Hacking to the Gate IC

[Nettlekid]

The sun has been gone for fifteen years. On the morning of "that day" it never rose, and a layer of dark clouds which never rain shields the world from the eyes of heaven. The face of the Material Plane has been bathed in an eerie, sickly green glow as the luminescent moss and fungi of the Underdark took the surface world without competition from conventional flora. And in that meager light there is silence, pure and dead. The wind does not blow through the grasses which do not grow. No bird flies under these clouds. Even the vermin that at one time swept across the continent in plagues to feast upon the carrion of the massacre have themselves perished, as no new life means no new meat. There is stillness. Nothing is worse than death. And where there was once life, now there is indeed nothing.

The Illithid Incursion, referred to by some as the Returning but usually spoken of only euphemistically as "that day," was swift and absolute. Maybe there was some defense. Maybe with shields strong enough, swords sharp enough, abjurations and wards potent enough, they could have been fought off. The world will never know, as it never got the chance. There was no warning, not a single moment for preparation. People had seen Illithids before, sure. They were fearsome and ferocious, mentally overpowering, and famously ruthless. Adventurers delving into the Underdark knew to treat them as a serious threat. But this was different. In every city and every town of every kingdom in the blink of an eye the Illithids were there, and in the time they could be seen they had already won. A psychic web spread across the entire plane crushed all but the strongest wills, and those who resisted met a grisly fate in being harvested at the same instant. People speak mournfully of "that day," but truthfully it was one minute. One minute spelled the end of civilization on the Material Plane.

The Illithids' only weakness, if it could be called that, is that they were mortal and needed to feed. It was for that reason alone that Humanoids were kept alive. Any creature useless to the Illithids was exterminated without hesitation. Animals and dragons, Undead and Constructs and Plants and Oozes, even their fellow Aberrations were hunted down and culled. Vampirism and Lycanthropy were unceremoniously eradicated overnight. The world was left sterile save for the cities in which the Illithids now venerated their Elder Brains and kept a steady supply of Humanoids on which to feed. Goblinoids and Kobolds, with their low required maintenance and high breeding rates, served as mass-produced meals. Generations have passed in the time since the Illithids took the plane, and like the Kuo-Toa before them have collectively been psychologically broken into having no dream or understanding of a life other than that of cattle. The more civilized Humanoids, the Humans and Elves and Dwarves et al, are raised as quality livestock for a change of pace compared to the aforementioned fast food. They suffer daily in the knowledge of their destiny, as the Illithids are swift to consume any who are not useful for breeding and population. While Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes still have all but their elders to provide comfort and wisdom, teenaged Humans are beginning to succumb to despair as their parents reach the age of termination. Doomed to the same fate, their minds have begun to break as the Goblinoids before them.

By strokes of luck that are bound to crop up over time, be it noticing a faulty lock and a loose chain or Illithid captors being distracted by a prisoner going berserk with a spontaneously manifested Sorcerous heritage, a few escaped this fate. A very small few, and fewer still who remain free if they go back to rescue more. Communication from other cities was impossible, but the most capable escapees reasoned that there was one place the Illithids could reliably be assumed not to be: where they once were. Fleeing to the Underdark, many succumbed to the perils of hazardous terrain or outright starvation as they trekked across the continent from underneath. Many were discovered by patrolling Svirfneblin who were themselves trying to survive in their ruined homes. Unlike many other Underdark denizens like Drow and Duergar twisted by the darkness, the Svirfneblin were a reserved but cordial people who extended aid to the displaced surface dwellers. Seemingly off of the Illithids' radar, either by virtue of the unanticipated location or just by the Illithids' indifference, this small group of survivors have been able to develop their own semblance of normalcy and civilization in the destroyed world and are on the verge of mounting their counterattack.

This is where you stand now. Through the infrequent and often catastrophic raids on Illithid fortresses in the overworld and the scavenging of sparse leftovers from abandoned Illithid homes in the Underdark technicians in the resistance have developed a counterweapon, a marvel of technology and magic that taps just slightly into the Illithid heritage of the Far Realm to defy the laws of reality and break through time itself. A tool that grasps destiny by the throat and throttles it into submission. A device that may prove the salvation for humanity across the planes. And a team of pioneers who would, through ingenuity and unorthodox tactics, sail the seas of time and see this mission completed. This is where your story ends. The beginning is yet to come.

The three of you stand at attention, listening to the parting advice of Renphord von Veltzholm. The old and bespectacled Gnome was at one time the professor of conjuration at Amaranth's Paracelsus Academy for the Study of Arcane Sciences, the most prestigious magical institution in Magnalia if not the world. One of the earliest freedom fighters at the start of the Incursion, Professor Veltzholm had quickly forged partnerships with the Svirfneblin and it was through his pioneering innovation that enough Illithid technology could be functionally salvaged at all. Now, with the eyes of the free world resting upon you three, he prepares to send you out into time.
"As you cross the rivers of time the world will change in impossibly complicated ways. Everything that you once knew may change, lost to the crossing streams. But nothing will ever truly be gone! Not as long as you have breath in your lungs and the heart beats in your chest! Remember who you are and where you come from!" he announces proudly, with murmurings of approval from the audience. "The Illithids may take our brains, but they can never take your mind," he continues, though this receives less applause and more confusion from the crowd. "If you can remember who you are then you can always turn the world back into what it once was. Not like this, not a world of fear, but the world we once knew. Or believed we knew. In a way, we were prisoners from the beginning and were not aware of our fate. 'That day' was a wake-up call, an unveiling, an apocalypse in the original sense of the word. But with this, you can make that dream of a memory into the true reality. You may always return to us here in the present when you need to, and we may be changed but we will still be ourselves. I guarantee it. I hope you can promise me the same. By all the gods,
we're counting on you."
Gray mustache quivering, he holds out to you the collapsed time machine, a circle of segmented panels pressed flat and sandwiching coils of cable. The crowd before you cheers, save for a few faces of uncertainty and some of frustration. There are some among them who expect that they will die if you succeed, and others who hope that's the case. But it's not for these people that you do what you do. It's for all the people above, those who have passed on and those who are waiting to do so. This is for them.

Professor Veltzholm's magic can take you to the edge of the Underdark, emerging into the surface near one of the four capitol cities within Magnalia. He recommends you start your journey through one of these, as traveling through time while in the Underdark will place you squarely in the threatening Underdark. But the time and place is yours to decide.

Spoiler: Characters

Show

Player	Character	Race and Class	Color
TechnoRomancer	Lyssa Ramblefolly	Stout Halfling Mystic (Nomad)	Dark Grey
Ruslan	Torg	Half-Orc "Barblemaster"	Red
Spinningdice	Arellille “Lille” Wicket	Rock Gnome Gunsmith	Purple

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