Session notes 9-4-2020 & 16-4-2020

9th of Vilrand - continued
 
It was only moments after I could finish that last sentence, that Liya and I noticed something move high off one of the ruins of Old Apelés. Something with huge wings that we soon saw diving down upon us from that height. A few seconds later, we were battling the giant bird, that Ferrum had identified as a Roc. The battle was short, but not because of our skill, though William did a phenomenal job at harming the creature - especially after it had grabbed both me and Ferrum up in its talons. It was, to state shortly, not a pleasant experience. But to return to the strange matter at hand, as we were fighting, suddenly, everything seemed to reset. We were all back on board, with the enormous bird nowhere to be seen. Confused, still hurt but somewhat relieved we stood there for a second, before continuing our rowing, now much more aware of the sounds of any bird wings approaching us. Strangely, the spell I cast on myself to allow me to fly if I would be dropped by the Roc, had also faded, whereas normally it holds longer. Very peculiar.
 
Old Apelés is a beautiful place, after a few more minutes of rowing, we arrived at the pebble beach. The ground feels so much more secure than the boat. Somehow boat trips seem to disagree with us, always something that tries to get us out of the boat and either into the water or into the digestive tract of the creature. However, the land we stood on was solid and had probably been untouched for many many years. The isle, and the buildings upon it are very much overgrown, and as we heaved the boat upon the shore, most we saw of the ancient city was overgrown by a vast array of plant life.
 
When we were on the boat, we had seen the different layers of the city, and Liya and Ferrum took it upon themselves to navigate us through the overgrown city streets. On our way we found several old houses, Thalmiir even found a few silver coins with a floating city minted into the metal.
 
It is after some walking, that we stumble upon a curious sight. Thalmiir spots a house that, unlike all others, has not been overgrown. A perfect semi-sphere around this hut is seemingly untouched by the teeth of time. For some time now, I have been able to sort of 'sense' magic around me -and see it if I focus-, but the magic at play here is unfamiliar to me. Ferrum tests out the force field by moving his hand in. It is only with considerable force that he can get it back out of the magic circle. Thalmiir cleverly tosses a coin towards the dome, and as it enters, it stops in place. During this, we also spot someone inside, standing quite still. As we are watching, Thalmiir casts 'Dispel magic' and as the dome seemingly dissipates, the man ducks away as he notices us.
 
A very, convincing, conversation later, we are allowed inside.
 
The man is called Beomore. He speaks a weird language. (Yel-ves? = Goodday? or Hello?) Anyhow, he is a magic-user and quite a powerful one as he attempted to stop time when (old) Apelés fell out of the sky. Just as curious as we are about him, is he about our current time and our reasons for coming here.
 
He asks all kinds of questions about the current date and the number of months and planets, states that it is so much easier now, and then asks if we know someone old, how we got here etc. We answer his questions. Tell him about the 'new' Apelés, and the council of wizards that he might want to contact, our journey here and the reason why we are here.
 
We, in turn, learn that the city fell 3257 years ago and that this unusual wizard was the creator of this city. As well as being a skilled caster in the field of a new/another type of magic: Chronomancy. (It is probably that that I have been sensing around here, which makes sense if he created this place.) He also talks a bit about another type of magic, which was only available above what we know to be and call ninth level spells, which is not possible because those are the highest forms of magic available for us now, but supposedly that was different in his time.
 
As we also told him about our reason for being here, we get some information on the castle, a route in and some information on what we might find there. We got a very interesting reaction when we told him about the Roc-incident. The roc was not what engrossed him, but the pulse we felt during that battle. Beomore then explained that this is a type of defence mechanism when triggered, sets back time a few minutes. After which he informs about how often it went off and how if we had been set back far in time or not. Apparently he is surprised about the fact that it still works. And immediately after this information drop, for us and him, he states that he must be on his way. "I do not know you, you do not know me". However, after we convince him to at least contact this circle of high mages, and Thalmiir agrees to contact one of them, he changes his attitude a bit. After Merril Tasker has viewed the situation through some kind of scrying magic, Beomore quickly starts picking up some books and starts drawing some sigils in the rings of the circles on his floor. A few final questions about contacting him and such later, we are left with his final message: "Oh don't be frightened if you meet yourself in the castle".
 
After he left I snooped around the wizard's house a little bit. There was this book laying on a small table next to the bed, and when I looked inside I felt something wash over me. It was some kind of heaviness and I fell face forward into the bed, nearly asleep, but the spell did not take effect. Thalmiir really frowned upon my behaviour, but hey, I was just looking around and he had actually taken coin from a house so who is he to judge? Plus, if you find a whole new type of bloody magic, would you not be curious to learn more about it? Anyway, at least I was focussed enough to actually note down the sigils in the teleportation circle, that we had been asked to do by Lieutenant Olden. If it had been for the rest, they had completely forgotten, their minds already set for the castle and its secrets.
Okay, I should not be so salty, I just did not feel so well at this point, the claw from that bird had taken quite a toll.
 
