Nyx and Tav PoV

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Easter Egg: 1978 musical of War of the Worlds

Gore warning? Not sure...

Progress was excruciatingly slow. On more than one occasion someone had slipped on the slimy flesh growth and almost took a tumble down the stairs or into the gaping hole in the middle of the staircase. Fortunately, there was either a strong set of hands or magic to yank them back to safety. Nyx peered down wondering whether the leathery webbing would be enough to break a fall.

They took turns hacking the way open, a process akin to cutting oneself a path through the forest - a forest of animal tissue instead of plant matter. A web of living red weed. Nyx grimaced.

Gale had taken to scorching the growths, their sticky sooty remains made for improved footing at least. He paused and stroked his beard eyeing Karlach over his shoulder.

Her yellow eyes met his. "Whadda ya need?"

A brilliant smile lit up his face and he gestured an explanation, "I was thinking we could team up. I want to create a torrent of fire or equivalent that runs the length of these fibres." He pointed at the thick ropes between the fleshy webbing. "'Normal' fire doesn't catch the way I need. I was hoping that I could borrow some of yours."

"Aces. Don't burn yourself." Grinning like a maniac.

He nodded sagely and instructed Karlach on the timing and 'volume' of fire required. She crinkled her nose at his technical terms, but readied herself on his mark. The rest kept their distance, favouring the already burnt areas.

"Ready, set ...And Fire!" His magic swelled around Karlach's hell flames. It roared around her at first, as it does when she raged.

"Oh, ah! Hot, hot!", Gale cantered in place while wriggling his fingers behind and above Karlach. Swooping his hands forward as though he were brushing off sand from a flat surface made floating dots of hellfire connect to the exposed fibrous points. It smouldered for a few moments then hissed when bolts of flame trailed down the ropes and snuffed the webbing between. Ash rained in zig-zagging wafts to the ground, adding to the smell of charred meat.

Karlach's rage subsided, and they watched the fire spiral downwards, clearing out several flights in one swoop.

"An inspired idea", Wyll remarked, receiving grins form Karlach and Gale alike.

Gale mused about refinements to the technique strolling down the stairs at a leisurely pace, Karlach right behind making disinterested noises of agreement, not that Gale noticed. Upon each round of scorching, the webbing burnt less bright, and the flames carried further down. The fire snuffed for the last time, plunging them deeper into darkness.

Magic lights were summoned. A corridor revealed itself and they inched down the narrow passage.

The floor was getting less slippery. A thicker, harder substance had emerged from the previous growths. It coated the walls forming a ribbed tunnel reminiscent of the inside of an animal's throat.

"The air is fresher down here?" Astarion inspected the veins running inside the membranes that stretched between the ribbed columns, and sneered stepping away.

Gale put in, "Indeed, plugging a hole back there certainly helped." Looking himself over and taking a cautionary sniff of his robes, "Oof, that'll take a few scrolls to get out though."

The narrow corridor made Nyx uneasy, already longing for the wider open space for travel and battles.

I don't like being corralled like cattle for slaughter. She pushed the dark thoughts away.

The passage truncated at a door. Also made from flesh with three billowy pointed triangles meeting in the middle.

A valve of sorts? Like those in a heart?

Tav fiddled with the door's adjacent panel and Lae'zel planted herself firmly in front of the door, sword ready. The door peeled open after a whir came from the panel and Lae'zel took a tentative step over the threshold, peering from side-to-side. She stowed her blade and entered the room without commentary.

---

A wide circular room spread before them.

"How refined." Shadowheart quipped at the large tables spanning the length of the room. Complete with rib-and-membrane chairs and what seemed to be the very humanoid cutlery. Interspersed with papers and bloody belongings toward the rear of the room, which brought the initial refined look down by a few notches.

Tav frowned at the walls, which held multiple doors on either side. Some had panels, others looked to be sealed; their valve-like appearance dull and shrivelled. Nyx presumed it rather to do with age than anything else. Most signs of recent activity were clearly not by mind flayers.

Tav pointed to the doors and suggested, "Let's have a look where these lead. I have no idea where we are or where we need to go. Lae'zel any ideas?"

She grunted in the negative walking toward one of the doors, "The entire place reeks of death and ghaik. I cannot discern the route; there is too much intervening psionic activity."

"Hm, our mutual protector mentioned that her abilities are strained too. A 'psionic storm' she called it."

"An acceptable comparison."

I can't say much about the psionic storm the inhabitant of the artefact alluded to, but...

Nyx added, "The Shadowcurse is muted down here."

Shadowheart nodded and Tav gave Nyx a concerned glance. "Is it a problem for you?"

