A condensation of the information you all have figured out was relevant to the central mystery, as of session 19:

The Coincidentals had confirmed that there was an intelligent power behind the Fragmentation of time, and recently, another Coincidental from another team confirmed there was an intelligent power behind the repairing of it, someone who had chosen the Coincidentals. This backed up their perception that someone had intentionally altered history to swap items of saturnium for items of Littany metal, which allows the Coincidentals to function in the temporal fragments where the time loops are.

Interactions in the Fragments with various teams, including their own, confirmed that the rogue watcher Vunnqueh, a sniper and serial killer; the time-traveling swarm master and conqueror Lingentium; a eugenicist with temporal animals called Quimmon; a terrorist named Moiuour; and the Littany family were all either somehow involved or taking advantage of broken time. They had also had encounters with or rumors of the Epochal Ranger, a figure killing wielders of Littany metal. They also encountered timestorms, which thus far, they have escaped being harmed by. However, anecdotes from others indicate that these storms can move them to other parts of the world instantaneously or age them rapidly.

They had also discovered that time was frozen at 11:31 am everywhere, and that events at that time were erased from the archives.

Early on, they encountered memory ghosts filled with despair, which have increased in power since their first encounter, resembling people from Runa's past. Other Coincidentals on other teams encountered similar beings from their own pasts.

After fixing a loop, Castor nearly drowned, and he was guided in a vision through the Collective Subconscious by the memory of his mother. He chose to see onto the mind of a time eel swimming in the lake he was near, and he saw this:

You are in the mind of an animal. It swims through ecru-hued waters, rushing waters that flow in multiple directions. You swim, as an eel, a jinshin uo, a fish that carries time with it, and you are swimming with more of your own. You know nothing but contentment.

You notice, as you swim, that currents that should be as familiar to you as your own scales are changing. They move in ways they should not. They twist in impossible directions, even for the timestream.

You swim to your friends nearby, and you "speak" to them via the body language of jinshin uo, and between the group of you, you come to the conclusion that multiple beings are moving through time in ways that are forbidden.

Castor, your mother speaks to you, _Remember, my child. Pay attention to the strands the eels follow._

And you see them follow six specific flows of time.

One comes from the deep past, from Second Shem, and it is made of time itself. It is broken, fragmented, and pasted back together poorly.

One comes from First Shem. She streams behind her infinite tears, which coil and twist. She is a watcher of someone powerful and important, but she is broken, hurt.

One comes from Third Shem. He brings with him swarms, vast swarms of devouring evil. They devour time itself as he moves.

One comes from First Shem, but he moves slower than all the time around him.

One comes from Third Shem, and he swims in the tears of the second. He wields them and welds them into power.

And one moves hidden through time, killing time itself and watchers as well.

The last one he then identified as Vunnqueh, the rogue watcher serial killer.

They also met with the dragon who protects the timestream below Chronur, who gave Tum a dragonscale after Tum made him a delicious meal; Runa failed a test from Fehenesz the archdruid to learn time magic; Anitkytheria updated its truck with the help of a watcher named Kamaquet; and Castor ran many tests in the university laboratories in Chronur to learn that the time loops were not generating energy, but using it up.

A brief side quest led them to acquire a Phial of Cleansing that amplified the power of Castor's lens and cleanses infernal powers from anything it washes. Other useful objects they have gained include a mask that once belonged to one of Runa's ancestor which allows her to understand the character of any being she can see and a list of recipes for Tum.

After fixing all the loops in one Fragment, they were assaulted by timestorms, memory ghosts, and distortions in time and space, which seemed to be directed at them by the power(s?) behind Fragmentation.

Internal politics among the watchers has shown that there are some seeking to use the current crisis for personal power, such as Eddlemeq and Pelzereqq, two political leaders in the Chronurian parliament, the Congregat, who want to institute a police force. Meanwhile, the party had talked with their own Coincidentals and found them sympathetic to breaking with watcher tradition in the name of saving time. Two of their watchers were shortly thereafter sidelined, as one was injured in a riot - and blamed for it by Eddlemeq and Pelzereqq - and the other took time off to be with her, as they were lovers. This led to two new watchers being introduced, one of whom, Myqoric, Runa's watcher, took her to meet with the watcher of Alsa Ipanym, Rypotha, who asked her to alter time to allow Alsa Ipanym to live.

The riot that injured one of their watchers was caused by food rationing.

They have also all obtained special wolf forms from fixing a loop containing the Sword of Wolves.

In session 19, they came upon any major revelations. At 11:31 am, Udraqes, Father Time, who had been merged with his prophet at the end of First Shem in order to survive a grievous injury, was severed somehow. This seems to be the cause of the current Fragmentation and the erasing of all events at 11:31 am in the archives.

The Watcher Subsequent, whom Castor knows the Name of, appears to have replaced Udraqes as a new deity of time, but those who knew of him before Fragmentation seem to be able to see his Name as if it were not Divine.

In conversation with the Watcher Subsequent, Castor learned that the power behind the Fragmentation was a being more powerful than gods, and that the Prophet (whom had been merged with and now severed from Udraqes) was the power that had been helping the Coincidentals. The motivation of the power seeking to harm time was to alter all extant timelines to be filled with despair, leading the ratkahthoses to create a new list of suspects, all of whom were beings who would benefit from a universe filled with despair.

Speaking to the archdruid Fehenesz, the Coincidentals learned that the most likely suspects were the Eldritch, beings of ancient and unknowable evil. Figuring out who or what they were was difficult, as often in the archives and in general, they were confused either for powerful demons, gods, or inmortals. Research also revealed that they were sometimes presented as angels or figures of goodness as part of wider deceptions. This included the Church of the Redeemer, a major organized religion that was in truth a doomsday cult.

Also in his research, Castor stumbled upon the story of a broken temporal elemental, one for the Age of Pillars on Second Shem, which was when time had been broken before. This elemental had been sealed away on Second Shem, but cannot be found or accounted for on Third Shem.

In their research, they also learned there is a temple in western Ansulym where a full and official list of the Eldritch can be found. It is currently frozen in time, thus its dangers are likely limited, but it is said to be non-Euclidian space within and full of powers that cause madness and doom. They will need protections before entering.
Topic revision: r1 - 16 Aug 2025, SallyJaneBlack
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