Renew the Pact: Time of our Lives, part 16
Log Info
- Title: Renew the Pact: Time of our Lives, part 16
- Emitter: Whirlpool
- Characters: Paenitia, Aryia, Seyardu, Lyme, Fallon
- Place: Goldcoast of Veyshan, Tashraan, Temple of Navos
- Time: Friday, September 17, 2021, 8:51 PM
- Summary: The erstwhile time trippers continue their interrogation of Shaevin, who is forthcoming and helpful. With a little more back and forth, they reach the conclusion that the party is in a time loop, may have already failed once before, and that Akoniril likely knew she was in a loop, even if she wasn't looping. They obtain a list of auction items, and discover a lot more than the two items they were aware of had changed. Possibly, these are their future crimes. Their second day is occupied with tracking down Akoniril, making a clumsy approach, and asking to discuss things somewhere private.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Appearing -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Paenitia 3'0" 34 Lb Halfling Female A Lucht knight, dark skinned in bold feathery finery. Aryia 4'8" 110 Lb Shadow Elf Female A heavily scarred mul with a curious look about her. Seyardu 5'6" 150 Lb Sith-Makar Female A friendly silver sith-makar with a perpetual squint. Lyme 7'2" 435 Lb Orc Butch Black-skinned oruch of suitable stature. Fallon 5'6" 145 Lb Half-Elf Male A short hooded man. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= NPCs of Note =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Shaevin Neutral Dawn Elf Male A priest of Navos, young, confused, overwhelmed. -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--= -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= As the GM -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Whirlpool 5'0" Otyugh I am stinky! -=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=--=
Previously
In the hourglass room, the adventurers confront Shaevin, who is genuinely confused at seeing them. Accusations fly back and forth, but eventually they get down to sorting out what is happening. Time Fuckery, is technical term, and the adventurers appear to be a week before they actually arrived in Tashraan. The questioning by the guards takes on a whole new meaning. They might not be corrupt, just unprepared for time trippers. Shaevin provides several possibilities, they're in a loop, this is the first iteration, or it has played out and someone else is attempting to counter them. Some of the crimes they were accused of might yet to be committed in the future of their current past. Everyone is getting a headache. They're not even sure if the things they saw change, have already changed or are yet to.
"We may not have done this before. Or, I do not know. If that is the case and this is the first time, I do not wish to try until we succeed. But if that is what it takes, so be it." Seyardu sighs. "I was not prepared for this when I was asked to accompany a man to an auction. But we have time to determine what to do. I do not see how we would have murdered the buyer, reason or not. Or Farland. Which leaves the question of what _is_ going on. And how do we fix the problems with the time."
Shaevin nods thoughtfully.
"I may be the priest of time but that doesn't make me all knowing. All I can do is guide you: also, I'm a bit worried anything I do will lead me... where you say you saw me, so I kind of want to sit back a little and try not to become a hollowed out void abomination, thank you."
Lyme nods. "I believe so. Both to the different way, and the messing with." A shrug. "Or maybe doing nothing will."
"Can you tell us perhaps, about what happened in that room we were in?" Seyardu suggest. "Why it was locked the way it was, why going in there allowed us to come back here? It may be important, if that would help determine what went wrong."
"The hourglass, as well as the room, yes. Tell." Paenitia points to the key that Shaevin has retained, "How many there are of those. And the big one out front, that do things too?"
She laughs suddenly, "Tell us if there the giant socket under the temple for dial back the whole city."
Her tone goes lower, more serious, "Still we need the answer, is the Blade of Balance from the Demon War a weapon you hear of?"
Now
"The blade of what? No, I'm not familiar with it, honestly, but the demon wars is a big black mark on history. Do you know we don't even know how long it was? The entire word was plunged into fire and smoke for an indeterminate length of time. Even the current year is 'best guess'."
He looks wry.
