Vilgax Exposits

The party finds itself in Bluetspur. Everyone is suffering from anxiety, except Rusty, and for some reason, Dennis.

Rusty remembers that this is Bluetspur, and feels like he is suffering from brain fog. He recalls that when you leave Bluetspur, some of your memories are lost leaving gaps.

Vilgax lowers his hood in front of the party - he’s a Mind Flayer! Whaaaat? Who could have known? He says:

I mean you no harm. I was once like them. Mind Flayers reproduce differently to other races - we reproduce by implanting our young in another sentient host, a process called ceremorphosis. This transforms the host into an adult Mind Flayer. In addition, we feed by eating the brains of sentient creatures.

I was tasked with taking a shipment of slurry, a mixture of food and tadpoles, to a plane called Faerun. I disagreed with my orders, but was forced to obey. Mind Flayers have a kind of hive mind, where we are all part of a collective. When I reached Faerun, I purposely crashed my Nautiloid. I was captured by a local race called Duergar, and taken to their fortress where I was starved and tortured for an extended period - I don’t know how long. One day, a team of adventurers calling themselves the Forphange (I don’t know why) raided the fortress and I was freed by a Yuan-Ti. I was inspired by their actions and came to respect individuality and self-determination. The torture had separated me from the hive mind, so I was free to act of my own volition - I came to value that, and determined that all sentient creatures should have the same privilege.

Eventually, I returned to Bluetspur and attempted to convince others of my race to adopt my ideals. I went - poorly. I was chased and hunted by my fellows, led by the High Master, a Mind Flayer called Sinned.

Sinned’s power is immense, and growing. He has abilities beyond a normal Mind Flayer. We are all prone to experiment on lesser races, but Sinned has the ability to reverse engineer the results of these experiments, and extract useful traits, and graft those traits onto other creatures. You may have noticed that some of the hulks you fought had abilities similar to your own.

On that subject, sorry for killing you, Dennis. I thought it was needed to alert you all to the nature of your reality, and I knew they would re-insert you into the simulation.

Finally, to put your minds at ease, your brains are safe from me. I no longer eat brains to survive. When I had my change of heart, I agonised over the requirement for sustenance. I was helped by an ingenious tinkerer who made me this ring. You might recognize it, Rusty.

He shows Rusty a ring, and while Rusty does not remember it, it does bear his maker glyph. He must have made it at some time.

Do you remember escaping Bluetspur in a Nautiloid, Rusty, Dennis? Do you remember how you got the ship?

Rusty has fuzzy memories, but Dennis has none.

Rusty, you had lived in Bluetspur for some time without the Mind Flayers discovering you. When you encountered Dennis, you came to their attention, and you both had to flee. I managed to get a ship so you could flee.

I imagine you don’t know much about what the Simulation is. It is a massive, collective shared simulated reality, constructed from the observations and memories of all the Mind Flayers in the hive mind. It overlaps with Bluetspur. Mind Flayers can move in and out of it at will, like moving to and from the Ethereal Plane. Much as you did to leave.

We should retrieve your real bodies as soon as possible. There are two ways we can do this - by going to Mount Makab directly, or by collapsing the Simulation from within. You already have one obelisk - you could collapse the simulation by re-entering the Simulation and retrieving another one.”

The Captain interjected at this point to ask if the Mind Flayers had pretended to be Bane to trick him, or if he had interacted with the real Bane. Vilgax explains that unless Bane has grown greatly in power, it was probably a simulated Bane. He asks The Captain a few questions about his interactions with Bane, and concludes that it was almost certainly a simulation. He then explained that any abilities granted inside the Simulation can be rescinded at any time by the Mind Flayers running it.

The party then had a discussion about what to do. We asked if the Mind Flayers could observe or track us while we were not inside the Simulation - no, they can’t. What happens if we get another obelisk? The Simulation collapses and we wake up in our bodies. Where are our bodies? Very likely, inside Mount Makab. Even people who have “died” inside the Simulation are probably there, and recoverable. Probably.

The Captain then asked if there was anything we could do to protect our memories from tampering. Vilgax tells us that we can use Mind Flayer memory disks to store our memories. Later, when we touch those disks, we would get any memories back that we lost. The team immediately make a backup.

