Phelar doesn't know about Wayfinders or their advanced cousins, the Starfinders, but she does know about a compass, which is what the center of this Starfinder is.

She can 'delve' into the interior workings of it, however, because it's a computer-like mechanism. It's both sophisticated and primitive, and she soon realizes that this is a very old device.

She also realizes that there is a small cover in the center over another indentation. Like the other four, it can hold an ioun stone. But it can also be used to hold some other substance, such as a pinch of gold dust, and the compass will then point to the nearest gold. Unfortunately, it doesn't tell you how far away the gold might be, or how much.

"Yes, it was rather sudden for me as well." It had been rather sudden. A knock on the door, a respectful meeting, and a sudden goodbye to her mentor. These sudden "requests" were becoming more and more the norm; well ever since she took up the mantle of a Wayfinder.

"Thank you for your help, Soneau." Ciani nodded for she could not cup her hands in response due to the projector she was carrying.

It was a rather massive monument and the climb up the steps was a bit more than she had expected. Yet, once on top, she took a moment to look around at the landscape around her. She breathed it in, the wonder and the majesty of seeing a new place. She smiled and thanked Desna for allowing her this exquisite moment.

"I'm here at the door, I believe." Ciani looked around and couldn't see another way in. "I have the projector, but I think someone is going to have to let me in."

"Someone is outside the door. A new team member." She says, without having ever heard the communicator or looked towards the door. She seems to be examining the Starfinder very closely, having delved into it like she can a computer.

"It's computer tells me it can hold an Ioun stone, in these spots. But in this center spot, it can hold an ioun stone, or something else and it will help us find that something else by pointing to the nearest thing of the type of item I put in it." She said in thought, then she cocked her head to one side. She then considered for a moment, if that was true putting a drop of her blood in should point it right to her. In theory. So she pricks her finger, and placed a drop of her blood in the compartment.

Sol walks over to the door and disengaged the latch that kept it secure. He then pulls the door open.

"Greetings," he says to Ciani. "I am Solsantharis."

After she enters, he closes and latches the door again, explaining as he does.

"In the last temple, there was a clue on the ceiling that we could only see in the dark. We tried that here, too, but could not see anything."

"It occurred to me that a clue thus concealed might be revealed with blacklight. So, thank you for bringing the projector."

When Phelar puts a drop of her blood into the center compartment and closes the lid of it, there's a flash of light and the compass spins wildly for a few seconds before slowing down and finally coming to a stop... pointing directly at Phelar.

"It works." Phelar said with a simple nod. "That means if we had some piece of Golarion, it would at least give us a relative direction."

Ciani entered into the temple listening attentively to Solsantharis' greeting and explanation of what was being attempted. She handed the projector to Solsantharis and then gave her Ambassadorial greeting. She grasped her hands together, (very similar to the "tea with jam and bread hand gesture in The Sound of Music,) and then let her right hand wrap around and underneath her left hand so her left lay comfortably in the palm of her right. Her left palm was up in greeting, showing deference, showing she had nothing in her hands and the gesture also signified a welcoming, that she was ready to receive anything from the person she was speaking with, such as one would when receiving communion. The palm of her left hand began to glow ever so slightly, as that was the place where the Wayfinder/Starfinder symbol was placed as when she accepted the gift of initiation into the Starfinders.

"Greetings and a pleasure," she recited back to him, as she did the gesture. Her head then snapped over to another creature in the room, a human by the look of her, as Ciani realized the human was peering down at what seemed to be an artifact.

A slight breath escaped her lips. "By Desna's guidance!" Ciani's eyes went wide. She had only heard of the item that now rested in the hands of the human. An artifact that Starfinders and Wayfinders the galaxy over could only dream about. It was a compass. A compass that could lead you to...

"Did you find that here? A piece of Golarion!" She turned around to look at all the others. "I was told just a fragment of your mission, but I had no idea you were really looking for Golarion!" She then spun around looking closely at the temple. "Is this a Golarian Temple?"

