Everyone was present. The session started with a lengthy debate about where to go next. The main topic of the debate was the red sun world. Just what was going on with that place? Both the githyanki and the sniper had done as much research as they could, which continued to get cryptic hints but any direct questions about the other side simply hitting a wall. Even going to the Grand Repository in the City of Brass and sacrificing an eye resulted in hours of confused searching by the scholar, even though that place supposedly contained all the knowledge of the multiverse. It's definitely not Athas, despite having a red sun. It's not the illithid homeworld spoken about in the rantings of Step'hen In'n'iss, as it has a day-night cycle rather than just being fixed in place. There's no significant life left after the fungus lord died, but if there are lights on the moon, then there's obviously still life elsewhere in that universe. Some of them were worried they weren't equipped to handle it yet and should do some of the other quests first, but ultimately, their curiosity was stronger than their fear. The binder tried to use her new ship's power to plane shift to head straight to the red sun world, but that simply fizzled, using that power for the day without result and forcing them to hang around at the city of brass for another day. (which currently puts them at T -42 days until the big G-day invasion ) Having confirmed that the gate beneath Needlespire is indeed the only known way to get in and out of that other reality, (which means if they can find the chains again and seal it up, nothing from the other side can come through) she planeshifted them all off to Pharagos and flew the ship the remainder of the way back. Once parked above the mountain, they put on their underwater gear and did the double teleport jaunt necessary to get down to the gate, through it and out of the mountain on the other side quickly.
Once safely out, the first theory they tested was to see if they could still contact their own gods here. The priestess cast commune, but instead of the curt replies of Loviatar, all she heard was a chaotic piping sound that tore at her sanity. The player instantly twigged that this was Lovecraft related and she was hearing the tones of Azathoth, but her character rolled poorly on a Knowledge (religion) check, (the cthulhu mythos obviously isn't very well known amongst faerun natives) so they're still in the dark IC about the full implications of that information. They looked to the Drow to see if he wanted to cast Contact Other Plane to confirm they were out of touch with other gods they knew as well, but he was like absolutely not. Next thing they tested was to see if the geographic correlation held up further away. They teleported to where L'trel was on their world. They found that their theory was correct, the landscape was still fertile ground with mountains to the south and there was a settlement there, but the town was completely different: big hexagonal communal buildings packing bodies in densely as befits a hive-mind with no concern for privacy, all now empty with the powdery dust from dead minions everywhere. Further investigation revealed two things of note amid the otherwise highly formulaic construction: a couple of colossi very similar to the one they fought before at the edge of town, but heavily worn and out of power, and a library which featured the fungus lord's records of his agricultural experiments over the years. Apparently, being thrown into another world with a red sun and running it once you've taken it over takes a lot of thought, as you have to reinvent crop rotation from scratch with plants growing differently under the red light and manage the number and type of your fungal bodies in any particular area so as not to exhaust the soil. Still, having started as a druid, Xhagevoxhab was well-equipped for work like that and had it down to a solid formula after several centuries.
He'd obviously not done so well on his attempts to escape though. All this archive rummaging prompted the sniper to put down a few of the cards he'd been playing close to his chest, and reveal that there was another archive in the city close to needlespire. There, Xhagevoxhab had recorded its escape attempts and its subsequent plan to drain the sun by replicating the method used here, eight massive obelisks at the corners of the planet created ages ago by the Illithid. (thus confirming that they did indeed inhabit this place before the fungus invaded and were responsible for dimming the sun here, which meant it had been a normal yellow sun in the even more distant past. ) He hadn't found it an easy process though, with numerous frustrated redrafts and scribblings as he tried to translate the ancient illithid writings and adapt the details to fit its own powerset. Having added that revelation to their dataset, they wanted to see one of these obelisks in person. This involved some serious knowledge rolls to determine the overall circumference of the planet and where they would likely be positioned, (if there's 8 of them, equidistantly positioned, that makes a d8 shape with the points on the 45th parallels.) which delayed them a little more, but between them, they once again had the knowledge skills to make those rolls. There, they did indeed see a massive ancient obsidian obelisk jutting into the sky, but heavily worn and no longer registering as actively using magic, indicating that once the sun was drained, it was no longer needed and destroying them would not return it to its previous state. All these jaunts completed (and the sniper's 5th level spell slots nearing depletion) they teleported back to the city near needlespire to wait for night to fall so they could look at the moon. However, as the moon was nearly full at this point, they couldn't see the smaller spots of light on it that would indicate where settlements might be that night. They decided that as it was still over a month before it was all hands on deck for the invasion and they'd be missed if they didn't show up, they could spend a few more days here. In the meantime, they decided to investigate the great pyramid to Xhagevoxhab's glory in the centre of the city. (using the map to B4, but coming in on the lowest level) This was mostly uneventful save for the sniper completely botching his spot check when scouting ahead and blundering into the pit trap at the crossroads, which was more wounding to his ego after getting through all the much more sophisticated traps in the previous adventure than to his hp. After circling around the edges of the pyramid clockwise, they found the stairs down, which took them into a basement area where the fungus lord keeps some things heavily guarded, including one of the chains they need to close the gate. (using
The Mud Sorcerer's Tomb, one of the few adventures that still makes sense transplanted to a dead world as it runs entirely on traps and constructs.) Having reached the main door and puzzled at the writing on it for a little while, they decided this would be a good point to call it a night. We shall see if they have the brainpower to deal with this next week, or this will finally be the adventure to stump them despite the myriad powers at their disposal.
