Sapphire:Sessions:20181006
Neville, Alastor, Chalker, and Shawna approach Sapphire a few hours past sundown. Alastor goes to Genly Torrez' office, where he finds some information about the Apothecary Conspiracy. Torrez had had a 20 minute meeting with Caleb Bond the week before, and had made a note: "Research this guy."
Chalker and Shawna go to a guard station and instruct the guards to take Torrez into custody and interrogate him for collaborating with PDG. They proceed to the mercenary guild, where the guild master shows them papers "proving" he vetted their employer, Tate Patel. Chalker tells him he'd been 'touched'; Shawna says the guild master needs to hire someone to check for such influences, and Chalker suggests Relinda.
On his way home, Neville sees a bright green flare. Investigating, he finds Ahn-Lee crouched beside an unconscious woman, checking her wounds. Picking the woman up over his shoulders, Ahn-Lee remarks, "You're a few minutes late, Neville." "I've made my quota." "Everything was going so well... It's been an odd night."
Jeeves opens the front door of Envoy Manor just as Ahn-Lee reaches it. Ahn-Lee calls for his favorite healer, Patrick, who examines the woman and begins treating her injuries. The woman wakes up suddenly and tries to reach for her knife. Ahn-Lee: "I thought you were better." Woman: "I am!" "Why are you there and I'm here?" "We almost got him. I was fighting four men, took down three of them, then that mage did something and the fourth man knocked me out." "He sent out a force wave, then some big green light, then said 'I don't have time' and teleported away." The woman looks up at Neville and introduces herself as Kimtri.
Neville writes in his new journey book: Ahn-Lee has a girlfriend. She's bleeding in the Manor. Chalker writes back: Were you followed? Neville: Ahn-Lee didn't say anything.
Approaching Envoy Manor, Chalker and Shawna note at least four groups of watchers: Two priests of Asseraah, one of the older Copper Kids, a group from the Greater Bicarn embassy, and another group hired by some merchants. Fed up, Shawna angrily orders the priests back to their temple with a warning to stop spying on Chalker and his associates.
Chalker checks Kimtri's aura and tells her there are no magic effects on her. Kimtri: "There were eight bodyguards and a mage protecting the mark, Daniel Ward." Chalker: "Why aren't you dead?" Kimtri: "I don't know."
Ahn-Lee: "The mage was going to stab me with a wand, so I took his stuff." He'd had six pouches distributed symmetrically at his waist, and Ahn-Lee grabbed the three from the left. He displays the objects: a crystal orb ("golfball") about 2" in diameter, a whirling top, and seven manastones and a piece of blue glass shaped like a pecan.
Ahn-Lee realizes he has two sets of memories: One where the job went easily and concluded successfully, and the other where he confronted the mage in front of the door to the Green Lantern Tavern. The mage spun his staff, generating a green light, and said, "Weary traveller, are you ready to die?" Ahn-Lee stabbed the mage in the chest; the mage pounded his staff on the ground, repeated "I don't have time," and vanished.
Alastor recognizes the name Daniel Ward; "Jules' boss, Tiny Smalls, did business with him." Ahn-Lee: "Tiny Smalls was killed by the Assassins Guild... but... that contract was cancelled." Trying to resolve the discontinuity in his memories is giving Ahn-Lee a headache.
Kimtri speaks up, "The contract was for... Aumli, Gamwis Aumli, a minor mage in the Mage Guild..." Chalker: "That wasn't the right name, was it?" Kimtri: "I can't focus. I gave the wrong name." She describes the mage as young, attractive, average height, blue eyes and brown hair. Ahn-Lee draws the symbols he saw on the mage's staff and wand. Shawna points out that one of the symbols is a rune related to time magic.
Shawna casts Seeker on the pecan and gets a location -- a small tavern in Sapphire, a year and two months ago. The pecan pulses and the golfball spins 1/4 turn. Neville: "Maybe he went back there to hide." Ahn-Lee: "Fourteen months ago was about the time the Tiny Smalls contract was taken out." Chalker observes, "Janus is the Second Chosen of Time, but he's not active now."
Neville picks up the pecan and studies it. Within he sees reflections of the small house he rented soon after he came to Sapphire. "That didn't happen," he thinks. The pecan heats up and the golfball moves slightly. Neville turns the golfball back the other way but nothing happens. Upset, Neville storms out to go check on his house.
