Session Thirty-Nine

Is the sound of distant drumming just the fingers of your hand?

Pictures hanging in a hallway and the fragment of a song

Half remembered names and faces, but to whom do they belong?

When you knew that it was over you were suddenly aware 

- Windmills of Your Mind

Gas Vents: You see these at regular intervals, in the rooms, in the halls

Shrieker Dust: the remnants of the myconid alarm system. You can see on the ceilings the black rings of mycelium roots from which the shriekers once must have hung from above.

Sealable doors: All the doors can be pressure sealed with a crank wheel at their centre, and locked with a psionic crystal key. Many of the doors were linked to the disintegrated mycelium alarms and can no longer seal shut properly (Luckum’s handwork)

Halls: There doesn’t seem to be a right angle in the complex. Most corridors are ramps that twist in on themselves. As such, even rooms and wider halls are frequently sloped.

Walls: Most walls are rough carved or flow-shaped asteroid stone. Tiny tiles with a sickly purplish hue, cover many of the walls. Occasional frescoes seem to denote some special narrative.

Illithid Gear: The Illithid Sentinel in the reception area wore a set of functional work overalls beneath the tabard robes that denoted his rank and role. There is a hood attached to the back and a place that t could be sealed on the chest.

There is an observation platform filled with pillows above. A carved up Illithid floats face up above a large ichor-covered table, its organs clearly visible. Its nictating membranes blink and its tentacles quiver. Somehow, it is still alive. A tall skeletal and desiccated Illithid moves around it deliberately, tools clutched in its bloody claws. Its own rib cage is exposed and cracked open and inside that, a smaller figure, also clearly illithid, writhes. (DEVOURER)

• If the Illithid is examined, the characters see that there is a would in its skull where a psionic crystal has recently been placed.

An articulated chair with straps designed to hold whoever is sitting in it in place is stained with blood. There is a drain in the floor. Gore covered cephalic surgical tools litter a tray. A handheld dremel saw has a circular blade and an outlet to hold a psionic crystal in place. Another similar device has a drill – there is also a hand cranked drill. A device similar to the district mapper, sits on a desk with gypsum chips next to it and a place for larger crystals to be inserted. From the array of componets, you gather that at some point the larger crystals are inserted inside the skull case of whoever is unfortunate enough to be strapped to the chair.

• ·       The crystals are for suppressing psionic power and for tracking

Levitation tunnels wind upwards and downwards from a wedge-shaped room at the end of a bent hall. There are doorways in the tunnels, though there appear to be more below than there are above. In the room, a fresco of tiny tiles depicts various “lesser races” (mostly moreaufolk) drowning and flailing amidst massive purple tentacles.

Sentinel quarters are below and Specialist quarters are below.

• ·       8x Stun sticks: Touch attack. Temporarily reduce Will Saves by 10 (1 round) – psionic crystal (10 stuns), 1d4 grace damage

• ·       4x Gas masks: Cover the entire head; attach to the overalls worn by Illithid staff. Illithids breathe through their skin, which is highly permeable.

• ·   2x Methane Immersion Suits: with spaces for 8 more

• ·   Dream Travel Helm (see the Dream Travel Spell)

• ·   2x Scorching Ray Guns (Psulron Tek)

A wedge-shaped room at the end of a bent hall. On one side there is a fresco of tiny tiles depicting illithid spelljammers locked in combat, and destroying an Ylfen warship. The floor is slick with condensed water and covered in drains. In the ceiling, a segmented tunnel free of any gravity actively bends and twists, making it impossible to see through to where it leads. Its sides are covered with ice. The chill and smell of methane reminds you of Mezsoul (NOTE: Illithids can telepathically levitate at will)

There is a pile of ten ratfolk bodies in this room at the bottom of this spiral chimney. All of them are emaciated and have had their skulls crushed and brains extracted. The bodies are covered in welts and bruises, like they were inside a tight metallic cage.

The ante-prison floats in an enclosed chamber of liquid methane inside an asteroid. The asteroid in which the prison is located rotates like a skrimish ball in flight. Thus, so too does the gravity plane. The access point to the Downward Spiral of prison cells is accessible through the methane lake 9 h at a time and is exposed to the open air 3 h at a time.

This room is filled with arcane machinery, pipes and pressure valves, cranks and gears. It appears to be a central control hub for much of the prison’s machinery. There are two large psionic crystals in this room – power sources. There is an Illithid here powering one of the crystals (only 10 GRACE left).

FOUR PIPING NODES

• ·       Mycelium network feeding node: this is recognizable largely by the effects of Luckum’s disintegration spell

• ·       Food pipe control node: This is connected to the Mycelium node and is leaking, yellow-brown goo, roughly the consistency of runny oatmeal

• ·       Gas piping node: This is a lever similar to that you found in the entrance desk. It is connected to a vent in the ceiling.

• ·       Water piping node: you recognize the Illithid word for water and that’s what this provides.

TWO MACHINES

• ·       Massive machine: Prisoner administration system: Main storage. Who is being housed where

• ·       A Gauge on this machine tells where the “front” section prison is relative to the “cells” of the spiral. There is a period of 3h each day that the SPIRAL is not accessible to the main prison building

I don’t have much time, so this will have to be brief.

It’s been a tough slog. We’ve managed to fight our way through the upper level of the Illithid prison, and they didn’t exactly go quietly. Traps, mind blasts, a nearly successful attempt to eat Khalid’s brain - these mind flayers weren’t messing around. 

My comrades are figuring out the dos and don’ts of what we’re calling “the machine room,” of the prison. Seems kind of like a control centre of sorts, maybe? Anyways, I’m not much good for that so as the other three are all taken in by the weirdness of the whirring and clicking and blinking of the Illithid creations I’m just taking a moment to jot down a few notes.

Given where we are, it could well be my last chance.

The rescued ratfolk are a question without an answer. They’re in grave danger with or without us. We can’t get them out. We can’t leave them be. We can’t really take them with us… I feel for them, and for Hazel.

The toughest and most disgusting fight was when we discovered some sort of illithid torture chamber. I swear it was as if the torturer we found there tried to eat my soul. Despite the wards of the architects in and around me, he (it?) nearly succeeded.

That one was the worst - for me - but the damned illithids kept popping up everywhere. Some fights were worse than others, but every one took a bit out of us. I could tell my comrades were starting to flag - running low on energy, spells. The psychic assaults of the illithids hadn’t yet killed, brain-wiped, or otherwise knocked out any of us, but they’d come close a few times.

We had figured out a few things about the prison, and had a general idea of how to get through to the prisoners. Easier said than done though. There were still illithid challenges ahead, and likely behind. Probably soon. We could have used a chance to regroup, but I had my doubts we could get it.