Session 26: Varan, Missing Important Clues, Clones Who Are Total Fruitcakes, Order, Varan, Poison Bolts, Stupid Unbreakable Artifacts, Useless Ideas, When Grandfather is Right About Something, Lost Time, Anya, Also Varan

General Summary

Varen laughs, and it is nasty, cruel sound. In my head, I hear laughter of Nightshades who killed Mama. This does not make me like him more.
“I’m amused you think you have the power to compel me, girl,” he sneers. “When you idiots ran in here and attacked me, I didn’t bother resisting. I was curious; I wanted to figure out what your game was. I’m still not sure, to be honest, but it doesn’t really matter. Whatever it is, I’m tired of it. Our agreement is over. If I see you again, I’ll kill you.”
Oh, like I have not heard those words before so many times! And like he is one who was wronged here! We went along with his entire plan and died trying to end stupid time loop, and he is one who is angry? This is bullshit.
I am about to give him little poke with magic again, but he looks up, mutters something under his breath, and disappears.
Few seconds later and there is big crashing sound and bunch of debris falls down on us from ceiling. We look up and can see he did old Sylvan trick of teleporting way up high and then falling to death. His corpse is stuck in rafters, with stupid, smug expression on his face. Asshole. I know he could have just teleported into other building if he wanted to, and I have seen him fly, so this was just overly dramatic pouting.
We all look at each other and give big sigh before we sit back down at table and decide what it is we should be doing. Best idea we can come up with is to see if clone will talk to us. Maybe he can give us idea what is going on and how to stop time loop, since banishing him did not do trick. Ingoria and I are probably best people to go, we figure, because she can open door, and because clone and I are super good friends.
Grandfather makes us both invisible, and we sneak back into keep with no problem, now that we know way to go. It takes Ingoria rest of time left in loop to figure out how door is opened, but she is sure she can open it next time, so we just sit down outside and wait for flash of light. It is very boring, but neither of us are thinking to bring deck of cards with us, so instead I am just sitting with back to wall, trying maybe to figure out what is going on, but having no luck. Ingoria, meanwhile, is busy with disturbing grooming rituals I have already mentioned before.
Time loops, and we meet up again with rest of assholes. Apparently, they tried to port out and found themselves bounced back to starting place. What great experiment, guys! What if it worked? Then it would be just me and Ingoria, Varan and Clone stuck in here surrounded by idiot Sylvans forever. There is four of us, maybe we play Bridge to pass time? How fun. Look assholes, do not get me wrong – it is not that I so much enjoy your company, but if I have to be stuck here forever, then so do you.
Oh yeah, also Baermek figured out that porter pedestal was at very center of dome. Seems like this would be important fact, maybe even clue, but do we stop and ponder this information? No, we do not, because we are idiots.
Anyhow, Ingoria and I head back to keep and she opens door. We both jump to side in case of fireball, but there is nothing. I lean head in and shout “Hey! We want to talk about architect!” I pause for little moment, and then add, “Sorry about last time!”
There is no words from clone. I wait little bit longer then say, “Okaaaaay, I’m just gonna go sit at your desk and look through drawers. Really, we would like to talk very much.”
We go in room and see that it looks pretty much same. Crystal thing in middle is cracked open like before, but now tracks lead to back wall, where there is still being writing in blood, but maybe not so much as before. Clone is laying on ground like sack of rotting potatoes. “What is the point?” he asks, and I roll my eyes. But he does at least make effort to sit up, with back against wall, so I join him on floor.
“Varen tried to kill us,” I say, but I do not go too much into details. It does not matter though; clone doesn’t care. He just shrugs shoulders and says, “So kill it.”
“Fun idea,” I stop for moment, considering. “But not very productive, it is sad to say”
He sighs. “The Architect is using the artifact. You must kill it to stop the effect. Break its concentration.”
“But Varen has died,” I point out. “We have seen him die. Dome did not go away!”
Clone gives me look like I am stupid, then says, “Shining light can destroy a shadow, but that which casts it still remains.”
Oh for fuck’s sake, Baermek should be one who is here dealing with this guy and his stupid, cryptic remarks. Although, now that I am thinking about it, Baermek has been much less cool guy lately. He used to be annoying voice of reason all of time, but now he is annoying voice of let’s fuck shit up. I mean, I may have little bit of, let us say, impulsive, side, but I do not always go for violent path if there is another way to get things done, no matter how much crap I talk. But Baermek is being almost as bad as Skreek now, and that is saying something. I think maybe Ingoria is most reasonable one of group now, but that is probably just because she does not talk much. Of course there is whole eating people thing… Never mind. There are no reasonable people in this group.
Speaking of unreasonable people, clone has now gone quiet. I look around and notice where bloody words are written on wall over his head. “What is up with writing in blood?”
