The Delinquents - Session 19

This is the nineteenth session in The Delinquents campaign and the fourth session in the The Friends of Mr. Cairo storyline. Player feedback ranks this session at a 9.33, tied for the highest rated session with Session 1.

Notable Events

 * The party purchased several tomes from Yarn and Coleville.
 * The party met a Halfling chronomancer named Abraham, a member and leader(?) of a group called the Mages of the Vaudevillian Order.
 * The party caught a glimpse of "the future", observing both Gorrn and Professor Half-Pint upon a ship with many other unrecognizable people.

Summary
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 995: As the door of Yarn and Coleville flung open, the groundskeeper of Fleetwood Park appeared in the doorway to apologize to the party for "falsely" accusing them of harming the ducks in the pond, claiming that the pair of picnickers had committed the crime. He promptly left the party to their day, as Ishim attempted to steal a book on dragons, being caught and persuaded by Coleville to purchase the book at threat of being thrown through a recently repaired and often broken window. Meanwhile, Agvahl searched for books related to his race and tribe to learn more about himself, locating an anthropological study written by "Emm-ear-son Lah-kay". Vaguely recognizing the name, Agvahl first asked Cairo about the author, who was unable to provide him with any information, and later asked Yarn, who identified the author as Emerson Lake, a Gnomish explorer who had recently left Squidsiddie on an expedition upon the Edmund Fitzgerald. Yarn noted that one of the smaller ships in the Fitzgerald's fleet had been stolen and crashed somewhere in the mountains weeks prior, an event that made the front page of newspapers for some time. Feigning(?) ignorance at the party's involvement with the crash, Agvahl purchased the book from Yarn with assistance from Palmer (who generously donated 19 gold pieces from his recent art deal) and the party left the shop to join Guttersnipe outside.

Having no immediate destination in mind, Mr. Cairo suggested that the party walk around and enjoy the outside air for a while. Engaged in light conversation (with Ishim expressing to Lamhach his belief that Cairo really liked him, and Cairo secretly telling Guttersnipe that, amongst other distasteful remarks regarding Ishim, he'd like to "wring that rat bastard's neck"), the party passed by a small alleyway, noticing a nondescript light blue tent. Compelled to gaze upon it by some strange force, they watched as a black cat scampered out from the alleyway, meowed at them, then turned and scurried up a nearby gutter to the rooftops. Cairo excitedly told the party that it was likely one of those "gypsy" tents and hurried past the tent flaps, followed closely by Ishim and the rest of the party. Just before entering the tent, Guttersnipe turned to look towards the alleyway and watched as another black cat appeared to perform exactly the same actions as the cat they had just seen.

The interior of the tent was revealed to be significantly larger than its exterior would suggest, and filled with an innumerable amount of clocks, watches, sundials, and other unfamiliar timekeeping devices hanging from the ceiling, upon tables, and strewn about the ground. Cairo, however, was nowhere to be found, and the only other living being within the tent was a Halfling with his back to the party, tinkering with a large grandfather clock in the center of the tent. At first, Ishim and Lamhach kept up their act as Idelmo and Felicity in an attempt to learn where Cairo had gone, but quickly dropped their personas once the man turned around. His appearance was anachronistic, with the apparent age of his face increasing in a cascade down his mustachioed face, and he was adorned in a hodge-podge of assorted clothing from different cultures and times, some recognizable and others unfamiliar.

Seemingly confused by their presence, the man (speaking in a strange, broken stutter) asked the party what year it was before divulging his identity: Abraham, a chronomancer and member of a group known as The Mages of the Vaudevillian Order. Further revealing that he knew of both "the meat man", another member of the Mages named Methuselah, and Guybrush Johnson, who was not a member of the Order, much to his disappointment, Abraham gradually led the party to an understanding of where (or rather, when) both they and Cairo were, explaining that while they were both in the same tent spatially, they were not temporally. Abraham further explained that few were intelligent, wise, and/or insane enough to play with time like he does, before offering them an opportunity to "glimpse into a future, though not necessarily their own". When asked why he would let them do this, he told the party that it was in accordance with the Order's singular creed; fun. With no visible exit from the tent, the party accepted Abraham's offer, and the tent was filled with a cacophony of ringing clocks and bells as their perception began to shift and their consciousnesses ripped from their time and through the fabric of time and space itself.

SOMETIME IN THE NEAR(?) FUTURE: The party awoke to find themselves upon a ship in a calm lagoon, waves splashing lazily against tall, jagged outcroppings of rock, the only source of sound in the area. The party split up to investigate the ship, finding no signs of life aboard (though Lamhach did find a strange bottle labeled Big Humphrey's Salted Seal Milk). As they headed back to the main deck to discuss their findings, Guttersnipe found a small watch after accidentally kicking it down the stairs and pushed the button on the top, causing several translucent, incorporeal beings to appear on the ship, the party's presence completely unknown to them. Amongst this group of beings were several people who looked to be pirates, a blonde Half-Elven Sister of Arabella, a short and flashily-dressed Halfling bard, a well-armored Dwarven man, a shady Human man, two strange blue twins, and Gorrn (who appeared older and calmer than the Gorrn they know) and Professor Gnorbitt (who, while also older, appeared significantly more unhinged than they remembered). Unable to interact with any of these people, they watched as the group listened to a young, awkward Human man deliver a rambling speech about topics such as "his dad being dead", "finding a magical artifact", and other strange things.

Listening to the speech, the party learned the identities of the many characters aboard the ship: the awkward man was Calhoun Merriweather, the Half-Elf Rosanhi, the shady man (who mysteriously appeared to have a limited ability to perceive that they were there) Badger, the dwarf Flynt, and the Halfling Roscoe. After the conclusion of Calhoun's speech, the party watched as time rapidly passed for the beings before