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Doom from Below: The Illithid Ascension (Last Updated: 1-1-03)
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<blockquote data-quote="Phasmus" data-source="post: 214231" data-attributes="member: 1827"><p>At this point, since our heroes are, well, alive...it may be a good time to provide some information on each of them and spare us all some expository dialogue.</p><p></p><p>Piklum is, as noted, a halfling. Possessing a certain cuteness rather than handsomeness, he wears scruffy clothing and a well-used suit of leather armor. Across one shoulder is slung a short bow (as if any other kind would do), and he carries a seemingly unending supply of daggers secreted here and there on his person. His goals and background are murky, but seem to involve revenging himself upon a crime syndicate that does 'business' all across Kaldonia. A peculiar motivation for such an otherwise happy-go-lucky person, and one wonders what more there is to the tale...</p><p></p><p>Shayuri is a young woman with the dark skin and subtly exotic features of one of the desert tribesmen that roam far off Tyjir. Despite this hint at a distant origin though, she is quite comfortable with local customs and language. Possessed of almost unearthly beauty, Shayuri's most striking feature is her eyes, which possess irises that are bright silver in color. She is uncommonly well-educated for a sorceror, having recieved magic tutelage from a wizard she refers to as Bernard. Her mind is methodical, but she must struggle with her passionate nature which sometimes overwhelms her with intuitions and violent mood swings. There are few people more pleasant to deal with than she...when she is in a good mood. Otherwise she has a biting tongue. Her goal is, at first, merely to survive in this newly hostile world.</p><p></p><p>The priestess Shar is a worshipper of Delta, a goddess of what might be considered 'chaos,' or Change in it's raw form. She is trained almost as much as a warrior as a cleric, possessing an almost amazonian physique. Her choice in weapons is as whimsical as the goddess she serves (a scythe), but Shar enjoys the intimidation value of the large curved blade atop a long pole. While Delta herself has no restrictions on the use of negative energy or the undead, Shar has decided that undead are fundamentally unchanging beings and thus antithetical to Delta's nature. Accordingly, she has chosen to draw positive energy despite her more or less amoral nature. Shar's motivation is, as always, to promote her goddess' will. Since the illithid are highly organized creatures, she has taken it upon herself to oppose them with near fanatic fervor.</p><p></p><p>And now, on with the story. Er...history.</p><p></p><p>The dual shocks of discovering that Shayuri and Piklum had inadvertantly entered the wrong bodies, and finding that Shankara looked very different to mortal eyes than to ethereal wore off over some long, tense minutes. Both Shayuri and Piklum alike were VERY interested in having the unfortunate accident reversed...but unfortunately, Shankara informed them that it wouldn't be that easy.</p><p></p><p>"Why not?" they both demanded, as Shar resumed chortling.</p><p></p><p>"I do know a spell that could do it, but I haven't cast it in...a very long time," the baelnorn replied. "I lack an essential component. A soul gem. Without it to house your souls as they pass between the bodies, you would be lost."</p><p></p><p>Shayuri slumped despairingly and looked at her freakishly small hands. Piklum said with a nonchalant smile, "So where do we get one of those?"</p><p></p><p>Shankara considered. "It is possible," she said at last, "that one of the other guardians here has something that would work." She dug into her robes with a skeletal hand as Shayuri looked up, hope returning to her halfling features. The lich produced a scrap of parchment and muttered a spell, causing words to flare into being upon it. "Take this to the custodian of the tomb you will find south and west of here. Count three doors south and turn west at the crumbled pillars that once were..." she trailed off for a moment, shook her head, and resumed, "then count two doors west from there. The third will be his. Show him this and he will provide what you need."</p><p></p><p>Shayuri leapt with halfling nimbleness off the slab she sat on and snatched the letter from Shankara. "Thank you!" she gushed. "We'll do that right now!"</p><p></p><p>Shar stretched. "I suppose I'll go too. Better than sitting around in here waiting."</p><p></p><p>Shankara raised an admonishing hand. "I would suggest being cautious. The ward that protects this place often causes the dead to become animated as lesser undead guardians. They are mindless, and will attack you as they would anything living that strays too close."