Agents of Chaos (Final Update!)

[the Jester]

Caught in a Time Loop

Orbius and Sheva both feel a nagging sense of deja vu as the party emerges from a scintillating wall of silvery light.

There's no sign of Nigel; who there is sign of, strangely, is their old enemy Cluma, the Guardian of Order! He's dressed in full armor emblazoned with the Arrow of Law, and some sort of tapering rod composed of segments of different diameter is thrust through his belt like a weapon.

Near the silvery wall is a melting pile of snow on the ground, but our heroes have no time for such niceties. Angelfire and Sybele manifest defensive powers while Horbin casts lower resistance on the enemy. Then a volley of magic missiles blaze from Orbius- only to be rendered useless by what the Eye recognizes as a shield spell. Horbin's celestial storm giant ally gestures and a blast of violet electricity zaps Cluma, inflicting incredible amounts of damage. Cluma cries out in pain as Lester charges with a shout and Sheva tumbles in to flank after reading her scroll of magic circle vs. law.

"You! Here?" The Guardian of Order seems surprised to see them here, and he whips out the rod at his side and smites Lester a ringing blow across the forehead. "Foul servant of Chaos!" Lester stumbles back a step, his head ringing from the blow.

Zeebo hastes Lester, and Sybele darts in, disarming Cluma with a snap of her whip! The Guardian of Order's sword clatters to the ground. Then Horbin steps in, swinging his holy mace into the small of Cluma's back. As the formerly-dead man staggers, Hank steps in and swings his massive sword- cutting Cluma in two in a shower of blood and viscera!

"Ouch," Lester winces, rubbing his smarting head. He throws Cluma's body in his box of many holdings for later dealing with.

"Where is this place?" Sheva wonders, looking around. The party is indoors somewhere. The room is round, large and bare, except for the glimmering wall behind them that cuts off one corner. A single heavy wood door leads out; and when they open it, our heroes find themselves staring out at what appears to be a nice summer day.

Sheva feels a profound sense of deja vu, as does Angelfire

"Is it just me, or is something funny going on here?" asks the chain mail bikini-clad Coilite.

"What do you mean?" Zeebo responds.

"I don't know.... something seems really strange. I keep feeling like I've done this before..." Musing, Sheva looks for tracks and finds the mark of boots that appear to match Cluma's. Oddly enough, they don't seem to lead up to the tower door. Puzzled, the party debates going back into the tower and see if they can find any sign of anything else.

"Well, wait a second," Sheva says. "I think I can backtrack these to wherever Cluma came from. Maybe we can find some answers there."

The party agrees, and they follow her. As they go, Horbin feels a nagging sense of deja vu. In about ten minutes, they find themselves exiting a screen of trees and brush that seems to surround whatever the tower is that they just arrived in. They seem to be about a quarter of a mile from a small village- they can count the six buildings from where they are. "Hm," says Lester, "maybe that's where he came from." They begin trudging down the path towards it, across cultivated fields of wheat that look ready for harvesting. When they get a little closer our heroes can plainly tell that this little place has a church, a bar and four farm houses- and that's it. As they walk into the town, a handful of people are in the streets; all stare at them in a mixture of fear and curiosity.

The party heads to the inn; a sign proclaiming it the Blackbird hangs above the open wooden doors. The sounds of laughter and conversation rumble out of it, but as our heroes enter it dies quickly. The locals, clearly nothing but country bumpkins, look like they don't know what to do about such formidable-looking people. As he pushes through the door, Angelfire feels a profound and disturbing sense of deja vu.

"Hi there," says Zeebo, "I'm Zeebo Swaysac, the Mayor. Pleased to meet you." He starts pumping hands, engaging people in conversations instantly, trying to put them at ease and figure out where the party has ended up. Lester buys a round of drinks for everyone in the Blackbird, but his Chaos-given bat wings seem to frighten the crowd more than his beer mollify them.

Shortly, after mingling briefly, Zeebo moves over to the table the rest of the group is at and informs them of what he's found out. "We're in a village called Freedom," he reports. "It's named after that tower we were in- Freedom Spire." He pauses for a beat. "And Cluma's here, in this inn, right now. Upstairs."

