The Planewalkers' Other Journies

[Spleen]

Theller makes chase, gripping his spear in both taloned hands, nimbly avoiding stomping on the bodies of the ones that were already killed.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Dashing away from the party, the rats keep a good distance, eventually darting into a side tunnel. Inside, a large round room encompasses a variety of broken furniture and lab equipment. A huge mass of rats, too many to count, crowds and squirms over itself as it cowers in the shadows of snapped shelves and splintered worktables, while a near-carpet of shattered glasswork covers the stone floor.. One shelf stands along the far wall, with pieces of flesh and bone, parts of some unfortunate test subject, floating in green fluid, slim wires trailing out to now-destroyed testing apparatus.

The party barely has but an instant to take all this in, though, before a figure steps up from behind half a table; an elf. He looks and smells filthy, in tattered clothes that don't look to have been changed or washed in days, and short-cropped hair so matted in dirt that one can barely tell what color it is. Despite that, though, he seems healthy and well-fed; barely an adult, he cowers from the four almost as much as the rats, his voice high yet scratchy from recent lack of use. "...You. Go. This is our territory...you can't have it back! Tell them that!"

[Seethe]

Rosalyn's pursuit slowed to a stop once they entered the room of broken glass. There were too many rats in there. With that number, they could be a serious threat.

Of course, that wasn't the only reason the place creeped her out.

As a ragged-looking elf stepped stepped out from behind a table, the archer tensed up again, preparing for him to attack. When he spoke instead, though, she relaxed slightly, trying to make sense of what he had said.

"Them?" she asked, still hoping to pull some information out of this encounter. "It was never our territory. Who are you talking about?"

As she spoke, she hoped giving away the fact that her group wasn't from around here wouldn't provoke an attack.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

"They...", the elf says as he trails off, blinking as he focuses on the travelers, the rats chittering amongst themselves as he does. "...You've never been in the village before..."

He falls silent, though the sound of the rats grows no quieter. Inclining his head as if listening to a sound only he can hear, his face contorts in a mix of anger and fear. He shouts at them, "Go! We don't want your kind here!" He steps back, stumbling as he keeps his eyes on them, and drops to his knees, watching and waiting.

While up front the conversation continues, in the back of the group, the cub moves near Shawn, ducking under her arms and pressing back against her legs. Unnerved by the scents and surroundings, the nearby feline presence seems to be helping to keep him centered.

[Shinigori V2]

Shawn stalks forward just a bit, keeping the cub underfoot, and lowering her front. "What happened to the people here?"

As she asks, her eyes dart between the rats, lighting up like a fat kid in a buffet.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Pausing again, he sizes up the four, crouching himself down and watching. "...They'll speak to you, but only if you stay outside the territory. You can't enter here, it's theirs and you can't have it.

Breaking his gaze, he looks to the rats, fingers twitching as he clenches his hands together. "...The people...they're gone. The masters called us, and we tried to fight and defend them from the false masters, but they were too many...the people died, we all died...I was empty. There wasn't anyone!" He turns back to stare wide-eyed at the group again, grinning madly. "But...but the new masters found me, and I'm theirs now! Things are better now...I'm not alone, I'm not empty anymore! You're not going to hurt them!"

Growing disturbed at the sight, Florence steps back, her voice lowered. "Gods...what's wrong with him?"

The rats perk, and the elf perks soon after, staring at Florence. "I'm not wrong, you're wrong! Empty and alone! Maybe...maybe the new masters will..." He again looks to the rats, expressionless for a moment. Soon, though, tears form in his eyes, his face entirely downcast. "...No, they don't want you. I'm sorry...I'm so sorry..."

[Spleen]

Theller looked very uncomfortable, but kept his protective stance. "Your masters are...the rats?"

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Still red-eyed, he nods as he gathers his breath. "My new masters...my old masters are gone. I tried to protect them! I fought, we all fought, as the masters ordered! But it wasn't enough...the false masters filled my head with lies, they made me sleep, and when I woke up..."

He chokes back another sob before continuing. "...they're gone, all gone. The false masters are gone too...maybe other pets are here, but it doesn't matter. Not with the masters gone."

[Seethe]

It seemed that Rosalyn's earlier thought about mind control may have had something to it, though not exactly what she had expected.

"So, your old masters weren't rats, then?" she asked after a moment of thought. "And these 'false masters,' also something else?"

