Just Means

Chapter 14 - The Castle in the Mist

They tracked down the apprentice of the powerful chronomancer that they sought, and he gave them a map and a dagger, saying that the powerful mage had been expecting them for the last 500 years. The party left, but was chased by some evil priests of Bane, and were forced to summon a flaming chariot to carry them away. Another small incident occured here when the goblin child stressed the ability for the flaming chariot to hold everyone. It was sufficient to escape the city, but would not leave enough room to pick up both Ferras and Talice. Kory refused to touch the goblin and allow him near the chariot, so Elric was forced to use his own magical flight to escape.
They picked up Ferras and Talice and continued on towards the huge forest where the powerful mage lived (according to the map they were given).
They reached the forest with little incident, and began travelling. Apparently Mantis creatures that were driven from Cormanthyr had come here and were causing many problems. The forest sprites and pixies were using charm to recruit people to help them, but two druids of the forest came to guard the keepers of the realm on their trip through the forest. Ferras promised whatever help the PC's could give to the forest dwellers, but they didn't run into any of the elusive Mantis warriors.
Finally they reached the lake to the north of the forest. The lake was shrouded in a magical mist that kept all animals away and that glowed with the same powerful time magic as the party, except that it was more powerful. After some experimentation by the party that resulted in Ferras begin drained by a wight, they realized that the two daggers protected them from the undead that stayed in the mist and attacked anyone who entered. Using the one dagger from the apprentice, and the one from candlekeep, the party ferried each other through the mist to the edge of the lake. The mist only exteneded to the edge, where it ended, revealing a supremely clear lake, a boat, a falcon on the boat, and an island with a huge keep upon it within the center. The party got in the boat and went across.
They began to travel up the stairs, passing by gate houses manned by creatures that had solid torso's, but whispy legs. They seemed happy to greet the party, and opened the gateways as the PC's continued on up the stairs....to the unknown.

Chapter 15 - Trapped in Time

The party entered the castle's courtyard and were confronted by a man atop a green dragon. He flew down to the party and introduced himself as Alondos. The party was told that in two hours he would like to meet us for dinner. At that time, he would answer all of our questions, but until then, we were free to roam about as we wished. With that, he flew away into the castle with his evil dragon.
The party was led by a half man through a maze like ever changing system of corridors, to their rooms. We were told that any half-men could lead any of the party to places if they wished. The party spent a lot of time wandering around, and discovered that the corridors always changed, and that they could not see any of the 'other' guests in the castle, though apparently events confirmed that their were others. Then dinner time came.
Alondos told the party that some time ago, he was trying to make a scrying device that would let him see not just anywhere, but anywhen. In his attempt, he captured a time elemental which made this castle suddenly be in all times at once. Time did not flow here, and he was trapped within. The whole effect was controlled by a time elemental that was trapped within the scrying orb. It had to be destroyed to release Alondos. And so, he said, that three parties had come together here, and that the first to solve his dilema would be rewarded with what ever service they had come seeking.
Aside from asking him indepth questions about the effects of the time distortion, the party also haggled with him trying to get their reward even if another party beat them to a solution. Before the discussion was ended he got up and left in a hurry. Some 'time' later he returned and said that the Zent's (one of the other groups) had stolen some of his dragon's, and started affected the timeline. He asked for the party's help. He gave them items that would allow them to be in the same time as other guests, and the party began to search, being led around by a half man.
The party arrived in a large room with many mirrors, and a large hole in the ceiling. Ferras strode forward towards the center of the room and huge blue dragon, a four armed dark knight, and an invisible mage all appeared as the party's item forced them into the same time as the party. Ferras, his two handed sword already out, broke into a run straight towards the blue dragon. As he charged the dragon he pointed out the invisible mage to the party.
A gruesome battle erupted. One by one the enemy fled through time mirrors, using their stolen knowledge. The party watched as events that had already occured happened again for the first time. The black dragon went through one mirror with Xej on it's back, his daggers biting into it's flesh.
Things were looking bad for the party.

Chapter 16 - Time and time again...