"Impossible!" the L protests. "His body's in my box!" He lowers his voice as several heads turn their way. "There's no way that someone could have raised him so quickly, much less with no body."

"Maybe you should double check," Sybele suggests.

"Well, okay, but- by the elements!" Lester exclaims, looking in one side of the box. "I, uh, must have put him in this side- no, maybe this one-" A moment later, he looks up, frowning.

"He's upstairs," Zeebo insists.

Lester stands up, pushing his chair back with his one arm. "All right," he says flatly. "Let's go kick his ass again."

As the party starts up the stairs, Zeebo feels a profound sense of deja vu....



Next Time: Something fishy's going on here! Will our heroes be able to escape? And if they can, at what price??

 

[the Jester]

Knockin' on Cluma's Door

Angelfire and Sheva stand in front of Cluma's door and knock. It opens to reveal a very surprised-looking Guardian of Order. Before he has a chance to even so much as move, Angelfire slashes him; and then Sheva delivers a stunning fist to the temple that knocks him cold.

The party ties him up and throws him in Lester's box of many holdings and carts him downstairs, where all eyes are upon them. Sheva and Horbin feel a profound sense of deja vu as they descend into the tavern room.

"Hi there," says Zeebo, "I'm Zeebo Swaysac, the Mayor. Pleased to meet you." He starts shaking hands, engaging people in conversations instantly, chatting up the place's various patrons, trying to put them at ease and figure out where the party has ended up. Lester buys a round of drinks for everyone in the Blackbird, but his Chaos-given bat wings seem to frighten the crowd more than the beer can mollify them.

Shortly, after mingling briefly, Zeebo moves over to the table the rest of the group is at and informs them of what he's found out. "We're in a village called Freedom," he reports. "It's named after that tower we were in- Freedom Spire." He pauses for a beat. "And Cluma's here, in this inn, right now. He just went into his room upstairs."

"Impossible!" the L protests. "His body's in my box!" He lowers his voice as several heads turn their way. "There's no way that someone could have raised him so quickly, much less with no body."

"Maybe you should check again," Sybele suggests.

"Well, okay, but- by the elements!" Lester exclaims, looking in one side of the box. "I, uh, must have put him in this side- no, maybe this one-" A moment later, he looks up, grim determination on his face.

"He's upstairs," Zeebo insists.

Lester stands up, pushing his chair back with his one arm. "All right," he says flatly. "Let's go kick his ass again."

As the party starts up the stairs, Lester feels a profound sense of deja vu. Angelfire and Sheva stand in front of Cluma's door and knock. It opens to reveal a very surprised-looking Guardian of Order. Before he has a chance to even so much as move, Angelfire slashes him; and then Sheva delivers a stunning fist to his head that knocks him unconscious.

The party ties him up and throws him in Lester's box of many holdings and carts him downstairs, where all eyes are upon them. Zeebo feels a profound sense of deja vu as they descend into the tavern room.

Something strange is happening, thinks Zeebo. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something weird is happening here. How did we get here anyway? He frowns, looking around at the crowd. A nagging suspicion is beginning to form in his head, and he refrains from talking to anyone. Lester buys a round of drinks for everyone in the Blackbird Inn, but his Chaos-given bat wings seem to frighten the crowd more than the beer can mollify them.

"I think we should go back to that tower," says the Mayor. "I think something weird is going on here. Weren't we going after Jezebel? How did we get here?"

Our heroes sips at their various drinks (Sybele is continuing to stick to finer ales). "Hm, you're right," reflects Orbius.

Zeebo continues, "I think there's some kind of temporal magic going on here. This Marius- he's a follower of Coila, right?" Sheva nods. "So he's probably got some sort of time thing going on. I think we need to go back and check out that pile of snow in the tower. I have a suspicion that we've fallen into a trap."

Orbius nods. "A time loop."

Sheva is decisive. "Let's go." After a quick chug, the party exits the building and heads back to Freedom's Spire. And Zeebo and Sheva both have a profound sense of deja vu....




Next Time: By now our heroes have started to figure things out- but what will the cost of escape be?

 

[the Jester]

Escape from the Time Loop!

The party emerges from a scintillating wall of silvery light.

