Shadow Realms LRP- The Shadow Files(Opening Time at the Gith Shop)

Opening Time at the Gith shop

The reconstruction of an archaeological site in the Outlands has been going well. Especially an old Mythal gateway which the head of the operation, Eusarious Calidor wants to open. His uncanny ability to fix the gateway has been thanks to a demonic influence present at the portal. Calidor wants to open the gateway and plunder the riches on the other side, the demon wants the gateway open so all the evil bastards on the other side can stream into the Outlands.
However Calidor needs one final bit to get the gateway to function and that is an ancient artefact lost somewhere on the excavation site. The ancient civilisation before worshipped a Goddess of Time who allowed them travel great distances via portals, and when the civilisation was overrun the place became desecrated. Luckily Calidor has managed to track the item (an hourglass) down to a small building, which unknown to him is the mythal generator for powering the portals. So far everyone who has been sent in has disappeared. Calidor doesn’t want to lose anymore men in the building (which he has figured is something to do with the ancient deity) and so has hired a crack team of adventurers to find the item for him. The party must survive a big ‘Time whoops’ and escape from limbo with the hourglass. In this limbo the party need to survive and summon four entities which will place order over chaos and form the item Calidor needs. Unless they figure this the party will be trapped indefinitely.
When the party get the item, an hourglass and item of law, Calidor will pay them, then open the portal pouring Gith through into the Outlands. Our heroes are going to need to close the portal or the Western Realms have just got a new and extremely dangerous enemy.
*the hits are set up a No/No. The first is body hits the second refers to limbs.

Damage in brackets is maximum damage and should not be called all the time.

Encounter 1
Sinitus, Priest of Mask: 10/6 hits cloak, knife (double thru). Spells: Illusion up to lv3, spirit spells and shadowform x3. Plus Abs: Time Slip x2, Freeze x4.
Gith symbol on hand. Papers regarding Mythal Capacitor Valve.
2 Guards: 6/4 hits, Militia tabards. Swords (doubles).

Sinitus was part of Calidor’s tomb raiding mob until an unfortunate experience when this area was first explored (old adventure). He was the one responsible for the discovery of the portal and the contact with the Gith on the other side. His time in limbo and overexposure to mythal has had freakish effects on him allowing him a small amount of control over time. He has been helping Calidor with his research and is in cahoots with him over the plunder of the civilisation on the other side.
Sinitus explains that the party is being employed by the Noble, Sir Eusarious Calidor to undertake a task for the archaeological team. You explain about the building and offer to pay the party 4 marks each due to the dangerous nature of the mission, but will go up to six if they kick up a fuss. Everyone who has entered so far hasn’t come out. You want them to retrieve a ‘Mythal Conductor Valve’ from the building which is instrumental in the understanding of the ancient civilisation technological stage. You say that you’ll meet them at the site when they have succeeded, as you have no idea how long it will take them.
Warn them about the goblinoid hostilities in the area as the site is part of a tribe territory and they are not too pleased with the intrusion, give the party the papers which badly describe the object and then escort the party to the building (ranger station).

Encounter 2
Ogre: 12/8 Mask, padded tunic, big stick (triple) Very SLOW.
Orcs: 8/4. Masks, Orc stuff and crappy weapons (single).

As Sinitus is directing the party to the building he will go on about the goblinoid problem and on cue a vicious group of green skins will land home the point.
From the orc view, the party are part of the group (archeologists) who have invaded their tribal land and are currently employing fighters for a concerted attempt at the genocide of their people.

Encounter 3 -The building (Ranger Station)
Guards and Sinitus as Enc1.