</p><p></p><p>Piklum bristled and raised his (her) hands menacingly. "I'll use my magic to stop them!"</p><p></p><p>"That's MY magic!" Shayuri protested. "Here, take your stupid bow back. You can't use magic even in my body. You don't know how."</p><p></p><p>Perhaps a little bemused by the group's bickering, Shankara indicated the passage out with a wave of her bony hand. "The force walls that blocked this place are gone," she said. "You are free to leave."</p><p></p><p>Shayuri nodded from where she was transferring Piklum's weapons to him. "Thank you," she said sincerely.</p><p></p><p>"Yeah, thanks," Piklum echoed, trying to get the bow to sit right on Shayuri's unfamiliar body.</p><p></p><p>"Come on," Shar said impatiently, striding out towards the exit, "If we're to do this fool's errand, let us be quick about it."</p><p></p><p>It was something of a surprise when they emerged from the crypt into the light of day. Apparently the raising magic Shankara had performed wasn't as instant as most. At least the storm had passed though. Nervously the trio walked out across the scraggly grass that carpeted the necropolis, trying to look every direction at once. It was eerily silent there, but a persistant feeling of being watched hounded them. You are not welcome here, the shattered buildings seemed to hiss, leave or suffer the price. And yet, they continued. Southward, past three hulking crypts with solid doors, was indeed a small complex of broken pillars around what might have been a fountain, or sculpture.</p><p></p><p>"We turn west here," Shayuri said, pointing.</p><p></p><p>"Whatever," replied Shar, not particularly interested.</p><p></p><p>"Hey," Piklum said, turning around. "Do you guys hear anything?"</p><p></p><p>Now that the halfling-in-the-sorceress mentioned it...there WAS a slight noise. A peculiar clicking noise followed by a scrape. Click - scraaaaape. Click - scraaaape. Regular as...footsteps.</p><p></p><p>"Oh no," lamented Shayuri, feeling very out-of-sorts in this foreign flesh. Shar, on the other hand, grinned and shook the shaft of her scythe, causing the blade to snap into its ready position. She said nothing, but her expression clearly communicated, "It's about time!"</p><p></p><p>And around the corner from behind the crypt they'd just passed shuffled three skeletons, all of them humanoid, but not human. One in particular was larger and more vicious looking, with sharp fanglike teeth. It carried a peculiar dagger that seemed to be made of dark smoke, wavering and shifting constantly. Upon seeing the tresspassers, the undead silently charged!</p><p></p><p>The resulting melee was swift and brutal. Shayuri, taken by surprise by the things' speed, was raked by the large skeleton's dagger before she could retreat to safe spellcasting range. Piklum had trouble with the skeletons, since his only weapons were daggers and the bow. He spent most of the battle looking for a rock he could smash at them with, even as Shayuri demanded that he retreat and not put her body at risk. In the end, Shar's maniacal scythe-swinging and a hail of magic missiles brought the skeletons down. Eager to avoid any more encounters with the undead, the group quickly pressed on, not immediately investigating the dagger.</p><p></p><p>They found what they hoped was the correct tomb, and stood staring at its large black iron door apprehensively for a moment.</p><p></p><p>Shar, nursing a wound that was too minor to waste magic on, but still deep enough to hurt, seemed to be considering the idea of staying outside as Piklum checked the door out for traps. When he pushed the ominous thing open though, all three entered.</p><p></p><p>They were perhaps ten feet inside when the door slammed shut with a resounding CLANG, sealing them in near-darkness. As they looked at each other, as if daring someone else to take the next steps first, a mad cackle filled the air and a sickly greenish glow began emerging from a side passage.</p><p></p><p>Not even Shar could pretend to be brave as an ancient liche tottered out of the passage, the fitful green witchfire in its eyes being the light they saw approaching. It raised its hands on seeing them and howled in fury. "INTERLOPERS!!!"</p><p></p><p>The full force of its supernatural aura struck all three of the adventurers, and sheer panic drove all thought of Shankara and the letter from their minds. They shrieked in abject terror and fled to the vast iron door, pounding and begging for release. Meanwhile, the lich, now chuckling, advanced towards them from behind. "Now," it hissed, "What shall I do with you three? Hmm?"