Chapter Forty-four
A Great Evil
I quickly flew over to stop the body from rolling down the steps. I knew my spell didn't reach over the wall from where I was standing, and didn't want the armor on the body to make noise as it fell. I stopped the body, glanced around for Melima's dagger, and looked to see if anyone had noticed us.
The Duergar patrol had just made it to the southwest corner of the temple, but didn't seem to notice anything going on. I was grateful most of these guards seemed bored with their jobs and didn't seem to take them seriously. There was also an entrance on the ground on the south side, but that would have been much harder for us to get to without notice.
I flew back up to the top where people were already filing through the entrance in the floor. I followed at the rear, guarding our back. We immediately turned into a tight curve of a spiral staircase. The second loop was wider, then the third one stopped halfway before going straight.
We turned around a corner, and the stairs turned more into short landings. I saw Kima up front catch herself just a little and realized that she was just outside of my silence spell in her noisy plate armor. I made my way to the middle of the group to cover sounds from everyone.
Sindus stopped in the front just before a corner, quickly leveling a hand crossbow and firing. Keothi nudged Sindus on the shoulder in approval. He then looked back in confusion until he saw me. He nodded at me, I'd just got close enough to envelop him in silence.
We started around the corner. A dead duergar sat slumped against the wall, blood still dripping from his mouth. Sindus stopped at a wooden door at the end of the stair, examining it by the light of Naidaroe's rapier.
He reared up to kick it, and I moved just a little bit closer just to make sure he would stay within my spell. His foot connected with the door, and Keothi gave him a little shove. Sindus barely caught himself to land upright.
The door opened up to several Duergar guards. Seeing our danger, and knowing my friends couldn't cast many spells without talking, I stopped focusing on my silence spell, letting it drop.
Melima rushed to the front, sending crackling lightning into the line of guards and dropping one of them. Sindus shot the next one, then thrust his rapier forward.
We moved forward and I started letting arrows fly. My first one struck true, but chinked off of the guard's armor. My aim was off on my next shot, trying to figure out where I could get through, and my arrow flew wide.
A guard struck Sindus in the shoulder with a war pick, and Keothi stepped to the side to where he could hit more than one guard. He hit one and brought him down, but the second guard swung his shield and blocked Keothi's hammer while pulling out his pick.
Kutsool rushed past me, throwing his hand axe at one of the two tougher looking guards and landing it in his shoulder.
Kima looked at me before heading down. My arm was still covered in blood from where Kutsool had accidentally cut me while fighting the strange flying creature. Kima held my arm and closed her eyes.
The emblem of her deity began to glow on her golden armor, and I felt a warm sensation up my arm, especially around my wound. It felt much like when Darion had healed me before, and I was grateful for her care.
Melima shot fire over Sindus and missed the guard in front of them. Sindus took the distraction and planted his rapier in the final guard's chest, felling him to the floor.
The only other guard had fallen to the floor as well, we were alone in the room in front of two large stone doors. There was a large brain with tentacles carved into the doors, surrounded by illithid.
Keothi directed us to strategic positions before we opened the doors. I looked at our arrangement and nodded in approval. "Well done, war chief."
A voice entered into my head as we took our positions. It was fraught with madness. "It's about time you showed up. Come in, come in!"
I looked around. From the faces of my friends, I gathered that they had heard the voice as well. Naidaroe asked the question. "Did everyone hear the same voice that I heard?"
"I did," Keothi said. We all nodded in agreement. Kima touched both Sindus and Sephra with her armor glowing as Keothi examined the door.
Naidaroe looked at Sindus with a smirk. "Loser buys lunch!" He laughed and turned back to the door.
Keothi pulled the door in front of him towards himself. We stepped around the door, and he and Sindus pulled the other one open.
Inside was dark, except for a green glow coming from a huge gem hanging from the center of the ceiling. There were illithid inside, though I couldn't yet see how many, and a tank with something brainlike peaking over the top of it. But to the left was a monster as I'd never heard of before.
A huge floating orb with a large eye and gaping mouth. Stalks came from the orb with what looked like eyes on the ends. It looked like the stuff of nightmares. I stood for a moment in shock of the hideousness of it.
It laughed and moved forward. The stalks began to move around frantically. A purple light flashed from where Kutsool had just run to the right.
A black ray shot towards Kutsool from one of the stalks and I heard him grunt. A streak of grey shot towards Sindus, which he was able to dodge, and a dark blue ray hit Keothi, but he seemed unphased.
Naidaroe and Melima rushed forward, casting spells. A spray of color came from Melima's hands, landing in the orb's huge eye. This had to be the evil eye Kima had seen, the entity named K'varn that used the duergar by mind control.
