"With difficulty I imagine." Shenuska replies calmly, trying to work out what the thing is exactly.
Shenuska identifies it as an undead known as an ecorche.
Rudrik once again fails to resist mental effects.
"It's an undead that will try to wear your skin." Shenuska reports to Calendula. "I'd smite it." She reaches out and taps Rudrik on the back to instill him with Heroism!
Since he's still flying, Rudrik just swallows his magical fear and mutters, "Gotta just do it anyway." He flies forward to engage the monstrosity, hoping that his armor will protect him from its flensing attacks.
Barely reacting to the fear, Theo focused on holding the creature still.
"In the name of the Inheritor, I condemn thee," swears Calendula, lending her holy power also to Rudrik and Theodric.
The creature resists Theodric’s spell. Rudrik comes up short, but Calendulas blade tears into its body. It snarls, the wound beginning to heal before your eyes. The ecorche then slashes at the paladin with its claws!
The paladin screams as she tears into the skinless undead, frothing at the mouth with rage.
The undead creature quickly falls to Calendula’s divine fury!
Once the creature falls and Calendula lets her rage fade, Nime approaches her. Reaching out, she gently runs her hand through the woman's short hair. "I guess you don't need me healing you any more," she says with a sad smile. "I'm going to miss that I think." The undine leans close and presses her lips to Calendula's forehead. She remains there for a moment before stepping back.
"Isn't that interesting looking," she says, picking up the fallen rod. "Oh, it tingles," she says with a grin. "I like this! I wonder what it's used for?" She runs a finger along the instrument and watches a spark follow her fingertip.
"Summoning thunder and lightning." Shenuska says, her lips quirking in a grin. "Feel free to use it more recreationally, but be aware that the expression "the sun shines out of her arse" was never meant to apply to lightning, or be literal. Let's press on."
"That would be one heck of a vibration," quips Rudrik hollowly. "Shake ya to yer bones."
Continuing through the halls, you come to a large chamber. A massive pillar supports the center of this forty-foot-high chamber, its four faces carved in elaborate pharaonic designs. On either side of the chamber are two massive vulture-headed sphinx statues, their gazes turned toward the central column.
Rudrik discovers not one, but two greater glyphs of warding in the chamber.
He makes quick work of them, and you continue on your way.
A few shallow stairs descend into this massive chamber, its coffered ceiling rising over a hundred feet above. At either end of the chamber stand raised viewing galleries with balustrades and rows of seats before an ominous looming statue of a hooded figure. A wide dais occupies the west side of the room, with three sixty-foot-tall alcoves at its back. The southern alcove holds the crumbled base of a destroyed statue, the northern a basalt statue of a tall, hooded humanoid holding forth a large scale that reaches almost to the ground. The central alcove holds an ornate throne carved of white marble. Between the entrance and the dais is a circular pit from which the shimmer of great heat rises along with the smell of brimstone and superheated rock.
Two souls are shackled to the pans of the scale by glowing chains. Both are very familiar to you--while one can only be the Runelord of Greed, Karzoug, the other appears to be none other than the Runelord of Pride, Xanderghul!
Numerous daemons are seated in the north and south balconies. Most are lesser fiends known as lacridaemons, but four are towering harbingers of death--thanadaemons. Seated upon the throne itself is a vaguely piscine fiend wielding a corrosive flail. This one is a mighty astradaemon!
"And now, let there be judgment!" the astradaemon declares. The scales begin to tip and sway as the daemons eagerly wait to see which of the two runelords holds the greater weight of sin!
"Well Xanderghul is going then." Shenuska says calmly. "I think we'd better prepare ourselves fully before getting involved in this."
She begins her usual slew of preparatory magic.
Shenuska knows that the only attack spell thanadaemons have is enervation. Astradaemons also favor energy drain and death effects like finger of death.
"Nime, you going to do the talking?" Shenuska asks. "The Fluttered Wing might help. We need to talk to Karzoug, that's pretty much it."
"It looks like we've arrived just in time," Nime says with a smile. She places a spell on Rudrik and then summons her wings of vapor to rise into the air.
"Excuse me! Hello, everyone! My name is Nime and my friends and I need a moment with one of the souls you have trapped there; Karzoug. Would that be acceptable?"
The astradaemon turns from the swinging scales to gaze upon you. ”Ah, such powerful souls you have! Welcome to the Court of Amendment. I am the High Justice. I cannot release one who is currently being judged, but if you will kindly wait your turn, I will hold each of your trials in the order that you desire!”
Nime continues her drift through the air, closing the distance between herself and the astradaemon.