</p><p></p><p>Shayuri, in a fit of desperate self-survival instinct, suddenly remembered the letter she carried. She grabbed it out of the grubby little halfling belt pouch it was curled up in, and held it out. "Please!" she wailed, "Shankara sent us to give you this!"</p><p></p><p>In an instant, the lich's demeanor changed from demented amusement to caution...and perhaps disappointment. "Shankara, eh? Let me see that." It reached out and took the letter...letting one finger brush Shayuri's hand as it did. A layer of skin dried up and peeled off where it had touched her, and the sorceress swallowed, dry-mouthed.</p><p></p><p>After a moment of scanning the arcane scribble, the guardian lich sighed mustily. "I see. It seems I won't be destroying you after all. Pity. This has been the most fun I've had in centuries."</p><p></p><p>"A...and the gem?" Shayuri asked, hardly daring to breathe.</p><p></p><p>"Yes yes yes," the lich said impatiently. "She'll get what she needs, as always..." It's terrible glowing eyes surveyed the three balefully. "You three stay right here. Don't MOVE until I come back." Then it turned and shambled back the way it had come. Long moments passed. Just as the adventurers began to consider trying to find out what was taking so long, they heard the unmistakable sound of its dry shuffling footsteps echoing through the halls.</p><p></p><p>The lich returned, holding a sapphire as big as Shar's fist. "This will suffice, I think," it rasped, glancing at the party. "It would be enough to hold all three of you, in fact, unless I miss my guess." It chuckled; a sound like centuries-old paper ripping, and held the gem out. Shayuri managed to grab it a split second before Piklum did.</p><p></p><p>"No fair," he grumbled. "I'm the one who's supposed to be that fast."</p><p></p><p>"Here," the tomb lich grunted, producing another parchment. "Take this to her as well."</p><p></p><p>"Of course," Shayuri hastily agreed.</p><p></p><p>There was an awkward pause then, as the adventurers waited for the door to be opened, and the lich looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "Tell me," it said at last, "is Shankara as beautiful as she once was?"</p><p></p><p>Shar covered her mouth to suppress a derisive laugh, and even Piklum looked taken aback. Shayuri, remembering what the baelnorn had looked like when they were ghosts, nodded. "She is."</p><p></p><p>"Ahhh." It was impossible for the lich to grin or smile in any way other than the perpetual skull-grin it always wore...but something in its inflection suggested that it would have been, had it still a face. "You may go. Give her my letter, my gem, and...my regards." Turning swiftly, it waved a hand as it ambled back down the passage. There was a scream of iron grating on stone, and the door opened, pushing the party along with it.</p><p></p><p>Thoroughly unnerved, they wasted no time dashing back to Shankara's tomb, and their progress was not impeded this time.</p><p></p><p>Upon coming again into Shankara's presence, Shayuri did as instructed. Shankara turned the gem around in the bony claw of a hand as she read the parchment...and giggled. "That scoundrel," she said affectionately at last, secreting the letter away in her robes. "I hope he wasn't too hard on you. He's always been a show-off."</p><p></p><p>Shayuri could only open and close her mouth, speechless. Piklum slapped a knee and scoffed. "What, him? Nah! Perfect gentleman!" Shar gave Piklum a burning, hateful look, remembering all too well how her courage had failed her.</p><p></p><p>Wrapped up in her own memories, Shankara missed the interplay and indicated the slabs. "You two now...lie back down. Good. Now focus on the stone." She lifted the gem aloft, and it began to glow in fitful actinic bursts. The rhythm of the flares was somehow hypnotic...</p><p></p><p>For both Shayuri and Piklum, the universe suddenly became bright blue...and faceted. For an instant their souls touched one another, and a cascade of memories and thoughts too numerous and fast to read flooded them. Then there was a brittle crunching noise and the world became dark.</p><p></p><p>They sat up, eyes becoming adjusted to the gloom of the crypt. Shankara stood above them still, somehow regal in appearance despite her decayed form. From between her uplifted fingers a fine blue sand ran. She looked down at them. "You have stronger souls than he thought," she said. "Much stronger and the stone would not have been able to hold you both." The lich nodded. "That is good. You will need all the strength you have and more to do what I will ask of you now."</p><p></p><p>Shar snarled and leapt to her feet. "More tasks?" she raged. "We have done as you asked! The mind flayer lies dead! Now fulfill your bargain and let us go!"