ‘tubes’ of air moving quickly throughout the caverns.
-   The caverns are illuminated by magic (source unknown, but equivalent to afternoon light. Visibility is unlimited (+1 Per DC per 10’), however there are many obstacles that will often impede full line of sight.
-   The caverns are about 750’ tall with the entrance (elevation reference 0) at approx. 500’.
-   Nyl has perfected a method of floating huge chunks of rock to serve as his ‘labs’. Almost all of them are connected in one of more ways by the travel vortices (another of his creations – in collaboration with the denizens of the Plane of Air)

The Oracle

As a wyrmling, Lazuli was a bit of an oddity, but nothing that her older brethren needed to worry about. Throughout her youth, however, she never seemed to have much interest in the complex plots and machinations of her own kind. In fact, her lack of interest in the basic need to manipulate and control those around her became its own kind of warning to her companions. But most strangely of all, she seemed to need no complex web of information, deceit and manipulation. She seemed to almost instinctively know what and where she needed to be and soon had a leg up on almost all of her peers. Older wyrms began to wonder where this information stemmed from, but just assumed that she was very good at masking her sources.

In actuality, Lazuli discovered that she had a special bond with a greater power; a power that hid its identity from her but graced her with wondrous knowledge. Lazuli became one of the few dragon born oracles in Golarion.

Throughout her young life, Lazuli has been guided by her power and it has led her to great gain in wealth and power. Most recently, her power has led her to a region north of Cheliax, deep within a mountain range where she has discovered the victim of a horrible accident. Whether the reason for this portent is to meet Nyl or the party, time will be the judge.

Cavern of Creation

The first and oldest of Nyl’s lab chambers is where Nyl originally summoned his first Air creatures and began to gain their aid in his studies. He had to learn of the often capricious nature of these beings and as a result, he himself became much like his new allies (to the annoyance of his brothers). They taught him the method to float huge chunks of rock and helped him expand the size of the subterranean caverns. The second collaboration was to harness and direct the energy of the wind and using the principles of the renowned Elemental Archmage Bernoulli and created the clever transport vortices.

1)   Entry area - This area is windy and buffeted by occasional gusts. During the earthquakes, a portion of the entry ledge collapsed into the cavern so only about 2/3 of the teleport circle is visible (and thus non-functional from this side). When the group begins to arrive, they will literally be on the precipice and must make a Ref DC20 roll or risk falling over the edge. If unsuccessful, a second DC20 Ref roll is needed to catch the edge of the cliff, otherwise the character will fall about 400’ until they trigger the feather fall.
This ledge is one of the only areas that Nyl’s brother Ciuq helped with. The ledge is earth elemental made and shows the same signs of construction as the Earth Labs.
An approximately 5’ tall horizontal column of gusting air flows just inside the edge of the ledge. Dust and small debris is caught in the flow which heads off in a circuitous route further into the cavern. In front of the vortex is a 5’x5’ area on the ground (clearly marked) that will imbue a Levitate spell (CL15 – 15 mins) on anyone who steps in the area. If someone is affected by the Levitate and then enters a vortex (DC8 Acrobatics) they will be moved along to the next surface/junction.
2)   One of the first research projects Nyl worked on was the creation of the travel vortices. With the assistance of some helpful air elementals and their kin as well as an ancient book by an archmage named Bernoulli, he experimented to perfect the method of travelling by vortex. This area is where the vortex flows over the lip of the ledge of this large floating island of rock. DC8 Acro to exit the vortex, otherwise the traveler will continue to the next junction.
3)   A 5’ raised platform is where Nyl conducted and researched his experiments in creation. Suspended in the air are three glowing blue fields of force, 3’ on a side. A scroll or book can be placed in the field which will allow it to be displayed and moved, and resized if it stays in contact. The middle palette still has a notebook upon it with the inventory of the summoning pits (A) invisible stalker -empty now (B) giant gecko - empty, in C (C) 10 air mephitis (see below). A small table has several notebooks stacked on it with the notes for the three main creation projects of this chamber (air vortices, floating motes, antigravity). Pit C has a protection from Chaos spell over it, preventing the mephitis from escaping, but not from being approached.
Mephit pool – a gang of 10 Air Mephits frolic in this large, 10’ deep depression. They appear to be teasing (tormenting) a giant Gecko lizard which hisses and snaps at the impish creatures. If the party tries to break up the fun (they are little punks), the mephits will attack and lizard will crawl to the underside of the floating stone.