Okay, things get a little weird now, for the next few encounters do not run in a linear fashion so please bear with me. The party will get locked up in a strange Time loop and are stuck in the following encounters until they figure out how to escape.
In these encounters there are three locations of which two rotate between encounters 4&5(Ranger Station) and the other 6&7(Vanquasars Tomb). Encounter eight is a new location but only really is used when the other encounters have been completed.
The building is an old temple looking structure built with no real identifiable architectural style. The building appears to be completely un-magical. Sinitus with take the party to the building and once they have all entered, he leaves. The party may take sometime checking out the building since everyone else who has gone in hasn't come back.
When the party enter the building they are fine for a short while. However once they get deeper inside there is a wash of magic just before a time freeze is called and players out of sight of people of those on the outside, are taken aside and are removed form the encounter. This continues until the whole party are in a time freeze/out situation.
At this point the party are split into two teams. One team is taken to Vanquazer's tomb for encounters 6&7 while the other team stay at the Ranger station for 4&5. However when the action starts the two teams can move between the 5 locations at anytime as they are in the same physical place, just in different times.
Encounters 4&5 and 6&7 are run in this fashion. The first encounter is run. After a spate of time (5-10 mins) a time freeze is called and the monsters quickly set up next encounter. Then after a similar time period another time freeze is called and this process is repeated until the party figure out how to escape. Also the change overs can take place when the party require a mark up. The crew need to be broken down into groups for each encounter for maximum efficiency.
So what is going on? Well this was a temple to Mystryl the Time Goddess but the Chaos has disrupted it messing up time. There are (in this case) four aspects of time that exist in this 'limbo'. They are before, the beginning, the end and afterwards. These entities need to be 'captured' and forced to impose order on chaos thus getting the party back to their right timeline. However the entities aren’t particularly helpful, they are alien and not like us. Each has an amulet that represents them which can be used to harness them but also the party need to collect sand (a representation of time) and summon them by writing the symbol of Mystryl over the Chaos Star found in Encounter 8. Phew!

Encounter 4 - Before the beginning/ transition to form.
Shades - Hits: N/A Black cloaks, hoods and gloves. Life drain (1 per 10 secs), invisibility at will.
Formed Shade: 8/8 hits - equal to life force. Sword (doubles).
Tiles x3, Amulets x3. Sand.

The party in this team are placed in the positions they were before the time freeze and it all kicks in as nothing has happened (except their buds have just vanished!).
This is time before time ;>). The shades are nothings looking to be created from something. Luckily the party have form and are a good source of life force. The invisible shades drain life from party with the aim of mustering 8 points. As each point is gained the shade begins to form becoming invisible less often. At 4 points the shade is no longer invisible and at 6 a time freeze is called and the shade has a face and sword. Finally at 8 a time freeze is called and all shade costume is removed and the shade now has form.
It can now act physically and as whatever the shade has formed into. A formed shade is capable of talking, fighting etc They are no necessarily hostile depending on the tact of the party but each newly formed shade is a completely different case. At 6 the shade only takes damage to the face. At 8 it is formed and can be damaged normally. Also when fully formed the shade can recover hits by draining life and healing itself on a 1 for 1 basis. Finally a destroyed Shade will return as a formless one in a few minutes, causing a relentless barrage.
!!!! If a shade is given form, a few(ish) minutes after a shade has totally formed and possibly just as it is about to tell the party something important it disappears as it has no place in the timeline as it has 'become something'. When this happens just come back as another formless shade.
The bad news for the party is that this is before things existed so all deity given charms will not work as they are not in existence yet! While this encounter is going on the shades can follow the party anywhere, even enc 8 but not into 6&7 locations.
In the building is the amulet they need with two others sitting on tiles.
On each tile is a different amulet and they are all faintly transparent. When one is touched it takes a point of life and becomes material and remains material. While material the amulet can be removed from the tile. If another tile/amulet is touched the material tile becomes transparent and the newly touched tile becomes solid. However if the material amulet is not on the tile when another is touched nothing will change. The material amulet must be on the tile for the others to form. The idea is that the party must pick the correct amulet and due to the system described can only take one amulet.
The correct amulet is the one with no middle, it represents nothing in the framework of a concept. If someone looks through the centre of the amulet they are able to see anything invisible and also see the Sand they need to eventually collect on the tile where the amulet was. This benefits only the person holding the amulet. The collecting of the sand will be a time freeze situation as to the rest of the party the sand is immaterial. The sand can only be collected as long as the amulet is worn or held.

