63 - Wondering at the Citadel
Previous session: 62 - The City that never sleeps
New lead, new friend...
Upon inspection, the Hourglass is finely crafted and beautiful. The sand inside is pure white, with its case made in gold and pure glass.
[Identify] The Hourglass is made with wonderous energy. as It seems to be some kind of temporal key, making us think we should be able to teleport in time, but only at a certain place.
About halfway of our rest, we notice a figure on the top of the dunes.
Gemini is looking at the figure through the scope, and the figure raises their hands and walks towards us.
The figure looks at Gemini.
Persy squints, doubtful of their will.
↪ [Insight] Persy senses desperation from him, but the truth is coming out.
Having a new companion brings more D E T E R M I N A T I O N.
Gemini takes the Scroll of [Legend Lore] and casts it on the Hourglass.
Her vision darkens and two magical translucent persons appear in front of her, and there's a crowded room behind.
After some thinking, we realize we can head to the Citadel thanks to the Hourglass, and we decide to teleport there.
The Citadel of the Wonders...
We find ourselves standing on a platform, with many stones above us and the air below us; confirming we arrived at the floating Citadel, and we enter it. We've been going in through narrow passages as we've been in a Servant passage, and we finally reach the main hall, which has been sacked. The thrones of the Wonders have been ransacked and broken, except the Death one. Bodies and skeletons are all over the place.
We're starting to look towards the symbols of the Wonder of Time. As we making our way to the center of the hall...
↪ [Perception - Pass ✔] We hear a gust of wind and we see behind us landing and standing in front of us a Valkyrie, armed with a big shield and a halberd.
The body of the Valkyrie dissolves in a blinding light into a silver dust, leaving a shadow on the ground in the shape of her body and an amulet at its center.
Persy looks at the amulet.
By looking closer to the dropped amulet, it seems like a locket - but not really - like a pendant with a silver ornamental glass box, containing a glowing crystal inside.
This item requires attunement.
When the wearer kills a creature, they can expand a charge (PB times per day) to attempt to fear the creatures 5ft. around the slayed entity, being feared on a failed Wisdom Save (DC 18).
This item is cursed, as the wearer feels a overwhelming sense of grief when wearing it.
We're resuming our way towards the door leading to the Wonder of Time's symbols, which leads to an anti chamber which seems to be a dressing room. When we're going through, we climb a long spirally staircase, and finally we reach a door with the symbol of Wonder of Time.
↪ [Investigation] The door doesn't seem trapped.
↪ [Lockpick - Unlocked 🔓] The door is unlocked.
A musty smell seems to come from the clothes nearby even if the room is very dusted. The walls are patterned with portraits, with many books and maps. Along a few weird trinkets - which could be a sentimental value - there isn't much standing out. In the center of the room is a messy unmade bed with a nightstand, which seems to fit the description we saw.
Right on Time...
Nesvalyn puts the hourglass on the nightstand and turns it over. The sand starts shifting down, and the room starts spinning, as we're hearing clock sounds and magic swirling around us, and we found ourselves in a dark room, surrounded with fractal paints of glass, with different points of time, like various memories. They appear to follow the life of a young teenage boy. Seated away is a siege lounge and that boy looking at us, which we presume being the Wonder of Time.
He sits up and kicks his feet over the armchairs. The Wonder looks like a teenage boy around 15-16 years old. A youthful face, but he seems really tired or stressed, or perhaps both.
He stands and all the fractals are replicating the same scene, with all of us standing there, but it's Axel present, instead of Eledamri.
His eyes glow then stop.
His eyes glow for a few more seconds.
Persy pulls out the pieces of Irhan's Rage.
The fractals shifts and a scene sets around us.
We're in the throne room of the Wonders of The Citadel, and we assume there's the Undying in her form before she became a Lich.
Some voices from above are not really clear. She yells profanities, putting her on the side of the discussion and the scene.
She turns around and leaves. The scene shifts around moving to a new one.
We see her in a comfy chair, smiling. We recognize her, seeing for the first time being happy. We presume she's with another Wonder, drinking. The scene jumps and the other Wonder passes out and the Undying gets up, puts her long nail on the Wonder's neck and draws a symbol, and pulls a slight thread of light. It cuts later in bed after with another Wonder after some sex, and she pulls some light from his neck.
The scene fades away.
We see her decades later, appearing as an old woman. A young man whispers and the scene cuts to a discussion with a Wonder with which she had a drink in a previous scene.
They argue for a while, until the Undying speaks.
The scene moves to a war table with the Human nation, a spot lights up, where we see the Undying dressed in her War armor with a few Valkyries. It cuts to a shot of a baby with a shadow of the Valkyrie passing over, then it fades with the Undying having the baby, smiling.
We turn around and we see the Irhan's Rage in its proper state.
Persy puts the Portable Hole on the ground and stops for a while, then blinks.
Persy looks to the Wonder of Time.
The bubbles shift, and we see the Wonder of Time with a scythe on his neck with the Undying behind, trying to keep his head. From what we see, his face is frozen in fear and agony.
He takes a deep breath and let go a tear.
He disappears, and the scene unfreezes and the Undying slits his throat, and we're back in his bedroom in our timeline right when the last grain of sand drops at the bottom.
All the books and various mementos are all around us, untouched and similar before we used the Hourglass.
Persy sighs as we "lost" another Wonder.
When looking around, Persy notices he can repair the defensive and the cloak system of the Citadel, which actually means it could be a safe place for our journey, and without thinking twice, we're claiming it as our headquarters.
We notice during our exploration there's a teleportation system, but it takes one week to recharge.
Next session: 64 - Looking for Friends