Mayor Ogden thanks Tarek and unseals the portfolio, removing the contained report and scanning it quickly. She shales her head and hands the report to Mayor Mierene. Not unexpected news, but I will leave the details of the guard arrangement with Mieren. Right now, I must focus all my attention on my experiment—and I, for one, am happy that you are here to assist with it. Ogden finishes, with a pointed glance at Mayor Mieren.
Mayor Ogden smiles politely to Havelock and answers his questions Thank you Havelock. Yes, our arrangement here is unique for certain. You see Uringen is actually two cities. Due to our, er, situation with the clock tower half of the city is, well, unstuck in time and fades from this reality for a period of time. I represent that half. The good Mayor Mieren presides over the half of the city that remains in this time and place. I know, it is all rather...complicated.
Smiling again, she turns her attention back to the party at large, once again speaking about the purpose for the Pathfinder presence. Your role in the experiment is very straightforward. I will need several people to observe the westward-facing clock, and record everything you see or hear—taste, smell, or touch as well if it becomes necessary. As members of the Pathfinder Society, your experience with...unusual situations is legendary, and this alignment will certainly qualify as ‘unusual’—one for your Pathfinder Journals, I hope!
Mayor Ogden seems genuinely excited about the upcoming events. She does her best to answer any questions the group may have.
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This is fascinating. What can you share about the experience? How long does it last? Mayor Ogden, Do you know you have phased into another reality or does it feel like a blink of an eye when you return? Must you stay in the borders of the city while you are on this other plane of existence?
Mayor Mieren, are people able to walk in the area where the other half of the city once occupied? Do your citizens take any special precautions?
It seems we are not only observing the experience but we are also becoming part of the experiment. We should be made aware of anything unusual that may happen. I am also curious if you know of anything about a temporal essence?
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Isador watches the mayors during the brief exchange of pleasantries but is more interested in observing the activity in the city streets. He quickly focuses his attention back on Mayor Ogden upon hearing that they will have to participate in the "Experiment".
Sensing that this new development might impose more of a danger than he originally thought, he thinks about the what might befall the group during the transition.
Mayor Ogden, I am not sure that I heard the response about what happens to those caught in the impacted part of town during the "unstuck" period. I assume,based on our assignment, that others have been "phased" and returned unharmed. Has anyone ever not returned from one of these incidents?
Mayor Ogden smiles and waves her hands excitedly, answering the party's questions.
Oh no, none of you need to worry about becoming unstuck. As you might know, when this part of town becomes ‘unstuck,’ as it is referred to in the local vernacular, we lose all sense of how much time has passed. I am hoping that the timepieces I have constructed will allow us to keep track of time while we remain out of phase with the rest of Uringen. While I’m observing my timepieces, I will not be able to pay attention to other events in the tower. That is where you come in.
The experiment is time sensitive, however, so you will need to be in place at the proper moment. I’d say 11:45 will be enough time to get yourselves set up and prepared for the event itself, but you may have better insights as to how much time you need to investigate beforehand. Be careful when using the clock tower to tell time; the northern clock face is the accurate one.
It is about Ogden glances upward toward the clock tower 9:30 in the eve. Feel free to rest up at the old Oaken Knot Tavern or inspect the tower before tonight's events. Since you all were such a help to Jamel, I have already made arrangements to foot the bill at the Oak. Do what you must before the experiment Pathfinders. I am eager to hear your insights to the interesting phenomenon.
With that, Mayor Ogden politely excuses herself and allows the Archons to investigate to prepare before the appointed time.
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Tarek looks to the Archons after the mayor walks away. From what we were told by Venture Captain Smine, one of our main goals is to collect this temporal essence. He mentioned that it can be collected in the middle of the clock face alignment. I am not sure if he meant during that time frame or if we actually need to be in front of the clock face. If we need to climb the clock to gather this material then it may be wise to prep the tower with climbing gear. If it is more like catching fire flies in a jar then it will be far easier. We can discuss our plans over some food and drink at the tavern. Nothing bad has ever happened after an evening of drinking. Tarek lets out a laugh and waits for the others to share their thoughts
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Hmmm, nothing bad from a night of drinking? My friend, you must have only drank water.