There's no sign of Nigel; who there is sign of, oddly enough, is their old enemy, Cluma, the Guardian of Order! He's dressed in full plate armor with some sort of rod composed of segments of different diameter thrust through his belt.

Horbin and Sheva feel a profound sense of deja vu.

There's also a pile of snow, about 6' long, on the ground, and Sheva and Horbin eye it. Angelfire and Sybele manifest defensive powers; Horbin turns from the snow to cast lower resistance on the enemy. Then a volley of magic missiles blaze from Orbius- only to be deflected by what the Eye recognizes as a shield spell. Horbin's celestial storm giant ally gestures and a blast of violet electricity zaps Cluma as he invokes a chain lightning, inflicting incredible amounts of damage. Lester charges with a battle cry and Sheva tumbles in to flank after reading a scroll of magic circle vs. law.

"You!" The Guardian of Order seems surprised to see them here, and he whips out the rod at his side and smites Lester with a terrific blow to the head. "Foul servants of Chaos!" he cries.

Zeebo hastes Lester, and Sybele darts in, disarming Cluma with a snap of her whip! Horbin steps in, swinging his holy mace into the small of Cluma's back. As he staggers, Hank steps in and swings his massive sword- cutting Cluma completely in half!

"Hmph," Lester grumbles, rubbing his throbbing head. Blood is trickling and a large knot is forming, but his fast healing will make the pain go away soon. He throws Cluma's body in his box of many holdings for later dealing with.

"Where are we? And haven't we been here before?" Sheva asks, looking around. They're indoors somewhere. The room is round, large and bare, except for the glimmering wall behind them that cuts off one corner. A single heavy wood door leads out; and when they open it, our heroes find themselves staring out at what appears to be a nice summer day. Sheva says, "Hold on a second." She kneels to examine the snow. "What do you all make of this?"

Orbius and Zeebo study it for a moment, then say in unison, "A simulacrum."

"What's that?" Sybele asks.

"A magical construct that imitates someone. Like Nigel." Sheva's frowning. "This is weird. Maybe we can go back through that wall." She casts a few spells to look for magic and such, then touches it.

The silvery wall blazes and darkens, then a blast of lethal black energy shoots out. It blows most of the party to bits. Sheva dodges it and Lester manages to absorb the damage, but to her horror the rest of the group is blown apart in a shower of burnt flesh! The wall roils again, and another blast fires out even as Lester and Sheva scream and flee- but too late. They're both killed as well, destroyed by the deep violet blast.

The party emerges from a scintillating wall of silvery light.

There's no sign of Nigel; who there is sign of, oddly enough, is their old enemy, Cluma, the Guardian of Order! He's dressed in full plate armor with some sort of rod composed of segments of different diameter thrust through his belt.

Orbius, Angelfire and Sheva feel a profound sense of deja vu.

There's also a pile of snow, about 6' long, on the ground, and Sheva and Orbius eye it. Sybele manifests defensive powers; Horbin casts lower resistance on the enemy. Horbin's celestial storm giant ally gestures and a blast of violet electricity zaps Cluma as he invokes a chain lightning, inflicting incredible amounts of damage. Lester charges with a battle cry, and then Angelfire darts in, suffering a slash from the Guardian of Order, and grapples him! "We should take him alive!" the red-skinned Coilite yells, and with a thump both he and Cluma fall to the ground.

"You!" The Guardian of Order struggles with Angelfire. "Foul servants of Chaos!" he cries.

The party jumps on him, and it's soon apparent that there is no way he's going to break free. He glares up at them.

"Now then, what are you doing here?" Sheva asks, looking around. They're indoors somewhere. The room is round, large and bare, except for the glimmering wall behind them that cuts off one corner. A single heavy wood door leads out.

Cluma stares at them for a moment is disbelief. Then he says, "You mean you aren't here to stop me."

"You mean you aren't here to stop us?" Lester asks dubiously. "Yeah, right. You Law guys are all in it together!"

"I am an agent of Law, Chaos-spawn," Cluma snarls venomously, "but on my oath: my business here has nothing to with you- at least directly."

