Battle with a Mind Flayer and Minions
The ear splitting crack of the drow gunslinger's weapon cut through the mental haze left in the wake of the mind flayer's attack and snapped Aleina back to awareness. Alchemical smoke mixed with the dead fish smell of the place and the sound of the boom still echoed down the stone walls of the hall as she looked around to take in her surroundings. She recoiled in fear.
A kuo-toa lunged at her with his net.
Mind still reeling from the psychic blast, she could do little more than cringe in anticipation of being caught up, then a silvery feminine form with glowing blue runes interposed herself with a whirring of gears and knocked the net aside with a swipe of one of her shield-arms. The chaos of the melee took the fight between Ancilla and the kuo-toa away from the aasimar.
But her respite was brief.
One of the canine brain creatures, intellect devourers Laeral Silverhand had named them, now leapt at Aleina. She had at least recovered enough to defend herself this time. Lifting her hand, she activated the ring the Open Lord had loaned her with a flick of her fingers. A ghostly, spectral ram materialized to slam the monster away and send it rolling across the sticky, bone strewn floor. When it came to a stop in a twitching heap, the aasimar sent a flare of fire into the creature from her moonstone orb, hoping that would finish it.
But she didn't get the chance to see if it did. The dead fish smell that pervaded the place suddenly became overpowering and something crashed into her from the side. The force of the blow would have knocked the aasimar to the floor if she didn't find herself stuck to whatever struck her. She was pushed a few stumbling side steps before she understood what was happening. A kuo-toa had rushed her with their shield, which was covered with a fresher coat of the same sticky substance as on the floor - and she was plastered to the side of it. Instead of stabbing her with the spear in its other hand, the fish humanoid kept moving her towards the far wall of the hall.
"Destroy the constructs and capture the others," the mind flayer's had mentally ordered his servants.
She was about to become pinned to the wall and held there. Aleina pushed back, but her boots scrabbled uselessly against the floor, despite its stickiness. The kuo-toa was bigger, stronger, and had momentum.
For some reason, at that instant, she remembered training with the monk Hlam on Mount Waterdeep - about all the bouts at the end with Jhelnae and her friend's smug smiles and condescending words of encouragement as the she sent the aasimar landing on her butt again and again. But mostly Aleina remembered it had been a game of pushing and pulling. So now she put all her effort in one more push, putting everything she had into it, yelling with her exertion. And after all that, with just a bit more applied strength, the kuo-toa easily overpowered her.
At that same moment Aleina went slack, going with the push and throwing herself towards the ground. Overbalanced, her assailant tumbled over her to somersault and thud into the stone wall he'd been trying to pin her against. The sticky shield holding the aasimar tore away with an audible rending of fabric and a painful pulling at her skin. She found herself free on her hands and knees amid the discarded bones on the floor and promising herself she would trek up that mountain to train with Hlam again at some point, no matter how sore it made her!
The gunslinger's weapon boomed in discharge once more. Aleina had lost her grip on her moonstone orb during the struggle and spied it on the ground nearby. Floor residue clinging to her palms and knees, she crawled towards it, reaching it as her kuo-toa assailant regained his feet. She sent four rays of heat and light searing out of her orb towards the creature, but an eldritch beam of energy crackled into her target first, knocking it down so her own attack scorched only stone.
The aasimar's gaze went from the newly created kuo-toa corpse on the ground to the source of the other attack.
"Thanks?" she said, expression also questioning.
"Don't give me that look!" Jhelnae said, throwing up the hand not holding her summoned sword. "I thought you were in trouble!"
"We are in trouble!" Aleina warned, pointing.
The half-drow yelped and ducked away from the net tossed at her, slicing upward at the same time. Her abyssal blade easily parted the cords and the remains of the net fell harmlessly on either side of her.
Still on her knees, the aasimar aimed with her moonstone orb. This time nothing intervened from the rays of heat from blazing to their target. The kuo-toa gave her a wall-eyed look, chest smoldering, then toppled.
She glanced around the hall as she stood, wiping her free hand against her tunic, trying and failing to free it from any of the sticky floor residue. Both intellect devourers were down as well as most of the kuo-toa, the few who survived bunched before the mind flayer for its protection. For one brief moment the aasimar had the impression this was going to be easier than expected. Then a telepathic voice invaded her thoughts.
