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| Tomb of [[Wyr'palja]]. Murals outside. Very steep, narrow stairs to entrance.
| | The ''Tome of the Great Maker'' contains more than 5,000 dense pages, detailing the entire history of [[Autochthonia]], from a few years before the Departure (when Autochthon left Creation) to the present, a period of nearly 4,880 years. Written in Old Realm, the book offers a confusing, disjointed jumble of not only history, but religious doctrine, procedural details of how to live within Autochthonia, and so on. |
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| == Top Level ==
| | It takes a while to plow through, but collectively, you find the following things of note: |
| [[Image:Wyrpaljas-mausoleum1.png]]
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| *Aviary: Glass bird scultptures, animate like obsidian butterflies (but peircing) when anyone enters the space between the steps. Statue and pool filled with coins; might also be a Grimtooth-style "spear dips down into the pool to electrocute anyone messing with the coins" trap to discourage mortals (tomb built by dragon-blooded, after all). | | * Long before humanity existed, Autochthon created a servant race of skilled workers and artisans called the Mountain Folk (sometimes called Jadeborn). This race worked and lived in a vast underground series of caverns underneath the Blessed Isle. A few decade prior to the Departure, the "shining rulers of Creation" (presumably the Solar Deliberative) ordered Autochthon to place a geas on this entire race, preventing them from ever leaving their underground realm. |
| *False Tomb: Find three fire pots, one five colors of jade, one moonsilver and starmetal, one orichalcum. They have faint scents. Rack of potions without labels on the outer aviary well, can match by smell or with serious botantical/alchemy skill. Disks for each circle of magic. When pots filled with correct stuff, and put in correct location, then lit, smoke swirls around white circle. For one hour, those who step on circle are teleported to second level. If mixed wrong, lethal gas. Sarcophagus itself trapped (essence explosion). Meaningful murals on all, including one map of pre-Contaigion Creation (possible hint to Parlainth-type lost cities). Hints on founding of city.
| | * Prior to the departure, prevented from taking his Mountain Folk with him, Autochthon assembled eight human heroes: Claslat, Estasia, Gulak, Jarish, Kamak, Nurad, Sova, Yugash. It is from these heroes that the eight cities of Autochthonia take their names. |
| **Mosaic of First Age Creation
| | * The first section of the book devotes a lot of time to these eight heroes, and their tasks before and just after the Departure. In particular, it tells of their epic question over Creation to assemble the materials to build the Ewer of Souls, the container that would hold the souls that Autochthon needed to survive. The writing in this section of the book claims to have been made by the heroes themselves, and is quite flowery and heroic, and specifics of locations they went seem to have been made intentionally cryptic. |
| **Lots of birds
| | * The book claims that the eight filled the Ewer after its construction, but does not specify where the souls came from. |
| **A winged Wyr'palja's holds a caduceus up to a hideous dragon that appears to be made of shadows of people.
| | * The eight were sent to recruit loyal mortal followers to tend to Autochthon's needs. Thousands came, but the book makes fairly clear that, end the end, Autochthon just abducted tens of thousands more when time came to leave. (This information only appears in the original book, not in more modern copies.) |
| **Standing on the tip of a tree, Wyr'palja raises a city from the forest.
| | * The book mentions some particular plants brought in during the Departure, but that none could be kept going beyond a decade or so. It's a completely trivial point, but Jorias thinks you might be able to use it as the "clue" that lets you cure the plague (which, of course, you don't actually need). |
| **Wyr'palja surrounded by strange symbols (salt, quicksilver, gold, etc.) | | * During the early years, Autochthon was still largely conscious and helped the Autochthonians. As his final waking act before fading into sleep, he instructed his most skilled craftspeople in the difficult process needed to make the alchemical exalted. Once the first batch was created, Autochthon was never heard again. |
| **Numerous small paintings of Wyr'palja's life and exploits. Fighting various creatures, lecturing, teaching alchemy, spell craft, etc. In one, she stands over an apparently dead woman, channeling energy into her mouth while others battle a dark force in the background.
