The first one’s free.

We start the day in a macabre wine cellar, where a Illythid bartender is attempting to convince us to try his brain matter drinks. He has a bottle of Elf, another bottle of Tiefling, and lastly a bottle of Dwarf. Disgusting. Initiative!

Raymond, predictably, goes first on 28, followed by Gary on 26, Rusty on 23, The Captain also on 23, Horus on 21, the bartender on 16, then Louie on 12.

Round 1

Raymond leaps into action with Blackrazor - but misses. He hits on his second go, though.

Rusty never got to use the Cerebral Circlet last time, so he lets fly with it now. 30 HP and stunned! He mocks Dennis - he’s not special now!

The Captain then shishkebabs the stunned bartender, poking his brain out through the top of his skull on the end of The Captain’s rapier.

Combat over!

On the body we find some sort of Rope Candy brain matter. Eeew. That’s a material component for crafting, though, so Rusty picks it up. He also gets a very nice corkscrew.

Horus picks up the bottle of elf brain wine and starts inspecting it. It smells of cinnamon and loam. The Captain throws the bottle of Dwarf at the wall, where it smashes and slides slowly down toward the floor like a pinkish custard.

There is a mural, which the party reads:

Final Panel: A Warning and Prophecy

Let this tale be etched into every mind that gazes upon it: no sanctuary is eternal; no power is absolute—not even divinity itself. Yet we are not defeated. From ruin grows strength anew. Though Maanzecorian is gone, his wisdom endures in us — the chosen children who shall rise again to claim what is ours by right.

That’s not ominous. Rusty is starting to think we should be working on a genocidal plague the wipe out Mind Flayers once and for all.

The Captain takes a look at the door. He makes an INT check - success - and hears the following riddle in his mind:

From flesh to brain I take my claim. Through me perfection is my aim. What am I?

Every time we guess wrong, The Captain feels a tickle in this brain, but he doesn’t tell anyone so we conclude there is no detrimental effect to guessing wrong.

Meanwhile, Horus decides to experiment on Gary by feeding him experimental substances. He gives him some Tiefling brain. Gary has a bad LSD trip, and returns with only one word - “Jubilex”. In true MKUltra fashion, Horus tries to psycho-analyze Gary but does a terrible job. Gary tells him to Firebolt him, probably to die and be freed from the existential pain. Of course, Horus agrees. Turns out, Gary is now fire-proof.

Horus’ special friend

This is enough for Horus. He spends a few minutes turning Gary into some sort of goat/eldritch monstrosity, the chug-a-lugs the whole bottle of Tielfling. He proceeds to have a really bad acid trip where he talks to an ooze lord and fondles his “ooze”. This guy has apparently been locked up in this void prison for an eternity, and hasn’t had much to do except amuse himself. Eeew.

Anyway, this escapee from CSI:SVU promises Horus everything and then more if Horus will assist him in escaping his prison. In the process, he straight up admits that he’ll bring about the end of the Multiverse. Of course, Horus thinks this is an excellent idea. Dude! You live there!

Jubilex gives Horus a “taste” and asks Horus what he really wants. Horus says he wants to escape the time paradox. Jubilex gives him a lore dump:

The Horus Paradox: The Rabbitfolk Who Unmade the Future

Background:

Horus, a rabbitfolk wizard specializing in chronomancy, fled his homeland when the mind flayers invaded, destroying everything he loved. Driven by grief and vengeance, Horus dedicated his life to mastering temporal magic, hoping to undo the tragedy. Yet in doing so, he unknowingly became the architect of a cosmic paradox that bound the illithids’ fate to an endless temporal cycle.

The Paradox Explained:

In the far future, at the apex of their empire, the mind flayers discovered a powerful artifact known as The Chronosphere, an orb capable of manipulating time itself. Intending to use it to dominate all realities simultaneously, they inadvertently drew Horus—now a master chronomancer—from the past into their future timeline.

Recognizing his chance for revenge, Horus infiltrated Citadel Subterrene at the end of time and unleashed a devastating temporal spell—The Chronal Cataclysm—powered by the Chronosphere itself. This cataclysm annihilated the illithid empire instantly, scattering Elder Brains and their minions across temporal streams.

Yet this act created an unforeseen paradox:

By destroying the mind flayers at their empire’s zenith, Horus unintentionally triggered their desperate final act: sacrificing Elder Brains to breach time and escape annihilation. This temporal breach hurled surviving illithids backward in time to distant epochs, allowing them to rebuild their civilization anew. Thus, Horus’ act of vengeance directly caused the mind flayers’ original arrival in his own past—initiating their invasion of his homeland and creating a self-sustaining temporal loop.

Consequences of the Paradox:

• Infinite Loop: Horus’ actions trapped both himself and the mind flayers in an endless cycle of vengeance and destruction. Each iteration sees Horus fleeing invasion, mastering chronomancy, annihilating illithids at time’s end—and thus causing their initial arrival once more.
• Temporal Echoes: Fragments of memory from each loop persist within Elder Brains and Horus himself, manifesting as prophetic visions or déjà vu.
• Instability: Continued repetition threatens reality itself; each loop slightly destabilizes timelines further.

Breaking the Cycle (Adventure Hook):

To truly defeat the mind flayers and free reality from this paradoxical prison, adventurers must aid Horus in confronting his own role in events. Possible resolutions include:

• Destroying or neutralizing The Chronosphere before its first activation. Persuading Horus to abandon vengeance entirely—breaking emotional chains fueling temporal repetition.