He looks up at writing for long, long time, then at me. He blinks silver eyes couple of times, then whispers, “Madness comes. We must keep it at bay.”
I want to ask more questions, but like he said, what is point? That was pretty much conversation killer right there. So, I get up and walk over to desk to check out what is inside. It is mostly empty, but I do find some vials of something I do not know what it is, and also stupid fancy signet ring. I hold it up for him to see. “This?”
“We are prepared to rule,” he says with shrug, uninterested. I give ring another look, then slip it in pocket. I know it will be gone next loop, but I cannot resist.
“What’s your name?” asks Ingoria. Honestly, I am surprised she is talking to him and not just, I don’t know, gnawing on his leg or something.
“We are Gallius Everglow,” he says. And even as pointless as everything is, and as nasty is big growth on his head is, he holds himself straighter, and manages to look down nose at us, even though he is still sitting on floor and we are standing.
“Are you ok?” she asks. “What’s wrong with your head?”
He reaches up like he is going to touch growth, but his hand only makes it half way before it falls back in his lap. “We are lost. We cannot hear ourselves. Without this connection, we are undone.”
I make half-hearted offer to heal him, which I think shows you what good person I am now that I am cleric, but he waves me off. I shrug and walk around to other side of him so I don’t have to look at nasty growth anymore. Ok, so maybe I am not nicest of clerics. What do you want from me? Boggie is god of Shadow and Death, not Kittens and Rainbows!
“Why was he trying to kill you?” Ingoria asks, stepping closer. Maybe he is too sick to smell yummy? I do not know. She is showing much restraint, which is thing I am very much thankful for. I do not want to sit here and watch her eat this guy. I am not being squeamish person, generally, but that is just gross.
“They were all traitors, trying to destroy the empire,” he says with sigh. “But the empire cannot fall without our death; the traitors hate us.”
Well, that is useful piece of information to know for when we get around to destroying empire. But there is another thing I am wondering about. “Ok, so what is Radiance?” I ask.
He gets kind of creepy little smile on his face when I ask that question. “The Radiance is beautiful. We bring Order. Everything must have Order.”
Ok, let me clear up something here. All this stupid bullshit with fighting Sylvans? I have just been going along with it – mostly because it has been good for purse, and also it seems to be something Boggie has strong feelings about. But I have my own problems, and my own shit list of people who need to be made dead, without worrying too much about bunch of assholes who mostly live on surface of other continent.
I will tell you, though, way he says this, way his voice lingers on word “Order,” it scares me. Order is tricky word that means very different things to different people. Anyone who makes big deal about Order, you just know it is their idea of order they are talking about, not yours. And who is knowing what silver eyed beings from other plane think is order anyway. I do not expect there is any place for savage dirt faeries in world they want to make.
“So what was black thing that came out of your mouth?” I ask. “I thought that was maybe Radiance.”
“Broken order,” he whispers with small frown on face. “Chaos.”
And really that is it for oh-so-enlightening conversation. We try to get more information out of him, to see if he knows anything about artifact, but it is just more nonsense. By time flash of light happens, I want to kill him. Not because he is frustratingly cryptic Sylvan asshole – although this is excellent reason – but just to put him out of his stupid misery. Real emperor may be evil douchebag, but this is just sad, decaying reflection.
Flash! We are back on street with others. Ducking into cafe, Ingoria and I tell them about incoherent mumblings of clone. Only thing we figure out from his nonsense is that Varan must not be working alone. Dome does not fall when he dies, so he must not be architect. But where is architect? How do we stop this? And, not to forget, Varen is out there somewhere, alive again and being stupid asshole. Is he looking for us? Will he interfere with stuff we are doing trying to escape?
Well, maybe, instead of waiting for him to track us down so he can whine some more, maybe we should find him! We still have many scrolls that let us locate object and did he not say he had cryptoporter? How many of those could there be in this little piece of city?
So, Skreek goes for invisible fly around city, this time looking for cryptoporter. In meantime, rest of us get idea to go talk to professor who we overheard talking about artifact, back when it was only second or third time loop. He is easy to find, standing on lawn at University, and introduces himself as Professor Essen, teacher of Conjuration. We ask him about speculations on artifact and he says it would have to be large and anchored. When dome appeared, he noticed it seemed to grow from three points around city, nearest one which is over there in that neighborhood full of rich people houses.
We head in direction he has pointed, but there is no way to figure out which house holds artifact, so we are just wandering around like idiots, which is our normal way to be. Then Skreek lands next to us, and says that house over there has cryptoporter. Huh. That worked out better than expected.
