19. Reverse Ambush

12th Dravago, 999 YK

Picking up from last session, they've just killed the last Plaguebearer that attacked them.
Naze's player argues with the recap, reiterating that they want to appeal getting stabbed last session. lmao.
They want to burn the bodies, as they remain infectious. They discuss how to do this. Runmae has some alcohol but she doesn't want to use it.
Oh they have lantern oil! That'll do.
They're going to burn them where they are, none of them want to touch the corpses to pile them up.
Runmae douses each of the corpses in oil and then they set them alight with their torches.
Warren gathers kindling and scatters it over the corpses, avoiding getting too close to the corpses.
Naze tries to treat his own wounds while they do that, and injures himself with a critical failure. Oof.
Valaari uses a torch and ignites each of the corpses, and then throws it on the last corpse.
As the corpses burn, they give off a strangely appetising scent which disturbs the group. They move on.
They hustle to get away from the burning corpses, and then continue on at a more measured pace.
Warren keeps an eye on Naze, worried that he may've gotten sick from the encounter. He was the only one to get hit by them.
A couple of hours later they get caught in a Dust Storm. They failed to find shelter before it begins, and in the time it takes Runmae to find a cave, they each took 32 slashing damage! (ouch!)
The cave they shelter in is actually a tunnel, and there's a light at the end of it. Suspicious.
They send Warren to scout it out.
Warren follows the light to the end of the tunnel and emerges into a gigantic cavern, a tropical paradise lit by an inner sun. The light seems to heal his wounds, and in less than a minute he's healthy again. Huh.
He stands there for a minute, basking, and then has a look around.
Warren returns to the group to tell them what he found. Bhaltair hears "sun" and "plants" and just goes to investigate.
Runmae is suspicious that this isn't actually Warren, but some kind of doppelganger. She keeps an eye on him.
Bhaltair uses their planar lore to confirm this tunnel contains a portal.
They enter the Vale of the Inner Sun. Valaari has heard rumours of a paradise within Khyber, but they didn't think it was real.
Bhaltair wants to investigate the plants. Valaari suggests they could rest here, wait for the storm to die out.
Runmae is suspicious, and worries that the healing may be doing something bad to them. Warren points out they got healing herbs from the Abyssal Forest of Khaar, and that place sucked!
Valaari is a little in awe, this is a place of legend. They ask Warren to write it down on the map.
They have a dicussion about what colour the sun is, as it's a colour none of them have ever seen before and lack the language to describe.
They set up a camp while Naze stares at the sun, until Zaphkiel covers his eyes. Naze thinks it's maybe 40-50km from here to just below the sun. This cave is enormous.
Bhaltair flowers! But without the delicious smell that they experienced in the Abyssal Forest.
A songbird lands near them a makes some bird song. Runmae experiences a tiny cut on her hand, which instantly heals. Weird.
Naze wants to leave.
They find the remains of a camp, but it's been abandoned. As they look around, Bhaltair finds a note nailed to a tree. Warren coughs and all of his teeth fall out, and are immediately replaced by new teeth.
Warren is just standing there with his old teeth in his hands.
Naze just starts walking away, fuck that. He's leaving.
Bhaltair hands Valaari the note, and they read it out loud. The text is included below, and can also be found in the Orien Expedition Notes.
They decide they need to leave, Naze is right.
They go back to the camp and Naze is already packing up.
They pack up the camp they just set up, and you leave.
As they leave, they notice that Naze's eyes have changed, and he now has cephalopod pupils. Warren asks what the fuck? and Naze is confused. Now that it's mentioned to him, the world does seem more vibrant than it did.
Valaari gets Naze up to speed, as he left before they read the note.
Naze asks Warren to show him his teeth, to compare to his old teeth. The new teeth are pristine, perfect, straighter than Warren's old teeth were. Naze thinks the teeth have a different texture though, almost like bone instead of enamel. His jaw muscles also seem better defined than they were.
Valaari wonders if Warren has a stronger bite now?
Warren mentions that Runmae experienced a small cut, what happened to her?
Naze examines Runmae's hands, and notices nothing out of the ordinary? Her callouses are gone.
Runmae is horrified, this is by far the worst change any of them could have experienced.
She has a small meltdown, it took so long to build those callouses!
They are soft though. Hmm.
Valaari doesn't feel any different, but asks Naze to examine them. Naze can't find anything unusual about Valaari, which is also suspicious considering everyone else experienced some kind of change.
Valaari jokes that maybe they were already weird enough.
Runmae theorises that maybe the demiplane was correcting things that were "wrong". Was Naze experiencing any vision issues? Warren's face is a given. Runmae now has beautiful soft hands. Bhaltair flowered.
Nothing for Valaari though, no changes. Maybe the change was internal?
Over the next couple hours, Warren develops a twitch in his jaw, and begins chattering his new teeth.
Naze examines him, and thinks that Warren is a little malnourished and his body lacks the salt reserves to maintain his new jaw muscles.
Panic
Runmae has some salt left from her outside days.
They ponder whether they've seen salt in the Labyrinth, Runmae thinks she's seen some but they're currently still stuck in a cave.
Warren notices that Naze's eyes seem slightly less wavy.
Naze examines everyone again, and the changes do seem to be reversing, slowly.
It seems they are all reverting to normal, but what does that mean for Warren and his teeth? Are they going to fall out?
The Maruk don't have great dentistry, they can't fix that!
Oh no
Bhaltair's flowers have begun to wilt. They're sad about that.
Three hours after the storm began, it dies down, though they don't notice it straight away.
They discuss the possibility of Warren not being able to eat if his teeth fall out, someone might have to pre-chew his food for him. Valaari says they'll do it, they'll take one for the team.
Naze says he ain't doing it. He likes Warren but not that much.
They discuss whether to move on now or wait a bit longer in the tunnel.
They think that if they move on, and something happens with these changes reversing and they get attacked, it could be bad. They decide to stay put for a bit longer and see what happens.
They decide to stay put and monitor Warren's state.
Over the next 8 hours or so, they all experience the gradual reversion of their changes, though Warren's teeth remain changed (though his jaw reverts to normal).
His new teeth are heavier than his old teeth, though, so with his reverted jaw muscles he finds it difficult to move his mouth.
This is the most horrible thing that could happen to any of them.
It is now midnight.

