Caromarc successfully wakes Agnes. She sits, and then stands up and gets to her feet.
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A memory from moments before. "Look, Quinn. Your card has turned up in this spread. This means it is of great significance to you! But the card is in an evil position. You should be especially careful." The Brass Dwarf. The negative present...
The policeman dashes forward and clutches Caromarc's familiar in his arms. They tumble out of the shearing wind of the timestream. Elspeth gives it one last effort, and they both somersault into the far wall hitting it hard! "Oh! That is good. I'm glad she made it. She bought me a little more time..." Agnes and the mechanical arm blink out of current time.
Agnes and Hareton are rushing fast through the timestream. They look stationary, their struggles invisible to the naked eye. Agnes tries to slow down long enough to throw Elspeth clear. But the tiny creature is unable to resist the flux of the temporal displacement. "That didn't work," you hear Agnes curse. Maybe if someone was quick enough to save her. There is only a brief window of opportunity...
And then, a bizarre thing happens. Agnes wriggles and manages to free one of her arms out of the hand. She touches it and the hand, the time oracle...and Elspeth...are temporarily erased from time! No magic or divinations can detect them during this time. They exist outside of time and space—in effect, they temporarily cease to exist. Then, they reappear. Hareton growls in frustration. Agnes frees her other hand and pounds away at the mechanical fist. The octopus familiar is still wrapped around the arm. The hand squeezes Agnes tighter. This all appears for only a second, and then blinks away again, and they are gone. They disappear and reappear like this several more times. It becomes clear that Agnes and Hareton are struggling in the timestream; he's trying to drag her to his time, and she's trying to displace the mechanical arm. Elspeth is caught in the middle. Sometimes they fast-forward and Elspeth has damaged the arm. Sometimes they jump to the past, and it is fully intact again. Sometimes the three of them are just gone completely. With each disappearance and reappearance, the movements of the three combatants slows...slows down even more...until it appears like they're moving in extremely slow-motion. Before long, they are almost stopped, in fact, stuck in battle poses but no longer moving. And yet to a barely perceptible degree they are. Agnes communicates telepathically to everyone. "Dr. Grey is too powerful! I cannot defeat him. But I will wear him down through attrition in the timestream. Do not fear for me. I am removed from the time of your world. For right now, I'm immune to all its dangers. The only danger for me is this. But I will fight to the bitter end." "The perils of our world are still dangers for you. Please, go now and take Phoebe with you. Flee to the Library of Anaphexia and find the Tower Out of Time. I believe in you, adventurers. You will save us all!" There's a pause, then she adds. "I am sorry about Elspeth. I will try to let her jump out of the timestream, back into your time. I hope that it works..."
Agnes struggles in the hand's steely grip. "Wha?... An end. The cards provide help and light the path, but the future...your future...is always left to be written. It starts to tell the story, but you finish it." The Mechanical Manservant has picked up The Midwife. Then, in his mind's eye, it's as if Agnes has interpreted this card for him too. "This card is called 'The Midwife'. She is a conduit to creation, although she does not create on her own. This halfling is a key that lets new life or information into the world. Her heart can see the good in even the worst situation. She can see the import of any new arrival, even if the new arrival will likely not inspire much joy." "Strange mechanical man, what this means for you is that because you don't sleep, you are the first to see a new day. You are here to help your friends birth that new day to our world. Like the midwife, you remain dispassionate and calm in the midst of the blood, the tears, the struggle. But even a servant, such as yourself, isn't a completely empty vessel. Even some..."one" like you faces choice. In a crucial moment, whose voice do you serve and what's the true source of your direction?"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Agnes screams.
The room where you all are goes pitch black. Behind the twins, the door to a large cabinet slams opens. The cabinet is filled inside with the same stormy light that was in the conduit that returned Caromarc and La Siréene to the land of the living. It flares bright blue. It blows a strong gale of wind into the room, scattering the harrow cards. A large, spectral, skeletal hand bursts forth from the cabinet, darts like a snake, and grabs up Agnes. Her wheeled chair is knocked over on its side. Her hair whips in the wind. She looks in the cabinet in wide-eyed terror. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" she screams.
