Pahhu: Shifting Sands of Time 6: Twists in Time

DAY 7
Breakfast the next day was a drowsy affair, the group having had their rest interrupted the night before. Apples, cheeses, breads and jerkies made for a satisfying meal. Barnaby the Korred even snacked on some of the nearby rocks. Looking out over the battlefield of the night before they realized one of the cyclops bodies was missing; with a drag trail leading towards the goblin camp. Assuming a grisly fate had befallen the cyclops a few of the party followed the trail back to the goblin camp, where the goblins enjoyed their own breakfast. Pahhu tried to bargain with the goblins, after all they’d hunted the ‘stompies’ but the goblins shook their spears and demanded the group leave at once, they had broken any semblance of trust with their threatening lightning storm the night before.
 
The group returned to their own camp and packed up, and with no certainty on where else to go and nothing matching Theodore’s vision they set out into the ice, climbing up into the ice shelf. Cold winds and endless ice soon surrounded them, and as the afternoon wore on they seen realized they were getting nowhere quickly. Pahhu shook her compass, but it never seemed to point towards any temple or revealing any secrets. They were lost, and they had to admit they had no idea where they were going. Theodore called for a stop to their foolishness; they should return to Lerwick and try to research their destination.
 
On arriving to the Prismatic Plaza in Lerwick the group beelined for Hyssop Home. An audience with Charva, notedly excluding Pahhu, made the priestly dragon much more open to discussion of the situation. Charva revealed that the place they were seeking is a well guarded secret, that not even he knows the full truth of. Only the true followers, those deep in Amaunator’s faith knew the way to the Temple of Time. He knew only a once floating city of Synod, a jewel of the Netheril Empire which had once crested the clouds above the Anauroch.
 
Synod once had a grand temple to Amaunator invested into which was a powerful divine relic of Amaunator. This relic was jealously guarded by a High Priest, and by possessing it may have had the ability to commune with a great guardian of knowledge, a blessed entity known to Amaunator and Labelas Enoreth. This guardian knew the location of the Temple of Time, and protected the secrets of magically manipulating time. Charva explained that he once had a Netherese time criminal in his custody at the prison, a Netherese warlord named Yagya Karn. If the group could find this criminal they could question him, and find out more.
 
The party quickly realized that this Yagya Karn was likely the Netherese Restorationist who they had combatted in Charva’s Sanctuary on their first visit after the fall. He was dead, and his body was floating at the bottom of a fountain in Charva’s Sanctuary. After a quick discussion the group decided to spend the remainder of the day and the next three days researching the topics they’d learned of.
 
Day 8/9/10
 
Nyx visited Waterdeep to see an old friend, a gunslinging artificer who she knew to know a great many things.Nyx learned of a famous temple involved in the ascension, a great event in Amaunator’s faith in which the events of the spellplague revealed that Lathander and Amaunator at one. A great temple west of the Dalelands in the city of Eversult devoted to Amaunator and built by Daelegth Orndeir was one of the most central places of worship and knowledge within the faith. If the party travelled this long distance they may find modern scholars who would know of a potential lost temple in the High Ice.
 
Pahhu tries to learn more about Amaunator by finding out more about where the sun comes from in the east. Pahhu learns that there is a mythological sphinx in the Turnback Mountains that roars at the eastern sun every day as it rises. The Sphinx is famous amongst the desert tribes, and features in children’s tales. She decides a sphinx must look like a giant rooster. She learns these things from children’s books but is unable to uncover anything of significant value.
 
Marinette tries to find any information on potential relics, thinking perhaps the divine treasure had long been looted or moved around. Marinette learns that Netherese relics and artwork are exceptionally rare, and any relics that are publicly known of are heavily protected by those with wealth and means. There is an expert in Waterdeep who may have more information by the name of Francois Hector Du Pois De Lyon; the family name of Theodore.
 
