It was the pounding ache directly behind Eirina's eyes that coaxed her to wakefulness. The last thing she remembered was gazing up at the waxing moon, saying a prayer before seeking repose. She had been on the roof of the inn she was staying at, not wanting to interact with the others she travelled with. they were deep in their cups and she wasn't in mood for frivolities. The anxiety that had been plaguing her all day had finally settled down enough that she would be able to rest.
The tapping sound on glass made the headache worse, Eirina cracked her eyes open, attempting to raise her hands to rub against her temples. Only her arms weren't moving. The scream was caught in her throat as the horror struck her at the sight before her. Eirina knew she wasn't dreaming, you don't dream pain. And the wish that she was dreaming. There, staring at the Eladrin through the glass above her were bright orange eyes and a large, purple elongated forehead. She had read about these creatures, her parents had told her tales as a child of the hive mind and the need to uniform domination. Long, slender fingers pressed against the glass of the pod for a moment before turning away. The long cloak and high collar blocked most of the figure in front of the pod, and the scream began to rise up in her through again. Mind flayer. Shit. Shit shit shit. How the hells did she end up here? And has it already...
Choking back the scream, Eirina thought a quick prayer to Selune and tested her bonds. Her arms were lashed tight to her body, the glass and tentacled dome above her keeping her encased. Thinking hard, she realized that this was pod. An egg. And what she knew of mind flayers and ceremorphosis, there was no escaping what was going to happen next. Watching the tentacles part, there is something she realized: these things do smile."Hive mind my ass, this thing is taking some perverse pleasure from the fear I can feel on my face."Eirina thought as the pod opened and an unseen force wrapped around her hovering a few inches above her face, she could feel the phantom force squeezing her throat as the writhing tube of teeth was lowered to her eye. Pain lanced through her and the headache she woke with was nothing but a small discomfort compared to the teeth biting around her eyelid, digging and burrowing in. Throat released, Eirina could hear her scream echo as the pain mounted. Finally, black edges around her vision began to appear. The last thing she saw were the piercing orange eyes and the slow undulation of a tentacle as the tail of the wriggling barb slid over her eye and everything went black.
When she came to again, the headache was back, but dull, aching, and not the piercing one she experienced earlier. This time, it wasn't a mind flayer waking her, but the rocking of the ship as it careened violently to the side. Something was happening outside, there was a gaping hole in the side of the room and Eirina could see a flaming red sky flying past. Hells. She was in one of the hells. And this was a ship. Struggling against her bonds once more, she felt them give way and the lid hissed open. Staggering out, she stumbled slightly on the rocking ground and looked around. Half the pods were crushed from whatever came through the side of the hull. Some of the others were engulfed in flames, and the rest looked to be empty. She was the only one in this room. Well, aside from the viscous pool that the eye wriggling tube of teeth came out of. Giving the pool a long look, she decided it would be safer to avoid it. Not knowing anything about mind flayer anatomy, Eirina didn't know if the contents of that would be compatible with her skin, so just walked past it. She could hear the sizzle of the acidic nature of the vat as she stepped carefully past it. Checking her body, she was shocked to see that her armor and dagger were still on her body, but anything she had left in her room in the inn was not on her.
"Damn! My mace and shield were in my room!" Cursing her luck, she looked around for weapons and equipment. there were pods on the levels above her that she couldn't reach, mind flayers had this floaty thing that they did,so it made sense that they didn't need stairs like pretty much everyone else did. A cursory look around the room revealed a door on the other side of the tadpole pool. Eirina moved cautiously, glancing at every pod she passed, checking for survivors. The Moon Maiden would want to save them, even if they would eventually turn into one of those nightmares. Everyone deserved a chance to survive and find a cure. The mucilaginous fixture moved in a disturbing fashion, not allowing Eirina to even peak into the next room, she was open and exposed right from the get go.
