Session 25 - Inside the Fortress
The party begins to wonder how they should play out the situation to progress here, none of the doors seem to have any handles or knobs, so they decide to allow the robed figure to show them the way - they slowly advance time and let him take his path. Realizing that maybe they should let the soldiers forward to provide a distraction in case the wizards take notice of the party, they stop the wizards' timeline again and allow the soldiers to cross the bridge first. As they once again advance the wizard's timeline, they watch the robed figure run towards one of the doors in the courtyard - before he reaches his destination they party hears a loud cracking noise, and sees the lightning bolts have struck the bridge and the mortar between the stones has been heated and blown away by the magical spell, sending stony debris in all directions.
The party then watches the robed figure approach the door, and begin casting a spell. They allow time to pass as he finishes his spell while Qumnferneffle attempts to identify the spell being cast, the robed figure disappears entirely in a second. The party then realizes that with the bridge destroyed and the doors requiring a geas to allow passage which they didn't fully catch, they are now without a way to cross.
As the party discusses ways to get across, and ducks and weaves in between flying rocks and chunks of stone to get back toward the chasm, Thoradin begins to collect the stones from the air and place them back where the bridge used to be, the party take little notice until he has almost finished, and then crosses the gap carefully as the stones react slowly to their weight, sinking a few inches per second, but not enough to collapse the bridge any significant amount. As they cross, they notice the soldiers have been losing the fight in the few seconds they allowed time to flow, so they take up positions to help them in their battle, but notice the golems appear to be moving very slowly on their own, then they begin to move faster and faster until they are moving full-speed hammer away at the elves. The party turns the elves' timeline back up to allow them to defend themselves, but the wizards appears to remain stationary on the balconies.
After a tense fight the golems were defeated, though Thoradin took a few too many blows and ended up on the ground, and Qumnferneffle had gone all magic-mad and cast recklessly enough to turn himself blue. Luckily the ranger had kept special care of three elven spell cradles - though two had cracked and seemed worthless now, one remained and was used to bring him back to the land of the conscious. No cure for Qumnferneffle was found. The party had already struck several blows at range against the wizards during the fight and as they unfroze time, they saw the damage was fatal for both, sending one flying across to the other balcony and over the edge.
As the body of the wizard fell, Godrin noticed that this was the exact same wizard who they observed passing through the door with a geas on the other side of the chasm before the fight. A curious fact. He also noticed that the wizard was wearing a clockwork amulet of some sort around his neck, and as he reached out to grab it, he experienced a shattering of his identity, feeling like he existed on a thousand different timelines at once before being re-assembled back into himself. He placed the amulet in the bag of holding for now.
Noticing that the gears on the main courtyard door were moving slightly, they resumed the flow of time and the door unfolded and opened to reveal two more golems - but the party just froze them in time and passed through the doorway. The hallway within appeared to have many mechanical gears and pistons, belts and wheels, but a short distance ahead it opened up to a large library, with a hundred different blue-robed wizards reading books and moving from one area of the library to another, all frozen in time except one - quietly studying at one of the large desks lining the center of the room.
The party approached and attempted to converse with him, but found him unable or uninterested in explaining himself, and when asked about Solomir, he praised him and heralded him as a genius, and spiraled into what would seem to be mad raving about Solomir's capabilities and powers. The party was unimpressed and Godrin drew his bow on the wizard, who seemed to become intimidated, and began to back away from the party before disappearing entirely.
The party discusses a bit, Qumnferneffle goes on a short walk (get it) to another wizard and finds a similar amulet, and experiences the same mind-shattering effect as Godrin did when he touched one. While debating on how to proceed, the wizard suddenly appears in front of them, still reading his book, oblivious to their presence yet again. This time though he party sees another wizard standing right where he disappeared before while backing away from Godrin's threats of physical harm.
The party stands dumbfouded for a moment deciding what to do.
The party then watches the robed figure approach the door, and begin casting a spell. They allow time to pass as he finishes his spell while Qumnferneffle attempts to identify the spell being cast, the robed figure disappears entirely in a second. The party then realizes that with the bridge destroyed and the doors requiring a geas to allow passage which they didn't fully catch, they are now without a way to cross.
As the party discusses ways to get across, and ducks and weaves in between flying rocks and chunks of stone to get back toward the chasm, Thoradin begins to collect the stones from the air and place them back where the bridge used to be, the party take little notice until he has almost finished, and then crosses the gap carefully as the stones react slowly to their weight, sinking a few inches per second, but not enough to collapse the bridge any significant amount. As they cross, they notice the soldiers have been losing the fight in the few seconds they allowed time to flow, so they take up positions to help them in their battle, but notice the golems appear to be moving very slowly on their own, then they begin to move faster and faster until they are moving full-speed hammer away at the elves. The party turns the elves' timeline back up to allow them to defend themselves, but the wizards appears to remain stationary on the balconies.
After a tense fight the golems were defeated, though Thoradin took a few too many blows and ended up on the ground, and Qumnferneffle had gone all magic-mad and cast recklessly enough to turn himself blue. Luckily the ranger had kept special care of three elven spell cradles - though two had cracked and seemed worthless now, one remained and was used to bring him back to the land of the conscious. No cure for Qumnferneffle was found. The party had already struck several blows at range against the wizards during the fight and as they unfroze time, they saw the damage was fatal for both, sending one flying across to the other balcony and over the edge.
As the body of the wizard fell, Godrin noticed that this was the exact same wizard who they observed passing through the door with a geas on the other side of the chasm before the fight. A curious fact. He also noticed that the wizard was wearing a clockwork amulet of some sort around his neck, and as he reached out to grab it, he experienced a shattering of his identity, feeling like he existed on a thousand different timelines at once before being re-assembled back into himself. He placed the amulet in the bag of holding for now.
Noticing that the gears on the main courtyard door were moving slightly, they resumed the flow of time and the door unfolded and opened to reveal two more golems - but the party just froze them in time and passed through the doorway. The hallway within appeared to have many mechanical gears and pistons, belts and wheels, but a short distance ahead it opened up to a large library, with a hundred different blue-robed wizards reading books and moving from one area of the library to another, all frozen in time except one - quietly studying at one of the large desks lining the center of the room.
The party approached and attempted to converse with him, but found him unable or uninterested in explaining himself, and when asked about Solomir, he praised him and heralded him as a genius, and spiraled into what would seem to be mad raving about Solomir's capabilities and powers. The party was unimpressed and Godrin drew his bow on the wizard, who seemed to become intimidated, and began to back away from the party before disappearing entirely.
The party discusses a bit, Qumnferneffle goes on a short walk (get it) to another wizard and finds a similar amulet, and experiences the same mind-shattering effect as Godrin did when he touched one. While debating on how to proceed, the wizard suddenly appears in front of them, still reading his book, oblivious to their presence yet again. This time though he party sees another wizard standing right where he disappeared before while backing away from Godrin's threats of physical harm.
The party stands dumbfouded for a moment deciding what to do.
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