Crimson Sands of Time

During the dream, Ethan tosses and turns in his sleep as Randy and all of his friends briefly appear in his vision before they fade into the abyss. Other than having deja vu with the valley of some sort. When he wakes up, the first thing he does is to check to see if his brother is still breathing fine, which he still is, though he also notices him stirring in his sleep. As he breathes a sigh of relief though, thoughts began to swirl in his head as he tries to pinpoint what or where this stupid location is. Maybe if the others wake up and had the same dream as him he might be able to discuss it with them. But he feels like it is close to the Chult Jungle, the place where he and his entire team are currently staying. And if so...

Nature (DA): 18

Randy in his sleep mutters some incomprehensible words as he breathes intensely. Whatever this strange illusion is inside his head is about to mess with his psyche if he doesn't fight it. So he does in his sleep, whilst unknowingly causing a ruckus irl. But as he does so, he tries to grasp on why it's being directed to him. 

(Both History and Religion are +3 so with DA): 11 

well for what it’s worth Tetrevess gets a natural 20 (31) on Arcana.  None of the places or imagery is clear to him.

When he awakes and realizes the others had the same vision, he speaks.  the success over the dragon has made him talkative.  

”Troubling dream.   Did not seem like very Red Mage-y.   some other thing?   A vision from the gods?   Not sure.  if any of you know more.. it might be helpful.   As I mentioned Im not from here, originally.  Another world.  Also way in the past, I think.   I’m not actually sure how the years here line up to those in Oerth.   I’ve been around a bit.    Did I ever mention I once had a handy haversack made by Heward himself?  Destroyed it with a planar rift.  Don’t think it was under warranty either.  Pretty new by my timeline, but I ignored the user manual.   Spent some time trapped in the astral plane.  Even weirder things than this dream.   anyhow… if you recognize anything- ill make note of it.  Might be important.   That floating castle looked pretty nice.   Did Sam tell you we have a floating city? Well- im not sure if the inhabitants know it is ours… ahh back to the dream.  sorry... “

  He pulls out a book with some blank pages, and starts sketching out some notes of what he saw, and rough pictures, with his magical floating quill.   

Sam, a cleric of the world serpent, believes the dragon was a greater deity of the draconic pantheon.  The stories of the great primordial dragon gods are mamny and varied, being older than even the lost empire of the giants, with whom dragonkind battled for dominance of Abeir-Toril before the sundering.

Edit: "primordial" was a figure of speech, I meant it in the common language sense, not the specific creature type.

Ethan considers the unnatural scene and considers the unusual sandy surface of the ground, given the volcanic rock and indeed the caldera, iitself.  If these were all in one place, iit would be most likely an ancient seabed, but the supernatural elements at play may lead to unnatural pairings. Most likely, though, there is some sort of mountainous region beside a desert, if the vision is meant to literally depicting an actual place, at all.   

<this is more players do the thing than PCs do the thing.  Answers are there to be found, so go find them with the pillars: roleplay and exploration>

Oli only has superstitions to guide him with this dream and says, "A floating skull usually means death is following and will soon claim someone, doesn't it? And having just defeated an undead dragon, I hope that satisfies that omen. I have no idea what the brass harp was about or why the dragon burst into purple dust or what that means."

Quote from Tesservett >>

well for what it’s worth Tetrevess gets a natural 20 (31) on Arcana.  None of the places or imagery is clear to him.

When he awakes and realizes the others had the same vision, he speaks.  the success over the dragon has made him talkative.  

”Troubling dream.   Did not seem like very Red Mage-y.   some other thing?   A vision from the gods?   Not sure.  if any of you know more.. it might be helpful.   As I mentioned Im not from here, originally.  Another world.  Also way in the past, I think.   I’m not actually sure how the years here line up to those in Oerth.   I’ve been around a bit.    Did I ever mention I once had a handy haversack made by Heward himself?  Destroyed it with a planar rift.  Don’t think it was under warranty either.  Pretty new by my timeline, but I ignored the user manual.   Spent some time trapped in the astral plane.  Even weirder things than this dream.   anyhow… if you recognize anything- ill make note of it.  Might be important.   That floating castle looked pretty nice.   Did Sam tell you we have a floating city? Well- im not sure if the inhabitants know it is ours… ahh back to the dream.  sorry... “

  He pulls out a book with some blank pages, and starts sketching out some notes of what he saw, and rough pictures, with his magical floating quill.   

"So everyone had the same dream I suppose." Ethan softly speaks with uncertainty, though his low-pitched voice almost sounds like he's about to hunt someone down. "I mean yeah, me and Randy also come from a different world like you. Except, this world seems almost identical to ours with the jungles complete with hostile plants plus a village within its depths. But... the other place, where the elevated crust meets the desert, or the beach I'm not sure, but the second biome had sand. I mean I know for sure that it's not the place where the other hags stay. But... don't you think this is unusual? There's one landscape covered in rocky material made out of metamorphic and igneous layers, but then directly next to it is the coarse sand that's... well... do you guys believe it's an actual place? Like a desert and mountain/volcanic range directly next to each other? I've never dreamt of anything like this before, let alone witness those two merge together in close proximity."

In response to what Oli said: "Usually a floating skull will be possessed with some sort of spirit yes, and it will keep on reigniting unless if it's destroyed. As for the undead dragon we fought earlier, I'm not so sure about that part since neither of us nor my other teammates have experienced this before; In fact, I have a feeling that we may not have eliminated his actual form and he might re-emerge from somewhere else. At least, that's what I think, from my last undead battle since this one."

