Help making some interesting / weird encounters on Aucturn

[Generic Villain]

I'm not sure I'm posting in the right place, but it says advice, which I need, so here it goes.

I run an online campaign where the Night Heralds are the villains. For those who don't know, Night Heralds are a cult of fanatics intent on summoning alien horrors to Golarion. Your basic Lovecraftian lunatics. We're reaching the climax of the campaign, wherein the primary villain - a high-level sorcerer - has teleported to the planet Aucturn to perform a ritual that will cause Super Not Good Things to happen. The PCs have just found a one-way portal to Aucturn and are about to dive in and hunt him down. Simple enough.

I wrote out my penultimate adventure and was fine with it at first, but looking over it, I realize it's mostly just 2 combat encounters. My adventures tend to only last about 2 hours and I have to limit combat as a result, so this is normal. The problem is I am having serious trouble thinking of non-combat stuff for the PCs to do on Aucturn. Aucturn is a bizarre, alien nightmare world, and I really want to drive home just how insane the place is. This is where I'm stumped. I've read up on all the Aucturn-related material I could find such as the Distant Worlds Auctun section, but am still drawing a blank. Some combination of writer's block and a lack of creativity on my part.

So does anyone have any ideas? Specifically, ones that will inspire roleplaying. My campaign is very much a sci-fi/cosmic horror, and to emphasize I'm trying to drive home just how utterly alien the place is. I want the PCs to feel completely isolated in this hellish but very cool set piece, while also highlighting some of its many idiosyncrasies. I already have all the combat encounters in place so I can't add more of those.

The PCs are 14th-level right now, if that matters.

Thanks for any suggestions.

*Edit: To be more specific, I'm trying to think of anything cool. Roleplaying encounters with the natives, spooky/mindbending occurrences, hazards - basically anything that will make my players treat this place as more than just a hack-and-slash gauntlet.

[The Raven Black]

From what I read, in Starfinder, Aucturn is a nascent Outer God. Maybe that can help.

[Generic Villain]

The Raven Black wrote:

From what I read, in Starfinder, Aucturn is a nascent Outer God. Maybe that can help.

I like this one. I was thinking something along these lines, such as an avatar of the sleeping Aucturn rise up from the ground. Some high level aberration like a hundun. Have it speak it weird cryptic nonsense, garbled prophecy, etc. Or maybe the PCs find their path blocked by a herd of the mosquito things that feed on Aucturn's black blood. As they prepare for combat, suddenly a massive canyon opens up beneath the beasts swallowing them whole, then seals back up. Followed by a very satisfied belch.

[Castilliano]

Bringing the environment to life, yes, would be a good way to distinguish the place from other generic dangerous settings. There could be all sorts of non-combat threats, with physical ones of course, but there's also room for mental environmental struggles, which is pretty cool IMO. Add some of the less common Conditions too, or curses, diseases, confusion, etc.

If fiendish enough, pile on the penalty Conditions especially those which don't stack (most are status so won't) so that the party's penalties are broad and difficult to remove rather than profound and necessary to remove to feel any hope at all. This would require adjusting encounter difficulty a tad lower, but the players won't know that (well, unless they're reading this...).

GM: "The trees are whispering."
Player: "What are they saying?"
GM: "Who's listening?" (pause) "All of you make Will saves."

Enough of that and they'll fear interacting with anything and just want to get out of that place ASAP. And if the ground leaks pus, nobody's going to want to camp there, etc. And nightmares naturally, etc.

[Xenocrat]

Have them meet Carsai the King (possible avatary of Nyarlathotep) who wants something from them in return for help, or has to be convinced to let them proceed. For whatever reason he's not (necessarily) on the side of these particular bad guys.

[Generic Villain]

Castilliano wrote:

GM: "The trees are whispering."
Player: "What are they saying?"
GM: "Who's listening?" (pause) "All of you make Will saves."

Oh that's a good one. Especially since I remember reading about a forest there where the trees ain't all trees. Thanks! As for statuses, I already gave the PCs random magic items to protect them from Aucturn's poisonous atmosphere, but that place does screw with people in multiple other ways. They're already going insane (part of my campaign involved all PCs to be affected by mind quakes early on), but iirc, Aucturn also physically mutates people. Would be fun to have a character spontaneously turn into a gibbering mouther for a few hours, with no indication I'd turn them back.

Xenocrat wrote:

Have them meet Carsai the King (possible avatary of Nyarlathotep) who wants something from them in return for help, or has to be convinced to let them proceed. For whatever reason he's not (necessarily) on the side of these particular bad guys.

The funny thing is, Carsai would absolutely be opposed to my villains. The Dominion of the Black (the Night Herald's fascination/fetish) is basically at war with Nyarlathotep. My PCs would 100% try to recruit Carsai, heh.

Hmm, actually that would be a great "deal with the devil" scenario. Have Carsai offer some boon, but at a terrible price.

[The Raven Black]

Maybe Carsai needs a mind to give / feed to the abominable foetus so that it can experience / understand things from outside and grow / adapt accordingly.