"Threat neutralized. Proceeding to scan the area for useful things."
Riven moved forward letting his darkvision scan the room the creature had been hiding in.
Riven inspects the room of grotesqueries.
In the back corner, under soot, rubble and the remains of some plates and what appears to be bone fragments, Riven spies a large dusty ceramic jug with strange markings on it. It feels to be full of liquid.
He also notices tiny puncture marks on the dried skins that appear to be in consistent patterns of some kind.
The patterns appear to be some form of braille.
I wonder what became of the ghost boy now that that thing is dead.
Huh. They're Braille on there.
Tenchi inspects his blade for blood and impurities before sheathing his sword and rejoining the others in the main wedding room. "I wonder where the 'joyous couple' are."
Aterro sees that Tyko is still around, looking on silently. Perhaps something else still binds his spirit.
Thratch takes a look around for the remains of the kid. Maybe they need a proper burial.
Riven puts his mind to work analysing the jug.
Ashlyn has remained oddly quiet as they stroll through the undead corpses. Her breath catches and tears form as the horror grows seeing the corpses of children. Even as her comrades move to fight the boy, she can't bring herself to attack child.
Once the battle is through, she squeezes the hand of the ghost boy, kneeling down. "Can you take us to whatever else needs to be done to set you free?"
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Aterro shakes his head at Tenchi. "I think those two are either long dead or long since moved on to other places. This is just an odd mockery of a thing long past.
Mind you, what think you of that cake? I guess we would not need more rations, what with the sisters and all, but Torm only knows when next we'll have anything more than dried meat and odd nuts. Think you it safe to consume?"
On a whim, Aterro goes next to one of the small-talking undead guests and asks, "Pardon me, but when do you think they will serve that cake?"
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Thratch inspects the remains of the wight. They don't seem to have made any difference on Tyko's presence.
Meanwhile, Riven inspects the jug, not being able to discern much apart from it feels magical. It may require longer inspection to learn more.
Ashlyn approaches Tyko and feels the smallest sensation of his hand as she grasps it. Tyko looks at her blankly and gestures east in response to her question, but does not move.
Aterro, curious about the cake, questions a guest, who barely notices him and quietly rasps,
"Perhaps when the happy couple arrive any minute now."
"Are you with the officiant?" it also wheezes at the cleric.
A familiar voice calls out from the cloak room, a lost tiefling warlock,
"I MUST BORROW THE BARBARIAN! IT'S QUITE URGENT BUSINESS!"
"BOY! It pleases me that you've escaped your captors! Stay with this group and look out for them!" the voice adds.
And with a flash of light Moq vanishes.
"What is a cake?"
You notice a shimmering gold spectre float into the dead wedding room from the next room to the east.
Riven holds the jug for a long few moments studying it before turning back to the others. As the flash of light and the barbarian is yanked away he quickly moves to stand beside Tenchi and Ashlyn.
"I have found some sort of container with magical liquid but have no clues as to it's functions. I am concerned by the attrition happening to those we have included in our unit but I will not abandon you all or my duty. Whatever holds the spirit of the child here likely still exists, and is tied to this never ending wedding. Our weakened forces will be most effective if concentrated all together. Our exits forward seem to be directly East from the room with the undead guests or to the south east in the room Attero appears to currently be investigating."
As the group is discussing desserts, Tenchi's head suddenly whips up and he draws his blade free of it's scabbard.
"A spirit is coming. Prepare yourselves."
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"Yes..." ventures Aterro at the question. "I, ah, I am supposed to meet him and assist with the preparations, but I can't find him right now. Can you point him out to m--" Just then he catches Tenchi's warning and marches over to the monk.
"Eh? Are you certain?" he hisses, taking a fresh grip on his large sword.
Spotting the creature, Ashlyn will respond quickly, as she quietly moves against the wall behind whatever cover she can find doing her best to avoid the direction the specter is going. "There is no need to provoke it. It does not seem to have noticed us. Let us away and avoid unnecessary bloodshed.
Riven's body shifts and becomes transparent as he follows Ashlyn's lead moving the the wall.
+4=16
S%#+, again?
Thratch tries to hide somewhere inconspicuous.
The specter moves around the room briefly between the walking corpses and returns to the dark, eastern room, floating upward.
Within the eastern room you see multiple glowing spirits (about 10, but it's hard to be certain) circling the ceiling about 15' up. Your instincts tell you it's probably best to stay away.
