Fast And Luce

Treas 4 - 6, 6640 + 90 days PTS (post time stop)

The Party:

• Rig Bigny, Gnomish Beastmaster
  • Flit, bat familiar
  • Clench, Wardog War-Badger
  • Midnight, Panther
  • Noona, Lion
  • Faufe Yitaw, Dogwere (Badgerwere?)
    • Rawf, Wardog familiar
    • Aroof, Wardog familiar
  • Llarm Paphyra, Elvish Polydoctorate
    • The Metal Man, construct
• Caranthir, Human Leader of Men
  • Rhea Trueheart, Elvish Nightblade
  • Lucille "Luce" Burwood, Fighter
  • Elenora Garrard, White Mage
  • Gimli Trollriver, Dwarven Fury
• Laurita Gomez, Priestess
  • Herman Thorpe, Ectomancer
    • Baelnar Grimtor, Dwarven Sapper
• Crolack, Thrassian Gladiator
  • Kurt Steinbacke, Dwarven Deep Monk
• Saphira Moonstone, Gold Skinscribe
  • Pentzkin Singletossle Pocketspringer, gnomish beastmaster
  • Alun Tsornyl, Sylph Ranger
• Aingeal Bàs Eleonara, Witch

The party returned, briefly, to Mor-thir, to pick up Caranthir and Aingeal, among others. From there, they continued on their search for Old Gods, this time teleporting through the Endless Desert. After visiting an ancient, still-active volcano, and finding nothing but ash and igneous rock, they explored the ridge of mountains in the center of the desert. That night, a group of travelers found them, and offered them some shelter in a huge cathedral, built in the center of the mountains. After staying the night and sharing their food and water, the party offered to teleport the travelers to their destination - Lushea, far to the south. After a short day of shopping in the tiny village, they teleported back to the mountain ridge. They dropped off some supplies, and the travelers spent a day cleaning and sorting. They also shared a bit of wisdom - Sof Zamd was not fond of visitors, and would likely drive them off in a sandstorm, if he didn't try to kill them outright.

That night, Caranthir felt a hand on his shoulder, and quickly turned and snapped at whoever tried to wake him. Luckily, he missed; he blearily opened his eyes to find Luce! Wait... Luce? Caranthir blinked in confusion - he had seen Luce only two days before, when he left his kingdom! How could she have traveled all this way?

She explained: I was supervising one of your armies, skirmishing against a nearby landowner, when suddenly the battle halted, unmoving. Everyone was frozen. At first, I though it was some kind of spell - Timestop, maybe - but then it just kept being stopped. After a while, I went looking for answers; it took two years of searching, but I finally found you!

She broke down in tears, but quickly found her composure. She went on to explain that while she wasn't affected, everyone else was; she could touch things or creatures or people, and they would "wake up" for about 12 hours, but then stop again. She traveled the world by foot, stealing food and trying to avoid cities... because cities held strange, dangerous creatures. Eventually, she found her way deep into the desert, and located the spires. She was hungry, tired, and miserable.

After unfreezing their group, they attempted to teleport to the northern continent... only to find that the staff no longer functioned! Instead, Caranthir carried Luce on his back, and the others took their various flying contraptions. It was a long flight - roughly 90 days - but eventually, they made it back to the anti-magic continent. Luckily, they found that a good "night" of rest brought back their spells, even without an actual passage of time.

In one of the cities, they fought some strange shadow-creature; deeper inside the city, they found more and more of these creatures, larger and larger, until eventually they met a towering, skeletal monster that called more creatures to it. After a long, difficult combat, they finally managed to bring it down, though the party was badly hurt by the end. At the very end, an old acquaintance showed up - the sneaky fellow that sold them the "magic-hiding brands"! Who, as it turned out, was none other than the Old God Gyda Dyn (Glance Left, Glance Right), patron of thieves, conmen, charisma, and Get Rich Quick Schemes!

He told them about the most ancient of gods - Chrona, Goddess of Time, who gave movement to the universe. Gyda Dyn had been doing some local research to figure out who was responsible, and was fairly sure that the culprit was somewhere in the continent... but where, he wasn't sure. Moreso, he hoped that it was merely a ritual or something that could be unwoven, rather than an outright slaying. In that case, well... it was goodbye world. The best place to start looking would be the capital, where it all began...

List of Old Gods known and met (c'mon guys, figure it out!):

• Lawful Old Gods
  • Old Mother, supposedly a six-legged cow, and Goddess of Earth, Strength, and Cattle
  • Chaos, God of Order and Intelligence
  • Odin, God of Wisdom and...?
  • Burli, God of Health, Constitution, and Manliness
  • Hiezlie, Old God of Dexterity, speed, and defense
  • Gyda Dyn (Glance Left, Glance Right), God of Thieves, Con men, Charisma, and Get Rich Quick Schemes
• Neutral Old Gods:
  • Manu, The Hand of God, god of labor, construction, and work ethic
  • Hinengaro, God of Mathematics, Science, and Truth-Seeking
  • Moenga Moe, God of Dreams, the Elderly, and Judges
  • Therapeftis (Thera-pef-tis), goddess of Stability, Healing, and Bed-rest
  • And, likely, two others
• Chaotic Old Gods
  • Wairangi, the Fool, Old God of fools, pigs, and ignorance
  • The Decorated Tortoise, Old God of Stubbornness, Slowness, and Grumpiness
  • Sof Zamd, God of Sand, Feebleness, Heatstroke, and Dehydration
  • And, likely, three others
• Additional not-so-old-gods
  • Ooze Becky, Cubic Grace, Who Digests The World, goddess of... well, whatever gelatinous cubes are goddesses of
  • Görünmez, the Unseen One, god of Invisibility, Minding Your Own Business, and Staying Home.

• XP from encounters:
  • 4 5hd Time Guardians (3200)
  • 6 7hd Time Guardians (11040)
  • 1 30hd Time Guardian (26500)
• XP from treasure: (none)
• Additional XP from meeting Old Gods: 1000/PC, 500/Hench
• Total XP per PC: 4704
• Total XP per Henchman: 2352