Air Mephit

4)   These three rings are used to create and bend travel vortices. Each rings needs to be infused with the mephit essence from #5 for the vortices to connect fully.
5)   Nyl used these small holes to extract a crucial essence from the air mephitis and house it in special stone jars, of which there are 8 full and 24 empty lying about. The jars are about 8 inches long and shaped like a wide stopper (these fit into the rings and can also be spotted with a DC30 Per check near the vortices on the floating islands). There are also stone caps next to the holes with a stopper sized hole in them and radiate a moderate Abjuration magic.
6)   The surface of this mote has a different feel from the others (the gravity has been increased by a factor of 2) thus movement is reduced by 10’, melee attacks/dam are at -2 and ranged attacks are at -4. In the distance, a large cave opens up going partly underground and partly above.
7)   At the mouth of the cave sit 5 strange inverted obelisks. As the party gets closer they can see more details, but the creatures will also close and attack.

Airfiend

8) Somehow, Nyl has bound a very unusual elemental in this chamber to gain its secrets of power over gravity. The books and notes here contain many theoretical as well as practical applications of gravity effects such as Reverse Gravity and Telekinesis. The books here weigh 35# and because of their uniqueness, would get about 12,500 gp on the right market.
The bound creature is a Huge Gravity Elemental and he will attack anything that enters the confines of the cave.

9) A approximately 50’ wide hole in the center of this mote contains a smaller mote that hovers in the center. When within 30 of the south face, a DC20 Per check will reveal a 10’ wide cave mouth about 15’ down. If anyone touches the center mote, there is a chance (DC15 Str) that the mote will begin to spin in its position. If that happens, then moving to the opening becomes more challenging and a Ref DC15 Save is needed to avoid being squished by the center mass for 4d6 damage.

This lab is intended to be a place where an arcane spellcaster could learn the secrets of Genie and Elemental Air magic and creatures. I created a difficult combination lock to open this vault which did take the party a while to pass. Din has since adopted the library as his own sanctum sanctorum.

10) Nyl’s mote lab has a high table with a few open scrolls of rich, old vellum sheets, written in a combination of common and a rare form of Auran. However, the real treasure is in the next room where Nyl has procured a unique ancient library of Auran magical knowledge, stored within a clever and dangerous device. Known as Zeno’s Library (DC32 Know Arcana or Planes to recognize), the crystal device is an extradimensional space that houses a lifetime’s work of chronicling the secrets of Genie magic. Nyl brought the library to his area through great effort and it would be a massive undertaking to move it from here. Access to the library is also very difficult as it requires deciphering a puzzle of knowledge of the universe that few people would possess alone.
Zeno’s library appears as an 8’ diameter cylinder of semi-transparent crystal (like looking through a glazed window), 8 feet tall with a slightly pointed top. Careful inspection of the far side (DC16 Per) will reveal an area of about 2 feet square containing many engraved runes, letters and symbols cut into the crystal itself (see handout). A DC12 Arcana, Religion or Planes will identify that some of the runes are represented by that particular discipline as abstract ideologies, tenets and philosophies. A DC25 inspection will reveal that the symbols can be moved on 4 distinct interlocking discs.
The mechanism: to successfully decipher the symbols will require 4 separate but simultaneously successful knowledge rolls at DC24, one from each discipline and a last one (of any) to set the center keystone. When all 4 rolls are made (synergy can be added to anyone not making one of the rolls), the crystal will reveal double doors and the library within. They cannot take 20 on the roll and the roll can only be attempted every 6 hours (to account for study time). However, for each additional 6 hours they study before an attempt to decipher will award them a +1 on their specialty rolls. For example, if they study a full 24 hours, they will gain a +4 on the roll. Sleep time is not counted in the study time.
The danger – anyone who begins to study the runes and makes an attempt to translate feels a compulsion to complete the mystery. After a failed attempt roll, the person must make a DC 16 Will save or lose 1 point of Int permanently.
Zeno’s Library has walls made of crystal, but are only translucent. Light streams through the crystals creating a warm, inviting atmosphere and comfortable chairs and couches with small tables lie about. Trays of food and drink are always available and they can leave the room but will spoil as real food would. Many curving shelves of neatly organized vellum scrolls provide a treasure trove of ancient, lost magical knowledge. Using the library would allow an arcane spellcaster to research new spells or craft scrolls at ¼ the time needed. There is nothing preventing the scrolls from leaving the library, but while in the library, any scrolls are protected from aging and damage. Any damaged scroll that returns to the library is fully restored. The library has many more possible uses, but it would require a minimum of 1 year of study to begin deciphering the secrets contained within. This library would be worth over 500,000gp to the right buyer. When the door opens or closes, the tumblers are randomized again. There is no problem in leaving the library.
11) When someone enters room 10, it will alert a trio of recent intruders who have been trying unsuccessfully to gain access to the Library:

4 Witchwyrds:

12) The edges of the platform have various magical apparatus spread out here and there including braziers, candles/holders, incense, jars of powders, metal filing, etc. If collected, a total of 3500gp worth of components can be gathered. Other than these items, there is nothing else of interest in this area.