"Please understand that we really regret interrupting your proceedings and we wouldn't think to do so except that it's really important and I don't know if we can wait that long."
"Very well. Then we shall commence your trial at once," the High Justice declares. The assembled daemons applaud from the balconies.
"Nime! You stand accused of sins against fate itself! Your actions have harmed destiny and strive against the flow of reality itself. What do you have to say in your defense?"
Nime approaches the seated creature.
"I'm sure I will have to defend my actions, but I refuse to do so until I've completed them and the full result has been laid bare for all to see," she says as she reaches the throne. "And in that regard, I will stand before Pharasma as my judge, not you."
Her face scrunches up slightly.
"Or perhaps Shelyn. I'm not really sure on that part."
Nime’s eloquent words silence the daemons in the gallery. The thanadaemons eye the High Justice dubiously, as if questioning his legitimacy as a judge. The Justice snarls in rage. ”Enough! I will have no more of your insolence! Bailiffs! Apprehend them that they may be judged!”
Behind the fiend, the scales settle, showing the sins of Xanderghul’s soul to be far greater than that of Karzoug’s.
The thanadaemons fire rays of enervation at Nime. Her air barrier deflects two of them, but the other two hit, draining her life force. The High Justice snaps his fingers and Karzoug's soul suddenly disappears. He then stands and reaches out for Nime, trying to slay her with death magic that he might judge her soul!
"Your failure is inevitable impostor!" Shenuska declares, flying easily into the room. "You are a fake and your time is done!"
Iron Shen heads for the High Justice as well, intent on hammering the creature with its fists! Ieldana stays out of the way.
Nime shudders as the negative energy takes hold of her. She continues to approach the creature the creature, however, reaching out to touch its arm.
The High Justice’s beady eyes widen as Nime’s spell takes effect. ”Oh! Oh, my!”
He holds up a hand, and the thanadaemons cease attacking. ”Nime, my friend, you have opened my eyes. Before the world seemed drab and gray but everything is just so... So colorful and beautiful... I just love this feeling!”
The other daemons mutter in confusion.
"I'm afraid it won't last long," Nime says, patting the High Justice's arm. "But, hopefully, a little bit of it will last and show you a better way to see the world."
She waves her hand at her friends to get their attention. Indicating that they can halt their hostilities.
"Now I know that this is most irregular, but we really need to take Karzoug's soul with us for a short time and then you have my word that we'll return him and you can do with him as your justice requires."
Make the request. Quickly!" Shenuska's mental voice commands Nime sharply.
”Yeah, man, yeah, you can have the greedy guy,” the High Justice says. He sits back down on the throne and snaps his fingers, causing Karzoug’s soul to reappear in front of you. ”I’ve got a much more juicy soul to harvest now, anyway. His sins will be a bounty for Abaddon!”
The fiend gestures to Xanderghul’s soul, which screams and strains against its chains. ”No! You can’t leave me here! Release me as well!” cries the Runelord of Pride.
See what pride has wrought. Shenuska tells the bound Runelord. I will ensure that the Peacock Spirit is not forgotten, although I will not make the same promise for you Xanderghul.
We should leave, at once. She adds for the entire group's benefit.
"I am sorry," Nime says, approaching Xanderghul. "But, unfortunately you've brought this judgement upon yourself and we're already interfering enough with the natural order as it is."
She reaches out and touches the figure's face.
"If it's any comfort, I won't forget you."
Nime then turns and rejoins her friends as they make a very hasty exit.
Rudrik is the last one out, making sure that everyone exits safely before he leaves, using his armor-clad form to shield the doorway.
"This is definitely uh... above my pay grade," he says. "Starting to feel like events have spiraled way beyond me."
"It does feel as though we're a leaf in a storm, doesn't it?" Nime comments as the exit the court.
"It's a little unsettling to know that I'm in the land of the dead, and that I could just be left here if someone wanted to. I don't have any magical abilities at all, this is really... I just feel really 'normal' compared to the kinds of scrapes we've been getting into," says Rudrik.
"I don't really know what 'normal' means, but if it's any consolation, Rudrik, I don't see you as that. You're very special to me," Nime says, leaning in to lift the warrior's visor and pressing a kiss on his cheek.
"It's a little unsettling to know that I'm in the land of the dead, and that I could just be left here if someone wanted to. I don't have any magical abilities at all, this is really... I just feel really 'normal' compared to the kinds of scrapes we've been getting into," says Rudrik.
"You are my champion." Shenuska adds, "You wield the Sword of Altruism. You are more than 'normal' Rudrik, far more. And I won't ever leave you behind."
