Session 15 Recap

General Summary

The session starts on the 2nd of Mirtul, our Peggers have just been notified the Planetary Express has just finished its modifications and Rai had just received a sending from the Time Thief. Captain is alerted of these events and rallies the crew together and readies for departure to Valt, the lair of the Time Thief and the closest celestial body to the Eye of Doom. With a 23-day travel ahead of them, everyone grows anticipation in what is to come. As they exit the boundaries of the A.U.C a familiar radiant glow blooms and grows closer to the spelljammer, Shul of the Emerald Sun and her Wyrmling cross paths with the Planetary Express Gang once more. She greets them bidding safe travels for the crew and the Captain asks her about the Keeper of the Draconian Sands to which she states that the Keeper only listens to the trio of dragon divinity. And his purpose is to guard and watch the Dragon Hourglass, a magical item built by the dragon gods to control and maintenance the lives of all dragon kind. If the Peggers were going to be fighting this, being it would be a challenge unlike any other before.
  Traveling deeper into the astral sea, a pod of kenori is traveling near the flight path of the Planetary Express. Once the pod is close enough the group spot a hut strapped to the top of the largest kenori in the pod. Too interested to leave it be, some of the crew head to the space whale and knock on the door. A dwarven sized earth genasi answers the door. Cracked marble for skin and silver eyes with gold pupils. He proceeds to give the crew a fake name since they were strangers and this side of the astral sea is known for dangerous people. After being prompted by his reason for existence he came up with some lame excuse so the group wouldn't try to go inside to his sanctum. With their interest sated, they leave the hidden persona alone and continue on their travels. Breaking into the territory of Doomspace the crew can't help but take in the black hole's ominous presence as it distorts the surrounding starlight, creating an ethereal aura that bathes the nearby celestial bodies in a haunting, silvery glow. That's when they encounter a monstrosity known to many as the end of worlds, a terrasque, sleeping and floating aimlessly through space. With Captain piloting they activate their new cloaking feature and coast past the living mountain with their breaths held tightly.
  On the 25th of Mirtul, the Peggars arrive at Valt. A heavily cratered moon with one sole building acting as a landing beacon for the ship. As the ship makes contact with the surface, a blue Kobald named Crunch comes out to greet the Peggers and explain that they are a bit late and the boss has been waiting for them. Valkyrie and Laylin decide to hang back on the ship in case they need to make a swift exit. The remaining crew follows the Captain into a stairwell that descends into the core of this moon. After a few flights they enter a rectangular room scribed across all the walls with words in draconic script. On either short wall are pairs of doors with hourglass symbols on them, and in the center is a witch's circle also containing draconic script on it. They test with the word open to notice the ceiling lower a foot and the entry doors shut. After further investigation it's revealed the words repeat every foot so as to not lose the answer by failing prior attempts. They remember the last thing he mentioned to Rai in his sending, he desires silence. Spixi drags her finger to each letter and as the last one glows the hourglass symbol ignites with the arcane energy and the doors slide open.
  With the unlocking of the door, a gust of temporal energy swirls around the party, manifesting in an ethereal dance of light and shadow. As the doorway swings open, the radiant aura within the lair unveils its guardian—an imposing figure bathed in the luminous glow of the Astral Plane. The temporal guardian, an elderly human with flowing white hair and beard that cascades like a waterfall of moonlight. His age-worn face bears the marks of ancient wisdom, and his eyes, though aged, glimmer with the intensity of untold magical power. His presence commands the very essence of the weave, and strands of magical energy seem to emanate from his form, swirling in radiant patterns. His eyes lock onto the group, and the magical energy around him intensifies. The flowing energies of the weave wrap around his outstretched hand, forming an ethereal staff that crackles with the essence of temporal mastery. He greets every member with familiarity and reveals his past. Several hundreds of thousands of years (for him) ago, he decided to sway from his duties as Keeper of the Draconian Sands and instead seek further power. The Planetary Express Gang at some point got involved and were tasked with taking him down. Their encounter was successful for them as they put him on his final breaths and in a split moment instinct retreated back in time. With revenge in the front of his mind he planned to stop them this time, but ultimately failed. This begins the Ivory Paradox, constantly failing against the Peggers only to retreat and try again. No plan of his succeeded as even killing them all as babies would only have others step in to avenge them. Chronalis explains that he has decided to accept his fate, either he will die at the hands of the Peggers or he will destroy everything to achieve his silence. To his surprise, the crew invites him back to the ship for one last dinner to which he accepts. The assistant Kobold Crunch interrupts Chronalis in the mid of his speak expressing his interest to eat to which Chronalis uses power word kill snuffing out Chrunch's soul. Over Valtish's alright meal the group asks all manner of questions that Chronalis has already heard a near infinite time. He answers each one honestly, but as Punkin wants to know her birth parents' names he explains that they both know it's not his place to provide that information. He expresses his desire to fight back in the hourglass chamber since it is only fitting, he dies next to the thing he was originally meant to guard.
