S20: The Doctor's Compound

General Summary

A door hisses and pops as a secret entrance into a mountain is revealed. The air smells of iodine and The Weave. The party (Today's session consisting of Amgil Sll'ab, Ashiok Dimir, Timber, and Todd Xarvarax) step into the, now missing, cliff face. Ozone Alinac standing guard outside. Through the hallway, a good half mile into the mountain at least, and... are we going down? At the end of the hall, the group finds an elevator, gated off and locked by a digital keypad giving off a very faint arcane aura. The party decide not to mess with it, in case it might be trapped. A second second door to the right of the party opens, a waiting room. The party step through one by one, Todd comes in last. The sound of a pop comes from above, a voice* hisses and crackles over an intercom, "Drathar?! I thought you were dead!?".
  Todd responds, "Uh, no."
  Ash stands at the ready; his Brightbane Revolver leading the way, Ash peeks into a room and sees a bookcase. He steps all the way in and finds a desk. The journal is encoded, but some words are easy to make out, as if they were intentionally left out of the code.  

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Todd and Timber, still in the waiting room, start feeling something strange. Todd casts Detect Magic. The sources of Weave around reveal themselves. Todd sees his own blue arcane Thread, and sees Timber's yellow divine Thread. The other 2 colors of Thread are red for fiendish and black for shadow. There's a new Thread here. Something Todd has never seen before, and Todd has a hunch that Ula Di'Nok wouldn't know either. White Thread. We can investigate that later, these floors are perfect for wheelboarding. Todd tries to kickflip, lands primo, and falls through a door into an operating room. Behind the door stands a horde of Shardmind. Ash's revolver begins to glow.   Roll Initiative!   Todd is grabbed by a tentacle made of the same Thread. What kind of magic is this? Ash steps through the door and with a volley of shots mows down most of them. While Ash is firing, Amgil and Todd hail a barrage of spells. Stanlee (see: Luxieaux ) and Todd's Dawg (Hound of Ill Omen) can't seem to do as much against these crystalline aberrations. Timber is unfortunately stuck outside of the room, Amgil is blocking the door. Lucky for him though, it doesn't take long for the 3 of them to mow down the Shardmind.   The intercom pops again, "Very good work everyone! I'd like for you to come a little deeper, I have something else I want to show you."
  An iron gate opens somewhere close by.   Ash explores a bit more before boarding and learns The Shardmind are made of the same crystal as the one under the city of Meteora. Ash gets on the elevator and presses the only button, labeled Dive. The intercom pops once again, "What did you think of my research facility? Interesting wasn't it? Did you learn anything useful? No? Well, that's too bad. I'll be a gentleman and tell you what you're going to see next. Thiiiis is my testing facility. Good Luck!"
  The elevator reaches its destination and another iron gate opens. The party steps off the elevator into a food storage closet. Ash and Amgil start to show signs of a headache. The two of them hear an ethereal tune being whistled into the back of their minds. Timber, blissfully unaware, bonks around with a chest and finds a few sacks of flour. Timber grabs one, dumps some out, guesses he's got maybe 3 pounds there, and puts the flour in his bag. Todd steps into another room and finds an empty tank, The Weave makes itself visible again. More of that White Thread. It's holding something up in the tank. Whatever it is, it's made of that Thread. "Hey Ash!"
  "What do you want, Todd?"
  "I can't tell you why but I need you to go through that door right there. Now."
  Ash walks towards the door, "Yeah, sure, Todd. Whatever you say buddy."
  Ash opens the door, A Whistler stands there almost like it's half asleep, body in a slump and head hanging downward. The Whistler begins to twitch and stand upright. The head begins to turn up and makes eye contact with Ash. The creature begins to shake, quickly becoming blurry. The intercom pops again, "Oh GOOD! They're AWAKE!"
  Roll Initiative!   The first whistler disappears from Ash's sight and appears behind him. A twitch of the creature's head and suddenly Ash, Timber, and Todd all feel as though their brain is being ripped out of their skull. Timber retaliates out of instinct and slams the creature against the wall with his own psychic abilities. Amgil fires a Fire Bolt, missing his mark. Could have sworn I hit, but with how blurry this thing is... is it really there? Is it that fast? Two more Whistlers walk through the door and join everyone in the pantry. Ash fires and misses. Getting frustrated, Ash fire 2 more rounds and hits the mark both time, one of them hit a vital organ. A Critical Hit!   Ash hears the whistling again and is overcome by fear and hightails it into the room the Whistlers came from, firing at the other 2 as he runs. Todd casts Rime's Binding Ice to buy some time and joins Ash in the other room. Another psychic whip directed at Timber. Timber goes down, but not without a fight. The Whistler is slammed against the wall again. Stanlee does what he can to stabilize the light around one of the creatures and bites, snarls, and whips his tails. Todd uses his Staff of Thunder and Lightning and zaps a whistler, the clap of thunder ensuing deafens most everyone in the room, himself and Ash spared. Ash tries to get Stanlee to use his Hypnotic Mane, but with Stanlee deafened, it's no use. Ash, the quick thinker he is, gestures to extend the Hypnotic Mane by grabbing own neck and spreading out his fingers. With a ferocious roar, Stanlee's Mane extends and begins to bend the light in to room to make everything spiral and swirl, sending the Whistlers and, unfortunately, Amgil into a hypnotic trance. Ash fires at the 3 Whistlers. Even when they're charmed, they're still blurred, Ash misses.   The Whistlers come to and unleash a volley of psychic whips at everyone, Todd collapses to the ground. Amgil rushes to Timber and pulls him to his feet. Timber casts Flame Strike at a Whistler and burns it to a crisp. Ash fans the hammer and unleashes 6 explosives rounds at the Whistlers. Every single shot missed. Another volley of psychic whips, and Amgil is definitely feeling it. Amgil kicks into a tune, "Can't you help me as I'm startin' to burn..." and gives Bardic Inspiration to Timber. Timber throws a Sacred Flame and misses. Ash unloads 3 more rounds at the Whistlers. Another critical hit! A second whistler goes down. Todd rips a fireball to eliminate the last Whister. Nothing happens.   A door opens.   That same voice from the intercom. The Doctor. "You all weren't supposed to go and die on me! Now I have to everything myself!"
  With a snap of his fingers, the final Whistler goes back to sleep. Another snap. The party are all attached to St. Andrew's Crosses. "Drathar, I could have sworn I killed you before. No matter..."
  A heavy clunk, an engine humming, the smell of Weave again. Rising out of the floor are 2 massive Overminds, they look like Beholders without eyestalks, but the eyes float independently.
  "... I hope you two are hungry!"

Character(s) interacted with

The Doctor of The Cult of Xidis