The Laboratories

Symbiont started into the chamber traipsing through the filth on the floor as if it wasn't here.  Baru and Seglun followed slightly behind followed by Ralom, Grunyar and Varrid.  Arvien stopped in the entryway and watched the mind-flayers pacing on the ledge.  She waited until the nearest mind-flayer had turned to move back toward the tunnel exit and cast summon monster, an anklyosauer, right in front of him.

Symbiont stood still for a moment in wonder at the large creature that had appeared.  The mute slaves on the floor continued milling about, none gave notice to the dinosaur in the room.  The mind-flayer moved to attack the creature, while his mate immediately fled the chamber through the tunnel on the ledge.
A short quick battle took place as the party dispatched the remaining illithid apace.  They then followed Alvin (Arvien's pet name for the anklyosauer) down the tunnel.  This tunnel led to another slave chamber which was much cleaner that the first.  There were straw beds arranged around the chamber with several human slaves practicing battle and cleaning up the area.
Amongst the the chamber was a mind-flayer (from the first chamber) several drow and duergar lined up ready for battle.  On the eastern wall was evidence of another tunnel as the only other exit from the area.
As the party rushed in to attack, they were hit by fireballs from the rear drow mages and were subject to the Psionic Blast of the mind-flayer.  A fierce battle took place, highlighted by magic missiles from the mages, crossbow bolts from the drow and the war axe duergar attacks.
Ralom cast a wall of tone at an angle from the party to the exit, attempting to provide an quick escape route for the party.  But alas, most of the party was under attack.  Then the drow began the rush the wall and climber up and over.  Arvien cast a wall of flame just aside Ralom's wall.  This damaged the enemy as the attempted to block the parties escape. 
The fighting was savage and Baru fell unconscious under the attack of several duergar.  His body then disappeared almost before it hit the floor.  The mages were retreating from the rout that was being inflicted on their mates, climbing the wall, being scorched by the fire and fleeing through the tunnel.  A few drow fighters also fled as the party cleared the area of the rest of the drow and duergar. 
A quick respite was taken for some healing, but now there was a renewed sense of purpose to find both Drovic and Baru!!
Through the tunnel the party moved finding the next cavern lined with locked cages, 10 on each side.  At the far end of the chamber was a huge, solid-crystal shaft, stretching up and disappearing at the ceiling.  At floor level there was and opening, which allowed room for 4 people to crowd inside.  Varrid, still invisible, made her way into the room, examining the cages.
Every cage contained a single occupant.  About half of them contained women in various stages of pregnancy -- new slaves in the making.  The last two cages at the far end of the room held Drovic and Baru.  They were manacled to the far end of the cages and appeared to be unconscious.  They were also stripped of their equipment. 
Varrid unlocked the cages and the manacles, whereupon Ralom set about healing the two heroes out of their stupor.  Grunyar and Seglun were looking at the crystalline shaft.  A white mist hid the floor and at the top of the shaft the mist hid any escape or exit there also.  Arvien found no magic in the entire structure, there were no levers, buttons, or any obvious controls of any kind.  Symbiont did not know how to use this contraption but insisted on freeing the women and broken ones from their cages.  He instructed them to run to the fungus farm, where the Shattered Brethren would take them to asylum. 
Since Drovic and Baru had no equipment, the party stripped some of the duergar and drow for armor, rings, cloaks, and weapons for their fellow adventurers to use.  Low on spells and energy the party decided to use the Sylvan Hideaway to recover, as no time would elapse in the "real" world while they rested inside.  Before entering Ralom summoned a wooly rhinoceros and Arvien a Dire Boar and had the Boar enter the shaft.  Nothing happened as the Boar stood gazing into space.
The Sylvan Hideaway was a boon to the party as they could rest and recover while no time passed.  Symbiont insisted that the drink from the leather skin.  The party was aghast, do we have to taste the concoction again?  Symbiont insisted that they would need it for protection from the fiends.  This time Varrid finally drank a draught, felt it sit hard in her stomach but she immediately felt the tenseness drain away.
After resting the party peeked out the trap door of the Hideaway, saw that the area was just as they left it and exited.  Attempts were made to activate the shaft, did it go up or down?  How did this thing work?  Nothing seemed to help so Seglun and Baru squeezed into the area with the Dire Boar, who wasn't happy with them in her space.  They looked around for controls and as Baru looked up at the mists above his head, mists gathered around his and Seglun's feet and they began to rise, just the two of them not the Boar, and disappeared into the mists above.  The entire shaft hummed as they were lifted, much like the background drone that pervaded the entire realm.
The rest of the party followed as they could two or three at a time.  The more loaded the "elevator" the louder the hum. 
As the party was lifted into the next level, sound of pain and anguish drifted down the shaft to their ears.  As they reached the rim of the opening, a terrible sight greeted them. 