</p><p></p><p>Shankara's voice remained as mild as ever as she turned to look at Shar. "You have done as I asked, yes, and now you live again. I have given you this second chance. Know this, however...you are presently enmeshed very close to the illithid infestation, and if you do not leave you will be recaptured." She paused to let that sink in, then continued, "The task I ask of you now will help ensure that you remain free."</p><p></p><p>"What is it?" Shar demanded.</p><p></p><p>"I will give you a crystal, encoded with a message for the current king of the West Sh..." another pause, "...of Dieresis, I mean. The kingdom of the elves. Your task is to see that my message is receieved by the emperor of that land. He will know my name, and the message will make the situation unmistakably clear."</p><p></p><p>"Forgive me, Shankara," Shayuri pipes up hesitantly, obviously relieved to be back in her own body, "but...what IS the situation? My memories are cloudy."</p><p></p><p>Shankara sighed. "It is grim, child. I am bound to this tomb in body, but through magic my eye wanders the land with impunity. I have seen the great castles of Caron falling. The very capital itself torn asunder. Cedilla too is all but gone. Only the great towers of its capital hold fast, protected by wards the illithid have not been able to pierce. Yet. Much of the heart of Kaldonia has fallen under the yoke of the mind flayers, and when they have completed the assimilation process, they will lead an army of thralls such as that this world has never seen. If we wait that long, I fear no power under the sun will be able to stop them. My message to the emperor explains all this, and informs him of my wishes that Dieresis offer aid. So far there is still resistance to the illithid...a few isolated pockets. Furthermore, the dwarf mountains in Umlaut remain largely free of their taint. The free peoples of Kaldonia must counter this invasion, or the entire world will be blanketed by the control of these abominations."</p><p></p><p>Shayuri nods, her eyes widening as the magnitude of the task ahead becomes clear. Yet, she feels her resolve stiffen. There was little she could do to personally fight right now, but if by delivering this missive she could help to organize a counterstrike...</p><p></p><p>Piklum shrugged, again settling into his gear. "I suppose there's not much point in my going after the Syndicate if they're all thralls," he mused. "So okay."</p><p></p><p>Shar thumped the butt of her scythe on the floor and religious fervor glowed in her eyes. "So be it," she crowed. "The illithid are abominations in the eyes of Delta! Let none of the peoples of the world fail in their duty to CRUSH them!"</p><p></p><p>Shankara might have raised an eyebrow, had she any...and presented the gleaming crystal to Shayuri. "I regret to say I cannot help you more," she said. "The illithid and thralls that invaded this place had some valuables...items that may prove useful to you in your journeys. Come."</p><p></p><p>The elf lich led the party through serpentine halls to a large room that was decorated with the charred, frozen, scoured, and otherwise destroyed husks of many living beings...including two illithid. "It is fortunate that they left your bodies more or less intact," Shankara said, indicating the mess. "I could not bring any of these back. The damage I inflicted was too great."</p><p></p><p>"But the stuff?" Piklum eagerly demanded, his sharp eyes jumping from body to body seeking loot.</p><p></p><p>"There in the middle of the floor. I took the liberty of removing them from their previous owners, and of...cleaning them. The gold ring will protect the wearer's mind against reading. Oddly, it was an illithid who wore it. Perhaps it was keeping secrets from its fellows. Additionally, they had some gold and silver coins. They are yours now. I have no need of them."</p><p></p><p>Piklum fell upon the tiny hoard immediately, though he was quickly persuaded (at scythe-point) to divide the money equally. Surprisingly, Shar wasn't interested in the ring...and after some discussion, Shayuri relented and let the halfling keep it. His will was the weakest of the three, and thus his need greatest.</p><p></p><p>And so, with farewells (in some cases even fond ones) to Shankara, the three set out once more, this time not to return to the ruins of the elf city again. The elf-lich informed them as they left that they must make haste. When night fell in the aelfheim, there were far more terrible things that lurked than mere skeletons. Shayuri, at the last minute, recalled the odd dagger the large skeleton had used, and retrieved it. The blade of the dagger was indeed seemingly only partly material, though it was as solid as steel to the touch. Since Piklum had claimed the ring, Shayuri kept the dagger. As twilight broke, they could hear the unearthly wails of...things...in the woods behind them. Twisted, strange lights flickered through the towering black trunks of trees. They stumbled on into the night, trying to put enough distance between them and that haunted stretch of woods, but finally had to sleep. And sleep they did. For a time.