30 Nightal, 1372

Dear Master Zorthaster,

We've saved the people of Clusterspace from a terrible fate and have been treated like traitors and exiled for it. Some thanks. We have recovered the Sunslayer though and look now to catch a ride out of here on the Spelljammer. If we can find it in time.

The Antillan spy I told you about in my last letter took us through a portal to his command ship after he gave us all masks to wear. We swept into the heart of the Antillan Empire in the disguise of the Emperor (Shane), his consort (the spy) and their retinue. Shane and the spy quickly and smoothly got us through the midst of an elegant ball and into the Emperor's war room. Shane called his generals to attend him and gave a brief summary of the Mercane plot. He was able to use a very powerful scrying device in the wardroom to show all the assembled Antillans the Mercane ambassador and his superiors making their final plans in what they thought was a secret meeting. In moments, orders went out across the empire to capture or kill all of the tall, blue space travelers in the sphere.

It took a little more work to convince the generals that we needed to stabilize the sun immediately. The generals gave orders to move the nine crystal citadels stationed around Firefall, the sun, and stop the process of brightening the fire body The first reports started to come in and we despaired, for the huge crystal fortress ships would not move. It was only after The Mercane started to be killed or captured that the Antillans were able to gain control of their ships. It was a bloody time in Clusterspace.

During the busy hour or two we spent with the Antillan High Command, we received a report that an Illithid Ajudicant ship had been discovered near Firefall. It appeared to be derelict, but no troops could be spared to investigate. We tried to scry on the ship but could not penetrate the hull. Shane and the spy suggested that we call in an elite strike team to take the ship. We all retreated to the Emperor's private conference room, removed our masks, and emerged as the strike force. The spy stayed behind.

Taking the Emperor's own skiff, we raced to the Illithid ship, for we were certain that Illithids from this ship had the Sunslayer and were even now bent on putting out Firefall.

We arrived to find the ship empty. An active gate gave us a clue to the location of the missing mindflayers. Preparing ourselves as best we could to survive the rigors of the surface of the sun, we leapt through the gate. We found ourselves in an elaborately decorated shrine to the Illithid god Illsensie. A statue of the evil god, draped over a planet, covering it with his vile tentacles, dominated one corridor. The bas-relief carvings on the walls turned out to be both a trap for anyone who was not a squidhead and activation devices for other gates. It is fortunate that Xan has his ring of nine lives. He used one after he investigated a carving a little too closely. The tentacles in the carving animated and probed his head. Finding a skull not of its liking, it sent a piercing tentacle through this head and sucked out his brain. It was a horrible, terrifying thing to see. Only Shane was able to react fast enough to even try to help. The lightning fast halfling destroyed two piercing tentacles before they struck, but a third got through. After the ranger fell and the ring restored him to life, he was able to roll out of range of the frightful tentacles.

As terrible as it was to watch, the encounter gave us a clue as to how to proceed. Another clue was found on the statue of Illsensie covering the world. It had a set of grooves and holes that could only be reached by an Illithid laying its face on the statue and probing inside with an extractor tentacle. I shapechanged into an Illithid, placed my malformed face into position, and activated the gate back to the ship. I then returned to one of the wall carvings and suffered myself to be investigated by the slime covered appendages from the carving. After satisfying itself that I was the right species, a gate in the corner activated. The gate led us to a prison outbuilding where we found a high-strung little kobold named Blik. He was obviously crazed, smashing himself time and again into the wall of force which enclosed his cell. Illithid controls to the cell were found inside holes in the wall. Similar controls were found to activate the gate which brought us back to Illsensie's shrine.

There were four gates to other places in the complex. One led to the roof, one to a place where two Illithids were using a crystal ball. The last brought us to a room with several armored Illithid warriors, a troll-Illithid, and a tall, robed figure, the mind flayer acting as Illsensie's avatar in Clusterspace, an Illithid containing a shard of the god of the Illithids himself.

The battle began instantly and it was clear that this was going to be the most challenging fight we had ever had. The avatar was nearly impossible to hit, even for Xan, Oskar and Shane. It and the others also had strong spell resistances and the ability to shrug off nearly every spell I could throw at them. I did succeed in a few bits of Art that seemed to help in the battle though. It was a near thing. The avatar almost got a grip on Oskar's head and would have feasted on his brain if the dwarf had not slipped free. Mind blasts from warrior illithids stunned the little kobold Blik but he survived the ordeal. Primula, even though she is terribly afraid of Illithids, held her ground and did much to aid our warriors in the fight.

The Sunslayer had been placed on the surface of the sun before we had arrived. It appeared to be charged and ready to activate. We discovered, after a quick reconnoiter, that the two Illithids in the scrying area were dead and that the crystal scrying device gave us a distant view of Firefall. A sufficient view to let us know what the relative intensity of the firebody was. Because we were speachlinked with eachother, I could direct the others to activate the Sunslayer and gave them a signal to turn it off again when the intensity had diminished by about 30%. This amount was my recollection of the reported increase since we had arrived, bassed on what Brother Cole had measured. As it turned out, either his figures were wrong or my memory was faulty for after we returned to Cole and the Thoric, we learned that the sun was now 10% less bright than they remembered it from before the Mercane plot began.

We unfastened the artifact from the sun's surface when the device was turned off. Using a wish spell, we took ourselves and the Sunslayer back to the hold of our little ship still with the Thoric. As soon as the Thoric realized that the sun was darker and that the power of the Antillan Empire would thus be diminished, they were very pleased. They invited us to celebrate this auspicious change with them. We also noted with satisfaction that the new clerics of Aoskar were beginning to actively work at spreading His faith. The celebration and our successes made the events that followed more confusing and troubling by contrast. I don't understand how it happened, but I have lost any feeling of victory.

I felt it would be poor service to our friends the Thoric to leave them unaware of the Antillan spy that had lived in their midst. When I told the King, he was surprised at the identity of the agent but not at the presence of a Sun Mage spy. He ordered the man brought before him for judgment. I was shocked that the spy, knowing his identity had been discovered, had returned to the Thoric village. I was so surprised that I began to doubt that the man was truly an Antillan and not a Thoric who had been spell possessed. I called Xan and Shane to assist and consult. At first they too thought that there had been a mistake in his identity. This proved not to be the case and it appeared to all our investigations that the spy really had returned to his post as if nothing had happened. The king ordered the man's execution immediately. The king then dispatched troops to the spy's home to investigate.

We were back on our ship, preparing to get some badly needed rest when a mob of villagers descended on us, calling us traitors. The ruler of the Thoric threw down bags of gems and letters taken from the spy's lair. He shouted at us, called us enemies of the Thoric and banished us from their realm. He declared that the letters contained thanks from the Antillan Empire for services rendered. The bags of jewels were tokens of the Empire's appreciation. Torches were thrown at our ship as we hastily departed. We are all exhausted and confused. I feel hurt and empty. At every step here in Clusterspace we tried to do right by the Thoric and yet they have called us traitors and have banished us. How could they treat us so unfairly? Tomorrow, after some rest I mean to do a sending to the king to protest our innocence. I suspect it will do us little good though. They have sent us away as enemies, snatching the sweet taste of victory from my mouth and leaving cold ash in its place. Once again we are alone.

Sincerely,

Cedar