“In short, not only are things not what they seem, they are not even what they are called.” 

– Francisco de Quevedo

"The greatest wisdom is to see through appearances and awaken the pupae within.”

– First Coda in the Song of the All-Hive

“No truths survive a prolonged encounter with considered thought.”

– Idiom of the The Path & the Way

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

– Douglas Adams

The ratfolk puzzle door opened only enough for the heroes to squeeze through, revealing the maddening geometries of illithid-fashioned halls, beyond. After confronting all manners of dungeon hazards – a yawning crevasse, devious ancient traps, a haunted torture chamber, and their own damaged souls – the heroes reached a chamber occupied by an overgrown elder brain. The entity had long since rebelled against its mindflayer progenitors and had become the source of Bral’s mysterious Auditors. However, the contemporary Illithid Collective was attempting to bring it back to heel, using clockwork spies. The devices had made their way into the dungeon to focus the Collective’s psychic will against the elder brain until the illithid themselves could arrive. As such, the creature was unable to control the stone guardians that its one-time ratfolk allies had put in place to defend it so long ago. In defeating the clockworks, the heroes unleashed the elder brain before the stone guardians could do their worst. Subsequently communing with the Inordinate Privateers, the elder brain shared secrets that would forever alter their perspective on the Rock of Bral, the origin of the Spheres, and the existence of the fabled Architects.

[Placeholder: photo, Derek's gaming space, work]

The room you are in is much older than the narrow corridor that led to it, but it is similarly roughly hewn. Both were carved by ratfolk – the one you are now in with much more care. Inside are a pair of statues.  The heads have been removed (KNOW-ENG = recently) but it is easy to tell that the statues were of ratfolk. The ground is covered with rubble and digging detritus – both from the narrow corridor you used to enter the room, and from what appears to have been the original corridor into the room, now completely blocked and impassable.

Above the circular ratfolk Puzzle Door, between the two statues, there is a fable written…

A warren folk carried a vermin folk across a river only to be drowned by the vermin folk half way. Although he could not swim, the vermin folk claimed that he had to be true to his cruel ways. But he did not die. The warren folk had used a hidden flotation device that allowed the vermin folk to survive and reach the other side, where he was welcomed by the warren folk’s family as one of their own, which he eventually became, dying as an old man, long after he had dedicated his life to rebalancing the ratfolk.

There is a “pin pad” next to the circular door on which it looks as though someone (presumably the illithid) casually drew a ratfolk letter from one of the tiles.

COMMAND WORD IS INPUT INTO THE PIN PAD

There is a series of clicks, a couple of them repetitive and out of sync with the others, followed by a rumble. Then, a moment’s stillness before the door suddenly and noisily starts to roll open to the right. It moves into the wall about a quarter of the way before you hear a mechanical groan and it stops, leaving an entry gap only partially open to the long darkened corridor beyond. A light breath wasps gently down the corridor, smelling much like all the ancient dark places in the Seven Spheres.

Walls of Madness

The walls of the  are ancient – carved, embossed and polished smooth portraying the exploits of some Illithid clan, dominating Moreau-folk, mostly ratfolk, and spreading through Wildspace. The tenatcles that twist throughout the design seem to writhe in grasp and hold you fast to the place you stand…

• Ratfolk writing can be seen faded away, splashed on these walls. (Written in Blood) – the words are too far one to make out. (It's part of longer paen to Azal… "Fear of Azal the Nightstaker being Greater than fear of the Illithid… our gods are more frightening than you!")

Crevasse

Some long ago cataclysm cleft the passageway in twain. A fifteen foot crevasse reaches down into the dark heart of the Rock in one direction and stretches up into echoes in the other. The corridor continues on the other side, displaced down and to the right about two meters. It would be one hell of a jump.

Obviously Trapped Corridor

Immediately recognize that the corridor is trapped because the ceramic and stone wall on the left side is broken open, revealing all manner of alchemical tanks and complex clockwork mechanisms... squeezing into the space in the wall gives a bonus to disabling the device. It is easier for small creatures.

• challenge to discern the nature of the trap and to discern its design

• it's a two stage trap: first the corridor is blocked on both sides, then alchemical jets fill the blocked area with flames

• the right side controls the blocking of the corridors and the left side controls the flames

Murder Room Challenge

Triggering this trap lowers a ceiling of spinning blades on the characters. There are two pathways through the room.