"And lastly, the negative future." Agnes flips the card at the bottom right and reveals The Cyclone. "This card is called 'The Cyclone'. Unfortunately, it is a perfect match. This card is chaotic evil, and in the chaotic evil position in the spread. That means it's powerful and of special import." "This represents a force that tears through whatever it meets. This disaster doesn't come in the course of natural order, but is one that comes from the plots of intelligent beings. The Cyclone signifies war, arson, and other plans that destroy everything they touch. It is reasonable to assume this is about Hareton's experiments with threnodic energy." She looks at Caromarc's patchwork skin and gently brushes aside La Siréene's hair, taking in her modified features. "I fear Hareton will strike again. There will be more casualties before we can stop him."
"Next, the negative present." Agnes flips over the card at the bottom center and reveals The Brass Dwarf. "Oh dear," she sighs. "Look, Quinn. Your card has turned up in this spread. This means it is of great significance to you! But the card is in an evil position. You should be especially careful."
"And now, I will read the negative cards. First, the negative past." Agnes flips over the card at the bottom left and reveals The Dance. "This card is called 'The Dance'. It is a rich and delicate framework that, like the universe itself, requires everyone within it to abide by its rules, lest the entire construct collapse. It advises staying in perfect step, knowing your place in the greater good. Those who step out of the pattern do so at their own peril. It is partially aligned in this spread, a lawful card in the lawful column, but also a good card in the evil row. This means the pattern may be hypnotic, but not to the good of all." "This relates to how when faced with dire circumstances you bravely accepted the role of heroes. But it also relates to Hareton's fall."
Agnes goes on to interpret the middle row going across. It includes The Mountain Man, The Winged Serpent, and The Betrayal. She explains that the Mountain Man represents the neutral past, signifying an encounter with a physical power outside of one's control. The giant can personify an authority, an army, an earthquake, or even a desperately needed rainstorm in a parched land. Acceding to the force might be wise, but surviving it is paramount. She suggests it could represent the zombie invasion at the hospital or maybe your encounter with Ludo, both encounters where you were ultimately successful but with losses as well (hence the neutrality of it). The Winged Serpent in the center of the spread is the neutral present. It is a powerful being. Knowledge and prudence are separate domains bridged by understanding. The couatl represents this bridge, knowing whether now is the time to strike. This card means you will seize the moment and be wise, though the ultimate ramifications of this are still neutral. Lastly, The Betrayal card represents the neutral future. It is selfishness incarnate. Envy twists the spirit and leads ultimately to devastation. It can also indicate a person whose loveliness hides an evil heart. This card also relates to the theme of self-sacrifice and turning away from the material world and its temptations. While a betrayal is in your future, the outcome for you will be for both good and ill.
"And lastly, the positive future." She flips the card at the top right and reveals The Beating. "This card is called 'The Beating'. The picture on the card is literally going to happen to you. It means you will come under attack from all sides, but it can also indicate the dissolution of the self, mentally. Whether the strength is of the flesh or the mind, it dissolves under the relentless attack. However, there is good news. This is an evil card in a good position, so it is misaligned. Therefore, it suggests that during the assault, you will find a source of undiscovered strength."
"Next, the positive present." She flips the card at the top center and reveals The Wanderer. "Oh, look!" Agnes says. "A perfect match! This card is neutral good, and in that position in the spread as well. That means it's powerful and of special import." "This card is called 'The Wanderer'. He is a collector. This centaur appreciates that which others regard as junk or trash. The Wanderer appears to those clever enough to find the true worth in something others ignore or treat as worthless. I will leave you to reflect on what that might be."
Agnes smiles at Sandru and Blackacre's reactions. "Now, that we've received insight into the particular role each of you play, I will do a harrow reading about your overall journey." Agnes puts the Constitution suit back into the deck and shuffles all the cards. She lays out 9 new cards in a 3x3 spread. "The top row going across represents things that are positive, or that will go well for you. The middle row is neutral, and the bottom row indicates things that are negative or adversarial for you. The left row going down represents things in the past, the middle row is the present, and the last row on the right represents the future." "First, the positive past." She flips the first card at the top left and reveals The Mute Hag. "This card is called 'The Mute Hag'. She may be silent, but the eye she holds let her see into the hearts of men. This hag invokes blood pacts and poisonous secrets, the kind that turn brother against brother and son against father. However, in your harrow spread it is misaligned, being a neutral evil card in the upper row. That means it indicates something positive for you, unshakeable loyalty and lucidity of speech. Unshakeable loyalty...I see you have developed that among yourselves. You were even kind to Dr. Grey when he needed it, because of your true hearts."
