Prologue
Deep beneath the surface of Faerun, there lies another world; it is a world of darkness, secrets, and danger. It is known as The Underdark. The sun does not shine upon this world, many of the beings that inhabit this hidden realm can go their entire lives without ever seeing the sun or sky. Several races lived in the Underdark: the Drow, faithful Elven servants of the Goddess Lolth, eager to fight and quick to betray one another all in the name of their dark queen; the Svirfneblin, Gnomes that lived to create and build, they are a peaceful race- often captured for use in skilled labor; and then the Illithid, strange beings with unfathomable goals, they exist to enslave and devour lesser races with their mighty psionic powers.
One such Illithid stood in a hidden passage near its city; seemingly waiting on something or someone. At its side stood a dozen slaves, each with a vacant expression on their face and weapons in their hands. These were the slaves that were deemed worthy of defending their master, though it considered them little better than a distraction to be used if events took a dire turn. The Illithid itself held nothing but a small stone bowl, the sloshing of liquid could be heard whenever the bowl was moved. It abruptly straightened and gazed in a new direction as a man garbed in elegant crimson robes and bearing a black staff walked into the cave, followed by six humans that were bound together with chains that were enveloped in glowing green flames. An elderly woman was supported by a tall man, another younger woman walked protectively by the three children- two daughters and a son. The mysterious man calmly walked up to the Illithid and crossed his arms, waiting for the mind flayer to make the first move. One of the slaves walked forward and gestured at the robed man, particularly at the thick black ring adoring his left hand.
"Master thanks you for your gift, he wishes you would remove that ring so he could thank you directly."
The robed man let out a bark of laughter as he calmly stroked the oiled blond goatee that protruded from his hood.
"This close to the city? I think not; either your master has informed the other mind flayers and this is a trap or he's here on his own and would like nothing more than a chance to get his psionic slaves for free. The ring stays on, your impertinence just cost you one slave." At a gesture, the chains split and pulled the youngest girl from her family; the women both began sobbing and the man agrily pulled against the chains.
"Targon! Don't you dare to- ahhhh!" The bound man fell to his knees as the flaming chains flashed brightly, the smell of burning flesh filled the small cavern.
Targon lowered his hood so he could stare into the eyes of the man who had slighted him; this gesture was somewhat wasted as it also revealed a rapidly receding hairline. "Dare? I will tell you what I dared to do, Gerry: I dared to burn your little hovel to the ground- I dared to slaughter your livestock- I dared to capture your entire family and I dare to sell you to mind flayers just because it suits me!" Targon's voice had steadily risen in volume as this tirade commenced until he was nearly shouting at the end.
The slave who had spoken before took another step forward, he was a large man with little facial hair and much scarring; probably from a long life of the Illithid fighting pits.
"Master says you should be careful, we are not so far from the city that none would notice the disturbance. There are many slaves with significantly greater hearing ability than your own who may detect your outburst."
Targon stood and glared down the large man who towered nearly a full meter over him.
"Mind flayer," at this the Illithid twitched, "if you speak to me with that tone again, we will have no deal; that just cost you one more slave." At another gesture, the chains split again and this time a young boy was pulled from his family. The Illithid reached out with a hand towards the boy while the large slave spoke again.
"Master says you drive too hard of a bargain, perhaps he should take you up on your offer and take everything by force." As he spoke, the other slaves began spacing out; several lifted crossbows and aimed at Targon.
Targon lifted a hand of his own and pointed at the Illithid, his voice resounding with menace in the enclosed area, "Lugricorian, if your slaves don't lower their weapons this instant we're going to have a problem." The slaves all suddenly held back, reflecting the turmoil in their master's mind. Targon capitalized on the indecision, bringing his staff up and pointing it at the large man Luricorian was using as a mouthpiece, "Yostred!" A thin beam of green light leaped from the staff and struck the man, turning him into a cloud of dust before he could do more than make a surprised face. The slaves didn't react, but Targon caught a glimpse of Lugricorian reaching a free hand towards a wand. He turned his staff towards the mind flayer, "You are going to take these four and you are going to keep your end of the bargain or else you are going to die right here and now."