| | * The soulgems now in the heads of all Autochthonians were developed after this, based on some of the procedures needed to create alchemical exalted. |
| | | * The religion and structure of all of the Autochthonian nations is fairly similar, but originally it wasn't, which caused lots of friction, animosity and fighting between the nations. So the Conclave was held, setting the general structure and religion. War became less frequent, but still occurred. |
| == Second Level ==
| | * A section of the book deals with heretical cults that were quashed, usually by alchemicals. One of these involved a woman who claimed to see the future. Although she claimed her visions came from Autochthon, she came from the despised Lumpen and often issued prophesies that were deemed dangerous to the social order. After her cult was destroyed, she was being interrogated but said nothing for days. Then, quite suddenly, she spouted out one sentence and passed out. The next day, another sentence. The day after, another, just before dying from no discernible cause. What she said (and, in fact any mention of her at all) is recorded only in the original Tome, not any copies: |
| [[Image:Wyrpaljas-mausoleum2.png]]
| | ** ''When the city screams, only Autochthon's eye will show the way to salvation''. This jumps out at you, because you have all heard of the [[Eye of Autochthon]], a legend in Creation, said to be one of the most powerful artifacts in existence. It didn't show up in Creation, however, until long after the Departure, so those in Autochthonia would have no idea that it exists. |
| | | ** ''Through the remnants of green dead throngs, will come the frozen false face to corrupt the Maker, subverting Him for all time.'' It's possible that "green dead throngs" refers to plague victims. |
| === Vestibule ===
| | ** ''The triumph of the locust will be great, but dies when the Age is consumed by the Earth Dragon.'' It may be that "locust" here refers to the Autochthonians themselves, as Regret mentions that the people of Gem referred to the invading Autochthonians as "locusts". |
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| Automaton, possibly something like the Feathered Serpent (which would be right in character with Wyr'palja), but more lethal. Maybe two or more. Animates when door opens. Murals with hints.
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| === Hall of Mist ===
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| when all in room, door shuts, room fills with mist. Those inside teleported to random locations in room. Pitch dark and filled with mist. Like simulacrums of smoke. Each round, essence darts fly around, dealing damage. Pits as well. Possibly a Cloak of Deadly Automata (guardian) defends the place, scary in the smoke. Basically, best defense is not to enter.
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| === Alchemy Workshop ===
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| The Dragon Blooded who built Wyr'palja's tomb constructed two workshops for themselves within, to hide some of her treasure from other terrestrials. One of these was an alchemy workshop which, while a pale shadow of Wyr'palja's real alchemy cathedral, remains an impressive facility. | |
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| While small, this well-stocked workshop acts as an advanced workshop (''Savant & Sorcerer'', pg. 32) for alchemy, complete with First Age tools. In addition to a large assortment of jars, beakers, magical braziers, pots, steam works and inscrutable apparatus, the following can be found within this room:
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| {{Include|Salt|4}}
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| {{Include|Aether|4}}
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| {{Include|Gold|4}}
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| {{Include|Alkahest|4}}
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| {{Include|Berith|4}}
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| ==== Celestial Phoenix Cauldrons ====
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| {{:Celestial Phoenix Cauldrons}}
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| ==== Resplendent Satchel of Healing ====
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| A [[Resplendent Satchel of Healing|rectangular green case]] 12"x12"x3", containing healing items. It is described in ''Wonders of the Lost Age'', pg. 69. Contains:
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| *Rod of Cleansing the Body
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| *Wound Mending Needles
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| *Jade implements giving +4 Medicine
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| *Instrument of Regrowth
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| ==== Potions & Reagents ====
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| {{:Wyr'palja's mausoleum - reagents}}
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| === Artificing Workshop ===
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| Once a serviceable workshop for artificing, this room was consumed by fire when the death of the terrestrials who used the tomb released the fire elemental under service within. This spirit is long gone, but left behind a ravaged room. Remnants of books, wooden racks, barrels and so on are in evidence, but all reduced to an ashy shell. Even metal tools have been warped by heat. Standing in stark contrast to these are a number of items that, though slightly scotched, remain in good condition, obviously magical. They are:
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| *One [[Hand of the Mountain]], with lines of mystical runes down its arms and legs, which indicate to occultists that it is built to be animated by a fire elemental. It is from this automaton that the elemental that torched the room escaped. This automaton stands in an alcove evidently built for the purpose. Originally, it was intended to do heavy lifting and tasks that required hands capable of withstanding high temperatures or dangerous chemicals.
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| *Five [[Folding Servant]]s, folded into six inch cubes of steel and jade (one of each color of jade). These were originally intended to act as artificing assistants, as well as handling mundane tasks in the workshop, such as cleaning. These are stored in shelves within the same alcove as the other automaton.
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| *A large crystal [[Unconsuming Forge]] dominates one side of the room. It is unlit. | |
| *One one of the stone workbenches, surrounded by piles of ash, is a pair of [[Forge-Hand Gauntlets]], casually dropped there by their last user.
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| *Five ingots of blue jade
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| *Five ingots of black jade
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| *Five ingots of green jade
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| *Five ingots of red jade
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| *Five ingots of white jade
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| *Seven ingots of adamantite
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| *Five ingots of orichalcum
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| *Three ingots of moonsilver
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| *One ingot of starmetal
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| === Acid Rainforest ===
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| *Acid Rainforest: Forest of crystal trees. When far door touched, unless trigger hit, starts rain of acid.
