Grunyar pulled himself out of the water. There was a small area of cave floor surrounding the water. Ralom motioned for everyone to gather around and he would dole out healing, which was badly needed by some of the party. Everyone was wet but glad to be alive as they gathered on the shore. There appeared to be passages to the southwest and northeast from where the party stood. Grunyar moved toward the northeast but stopped quickly as he saw two mind flayers driving five humans before them.
The humans were carrying bodies apparently to dump into the lake. A quick battle erupted between the heroes and the mind flayers which ended with the heroes defeating the two at which point the human slaves fell unconscious to the ground. Once the heroes were ready to travel on Annitella led them out to the northeast. The path wound through a maze of passages, now and again passing through breathtaking caverns. The path was a steady climb, rarely dropping, yet wasn't long before the party lost track of the turns. Annitella led the group silently, pausing at every bend to consider her next move and to peek around the corner before motioning the group onward.
The loser caves appeared unoccupied, at least by the mind flayers, but there was something down here. Occasionally the group detected a sniffing behind them, in the shadows, like an animal with its nose to the ground. The low level drone was still there grating in the background.
Annitella claimed to knowledge or even that she heard the sniffing, "They must be echoes or your imagination."
Drovic and Varrid started a whisper among the group, "Annitella's shadow appeared as that of a much larger creature, with fearsome claws." Baru and Ralom were of the opinion that this was some other image placed in the characters heads. "We have been fooled before about Annitella's motives," Baru concluded.
The party arrived at the entrance to a large cavern. This cavern was of crystalline from wall to wall, with many razor-sharp looking edges. The party's lights reflected and made the area seem light as day.
When the group entered the large cavern, their lights shone back from the walls. The walls appeared to be layered with sheet upon glistening sheet of natural glass that caught the light and threw rainbows through the air. The ceiling was a packed field of glimmering crystalline icicles. Similarly, the floor was a jagged field of diamond like gems that shone like the sun on clear waters.
Annitella turned to the party and said, "Before I was broken and changes, I was able to scale these walls and implant the Sacred Barrier in the ceiling. I'm afraid I'll need your help to reach the ceiling now.
"No one else but myself can touch the Barrier! It is a holy object and will burn anyone who touches it, who is not of the Order. And to drop it would prove devastating to us all!"
Annitella explained that the Rod was in the ceiling about two third of the way into the cavern. There were no other exits from the cavern. The party determined that Drovic would use his airwalk to transport himself and Annitella to the ceiling where she could retrieve the Sacred Barrier. The rest of the party moved into the chamber to surround the duo and to be on watch.
Annitella and Drovic moved up to the ceiling about 15 feet from the north wall. She searched briefly, expelled a sigh of relief, and gently pried a clear rod, about two feet long, from the ceiling. Ecstatically, she cried "I've got it!"
As Annitella victoriously waved the Rod int he air. The entrance tunnel came alive with the sound of marching feet. A mass of unarmed humans, dressed in rags, poured out of the darkness, converged like zombies into the cavern facing the heroes. In the midst of them, there were five mind flayers, not doubt ordering their slaves to attack the party.
At the back of the advancing army were two distinctive and familiar figures: the beautiful woman with the frost-colored eyes and the mind flayer with the black robes, both of them from the recent nightmare about switched bodies. The woman grinned at the party's surprise and dissolved into mist. The mind flayer levitated upward a few feet and pointed its claws at the party.
Ralom tore up a piece of paper and suddenly a great mass of the human slaves fell to the ground asleep. On of the five mind flayers also took a nap. Drovic made sure he had a solid hold on Annitella and the party prepared for an attack.
The levitating figure released a mind-boggling blast of energy, causing significant damage to the party and leaving them either stunned or helpless where they stood.
Simultaneously, there was a loud crack in the air of the crystal cavern, and Bonespur swooped out of thin air on his nightmare. He threw a glowing net over Annitella and Drovic. The net complete encircled the two characters. As the helpless party watched in horror, Bonespur, the nightmare, Annitella and Drovic faded away, taking the Rod with them.
As the party recovers from their shock and stunning, the High Master will disappear from sight. Just as Arvien recovered the beautiful woman appeared in front of her and gazed into Arvien's eyes. Arvien just averted her gaze and Dimension stepped several feet away in the cavern.