It is decided to send Skreek and Ingoria over to investigate mansion. Last thing we want to do is give away to Varan that we know where he lives, so only they are supposed to scout defenses and see if there is any sign of Varan or if artifact may be inside. But, do they do this? No, of course not! They go right in front door. And they are gone for long time, long enough that light flashes again, and we are all out in front of citadel.
So, what took them so long? Well, apparently Ingoria got trapped behind wall. And Skreek, well, Skreek was pretty busy with the talking to Varan! But he does not tell us this right away. In fact, he is acting very weird. You and I both know that he cannot keep secret to save his life. But I can tell you this, he is certainly giving it best effort right now.
When finally he gets around to telling us about conversation, first thing he says is just how mad Varan is at me and Baermek. Um yeah, this is not big secret. But Varan was also very interested in where we had heard term “architect.” So Skreek, being Skreek, told him I heard it from clone. When Skreek asked him if there was anyone else besides us trapped in time loop and aware, he says there was only us, emperor clone, and “me.” Ingoria says there was something really weird about way he said “me” but she did not know what was reason. They both thought this asshole was little bit lost, now that plan to kill clone did not lead to freedom. He told Skreek he is not really interested in coming after us, saying it is big waste of time.
Ok, so now we want, all of us, to go have little talk with asshole. We do not even try to be sneaky – what is point? – just march up to door and knock like we have come to have tea or shit like that. He does not answer obviously, so we open up and walk in.
Asshole has practically entire floor covered in stupid traps – ones that make lightning, ones that make fear, ones that make sticky web that holds you in place (if your name happens to be Baermek). It is very annoying. Even more annoying is when Grandfather lets himself be charmed like idiot and starts attacking everyone. Wait, no, not everyone. Just Baermek and me. Did I mention what petty little asshole this guy is? Yeah, yeah, so we tortured him little bit. Who has not been tortured before? Why is big deal?
Coward stays behind doors and takes potshots at Baermek, and then he yells “Czerno!” and whole room goes dark. Czerno? Huh. Well, now this is interesting thing I will ask him about when I get tired of punching him in stupid face.
Skreek yells out, “I thought you said revenge was useless in this place! Is this enough, or do you need another minute?” but Varan does not make answer. I mean, what can he say? Obviously he changed mind on that subject.
I am making way toward where I think door was, when I hear sound of it opening, and then bastard shoots me with crossbow bolt. And not just crossbow bolt, but poisoned bolt that hurts like son of bitch. I am laying on floor, almost unconscious, thinking maybe clone was right and everything is pointless, when I hear fucker say, “Now, I’m done.”
Oh no, asshole. This is not done. I would get up and kick your ass right now, but floor is very comfortable. Later will be ass kicking for you, I promise.
He comes out of room, still holding crossbow. We ask him what is going on? Why didn't it work to banish clone? He tells us, “I’m trying to figure this situation out, but I keep getting interrupted by assholes barging into my home.” I am just about to open mouth to tell him that, if he has not figured out what is going on after thousands of loops, there is really no point in him sitting around thinking about it more, but new, angrier, Baermek interrupts me, “We’re just going to keep coming back and poking around in your shit!” he says in very threatening manner. (See! I told you! I do not know what is going on with him. Maybe it is being cranky from being stuck so long in time loop, but I do not feel like that is it. Maybe it is something to do with echo Baermeks he can suddenly make now; maybe it is very painful process. I do not know. I guess we will be finding out eventually. Or maybe not. It is not like he is guy who likes to talk about feelings.
Anyhow, Varan will not talk to any of us except Skreek. This is very, very bad idea. Varan is Nightshade, and Skreek is inexperienced, angry and easily manipulated. Ask me how I know. But we are out of the options here.
We wait outside and when Skreek comes out of house, I ask him, “How is new best friend?” He just looks at me all sad eyed and says, “I have no friends.” Can you hear me rolling my eyes? Because it is that loud, I am rolling them so hard. Maybe he should just go and sit in vault with clone. They can talk about how sad and pointless life is, and smoke clove cigarettes.
But it was not completely useless. Varan did tell him where location of one of pieces of artifact is. It is on far side of bubble, and we rush over there to see if maybe it can be disabled, even though Varan told Skreek he had already tried many times.
We find it in cellar of building. It is like eight feet tall and covered in tubes and gems and things. It is very powerful magic thing, giving off bright glow. We do our best to break it, trying everything we can think of, but nothing makes even slightest mark.
Flash!
What to do now? We have no good ideas. So Grandfather and I decide to check out ruin of airship called Morning Glory, since there does not seem to be much else to do. But there is not actually too much to see. Mostly it was just hold of ship that was shorn off by dome, and there is just crates full of usual trade goods, smashed on ground. But now we can see full name of company that owned ship. It was Sky Mother, Inc.