Cavern of Mystery

This area has been affected greatly by the upheaval. A large chunk of the ceiling dropped down on a series of floating motes, pulverizing the majority of them and disrupting their magical energies. In addition, the corner of the cavern where Nyl’s private quarters were located got buried under an avalanche of debris and now he sits in a state of shock in the ruined rubble.

13) This floating mote has been pulverized by a large chuck of the ceiling and wobbles slightly in the direction of the arrows (move at ½ speed unless DC10 Acrobatics check made, otherwise no movement). It is also apparent that the air vortex here heads toward a near wall and dissipates. Pieces of the floating mote also hang in the air from 1-10’ above the surface, most are 1-2’ in width, but one large one is about 10’ wide and hangs only 2’ off of the ‘ground’. It is possible to use this as a raft to cross the rest of the cavern, or the group could use the levitate spell.

14) Debris fields – this cavern is filled with random debris fields at various heights and sizes. Since they are moving relatively slowly, these should not pose much of a problem, however as the group observes the fields, they will see a 20x20’ section suddenly and violently contract, then explode. As a matter of fact, small explosions in the field can be seen happening every 30 secs or so.

For every 50’ travelled there is a 30% chance of a nearby area explosion. If this occurs, each person/group must roll a DC15 Ref save or take 2d6 damage. In addition, if they are balancing or flying, they must make a DC15 Flying and Acrobatics roll to avoid falling/drifting away from original group by 1d6x10 feet.

15) Once on the far side of the larger debris fields, the group may see the avalanche on the far wall as a pile of rubble and a tiny pair of humanoid figures sitting on the ground 500’ far below. (PER is -1/10’)

When the group gets close enough they will see:

Two humans are sitting in comfortable high-backed chairs amidst a ruin of rubble, massive stones and debris of wood, cloth and metal. They appear to be deep in conversation while several large stones are moving on their own, 3 to 5 at a time out of the debris and being neatly stacked on the floor nearby. A small side table floats over to one of the humans who gestures vaguely to his right and the table sets itself next to him.

One of the humans is a strikingly beautiful young woman with long jet black hair and wearing a form fitting bright blue blouse and clean white pantaloons. She seems to be trying to converse with the man next to her, but he is not responding to her. The man is haggard looking with long thinning white hair and a scraggly beard. His clothes were probably very fine at one time, but now hang from him with holes, dirt and black smudges all over. He has a vacant look in his eyes and stares into the distance, seemingly taking no notice of his companion.

Although Ciuq was usually the planner and mastermind of the three brothers, Nyl was the more accomplished of the three. His ambitions were only for his Art, while Fedge was an explorer and Ciuq was the opportunist and businessman. Nyl knew what each of his brothers were up to and the desire for his brother Ciuq to gain more power from his dealings with the elemental lords he had ‘befriended’. But when he caught wind of the arrogant manner which he addressed some of the more powerful elemental denizens, he knew there was bound to be trouble. So it came as no surprise when Ciuq overstepped his authority and made demands far beyond his relationship with a Lord of the Earth. But the elemental lord’s response affected them all when he brought down the very mountain where they all lived. Nyl knew that Ciuq had paid the ultimate price and shortly thereafter his brother Fedge as well. He knew that his quiet life was over and much of his own research was ruined when word spread throughout the Elemental Houses of the brothers’ foolishness. Nyl lost his status, the brothers’ Rings lost their potency and Nyl fell into a semi-catatonic state.

Shortly thereafter, the disguised blue dragon oracle Lazuli arrived and began her slow insinuation into Nyl’s broken life. She helped him recover some of his personal items, protected him from several invaders and began to gain his trust, when he was willing to give it, or clear his mind enough to communicate. She pieced together what had happened and knows that there are untold treasures in the complex. Most recently, she has discovered the Library but cannot access it. She has divined that the answer to that puzzle will soon be arriving at her feet, if only she can be patient…

Schedule of Events:

