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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 1060679" data-attributes="member: 743">Once again back in the city of Greyhawk, the Agent Retriever Regalin attuned himself to the Pool of Love. He then Plane shifted the party to the Beastlands, where they wind walked over a vast forest. Down in the clearings below they saw a strange sight. Predator and prey were living together in harmony.Ahead another clearing arose. In it center was a crystal blue, calm pool. Beside it was an incredibly tall Oak, easily taller than the other trees of the forest. As the party landed and reformed their bodies, the Oak opened its eyes and turned towards them. “Weeelcooome,” it said, taking its time around the words it so rarely needed to use. “Yoouu haaavve coomme tooo baaathhe innn theee poool?”Toshiro stepped forward and slowly spoke, “Haaii.”“Arrre yoouu moockiing meee?” the treant asked.Before the samurai could answer, a bark-skinned female stepped out of the treant and spoke. “Forgive my friend travelers. He is slow of speech, but not of mind. I assume you wish to Bathe in the Pool o Love? To do so you need only answer one simple question: Why are you worthy of the Pool?”In all their years of battle and glory the group had never been asked such a question, and they were taken aback. Regalin thought back to several years prior, when he first journeyed to this pool. When asked the question, he had responded by telling the dryad of his sister’s sacrifice for him. The two had been sailing when a storm drew up. The young Regalin (then only 32) had fallen overboard. His sister, herself not a strong swimmer, and younger even than he, had still thrown herself overboard to save him. Although she managed to push him back aboard the tiny vessel, she wore herself out doing so, and rapidly sank from view. She was Regalin’s only taste of love, for he never again allowed himself to feel for another.Having proven that he knew the meaning of love, he was allowed to bathe in the pool, where he was reunited with her sister. The sibling pair strode from the waters, his benefactor returned to life to become hi new charge. At the time, she did not have the blue glow of having been in the pool, but they parted ways after a couple of ears, and when they met back up, she had it. Like him though, he assumed she had been charged by the guardian of the pool to not reveal her experiences there, and so he did not pry.The dryad’s greeting interrupted his reveille. “Welcome back Regalin. I see you and your sister are still together.”Looking up, he noticed what he had not seen before. Although the giant treant was encased in the soft blue glow of the Pool’s Gift, the dryad was not. “Yes, we are, thank you.” He replied, and then he broached the subject. “I see you have not bathed yourself, lady.”“That is true. I have yet to answer the question to my own satisfaction.”Before he could inquire further, Aust spoke up. “I am ready.”The dryad excused herself from Regalin, for her duty called. “What is your answer, sir?”Aust drew himself up, obviously unaccustomed to such words. “For the love I have for my Deity and for the love I have for my fellow man. I risk my life every day for that love, and the pool can assist me in that.” Although not enthusiastic about the apparently selfish reasons for entering the pool, Harangia the dryad was not unfamiliar with those feelings herself. The answer and her glimpse into the paladin’s soul showed her that he truly understood love, and that he realized it to be a thing worth dying for. “You may enter,” she replied.Aust walked to the water’s edge and stepped in. The moment his toes first touched the water he felt forlorn and lost. He kept walking, and as his head went underwater he felt a presence. Looking around, the feeling grew until he suddenly found himself staring in the face of Corollan himself. The love he felt both for and from his deity nearly overwhelmed him.Corollan turned away for a moment, and Aust followed his gaze to a figure at the bottom of the pool. As the figure floated upward he recognized it as Arethia Shareese, the Elven priestess who first introduced him to the world and love of Corollan. He had not seen her in decades. “We will travel the world together if you wish, my boy-turned-Lord.”Up above, Toshiro steps forward. “I am prepared.” He takes several deep breaths and then recites his impromptu haiku.Epic Pool of LoveSacrifice for, by othersBathe for blue auraHarangia is thoroughly confused by this. Although her glimpse into his soul shows the value of his words, their meaning eludes her, and for the first time in decades, she replies to a Questor with a single word, “Huh?”Unashamed, Toshiro repeats his poem. Again Harangia is confused, until the treant Thousandrings drops his mouth