Then she paused for another moment as she thought of one more thing.

"There was a creature up there in the village that had been killing the animals in the area. Do you happen to know what that was?"

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

He shakes his head, watching the cranium rats as they squirm about and grow a bit bolder. "Not rats. Rats were pets too. But the false masters...they were the same as the masters, but different! The false masters came...they were angry about something...they looked like the masters, but they weren't the same inside. They said different things...I don't know what they meant, and the masters said to not listen, so I didn't. I didn't!"

He falls quiet as Rosalyn asks her second question, and seems to think for a bit, listening to the silent words of the rats. "...More pets. The masters had a lot of pets. It left when the masters were gone...it doesn't live down here anymore. The new masters don't like it."

Some of the rats seem to focus on the party, as does the elf, watching them. "...Why are you here? What do you want with us?"

[Spleen]

Theller spoke in a slow, measured tone, like he was talking to a particularly slow child. "We are...looking for answers. About the people who had lived here and are gone. Can you help us? Do you know about the people?"

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

"The...people?" He shakes his head. "No people...just masters and pets and food. The masters are gone, and the pets and food...there are still others here like me we think. We haven't looked, but...there were many of us, and...and I'm not gone, so others might still be here too. There were all kinds...some like me...elf?" Pointing to Rosalyn and Florence, he says, "A lot like them...humans...and others too. Some stayed below to guard the masters, and...and most stayed above, to find other pets and food when they came. I used to be above then. When others came, we did what the masters told us to do, and said what they told us to say. Some of the others would leave, but most would stay! The masters were so wise, so brilliant, so superior, they knew what would make others like me stay. Our minds are simple, they said. Hundreds and hundreds since I came, and I don't know how many before that. Before the false masters came, there were...there were dozens of pets, and we think a dozen food."

[Seethe]

Rosalyn did have a better from that of what had been going on, gruesome as it sounded, but there was one last bit of information that might have been useful.

"Did you ever personally see your 'old masters?'" she asked. "I mean, could you tell us what they looked like?"

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

He shakes his head excitedly. "Many times!," he says as he thinks back, his expression filling with a deep, loving longing. "They had the most wondrous grey skin. Long, perfect fingers that would make you feel warm and safe with just a touch. Deep, loving black eyes. Four tendrils around their mouths that they would use so carefully when they would reward the food with their duty. They were...beautiful, more than anything else ever to live. I wish I had served them better...maybe they...they wouldn't be gone if I had...why are they gone but I'm here? Why?"

---

Shawn:

Spoiler:

Shawn doesn't know much about them beyond the basics (unless you decide to tie them into her family) - brain eating, mental powers, extremely intelligent and dangerous - but she'd recognize the description of a mind flayer anywhere.

Rosalyn:

Spoiler:

Rosalyn doesn't know much about them beyond the basics - brain eating, mental powers, extremely intelligent and dangerous - but she'd recognize the description of a mind flayer anywhere.

Theller:

Spoiler:

Theller probably wouldn't recognize the description since he's so newly off of Air, unless you think he'd have read or heard about it from someone in the last couple months.

[Spleen]

Theller looked to his allies, brow furrowed. "I've not heard of such a creature before. Have any of you? I haven't been long off of my home plane of Air, so my ability to identify creatures of other planes is still limited."

[Seethe]

"And you say these 'false masters' looked the same?" Rosalyn asked.

Then, she turned to answer Theller.

"Sounds like mind flayers," she said. "Brain-eating, tentacle-faced..."

She refrained from using any of the more colorful descriptions she could think of, for the moment at least, to avoid upsetting the elf and his "new masters." For that matter, she also made a note to avoid letting her Anarch's Guild pendant show here...

"And that's probably where these stories of people being healed came from," she suggested. "My guess would be that they spread those stories to draw people in."

[Shinigori V2]

Shawn's eyes narrowed, seeming to change color slightly in the low light. "Mindflayers. We need to be careful with this, now..Or we'll all end up dead. Or worse."

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

He nods as he says, "Yes! They were the same, but they were different inside. Their minds and their thoughts weren't the same. They were angry, they shouted and smashed, but the old masters were never angry. I don't know why, the old masters didn't tell me why, they just told me to kill them...I couldn't kill them, though, they made me sleep..."

