Moving spheres

[Anastasia]

It is the faintest ripple, then you are back in the present once more.

"It is done?" Chrona 42 asks. "Imagine, if you will, a mortal champion. One who has managed to press a powerful fiend to his lair to finish him - but what's this? Now there's two of them, identical! After all, the past is open to revision, and what was once a humiliating defeat and retreat is now changed to be a triumph for evil."

Syala merely adds to that, "Yes, I see why chronomancy was forbidden, yet again."

[Ebiris]

"Though in the case of a fiend rather than a deity, wouldn't killing the past incarnation of the fiend unmake the present version?" Alicia asks. "So if the champion focused her efforts on the right one, hope need not be lost."

[Anastasia]

"Indeed," Chrona 42 says, "It was not a perfect strategy."

"Speaking of perfect," Syala remarks, "I enjoyed your little bit of posing there. Don't worry, we can fight after this." Smiling just a little bit, "You'll get much...more out of it than with yourself. You can only be so violent with one person, violence is better with two."

[Ebiris]

Marie sidles up next to Chrona. "So hey!" she asks, enthralling voice pitched loud, "What sort of cantrips are there for Chronomancy, or is it all high power stuff?!"

Alicia gives Marie a wry look and then smiles back at Syala. "I think she just misses Antenora."

[Anastasia]

"Desperately," Syala says agreeably.

Chrona 42 clears his throat. "Ahem. The most simple spell is to tell the time and date, relative to your preferred time and date system. A cantrip or orison for chronomancy, though an equivalent divination is first circle."

[Ebiris]

"That does feel appropriate for either," Alicia agrees. "Actually, is there a chronomancy version of time stop? The transmutation version in many ways feels like an awkward kludge of a spell, with the way in which despite being hyper-accelerated, other beings are somehow invulnerable to you while objects aren't."

"That's a bit like the sort of thing Mystra would put in to keep a spell from being too strong," Marie agrees. "But I bet with a chronomancy version when everyone is literally stuck in time relative to you, they really would be invulnerable, so it probably did end up copying the exact same sort of function."

[Anastasia]

"Marie is correct," Chrona 42 says, "It took some effort for time stop to work without chronomancy - and many of the ways to stop it were lost as a result of the ban. Have you ever cast the spell around a creature capable of mimicing it for themselves? You'll find yourselves in the time stop together. This is designed intentionally, as originally the most common counter to the chronomantic time stop was that."

[Ebiris]

"Oooh, oooh, I can do that!" Marie waves her hand in the air. "Mystra gave me lots of special training for it when I was promoted, since it's so powerful."

"It has been very useful," Alicia agrees with an approving smile at Marie. "Are there any other spells in common usage that derive from chronomancy?" she asks Chrona.

[Anastasia]

"Haste, though that one translated well," Chrona 42 says. "Mind magic had more, once on a time. As easily as chronomancy comes to the a wizard, it comes easier to a mentalist."

[Ebiris]

"Haste and slow do make sense," Alicia agrees, humming thoughtfully. "Anyway, let me see what we opened here..." she examines the lock again.

[Anastasia]

Within the room sits a helmet of good steel, open faced. You can feel it - something invisible and solid protecting the exposed face. A field of force, likely.

[Ebiris]

Alicia picks the helmet up and studies the magic on it...

take 10 for 56 on spellcraft.

[Anastasia]

Loot post.

[Ebiris]

"An interesting helm for a vigilant watchman... makes me think of Demedais," Alicia smiles, putting it in her portable hole. "Is there anything else of interest? You said we were nearly done but I recall seeing a lot more tunnels when I first teleported in," she says to Chrona 42.

[Anastasia]

"They were distorted from that distortion you remedied," Chrona 42 says, "You've excelled at this, as much as I expected."