Moonstars:Session 2

The party approached the Netherese excavation site and were set upon by some sort of flying machine; it landed, and a group of shadow creatures emerged to face them.

The battle was brutal; they were inches from total death, when Tasha managed to snatch an unlikely victory by killing her own cleric and resurrecting him to heal the others.

Battered and bruised, they retreated, with the help of the now-abandoned Netherese flying machine, to a safe distance before raising their now truly dead cleric. He spent a few minutes in a Schroedinger's cat scenario as they argued over 4th edition rules and who had what equipment, before they finally brought him back.

Returning to the sunken enclave, they entered the excavation and found a suitable landing site. They entered the exposed spire of a tall tower in the enclave, to find that it had been thoroughly explored and catalogued by the Netherese, but not disturbed. Some unknown temporal anomaly had preserved some things and allowed others to be ravaged by time.

They found a ewer of wine, impossibly preserved, which imparted a strange effect on its imbiber--an alteration of their perception of space and time, so as to grant them incredible visual acuity for detail. Tasha took a wineskin of it with her.

On a bridge overlooking a large excavated pit, they found themselves within an image of contemporary Netheril, the same place, but a long-ago time. The image existed only in seemingly random areas. Within it, they could see an interesting device in what had been a plaza. The Imaskari timepiece buzzed excitedly and pointed to it.

They floated down to have a look, and found themselves floating away through time. They appeared in exactly the same location, Chronomancer Enclave, in -1906 DR.

They were flustered at first, but found the locals less than flabbergasted at their sudden arrival. They purchased some universal translators from a helpful vendor, and soon after found themselves on the wrong side of some Inevitables. They found themselves unstuck in time, drifting through the continuum.

Fortunately, they arrived somewhere more compatible with their existence--a simple stone cabin. Therein, they met Tobin, an explorer and tracker of Time, who had been expecting them. He explained that they needed an anchor to keep them stuck in time and space, else they would drift away, as they had done. He gave them each a tiny vial of sand, which supposedly fills that purpose.

He also explained that he was a member of an organization, some of which approved of their actions, and others of which would try to oppose them. Inevitables, such as those they had already encountered, would be involved on both sides.

He was able to take them back to his time, the place they had come from: Chronomancer Enclave.

Back at the enclave, the party sought out the Temple of Mystryl. Therein, they beheld magical wonders unlike anything in their own time; the priests and priestess literally sold quasi-sentient spells to the upper crust of Netherese society, empowering even the unmagicked with abilities a sorcerer would envy.

Therein, they met Eris, who introduced them to the concept of Essentia, and demonstrated some of the more popular and interesting ones to them. She failed to make a sale, as she was soon interrupted by High Priest Ennur, who spoke plainly of his interest in them, as they were quite evidently time travelers. He took them to an observatory for a private conversation.

He explained much to them about the nature of time travel. He told them how one could describe an exact location in time, as either a precise astrological profile, or a combination of signals from beacons placed in auspicious points in time and space, whose magical signatures could be detected far and wide in the continuum.

The observatory was equipped with a calculator of sorts, one that could convert the coordinates, and even allow the pinpointing of specific dates. The Imaskari timepiece has only the ability to lock onto beacon signals; with a conversion from the desired date of their destination (1479, the Year of the Ageless One), they were able to get a reliable set of coordinates to try to find their destination.

Back in the temple proper, Ennur instructed Eris to take them to the vault and give them some very powerful essentia. Perplexed, she did so, giving them each a powerful golden essentia which imparted the power of time travel. Before they could leave the vault, however, its defenses were activated, sealing it from entry or egress. Through the prismatic walls, they could see a battle taking place; Ennur was slain by a black-cloaked man, apparently the Chronomancer, who was in the company of inevitables.

The vault itself became unstuck in time, surging forward and finally coming to rest in 1600 DR, the Year of Unseen Enemies. The vault was sitting in a blasted landscape, amidst a ruined world. Nearby, a lone tower sat on a hill, the last remnants of Waterdeep. Above, a massive City of Shade was settling in, presumably for some sort of assault.

The magic of the vault faded quickly in the post-apocalyptic world, and the essentia streamed out of it like air into a vacuum. Desperate to prevent the loss of so many priceless and timeless artifacts, Eris called them all into herself, and promptly collapsed, barely alive.

The party left the now-useless vault behind and ran up the hill. It was an arduous climb, but they suspected they had little other option. Atop the hill, beside the tower, was the Blackstaff. He looked little like his predecessor, but he bore the staff, and seemed to have expected them.

Inside the tower, Blackstaff kept counsel with a cadre of ghosts clinging to magical artifacts, the last remains of the Moonstars. From the Blackstaff itself, the ghost of the original Khelben appeared. He explained that they were far too late, but he had made a crucial error. He had devised a way for them to return to the proper time, in 1479, but it would be difficult and complex. Their first step would be to travel to ancient Calimport, to plant a beacon that would survive the death of Mystra in a place where it would be kept safe--a stronghold of Shar's power.

Just before the tower was destroyed by the Shadovars, the party leapt back in time, to 707 DR, the city of Calimport.