GAME: Seyardu rolls knowledge/relgion: (15)+7: 22 GAME: Seyardu rolls knowledge/history: (11)+5: 16
"What about Wilivum Vumvet, and his book, 'You are enchanted to meet me?', have you hear of this?" Paenitia asks, "Or is this only the things scribblers in the library would know?"
"Oh yes! That I've heard of," replies Shaevin.
"It's a *lovely* book. Very witty." A smile.
"You mighgt say it's ... enchanting, even."
If you didn't want to kill him already...
Fallon squints slightly, not quite following the line of questioning. "I just want to know what crimes I've committed. I'm usually very tidy."
"It is true, no one knows. The look he is giving is probably because a Navosian cleric like himself takes great pride in having an excellent understanding of time." Seyardu adds, crossing her arms. "Now, before the sidetracking, the room? We need a better understanding of what happened if possible, and you likely know that room better than us. I do not think you had a hourglass hole carved into your own floor surrounded by magics for no reason, correct?"
Aryia glares at Shaevin, before looking at Fallon and gesturing slowly. "There are no crimes, we never did them."
Her attention turns to Seyardu, her sipping a bit loudly from her cup of tea. She nods at that. <Handspeech>
Aryia glances back to Fallon and drinks louder. "... yet." <Handspeech>
"I'm not sure what else I can explain," says Shaevin.
"This device," he gestures back in the direction of the small room, "is capable of rewinding your local position in time by a certain amount. How much varies. You can't actually know. But it does run the risk of getting you caught in a looping time event."
"Assuming we're not *already* in a time loop..." Fallon mutters. "I don't think we're getting much more out of this interrogation."
"And what do you end up using it for? Did you use it recently, like before we showed up here?" Aryia asks with hand gestures. <Handspeech>
"Why do I find the idea of you having such a device so concerning." Seyardu sighs. "Knowing that it was the area around us is helpful. And you know about the scrolls, then perhaps what about the wand of Selkrath?" She asks. "Surely you are aware of the goings on in this city, and such a prestigious auction would not escape your notice. Perhaps they had a rare clock you may be interested in?"
"Okay, we not try the re-wind for a bit." Paenitia says, looking at Shaevin, then around, "I think the crimes will be steal the Sword, and the book, and maybe we kidnap the one who is oppose us, and they think that murder."
"...this is Tashraan. There are *tons* of auctions. My obligation is to time itself, not merely things that are old," answers Shaevin, "But you're now, what did you say, a week before the auction? WE have time to learn about it."
"I haven't used this in quite some time. I would have only used it if situations were ... dire. Evidentially they were, given that you told me I was corrupted somehow." Shaevin makes a face.
"I can't speak to what hasn't happened to me yet."
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "We're going to change approaches." <OOC> Whirlpool says, "We're going to let you guys figure out some brief plans OOC for day 1 of 7." <OOC> Whirlpool says, "Before you reach your own 'arrival'. :)"
Aryia sighs, her sitting back and pursing her lips with her empty cup of tea. She looks to the group, doing her best to not wonder about the craziness of going back in actual time. Did that mean she gained a week of life? Or lose one? Eh.
"So... we should figure out what's going to be sold at the auction coming up. Identify what we need secure. Then from there... I don't know. We'll wing it, I think humans say." <Handspeech>
Paenitia watches Aryia's hands, she has no idea what the scarred Mul'niessa just signed. She pretend to translate anyhow, "So, we have a mystery. To start at the beginning is the best idea. We have the luck!"
"We are before the beginning." The little knight laughs, "Start at the Auctions, see what is be sold, find out all we can about them."
"The auction is a good place to start. We can see if the issues with time are still present there, and we have to investigate them if so. Aryia said we should identify them." Seyardu agrees. "And if not, we should all make a copy of a list of what is being sold. Then, we should look into the other buyers perhaps? Since one seems to have been harmed. Perhaps there are existing motives, bad blood."
Fallon offers a casual shrug. "Sounds as good a place to start as any." He's just going to follow their lead at the moment. A possibly do things well that he has no business doing well in.