Aterro notices that the large octagonal room off the buffet contains a decaying arch and the pale bodies of a man and woman, dressed as bride and groom, held in an eternal embrace, just about to kiss, but unmoving.
Dust hangs around them like a starfield, and they're watched by a ring of blackened corpses, several frozen in place, others moving at a glacial pace, as though something is altering time within the room.
The far end appears to open to another room containing what looks like a large swan floating on something.
As the specter chooses not to engage the group, Tenchi bows silently in it's direction, secures Wan'di's corpse, and says "Which way?"
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"Come! Everyone, this way," Aterro says, pointing the others at the octagonal room. "Ever since I first encountered this wedding, I have been bothered by it's particular un-state in time. To hold a thing un-done like this is..unnatural.
Were it any other event, I might simply be bothered by it, but still find the strength to move on. But for a holy matrimony to be frozen like this...'tis just unseemly.
Hence, here, we seem to have the source of the disturbance. Do any of you see a way we can disrupt whatever fell magicks are in place and let all these shuffling corpses have the end that have earned?"
Aterro stares at the ring of corpses, trying to determine if they are held in place by some kind of lingering magic.
Riven studies the magics that are slowing time around them seeking a way to subvert or navigate them.
Riven is able to discern that the closer things are to the embracing couple, the more frozen they are, until the very air itself is hardened immediately around them, holding them in suspension.
This appears to be the work of very powerful magic that may have been deliberately cast to freeze the couple in a single moment of time and prevent the terrible fate that has befallen the rest of the wedding party.
There appears to be a gap of about 3 feet on the perimeter of the octagonal room where time is only barely slowed, which should allow passage to the adjoining room and the large floating swan, albeit slowly .
"The temporal distrotions are centered on the couple prepared to engaged in affections. Any attempt to approach them will end up causng you to become mired in time and unable to escape. However should we remain in the outermost 3 feet of the room, by my calculations we will only be slowed to half our current temporal speed. This would allow us to reach the room beyond."
Riven will stick close to the others but move toward that room if they all concur with his analysis.
What the hell is a temporary discussion, and why does that mean we need to keep away? Thratch asks.
"Riven, what are you saying? I only understood about half of what you said."
"...Do not approach the couple or you will be stuck in time. You can move to the swan room by remaining in the 3 feet of the room against the walls."
Riven looks at them both trying to see if he was being understood.
Ashlyn is caught, lost in thought at the couple's kiss, stolen by time.
"I wonder." She finally says, "Do you think, if they completed their kiss. The wedding would end?"
"Riven, you seem to understand this better than any of us. Do you believe someone moving purposefully could push one into the other before the magic stopped them?"
"If someone was stopped, and we had, say a rope tied around them. Would time continue once they were pulled away from the couple?"
You suddenly recall learning once about an ancient wedding tradition where the souls of the couple-to-be are bound together inside a large, enchanted swan upon betrothal. The couple are married, they seal the marriage with a kiss, and the swan releases their souls back to them.
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"You may be on to something there, Ashlyn. Or, at least, for whatever can be done, what happens if something is caught in time?"
Aterro starts looking around for something long. A pole if he can find it, if not he'll just knock over a non cake-holding buffet table with a "pardon me" to the undead around and bring it over to the circle.
He first chucks in several rocks of charred foodstuffs, seeing what the effect is. Then he just pushes his pole or table in, and then tries to get it out. He does it a little at a time, trying to see if it gets stuck, or can be manipulated freely if he stands in a normal time-flow space and keeps a grip on it.
"Uncertain. I suggest attempting with inanimate objects before living subjects. If damage is done to objects then can be replaced. You all...can not. My best guess however based on the dust motes is anything moving toward then would come to a stop unable to continue forward."
Riven studies the area further looking for clues and will send Gamma off toward the Swan room to investigate. He will pull another fuzz ball from his bag and drop it to the floor nearby.
I suggest attempting with inanimate objects before living subjects.
Tenchi draws and throws a tanto so that it will strike the groom by the handle, in a non-lethal area like a leg.
Let's just go around. Ain't nothing can be done for the poor bastards right now.
Aterro throws the objects into the time field, and in each case they slow as they get closer to the couple, coming to a complete stop about a foot around them and floating in suspended animation.
Likewise when he pushes in the table leg, it comes to a complete stop just a foot from the couple. He can move the end of it in real time, but sees it ripple and freeze as the chronal effects of the field take hold. He tries to withdraw the leg, only to find that the far end won't move. Well, perhaps in several centuries.