<Its not a riddle or a puzzle, its a trailer.  All of that is FR canon, afaik (some things are ambiguous, but readily ignored). Phase 3, Stop (Kill?) Szazz Tam from unleashing the influence of the far realm and preventing the destruction of Realmspace.  Phase 2: Draw out Szazz Tam.>

Some broad options:

Try to follow the signs of the vision and locate the caldera - asking around could yield results.

Ignore it and stay on task - approach Thaymount and attempt to either locate Morwena again or find a weakness to exploit Szazz Tam, possibly by turning his power against him?)

Stealth, subtrefuge or smah.  Its very hard to imagine overhwelming the entire undead armies of Thay by brute force, but a single lone patrol or guard in a dark alley - that could happen.  Disguises are within reach and at this level, simply sneaking past most threats would work well.

Thoughts?  

All of a sudden, Randy jumps out of his bed(?) with a start as he yells: "THE THING CALLED CALDERA! THAT'S RIGHT! THAT'S WHAT WE NEED TO LOOK FOR NEXT IN ORDER... TO... uh..." He glances around as everyone gives him a plethora of awkward looks after yelling out his mind. "Oh hey. You guys are up early. So uh... what next?"

Sam looks at everyone with his one good eye, and mutters “right since we all had the same dream the dragon is what I believe is an old droconic deity that was around before the dragons civil war and their war with the giants” Sam looks for the lizardfolk shamim and chieftain (if their here) “it’s no longer safe here you need to find safe passage to the jungles of Chult or at least get out of Thay it’s self” 

This is an actual spoiler, but if you don't know where to go (and you really dont) it might be useful, otherwise, search fir someone who would know.

Quote from Legion4 >>

Sam looks at everyone with his one good eye, and mutters “right since we all had the same dream the dragon is what I believe is an old droconic deity that was around before the dragons civil war and their war with the giants” Sam looks for the lizardfolk shamim and chieftain (if their here) “it’s no longer safe here you need to find safe passage to the jungles of Chult or at least get out of Thay it’s self” 

Ethan's eyes widened as Sam mentions the safe passage to the Chult jungle; The passage to the place where he and Randy currently reside in. He never thought that it would lead him back to a place where its name strikes him clear in the face, though as he looks towards Randy who woke up with a start, he bgean to reconsider what he thought. Then again, this is not the Thay that he genuinely knows. If it was, then he would have known his bearings by now. "The Chult Jungle? Me and Randy both live there. Or at least, it's where we reside in our world that's similar to this one." He doesn't say anything else since he knows that the others don't know much about where he and brother lives because they wouldn't know either.

He turns to the two prisoners that the group freed a while ago. "Um pardon to interrupt but... did you happen to have a weird dream where some deserty or sandy place meets the mountains? If it is an actual place, how do we get to that place? And how would it most likely prevent the future disasters that we're currently facing, if it can? What's so special about that place?"

Quote from Legion4 >>

Sam looks at everyone with his one good eye, and mutters “right since we all had the same dream the dragon is what I believe is an old droconic deity that was around before the dragons civil war and their war with the giants” Sam looks for the lizardfolk shamim and chieftain (if their here) “it’s no longer safe here you need to find safe passage to the jungles of Chult or at least get out of Thay it’s self” 

"I mean yeah you're right we do need to get out of this awful town before we get caught up in another useless spiral of chaos. Though the jungle you mentioned rings a bell for me." Randy agrees as he hops off his bed to stretch. "But honestly, with Ethan asking what the heck that weird place is, I'd honestly suggest we turn heads . But looking at his tired eyes, he must have been through a lot even before we travelled here."  He does express concern for his simic brother and he glances over despite not being able to read emotions properly. "That aside, I'd say we check if that place even is real and if it could gain us an advantage to whatever you guys are dealing with; I'm pretty flexible, so whichever direction the group wants to head into, I can adapt to whatever works out for me. Though... I hope that Red Wizard guy can also be snapped out of... stone form soon."

“Lets ask around, the lizardfolk might know something.  i have a pretty good description of the place.  And maybe they know someone who could help Chadderly.   We could track down his Aunt I suppose..”. Tetrevess says

"Then it's settled! We're gonna ask those lizard guys about what they know! Gather some intel before we set off I say!" Randy agrees as he lock and loads with energy before he readily equips his gear. "Alright Ethan you can stop trying to press for info we don't have access to, not that I'm dismissing your efforts, but we've got a clear point to start off at least!"

I'm going to say, as a gestalt. The group could put their heads together and figure a place where mountains improbably meet a desert coukd be because there wasn't supposed to be a desert there.  You saw the Phaerimm - (technically, you kind of own it,) that's what turned the once lush lands of lower Netheril into a desert.  Between access to museums libraries and a Netherese lich's lair, I imagine you might venture a guess that this is the desert your looking for.  From there, I'm sure you coukd figure it might have somwthing to the with a site called the Well of Dragons.  

<I'm not telling you to go there, this is a sandbox point, but you coukd certainly get to it.>

"What? I haven't even- ok fine! We'll try and find it of course..." Ethan groans and gives up arguing with the group as soon as he saw the odds were against his favour. "I suggest we at least look for the desert place first. I feel like that's the closest place I could think of but, you guys determine where we should head to first."

<sorry been a bit busy lately.>

Sam will start to move to the lizardfolk village with I assume the rest of the group following looking for allies on the way 

The young gunner also moves along with the group to the lizardfolk village; Whoever decides to lead the way, he will follow second in line whilst he vibes by himself.

Ethan begrudgingly heads to the vilalge too, though he isn't happy with the current situation they're getting themselves into. Position-wise, if no one else is keen on taking the lead, Ethan will do so.