S1 E50: Aot Supernova

General Summary

In which the Scale Squad plunges ahead but traps themselves in the Far Realm.

• When Blizzard strikes the blow to decapitate Aot Solorex and claim his prize to take back to Bindersleeve, Aot jumps up, restored to life, though not to strength. He's quickly dispatched a second time, but rather than simply falling dead, he explodes in a blast of sunfire, the body turning completely to ash and leaving behind a rapidly spinning core as well as a few sundry magical items not destroyed in the blast. The event also triggers a visit from long-time-no-see Lorfel, who steps through the transit crack in reality from his offices in the upper floor of the Marleven Orphanage.
• They read through his materials and learn that he had been posted up here, waiting for the proper time to go through the portal, though what would constitute the proper time is unclear; it seems he had only incomplete knowledge of what was on the other side. The main instructions listed boil down to: Defense against Psychic damage, Defense against Necrotic Damage, Lich Repellant, and Breathing Apparatus. Lich Repellant is circled with a question mark, and one possibility is that this checkbox was more about keeping this end of the portal clear of Sylvanwroth's influence, rather than some second lich possibly existing on the other end of the portal.
• The portal remains hazy and obscure, showing glimpses of a brown, gelid landscape like an enormous plain of shifting direction and dimension. But the Scale Squad knows a thing or two about World Anchors, and fires up this one using the same method as before - moonbeam through the purple eye mounted between the wings of the Staff of the Bat Swarm. However this doesn't just cause the anchor to drop and a portal to appear; the anchor drops, the portal is already here, but the skybeam created by the combination of the pearl of wisdom with the Sun's Root tree now bends over as if attracted by a magnet along a line of force, tracing a high arc in the sky across the five or so miles of forest between them and and landing on the spinning core that was once Aot Solorex, driving it forcefully into the stony soil. The portal clears, and beckons. 
• Claude goes in first, peeping with his peepers to find a place very different than the one he left behind, where space is folded and crumpled differently than in the material plane, and multiple points can intersect in different ways. He sees a number of creatures: A lumpen humanoid with one tentacloid arm ending in another head rather than a hand, with a baby size arm and leg on the other side, which Lorfel identifies as a Larval Mage, a sort of grub-wizard nonhuman being of the far realm; a pair of tables, with far more legs than a table should have, creeping about; and something resembling a cut-off onion top, all tentacles on the bottom, and a pallid white flat surface going brown across the top. The lumpen humanoid seems to take an interest in - or at least be aware of - the portal, peering at it with mismatched eyes on its head and its hand-head. 
• The rest of the Scale Squad comes in, fighting these monsters as well as the loss of their own sanity, immersed in the far realm which can only be debilitating over time; but by now the Squad has seen some wild things already and this is just more of the same kind. They prevail over the creatures, which die in nauseating ways, splashing into puddles of grease or in the case of the larval mage, into squirming white larva which Blizzard decides would be good to eat - and damned if they don't actually taste kind of good, like walnuts and fig jam. Unfortunately just before dying, the mage was able to destroy the portal from this side - or perhaps it simply timed out, as they do in the process of dropping world anchors. It didn't feel like ten minutes, but if space is this contorted here, maybe time runs faster as well. 
• Unable to bring them all with him, Lorfel assures them he will try to find a solution if they're unable to free themselves, and returns via the same one-way pass that got him to the fight in the first place. The others face the prospect of spending an extended amount of time in the Far Realm, which may have unpredictable effects on their long term health. Luckily Lorfel didn't have time to tell them any stories of the things he's heard of this place, where all the darkest magics and arcane secrets are born; but he knows what it is and is, loathe to leave it. It is the Profane Deep; it is Gorgasuul, a sentient plane of unfathomable madness. 
• Blizzard, unimpressed, just munches more larva.

Rewards Granted

• Aot Solorex had:
  • A Greatsword +2 but no one else can use it.
  • Potion of Supreme Healing (10d4 + 20 points of healing)
  • Periapt of Wound Closure
  • Bag containing 400 giants' knuckles, 1,000 orc/human knuckles, 461 gold pieces, 10 diamonds worth 100gp each

• His various attendants had a total of:
  • 50 human knuckles
  • 5 diamonds worth 100 gp each
  • 6 x ceremonial +1 daggers

• Level Up

Missions/Quests Completed

• Into Gorgasuul
• Aot Supernova
• The Awakened Pearl