"The gods may not play dice with the universe, but the Architects do..."

- Auberon the Drowned

"No promises of a better tomorrow or a different yesterday. Just life in all of its wonder and horror... its joy and bitterness..."

- Tim Drake, Batman

"All the possibilities are contained in a singularity waiting to explode."

- Fortuna

I'm probably too late on this message but hey I'm no time traveler. Sorry if it's addressed in future emails, I'm just working through my DND emails from oldest to newest. Here are the few words you asked for.

How the G-Nome came to be is not known by denizens nor deities. Perhaps the Architects planned for it at the same time as cosmos came to be, some backdoor to the grand program or maybe the Inbetween Men inserted it everwhen. One thing the Luckums know for sure is that it exists in all versions of time and space they have seen. Not different versions like Fortuna is to Luckums, but the same physical object everwhen. A wizard's mark on one is a wizard's mark on all. But that is but one of it's incredible utilities. For the Luckums, the gnomes Brail (and versions) reassemble the present G-Nome which was eventually entrusted with the Heroes of Ancorato for a time. Luckums later stole the device without the heroes knowing thanks to a well hidden wizard's mark. Fortuna, who cast contingency with soul vault, stored the device in the ethereal space for a future timely recovery. After an exhaustive study and a comparison of notes, the Legion of Luckums came to understand that the positioning of the multitude of gears and mechanus within the device corresponded to a space, time and echo. Interestingly, no matter the magnification to which the device was studied, there were always smaller gears and mechanus to be observed. Early on in researching the device, a theory came about that the G-Nome served to record possibilities across space, time and echoes. It wasn't until much later that the Luckums understood that the truth was much simpler and elegant. There is nothing to record if an object is everwhen; it simply exists across all time, space and echoes. 

All the possibilities are contained in a singularity waiting to explode.

And so when the need for one last travel in time presented itself, Fortuna charged the G-Nome with arcane energy and delicately scrubbed a precise mechanus with mage hand. Which gear was it, she had no clue, trusting only to instinct without thought. Was that the sounds of cicadas again?

Through Thatoou's portal in pursuit of Auberon, you find yourselves in a dense hardwood forest of immense rune-inscribed trees. You are no longer children-the "Avatars" described by Thatoou-but the heroes you know yourselves to be.  

The runes and whorls on the golden tree bark shift slowly with no discernible pattern. The trees extend hundreds of feet overhead. Their leaves and branches allow diffuse sunlight to shine through in perpetual noon from somewhere above, though the sun's exact position is never clear. Except for a few ferns and bushes, there is little undergrowth to impede movement along the unnatural forest floor. Luckums the chronomancer feels a sense of timelessness, here. It is a feeling of being completely unmoored. 

There is a large lodge built from gold-coloured wood immediately in front of the gate, and others are vaguely visible deeper in the forest, in several directions, connected by a winding path of fresh woodchips. The forest floor in front of the gate where you stand is slightly muddy. 

The lodge in front of you is built on an enormous scale with a large wooden porch. Its entrance is hung with a guazy sheet instead of a door. The lodge's construction is crude, as though it were assembled quickly, and it appears only recently made.

I don’t think I’ve taken part in a combat that’s gone much worse. Several of us nearly met our ends, me included, and I think there were a few moments there where it was almost the end for us all.

But let me begin at the beginning.

The Legion of Luckumses brought the Heroes of Ancorato and us together again, and it was for no small reason. Auberon, the arch-lich, was intent on taking over the spheres. Ochyuma, the ancient Aboleth, was intent on destroying them.

Given the situation, we didn’t have much time for hugs and tea, so we got after it. We decided to try and tackle Auberon first. We knew where he was - holed up on some special and hidden plane of divination. We had a portal to take us there, so we went.

Thankfully, I’ve never had to face a lich before, but they’re the stuff of nightmares and legends. Some might say that, before going into battle with one of the most awful of its powerful kind, and one that knows you’re coming, you’d best do some proper preparation. Not us. We just opened up that portal and walked straight into a shitstorm. Traps, invisible giant archers hidden and waiting in the weeds. Oh yeah, and Auberon, blasting us with god-like magical powers. It felt like we were fighting like hell just to get back to zero from the start of that battle.

I don’t actually remember much of it, because early on Auberon appeared and blasted our party (all nicely bunched up on Luckums’ flying disc. Bit of a lesson there.) with a rainbow of magical rays. I saw one heading straight for Hazel and I couldn’t help myself. At the last moment, I dove in front of Hazel, and everything went dark.

They told me later I got turned to stone. Glad it was me and not Hazel, though I think it was Hazel that eventually figured out a way to get me back - not sure how. As I pulled my face out of the earth the battle was raging around me and it had moved to a very different phase. Blood and chaos were all around me, and it seems my companions had hung in there somehow, even maybe started to get a bit of a hard fought edge, but still no clear sign of Auberon. I closed my eyes, and tried to sense the ancient lich, and it was the strangest thing. For an instant, in my mind’s eye, I could have sworn I saw a little boy, maybe twelve? He was dressed all funny and… he winked at me! Just then I felt the power of the Gardeners well up in me, felt the force beneath these lifeboats of life - the spheres - listen to my need. And when I opened my eyes, there he was, plain as day (at least to me) - Auberon.

I charged. The expression on his face - confused, annoyed, scared? - almost made me laugh. I closed with him, and rained down blows. I poured the force of my life - the blessings of the Gardeners - into the attack. Khalid could see him now and let loose a couple of shots point blank. A lesser creature would have gone down like a gujamellon rolling down a hill, but not Auberon. In fact, I think we were in for a world of hurt except Stelisto stepped in, and calmly addressed Auberon in a way that froze the lich in his tracks.

Auberon needed Luckums in order to stop Ochyuma from destroying the Pillars of Creation, and the spheres on which they rest. You can’t conquer something that no longer exists. But Auberon had killed Luckums (my heart fell like a stone) earlier in the battle. Auberon’s plans were done, and it was his own fault, but maybe, just maybe there was a way out of this defeat for Auberon. We could help bring back Luckums. (My heart lifted)

Auberon was clearly on the back foot. He was ready to negotiate. Maybe that bought Luckums the time she needed? Because this really strange thing happened next. It was like we backed up in time to the start of the battle.

This time, we walked through the battle knowing stuff. Knowing where traps were, ambushes, everything we’d done wrong. We brought this fight to a close rather quickly and easily this time, always with this ghost-like image, almost like an echo, of the earlier, nearly disastrous battle just on the edge of our vision and our thoughts. We closed on Auberon near this altar, and alone he met his end against the combined might of our two bands.

So the spheres would not be conquered. Would they be destroyed?