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Hurtling through time, you find yourself embroiled in a struggle to keep the fledgling town of Waterdeep from succumbing to a vicious Troll invasion. But sometimes the true threat lies within the city walls...
Part Two of the Folded Time Trilogy.
After regaining consciousness, you all find yourselves in the garden of a farmstead. On the north you notice a wooden palisade over about 800 feet wide that would serve as protection from northern threats. Smoke fills the air as a wall of flame moves steadily from the palisade moving southwards. Three men, one in merchant clothing and two wearing heavy armor, are seen ushering the people to safety.
Sanctum stands up and brushes himself off, straightening the mask as he stands... Well, where are we now? Or when?
Noticing new faces, Sanctum smiles, It seems that the Blackstaff sent us some backup.
Farideh observes the environment I think we're outside the place. Sure a lot of people got into this trouble as well.
She brushes off any dirt on her body and gets up.
Zar slowly opens his eyes, looking over himself to make sure he is still all there. "That ... was not ... what I ... was expecting," he says slowly, hoping his head and stomach stop spinning soon. "Good thing I didn't eat right before that," he thinks to himself.
Noticing the others nearby, he stands up to introduce himself. "Greetings. You must be Sanctum and Farideh. My name is Zar. I was sent by Vajra Safahr to assist you. I'm knowledgeable in the Arcane and History and have some experience as an investigator. The Blackstaff felt you could use my help."
Before they can respond, he turns to survey the area and notices the fire. "That looks problematic. Someone should talk to the merchant and his guards to see what is going on," he says seeming to suggest that the "someone" should be someone other than him.
Farideh nods Greetings Zar. Yes, my name is Farideh. I'm glad to see new faces with us. Please rest if you can as I feel that you look confused right now. I hope people in here won't be hostile to us. It's giving me the creeps.
After speaking, she's suddenly looked at the wall. Some things do happen so fast.
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The man in merchant clothing approaches you, squinting his eyes. "Have I seen you before? Because you two look familiar", he says pointing to Farideh and Sanctum. "Well, now's not the time for idle chit-chat. Welcome to my farmstead. I'm Malcar Gost and I own this estate. Don't mind the flames, it's the trolls that we should be worried about. If you're here to help, talk to Ahghairon over there. Seems to me that he is trying to control the flames with little success."
Sanctum nods to Gost pointing at his mask. It shifts as he grins, I must have one of those faces. Thank you, we will speak to Ah-ghairon, was it?
Trolls? What have you gotten us into, Blackstaff?
The young cleric approaches the man so indicated, What is going on? Is there anything that we can do to help?
Farideh went to the man Greetings Malcar. I haven't seen a troll here lately but they seem like they wanted a fight in your side. Who is this Ahghairon anyway?
"Trolls? That's not good. I imagine they could be quite difficult for farmers to handle," he thinks to himself as he tries to remember what he knows about trolls and follows the others over to Ahghairon.
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You are all directed towards a man wearing robes like that of a spellcaster. You see him try to contain the flames but is ineffective at the moment. "Mizma-Canthiro-Zack...argh! I can't get it to work."
He wipes his forehead with his sleeves and introduces himself, though he is still preoccupied by his current task. "I'm Ahghairon and I was tasked to contain the flames so as not to reach Nimoar's Hold". He points to a town over the horizon down south. "There's a ritual to contain the flames but it's too much for me to handle. My master, Halaster, left powerful wards in the Hold and I need them to complete my ritual. Could you help me locate them and bring them here while I try to slow the flames?"
Sanctum nods, Where can we find these wards?
The young priest thinks back to the man in the library, So, this is his apprentice, eh?
Farideh nods, How many wards are we talking about?
"Is there anything else we can help with? I'm a wizard myself, so maybe I can assist you. Is your master at Nimoar's Hold?" Zar asks, concerned that the fire will get out of control before they can return.
Sanctum turns to Zar, Sir Magister, we may need your expertise to get these wards. I, for one, am no master of the arcane.
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"Don't worry. I can still contain the flames and slow them down," he says to Zar. "There are three areas where my master may have left the inactivated wards."
He chants another incantation to stop another patch of flame from going wild. "Two wards are hidden in the City of the Dead. Find an eladrin tomb and a gnomish crypt. There's only one of each. You can't miss it."
"I've also noticed a powerful illusion magic in the harbor and it bears the same spell signature as my master's. Then there's Nimoar Hold itself. Two wards are carved into the stone walls of a building used by priests of Chauntea."
Sanctum nods, Four locations, five wards? Which location first, then?
"That's reassuring. Then we'll be off to get the wards," he says with a smile and waits for a response to Sanctum's question.
