Mindflayers 4

A dozen strategies are discussed, including Iron body ("If it tries to eat your brain, at least it won't get far,") remove disease ("essential,") and mind blank ("I wish we had this spell!") The group weighs the risk against their chance of success as they work to determine the best way of healing the massive and quivering elder brain. Unfortunately, they're distracted somewhat by the staring corpses of githyanki and githzerai warriors that are fused into the ectoplasmic wall overhead.

"I wish I didn't have to prod it in order to determine the damage," worries Velendo. Small undead tentacles quiver in the rotting flesh below him.

The elder brain thunders a response. "We will attempt to control it. the flesh... has its own life."

"How long do you think you control it?"

The tone is dismissive. "Unknown."

Velendo makes a face. "Make a guess. You're smart."

"More than you know."

"You guess you can control it more than we know?" Malachite asks rhetorically.

"Malachite," Velendo murmurs warningly. He turns his attention back to the elder brain. "We know you're smart, you're a giant brain. Take a guess! We're trying to help you here." As he speaks, the healthy portion at the top of the gelatinous pink brain begins weeping a white mucous-like fluid that dribbles down across the undead tissue. A thrumming psionic pulse like thoughts of broken glass stabs outwards.

"Owwwww!"

Heroes sway, holding their head with both hands. As they pry open watering eyes, they can see that - at least for the moment - the fluid has crystalized. The tentacles are sealed behind a rigid crystal.

"That'll do."

Velendo casts iron body and negative plane protection on himself before flying down into the fluid-filled pool. He fights through some sort of psionic defense as he moves close enough to investigate the rotting tissue. Malachite and Galthia leap down to assist, and the rest of the group readies in case of an attack.

Mara crinkles her nose as they descend into the fluid. "You're going to jump right down into that mucous? Is that wise?" Malachite glances back at her, eyes communicating that sometimes there are only limited choices. He then refocuses his attention on the rotting brain.

The psychic tides this close to the monster are intense, each unintentional pulse threatening to sweep an unguarded mind away into the distant currents of insanity. Velendo's poking and prodding reveal some exceptional discoveries. The cleric quickly realizes that an odd effect is occurring; there are visible ripples where the undead flesh and the living flesh repeatedly fight for dominance of the entity.

"I think the undead flesh is trying to corrupt and poison the living flesh, while the living flesh is trying to continually reheal itself." The rippled skin shudders and twitches beside him. As he looks, the labyrinthine folds of the brain tissue try to twist themselves into screaming human faces.

Malachite's stomach turns, but his face stays fixed in a mask of worried calm. "A positive energy burst?"

Velendo considers as he talks to himself. "Killing and regenerating the flesh might work. Clearly the main brain can heal it back. Best to chip away at it with lesser healing spells which weaken the undead portion?"

Agar raises a finger in objection. "Except we'd have to touch it."

"I can heal from a distance," points out Mara. "Healing should strengthen the healthy part even as it weakens the bad part." The slurrrrrrping sound from the trembling, massive brain drowns out speech for a moment, and Mara is forced to repeat herself. "Also, I have a bow that can carry spells. We can load healing magic and cure it from a distance."

Velendo looks at her, shocked. "You'd have to shoot it, Mara!"

She shrugs. "Yes, but one arrow won't hurt it."

"I'm not sure it wouldn't consider that an attack." He turns his thoughts to the elder brain. "Do you have a name I can use to address you?"

"We are the Master here."

"Well, Master..."

"I won't refer to it as that," says Galthia flatly.

"Semantics aren't an issue for me at the moment," chides Velendo. "Master, would you like me to explain to you what we intend to do, or do you already know because you're familiar with...?" There is a sucking, draining sensation as the plan is lifted whole from Velendo's mind.

"If you do not hurt our essence, you may proceed."

Velendo warns it. "We're about to start to cauterize the wound. This will probably hurt. Try and fight back."

"That is continual."