Encounter 5 - Creation/Beginning
Cloak or blanket with sand, ball of clay, stones, sticks, candle, mud, gems, assorted materials and food.
Golem: 30/16 hits. Steel golem mask, jedi robe, Fists (Quad). Life: 6
Creator Entity: 12/8 hits (regen 1 hit per 3 seconds) Fists (double/spirit+1) Gith Mask. Abs: Timeslip, Freeze, Mend, Cure: effects of leper in enc6, Force bolt (1 per 10 secs)
Abominations: 12/8, padded jedi robes. Ghoul masks. Big stick, hands/claws (doubles).

The Entity is building a Golem but hasn't found the right combination of materials yet.
The Entity is quite amicable and asks for help in his creation. It needs a spark of life!
If anyone thinks of lighting the candle with a spell or by normal means the Golem comes to life much to the Entities delight. However this delight is soon diminished as the Golem attacks him and then the party. To defeat the Golem the party need to zap it of life or beat it up. Blowing out the candle won't work.
However if the party get it to work it will mean the Creator Entity will be favourable towards them in all following encounters. The Entity naturally gives 1 point of life per second to anyone touching it. It has no control over doing this. Also the food when totally eaten provides 1hit and 1 life.
The Abominations are shambling, imperfect creations that have all sorts of erractic, moaning and gibbering behaviour. They won't attack the Entity as he has a small amount of authority over them. However if the Entity isn't present there is no telling what it they will do. When the encounter is repeated (due to the time jumps) the Entity might have left or be somewhere else leaving the party and the abominations alone together. Abominations can enter the encounter at anytime.
The amulet in this encounter has to be made out of the clay by the party. There are a few clues to this in enc 6, meaning the party will need to share information. Also if the party discuss the amulet with the Creator he will probably say 'Why do you just make it'. What a helpful chap. The sand for this encounter simply is among the other materials.

Encounter 6 - The End days
Old Leper (entity): 14/10 (special), Mask. Cloak, robes, Any weapon (doubles)
Abs: feeblemind x4, T.disease x2, life drain (1 per ten secs), Wither x2. Wracking pain x2. All spells to lv5. Immune to poison. Sand in pouch. Vials: Poison & Potion. Scroll, Candle. Small candles, rings etc.

This is where the second half of the party is beamed in. They are in the building used for Vanquazar's tomb and in this encounter there is no way in or out of the building. They are stuck in the tomb with an old insane leper who is deteriorating physically and mentally. In his age the leper is wise and full of knowledgeable tidbits about what is going on. However his mind is failing quickly.
The leper starts off fairly coherent but gradually deteriorates in a vicious animalistic character as it forgets itself resorting to instincts. The leper cannot die as it only takes subdual damage and will come around after 60 seconds no matter what. However the party can stop the deterioration by casting life and healing spells on it, or by giving it potion. This keeps the leper coherent and well for a short while. The leper has the sand around his neck in a pouch. The amulet is among the collection of vials and scrolls. One of the scrolls is cunningly written in glow in the dark paint and so the party will need to be wise to read it. These scrolls have clues to what's going on.
Finally candle is lit in the centre of the building and represents life…As it burns down the party start to loose life. If it is blown out the person is reduced to 0 life. When the scene is repeated the candle is re-lit.

Encounter 7 - After
Skeletons: 12/6hits (1/2 damaged from edged) swords (single), masks, red tabards.
Skulls x3 in triangle with chest open full of sand an amulet in centre plus gems (6marks).
Sand- lots!

