GM looking for advice to run part 6 of this Adventure Path

[Sippik]

Hello everyone!

I am playing Return of the Runelords with a group of 4 players and we are nearing the end of the third book. So I've been reading the other three books carefully and I'm looking forward to continuing this adventure that seems really epic!

That said, I am having trouble understanding a rather important point in book 6 and would like to know if you have any tips on how to better understand it all. My question comes from Alaznist's modification of the timeline. From what I understand, the players will have to go to the city outside of time to find writings from the past and compare them with what they know in their world/history. They will then be able to identify the 7 wounds caused by Alaznist and repair them before confronting the runelord. But what I don't understand is when does Alaznist use the scepter to alter the past? From my point of view, she does it at the very beginning of the adventure, just after waking up and "killing" Xanderghul. But if this is the case, why is it that the effects of this modification only appear when the heroes return from visiting Xin Edrassil? And the changes in the past can't be done while they are out of time, since otherwise the players would have no interest in going back to the past to find historical writings, they could just study the history in their world.

Anyway, this all confuses my mind a bit, and I hope my questions are explicit enough for you to give me answers

I hope you'll be able to help me, I'm looking forward to read your comments and advices for this adventure!

[Askar Avari]

So, when Alaznist does what she does is a little ambiguous - which is good, because it's not clear on what timescale the adventure itself takes place. Here's my best answer(s) though.

1. Alaznist killed Xanderghul 1 week before the adventure begins, and that murder pre-dated her entering the Dimension of Time. It's safe to say that, during Book 1, the original timeline is still intact; she is probably mulling over when, exactly, she should interfere with things.

2. By Book 3, she has definitely entered the Dimension of Time and begun to interfere with it. However, time in the Pathfinder universe is quite inflexible, with the party in particular being resistant to its change. By Book 3, time has shuddered in pain, but hasn't meaningfully changed despite her efforts. After an initial minor success, Alaznist probably regroups to put together a complete list of when to interfere.

3. Before the start of Book 4, Alaznist has scarred time immensely, but it begins to break more readily than it actually reshapes. Notably, the players have already corrected the timeline, which is why time is in such distress until the party begins healing it in Book 4 Part 1.

4. Alaznist's timeline materializes so suddenly because its existence is necessary for the events that assert the correct timeline; if it never existed, then the PCs would never have used the cyphergate, meaning that for Timeline A to exist, Timeline B must first exist. The fact that this happens while they're in the City Outside of Time is arbitrary, but it ensures the party isn't there to notice the moment the timeline collapses.

I'm a little confused about the last section of your question, but I hope this information is useful to you.

[Majuba]

Completely agree with Askar about the rigidity of time/resistance to change, and the pacing listed makes sense.

However, Alaznist must have already altered time before facing the Sihedron Heroes. That is generally needs to occur before Book 2, Part 2, so that the Heroes are incommunicado. But since they could be otherwise indisposed, it could be stretched a bit after that, to the end of Book 2.

I'd mark the party's defeat/ending of the prior runelord of wrath as what marks them as *the* individuals who eventually stop Alaznist and restore time (thus inciting the Hounds/etc to chase them for manipulating time).