"It appears to be a temple to Toma Thule," Sol replies to Ciani, "based on the litany carved into the outside stair risers in Terran."

"I'm not really sure how to confirm that. I suppose, if someone on the ship was a worshipper of Toma Thule, they could attempt to commune with the deity. Off hand, though, I don't know of anyone that does."

"On the other hand, I'm not sure that's even relevant. Clearly, some sort of trail was left so that Golarion could be found again. We don't know what the intent of that was. It's also possible that the expectation was that we would have found it sooner. Unfortunately, the document that was found had been lost for centuries."


He takes the projector from Ciani, looks around for the best place to place it to aim at the ceiling, and then places it on the floor, directs it upward.

Once the temple interior is darkened and the projector set up and turned on, symbols do appear on the ceiling. At first, it just looks like nonsense... possibly graffiti, but realizing that it wasn't going to be something as simple as Common instructions like 'go here', it starts to take on some meaning. There are two circles of symbols written around the perimeter of the dome. There are two types of symbols that seem to be intermixed. One is mathematical symbols and the other is a language.

Somewhat oddly, Phelar can find no trace of any of these in the temple's computer.

"Well by Desna! I didn't know you were on such a mission!" Ciani looked dumbfounded and amazed as she peered down at the compass. "We studied the texts on such a device but never in a million years would I have ever dreamed to come across one in my lifetime." She smiled politely at the human holding the compass. "My name is Ciani. It is a pleasure to meet you."

Then the temple interior went dark and the projector was turned on. Symbols appeared on the ceiling. The mathematical symbols made no sense to her, but she tried desperately to understand the language. She did not know the language, but languages were her forte. Slowly she began to piece the symbols together to form a clause, a structure of some form. Symbols for subjects and objects and anything that remotely held them together in a sentence.


Ciani knows 7 languages at the present time and is gifted at languages. So for fun, even though you have already said we cannot find anything in the computer, I am rolling for anything I can glean from the language. Make the DC as high as you want! Page 139 starts with a DC of 30 to know intricate, exotic, or very old writing. Gonna try it! Just fun to roll!

29!! Ah, so close!!  Ciani Keiss rolled 23,6 using 1d20+10,d6.  To glean info from language. d6 is for expertise in Culture.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:36, Sun 17 May 2020.

"I am Phelar Morilla. At least that is what the computer in the temple where they found me said my name was." Said....her name was? Who is she? "I found the Starfinder, at least thats what it told me it was, in the compartment in the wall over there."

"The temples computer, nor the compasses, says anything about the symbols on the ceiling." Phelar is not touching the computer anymore, nor is she near it, yet she gleaned the information.

Phelar eventually stands and looks at the ceiling. Trying to see if she can decern anything from what she saw up there.

[OOC: Rolling some sckills here.

17:12, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 21 using 1d20+7.  Culture.
Rolled: 21

17:13, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 16 using 1d20+10.  Mysticism.
Rolled: 16

Also have a -5 to DC's to recall knowledge about Arcane Symbols and Magic Traditions.

17:16, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 18 using 1d20+6.  Physical Science.

Not sure what other skills might be helpful but I have a lot of them. Plus, her visions if you want to go there.]
This message was last edited by the player at 21:19, Sun 17 May 2020.

It doesn't take much for Ciani and Phelar to both figure out that the language displayed is Terran, since they both saw it on the stairs outside.

It wasn't in the temple computer, but it was on the ship's computer.

Unfortunately, even after the computer translates it, it is still in code.

For some reason, each line was broken up into sections--about 25 characters then 25 mathematical symbols, repeating all the way around. On the second line, the characters were above the mathematical symbols and the math above the lettering.

"It's a code. 25 characters and numbers. All repeat. Round and round. On the second line, the symbols and math above the letters." Phelar said as she twirled about pointing it all out. "None of it is in the temples computer though. Coordinates. Maybe coordinates for the next temple."

"It's not a scavenger hunt we're on, but a treasure hunt," Sol suggests. "Each clue we find leads us to the next clue."