Orbius, meanwhile, has knelt to examine the snow. "A simulacrum," he says thoughtfully. He calls Zeebo over and points it out. "Something funny's going on," he says. "I keep getting this feeling of deja vu, Marius... there's something to do with time going on, I'm sure of it!"

"What's a simulacrum?" Sybele asks.

"It's a construct that looks like the creator," Orbius answers.

"So what are you doing here?" Lester asks Cluma. The Guardian of Order holds his tongue. "Look," the L urges, "we clearly have the upper hand. You can tell us, or we can kill you."

"I'll just be brought back," Cluma sneers.

"So we'll kill you again, and go after all your friends and whatever. But either way, you might as well just tell us what we want to know and everything can be cool."

"Hah! Get off of me and perhaps we'll talk! As it is, I've no wish to talk to you at all."

"Hey, you're a Law guy. Give your word you won't try to attack or hinder us and we'll let you up."

Cluma still doesn't seem to believe that the party isn't just going to kill him, but he says, "Very well, you have my word." Angelfire gives him one last squeeze and then gets off of Cluma, as do Lester, Horbin and Sheva. The Guardian of Order stands up and dusts himself off warily. His hand falls to the multisegmented rod at his belt and caresses it briefly.

"Well, what are you doing here?" Lester insists.

"We may even help you," Sheva adds.

"Tell you what- you can even just tell me," says Sybele.

Cluma hesitates, looks each of the party members hard in the eyes, and reluctantly accedes. He and Sybele go aside to the edge of the room furthest from the crackling silver wall and he says softly, "I am seeking a piece of an artifact- and I believe it is here."

Sybele returns to the rest of the party and tells them what he's doing. "I think we have no choice but to help him," Orbius says. "We have to break the time loop we're in by finishing something that got interrupted."

"All right," Sybele tells Cluma, "we'll help you." They help Cluma search, and soon they turn up a secret compartment, which the Guardian of Order eagerly opens. A short, fat rod of some sort of exotic material is in the secret chamber, and as the party watches Cluma grasps it with trembling hands and screws it onto the end of the multisegmented rod at his belt.

Hey, wait a second, Zeebo thinks, Is that what I think it is? One, two, three, four, five, six... ah, crap, seven.

As Cluma looks up from the fully-assembled rod, the silvery wall flares and darkens to a strange metallic violet. A lashing tendril shoots out, and in the blink of an eye the party vanishes.

Why did they help me? the Guardian of Order wonders, then smiles grimly as he hefts the rod. No matter. Now the forces of Law have a great weapon on their side, and I may be elevated to become one of the Great Generals.

Time traps, they said... I wonder if Marius was involved, some roundabout scheme of his? If so, I hope he achieved his goal.

Only for a time, Cluma, only for a time. Now they're back in the Plane of Time, and hope to soon rescue Sybele's daughter!





Next Time: Our heroes, free of the time trap, attempt Marius' lair- the Citadel of Eternity!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

You are very evil, Jester. Did you have them make some sort of Will save? How did you run the sessions, and did the players have to join in or were they helpless to repeat themselves without a save?

Great stuff!

 

[the Jester]

You are very evil, Jester. Did you have them make some sort of Will save? How did you run the sessions, and did the players have to join in or were they helpless to repeat themselves without a save?

Great stuff!

Each character got a Wisdom check, DC 20, to get a profound sense of deja vu at each 'scene'; if they did, they could change what they had done before.

The time loop only took one session (pretty much as planned). They talk about time loops in the Manual of the Planes, and I try to take hooks that get dangled like that in various books when I can.

 

[Talix]

Woah - freaky! At least you got to use copy/paste liberally in posting it, right?

 

[the Jester]

Woah - freaky! At least you got to use copy/paste liberally in posting it, right?

Yup, though I went through and edited each time to incorporate the 'little changes' (and sometimes big changes, once they'd figured out what was going on).

Working on the next update now, prolly post it before 9 pm Pacific tonight!

 

[the Jester]

The Problem with Storming the Citadel of Eternity

The winds of the Plane of Time whip past the party, rasping at them with the silvery sands of worlds worn down by entropy. The group struggles to stay together, not to be swept away. The bubble they've just emerged from pops as if it were made of soap and is gone.

Our heroes have more important things to worry about.