With the hand-drawn map that Beomore had given us, the entrance to the castle was easily found. Ferrum lead the expedition inside. Interestingly we keep passing this strange symbol resembling an hourglass, etched in doors, walls and floors. The whole building has a faint air of the chronomantic magic, some of the carved sigils still seem to softly glow in the darkened rooms we enter.
 
As we continue our way, we enter a room with a large copper dome in the middle, surrounded by several pillars. The smell of the air is stagnant and a bit chilly, but not unwelcoming. The floors and walls are made from what looks like a greenish form of marble, that I have never seen before. Again, the hourglass symbol can be found underneath the dome. We carefully avoid walking underneath the dome and make our way deeper inside the building. Ferrum again leads the way towards a corner behind which find a locked door and a metal rod. With some force, this rod is pushed into the wall, and as that happens, the wall behind us closes and we hear a faint 'click' of the door in front of us opening. There is only one way for us to go.
 
The next room was, interesting, to say the least. The square space that we entered was not very large, but immensely high - I can not even see the roof- and in each corner, there stood a long-forgotten aquarium. As we were inspecting the strange substances in these aquariums, a rock fell from above, breaking the darkest one Ferrum was looking at. From the broken glass, a horrid somewhat sentient creature arose. It smelt acidic, and we soon realised why. As Ferrum's body and axe touched it, they started making a sibilant sound and a chemical smell soon spread. The ooze split itself on our impact and it was a hassle to get it to stop lashing out at us.
 
After the short battle, Ferrum looked exhausted, and I was also looking forward to a rest. As we stood there, wondering why a stone would drop suddenly from above, Thalmiir inspects the door towards the following room. He tries to open the door the 'regular' way, waves his hands to cool it, then tries again to lower the knob using his elbow. Revealed behind this door, is a stream of lava. The immediate heat terminating into the room reminds us of our trips underneath Conwy. The faith kind of sank to my feet at this moment, as this meant that we had to find a way around this and who knows what another route may bring... It was at this point, that an Aarakocra fluttered down from the high ceiling. Their timing nearly perfect. Ekkri is his name, and he is eager to help us cross the lava, which he somehow knows about? It al kind of suspicious. But as it is our only option, and he truly seems genuine, we agree. Ferrum and I take a flight, having been held by enough birds today, while the rest is carried by Ekkri. After this short, and frankly very helpful encounter, we thank Ekkri, tell him the way out - apparently, he had been wandering around here for some time and was eager to get out- and proceed to sit down to take a breather.
 
Now that we are resting, Thalmiir is taking some time to patch up Ferrum's armour a bit. It is slowly starting to look better. I clean Liya's sword for her.
The room that we are in is nice. The heat from the lava from the tunnel here heats it up to a comfortable temperature and it is quite spacious. There is a strange contraption in the middle, consisting of a spiral with cloth or canvas stretched between. It looks quite intricate. Thalmiir's curiosity is also piqued by the device and he attempts to turn it as if it is some kind of futuristic mill. (well would it not be an ancient mill, as this place is so old? I am not sure) Anyhow, as Thalmiir released the device after turning it for one round, it spins back by itself, returning to its original position. Naturally, Thalmiir does the same thing, now for seven rounds and the mill turns back even faster than before. It is when it comes back to its start position, that something clicks, an unlocking of some kind. Amused by the small show, rested and curious to see what that unlocked door would lead to, we are now going to continue our way.
 
I forgot to note that the room we relaxed in had two ways out: a door on the southern side and a cave or tunnel back to the lava. It was the Southern door that unlocked after the spinning of the device. This door leads us a short hallway and yet another room. Again, there are the hourglass symbols carved into the floor, which seems to be made of some kind of smooth white stone. Thalmiir later told me he had also spotted a tunnel in the hallway, which reminded him a lot of the tunnels dug by that Bullette creature that took Wulfric's life, I am happy we did not investigate that further. But back to the room, in the middle of it, there was a type of pedestal with a gem on it placed in a glass case. Thalmiir identified it as a diamond but was otherwise uncertain of what it did. It is in this room, that Ferrum and Erky sat down to look at the symbols more intently, there must be something about them. On the opposite side of where we entered, there were iron bars, which seem to be controlled by some kind of pistons? I have little knowledge about these kinds of gizmos.
Suddenly, there is some kind of revelation. An image of Beomore pushing and turning the gem-box and suddenly disappearing. Uncertain of what else to do, Ferrum copies the movements. With a flash and a bang, we awaken to find ourselves back in the room with the copper dome. Ekkri was there, looking very very confused by our sudden appearance. However, he was close to the exit so happy about that. (My ears are still ringing as I am writing this down.)
 
