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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NoOneofConsequence" data-source="post: 491213" data-attributes="member: 5400">Part 4: No mind flayer gets out alive.As the mind flayer disappeared with our unconscious comrades, I dove forward to the point on the floor which they had just been occupying. Seeing the illithid vanish, I could tell what psychic ability it had engaged and I knew that I might have a chance at doing it as well. With desperate hands I pulled away the biological trash from the cold stone floor, searching for the marked circle which I knew must be here. I managed to find it, but only because I had seen where the mind flayer had been standing exactly – if I hadn’t known where to search I would never have found it. When mages utilise teleporting circles the powers which they invoke are complex, requiring sophisticated rituals and intricate markings. Awakened minds can use similar powers, but their circles are so simple that only the most skilled searchers might find one by accident. While I scrabbled amongst the mortal detritus of the illithid laboratory, Pax and Tellara saw to the health of the lizard man priest. It appeared that he was shaken, but unharmed. Meanwhile, Orallec searched through the tables, making no secret of his investigations. After a moment he took a parchment from beneath a series of bottles and rolling it into a scroll, shoved it into his vest. None of us bothered to question him about it though and he joined us as we prepared to follow the mind flayer and rescue our friends.“I believe I can work the teleport circle,” I told them. “But I don’t know how long its power will last and I can’t guarantee that we’ll be able to get back.”“What choice do we have?” asked Tellara, and this summed up everyone’s attitude. One at a time, we stepped into the circle and the transportations were effected.----Aria had done her best to resist the power of the circle’s pull, but to no avail. She was dragged through a psionic hole in the fabric of space and time and emerged almost immediately through another such hole, into the middle of a darkened room. With her enhanced vision she watched the mind flayer leave the bodies of her comrades, and its pet umber hulk, and walk out of the small room. Still invisible, she pressed herself into a corner and considered her position. A minor shifting of weight on the floor told her that the umber hulk was still alive and might awaken at any point. She had already faced this brute once this night and it had nearly killed her. She would not do it again.Aria was contemplating her next action when there was a low hum and suddenly Tellara appeared in the middle of the room. Tellara took a combat stance and peered into the near pitch blackness. Seeing her disorientation, Aria whispered a warning; “Tellara! It’s me, Aria. We’re in a room with the others and the umber hulk, which is just behind you. Ahead of you is a doorway, that’s where the mind flayer has gone.”Before Tellara could whisper her thanks, there was another low hum and Orallec appeared in the room. In spite of the tension, Aria had to stifle a laugh. Two bodies naturally refuse to occupy the same space, and since Tellara had refused to move, the psychic power had deposited Orallec directly on top of her. With his excellent sense of balance, the rogue landed deftly on the ranger’s shoulders and stood there, accustoming himself to his new surroundings. Like blind circus tumblers, both stood comfortably, one atop the other in the dark, as Aria repeated her explanation of the situation.Tellara was about to move when a third low hum was heard. Both Tellara and Orallec tried to react to save themselves as the unyielding figure of Pax appeared in the space where they stood. Tellara was thrown to the ground, but Orallec flipped neatly from her falling frame, to land deftly on the stones near the door. Pax was swifter to orient herself than any of the others had been and quickly took up a position near the door, her chain at the ready. Without a word the barbarian conjured a series of flickering faerie lights to see by. Her companions were puzzled by this incongruous ability and would have questioned her on it when, last of all, I appeared in the room. I spared only a bare glance for the others, first quickly reassuring myself that there was indeed a circle here by which to transport us back.. I breathed a sigh of relief as I did indeed find the psychic energy traces I hoped for. Then I stepped back away from the door, kneeling down by the umber hulk. Thinking to waste no opportunity, I thrust my sword into the beast’s throat and twisted until the blood flowed freely. It died with not even a murmur. After a quick discussion, it was decided that Aria would scout ahead and find out what we should expect. The rest of us would follow at a short distance, ready to provide support as necessary. We all waited quietly as she snuck into the next room. As we waited I drew out my ram rod and reloaded the gorgon; as my sergeant at arms used to say, there are no quiet moments in a battle, just opportunities