Nyx tilted her head brushing against the Shadowweave and her own magic. The black pit stirred strangely. Nyx pursed her lips, "I don't know - I'll need to meditate to be sure. May I?"

Tav looked taken aback by the request and said, "Please, do what you need to."

Wyll pried a door open and remarked leaning inside, "Looks like living quarters."

"Same here," Gale added.

Tav directed to Nyx again, "We're probably going to be a while." She turned to the others and suggested they search all the rooms for any information about their current location.

---

Nyx doesn't know why she had asked for permission to meditate, but a low-grade agitation had been vexing her since descending the staircase and she cannot determine the source.

More reason to meditate. If only to find equilibrium.

She retrieved her quarterstaff and took a seated position on a part of the floor that looked clean enough. Her breath settled into a long, deep rhythm. The noises of doors swishing open, furniture being moved and chairs scraping on the floor became muffled at the periphery of her attention.

She pinned the down the source of her brimming irritation: It was the curse. Or rather, a lack of the curse permeating through her mind. Her growing concern had been validated; the receding curse caused her newfound abilities to wane and with it the fine control she could yield over the portal's seeping influence.

Nyx took a long steadying breath. She took to reinforcing the outermost layers around the portal, fortunately whatever interfered with the curse seemed to be affecting the portal as well. The demons beyond were slowly creeping, their bodies held low to the ground; disinterested in her presence at the barrier. Some appeared to be listless, and others were even laying on the ground as though they were sleeping.

Nyala and Shroud's presence have become feint whisperings in the background.

How odd... Is it the 'psionic storm'?

Alarm jolted through her briefly, but a thorough probe revealed no sign of the tadpole. Nyx puzzled over it, but eventually shrugged to herself and focused on her mantras instead. The stillness provided an idea opportunity to strengthen the barrier, her focus sharp. However, it meant that that she shouldn't rely so heavily on the power from the curse or the pit anymore.

A strange sensation coated her like a thin dusting; a sense of loss? As though binding her chaos magic was like saying farewell to a friend she had yet to fully know. She shook it off; coming to terms with the trade.

Do not resist, she reminded herself, Change is the only constant. Accept and move forward.

Stepping back from the barrier, she admired the delicate weave of her reinforcements - noticing that her techniques have improved tremendously. Nyx sat with the feelings for a while longer, part loss, part achievement, breathing through their fleeting presence. After, she felt more like herself than she had in days. A long sigh of relief ended her meditation session and she stood stretching.

---

The others had cleared out a section of the table, a handful of them hunched over papers and journals while others brought more bundles for sorting. Nyx gathered her pack and strapped her throwing knives into position, secured her hunting knife into the small of her back, readied her bow and propped up her quiver. She met Astarion's appraising gaze at the opposite end of the table, and an approving smirk quirked at the corner of his mouth. He held out a stack of papers when she closed the distance, and she returned his smile taking the proffered bundle.

Lae'zel huffed exasperated at their meagre pickings, her expression attempting to glare the papers into submission and divulge their secrets. Tav's group had only managed to find a few dated journal entries; nothing to assist with finding Ketheric.

"We could start kicking down doors until we find the fucker", Karlach suggested with a curled lip and rolled her shoulders.

Lae'zel gave her a pointed look and crossed her arms. "Mindflayer colonies are," she paused searching for the word and Gale provided, "Like mazes." Lae'zel nodded curtly and added, "We'll be fighting through swarms of ghaik if we are not efficient.", bringing her hand down into her palm like a blade.

Karlach huffed, but a determined Tav marched into the quarters once more. Soft thuds and banging from within had Tav declaring to have found a hidden cache in the false base of one of the cupboards.

"Eureka!", she flipped the map open and spread it across the table in a triumphant motion. Grinning from ear-to-ear she inspected the map and said, "Tymora be praised, it's in common!"

"A stroke of luck indeed," Gale mused with a knowing twinkle in his eye.

The whole party hunched over the map, pointing, tracing and discussing their possible location. Lae'zel and Gale we're proven right; the mindflayer colony was arranged like a giant ant hill. Numerous pod shaped chambers littered the map, some wider or taller with a network of corridors running between them.

Tav scrunched her noise taking in their current surroundings. "We're here," pointing at the elegant script that read 'Common Room', adjacent to the 'Living Quarters' and 'Storage'. The said storage areas had either been emptied out already or had sealed doors. Lae'zel jabbed at the 'Undercavern' (at the lowest part of the map) stating it to be not only the largest chamber, but the most important regarding tadpole generation and colony stability. They agreed that the other chambers seemed unlikely hole-ups for Myrkul's chosen. However, the shortest passages leading to the Undercavern were through the 'Cleansing Chamber' and these, too, were sealed. Thus, the only remaining way forward was via rooms known as the 'Preparation Chamber'.

