Echoes: Sanitarium Zeta

**Sanitarium Zeta** was an ancient laboratory and facility created by the scientists of the Aquilan Empire under the command of Emperor Makrozoia. One of many such facilities, Sanitarium Zeta was host to one of the Empire's best-kept secrets in the form of an experimental cloning program designed to provide the emperor fresh mortal vessels indefinitely so as to prevent his immortal soul from being trapped in incorporeal form. Centuries passed and Makrozoia eventually faced final defeat at the hands of the Outlanders in the events which preceded the Aether War, leaving the facility's secrets interred in time.

Such was the state of things, at least, until a splinter faction of the Acolytes of the Beyond were confirmed to have breached the ancient facility in 4852, prompting an expert team of adventurers to investigate their activities lest a sinister plot come to fruition. Sanitarium Zeta is the first raid in the *Echoes of Aether* questline, an epilogue series intended to put a definitive end to the original Moros saga. A party of up to 8 heroes may enter the Sanitarium, to be chosen from the gallery of remaining characters:

* Manny (Alchemist)
* Octavius (Paladin)
* Marc (Swashbuckler)
* Finn (Trickster)
* Roselle (Rogue)
* Sutther (Chirurgeon)
* Luna (Wizard)
* Jojosamu (Magus)

## I - The Garden

Questionably named, the Garden is the first tier of the Sanitarium after breaching the outer entrance, which was left suspiciously unguarded. Sifting through a deluge of agitated creatures of the night such as vampire bats, warrior spiders, and horned roaches, the party finally arrives in the main hall of the Garden, which juts off into dozens of corridors, each chamber growing a strange organic compound essential to the cloning process. As these ancient plants have been left untouched for decades, however, uncontrollable growth has occurred, spawning decidedly carnivorous abominable plant-based creatures. Left to fester for so many generations, these mad organics hunger for mortal blood - chief among them the Alpha Fungus - king of mold, devourer of man.

 Holocene
 Mortal Instinct

## II - The Repository

Escaping the clutches of Kerrera and her carnivorous spawn, the heroes enter the Repository, the central chamber of the facility in which generations of forbidden alchemical knowledge is stored. Most of the knowledge receptacles are damaged beyond repair upon first inspection, and further investigation is quickly halted by the awakening of dozens of Imperial Golems programmed to defend the Repository's secrets at all cost. The party must survive three waves of these golems, who become progressively stronger until the facility's greatest centurion enters the fray - the enigmatic Adam, unmistakably an automaton himself yet appearing strikingly mortal.

 Universal Manipulation
 Banish

## III - The Vault

Having narrowly overcome the harrowing trials of the first automaton, the party may enter the Vault, the innermost chamber of Sanitarium Zeta. No lesser enemies guard this area, with the final obstacles to the boss coming in the form of complicated puzzles blocking the way. Most of these puzzles are impossible to complete without locating the corresponding books in the Repository for the clues, lest the party be trapped forever. Each failed puzzle gradually lowers the spiked ceiling of the room, giving the party limited attempts to guess before they are impaled.

Should the heroes prove their intellect by solving the majority of the puzzles, they will enter the Grand Laboratory, ominously host to dozens of tubes which appear to be inhabited by clones of the Mad King, albeit in his much younger original host. Thankfully, they appear to be completely dormant, all suspended in strange translucent amniotic fluid. On the far side of the room, you spy two prominent tubes as if on display; one contains a clone much more developed-looking contrasted with the comparatively frail others, while the second tube is empty and appears to have been forcefully smashed open. Before the party can inspect further, a screeching alarm sounds and the tube containing the healthier clone whisks open, its long slumbering inhabitant breaking into a terrifying rage once it is able to adjust its vision and catch a glimpse of the adventurers. Before you can fully grasp the situation, the clone strikes!

 Foul
 Still Their King
 Aurelian Piety
 Final Curtain
 Zeta Cluster
 Voice of the Emperor

## Epilogue

Vitiate Zeta and the other Sanitarium clones are defeated - save one, the mysterious missing subject who was implied to have been of equal potential to Zeta. Though the Sanitarium has been cleared, there are no signs of the Acolytes, and there now exists a worrying prospect of an extremely dangerous Makrozoia replicant free to wreak havoc upon Aquila. With no leads, the party prepares to leave, but their exit is interrupted by Adam the Loremaster, noticeably less replete with mechanical implants. The bard explains that he was once the emperor's loyal "son" but was betrayed and sealed within the Sanitarium to guard its knowledge for all time. Centuries of imprisonment within had driven him mad, only coming to his senses after suffering a near mortal defeat at the hands of the adventurers. He joins the party, hoping to exact vengeance upon his traitorous "father" even if all that remains of him is a thoughtless clone.

Adam helps the party identify the missing clone by relaying his encounter with the facility's previous visitors; a group of black-robed mages had indeed infiltrated the Vault, but their presence did not trigger any of its automated defenses, suggesting they had some prior knowledge of its workings. They freed Zeta's twin, "Vitiate Prime" from his stasis and then set off to locate the Dead City of Celephais; it was a legendary city said to have once been the home of a convocation of Aquila's most powerful mages in history before a great calamity destroyed them. It was there that, sometime after the Second Titanomachy, Makrozoia defeated the dark titan Eztrakir, greatest of the Ancient Fear's servants, and hid away his cursed staff Mordherag - explicitly referred to by the mages as their next goal.

*To be continued in **Echoes: The Dead City...***