2024-01-20 Caim's Colorless Footsteps
Player Characters
- Balasar
- Malivette
- Tarhun
- Val & Soonie
- Amartherui
Summary
Tarhun equipped some members of the party with headbands of intellect he had built.
Val recalled that the crystal cube that Grey stole from Quasar was supposed to be brought to an illithid named Thramakar. The cube was allegedly a sort of poison meant to kill an enemy of the Voice.
Balasar scried on Thramakar, an illithid that Grey was meant to bring the crystal cube to. He saw Grey and Thramakar facing each other quietly outside of a cavern among the Colorless Hills. Balasar couldn't place where it was, as the hills were expansive and uncharted.
They headed to the Colorless Hills, entering from the dip in the eastern Haunted Realm.
They walked through the silent, empty hills. The dim, charred, ashen landscape was covered in dead grass.
They found a two-way trail of humanoid bootprints. They followed it into the region, noticing how muted the spirits were among the hills.
They saw a huge shadow patrolling among the clouds. Dalinax the Deranged was approaching, patrolling the region.
Essa conjured an illusory signal to Dalinax to invite him to a conversation. The ancient red dragon flew overhead to respond, but ignored Essa's prompts to talk and attacked the party.
They decided to flee from the powerful dragon, teleporting back to Salmund to escape and rest.
Essa entered Dalinax's dream. She saw an empty barren wasteland under a red smoky sky, and heard a constant background static noise. The Sun above was contained inside a cage. Dalinax appeared as a miserable, timid red wyrmling, curled into a ball and whimpering. Essa noticed lines in the ground indicating where the buildings of a town might have once stood.
Essa played her viol to try to bring a soothing vibe to the dream. The Dalinax wyrmling looked over at her, tears in his eyes.
A mind flayer appeared. It asked her where "the delivery" was. Essa learned that the illithids were expecting them to convene with Grey to bring the delivery to them.
Thramakar, the illithid, claimed it was researching music. Essa answered its questions, discussing viols and melodies and music with the creature. It then invited her to join it later as a brain perserved in a library, where she could be immortal and discuss music with it forever.
After the illithid vanished from the dream, Essa tried to spruce up the wasteland image with peace, flowers, and butterflies, but the wyrmling cowered away. She tried images of a dragon getting vengeance instead, but got the same response.
Afterward, she entered the dream of the eldritch creature that Balasar was keeping as a pet. She learned that it dreamt of rolling over entire villages, devouring everything in its path as its hundreds of tendrils grabbed everything near it.
Essa disintegrated Balasar's eldritch pet with his permission.
After a rest, they spent a few days traveling back to the Colorless Hills. There, they found Grey waiting for them.
They questioned Grey about his intentions. He informed them that his mission was to transport the cube to an illithid colony hidden in the hills. The Voice had contacted the mind flayers, informing them of the "gift" that he was meant to bring them. Once inside, the cube would spew a kind of psionic poison that would destroy the elder brain. Grey expected danger, however, and asked the party to join him for the task. The PCs didn't trust Grey or his patron, but eventually agreed to help transport the cube into the colony anyhow.
Amar heard a strange disembodied voice, one that he had heard once long ago. It told him to get the staff from Grey.
Val asked if Grey recognized the two toy soldiers from his past. He didn't seem to remember them.
They followed the ulitharid and Grey to the elder brain's pool chamber, noting the path along the way. They saw a brain library, a transformation chamber, and many mind flayers and intellect devourers along the way.
Entering the elder brain's chamber, they watched as Grey placed the cube in front of the pool and removed its lid. The green crystal within projected a hologram of the eye of the Voice, which Val and Tarhun recognized from when Grey was pulled into an inhabited mirror during 2023-05-13 Vampire in Greyhaven.
The Voice asked to speak to the elder brain's master, something called the Archmind. The elder brain dismissed the notion that it served anything, saying that it was the ultimate lifeform. It commanded the Voice to tell it the message.
The Voice told the brain that Grey had delivered this cube in order to transmit this message to the Archmind. It stated that it had observed the thing's power and intelligence, was impressed. The Voice claimed that it was in love with this being, and that it wanted to meet and talk. It then said that the mortal beings who had delivered the message were intended as a sacrifice and gift.
The elder brain invited the party to join its hivemind peacefully as thralls. It was unsurprised when they refused.
The PCs fought hard, protecting themselves with intellect fortress and withstanding countless psionic blasts, tentacles, and claws. The brain shielded itself with walls of force while more mind flayers and mind witnesses entered the room from the pool's back tunnel and the tunnel behind the party. Tarhun dispelled the walls of force, allowing Amar and Val to get close enough to attack while Balasar bombarded enemies with fire and lightning. Essa was stunned by the countless mind blasts and was unable to act.
Against all odds, the party defeated the elder brain and its ulitharid, resulting in the rest of the illithids falling inert.
Grey, enraged, fought the party. Amar finished him off by stabbing the fallen hero with the Staff of the Emerald Feather. He then burned the body in an alcoholic funeral pyre. Grey's spirit accepted a drink from Amar's spirit spirits. He asked Grey where his patron is, to which the spirit responded, "In the deepest abyss."
They eliminated the inactive illithids and explored the colony's lair. They decided to keep the green crystal cube that had transmitted the Voice's message.
They searched the brain library. The jarred brains were in a wide variety of mental states: some were terrified and crazed, and others were at peace. Essa found that none of the preserved brains were from ancient eras, and nearly all were experts on different fields. She found research chambers for a variety of topics such as archestrylene, primal crystals, music, diseases, geography, and so on. They collected a few magic items, one of each primal crystal (+1 green), 4000gp of art, and 12 doses of archestrylene.
They deduced that the brain library would not last long without maintenance from the illithids, and decided to smash them to release them from their prison.
Essa killed all of the tadpoles in each brine pool.
Balasar left Dalinax a note written in draconic, describing what happened and saying that he should be free now.
Essa visited Dalinax's dreams later on, to see how the dragon had reacted to the removal of the illithid colony that was controlling him.
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