GAME: Fallon rolls perception: (16)+10: 26 GAME: Aryia rolls perception: (5)+15: 20 GAME: Lyme rolls perception: (14)+4: 18 GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (10)+12: 22 GAME: Lyme rolls diplomacy: (2)+3: 5 GAME: Paenitia rolls knowledge/local: (14)+10: 24
The good news is that the contents of these auction lists are published well in advance of the auction. With some asking around, discrete inquiries, and getting to know the right people, you're able to find the right auction at the right place at the right date, with the right list of items...
...except you learn that the list you got, with a few exceptions, is nothing like what you experienced at the auction. You might have witnessed the sword of balance changing, for example, but it wasn't the first item to change, clearly.
"That's interesting," remarks Shaevin, "IF I had to guess the reason you were able to discern the changes in the first place is due to the temporal anomaly of there being two of you here in the city at the time. That means you've already been through at least one loop of this, I'd say."
Great.
"But it means that Farland *hasn't*, if he didn't know. That is also interesting."
The buyers, however, is a *much* harder thing to look into. Given you really only have physical descriptions and what they were wearing at the time...
Fallon blinks at this revelation. "So the first time we went through this loop, Farland *wasn't* there? How does that make any sense?"
"Maybe he the one murdered, so he not around. He not with us in the room." Paenitia observes, "So, we, forget one of these loops already, you are say."
She taps her toes on the flagstones.
"He's not with you now, is he?" asks Shaevin of Fallon.
"He may never have travelled through time with you in the previous iteration."
"Because Farland was not present in the chamber, I would say." Seyardu offers once they had a free moment. "They did not, go back in time, so they have no memories to sort through. I am surprised we did already. This is concerning, and confusing. Did something go wrong the previous time?"
Seyardu sighs. "If so, why can we remember so little of what happened?"
"It hasn't happened to you yet," remarks Shaevin, thoughtfully. "So I'd suggest your previous iteration ended in failure of some kind."
The Red Knight turns her ever smiling mask towards Shaevin, "So, not only we are meet the selves we remember, we meet ourselves who fail too? There is the chance, the next few days?"
Fallon sighs, but accepts the corrections. "I hate time travel already."
"Maybe it was him that was getting the shit beat out of him in the jail," Aryia motions, rubbing her temples with a new cup of tea in her free hand. This one ACUTALLY having something extra in it. "And now what we're looking at is... not the right item?"
She nods at Seyardu, and sighs as well. "Great. It kind of sounds like something OUTSIDE of these items is fucking with us." <Handspeech>
"No," says Shaevin to the Red Knight, shaking his head. "You won't meet yourselves, unless you deliberately do so when you arrive. Doing so is ill-advised. It could irreversibly damage your thread in time."
"It is possible. So I feel like, we need to figure out what needs to be done. As if my memories were not a confusing mess already." Seyardu notes, and sighs. "Does that mean we need to confront this failure, if it hasn't happened yet? That does not feel particularly pleasant."
"We need to find out _what_ is causing the time to be changed. Something to be fixed."
"I feel the identities of the auctionees might be relevant, but I'm not sure why or how. Only that it's strange that we never got a -single- name," Fallon adds. Then again, they weren't really interested in names at the time, were they?
Paenitia puts her straw in her tea, slipping it under her mask to take a long slurp. "How we fail, is a thing to think about. So, the task for today is look into the buyers, or we wait on that one?"
"I feel compelled to point out that if the items were vanishing as you are suggesting, there is probably a reason for that. And the items have not vanished yet. There could be any number of explanations for that, but it also bears looking into. For example, someone else could be stealing them, or destroying them." Shaevin grimaces.
"AH! Those are our crimes." The little Lucht laughs.
Lyme folds his arms. "How many things can actually /change/ time?" He looks both confused and headachy, and annoyed. It's a fantastic combination on an orc.
