Session 93: Making Headroom

General Summary

26th Unndilar 836PD   Before the Mind Flayers can retaliate, the heroic potion pulsing through Simeon boosts his reactions to seize the initiative from the aberrations. He telekinetically pushes Pluto out of the grappling tentacles of a Mind Flayer and then tolls it with the magic of impending death.   The tolled Flayer tries one final psychic blast against the Unbroken, but only Raven finds themselves stunned by the alien influence. Raphael pays the illithid back in kind and deftly strikes the tentacled head away from its slimy shoulders.   The Arcanist, fully outnumbered, evokes an invisible wall of force to protect themself from the Unbroken as they attempt to escape. But they are soon cut off as Simeon grabs Raphael and Dimension Doors through in front of the Arcanist. Orlando’s boots power his strides to clear over the wall, and Pluto gathers his senses after overcoming the stunning magic of the Mind Flayers.   In a desperate last ditch, the Arcanist pulls on its psychic magic to confuse Simeon and Raphael but it fails. Raphael’s eldritch blasts knock down the fleeing flayer, with the last blast bursting through its purple head.   The group take a short breather, Simeon finds an amulet of some type of alien metal that they deduce points towards the Elder Brain. Raven makes room in the bag of colding as he harvests the remaining heads of the Mind Flayers, a bounty for the Slayer’s Take.   Knowing that Mind Flayer’s share mental connections and are part of a hive mind with the Elder Brain, the Unbroken consider their presence to be known and seek to speedily press ahead. As they travel further down the tunnels, Raphael hears scuttling sounds up ahead. Then when they come within his sights, he sends several blasts of eldritch energy to pulverize the small alien creatures.   However, dozens more now dash towards the party, Orlando shoots down the first wave in a hail of lead. Pluto shakes the nest on his pine staff, and the buzzing brightness blinds through the dark from his wild fire spirits. But its light only illuminates the otherworldly features of the clawed creatures, their heads totally smoothed over with no eyes to be blinded by the light.   Simeon embolden by his potion moves ahead to distract the oncoming swarm, whilst Raven shoots down those that go around Simeon. Pluto twist the earth surrounding them and the swarm into spikes, and his wildfire spirits buzz around the party teleporting them out of the spiked earth.   But this doesn’t dissuade the creatures, they jump and hurl themselves through the spikes at the party. As these ‘Outsiders’ claw and clamber onto the party, their smooth heads pulse with similar alien magic to the Mind Flayers. Pluto a guardian of the natural world, falls foul to the unnatural magics of the aberrations. The Firbolg’s eyes and nose bleeds whilst the Outsider’s head glows as it devours his intellect. The Outsider’s head fills as the druid’s head empties, and soon the other party members are targeted, as pulsing heads and scything claws swarm around them.   Simeon burns several with his radiant words, Orlando’s shoots several in a row with one bullet, but the bursts of alien blood soon jam his guns. The swarm soon thins and Raphael blasts the last of them off. With the tunnel now clear, Simeon gently reaches out to the furry head of Pluto and speaks the restorative magic from a spell scroll to restore Pluto’s mind.   The Elder Brain, and the World Anvil are not far away now, but what further twisting madness awaits the Unbroken up ahead?