Nime brings herself to her feet on wings of vapor and attempts to further destabilize the portal.
The paladin again brings her blade to bear against the arms of the portal, but her strike bounces off harmlessly.
"Any way someone can keep Alaznist busy so he can't fix the portal?" shouts Rudrik as he winds up and hews into it again.
Theo kept up the arcane barrage, hoping to bring the gate down quickly.
Only Rudrik and Shenuska make progress against the time portal. A bolt of lightning strikes Shenuska as the Oliphaunt stomps closer. It is halfway to the portal now! The portal itself surges with energy and lashes out at you!
Rudrik ignores the waves of confusion and just keeps hacking! He's just a simple fighter, it's all he knows. He focuses until time just seems to compress to a single action, repeated over and over - Tannaris slashing at the portal anchors.
Calendula screams as she continues to cut and claw at the portal, willing the advancing monstrosity to vanish, disappear.
Nime ignores the waves of confusion and refocuses on damaging the portal. However, her attempts fall flat.
Energy coalescing around his hand in preparation for another attempt to dispel the portal, the wave of energy hit him and resulted in his fist driving straight into his face.
Shenuska throws off the effects without really thinking about it and continues to blanket the portal in anti-magic.
Calendula and Rudrik strike the portal and Shenuska disrupts it enough that the entire portal detonates in a blast of temporal energy! The blast catapults you back to Stethelos, and as you return to the Well of All, the third temporal wound seals up and you feel your health and energy restored. Only four wounds remain
"That was much harder than the others." Shenuska says as her invisibility spell vanishes. "Let us refresh any remaining spells and press on."
Her posterior still aching from the tumble she took, Nime nods with a pained expression as she rubs at her injured bottom. "Yes. Hopefully the others will be easier," she says.
"I'd ask if there's some way we can have some idea of what we'll face each time, but since we're already foolin' with messed-up time, that seems unlikely," grumbles Rudrik.
"Sadly I don't think sticking our heads in for a peek will help." Shenuska replies. "Unless you can tell us?" She adds, turning to address the Great Old One.
”Remember, I will accompany you through one of the temporal wounds,” the Dragon Ninuron says. ”Just let me know when you require my aid and I will join you.”
"Join us for the final wound if we do not request your presence before." Shenuska replies.
"Not sure what's worse," Theo said, shaking his head, "getting hit with that many disparate timelines at once or the whiplash of being yanked back here and the effects clearing away."
You step into the fourth temporal wound. A lone wizard, clad in the raiment of a runelord and carrying an intimidating but familiar-looking ranseur, rises from a research desk in a cavernous underground library. This is Runelord Angothane, the second Runelord of Wrath. He moves with a purpose as he gathers scrolls from the shelves, glancing nervously about as he appears to pilfer more magic from the stacks. Suddenly, the ghostly image of a woman in similar robes manifests in the room and points an accusing finger at the wizard. This is Runelord Xirie, the first Runelord of Sloth. "You would betray all of Thassilon for your Midnight Mistress? Taste then the wrath of my Abyssal patron, worm!" Xirie shouts. Angothane, startled, drops his scrolls.
Shenuska knows that in the year -6150 AR, the actions of Angothane created a schism the rulers of Thassilon never fully recovered from. Runelord Angothane rose to power as the second runelord of wrath after sealing a bargain with Nocticula, the demon lord of assassins, not realizing that what he gave Nocticula in return would seal his fate nearly a century later. Through the use of a minor artifact called a mindbind figurine, Nocticula ensured that Angothane would later serve her as a loyal sleeper agent. In –6150, she activated the mindbind figurine and compelled Angothane to betray and assassinate his rival Runelord Xirie (a loyal servant of the demon lord Colyphyr) during a meeting within the halls of a sprawling library deep under Kaer Maga. This act caused two parallel disruptions to the status quo. In the Abyss, the loss of one of her most powerful mortal minions distracted Colyphyr long enough that Nocticula herself was able to assassinate the doomed demon lord of dragons, while in Thassilon the betrayal set into motion a chain of events that saw the deaths of no less than four runelords in all, culminating in Xanderghul’s assassination of Angothane. The chaos caused by this schism nearly drove Thassilon to civil war, with only Xanderghul’s subsequent slaughter of two other runelords (Jurah and Atharend) preventing an all-out war. Regardless, the runelords never viewed one another the same after this event, and conflicts between the nations of Thassilon became the norm in the centuries to follow.