When the party beam into this encounter they have to cup their hands and sand is put into them. The players are told by the ref that this is their life force. On time in they are attacked by the skeletons (give them a chance to panic) and a player that loses their sand is knocked out for 2 minutes. If they do not get their sand back in that time they're dead! Also if they have to scrape it up off the floor it will severely affect their life points (refs discretion).
Once they are given the sand they now have it for all other encounters while in limbo. The same rules apply in all other encounters, (hopefully they'll put the sand somewhere safe).
The Sand and the amulet are in a chest inside a triangle formed by a skull at each point.
Here's the stinker! Any attempt to cross the triangle made by the skulls results in a 2 points to the chest knocking the player over. This is real mean but the only way to get inside the triangle is to think laterally and place themselves in the position of the box in Enc 6 and when the encounters change they can beam in so to speak! I expect the ref might need to prompt them with some mystical aid or if this is explained to the Old leper in a coherent state his knowledge of Quantum time-space physics might come in useful ;>). When this encounter is repeated the skeletons are back but if a character already has their sand they do not need a new lot.

Encounter 8

*All Entities can move during any time freeze in this encounter.
Nothing: Shadow gear: Like shade but needs 20 points of life.
Creation: Gith as Enc6.
End: Old Leper as Enc7.
After: 14/14 hits (1/2 damage from edged), skeleton mask, chain, sword(triples).
Big Choas Star- Flour, Real Hourglass.

In the centre of the clearing is a big mondo chaos star with an hourglass symbol scored into it (I'll see to this). The party must have gathered all the Entity's sand from each encounter and filled the scored lines with sand to summon the Entities.
The Entities will want to know why they have been summoned. Most of them will take it badly with the exception of the Creator who will be a little more conversational depending on any previous contact with the party.
The party must get all the entities into the hourglass physically or with the amulets. If the amulets are placed in the hourglass it traps the entity inside the hourglass so this is an easy way to deal with them.
Here is how the party deal with them if they do not have the amulets. Nothing needs to drain life and when it has form it becomes trapped in the hourglass. However 20 life is a fair bit unless you jump the Creator who can keep filling you up with it. The Leper is nasty but can be put down and subdued and dragged into the hourglass. Finally After can be beaten up.
When all the Entities are captured a time freeze is called and the Entities are replaced with the Hourglass with the sand running. When the sand runs down the entire party are transported to the building where they started the whole affair. Any lost limbs are replaced and life is bumped back up to full. Loc damage stays, tough!
Whoever picks up the Hourglass instantly becomes fairly lawful and thus feels compelled to complete the mission as asked and not run away with the item (unless for some reason they have the Gith symbol scored on their body!).
The Hourglass has these powerz- 1: Time moves differently for the holder. They are allowed to keep their eyes open during any time freeze so they can assess the situation.
2: The effects of slow and others using haste have no effect on the holder.

Encounter 9
Mercenaries: 8/4 Variety of swords, shields etc (doubles).

You are guarding the boundary of the excavation. Not only are you protecting it from the orcs but also from thieves stealing artefacts.
You treat the party with suspicion. If they mention working for Sinitus you inform them that it was three days ago when they were hired. Basically ask a lot of questions like stroppy security guards then when convinced or seriously threatened apologise and explain why you have to be so tight on security. However if anyone tries to bribe you get real pissy. Keep one guard with the party send all the rest back to base (so we can set up the next encounter) and wait for a guard to return. Then escort them in.

Encounter 10
Eusarious Calidor: 6/4, cloak, finery etc. Spells up to lv3. PVM5 belt. Magic sword etc. This guy makes a living out of stealing magic items so he’s probably packed with them.
Sinitus: as enc 1
Guards as 9: Dressed in Militia tabards. Swords (triples), shields, daggers(thru).
Archeologist- Proctor: 3/2. Waistcoat, bag of cash and bottle full of location: 15.

Calidor and Sinitus greet the party and thank them etc. When they hand the item over Calidor asks Proctor to go off with the party and see that they get paid. Also give them an escort ie. some of the guards. The guards in militia tabards are not actually real militia guards. The patrol that went missing near the Calidor estate as reported in the Western Realms Gazette went missing for a reason. If asked for warrants the excuse is that as it is not strictly Militia duty they do carry them as they are not acting in a proper official capacity. They are on loan from the Duke. As the Duke in Mercia by now this is very hard to confirm. Is he a bad man? Oh yes.