"Golden construct," the mind flayer said. "Your mind and the silver one's mind form thoughts in a pattern similar to flesh sentience?"
If it truly was a question the creature didn't wait for an answer.
"How convenient and exploitable."
The feminine silver and blue runed construct, having just dispatched her kuo-toa adversary, turned and regarded each of her companions - Fel'rekt reloading his strange weapon in a corner and surrounded by a haze of alchemical smoke, the huffing and puffing Mirt with his sword unsheathed and bloodied from the bodies of a kuo-toa and a intellect devourer at his feet, and her builder Koger who stood near Aleina and Jhelnae - with a steely gaze the aasimar found very ominous.
"Ancilla?" Koger questioned, then got authoritative. "Stand down!"
Whatever that meant, she didn't do it. She once again cycled looking through the companions until she settled on the largest group standing together.
"What sort of powers do you have, I wonder?"
The myriad of runes spread across Ancilla's metal and lacquered wood body began to glow more intensely and motes of bright azure lights formed before them.
"Get behind me!" Koger yelled, only the volume of his flat metallic voice showed his urgency.
The golden construct put action to words by dashing in front of the aasimar and half-drow with a whirring of gears just as Ancilla's now fully formed motes of light darted forward in a barrage of glowing missiles. Aleina lifted an arm in front of her face, praying her warding armor might at least absorb some of what was incoming. A blast of brightness erupted before her, but she felt no pain or impact. She lowered her arm in wonder to see a fading shimmering golden field protecting her.
"Koger," Jhelnae gasped.
The golden construct crashed to his knees with a clank. The gold metal and lacquered wood of the front of his body was battered and ravaged and the glow of his runes now pulsed, dimming with every iteration.
"I could only spell shield one of you," he said. "Self-repairs initiating."
"So you used your body to protect me," the half-drow breathed.
"Break its concentration!" Fel'rekt shouted. "That will break its domination spell!"
The gunslinger raised his weapon and fire and smoke belched from it once more, the resulting exploding boom again echoed through the hall. The mind flayer ducked and one of the magical wall sconces that lit the place shattered with a shower of sparkling energy.
"Beat the aasimar and female drow senseless" the creature ordered telepathically, tentacles writhing. "Leave at least some brains to harvest."
Ancilla nodded once to show the order had been received and the buckler sized shields on her arms retracted. She bunched metallic fingers into fists.
"Don't destroy her," Koger said. "Not her fault."
Somehow he was able to convey pleading even with his toneless metallic voice. He collapsed sideways and the final bit of illumination of his glowing runes winked out.
"I'll take care of the flayer," Mirt huffed. "You lasses subdue our silver friend."
He started a charge across the sticky floor towards the remaining kuo-toa guarding their master, moving faster than Aleina would have expected given his girth, graying mustache, and flopping sea boots.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae said. "Subdue her? Without hurting her? How?"
But she dropped her abyssal sword and it misted from existence as she stepped in front of the fallen Koger.
"Web!" the half-drow muttered under her breath. "Why can't I cast a web?"
The aasimar briefly lifted her hand with the ring of the ram on a finger in consideration, but decided against it. Ancilla might end up just pushed against the far wall or might be destroyed beyond repair if she used it. She didn't know. Sighing, she joined her friend in front of Koger as his creation of silvered metal and lacquered wood clanked forward with the intent of beating them senseless.
"I'll try a counter charm," the half-drow said.
She made a twisting gesture with her fingers, trying to capture Ancilla's attention, then started casting her spell by humming a series of notes. For one hopeful instant the construct paused her advance, tilted her head, and regarded Jhelnae intently.
"That is right, Ancilla," the half-drow coaxed in a whisper to herself. "I'm your friend. That tentacled horror is not."
Then a cracking shot from the drow gunslinger's weapon sounded through the hall along with a bellow from Mirt as he engaged the kuo-toa and the moment was lost. The female construct once again moved forward, her metal gaze intent and hostile.
"By all that dances!" Jhelnae growled.
She pointed and a globe of magical darkness encircled the oncoming Ancilla. The clanking steps stopped.
"That won't confuse her for long," the half-drow said. "Unless I go in and keep her confused."
