"They do indeed. Their tentacles wiggle up your nasal cavity, latch onto your brain stem, pull really hard, and then... nomnomnom! So you might want to take care to not let a mind flayer too close to your face, just in case it gets a little peckish."“Yikes!” Beldan reaches into his pack, pulls out his old cloak, then begins tearing a long strip off it. He wraps the strip several times around his nose, his mouth, then the rest of his head, including his ears, until his head is swathed in black cloth, only the area around his eyes and the very top of his head visible. “Mmmph,” he says.
heh heh heh...
After that he keeps moving carefully along the hall, picking his way around and across the glass, sliding aside the windows of the cell doors and looking inside as he goes.
Bel looks in the first one.
He sees a lump of jetblack skinned flesh roll off the cot within and with a wet "splap" sound come to land next to two other black blancmonge-like shapes.
On closer scrutiny, the three forms seem to be like men curled in fetal position, though with all of the flesh melded over into one unified field. Like the sculptor began the job, and then was interrupted by houseguests.
One of the forms' heads, bereft of ears, of eyes, of any identifying orifice or sensory organ, cocks up toward the light. Makes a hissing sound, a puffing sound like certain snakes.
“Mmmph!”
Beldan backs away from the door and points frantically at it, trying to mime ‘deformed, conjoined, hideously burnt freaks inside!’ (or ‘juggling three balls whilst hopping, with a headache’, its hard to tell).
Beldan's imitation proves accurate...
"What in the Nine Hells..." Altai shakes his head in disgust. "Looks like we're in some sort of fleshgrafting facility. So much for that 'we supply the Navy with manpower line'. Gittik, in case I forget, remind us to, you know, deal with the scumbags topside appropriately once we resurface."
He turns back to the charred lump-men. "Hey there! I assume you can't talk, so just hiss. First off, who of you can understand me?"
They all nod at undercommon. Hiss like iguanas in response.
"Good, good. We're adventurers from the surface; I don't know if we can cure you, but we can certainly avenge you. Now, did the drow do this to you? Mind flayers? Humans?"
“Mot ifph math muft mot may moof miphe?” Beldan asks of Altai, paranoia in regards to brain eaters taking a serious toll on his communication skills.
He’ll start looking in the other cells too.
On mindflayers, one of them hisses; nods.
“Mot ifph math muft mot may moof miphe?” Beldan asks of Altai, paranoia in regards to brain eaters taking a serious toll on his communication skills.
He’ll start looking in the other cells too.
The next cell, Beldan sees four of the same jet-black fetal blancmonges.
Identical to the first lot.And the next cell......three.
And the next....three again.
"Mind flayers, OK. So, what are you? Drow? Orcs?"
re: Drow.....
Two of them nod "no."
One nods "yes."
"Huh. Troglodytes? Duergar? You all look the same now. I assume you can't stand up? Are you covered by a membrane of sorts?"
trog: all three no.
duergar: all three no.
stand.......they hiss and grunt...
membrane.....they hiss and grunt...
"OK. We'll try to get the membrane off you. One at a time - we'll take the drow first. Crawl up to the door, you other two stay where you are. We'll get to you in a second."
Re The Road:
They start crawling a way, or more rolling away from the door as best they can.
The "drow" nods it's head no.
The "drow" nods it's head no.
He's crawling away. How close are you guys getting?
He doesn't seem very fast.
There's a bell about halfway down the corridor, in amongst the cell doors.
Beldan shakes his head ‘no’ when Altai suggests opening the door. Finally, he starts unwinding his makeshift protective head gear and throws it aside. “Stupid idea,” he mutters, then, to Altai; “Man, you’re the wizard, but I seriously don’t like the idea of going into those cells, or letting those things out. Who knows what the brain eaters did to them, or why? Or if it’s … contagious or something … This is creepy …”
"Certainly. We'll return to these guys later, then." Altai closes the cell door. "Now, what's up with the spiky door?"
“Probably trapped to fall on you if you try to open it … let me check it out before you get too close …”
It's probably trapped....the spikes...seem to be recessed in the door rather than affixed to them. There's a ring, a gap, around each of the spikes at the base, where they seem to be able to protrude from the door rather than exist statically welded to it.
Also locked.
"Missiles? Will the door fill the corridor up with bolts if we mess with the lock? Perhaps the rest of us should step around the corner while Beldan fiddles with the lock."
“Huh. Nasty … alright, keep back, I’ll see if I can disarm it …”
Oso casts magic circle vs evil. "Perhaps that will keep them suckers out of our noses?"
