To Hunt a Mind Flayer…
Jhelnae had never been in this particular chamber of the Xanathar Guild hideout. She and her companions, Aleina, Sky, and Kuhl had fought a half-orc wizard and a doglike brain creature in a room beyond the double doors behind her when they rescued Floon, but only the half-elf and tabaxi had pursued the mind flayer here. Those two companions had now been captured by that mind flayer and needed rescuing. Which was why she found herself back down here.
In the sewers under Waterdeep.
She definitely hadn't missed much by not seeing this room before. It was a large chamber in a sewer complex, with all the dark dampness and scurrying rodents that entailed. The stench was tolerable, not being directly exposed to a channel where sewage openly flowed, but barely, and the half-drow breathed as shallowly as possible and mostly through her mouth. A stone pillar stood in the center of the room, carved with a small symbol - a perfect circular indentation with ten equidistant spokes radiating outward from its circumference.
"Teleportation into and out of Undermountain, including Skullport," Laeral Silverhand said, "Is challenging. Somehow the Xanathar Guild discovered this pillar and warped it for their own purposes. And even though you two successfully stormed this hideout."
She paused and nodded to the half-drow and aasimar.
"They were probably loath to give up this magical means into and out of Skullport," the Open Lord continued. "Likely thinking their stone passkeys would keep others from using it and hoping scrutiny on this place would eventually be abandoned and they could occupy the hideout again. Our spy network discovered a high-ranking guild agent operating in Waterdeep, but we left him alone and free, because we knew once the Xanathar Guild learned of his capture and that one of these had fallen into our hands, they would destroy the mate to this pillar."
The Open Lord held up a small round stone object around the size of an eye that looked like it would perfectly fit the circular indentation on the pillar. When it came to the Open Lord, people tended to focus on her demigoddess status from being both Chosen and daughter of Mystra - on her raw magical power, which most distinctly manifested when she conjured the silver fire of her mother. But it was actually her keen intelligence, Jhelnae was starting to realize, coupled with the wisdom earned from a long life that made her truly dangerous.
"You should be directly transported to a matching pillar an informant tells us is within the lair of the Xanathar below Skullport," Laeral said. "The same informant tells us now is the best time to assault as a large event, a game in Skullport, should be drawing guild members out of the lair. The pillar there is constantly scryed, but not guarded. Meaning you should not encounter resistance immediately.
"That is a lot of shoulds," Ront growled.
With one simple statement the orc spoke a volume on what he thought of the accumulation of those uncertainties. The glances between the others gathered around the pillar indicated he was not alone in that sentiment. The group going after the mind flayer, along with the half-drow and aasimar, included the four brothers of the genasi sister Sky and Kuhl had been hired to find and their mechanical companion, Ancilla, as well as Ront, Fargas, Surash, and Jarlaxle's gunslingers. The Open Lord had teleported one other with them as well, a past prime man with a drooping mustache touched with gray and an ample belly. The half-drow had seen him before. He'd put on the drunken buffoon act at the Sea Maiden's Faire where he'd almost tripped over his own floppy sea boots and fallen off one of the gangplanks into the bay. At least she hoped that had been an act, but the food and wine stains down the front of his tunic made her wonder if his apparent slovenly drunkenness was real and not a ruse.
"A lot of shoulds," Laeral confirmed with a frustrated sigh. "I hate to rely on mere hope, but circumstances demand it."
"By all that dances," the half-drow said, an edge in her voice. She'd been over all the risks and pitfalls of the plan during the strategy sessions with the Open Lord. "The important thing is that this is our best chance to rescue Sky and Kuhl. So, those shoulds are good enough for us."
Ront gave her a narrow eyed glare in response and Fargas chuckled.
"Well that didn't take long," he said. "We haven't even started the mission yet and already these two are at each other's throats. Just like old times."
"Well since those attitudes got us out of the Underdark," Aleina said. "That is a good thing. Let's take this portal, kill the mind flayer, and rescue our friends."
"And hopefully Sophiya," the half-dragon with the crystalline scales, Embrie said.