</p><p></p><p>---</p><p>To be continued</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Phasmus, post: 214231, member: 1827"] At this point, since our heroes are, well, alive...it may be a good time to provide some information on each of them and spare us all some expository dialogue. Piklum is, as noted, a halfling. Possessing a certain cuteness rather than handsomeness, he wears scruffy clothing and a well-used suit of leather armor. Across one shoulder is slung a short bow (as if any other kind would do), and he carries a seemingly unending supply of daggers secreted here and there on his person. His goals and background are murky, but seem to involve revenging himself upon a crime syndicate that does 'business' all across Kaldonia. A peculiar motivation for such an otherwise happy-go-lucky person, and one wonders what more there is to the tale... Shayuri is a young woman with the dark skin and subtly exotic features of one of the desert tribesmen that roam far off Tyjir. Despite this hint at a distant origin though, she is quite comfortable with local customs and language. Possessed of almost unearthly beauty, Shayuri's most striking feature is her eyes, which possess irises that are bright silver in color. She is uncommonly well-educated for a sorceror, having recieved magic tutelage from a wizard she refers to as Bernard. Her mind is methodical, but she must struggle with her passionate nature which sometimes overwhelms her with intuitions and violent mood swings. There are few people more pleasant to deal with than she...when she is in a good mood. Otherwise she has a biting tongue. Her goal is, at first, merely to survive in this newly hostile world. The priestess Shar is a worshipper of Delta, a goddess of what might be considered 'chaos,' or Change in it's raw form. She is trained almost as much as a warrior as a cleric, possessing an almost amazonian physique. Her choice in weapons is as whimsical as the goddess she serves (a scythe), but Shar enjoys the intimidation value of the large curved blade atop a long pole. While Delta herself has no restrictions on the use of negative energy or the undead, Shar has decided that undead are fundamentally unchanging beings and thus antithetical to Delta's nature. Accordingly, she has chosen to draw positive energy despite her more or less amoral nature. Shar's motivation is, as always, to promote her goddess' will. Since the illithid are highly organized creatures, she has taken it upon herself to oppose them with near fanatic fervor. And now, on with the story. Er...history. The dual shocks of discovering that Shayuri and Piklum had inadvertantly entered the wrong bodies, and finding that Shankara looked very different to mortal eyes than to ethereal wore off over some long, tense minutes. Both Shayuri and Piklum alike were VERY interested in having the unfortunate accident reversed...but unfortunately, Shankara informed them that it wouldn't be that easy. "Why not?" they both demanded, as Shar resumed chortling. "I do know a spell that could do it, but I haven't cast it in...a very long time," the baelnorn replied. "I lack an essential component. A soul gem. Without it to house your souls as they pass between the bodies, you would be lost." Shayuri slumped despairingly and looked at her freakishly small hands. Piklum said with a nonchalant smile, "So where do we get one of those?" Shankara considered. "It is possible," she said at last, "that one of the other guardians here has something that would work." She dug into her robes with a skeletal hand as Shayuri looked up, hope returning to her halfling features. The lich produced a scrap of parchment and muttered a spell, causing words to flare into being upon it. "Take this to the custodian of the tomb you will find south and west of here. Count three doors south and turn west at the crumbled pillars that once were..." she trailed off for a moment, shook her head, and resumed, "then count two doors west from there. The third will be his. Show him this and he will provide what you need." Shayuri leapt with halfling nimbleness off the slab she sat on and snatched the letter from Shankara. "Thank you!" she gushed. "We'll do that right now!" Shar stretched. "I suppose I'll go too. Better than sitting around in here waiting." Shankara raised an admonishing hand. "I would suggest being cautious. The ward that protects this place often causes the dead to become animated as lesser undead guardians. They are mindless, and will attack you as they would anything living that strays too close." Piklum bristled and raised his (her) hands menacingly. "I'll use my magic to stop them!" "That's MY magic!" Shayuri protested. "Here, take your stupid bow back. You can't use magic even in my body. You don't know how." Perhaps a little bemused by the group's bickering, Shankara indicated the passage out with a wave of her bony hand. "The force walls that blocked this place are gone," she said. "You are free to leave." Shayuri nodded from where she was transferring Piklum's weapons to him. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "Yeah, thanks," Piklum echoed, trying to get the bow to sit right on Shayuri's unfamiliar body. "Come on," Shar said impatiently, striding out towards the exit, "If we're to do this fool's errand, let us be quick about it." It was something of a surprise when they emerged from the crypt into the light of day. Apparently the raising magic Shankara had performed wasn't as instant as most. At least the storm had passed though. Nervously the trio walked out across the scraggly grass that carpeted the necropolis, trying to look every direction at once. It was eerily silent there, but a persistant feeling of being watched hounded them. You are not welcome here, the shattered buildings seemed to hiss, leave or suffer the price. And yet, they continued. Southward, past three hulking crypts with solid doors, was indeed a small complex of broken pillars around what might have been a fountain, or sculpture. "We turn west here," Shayuri said, pointing. "Whatever," replied Shar, not particularly interested. "Hey," Piklum said, turning around. "Do you guys hear anything?" Now that the halfling-in-the-sorceress mentioned it...there WAS a slight noise. A peculiar clicking noise followed by a scrape. Click - scraaaaape. Click - scraaaape. Regular as...footsteps. "Oh no," lamented Shayuri, feeling very out-of-sorts in this foreign flesh. Shar, on the other hand, grinned and shook the shaft of her scythe, causing the blade to snap into its ready position. She said nothing, but her expression clearly communicated, "It's about time!" And around the corner from behind the crypt they'd just passed shuffled three skeletons, all of them humanoid, but not human. One in particular was larger and more vicious looking, with sharp fanglike teeth. It carried a peculiar dagger that seemed to be made of dark smoke, wavering and shifting constantly. Upon seeing the tresspassers, the undead silently charged! The resulting melee was swift and brutal. Shayuri, taken by surprise by the things' speed, was raked by the large skeleton's dagger before she could retreat to safe spellcasting range. Piklum had trouble with the skeletons, since his only weapons were daggers and the bow. He spent most of the battle looking for a rock he could smash at them with, even as Shayuri demanded that he retreat and not put her body at risk. In the end, Shar's maniacal scythe-swinging and a hail of magic missiles brought the skeletons down. Eager to avoid any more encounters with the undead, the group quickly pressed on, not immediately investigating the dagger. They found what they hoped was the correct tomb, and stood staring at its large black iron door apprehensively for a moment. Shar, nursing a wound that was too minor to waste magic on, but still deep enough to hurt, seemed to be considering the idea of staying outside as Piklum checked the door out for traps. When he pushed the ominous thing open though, all three entered. They were perhaps ten feet inside when the door slammed shut with a resounding CLANG, sealing them in near-darkness. As they looked at each other, as if daring someone else to take the next steps first, a mad cackle filled the air and a sickly greenish glow began emerging from a side passage. Not even Shar could pretend to be brave as an ancient liche tottered out of the passage, the fitful green witchfire in its eyes being the light they saw approaching. It raised its hands on seeing them and howled in fury. "INTERLOPERS!!!" The full force of its supernatural aura struck all three of the adventurers, and sheer panic drove all thought of Shankara and the letter from their minds. They shrieked in abject terror and fled to the vast iron door, pounding and begging for release. Meanwhile, the lich, now chuckling, advanced towards them from behind. "Now," it hissed, "What shall I do with you three? Hmm?" Shayuri, in a fit of desperate self-survival instinct, suddenly remembered the letter she carried. She grabbed it out of the grubby little halfling belt pouch it was curled up in, and