"Alright, so stealth isn't an option," she drew a dagger so she wasn't completely defenseless, "time to arm myself with something, anything." This room was also filled with pods, though many of them were destroyed from whatever struck the ship. The nearest one to her was propped open and a man was half draped out of it, his neck broken at an unnatural angle. Eirina could tell at a glance that there was nothing she could do to help him, but she stopped to check if he had anything she could use. Looking him over, she saw that he must be a farmer or laborer, the dirt under his nails and the deep tan on his face showed that he had stood little chance of defending himself to mind flayers. She left whatever valuables were within his pockets where they were and continued on. Somewhere above her, she could hear the muffled pounding of fists on glass. Someone was alive! Searching around, she couldn't seem to locate means of climbing up to give assistance. When she tried to climb the sinuous walls, she kept slipping and falling back down. Punching the side of the wall in frustration, she heard a series of shrieks coming from the next nebulous door. She wasn't alone. And a dagger would only do so much to protect her. Offering a prayer to the Moon Maiden, Eirina started searching bodies and damaged pods for anything that would help her. A crude shield and a short sword were located on one eviscerated victim of the mind flayers, and two mind flayer corpses resulted in several precious stones and a potion. Feeling no guilt stealing from the creatures that kidnapped her, she turned their bodies over with substantial effort to examine their armor. Even if it cost her precious seconds, knowing any weaknesses on her enemy would help her in the long run. All she learned was that their elaborate cloaks provided no armor, just visual intimidation. The must use a magical means of armor, like most other spell casters.
Eirina was about to move towards the source of the shrieking with her stolen equipment, when she noticed an exam table on the next level up, an advanced elevator immediately below it. A piercing voice split into her head.
"Help Us! Set Us Free!" Blinking past the pain Eirina moved to the odd platform and punched the controls on it, vision still blurred. Bracing her feet, Eirina felt the platform slowly move up, revealing that a body lay on the exam table. And it was alive, the psychic connection pulling her towards it.
"Give me a minute and I'll get you out of there!" Eirina tucked her sword into the scabbard and began to reach for the straps holding the man to the table. He was dressed only in coarse linen pants, and nothing else.
"Free Us!" The voice sounded desperate. Eirina looked up and saw that behind the flap of skin on his forehead, the top of his skull had been peeled away. Vacant eyes and gaping mouth, there appeared to be no intelligence behind his gaze, but the brain itself twisted and writhed within the exposed bone. The brain wriggled violently as she moved to stand before it. It pulsed.
"Please! Free Us! We will go to the helm! The ship is crashing!" Eirina looked over the brain and body. Whatever the mind flayers had done to it, there was no saving the man, and the brain seemed to be thriving even exposed to air. She had seen enough battlefield triages to know that when a brain was this exposed, there was no saving the individual it was attached to.
"What do I do?" She was at a complete loss, running her fingers lightly on the ridge of the cut skull. Whatever had cut him open had been sharp, and hot. There was almost no blood, save for whatever flowed to the brain, there was just a smooth surface under the pads of her fingers.
"Pull Us free!" The voice was less painful now, speaking directly in her mind, so she tucked her fingers around the mass of flesh and pulled. The creature screamed in pain, but was eventually plucked free, falling to the ground with a loud "SPLAT!" Eirina watched as it spasmed and seized for a few moment before four clawed legs burst from the folds of the brain, with tentacles now reaching towards her ankle. So this was how an intellect devourer was born. Only this one didn't seem to have an interest in eating her brain, she could feel the tadpole wriggle behind her eye in response to the psychic connection to the creature. "Friend has freed Us!" Eirina looked down at the small creature. She had heard that mind flayers had kept these things like wizards keep cats as familiars.
"What is your name?" She knelt down to pet the brain, noticing that the once soft and porous skin had taken on a slightly harder edge. It wasn't as vulnerable now that it was out and had finished it's birthing process.
"Us. We are Us. Friend and Us got to the helm. To the helm we go!" Eirina looked at it for a few moments, taking in it's words and behaviors. Maybe it would be an ally and not side with whatever tentacled captures remained on the ship. Moving back to the platform, she could hear the claws of Us scuttling on the ship's floor behind her. She heard the pounding on glass again and looked up. There were rows upon rows of pods and she had no clue how to get up to them. As Eirina stood there and pondered the situation, the ship lurched again, something striking the outside of it violently, ripping a fresh hole in the room where she stood.
"The helm! We go to the helm!" Us urged her on, bumping against her leg to keep her moving. Looking up, Eirina said a prayer, sending up a mote of light, hoping to convey that she wanted to help, but this ship needed to land first.
