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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James McMurray" data-source="post: 1119024" data-attributes="member: 743">After a short debate, the group decides to utilize the powers of the Saber in the best way they know how, without endangering their own lives. They talk Rikus into being magically boosted and then moving into the area for a frontal surprise assault. They are a little bit surprised at how well it works, when they return ten minutes later to see Rikus standing in  a room full of puddles of black water, with only a few cuts to show for his efforts.Looking around the room to ensure there are no more dangers about, the group tries to decide what to do. In the process they explain about the pools of power to Rikus and Ever impatient when the lure of power beckons, Farlight walks over to the pool in the middle of the discussion and wades in. As the cool waters wash up and over him, he pixilates and fades from view. Greyhawk, his sworn protector, rapidly follows.Deciding that there is no danger involved, Toshiro and Tsura immediately follow. After a short time, when they have not yet reappeared, the duke’s two advisors decide they too want the power of Time made physical, and wade in.As each person steps in, they find themselves being drawn upward, through the roof of the room and the mountain above. Through the air into the upper stratosphere, where they get the most amazing view of a continent they have ever seen. Down below, time seems to flow more rapidly, and all around the world lives under a slow strobe as the sun rises and sets in time with a universal heartbeat.Below them the tapestry of generations plays out. The blackness at the heart of the river grows until it fills the hole entirely, and the water that seeps through slowly poisons first the land, and then the entire continent over the course of 30 years. And the party is helpless to do anything but watch.Within a hundred years humanity has been driven into hiding by wild unkempt savages that spring up in tribes throughout the land. Another few hundred years and the entirety of demi-humanity is chased deeper into their hiding places, only to be hunted down and killed by the tribes, which are now led by warring demon princes vying for power.During this time, the Immortals which rule the land also come under siege. A group of powerful beings arises from out of the turmoil and takes a war out into the planes. Slowly but surely, each of the world’s gods are usurped except for one. The on-looking party sees that the usurpers are the deities of their own time, and they know they are seeing the rise and fall of pantheons.Down below, the small few bits of humanity that survive are driven into a single valley in central Oerth. It is here that they are making their final stand. But before the outcome of that final stand is determined, the party feels itself being drawn back downward, through the skin of a mountain, and into the room where the portal of time lies.Standing in total darkness, only the two glowing emerald eyes of the Phane give light, until Farlight brings forth his holy symbol. When questioned, Toshiro explains the nature of the beast to Rikus, and explains his belief that it is no longer hostile.The group decides what to do, and they begin to notice a difference in the way they perceive the world. Every so often, they experience a great sense of déjà vu, and then they realize that what they think they’ve already seen hasn’t actually happened yet. They also know that if they wanted, they could stop it from happening by choosing a different option at that moment. Finally, they feel as if they can choose at these moments to step sideways instead of back or forward, and have the foreseen outcome perhaps occur slightly differently. But there is only a short moment to make that choice, and then the option is gone.Realizing that the pool has returned them to the past, and that their return has destroyed the world that they know, they must make a terrible decision: whether to stay and attempt to redeem demi-humanity, or to risk stepping through the portal again and hopefully returning to the past to try to repair the damage there.The debate at this point takes much longer, but finally it is decided that Rikus will step through first. If he sees them going to the wrong time period, he will use his newfound ability to twist time to hopefully take them to the proper destination.Just before he steps through he sees a deep desert stretching out before him. Above him several large silver boxes fly on roaring wings, and deadly beams of light flash back and forth between them. Knowing this is wrong, he twists and steps. He is overjoyed to see the duke’s chambers all around him, and as the duke asks how the quest fared, the remainder of the party follows and is also happy to know they will have a chance to right their wrong.They explain that they met a “slight delay” and that they will now be returning to the heart of the river to finish the task.Two weeks later they have arrived. Searching out the place again, they find nothing new, and feel certain that the driftwood behind the beholder must be important to be guarded so well. Sneaking past the thing ethereally they examine it, and Tsura determines that it is a polymorph object. They dispel the magic and it lengthens into a 20’ long and 8’ wide flat boat, which also radiates a magical aura. Investigation reveals it to be a vessel capable of travelling underwater, and the group decides to use it to work their way to the heart and cut away the blackness there.They make their way ethereally to the chamber of the large lake. But as they are dragging the vessel to the water, disaster strikes! A massive draconian turtle bursts from the water’s edge and breathes forth a giant cloud of steam, which fells Farlight and Greyhawk in one blast. Moment’s later Toshiro lies in pieces beside the creature, cleft in twain by the beast’s mighty jaws.Again Rikus draws on Cutter’s power, but this time it fails, and he is forced to fight the beast without it. Tsura lends her magical aid, and the two rapidly defeat the beast, but then begin to wonder how they’ll leave the mountain, and how they’ll take the fallen with them. Deciding that it doesn’t matter what happens to them if they succeed, they climb aboard the boat and drift down the cavern towards the festering Heart. If they push against the flow they just manage to drift slowly forward.As they reach the heart, Cutter cries out that he must cut away all of the blackness, and Rikus goes to work. Once it is gone, Cutter says he must be left in place there, or the blackness will return. Rikus releases the boy-blade to its chosen fate, and the boat slowly drifts towards the roaring falls outside the heart.Thinking fast, Tsura dimension doors to the ledge outside with Rikus, and the boat hurtles out over the ledge and smashes itself against the rocks below. Tsura calls forth an elemental and Rikus leaps aboard a flying carpet and the two retrieve their fallen friends’ bodies, although some small portion of their gear is lost to the river.The two bedraggled heroes return to the Duke’s lands and revive their companions, and then prepare to bid farewell and return to the pool, and hopefully their own time.</blockquote>

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