After a while, we realised that a new door had popped up in this room. And thus we went, continued our investigation of this strange place. The path lead us through some hallways, until eventually transforming into a spiralling staircase. Ferrum once again takes the lead and guides us up the stairs. There was some fun speculation of these stairs being unending like the one in the wizard's tower of Ms The Grim. Our jokes were however interrupted by a metal rod being rammed into Ferrum from out of the wall. Carefully, we then continued our way, but the strange happenings were far from over. Slowly but suddenly, the staircase started turning. It was on an even pace, and then it stopped, only to be followed up by a much more rapid twist back. Some of us, realise what is going on shout something along the lines of "Brace yourself" as the staircase starts to turn again, this time for 1,2,3.. 7 rounds. A brief pause, and then there is a volatile turning back of the stairs. Thalmiir and I are swung back and luckily caught by William. Even more hesitantly, we make our way further up the stairs remembering to remember what we do in this castle, is likely to be turned back to us later.

At the end of the staircase, we find ourselves on a type of walkway. The space itself is square and the walkway is a bridge from us to a room straight forward, and one to the left. The bridge seems stable, the forward seems to be blocked by something, so we make our way to the right room. As Ferrum goes first and walks over the stairs, we see a rock drop down, and hear the breaking of glass. We looked at one another, finally understanding what is going on here. We caused our own fight in the aquarium room. But we had little time to ponder this as we entered the room the left walkway leads us to. It is there where we meet Ekkri, for the third time. He is sitting in a cage. We free him and inquire why he is here and how he could have survived all this time. Apparently he has died a lot of times but has always come back. He explains that he was locked up as a type of experiment, and kept alive for that purpose. Even though he answers all our questions, he also had some questions for us as well: why are you helping me? what are you doing here? We then tried to explain to him that we had met him earlier and that he had helped us fly over the lava. Puzzled but seemingly understanding he asked what to do, simply fly down, help and pretend that he did not know us? Which was pretty much what he did. As Ekkri flew down, we were starting to get the puzzle together.
We waited there for an hour, and just now, there was some movement behind the gate of the other entrance the walkway lead to.
 
As we went to look, the pistons in the room with the gem-button and iron bars had moved, clearing the way for us and resetting the button. This route brought us to a much larger room, supposedly the room with the defence device. The roof is very very high, which is held up by pillars reaching just as high. For me, entering this room while focussing on magic was really overwhelming. All kinds of Illusion and Chronomantic magic were present here. How abundant the magic was, so sparse the heat was in this room. It was cold and chilly there, and a strange cone marks the middle of the room. Upon closer inspection, we find that the cone made of several gears, differing in size. During this inspection, a figure is spotted, appearing from the cogs, looking at us and then twisting one.
 
Suddenly we were back at the entrance of this room.
 
The time stuff really started to mess with me at this point. You feel a bit dizzy and nauseous afterwards and it is very hard to wrap your head around.
 
Now that we had seen this creature turning the gears, we were more eager than ever to get this figured out. As cast a spell to give Wulfric/Erky and Thalmiir the ability to fly, we make our way up the stairs to see what is going on up there.
I must say, that we were not prepared for what was up there. The scene we arrived at was strange, to say the least. A circle emitting soft purplish light, surrounded by three figures in hoods and tall standing figures in armour. But in the middle of this circle, a creature, seemingly forming from shadows was slowly manifesting. Our battle instincts kicked in and we decided to take down these people summoning such a being. Thalmiir and Ferrum charged forward, while Erky circled from the sky. William focussed on the figures in armour with this Halbert and Liya and I attacked from a distance. Strangely enough, Liya sprinted forward during the fight, to attack with the rapier instead. This caused her to be hit and hurt by the appearing shadow creature in the middle, and she actually fell unconscious. Luckily she was helped by Thalmiirs healing word. Also, his spiritual rams hit the literal air out of the armoured figures, who seemed to consist of just armour, as when they got hurt badly, the metal just fell to the ground. The same for the praying hooded figures, which just left a piece of cloth behind. It was al very hectic, a lot was going on. Ferrum threw one of the armoured guys off the platform which looked really scary. Thalmiir blessed us at some point. Finally, the fight ended when he banished the creature, returning it to where it came from.
 
Now that the purple glow has died down, we must figure out what was actually going on here.