Mara starts by channeling the sun. Healing light pours out of her and splashes onto the diseased aberration. There is an an immediate backlash as the crystalline shell starts to fracture. Tentacles pop out one by one. The psychic recoil pummels everyone, and more than one person inadvertently drops to their knees. Velendo drops back as one of the spindley tentacles swings at him, dripping pus. The undead part starts to steam, and there is a slight shrieking noise.

"What's that?"

Velendo looks agrim. "A positive sign." He glances over at Malachite and is horrified to see him swaying back and forth, dangling his hand and drooling slightly. His eyes are dull.

"Malachite? Malachite!"

Malachite is not sure who is talking to him, but they look sort of familiar. Someone asks "Are you thirsty?" Malachite struggles to focus his thoughts and respond. "It's the thing.. I know this. The thing where we do it all together..."

Mara does another burst of healing sunlight. It screams and twitches. The undead end begins eeling out ganglia, in the same way a wisteria plant puts out sprouts to try and grab onto a climbing pole. The undead flesh is clearly trying to reach for other tissue.

Malachite blinks and shakes his head. "We should..." He snaps his fingers. "...do that thing where we..." He snaps his fingers again, trying to remember. It's right on the end of his... whatever that thing in his mouth is called.

"I plan to." Velendo hits the monster with a ranged cure serious wounds. There is squealing and hissing as bad tissue turns to oily steam. Mara heals it again. Between the two of them, the ganglia begin to shrivel. It's soon clear that roots of diseased flesh have penetrated deep into the healthy brain tissue.

Agar holds up his familiar so that the pseudonatural ball of tentacles can see what's happening. "What do you think, Proty?" Proty burbles happily. "You're right, fascinating! Where else are you going to see something like this?" Proty burbles again.

Mara announces, "I'm going to touch it. I have to to remove the disease."

"Okay, hang on." Velendo uses a holy power to give her a powerful, temporary resistance to the next thing that attacks her. He then turns to the still-drooling Malachite and casts restoration on him.

"What are you doing!" Malachite's head snaps up, eyes clear. "What's going on?" Suddenly he seems normal, if somewhat subdued.

"You were drooling!"

"I wasn't drooling!" The radiant knight burps and scratches himself. He knows that his intelligence is back to normal. He also knows that something else seems to be gone, some sort of societal reserve. . . but who needed it? Not him, that's for sure.

Meanwhile, Mara steels herself. "Hey, big brain master! I'm going to come down and touch you to remove disease. It's not going to hurt the healthy part of you, and hopefully –"

Malachite burps again. "Are you sure you want to touch it? Its going to screw you up."

Mara pushes the hair out of her face and glances over at him with worry in her eyes. "How do you know that?"

"It said it would!" More quietly he grumbles, "Sometime she can be so damn slow."

Mara doesn't hear. "It meant the bad part!"

"They, it, we, whatever." Malachite trails off with a dismissive shrug.

"Proceed."

Mara jumps down into the pool of slime. Tadpoles squirm around her. Taking a breath, she touches the immense brain with a remove disease. Energy flows from her hand into it, and Velendo helps by casting a ranged healing spell into the same area. The flesh convulses violently, and there is a squeal like boiling water to accompany the horrible psionic feedback.

Dead flesh is sloughing away from the healthy tissue in chunks, large pieces of rotting pus-filled clumps dropping into the fluid. Agar is looking with true seeing, and it's clear that this is exceptionally painful for the brain. His vision reveals that even as it thrashes psionically, it trying to keep the worst of the psionic spikes away from the group.

Malachite burps again, and Velendo turns to cast heal on him. Suddenly, Malachite feels his self-esteem and manners returning. It's an odd feeling.

Mara does another remove disease. There is horrible screaming and pulsing. The prayer is clearly burning away roots and ganglia, and a whole section of greenish-black whorls slides off into the fluid. Another healing spell from Velendo burns away more tissue.

He yells over to Mara. "How do you feel after having touched it?

Mara looks back at the old cleric. "Well, kind of gross, really, but I don't think it did anything to me. It didn't make my brain explode." She moves closer to remove disease again.

Malachite's eyes are bright. "Mara, let me give you protection from evil." Velendo turns.

"No! Best you stay out of the fight for now. You were acting suspiciously."

