A Different Country

The first quest tied to the interior of the ASE, this quest is meant to allow the party to become familiar with Denethix the Capital City and to see that their choices have repercussions.

"The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led us up those last few steps to the mountain pass; and beyond there is a different country." -J. Robert Oppenheimer

As the party is exploring the dungeon, they find some scientific papers.  The papers themselves are inscrutable, but they look Very Scientific.  It's well known that the Cult of Science will purchase authentic Science looted from ruins.  Usually the Science is filed away, never to be seen again.  The party finishes up their exploration of the dungeon and surrounding environs, but knows that there is a
Cult of Science church in the capital that they can bring the material to and receive a reward.

Players don't read past this part

Cult of Science

Relevant info from ASE: "The priests and acolytes of Science wear long white coats as their normal dress, with black gloves covering their hands. During the rituals of Science, the head priest will stand on stilts, elevating his height to 12 or more feet, hiding the stilts under a ridiculously long white lab coat. "

Outside the Cult of Science are various wretched folk with horrible maladies, hoping to be cured by Science.  The maimed, deformed, and insane try to touch the Scientist's cloaks as they walk past. Every so often a supplicant will be taken into the temple for "Testing."  Some emerge highly enhanced, mutated and devoutly loyal to the Cult.  Some never return.

Scientist Simms

Inside, the party meets Simms, a midlevel Scientist tasked with maintaining and expanding the archives.  He has been hanging out at the Academy of Enlightened Thought a bit too much, however, and has begun to read the Science he should just be archiving.  He is very excited about the material the party brings in, and will pay up to 200 silver for it.  He believes the material is a copy of original work by an ancient Scientist named Oppenheimer.  The work is incomplete, however.

There is another half to the material, which he theorizes could be found elsewhere in the dungeon.  Another option he tells the players about is a monastery of New Science, a schism off of the Cult of Science.  When they left the Cult, they took their library with them.  Simms has a list of the works they took, and the other half of this work is among them.  Either way, Simms needs the party to go get the other half so that he can unravel some of the mysteries at the heart of the Cult.  He instructs the party not to tell any of the other Cult members about this.

Emissary O'Brian

After the party leaves the Cult of Science, they are approached by a well dressed man with an eyepatch.  Emissary O'Brian will introduce himself and mention that he heard rumors of New Science.  He will offer a much higher value for the second half of the Oppenheimer work, up to 200gp.  He works for a nearby wizard who is trying to build an atom bomb, although he won't mention this unless pressed.

If the party will get the Science for him, he will pay all he promised and more.  Then he will hire them to break into the Archives and steal the other half of the work.

If the party rejects him, he will politely leave, then hire assassins to follow and kill the party after they retrieve the Science.

The Other Half

The party could find it by delving deeper into the dungeon, or by heading to the monastery.  The monastery is very friendly, and will allow anyone to view their archives if they swear a vow that "Knowledge is for the good of mankind."  They will not allow material to leave their archives, but will offer to copy the work, a process which will take 2 weeks.  In order to pay for the copying, a donation of 10 gold and and labor in the fields is recommended.  The players can work the fields and use the downtime rules to master new skills, the monastery has tomes on almost every subject.  

Either while returning from the dungeon or returning from the monastery, the party is attacked by assassins if they rejected O'Brian.     

If they accepted O'Brian, he will now hire them to break into the COS.  

Whoever they give the info to now has the ability to make an atomic bomb.  This could be utilized by the PCs.