Siddartha and Fafrd have an easy time carrying the time pod!
Feiya brings her tools and looks at how Siddhartha and Fafrd use their physical skills to move the sarcophagus. "I heard that in Osirion they used wooden logs and pulled heavy items on them. How about we try that?"
She quickly began to gather necessary items.
On the way back you enter the area where the cave bears were. Some lower-level pathfinders help carry the pod to its final destination while you guard.
Venture-Captain Armeline Jirneau gestures says. “This is a dangerous place, Pathfinders. Secure the perimeter. Let’s keep trouble away as long as we can.”
Maldlethu creates some magical defenses while Fafrd demonstrates why he has the "mouse" eponym.
Seelah gets underneath the pod and tries to help lift it so she can move it around faster to avoid letting it get hit.
She fails to lift it properly at first, "Ugh this is so heavy, I think what ever is keeping it flying should be enough!" She instead moves to erecting barriers to prevent things from being able to hit it. "Now this is something I'm much better at. I learned a lot from the paladins of Lastwall... While they were still alive that is."
Together, you help ensure the Pathfinders secure the stasis pod in the Ovoid Chamber.
Heraxia looks around. I g8uess that's it. We should probably wait for the rest of you Pathfinders to gather nearby. It seems like the right thing to do, I don't know why.
Feiya prepares for whatever is there to come, she clears some space around her to not trip on some wooden log.
Seelah takes a moment to sit Doan and fish out the last of the roast meat. "Any sage advice about the future, Heraxia? I know you've forgotten a significant amount but advice or anecdotes would be great to hear."
"So, Heraxia, what can you tell us about these hounds that attacked you and Felise? Are they likely to attack us?"
If you see them, they are there to attack you. I remember their bug eyes… they never blink. She frowns. The hounds are named in the most ancient texts… but I can't remember now. I think they are associated with the Great Old Ones, or was it a city that existed before time began?
No one of the magic users understand what she is describing. Fafrd, however, thinks these are Hounds of Tindalos, who are sickened when they aren’t next to a 90º angle.
✶✶✶
Seelah takes a moment to sit Doan and fish out the last of the roast meat. "Any sage advice about the future, Heraxia? I know you've forgotten a significant amount but advice or anecdotes would be great to hear."
Triaxus, my home, is a lovely planet. It's also called 'The Wanderer,' by some, because it has a mysteriously slow orbit that takes it even closer to the sun than Castrovel during its summer, resulting in a tropical climate that turns harsh and frozen as the world sails back out past the gas giants in its winter. This cycle takes 317 Pact Standard years, with whole generations living and dying in a single season! Plant and animal life form two ecologies, each going dormant during its off-season.
My people, the Dragonkin, hae a symbiotic relationship with the humanoid Ryphorians, who manifest in summer or winter forms depending on when they're born.
Oh, everything is just so fuzzy! Why can't I just go home to my Felise! She's HERE, int THIS chamber now, I can feel it! She's just in another time!
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The Eternity Arch pulses with energy as Heraxia and the Pathfinders congregate near it. Venture-Captain Armeline Jirneau calls for silence. “You’ve done well, Pathfinders, but our mission isn’t over yet. We have to send Heraxia home if we want to go home.”
“That’s right,” Heraxia cuts in. “I have a few more tweaks to make to the stasis pod. Then I need to attune to the Eternity Arch—it should only take a few minutes. Then I can climb in the stasis pod and ride the Eternity Arch home.”
“This is where it gets tricky,” Armeline continues. “Once Heraxia is sealed within the stasis pod, we’ll have moments to get back into the Maze of the Open Road. As soon as she leaves this time, the Eternity Arch’s connection to her will be severed and the Maze will realign—that means this path to the Maze will no longer exist. Anyone who doesn’t make it through will be stranded here, on this distant planet. It should go without saying that the chances of rescue are slim. I want all of our support staff to retreat to the Maze immediately. Bring what supplies you can. In the meantime—”
Armeline’s words are cut short by an eerie howl that issues from the Eternity Arch. Heraxia races back to her stasis pod. “The hounds are coming! We’re out of time!”
Armeline’s face hardens as she draws an alchemical bomb. “Steel yourselves, Pathfinders! We must protect Heraxia!”
“Incoming!” Urwal shouts as purple glowing cracks in reality spread like spider webs across the chamber. Reality shifts and flickers wildly, leaving behind blurred afterimages of people from other times and places. The unstable reflections screech in confusion and surge forward, arms raised to attack.
Meanwhile, one of the cracks widens, tearing open a massive time rift in the floor. Pathfinders leap out of the way, grasping at stone to avoid tumbling through time. [n]“Help them!”[/nb] Janira shouts. “Hurry!”
"Well then we save them quickly and then get to fighting!"
Feyia does not join the bickering. "I am fine either way, let something just happen"
A time rift has opened in the floor, and is within danger of comsuming eight pathfinders as it rises from the floor to the ceiling!
Eight Pathfinders are in danger of falling into the time rift.
• Six cling to the tiled floor at the edge of the rift, with their bodies dangling into it.
• The seventh climbed partway up a pillar whose base has disappeared into the rift; they are 15 feet in the air.
• The eigth Patyhfinder holds onto a rope tied to a grappling hook, which they tossed into the chamber at the last moment to save themself. The grappling hook is gripping the gap in a stone tile and is clearly not well secured.