"You were drooling," offers Mara. She touches the brain with her spell, and the psionic backlash slashes across her consciousness. Unusual thoughts bubble up as internal barriers in her mind melt away. Mara struggles for control.

She staggers back a few paces just as Velendo targets the creature with a powerful healing spell. We're breaking away the connection, he thinks, creating a impermeable barrier between the live and dead sections of the brain. We're separating it in such a way that they won't kill the living elder brain. I hope.

Mara stands there for a moment before she realizes that she can probably ride on the elder brain if she wanted to. It seems so obvious all of a sudden. "I'm going to climb up on you – hold on!"

Velendo spins in horror. "Mara! No, stop!"

"I want to get on the brain!" It's like a pony, she thinks to herself, only squishier.

Velendo is yelling himself hoarse. "Do not climb on the brain!"

Agar looks down in concern. "Do I bring her back? Proty can do that."

Mara bridles under Velendo's unreasonable orders. "Okay, I'll just give it a big hug, and give it another remove disease."

"MARA!" Velendo turns to Malachite, frantic. "What's happening to her is what was happening to you. I don't know how!"

"Do I send Proty?" asks Agar.

"Do that. She's become a danger to herself."

"No, I'm fine. I'm removing disease on him!" And riding him, she thinks. There aren't enough horses down here. She tries to cast her prayer, but is surprised to find that she can't; her mind just can't grasp the force of will necessary to trigger the magical healing.

"Huh. I think it's not working any more." She's now four or five feet up the side of the brain. Malachite moves toward her with the intention of casting dimension door with his cloak, just as Agar casts tentacular guidance on Proty.

Mara clambers another five feet up the side of the brain.

"MARA! Get off the brain!"

"But I've got to --"

"You aren't thinking!"

I am so, too, she thinks indignantly. Giddyap.

Velendo continues. "Do not do what you think you should -- "

"You're always telling me what to do! It always works out okay!"

Malachite reaches over to touch Mara, and slips on a surface worm smooth by constant brain rubbing. He goes face first into the slime with a sploosh. A tadpole bumps up against one eye.

Velendo clenches his jaw. "I'm not going to get distracted by this. They can handle it. I have two more healing spells left, and I need to make them count." Galthia watches, poised to protect Velendo if anything attacks him.

"Got her!" calls Agar. "Proty, will you go get Mara? Bring her back." Proty flies over with wriggling alacrity and fastens himself onto Mara's back.

While Malachite is down there underwater, he decides to touch the brain and remove disease. After all, nothing happened to him last time he touched it. Unfortunately, like Mara, he can't summon the force of mind and he surfaces with a gasp.

"It's not working."

"Hey, it didn't work for me, either," calls down Mara from her perch. "Maybe if we went over to the ghoulish part."

It's resisting," insists Malachite.

"It is? It didn't resist before!"

"It's resisting now!"

Agar sighs. "It's not resisting. They're both affected."

Velendo glances up. "By what?"

"Something is reducing their capacity to think, and a heal spell didn't help."

Mara frowns. "I don't know what you're talking about." Then Proty uses an imbued spell to teleport her back to Galthia's side. "Oh!"

Velendo raises his voice. "I'm planning to use a heal spell, so that it eradicates the remaining flesh without hurting the brain. The undead ridge is still active, putting out tendrils, but the rest of the flesh is dead."

Malachite struggles to his feet. "I'll do the burst now."

"Good," agrees Galthia.

"No!" Velendo is almost at his wits' end.

"Galthia says to do the burst." His voice is sly.

"And I say not to! I'm the medic in this operation. Don't do it."

Malachite's voice is petulant. "He has more experience with the brain."

"Yes. He also has more. . " He searches for the right word. ". .bias. Don't do it." Velendo does one more targeted healing, afraid that Malachite might do a burst before he has a chance to finish. One more massive chunk of dead flesh splashes into the fluid. Now the exposed brain tissue is raw and reddish pink, pulsing with cores of greenish-black undead flesh. A hideous groan springs up from the brain tissue.