"And hopefully Sophiya," the aasimar repeated, but she gave a guilty glance towards Jhelnae.
The half-drow shrugged. They never promised the brothers their sister would be with Sky and Kuhl, only told them who their friends were seeking. So, was it their fault if her siblings ended up on a wild blink dog chase? The golden construct brother, Koger, must have registered their doubtful look.
"Divinations have not yielded any hints to Sophiya's location," he said in his metallic voice. "Undermountain is therefore suggested by the lack of data. Most logical place for inquiry of lost sister - Skullport."
"The magic of Undermountain would block divination attempts," Lady Silverhand said. "Your reasoning is sound. Who knows how things will play out. You may be able to take the mate to this pillar back, you may not. So, I'm sending Mirt with you. He knows ways into and out of Skullport and back to Waterdeep."
Jhelnae's eyes widened. So, the Open Lord was sending this fat, drunken fool with them? That had not been mentioned in planning and did not seem wise. He was wheezing and out of breath just standing around.
"You don't need an army of jacks to deal with one little flayer," Mirt huffed. "A small group would work best. Why once Asper, Durnan and I managed a beholder and an ancient black dragon down in Skullport by ourselves. Me and maybe the two lasses can probably handle it."
"You'd like that, wouldn't you," Lady Silverhand said with a faint smile. "But mind, Mirt, that these days you are more old and less wolf."
"Old?" the heavy set man sputtered. "I'm fully five hundred years younger than you."
"A gentleman does not bring up a lady's age," the Open Lord said, faint smile broadening.
"I'll let the next gentleman I run into know," Mirt said, then gave a squint eyed look around the room. "Training the raw recruits of the next generation, eh Laer? Well, I suppose that is fitting for a couple of relics from the bygone days of the Deep like ourselves."
"So, I'm a relic?" the Lady Silverhand said. "You've not a bard's tongue on you Sir Walrus."
She pulled out a weighty gold and platinum coin out of her robe and held it up between two fingers.
"Commemorative coin minted when I became the Open Lord," Laeral said. "Put it on the headless corpse of the mind flayer. I want the message of how this old relic of a woman responds to those who stick intellect devourers into the citizens of my city to be abundantly clear."
She glanced at Aleina, pursed her lips in thought, then walked to Jhelnae and gave her the coin.
"Bring the head in the portable hole I gave you," she said as she pressed the coin into the half-drow's hand. An image of the Open Lord was engraved in the gold coin, her hair made of inlaid platinum. "I'm nailing it up above the gates to Castle Waterdeep."
"Always give the cold-blooded tasks to the drow," one of the gunslingers, Fel'rekt said, his lilting and pleasant voice tinged with humor. "Even if they serve the Faithless Daughter rather than the Dark Mother."
"You mistake me," Laeral said with a glance in the dark elf's direction. "I don't give her this task because she is a drow. Aleina, I sense, is more like my sister Alustriel, Jhelnae more like me. So I assign tasks to those best suited for them. And no one has described me as cold-blooded I think. Quite the opposite in fact."
"That is true enough," Mirt chuckled.
"True for Jhelnae as well," Fargas said, barking out a laugh.
The half-drow and daughter of Mystra shared a wry nod of acknowledgment, then Laeral sobered and pressed the circular stone 'eye' into its socket on the pillar and a dark portal shimmered into existence to hang in the air before them.
"The luck of Tymora be with you," the Open Lord said. "May you save your friends and sister and…"
"Cut off the head of a mind flayer," Ront growled, cutting her off. "Yeah. We got that part."
He pulled out the hilt of the sword, Dawnbringer, out of a belt pouch and ignited her radiant blade, then strode through the magic doorway.
"Gruff and direct," the pale part sun-elf brother, Jassin, said. "I like him."
He made to follow the orc through the portal, but an arm from his golden construct brother barred his way.
"Ancilla, lead the way. Guardian mode," Koger ordered in his metallic voice. "Protect."
In a whirring of gears and scraping of metal, two buckler sized shields formed on forearms of the silver, feminine shaped construct, then she ran into the magic doorway at a sprint.
