Aberrations and Apparitions?

Here, deep in the earth, we found some sort of structure. Perhaps of Dwarven design, but undeniably impressive. Periodically fighting off more of the disgusting Troglodytes, some of whom were definitely more dangerous than their inferior kin we’d previously encountered (we even ran across one who wielded magic!), we largely cleared the interior of the building’s main level. There were two arcane powered lifts of some sort, along with a seemingly impassible door that sat at the base of a very steep slope.
 
Rhumor tried his best to get the door unlocked, but simply could not manage it. So, we decided to try the magically powered lifts. Choosing one more or less at random, we activated it, and it floated us in a downward sliding angle. Upon arriving at the lift’s destination the lift deactivated, and magic seemed to well, disappear. My cloak stopped its entrancing twinkle. The orb that had powered the lift went dark. Flame Tongue’s flames extinguished. Conrad sensed we were being watched.
 
Rhumor began fiddling with a locked and trapped door, he disabled the wicked trap, but it was barred shut as well. Just then a black oily substance began pouring out of the lift’s shaft! Virgil began ramming the door. I took cover under the alcove the door was in, and feeling my magic return I began sending blasts of eldritch force into the door. Virgil’s persistence paid off and the door gave way just enough for a few of us to slip in the next room. I teleported myself, and landed right next to an especially large and smelly Troglodyte. Immediately it attacked, but my cloak baffled it, and its attack missed wildly. The ensuing fight did not last long.
 
Once the proverbial dust had cleared, we found ourselves in what might be best described as a foyer. Statuary along the walls depicted mostly dwarves, but in the center… the center of the room was a resplendent statue of Trella! This depiction of her showed her to have aged compared to what we saw in Trella’s basement all those months ago. Of course, only Rhumor and I recognized it, but it was definitely her. What is this place? And why was Conrad’s colleague here. And how on earth did he even manage to get in? Did he also have a glowing stone in his chest? We all knew the answers would lie behind the ornate double doors that Trella was facing. So, we pushed on.
 
We found ourselves in what appeared to be a rather long and wide hallway… but no, not a hallway. These were prison cells. Rhumor and I moved forward bit by bit, watching, searching for traps with Virgils aid, and bit by bit we found many of Conrad’s lost colleagues. Not all were alive, and one was alive, but not… himself. We decided to lock him back up for our safety, as well as the safety of the recently freed captives.
 
Opposite the door we had entered from was another large ornate door. We steeled ourselves and went inside. Immediately we could feel that strange drain of magic as we entered the room. The cause? Well, it did not take long to figure out the source: A monstrous floating blob with what seemed like a thousand eyes. The many eyes waved and waggled from strange stalks protruding from its grotesque purplish body. One giant central eye was located on the bulbous form just over a wicked smile of razor teeth and slimy tongue. This entity was floating well above us, and fully out of reach of Virgil and I’s melee attacks. Without magic, what hope did we have? What aberration of creatures was this?!?!
 
It began conversing with Conrad, entreating him to give up the glowing stone that was lodged in his chest. Conrad refused and the creature railed. The central eye looked away as one of the eye stalks shot a wicked looking beam of force at Conrad. Instantly Conrad was on his knees, staring at death’s door. All from a single attack! Rhumor ran in and shot the evil thing, clearly doing some damage, but not enough to kill it, or even dissuade it. Just before Virgil and I could begin to start running forward neigh on the entire room was covered in brambles and our movements were hindered. Another eye stalk shot out, at Virgil this time, though I was unable to ascertain the effect it had. I focused and let loose eldritch force, though the effect seemed puny compared to what this monster had just inflicted upon poor Conrad.
 
The next thing I knew I heard Nuri chanting and I saw Virgil suddenly appear on top of the aberration, and he immediately began hacking away at it with Hazirawn. Blood and chunks of hide were flying this way and that as I continued to slog my way through the brambles. More eye beams – many focused on the now very dangerous Minotaur riding the creature, some at me, some at Nuri, they seemed to be everywhere, and not only coming from the floating mass above us. I looked back at Nuri imploring her to send me up above as well as I called upon the might of the giants and began leaping in my enlarged form. I easily grasped an eye stalk as I appeared atop the monstrous form which was just then blasting poor Virgil again, and I began hacking away. Flame Tongue bit deep, flames licking at this horrific looking slimy hide. Eye stalks turned toward me and began firing, energy sapping my vitality as our struggle continued. Distantly I heard Conrad chanting followed by the roar of a beast nearby. Virgil took another shot from an eye stalk and tumbled down to the floor. Hacking, slashing, and stabbing at the vile aberration I could feel the anger building for what this thing was doing to my friends… and as I was about to call upon the necrotic shroud of spirits granted to me by Her, I heard in my head a dissonance – not a painful one, but a dissonance against the anger, the anguish, the clashes of battle. At first I thought it to be the whispers from Her. But no, this voice, this voice was a melodious voice, radiant in timbre, whispering my name and saying ‘there is a better way, Tristan’. Confused, I felt a jolt, and out of the corner of my eye I saw the form of Rhumor, his magnificent bow still aimed at the monster’s central eye, through which he had just planted an arrow dead center. The aberration, with me still atop it, began to fall.
 
Coming back to my senses fully I managed to hop off the thing just before it hit the ground with a heavy squelching sound. Looking around at the carnage I saw scorch marks everywhere. Conrad had turned Nuri into a Giant Ape, which appeared to be fine at the moment, though as Conrad dropped the spell I could immediately see she had been taken to death’s doorstep as well. Rhumor, astonishingly, looked untouched. Virgil was down, Conrad’s broken and battered form had pieces of stone still sloughing off him after he had nearly been petrified, and was now leaning over Virgil’s scorched and charred body. I had taken a hit from the thing, but it had not been too bad for me thanks to my time in the Shadowfell, my companions had no such resilience against the awful necrotic effects.
 
As I surveyed the scenes playing out before me I once again heard my name being whispered, the voice soft and radiant, melodious and somehow even in harmony with itself… where was it coming from? As the voice whispered my name the blackish purple of Hazirawn became even darker, taking on an aura of evil. The magic Conrad poured over Virgil shone with a brilliance I had never noticed, and Flame Tongue seemed to flare at the whispering. I must meditate on this later. How many beings can speak into the mind of another, and with multiple tones all at once? Why had my blade flared, and why did Virgil’s take on such dark aura? While a little unnerved on account of the mysterious nature of the voice, I somehow felt… at peace whilst hearing it.