• The first involves successfully determining that the pendant warn by the illithid is one of two keys that disarms the trap. Although the second key is missing, the pendant can be used a second time with a successful spellcraft and use magical device check.

• The second involves being trapped in the room and breaking through the ceramic walls and disarming the trap as the ceiling lowers and the blades spin. An area of blades can be smashed to bits to make a narrow  and crushingly claustrophobic crawlspace once the ceiling lowers and rests on the other spinning blades.

Haunted Torture Chamber

The walls of the chamber are lined with ratfolk skulls with their skull caps removed. Once the threshold is breached, the pathetic begging voices of victims begins to cascade inside the characters' minds. These are the spirits of those mostly ratfolk victims of illithid torture and brain extraction. Their brains were used to feed the young Elder Brain growing in the heart of this dungeon. This begins a maddening and damaging crescendo, as the pleading becomes more urgent and shrill and the numbers of voices grow exponentially. 

• The room must be cleaned and the souls of the damned released by satisfying the spirit's desire for vengeance and peace - spilling the blood of an illithid and a pulse of positive energy.

[Placeholder: photo, battlemap of Bral's chamber]

The stonework in this chamber features massive stone tentacles reaching up from the floor to the domed ceiling and the effects of the architecture on your psyche is more profound and disconcerting than ever.

But that is not the worst of what this chamber of wonder and horror has in store for you. Here lies a great fibrous mass of fused brain tissue, covered in writhing tendrils. It has long since overgrown the confines of the stone pool in which it is situated, an now occupies nearly the entire back end of the chamber. Many of its tendrils reach out from its surface and penetrate the rock of the high domed ceiling like roots or anchor chains. Some of them as thick as Shroktath’s calves. The brain pulsates and glows inside your minds releasing visible flares of shimmering psychic energy.

As soon as you step into the room, you hear a grinding of rocks and see a rising cloud of dust and pebbles as three stone guardians unfix themselves from their pedestals and then come to life with far more dexterity than their forms ought to allow. They are in the shape of ratfolk. They turn towards you and move, weapons raised to interpose themselves between the brain and yourselves (KNOW-ENG, APPRAISE: they are old, but not nearly as old as the chamber, nor are they of the same design – they are more like the headless statues you saw at the entrance)

Four Clockwork Spies are hovering around the ceiling – each with a large and different coloured eye and several tentacles.

The remnants of small clockwork machines litter the floor (Clockwork Spies). (KNOW – Arcana: Illithid design).

“Little warden, you came… you brought your pack… beware the warren’s guardians, I can no longer control them… the Illithid clockworks are limiting my abilities making me vulnerable to the Collective’s manipulations.”

Basile, as you survey the situation, you intuitively understand two things:

1. The active Clockwork spies are dampening and manipulating the elder brain’s full psychic powers. Their eyes cycle through different colours that create invulnerability shields around them. They are only vulnerable when they are each cycle into a particular colour for a momentary recharge. Getting the pattern right is going to take some trial and error.

2. The Stone Guardians were left by ratfolk and are not as old as the chamber… they have tried, but they haven’t been able to stop the Clockworks…

Fight Details…

• BASILE, HAZEL: The Elder Brain lashes out tentacles at you both… if they allow the tentacles to be attached, they gain a bonus fighting /solving the puzzles.

  • Whatever else this creature might be, it is also Warren Folk. It certainly believes it is. And for lack of a better way of putting it, that’s the way its thoughts TASTE inside your own heads.

UNLOCK STORY BONUS: The Legend of the Architects

Elder Brain messages to the characters:

• To Khalid: “Your courage is not inside you. It’s beside you.”

• To Shroktath: “You are a Life Source, a Dowser – the Gardeners’ blood runs through your veins - Seek out the Monks of the Path & the Way. They can guide you.”

• To Luckums: “You exist yesterday, today and tomorrow. One of you is working against the rest.”

• To Hazel & Basile: “The two of you are a mystery. Purpose and Motive. Form and Function. Process and Information. You shouldn’t exist. Your destiny is unwritten, but we suspect, before the events of this age are played out, all shall look to a Pack Warden to ensure their survival.”

We had deciphered the runes of the broken tablet and used the command word to open the vault door that our Ilithid adversaries had not been able to open. The mechanical door was so old it barely opened halfway. The way forward was unblocked.

