Aradurk shudders, his stomach roiling with the feeling he recalls. He lurches forward to get to his feet and relocates himself away from the group to vomit.

He comes back and drops to his knees. "I am bloody tired with dying all the time."

The shard of the crystal staff is nowhere to be found -the only one of your possessions that you are not able to find.

The moment Killian reacts, Wes is flipping madly to a blank page in his book. "This is incredible, another side effect of the Islands of Insanity it seems. Okay slow down, slow down, well...collect yourselves...then slow down and tell me everything. Where have you been? Well, besides here I mean. Because you have been here...not you, but you, have. But you, you have been elsewhere? Perhaps to that island with the massive mountain that you convinced me was a bust? No detail is unimportant!" he rambles.

Norry, meanwhile, scratches his head. "Well at least my story should be believable in comparison. Did you...catch any of that? How much do I need to repeat?" he asks.

Hox is in a ball, his mind stuck between fear of to come and the malleable feeling of his death. "Hox is...dead? Live? Hox not know...feel pain...saw death..."

Killian leans down to put a hand on Hox. "You've escaped death again, little dragon," she says. "Your story will be as large as your hoard."

She straightens, staring daggers at Norry. "Assume we heard none of what you said, and that your telling is all that will keep me from ending you right here. After so many puzzles and games, I am inclined to test the theory that snipping one of Denorian's timelines might solve this whole riddle." Shadows flicker and lick at the ground around her feet.

OOC > Are we basically at long rest/full health?

"No! No..." Norry responds, his eyes going wide before closing heavily. He holds his head in his hands, his face grimacing as if in pain. "I think I'm going to be sick..."

Wes closes his book at pats at the air, walking toward Killian. "Let's all relax a moment, please! Obviously what happened to you was a traumatic experience. I've never seen any of you so...shaken," he says with a sigh. "We've been chasing Denorian for who knows how long with all the time shifting happening here, the last thing we can afford now is the only link we've found!" 

The gnome scrunches his face, tapping at his forehead with his fingers. "You may be right considering timelines, however. Norry here seems to have had a bit of an...awakening, let's call it," he says.

Norry follows the cue, saying, "I am not Denorian. At least I don't think so. But I do think that Denorian created me to be Denorian. He left me with his memories, in a way. I remember you all, from when I was a boy. You found me in my cave, with Legs. I also remember you from a different time, but that's not...that wasn't me, that kidnapped Ser Mary Glendale and created a simulacrum to assault you. It's like a second set of memories; I know they are not mine, yet they feel like mine."

OOC: Characters are now at their full hit points, minus 26 psychic damage from the shock of the transition. Spell slots and abilities have not been recovered.

OOC: If nobody wants to respond to Norry yet, just let me know and he will continue.

Killian is waiting for him to proceed.

OOC: Gruun isn't much of a conversationalist so he won't interrupt.

"...So not Norry but still Norry. Like how Hox met not Hox. Look like Hox, smell like Hox, but not Hox." Hox interprets it in his own way.

OOC: Sorry for the delay, feel free to blame my RL groups for taking my attention.

This may be a long conversation and a lot of information, so I'm going to keep pausing so that it's more digestible and less one giant wall of text, and to make sure everyone has a chance for input. It's completely fine if your character doesn't have any, just let me know and I'll keep it moving.

"Right," Norry collects himself. "But no, that is different. There are many Denorians, yes, like there are many Hoxes in this place, but...there are no other Norrys. It is very complicated and I don't yet understand everything. His magic is...I understand the concept behind it, but the mechanisms themselves by which he does things are still...unclear."

Wes nods as if this all makes perfect sense.

Norry sighs, "I'll start from the beginning. Shothotugg...does that name meaning anything to any of you? It does to me, or it...it did to Denorian. You followed Denorian here, but...what did he tell you of his purpose? Do you know why he was collecting Staffs of the Magi so aggressively? Or why he brought them here so quickly? I suspect he told you little, as he did me. He left me to toil for...who knows how many years, I believe it to be twenty, but it feels like ten and two hundred at the same time..."