Xanderghul’s screams and the daemons’ laughter follow you out of the Court of Amendment. As you clear the balcony, you can see Abadddon’s eclipsed sun suddenly pulse faintly with light as it absorbs the power of Xanderghul’s soul.
Karzoug’s soul turns towards you. ”No doubt you released me from my torment only because there is something you want from me. But what care I for the fate of the ants who toil mindlessly among the living? Even in death, I remain the Runelord of Greed, and I shall come into my own once the Lady of Graves gathers the temerity to call me before her. The fate of your world is behind me and of no importance now. Send me to the judgment that has been denied me!”
"Be silent!" Shenuska snaps. "We did not travel through death itself to listen to you prattle on! You speak to a Runelord too so conduct yourself with more respect before your betters! We did not destroy your ancient foe Zinlun so that you could pretend power you no longer wield! Now if you would like to see him vanquished to eternal death then tell me, what is the purpose of the Cyphergate? How do you activate it? And unless you wish to wake up as a helpless clone of your twenty year old self I would not rush so quickly to your judgement!"
”You destroyed Zinlun! Ha! Then I am already in your debt,” Karzoug says. ”You wish to know the secret of the Cyphergate? Very well. It functions as a window through time. Using a ritual that I alone know—the fulcrum key ritual—one could, in theory, open this window to travel to the heart of the Dimension of Time, and from there one could, again in theory, discover a method to exit that dimension at any point in the past. I never had the opportunity to put the fulcrum key ritual to the test, for Earthfall occurred before I completed research into the ritual.
“Promise you will release my soul to receive Pharasma’s judgment, and I will impart the ritual to you.”
Shenuska nods. "The ritual for your judgement. My word upon it."
Karzoug is good to his word, giving you the details of the ritual. Once that is done, Shenuska uses one of your scrolls of freedom to release his soul. Karzoug vanishes immediately with a long sigh of relief, reentering the River of Souls and traveling up the length of the Spire to eventually be judged.
With a plane shift and a teleport, you find yourselves in the city of Riddleport. Riddleport has, so far, weathered fairly well the disasters afflicting Varisia. The city government has closed the port, and the citizens fear that something dire waits in the wings, but for the moment the city remains relatively stable. You can take time to shop, rest, and recover here if you wish. This may be the last chance you get before you enter the Dimension of Time!
Nime enjoys her time in Riddleport. While the city may be a haven for pirates and rascals of all sorts, she seems to bring out the good in those she encounters. Between the merchants who, for some reason, insist on trying to sell her clothes to the charming individuals that offer to buy her drinks at every opportunity, she has a grand time.
She also never lacks for a place to rest her head. Between Shenuska, Theodric, Rudrik, and the nice, older gentleman she met at the absolutely fascinating Golden Goblin, her nighttime dancecard has been quite full. Even with that, though, every two or three nights, Calendula feels the undine's body slip into her bed in the early morning hours to wrap a warm arm around her and pull her close to sleep arm-in-arm until dawn.
"It makes me sad," she says one of the nights when she realizes that she's awakened the paladin - something she tries very hard not to do. "We're going to be going through the runegate to change time. Once we're done, we might not be the same people. Our memories may change. Our hopes. Our dreams." She hugs Calendula even tighter and presses a kiss to the woman's temple. "Our loves."
She shifts in the bed so she can see Calendula's face.
"May I ask for something before we go? May I have ... a kiss?"
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"I love you, Blue. You're the reason I'm alive today, and not jus because of Shelyn's healin. I probably woulda killt myself in anonymity without your friendship. An I hope when we change the past, we stay lovin each other."
For once in her life, the black-blooded paladin is uncomfortably warm, and so she sits up to shed her tunic. Laying back down, she stretches out her scarred and muscled arms. "Rest your head on my chest, please. I want to hold you."
She sighs, running her hand through the blue woman's blue hair. "I have a lot to say. And I'd like a chance to, to say it."
The phlegmatic paladin clears her throat, and starts. "Nime I, I always wanted," she pauses, thinking on her wording. "To offer you what you wanted. To be in love with you, I mean.
"You've given me more'n I could ever return. It use ta make me cry. When I realized what you meant when you said you loved me, and I realized how much I wanted to love you like that, too. But I didn't. An I couldn't
"I thought I couldn't love anyone like that, and I thought our friendship could only ever be pain for you. But eventually I saw how free and full you love, and I'd come to accept that you knew the risks and bore them gladly." She sniffs and clutches Nime tight to her, crying.
"Then as we journeyed, I thought I started to love someone like that, to want as I'd seen you wanting. But it weren't you." She breaks full into tears, and as the normally stoic woman cries, her throat tightens and her pitch rises. She takes shuddering breaths in between sobs and words, stuttering.
