After Vvaraak’s death, the chrononauts journeyed through the river of time to find a younger Vvaraak to teach druidic magic to the Gatekeepers. In the city of Io’lokar on the dragon continent of Argonnessen, they found an old friend along with Vvaraak when she was still an unborn egg, awaiting her trial before the Chamber. The heroes escaped with the egg but earned the ire of the Eyes of Chronepsis.
Player characters: Calvin, Gzrom, Jackie
The Black Lake, Thelanis (998 YK, Barrakas)
The chrononauts stood over the treasure horde upon the island in the center of the subterranean lake. It seemed to the adventurers that the dragon’s treasure was theirs to possess, and they felt a great need to guard it and make sure it was safe from any others who might take it, even another fearsome dragon. the body of the black dragon. Saladin was still holding aloft the dragon’s severed head while Gzrom looked on in horror. Before the dragon had perished, she had named herself Vvaraak, the patron of the warlock Gzrom and the teacher of the gatekeeper druids.
Vvaraak was a black dragon who defied the laws of dragonkind. Among her numerous offenses, she had broken the ban which forbade dragons from teaching the secrets of magic to the younger races. She taught the first of the gatekeeper druids, the oldest druidic order on the continent of Khorvaire. It was the gatekeepers that created the seals which kept the horrors of Xoriat, the plane of madness, at bay. But Vvaraak herself was the product of a temporal anomaly. She aged backwards through time, meaning that she was born in the far future and lived her life backwards through the river of time. And now that she was dead at the hands of an adventurer, she would no longer exist in the past but only in the future.
However, Vvaraak was a powerful elder dragon in the past, so she was not without a contingency for her possible demise. Now her powerful contingency spell was activated. The light of her soul and memories were sundered into two pieces, and these aspects of her spirit entered into the two lanterns that were lit by the adventurers. Gzrom’s shattered lantern was reformed and glowed with a warm yellow light. It held Vvaraak’s power and mastery over time. Calvin’s lantern glowed with a cool blue light, and it was imbued with Vvaraak’s memories of the past and future. The lights of the two lanterns mingled together as the voice of the fallen dragon broke the silence.
“Time travelers, I beseech you. Save the gatekeepers of the past. They are the key to defending the world from the madness of the future.”
Seren Island, Argonessen (???? YK, Rhaan)
A bright light engulfed the chrononauts, and they found themselves upon a pebble beach. They did not know how much time had passed, but they suspected that they were sometime in the far future, when Vvaraak was still alive. They were on the island of Seren, the gateway to the continent of Argonessen ruled by the dragons.
The dragons of Eberron were unlike the dragons of other planes. They did not live solitary lives, lurking in the deeps of the earth and the dark places of the world. Instead, they had forged a mighty kingdom of dragonkind upon Argonessen. They nested upon their eyries on the tall mountains and soared above the wide plains and the lush woodlands of their vast continent. Seldom did the dragons venture forth from their realm or take great interest in the affairs of lesser creatures. The few times when the flights of dragons had left the coasts of Argonessen, the world was shaken and torn asunder by their fire and fury.
The party encountered the native inhabitants of the island. They were dragon worshipping barbarians wearing ragged clothes and peculiar face masks who called themselves the White Wanderers. The chrononauts claimed to be seeking repairs for their warforged companion Jackie. The White Wanderers instructed them to seek out the Frostblades tribe on the other side of the hill. The party did as they were told.
Sure enough, the chrononauts were stopped by another tribe, but these dragon worshippers wore white robes and carried small metallic tubes on their belts. The Frostblades asked what business the party had on the island of Seren. This time, heroes announced that they had an important message for the leaders of Argonessen. Then Gzrom and Calvin held aloft their lanterns, and the mingling lights created a holographic image, showing flashes from Vvaraak’s memories. The Frostblades were taken aback and amazed by what they had seen, and they let the chrononauts pass.
The party was escorted to the far side of the island and across the narrow strait they beheld the coast of Argonessen. Tall mountains carved in the shape of mighty dragon heads ringed the entire coast of the continent. The heroes were led to the city of Io’lokar, the only settlement on the continent where non-dragons were permitted to reside. Io’lokar was a city of splendors, the likes of which the heroes had never seen. In the great city, they were brought to a mighty keep where rebellious dragons were held, awaiting their trials before the leaders of dragonkind.
