"I mean I heard a voice whispering for a moment. I couldn't understand what it was saying though." I say to the professor, thinking that it would be a bad mark on our record if he had a heart attack.
I trot up and look at the pictures, saying "Huh. How old are you again?"
"What in Khyber do you mean by that?! Oh, the painting, sorry...."
"Beren, I think this place is playing games with time. I think there is only one Valessa - the gods would not be so unkind for there to be two. I suspect you saw an image of Valessa out of its normal time, which is why there seemed to be two - Valessa walking in the door and Valessa looking at the wall. The same Valessa, but at different times. So far the seems to be harmless - like that strange sensation on leaving the room behind us. Hopefully, it will stay a harmless curiosity, but we should be on our guard. Certainly an interesting find, Professor," says Rokko, turning to Ruuz.
"Yeah, I think Rokko is right, in his usual rude way. Temporal disturbances, time dilation, something ...
"Anyway, as to your questions Beren, we met on the boat over from Sharn, and on the Tethered Wench, um .... well, you know ...." she blushes slightly, "the dancing thing ... misunderstanding. Anyway. I'm really me."
"Oh, and ixnay on the Ruuznay, eh? Oh, never mind."
She looks around at the group. “Well people, we came here to explore ancient and strange places – and that’s what we found. Let’s be wary but not get too spooked about it ok? Where to now?”
Ruuz looks around at the walls and smiles are Berens sudden panic attack. "Calm down Beren so far nothing here seems to be malicious."
Ruuz walks over to Rokko "Yes Rokko this is very interesting, I can't remember hearing about any places like this but I would have to say this might be a manifest zone."
Beren, while staring intently at Valessa, listens to Rokko. Slowly he starts to understand and then turns a sheapish grin on Valessa, "Sorry. I was ... I was just worried abou ..., Ah forget it. You know." Beren then picks up on what Valessa was referring to. "Um Professor," looking at Ruuz. "Is that your assessment as well? Do you think it is still ok to rest here?"
"Not to tell any of you fine sellswords your jobs, but if the halfling heard a voice, shouldn't someone be investigating?"
"I hear no voices, but do you hear that pounding noise? It sounds like someone digging into stone." Beren starts walking around trying to get a better idea of where the noise is coming from.
|
1:
Opening the door you see a rough cut stone room. Hovering in mid air, apparently without direction, a variety of mining implements swing through the air, striking at the stone.
2:
You can see, and not see at the same time, as though looking through a screen or unfocused lens, as two elves talk in the room. Their conversation is in elvish.
The First: "It is inevitible, the damage will happen. You must wait until they come, and guide them in their task."
The Second: "I understand master, but how can I endure the years?"
The First: "This chamber is cut out of time, as long as you remain here, you can endure centuries as though only a single night has passed."
The Second: "And how will I guide them, what--"
The First: "They must destroy the key, but only when the time is right. Look to the woman..."
The image fades, revealing spoiler 6
3:
An elderly elf is here, wearing a elaborate dark robe. His skin is a strange dark brown color, cut withershins by the traceries of black tatoos. He speaks, "You must act quickly. I cannot leave this chamber, without coming out of time. The portal is damaged, you must shut it down before the splinters of time pollute your world. If the damage spreads to far, the past and future will collide, your present will cease to exist. The prophecy will be undone.
4:
A wizened old elf of innumerable years is wearing a dark black robe, apparently waiting for you. As soon as you open the door he speaks.
"Thank the makers, you are here. I thought no more wwould come after the City of Storms was razed. The servants of the mad ones are here. If they can find the key, they can use the portal to go to anytime they wish. They could return with an army of their allies from before the ban.
5:
The room is brightly lit, mirror polished black stone walls reflect the bright light of one of the magical glow stones. The mortal remains of some individual lay prostrate on a stone bench.
6:
The room is dimly lit, more of the faded magical light stones casting poor illumination about. When your eyes adjust, you see only the liquified remains of someone atop one of the benches.
“Fine,” growls Valessa to Jyra. “I’ll look at the damn room. Beren saw me coming out of it, which means I must come out of it right?”
Valessa opens the door to the chamber () and peers into a brightly lit room; mirror polished black stone walls reflect the bright light of one of the magical glow stones. The mortal remains of some individual lay prostrate on a stone bench.
“Nice…” she murmers. "Hmmm ... theres a dead guy in here ... I wonder how long he's been in there..."
“Nice…” she murmers. "Hmmm ... theres a dead guy in here ... I wonder how long he's been in there..."
Brick peers over Valessa's shoulder.
"That's not a dead guy, that's a pile of blood."
"Wha'?! There's an old elf guy in there, telling me we have to act quickly. We need to shut down a portal, or we will cease to exist. Or something."
Beren peers into the room with some confusion, "What is going on here? I see none of those things. I see a stone room with bodyless mining instruments hitting the stone. At least that explains the pounding-rock sound I was hearing."