"Sandru, I have no words to sustain you," Agnes says. "You are a child born of pain. This I cannot answer. But..." The oracle gathers her emotions. "Take care of my sister. It's all I ask. She will be in danger. This I know. Please..."
"What do you mean?" Agnes asks.
Agnes turns over the eighth card and reveals The Desert. "Mr. Sandru, this harrow card is called 'The Desert'. It is an environment so bleak that none can survive it without aid. For those that find aid, the journey across the wastes can lead to great things! However, interpreted negatively it implies one cannot rely on the help of others and will assuredly be lost. The sphinx of this card can refer to a mystic or doctor bringing salvation in times of plague or illness." Agnes stares at the image and ponders it for a moment. "I think that I am the mystic, and Dr. Grey is the doctor. Though we are oppositely aligned." "What this means for you, it represents your strength and endurance. Also, a disposition that is prone to be suspicious of others. Hrmm...which is understandable, given your origins." She sneaks a sad, guilty look at Phoebe. "Sandru, I've seen enough to know that my part in this struggle is short and soon coming to an end. Learn to be part of the community of man. Please, I need to take care of my sister for me." Phoebe tries to keep a stiff upper lip. "Phoebe knows," Agnes says, "We've discussed it already. No one of us is above the mission." Her eyes are still glowing. "Does anyone have any questions?"
Agnes turns over the ninth card and reveals The Trumpet. She laughs. "Aren't harrow cards amazing? This card is lawful good for the inquisitor." "Mr. Blackacre, this harrow card is called 'The Trumpet'. It is a declaration of power. This archon is an aggressive force who wades into the direst of situations without hesitation in the cause of right. However, it can also suggest motives that aren't noble, resulting in injury and sapping of strength. This card grants all or nothing at all." The time oracle shrugs. "Unforunately, I don't see specifics as to how this plays out. But I predict there will be a crucial moment when you and someone named...Baron Volst?...will work together to save the day. I urge you, inquisitor, you must be open to it. You are an aggressive force wading into the direst of situations, but oddly enough, he will be too. The motives part and the sapping of strength...I'm not sure what all that means, but these things will be literal." "He will aid you and harm you....it is a balance."
Agnes turns over the first card and reveals The Waxworks. "Lord Caromarc, this harrow card is called 'The Waxworks'. It represents a place of helplessness and physical entropy. The mind might be willing, but the flesh is frozen in this place of horror. It is the card of torture and imprisonment, signifying literal inability to move, or paralysis of a more prosaic kind. When interpreted in a positive light, it indicates abundance of energy at a crucial moment that changes all." The oracle traces a path with her eyes along the thick black stitching of Caromarc's patchwork skin. "You have already experienced physical imprisonment and torture of a kind. A literal waxworks of your appearance." "However, a master of the arcane such as yourself...you are familiar with the Void, with nameless dread? This card is associated with chaotic evil. There's a sleeping horror out there somewhere in the universe waiting for you, for all of you. Will you be frozen with fear when confronted by it? Helpless? Unable to move?" She reaches out, runs a hand down Elspeth and gently pets her. "Or perhaps you will find some other way?"
Agnes turns over the second card and reveals The Tangled Briar. "La Siréene, this harrow card is called 'The Tangled Briar'. It is a card of past deeds. It indicates an object or person from the past that will somehow have great influence on the situation. The object or person in question was one lost or murdered in some foul way. This card brings pain, but also paradoxically, hope for the future." Her manner becomes stern, direct. "Druid, this card has literal interpretations for you. It indicates two persons from your past, one who will influence you for good, the other for harm. The former is a young woman who was murdered in the streets." Agnes communicates the next part telepathically. @La Siréene: I dare not speak the other's name. But you know who it is. He comes for you very soon, and your whole party is in peril. If you defeat him once and for all, you will finally be free. Be on your guard! He will find you in a 'tangled briar'.