Bleh. Useless.
Skreek and Ingoria go to look at third artifact, and it is same as one we were just banging on. So then they go talk to Varan and Skreek tells him we had no luck with artifact and he is like, “Duh.”
Also useless.
We go to find Professor Essen and tell him we have found artifact that looks like it is part of dome. He does not, at first, want to go look, but we tell him there is no danger, and finally he comes with us, bringing even more professors with him. They look at artifact and measure it and make many excited and worried noises at each other, but in end all they can tell us is that it is chronurgy magic, that pieces are not in same time as us, and they do not think we will be able to affect it.
Again, useless.
Time loops. What is it, 13 cycles now? I have lost track.
We wonder what it is that I did that made cracks in dome appear. I banish Skreek again just to see if this has effect, but there is nothing to show for my spell but even more pissed off bird.
Useless. Funny, but useless.
Then Grandfather has stroke of genius. I mean, mostly he is full of shit, but this is actual genuine smart idea he has. He says, hey, since cryptoporter pedestal is right at very center of dome, and bright flash seems to come from there, maybe we should go watch and see what happens when time loops.
So, we go over there, sit down and wait. When it is almost time for flash, we start to feel air charge with energy, hair stands up, and lines of light begin to streak out of pedestal. And then, flash happens, and it is also coming right out of pedestal!
Holy crap! Have we maybe found key to time loop?
We are all hopeful. Skreek goes to get books from library and all of us spend most of hour collecting Sylvan shit that might be of interest to certain bunch of Freehold scholars with deep pockets – newspapers, books, bottles of wine, trinkets. Then we gather back at pedestal and Grandfather takes out cryptoporter lock we got in mage academy at Thanadell. As soon as we feel energy level start to rise, he puts lock in portal. There are still a few lines of energy that come out, but no bright flash.
AND NO TIME LOOP!
Holy shit! No time loop! Ha! Suck it Varan, you big loser!
And then Crack! Crack! Crack! Dome starts to break apart in earnest. Shit! Time to go!
Grandfather slams down cryptoporter, already set with code for Lightkeepers, and we are back in the library in Freehold in only an instant, and I want nothing more than to kiss ground, then take long bath. But it is strange, library does not look same as it was. For one thing, ropes around portal are gone. I immediately get out stone and try to send message to GG, but there is no response. Oh no! GG!
People are staring at us, and we demand to know what has happened to GG. They look startled and say they will go and fetch deputy administrator. Terrible suspicion dawns on us, so we ask other people what is date.
It has been fifteen months that we have been inside dome!
Door bangs open, and in rushes GG on river of words. “Oh my god you’re alive, you’re alive! What the hell?! I can’t believe it…” And so on.
We tell GG it is very important that he change code on pedestal NOW. Varan knows code and we cannot have him showing up here like big birthday surprise. GG does not understand why we are asking him to do this, but we are making such big fuss that he agrees. It will take him maybe an hour to do, he says, so we go up to guest rooms to rest and wait.
When he does show up, he keeps looking at us like we have returned from dead, which I am guessing we have in sort of way. He tells us he was offered job of Deputy Administrator, and since we had disappeared, he decided to take it. We show him things we have brought back from Iollan, and he says that they can probably buy books off of us, but not all in one go. He offers us 2000 gp for first batch, which is not nothing.
Then we decide it is time to go out and celebrate. I do not even mind when it is decided we will go back to stupid themed restaurant, Daybreak. I am too busy worrying.
As we are eating, GG is just full of questions. “Wait, so you met an actual, real, honest-to-gods living Knight Shade of the Empire who was trapped in there with you? And he was part of the group working against the Empire? And he was alive? Did he know Arryn? Why did they destroy the world? How did they destroy the world? Was he a crazed terrorist like the letters described the others? Or was he a true-believer who felt like he had to destroy something beautiful for the greater good?"
Others may have answered him, or maybe they did not. I do not know. I was not listening.
There, across restaurant at private table, staring holes into me and Grandfather, is Anya. Anya, who was one of Kisha’s favorite little ass kissers at Academy. Anya who tied me down so Kisha could…
She gets up and leaves table, making her way toward exit, like there is no hurry.
“We have to go, Grandfather! Now!” I yank him up from table and start pushing toward door. Others follow behind us, shouting questions, but I do not slow down. I bang out of restaurant, glance around to see if anyone is waiting to jump us us, then run as fast as I can toward where is Lightkeepers, dragging Grandfather behind me.
Does it look like I am running from fight? Maybe it looks like I am running from fight. Do not you worry, though – this is going to happen, believe me. But I will choose when. I will choose where.
The Darkness is calling, Kisha. I will tell it you are coming.

Report Date

03 Sep 2023