The Temple to Time

Discovery, Exploration

With the promise of a wish from the dragon, Anise attempts to find out more about the history of the waderer and attempts to find some method of understanding it which leads her to a timeless temple atop a mountain.

The journey to the temple of time was a relatively smooth process for the expedition members, although smooth is always relative. They would encounter a number of events and encounters that would only serve to whet blades, and steel shields. Yet, not all events were so nondescript - including a strange finding.   This group would encounter a battlefield, with two Saltieunni corpses laid low by scattered paint, the first implication of their later findings of the Natura Morta, and the first time Natura Morta would encounter the expedition members. Later tracking them down back to the expedition site.   But these events would occur later, instead of more pertinent matters was that would occur in the massive mountain of which this party was headed. Though the initial climb was of no affair, they would into a gate that surrounded it - a fence made entirely out of horacalcum, as noted by the dull coppery sheen, and where the fence met the stairs, there was a gate.   The gate's lock was ornate, depicting a multi-segmented clock, which could be used not for simply telling the hour of the day, but the day of the week, the week of the month, and the month of the year, as much as it could tell year from the millennium.   What was even stranger was it's accurate depiction of what was believed to be the modern date of the mainland that of 32073, and as the key was turned, the clocks unwound, and revealed the date to have become that of 22073. A strange occurrence, that appeared to have no especial note upon the environment they were in.   Yet, as soon as they entered, the area outside would become gray - lifeless, and unchanging. As if all color and even the movement of time had ceased, and they found it impossible to go back from whence they came. WIth their retreat cut off, this group instead moved forward - finding themselves approaching a brilliant and glorious temple.   What was strange however, and especially notable was the sound of chanting and voices, noises spoken in common which was a rarity in the mainland, and as they approached they found themselves amidst what appeared to be numerous refugees, having apparently made their way to this temple, in fear of the chaos outside.   These refugees, terrified as they were murmured amongst themselves, broaching a variety of topics. Discussing the devastation of how only some decades ago they had lost every major political figure and hero of their time, and how recently the gods themselves had come amongst them, and how the chaos of this behavior had ripped through the land, destabilizing almost every government and peoples.   And though the party would attempt to interact and find out more from these peoples, this would prove a fruitless act, as none of the civilians would respond to touch nor shouted voice, and even before they could more deeply explore this situation, they would be interrupted by a cloaked figure seemingly wearing a skull for a mask as it charged up the stairs and into the temple itself.   Drawn by the chaos of this behavior, the party would follow the man inside of the temple, where they would see that at the heart of the temple was a cloaked and veiled figure whose large body stood hunched over top of the altar.   At first speaking in a low voice, the man's conversation was difficult to hear, but would quickly escalate into various forms of threatening, cajoling, and shouting. Though incredibly strange, those of the party listening would realize that the man wearing the skull mask, appeared to somehow be a representative of the death god of assassins, Norgorber, yet no god could walk the lands, so in truth he had to be some form of avatar?   and the man with whom he was having the conversation - could only reasonably be known as Tawil-at-Umr, at least in anise knowing that the Wanderer was the creature spawned from his corpse.   Thus, for Anise in particular, she could only listen to these events with a foreboding feeling of discomfort, as they seemed to blame the veil fall for their downfall and walking of the earth, and that somehow their divinity had been shattered, making them strange and almost divine, but not truly. A half-manifested godliness that one god in particular was created to destroy, resulting in the Death god's fears.   Yet, implacable was the wanderer, who - having enough of the man's tone, sent him from his presence with a rejection and wave of his robe. To which the death aspect would leave, whilst spitting a furious statement under his breath that Tawil would die.   And almost like a prophecy come true - mere minutes after his departure, the assassins of the red mantis - the chosen of Achaechek burst into the temple from the glass behind the altar, and with the party to watch on in shock, as the godly man was impaled and slain within only the space of a breath.   