"We've been wondering what the point is. The normal idea would be a test... to see if we're worthy. I'm beginning to think that it's more about whether we're ready for it. Not us personally, but all of Known Space."

"The general consensus isn't that the gods took Golarion, but they might know who or what did. Whenever one of their clerics communed with them, the cleric was told 'Don't ask'. Well, that's the gist of the story still going around after several hundred years."

"Anyway, those symbols and letters are the next clue. My guess is that they'll lead to one of the stones that needs to go into the starfinder."

After another half hour of searching, nothing else is found in the temple. With the Vesk ship possibly in pursuit, staying here any longer isn't advisable.

So, time to pack up and head back to the shuttle, and then back to the ship.

Once back aboard the Starhawk, the Captain wants to know where the ship is going next.

"So, does this starfinder somehow tell us where to go next?" he asks the Away Team. "Or do we have to decipher the code you found on the ceiling?"

"We need to decipher the code...  Which we think will take us to the item to place in the Starfinder that will take us to the clue. Well, the clue after the next clue." She said softly with a sigh.

"So, who's going to decipher this... code?" Soneau asked.

"We can't really stay here, but we need a direction to go. Are you sure you don't at least have a direction for us, Phelar?"

Revonoss who had been drifting off at the temple for some reason. Most likely to inspect the impossible architecture and to ponder life like old people sometimes like to do. When the group was ready in the temple he had flown them back up but he seemed lost in thought and was not really approachable. Back on the ship he retreats too his quarters and after taking a shower and a meal in his room he comes out looking a lot more alive just when Soneau mentions cracking the code.

"My guess is the computer. I assume we can use the old program we used to decipher this location as a basis and then figure it out from there."

"It's possible, but this doesn't look like a code the computer can break," Sol replies. "It almost looks like a book code, which the computer might be able to identify, but still wouldn't be able to decode."

"A book code requires that the sender and the receiver both have the exact same edition and printing of the same book. But there's no obvious sequence to the symbols. Although... this symbol here... it's actually a formula... the square root of 25 = 2 cubed. The square root of 25 is 5 and the cube of 2 is 8... so they aren't equal. Which means it's not a true formula. So that gives us two numbers. What if the equal sign is mean as a dash? That gives us 5-8. That could be a book code designation. Page 5, line 8. But then we'd be missing the number for the word."

"And we'd still need to know what book they'd used... from a thousand years ago!"

"Wait! What if it's just line number and letter number?! Here--list the letters in a stack. So, now the 5th line, 8th letter gives us 'S'."

He stares at the result, looks at the list of numbers and symbols, then back at the result.

"Maybe that's a stretch. I don't see anything that indicates a beginning. Maybe when all the letters are determined, it would make sense."

"So, what do you think? Can the computer decipher it now? It looks like the formulas get more complicated as they go. So maybe the simple one is the start."

"Let me try." Phelar goes to the computer and interfaces with it, touching one hand onto the console. Using the information Sol came up with she would see if she can decipher the rest of the code.

15:26, Today: Phelar Morilla rolled 26 using 1d20+7.  Computers.

It's clear that the computer can solve the code once it is correctly programmed to do so, which mostly includes getting it to identify the letter sets and to determine the separator between 'formulas'. It would almost have been easier solving the code manually, but that way, there was a possibility of making a mistake.

Phelar understands the computer better than most, though, and quickly 'teaches' it to solve this particular code.

It is coordinates, just not in number form, but spell out.

Phelar relays them to the captain, the appropriate calculations are made, and the ship is ready to enter the Drift once more.

"Coordinates. Coordinates as words. Destination." Phelar said as she quickly worked through everything and achieved success.

"You my dear put an old engineer like me to shame. Then again i am not one with my computer. Good work lass."

He smiles and gives Phelar a pat on the back and just tries to reverse engineer what she had done to broaden his own knowledge.

"You know, I might be older then you." Phelar reminded him, as she smiled at his obvious complement.