Then The Captain asks the big question. “Where is Blackrazor?” Vilgax says that the Mind Flayers removed it from the simulation, and that it was almost certainly in Mt Makab with our bodies. “Is there a volcano anywhere in Bluetspur?” Vilgax says there is not, but there is the Pit of Depths. It is a huge hole - nobody knows how deep it is, but nothing that is thrown in ever returns.

A Decision is made

The party decides not to re-enter the Simulation, and instead to proceed with a direct assault on Mt Makab. After a nap.

The party are basically Gods.

As we move toward Mt Makab, Vilgax motions for us all to stop. A swarm of gargantuan rocks is hurtling toward us! A species of planetoid well known for its stunning stealth abilities, it got within striking distance before we realized! Louie opens his portable hole with the intention of diving inside, but in the indeterminate gravity of the Ethereal plane, the contents instead rocket out directly into his face, doing damage, but fortunately hurling him out of the way of the boulders. Dennis then scoops up the portable hole, sweeps it across the party, and uses his awesome movement rate to evade the rocks. Sure, the party inside the hole are all underwater and being shaken around, but they can all hold their breaths.

Everything is going well as we weave between the rocks, when suddenly the portable hold stops being a portable hole and spews its contents everywhere. Dennis and the party take a bunch of damage! Raymond vanishes! All our magic gear becomes normal gear! What’s going on?

Out of the rocks looms an Astral Dreadnaught, pinning the entire party with its anti-magic gaze.

Round 1

Louie closes with it, but can’t reach melee, so he shoots at it with his bow. Then Rusty closes to melee distance and hits it with his tentacles and stench cloud (as none of his stuff works). The Dreadnaught hits Rusty and Louie. Dennis closes the range and hits the Dreadnaught with a critical hit, and a bunch of other hits. The Dreadnaught is displeased, and focuses his anti-magic gaze on Dennis (which is a bit pointless), but it highlights to the party that if we spread out, only one of can be shut down at a time. The Captain moves out of the anti-magic field and shoots the Dreadnaught for two doses of sneak attack damage, one of which critical hits! Awesome! Not the Dreadnaught has two people to be upset with.

Vilgax gets consent first, which is nice - but then shoves his filthy psionic energy right up into Louie. Louie is understandably hasted. Vilgax then casts Blinding Smite on Dennis for his next set of attacks.

Round 2

Louie thumps the Dreadnaught on his go. Rusty moves himself out of the anti-magic field, and fires up his lightning launchers to shoot the Dreadnaught. The Dreadnaught has a short working memory, and as Louie is the most recent person to hit him really hard, he hits Louie on his turn. Then Dennis crits the Dreadnaught and the Blinding Smite goes off which blinds it. The anti-magic field (which is a gaze attack) stutters out. Dennis keeps hitting and ends with another critical hit. The Captain shoots the Dreadnaught for two more sets of sneak attack damage - and it’s dead.

That was quick, and it turns out that Ethan actually buffed it with an extra few hundred hit points. We are combat gods!

Loot the bodies

Rusty extracts the Dreadnaught’s eye, and Ethan allows him to make a crafting roll (which of course he makes) to turn it into an Amulet of the Astral Dreadnaught.

The Captain, not to be outdone, takes the Dreadnaught’s claw points and crafts 6 magical arrows from them.

Louie notices Astral Essence leaking from the Dreadnaught’s corpse, and decides it is a good idea to eat it. Selune apparently steps in to convert the energy into something other than Essence of Killing Dumb-Frogs. Louie gains a divine smite ability. Four times, when smiting, he can roll d100. If he rolls between 31 and 86 inclusive, he does not expend a spell slot, but instead gets a 9th level smite.

Dennis’ attunement to spiritual energy allows him to perceive and interact with the Astral cord trailing behind the Dreadnaught. By expending all but 3 of his ki, and requiring an extra short rest to recover them, he gains an Astral Cord Whip.

Onwards

Vilgax speaks again:

That was incredibly impressive. I don’t know if you realize what a Titan is, but that was one. I fear for anyone who fights you. I tip my tentacles to you.

