Volume 6, The Darkest Timeline 1 - The Beginning of the End

Part 1 - The Hourglass Turns

In the Prime Timeline (Primeline, if you will), the  Thanes of Order have just secured the Ring of the Quake and are sailing through the The Spice Islands . Gamble has a strange dream...

"As you look around at your crew, enjoying this moment of serenity between the hardships you have faced and the battles that lie beyond, sat against the side of the boat, your hand drifts into the ocean, and you feel the warm waters of the Amantic play through your fingers. Your mind starts to wander, your eyes heavy you find yourself falling, falling into a sleep as deep as the Sadra Ocean to the south.
As you sleep, you dream, and in your dream, you swim. Through waters clear and warm you swim, round corals that shine with a multitude of vibrant colours, through shifting schools of dazzling fish and beneath calm waves above. After a time, a pod of dolphins joins your side, playfully dancing around you they lead you this way and that. You chase them as they swim away, you cannot remember a time that you have felt so calm and yet so joyful you can’t help but smile and laugh, breathing in the salty water as if it were air.
And then, the sunlight seems to fade, a cloud? A whale? You swim, chasing the last of the rays, craning your neck to see what is blocking the light, when suddenly, bam! You swim right into a wall. You spin around, pressing your hands against a solid curved barricade of glass, that stretches as far as you can see in every direction. Suddenly the world seems to turn. You find yourself pulled, inescapably towards the surface, once above you now below, in a great spiral, spinning round and round, tumbling over and over, a sickening, disorienting tumble of scrambled lights and sounds, blurred visions seem to play out indecipherably before you through the roiling waters. The spirals seem to shorten, your head bursts through the surface of the water, you see the glass like a great inverted dome above and around you before you are pulled back under by the uncaring currents, round and round and round, until at last you reach its centre, hands scrabbling against a glass surface devoid of purchase you are powerless to resist the pull of the tide as one last surge of falling water pulls you with it into the eye of the storm. And then…
You fall, a column of water falling straight down through the air by your side, tumbling over and over, you see another dome of glass around you, right side up this time and reflected in its surface more snatches of visions, anguished faces of friends, flashes of fire and destruction all swim together as you plunge towards the waiting waters below. You meet them with an almighty crash, the air leaves your body, an icy cold surrounds you, it is dark."

Gamble finds herself off the coast of Ebrion, by the now submerged Coldport Prison Tower, the ring, her equipment and her powers gone.

Part 2 - A World Gone Mad

• Gamble finds the The Umberlee's Howl and her crew changed, worse she finds that the Thanes are radically different and have no memory of ever meeting her.
• Everyone keeps saying that she's who the wizards have been looking for.
• Aethillian Kindlespire explains that over the last year insane people the world over have been having a shared delusion, that the world they are in is wrong.
• Shinsuke and other diviners have had their previously reliable prohecies turn out to be wrong. The The Prophecy of the Thanes seems also affected.
• Aethillian has looked into this and believe that the world is in fact wrong:

“Once I realised that truly, something was horribly wrong with the world, I started my investigations in earnest. Over the last few months, I have spent every hour the Gods grant on research. In that time, I have studied disrupted ley lines, shifted constellations, changes in the migratory patterns of birds, colour theory, and the wildest works of chronomagical literatures until, finally, finally, I was able to pinpoint a pseudo-seismic, extra-temporal anomanexus event, and from there, it was a simple matter of charting the resulting horological waveform in its pro-chronal direction until it’s ebb-flow continuum reached equilibrium.” Aethillian Kindlespire

• To test their hypothesis, Shin reads Gamble's mind and Aethillian brings forth Algernon who recognises "Gambon", but is clearly pained by the experience fo being in present.
• It comes out that Gamble has made a pact withUmberlee to give up a year of her life. This seems to track with what's happened, but nobody knows where Umberlee is as her presence hasn't been felt in some time.
• A ghost ship, lit by braziers of green flame begins chasing the ship before disappearing into the mists, it reappears atop a colossal dragon-faced wave and crashes into the Howl. Strange scythes along the ship's sides lock it in place alongside the Howl.
• The ship's crew of Slaad Pirates, led by Salenis Vendari, begin boarding the Howl.
• While most of the Thanes guard the Captain's Quarters, Shin and Jed Kingsdown (on Aethillian's orders) descend below deck to find a strange, hourglass, magical but broken from the hold.
• In a moment of frustration, Karnak discovers that she is able to briefly unleash additional power, the rest of the Thanes also start to feel some strange energy building within them.
• During the fight a mysterious figure jumps down from the crow's nest and takes out a Green Slaad. He fights Vendari but loses, being cut in two by a scythe that causes him to begin to disintegrate. As he dies, Gamble recognises this to be Karu, although everyone else just knows him as "this one".
• The Thanes fight and defeat a Death Slaad but are vastly outnumbered by Vendari and his crew, Shin, empowered by the same strange power as Karnak summons forth a powerful wall of force to hold their foes at bay long enough for the party to enter Aethillian's experimental teleportation circle.
• The teleportation spell is not without it's problems and the Thanes are briefly sent to places all over Ara, seeing the devastation that is being wrought across the lands. They briefly return to the Howl where they see Aethillian at the mercy of the Slaad before finally teleporting to Barada.
• In his last words to them, Aethillian told them that the only person he could think of who might know how to find Umberlee is the mysterious Badul Zhaldrea, the Mad Alagrian.