"Alright, then let's head to the city of the dead first," Zar says, wishing the mage good luck with the flames.
Farideh rubs her hands together Well we better start as soon as everyone is prepared.
Off to the city of the dead, then. First and elvish tomb, then a gnomish one.
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You find yourselves in a 30-by-30 foot enclosed stone structure. Pale light saturates the tomb from rune-covered crystals set in to the walls. You see four glass coffins, each containing a magically preserved body of an eladrin. The coffins bear no names that would identify them, but each of the bodies represent one of the four seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter. You also see two bowls on each of the coffin, one with images of tears and the other images of hearts.
Each bowl contains one crystal whose color is determined by the eladrin (Spring=Green, Winter=White, Summer=Red, Autumn=Orange).
Can anyone read this?
Looks like they'll get out of there anytime. Pretty good. Must need a passcode or something.
Sanctum, while awaiting responses, moves from one corpse to another inspecting them...
"Well, this seems to be the tomb that Ahghairon was referring to. Now where is the ward we are supposed to find here," Zar says looking around.
Noticing the writing on the bowls, Zar gets a closer look. "Ah, yes, I thought that looked familiar. Fortunately, during the course of my studies, I learned Elvish since so many magical texts are written by them. The bowl with tears says "sorrow" and the one with hearts says "beloved"," he lets the others know.
Not exactly sure how that helps him, he inspects each of the bodies to see if that gives him any insight on where the ward might be.
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Sanctum notices some intricate features on each of the eladrin but can't quite identify what they are, but Zar can.
The Spring eladrin has a single orange kiss-mark on its forehead. Inspection reveals this mark to be poisonous. Their fingertips are ink-stained.
The Winter eladrin wears a short sword at their side. Winter's throat is bruised, and a few bright green vines are still wound around their neck.
A lock of blue hair is lovingly entwined in Summer's fingers. A spellbook protruding from Summer's robes uses a love poem as bookmark. A vicious sword wound on Summer's chest is likely to have been the cause of their death.
Autumn's lips have been meticulously coated in orange lipstick. Their body is covered in fiery burns of a magical nature.
Sanctum listens carefully as his new wizard friend prattles on about his findings, frustrated that his own mind is so blunt.
- Killed:
- Spring -> Winter
- Winter -> Summer
- Summer -> Autumn
- Autumn -> Spring
- Loved: (A little trickier)
- Spring -> Summer
- Winter -> ???
- Summer -> Winter
- Autumn -> Spring?
Sounds like everything in the catacombs needs solving right? Farideh chuckles alone as everyone is serious on the puzzle.
Weapons for killing
Spring- anything green
Winter-short sword
Summer- (Sun)
Autumn- Orange lipstick
Weapons for love
Spring- ???
Winter- Book/hair?
Summer- ???
Autumn- Orange lipstick
Who killed who?
Spring - Autumn
Winter - Spring
Summer - Winter
Autumn - Summer
Who loved who?
Spring - Autumn (the kiss was loving yet deadly, no puns intended)
Winter - Summer (???)
Summer - Winter (Blue hair and poem)
Autumn - Spring (No idea, just hunches but look at the clue of SPRING;they loved each other but spring died)
Zar strokes his chin as he listens to his companions thoughts on what happened.
"Yes, it seems it's not as easy as just come here and get the ward. Leave it to a wizard to make us solve a riddle to get it. I suppose it keeps just anyone from getting it. I'd probably do the same," he says as he gives his theory.
Killed: (fairly straight forward)
Spring killed Winter (vine)
Winter -> Summer (sword)
Summer -> Autumn (fire spell)
Autumn -> Spring (poison)
Loved: (A little trickier)
Spring loved Summer (wrote love poem)
Winter -> Autumn (process of elimination)
Summer -> Winter (lock of hair) - did we confirm the Winter eladrin has blue hair?
Autumn -> Spring (kiss)
Sanctum will place the gems in the Tears bowls, but hesitates with the Hearts bowls...
Sanctum gathers the colored stones and walks to Winter's Bowl of Tears, and drops the green stone in.
He waits a heartbeat then moves to Summer and drops in the white stone.
If nothing happens, he steps up to Autumn's casket and drops the red stone in to its Bowl of Tears.
Then the masked cleric moves to Spring's bowl and drops the last stone (orange) in.
If nothing happens, Sanctum takes a deep breath, So... We know that Spring wrote Summer, because of the love poem. I think Summer loved Winter (assuming the Winter eladrin has blue hair), because of the hair. But the other two bowls are trickier. I presume that all of this tragedy started from an inciting incident... but what could it be?