With a chuckle I head to the tavern.
you know, it sounds like we might get disorientated. Good thing our wayfinders have a compass in them. Just to be safe, I think we should mark each of the clock faces with chalk with the cardinal direction they face.
Reaching into my pack, I produce a large stick of chalk that would make any small child jealous to have.
After speaking to Mayor Ogden, the party decides to catch a little R and R before the big event and head to the Oaken Knot.
The group is able to reach the tavern without difficulty. Created from the wood that earned the tavern its name and decorated in intricately carved interlocking designs, the Oaken Knot is not for want of customers. Many of the towns alchemists are present, as well as some townfolk. The agents also catch the fluttering hint of the presence of fey in the room.
Before too long the Archons manage to secure themselves a reserved table, no doubt the mayor's influence, and are supplied with drinks on the house as promised. As the group takes a moment to down a beverage, they spy a mighty unusual sight. A small creature, not much bigger than a jumbo sized robin, is perched on the corner of a chair not far from where the group is seated. Dressed in a long shawl dyed in a vibrant rainbow, with her hair wrapped up into miniscule braids adorned with tiny blossoms, she rubs her cricket like legs emitting a haunting but pleasing tune. The small thing, Eloriand recognizes as a fey known as a grig, certainly has her audience of the larger folk captivated. She turns her head and Eloriand lets the group know that she is smiling at them.
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So that is a Grig? First time I have seen one. I guess we can say, She's got legs and knows how to use them. Hard to believe one of her kind was responsible for giving the travelers such a headache in the Embeth Forest. El, why do you think she is smiling at us?
That was a fine meal after our long journey here but I think it is time we started to focus our attention on tonight. I think marking the tower, as Havelockk mentioned, will be a good idea. We don't know how disorienting this experience will be. I am a little concerned about the mayor's mention of needing extra guards. We may need to be on our toes for any who wish to interfere with the Tower's alignment. We can also speak to mayor about getting a container to house this essence.
Tarek finishes his drink, wipes his mouth and pushes himself back from the table I think it may be wise to head over to the tower and survey the situation. I think I have had my fill and I am ready to go when everyone is finished.
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Eloriand waits for a moment before answering, waiting for Caoilte to tell everyone she is smiling at him or something. I am not sure. Maybe I should try to ask her.
Eloriand will make his way over to the Grig and attempt to converse with her. Eloriand is specifically interested in anything she might be willing to share about the temporal experiments and the events expected tonight.
+2 more if Humans are involved, +2 for Urban
Not sure if a specific skill is required to talk to the Fey creature. Eloriand will try normal conversation first. If offering wine or other beverage is appropriate he will offer to do so.
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A fine idea in talking to the grig.
Reflecting on Tarek's words, Yeah, time travel can be a very disorienting experience. Did I mentino I was snet on a quest for the Sky Key and went back in time to before the Azlanti rose up and suppressed the reptiles that walked this earth and then to ancient Azlant itself to actually feel the power of Aroden while he lved and reined in helping mankind?
Setting my drink down, i tap the scabbard with Ae-Dee Ate at my hip, and then lost in a momet of thought, I watch what EL does next as I mentally prepare to head on out.
The grig smiles at Eloriand as he saunters over. She rubs her legs together and chirps. 'ello there bigund. Could not help but notice you and your fresh faces over there enjoying a bit of Oak's finest. Hope you Uringen to your liking'
The grig seems friendly toward Eloriand, and tilts her head to regard the ranger.
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Eloriand is put at ease by the Grig's friendly comments. Eloriand will introduce himself in his best Fey friendly manner and offer to buy the Fey Lady a drink. Hopefully the Grig will respond with her own name.
Well yes, I would say we are getting along fine. This is certainly a different place than we have experienced before with the strange experiments and clock. Do you live here or are you just visiting? Can you give a new comer any advice?
