Desert of Desolation XVII

Sir Blanque - swordsman and handsome, dashing noble half mer-person
Marion - stabby stabby dagger specialist; Nihrain who currently carries the Runestaff
Destiny - Menastrai sorceress covertly raised on Melnibone
Bomilcar - Weeping Waste nomad from a chieftain's family

Campaign narrative

The four adventurers are currently part of the way through a series of side quests. They need to find six inscribed plates that generate holographic images of minarets. Once they have these, they are to add them to a central large holographic image of a floating citadel, which is missing six of its minarets. This will help them summon the Sphere of Power of The Martek, which will destroy the rampaging Efreet Prince Khalitharius. Not so simple, then.

At least they already have one of the minarets, and they now go into a side chapel that shows another plate and its associated minaret sitting on the pillow of a sleeping woman wearing loose silken robes that don't cover very much. The teleport plate in the centre of the chapel takes them directly to this scene, but it turns out not to be as easy as the characters had hoped. Everything here is somehow frozen in time. Nothing can be moved since the friends are in a different time stream, as it were, so they need to hunt through this place to find the source of the time freeze. If they can at least temporarily remove it or block it - whatever it is - they can grab their minaret and teleport back to the crystal cathedral that holds the main central holograph.

This place is weird - a tower over four levels that loop back in on themselves.

The group seems to have arrived in the middle of a series of ongoing events, each of which is a frozen tableau in front of their eyes. They find that they cannot move anything at all, and have to squeeze through any doorways that happen to be open at the moment of freezing. They also realise after exploring a main central stairwell that what seems like the topmost floor of the loops back onto the bottom of the lowest level - in effect, the whole place has been taken out of time and space and turned back in on itself. As they explore, they come across a series of moments:

• A woman in rich, revealing robes is sitting on the edge of a bed, lovingly investigating the poison running down the blade of a wicked-looking curved dagger. Since it looks as though this place has been frozen in the middle of some dodgy shenanigans, Destiny decides to intervene by smearing an antidote onto the blade. The idea is that when the time streams align, her liquid will interact with the poison on the blade, so negating it.
• Four large guards in a hallway are ignoring an assassin standing in the entrance to a rich bedroom, having just loosed a poisoned arrow at a sleeping nobleman. The arrow is suspended in mid-air just above the bed as it streaks towards the victim. Sir Blanque takes a shield from their demonic bag (aka sub-space pocket, or Bag of Holding!) and props it up using a convenient fold of what to him are rock-hard, immoveable bedclothes to protect the man in the bed. He has a superb scimitar on the pillow beside him, so the time stream interlopers are hoping that by foiling the assassination attempt, they will a least give the guy a chance to turn on his assailant.
• The PCs then destroy a spirit belonging to the body of a man who has presumably been killed in a different location by the assassin or his accomplices; a flask that contained poison is on the floor beside the body. It looks as though the attackers were covering their tracks by killing the man who betrayed his lord. Marion theorises that the man's death happened at the moment time became frozen, and so his soul was unable to escape. This is one of the few times that the adventurers are able to interact reasonably normally with something in this place.
• The companions find another ghost, but this time it speaks with them. This is someone else who died at the moment time changed; he was the Captain of the Guard and was part of the conspiracy. He assembled the loyal guardsmen for an inspection at the moment scheduled for the assassination, but unbeknown to himself, he had already been poisoned and died in mid-parade. He explains that the nasty-looking women with the dagger the friends saw earlier is the scheming chief wife of the Emir and is the one behind the plot - as if they hadn't already sussed that for themselves. At least it's confirmation. They leave this particular spirit alone, reckoning that it will depart once time reasserts itself.
• There are several other chambers and hallways that contain scenes of daily life, including a comical tableau of a serving woman slapping a fat merchant type hard across the face. He bears a hilarious look of surprise, and his hand is hovering over her bottom. "Damn right," says Marion.
• Eventually the party finds a set of chambers that accords with their own time line, and encounters an entity that proclaims itself to be some sort of Guardian of Time. It says that they are the ones it has been waiting for, and hands Marion a talisman that will help her manipulate time.
• They also find a large book entitled The Tome of Time which is locked by an extremely complex mechanism of some kind; when touched, it projects a ray of some sort. Destiny recognises some of the runes inscribed on the hasp and advises that they do not try to force it open. She reckons the book is keyed to a particular individual. Sir Blanque shrugs and puts it in the demon pouch.
• Finally, the companions find a room with a peculiar monolith through which runs what can only be described as a vertical time stream. It pours down from the top of the construction to the floor and then loops back upon itself - symbolic of the situation in the tower. Marion realises that she can manipulate the flow using the medallion the guardian thing gave her and sets the stream to stop briefly on her command using the medallion.

At this point the friends return to their original point of entry. Time reasserts itself briefly, but long enough for Sir Blanque to grab their minaret; everything freezes again, and the groups returns through the teleport to the crystal cathedral.

Umpire's comments

This was a suitably freaky experience, thoroughly enjoyed by all. The players are, to varying degrees, Dr Who fans...