With a knowing gaze at the elf, Florence nods to Shawn, her voice quiet under the gaze of the rats. Pale at the sight of him, she's barely able to hold back the emotion that cracks through her voice. "Worse is right...but it makes me wonder what happened here. Mind flayers don't fight amongst themselves...something doesn't add up."

Frowning, she steps to the side, out of sight of the horde. She takes a moment to shudder, before leaning against the stone wall. "What now? What do we do with...him? And if other slaves of theirs survived too...damn it." Shaking her head, she lets out a small laugh tinged with regret. "I'm sorry, Shawn. I guess we won't find that cure for you here after all."

[Seethe]

Rosalyn wasn't the least bit hesitant to step out of sight of the rats along with Florence. And she was in full agreement with Shawn's call for caution.

"I wouldn't rule out an attack by githzerai or githyanki," she mused, remembering what she had learned of the history of those races at the festival in Xaos. "May have disguised themselves with magic, anyway. Or, it may just have been something completely different..."

As for what to do next?

"I guess we'd better just move along," she said. "I don't really want to mess with that many of those rats. Other than that... I'd like to keep looking around here, but if anyone just wants to head back home now that we have an idea of what's been going on, I won't disagree. I think it would be a shame to go back with nothing to show for our trip, though."

Maybe she could just lift some goods from the stores up above. The pickings there probably would have been a bit slim, but now that she knew what had been going on here, at least she wouldn't feel bad about it.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Florence thinks for a bit, staring down the tunnel and away from their entrance before nodding. With arms crossed, and a tone of reluctance in her voice, she says, "That sounds sensible. If the mind flayers are gone, this could be a good opportunity to see where and how they keep themselves. I'll stay with you so long as Shawn is."

[Spleen]

Theller was a little lost. "These mind flayers...they are evil enough to keep slaves like this? Mind-controlled slaves? And what are the...githzerai and the...other race?" He shook his head. "I agree that we should search more. Perhaps there is further evidence beyond what our...friend...can tell us."

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

"They're that evil and more, Theller. And with as many as the elf said were here...how long have they been doing this for?" Muscles tensed with anxiety, Florence rubs her forehead. I'd suggest praying we don't run into one here. But I think we should be...comparatively safe. From the worst of it, at least. From what I've heard, we'd already be dead or enslaved by now if this was an active flayer home.

"...Unless this is one massive, convoluted trap."

[Seethe]

"The Githzerai were the people of the city we stayed at in Limbo," Rosalyn answered the other question. "And from what they said, the Githyanki are their less savory cousins, who they don't get along with, to put it mildly. The ancestors of both groups used to be enslaved by a Mind Flayer empire, but they broke free and revolted."

The thought of it being a trap, meanwhile, did make her pause and consider it a bit more. If they left now, they could spread word of the place. But if they did that, she would miss her chance to see a place like this for herself. And, on top of that...

"If it's a trap, then whoever's behind it must have a reason for needing to rely on such a thing, right?" she reasoned.

Of course, she knew it was still dangerous, but that hadn't stopped her before.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

"I suppose you're right. Well...lead the way, then. Just be careful, all right?"

[Shinigori V2]

"They're not gonna make a trap." Shawn said, sitting again, and beginning to run her tongue along her arm, and wipe it into her hair. "They think we're nothing compared to them. Rats...Mice. ...You know....Small...Skittery little things...That are fun to chase and have delicious, squishy insides."

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

As Shawn cleans herself, the cranium rats back further from the entrance. The cub seems to share her views, watching them curiously. Their speaker, however, stares at her with fear in his eyes, a fear that seems to be reflected in the sudden skittishness of his masters. "Stop it! You promised to stay away, you won't kill us!"

Stepping over, Florence puts a hand on Shawn's shoulder, watching the rats. With a slight strictness in her voice, she says, "Shawn, focus, okay? Maybe it's not a good idea to say things like that right now."

[Seethe]

"So we did," Rosalyn answered the elf, hoping to calm him back down. "As long as you keep to yourselves, that's the agreement."

She then glanced around once again, looking for any way to move forward without going through the room the rats were in.

[Idran1701]

For your reference:

Map of explored area

[Seethe]

After getting her bearings, the first thing Rosalyn would do would be to backtrack towards the main corridor they had came in through. Not all the way, though, as she had changed her mind about moving the corpses at this point, not wanting trouble with the rats. As grisly as it may have been to leave them where they were, the people weren't alive anymore, and the girl didn't want to join them.