---

The door peeled back, and they froze. Strained moans came from within along with the smell of strong stringent antiseptic. It burned Nyx's nose.

Lae'zel drew her blade and stalked inside, the others armed and at her heels. The chamber was darker, ambient light diffused from a wide stretch of light on the ceiling. Floor mounted cartilaginous procedure chairs lined the walls - seated within were dozens of people. Gnomes, dwarves, elves, humans, halflings...

Several in Tav's group gasped at the sight of the clean, stripped people strapped into the chairs. Moaning, flinching and squirming against their restraints. Their brains exposed, swollen and throbbing. Translucent tubes were suspended above their heads dripping a blood-plasm-coloured liquid onto their brains.

"I've seen this before," Tav walked between the chairs, "Back on the mindflayer ship. They are being turned into intellect devourers."

"Savage," Gale studied one of the brains.

Lae'zel announced, "We should put them out of their misery." Starting toward the room's central control panels.

A door peeled back at the opposite end of the room and a silhouette darkened the frame. Lae'zel readied her blade. Unperturbed a bugbear ventured in, carrying another victim. Stunned, the rest of them watched him gently strap the man into a chair and positioned a tube over his head.

Tav cautiously inched forward and cleared her throat. "Good sir. Do you have a name?"

He turned to her, but didn't look at her, instead his gaze was distant, and he swayed from side to side. "Chop. chop." He swivelled on his heel and left the way he came. They followed.

By the Abyss!, Nyx covered her mouth and nose when the awful smell of dissected bodies assaulted her nose. She wrapped her magic around her face, dulling the scent.

Gale glanced at her and remarked, "Now, that is not fair.", followed by grumblings and several impromptu spells to do the same.

A sickening squelch from a wide glistening tube delivered another body by way of peristalsis from floors above. Chop collected the body, its skullcap removed in a clean surgical cut, and deposited it on a surgical table nearby. He rinsed the brain with more antiseptic liquid, retrieved a gelatinous substance from a vat nearby, smearing it on the exposed organ. Nyx grimaced.

Tav attempted to speak to him again while he proceeded to an adjacent slab. "What is this place?"

Chop stood over another body, still and lifeless, the brain gone. He collected a great cleaver and provided, "Nur. Sery. Here. They become."

"Ghastly," Gale breathed disapprovingly, a magic mask swirled over the lower half of his face.

Tav probed regardless, "Become what?"

"Part of One Mind. Four little feet. Dancing. To same song."

Tav lurched back when Chop delivered a precise vertical blow to the body, decapitating the head. The body had been drained of blood and Chop's previous comments became abundantly apparent. He 'processed' the body with skill and speed, like a butcher. Pieces were slid into containers and the parts delivered into a hole at the far end of the room.

Lae'zel chipped in, "To be made part of the hivemind."

Tav queried when Chop returned, "Why these people?"

"Un. Worthy. Not. True. Souls."

Nyx curled her lip, And they merely become fodder to feed the mindflayer colony? Animal husbandry using people. Appalling.

Tav made a face. Chop proceeded to escort the dazed person to an empty chair in the next room and they trailed behind. Tav probed as he strapped the person in, "I need to find you master - Ketheric."

He straightened and drawled in the same unaffected tone, "Mas. Ter? No... Down. Deep. One of Three. One of Three."

"What do you mean 'One of Three'?"

"Chop, chop." He stared blankly again, swaying from side to side.

Tav crossed her arms then reached for her temple. They waited for Tav to relay the information she'd gleaned but jumped instead when screaming came from one of the chairs. A person thrashed in their chair.

Tearing from his skull, an intellect devourer emerged and dropped to the floor. It shook itself out, legs unfolding from beneath its body. Long thin tentacles squirmed once, and it skittered out of the room through another door. Its host's body abandoned, limp and lifeless.

Before fully recovering from watching the hatching of an intellect devourer. Lae'zel's blade rung out and relieved Chop of his own head.

"Lae'zel! Wha-", Tav stumbled back, holding her own face between her hands.

Lae'zel stalked to the nearest chair, "Doing what must be done. You can wait outside.", she dismissed Tav with a wave of her hand.

"But it's murder!", Tav protested, gesturing wildly, moving to stand in front of Lae'zel.

"No. These are not people anymore. This is mercy. A mercy few would ever receive," she snarled, pushed past Tav and said, "You know as well as I; there is no cure."

