Island of Time • Odyssey of the Dragonlords

Large Island

This island appears unremarkable until the heroes sail within a mile of the shore. Read the following:

Your ship approaches another island. Its shoreline is obscured by a strange shimmering in the air. As you sail closer, you feel the ocean currents strengthening below the keel, pulling your vessel into a powerful wind that propels you to an impossible speed. In a matter of moments, the ship sails three times around the island. The sun falls toward the horizon and rapidly sets. The sky soon darkens. As the stars circle above your head, you are overcome with waves of crippling nausea.

On the last journey around the island, each hero must make three DC 15 Constitution saving throws or else they fall Unconscious for one minute. Whether the heroes are conscious or not, the ship abruptly slows and floats into a tranquil bay.

An ancient crumbling dock made from obsidian juts out into the water of the bay. The sky above is filled with more stars than the heroes have ever seen before; heroes with a passive Perception score of 15 or higher will notice that stars occasionally wink out of existence or abruptly transform into bright clouds of light.

It is always night on the Island of Time. The inhabitants of the island are enigmatic sphinxes. The motivations of these entities is hidden, but they are known to possess great knowledge—it’s possible that they know more than any other beings in the world. They also guard strange artifacts on the island.

Almost all the land is covered in dozens of ruins, consisting of strange buildings made from obsidian, adamantine, and various unknown minerals. The buildings look nothing like those built by human hands: some are shaped like pyramids, while others are obelisks with strange runes and symbols inscribed on every surface. Who or what constructed this place is unknown to anyone—even the gods know nothing of it.

Exploring the Island#

Because of the strange nature of time on this island, it is difficult to explore it in a logical fashion, the way the party might explore a dungeon. Instead, the party experiences the island as a series of montages, losing track of time and space while traveling between each area.

Event: Riddles and Tests#

When the heroes make landfall, they are greeted by a

Sphinx of Lore. She appears next to the party suddenly, but it seems as if she’s always been there. It’s possible that she’s been waiting for the party since the dawn of time.

A creature with a woman’s face, a feline body, and great feathered wings appears next to you. “I bear your kind no ill will, and I hope you find the knowledge and treasures you seek here,” she says to you in a calm and assuring voice. It’s almost like she’s continuing a conversation that you forgot you were part of, answering a question you forgot you asked. “But know this: He is coming. If He finds you, He will devour your flesh, your soul, and your very history. Nothing shall remain. Three roars announce His arrival. Three, and no more. This is the time that He has allotted you. Use it wisely.” When you look again, the sphinx has vanished. Perhaps she was never there at all.

She refers to a Sphinx of Valor, the lord of the island. The roars are his way of forcing the heroes to choose only two locations to explore out of the three available. If the party explores all three locations, they will summon the wrath of the sphinx of valor.

Exploring the Island. The heroes find that they ‘remember’ three locations on the island that can be explored. They must choose from the following: The Stone Table, The Overlook, and The Pit of Stars.

The Sphinx of Valor’s Roar. After exploring each location, the heroes hear the Sphinx of Valor’s roar echo across the island. The third time he roars, he appears in front of the party and attacks. When that happens, refer to the Confronting the Sphinx of Valor section for details.

Island of Time Locations#

The Stone Table#

At the highest point of this strange island, you come upon a bizarre dinner party. A massive stone table with a dozen matching chairs stands out in the open. An ogre-sized man sits at the head of the table, fast asleep. His four human-sized guests are much too small for the chairs that they sit in. The humanoids are also asleep. They are almost completely hidden by their hair, which has grown extremely long and unkempt.

The ogre-sized man is dressed in fine weapons and armor. The table is perfectly proportioned for him. None of the sleepers can be awakened by the heroes alone. Refer to Riddles of the Sphinx of Valor for details.

The Overlook#

You come to the north shore of the island, an area covered in strange green metal. The metal extends into an outcropping that forms a platform over a steep cliff. On the far edge of the platform is a large telescope.

This overlook stands at the top of a 1,000 ft. cliff with jagged rocks below it. The telescope is 20 ft. long, and it is fashioned from bronze. Anyone who looks into it sees the distant city of Mytros. The first time someone looks through this telescope, they see Mytros in the present day.

Looking through the telescope, you see the great city of Mytros. The bronze colossus of Pythor stands watch over the bay, which is bustling with merchant ships. Marble and bronze buildings line the city’s many busy streets, in the shadow of Mount Volkan.

If the viewer looks away, or someone else looks into the telescope, the image of Mytros changes:

The second viewing shows Mytros a century into the

future. The city looks similar, but the walls and buildings are richer and on a grander scale. Statues of the heroes stand in many plazas. The third viewing show Mytros a thousand years into

the future. The city is under siege by a vast fleet of vessels from the outer world beyond Thylea. Anyone from outside Thylea will recognize some of the flags, but some of the details seem wrong. The fourth viewing shows Mytros 10,000 years into the

future. The city lies in ruins. Strange, ogre-sized humanoids work in the dust, digging up artifacts from the ruins. The artifacts are corroded shards of the statues of the heroes, unrecognizable with age. The fifth viewing shows something indescribable and

alien, 100,000 years into the future. The viewer gains one indefinite mental stress. A sixth viewing shows nothing. The telescope has gone

completely dark and never functions again.