"Selune," she prayed, "save these souls." Moving alongside the intellect devourer, Eirina had to raise her arm against the harsh light that greeted her at the edge of the ripped out hull. And the heat. She could feel the heat of the hells wafting up at her. It was painful. She had heard stories, but this must be Avernus, Zariel's realm. She was about the start making her way over the remains of the floor when I figure loomed over her, sword raised. She watched as a heavily armor figure vaulted through the air, twisting with a speed and grace unlike anything she had seen before. Even in the plate armor, it was as if the protection was a second skin this woman had been born with. The green skin and piercing eyes threw her for a moment. The blade came up and pointed a breath away from Eirina's throat.
"This is your end!" The warrior in front of Eirina was unlike any creatures she had seen before: olive skin, black tattoos spraying out on her skin, and ears that pointed in a manner only the vainest of elves ever hoped for. But the glance was fleeting, since this woman was in front of Eirina armed and breathing heavy with the lust of the battle upon her.
Suddenly, Eirina's head began to throb, her skin tingling as every nerve lit up. Visions began to rush past her vision: a dragon's wing, a silver sword - and a flash of Eirina's own face seen through the gith's eyes.
"My head. What is this?" The githyanki grunts, clutching her head with one hand. After a moment, she looks up and smiles, her pert nose flaring as if to draw in Eirina's scent as well as her stance. The connection appears to have worked both ways.
"Tsk'va. You are no thrall," The warrior sheaths her sword, "Vlaakith blesses me this day! Together, we might survive."
"Imps block the path forward. You will assist me in destroying them - we must reach the helm before we transform." Looking past the gith, Eirina could see the path ahead was filled with flapping wings and spraying blood.
"Who are you?" Eirina's voice was slightly more clipped than she had intended, but there had been a sword against her throat seconds before.
"Who am I? Your only chance of survival." The warrior stood tall, surveying Eirina from top to bottom. Eirina knew that the red hair was uncommon in her people, a blessing of a half elf ancestor far enough back on her mother's side that the gene was thought all but lost. As were the dual shades of her eyes, one green as forest mint, the other the silvery blue of the moonlight. Many mistook her for a wood elf instead of one of the high Elves born in the upper city of Baldur's Gate.
"You may be my best chance of getting out of here alive, but if we don't work together, we're not going to make it much further than those," Eirina pointed to the pack of fiends eating the flesh of deceased captives, "so introductions are required. I am Eirina Virrian, of Baldur's Gate." She left her voice to trail off, indicating for her new companion to adhere at least to basic curtesy.
"You may call me Lae'zel," the reply was just as short as Eirina expected it to be. The elf responded by gesturing her hand towards the imps, indicating that Lae'zel may have the honor of first into combat. And the gith's response gave every indication of approval
Lae'zel's broad grin, slender fingers gripping the sword, the warrior threw herself into the pack with relish. Eirina picked up a discarded crossbow from one of the creatures and began shooting bolts from the few remaining in the quiver. A quick search of the bodies yielded a few more weapons, but nothing of value. Lae'zel just stood there looking at Us with a puzzled expression more akin to a scowl than anything else.
"That's Us," Eirina strapped a now full quiver of bolts to her hip, "and he's friendly," she gave a hard look to the gith warrior before her, "you are NOT to kill him." Lae'zel just snorted and tossed her head in response.
Now that Eirina wasn't alone, the two women began to move through the ship, maneuvering past various other brain pets scuttling around, ignoring them.
"Odd," Lae'zel commented at one point, "these creatures are usually hostile. Is the ghaik tadpole really causing them to treat us as one of their masters?" She lifted one heavy boot up to crush one when Eirina snapped at her.
"Stop it! There is no need to kill for killing sake!" Lae'zel looked up in surprise.
"I experienced my first kill not long after I picked up my blade," the githyanki approached the next door, "if you do not kill first, you shall be killed." Eirina just looked at her companions back.
"That sounds like a lonely way to grow up," her voice was soft and she looked away, thinking of all the love and care her parents had given her, "I'm sorry." Lae'zel just shrugged.
"It is the way of my people." The response was so clipped and filled with resignation that Eirina didn't respond, just followed Lae'zel into the next room.