Agnes turns over the third card and reveals The Brass Dwarf. She smiles. "Ah, look at that! A lawful card for the lawman." "Mr. Quinn, this harrow card is called 'The Brass Dwarf'. It depicts an azer who represents invulnerability to a current danger. Although others might fall, he remains healthy and strong. But it can also mean failure or a dark fate for one, which in turn might save all around him from a greater danger." She glances at Hergelund. "On one level, your association with a dwarf seems quite obvious." Then, her eyes come to rest on Quinn's holy symbol. "But interpret this card's meaning a little more broadly. Your fellow police of the Swamplights have fallen, yet you remain. "S" was kidnapped, but you escaped." "Hergelund's former apprentice, Acrietia, is fallen to the undead, but still out there. Will you bring her down, or will she defeat you? Will you save "S"? How many agents of Hergelund's team will be left standing in the end? And what is the ultimate fate of the team?"
Agnes turns over the fourth card and reveals The Teamster. "Mr. Gastnicht, this harrow card is called 'The Teamster'. It depicts a small figure with a whip riding on the back of a half-orc, driving him onward. This card represents a driving external force that keeps you going, no matter what. This force can be physical or mental, as a person who exhorts others to continue on when they have no strength to give. The force can be for good or ill, like a hard lesson for one's betterment. But it cannot be ignored." The time oracle looks at Ianez with sympathy. The effect of this is obscured by her strange white pupils. "Ianez, you have lost some loved ones to this menace. Avenging them is partly your motivation. However, the teamster card represents something true neutral. Neither good nor bad, neither wrong nor right. One reading of the card suggests that, as a scholar, your thirst for knowledge drives you. The need to know. It reflects an attitude of patience, something dispassionate. I predict at the Library of Anaphexia you will be of great help to your friends." "But I warn you..." The candle flickers ominously. "Be careful where the search for knowledge leads you, Ianez Gastnicht. For dead civilizations don't always remain in the past." "And dead people don't always stay buried."
"The past you visited wasn't significant except to attune your bodies and minds to temporal anomalies such as time-travel...to enable you to be able to enter the Tower Out of Time. It was a test-run, combat training." "The opponents you face in the Tower will be far, far worse." "Like I said before, the future is unwritten. Sadly, your foe has already cast his lot. But each of you play a special role in your overall mission that the cards will yet reveal." Agnes looks at the 9 cards before her. "The harrow consists of 6 suits, representing Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. For this reading, I've chosen to use the suit representing Constitution. The theme of health and vitality, injury and death. The forces that your nemesis distorts for his dark ends. Life and unlife...death and undeath." "Everyone please select a card. Your choice will reveal something important about your role."
Agnes lays a spread of 9 cards on the table. Her eyes give off a pale, silver glow. Her pupils turn from black to white. "The man behind all of this misfortune exists in a temporal 'pocket' dimension. He exists in the future...a future...that is floating high above this city, known as The Tower Out of Time. You will go to the Library of Anaphexia to research how to anchor the Tower in our present time, then how you can gain access and enter it." "Please forgive me one last trespass upon your persons, but I'm going to access your shared memories and arrange the puzzle pieces, to reveal the one who is behind all of this...the person whom you must defeat." @All PCs: You arrive at an alley paved with cobblestones. The streetlamp casts a pool of light...in it you see a handsome man in a respectable black suit. He kneels over the body of a woman who is unconscious. She lays sprawled out, with her head to one side.
