Blade of Angharradh

*Bloodlines
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Bloodlines »


With the help of a handful of planeswalkers, the drow Phyrra and Laela were able to track down and defeat a mindflayer that went by the moniker Kaeliss in the hopes of recovering a holy weapon. The planeswalkers also dispatched a small hive of mindflayers that were using the Flesh Market as a steady supply of hosts to undergo ceremorphosis, the process of creating a new mindflayer.

Though the weapon was not where they had hoped, the mindflayer revealed that the sword was in the possession of an elder brain. While unable to get the exact location of the colony, a planeswalker did glean a few images from the mindflayer before it succumbed to its wounds. Now, the search was on!

((Involved PCs may post here for this story arc))





*Protoss119
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Protoss119 »


True to her word, Ridga Allinsdottir assisted in the search as best as she was able. Although she did not consider herself a woman of means, she asked around Sigil and looked for settlements in the Astral Plane - the current running hypothesis for the location of the mindflayer colony - offering due deference and assistance where she could. Though not the most well-read scholar, she also consulted whatever books she could find that could offer her information on the whereabouts of Illithid colonies. She would report her findings to Phyrra and Laela as best as she was able, trying to keep regular contact with them.



// Not sure if the rolls are necessary, but included them anyway.
*Bloodlines
Posts: 139
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Bloodlines »


Ridga would learn a few things. First, Kaeliss was indeed a frequent purchaser of slaves in the Flesh Market. The rumor of his death seemed to be taken as ill news to a few of the slave owners as he was a steady stream of revenue for them. They didn't care what he did with the slaves as it wasn't uncommon for a mindflayer to purchase one for an easy meal. That was simply the way it was.

In other areas, Ridga's inquiry around the Dead God Rock bore some fruit. Stories around the docks suggest that there has been a rise in activity of the githyanki, though the pirates didn't seem interested in harassing the passing merchant ships. Given there was also a rumor of a mindflayer vessel being spotted not far from the usual trade routes, it made sense what had the githyanki so interested.
*Protoss119
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Protoss119 »


Taking up a room at Chirper's, Ridga sits down with a vial of ink, a quill, and some parchment, and begins writing a letter...

To Phyrra and Laela,

I hope this finds you in health and happiness. I have spoken to individuals in Sigil and around Dead God Rock, in the Astral Plane. Kaeliss bought many thralls, and as such was a great source of geld for the slavers. One who buys thralls in such large numbers doubtless has documentation of both his dealings with the slavers and, quite possibly, his correspondence with his home colony or another intermediary. Assuming it hasn't been picked clean by now, I would suggest returning to Kaeliss's lair and searching for paperwork. At your discretion, I can undertake this alone, or we can assemble a team to do the same, although my eye is not keenest. Although I am not intimately familiar with mindflayers, I have read that they write in a strange script that none but the mindflayers themselves can understand...I am not certain how to overcome that obstacle. We also should consider the possibility that Kaeliss destroyed said correspondence, or had a means that we can't readily recover...but we won't know until we go.

I have also heard that the githyanki have been unusually active in the Astral Plane, but they have not attacked the merchant ships around Dead God Rock. I have also heard a rumor of a mindflayer vessel not far from the usual trade routes - the githyanki are either hunting this ship in particular or, like us, are trying to find and eradicate its home colony. It's clear to me that both the svartalfar of your world and the githyanki are enemies of the mindflayers, so it may be in our interest to form an alliance with the githyanki. This may not be feasible, however; even if their distrust of outsiders can be overcome, everything I have read suggests that they would prefer to be the dominant partner in any alliance, and while this may bolster our chances of destroying the colony, it may not get us the sword...

I remain your humble servant,



Ridga Allinsdottir

Afterwards, she sealed the letter and left to hire a courier to deliver it to the two drow.
*Bloodlines
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Posted by *Bloodlines »


The courier would take the letter and make their way to contact the two in question. After a few days time, Ridga is handed a response.
wrote: Ridga Allinsdottir,

It was not uncommon in the Underdark that my kind made alliances with other races we deemed as lesser. The githyanki are a paranoid, xenophobic race, but their hatred for the illithid goes back centuries. I don't doubt the possibility of a potential alliance with them against the colony, but I fully expect treachery at some point or another. Still, it is an option worth exploring.

Go ahead and take a look at Kaeliss' lair. While I doubt you will find any documentation, illithids are notoriously overconfident in their own abilities. You will likely find something of note there.

Good luck,
Phyrra



*Protoss119
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Protoss119 »


After receiving the message, Ridga returns to Kaeliss's lair, armed, ready to deal with any scavengers she comes across. She would search the place as best as she could, relying on her senses and intuition, although she was no great detective.