towards her ear. Ten minutes of slow but purposeful mumbling later, the dryad nods her head, satisfied with Thousandrings’ explanation of the haiku. “You may bathe.”Toshiro follows Aust into the pool, and he too feels forlorn and lost, until he spies below him a dull silver glow. As he goes downward the glow brightens and he recognizes it as Chien Shay, the symbol of honor in his native tongue. The word flows toward him and embraces him, becoming one with him. When it fades, he sees an ancient woman standing before him, dressed in the blue and white robes of the Crab clan. He instantly recognizes her from the ancestral temple of his youth, where her picture hung in hallowed reverence: Tsura Shinechi, an ancient Wu Jen and Priestess of the family ancestors. “I am yours o command, my Daimyo.”Farlight took his turn stepping forward. Looking into the dryad’s eyes he answered her question. “Because my love of the good people of Greyhawk, and of all the planes, is what drives me to battle evil and suffering daily. This love is what keeps me from being corrupted by the evil I battle, and inspires my good deeds.“You may bathe.”The cleric stepped into the waters and also felt forlorn, until he saw before him the object of his love. High above the city of Greyhawk he flew, slowly dipping and gliding, while the city itself gazed up at him in approval and love. As he neared the tops of the buildings, one small business’s roof opened itself to him and he was drawn inside.Before him stood a man dressed in the colors of the city itself. A stone gray cloak and tunic matched the man’s earthen brown pants perfectly. Looking into his face, Farlight was surprised to see the features subtly changing. Eyes would change colors, but it would then appear as if they had always been that way. Even facial hair might grow or fade, and yet once the change was complete, Farlight was left with the feeling that it had always been that way. He recognized the being before him as the personification of Greyhawk City itself.“I am Greyhawk. And I will follow and protect you as you have protected me.”Returning to the surface, the party introduced their new companions and thanked the woodland pair. The introductions are interrupted as Greyhawk speaks, “You have protected me well, but time is wasting. Your truest test awaits. To save time you must find time.”When asked what he means, the man called Greyhawk acts as if he does not know what they are talking about. The party also notices that his features have solidified and no longer does he seem to have the weight of ages in his eyes. The gray and brown clothing still stand in testament to his origins though.Talking it over, the party feels that perhaps it was a message from Oerth itself, given to them through its momentary avatar. They do not believe in coincidence, and when asked about a Pool of Time, Regalin says he has heard rumors, but they were supposedly merely that. He has never tried to track those rumors to the source, but if the party will return to Union with him he will do so.They do, and he does, and a mere week later he has arranged a meeting with a man that claims to have bathed in the pool of Time. Regalin goes to meet the man, and when he sees the 13 different colors swirling in the aura, his doubts begin to fade.“The pool of time is hidden in time. I can direct you to its portal, but you must face the guardian yourself. Be forewarned, for the pool is never in he same time twice.”“You mean we may find ourselves back in time?” Regalin asked.“Back, forward, or even sideways.” Once you have bathed in the Pool, you will come to realize that time is not as straight forward as you believe. Would you care for drink?” Before Regalin can even answer, the still unnamed man disappears from his chair, reappearing next to the bar in the back room, and then once again appearing in his chair, holding out Regalin’s favorite drink to him.“If you wish to know the location for the portal, we shall trade. I see by your aura that you have found the pool of Love. Tell me yours and I will tell you mine.”Regalin agrees, and describes exactly how to get to the pool of Love. In return, the Bather tells him, “You must travel deep into the Crystalmist Mountains, where you will find the tribe of goblins known as the Marshanki Charuk: the Reverent Ones. Beyond their caves you will find the silvery portal you seek, and its guardian. Beware the Phane. It is a timelost abomination, living beside our clock. Its delight is in taking and enslaving creatures of our time stream, which it feeds off of and uses as its minions. This Phane is truly powerful, and has even managed to capture itself out of time. Such is the beast’s strength that you will require weapons forged or pure good to even harm it.”</blockquote>

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