The man speaks. "I am Dr. Hareton Grey, a chirurgeon at the hospital. This is Olivia." _________________________ A soft sigh from Olivia. She dies. Hareton wails in despair. "NOOOOOO!!" _________________________ La Siréene steps up to Doctor Hareton and says, in a soft voice; "Up we go, Doctor. Nothing you can do for poor Olive now. You need to live. Here, I’ll support you." "Your Olive will cause change through you, as my memories will through me. Olive may yet be your reason to live, Hareton." _________________________ Hareton...finally drifts off to sleep. It is a fitful sleep wracked by nightmares. He kicks out and whimpers. Several times, he sits up in a panic, throws the blanket off, and cries... OLIVIAAAAA! But he is only dreaming. Lost in tortured emotions. Before long, again he turns to the wall. He pulls his knees against his chest and sobs himself to sleep. _________________________ Hareton speaking. "Life...running through our fingers like sand. Everything is so temporary, so changeable. One of the reasons I became a doctor in the first place, to try and understand. To fight it in some small way." _________________________ Ianez speaking. "Osirion archaeologists uncovered evidence in pyramids of rituals using threnodic spells, metamagic that converts mind-effecting spells into energy that is capable of influencing or controlling the undead. It was used in the hopes of resurrecting their pharoahs." Hareton speaks. "This could account for the ghosts' displacement and why we're seeing the flood of undead onto our plane. Maybe the reversal effect, or some sort of temporal-spatial tear, is traveling down arcane pathways and causing all of these strange disturbances?" Reversal of death. Raising the dead in massive numbers?" Ianez again. "Although Osirian priests didn't think of it this way themselves, scholars speculate that their rituals weren't actually aimed at resurrecting pharoahs, but as a way to access multiple universes. To go back in time to when the pharoah was alive, and bring him forward into the future, to a time when he was dead. Or to access an alternate universe where the dead king had never died in the first place, and bring that version of him back into their own universe." "Whichever way you cut it, it added up to the same result. A new lease on life." _________________________ Ianez raises an eyebrow, looks at Hareton skeptically. "By the way, Grey, how do you know so much about 'temporal displacement' and 'arcane pathways?' They do not seem like areas of expertise for someone in your discipline." Hareton returns a blank, rather naïve look. "You know, I don't know. I'm not sure. It just came to me. I just knew." _________________________ The Olivia's heart pendant...glowing a bright blue. "Now that you say, why...look at that!" Hareton steps towards La Siréene, reaches out, caresses the pendant in his hand. The eerie light reflects in his dark brown eyes, which search the necklace as if looking for a ship lost at sea. "Olivia..." "It has never done this before." _________________________ The dragon's voice intones like a blast from a haunted pipe organ. "We HaVe tHe PoWeR tO mAKe You BetTeR." _________________________ Hareton looks at Sandru, as if seeing him again after a fog has parted. His gaze drifts over to Ianez, across Caromarc...the glass cage with the copper wire...then back to Sandru. The look in his eyes is that of a physician, forcing out of mind his personal problems, returning to the present, evaluating "my patient"...patients...the fragile, indeterminate lives in his care. The tone of this attitude is both endearingly fraternal, yet scarily distancing. _________________________ A memory of La Siréene's and Caromarc's - La Siréene, lying on her back on a narrow metal table, held down by leather straps along her arms and legs, and metal clamps around her wrists, ankles, and waist. There is a bright lamp on the ceiling shining down directly onto her, into her eyes. The light is just dim enough for you to see the ceiling above you in gray and black tones that are muddied. Impossible to make out any distinct shapes. You hear zapping. High-voltage, low-current, alternating currents of electricity. There's also the sound of liquid bubbling and the hissing of gas. Something heating on a burner. You see beakers and flasks filled with glowing green and purple fluids. A figure stands at the druid's side, a man in a dark, hooded robe. "You killed my dragon," the stranger says, a note of loneliness and self-pity in his tone. "At first, I was angry with you. But it's behind us. I prefer if you don't interfere with my work again. It would be easier for all of us." _________________________ The hooded figure speaking. "In most cases of reanimation, the subject...ahem, I mean the patient...remembers and maintains a subjective sense of who they were previously. It is only in misguided and ill-conceived attempts to reanimate tissue that has already been reanimated before, that the tissue is so degraded...I am talking about the brain...that the patient is rendered into a catatonic state, or what is superstitiously understood as a mindless zombie." _________________________ And then, at this point, a part of the memory that even La Sireéne and Caromarc had repressed and hadn't remembered until now... The figure throws back his hood. You see the face of a man named Unruhe. Restlessness. But that wasn't always his name. There was a time he was called Dr. Hareton Grey! _________________________ A note - Dear friends, …do not follow…I have to find a way to come to terms with my grief, which is a path I must walk alone. I would give anything to see Olivia again. I would give anything to see Olivia again. I would give anything to see Olivia again.