Before Aleina could protest her friend did just that, disappearing into the darkness at a run. The aasimar didn't like the plan, but with Jhelnae's enhanced, eldritch vision, she would be able to see in the magical darkness while her opponent would not. The half-drow could hopefully keep the construct off balanced with hit and run tactics. But as Aleina could do nothing to help, her best course of action would be to break the flayer's concentration. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw set.
Killing it would certainly do that.
She glanced towards the gunslinger, surprised when she didn't hear the expected discharge from his weapon that had become as regular as a drumbeat during the battle. Fel'rekt leaned against the wall with a dazed, slack faced expression, staring but seeing nothing. She understood immediately, having experienced it herself - the mind flayer had targeted him with its mind attack.
Mirt was still in the fight, but he took on three kuo-toa by himself. Even as she watched he tripped over his floppy sea boots and fell, but his roll back to his feet was actually graceful and his tumble saved him from capture by the grasping pincher weapon on a pole wielded by one of the fish humanoids. He renewed his attack from his new angle, which seemed to catch the kuo-toa by surprise as they stumbled back, hemming in their master in their tight bubble of protection.
The aasimar judged they were in serious trouble. The wheezing from the old soldier indicated he couldn't keep fighting much longer, and the mind flayer might be able to use his mind attack against him at any moment. The aasimar did not know the extent or limit of its abilities. She needed a line of attack past the kuo-toa and she needed it now!
A grim, tight smile came to her lips as she realized the ceiling was conveniently high. Taking a breath, Aleina summoned her wings, feeling them manifest and become a part of her, flesh and light as one. Twenty feet was not all that far up, a jump and a flap and her hair brushed the ceiling.
The mind flayer's gaze was drawn away from Mirt and up to her, either through the sensing of her thoughts telepathically or just seeing the light of her wings. Its pupiless, milky white eyes widened and the tentacles around its mouth writhed as it raised a hand towards her.
But the aasimar cast first.
Rays of heat flared down from her moonstone orb to blaze at her target. The upraised hand of the flayer moved protectively instead of offensively after one of the sent rays scorched into the creature's nightmare inducing face.
"AAARGH!"
The telepathic scream of pain was almost as bad as the mind blasting attack, but it seemed to serve as a wakeup call to its recipients instead of leaving them dazed and confused.
Fel'rekt weapon cracked and the chest of one of the remaining kuo-toa exploded in a shredding of fish scales and blood. Mirt took the opportunity to dodge by the thrusting spear of another and sink his sword point past its shield and into flesh. With the creature falling back, only the one wielding the pincer weapon remained.
"Protect me!" the mind flayer mentally ordered.
Aleina sent a volley of rays scorching after it as it retreated back towards the door from which it entered. One flared into its back, and the mind flayer stumbled for a step, but righted itself and continued on. The steel breastplate it wore likely had deflected most of the attack. The iron portcullis clattered downward once it fled the hall.
"Flayers normally escape through the planes," Fel'rekt said, reloading his weapon and approaching the portcullis. "But this one ran instead."
"The magic… of the… Mad Mage," Mirt wheezed, answering the implied question.
He'd dispatched his last opponent, but looked in danger of collapsing himself - sweating profusely, skin somehow both pale and beet red in patches at the same time, and breaths coming in gasps.
"Skullport… and this lair beneath it… are still… part of… Undermountain," the old man continued as his panting breath allowed. "Starting tomorrow… clean living. An exercise regimen… healthy food… no alcohol. All that rot."
"How often do you promise yourself that?" Jhelnae asked, the globe of darkness around her dissipating.
Ancilla stood for a moment looking around, mind flayer's domination obviously broken, then she moved to kneel in front of the fallen Koger. Her runes glowed a brighter blue and a similar azure hue suffused the golden construct's form, the golden color of his own runes ignited once more underneath.
"Nightly lass… nightly," Mirt said, winking. "Or maybe… it is always… early morning. But rest assured… it is always… after a full evening… of debauchery."
This earned a partial smile, but the half-drow sobered quickly and ran to tug at the portcullis, which didn't budge.
"By all that dances!" she cursed, backing up and giving the gridded iron bars a frustrated kick.
"Our best chance of killing it has been lost," Fel'rekt said, holstering his weapon. "Our time is running out. The flayer likely is already running down a secret tunnel back in there. Time to leave."
As if to punctuate his statement, the faint echo of gunslinger weapon fire reached them, coming from down the corridor from which the teleportation pillar was located. The companions they left to guard the way out clearly still fought to hold the way out.