to reload!Following Aria’s whispered voice, the company quickly explored what turned out to be a series of caves which had been fitted to function as storerooms. In short order we found a long passageway that looked to lead to daylight. As we looked out, we could see the flickering figure of some predatory beast stalking down the passage towards us. The beast seemed to jump about, shimmering like a distant mirage on a hot day. In shape it was akin to a predatory cat, grey to black in colour, and above its head whipped two long tentacles which originated from somewhere on its back.There was a palpable tension amongst us as the beast began to make its way deliberately down the passage toward us. All possibility of stealth was lost as Pax roared an eldritch battle cry which echoed through the chamber. The enraged barbarian and the stalking displacer beast leapt upon each other, like fell lovers flinging themselves into a deathly embrace. We quickly followed our companion and in the dark confines of the tunnel battle was joined, lighted only by arcane will-o-wisps of light.The displacer’s shifting image was terrifyingly difficult to strike, even though we managed to surround it, and for a time it struck about itself, its barbed tentacles scoring first one of us and then another. I wasted a good shot with my musket, piercing only a false image. The leadshot struck sparks from the cave wall where it struck.  Soon we were all bloodied and increasingly frustrated by its ever shifting appearance. It was Pax though who first began to gain the upper hand. As the beast’s tentacles scoured her thigh, she returned the favour, raking the displacer’s back with her chain’s spikes. After a few more hits from all quarters the beast panicked and fled. By accident rather than design, I was closest to the beast as it fled and so was the first to follow it up the passageway, toward the light. Behind me charged the still raging Pax, her spiked chain whistling through the air as she spun it above her head. I ran at full pelt, more desperate to keep ahead of the armed storm of angry steel behind me than to catch the fleeing displacer ahead.The displacer beast reached daylight ahead and turned to its left. I heard it scream and saw its hind quarters slip downwards out of sight. Warned by the scream, I eased back from my headlong flight and was able to not lose my footing as the tunnel burst forth from the rock onto a mountain ledge, half a pace from infinite space. Ahead of me stretched the sky, a line of rounded blue. Below me, far below me, the clouds carpeted my vision. Most shocking of all though were the stars and night sky which yawned above me. I was high, unfathomably high, on a mountainside that neared the empty void between worlds; at the horizon of the lifebreath of a planet. I had seen vistas like this before, but only from the deck of spelljamming vessels, never when land bound. Somewhere far below, the displacer beast was descending inexorably, already beyond the range to hear its screams.The ledge ran a hundred yards to the left, ending in a small open plateau, barely thirty paces across. In the midst of the plateau stood an object which resembled a small insect, like a maggot, but was the size of a large carriage or even a small skiff. It was an illithid boreworm, the smallest vessel by which mind flayers travel the voids between worlds; and heading towards it was the mind flayer from beneath Holly Canal, moving unhurriedly and apparently still ignorant of our pursuit. Behind me I heard Pax catch her breath as the vista drained her rage in an instant. She stood dumbfounded, the spiked chain forgotten in her hands. Behind her the others crowded up the passage until they too were awe-struck by the view.Heedless of my lack of support, I ran swiftly after the mind flayer. As it reached the boreworm, the vessel’s entire front opened upwards like a door and the creature made to step inside. Only at the last second did it hear my footsteps and it turned just in time to see my blade swing before it clove the monster’s head from its shoulders. It was with grim satisfaction that I flung the illithid’s head over the edge of the plateau and then returned to my comrades in the caves.“Grab whatever you can,” I said, pointing to the stores in the various caves. “We must be gone very soon.”Orallec and Tellara came upon a cash hoard in a small hard wood chest. I managed to find a warrior’s kit, with a fine battleaxe and a suit of armour made by a master smith. It was Pax who turned up the jewel of the booty though. Hidden behind a crate, hanging on the wall, was a fine bugle, silvery in hue and inlaid with a mother of pearl design. Aria recognised it at once, naming it a blasting horn. By blowing upon it, she claimed, it would produce sound that would strike like the force of a catapult throw, knocking down mortals and structures alike. It was with no small amount of pleasure that we gathered up our treasure and our still unconscious friends and passed back through the psionic circle to the sewers of Holly Canal.</blockquote>

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