There were perhaps a half dozen humans there, strapped to tables, manacled to the walls, and locked in tiny cages.  A few of them still looked relatively normal, but most of them were partly or completely changed into animalistic broken ones.  One of them in a nearby cage seemed to be a giant slug with a human head and antennae that resembled arms and hands from the elbow down -- they reached out through the bars to anyone passing by.  Another person, a woman strapped down on a table, strained to lift her head and sit up, but here entire skeleton seemed to have melted inside her.  Her slitted-iris eyes bulged and her mouth hung open in a silent scream -- her tongue snapped in and out at lest two feet, and it was forked.  A whitish substance dribbled from her mouth and drained through ridges in the surface of the table, oozing into a catch basin below.
Over by the far wall, a mind-flayer caressed the face of a manacled, mindless slave with its tentacles and then produced a large syringe.  The monster drove the six inch needle into the throat of the slave, drawing out a pinkish-clear fluid.  The slaves eyes went wide with pain, but he made no sound. 
A shrill scream pierced the air, coming from beyond a door at the far end of the room.  The voice was instantly recognizable as Annitella's!
Varrid, who was again invisible, slightly opened the door leading out of the chamber, while the rest of the party made quick work of the one mind-flayer.  Through the doorway, were several mind-flayers standing in another lab that appeared to be designed for surgical procedures.  There was one table in the room surrounded by light stand mounted with glowing crystals.  The wall were hung with many instruments like saws, sharp prods and needles.
Annitella was strapped to the table.  Several of her tentacles had been cut off and had fallen to the floor, still wriggling.  Seglun charged into the room attacking a mind-flayer on sight.  Varrid entered and attack with impunity, dealing heavy damage with her surprise attacks.   Arvien grabbed Baru and Ralom and D stepped into the chamber on the far side of the table.  There they saw two drow fighters aside the doorway who attacked Drovic as he marched into the chamber.  Also, Bonespur was there moving toward the heroes. 
Grunyar stayed in the previous chamber firing arrow with great accuracy into the fray.  Annitella saw the heroes enter and yelled "Help Me!  As if in echo, thunder rumbled outside the mountain, vibrating the walls.
Bonespur approached Seglun, drew his dagger, which morphed into a great two handed sword and attacked.  Drovic surprised by the drow fighters tried to with draw into the previous chamber but fell unconscious in the doorway.  Baru was trying to get to Bonespur but the damn mind-flayers were in the way and they were trying Psionic Blasts to stun the party.   Varrrid stood still, dropping her dagger before she could attack again.  Grunyar's arrow were effective and felled mind-flayers apace.  While the battle was raging an occasional peal of thunder was heard and felt.  Annitella called out from the table, "Quickly, the night is coming!"
With Drovic lying on the floor, Grunyar moved up to attack the drow with his hammer, Baru dispatched a mind-flayer or two and charged Bonespur.  The enemy tried to flank Seglun to no advantage and Varrid was roused from being stunned to rejoin the battle.  Arvien threw magic missiles around the room until all the enemy were dead.  When Bonespur fell, his body, and equipment blinked out of view. 
With the battle won, Annitella cried out frantically, "Hurry, hurry!  They are hatching a vampire from poor Drassak's body!  We must stop them!"
Baru cut the remaining straps, and she started to sob, "We must kill him for his own peace -- remember the remnants."
Ralom immediately administered healing to Drovic and the party, as it was clear they needed to move on quickly. Once free, Annitella leapt to her feet, oblivious to her pain.  "Quickly, up the shaft to the incubation chamber.  There was another crystalline shaft in the corner of this laboratory and the party entered four at at time.  The shaft hummed loudly as each group rose to the next level.
Another chamber, another horror.  There were several dozen tables with full restraining straps on them in this cavern, and a human on every table.  There eyes were wide open but sightless and their strapped down hands were frozen in a clutching position.  The bodies remained still, as if they were all dead shells, but some of the heads shook slightly underneath the forehead straps, as if something inside was struggling to find its way out.
There was a tunnel across the room, leading into darkness beyond.  Standing in the entrance was a young woman, whom the party recognized as the vampire from the battle where Annitella and the Rod were taken!
"Good evening brave heroes," she said with a sneer.  "I am Lyssa Von Zarovich -- I'm afraid that I didn't have time to introduce myself the last time we met."
She crossed to a table near to her and lifted the limp head of a human strapped to it  The jaw was broken and the lips were ripped, as if something had forced its way out violently, and there were puncture wounds on the neck.  Annitella cried out in anguish at the sight.  "If you've come for Lord Drassak," said Lyssa, "you are a bit late."  She caressed the puncture wounds and said, "You see we've put his powerful body to good use and hatched a rather special young mind-flayer."
"The High Master Illithid had hoped to make excellent slaves of you, despite my objections, but he is upstairs now and rather indisposed.  It's about time your meddling came to an end!"  With that Bonespur and 10 drow fighters rushed out of the tunnel and spread across the room firing their crossbows.

DM's Notes:  Again the party faces a crowd of creatures.  Can they destroy the new vampiric Drassak before he comes after them?