There are four creatures facing them. Sybele blanches as she gazes upon four of herself, grinning evilly and rushing towards them. Sheva sees four Shevas; Lester, four elementalists; the Orbius, four reflections of himself. Each of our heroes has only a moment to prepare for this unexpected assault by their own reflections, and then two fire storms blast the group. A chorus of agonized cries rings out from the most vulnerable, and then Lester grunts out a curse and fires a chain lightning in response. Sheva is screaming taunts at 'herselves', while Angelfire rushes the enemy selves he sees and slashes madly at them, cutting deep into the chest of one and puncturing a lung. It drops and seems to dissolve into mist. The Mayor hastes Horbin, who casts a mass heal to restore the badly wounded party members, then fires a flame strike at two of the creatures. Unfortunately, they both resist the magic. Horbin curses, and then cheers the Zark- Boom! of a chain lightning that erupts from Hank's fingertips. Sybele pulls her greatsword free of its scabbard and charges, and one of the creatures- she still sees it as herself- slams at her, but she's too quick and dodgy for it to hit.

Then a chain lightning shoots from one of the strange creatures, and the party's hurting again. With a groan, Zeebo falls back, failing to penetrate the spell resistance of the enemy. But momentum is with the party; Sheva drops one of the bizarre creatures, and a combined fire storm and cone of cold from Lester and Orbius cause the last two creatures considerable distress. Then Hank rushes in with a war-cry, and his incredibly long greatsword slices out once, twice, thrice- and both of the party's remaining adversaries fall and are swept away by the winds.

"That was weird but irrelevant," Sybele calls over the noise of the rushing winds, "and where's my daughter??"

"Now that we're on the Plane of Time, I don't think Marius can use it to hide her," Orbius yells. "I'll find her!"

With that, the Eye of Boccob starts casting. He squeezes his eyes shut while he chants and gestures, and the party is pushed along by the currents of the plane. After a long ten minutes, Orbius finally tilts his head back and sighs.

"Got her," he says simply, and the party struggles together around him as he casts mass teleport.

There's a giddy moment; We're going to rescue her! Sybele thinks. And then the group reappears somewhere a little sheltered. They appear to be in the lee side of an immense wall, part of an even more immense citadel of some sort. A closer look shows them that they're actually between a pair of walls. The howling winds blow gently here, but there are piles of the sands of time everywhere around them. The huge building itself is made of a mixture of many different long-lasting materials, from stone to metal, and all of it is polished brightly by the scouring sand. It's huge, fading into the distance. It's bigger than most castles the party has seen; and who knows what lurks in there? The walls have symbols, almost entirely destroyed by the continuous blasts of sand, but still recognizable enough for Zeebo.

"Uh... this is bad," the Mayor says.

"What?" asks Lester.

Zeebo peers intently at the place for another moment before answering. "I think this is the Citadel of Eternity. If this is where Marius' lair is..." He pauses, takes a deep breath, and goes on. "We have to move quickly. According to the lore, the Citadel of Eternity is in a deep time wrinkle."

"What's that mean?" Sheva asks.

"It means that time passes fast here," Zeebo responds grimly. "If we spend a day here, years could pass on Cydra. Maybe centuries."

"Well, then let's hurry," Sybele urges. "We don't know what's happening to Jezebel."

"Look at the size of the place," muses Horbin.

"Wait a second," says Lester. "What about Cluma? He's probably causing trouble right now, we have to stop him too! And what about the Temple of Elemental Evil? We need to stop them before they do whatever nasty evil thing they want to do."

"But maybe the Bile Lords will have forgotten about us by the time we return," Horbin says hopefully.

"Screw those guys! We killed Chemnu, we'll get the rest of them too!" Lester answers.

"Easier said than done." Thrush shakes his head.

"Maybe we should return when we're more fully readied again," the Eye says. "Now that we know where we're going-"

"You didn't learn more specifically where Sybele's daughter is?" Sheva asks.

"Of course I did- and I tried to teleport us right there," Orbius replies. "But I couldn't get us actually into the Citadel- just close to it."

"Anyone got a locate person?" Horbin asks. For a moment nobody answers. "Well, that answers that," the Dextrite cleric mutters.