Thus is born “The Horus Paradox”—a tragic tale where one rabbitfolk wizard’s quest for justice inadvertently forged chains binding both hero and villain alike within eternity’s endless embrace.

This is apparently too much, so we get a TLDR:

• Comes from another timeline, come to prevent an extinction level event for his people. He is on a rescue mission to find their old chronomancy mentor and disrupt the High Master Illithid Sinned’s plans.
• He can’t remember how he is meant to stop this event or even the events leading up to it. But he has to do something he guesses. Also finds it difficult to return home and truly master his time magic as he mostly forgets alot of the sigils and mastery over it.
• Right now he has Vilgax as a friend and together each time Vilgax has been close to getting caught or a reboot is in process Horus takes them back in time to retain memories.

Horus is both confused and excited. Horus is sure that he can fix Jubilex! He just needs understanding!

Anyway, Horus is released from the mind trip, and returns to us.

Remember that door?

By now, The Captain has figured out the answer to that riddle - it’s Ceremorphosis. The door opens! Behind it is a Mind Flayer and six Ettin Ceremorphs holding the tentacles of a Mindwitness, using it as some sort of eye-cannon. Rusty tells the party telepathically to try to avoid damaging the Mindwitness and then telepathically introduces himself to the Mindwitness and tells it we will help it escape. This turns into a Persuasion contest between Rusty and the Mind Flayer, but Rusty has awesome persuasion skills and gets a 30. No contest.

The Captain and Rusty, being psychically invisible, get a surprise round. The Captain stabs Ettin Ceremorph #1, while Rusty Lightning Bolts the Mind Flayer.

Initiative! The Captain goes first with 30 (nat 20), then Ettin Ceremorph #1, Horus is next also with 30, then Raymond with 28, Dennis with 26, Louie with 20, Rusty with 19, Ettin Ceremorphs 2 & 6, the Mind Flayer, the rest of the Ettin Ceremorphs (3,4 & 5), and Gary and Vilgax come in last.

Round 1

The Captain has another go at Ettin Ceremorph #1 - he misses his first swing, but hits on the second for an impressive 46 damage. Then he hides.

Ettin Ceremorph #1 heals itself for 64 HP! Then it goes hunting for that fucking halfling, but can’t find it. Rusty is right there where the halfling disappeared though, so it attacks him instead - but misses all 3 attacks.

Horus cast a special chronomantic version of Slow, affecting all the bad guys. Unfortunately, everyone except Ettin Ceremorphs #1 and #6 make their saves and are unaffected. Then he casts Arcane Abeyance.

Raymond attacks Ettin Ceremorph #1 - miss, then hit.

Dennis attacks Ettin Ceremorph #1 and paralyzes him, then Ettin Ceremorph #4 and paralyzes him too.

Louie burns inspiration but eventually manages to hit Ettin Ceremorph #1 once. But as it is paralyzed, he easily does enough damage to kill it.

Rusty steps into the room and lightning bolts the Mind Flayer twice. Then Minion uses the spell storing item to cast Shatter, but the Mind Flayer counterspells him. Cheater.

Ettin Ceremorph #2 attacks Horus - miss, miss, hit.

Ettin Ceremorph #6 grabs the Mindwitness and aims it at Dennis. It shoots Dennis with a ray, but Dennis makes his save and is OK. Ettin Ceremorph #6 then tries to make his save vs Slow again, but fails.

The Mind Flayer attacks Dennis, The Captain, Rusty, Louie, Raymond and Horus all at once. Every single one of us made our save. Nothing. All of that was for nothing.

Ettin Ceremorph #4 is paralyzed and misses its turn.

Ettin Ceremorph #5 takes a swing at Rusty, and misses every time.

The Mindwitness uses an eye ray on the Mind Flayer, but the Mind Flayer saves.

Ettin Ceremorph #3 has a go at Horus, Louie and Raymond, but misses all of them.

Round 2

The Captain hits the paralyzed Ettin Ceremorph #6 and massacres it. Then he shoots the Mind Flayer for some pretty respectable damage.

Horus drops concentration on Slow and casts Summon Fey. He summons a Fuming Rocket Raccoon in a Sombrero. He hands it the Arcane Abeyance from last turn, which it activates, creating a shadow sword.

Raymond hits Ettin Ceremorph #3 twice.

Louie hits Ettin Ceremorph #3 twice.

Dennis kills the Mind Flayer and hits Ettin Ceremorph #4.

Rusty hits Ettin Ceremorph #3 and kills it.

Ettin Ceremorph #2, 4 & 5 show their true colours and flee like the little cowards they are, teleporting away.

Combat over!

Wit the Mindwitness introduces himself, and decides that Rusty is his new best friend forever.

Return to the beginning

We wander back the way we came, and as we pass through the gallery we notice Horus preening when he sees the statue of himself. Rusty thinks a souvenir is in order, and breaks a bit of the statue off, reshaping it into a smaller version of the same statue - which he then presents to Horus.

When we reach the lobby, Dennis hears a voice:

Well, well, well. Look who wandered back into our little nest. You abandon your best friend in his hour of need. You wrote the fall of Thaan, but you are living the fall of Dennis. How does it feel to be the protagonist in your own tragedy?

Dennis tells the voice to take its vague threats and shove them where the sun doesn’t shine (a small valley in the country of Lancre). Meanwhile, Rusty starts to realize that the architecture of Mt Makab is familiar - almost as if he designed it.

Stay tuned for next session…