"We can't leave!" the aasimar said, she'd landed and dismissed her wings as the others talked. "We aren't here just to kill a mind flayer. We're here on a rescue mission. To find and save friends of ours."
She moved quickly to join Jhelnae at the portcullis. Inside, she could hear muffled gibbering and muttering, but the carved stone chair atop the stone slab she could see through the bars was unoccupied. The blood spattered on the stone and the iron manacles bolted to armrests made the chairs' purpose clear. The voice she heard didn't sound like Kuhl or Sky, but madness could change the way someone sounded, she reasoned. Forcing down worry and sharing a nod with the half-drow, they both lifted and strained against the portcullis, grunting with the effort. It felt depressingly unmovable.
"Rescue your friends and hopefully my sister," Koger said, sitting up and clambering to his feet. "Let me and Ancilla try."
Together the two constructs moved to the portcullis. Jhelnae and Aleina gave up their positions to them. Taking grips, Koger and Ancilla straightened, gears first whirring then whining, and with a pop and a rattle, the locking mechanism broke and the portcullis clattered upward.
"Something to consider," Mirt said before any of them could investigate the now open doorway further.
The old man actually had recovered rather well, breaths not so gasping and skin pallor looking better.
"Anyone wanting to flank those we left guarding the teleportation pillar will come down that corridor," he said.
He pointed down the only other corridor leading to the hallway they occupied, other than the one they'd originally come from.
"Meaning some of us better stay here and make sure no one can flank them," Fel'rekt said. "Or us."
The old man nodded.
"I'll stay," the gunslinger said, unholstering his weapon. "You hear me shoot, you come back as fast as you can."
"Better another stands guard with you," Mirt said. "When they come, it will be hard and fast."
Fel'rekt nodded.
"Hurry," he said to the others. "The longer we are here, the more we push our luck."
Jhelnae stretched out her hand and mist coalesced to form her abyssal sword into her grasp. Aleina readied her moonstone orb. But Koger stopped them before they could lead the way.
"Let us go first," he said. "We non-organics are more sturdily built. Ancilla, guardian mode."
Once the two buckler sized shields had formed on the silver constructs arms, they entered the chamber beyond, aasimar and half-drow on their heels. The kuo-toa smell of the hall was bad, but the smell in here was worse. It smelled of blood, bile, sweat, excrement, fear, and madness. The blood splattered stone chair with armrest manacles dominated the center of the room but hanging chains with iron fetters lined the wall to their right. Anyone chained there would have been forced to watch whoever was tortured in the chair, likely knowing they were next.
But now, no one was present, and of the mind flayer, there was no sign.
Two doors led from the room other than the one previously protected by the portcullis. The muffled moaning and gibbering voice came from the one along the wall with the hanging chains. Aleina motioned to it when the golden construct gave her a questioning look.
If the room with the blood splattered stone chair smelled of death, carnage, and madness, this new room beyond the door reeked of it. So much so that the aasimar only barely stopped herself from retching on entry.
It contained three wooden tables arranged corner to corner to form a triangle in the middle of the room and blood stained the floor under the tables. One table was empty, but two others held prisoners secured by leather straps. The filthy and stained tattered remains of their clothes hung off their gaunt frames and their hair and beards were long and unkempt. Neither of them were Kuhl or Sky.
Aleina didn't know whether to be thankful or disappointed by that.
Both were human, one looked dead, and the other was the gibberer they'd heard from outside. He presently started shrieking, luckily he seemed to only have enough energy for a few screams before this subsided and he retreated back to the muttering of the mad.
"This one is alive, but catatonic," Koger said, after an investigation of the silent and still one.
"Cut them free," the aasimar said.
The half-drow's abyssal blade easily parted the leather straps, but neither of the prisoners moved off the table once freed. Their minds seemed broken and they were unaware of what happened around them.
"Can you carry them?" Aleina asked.
She felt guilty even asking. The two prisoners were filthy and the smell of them, even from paces away, was gag inducing.
"Our olfactory sensors differ from organics," the golden construct said, seemingly guessing her thoughts. "We categorize, but do not place smells in a hierarchy of pleasant and unpleasant. Ancilla, we are to carry these two."