Agnes cuts the deck of cards and shuffles it. "The harrowing reveals all," she says with a flourish of her hand.
Agnes tells Hergelund to turn down the lights. She whips out a purple, silk handkerchief and smooths it on the table.
"Oh, and that whole treant thing. You survived that too. Very excellent! Well, maybe the real danger of time-travel and all..." Agnes blushes and gives a shrug. The twins give you all a moment to compose yourselves. Agnes wastes no time, pressing on in all seriousness. "Acclimating your party to time-travel was only the first thing we needed to do. When you are ready, we will perform the harrowing."
The world around you bleeds of color, then warms up into sepia tones. Everyone feels a little woozy as the gardens separate...you see everything in double-vision. There's a strong rush of wind on your backs. You all open your eyes and are once again yourselves, sitting in a circle around Sandru in the brightly-lit room at 37 Clank Street. "Welcome back, adventurers," Agnes says, taking the stereoscope from Sandru. "You performed admirably on your first foray into time-travel. No fainting spells...no broken bones..."
Again, you all hear the little girl speak. "I'll soothe Mr. Gastnicht's forehead with a damp cloth."
You all hear the girl speak in your minds again. It's like she is a god, hiding up behind the clouds, somewhere in the air. "Oh dear, this is an unexpected complication." "Try not to die, adventurers, or else you'll be stuck permanently in the past."
At the point where it's appropriate for Gavin to respond, he goes still as a statue and turns 'off'. You all hear the voice of a young girl in your mind. She talks to no one in particular, no one that you can see in the garden. "Please, Mr. Blackacre, do not release hands and break the circle. Quit being fidgety. It causes disturbances in the time travel." Gavin snaps to and comes back to life. He looks apprehensively at the greenhouse.
"Back in this time, there was a woman named Selena. She was in a love affair..." Selena sits on a garden bench near the greenhouse. She sits upright with good posture, and petticoats primly tucked around her ankle boots. She is reading a love letter. A short distance down the path, a man named Kristoph, who runs the garden and the observatory, argues with a man named Gavin, who is an inspector who wants to close the garden and shut the observatory down. Kristoph is accompanied by his beloved invention, a gardening construct, and his favorite helium-filled balloon animal, a bright purple with white polka-dotted octopus named Elsie. There is a schoolteacher walking down the path with children who are his students. His name is Ivan. Nearby, there are two gardeners dressed in overalls tending the flora. Their names are Sanders and Finn. Selena's eyes run down the handwritten page. She is melancholy and distracted. Her lover writes that he can't be with her right now. He is away and can't be at her side. Is he trying to end their dalliance? She frets and frets, and doesn't know. Gavin speaks cool and measured. That crazy dwarf inventor on your staff...his experiments with seeds...he creates abominations! All sorts of unnatural plant species that ruin the ecology of the area. Kristoph must stop such shenanigans or the whole place will be shut down. Kristoph yells loudly. He won't be bullied by the inspector! Everything is fine! Everything is under control! The new species growing in the greenhouse are innovative...amazing! He'll permit no one to block the advance of science! Ivan points out various plants and flowers to his students. They sketch what they see and compare notes amongst themselves. Sanders and Finn are chums. They chat happily while going about their work. @All PCs:
As Sandru holds the stereoscope up to his eyes, Agnes places the card in the holder. The card has two sepia-toned images of a pleasant-looking garden, verdant with trees, hedges, and neatly-trimmed topiary. There is also a greenhouse, benches, low stone walls, and a garden path. At one end of the garden is an immense copper telescope with lots of whimsical gears and dials on its sides, mounted on a dais encircled by a railing, that visitors to the garden can stand at and search for bodies in the heavens. In the center of the garden, there is a large fountain topped by a statue of an athletic-looking young man with a cherubic face ringed in curls, wearing a sash around his waist, with one arm raised cheerily in the air and the other wrapped around a water pitcher. The two images merge together and become a three-dimensional scene. Everyone closes their eyes briefly, and when you reopen them, you are all in the garden. It is now color, dark green leaves, pink and orange blossoms, and drifting gray clouds in an overcast sky. The telescope reflects the morning light weakly off of its polished surface. You do not see Agnes, but you hear her voice. "Now, I will tell you a story about this garden..."