Riven pulls another fuzz ball from the bag of tricks and throws it against the floor.
This time the fuzz ball becomes a rat.
Tenchi throws an object into the room as well, only to see it slow to a complete stop as it nears the groom.
At this point you realize that it may well be impossible to move the couple without breaking the magic that holds them as time has completely stopped and what you see is a single moment that's held fast for years upon years.
"There still exists a way to move past this room into the next which may provide clues how to restore the temporal state of this area."
Riven slowly moved around the outer edge of the room to show them the path to where Gamma already went. He motioned to the Rat to follow. "Come Delta."
The summoned owl flies boar wanders over to the swan. It takes several minutes longer than usual due to the time distortions.
Riven can see Gamma on the other side, hovering above sniffing at the large swan. It appears to be a construct of some kind that's floating atop a stream of unidentified liquid.
It takes Riven about five minutes to work across the edge of the octagon due to the time distortions.
When he reaches the room he sees the swan is ornately constructed out of some kind of seamless, smooth silvery metal. It floats on a looping stream red wine that's in a narrow trench in the middle of the white marble floor.
The small chamber is in a reverse "L" shape with a small doorway on the south wall and a closed door on the north wall around the bend.
The southern room has some decayed scraps of boxes and molded remnants of wedding gifts. Everything in the room is broken and decayed save for a large, asymmetrical golden chandelier that hangs on the ceiling. It has empty spaces for numerous candles.
There's another closed door on the southeast wall of the gift room.
Riven studies the room and potential exits looking for more threats while he waited for the others to join him.
"CAN YOU HEAR ME RIVEN?" shouts Tenchi from the other side of the room.
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Riven tilts his head to the side looking back at Tenchi. "I do not believe that an answer of 'no' would be valid. I have answered and thus logically I can hear you."
Without warning, you all hear a high-pitched hum near the entrance of the octagonal room. Sparks of energy form in a circle about 5 feet wide on the ceiling. Within the circle a smoky vortex rotates faster and faster, as a bright white light widens within.
You hear a familiar voice scowling as he gets closer to the opening, finally dropping through to the floor below as the vortex then closes as quickly as it opened. The impact rattles some of the nearby tables, kicking up a fair amount of dust.
A cloaked figure slowly stands, brushing himself off, looking up at the closed portal.
Vehemence the Penitent has returned!
"At long last, I have FINALLY cast off those unusual shackles in favor of a pair more familiar... How fortunate."
At the sight of Thratch and whomever else he may see in his immediate vision, the furnacelord's countenance perks up in a manner more jovial than one might recall having ere been.
"BOY! YOU'RE STILL BREATHING! HAVE YOU YET OVERCOME THAT SNAKEWENCH??"
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"Vehemence, it is good that your existence persists. Where are the others who went with you on the prior occasions? We have undergone some minor changes and upgrades since you have been with us last."
Riven looks much the same as before with his rusty sword and shield at his side, but his mithril chest now has a small circular button from the cubic gate he implanted there. He has a Boar and a Rat beside him as he stands there watching.
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The first things Vehemence sees besides several of his comrades is the room he's in, with an assortment of tables covered in molded gray remnants that may have once been food, with a large, perfect white wedding cake in the center that appears unspoiled.
Along the eastern wall is a doorway opening to an octagonal chamber, the current interest of the party. It contains a young couple held in a frozen, eternal embrace, just moments from sealing their wedding with a kiss. They're surrounded by dust and particles held in suspension and several burnt but standing corpses in various phases of temporal distortion. Several foreign objects are held in suspension near the couple, signs of the group testing the temporal field which holds them.
To the other side of the octagonal room is a large, silvery swan which floats upon a neverending stream of wine. Riven has already made his way to this room and waits for the rest to join him.
You suddenly recall learning once about an ancient wedding tradition where the souls of the couple-to-be are bound together inside a large, enchanted swan upon betrothal. The couple are married, they seal the marriage with a kiss, and the swan releases their souls back to them.
"Trusty forgeling, it is encouraging to see you! It has been so long... Yes. Our other accomplices... They are, well, preoccupied. There's another realm 'round this one, floating yonder... It wasn't hellish, but well, I didn't like it. I managed to make the ruler let me leave."
Surveying the contents of the oddity before them, Vehemence sighs.
"'Twould seem that there's always some witchery about..."