+2 more if Humans are involved, +2 for Urban
Eloriand engages the grig who seems quite affable. A drink you say? Why don't mind if I do, as long you behave yourself. I know what that elven blood does to a man. Whiskey, if ya don't mind. She giggles and winks and eagerly accepts the offered spirt. The small grig downs the man size cup in a gulp, and does her best to suppress an alcohol induced shudder. Yes, that's the trick, eh? Well thank you half man. My name is Seripan, and you have earned yourself a song or two.
Uringen hasn’t been around that long, and even it was built on something older.
Bones of the earth,
rise from the ground
Keep us sound
within your girth.
Serpin smiles at Eloriand and breaks into another song.
Reckless Rhona
Looked at her Tower
But was quite sour
For every hour
She heard every flaw.
Turns out, no matter how long you prepare, you can’t get it right the first time...But I wonder if it was her first time making the Tower? The Tower does seem to work... mostly. That’s a lot of gears and flim-flammery, and it’s amazing that even one of those faces is actually useful.
Rhona’ refers to Rhona Ambros, one of the founders of Uringen and the architect of the tower.
With that, Serpin takes a tiny bow and bids the party ranger farewell and hops onto the bar in an impressive leap, commiserating with some of the other tavern patrons.
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Isador watches the interaction between Eloriand and the grig with a mix of amazement and amusement.
Once the songs end and Eloriand returns to the group, Isador expresses agreement with investigating the tower.
Well, it seems you have quite the charm when dealing with fey women. Her song was quite interesting even if I did not understand most of its meaning.
I would like to investigate the tower before the experiment too. I still feel like we are being lead into something more dire than what the good mayor has described. If this "shift" has occurred many times before it seems odd that we are the first participants asked to watch the tower during the event.
He gulps down the remaining amber liquid before setting his glass back on the counter. let's have a good look at this tower.
The party finishes their drinks and makes way to investigate the famous Uringen clock tower. The tower stands five stories with four clock faces, each one facing one of the cardinal directions. The time on each, however, is different on each face. The time on the western clock face seems the most erratic as the arms spin and move in different directions.
The Archons enter the clock tower and are seen greeted by a small blue skinned pixie, Eoriand recognizes him as the same one the party saw with Mayor Ogden. The little blue fey flies up to the party and speaks Ah, hello there! Aurelia mentioned you might be stopping by! Welcome to the Tower—I would be Cerotious, aide-de-camp for Mayor Ogden and advisor of First World affairs to Uringen. Is there anything in particular that makes you curious?
Cerotious bows in mid air as he introduces himself. He straightens and readies to answer and questions the agents may have.
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Mr? Cerotious. Caoilte states the 'Mr' as a polite question. With all the arcanery here abouts, infinitely more than our humble group possesses, where's the sense in having us help? What's the math on that? Caoilte gestures to the arms and armor of the group, his axe quite evident. Were you bothered by an orc tribe or angry ogre, maybe bandits I'd understand. But you want us to observe, suggest and possibly take action on things we have much less of a chance at understanding then you folk of this hamlet. Seems stupid to me, and I don't think you all are stupid. So what gives?
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Cerotious, sir, I have a question you might be able to help with. I have a passing interest in alchemical and arcane things and I have read about a reagent called temporal essence that I might be able to harvest in or around the clock. Is there any information you can tell me about how I might collect some of this elusive substance?
+2 more if Humans are involved, +2 for Urban
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Looking at the tower and rubbing my head at the odd diplomatic approach of Caoilte I pull out my marking chalk and write the cardinal diection along with the date and time.
So, yeah. what is it in particular that you think is wrong with the clock tower and why is now such a crisis there Cerotious. What is it that we don't know that we need to know? Come now my "friend" what do we need to know?
The pixie flits over to Caoilte and speaks excitedly Your observations are even more crucial, as they are unbiased and not viewed with a practitioner’s eye. If you have any advice you could give Mayor Mieren, or Mayor Ogden for that matter, I’m sure either one would appreciate it...eventually anyway.
The small fellow then flies over to Eloriand Temporal essence? That is a bit beyond me I am afraid, but anything is likely to turn up when time is in flux!
