Chapter 5: Prisoners of the Illithid
The group awakened in holding cells in a dark chamber illuminated by purple crystals. The walls and floors were made of a fleshy metallic material wholly alien to them. Each of them found themselves unable to tap into their supernatural abilities, and they were overwhelmed by a sense of calm and contentment. Any violent thought was met with anguish, and they felt as though their every thought was witnessed by some external entity. Among them was another adventurer: a human from Sydonia. He was the sole survivor from his adventuring party after a mind flayer attack in the tunnels. There were other slaves as well: a dark elf and a deep gnome (both variations of peoples they were familiar with). The elf's skin was pale and almost translucent, with white hair and piercing purple eyes. The gnome's skin was gray and ashen like the Duergar who attacked them. The gnome made them a breakfast from fully stocked larders, including grilled steaks from some unknown creature he described as "furry and loyal." The elf proved nearly catatonic, not saying a word and staring off into the void while waiting for his food. The gnome was friendly, but apathetic. In the kitchen was also a chest with their belongings, secured by a control panel of yellow viscous liquid. Kelthar attempted to open it, but was rejected and received a psychic "zap." The Changeling mentally prodded their psionic overseers, attempting to learn what he could about their methods (he sensed a definite presence pulling the strings).
After a time, two tall slender creatures (mind flayers) with bulbous heads and tentacled mouths floated into the holding cells and commanded them to follow. Any attempt to resist their commands was met with searing psychic pain, and after a time adjusting the group followed the mind flayers into the compound. They were led through a large dining room into a chamber with 3 strange metal pods with glass doors. Inside one of the chambers was Sigurd, the remaining northman traveling with them. Kelthar tried to open the pod, and succeeded at resisting the psionic compulsion. The mind flayers tried to punish Kelthar and a fight broke out between the group and the mind flayers, during which the Changeling trapped one of the mind flayers inside a pod (by forcing the illithid's hand into the control panel) and Kelthar landed a few blows against the other before they were swarmed by other mind flayers and subdued.
They awoke again in their cells, sometime the next morning. The gnome was cooking breakfast when they joined him and the dark elf in the kitchen. Kelthar again tried to open the chest, resisting the psychic compulsions trying to prevent him from doing so. He threw breakfast steaks at the control panel, which was unable to open the chest. In an attempt to overload the panel, the group and the two slaves linked hands in a "psychic chain" and Kelthar touched the steak stack on the control panel. The resulting surge of psionic energy blasted the gnome's mind and liquefied his brain, killing him instantly. The chest opened, and as they reached for their gear they felt the psychic commands of their captors. Just as they nearly broke free of them, they were subdued by a massive psionic surge and blacked out again. Before losing consciousness, they received mental images of a massive tentacled brain swimming in a pool of purple brine.
The next morning, they found the gnome's corpse packed into a shelf in the kitchen. The dark elf remained seated, waiting for his breakfast. After a brief discussion about eating the gnome's flesh, Kelthar and the Changeling cooked breakfast for the group before reporting to the door for their orders. This time, the group was broken up into two groups. Kelthar and the Changeling were taken to a brine pool where maw-toothed worms floated about. They were commanded to take a worm from the pool. Both attempted to resist and failed, and they were then taken to the chamber with the strange pods. There, the two other pods now contained a deep gnome and a lizardfolk. Kelthar and the Changeling were made to insert the worms into their eyes, failing to resist the command. The worms burrowed into their skulls, and the pods were filled with the same purple brine they saw in the worm pool. Meanwhile, Jawhara and the human were forced to fetch brains from the brine pool chamber and bring them to the dining room. Jawhara and the human both resisted, destroying the brains instead until the mind flayers were forced to fetch them themselves.
As the two mind flayers gathered in the dining hall to feast on the brains, the group gathered around them. After consuming the brains in a gruesome display, the entire compound was rocked by an explosive force and the sounds of battle from afar. The momentary distraction allowed the party to break free from the mind flayers' control, and they once again regained their supernatural abilities. The party errupted into violence against their captors. The Changeling unleashed spells of decay against them, rotting them from the inside while Jawhara attacked them with metal chairs and Kelthar pummeled them with fists of fury. The human (named Kane) proved to be a powerful cleric of the Sydonian god Ingwi, unleashing divine retribution against the illithid. The mind flayers recovered from the surprise attack, unleashing psychic blasts against the group and stunning several of them. They were soon joined by a pair of dark elves, one warrior and one mage. It seemed as though a band of dark elves were attacking the mind flayer compound. With their help, they slew the mind flayers but found themselves at odds with the dark elves themselves who sought to "cleanse" them. Though the dark elves used darkness and other magic against them, the party proved the better fighters and eventually slew the elves.