The Pathfinders seem to be moving slowly, as time is dilated…
As you approach, the eighth Pathfinder's grappling hook slips off the tile, dropping that Pathfinder 5 feet further into the time rift. The grappling hook snags another tile 5 feet closer to the edge of the time rift. Its hold is precarious, and it’s likely to slip again in moments.
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
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Something bad happens to the pathfinders
➤ Ezren
➤ Fafrd
➤ Feiya
➤ Maldlethu
➤ Seelah
➤ Siddhartha
The rope slips out of Fafrd's hands!
Sheelah strides closer to the rift moving at a good clip.
She gives a grunt as the air around her suddenly starts to feel like it weighs more than expected, but powers through it and ends up next to two of the Pathfinders and reaches out the to the one to the north.
Now that you're closer, you can see they all look like clerics of Sarenrae. Just how many Kyras are there, exactly!? No wonder she goes on so many missions…
Seelah saves "Kyra" #2, pulling her out after her hands slip!
Siddartha makes it in and gets a rope to "Kyra" #7 — she attaches it and swings down while the monk holds it taught!!
Feiya and Ezren are up!
Feiya looks at Seelah fighting to move faster, "I know a spell for such occasion"
She reaches for one of her scrolls and begins chanting looking at the Seelah
Soon magical ray flies towards her and she begins to move a bit faster and her body is a bit blurred.
You haste allies!
The grappling hook for Kyra #8 snags on the very edge of the time rift. Its hold is precarious, and it’s likely to slips again in moments!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
──────────
Bad things happen
➤ Ezren
➤ Fafrd
➤ Feiya
➤ Maldlethu
➤ Seelah
➤ Siddhartha
Feyia runs to be just outside of the zone that seems to be slowing everyone down. She tries to focus on rifts and everything that she was able to learn about them, then she tries to alter it to help the slipping agent
She messes it up, but decides to not let go and suffer through it
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Maldlethu's face is clouded as he rummages through his backpack. If he were a younger elf, one might be tempted to call his expression "petulant" or "inches away from throwing a temper tantrum". Grabbing a rope, he walks to the edge of the time-bubble and throws one end of the coil at the priest hanging on for dear life. "Let's just get this over with," he mutters under his breath before turning to another hapless agent. "You there! Stop gawking at this magical wonder and help hold this rope steady!"
Seelah grabs the other pathfinder at her side and with a heave tries to pull her out of the time rift. "I never realized Kyra was popular enough to have imitators, much less this many... Were you all doing a Kyra costume contest in he middle of a mission!"
She glares at one of the Pathfinders still near the rift who looks otherwise unhurt. "You! Kyra with the number 3 on your back! Get out of that rift RIGHT NOW! And go report to your Venture Captain! They should know how you were likely goofing off in the middle of an assignment! Now get!"
Finally she strides over to the final Kyra on her side of the rift and reaches down, to pull her out. "And you too!"
Feiya shouts to Kyra 8, helping her reattack the rope just in the nick of time, at a moment when the rift is weak.
Maldlethu throws a lifeline to Kyra #6, who scrambles out of the rift. Fafrd helps Kyra 1 out, and together he and Siddartha get #3 out.
Seelah makes the last Kyra leap in fear — right out of the rift!
About a minute after Seelah pulls out the last Kyra, the purple crack widens and then explodes into dozens of smaller rifts. Each rift reveals a vision of some distant view. You see the Woodsedge lodge. You see Fafrd next to the Etermity Arch, looking a little worried. You see Maldlethu reverently whispering his catchphrase…
Each vision is entitely different. On one, there are steaming promordial jungles. The ground in the chamber shakes and heaves as a massive dinosaur stomps into view, emerging from that rift! The creature has sharp spines running along its back, thunderous feet, and wicked spikes on its tail.
HAW!! Thar's a challenge!” Calisro Benarry boasts. “Show 'em what Pathfinders be made of!”
“NO! The rifts are pulling us into the past,” Jirneau counters. “We need to force the Eternity Arch to seal these rifts, or we’ll be stranded here!”
Two more creatures rush out of the rift! They have skulls with dome-shaped crowns surrounded by numerous bony horns. Their necks are compact, as if designed for battering…
Unfortunately the conflicting opinoinos of your venture captains throw you off your game. Luckily, the local hunters have given you some good tips, so they are flat-footed to you! Further, sealing the time rifts before make you quickened 1.
The bone-headed dinosaur charges Siddartha!
But the monk nimble dodges the charging dinosaus. The larger, spined creature huffs and stomps its big feet and looks at you… It charges ahead, trampling over all of you!
──────────
BOLD IS UP!:
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Bonehead 1
Steggy
➤ Maldlethu
➤ Siddhartha
Bonehead 2
Ezren
Feiya
Fafrd
Seelah
DC 10 (crit success), second success by another PC, or DC 2 as second check after first success:
DC 28(crit success), second success by another PC, or DC 20 as second check after first success:
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Maldlethu cackles wildly as time warps around him. Even being run over by a dinosaur can’t dampen his spirits now. “You see? This magic is the blessing of Nethys, and his power knows no limitations!” Silver light washes over the Pathfinders, followed by another silver blaze that coalesces into a floating translucent staff.