We ventured past the vault door, down the ancient corridor of Ilithid design. Its walls depicting the exploits of the evil race, their expansion, and domination over other species. A chill ran up my spin and I could see the presence of this place unnerving my companions as well. We could tell that the space beyond was sealed off from the rest of the Rock of Bral but not unoccupied. The passageway twisted to the left and perhaps was playing with our minds.

A 15-foot chasm had attempted to deter us from penetrated deeper into ancient Ilithid vault. Shroktath tied a rope to me and assisted me in flying across the dark crevasse. I tied the rope to a rock and the rest of my companions traversed as well.

Further down the tunnel Basile spotted some traps which allowed me to snack while the party investigated the trap. Apparently, the trap on the left closes off the passage while the trap on the right shoots out flames. I tossed an apple core over my shoulder. Basile snuck into the crumbled wall and disabled the left part of the trap. After Shroktath smash open the right side, I slid in to examine the fire trap. Its construction wasn’t too bad, perhaps somewhat interesting. Khalid’s knowledge of engineering coupled with Basile’s nimbleness had the trap disabled in no time.

Down the hallway, after a sharp right, we passed through a circular doorway into another chamber. Basile quickly discerned that this room was also trapped. Thinking quick, he used the Ilithid’s pendant to turn off the trap. Soon after the door on the other side rolled open. Suddenly I got a bad feeling from the future and cautioned my companions about the danger. Using spellcraft, we tried to fool the trap into thinking we used a second key. We were successful but I still have doubts. We used “both” key in quick succession with better results. We noticed 40 or so parts of the ceiling that lowered slightly, matching scraping marks on the floor. After too much waiting Shroktath crossed the room and we all followed.

After more twisting sick hallways telling the horrific tales of the Ilithid race we reached another chamber with a door leading to three hallways, each lower hallway leading to a resting chamber. The first chamber also had a right and left exit with different hallways.  The northern corridor headed up while the southern corridor turned downward. Following the southern tunnel, we find that it ends with a door inscribed with a warning in ratfolk. “Do not enter”. So we entered.

The torture and extraction chamber were haunted with thousands of voices of the past victims, their presence made more real by the piles of skulls scatter about. Hazel channeled positive energy, ruining my Ilithid ingredients but somehow appeasing the vengeful souls whirling about. The release of the binded souls seems to have a noticeable impact on Khalid, almost like he had been released from his own personal demons.

We then focused our attention at the northern upper passage. At the end of upward journey, we entered the domed chamber of tendrils. An elder brain dominated the dome above.  The room shook while 3 stone ratfolk rose from the floor to protect the aberration. 4 flying contraptions circled above. The stone guardians were left by ratfolk to destroy the floating censors and protect the elder brain. The flying censors are powered by an energy source far away and are dampening the elder brain. We quickly determined that the clockwork sensors were the real threat and not the elder brain. They seemed to be invulnerable during 5 of their 6 cycles. While Shrokath and Khalid held back the stone guardians, the rest of us determined when each of the clockwork sensors were vulnerable.  Striking quickly, we picked off the automatons.  With the destruction of Ilithid spies, the elder brain regained it’s powers and called off the guardians. We had just barely survived this.

The elder brain communicated with us and shared much of its history and information with us. To me “You exist yesterday, today and tomorrow. One of you is working against the rest.” This could be problematic.

Dakarday Eoweek Korda 49th Annum Independencia - Day 200

Scourging of the Middle Dark

We stood in front of the gate and pieced the tiles together.  It spelled out the command word APPARALOMU.  This was a ratfolk philosophy for physical comfort and satisfaction [DM: An excellent description - it is more than mere survival].  Basile inputted the word into the pin controller and the gate opened.  The door only partially opened due to its extreme age.  We sent Charlotte and the rescued ratfolk back to Goodboi to rest and recover.  We went through the gate to find ancient tunnels.  The walls were illustrated with terrifying scenes of of an ancient history of the illithid expansion across Wildspace.  All us of were shook to our core by its gross and subtle imagery but Basile noticed a newer painting in blood on one surface.  It said defiantly in the ratfolk language that even their rat gods were more frightening than the illithids cheap theatrics.  We continued down the tunnel and found a chasm.  Shroktath was able to throw Luckums across and she secured a crossing rope.  Further along, the damage in the tunnels revealed traps of barriers and flames.  Together we disarmed them and proceeded without injury.  We next entered into a large room.  Basile used the illithid’s pendant and another key he fashioned to disable the traps in the whole room and we were able to cross unhindered.  

