Kitsune and Black Cat led the way as they continued down the path. The sounds of the forest continued to be spooky and shadows still tried to flirt with some of the weaker willed among them, but for the most part the mentalist had helped everyone balance the effect of the forest spirits...or as some might fear, help them ignore what was actually a very real threat.

The six heroes found themselves trapped between the challenging roar of some unknown beast and a seemingly endless path ahead of them. Their new companion, Calypso had warned them about the dangers of the forest, and how it was alive in a very real way. It was the quest for the key that drove some, the heroic drive to save a damsel in distress for others, and a palpable need to locate the overwhelming melodic aura that drove the youngest among them.

The mental voices were many and varied as Dylan reached beyond the doors of his mind and the physical one that separated him from the forest. There was a dull rambling of beasts, primitive thoughts and instincts but no true intellectual voice, there were many but they quickly fell into the background as the humming of others overtook their presence. A few minds resounded with the low hum of intellectual thought, but still their mental voice was repetitive and weak.

Things could have been much worse than they were. The group, depleted in number but not in spirit had managed to survive the morning and had much to show for their efforts. As far as they could tell, Jean Louis seemed to be honest and sincere, and the information that he gave them was plenty ... even though the validity was yet to be put to the test. Kitsune looked down at the scroll in her hands but was unable to read the neat script that was there, apparently her new gift from the author didn't extend to written words.

The decision made to assault the shraaorch, Captain Aaorrann gave the order for "battle alert" and the Fex scrambled to their assigned stations. Aaorrann assigned Tyra to pick four Fex to accompany the two of them into battle, plus a team of two others to serve as medics.

"One moment, please, Hugh-sensei." Kitsune held up her hand and regarded the huge scientist. "You may be jumping to conclusions. The shraaorch may be just as we are, after all. Like the Fex, they may have been pulled in and aren't necessarily associated with any of the Ambers directly.

Captain Aorrann led Black Cat and the rest into the area of the room that had been screened off from casual viewing. It was a tiered space with three levels and they all stepped down and spread out, some of the Fexao moving directly to "stations" set up on the three levels (See Map). Once through the partitions the attitude of the Fexao around them changed subtly. They were "on duty," most of them finding seats in front of consoles that blinked into life as they sat.

See link below for map.

"I think we should all think it over together, eh?" the Black Cat replied. He looked at the door, smoothed the front of his shirt, danced a few shadowboxing steps from left to right and back again, rocked his head back and forth nervously, and expelled a whistling sigh through pursed lips. He looked at Nocturne and thought {Get a wall ready - we don't really know what's on the other side of that door,} as he stepped in front of it. He turned back to Aodh, and said with a wink "It's OK, I speak cat."

The room within wasn't so much "darkened" as simply not lit as brightly as the hall without. Once the group's eyes made the adjustment they found themselves in a spacious drawing room, easily twenty-five meters wide and fifteen meters to the far wall. There was so much to see that the mind boggled. Several portraits of men and women in the finery of eras ranging from the Middle Ages to the time of the English Restoration. Tapestries of great battles adorned the paneled walls, and as many as six suits of armor stood empty around the perimeter.

In the deepest recesses of consciousness, they became aware that something was not right. That "not rightness" revealed itself slowly, almost reluctantly, to minds which did not wish to acknowledge certain realities, realities that couldn't be present in the rational, logical, linear world which they thought they knew.

There was... an interruption. Not like a tap on the shoulder or a call waiting beep, but rather a sudden cessation of thought, of consciousness, of everything. They were on their way to that meeting, each thinking his or her own thoughts. They blinked...

It all started with that envelope.

You know, the one Rod Bellar placed on the ground before doing his "disappear into the shadows" routine.

In it was "a round trip airline ticket to Walker Airfield in Grand Junction, Colorado. A map of the area along with coordinated map of a house outside of Aspen. A pre-paid cell phone with two numbers in the phonebook. $4,000 in $100 dollar bills."

Time Rifters is a superheroic game using (to date anyway) 5th Edition Revised Hero Rules.

Each episode of Time Rifters is a "one-off" -- the GM(s) and players consent to come together to tell a story with a definite beginning, middle, and ending. After the end and denoument each participant gets to decide if they'd like to opt in for the next episode. This means that the story as a whole is a collaborative effort among many Game Masters and Players, all taking turns moving groups of characters through time to right wrongs or wreak havoc, whichever the case may be.

So you can think of the many episodes of Time Rifters as an anthology of sorts and be right on the mark. The GMs may change, players and characters may rotate in and out -- but the idea is always to get together to tell one story, and have as much fun as you can stand while doing it.