Session 33 - Sigil Out of Time

The party arrived in Sigil and noticed that it didn't seem to be the Sigil they had left. Things looked strange, buildings were missing, or new buildings were in place. People wore strange archaic clothing or bizarre futuristic devices. They decided to go to the library at the Shattered Temple to talk to Gwyonor. When they arrived, the temple was very busy with scholars coming and going and people discussing. Caedryll noticed that some of the people seemed to be interacting in strange ways, as if they weren't talking to the people he could see them talking to. It was hard to describe. Upon entering, a young woman named Maryan greeted them and sent for Gwyonor. When Gwyonor arrived, he was centuries younger than how they remembered him. They were greeted by a young spry elf, not the impossibly old and wizened elf they knew. As they spoke with him, they found that Gwyonor and Maryan were experiencing things very differently, as if each were in a delusion that nothing could change. They found a book which contained references to the war they had just left behind, and to the liberation of Sigil. Maryan saw the book and knew of these events, but Gwyonor only saw a cookbook. Needra tried to summon Pylympe to ask some questions, but he only appeared as a spectral shadow and was unable to speak or hear. The party left the library and went to Ninhub's Web to speak with Ninhub. Upon seeing them, she was very excited and said that they were "above the web" now, the way she and her people are. She said that her people came from the astral plane and had a very different experience of time than those from other planes. She said others experienced time as a thread and she and her people "sat above the web" and saw all threads at once. She said that now the party was sitting above the web as well. They asked her about the Adaranth and she said it also sat "above the web." This was how it was able to manipulate events in its favor, she said. Pylympe appeared, and Ninhub said she could both see and hear him. She acted as translator. Pylympe said his master Abbar Savi was concerned for their well-being. They asked if Abbar Savi knew a way that they could "pin" themselves to a single thread again, and Pylympe agreed to ask. After the herald of Abbar Savi left, the party rested in a room Ninhub provided for them.

As they slept, Needra saw her patron Katalii in a dream. Katalii told her that they were close to the Adaranth. She said the Adaranth was using three special portals within the city of Sigil to allow it to "sit above the web" as Ninhub had said. These portals were portals in time, not space. Destroying these portals would "pin" the Adaranth to a single thread, a single time, and allow the party to confront it. Caedryll also dreamt. In his dream, he was in the body of Ir'mee al-Ma the ancient beholder and in that body was dreaming of the Hall of Records in Sigil, which Caedryll had never seen, but which Needra had burned to the ground at one point. They decided to go to the Hall of Records.

When they arrived, it was intact again, but strangely deserted. Upon entering they found all the records they had seen when first they visited it. Upon ascending the spiral staircase at the center of the tower, they triggered a sort of trap, unleashing the vengeance of the angry tower itself, furious at having been razed. The party fought a hardy battle and finally disabled the trap. They rested inside a protective spell cast by Caedryll and as they rested, he again dreamed he was the beholder dreaming of another building, this time the library at the Shattered Temple. After resting, they finished ascending the tower, and found a large black spherical portal at the top. They managed to dispel the portal, and then exiting the tower, found that all signs of past versions of Sigil had vanished. All that remained were things they recognized from the Sigil of their era and things that clearly came from future versions of the city. They returned to the Shattered Temple and found Gwyonor, once again old. He told them of a rumored portal which lay in the basement of the library and had never, to his knowledge, been accessed.