"As you can see," the lean half-giant brother with spiky blue hair and gray cast skin, Voskar, said. "We're a chivalric family. Sophiya leads the way along with Ancilla when she is with us."
"Why would we be a chivalric family?" Jassin asked. "When our mother is a noble djinn and more powerful than any of us and our sister, with her tattoos, is as strong as an ogre and quite skilled with a blade?"
But his brother wasn't around to answer, having already been teleported. With a shrug, the wheat colored hair and red-eyed half-elf went next.
"Lucky me," Embrie sighed, "Eldest sibling of this lot, all born to a mother with no maternal instincts. Come on, Koger."
"As a being crafted of metal, wood, and magic," the golden construct said. "Perhaps I don't have the needed biological parts to render a judgment. But mother made sure we had the essentials. She just delegated emotional caretaking to servants."
The crystalline scaled half-dragon went through the portal with his brother trailing after him with clanking steps.
"Ah, to have servants to perform some emotional caretaking when I was young," the first drow gunslinger to step into the magic doorway, Krebbyg, sighed. "Even once."
His partner Fel'rekt smiled at his back as he entered after.
"I thought the plan was for the two of you to enter first," Laeral said, glancing between the aasimar and half-drow.
"It was," Aleina said, throwing up her hands and shaking her head as she walked towards the magic doorway. "But Ront is Ront and I guess he just decided he was done listening. Then everyone just started leaping in after him. He's frustrating, but he grows on you."
She barely got the last words out before she was magically transported away.
"Very, very slowly grows on you," Jhelnae said. "Like mold."
It was her turn and she passed through the dark, shimmering field that stretched her across a distance so much greater than a single step. She found herself nauseated from magical travel and blinking as her eyes adjusted to the bright light cast by enchanted sconces on the walls. Two pillars, one with the same carved symbol and circular indentation as the pillar from the sewer hideout, stood in the center of a large, high ceilinged stone chamber. The others who preceded her were present, alert, and watching their surroundings. The gunslinger Fel'rekt signed with drow hand signals, then pointed.
"Watcher on the ceiling above."
Following his pointing finger, Jhelnae spied the spectral eye on the ceiling. It was like Laeral had said. No one guarded this magical way in, but it was watched through scrying. The base defenders would muster against them soon. With that thought, the half-drow almost summoned her warding armor, but she still wore the Vambraces of Whinonas and Jarlaxle had said it cast a similar protective field. In the few moments she looked around, the last members of their party arrived - Fargas, Surash, and Mirt, who held the stone key that would activate the portal to get them out of here.
They were all here, twelve strong, what now? Three exits led out of this chamber, other than the magical pillar, a stairway down in one corner and passageways opposite each other. It was Mirt who provided the answer.
"The mind flayer is yonder that way," he wheezed, pointing at one of the corridor exits, then answered the unasked question. "My contact is the informant and my spy network is the one who got this."
He brandished the stone 'eye'.
There was obviously more to this slovenly looking old man than met the eye.
"This pillar is probably our most reliable way out," Aleina said. "Some of us should stay here and defend it."
That made sense, but who? It was not the time to be indecisive,
"Mirt, Fel'rekt, Koger, and Ancilla with Aleina and I," Jhelnae ordered. "We'll go after the mind flayer. The rest of you defend this room. As Aleina said, it's our best way out."
Ront's brow crinkled in thought and the half-drow saw he was about to argue, but Koger spoke first.
"Query on strategic soundness," the golden construct said. "Mirt has already shown knowledge of this place, Ancilla and I do not have biological brains to extract, rationale for the inclusion of drow gunslingers in a group against a mind flayer previously explained. One group leader is also advised, but both?"
"Don't punch him if you get frustrated," the half-giant, Vorskar said as he positioned himself to look down the stairwell and pulled out a wand. "You'll only end up with a hurt hand and a lecture on the irrationality of biological emotional outbursts."
"There is glued at the hip and then there is sovereign glued at the hip," Fargas said, laughing and shaking his head from where he watched the corridor opposite the one Mirt indicated led to the Mind Flayer. "Aleina and Jhelnae are the latter."