held it out. "Please!" she wailed, "Shankara sent us to give you this!" In an instant, the lich's demeanor changed from demented amusement to caution...and perhaps disappointment. "Shankara, eh? Let me see that." It reached out and took the letter...letting one finger brush Shayuri's hand as it did. A layer of skin dried up and peeled off where it had touched her, and the sorceress swallowed, dry-mouthed. After a moment of scanning the arcane scribble, the guardian lich sighed mustily. "I see. It seems I won't be destroying you after all. Pity. This has been the most fun I've had in centuries." "A...and the gem?" Shayuri asked, hardly daring to breathe. "Yes yes yes," the lich said impatiently. "She'll get what she needs, as always..." It's terrible glowing eyes surveyed the three balefully. "You three stay right here. Don't MOVE until I come back." Then it turned and shambled back the way it had come. Long moments passed. Just as the adventurers began to consider trying to find out what was taking so long, they heard the unmistakable sound of its dry shuffling footsteps echoing through the halls. The lich returned, holding a sapphire as big as Shar's fist. "This will suffice, I think," it rasped, glancing at the party. "It would be enough to hold all three of you, in fact, unless I miss my guess." It chuckled; a sound like centuries-old paper ripping, and held the gem out. Shayuri managed to grab it a split second before Piklum did. "No fair," he grumbled. "I'm the one who's supposed to be that fast." "Here," the tomb lich grunted, producing another parchment. "Take this to her as well." "Of course," Shayuri hastily agreed. There was an awkward pause then, as the adventurers waited for the door to be opened, and the lich looked thoughtfully up at the ceiling. "Tell me," it said at last, "is Shankara as beautiful as she once was?" Shar covered her mouth to suppress a derisive laugh, and even Piklum looked taken aback. Shayuri, remembering what the baelnorn had looked like when they were ghosts, nodded. "She is." "Ahhh." It was impossible for the lich to grin or smile in any way other than the perpetual skull-grin it always wore...but something in its inflection suggested that it would have been, had it still a face. "You may go. Give her my letter, my gem, and...my regards." Turning swiftly, it waved a hand as it ambled back down the passage. There was a scream of iron grating on stone, and the door opened, pushing the party along with it. Thoroughly unnerved, they wasted no time dashing back to Shankara's tomb, and their progress was not impeded this time. Upon coming again into Shankara's presence, Shayuri did as instructed. Shankara turned the gem around in the bony claw of a hand as she read the parchment...and giggled. "That scoundrel," she said affectionately at last, secreting the letter away in her robes. "I hope he wasn't too hard on you. He's always been a show-off." Shayuri could only open and close her mouth, speechless. Piklum slapped a knee and scoffed. "What, him? Nah! Perfect gentleman!" Shar gave Piklum a burning, hateful look, remembering all too well how her courage had failed her. Wrapped up in her own memories, Shankara missed the interplay and indicated the slabs. "You two now...lie back down. Good. Now focus on the stone." She lifted the gem aloft, and it began to glow in fitful actinic bursts. The rhythm of the flares was somehow hypnotic... For both Shayuri and Piklum, the universe suddenly became bright blue...and faceted. For an instant their souls touched one another, and a cascade of memories and thoughts too numerous and fast to read flooded them. Then there was a brittle crunching noise and the world became dark. They sat up, eyes becoming adjusted to the gloom of the crypt. Shankara stood above them still, somehow regal in appearance despite her decayed form. From between her uplifted fingers a fine blue sand ran. She looked down at them. "You have stronger souls than he thought," she said. "Much stronger and the stone would not have been able to hold you both." The lich nodded. "That is good. You will need all the strength you have and more to do what I will ask of you now." Shar snarled and leapt to her feet. "More tasks?" she raged. "We have done as you asked! The mind flayer lies dead! Now fulfill your bargain and let us go!" Shankara's voice remained as mild as ever as she turned to look at Shar. "You have done as I asked, yes, and now you live again. I have given you this second chance. Know this, however...you are presently enmeshed very close to the illithid infestation, and if you do not leave you will be recaptured." She paused to let that sink in, then continued, "The task I ask of you now will help ensure that you remain free." "What