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Paul DMing; Scott: Smudge (shadar-kai rogue 9 / barbarian 2) and Martin (duergar cleric 11); Dane: Tudo Fleck (dwarf cleric 11); Matt S.: Gritz Rattleboom (goblin artificer 11)
Last time, the adventurers wrecked their catamaran and made contact with the ice gnomes in the frozen north of the inner world.
Possing as journalists (😆), the party gets a brief tour from Master Unshattered, leader of the ice gnome Communion of Absolute Zero. They hear rigmarole about ice gnomes being the master race, the blessed oblivion The Void Entity will soon bring to the world, and how much better The Communion of Absolute Zero is than the pitifully confused Sodality of the Unblinking Orb. Master Unshattered also assures them that either the transport tube/slide/cannon fired from the Communion or the wendigo-pulled sleigh can take them to The Void Entity Site, about 100 miles to the north.
After watching Smudge's familiar get vaporized in the big transport tube/cannon, they decide to ride the sleigh instead, but not before visiting the neighboring ice gnome cult.
While crossing the street, they noticed a strange red flash of light somewhere to the distant north — just a momentary glow on the horizon.
The party crosses the street to the (starkly less popular among the ice gnomes) Sodality of the Unblinking Orb. The adventurers watch a couple of ice gnomes sacrifice themselves in the big central dome by using a drum to summon an ear whale. The ear whale shoots a high-energy beam through the ice and up through the Sodality's big central chimney, partly melting the sacrificial ice gnome in the process before the ear whale swallows them and disappears below the ice.
Gnolan, one of the ice gnomes in the waiting room, explains that adherents of the Sodality of the Unblinking Orb believe their lives were better when they were slaves to The Unblinking Orb, Majestic Apprehension of the East, Padishah Awoken, Gods' Conflagrant Scrutiny. ("Praise be His names!") The Sodality adherents hope that their master will see the ear whale beams and come to re-enslave them.
Gniki, another ice gnome in the waiting room, adds that they wouldn't have to sacrifice themselves by summoning ear whales if they still had the device that lets them communicate with the flying ship of His Extraordinary Regard. Unfortunately, Master Unshattered from The Communion of Absolute Zero stole the communicator and hid it.
Our heroes take a pamphlet from the Sodality that shows a map of something (maybe useful?) and leave the building.
They walk back to the Communion of Absolute Zero, and sneak around the side. Smudge picks the lock on the side door that leads into a spartan barracks occupied only by a few ice cots and some religious tablets. Martin, who reads Gnomish, examines the tablets and finds (among the religious ramblings about The Holy Void) that Master Unshattered has hidden the Sodality's communication device by freezing into the wall of the Communion room that imprisons the wendigo that powers the transport slide/cannon.
The party leaves the barracks and heads behind the Communion building. Smudge notices a dark spot in the wall, and chips away ice until he extracts a black metal device.
But, the transport canon fires, the wendigo inside roars, and the stress from that roar opens a crack in the wall with a loud bang. With something about to break loose, and cultists coming to investigate the noise, the party hops on the departing wedigo-drawn sleigh for the hundred-mile trip north to The Void Entity Site.
After an hour of travel, the wendigo-drawn sleight arrives at the Void Entity Site. The part disembarks along with hundreds of ice gnomes.
The big round curve of the furrow and berm of the Communion tunnel/slide/cannon wraps around the perimeter of the site. Inside that perimeter, hundreds of ice gnomes stand atop a low icy hill, cheering periodically. A half sphere (â—–) with at 40-foot diameter base rests snow-covered and frosted at the base of the hill, its flat circle pointed at the sky and its glassy dome resting on the icy ground.
As the now empty sleigh departs, the party climbs the icy hill to mingle with the boisterous crowd of ice gnomes. The ice on the top of hill is broken open like a jagged wound, exposing a perfectly circular hole in the hollow blackness below the hill.
Every couple minutes, one ice gnome from the crowd steps forward to hurl themselves down, into the darkness. Some give a speech about the sublime inevitability of ice gnome supremacy before the imminent heat death of the universe before running at speed and cannon-balling into the depths. Others simply close their eyes and topple off the edge, like scuba divers tipping over a gunwale.
Before delving into the darkness, the adventurers walk back down the hill to investigate the snow-topped half-sphere.
Smudge climbs on top and discovers:
Smudge enters a hatch to find three swiveling command chairs with six-point harnesses. The chairs are scaled slightly larger than human-size, so Smudge's feet dangle like a child's while sitting. (Or would dangle if the whole thing wasn't upside down.)
Tudo joins Smudge inside the crystal half-sphere, and they examine the control surface that rings the perimeter at desk height. Three sets of controls correspond to the three chairs. The controls consist of an Atari-like joystick, a yoke, a large green button, and a four-way shifter switch marked with descriptive diagrams.
Unfortunately, none of the controls cause anything to happen when Smudge and Tudo play with them, so the party leaves the half-sphere and climbs back up the to the crowd of ice gnomes on top of the hill.
Standing atop the hill, before descending into the darkness, Gritz notices movement in the sky — a dark gray spot visible through the perpetual atmospheric ice haze. It's like a dark moon, but moving slowly. As Gritz and the others watch it, a red ray shoots from the flying orb, striking a distant and undistinguished patch of permafrost, sending up a mushroom cloud of steam. The dark moon moves off, shrinking in the apparent size, but remaining visible in the distance.
None of the gathered ice gnome comment on this occurrence and the adventurers don't ask them about it. The gnomes cheer as another of there number tumbles down the dark hole, exalting "Goodbye, world, hello, nothing!"
Taking care to avoid falling gnomes, the party descends the ladders built into the structure below the hill.
Inside is a vast open space that extends beyond the range of their darkvision, but they see multiple levels made of catwalks and platforms. Everything — platforms, ladders, wide curved ceiling — is made of a dull lead-like metal.
Something large and indistinct but utterly black writhes in the gloom below.