Her buckler sized shields retracted, but before she lifted up the silent prisoner, she picked a crumpled piece of parchment out of his clenched fist and offered it to Koger. He uncrumpled it and studied it for a moment.
"Sophiya?" he asked in his flat metallic voice. "What is Blood and Fortune?"
The parchment he showed them was some sort of advertisement. 'Blood and Fortune' was titled on the top and a group of hobgoblins, elves - drow judging from the shading of their skin - were depicted as well as a woman in a ridiculously scant amount of scale mail armor with tattoos twining down her arms and legs. There was something familiar about her and, glancing at Ancilla, the aasimar understood why. Though the facial features were heavily stylized in the silver construct, they were similar to the woman drawn on the parchment.
"The date on it is for around a month ago," the half-drow said. "Whatever Blood and Fortune was, it has passed and was held in Skullport."
"It's a clue to finding Sophiya," the golden construct said. "More data is needed, but I will show it to my brothers."
He folded the parchment and stowed it in a belt pouch, then scooped up the gibbering prisoner. Ancilla did the same with the catatonic one and the four of them, six counting the rescued prisoners, returned to the chamber with the blood spattered stone chair.
"Carry them out of here," Aleina said, motioning towards the portcullis door. "We'll look for others."
By 'others' the aasimar really meant Kuhl and Sky, but part of her was losing hope, despair taking its place. The worried look Jhelnae gave her as Koger and Ancilla left with their human burdens showed the half-drow felt the same.
Dread rising, Aleina crossed the room, Jhelnae moving with her. She found the iron banded door waiting for her there unlocked. Jhelnae readied her abyssal blade and the aasimar pulled the door open.
Sword leading the way, the half-drow moved to the now open entrance and looked beyond, the aasimar glancing over her shoulder, moonstone orb raised and ready for casting.
This room possessed a briny smell much more pleasant than the previous two. A pool full of luminous green liquid around ten feet across, stood at the center. She recognized the liquid as the same clinging to the intellect devourers they'd fought in the hall. Manacles hung from the walls of this room as well, but they held no prisoners.
No Kuhl or Sky. No doors out that might lead to them.
And standing on the other side of the pool was the mind flayer holding a cloth drenched with the luminous green liquid to the burn on its face. Its free hand was already pointed in their direction.
"I sense your thoughts," it telepathically sent. "Laeral Silverhand sends you to kill me? I have never tasted aasimar, but drow brains are so far my favorite."
The mental message was near instantaneous and before Aleina could respond with a volley of scorching rays, pain exploded in her mind.
So... I post this with some trepidation. Not sure if this works. I didn't really have a plan of action. I was just like, "They fight a mind flayer. It will write itself..."
It didn't.
Warning - below is a description of how the scene went the way it went (which some *might* find amusing).
I knew I had to work in mind blast. That was fine. Then I had to work in dominate monster where it can take control of one of the opposing party once per day. I went through my choices and settled on Jhelnae. But when I went to write it, I had a problem.
Aleina was like, "STOP!"
"What?"
"You're going to have me fight my friend?"
"Is that a problem?"
"Isn't that really cliche? Like every single mind control story *ever* has two friends fight?"
"Well, maybe it is cliche because it works..."
Jhelnae piped in: "Give him a chance. What is the plan? So, I'm right next to her, I've got my abyssal sword summoned, so how does she beat me?"
"Well, she tackles you, because she doesn't want to hurt you, and your sword mists out of existence..."
Both of them started immediately laughing and shaking their heads.
"No. No. We're not doing the girl fight thing on a sticky, bone filled, disgusting, dungeon floor...can't someone else get mind controlled?"
"Well Mirt is a canon character, we had a whole chapter with the recruitment of the gunslinger, so having them come all the way down here to be mind controlled doesn't really work, and the other two are constructs."
"Is there a rule that says a construct can't be mind controlled?"
"Hmmm...it is a wisdom saving throw, and I've based Ancilla off a shield guardian, and the rules say they have a wisdom of 10..."
Jhelnae - "My wisdom is higher than 10..."
Aleina - "Then it is settled..."
"Actually she does have a barrage spell stored that might be fun to write about. So she casts that, then runs at the two of you, and you tackle her..."
"Oh, by all that dances! Now we're going to roll around on the floor with a silver construct instead?"
Aleina - "Please. Try. Harder. I'm begging you..."