Chalker stares into the golfball and starts to lose himself in a whirlpool. He feels himself connected to different places and times. He hooks onto the whirling top and slows it gradually; the ball begins glowing and spinning. Shawna senses that energy is being drawn from Chalker, tiring him. Chalker takes hold of Shawna's left hand. She sees four images: the small tavern from fourteen months ago; a side alley near the merchants quarter; the front of the Green Lantern Tavern; a merchant company's office near the docks.
Neville reaches his house, only to find Jango Bates living there. Bates claims he started rebuilding the house nine months ago, and offers to sell the house to Neville for 1000g. Neville growls, "Remember my face."
Alastor, Chalker, Ahn-Lee, Kimtri, and Shawna go to the Green Lantern Tavern. The hour is late and there are no customers there. Neville rushes up and reports that Jango Bates is in his house, and his stuff is in a smaller rental house.
Shawna Apports the Green Lantern and brings it down from the ceiling. As she begins asking questions, tendrils of green light reach out toward each of them, eventually touching them over the heart. The Green Lantern is an artifact connected to Reality and the Universe. Shawna hears the voice of Roo: Without the proper observances, there is one who seeks to change his fate, and the fate of realms. Take the judicious action to let the individual play out the fate allotted to him. Shawna is given to know that they can intercept the timeline at the four moments she had seen before.
The group decides first to go back five minutes before the flash occurred in front of the Green Lantern Tavern. There are two Lanterns now, one held by Shawna and the other hanging in its accustomed place. Chalker tries to put both Lanterns into Tiny Wagon, but it doesn't work. He goes outside and leans against the tavern door. Neville carries a table and chair outside and seats himself. Shawna, with both Lanterns, is in the common room in the farthest corner from the door, and Alastor stands just inside the door. Ahn-Lee and Kimtri go to their designated spot, and find that they're sneaking up on themselves. Chalker writes Are there two? and Ahn-Lee replies Yes. Ahn-Lee and Kimtri drink potions of magic resistance. Ahn-Lee gets out his crossbow and shoots Daniel Ward, who falls ("That was easy"); Ahn-Lee's double ducks down and circles around. The mage appears briefly, a green light flares in front of the Green Lantern Tavern and the mage vanishes.
After much discussion, the group goes back fourteen months. Alastor and Ahn-Lee are careful to conceal their faces in case they encounter their past selves. Alastor knows where Tiny Smalls should be, and Chalker finds him in a back corner of his apothecary looking for something. Chalker: "What did you do? Someone's coming to kill you today." (Ahn-Lee had said earlier, "He's involved in a poisoning plot against some nobles.") Chalker: "Tell me why I should let you live." TS: "I'm very discreet..." Neville shoos the one customer out of the shop and dismisses the clerk. Alastor slips in the back door and goes through papers in the office; beneath the false bottom of one drawer he finds lists of people TS had sold poison to.
Tiny Smalls is escorted to his house. He gives up a list of nobles who are to be poisoned. After more questioning, Shawna casts Sleep and Chalker has Neville harpoon him.
Ahn-Lee writes: I've found the mage. I want to get his pouches.
At the tavern, Neville begins serenading the waitresses and the female patrons. Ahn-Lee carefully creeps up on the mage. Chalker hooks onto both whirling tops. Ahn-Lee leaps upon the mage, needling him with bear poison and slamming him into the table. Chalker senses one of the tops beginning to spin in the opposite direction, its metal composition changing. Ahn-Lee grabs the pecans and tosses them away. Alastor stabs the mage in one arm with a knife coated with spider poison. Shawna senses something screech, then snap...
Neville, Alastor, Chalker, and Shawna approach Sapphire a few hours past sundown. They each remember everything that happened, including the alternate timelines. Alastor's Delsa knife and Neville's gloves still glow green. Roo's voice speaks in Shawna's mind: Well done, blessed daughter. She replies, "Blessings, Queen of us all." Chalker feels a light kiss on his forehead.
The mage was killed before he could do the disruptive thing he wanted to do. The Assassins Guild contract on Tiny Smalls had been cancelled because when the apprentice assassin went to do the job, Smalls was already dead.
Everyone, including Kimtri and some Copper Kids invited by Neville, ends up at Envoy Manor for a celebratory feast. Shawna raises a toast, "To teamwork and fellowship!"
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