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| === Reality Engine ===
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| like Wonderous Globe of Precious Stability, but bigger and draws power from the wyld itself, not a hearthstone. Section of floor hides stairway to lower level.
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| == Lower Level ==
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| [[Image:Wyrpaljas-mausoleum3.png]]
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| === Stairs ===
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| The floor section reveals a five foot drop onto a landing from which marble stairs lead down. The ceiling continues only five feet above the stairs, leading into a short hallway, also with a five-foot ceiling. All but the shortest characters must crouch, putting them at a -2 penalty for any Dexterity based tests. | |
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| On each side of the two yard hallway are extremely realistic paintings men and women in ornate jade armor, apparently portraits of dragon blooded. Each kneels on one knee, their swords at rest like crosses, point down with a hand resting on the pommel. All bow their heads, more in shame than reverence. At the end of the hall is a door, ornately decorated with the five colors of jade. A theme of wings and birds is consistent throughout, with the solar imagery on the right giving way to lunar on the left.
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| Perceptive characters who understand Old Realm may notice the design contains a subtle inscription:
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| <center>''Here lies a golden sun, to whom we owe, and from whom we took, everything.<br>Beside her, in death as in life, lies the silver rain that saved millions by killing one.''</center>
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| The door has a complex mechanical lock (Dex + Larceny (4)) and opens outward. Touching the door triggers a magical trap, causing the paintings to sprout phantom arms that thrust phantom swords into the hallway. These blades are intangible and can hit unmanifested spirits. They also completely ignore all armor and cannot be parried by physical weapons. Unless the trap was detected (with Essence sight, for example), the attack is likely unanticipated, working as an attack from behind (meaning 0 dodge dice without charms, no shields). The attack is as if made with a jade daiklaive thrust, made with seven successes, for a total of 12L damage. In addition, each blade hits as if backed by Dragon Graced Weapon (db.208) of the element of the dragon-blooded in the painting. There are two of each type of element. On the right side, from the stairs to the door they are: earth, air, water, wood, fire. On the left side, the order is water, wood, fire, earth, air). | |
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| === Inner Hall ===
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| Featuring another low ceiling, this hallway is also packed full of four foot ceramic jugs, amphora and other vessels, all painted to look like jade. These fill the hallway so completely that most need to be removed to gain entry. These a grave goods, filled with foodstuffs of various kinds. The jugs are all well sealed, but most of the food is spoiled, fermented, or otherwise foul. The low ceiling continues to cause the same -2 to Dex for those crouching. Long weapons at another -1.
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| Hidden among the jugs are fifteen [[Grave Hornets]], which will awaken and attack any who move the jugs. They will attempt to do so with stealth at first, but will swarm if intruders put up a fight.
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| If enough jugs are cleared out, the walls can be seen to be covered with paintings. All have a very macabre tone, as if intended to scare away intruders. Many scenes of death, destruction, and callousness. Among the scenes:
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| *Wyr'palja turning a neighborhood into glass.
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| *Wyr'palja fanatically engrossed in an experiment while mortal servants helping her are being burned and crushed to death in the background.
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| *Wyr'palja idly watching while vicious creatures stalk and savage mortals in the back alleys of a city. | |
| *Wyr'palja officiating a ceremony where lizard men sacrifice hearts cut out of living victims to the Unconquered Sun.
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| *Wyr'palja in radiant glory in front of a crowd of people with unnaturally vacant, adoring stares.
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| *A series of paintings showing Wyr'palja casting a flashy spell in front of a hundred children. As the sequence progresses, the children rapidly age until dead, while Wyr'palja becomes slightly more youthful.
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| *A large painting of a naked half-man, half-parrot, kneeling on a bed, pointing a silver sword to his own belly. His clawed hands are covered in blood. Behind him, a dead Wyr'palja is tied naked to the bed with golden silk rope, bleeding from eviscerating wounds to her abdomen.
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| === Lunar Tomb ===
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| This ten yard radius tomb is crammed full of grave goods and effigies. Many of the goods are real silver, though now tarnished, and include furniture, silk clothing, weapons (some silver, some painted to look like jade), wooden coins painted gold, sculpture, gems (glass and real), even an alabaster bathtub. Like the hallway that precedes it, the ceiling is only five feet high. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room are painted as rich forest, with many birds, particularly parrots.
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| The room conceals five doors behind the plaster of the walls. The only visible indication of the doors are very slight cracks that can only be noticed by close examination (Per + Awa (5)). Some forms of magical sight will see the doors for what they are. When the doors open, most of the plaster on and around the door will crumble. The doors are plated with moonsilver covered in ornate designs with deep details (designed to support the plaster).
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| The doors open into perfectly spherical rooms about four yards in diameter. The doors are set at the equator of the spheres, with half the room above and half below.