He shakes his head at Altai, "Man, you know your stuff but they don't want out of them sacs. Maybe we will find a way to get them right past that spikey door."
Elgan, perched strategically on the tall Oso's shoulders, has turned decidedly green under his current plumage as he watches Altai interact with the deformed creatures in the cell. Even those unused to avian communication can tell he's walking a razor-thin line between soul-numbing sorrow, and Gittik-worthy homicidal outrage. He merely nods at Altai's words, and flies with the others around the corner, returning to help Beldan scout once he gives the all-clear,...
"You're right, Oso. Maybe this is some kind of incubation process, where the illithids have infected their prisoners with...something? Lots of insects propagate that way. So many questions..."
“Huh. Nasty … alright, keep back, I’ll see if I can disarm it …”
The trap disables. The intimidating spikes slide into the body of the door; tiny circular doors snap shut before them.
The door also yields; the lock tumbles open. The door is penetrated.
"Neat! I really need to take a closer look at the door and see how it operates. Um, later, of course. Not now. Anyone want to open it and see what's next?"
heh heh....this ended up Kafkaesque after all!
“Well, gather around, don’t be shy,” Beldan gestures to the others, then opens the door.
The door reveals an antiquated chamber of horrors. roughly 30 by 30 feet. In the north corner, a closed iron maiden crouches.
A body-sized cage holds a twitching corpse dangling 5 feet above the floor; it moans; seems to be saying "brrrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaayngsss...." over and over again.
A rack.....next to a cold iron brazier.
The center of the room contains a stone alterpiece fitted with fetters.
The torture chamber is well-stocked, but much of the gear sits rusty with disuse.
The carpet of glass is no longer evident in this room.
....there's an odd feeling of deja vu as each of the small but lethal party enters this room, in turn.
Also, there's a door out. On the east wall of this torture chamber.
"Awww, for crying out loud..." Altai shakes his head in disgust. "Could someone re-kill the zombie, please? After that, we'll check out the iron maiden."
"........braaaaaaaainz?........"
he stares at Altai, longing in his eyes.
"Also, I've been thinking. I suspect that there's something inside those black sacs that reacts poorly with air. Think about it - it makes it impossible to escape from here. Bump into the glass, tear a hole and... booooom! Stretch the membrane too much, and the same happens. No wonder they were scared of being 'rescued'."
"It's hard not to... Um, what?" Scowling, Altai gives the groaning undead thing the fish-eye. "Shut the hell up! Dammit, I just lost my train of thought."
....there's an odd feeling of deja vu as each of the small but lethal party enters this room, in turn.
“Uh oh … glitch in the Matrix?”
"On second thought - don't go too close to the zombie. Beldan, could you shoot it a few times with your crossbow?"
....there's an odd feeling of deja vu as each of the small but lethal party enters this room, in turn.“Uh oh … glitch in the Matrix?”
That gives me an idea!
just kidding.
"It's on th' other side all my kinsmen....maybe we can find another way; maybe I don't know them all.""Find another way out?""I was hoping you'd know....being from the surface and all."
The drow's eyes rotate on his face; the left one slides across his forehead, and the right one circles under his nose, then comes to a stop where the left one started in vice versa.
"Let's chop oor wey oot. That's a' a'm guid fur anyway. 'n' swallyin."
"His bolts aren't going to hurt that abomination enough." Oso moves up and slashes with Voidwand twice across the midriff of the zombie.
snick, snack!
Elgan lifts of from Oso's shoulder, and shimmers into his elf form as he hands lightly on his feet in the torture chamber. He shudders with both anger and revulsion at the caged zombie in the corner, and nods in firm agreement as Oso ends it's wailing. He listens to Altai's comfortable ramblings as he prowls around the chamber, careful not to touch anything, all his senses alert for danger,...
"Let's chop oor wey oot. That's a' a'm guid fur anyway. 'n' swallyin.""It's on th' other side all my kinsmen....maybe we can find another way; maybe I don't know them all.""Find another way out?""I was hoping you'd know....being from the surface and all."
The drow's eyes rotate on his face; the left one slides across his forehead, and the right one circles under his nose, then comes to a stop where the left one started in vice versa.
"I....don't think we can,.....I see you're good, but there's too many of them. Maybe we whittle them down."
"His bolts aren't going to hurt that abomination enough." Oso moves up and slashes with Voidwand twice across the midriff of the zombie.
snick, snack!
The zombie spills his guts....literally. Quits asking for brains. Quits doing anything but dripping.