"Then perhaps they are different objects to begin with?" Seyardu asks, one hand rubbing at her snout. "It was not the sword being replaced with the decanter, but a memory or shred of time where the decanter was offered, and one where the sword was offered? That would make sense. But would that not be news for the auction house? If these things went missing, then there would be numerous annoyed bidders the day of."
"Good thing they had so many replacements lined up in that case. But how do we look into people stealing them? I do not even know where to begin."
Aryia groans, a strange sound, really just a huff with an added eyeroll. She reaches behind her chair, pops the cork off a bottle of something, and adds it to her tea. Then drinks straight from the bottle. She sets it down with a light clank, and crosses her leg. "Maybe the items changes because they got intercepted in previous times. Or whatever. Fuck, my brain hurts from all this..."
"I don't think learning the identities will matter much. It may just going to change. You know what? That Taara woman. What about her? She's the only real constant in all of this. Shit, she got us out of jail like she knew that...-" She abruptly stands up, eyes wide. "That BITCH!"<Handspeech>
"She *was* the one we had some trouble outbidding the first time, wasn't she?" Fallon blinks again at Aryia when she suddenly shouts. "Do share."
Lyme blinks. "What?" He points, "Aryia, can you write please? I don't know what you figured out."
"I do not understand it either." The Red Knight admits.
Aryia rolls her eyes back again, leaning back with her arms limp to her side. "F-r f-ck's s-k-," she hisses, glancing at Seyardu, hoping she'd translate so she wouldn't have to cramp her hand.
"Aryia is saying, that the items may have been changing because they were not present in previous times, something like Shaevin is saying." Seyardu translates, though she pauses to take a book out of her bag. She flips through it, blinks, and sighs before she continues, stowing it away. "And then she was saying it is possible the people at the auction may have changed. And called the Taaran cleric something unpleasant. Which made me think. She seemed to think we would not learn anything at the temple of Navos, and it was a waste of time. Yet when she broke us out of jail, she suggested we go to it. So perhaps they knew more than they let on, but they will not know these things now?"
Seyardu rubs at head again.
Aryia pulls out her journal as Seyardu talks, her frowning a bit as she scribbles. Across to pages, she writes in large letters so all could see.
"SHE KNOWS SHE'S IN THE LOOP!"
And shows it after turning it around.
Fallon frowns deeper when the full context of what was said is filtered through Seyardu. "It certainly -sounds- like she knows more." He looks up at the book and large text Aryia presents to them. "It sounds like we should investigate her involvement next."
"Okay! That the Day two plan." Paenitia thumps her gauntlet on the table, making her cup jump, "Find the deceit priestess, see what she have to say."
Lyme nods slowly. "She's a deceit priestess. She'll lie. She's also really, really fucking powerful, isn't she?" He pauses, shaking his head. "What's that saying? Above my pay grade?"
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "Okay! If you want to try to locate Akorinil Belvade, that'll be a bunch of diplomacy rolls!" GAME: Seyardu rolls diplomacy: (7)+12: 19 GAME: Paenitia rolls diplomacy: (7)+8: 15 GAME: Fallon rolls diplomacy: (11)+1: 12 GAME: Aryia rolls diplomacy: (12)+-4: 8
GAME: Lyme rolls diplomacy: (4)+3: 7
It's not easy.
... Tashraan is a big place. Really big. And finding one specific person, even a powerful specific person, is difficult. Still, when that person is a 'red haired shadow elf that calls everyone darling', it IS a little easier than it might be and you are eventually able to locate her at an outdoor cafe, where she is sipping tea and talking to a merchant, who is apparently offering food-stuffs to Charn.
Lyme was there more or less as the glowering black orc in the back -- incentive, really. He's incentive! He tries not to glower to Akoniril /too/ much, though his baseline annoyance is pretty high. He doesn't blame his headache on her, though. He doesn't.
Seyardu steps off to the side, and waits, listens, places an order for a drink if anyone asks. She certainly did not trust anyone dealing in 'foodstuffs' to Charn. It was worth listening as long as she could manage, at least.