is it?" Shar demanded. "I will give you a crystal, encoded with a message for the current king of the West Sh..." another pause, "...of Dieresis, I mean. The kingdom of the elves. Your task is to see that my message is receieved by the emperor of that land. He will know my name, and the message will make the situation unmistakably clear." "Forgive me, Shankara," Shayuri pipes up hesitantly, obviously relieved to be back in her own body, "but...what IS the situation? My memories are cloudy." Shankara sighed. "It is grim, child. I am bound to this tomb in body, but through magic my eye wanders the land with impunity. I have seen the great castles of Caron falling. The very capital itself torn asunder. Cedilla too is all but gone. Only the great towers of its capital hold fast, protected by wards the illithid have not been able to pierce. Yet. Much of the heart of Kaldonia has fallen under the yoke of the mind flayers, and when they have completed the assimilation process, they will lead an army of thralls such as that this world has never seen. If we wait that long, I fear no power under the sun will be able to stop them. My message to the emperor explains all this, and informs him of my wishes that Dieresis offer aid. So far there is still resistance to the illithid...a few isolated pockets. Furthermore, the dwarf mountains in Umlaut remain largely free of their taint. The free peoples of Kaldonia must counter this invasion, or the entire world will be blanketed by the control of these abominations." Shayuri nods, her eyes widening as the magnitude of the task ahead becomes clear. Yet, she feels her resolve stiffen. There was little she could do to personally fight right now, but if by delivering this missive she could help to organize a counterstrike... Piklum shrugged, again settling into his gear. "I suppose there's not much point in my going after the Syndicate if they're all thralls," he mused. "So okay." Shar thumped the butt of her scythe on the floor and religious fervor glowed in her eyes. "So be it," she crowed. "The illithid are abominations in the eyes of Delta! Let none of the peoples of the world fail in their duty to CRUSH them!" Shankara might have raised an eyebrow, had she any...and presented the gleaming crystal to Shayuri. "I regret to say I cannot help you more," she said. "The illithid and thralls that invaded this place had some valuables...items that may prove useful to you in your journeys. Come." The elf lich led the party through serpentine halls to a large room that was decorated with the charred, frozen, scoured, and otherwise destroyed husks of many living beings...including two illithid. "It is fortunate that they left your bodies more or less intact," Shankara said, indicating the mess. "I could not bring any of these back. The damage I inflicted was too great." "But the stuff?" Piklum eagerly demanded, his sharp eyes jumping from body to body seeking loot. "There in the middle of the floor. I took the liberty of removing them from their previous owners, and of...cleaning them. The gold ring will protect the wearer's mind against reading. Oddly, it was an illithid who wore it. Perhaps it was keeping secrets from its fellows. Additionally, they had some gold and silver coins. They are yours now. I have no need of them." Piklum fell upon the tiny hoard immediately, though he was quickly persuaded (at scythe-point) to divide the money equally. Surprisingly, Shar wasn't interested in the ring...and after some discussion, Shayuri relented and let the halfling keep it. His will was the weakest of the three, and thus his need greatest. And so, with farewells (in some cases even fond ones) to Shankara, the three set out once more, this time not to return to the ruins of the elf city again. The elf-lich informed them as they left that they must make haste. When night fell in the aelfheim, there were far more terrible things that lurked than mere skeletons. Shayuri, at the last minute, recalled the odd dagger the large skeleton had used, and retrieved it. The blade of the dagger was indeed seemingly only partly material, though it was as solid as steel to the touch. Since Piklum had claimed the ring, Shayuri kept the dagger. As twilight broke, they could hear the unearthly wails of...things...in the woods behind them. Twisted, strange lights flickered through the towering black trunks of trees. They stumbled on into the night, trying to put enough distance between them and that haunted stretch of woods, but finally had to sleep. And sleep they did. For a time. --- To be continued [/QUOTE]
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Doom from Below: The Illithid Ascension (Last Updated: 1-1-03)
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