  At the pinnacle of the lair, stands the awe-inspiring Dragon Hourglass—an imposing obelisk that stretches towards the astral heavens. Its structure is a fusion of crystalline elegance and arcane grandeur, capturing the very essence of temporal dominion. The hourglass, massive and otherworldly, is comprised of layers upon layers of ethereal material, each one a plane unto itself. The crystalline grains within defy conventional perception, refracting the ambient light in kaleidoscopic patterns that seem to dance with the very essence of dragons' lives. The upper chamber of the hourglass houses the potentiality of dragons yet to come. Here, spectral images of dragon hatchlings, majestic wyrms, and ancient beings swirl in an intricate ballet. The sands in this realm are but possibilities, shimmering with the unforged destinies of dragons that may grace the multiverse in times yet unknown. In the lower chamber, the sands represent the dragons of the present—their lives, their triumphs, and their inevitable destinies. Each grain is a singular existence, a testament to the vast and varied tapestry of draconic existence across realms and planes. As the sands flow from the upper to the lower chamber, the Dragon Hourglass becomes a living chronicle of dragonkind. It is a visual hymn to the enduring legacy of these majestic creatures, an unbroken thread that weaves through the very fabric of the multiverse. The ambient magic of the hourglass pulses with a rhythm that seems to echo the heartbeat of all dragons. Every grain, every moment, resonates with the collective essence of draconic life. The very air around the Dragon Hourglass is charged with a palpable energy that hints at the cosmic significance of each falling grain.
  As the Peggers stand before the Keeper of the Draconian Sands, his elderly form seems to shimmer with an inner luminosity. Suddenly, the magical energy that enshrouds him erupts in a dazzling display of temporal might. Waves of radiant energy cascade outward, creating a rippling effect that distorts the very fabric of reality. With each heartbeat, the guardian unleashes torrents of time magic, causing rifts of alternate timelines to materialize throughout the chamber. These rifts shatter across their vision like ephemeral glimpses into parallel realities, each one revealing echoes of events that might have been or may yet come to pass. Spectral images of divergent timelines manifest—scenes of victory and defeat, joy and sorrow, chaos and order. Passing reflections of themselves in different outfits, or relatives and friends, or complete strangers. The air crackles with the energy of countless possibilities converging and diverging in an intricate dance of temporal fate. As the temporal rifts scatter across the room, the very architecture seems to ripple and warp. Platforms shift in and out of existence, and the celestial murals on the walls depict scenes that transcend the boundaries of linear time. The crew find themselves standing at the crossroads of past, present, and future. Navigating this temporal minefield becomes a challenge, as the rifts carry echoes of their own actions. A momentary glimpse of a future clash or a shadowy reflection of a past encounter may provide insight or deception, adding an unpredictable layer to the unfolding confrontation. He warns Spixi to stay out of this by using his time breath to age Helion 60 years killing him instantly. This reveals Helion's true form, a ghost, once in his first life lived in full servitude to Lathander and died of old age was then tasked by the morninglord to return to the mortal plane and carry out his task. Helion takes over the corpse of Crunch before the fight begins.
  Captain, Valtish, and Rhui aren't able to evade the first wave of time distortion. A rift opening up in the very center of Valtish causing him to be ripped into and through multiple time lines only to swap him for himself from another outcome. Captain and Rhui instead fall into the distortion and two unknown figures emerge instead, a pair of Warforge calling each other C0W1 and Dent. Chronalis seems to acknowledge them calling them "The Unfettered Few" before rushing to Dent and landing a powerful blow to the chest. Rai lands a few solid shots before another wave of distortions causes her and Valtish to be swapped for Zindier and Dammeros, fellow Unfettered Few members, appear before the Peggers. Dammeros immediately reaches into his massive vase and Spixi becomes completely intrigued as he pulls out an extremely high-level spell that deals a hefty blow to Chronalis. Chronalis continues his assault on Dent showing his discontent for them to be there, meanwhile Zindier channels her draconian powers to cast spirit guardians and plant him in place, Helion is transported out as a divine being named Leovalor rips through the rift and unleashes a powerful chromatic orb sending Chronalis reeling. The battle continues on as Spixi reaches into the vase and pulls out a devil to serve her in combat. C0W1 swapped back out for the Captain who felt like a mere moment passes and now the battle field has a lot of changes to it. Through the aid of the Unfettered Few, our Peggers manage to weaken Chronalis enough. He erupts a time breath attack that kills Valtish, turning him into a dried out shell and another that reverts Lottie to her younger years and causes Rhui to stop existing. As