The next thing Ralom saw was a mist rising from Annitella and passing through everyone'w head in the wink of an eye. A blank expression crossed their faces, then they began to look around with squinting eyes. As it passed through Ralom, he heard Annitella's voice commanding, "Fight, fight to the death!"
Ralom jumped to his feet and started to cast sanctuary without thinking, he saw the other members of the party either draw their weapons or start to cast a spell. With a great struggle Ralom regained control of himself, but the others were moving to attack. With that Ralom cast the Sanctuary spell on Annitella.
Meanwhile Baru and Seglun both drew their weapons and quickly moved to attack the sleeping Annitella. Arvien made herself invisible, Drovic moved back to the entrance of the cave. Grunyar had his bow notched, but he merely moved to a corner and kept an eye peeled on all his companions. Varrid joined in attacking Annitella.
Seglun and Varrid successfully damaged Annitella, who didn't react at all. Baru was deterred by the Sanctuary. Ralom commanded non-lethal attacks and the party stood confused for a moment. Discussion followed about what they each had seen. Soon all were in agreement or semi-agreement that they had had identical visions. Varrid stated she was no going to be controlled in any event and started to attack with non-lethal damage.
Suddenly, a scream ripped through the image, causing it to crumble before their eyes. With a shudder, the heroes sent the hallucination back to the blackest depths of their subconscious.
With simultaneous relief and dread, each escaped the nightmare and instinctively leapt to their feet, responding to the scream that woke them.
Mind Flayers! There were four of them in the cave with the party! One of them is leaning over Annitella, spreading its tentacles, about to embrace her head with them -- the scream must have come from her. The others were spaced around the cavern. These creatures are filthy and unclothed -- their shapeless bodies were criss-crossed from head to toe with pulsing veins under dirty, purplish skin. Razor claws protrude from their fingertips. They part their tentacles, hissing, and the heroes jaws dropped. They had the fangs of vampires!
The party set to attack immediately, but some found themselves hampered by a stunning mind blast from the creatures. The battle was not long as the creatures fell relatively easily to the heroes who were not stunned. Unfortunately Seglun felt part of her vitality drain away as she was hit by a tentacle. "Take care," she admonished the others, "They have a draining capability!" Soon the monsters were dispatched and the party was hurriedly healed. They questioned Annitella about their vision. She vehemently denied any evil suggested by her role in the nightmare, "it is the evil of the land that seeks to turn us against ourselves."
"these monsters are the spawn of Von Zarovich. This place is no longer safe. No place is safe out here. And Drassak's peril grows by the moment. We must save Drassak and recover the Sacred Barrier before the fiends find it. Perhaps we may find a place to rest in the complex, if need be."
Drovic checked the cave entrance and found that horizon was ringed with a red shade in every direction again. The graveyard stillness was back, with only that low pitched buzz between the party and complete silence.
Drovic queried Annitella about the complex location, she responded that is was under the mountains and led off in that direction. The going was a slow, uphill climb ending on a peninsula projecting into a lake.
Annitella became silent for a moment. "I am about to show you and entrance to the complex, unknown even to the mind flayers, and then I will take you to the Sacred Barrier, which can save our lives or end all Goodness. Before I do, you must swear an alliance to the Brotherhood of Contemplative Power and to Lord Drassak, and to battle faithfully against the dark powers that are set against us. Will you swear to this? If so, then I will take you to the place where I have hidden the holy relic. Do you swear?"
This prompted much discussion among the party. Ralom and Baru specifically were concerned, what were they swearing to? Allegiance to the Brotherhood, Drassak, both or neither? Varrid was not in favor of any allegiance.
Annitella interrupted, "Not allegiance, alliance. An alliance to fight the evil, you owe nothing to the Brotherhood or Drassak after we are done."
Given this the party agreed to the alliance. Annitella then gestured at the water of the large, dark lake. Its waters were amber colored and clear. The lake remained shallow for a few feet, but then the bottom seemed to slope quickly into lost depths.
"In there," said Annitella, looking into the water. "It is in there, guarded by the remnants." She splashed the surface to the water a few times and then backed away from the shoreline and its smooth surface. Shadows flitted back and forth in a chaotic pattern, like swift black fish converging upon a morsel on the surface.