Killian has had the convoluted mess explained to her at least once, but keeps quiet. When someone is digging a hole, best to let them finish.

"The Eater of Worlds...that's what it is called. Denorian learned of it, and learned that it was coming here, to this world. I have tried, but I cannot recall any knowledge of what Shothotugg is. I know that the knowledge of what was coming drove Denorian mad. Perhaps he separated those memories from me so that I did not suffer the same fate. What I do know is that he was not the first to learn of it."

"Thousands of years ago, a group of wizards created the Staffs of the Magi for this very purpose. They are powerful weapons, but more importantly, they are tools to prevent the rise of the Elder Evil. They created a statue, a thousand feet tall, that held a shrine within. When the staffs and their master are placed within, it would amplify the weapons to a degree capable of stopping such an unstoppable force. This was Denorian's goal. This was what he was racing here to find. He knew that it was a suicide mission, that he did not possess enough of the staffs to contain the power of the shrine, but he did it anyway. It destroyed him. The explosion shattered time itself, creating this...place, whatever it is. And it ripped him apart on a metaphysical level. I know not if that created me as an accident, or if Denorian somehow splintered himself as a last resort, but I know now that that is how I came to be. But as in all things, there is a balance. Out of the explosion came a mirror aspect of Denorian, which you and I once faced - a tainted version of the proud wizard, fused with the essence of Shothotugg."

Wes's jaw drops as Norry continues his tale. "Simply incredible. The ramifications are...so if this is true, Denorian is the one that created the Islands of Insanity, which Mordenkainen himself discovered hundreds of years ago. That explains why he was only ever able to chart a course through the islands, never determine how it came to be. It had not happened yet!" he shouts.

The only sound for some time is the scrabbling of quill on paper as Wes unleashes a flurry of activity onto the page.

Norry eventually continues, "I think you are the only ones capable of stopping this. This evil aspect of Denorian is killing...himself, these versions of himself, over and over again to ensure that Shothotugg continues to devour this world. You have seen firsthand what he is doing to the other versions of yourselves. So far, you are the only ones that have been able to avoid that same fate. I can...take you to the shrine, if you wish."

The young man motions to Maverick, still resting on the shore. "If you cannot do what Denorian could not, then this world is gone. It may be too late as it stands. Do you have the rest of the staffs, or their prototype?" he asks.

Killian looks to Wes. "We have been collecting staffs, yes, though I have not been in charge of them, so I'm not sure as to their disposition."

Wes looks to Norry with a shrug, "Is two staffs and half of the prototype enough?"

"I do not know the details of what transpired before Denorian was ripped apart. I don't know how many staffs he brought, or even if the Elder Evil is what caused his transformation. If you are willing to try, then...well, I don't see how you could make the situation worse," Norry sighs.

Wes looks around at the party. "Well, how are you feeling? We haven't exactly been taxed over the last few days, but that was before you were apparently whisked into danger and back, or...something," he asks.

"I expect I have no choice," Killian shrugs. "The gods, the forces of the world, this evil... before it we are trash blowing down the alley. All we can do is be."

After this uncharacteristic bit of philosophy, Killian lapses into silence. But she's not going anywhere.

"I didn't expect this would end easily. I didn't expect it to be like this though, I figured we would just be killing a big frog guy that was pretending to be a man or something. If we try and fail,...well, then it won't be our problem anymore."

Hox, not able to understand the conversation nor the gravity of the situation, says, "Hox want a hoard and clan man will hunt Hox if Hox run away."

Wes leafs through his book a bit more before snapping it shut. "You can lead us there?" he asks. Norry nods. "I can. I know not what you will face, or if the tainted Denorian has beaten us there. Be prepared for the worst," the young man says.

Wes asks, "Shall we depart now?"

Killian nods, checking her equipment and making sure her scarred shield is strapped tightly to her arm.