"I walked all the way through the Underdark listening to their chatter," Ront grunted. "Wanted to kill myself."
"We work well together," the aasimar said, shrugging. "Let's go."
But Surash held up a hand in a waiting gesture.
"That stairway and that other corridor," he said, looking at Mirt. "Will we need them?"
"You never know, but likely no," the old man said.
"Then should I spread some oil to ready a welcome," the alchemist said, reaching to retrieve flasks from Sky's magic bag slung over his shoulders.
"Do it," Aleina said with a nod of approval.
"Ancilla, lead and protect," Koger said as the group going after the mind flayer gathered.
"I could get used to this," Jhelnae said, nodding to the silver construct leading the way.
She held her hand out to the side and her abyssal blade misted into existence in her grip as she followed. They moved down the corridor in a line, Ancilla, Jhelnae, Koger, Fel'rekt, Aleina, and Mirt huffing in the rear.
The half-drow breathed the hint of a smell within a dozen paces of leaving the room with the pillars. It was familiar, but it took it growing stronger for her to place it. The stench brought memories of the Underdark, the Dark Lake, a destroyed city of reeds, a fellow prisoner of Velkynvelve, Shuushar, and a giant rampaging demon prince of the abyss.
Demogorgon.
At the same time she recognized the smell, Fel'rekt tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention to sign.
"Kuo-toa."
Jhelnae nodded, then whispered what had been signed when Aleina, Mirt, and presumably Koger, though his metallic face and glowing eyes couldn't convey the emotion, gave her a questioning look.
"Ancilla, stop, watch," the golden construct said, metallic voice quiet.
His silver creation complied.
What were kuo-toa doing in a hidden base of a crime organization? The half-drow did not know and decided it didn't matter. They were here to save their friends and kill a mind flayer, which Mirt's contact said was down this corridor. She motioned them to move on, but Ancilla only proceeded when Koger signaled.
The smell of the kuo-toa grew, becoming a stench and then a reek that made Jhelnae want to cover her nose. A stickiness started to cling to her every step from a slime that increasingly coated the floor.
"Gross," the aasimar hissed.
Cast aside and picked clean bones joined the slime on the floor. The corridor opened to a large chamber they could just see ahead. But before they reached the hall a booming sound came echoing down the corridor from where they left the others.
"Smoke powder gunfire," Fel'rekt said. "The others are defending our escape route. We should hurry."
His urgency seemed to push them ahead, although no one gave an additional command to Ancilla. The stickiness on the floor increased and pulled on her clanking, relentless, steps as did the prevalence of bones
"Ooop! Ooop! Ooop!"
Gargling voices started the moment they came into view of the hall and the seven fishlike humanoids, kuo-toa, saw them. They seemed to be guarding an iron portcullis and bore spears, nets, and a staff with a metal pincer at the end.
The corpse of a partially eaten something lay in one corner, maybe a dwarf. It was hard to tell with such a picked apart body, but the gaping hole at the crown of its forehead told the story of a cracked open skull to get at the brain. The iron portcullis rose up and their target entered the room.
"Now this is good fortune," a mocking telepathic voice pierced into Jhelnae's mind. The tentacles of the creature standing in the doorway writhed with each mental word. "What are the chances an abundance of hosts would present themselves right after my latest devourers emerged from the spawning pool?"
At the feet of the mind flayer stood two of the doglike brain creatures, the sheen of some sort of luminous green liquid clung to their bodies and dripped on the floor around them.
"Destroy the constructs and capture the others," the creature mentally ordered.
The brain monstrosities lunged forward on canine legs and the kuo-toa raised weapons and nets. The half-drow leveled her abyssal blade in response and the cold power of the Demonweb flowed. But even as she sent it forth in a crackling blast of energy into the nearest bounding dog-like creature the mind flayer raised its hands and pain exploded in Jhelnae's skull.
Sorry, another transition chapter. Sort of wrote myself into a corner with too many characters, but figured I should just forge ahead…