Deep within the keep, inside one of the magically warded cells, the chrononauts found a dragonborn sitting beside a large egg. Jackie recognized him immediately. It was Blackfire, a former chrononaut and one of Jackie’s companions on a previous mission through time. He was reading a book of tales to the egg as a mother might read a fairy tale to a newborn infant.
“What are you doing here, Blackfire?” Jackie asked incredulously.
“They finally caught up with me,” Blackfire replied.
“Who are you talking about?”
“The Eyes of Chronepsis. They are elder wyrms charged with investigating paradoxes and rifts in the timestream. After planting the fruit of the Delorean Tree during the era of the Silver Purge, I sent my mind through time and studied the history of the world. As I did so, I stumbled upon parts of the Draconic Prophecy. The dragons of Argonessen did not take kindly to my research. They had been keeping an eye on me, but when they discovered that I had made contact with Vvaraak the black dragon, they finally brought me in. Now I am to stand as a witness in the trial of Vvaraak the rogue who dared to defy the edicts of Argonessen.”
Blackfire gestured to the egg beside him. The Gzrom understood that it was his patron Vvaraak the black dragon who was inside the egg, yet unborn.
“Not if we have anything to say about it,” said Gzrom. “We’re getting you and my patron out of here.”
The two lanternbearers Gzrom and Calvin brought forth their lanterns whose lights mingled and grew bright until it was a blinding radiance. The heroes were engulfed by the light, but Gzrom picked up the egg and cast a spell of magical darkness upon it to hide their escape. The party began to run, but they felt as if time was moving slower all around them. With each stride, they found themselves miles away from the keep, but in the darkness they could not tell where they were exactly. Soon, their feet stepped upon pebbles, and they knew that they were on the beach of Seren once more at the place where they had first arrived.
Through the darkness Gzrom saw a lone boat upon the shore, and he wanted nothing more than to reach that boat and sail away from this place. But the way was blocked. In the darkness, two blades of light sliced through the shadows, and one of them struck Gzrom. It felt like all the warmth was drained from him in an instant as the blade of frost cut through him with a freezing pain. Two warriors of the Frostblades tribe, their spells of invisibility broken by their attacks, barred the way.
Despite their powerful technology and powers of illusions, the Frostblades fell against the chrononauts and their allies. The last warrior to fall taunted the heroes with her final breath just before detonating a deadly frost grenade in her hand.
“May the Eyes of Chronepsis find you, rogues.”
The party survived the freezing blast and arrived safely at the boat. As they sailed away from the shores of Seren, the egg in Gzrom’s hands began to hatch. From it emerged a black dragon wyrmling with a coat of scales that glittered like the cosmos in the night sky. The dragon turned her eyes to the halfling that was holding him and cried out in a raspy voice.
“Gzroooom…”
Now the chrononauts debated their next move. Although they had found the infant Vvaraak from the future, the elder Vvaraak in the past was no more. Without the elder Vvaraak, there might be dire consequences in the timestream. How would history be changed without the druids to guard the natural world?
Meanwhile, Saladin announced that he had his own errand to achieve. He believed that the rogue shapeshifter that the chrononauts were seeking was connected to a strange dream that had compelled him to enter the realm of Thelanis. He had reason to suspect that the shapeshifter was trying to acquire a book of history. If such a book fell into the hands of a rogue time traveler with ill intents, the consequences could be dire. Saladin asked for the chrononauts’ aid. They agreed to join him on his quest for the book. They would travel to the city of Korth in the kingdom of Karrnath in the year 1093, one year before the start of the Butlerian Crusade, a conflict that would pit humanity against the warforged.
The light of the lanterns mingled once more. Vvaraak spoke a second time, but now she spoke for the briefest of moments with the voice of an elder dragon, and her eyes glinted with a secret knowledge of the past and future.
“Where do you wish to go, time travelers?”
Treasure:
Ghost Lantern
Lantern of Revealing
Frost grenade