[Placeholder: image, dark tunnel]

We proceeded south and found a room filled with ratfolk skulls and the tortured screams of countless and ancient victims.  This triggered my trauma, these images of chains and hooks in the darknesss.  The room was filled with pain and sadness trapped for centuries.  I felt the creeping doom of being crushed alive on the Cygnet Terrace and my mind spun with images of the death and suffering of my team, my crew, my family.  Rather than run or crawl under a rock, I stood tall and walked into the middle of the room to face the spirits knowing for all their hatred and fury, they had once been victims.  I opened myself to that vengeance to find its redemption.  All that anger and hopelessness was a whirlwind and overwhelming:  darkness, chains and hooks.  I held on to those things that I had learned these last months…and then it came into focus.  The spirits demanded the blood of their torturers and healing.  Luckums came up beside me and put the illithid’s brain on the floor.  Basile was on my other side and Hazel channeled an incredible wave of healing magic.  The rage and pain disappeared like smoke and I could swear I had heard a sigh of relief.  In my mind, I could see chains breaking and retreating.  Like the Federation on Sentar, my slavery was now ended.  I would always bear the scars of it but they would fade;  they would never bind me again.  I slumped to the floor but did not worry since I knew Shroktath was there and had my back.  I cried and it was over.

[Placeholder: image, prison-type door, in overgrown & ruined hallway]

Collecting ourselves, we proceeded around the prison and entered a room of present and living horror.  It was an ancient chamber housing a pulsing and tentacled brain the size of a house: some kind of elder-brain.  It was guarded by stone golems of incredible age.  The brain however was under a compulsion and also surrounded by far more contemporary flying clockworks.  As we destroyed each of those, another would arrive.  Basile, Hazel and Luckums went to work trying to deactivate the clockworks’ controller while Shroktath and I sought to hold off the golems.  My step was the lightest it had been in months and my hands tingled.  I unleashed a sonic scream on them and Shroktath struck them deftly with his spear.  As the scream ended, I drew my pistol and began blasting away with Havelock’s needful bullets. The twitch behind my left eye had returned.  Nonetheless, under our opponents onslaught, Shroktath and I were beaten bloody under their halberds and many times Hazel’s healing magic saved us from collapse.  As we started to crumple, the code was found and the drones became vulnerable.  We started destroying them even as the guards surrounded us to seal our deaths.  Shroktath threw his spear at the last clockwork just at the last safe moment and the brain was freed.  

The freed mind spoke to us and talked an incredible tale of ancient truths and knowledge.  To each of us it had wisdom.  To me it said that my courage had not been inside, but beside me.  I cracked a very wry smile at hearing this since after my triumph in that torture chamber, I had already learned them from my comrades.

we were like orphans

but we made community

redemption as one

All of a sudden, every decision we made seemed so ramped up in intensity, it was weird. Do we send Charlotte back to Goodboy with these three ratfolk we just met? Can we trust them? Life or death scenario? Who uses the information from the tiles? How many times do we use the Illithid key in the rooms? At the end of the day, we managed to find what we were looking for and survive (though it was a little touch and go there at the end), so I guess it all worked out.

We figured out the tiles we found, and used the command word they revealed to enter beyond the failing but now partly open doorway into a very strange series of tunnels and rooms. Clearly ancient, they reeked of illithid, but there was something more. Every once in a while, we’d find a spot of blood, something written in ratfolk. Very strange, and more than a little unnerving. The illithid artsy carvings on the wall were particularly disturbing to many - Luckums and Basile in particular. They were certainly weird, but I didn’t get the reaction 

Loads of traps, twists and turns, a chasm that had formed in one of the halls in the past several hundreds (thousands?) of years, and we arrived at a haunting room. Or should that be haunted? The walls were lined with little ratfolk skulls, staring at us with their beady little eye sockets, and from the - walls? Room? Skulls themselves? - came a creepy pile of whispers. I couldn’t understand the words, but the tone was unmistakable - terrified, in agony, pleading. Brrrr! Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. The whispers and more were clearly starting to harm the party. Khalid, in particular, was affected. With a creeping sense of sadness, I expected him to freeze up. Instead I saw him walk into the middle of the room, the middle of the sounds. Something else was different. Usually, his face at some point in these episodes goes either incredibly angry or scarily blank. This time, he seemed so incredibly sad. He was looking around the room - not sure what he was seeing - and then he broke down, fell to his knees and wept. I came over to him, and put my arm around him. He cried for a few minutes. I looked over at Basile - he seemed right now too. I silently thanked the gods for the healing of my friends.

