A Wrinkle in Time

by gq69

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A WRINKLE IN TIME
A Deadly Trap for a Tier 4 Party

A Wrinkle in Time

Mind flayers are dangerous, and if a solo githyanki pilot engages one and loses contact, Vlaakith's policies are to leave them to their fate. In a worst case scenario, there is a teleportation circle etched into the deck of each skiff, a last-resort opportunity for ejection.

A pilot, Elen, has been missing for hours. Her husband, Damas, is not so ready to write her off. He's hired the party to investigate the ship's last known location.

Damas' hands shake. He gives you a gnarled red branch.

"Once every century, Vlaakith allowed Elen and I three days of rest. We would renew our vows at this redwood's mighty roots. We married when it was a sapling. Please. This branch will bring you to her."

Damas tells the party Elen's ejection system will need to be activated with the skiff controls. He teleports them away.

The Planet

You appear on half of a githyanki skiff.

The skiff has crash-landed into the dirt of a rocky plain on a planet. The sun sets, painting the clouds red and pink.

A portal has bisected the skiff.

The other half of the skiff is on the other side of the portal, frozen in time. Through the portal you see two figures lying still: a githyanki and a mind flayer.

Any attempts to re-use the teleportation circle fail; the activation button is on the other side of the fold.

There is nothing of interest on the planet.

A Wrinkle in Time

This is a deadly trap for a party of tier 4 characters.

Trigger

The trap is already in effect when the party arrives.

You go through the portal and emerge into a black void where the skiff floats eternally.

Behind you, through the portal, time passes at ludicrous speed. A thousand years whip by in a flash. Then, a million. Then, a billion.

The planet grows older and older. Continents smash together. Oceans rise and fall. And the sun takes up more and more of the sky as it expands into a red giant.

Roll initiative.

Initiative

The trap acts on initiative count 20.

Active Elements

Each turn, characters make a DC 20 Constitution saving throw, taking 11 (2d10) fire damage and 11 (2d10) radiant damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Dynamic Elements

  • Each turn, the damage increases by 5 (1d10) radiant damage and 5 (1d10) fire damage.
  • On turn 2, a banshee rises from Elen's corpse and immediately uses her scream.
  • On turn 8, the sun engulfs the planet. The party is incinerated.

Elen's Banshee

You hardly recognise Elen. Countless aeons trapped here, alone, cursed with the timelessness of the void, has transformed her into an entity that can do nothing but scream.

The banshee is calmed when presented with the redwood branch.

When the banshee can be communicated with, she reveals she is not "Elen" in any meaningful sense. Just an echo. She does not recognise the name Elen, nor the name Damas, and only has vague memories of the branch. She says her only hope for peace is non-existence.

Constant Elements

At the beginning of each character's turn, the portal's time-dilating magic ages them 1d10 years.

Countermeasures

Investigate What Happened

A DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check reveals the following information.

  • The dead githyanki is the pilot, Elen; she has aged into a dried-out husk.
  • The dead mind flayer was an arcanist. It has a spellbook tucked under its tentacles featuring spells like foresight, clone, and time stop.

Pause the Portal

Casting time stop pauses the time dilation and sun damage for the duration of the spell, allowing extra time to investigate and plan an escape.

Teleport Away

If teleportation magic is attempted, the portal swallows up the magic, and the spell fails. In order to teleport away without the ejection circle, the portal must be destroyed.

Destroy the Portal

A DC 20 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals the portal to be magical in creation.

Dispel magic can destroy the portal. The DC is 19. Three successful castings are necessary. This cuts the skiff in half, stranding the party in the void.

Now that the portal is destroyed, however, the party can use teleportation spells to escape.

Restart the Skiff

The ejection circle on the planet side can be reactivated.

  • The party must succeed on a DC 10 Intelligence (Investigation) check, discovering the skiff's ejection controls on a success.
  • The controls are broken; a spell like mending or creation can restore them, or they can be repaired with a DC 15 ability check using Woodcarver's Tools or a DC 20 Dexterity check.
  • When the controls are repaired, they still don't work; a DC 15 Intelligence (Arcana) check reveals they are missing the required magical energy to function: seven slots.
  • A character can use their action to spend a spell slot to fill up the meter. It requires the equivalent of 7 spell levels.
  • Pressing the button to activate the ejection circle is a free action. The next person to step in the circle is ejected.

On the planet side, the damage of the sun is "paused" at the level it was at when they entered, though they still must save against damage each turn. The ejection circle only ejects one character at a time, requiring a button press per character.

Escape

Damas is devastated to learn the fate of his wife.

As a reward for completing this task, Damas pledges to craft the party a set of armor of invulnerability. He has never attempted it before, but he feels he owes it to the party to try.

Credits