A pitched battle erupted with the mind flayers casting fireballs, lightning bolts and magic missiles. The frosty eyed woman moved to Ralom trying to gaze into his eyes. In the mass of humans, only one or two actually were moving at this point and moved zombie like toward the party. The party advanced on the mind flayers ignoring the mind blasts for the most part and soon the enemy fell to the blows of Ralom, Grunyar, Varrid and Seglun. The frosty eyed woman turned into mist and started to flow out of the cavern, On her way she turned into a bat out of hell, and beat a hasty retreat. Varrid followed as best she could cor a short period, hoping to follow later. The sleeping mind flayer was killed and the party gathered for healing form Ralom and Baru.
"How can we find Drovic?" was Arvien's immediate concern. Varrid indicated where they should leave down the maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
The echo in the cavern certainly made the battle a loud one. No doubt there would be more mind flayers, driving helpless slaves before them. Already through the background noise of the humming, the party could hear many strange noises.
The strategy to follow the bat's trail lasted for about 5 turns, There were forks in the road, T passages and plain old narrow gaps to pass through. Grunyar could keep the party headed on a upward slope but that was about it. All along they would hear noises from behind or in front of them. Helplessly lost with too many directions to choose from the party was near despair, not just from the terrible background hum but also from ever getting out of the mountain alive.
Around the next bend, they came face to face with a horrifying sight. An apelike creature, with a hideously malformed human head growing from its stomach. The creature threw out one hand in a gesture of greeting(?) while putting a finger to his lips with the other hand.
"If you will live, you follow!" he demanded in a throaty whisper with the head on his shoulders -- the second head merely rolled its eyes from side to side and drooled. With that, the creature turned and ran down the corridor behind him.
Seglun sat down on the tunnel floor refusing to budge as the rest of the party attempted to follow the creature. Baru finally picked Seglun up and carried him as they followed apace. The creature led the party down several tunnels with the sounds of of mind flayer forces right behind all the way. When he came to a stop, he climbed a wall to a narrow ledge about 8 feet off the floor, rolled out of sight momentarily, and then stuck his main head over the ledge and signalled for the party to follow.
The group clambered up and over the ledge, through narrow crevices where they had to crawl.
At last the group arrived in a dimly torch-lit cavern. The air was truly foul; it took a supreme act of will to hold the gag reflex in check.
There were perhaps a half dozen disfigured creatures in the cramped space: all of them were part human and part animal or monster. There was a giant slug with a human's head, partially dissolved from its own acidic spittle. His antennae were human arms and hands from the elbows down, and they twitched and grasped at the air in front of him. There was also a wolf-like creature with vaguely human ears, a short, bleeding nose, and dog-clawed fingers. These and other disgusting creatures crowded around, sniffling and pawing at the party, and speaking to one another in an odd language. A work here and there was understood but it was largely gibberish.
The two headed, apelike creature who led the group here addressed them: "Symbiont," he says, thumping his chest and then petting his second head gently, it continued to roll its eyes from side to side, but it gave a toothless, lop-sided grin. "Friend of Annitella," Symbiont added. Then, pointing at the group he asked, "Friend of Annitella?"
As the group nodded its assent he smiled, displaying chipped and yellowed fangs. With a gesture at the group of creatures around him, he said, "We are Shattered Brethren. We help Annitella -- you and us." "We stop the fiends, but first we wait for the searchers to give up, and first we drink!"
Symbiont reached into a crack in the rocks beside him and pulled out a leather skin. Uncorking it, he passed the skin to each of the slobbering creatures around him. He drank and then tipped the the skin to the lips of his second head, which slurped loudly, letting some of the pasty liquid dribble from his lips. Then, Symbiont passed the skin to Ralom.
"Drink," he said gruffly. Ralom hesitated and Symbiont repeated, "Drink!"
Ralom passed the skin to Baru and the creatures in the room started to chant "Drink!" louder and louder. Baru hesitated but finally uncorked the skin and drew it to his lips.