I think it was Hazel - priest that he is - that had the insight that what the ratfolk spirits needed to rest was an ounce of vengeance. Like a rotten gujamellon in a trash heap, we plopped the oozing illithid brain that Luckums had carved from its previous owner an hour or two ago in the middle of that spooky room, and Hazel performed a little ritual that seemed to appease the ratfolk spirits.

This was basically a dead end, so we turned and headed down the only other pathway available to us. Soon the passageway opened up into a high chambered room that was quickly full of action. At the far end of the room, on a pedestal, was a giant brain. A brain with tentacles. It spoke to us in our minds, so it must have been illithid? Except it must not have been illithid because it seemed friendly, almost warm, and asked for our help? It conveyed to us that the stone golems that now lumbered towards us - halberds raised to strike - were tasked with guarding this room, and were going to attack us. Normally, the brain could override this command, but it was being weakened by four small, but evidently powerful, clockwork critters that whizzed about the room.

Khalid took the initiative and charged into the left of the room, lined up a couple of the golems, and cast some sort of spell that sent out visible waves of sound that crashed into the closest attacker, little pebbles of the creature crumbling from its surface onto the floor. Not that it stopped the looming construct for long. It lurched towards Khalid, and swung viciously, just missing him. Worse, the other two golems were heading towards Khalid too. I charged into the room to stand beside Khalid and in the way of the golems. I used a fighting technique I had learned about, and been practicing since my days at the temple of Hieronius. It was purely defensive, and I set to parrying and deflecting as many of the golem blows as I could to buy our group as much time as I could.

We need the time because as the rest of the group tried to attack the clockworks, there was clearly a problem. They shifted back and forth between different and impressive defences - magical, physical, spiritual - and when they did there was a little coloured light that signified the shift. We needed to figure out the meaning of the colour pattern, so we could attack these clockworks - at the right time, in the right way, or these golems were going to crush us.

We just managed to do it. The golems were wearing Khalid and I down, despite the stalwart support and healing of Hazel, and suddenly Basile shouted out the pattern! Using the information, Hazel struck one down with a bolt of holy energy. Luckums roasted another with a magical attack. Khalid took down a third with a blast from his gun. It was down to me, the golems, and the last clockwork. I was in trouble either way, but decided to let fly with my spear at the last clockwork, and as I did so the need of the moment caused my hand to glow with a strange sort of energy. It hurt. The spear glowed too, as it flew through the air, and struck home just in time. One of the golems had me lined up like a turkey leg on a dinner plate on Lifeday, and as the last clockwork fell in a heap, the brain just managed to get control of the golems as its halberd stopped inches from my head.

The big brain creature seemed relieved, grateful. Without much pause, it filled our heads with a vision of a larger story of the spheres, how they came to be, the architects, itself… It was a lot to figure out, but it was really something. On the surface, here’s what I took from it: there was the threat of the indistinction - all collapsing into a meaningless, smothering sameness - and those who were trying to further this end. And then there were those who fought against this fate: the architects, who had created the spheres to withstand the indistinction, and the true gardeners, left behind to tend to the diversity of the spheres. “False gardeners” (like the Illithids?) had also sprung up in the spheres as time unfolded, and worked towards the goals of the indistinction (knowingly?) - sameness in some form or other. A horrific battle between these two forces, the brain seemed to indicate, was the story behind the shattering of Magluon (the sphere we were in). 

I’d certainly never encountered any creature like this no-body-brain before! So weird. It was a child of the architects? Did I understand that correctly? It was Ratfolk? It was Braal? What? It had been fed and nurtured by the Illithids, but fed on the brains of ratfolk - its own kind - and this had awoken it to the nobler side of life somehow? It was all very confusing and weird.

Something else. Though the brain clearly seemed most interested in Basile, it briefly "spoke" to me. “You are a Life Source, a Dowser" it said, "the Gardeners’ blood runs through your veins - Seek out the Monks of the Path & the Way. They can guide you.” Was this what explained these strange powers that now seemed a part of me?

We didn’t have much time to think about any of it, because there appeared a thin, and mildly irritated human. Andrew Prince, he said he was, blah blah blah of the blah blah blah. I guess he's some big shot here on the Rock. Apparently we’d been the cause of real trouble for Mr. Prince (boo hoo), and he didn’t know what the hell to do with us.

Well, exactly.