Each time the creature blinked, a different color flashed across his eye. A sickly green ray hit Melima in retaliation. She shook her head, seemingly unaffected. It seemed almost an immediate reaction from one of the stalks.
Sindus moved into the room, firing his crossbow at an illithid before it could move. Keothi dashed inside and struck the orb from the side, seeming to distract it. "Tawariell, strike it now!"
A wall of force appeared between us and the rest of the party as an illithid stepped forward with a glowing staff. I'd noticed him as we'd opened the door, he must have been able to use magic. Had Keothi not distracted the orb, K'varn, I'd have attacked this spellcaster first.
Sephra cast a spell and started flying unassisted. She flew over the wall through a gap between the nearly invisible wall and the ceiling. Ari'yasa started floating, but had to push against the ceiling to move forward.
I hopped on my broom and followed them. Sindus was keeling over and holding his head. I fired an arrow at K'varn, planting an arrow into his thick hide. I was glad I'd already practiced firing from my broom.
I was going to fire at an illithid reaching for Melima below me, but she shook her head with a smile. I landed another arrow in K'varn instead, but this one didn't sink very deep.
I set the spellcasting illithid as my mark, but a black ray from one of K'varn's eye stalks hit me square in the chest. It seemed to suck the life right out of me, and I lost concentration on my spell. A dark blue ray shot towards Ari'yasa, but she moved just out of the way and it hit the wall behind her.
I could see the room better now, there were four illithid, as well as cells on either side of the room with some type of creatures in them. Kutsool was fighting an illithid right next to the wall.
An eye opened in the wall to my left, shooting a grey ray at me. I pulled up on my broom just enough to dodge it. K'varn shot more rays at us, hitting Keothi with a dark purple ray. He now turned towards us, giving us the terrifying look he normally gave his enemies.
Melima dodged a red ray, and it dissipated into the magical wall behind her. A blue ray struck Ari'yasa beside me and she went rigid. This being was both powerful and terrifying.
"Slap some sense into Keothi, he's charmed!" Naidaroe yelled. She grabbed Kima's hand and was suddenly on the other side of the wall, beside the spellcasting illithid. Kima pounded into the unsuspecting creature with her morningstar. The shimmering wall disappeared.
"You may be small in stature, but you're big in combat!" Naidaroe shouted to Kutsool. He squared his shoulders before swinging his axe again.
Melima pulled out a wand and sent missiles out of it, hitting Keothi, K'varn, and the illithid next to her. Keothi shook his head, but he still walked towards Sindus and pounded on him with a couple of swings.
The illithids reached out with their tentacles towards the people next to them. Melima's and Kutsool's heads were now wrapped in the tentacles and getting pulled closer to the illithids' heads. The spellcasting illithid vanished from sight.
An orb of lightning shot out from Sephra's hands, striking K'varn. A dark blue ray struck her back in return, and she went rigid as well. I wanted to be out of the way of those rays. There were a couple of pillars in the room I saw I could hide behind.
I flew to the ground behind the pillar to the left. I was going to heal myself, but seeing all of the people I'd help lead here getting hurt, some worse than me, I knew I had to fight instead of taking time to help myself. I'd never forgive myself if we lost someone because of my actions.
I whispered to my bowstring and let off an arrow at the illithid grappling Melima. The flaming arrow struck him in the back, slightly distracting him. He still had Melima in his grasp, so I shot at him again. Another arrow pierced his side. I ducked further behind the pillar, out of sight of K'varn.
Ari'yasa broke out of the rigidness that had taken her and shouted. "Sindus, stay with us!"
She then turned to K'varn and lashed out a thorny whip, wrapping him and pulling him closer. I still couldn't see him, but I could tell what she was doing.
Kutsool struggled against the illithid holding him, but made no leeway. Vines came out from the wall next to him and pulled him against the wall as well.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw vines coming towards me too. I tried to dodge them, but I was in a corner and couldn't avoid them all. They wrapped around my core and pulled me into the corner of the room against the wall.
K'varn moved back, and I was now in danger of the rays of the stalks again. Ari'yasa and Sephra began to fall to the ground. Sephra was still rigid and fell flat on her face.
A grey ray hit Kima, and a dark purple one hit Naidaroe. I got hit by a dark green one, but steeled my mind against whatever it was trying to do to me.
The vines released Naidaroe, and she stabbed Kima in the side with her rapier. She then swung at her with a dagger, but only sliced a few vines. Kima was furious. "Naida, what are you doing?"
Kima swung at Naidaroe, her morningstar glowing as she hit. Naidaroe paused, looked at her rapier, and stepped back. "Kima, forgive me!"
"I'm sorry, I'll take care of that in a minute," the gnome replied. There was sorrow in both of their voices.