The blue dragon had flew up to the second level with the mage, and party members ran for the stairs. As they charged up the stairs, the dragon's lighting breath blasted into the party. Ferras was struck hard, his metal armor bending, melting, and falling into peices. His metal helmet was thrown to the side where it melted into a oddly shaped chunk of metal. After his body stopped convulsing, he picked up his still hot sword, and continued charging up the stairs. Wolanin and Filex both fled down the stairs, as Wolanin began shouting for a retreat.
As Ferras charged the dragon, he saw the small goblin appear behind the mage as he stabbed him with his dagger. Semmenon the mage stumbled and leapt into a mirror. The dragon turned to the new attacker but the goblin disappeared. Ferras' blow struck off of the dragon's thick armor. With a final strike at the dragon, it also moved through a mirror.
All of the enemies came back, but the dark knight shouted surrender, claiming he had been controlled by the mage, and when the blue dragon and Semmenon came back, both apparently dead. Semmonon used his magic jar to take over the dark knight, but he was incapacitated, and then Alondos appeared to dispel Semmenon's soul from the Dark Knight, killing the mage.
The party had another dinner with Alondos, where he said that the blue dragon hide could be made into some armor for the party, and that an item that would help them bring the anvil of the dwarves back was made for them. This was in response to the PC's earlier suggestion that they get the anvil, since it could destroy anything.
Some items were distributed, and the party went to rest before heading off to get the anvil. With little incident, the party retrieved the anvil and hammer and brought it back to destroy the time device. As they did so, everything seemed to fix itself as time reasserted itself. All of the items from the alternate time streams vanished, and a chest appeared. Inside were the dragon scale suits of armor, some silver weapons, and various other items of interest. The items were distributed, Ferras changing the most from this. He received a suit of blue dragon armor with wings that enabled him to fly, a helmet shaped like a small dragon head that allowed him to actually bite opponents, and a blue shield of lighting protection. Donning a new longsword created on the Abyss (necessary since that was where they planned to go) he was a completely changed warrior. A magical ring that could mask his aura of good from the demons was the final addition. Though he resisted this item in particular, the party convinced him it was required if he wished to keep the rest of them from unnecessary danger.

Chapter 17 - Earth and Fire

The party, now free of the time discrepancies, picked up Stamp on their way to research all they could about the two places that now held the items they wished. One place was a fortress created on the elemental Plane of vacuum, where a powerful human sorcerer helped train demons and such in the way of magic, so that they could fight in the bloodwar. He was originally from the Prime Material where he had sought lichedom, and he had the sword (though had altered it in some way). This was the easier target and was chosen to be hit first.
The second target was a city in the Abyss (full of demons of course), and that was where they would find the Annulus. They decided they would get Wolanin's sword back before going after this more difficult target.
After doing some research at Candlekeep, they found that the mage (Vozon?) had resided on the prime material, in Cormyr, near Daerloon, before going to the outerplanes to find demon assistance into Lichedom. The party decided to go there to find out more about this Vozon and his new stronghold on the Plane of Vacuum, before using the scrying device to lead them there.
Reaching Daerloon they were directed to the ruins of a stronghold, where they found earth elementals of some sort guarding. Making short work of them mostly through magic, the party then traveled into the castle. They made it through a room with magical statue guardians, and another of invisible undead, before reaching a room guarded by 4 flaming floating skulls and a skull that was slightly larger than the others. Kory used his clerical will to destroy the four flaming ones, but only after they had scorched Ferras and Wolanin will balls of fire. The final one fled under the onslaught and moved over a pedastal and vanished.
The party began to rest with Xej surrounding the pedistal in a wall of stone, after finding out that after speaking the mages name (Vozon?), that it would transport one, supposedly to his stronghold on the Plane of Vacuum. Deciding the rest and restore spells, the party sat about resting. Ferras and Philex went outside for Philex to teach Ferras some flying tricks.
An hour later, the stone wall was smashed, as dozens of flaming skulls began to swarm into the room. The party struck back and began to battle. Philex came into the room and drank a potion, declaring that the skulls were illusions, and 4 big insect guys were in the room. Ferras showed up a moment later and drank his potion as well. The insects guys attacked as the party members continued to fight skulls. The battle went fast, with the party ignorning the skulls after the insect creations started to appear. Two insects were killed and the other two fled. The party, injured and tired looked around. One insect had used the teleported back to the Plane of Vacuum, but one was somewhere in the castle still....

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