It would seem, then, that Alaznist traveled back in time and warned Xirie of Angothane's impending betrayal, setting up his premature death and allowing Colyphyr to terrorize Kaer Maga in the current timeline!
You appear in the library, in a deep chamber beneath Kaer Maga, an instant after the image of Xirie vanishes. Angothane, caught in the midst of making his last-minute preparations for his fateful attack on Xirie, is startled by your sudden manifestation, but an instant later, another threat appears in the chamber—a pair of huge rift dragons sent from the depths of the Abyss by the demon lord Colyphyr to destroy Angothane! One manifests on either side of Angothane, and each dragon has a silence spell cast upon it, ensuring the runelord cannot speak or cast spells! Without your aid, the dragons will quickly slaughter him, and you know he must survive to fix the damage to the timeline!
Angothane runs to try to get out of the area of silence. The dragons pursue him, breathing acid on the runelord! He opens his mouth in a silent scream as his flesh bubbles and burns. The acid breath dissolves some of the bookshelves in the library, leaving bubbling rubble in their place!
"At any rate, you must protect Runelord Angothane. He must survive this attack and be bolstered for his upcoming fight against Xirie. I will leave you to it, Shenuska..."
The vision fades.
Shenuska lashes out at both dragons with magic, trying to tear their spells from them!
"Protect Angothane!" She sends. "He must live to restore the timeline."
Sound returns to the room as Shenuska dispels the silence effects on both rift dragons! "Thank you! I know not who you are, but help me defeat these vile dragons!" Angothane shouts.
"More dragons," Nime exclaims, her admiration of their beauty only partially marred by being in direct conflict with them. Perhaps, she can remove some of that conflict. Drifting over on wings of vapor, she attempts to touch one of them.
Theo moved to engage one of the dragons, teeth bared.
Outside of the aura of silence, Calendula rushes one of the dragons. As her sword meets its scaly meat, she shouts a litany of obscenities.
The dragon bites Nime as she approaches, then resists her attempt to pacify it. Calendula rushes in to take the heat off of the undine, smiting the dragon with her blade! Theo and Rudrik move to occupy the other dragon, the half-orc narrowly blocking its opportunity attack as he slices into it.
Angothane uses time stop to give him a chance to raise his magical defenses. The dragons Calendula and Nime attacked breathes acid on them while the other bites and claws at Rudrik, though his armor holds.
"Oh, that didn't work at all the way it should have," Nime says, flinching at the pain of the acid. A prayer of healing follows.
"You will fail." Shenuska says firmly, speaking to the dragon who has only breathed once.
The acid hits Calendula square on, and though she wipes the burns and digested flesh away with a healing hand, the skin remains raised, freshly scarred. She thrusts her weapon squarely against and through the dragon, piercing its scaly hide with heaven's light.
Moving to try and catch both dragons with it, Theo unleashed his breath weapon, hoping that they weren't immune to fire.
Calendula smites the wounded dragon several times, and with the final blow, the creature falls! The other one resists Shenuska's attempt to curse it, but Theo's fiery breath catches it full one, scouring its scaly hide!
Angothane unleases his most powerful spell on the dragon, blasting it with a maximized distingration beam! The dragon flashes with green energy before crumbling into a pile of dust!
Angothane nods with satisfaction. "Thank you. I cannot tarry here. I must leave as soon as possible to destroy my enemy, Runelord Xirie. You will heal my wounds and bolster me with any magic you have left! I cannot afford to fail. I must appease my mistress!"
"It won't last long, but this may help," Theo said as he readied the spell, sure that the Runelord was smart enough to recognise it. "Give the word and I'll cast it just as you teleport away, give you the most mileage out of it. Sorry I don't have anything else to offer, my magic is... rather selfish, for lack of a better term."
Shenuska sets to work, quickening spells liberally.