The Pit of Stars#

You come to the edge of a vast pit that engulfs the center of the island. Beyond the edge of the pit, you can see a black void full of bright stars. A narrow stone stairway winds its way down along the edge of the pit, leading to a door-sized opening in the rock.

Looking into the void for more than one round requires a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw or else the viewer will gain

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a short-term mental stress. Anyone who falls or jumps into the pit is apparently lost in the void forever. Heroes lost in this way will return to the party during the battle with the sphinx of valor who rules the island.

The narrow stone stairway leads down to the lair of a

Hierocosphinx (appendix B). The hierocosphinx guards a sealed circular door made from adamantine. Beyond that door lies a treasure vault. The sphinx smiles when the heroes arrive and asks if they have come for a taste of the treasures of the ages. Regardless of the party’s answer, the sphinx attacks and fights to the death.

When the sphinx is slain, its body rots away rapidly and then disintegrates into dust. You hear a whisper on the wind. “We shall meet again, in time …”

The adamantine vault door opens easily, revealing the treasure at the center of the island. The treasure seems to materialize into existence as soon as the vault door is opened—almost as if reacting to the party’s needs.

Treasure. The vault contains a Quiver of Ehlonna. Within the quiver are twenty Arrows of Slaying (Celestials). These arrows are very effective against the Titans— Sydon, Lutheria, and their children.

Confronting the Sphinx of Valor#

When the sphinx of valor roars for the third time, he suddenly appears in front of the party, ready for battle. The Sphinx of Valor uses all of his powers to defeat the party. The sphinx of valor will begin the battle by casting a warped version of the spell Banishment that targets every hero. Each hero must make a Charisma saving throw against the sphinx of valor’s spell save DC. On a failure they are transported to an alien realm (see below). The sphinx attacks any heroes that remain.

Alien Realm. Read the following to the heroes who are transported to the alien realm:

You find yourselves transported to an alien world. Overhead, the sky is black and starless. The ground is a mosaic of your own horrified faces. It looks as if you were all buried in the earth, your heads thrown back, your faces locked together in a grotesque pattern. An obsidian moon hangs low in the sky, and blood drips from its craters, splashing to the ground where disembodied faces lap at it greedily. The blood pools at your feet and begins to take hideous form—gigantic floating brains, which snap their cruel, bird-like beaks, reaching toward you with hideous tentacles.

These creatures are Gricks. There is one for each hero, and they fight to the death. After three rounds of combat in this horrific landscape, the sphinx summons the party back to the Island of Time. Any hero who disappeared into the Pit

of Stars will reappear at this point, but they return with one random Indefinite Mental Stress. Now, the sphinx attacks the party directly, without holding back.

Riddles of the Sphinx#

If the heroes are defeated by the sphinx, they have one more chance to survive. The sphinx of valor asks the party a series of riddles. Each correctly-answered riddle means that at least one hero is spared. You may choose to spare more than one hero for each correct answer. The sphinx devours any hero who refuses to answer.

The Stone Table#

Riddle Me This … These riddles are examples. Use any riddle that you like. Riddle: The first part of Nestor, The last part of Orion, The first part of nothing, And the final part of man. Answer: The letter ‘N’. Riddle: I never was, am always to be, No one ever saw me, nor ever will; And yet I am the confidence of all, To live and breathe upon midnight’s call. Answer: : Tomorrow. Riddle: What can you catch but not throw? Answer: Sickness or disease. Riddle: We are not flesh, feather, scales nor bone; Yet we still have fingers and thumbs of our own. Answer: Gloves.

The scene at The Stone Table is slightly altered from before: any hero who has disappeared or been devoured on the island is asleep in one of the oversized chairs, and their hair has grown ridiculously long.

Waking the Sleepers. Anyone asleep at the table, with the exception of the armored ogre, can be awakened by shaking them. The sleepers—including any “eaten” heroes—now have a random long-term mental stress. They cannot remember their names or how they got to the table. They babble about being trapped on the island for an eternity, watching as the cycle of the multiverse repeated before their eyes, over and over again.

The Heroes’ Feast. The table is covered by a Heroes’ Feast. Anyone who eats this feast gains its benefits for an entire week rather than 24 hours. They also immediately fall asleep. The sphinx of valor will wait until everyone has eaten. If anyone does not, he will breathe on them and cause them to fall asleep anyway. When the heroes awaken, they are back on their ship in the middle of the ocean. The Island of Time disappears forever.