With a momentary respite now possible, the Changeling assumed the shape of the dark elf mage and they retreated to the holding cells to gather their equipment. They used a dark elf scimitar to slice the hand from a mind flayer and used it to open doors and the equipment chest. There, they found the dark elf slave curled in a ball weeping near the corpse of the gnome. They retrieved their equipment and gave the dark elf his sword and leather armor, somewhat restoring his senses enough to agree to follow them out. With their gear restored, they ventured back into the compound and visited the pod chamber first. There, they encountered a mind flayer guarding the pods but slew it quickly. They found Sigurd had begun turning into a mind flayer, his lips split and tentacles erupting from his mouth. the other two were likely also in the process of transforming. They deciphered a button on the pods to "purge" the occupants, which flooded the pods with acid that quickly dissolved them and flushed their remains into tubes attached to the pod.
The group opened a door using the mind flayer hand that led into a chamber where they surmised the tentacled brain resided. It attempted to psychically "reconnect" to them, and they decided to flee rather than challenge it. As they tried to leave, they encountered more dark elves who had slain mind flayers and their duergar guards. The changeling, with the help of the former dark elf slave, convinced them that the rest of the group were slaves to be brought back home. They were allowed to leave the compound without a fight, thanks to the Changeling's masterful skills of deceit and speech craft. On their way out, they spotted a specimen jar with a large elongated skull with a third eye socket in the forehead (which reminded the changeling of sketches of the massive statues of the Mardik in the mistlands). The front "door" had also been ripped apart by massive concussive force from outside. When the enemy dark elves had gone, their dark elf ally searched the dead warriors and found a piece of paper. As they left, they were each assaulted by headaches and visions of the brain in the brine pool as well as visions of their companions turning into mind flayers.
Once they had cleared the area, the Changeling cast a spell of understanding to speak to the dark elf, whose name was Dughlyn. They discovered much about the dark elves in speaking with Dughlyn, and learned that he was a lowly foot soldier from the lowest ranking noble house of his city (Anun). They convinced him he could not return home now that he was "spoiled" by the mind flayers, and he agreed to follow them to find the sword of Surtr. He showed them the paper he had found, revealing a crudely drawn map of the surface showing Arlenport and Hogasun, along with the date of midsomnar's eve written in giant and dark elf script. It seemed Birgir had already made allies of the dark elves.
They scouted ahead, finding their location on the map from the giant pit. They pressed on, following a path along underground "mountains" toward what he called the city of Nidavellir (an abandoned duergar stronghold lost to a curse ages past). They traveled south east and encountered a massive gorge covered in large spider webs forming a sort of bridge. Rather than risk the likely spider ambush awaiting them across the bridge, they devised a plan whereby Kelthar (who could sprout spectral dragon wings and fly for short periods of time) would consume a potion of frost giant strength they had found in the giant pit and carry the party tied on a rope across the gorge. The plan worked, and they crossed the gorge without encountering any spiders.
After a more restful sleep later that evening, the changeling used magic to peer into the minds of their companions, trying to discover any secret thoughts from the mind flayer brain. He discovered only that they had each seen a vision of a different member among them turning into a mind flayer. They took that to mean that either they were all infected with a mind flayer worm, or the brain was toying with them. He also learned that Dughlyn harbored murderous thoughts about them when not contemplating his existential crisis of faith. They continued on their journey towards Nidavellir, and soon encountered a group of sentient fungus creatures ("Myconids") that communicated telepathically through spores. They sought help clearing monsters out from a fungal forest nearby where they hoped to relocate after their last home became the den of a "great worm." The group agreed, and the fungal creatures promised to pay them with a spore that could give them "revitalization" if consumed.
After receiving psychic visions of the forest's location, they headed out and found it after an hour of travel. The changeling conjured an illusion of the myconids walking fearfully through the grove while the group followed safely behind. The illusion worked, drawing out large beaked creatures with massive hooked arms. They dispatched three of the beasts with ease before pressing forward deeper into the forest. The dark elf Dughlyn sought to prove himself against them, and prematurely declared the forest cleared of monsters before being impaled by one of the hook horrors' arms as 6 more of the beasts descended from the fungal trees...
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