The stench in the room was nothing compared to the reek in the bottle. Baru tipped the skin, bringing the thick liquid to the rim. It was a yellowish-brown sludge. The taste was bitter and it burned in Baru's throat. There were lumps in the drink, and the liquid stuck to his teeth and gums, resisting his efforts to swallow. In his stomach, it sat like a rock and began to heat up. Baru's face flushed a deep red and broke into a sweat.
Baru was unsteady on his feet but was able to rasp that he was OK and he passed to skin to Ralom. Ralom drank and had the same reaction as did Grunyar. When Arvien and Seglun sampled to liquid they became nauseated and lay down on the cavern floor incapacitated. This left Varrid who stubbornly refused to try the sludge. The creatures all surrounded her chanting, "Drink, Drink, Drink!" with increasing ferocity. She raised the tip of the skin to her lips and pretended to swallow a sip.
While Arvien and Seglun lay moaning on the floor, Baru asked Symbiont about the plan to rescue Annitlella, Drassak and Drovic. He merely replied, "We wait a while, for searchers to give up."
The party laid down to rest, but as sleep overcame them Arvien, Seglun and Varrid found themselves on the plains of G'Henna in a circle around Malestroi, the Nalfeshnee. Drovic was there also.
A short battle ensued with the heroes dispatched in a flash. They awoke in the cavern, without Drovic, and sat up, not damaged but not rested either.
Arvien found that she could again memorize her 5th level spells and all but Varrid found that the hum of Bluetspur faded into the background and their muscles relaxes. They all never realized how tense they had been.
A large beetle-like creature, with six dual-elbowed, human arms and legs, crawled into the cave and twitched its long antennae excitedly in front of Symbiont's second head; his eyes twitched in unison.
Symbiont said, "My brother has seen Annitella in the laboratories where we were born to present life. Annitella has spoken to his mind. Her words, "My heroes, Drassak is a victim of both the vampire and the incubation chamber. For the sake of his soul, you must come before night falls again or all is lost." Symbiont uttered, "We go!"
Symbiont wordlessly led the way out of the cave of the Shattered Brethren. The man-beetle ranged ahead of him, disappearing around corners and then reappearing through another crack to the side, clinging to the ceiling and twitching his antennae. As Symbiont weaved his way through the narrow labyrinth of cracks his second head sniffed at the air repeatedly like a dog on a scent.
The path began to climb steeply and the background hum lessened even more as the party ascended. Occasionally the secret route intersected a main passageway. Symbiont sniffed deeply at the air before motioning onward and running down the corridor to another crack int he wall, leading back into secret ways.
Finally, the group caught a breath of fresh air, quickly followed by the pungent odor of excrement. They crawled around a corner and looked into a large cavern overgrown with large mushrooms and other fungi. A group of human slaves shoveled a load of fungi into large sacks before piling the sacks on a cart, and some of them wheeled the cart out of the cavern.
Several push carts and a pile of rough-cloth bags were stored near the entrance to the cavern. The cars were simple eight by five foot platforms with a wheel and axle mount on the lower side. The fresh air came from a hole in the roof, at least 50 feet up.
After the slaved pulled the last loaded cart out of the chamber, Symbiont picked up a sack from the pile near the entrance and held it out to the party, saying: "We can go no higher through the secret ways. Now you sneak or fight to the fiends' laboratories. If you cover your bodies in these, we sneak. If no, you fight."
Symbiont proceeded to tear holes for his head and arms in one of the large burlap bags and put it on, gently covering his second head. The rest of the party followed suit and they again headed out into the tunnels. After passing along several more rising passages they came to a large chamber.
A rancid stench of sweat and garbage rose like a wall as they approached the opening ahead. It was a very large natural cavern, obviously expanded to provide more floor space for the occupants.
Through the tunnel archway, ceiling crystals shed light and heat upon a room that reminded them of a butcher's holding pen. There must have been a hundred human slaves there, meandering about in a room devoid of bedding, furniture, comforts of any sort. Disgusting refuse covered the floor from wall to wall. These poor slaves lived like animals -- it's not surprising that hey became remnants when they dies, living under such horrible conditions.
There was a wide ledge that ran the length of the south end of the room, about 20 feet above the floor level, and an exit from it was at about the midway point. A pair of mind flayers walked back and forth along the ledge, overseeing the herd.
DM's Notes: Another eventful night for the group. Where is Drovic and why was he in the nightmare?
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