The small blue man then cruises by Havelock and is about to say something when the magus tries to brace him a bit. The pixie looks a bit pout out. Well I never! The fey sizes up Havelock before he continues. I suppose you are just as eager about this experiment as I am, so I will let that one go for the sake of the experiment. As you can see, Ogden’s lesser apprentices are moving her timepieces to various places within the Tower, but my focus is here—on the circle. Most of the speculation up to this point thinks that Reckless Rhona messed up her construction...but I don’t think so.
The pixie flits over to an open windowsill, pointing at the narrow gap between the stonework. This is not the work of a sloppy person! No, I think that the fey circle interfered with her design somehow, and that’s why part of the town disappears...I just have to prove that somehow.
The pixie pauses for a moment, tracing a symbol on one of the white stones embedded in the wall. Aurelia mentioned that an unbiased and fresh set of eyes might reveal insight otherwise clouded by staring at it too long. As the senior assistant researcher and head pixie on the clock tower deciphering project, I take any potential leads very seriously.
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Tarek examines the tower in silence for several minutes as he takes in the intricate workings within the clock before speaking to the Pixie
Cerotious, I have a simple question to ask. What is the purpose of this clock? What did it's creator hope to achieve through it's construction? Is it meant to create a doorway through time or dimension? Obviously, it was not built to tell time or it's malfunction would not cause a section of town to phase out or get "stuck" as it was described by the mayor.
Tarek then stops his scrutiny of the clock and looks directly at the small fey Being a creature in tune with nature and the natural order of things, wouldn't this temporal tinkering be an issue for you and all fey? I would think such a creation would be considered an abomination, not much different than how we see the Worldwound.
I understand our purpose here is to help determine what happens when the clock faces align, but someone has to have some record of what it's creator was attempting to achieve even if nobody knows what really will happen.
Cerotious flies toward Tarek to answer his queries. If only I knew the purpose of this structure! Sure would answer more than a few questions, no doubt. No, I am afraid the only one who knows for certain is Reckless Rhona herself and, alas, she cannot answer us, hm? Cerotious thinks for a moment then answers Tarek's second question. You know, I have never thought of it that way. I suppose this has been the norm around here for so long that I consider it natural. Though you r question requires some contemplation. After the experiment of course.
While listening to Cerotious, Tarek draws on his training in engineering as he observes the tower. He notices that each stone was individually carved and fitted into its resting place, with no mortar used to hold the structure together—merely pressure and gravity. Closer inspection of the white blocks indicates that they are made of the crystalline stone known as quartzite instead of the more common granite.
Tarek turns his gaze upward and begins to study the gears. After 5 minutes of scrutinizing the mechanism, he sees gears within the clock tower are extraordinarily intricate and notices an anomaly in the mechanism; some of the gears should not be moving at all, or should be moving in the opposite direction, if they worked as typical gears.
While the Archons continue to examine the clock tower, Kat discovers that the stone of the tower is inscribed with numerical sigils, along with five repeating shapes. Each floor has one of these shapes embedded multiple times in the stonework, glass, and in the clockwork gears that run up the central shaft of the tower, but in subtle ways. On the first floor, a four- sided tetrahedron; the second, a hexahedron with six sides; the third, an octahedron with eight sides; the fourth, a dodecahedron with twelve sides, and at the very top in the Tower’s belfry, the twenty-sided icosahedron
In a break from this pattern, the ceiling of each floor other than the top floor contains the symbol of the floor above, and the floor of each floor other than the first floor contains the symbol of the floor below. With Havelock's arcane knowledge, he is able to correctly identify the shapes pointed out by Kat.
Havelock is quick to point out Kat's find to Cerotious. The very thing! Shape and form are so much more important to us of the First World than those of this world. I’m glad that you agree that these patterns are significant. Aurelia wasn’t so sure that they were more than an artful design, but I think these numbers are tied to the nature of the tower somehow
The party continues to examine the sigils and Havelock is eventually able to identify a few significant symbols buried beneath the jumble fo symbols inscribed throughout the tower. Creotious, when shown this discovery, becomes very excited, This is a major breakthrough! I am certain those symbols are a part of Ambros’s esoteric time magic, and that they will help us determine if the tower really can be used to travel through time!
