The Flayed Man and The Flayed Mind by Kalshana | World Anvil

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14th Eyre, 998 YK

The Flayed Man and The Flayed Mind

by Kalshana

Just when I think I understand this Light-forsaken continent, it throws this at me.
 
We got through the sewers quickly and were reunited just as quickly with Daine and Llyr. Daine was extraordinarily angry, fuming at the situation, at Lei being missing, at Terel being a hidden enemy, at everything I think and I do not think I can blame him one bit for that. With time being of the essence, the group splits - Pierce and Daine take Llyr out of this mess and we descend further into the facility to find Lei being strapped to a table by Terel.
 
Terfel sneaks across but he is soon discovered. He tries to act far more diplomatically than perhaps I had expected. It started bizarrely genteel at the start, a theoretical debate on the nature of reality until Terel besmirches the name of the Gatekeepers as being idiots and the like and Warden did not appreciate that one little bit. He came out to add his thoughts on Xoriat and the Daelkyr and all those tangental concepts that seem a little far away from this laboratory in sewers of a city. I suppose it is difficult to side with Terel. Even when change is not necessarily a bad thing - certainly the quori who became my people fundamentally changed those humans, the argument is slightly hampered by murdering people for their dragonmarks. Whatever good that could have came from the changes does not justify murder of innocent lives. The debate rages on for a bit, neither side relenting in their certainity of being correct. It was inevitable that a fight would break out.
 
Teral transforms from relatively ordinarily looking human into a walking wound, something warped in raw, skinless flesh and sinew, a tentacle crawling from where his arm used to be and a long, poisonous tongue that had more than gossip and insults to dish out.
 
It goes partially as expected until his 'lord' appears. A creature appears. He appears. I have flashbacks to being in that place with Dah'mir, the crystal, the dolgrims and dolgaunts, everything. His calm, clear voice mentions he was not expecting guests. Pain seared through me, my ears ringing with noise I could barely comprehend with flashes of Medalashana, green eyes and these other daelkyr abominations flooded my consciousness. I could feel myself be faint, the world lurching sideways and static filling my ears. Everyone looked worse for wear - this was not going well.
 
Wehn the pain subsided, all I could do was cast a spell I had only started to really grasp recently and cast some psionic magic of my own. It seemed to work as the mindflayer started to flee and Dax ended him with a shot to the head. Terel was quickly dispatched but parts of him seemed to remain alive as his skin, tentacle and tongue seemed to have a life of their own. Fortunately, these could hardly put up a fight.
 
Hugal fell down the stairs, very much dead. The reason for his sudden deathly appearance was made clear as Daine follows, freely Lei who had been drugged. I am not sure what manner of concotion she was given but we have barely explored this facility. I am not sure how familiar mindflayers are with money and infrastructure but I somehow doubt that they had paid for construction of this place. It makes me wonder who did, and why. Did they also want to create such abominations? I suppose any works that were legitimate in nature could be put elsewhere. Perhaps that is naive given the stratification of Sharn. Still, couldn't they find somewhere before this than a sewer?
 
We are resting before investigating further. Who knows what other abominations are left in the facility. However, I have thought of something. Olalia seemed upset that Terel was dead - even if we was rather horrible to her, he was her only window to the world. I tried to comfort her the best I could and let her know I would take her to Overlook, if she wanted. At least if she is among the kalashtar, everyone can speak to her and understand her and the conditions alone would be a world away from Highwalls. It's not luxury but its comfortable and I am sure she would be able to find some work and lodgings this way. A better life than this, a happy ending for someone for once.

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.009 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 03:24, Apr 26 2024