1)   Party notices the humans on the ground
2)   If they approach, Lazuli will speak: “Oh, how interesting!” She refers to the portent that the knowledge she seeks would be coming to her.
3)   Lazuli will introduce herself “I am Lazuli and this is my love, Nyl. He doesn’t speak much but we are very good friends.”
4)   If questioned, she will try to get as much information out of them as possible, but if the group is able to deduce her true nature (physical or alignment) then she will drop the charade and deal with them in a business-like manner. She is much more powerful than the group and will destroy them if they are foolish enough to attack, but she will not antagonize them as she truly wishes to bargain with them.
5)   She will recognize the rings if people are wearing them and will flaunt her own (which she got as a ‘gift’ from Nyl). Her ring is a simple platinum band with a triangular sapphire in the center. Appears as Ring of Feather Fall.
6)   Nyl will not respond to any questions and does not acknowledge their presence even. If Lazuli is attacked, he may defend her, or he may teleport away (50% chance). If he is attacked, he will defend himself but teleport away at first opportunity.
7)   Lazuli will attempt to ascertain whether the group knows the proper access code for the Library and will trade her ring and its secret for the code.
8)   If agreed, she will allow them the information first, then get their knowledge. If they renege on the agreement, she will enrage, shape change and attack.
9)   The secret of the rings is that they are very powerful Rings of Elemental Command. But to gain their most potent abilities, the user must prove his worth to an elemental lord of the appropriate plane. Example: Defeat a Greater Elemental of the opposing type (earth vs. air or fire vs. water) or do some other great service for an Elemental Lord or Genie-type and gain a pseudo-binding to their ring. The first step they will need to take is to find a powerful elemental being that corresponds with the appropriate ring and start the negotiations.

Concluding the adventure:

Lazuli has spent a great amount of time piecing together what has happened in the complex and she has a fairly complete picture. If the group agrees to give her the combination to the library, she will share what she knows. The information the group has accumulated will also give them all the information they need to know the purpose of this place and the assumed state of the other locations.

The books and writings that the group have collected are very valuable and if they bring them back to Abel, he will be very pleased and will reward each of them with 5,000gp (or a like amount of gems, etc.) The group can begin their training and experience can be distributed.

Alternate Ending:

If the group decides to not take up Lazuli on her offer (they have much of the pertinent info on them in the form of books, etc.), she will inform them that she wishes to stay and attempt to gain access to the Library. She thinks that Nyl has the secret of breaching the door in his mind and will continue to find it.

If the group wants to bring Nyl with them, she will warn that it would not be wise to do so in his current state. If they insist, to demonstrate her point, Nyl will casually toss an hourglass filled with sand on the ground, summoning an enraged Elder Earth Elemental, which immediately attacks anyone in range (including Nyl and Lazuli). Nyl will not try to help or defend himself, but Lazuli will do her best to assist if she can, although self-preservation comes first and she will teleport with Nyl if she thinks either of them are not safe.

If the group spends more than a few days in the complex, the next adventure will catch up to them.

Elder Earth Elemental CR 11

Heading Back

Abel and Po are waiting for the party in Korholm when they complete the mission. If they go directly to the ship, Po and Lina will accompany them to Korholm Keep where they are told to hold their story for now, but are fed and given their own quarters. In the evening, six heavily armed guards will escort another elaborately armored man with a large mace hanging at his hip into the room where they are relaxing. Abel will introduce Imperial Governor Markwin Teldas to the party who has a serious look about him, but still greets the group with a nod of respect.

“An interesting group of agents you have here, Redforge. I’m looking forward to their report. Please, sit and be comfortable, we may be here a while.”

The party will have the opportunity to impart their story at this time. If they are completely forthcoming, Teldas is impressed (he carries a mace which is actually a Rod of Alertness and uses it to cast discern lies and detect alignments as they tell their story). He will nod in appreciation and reward them accordingly:

Fate of the brothers (complete)
Fate of the brothers (partial)
Disaster details (depends on their info from Lazuli)
Encountered creatures
Teleport magic
Elemental magic
Godstone
Library
Lazuli
Nyl’s fate

Based on what the group imparts, if they give him the complete story (very valuable to him) he will reward them each with 20,000gp or the equivalent in magic items at 10% below market prices.
If they give partial or incomplete info, he will reward them with 15,000gp or equivalent magic in market prices.
If they give sub-par info, he will reward them with a bit of a gruff brushoff and 10,000gp each.

Continue to the next page

The Air Labs were an unusual design of a dungeon level. I wanted to create the aesthetic of an open space area with parts that float in the air, but I still needed game-usable mechanics to allow the party to travel around the encounter areas.

​

The first step was to draw an outline of the whole area and then fill in the details with close-up maps.

​

This 'level' required a lot more backstory since it was a bit complicated. It had a mentally-damaged former elemental mage and his relationship with a female blue dragon oracle who was also very unusual for her kind.

This lab is intended to be a place where an arcane spellcaster could learn the secrets of Genie and Elemental Air magic and creatures. I created a difficult combination lock to open this vault which did take the party a while to pass. Din has since adopted the library as his own sanctum sanctorum.