Creotious suddenly snaps to attention. Oh my! The time! Hurry along now, we will soon be ready! With that he ushers the Archons from the tower.
The party makes their way to the Uringen town square at the appointed time.
They enter the square to make their way toward the clock tower...
Lanterns, torches, and magical lights of every color surround the central square around the Clock Tower, lighting up the night in a festive atmosphere as the metallic embellishments and clock faces catch the light, breaking it into prismatic hues. These hues shimmer and reflect off the fountain at the center of the town square. A hush descends over the gathered crowd as three of the faces start to move in time in the final minutes of the day. The arms of the fourth face swing wildly, teetering and tottering according to some unknown rhythm, until its minute arm moves steadily backwards, ticking and clicking in time with the other three faces.
The Archons notice the arcane energy spreads over the courtyard. Havelock can see the telltale sign of portals beginning to form about the square. As they make their way towards the clocktower to the east of the their location, the night sky is pierced with an alien cry as a mass of fey descend upon the town! A slew of small giggling fey like humanoids begin to attack the citizens present and throw items and break things with reckless abandon. In their midst floats a tiny winged creature.
Initiative Order
- Eloriand
- Fey Dragon
- Kat
- Caoilte
- Havelock
- Isador
- G1S
- G2S
- Tarek
The party engages the fey forces!
Eloriand snaps off a shot at the tiny fey dragon but misses the mark.
The small dragon is far enough from the perty so that they cannot see its expression, but its body language suggests annoyance. The small dragon waves its claws and is covered with a shimmering aura then slowly fades from view.
Caoilte steps up and slices one of the gremlins, sending it sprawling and bleeding on the dirt road of the town.
Havelock cats a spell, encasing Caoilte in a protective sphere.
Kat takes a step back and surveys the scene.
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Isador is mesmerized by the activity surrounding the clock and he was enjoying the spectacle until the rowdy fey make their appearance. He pulls his shortbow to the ready after seeing that their rude behavior is quickly turning to more violent.
He whispers to himself before snapping a shot off at an approaching gremlin. strange is as strange does....
The party gets back into the fray!
Isador snaps off a shot at one of the insect like gremlins. The shot hits the little bugger squarely, but bounces off causing only minimal damage.
The gremilin thought felled stands up, Caoiltes blow not doing as much damage as first thought, the bug like gremlins look at each other and mutter something in their language, with a giggle they dart in opposite directions. One heading toward the fountain throwing bits of refuse at passers by, while the other heads toward the nearest building and climbs in the window.
The dog faced gremlins also slip and set up on either side of the party and take potshots with their tiny bows. Their little arrows miss the mark, but the party feels a sense of doom befall them.
Tarek throws his spinning disc at the nearest gremlin. It strikes the little thing, but again causes minimal damage.
El fires off another shot and it once again glances off the dog faced munchkin causing what seems to be a nick.
Out of the chaos, a rolling ball of flame and fire materializes in front of Caoilte. The smoldering sphere burns the warrior and appears to remain and will continue to burn if Caoilte does not move away from the flaming death ball.
Eloriand recalls his vast knowledge of nature and its creatures and specifically recalls his knowledge of fey. He recognizes the dragon as a gloom dragon, known to be able to become invisible and casts many harmful spells or effects. The dog faced fey ar pugwampi gremlins who are known to produce a magical aura that brings bad luck to those around them. The bug like fey are Vexgit Gremlins whose ability to wreck machinery and dismantle pretty much anything are legendary. Like most fey, the gremlins are resistant to most attacks that are not made with something made from cold iron or stronger.
VG17
VG26
PG15
PG25
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Eloriand passes the remembered info on to the party.
We need weapons made of cold iron or silver or something more than what most of us have to harm these buggers. Maybe magic will help. The dragon is a gloom dragon and the bug fey are Vexgit which wreck machinery. They may wreck the clock if they get to spend any time around it.