"I see the same black mirrored tomb that Valessa is seeing. I don't think we should go in there, does anyone see a door in the 'room' that they can see?"
Valessa looks around at her companions in some alarm. “Right,” she says, in a deliberately calm voice. “That’s strange. Yeah … lets not go in there just yet. Rokko, what you’re seeing might give us some lead – is the elf saying anything else? A portal … something to do with this temporal effect?”
She then looks sharply at the Morgrave party. “What survivor?” she asks.
Sari walks up to the door and looks inside. " All I see is more of those strange glowing stones and what looks to be a puddle of some creature that I am sure smells as bad as it looks. Does anyone else find it strange that some of us see that same thing when we look in there and some of us don't?" Sari then turns to the professors tag-a-longs. "Did you know something about what is going on down here and didn't tell us? Gee I guess the safety of our party or your own life never crossed your mind, did it. Next time you decide to leave out information that may help us from getting killed you might want to think twice about it or I will send the big guy (pointing towards the other party) they call Brick and have him sit on you! Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth? Do you have any other information that you would like to share with us at the time?"
Valessa keeps staring into the room, blinking from time to time to see if the view changes when she next opens her eyes.
“I’m not sure your employees will be able to tell you much more than we know Miss d’Deneith,” says Valessa to Sari. “Ghorkin was never much of a teacher, I don’t think he knows what’s going on here. Of course,” she says, looking back at Jyra, “he’s not really running the show, is he?”
Somewhat weirded out, Rokko addresses the elf that so far only he has seen.
"Where is the key? What does it look like? And how much, er, time do we have? And who are you, anyway?"
Turning to his companions, "He says there is a key we must destroy, or the Dragon's Realms will be destroyed. He called me a son of Dhakaan - at least he is polite, unlike some." The last comment aimed roughly in Valessa's direction.
"Polite, or just old," answers Valessa. "He probablycalled you a child of Dhakaan because he remembers the empire. No, I'm not being flippant - much. What if this guy is, I don't know, stuck in time or something?"
She puts a finger to her chin. "The Dragon's Realms. As in Siberys, Eberron, Khyber? Is that what he means? Destroy the key or the world will be destroyed? Gee, no pressure or anything..."
|
|
"I am Chrihas, last of the time keepers. My task was to remain here, we knew the damage would be done, we could not prevent it. Now I pass that task to you."
"The key is a construct made of the Tears of the Three Dragons. Yay high," he indicates about one yard, "and half that around. The makers put something inside, I know not what."
"There are many portals here, bound by magic, recite 'I renew my pledge to the Masters of Time' in giant to open them."
|
|
Valessa keeps staring into the room, blinking from time to time to see if the view changes when she next opens her eyes.
Valessa
Fort Save, DC 14.
Valessa, if you succeed on the above:
When the nausea passes, you open your eyes, revealing a new scene.
Roll again. If you reroll what you had before, you can pick any one entry.
"I think I get it each one of us is seeing a different time of this room, one of Professor Dhorkins people sees the room when it was just built Sari she the room perhaps just after it was built with this thing the elf is talking about in it, Rokko see the elf as an old man, Valessa and I see the elf as he lays dead and finally Beren sees his decomposed remains."
Ruuz looks around at everyone "I still don't really know what we can do since it seems that this happened a long time ago."
Ruuz:
** spoiler omitted **
Dragonmann
I think that puts us pass 3000 XP so can we level up know or wait until we have some down time.
"I see an ancient elf. He said that "I thought no more would come after the the City of Storms was raised." What?! I think he means Stormreach! Stormreach is still there! I think he's from the future. He also says the servants of the mad ones are here and if we don't find the key yadda yadda yadda the world goes boom, the servants of the mad ones will be able to come anytime." I say looking confused.
I turn in time to here Sari ranting at our employer. I hurriedly step forward and say "What Sari means is that if the you're there's any information you're with holding from us that pertains to your saftey, and ours as well, it would aid us greatly in protecting you if we knew everything."
"Rokko, Merreck. The Elf you see, and Valessa, the body you see - Are they one in the same? I think Ru... The Professor is making a lot of sense, him being very knowledgable and from Korranburg and such. Also, Rokko or Merreck, are you able to ask the Elf why this room is called the Chamber of Sighs"
Beren waits for answers, then ...
“Well, sounds like time is crucial and rest is out of the question. Shall we keep moving or does anybody else have a plan. If not, I will take point.”
"Wait, so the guy you saw was here a few years ago? Why was there a pile of blood? What's going on?"
Valessa suddenly looks pale, and then steps away from the doorway, holding her stomach. “Oh boy. That didn’t work…”
She sits down on the floor, then looks up at Ruuz. “Good theory prof. I was thinking something like that myself … So can anyone see this key the elf is talking about? A key to stop the Daelkyr returning… I thought the ancient giants already made it so that couldn’t happen?”
