Does anything ever go well?

Returning to the tower, they found it empty. Kuppies attempted to contact Snarla telepathically and failed....that had never happened before. His second effort, to contact Marovic was successful and the heroes were urged to return to Rel Astra(I had to look the name up).

Arriving there moments later, the city is almost completely abandoned. I flubbed a bit here as I wasn't fully prepared to fill everyone in on what was going on.

With the heroes missing for over 3 months(yes, almost 3 months in Illithid service), the war had taken a turn for the worse. No one was surprised. The enemy had regrouped and managed to open some sort of portal that was allowing them to bring in massive numbers of creatures to fight for them.

Snarla was severely injured in a recent battle, hence Kuppies inability to contact her. She wasn't the only one. Michael, Rard's second in command and best friend, was dead. Richard had been injured, but continued to lead the army of light.

The war is nearing a critical point on Idera with the final battle just around the corner. Hopefully the arrival of the Saviors of the Citadel will inspire the forces of good to triumph over their enemies.