Tav visibly deflated. She bristled for a moment, but sighed in defeat. She rambled, "I. You're right. What about the others in the next room? Those not yet infected?"

Lae'zel glared at the door in question, then at Chop's corpse. "I'll destroy it. No more bodies will come."

Tav fretted at her nails, sombrely glancing at the floor. "We'll wait outside," she finally said in a small voice.

Nyx set her mouth in a line, queasiness gripping at her stomach and saw herself out after the others. Finding a newfound appreciation for the Gith's hatred of mindflayers; This place should burn.

--- --- ---

Tav held onto her midsection, a strangling sickness creeping up her body. They exited the same door as the intellect devourer - corridors stretched in different directions. She made some distance between herself and the 'Preparation room' to avoid hearing Lae'zel's blade delivering its mercy.

Tav was shaking, and her throat felt dry.

"Release me from this prison. I don't want to exist like this anymore." - Chop's pleas rung through her mind.

Lae'zel was right, it was a mercy - but why does it not feel right? She swallowed uncomfortably.

Tymora, let us see this through.

Images of her companions flashed in her mind, strapped to chairs, trapped inside pods - their stares mindless and vacant like Chop. A strangled sob escaped her throat when a hand gripped her shoulder. Familiar and warm. Gale wordlessly pulled her into an embrace and Tav hid her face in his robes, fighting back the tears while he stroked her hair.

"Perhaps we should consult that map of yours again."

She smiled into his robe.

Keeping me busy? Good idea.

---

Tav's nose was buried in the map.

Wyll's voice rang out, "Oh! Pardon me." She looked up to see him make way for a line of marching intellect devourers. They reached Nyx, who had her back turned, their tentacles squirmed, and a shrill sound escaped them. She raised her hands defensively and stepped out of the way as well.

Tav reached out to the marching line using her tadpole, "What's the rush?"

A chorus of high-pitched replies pierced her thoughts,

"Go. We must Go."

"Ready. We are Ready."

"Answer. Answer the Call."

As soon as they were out of sight a new line approached.

--- --- ---

"Clearly unconcerned about, err, happenings," Nyx said evenly and hooked a thumb over her shoulder at the 'Preparation Chamber'.

Tav grimaced and provided, "They're being called somewhere. Thank Tymora the artefact is holding up. I won't want to fall in line after them."

Nyx decided that a change in topic might be best. She leaned sideways and teased Astarion beside her, "Any value in asking for directions? I assume you can speak to them using the tadpole?"

He shot her an unimpressed look and said snidely, "Yes, my dear. Although talking to them is like talking to a steel file scraping against my skull."

Nyx and the others in ear shot barked a laugh.

He snapped his head and tracked one in passing, "Ah, I didn’t know you had such good tastes darling," he preened his hair and grinned at Nyx's expectant expression. He waved a hand at the line, "It seems that even these simple-minded creatures know when they are in the presence of true beauty."

Nyx snorted and shook her head.

Astarion has a talent for receiving complements from the same source he'd just insulted.

Tav scrunched up her map, drawing their attention, and gestured that their own route runs opposite to the intellect devourers'. Contemplative nods turned solemn when Lae'zel appeared. Her keen glare tracking the passing devourers and she stated coolly, "It is done."

Their group descended deeper into the belly of the colony.

Here is the map of my alternate Moonrise Mindflayer Colony - ya'll best keep it handy, you're going to need it :D

The existing game map was simply not going to translate well for writing; too much battle map vibes. Thus it needed alterations. The map was created in Inkarnate (https://inkarnate.com) using their 'parchment world' catalogue to make a very simplified map. I was tempted at trying my hand at an isometric map, but that would take too much time... and those assets didn't look mindflayer(y) enough.

I think it was good to just wind down things again in this chapter, the last few had been a relentless go-go-go... Also a good opportunity to setup the look and feel of the colony... Those mood boards are certainly helping. I'll also share the original inspiration for the mindflayer colony map once we're done here; it really got my brain messing around with many new ideas by asking myself a few 'pointed' questions about what I wanted to achieve with the colony.

I did mention (back in Act 1) that I wanted to have the Reddington part be Act 2.5 - but I realized I was jumping the gun with a key character scene that would have established that transition, and I decided that the scene in question is far more suited to another location much later in Act 3. Thus, I had to move the scene out and the smooth 'constructed' transition for Reddington was broken. So, I've brought Act 2.5 forward to a more natural transition point for Act 2 (i.e., from the Shadowcursed Lands to the Mindflayer Colony) and Reddington will go back to joining the rest of Baldur's Gate in Act 3. I'll discuss the rest of my spoiler-free plans for Act 3 once we're done with Act 2.

Published: 18 April 2025