Brief Recap: Last turn, Ghotu captured Bibi in her panther form with his Net of Entrapment. Bronk and Blade were stopped from fighting by Fyona and Bardock. Mog healed Dirty Pete, while Humphrey made a new friend--the sailor in the crow's nest Arthur.

Resume the Quest

Silence, stillness, darkness covers each member of the party. Though they are aware of themselves (but not each other), time does not pass. They are outside of time. Blade gets a strange feeling, reminiscent of when he was crushed in the Tomb of Horrors and brought back by the Efreet. Ghotu too feels a strange familiarity, as if he has traversed this realm many times.

The silence is broken by a pounding in their heads. Just as they feel their skulls will burst, a deafening BOOM announces the arrival of the Wurld again.

Humphrey, Bibi, Mog, ghotu, Blade, and Bronk find themselves impossibly back in King Snurre's hall, beneath the mountains at Top of the Wurld. They have been here before. Though disoriented, each of them recognizes this chamber--blue and lavender lights swirl about amongst the fire giants and githyanki who do battle here.

Thag has just entered. Everything is exactly the same as it was when they left, they all instinctively realize--all except for one thing: Bibi, now shivering from the remnants of Thae-Rune Ibn's Ice Storm, stands holding in her hands a strange device that she did not have last time the party was here--Egmund's Time Machine. The scepter-like item glows in her hands, and she sees in its top the dark stone that has been the object of her quest for many years now. As she looks at it, it drops from the Time Machine and plunks in a bit of snow at Bibi's feet.

Thae-Rune Ibn also appears disoriented, having just completed his conjuring spell. Still standing on the dais at the northwhat can only be the most vile Githyanki

curses ever uttered on this plane of existence. He flies straight up into the air, howling in his magically amplified voice through the purple and blue mists, "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!"

Just then, a glowing red orb appears in the middle of the room. The orb grows from the size of a grapefruit to the size of a large portal. Through the red orb steps what must be the object of Thae- Rune Ibn's summoning. A massive demon, easily nine feet tall with leathery wings, horns, and fangs dripping acidic saliva, steps through the portal. The portal then winks out of existence.

"SLAY THEM ALL!" commands Thae-Rune Ibn. The demon moves to obey.

Gazing quickly about the room Blade sees no sign of Fyona, and wonders what has become of her. Wherever she is it can't be as bad as this situation. Blade pulls the hood up on his cloak and vanishes from site. He makes his wake quickly towards Bibi who is far from the rest of the group and relatively unprotected. "Do what need s to be done with taht Stone so we can end this quickly." Blade says to her once he is near her position. "I'll protect you as best I can. " Blade arms himself with his Giant Slayer sword in the hopes that it has gotten over it's moodiness (If not, then I'll spend a plot point to regain it's bonuses).

Bibi quickly snatches up the stone and places it into her locket. This time it's a perfect fit. She sees the other stone begin to glow. She then removes the most powerful white stone. Squeezing it tight she says "Thae-Rune Ibn" not allowing her focus to leave him.

He stands silently and invisibly next to Bibi waiting to attack any unsuspecting opponenets who come nearby (Backstab) 'Now we find out once and for all who is more powerful...Fate or blind Luck.' he thinks to himself. He then says quietly to the sword, "You now have the unique oppurtunity to perform your function in life--slaying giants, with the added bonus of being wielded by the greatest swordsman in the Wurld. So I ask you now to let bygones be bygones, and I'll do the same, so taht together, we can change the course of history and become the stuff of legends."

The Giantslayer does not respond at first, but soon Blade feels a familiar and mild sensation in his swordarm as the weapon alerts him once again to the enemies nearby--one of the sword's powers. Quickly, the weapon comes back fully "online" and Blade can once again feel its lust for giantblood. But the lust is not assertive; it desires only to serve Blade's wishes.

Meanwhile...

Fyona finds herself on a cold stone floor. She is disoriented at first, but quickly remembers the events at Galay and the Time Machine. She looks around, and realizes she is in her slave quarters in the Fire Giant Hall, adjacent to Thae-Rune Ibn's chambers. She checks her weapons--she is wearing what she had on in Galay, not her slaves' toga--and exits the room to the hall.

Once in the hall, she hears the sounds of fighting to her right, toward the Temple Chamber. She knows from the stories told by Bronk and Bardock around the campfires on their journeys that the Temple is where the company confronted Eclavdra and Thae-Rune Ibn for the Obsidian Stone. Checking the hall for errant Githyanki guards, Fyona dashes to the Temple. [It will take her one round to get there.]

She is consumed by the thought of having her throat cut again in less then an hour.

Meanwhile...

Buce Tyrlan suddenly finds himself sitting cross-legged on the floor, eating the leg of a pheasant. He stops chewing, gaping at what has just happened. Before the rest of the Company arrived at Egmund's room in the Keep, Egmund had been explaining to Bruce, King Ozrik, and Nepal the mage that the company was returning with the Obsidian Stone, which would allow them to use the Time Machine to travel back in time and prevent the war from ever having taken place.

To be honest, Bruce had thought the old mage was loony when he described this plan. Time Travel? He had never heard such absurdities. Not even the most powerful mages could travel though time. Some said it was impossible, that if a person went back in time then the same object (that person) would exist at two places in the same instant--an impossibility.

Bruce's guest asks, "Sir, are you alright? You look as if you have seen the face of a ghost."

Bruce looks at Pasha Naril's dark face with its hooked nose, and tries to recover, wondering what day it is. . .

Posting Instructions:I will get a battle map up tonight, so you can all see where you are in the room. We all have our equipment and other items just as we did in Egmund's room in Galay, as the Githyanki invaded, just before Bibi caused the Time Machine to activate by putting the Stone in it. You all remember your pasts, the whole timeline we have played out over the past several months. In other words, they have full memory. Hit points, spells, everything is as it was last turn, NOT as it was in Turn 34.

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