Within a few seconds, Shenuska and Theodric layer numerous magical protections and enhancements on Angothane. The runelord grins wickedly. "Excellent. I must go now. Farewell!" He intones a spell and disappears, just as you find yourselves being drawn back to Stethelos.
As you reappear in the Well of All, the temporal wound heals. It seems Angothane was successful in assassinating Xirie, and the timeline has been repaired.
Three wounds remain. In addition to the normal rejuvenation, you feel stronger and better able to face the challenges still ahead.
"I feel even more energized than before we started," Nime says in surprise. She looks down at her hands and watches as tiny sparks crawl across her skin. "That tickles," she says with a giggle.
Rudrik flips Tannaris around in the air a bit, which the sword seems to dislike.
"Kinda weird knowing that there's a 'proper' way that time is 'supposed to be'," he says. His voice echoes hollowly through the holes in his helm, though it's easy to imagine his face taking on a somewhat faraway look as he dips into what must be deep philosophical thoughts for him. "Does that mean everything is preordained? Because there's a way that 'things are supposed to go'? So we don't have free will?"
Shenuska is too calm to giggle in the same way Nime does, but she does form a sphere of pure light in one hand and grins when every magic item within one hundred yards shivers. "Alaznist is going to regret ever forbidding herself abjuration." She says. "She is going to regret it most deeply..."
Then she shakes her head and gets back to business. "Right, time to move on! Next wound."
"We certainly have free will," Nime replies with a smile as she continues to watch the sparks move between her fingertips. "But there is a 'proper' timeline. That's the one that's already happened. Tampering with it would be the threat to our free will. Free will comes with it the reward of consequences to our choices. For good or for bad. By changing decisions after they've been made eliminates the whole point of making the choice in the first place."
She steps over to lift Rudrik's helmet just enough to press a kiss to his lips. She follows up with a similar kiss to Theodric and finishes with a gentle kiss on Calendula's temple.
"I chose to do that. Undoing that is an affront to my self-agency."
She nods at Shenuska, ready to continue.
"Time is a river of infinite possibilities." Shenuska adds. "You swim in the river but you cannot swim upstream for more than a few seconds. It is too strong. What Alaznist has done is gotten out of the river and hurled huge boulders into the river so that they rush downstream and crush all the people they hit. We aren't putting time back to 'one true path', we're removing the boulders, removing the damage that Alaznist has done for her own gain."
When you are ready, you head through the fifth temporal wound. Phosphorescent lichens dimly illuminate the shore of a subterranean lake or sea. The waves lap upon a gravelly beach descending from a large cavern to this benighted shore. Suddenly, Runelord Alaznist appears on the shore and utters a short phrase: “I wish to contact the intellect of Thuskchoon the Everglutton to reveal to myself in 1 minute hence the secrets of fleshwarping." An instant later, a spiraling vortex appears in the waters, growing larger as hideous shapes begin to form from its churning edges. Alaznist then vanishes, leaving the vortex-creature to continue gaining power.
As you appear on the shore, the vortex pulses and thrashes--the thing is partially alive!
The vortex draws in on itself, focusing on defense, as sounds and words sane life was not meant to hear pour forth from it!
"A mythic wish. She's created a portal to the Abyss to speak to the qlippoth." Shenuska says. "We must destroy the portal as swiftly as we can. Rudrik, Calendula, you will be of most use here"
Shenuska weaves a spell at blinding speed and then another one at more normal speed. [oo]Quickened Haste, and then Psychic Crush IV on the portal. DC30 save since she spends pool points to apply Overpowering Mind.
Unfortunately, the portal seems to be immune to mind-affecting effects!
"The Abyss?" Nime echoes with a frown. "She plays a very dangerous game."
Against whatever evil the portal may put forth, Nime offers protection to her companions.
In the moment between feeling the confusion effect come on and it actually setting in, a part of Theo's mind recognised it and now really regretted not dropping his draconic form. But that part was drowned out by the voices burrowing into his psyche and planting the idea that they had been separated and that his friends nearby were actually doppelgangers. And his claws swung out at the nearest of his friends.