Jorah and Ed spend the days with Charva learning of the remaining time criminals which Charva once held in his custody. They learn about the motivations and dangers of many groups. An Unseely court of Eladrin and Dark Elves abusing temporal magics. A group of Amnizu fiends using time to de-age people to children so as to consume their youthful flesh. A cult of vampires who sought to stop the sun and bring on an endless night, and an endless hunt. A pair of Abishai fiends seeking to corrupt dragonkind and subverting the natural order. A massive red-skinned Slaad who sought to unravel the time stream itself to sink the world into complete chaos. A blood cultist using foul rituals to artificially extend life spans at the risk of warping his subjects into aberrant monsters. The Red Wizards of Thay and their temporal researchers with unknown motivations. The Netherese restorationists seeking to undo the fall of their empire. Finally a hyper sapient owlbear; the result of some twisted experimentation. The owlbear only wished to turn back time to before it had gained its extraordinary awareness and intelligence, and had made progress until captured by Charva.
 
Theodore is able to track down a very basic layout of the city pre-fall. It had prominent locations as follows:

The Grand Temple

The Archives

The Armory

The Foundry

The Palace

Grand Marketplace

Residential Towers

Magicians Quarter

The Undercroft

Theodore also learns there is no recorded known location of a specific temple by name of The Temple of Time. The most Theodore uncovers is three gods that have to do with time in the Faerunian pantheon. Amaunator, Labelas Enoreth, Grumbar. Much is easily uncovered on the first two, less so on the third. Theodore’s research into Synod revealed it to be heavily devoted to Amaunator, and that it crashed in the High Moors.
 
DAY 11
 
The party decides to head towards the High Moors to discover the wreckage of Synod, hoping to find the relic within the disaster of the fallen city. They reason that they must find the relic to find the guardian who can lead them to the temple. Considering the map they realize the closest place they can easily depart from is Charva’s Sanctuary, which has the added benefit of allowing them to look for the remains of Yagya Karn. They depart via treestride.
 
Marinette fishes the body of Yagya Karn from the fountain, the nearly two week dead body horribly bloated and rotted. Thankfully they were able to recover a few objects of note, things they’d never considered to look for when they had fled the chaos before: A strange metal rod untarnished by the water which ended in a symbolic sunburst, seemingly a religious object of some kind. Additionally they found a heavily water damaged journal, the ink having begun to, as pages disintegrated.
 
Pahhu grabs the book and thinks perhaps she can fix it with her magic, as she prestidigitates it dry and then attempts to mend the object, bringing it back to a time before it was damaged. Unfortunately her magic isn’t strong enough to overcome the damage, so she decides to escalate the situation. She tries her dangerous magic again, as she casts the spell Dimension Door and says “two weeks ago.” As she completes the spell she feels a horrible surge of energy and though she struggles to control (failing her spellcasting check) it the rip begins to open, spewing forth dry hot air in whirling gusts, accompanied by blasts of blue-grey sand and dust. Nyx, Ed and Marinette manage to resist the pull of the rip (succeeding their saving throws) but Pahhu finds herself inexorably drawn into the tear (natural 1) and vanishes.
 
Pahhu opens her eyes, her vision seemingly reduced on all sides as if she was looking through a slot. She blinks and looks around exaggeratedly, finding herself once again in the Dry Place, the seeming demiplane that she conjures when failing to control her time magic. The journal is in her hand, the dry and intact. She wanders over to a nearby rock and begins to read.
 
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Yagya Karn's journal depicts the life of a military man in service to a priest named Kuldip Pendeya, the exarch to Amaunator. The journal contains notes to the assembly of a vast fighting force. The writer had journeyed far and wide, recruiting from the 'lesser races' to collect a brigade to seize the city of Synod for the exarch. The Netherese are motivated by the desire to gain control of a holy relic. The high priest they seek to combat has been granted divine inspiration to craft a work of art that has split the believers into factions. This relic would grant them the means to peer into the past, and the high priest believes it should be a privilege kept to only the highest of the faithful. Believing this to be corruption and against the tenets of their faith Yagya and Kuldip rebelled within the faith. Their goal was to find a way to take over the relic and share the blessing, and to break the corruption of the current high priest.
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The journal goes on to detail the logistics of military campaigns and battles, but is soon dominated by the events of the fall of the Netheril and the spellplague. When Kuldip dies due to circumstances related to the spellplague Yagya is left to continue the fight alone. Becoming hellbent on restoring the Netheril to their full glory and restoring their promise, their city and their faith he began experimenting in ways to manipulate time through planar travel. The book contains significant notes on this Netherese Time Magic. The journal has a large blank of time after detailing the magic, after which it details a descent into madness while imprisoned within Charva’s sanctuary.
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Pahhu reads this information and naturally intuits (natural 20 intellect roll) how to use this Netherese Time Magic. It is very different from her own, but she fails to recognize the risks it carries (4 wisdom roll) in that it may drive her mad or result in her being on the wrong side of Charva’s laws of the continuum.
 