It dawned upon Arvien that there were reflections of many faces in the water, staring back at her as she looked down. They appeared human -- some normal, some grotesquely twisted -- with empty eye sockets and empty expressions. And there were hands around the faces, so finely detailed, so gnarled and scarred and broken that they appeared real as they reached out toward Arvien.
At that moment, Bonespur appeared with a red flash and a black cloud of smoke, riding on his nightmare, Then around him, six stone giants materialized out of thin air, followed by several mind flayers and drow, who formed a semicircle around the party, trapping them on the peninsula.
Bonespur yelled, "Stay you hands, wizards, all of you stay your hands! I'm prepared to annihilate the lot of you where you stand!" Then he looked at Annitella, drew his knife, and gestured at her, saying. "Little turncoat. She betrays both sides. Surrender all of you, and you will live happier lives that this mutt!" The stone giants heft their clubs and move in to take prisoners.
Two of them stepped into the water, apparently to surround the party, and immediately begin to stagger around with a startled yelp, as if they had been grabbed by something below the surface. They cursed and fell in with a great splash.
In the midst of the confusion, Annitella screamed, "Into the lake! We will sooner drown, Bonespur!" With that, she jumped into the water, where she was grabbed by the ghostly spirits int he ware and dragged into the depths.
The party decided that fleeing to live was the better part of valor, all jumped into the lake. No sooner did they so much as touch the water, cold hands seized them with superhuman strength and pulled each hero under. The water was frigid, but they had much more than that to worry about as they were dragged deeper and deeper into the lake. A trail of bubbles marked their descent as the vague light of the surface receded and faded from sight.
In the near blackness, the shape of a face drifted so close to each hero that they could see it, a mournful, eyeless visage. It approached even closer, as if it meant to kiss you.
As they sank deeper and deeper into the blackness of the icy lake, their minds were flooded with images of cages and filthy living conditions -- each realized that the remnants were communicating, telling their stories.
The face of a mind flayer loomed before each hero, its tentacles caressing their features, probing into their mouths and nostrils and ears. It occurred to them that they were strapped to a table and were powerless to resist the monster, so they stared wide-eyed as it gripped their head in its tentacles and then projected a set of jagged teeth out of its mouth. The teeth sank into their foreheads and slowly chewed their way through the skull. At first, it seemed that the vile creature would eat their brains, but, instead, it gently forced a soft-skinned orb into their head. As the image spun away into blackness, the last thing each hero felt was the thing in their head hatching.
There was no longer a sense of water all around, but a feeling of gloating remained with the heroes, floating in an endless void ... They couldn't see, but perceived a light somewhere above, and each hero made for that light without actually knowing how.
Now they realized that the light was coming toward them, like a bolt of lightning. It struck their body and encased it in an envelop of almost unbearable tingling. Each hero wanted to scream, but couldn't find their voice.
Sadly, they felt their spirit separating from their bodies. Suddenly free of physical restraints, the tingling stopped and each could get a sense of the area around them. Every hero could see their own body and the bodies of their comrades lying side by side below, each encased in a glass dome, and a bright sparkle of life essence floated above each body. Recognizing the spirits of their friends, everyone floated together and communed once more as a group.
There were other people there, standing nearby; two men, a woman, and a large mind flayer. The mind flayer waved a hand and the glass domes began to rise. A feeling of disorientation gripped the heroes as the felt their spirits drawn back downward. The sensation of life flooded through them.
As the heroes opened their eyes they saw a large square room. There were many tables in the room, each holding a human or demi-human. A brief glance confirmed that they were all dead -- they remained motionless with their eyes and mouths open, blank expressions of their faces.
The four figures stood before the heroes and two drow stood at a door.
One man was dressed in a white robe, now filthy with wear and lack of washing. His features were angry and sad at the same time. The woman was absolutely beautiful, with long dark hair and frost colored eyes; only a thin black ring separated the iris from the white. She was dressed in a blue velvet tunic with purple accents and black leather pants. Black, lace-less leather boots reached to her thighs. The remaining man is a dark-featured, handsome man who appeared to be related to the woman. The mind flayer wore a plain black robe that covered him from his neck to the floor.
As the party regained consciousness, the white robed man said, "They awaken." The drow guards moved closed and took up defensive positions.
DM's Notes: An interesting dilemma, as each character wake, they find their body to be strange. It does not feel like their own body. And their equipment is all wrong.
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