“The body I see is just a skeleton, sitting on a stone bench. I guess it could be the same guy, but I can’t see what those two see.”
“I renew my pledge to the Masters of Time,” she mutters the phrase that Rokko had repeated in Giant.
|
|
Valessa suddenly looks pale, and then steps away from the doorway, holding her stomach. “Oh boy. That didn’t work…”
She sits down on the floor, then looks up at Ruuz. “Good theory prof. I was thinking something like that myself … So can anyone see this key the elf is talking about? A key to stop the Daelkyr returning… I thought the ancient giants already made it so that couldn’t happen?”
“The body I see is just a skeleton, sitting on a stone bench. I guess it could be the same guy, but I can’t see what those two see.”“I renew my pledge to the Masters of Time,” she mutters the phrase that Rokko had repeated in Giant.
Valessa recalls that the giants fought the Quori, thousands of years before the Daelkyr invaded the Dhakaani.
Valessa recalls that the giants fought the Quori, thousands of years before the Daelkyr invaded the Dhakaani.
|
|
Kathlyn, one of Ghrokin's female companions looks in the room. "I see two elves, they are talking, I don't understand the words."
She steps forward, as though to hear better, her body breaking the plane of the door, and she screams for an instant, but it is cut off as though by a guilletine. Her body goes slack, and she falls into the room, only her shins and feat still in the hallway with you.
You watch as her body progresses through all the stages of decomposition in seconds, until finally only a miniscule measure of dust remains, swirling in the vortices of her own scream.
"Erk! That was, um, nasty. I think we need to stay away from these doors for the time being."
"The key is a construct made of the Tears of the Three Dragons. Yay high," he indicates about one yard, "and half that around. The makers put something inside, I know not what."
"There are many portals here, bound by magic, recite 'I renew my pledge to the Masters of Time' in giant to open them."
"Anyone see anything about that looks like some sort of container? Tears of the three dragons - probably has dragonshards of all three types on it. Hmm, I wonder if it will matter if we prise those off afterwards. Purely in the interests of research, of course, harrumph!"
Ruuz tries to grab the girls legs to pull her out but just pulls out a lower leg with ashen stump. Ruuz stares in wonderment for a second "That decides it no one enter that room."
Ruuz walks over to Professor Ghorkin and hands him the girls foot "Sorry about you assistant maybe next time you should stay in Morgrave and leave this to the real professionals and you won't kill any more pretty girls."
"So if we don't find this key and stop these daelkyr things than your future happens? Could you be more specific about what the key looks like or where the key is?" I ask of the old elf just before the assistant dies.
"What the hell?!" I shout as the professor's assitant's body disintigrates. "And to think I almost walked in there." I say as I begin to look for the item that Rokko described.
Beren lets out a growl of astounded agitation. “It’s like she just aged 10,000 years. Yeah, stay the hell away from that room.”
Beren then lets the scholarly types discuss the incident amongst themselves. “Grandfather Rat! Since we seem to now be on a schedule to save Eberron, I am going to scout ahead. Valessa, care to work on those skills I have been showing you?” As he turns away from the group, Beren reaches deep into his heritage. His face contorts and his senses become sharper as he shifts.
Beren, with bow in hand and arrow knocked, will cautiously make his way down the hall to the next hollow, unless he finds something else of interest first.
|
|
"So if we don't find this key and stop these daelkyr things than your future happens? Could you be more specific about what the key looks like or where the key is?" I ask of the old elf just before the assistant dies.
"What the hell?!" I shout as the professor's assitant's body disintigrates. "And to think I almost walked in there." I say as I begin to look for the item that Rokko described.
...
"It would be unwise to enter this chamber. Go, find the key..."
"On Guard! On Guard!" Beren lifts his bow but holds his shot. "What in Khyber?"
"On Guard! On Guard!" Beren lifts his bow but holds his shot. "What in Khyber?"
Brick looks puzzled as to what it is.
"Where's the rest of it?"
"Wait! Oh .... crap," Valessa's shout changes to a whisper as the girl walks through the door. Ruuz lunges to pull her back, but it is too late.
"Oh.... close the door please, someone," she mutters to those still standing near the portal. "We don't want to stumble into that..."
Ashen faced, she nods silently to Beren's question, and tries to pull herself together as she draws her bow and follows the shifter down the corridor, focusing on his tracking rather than thinking of the poor girl. Stupid Ghorkin! Stupid Jyra! Bringing these novices along ... that could have been her ... she had been about to walk into the room ...
She is pulled up short by Beren, who indicates the thing floating before them. Curious but wary, she tries to think what it might be ... some minor monstrosity from the depths of Khyber no doubt. "Better stay away from it," she mutters to Beren.