Encounter 11
Proctor: 3/2. As last encounter
Guards: as last encounter escort.

The guards escort Proctor and the party until they are a far way out of sight of the portal. The guards then leave so we can set up then next enc.
Proctor will start discussing payment details with them and basically stall for time. At an appropriate time the ref calls a time freeze: A big explosion from the site rocks the ground and a bright blue haze rises into the sky. All those with sense magic or heightened senses get the sensation of small electric shocks sparking off them. Proctor starts yelping that some must have opened the portal and it's unfeasible as they have no idea what is on the other side. He'll run down the path and be first into Enc12.

Encounter: 12
Super Doomguard: 60hits, Hands (quad). Lightning Shock x3. Jump x2. 2/3 speed.
Xaitlan: 14/10, Sword (Quad/spirit double), Gun: magic bolt 20 charges. Pirate gear.
Abs: Time Slip x6, Freeze x4, Neural Pen x12, Neural Synaptic jump x4, Neural cosmic Flare x 6, Domination x4, Psychic Defense. PVM4 perm.
2 Gith: 12/8, Swords (triple/or spirit single). Chain mail, cloaks, masks. Neural pen x2 (use sparingly!) Synaptic jump x1.
Doomguard: 30/15, Variety of weapons (singles) 2/3 speed.

The Gith have been released and are their boss is making his way to the temple of Mystryl. Xaitlan, the Gith and Super Doomguard will plough right through the party messing them up then ordering the normal Doomguard to kill them. If a Super Doomguard gets both hands on an enemies head the location is reduced to zero.
Proctor should die in this encounter by wigging out and being a plum target for everyone. It asked the right questions quick enough or kept alive (unlikely) he may be able to tell the party how to close the portal. Proctor's potion should help the party out next enc.

Encounter: 13
Super Doomguard: 40/20hits, Hands (quad). Lightning Shock x3. Jump x2. 2/3 speed
Doomguard as 12
Gith as 11
Gith Hunting Beasts: 10/8hits Masks, furs, claws (double)
Calidor as enc10/ Sinitus as enc10/ Guards as enc9.

Okay this encounter runs in two parts. Calidor has opened the portal and the Gith are on the way in and Calidor is on the way out. The party need to remove the hourglass from the portal to close it and save the day.
Part 1: There is one Gith and a load of Doomguard finishing off Calidor’s guards. Calidor and Sinitus are talking to the Gith and once the party spot them, they then depart into the portal. As soon as the guards are dead they should get out of there and come straight back in as Doomguard through the portal.
Part 2: Once Calidor and Sinitus has jumped out another Super Doomguard and any remaining monster crew comes through and the Super Doomguard is ordered to guard the portal by a remaining or new Gith. It's smack down time and the monsters should go for the party. If the portal is still open dead monsters can come back through it. However every other monster must be Doomguard as they are the stock infantry. I’ll be in charge of the portal sending in new monsters.
Any player who goes through the portal is deemed dead. If they want to argue we can hold a special encounter when they reach Myth Drannor.

Encounter 14:

Xaitlan’s tracks lead into the building that the party went in Enc3. If the party enter the building nothing happens at all. The party are left to become heroes in the Western Realms Gazette.

Cryptic End

This Adventure requires lots of props.
Weird Spells:

Time Slip: The character disappears into another time zone and then must reappear within 20 feet anytime within a 60 seconds.

Freeze: Freezes a character in Time for 1 minute. Just like a Time Freeze.

Lightening Shock: Any character touching the caster recieves two points of damage to each location, 1 point of life and takes the effect of a strike down.

Psychic Defense: This characters telepathic skills are so honed that during any Time freeze they may move 10 feet in any direction. They can also detect the presence of any invisibles. In Xaitlans case it is a cheeky method to make it very hard for players to get the drop on him. In this case unless they use true sneaking, no spell or abs will allow the players to beam in behind him without Xaitlan turning the surprise on them.

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