Yet, rather than acting with fear or shock, the figure would only brace himself against the altar, and look forward. Towards the adventurers who watched on, and for a brief moment, it almost seemed as if he smiled with satisfaction, as if watching a plan that they had set in motion was finally coming to fruition. Though he would collapse almost immediately after the serrated blade was unsheathed from his corpse.   Yet as they looked on, the gaze of the assassins appeared to change, for only they - as compared to all the other people present, could witness those that did not belong. Their leader orders those around her with a simple command of "kill them." Yet, faster than they could ready their blades, an infuriated Anise had let loose an anguished cry and had already flickered into position and struck a flurry of blows onto their leader.   Thus the two sides quickly erupted into combat, with Dr D's barriers blocking the paths of the assassins and funneling them into the waiting arms of Cassandra and Alexsander, who met them with great fury, enhanced with striking support of Irene and Pennie, although Pennie's focus was to apply a tyrant's end to their leader alongside anise, and Irene's whip cut and suffocated the rest, disabling their movements and leaving them especially vulnerable to the craftsman and the chef.   Though the leader was no weakling by herself, manipulating the field, she had been blessed with numerous items of power from her god - items which had devastating effects when employed, though each time she sought to use them, would she discover that her prey had already been moved away from the desired area of effect thanks to Anise's meddling.   Thus infuriated, she would stop at nothing to see them all slain before her, and used the most that she could, in order to instantly slay her foes. Going so far that she would almost succeed in suffocating the life out of Anise, yet - only failing from the intervention of Pennie's Noblesse Oblige. Her fury and shock rendered in her physical language interrupted then as Anise once again flickered out of reality and...   appearing before the leader of these assassins, the daughter of yog-sohoth would deck them in the fucking snoz, so brutally that the smashing blow would crush her skull, and with anise's own abilities, and the sickening aura released by Dr. D's light, would she rob this creature of their soul, and their time. Obliterating them from reality in the truest sense.   With their leader down, the remaining assassins were felled in no time by alexsander and cassandra. Leaving them in a temple, yet -as it had been wracked by combat, and by the red mantis assassins actions, it appeared to have been stilled, and emptied.   Distressed greatly by what could be compared to as "witnessing the death fo a close uncle" anise would approach the alter and examine the body - only to find that while it was still there, she was still unable to interact with it, as it belonged where it was, and she was not of a time that could change it. Yet, out of the corner of her eye, she observed a glow within the offering bowl that rested on the altar, although it should have been filled with blood upon his slaying, Anise would discover that it was instead filled with sand akin to that used within a timepiece.   ingenuity, of many things had always been Anise's strong suit, so, pulling out a timepiece she had earlier earned, she would fill it with the sand that had remained, and then, flip it such that the sand would flow through the time-piece, something which would allow time to yet again move forward.   Countless years would pass before their eyes, the temple would age, and turn gray, whilst from the body, a creature would emerge, four-legged and small, it would grow rapidly in size as it moved away from the temple, and began to wander. Walking the lands freely as it was wont to do, and unburdened by responsibility or care.   More time would yet pass, as the creature would only return once after the passing of a hundred years, before going on it's journey yet again, walking the land, and then returning, and then walking once more. ninety nine times this happened in a cyclical fashion, yet upon the hundredth, it stopped, and stared at the creatures in front of them.   and unlike the other times they had seen it, it did not hastily move away once more, and instead stayed. Watching them, ageless, tireless, and almost a fact of existence, it knowingly watched those that had come before - in a mysterious act, it turned away once more and began to wander, leaving them in a ruined temple.   Though it's actions were mysterious, the event was the true measure of what had happened. A statement of a devastation amongst the various divinities of Astralaria, and the deaths of countless gods, whose corpses and spirits lay in fractured fashion amongst the mainland; and though a world without gods could not exist, who knew how many times these gods had had themselves destroyed and reborn, and what had become of them now.