Lugricorian hesitated; he had kept his activities secret from the Elder Brain and the rest of the city, but that meant he was without the hive mind to advise him- something that unnerved him slightly. Deciding that the risk was not worth jeapordizing the reward, he extended the bowl out to a small Kobold to carry over to Targon. Targon waited until the Kobold reached him before he made a gesture and the chains began pulling the remaining four members of the family towards the mind flayer. They screamed and fought until they were in range of Lugricorian's psionic abilities; when they all suddenly fell silent but for the woman who was still screaming for her two children.
Genuine anger flowed from the Kobold that stood within arms reach of Targon, "You broke our agreement Targon! Only one of these vermin have any psionic power!"
Targon calmy handed the bowl to the boy he had withdrawn from the trade, "Do not drop this." the words were laced with magic, compelling the child to obey. Targon stood and faced Lugricorian once more, "The agreement was for a psionic human and their family; you did not say the entire family had to have access to that power. In any case," Targon placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, noting that the little girl was clutching her brother's hand, "our conversation is at an end." Targon grinned at the oily Illithid, deciding he had nothing to lose by throwing caution to the winds, "Perhaps it's better that you cannot read my mind, surely even a mind flayer would dislike the thought that its offspring was to be used to create weapons to mind flayers. Farewell."
The slaves all screamed in unison and tried to attack Targon but he uttered a spell and vanished along with the children and the bowl before even the crossbow bolts reached him. Lugricorian's eyes blazed with rage; with great effort he wrestled his emotions under control. Targon had played the game well; Lugricorian knew nothing more than his name, and he could not use the hive mind to find more information without revealing he had given away an Illithid larva in exchange for slaves... although... Lugricorian turned towards the sobbing family that had just been ripped apart on little more than a whim, and the mother that held the blood of a psyker, perhaps it would still be worth it in the long run if she could be properly bred- only time would tell.
Targon paused after reappearing in the safety of his tower to catch his breath. Contrary to his earlier threats, he was not a powerful wizard- the teleportation spell alongside the magical chains had taxed much of his strength. He was very good at research and potion-making, but he lacked power to back up any threat he might make. He had obtained his staff, tower, and even identity from his former master that he had poisoned years earlier; none of it had been under his own power. But that's about to change isn't it? Targon had been contacted by a representative of the Red Wizards who had heard of his research into psychic powers; the organization knew that Illithids held domain over large sections of the Underdark- sections that the Red Wizards were interested in. Targon had been promised a prominent position if he could find a way to protect people from the psychic attacks that would be used against them.
Targon turned to look at the boy and girl he had refused to part with, both of whom were huddling together and staring at him even after he had ceased using magic to bind them. He pointed to them and bowl that the boy was holding, "Bring that over here." The children trembled but obeyed. Targon examined them in more detail than he had previously as they came closer; they appeared the same age- neither looked to have seen a full decade, the boy may have been a year older than the girl. Targon waited until they were within arms reach before grabbing the boy by the scruff of the neck and taking the bowl from him.
The girl's lip trembled and tears showed in her eyes, "I want my mommy back, please give her back."
The boy was more vocal in his objection, kicking Targon and screaming, "I'm gonna kill you! You're gonna die you-"
Targon pulled the boy close to him as he reached a hand into the bowl, "No brat, you aren't going to bother anyone ever again." Ignoring the screaming girl pounding at his legs, Targon took the Illithid larva and inserted it into the boy's ear before dragging him to the cell he had prepared and chaining him up. The girl still screamed, Targon picked her up and tossed her into the cell as well before turning to leave. He would feed them in the morning; he needed to rest. Besides, a smirk crossed his lips, the ceremorphosis will take a full week to finish. As he almost collapsed into his bead a thought circled briefly around in his skull. I got lucky, I only planned on having the larva and one subject to work on; now I have a servant too.
In the cell the boy screamed, it was a sound without words, without rational thought- it was a scream of pure and mindless fear and agony. The girl cowered in the corner, sobbing. After a time the boy would run out of air and gasp for breath. His sister would crawl to him and hold his hand, trying to console him- he answered with more screaming. This went on for the entire night before Targon woke in the morning. He gave the girl a plate of bread and turned to leave before feeling a hand on his leg; he turned to see the girl looking at him with eyes red from crying.
"He can't eat like that- help us." Targon shook the girl off before exiting the cell.
"He won't be eating anything for another few days- I need to look into procuring his food."
The girl looked confused as the boy woke up, screaming again, "What will he eat?"
Targon looked back at her and grinned, "Brains you silly girl, he's going to become a mind flayer." He shut the cell door to the sound of hope finally dying in the girl's heart.