Session 5 Recap

 S E S S I O N 5

Session 5 Recap — Read Aloud

When last we left our heroes, the party was split across thirteen centuries. In the present day,
Fjalenar, Ineia, and Inayin made their way to the Norinlakor in Cheykor, where they found
Palfeinan, the eccentric scholar-archivist, in the midst of reorganizing his entire library according to the movements of an elaborate clockwork astrolabe mounted on the ceiling. After a characteristically bewildering conversation—and after helping him sort scrolls for the better part of half an hour—a scrap of parchment blew loose and landed directly in Ineia's hands, containing exactly what they needed: the formula for the word of command to activate the dust from the Gardens of Onmanda.

Palfeinan also confirmed that Eldress Falaru had asked him the same questions some six or seven months earlier, and had been interested in a date during the siege of Thorankarr. Armed with both a precise calendrical formula and a poetic kenning, the party returned to Elder Kaneral's house, laid out the dust before the temporal door, joined hands, and—with Fjalenar reciting the poetic invocation—stepped through into the past.

Meanwhile in the year 91 of the Second Eon, Herek and Tenuyala departed the Sacred Well through a hidden passage beneath the altar, led by Eimalua on a six-day journey to the besieged city of Thorankarr. The journey was grueling: Nalshbori raiding bands forced them off the main roads, exhaustion and the weight of their ordeal took their toll, and on the final day a massive thunderless rainstorm left them slogging through ankle-deep mud across the open moors. But at last they crested a hill and saw below them a city none of them had ever seen in their own time—Thorankarr, wreathed in smoke and flame, with a great Nalshbori army encamped around its walls. Eimalua led them around to the seaward approach, where the enemy forces were thinnest.

The two timelines collided at the walls of Thorankarr. Fjalenar, Ineia, and Inayin stepped through the doorway and materialized before the city walls—directly in the path of six charging Vulture Clan warriors. A vicious battle ensued: Inayin beheaded the first warrior in a single stroke but was riddled with poisoned arrows for his trouble; Fjalenar waded into melee and cut down another; and Ineia put an arrow through the eye of the one who dared strike her eagle, Inrark. The surviving Nalshbori broke and fled in terror. And as the dust settled, three familiar figures rounded the corner of the wall: Herek, Tenuyala, and the red-haired Eimalua. The party is reunited at last—battered, poisoned, drenched, and standing before a doomed city on the night of the full moon. Eimalua wasted no time:

"There's not a lot of time to rest on your laurels, little warrior. We have to send an entire city forward in time."