Episode 2: The Brain Gorger's appetites Report

General Summary

The group heads back to the Blue Belly Inn after a tough fight with The Doppleganger who had replaced Advisor D'canno in the name of the Syndicate; Mora has a strange vision of The Outcast; a mysterious figure who has chosen her as it's champion. The group awakes and arranges for transport to the mines from Captain Travers, he explains theyll need to look for the Saudes Mine in to the North East. The group rides along for a day without incident before settling down at a roadside inn for the evening. Some miners from a different mine than Saudes give them a little info on the staff there, giving them the name of the Foreman; Thelg Delver. The miners joined them for a drink for the evening, with one of the young miners attempting to make a pass at Mora; but after being confronted he immediately backed down, embarrassed.   In the morning, the group readies themselves for another day of riding when they notice rain is coming down harder and harder as the day goes on. While traveling near the BrandyBale Vineyard, they noticed a giant tower of glinting black with a white tree at the top. Dean is curious regarding the tower and so the group approaches and knocks, a knight; Lady Avalina opens the door. They had seen Lady Avalina when she entered her squire into the tournament at Ockney's Hold but had not been introduced. She seemed confused by the company but immediately fetched the tower's true master; Tase. Tase is a powerful wizard, the court wizard for the baron of bettigar in fact; he also was at one time a headmaster for the Shale School of the Arcane. He gives them a few gifts to assist with their journey, and reccomends they seek him out once again when they complete their assignment for Travers. He gives them a little insight on what he needs help with; disappearances of mages and wizards of all types within Andrim. Once they had wrapped up with their new ally, they launched their cart again, managing to brave the muddy conditions of the roads for a time before Mora lost control of the cart and it went off the road, the wheels getting stuck into the mud when suddenly the group begins to smell the burned atmospheric smell of Magic's presence in the nearby woods.   They investigate a little further into the woods, tying the horses and finding a large crater in the earth, trees around it destroyed and still smoking from char in the rain. Dean realizes this is the same location he saw the blue light beam coming down. They investigate the impact point of the crater and find a strange creature wrapped in a magical foreign cloth. The figure emerges from the cloth quicky, revealing a very alien appearance to the players, explaining he was named Ashoka, prince of the Githzerai people; and that he had been sent back in time from the future to help them kill an Illithid, his people's name for the the monster of the mines; a Mind Flayer.   The group camps for the night while getting to know their new strange friend when they are attacked by a hunting party of Gnolls. They dispatched them with relative ease but another group killed and stripped their horses during all the confusion of the fight. They walked on through the copper hills until finally coming into the region of Saudes. There they found a crying Kobold on a ridge named Grindal. Grindal was a vegetarian Kobold who was ostracized by his tribe and made fun of. He kept a pet, Charlie that his other tribe members found and ate. After the group shows Grindal some kindness and attempts to cheer him up with some magic he ask if they are going into the mines and says he would like to help distract his tribe so the party can pass into the mines undetected.   The little strange creature does successfully distract his people away from the entrance and the party sneaks inside. There, they met a group of miners who seemed desperate to escape and leave the mines, but refused to do so until marlipp was killed. They explained that life had become hell ever since Marlipp took over and that Thelg was complacent in their torture as well as being a puppet of the Ceaseless Syndicate. The group tells them Marlipp can be found in Processing, an area where the dangerous Azurite is turned to a fine powder. One of the miners behaves suspiciously and when confronted by Dean, lashes out with a dagger. He is quickly dispatched but falling backwards onto his head a creature emerges from his skull, an intellect devourer and attacks the party. After bashing in the giant brain, the group instructs the remaining miners to hide while they head to processing to confront Marlipp.   The group comes upon the processing plant with Thelg and several other miners turning the blue Azurite through the stonemill, instead of sneaking by or attempting to locate Marlipp first; the group instead proceeded down the walkway like they owned the place, at which point Thelg turned and summoned Marlipp to assist with the intruders, the fight was an extremely brutal affair, with most of the party if not all nearly being killed at various points throughout and Dok was enslaved into fighting his own friends. Marlipp was clearly mad from the consumption of massive amounts of Azurite, which had also weakened his body and mind; making the monster a little more manageable, but he still proved to be a vicious opponent, at one point sacrificing nearly all of his miners to nearly kill the party in a single psychic blast. The group rallied thanks to the assistance of the health potions they acquired from Tase, but Ashoka was the one who overcame their fear of the Illithid's and physically overpowered the weakened Marlipp, decapitating him with a single blow. The group, exhausted and thoroughly wounded and in some instances unconscious decided to rest in the formans hut, where they find Marlipp's stash of equipment, gems components and gold.

Rewards Granted

Marlipp's Person   Notebook, contains notes on the process of creating the Azurite powder from the gem version and its uses, including forging magic items some of which the group finds in his stash. also contains diary entries detailing his leaving of the colonies and elder brain and the pain he feels associated. This is of course in the langauge of the illithids; Deep Speech   Wand of Magic Missile   Marlipp's stash   pearls (100gp each) and a rare fire opal (1,000gp)