Agnes nods in reply to Caromarc. She thumbs through a small stack of images. "Here is a nice one. This picture is from 119 years ago." She waits to see what Quinn and Sandru decide.
"No. The laws of time travel are elastic." Agnes smiles, amused. She covers her mouth and giggles.
"No, Agnes replies. "You will temporarily be pulled into the moment in the image. You won't just be viewing the past, you will actually be back there, as in that is where you will exist." "Do not worry. It is enjoyable, apart from the physical side-effects. And I'll bring you right back."
Agnes continues to explain in her tinkling voice. "The way it works is one person looks through the stereoscope, and everyone around the table holds hands, forming a ring. I will insert a stereographic card for you to view."
"It is okay, Phoebe," Agnes says. "He is right. I have no problem with his request." "Sandru, Lord Caromarc, Quinn, Ianez, you and your companions face a powerful force that is manipulating the current situation, both in the present time and beyond. This force is steadily growing in both power and malevolence. It has the potential to destroy all of Ustalav and indeed the whole world. Yet, you are ultimately destined to have a hand in determining its fate." "I can only influence the course of these events. I can provide you information that you may not be able to obtain...or maybe you can. You may succeed on your quest...or you might fail. The final outcomes are yet undecided." "I ask, 'Will work with me?' For my part, I would like to work with you." "In order to complete your quest and set things aright, a little time travel is required. You will need to acclimate yourself to the phenomena of temporal anomalies, which can have ill-effects on the body, ranging from severe headaches and nausea to decompression sickness, a condition that sailors call 'the bends'. If insufficiently prepared, it can even result in death." "I would like to take you on a test run." The time oracle sets on the table an ornate gold-plated oval with blinders on it that block peripheral vision. It has a thin handle, and two holes punched out in the middle for viewing. There is a little arm perpendicular to the handle that can hold a stereographic card. "Would you like to know one of the ways that I time travel? Here...this is a stereoscope. I suggest you take a short trip into the past. Then afterwards, when you return we can perform the harrowing." She looks at Sandru. "But this is only a suggestion."
Agnes looks calmly and evenly at Sandru. "Do we toy with reality, or does it toy with us? I could defend myself, but on some level, you are right. We are all sides of the same coin." She reaches into a pocket of her dress and retrieves a gold piece, engraved with the image of a king on one side, and a crest on the other. She lays it crest-side up on the table. "Up until this point, you've been flipping tails." She turns the coin over. "If you are curious, I suggest you try heads." "Only if you are curious." She folds her hands and waits.
"The dwarf, Hergelund, read the signs and warnings of the coming apocalypse. His paranoia made him sensitively attuned to these things. He heard it in the faraway thunder. He tasted it in the air, like an approaching storm." "I did too. He found me and made me part of his network of agents. Another double-blind, along with "S" and Quinn. Because of my abilities I knew about them, although they did not know about me." "Unfortunately, Ludo and his sorcerers also learned about me and my abilities, and wanted to use me for their own purposes. Which was to subjugate the undead invading our world and wield them as their own personal army. I wouldn't cooperate, so Ludo brought me here. He hid the house to make it difficult for Hergelund or anyone else to find me. Also to safeguard against undead and monsters." "But as you discovered, while Ludo's magic is powerful, it isn't particularly effective against undead. Like everywhere else, this house too is beleaguered by zombies. No place is safe anymore. Technically, Phoebe wasn't kidnapped. She came here of her own choice, to protect and support me. She was the girl from the scene in the past that I showed you." "But you asked about the key and how to stop the darkness. I will show you." Agnes raises her hand. "You have many questions. I will provide you the answers you seek." She places a deck of cards upon the table. "This is a Harrow deck. It is invested with innate power. We will perform a reading, or as it is called, a harrowing. We will be able to receive small bits of information about what has occured, what is happening, and what will come to pass in the future. I am even able to draw additional power from the Harrow to enhance your combat abilities and spellcasting, and the harrowing spell may permit us some influence on future events." "You have been through a lot. First, let's do this..." Agnes closes her eyes, and raises her fingers to her temples. You jump forward through time. She open her eyes. "There...all better. Now you are rested and healed." @All PCs:
The light in the room dims a little. "Why, yes. Of course," Agnes says. "I am the key."