Melima broke free from the grasp of the illithid and moved towards Keothi and Sindus. Keothi stepped away from them, and Melima fired missiles again at him and two illithids. It still did nothing to him, and he walked towards Ari'yasa with malice in his eyes.
He paused halfway to her and shook his head. He turned towards the illithid that had been attacking Melima and now attacked him. K'varn growled. "No!"
I breathed a sigh of relief, we had Keothi back. Things were starting to look up, if only a little. The illithid reached out with his tentacles, but Keothi dodged them all.
Ari'yasa keeled over and grabbed her head. These illithid were keeping us busy, and causing a lot of pain. Sephra walked to the side of K'varn, closer to me. She exhaled a blast of fire at him and moved back towards the pillar. He shot off a grey ray at her, and she bent over.
I wanted out of the vines to get back to my cover, but I knew my friends were in trouble. I took shots at each of the illithid I could see, the ones attacking Kutsool and Keothi, but the pillar was just enough in my way that my aim was off, my arrows flying wide.
Kutsool stopped struggling against the tentacles and instead swung his axe at the illithid that held him grappled. His swings both hit true, and the illithid crumpled to the floor, having been nearly cut in half.
I realized we hadn't seen the magic illithid in a while. I'd been thinking he was sneaking up on someone, probably me, but now I worried that he was getting reinforcements.
The vines released me and retreated into the wall, slippery grease started rising from the cracks in the floor instead. The gem on the ceiling pulsed just a little bit brighter with the change in the room. It seemed to do that each time the room attacked us or changed.
Kutsool was blasted by a black ray, getting forced into the wall. A light green ray hit Naidroe, and her eyes grew large in fear. Sephra was hit by a dark green ray, and she grabbed her head in pain. She was starting to stagger, she wasn't going to last much longer.
I noticed that no one in front of K'varn was hit, maybe he wasn't able to fire in front of him. Naidaroe shouted from the back of the room. "The invisible illithid is over there!"
She was pointing to the wall right behind K'varn, but I couldn't see anything. Sindus fired at another illithid, hitting him right in the neck. He whipped out a healing potion and chugged it. We all were struggling.
Melima breathed lightning out from her mouth, hitting an illithid and K'varn. One of his eyes shifted towards her and a dark blue ray hit her in return. She stuck her hand into her bag and started to pull something out.
Keothi crushed his hammer into the illithid with an arrow in its neck and leveled him to the ground. He slipped on the slimy ground and fell to his chest. He managed to get back up as an illithid reached out to Melima with its tentacles.
The magical illithid reappeared where Naidaroe had pointed. It cast a spell towards Kima. She grunted, but otherwise seemed unfazed.
Sephra cast a huge fireball next to this illithid, also scorching K'varn and the brain in the tank. Tentacles from the brain started moving erratically. K'varn blasted an orange ray in Sephra's direction, which she was able to dodge.
I pushed off with my broom and flew to Sephra, casting a healing spell and touching her shoulder. I then flew up and next to Keothi. My broom's magical energy disappeared as I reached the dead illithid, as I thought it might, and I jumped to land on the body, avoiding the slippery floor.
Ari'yasa slipped and fell, but upon standing leveled a crossbow at K'varn, then quickly turned it to the gem and fired. It ricocheted off with a high pitched ching.
Kima cast a healing spell and touched Naidaroe, then moved to attack the spellcasting illithid. A high pitched squeal sounded in my head, giving me a splitting headache. I could see Sephra fall to the ground.
I couldn't think. My friends were falling. My head hurt so much that I could barely see. I crouched over to try to stop the throbbing.
Vines were coming out from the walls again. K'varn started laughing even more madly. "Now, you're mine!"
I could feel my broom start humming, magic was active where I was again. This wasn't good. A grey ray shot towards the wall behind me, Sindus was back there. A purple ray hit Keothi, but he grunted it off this time. An orange one hit me in the core. My legs felt heavy, and I couldn't feel my toes.
That woke me up. My headache was now the least of my concerns. I stood up straight again. Another bolt from Sindus struck the illithid moving towards Melima. She held up the chest of exploding beads. "Sindus! I have more if you need!"
I didn't know what to do, my legs were turning grey, to stone. I tried to move them, but feeling was now gone from them as well. It crept up my chest, I could no longer breathe.
The spellcasting illithid threw a lightning bolt at Keothi and Ari'yasa. Ari'yasa fell. Things were not going well, and soon there would be nothing more I could do. My arms were now numb.
I looked up at K'varn in front of me, still laughing. My face grew cold, I could no longer hear the laughter, I could just see the hideous mouth moving. Then everything, even my thoughts, went dark.