13th Dravago, 999 YK

It's midnight, they head out. They've traveled during the night before.
A couple of hours later, they come across the remains of a group who weren't fortunate enough to find shelter from the storm. There isn't enough left of them to determine who they were.
They move on, they can't do anything for these people.
They travel for the rest of their day, and then rest.

14th Dravago, 999 YK

A singular tooth falls out of Warren's mouth.
Fuck
Warren's too young to have no teeth!
Valaari tells him to keep them safe.
Warren puts the tooth into the same pocket as his old teeth, and Valaari tells him not to mix them!
Warren is confident he can tell the difference! The old ones are yellow and the new one is bright white!

15th Dravago, 999 YK

Warren loses another tooth.

16th Dravago, 999 YK

Warren loses another tooth.

17th Dravago, 999 YK

Warren loses two teeth.
As they travel, they begin to hear a faint sound.
They identify that it sounds like hooves, similar to the Goristro they encountered previously, but not as bass-y or loud.
Bhaltair sends The Mask to fly up and see what they can see.
The Mask sees a couple of Minotaurs, which Valaari identifies as probable members of the Tyrant's Horns. The sound of their hooves is disorienting in the Labyrinth, and makes it more likely that the group will get lost.
The minotaurs also seem to be following the group, they're following the path they've taken.
Valaari suggests ambushing them?
Runmae asks if they're usually hostile?
Valaari says they're a Carrion Tribe and their god is a violent one.
They're also following the group, so they'll catch up eventually.
They decide to backtrack a bit and find a more ambushable location. They prepare the ambush.
Runmae and Naze both notice that the stomping sounds they can hear seem to have some kind of pattern to them.
The minotaurs arrive and approach, and then they stop and one of them drags their hoof across the ground and snorts. Then they barrel forward into the rock Valaari and Runmae are hiding behind, but only damages Valaari because Runmae is small.
A third minotaur throws off the rock-coloured sheet they were hiding behind and emerges behind the group. A reverse ambush!
Bamboozled
The minotaurs charge and the group fight them! The one coming up the rear charges up the ramp to Naze and Zaphkiel, the other two fight with Runmae and Valaari.
Bhaltair flashbangs the two on Runmae and Valaari, dazzling them (though one more than the other)
We end the session mid-combat, with Runmae managing to kill one of the minotaurs.

Vale of the Inner Sun

You follow the light at the end of the tunnel until you emerge into a gigantic cavern, hard to tell how large exactly but easily larger than the Ironlands. Paradoxically, this cavern appears to be a tropical paradise, it is overgrown with vibrant green plants, many of which you recognise from Eberron.

The temperature is comfortable, and the air is comfortably humid, warm but not enough to make you sweat. The sounds of songbirds fill the air, along with crickets and other sounds that remind you of the Abyssal Forest, but lacking any of the unnerving dissonance found in that place.

At the top of the cavern, roughly in the center, is a glowing orb that resembles Eberron's sun, visible from everywhere within the cavern. It lights the entire cavern, though the colour of this light is something you've never seen before on Eberron, and that you (and I) lack the language to describe.

Directly beneath this inner sun stand a ring of enormous obsidian monoliths, which resemble the teeth or claws of some enormous beast, reaching up for the light. As you take the sights and sounds of this place in, you feel invigorated and refreshed, and within seconds, any wounds or bruises on your body heal.

Orien Expedition Note

I leave this note here as a warning for any who enter this place.

It seems like a paradise: the environmental conditions are ideal and the sun has clear healing properties. When we stumbled upon the demiplane, we thought it would be suitable for trailblazing, but my professional recommendation is that we need more information.

This demiplane is certainly not as dangerous as some of the others we have seen, and in many ways it is comparable to Eberron. The light is beneficial in small doses, it heals wounds and cures sickness, but as with many things, the poison is in the dosage.

Prolonged exposure to the light of the Inner Sun causes physiological changes in any creature not native to the demiplane, and though we haven't been able to test this hypothesis, I believe that these changes hinder a creature's ability to survive outside of the demiplane.

We have spoken to some of the inhabitants of this place, in the villages that dot the cavern. Some of them are friendly, though many aren't, but those that tolerated or allowed our presence allowed us to learn much. The demiplane seems to confer a sort of immortality on those within it, many of the denizens have been here for centuries, but none of them are the same as they were when they arrived.

The changes begin within hours, gradually at first. Every creature experiences unique mutations, but there are some patterns we've been able to observe. Many of them experience mutations that should have killed them, but the demiplane keeps them alive.

We have no evidence to examine whether these changes are reversible, nor how long they take in totality. We have no idea of the effects of repeated exposure. Do not linger in this place.

—Carro Canowyn d'Sivis, Orien Expedition No. 3