"Everyone, close your eyes." Agnes takes you back in time, and you all see the following in your mind's eye. @All PCs: Prologue:
The girl was exhausted. She could not sleep. Each night, when she retired to bed and closed her eyes, the nightmares came. Sounds...outside her window. Scratching. Clawing. Sloshing mastication, the gnashing of teeth. She slept lightly. When the sounds came, she awoke with a start. Nights stretched longer until they chased away the days. Every waking hour was inexplicable smothering darkness. Like everyone else in the city, her nerves were on edge. Once more, as was her routine, she kissed her sister on the cheek goodnight, ascended the stairs to her bedchamber, and prepared for sleep. Interiors felt airless and claustrophobic. The oil lamp at her bedside flickered as if also afraid. She sipped the dregs of her tea and climbed into bed. She pulled her quilt over her and blew out the light. She lay in bed and looked up at the corners of the ceiling, searching for evil. Fatigue buried her in a blank unconsciousness. Until she heard the first scratch. A grunt. A sniffle. She shot straight up in bed. The room was dark, except for a pale line of moon peeking in from the drapes. Her eyes blindly groped the gloom. Her heart beat fast. "It was only a dream," she said. Her voice sounded quiet, and tiny, and lost. But then she heard it. Grunting and scratching. Two red pinpoints appeared outside, in the night, just above the windowsill. Then, two more, and these were joined by two more and then more others. She got out of bed and crept towards the window. She pulled back the drapes. They were all outside, staring at her. She tried to scream. The next moment, they started slamming themselves against the window. The frame splintered. The glass broke with a crystalline shatter, flying into the room. Slimy rotten forearms shot forth. Hands reached in. She screamed. Had she glanced down, she would have noticed the flames that licked the bottom of the drapes.
"This house exists on two planes. It manifests on this plane every other Oathday, which is today. If you had come at any other time, you'd have found a similar looking dwelling, but completely abandoned. "It's a clever trick. Mr. Ludovic kidnapped and brought us here, to keep us in what amounts to some sort of pocket dimension. The sorcerers didn't know about Touagg though. He exists on the plane of shadow...I mean, well, he used to exist on the plane of shadow... He is dead now, but not in the past. He and I use a temporal anomaly to travel back and forth through time, which is on one axis, and to planeshift back and forth, which is on another. This is advanced physics...well, quantum physics...but that hasn't been discovered yet...oh wait, maybe I shouldn't have told you that... Well, anyway, no matter." She shrugs. "It's really complicated."
"Yes, we do," Agnes says, and she looks a little sad. "I know of your efforts too. And I know why you're here." "I've known about you for a long time."
"I am pleased to meet you too," says Agnes with a smile. "One would think I would be scared of your patchwork skin. But strangely, I am not. It's quite fascinating."
The figure of the gray-skinned creature flickers. Where he sits across from you, an image of twin girls blips in your field of vision...for a fraction of a second...almost impossible to see. Then, it's the creature again. These images blip in rapid succession. Your subjective perception of reality has become like watching someone shuffling a harrow deck. creature/creature/creature/creature/twins/creature/creature/creature
The flickers stabilize. Your host is gone. Where he formerly sat are now young, identical, twin girls. They wear light-blue dresses in a simple cut, and their hair is neatly-combed and plain. They sit side-by-side with their hands folded neatly, their elbows resting on the table. The one on the left has an wary expression on her face. The one on the right is in a high-back, wicker, wheeled chair. She has a kind, open face. She looks at you sweetly. When she talks, her voice is like the tinkling of chimes. "Welcome. That creature was a wayang. He is our friend, Touagg. He screens those who come to visit, and makes sure it is safe for us to reveal ourselves." She purses her lips like a doll, smiling. "He looks unassuming, but he can snap a tiger's neck like a twig." "Allow me to make introductions. I am Agnes Strange. And this is my sister, Phoebe." |