"And and and, and now," she continues, "the feelings I had for them are gone? And I don't know if it was ever real? Or or or if'n I, if I waited t-too long to tell em how I felt, and now all that's left is-is this ache inside me and and, oh, by Iomedae's bleeding c&#+, Nime. I hate myself for leaving you here in this same pain for twenny godsdamned years!"
She sits up and, lifting Nime a little, kisses her again, snotty and sobbing.
"I'm sorry," she weeps, pressing her forehead against her friend's. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
She takes a few steady breaths and stops crying. After a quiet moment spent gazing into the middle distance, she mutters, "I hope I'm not the same person when we change time. There's so much I don't like about myself. But whoever I am, I hope I know you."
"You have nothing to be sorry for, My Love," she says. "There are so many different scents and flavors of love. Some we choose and some that are chosen for us. Does it hurt that you don't feel the same type of love for me as I do for you? Of course it does. One isn't better or worse than the other. But that type of love isn't really a choice. And it doesn't lessen what either of us feel."
She grabs a corner of the blankets and pulls it up to wipe the accumulated wetness from the paladin's face and continues to hold her in her arms. "I know that you love me in your way and that's enough." She leans in close and draws a breath from behind the paladin's ear. "As much as your scent taunts me to take you and pleasure you until you can't even breath, I know that's not what you wish. So like with the cherry tarts in the window, I'll restrain myself as a rational person should."
She sits quietly for a bit, continuing to rock the woman in her arms gently. "The feelings you felt for ... this other one. I have little doubt they were real. And you'll feel them again some day, I'm sure. You'll find someone that gives you tingles in your belly ... and farther down." She reaches down and lifts Calendula's chin so she can look into her eyes. "And I will be so happy for you." Nime leans in and kisses the woman's scarred forehead.
"You have nothing you need to apologize for, My Love. You are who you are and your heart will love whom it's intended to love. And while it takes wisdom to look within ourselves and differentiate between what we can change and what we can't. It also takes wisdom to see that ... sometimes ... the flaws within us are what make us beautiful." She looks Calendula in the eyes again. "And you are beautiful." Rationalizing to herself that she was already given permission, Nime leans even closer to gently touch her lips to Calendula's for a second time.
"Now go to sleep before I forget myself and ravish you," she says, scooting both of them back down into the blankets and pulling Calendula against her chest.
She brings her hand up from its tempting position, resting it on Nime's front, just below her navel. "May I touch you?"
"Oh, My Love," she finally manages to say. "I am yours. Do with me whatever you will." Her long-fingered hands move up to the sides of Calendula's face and pull her in for a kiss lacking in subtlety but not passion. When she finally releases Calendula to let the paladin breath, her eyes are almost completely black. "Just no tickling; I'll pee the bed." She pulls her back in for another kiss while reaching down to put her hand on Calendula's to move it to where her need is the greatest.
Once you are ready you approach the Cyphergate. The Cyphergate stretches in a perfect arc 350 feet above Riddleport Harbor. Most assume the memorable Thassilonian ruin is nothing more than a decorative monument, but Riddleport’s Order of Cyphers have learned a bit more, including that it is actually a perfect, 700-foot- diameter stone ring that passes completely through the bedrock under the harbor as well. Normally the cyphermages of Riddleport (not to mention the city government) would prove an impediment to anyone seeking to tamper with the Cyphergate without approval, but no one currently in Riddleport is of the stature necessary to interfere directly with individuals of your power.
Shenuska gathers everyone near the point where the Cyphergate disappears into the ground. "This is probably going to have significant side effects." She warns. "If you want to stay back and keep out of the ritual I understand."
Shenuska stands before the Cyphergate and intones the words and performs the gestures of the ritual. As the ritual begins, the runes upon the Cyphergate begin to glow with a golden light. After 10 minutes, the air and water inside the Cyphergate’s ring begins to shimmer and waver. After 20 minutes, the Cyphergate begins to vibrate. After 30 minutes, the Cyphergate slowly starts to rotate in a counterclockwise spin. The spinning ring does not damage any of the surrounding structures or the ground itself, as it smoothly slides through their confines completely untouched.
After 40 minutes, the rotation increases and after 50 minutes, the rotation is fast enough that standing atop the Cyphergate is impossible, and the air, water, and stone alike within the ring become warped and distorted. After 60 minutes, a long and sinuous appendage extends though the warp in time and space to “taste” the air around it before retreating back into the ring.
There’s still 30 minutes left in the ritual...
"Huh. I did not expect a time-tentacle," says Rudrik.