"How long will it take to search this place?" Sheva wonders.

"Don't forget, we can probably expect some serious opposition along the way from Marius and Nigel and weird pseudonatural creatures, and the elements know what else," Lester points out.

"Time's a wastin'," Zeebo interjects. "We should go in now and fast or leave, but whatever we're going to do, we have to move quickly."

"I'm starting to think we need to come back another time," says Orbius.

"No! My daughter's here, we have to save her!"

"Let's go in, then," Thrush says, drawing his sword.

"But where? Look at the size of this place!" Horbin gestures.

"Whatever we do, let's do it now," Zeebo insists.

The party seems ready to debate until a hundred years have passed back home. Nobody is being decisive. So Sheva makes the decision.

"Forget it," she states firmly. "We'll come back, but we can't afford to dither like this." She has already pulled out a tuning fork. "Quick, join hands!" She starts uttering prayers to Coila.

"Jezebel! I'm sorry!" Sybele wails. "I'm coming for you, I promise!"

There's a clear ting as Sheva strikes the tuning fork, and then reality ripples around our heroes as they plane shift home. As they burst into existence in a sunlit plain, the only sounds are the songs of the birds and Sybele's weeping.



Next Time: Poor Sybele! Alas, no daughter for her- not quite yet. Our heroes are back on their home plane, but where are they? Orcs on the move, philosophical discussion and the first real battle of the Great War of Ethics!

 

[the Jester]

Just for the record, I added a couple of Orbius' high level custom divination spells to the thread my players should stay out of.

 

[the Jester]

The First Battle of the Great War

"So what do I think of this Great War of Ethics? In a way, it's kind of funny," says Orbius. "It's not about territory or conquest, no one's after anything. In a way, it's a tremendously huge war about nothing. It's about belief, and you can't control what people believe."

Lester ignores the philosophical discussion going on with the Eye, Sybele and Horbin, choosing instead to smoke some pipeweed. He rolls one up and sparks it up with his firefinger ability, granted by Froth.

Our heroes pass the early part of the night, napping through an hour that leaves them as restful as a whole night. Then, as they're deciding their next move, with Sheva proposing they wind walk to the Shining City, they start to hear distant noises, thundrous and loud but far, far off.

"An army," Sybele states. "Passing some miles away."

Wind walk it is. In vaporous form, the party follows the noise and soon they can see the army in the distance. Sybele estimates at it about 12,000 men and orcs combined- probably 10,000 of them orcish. And they're flying the colors of the Forinthian Empire, definitely a force of Law.

"Orcs!" Horbin exclaims softly. "Why orcs?"

The party backtracks the army's trail and soon finds a grim scene- a halfling shire, burning and put to the sword. There are some survivors, but not many. The story is clear... the orcs and their Forinthian allies are up to no good.

Sheva and Sybele exchange a glance. They remember Zodiac the orcish pistoleer, one of Sybele's old boyfriends- one of her dangerous old boyfriends. He was some kind of Valonian agent. He might be out there... if the other pistoleers are as puissant as he was, and if there was a unit of them in the army, that force would be deadly.

The party wind walks south, towards the Shining City, leaving the dubious force untouched behind them. They don't really know what's going on, and they have pressing engagements. The leagues fly by, and soon they're over the sea. Sheva uses a sending spell to find out the date from Habiskis- 12/27. Almost four months have passed. They move over an island- and as they whiz over it, they see a battle in the distance.

"I think that's Pesh City," Orbius calls.

The battle looks big. There's a massive naval engagement-

"Is that the Chaos fleet?" the L shouts.

"And I think that's the Forinthian flag," Sybele says, gesturing at a massive, deadly-looking wedge of ships flying the colors closing fast on a disorganized-looking circle of Chaos warships.

There are ships as far as the eye can see, and besiegers surrounding Pesh City's walls. There are small breaches in the defenses, tied up in secondary barriers along the streets. The glow of fire rises from dozens of places. In the distance, there is a constant rumble of violence. The air hums with catapult shot, arrows, sling bullets, oil- the instruments of war. Smoke is everywhere.

"Holy crap," says Lester.




Next Time: What will the party do in the first battle of the Great War of Ethics?