the battle in the Celestial Nexus reaches its climax, the Time Thief's elderly form shimmers with an intensity that defies mortal comprehension. The magical energy that enshrouds him becomes a blinding radiance, and with a resounding roar that echoes through the very threads of time, drawing the weave back into him the distortion that allows the Unfettered Few to intervene dissipates and the missing Peggers return. The guardian undergoes a profound transformation. From the dissipating form of the guardian emerges the true manifestation of Chronalis, the Time Dragon. The once elderly human is replaced by a colossal and majestic dragon, its scales aglow with the hues of the Astral Plane. Wings of ethereal energy stretch wide, and the dragon's form pulses with the raw power of temporal mastery. He activates his greatest trump card, temporal lag. For 2 minutes all time is frozen except for the guardian. Using this time, he opens another rift to bring an alternate timeline of Rhui on the Planetary Express who in her reality was in the middle of retreating from the moon. After he ends the temporal lag, he reveals his near divine form. Chronalis, now in the magnificent glory of draconic majesty, fixates its gaze upon the Peggers. Eyes that shimmer like twin astral vortices lock onto the players with an otherworldly intelligence. The dragon's roar resonates with the thunderous echoes of countless timelines, and the very air quivers with the force of its presence. As the true form of Chronalis is revealed, the structural integrity of the celestial sanctum begins to crumble. Sections of the chamber break away, and temporal rifts tear through the very foundations of the lair. The guardian, now a colossal dragon, unleashes waves of temporal energy that surge through the room, causing celestial platforms to buckle and warp.
  Through the crumbling surface of Valt, the Planetary Express crashes through revealing Rhui as the pilot and urges everyone to get on. No time to question the reason for her sudden return, the crew gets into battle stations as the fight continues as the draconic hourglass drifts ever closer to the Eye of Doom. Rai and Spixi take their turns firing shots at the Keeper of the Draconian Sands, but he fought back with just as much strength, blasting the ship with Chronomancy charged force damage. This back and forth carried on until Chronalis was left in a familiar moment, his final breaths. Every part of him was screaming to retreat but his convictions had been made and he made direct eye contact with Rai and told her "Do what you are destined to do.". With a perfect shot, a masterful aim, the cannon ball embeds itself to the core of the Ivory Paradox's heart as he looks to Rai with grateful eyes. His form turns to sand as the crew now has the urgency to stop the Draconian Hourglass from heading into the Eye of Doom. Lottie pilots the heavily damaged ship towards the ancient artifact but as the air is dire a calming hand is placed on her shoulder, a human-like figure in blue monk vestiges stands in the middle of the cockpit. He tells Lottie that he can handle it from here and with a mere gaze from this being the hourglass and debris from Valt retrace their movements and reconstruct itself to how it was prior to the events. Then the structure on Valt's surface disappears and the sands of Chronalis form into a silvery egg that drifts into this figure's hand. He states the crew can refer to him as Fizben the Fabulous and he thanks them for helping his friend from their long-time suffering that only they could put an end to. As a repayment to their act, he has a gift for them when they return to Bral. Captain and the others ask Fizben if instead he can restore the ship and crew as they were before the fight. Fizben asks them if this is truly what they want and once they give consent to this reward, he restores things as they are, returning Rhui 2.0 to her timeline and restoring Valtish and Rhui to themselves before Chronalis's last time breath on them. The crew thanks Fizben for everything to which he replies "It's simply myself making us even. And do try to come up with a better name." before disappearing with the egg. They insisted that their name was perfect and set off towards Bral. 
  Following the same course, Spixi forgot about the Terrasque on the route of their journey. Better prepped for it however they evaded around it deftly. Then as they grew closer to the A.U.C they encountered the Balor that was still hunting Maddox. He could pick up his scent on Rai and through a failed deception on her end he insisted that she take him to Maddox. Spixi messages Mr. Strickland asks if he can get involved to which he replies: "Why don't you just take him to Maddox and get it over with?". So, Rai begrudgingly takes the Balor once they dock on Bral to see Maddox. It doesn't take very long for Maddox to clear his name and intimidate the fiend to return to the hells. We will start our session the day after the crew returns to the rock of Bral on the 19th of Kythorn, the day before the Summer Solstice.

Character(s) interacted with

Chronalis the Time Thief

Notes

Quotes through the session:   "I met with a mafia boss" - Punkin   "whats a lick between bros?" - Misty   "OMG chicken and stars... it's a prophecy fortold" - Sarah   "every now and then you hear the dawnbringer cums!" - Maddie   "weezing Uhm just a moment" - Helion   "Then we got a fuckin chance bro"  - Rai   "I also only know what I know" - Rhui   "I don't like that I have 36 hit points" - Spixi   "Thats enough!" - Helion   "Who are you" Why are you on Valtish? And why is he dead??" - Captain   "Go on, stick your arm in there, it feels so good." - Dammeros
Report Date
21 Jan 2024
Primary Location
Secondary Location