Pahhu: Shifting Sands of Time 14: Chasing Tragedy

DAY 26
 
Due to pressing business the party was delayed in regrouping. In the past few days they had tried to use the mirror to investigate new things. Unsurprisingly the mirror failed to uncover the history of Charva the Stubborn; it seems that either he had given a false name or had been warded against time scrying. An attempt to uncover anything on the Temple of Time set the mirror into a dizzying spin of nonsensical images. It was unclear if the concept of the past, present and future mingled in such a place. The only clear image they saw was a grand assortment of elves, earth elementals and dark skinned humans in an icy blasted hellscape on the bones of a structure that appeared grand in scale. Once again signs pointed towards the High Ice.
 
But the party had more pressing matters. A rift in time had opened and a Yuan-ti population had seemingly been devastated by the repercussions of it. They made haste to reach their destination and soon arrived at the sandblasted battlefield. The corpses of the Yuan-ti rotted in the sun; it seemed not even vultures dared approach this place.
 
Theodore noticed this and worried for the sanctity of natural order within this place. Hillsfar had been heavily warped from what the land had been, and Ilaren and Theodore had worked hard to restore balance after the Entropic Consumption’s erosion had damaged the land. He spoke a blessing over the area, and hoped to hasten the recovery. Having started nature’s reclamation the group approached the temple of Sseth, finding the doorway completely sealed in stone. Since they had last been here someone had tried to bury this place.
 
Barnaby parted the stone of the newly formed walls and the party stepped into a rough antechamber. The cavernous room appeared to be hewn from the stone of the rocky mountainside itself, with winding stone spires and pathways webbing across a deep crevasse. On some of the raised platforms piles of white dust lay still, either the remains of those eroded by time elementals or the whirling sand of a time elemental itself. Approaching with great care the party decided to strike first, and as they revealed themselves the sand whirled and rose to meet them. A number of time elementals guarded this area.
 
The combat proved difficult. The narrow walkways granted the mobile elementals advantage as they moved to erode the party. Tona suffered significant wounds in the fight, and many were left exhausted by the encounter. Pahhu used a cold spell on an elemental and for the first time the party saw a strange reaction; parts of the elemental froze and fell off. Was this perhaps a new weakness or a strange property? After the battle Pahhu molded the dust of many elementals together, compacting it to a tight ball. She then tried to freeze it with magic, but little seemed to happen. Perhaps there was nothing to this after all?
 
With the way clear the party soon found more dead Yuan-ti, finding a pouch with a strange key. Jorah walked the line between life and death and spoke beyond the grave with a fallen Yuan-ti, asking it questions of what had happened:
 
What has happened here?
Powerful magics run amok have rampaged and ravaged us...
 
What do you want with Pahhu?
I don't know about anything about the plans for a Pahhu...
 
What did you want with the Bedine?
The Bedine know the paths the Yuan-Ti needed to take...
 
What do you know of the Temple of Time:
It was to be our's, a means to bring Sseth into this world...
 
What about the time scar in this place?
What is a time scar…?
 
The Yuan-Ti returned to rest and the group pressed on, eventually facing down a door decorated with symbols and religious motifs. Rasheed picked the unimpressive lock and opened the door. As the stone door ground open a mechanoid creature turned to face the party. It was another of the creatures that had been seen at Hillsfar. The twisted combination of undead man and machine regarded the group coolly.
 
Through terse conversation and perhaps cockiness the party learns that the creature is investigating the Yuan-Ti. They had triggered time magic disturbances and in doing so had called forth his attention. Ed strode towards him confidently, and perhaps in cockiness told the creature his and many of the other’s names; all but Pahhu and Jorah. Pahhu, having been standing far to the back in the darkness doubled back and began to apply a disguise in what little time she had. Her gut instincts told her that she should not be seen by this creature.
 
In exchange for these names the creature provided information as well. He told of how he had come to this place and commanded the elementals to scour it. That nearly all but a few Yuan-Ti had perished by his hand; even now the remaining few lay barricaded in the temple below, having sealed themselves in through unusual magical doors. The half-man, half-construct was now seeking a way through these doors when we had interrupted him.
 
The tensions continued to rise as the creature spoke so disdainfully of the hundreds of lives he had ended. The party, knowing of the occurrences at Hillsfar made their resolve and chose to attack what was likely yet another simulacrum of this same powerful wizard. The fight began bloodily as the creature dominated Marinette and commanded her to kill Nyx, but Pahhu enveloped the inner sanctum in silence and Ed pinned the enemy down. Theodore acted quick to quell Marinette’s rage; she had been turned against the party once before and he mitigated her threat quickly by polymorphing her into a harmless bunny.
 
The battle within the silence was fierce, and despite the undead construct’s attempts to touch Ed and halt him in time nearly succeeding they were able to exploit the situation and defeat the foe. As his body melted into snow and the same white dust that the time elementals were made of the party found themselves facing the same door the creature had puzzled over. Unable to determine how this door operated themselves the group chose to paint through it using Nolzur’s pigments.
 
Beyond it was a hallway leading to another door and another seemingly blank wall. There were no keyholes and no clear mechanics. Once again they painted through. This brought them to an odd tilted chamber with the floors covered in dried blood. It was seemingly channeled towards another door at the far end. The third door was 15 feet in diameter with 7 snakes in a circle carved into a motif. Each snake is consuming the next in line by the tail. Nearby a small antechamber was littered with humanoid corpses, all cut in ways to encourage the flow of blood. Throughout this area strange clouds of magical energy wafted about.
 
Theodore touched one of the clouds with a fingertip, entranced by the beauty of the strange luminescence. As he did he instantly aged 3 months as a beard erupted from his face. These clouds were some form of unrefined time magic, and may have been brought about by ritual sacrifice or some other means. Despite investigations the third door blocked them, and after painting through it they found stairs leading below.
 
At the bottom of the stairs they found the ground churned and littered with sharp spikes and dangerous terrain. The defenders had made the entrance as challenging as possible, and seven enormous Yuan-Ti with weapons stared down the party as they came down the stairs. They were emotionless as all Yuan-Ti, but still their surprise and curiosity came through in their questions. They wanted to know who this group was, and if they had brought ‘The Pahhu’ with them. The party lied, as the disguised Pahhu watched on silently. The Yuan-Ti revealed they were holding out hope of ‘The Pahhu’ arriving to complete the ritual and undo all of this, and to bring forth their god Sseth, undoing his imprisonment.
 
On the far side of the room there seemed to be a group of humanoids tied and bound. They seemed injured. They were watched over by two spellcasters. Rasheed took the opportunity to walk along the ceiling, carefully moving towards the group. He helped slip their bonds and even armed a few of them. As the nearby Yuan-Ti guards raised the alarm the conversation was cut short.
 
Theodore attempted to charm the guards with his Rod of Rulership, but the effect soon failed as the commands ran too strongly against their instincts and nature. The battle was short and brutal, with both sides suffering immense damage fairly quickly. As silence overcame the chamber the group looked at the hostages… Who were they and what were they doing here?
Those were only the beginning of the questions though. Had the Yuan-Ti developed a time magic, perhaps through blood or death? If even the undead construct was unable to decipher it, or a rift had formed that even he could not use as a point of ingress then what waited below them? The ways of time magic were confusing to even the best users, and they could only wonder at what could be below.
 
What was known though was that this was the end of a society. An entire population had fallen, seemingly because they had not arrived in time to prevent whatever tragedy had occurred here. The devastation at Hillsfar and the seeming incursions of these undead constructs were repeating here. As the death toll continues to rise how much more dangerous will things become?