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| ==== Full Moon Door ====
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| Two royal warstriders are crammed into this room, sitting back to back, with limbs folded to take up most of the sphere's remaining volume. It is unclear how these massive artifacts came to be in this room, as the door is too small even to fit one of their limbs through it. (In reality, Monsoon placed them here prior to his death using Elsewhere manipulating magic. Wanting to keep them out of the hands of the terrestrials, he also did his best to destroy the machines' AIs.)
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| *[[''Luminous Talon Rain'']] - An orichalcum royal warstrider. Holds firelance, small essence cannon and flight apparatus. | |
| *[[''Molt-Defying Plumage'']] - A moonsilver royal warstrider. Holds protean gauntlet, small essence cannon and flight apparatus.
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| ==== Half Moon Door ====
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| A colorful forest fills this sphere, made entirely of jade. More peculiarly, the jade is of nearly every color of the rainbow, from brown bark, leaves in all shades of green, and fruits and flowers of all colors. (This jade is the result of [[Quintessence]] Circle Alchemy.) Throughout the forest are a number of preserved animals, mostly parrots and other birds, but also forest cats, wolves and even a bear. These animals appear to have been once alive, now preserved with taxidermy.
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| Knowing he intended to die, Monsoon put his pack to death and had them enshrined here, to accompany him in the Underworld.
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| ==== New Moon Door ====
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| The walls of this sphere are pure white marble, covered with a strange writing in silver ink. The writing is clearly a code, combining Old Realm with strange scratches. Any who use one of the [[Monsoon Needles]] recognize the languages and be able to read it. Contained in this writing are spells known by Iron Monsoon:
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| *Becoming the Wood Friend
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| *Blood Lash
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| *Calling the Wind's Kiss
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| *Commanding the Beasts
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| *Eye of Alliance
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| *Hound of the Five Winds
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| *Personal Tempest
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| *Thunder Wolf Howl
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| *Virtuous Guardian of Flame
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| *The Faithful Ally
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| *Summon the Army of the Wyld
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| ==== Waning Moon Door ====
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| This sphere is packed with terracotta sculptures of men and animals in all shapes in sizes. The largest stand in the center of the room, nearly scraping their heads on the ceilings, with the sculptures getting smaller moving away from the center. These are all very detailed, with gemstones for eyes.
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| These sculptures have little real purpose, other than to act as a formidable entourage in the Underworld.
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| ==== Waxing Moon Door ====
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| The walls of this room are a slick stone, enchanted to display a moving image of the sky, complete with clouds, night and day and weather. Floating in the center of the sphere is a large sarcophagus, stylized from moonsilver and many colors of jade to suggest the shape of a flying parrot.
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| The moonsilver on the sarcophagus is coated with contact poison. Within seconds after touching this poison with bare skin, it is absorbed into the bloodstream and spreads through the body, causing the target's skin to start liquefying. The target must make a Stamina + Resistance (5) test or take three unsoakable lethal health levels and loose a point of Dexterity and Appearance. If they succeed, they still take one health level of damage. Attribute damage is healed like aggravated damage. This poison is invisible to human senses, but magically enhanced smell will detect it automatically (Monsoon wanted lunars to know it was there). The poison looses its potency within minutes when not in contact with moonsilver.
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| Within the tomb are the remains of [[Iron Monsoon]]. Though once wrapped in silk, nearly all organic material has decayed, leaving only dust and some portions of the skeleton behind. Those with good eyes will notice the nine [[Monsoon Needles]] that the lunar inserted into his flesh before taking his own life.
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| === Solar Tomb ===
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| *Solar: spell book w/ celestial and solar spells. Other loot. On the solar side, one chamber holds the real body and the goodies, the others all hold Minions of Deadly Touch, all created by Wyr'palja and made to look exactly like her. All will pretend they were in suspended animation and that they are the real Wyr'palja. These minions also contain pocket of Elsewhere containing Wyr'palja's most prized possessions, which she entrusted to no one.
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| **Minion (orichalcum earrings), Wings of the Raptor, [[Wyr'palja's Spellbook]] | |
| **Minion (moonsilver earrings), Wings of the Raptor, [[Wyr'palja's Workbook]]
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| **Minion (starmetal earrings), Wings of the Raptor, [[Wyr'palja's Stylebook]]
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| **Minion (jade earrings), Wings of the Raptor, [[Wyr'palja's Notebook]]
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| **Real body (salt earrings), Wings of the Raptor, [[Wyr'paljan Caduceus]]
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| == Data ==
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| *[http://thor.divnull.com/pub/exalted/wyrpaljas-mausoleum.pdf PDF map]
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| *[http://thor.divnull.com/pub/exalted/wyrpaljas-mausoleum.zip Adobe Illustrator map]
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| [[Category:Forgotten Suns]]
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| [[Category:Place]]
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