*Bloodlines
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Posted by *Bloodlines »


With no one maintaining it, the former mindflayer lair had become infested with a number of cranium rats, though they were easily dispatched by Ridga.

Searching the lair didn't give her what she wanted, but there were a few interesting things of note.

She found a few oddities here and there, some of the mindflayer's possessions that were little more than trinkets. More disturbingly, she found a large ceramic jar filled with a putrid liquid that she surmised was hydrocephalus, fluid commonly found in brains. Inside the jar were over a dozen of hideous tadpole-like creatures, many of them mangled, having feasted upon one another until ultimately there was nothing left to eat.

The cages that were once filled with victims of ceremorphosis were now empty, save for the mangled and dried up husks of the mindflayers the cranium rats had been feeding on.

Even still, she felt that there might have been more to the lair, something beyond what her own eyes were capable of seeing.
*Protoss119
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Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Protoss119 »


Although a gut feeling told her that there was something to the lair that she was missing, she was smart enough to realize she was out of her depth when it came to something like this, and that she would either have to tear the whole lair apart with her prodigious strength or find someone with the skills and the means to uncover its secrets. She returned to her private room at Chirper's, taking the ceramic jar with her, and began drafting another letter...

Phyrra,

My search of the mindflayer's lair did not turn up much - nothing but trinkets, and a jar full of strange tadpole-like creatures which looked to have devoured each other, with the remainder having starved to death. They seemed to have been submerged not in water, but in brain fluid...don't ask me how I know that. I feed on blood, I promise.

Based on what Arwa said when we initially conducted our raid, I believe these were the parasites used to create more mindflayers - ceremorphosis, as Kaeliss called it. From what I could see, there were at least a dozen of these parasites in the jar. It doesn't strike me as the sort of thing one would keep in a minor outpost. I suspect we are a stone's throw away from finding the colony.

I have a gut feeling that I have not yet found everything of value from that place, but I'm afraid that whatever else is there is beyond my sight - again, my eye is not keenest. I'm not certain who in the Guildhall Ward to turn to in order to find a dedicated scout, or someone capable of casting the right spell to reveal everything there, particularly since I am no longer sure exactly what I am looking for - as you suspected, no paperwork was found. Alternatively, we might consider stalking the githyanki in their hunt for the mindflayer vessel, but doing so and then being caught would likely preclude an alliance with them, and in any case, I strongly suspect the vessel and the lair are merely two pieces of a larger puzzle, so investigating one and ignoring the other would end poorly for us.

I remain your humble servant,



Ridga Allinsdottir

After sealing the letter, she once again left to hire a courier to deliver it.
*Bloodlines
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Posted by *Bloodlines »


A response follows:
wrote:Ridga,

I was asked by one of the clergy to request you cease signing your letters in a matter that suggests you are indentured to me. Apparently I need help reading my own mail here and no one can take a joke.

Anyway, it's regrettable that you didn't find anything useful. I'd suggest burning the tadpoles. Don't eat them. A male I knew in Sshamath did once and I'm not going to get into what happened to him. Though at the time I thought it was hilarious. How my taste in humor has changed.

The githyanki no doubt base somewhere. Their crew need to resupply and their vessel needs repairs. See if you can find where they sleep. Speaking to them will be tricky, but let's just hope that their hatred of the illithid outweighs their hatred of everyone else.

The search on our end has bore little fruit. I'm convinced this colony is not in the Underdark. The faerzress is far too unpredictable with portals, which would make the constant coming and going from Sigil problematic even for their kind.

As for the lair, I'd recommend bringing someone back that can see through illusionary magic or perhaps someone gifted in psionics. Also, not all illithids are sympathetic towards colonies, some striking out on their own, not wishing to be forcibly absorbed by the elder brain like so many are. Those that escape this fate have even been known to live in the cities of my people, acting as advisers. It's rare, but if you do find one, they could be useful.

Laela and I have nothing else for us to do here, so we'll be returning to Sigil shortly.

Regards,
Phyrra


*Protoss119
Posts: 31
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 am

Posted by *Protoss119 »


Later, Ridga began asking around the Guildhall Ward - no matter how much it had become interchangeable with the Market Ward by this point - about...well, she wasn't very sure how she was going to come across a mindflayer without ties to the colonies, but she started by asking if there were any mindflayers without large ties to the slavers in the Flesh Market, or if there were any who regularly did business with the other merchants, or if there were any who just seemed unusual - as unusual as any mindflayer could be, anyhow - using due discretion as she asked around. Some days, it paid to be one of the living dead; at the very least, she could not be affected by the mental abilities of whichever ones she found...

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