Mara jumps down to remove disease again, just as Velendo casts mass heal. "This might hurt," he tells the brain, "but it will help you even as it hurts the other. Use that strength."

The psionic pressure is intolerable as the spell takes effect. All the walls of the dome splash outwards like a popped bubble, and the group is suddenly exposed to the ceiling of the cavern. The pain from the psionic scream is horrible, but it appears that the spell has burned the last of the undead tissue away.

There's a huge chunk missing out of the side of the brain. Malachite's mind is now clear as he does a positive energy burst. "Dawn to dusk, he lights our path." Emerald light spreads outwards in a shimmering cascade. There is hissing and squealing from chunks of undead flesh that were still barely alive. Now all that's left is three quarters of a pulsing brain, with liquid oozing out of the damaged areas.

Malachite does one more burst. One more bit of tissue bubbles and squirms, and then something falls out of the flesh into the pool. It looks like a length of ghoulish brain ganglia 7" or 8" long. Malachite strides over and kills it himself.

"I'm going to touch you so that it's easier for the wound to heal."

"Proceed."

The wounded part scabs over, and the hideous mental pain is gone. "We are free of it. We are missing part of us. Is this something you can fix?"

Velendo considers. "I'll need fifteen minutes."

"If we were truly successful," explains Malachite, "this will not plague you again." He reaches down a hand to help Mara climb out of the pus.

"We will see if we feel it regrowing. Is there anything you wish?"

"Well, we wish to be allowed to leave as we agreed." Mara shakes fluid from her armor.

The mental voice pauses. "Two of you are linked. One moment." There is a shot, sharp spike in the back of Mara's and Malachite's heads as something is drawn out of them. "Your touch on my form has broken your brains. I have fixed you."

Velendo thrums his fingers on his shield. "Is there a way for you to stop that? I'm going to have to touch you again."

"There is not. I will fix you if you become broken."

"Well, that's a consolation." Velendo sits down on the ledge, and the elder brain turns its scrutiny on the githzerai monk.

"It appears you will not be claimed." It sounds thoughtful. "You are aware it was your people who did this to me."

"It is a shame that my people did not finish what they started." Over the mindlink, everyone yells at Galthia not to provoke it. He ignores them.

"They weakened our defenses. We were no longer able to keep back the undead."

Galthia thinks to himself, "And it's all Nolin's fault for inviting in the githzerai rrakma in the first place." Out loud, he says "Next time, they will succeed."

"Interesting you think so. Is that a promise, or a threat?"

Malachite gestures. "What's the difference?"

"It does not matter."

"But it does."

"We have no time for semantics."

Mara tries to make peace. "Right now, we both have a common enemy."

"If you return, you will not be pleased by what you find. But that is for another time. You have been true to your word, something which we did not expect. Should that continue to be the case, we will spare you an additional unpleasantness of which you are not aware." It quivers and pulses, but says nothing more.

Agar pats his familiar. "Good job, Proty." There is a tentacular squirming from the pseudonatural stirge. "That's right, little guy. Yes, you're the real hero here." Proty squirms in delight and lovingly wraps a pseudopod around Agar's neck.

Velendo prepares regeneration, knowing that casting it is probably going to break his brain. He hesitantly touches the flesh of the Master. When he feels something sliding up into his consciousness, attempting to sever control over his mental facilities, he focuses his will and fights it off easily.

Within a few seconds the flesh he touched begins to bubble. Then it bursts outwards, slowly taking on the same shape it had previously. As this occurs, the level of background psionic power in the room noticeably rises until there is a low-level thrumming.

"The pain is gone from us. We are restored."

Malacihite smiles. "I killed it, so it won't be returning."

"Then you may pass. There may be undead on the other side of the barrier. My perceptions do not extend there."

Velendo stretches his back. "We will offer you similar information. There are undead that pursue us. We wouldn't want them to take you by surprise."

"They will not be able to enter my realm."

"We did."

"The wards were not optimized against you. If they do, we will be ready. We have our own resources."

"This has been a trying day." Velendo shakes the ectoplasm off of one foot and looks around. "Come on, folks. Let's go."