When she reached the first room they had passed on the way to this one, she looked inside.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Heading back down the tunnel, Rosalyn investigates the first room in the hall. Inside, the scene is much as the room the rats have claimed, though in better shape. The laboratory equipment here seems in relatively good condition, though it doesn't belie what sort of work must have gone on here. Some sort of alchemical work, self-apparently, but beyond that, she has no clue. With a bit of investigation, though, she turns up four corked crystal vials along a shelf, seemingly the result of recent work soon before the attack. The liquid contained within each is a different shade of purple, and the vials themselves labeled in the same four-lined script as the wall engravings along the tunnel.

[Spleen]

Theller followed Rosalyn in and conducted his own search. Examining what she turned up, he scratched his chin. "Magic potions, perhaps? We should bring them with us, whatever they turn out to be."

[Seethe]

"I do believe we should," Rosalyn agreed. "There will probably be quite a few things in here worth taking with us, actually. Anyway, there's four of them and four of us, so I suppose we can each carry one?"

Mostly satisfied with the results of this room and not expecting to gain anything else from it, she was ready to move on her next target, the room across the hall from where the rats had been.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Stepping into the second room, Rosalyn's first impression is that it's another work room, though devoted to another purpose. A dozen crystals of various colors, none larger than two or three inches across, are scattered across the work surface, some smashed. Two glow with an internal light, but the others don't appear to have any notable qualities. They may be worth something purely as gems, but she has no knowledge to say.

After a second or two, a tangy, metallic scent hits her, if subtle. It doesn't take her long to find the source; on the far side of the work table, the pale, sickly body of a mind flayer lies face-up, almost seeming to stare at her when she first spots it. Might it still live? Perhaps it's merely lying in wait for someone, ready to strike? ...No, any such feelings quickly pass, as she spots the violet stains across the front of its robe ringing a number of puncture wounds. From the stone shaft still gripped in the flayer's hand, coated with multicolored dust, it seems this being was the one responsible for the damage here.

[Spleen]

"That is a mind flayer?" Theller asks, inspecting the body. "Not a beautiful race, to my aesthetics. What do you think killed it?" He examines the puncture wounds closely. "Crossbow bolts? A blade? Perhaps a spell of some kind?" He looks for two places he could grasp the illithid's robe where he won't have to touch the mind flayer's eerily purple blood and attempts to turn the body over so he can look under it.

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

After turning the body over, though it's far more soaked than the front, Theller can still just make out similar wounds on the flayer's back; it looks like he was stabbed to death with a long blade, at least three times, though possibly more.

[Seethe]

"Stabbed with a sword... And it certainly looks like a Mind Flayer, anyway," Rosalyn observed. "But... seeing how it looks like this is the guy that tore this room up, I'd be more inclined to believe that this is one of whatever the creatures were that attacked this place. Unless, of course, he just destroyed this equipment to keep anyone else from getting it..."

[Spleen]

(I'd like to make the appropriate roll to determine whether Theller knows that most shapeshifters revert to their normal form on death.)

[Idran1701]

You pass a K:Arcana check for knowing that fact.

[Spleen]

Theller thought for a moment, then shook his head. "If the beings that attacked merely looked like mind flayers, it's likely that they would revert to their natural shape on their death; it tends to be that shapeshifting works that way. This would seem to be a real mind flayer, in that case."

He moved over to regard the still-intact crystals, examining one closely without touching to see if he knew or could determine anything about the object. He reached into himself and found the scant kernel of magic energy within him and took hold of it, activating one of his few magical abilities.

(Detect Magic.)

[Idran1701]

Outlands - Tunnels

Theller's eyes glow with a pale blue light as he looks over the crystals, analyzing them magically as well as physically. After close to a minute of staring at them, turning them over in his hands, the light fades, his work complete.

Theller:

Spoiler:

You pass both Appraise checks to identify the items. They're not magical, but rather psionic: power stones, limited use power-completion items. One holds four powers - Dispel Psionics, Intellect Fortress, Psionic Dimension Door, and Psionic Dominate. The other holds one power - Body Adjustment. Each power can be used once, and use of the crystals would require a Use Psionic Device check (or a Use Magic Device check at -4) from the one trying to manifest it if not a psionic class, and possibly two checks if not having a high enough ability score to manifest it either.