Aryia is rested. Aryia is not in weird clothes. Aryia has a hat now to block the sun. She glances between the Lucht Knight and the silverscale, before gesturing, "This person may not know already about the loop. Should we watch what she does? Or approach?" <Handspeech>
"Do not bring it up if she does not, at least for now." Seyardu says. "I still do not trust them much, if at all. But I would hear of her business first, if possible. For Charn, food-stuffs is as much people as actual food."
Paenitia guesses rather than comprehends Aryia's handsigns, there are really only two likely questions, who should approach, or should they wait and observe. Seyardu's answer confirms her guesses.
"Okay then, we sneak close to listen. Then one of us say Hola when we are sure she is done."
"I have work for her before, and you too, it would not be the surprise hello so much."
Fallon steps into the cafe as inconspicuously as a ranger in need of a haircut can manage. But, it's likely clear they were all part of a group, given they all entered roughly at the same time and are clearly communicating with one another. "I'm not a talk-y person. I'm a watch-y person," he murmurs to those discussing their next move, if they haven't already deduced as much.
Akorinil does not apparently notice your arrival. She's focused on her conversation, after all.
There is business for her to conduct in Charn and she seems to be right to it, asking pointed questions of the merchant.
Aryia tenses her jaw. Finally realizing who they were talking about. "Yes, she'll know who we are. And know we're up to something seeing us. Goes the same the other way as well." <Handspeech>
"Yes, she might know us." Seyardu nods. "But she seems busy. So lets find out what we can in the meantime. There will be time afterwards to discuss what is needed. And after everything, I am sure we could all use a pleasant meal at a cafe. I will pay, as well." <OOC> Fallon says, "nope"
"Fallon, he not work for her." Paenitia whispers quietly to the group, looking at the ranger with a bad hairstye, "Unless you meet her in Alexandria in the streets, she would not know you. You can say the 'Hola', we watch for recognition."
"This we know, if she know you, she know us and is in the loop. We can wait till she finish talking, see what we overhear."
"To step away is the bad idea, Friend Dragon, she may go to a Inn room after this, we not see her at all again."
Fallon wrinkles his nose at Paenitia. "I'm terrible at socializing, which probably contributes to me not knowing who she is. If you don't mind the conversation promptly going south..." He's really hoping they lower their expectations.
"We are at a cafe. I thought some food might be nice while we wait." Seyardu sighs. "But yes, that may be for the best with Fallon. A good idea how to test things going forward."
Lyme goes and gets an oroder of food. "This is making me hungry. Does anyone want anything?"
GAME: Fallon rolls diplomacy: (8)+1: 9
Fallon inhales, as his mind tries to figure out something to actually talk about with some random 'deceit priestess'. It'd probably be easier if she was just some random pretty woman and this didn't have any actual stakes involved... then he could bumble about and not care! He offers the others one more glance over his shoulder, one that seems to say "remember you ASKED for this", before stepping forward and approaching Akorinil. "Um, hello," he starts. "Enjoying your scone?" Was that a scone? He has no idea. Wait, is she even eating?
...so when Akorinil is approached, she stops to look at Fallon. She stares at him for a moment, perhaps uncomprehending as to what the approach is meant for.
"My... scene," she says after a moment. A look around. Slowly.
Thats' when she sees the rest of you.
"...adventurers," she says with a sigh that's almost bone-weary. "If you'll excuse me a moment," she adds to her companion, sending him quickly away from her table. "Come on, then. Have a seat. What's this about, then?"
... oh boy...
Lyme comes back with a tray of coffee and pastries. He's /helping/.
OOC Rolls for later
<OOC> Whirlpool says, "But we will retain your rolls"
GAME: Seyardu rolls sense motive: (20)+7: 27
GAME: Paenitia rolls sense motive: (10)+11: 21
GAME: Aryia rolls sense motive: (8)+13: 21
GAME: Lyme rolls sense motive: (6)+3: 9