Part 3 - Alagrian Days

• The Thanes catch their breath and use this moment of calm to catch Gamble up to compare notes on their different experiences of the last year.
• Heading to the nearest settlement, the Thanes find an ancient ruined city filled with refugees, hoping to be allowed into a tower at the centre of the settlement.
• A small urchin girl tugs on Shin's robes and gets the party to follow her down deserted alleyways into an abandoned ruin.
• Shin tries to predict the outcome and believes it will be very bad.
• A Sand Cat Tressym appears and Gamble takes a scroll case from its collar. She is also given a feather from its wing.
• The scroll case contains official documents approving entry into Barada for a Beleghast merchant company, with the correct number of people and animals filled out for their party.
• Additionally a piece of Alagrian flash paper bears the instructions "Desert's Rest, Oasis of Luxury, Ask for the Visitor's Lodge, Accept the Guest's Suite."
• Finally the scroll case contains a spell scroll for an amended version of the Seeming Spell named Serap's Selective Seeming, which allows the targets of the spell to choose whether they appear to specific individuals as either their real selves or their seeming selves.
• The party use this aid to pass through the official checkpoints of Barada in the guise of these merchants, although they must still pass a test to check they do not have the minds of Aberrations.
• The party spends a little time in the bustling Barada Bazaar, Gamble buys a magical sword.
• The party head to the Oasis of Luxury, a run down hostelry and get the key for the Guest's Suite. As they are told by the owner Madame Magdala of the ample cupboard space, they go straight to the cupboard and find a hidden door within.

Part 4 - Serap Ustasi

• Through the passageway beyond the cupboard the Thanes find a smart looking office filled with decorations reflecting every culture of Ara.
• A Sun Elf greets them and introduces himself as Shovrhan Aismianam, (Illustrious) Serap Ustasi.
• He explains that he is their mysterious benefactor and the current ruler of Alagria.
• However he says that he is only a regent (Aismianam meaning "in name only") and that the rightful ruler of Alagria is his friend, the Grand Shovrhan Remenyekidoh of the Clear Skies.
• The The Obfuscati, the mainstream Alagrian Church of Oloq, has been uncovering an Obliviati plot throughout the year and this has implicated the Shovrhan and his family. Until a complete investigation has been concluded, the Shovrhan, his family, his servants and his personal guard are under house arrest.
• Serap believes that the Obliviati has infiltrated the Obfuscati and that this is all a ploy to remove obstacles from their path. He mentions that several moderate groups of Oloch worshippers like the Verspertine Crepusculins and the Sons of Shadow have been targeted, as have the Penitentacostals (of which Rhathgar was a member).
• Serap makes clear that he is no fan of the Obliviati, but does not have time for doomsday theories.
• He says he is happy to aid them in completing their business in Barada, because he believes this will help disrupt their mutual enemies. However he makes very clear that they cannot stay long and that they are not to bring any of his people to harm.
• He strikes a deal wtih them, offering them any information they wish to know, a guide, a map of Alagria and a Gem of Seeing on loan... in exchange for the Ring of Obfuscation.
• He promises he will not attune to the ring and will return it in exchange for the Gem of Seeing in 6hrs time, leaving them 1hr to leave before the Selective Seeming spell wears off.
• However, if they endanger the people of Barada or betray him, he will hand this ring over to the Obfuscati, coverring any involvement he has had with the Thanes.
• The Thanes agree and the items are exchanged through the use of a pair of Alagrian Trade Boxs.
• Shin telepathically links the Thanes and they are introduced to their guide, Jeramyn. Jeramyn is a Killmoulis, a strange, large-nosed fey with a taste for Alagrian Delight. As Killmoulis are able to turn invisible and can communicate telepathically, he seems well suited to helping them in spite of his odd appearance.
• Serap confesses that he does not know the Mad Alagrian, except that he remembers a similar name being mentioned in relation to an unfortunate incident at the university some years ago.
• He suggests that the Thanes may need to split up if they are to make the most of their time.
• Serap warns that the Obfuscati have secret methods of learning Blindsight, and that they should be careful around them if they don't want their magical disguises rumbled.
• Serap tells them that the Obfuscati's sanctum, the Obscurium Al-Oloq, is shrouded in magical darkness.
• Serap also tells them that he believes the Obfuscati have been infiltrated by the Obliviati for quite a long time, going back several years. This is because the Shovrhan's eldest was assassinated by his younger brother an Obfuscati member who upon being exiled began leading an Obliviati group in Coatl.
• Serap tells them that the Obfuscati have otherwise been laying relatively low, with the exception that they have caused a stir in recent months by bringing in external contractors to carry out renovations on the historic Ziggurat Situ-Niquat in the Temple Quarter.
• Barada is a city of Guilds and it is incredibly extraordinary that foreigners be brought in for a task that should be Guild business.
• Serap isn't sure, but he thinks it's an Ebrion-based company of Artificers called Thune Industries.