Out of Time, Part 1

In yet another vision, Nyridius sees Windsor triumphantly watching over three chain golems.  The golems are cranking away at a large generator-like machine.  Windsor is confident.

The party timidly approaches the ziggurat.  They know that win or lose, their journey will end here.  They sneak in the rear entrance and find an indoor moat blocking access to the inner sanctum.  They see that it is only lightly guarded by one cultist and one ember demon.  The cultist shoos away a small dog-like cave critter.  The team tries to sneak up on them, but Dr. Drizzle loudly stubs her toe, alerting the guards.  From parts unseen, Windsor announces that he can multiply his forces by using his machine, the flux capacitor, to pull versions from the future.  The enemies are scanned, and joined by their stronger, angrier future-selves.  The cultist is only slightly displeased that he becomes a burning skeleton.

Most of the team moves to engage the enemies, except Hand Banana, who tries to make friends with the slimy cave critter.  

Fitzgerald and Drizzle open fire on the enemies, while Nyridius and Tao Ren both take intense beatings from both versions of the four-handed demon.  With three fists in his face, Nyridius shares a thought with the team:  if we focus our attacks and kill the past versions, won’t the future versions cease to exist?  To find out, Little Rock and Nyridius cooperate to take down the cultist.  Upon his death, the burning skeleton ceases to exist.

Most of the team then begins focusing on the demon, except Hand Banana, who slips, bonks his head, and begins floating downstream.

Although the demon is strong in any time frame, the team pushes through the pain to eliminate him.  Again, the future version evaporates.  In the meantime, however, the slimy cave critter wandered too close to Windsor’s scanner.  From the future, a massive, hulking cave beast arrives.  He is angry.  He immediately moves to attack the team.

Most of the team is engaged with the cave beast, except Hand Banana, who decides to climb a statue.

Little Rock and Nyridius are snatched up in the snarling beast’s giant claws.  Although they are immobilized in its grip, Tao Ren and Fitzgerald unleash their most powerful attacks on it.  Fitzgerald focuses his attacks on the beast’s *ahem* “undercarriage.”  Dr. Drizzle takes a different approach; she teleports to the opposite end of the map to track down the cave critter in its smaller, easier-to-kill form.

While the big beast takes a vicious, crippling bite out of Little Rock, Drizzle and Hand Banana corner the dog-size cave critter.  Hand Banana has an opportunity to kill it, but when he looks into its big puppy-dog eyes, he can’t bring himself to do it.  Drizzle, on the other hand, finds it surprisingly easy.  She hops down from a small ledge and punches it with her matter-disrupting fist, detonating it.  The big beast disappears, mercifully releasing Little Rock.

The team presses onward, further into Windsor’s cave.