Meanwhile the group looks for Pahhu in the sanctuary, and quickly learn that other danger is nearby. Nyx has detected 5 nearby undead as she uses her primeval awareness to try to track Pahhu. Realizing that the last time this happened that Pahhu returned to the same place, Ed and Jorah quickly explain to the others that they will have to defend this spot, as she is likely to return to it. The undead draw ever closer, until a heavily armored death knight strides into the room. He demands to know the source of the powerful temporal energy he has felt, threatening death to the party if they do not reveal it. Theodore tries to talk the opponent down, but is only able to learn that he is a powerful one from east beyond the sea of fallen stars seeking to halt the infernal sun and its burning. Realizing this man is likely one of the vampires seeking to stop the sun, tensions finally snap as Marinette leaps into action.
 
Battle breaks out, with the heavily armored foe turning aside attack after attack as he answers with a devastating blast of deathly energy. Soon two of his allies swoop in from the shadows and attempt to drag Theodore to the ground and feast upon him, vampires cloaked in shadow. Theodore shifts into the form of a fire elemental, giving them only a taste of burning fury, and the battle rages on.
 
After nearly a half minute of this a strange hyperconcentrated ball of energy appears southwest of the main battle, in in the exact location Pahhu had vanished. The ball grows from the size of a pebble to a bubble nearly 5 feet in diameter before bursting in a massive pressure wave, sending ripples of distorting energy and roaring sound across the battlefield and. Tona whimpers as her eardrums are blown out by the pressure, but the nearby vampires resisted the wave as it rippled through Theodore’s burning form.
 
The effect was nothing like any of Pahhu’s magic before, which had always been like a scratch in dimensions, a crumbling tear into a world of dust storms, static lightning and howling wind. This had been an explosive bubbling force pouring out of the dimensions, and Pahhu stood in the middle of the blast wave, utterly disoriented and stunned by the concussive force, a strange looking ancient helmet on her head, Yagya Karn’s journal in the other, and a strange red book at her feet.
 
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(It is at this time dear audience that I must break character, because in no way would an in character explanation ever explain the sheer coincidence of this situation. On reappearing, the DM Krongarth had Pahhu roll a Wild Surge from the following table: http://www.traykon.com/pdf/The_Net_Libram_of_Random_Magical_Effects.pdf for an effect caused by her use of Netherese Time Magic. Pahhu rolled 2177 on her d10,000 the effect of which is: “Caster’s diary, written years from now, appears at her feet.” The chance of this occurring were 1 in 10,000 or .01%. Given the themes of this campaign we could not have asked for something more on theme.)
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The last two of the five undead Nyx had detected swooped in from the shadows and easily took advantage of the stunned half-elf, and began to drain her of blood and nearly killing her. Ed appeared beside her in the nick of time, stepping through the mist and revitalizing her, and Theodore and Marinette rushed into defend the helpless Pahhu who thankfully snapped out of the effect, flailing around with her rapier flashing through the enemies, carving and tearing into them in reprisal. Nyx rained arrows into the vampires, as Tona charged in despite the pain. The last vampire finally fell as Jorah drained all moisture from its body, an ironic end for a vampire as she drained it of any life essence.
 
As the battle ended a disoriented Pahhu fell to the ground, struggling to stand after the blast and the blood loss. She feebly opened the red bound book, the first page simply reading. “Pahhu Kilaniu, Time Warden” written in a neat elvish script. Pahhu looked back to Jorah who was reading over their shoulder and they shrugged in unison.
 
Meanwhile…Marinette began to flee wide-eyed from the battlefield, seemingly possessed of something.