Nautiloid Ruins

The Nautiloid is falling apart and rotting, its outer walls covered in dense foliage. However, structures and scaffolding have been built around it as Archeologists have begun escavation of the site to further study the construction.

Architecture

The Nautiloid has only two accesible entrances, one on the side of the building that is sealed off, and a hole in the Nautiloid's shell where the suspected captain's quarters are located. The walls appear to be made of an odd, solid but elastic substance (totally-not-plastic), purple in color, and sinewy in texture. However, these walls have begun to rot and tear, revealing holes and breaks in them like "butter scraped over too much bread". The halls are circular in shape, and the rooms are near equally rounded. However, there is a large hole in one of the chambers, where a study is located. This contains a singular piece of crystal with Qualith written on it detailing the building's purpose. The other chambers are yet to be entered.

In the Other Chambers

There are 10 chambers in total, 9 of them are inaccesible unless you tear open one of the sealed doors. The other chambers are primarily made up of Illithid living quarters, an elder brain room, a brain library, and a resting pool. The Illithid living quarters are completely empty, as well as the brain library. The elder brain room, however, is filled with many dead things. The around the area are a bunch of long dead Mindflayers, and in the spot where the Elder Brain would go, the Elder Brain is gone and the glass has a hole broken in it. In the hole is a Silver Great sword of a Githyanki Knight. Within the glass, there is another door that has been torn open from the decay. This leads to the resting pool. The resting pool is completely dried up, however it is surrounded by stone containers that when identified with a DC 17 (10 if you have the Archeologist background) Investigation check, is revealed to be a funerary urn of the Illithid, made to contain the brain of the deceased Illithid to be fed to the Elder Brain. However, in the dried up pool, there is something. It appears to be the body of some kind of humanoid, that is until further inspection. The creature resembles a mind flayer, where the head has been removed and all there is are the tentacles, it uses the Ghast stat block and has the ability to summon Shadows of the same number as there are humanoids in the room, with exception of the creature. The brain library is empty except for a piece of crystal on the desk. However, this crystal activates a self destruct sequence when touched by anything that isn't an Illithid, unless dispelled with the Remove Curse spell. A successful DC 18 Investigation check will reveal this, and a DC 20 Investigation or Arcana check will reveal the crystal has the spell Create Spelljamming Helm on it. When the curse is removed, the crystal works as a spell scroll.

Valuables

The elder brain chamber has a Githyanki Silver Greatsword which can be removed from the glass easily. The resting pool chamber has 10 Illithid Brain Urns that, while worth nothing in the normal market, are worth at least 100 gp per urn if given to a museum to be archived. The brain library has a very pale pink crystal that acts as a scroll of Create Spelljamming Helm.

Hazards & Traps

The spell crystal of Create Spelljamming Helm has a curse on it that will cause the entire Nautiloid to detonate in a fire ball for a range of 40 feet centered from the elder brain chamber, dealing 5d8 fire damage on a failure. The resting pool chamber also contains an undead mindflayer that will summon shadows to destroy intruders.

Purpose / Function

From the Quallith written on a piece of crystal in the highest chamber, it describes the following text when a successful DC 20 (15 if Character is psionic) Investigation Check: Scenes begin playing in your head of a time long before, back when this writing was laid. Its a log of activities performed by the Illithid colony. Scenes of the gathering of human-looking people from the surface, being brought to the building and confined to a large space like cattle. As the log continues, the more disturbing and sickening the images as it describes the purpose of the humans, being used as beings of burden and food for the Illithids, the Illithid's experiments on these people, before ending with stating that the colony was a failure and had to be abandoned, for the Gith had discovered them. The humans were said to have been transported to another colony for more experimentation. A DC 15 History check will reveal that the destination given in the writing once had a Illithid colony that fled the area after a large amount of humans, used as slaves, were freed by a Gith raid a few years before.

Type

Ruins

Alternate Names

Illithid Ruins, Dig Site 19