As the party continues on, Rusty asks Vilgax how memories are corrupted upon leaving Bluetspur, and how one might protect oneself from it. Vilgax acknowledges that the Mind Flayers do mess with peoples memories, but they are not responsible for the effect the occurs when an entity departs Bluetspur - that is an effect of the plane, or the mist. The way Mind Flayers influence people is through the implantation of tiny needles, which can affect the victims memories, thoughts, and behaviour. However, using the memory backups should be useful to protect memories when one departs Bluetspur.

As the party follows Vilgax, a vast alien city appears ahead. The ruins are strange, with symbols adorning the architecture that appear to change whenever they are out of sight. The winds carry unsettling whispers of minds long since destroyed.

Rusty asks Vilgax what his aims are. He’s opposed to the Mind Flayers, but what does he hope to do? What would be their fate if he had his own way? Vilgax says he would like to see the Simulation destroyed forever, and all the creatures trapped in it freed. He wants the Mind Flayers to be placed in a situation where they have to live without the Simulation, and to force them to invest in alternative ways of surviving. He knows it is possible thanks to the ring Rusty made for him.

As the party continues along, we enter a warped forest, with trees of obsidian glass that reflect fractal patterns. It glows with an eerie green light that seems to be alive. The fallen leaves on the forest floor crunch and tinkle like broken glass. The party has the insistent feeling of being watched. What secrets lie within?

The Well of Lost Memories

We enter the forest. The Captain senses something ahead, and we find a well filled with a wispy, shimmering liquid. Vilgax informs us that this is the well of lost memories. Each sip grants a vision, but at the cost of losing one memory forever.

Dennis doesn’t care and takes a sip. He receives visions:

Dennis' childhood

Dennis finds himself in a beautiful, chaotic, colorful realm. Music from pan flutes fills the air. Everywhere there are items and beings of incredible beauty, filling the viewer with awe and wonderment. Everyone - Dennis included - is flying around, enjoying themselves to the fullest. Dennis feels the pull of powerful high magic, and curious, he answers. He finds himself in the lands of the High Elves, where he meets an elf whose name is very mysterious, but starts with an S. This elf is looking for a boon companion to help him change the world (nothing ever goes wrong with that). Dennis accepts. He has many fantastic adventures, is taught to read and write, and then documents the travels and adventures of both himself and the high elf that summoned him. In the vision, the journal cannot be read. While he cannot recall the summoners name, he does remember that they lived in the High Elf capital of Thaan.

S asks Dennis' true name on many occasions, but Dennis never tells. So he christens him Dennis. S tells Dennis that together, they will save his people from the Illythid Empire.

Dennis returns to the present, and relays what he learned to Rusty, and then to The Captain. Dennis thinks that he may have had visions of his past life. Dennis asks Vilgax about Sinned, and if is a Mind Flayer. He is. Then he asked if he maybe wasn’t always a Mind Flayer, and of course he would once have been a sentient creature that was implanted by ceremorphosis. The plot thickens. Vilgax notes that Sinned has been a Mind Flayer since before Vilgax was created, though he wasn’t made High Master until shortly after Dennis and Rusty escaped Bluetspur.

Dennis asks if it is possible to revert a Mind Flayer to its prior existence, and Vilgax isn’t sure. He mutters some rubbish about a Wish granted by a tier 1 god, or turning the Mind Flayer into a Vampire or a Lycanthrope. It seems the best way would be to kill the Mind Flayer, completely destroy the body, then use True Resurrection on the original soul.

Raymond's tadpolehood

Raymond is underwater. Everything is blurry, and carries an orange tint. He is surrounded by other reddish orange balls. Suddenly, there is something there - it tears through the other balls! Oh, the tadpolity! It's a massacre!

A new creature appears, which chases away the monsters. It is big, but doesn't kill any of Raymond's siblings. It defends Raymond and his siblings from the bad creatures. As Raymond grows, his eyesight and memory gets clearer, and he realizes that the big creature is Louie.

When Louie starts to develop divine magic, he and Raymond had to hide. They spent a long time on the run, but eventually the hunters caught up. Surrounded by foes, the fighting was fierce and when there were only Raymond, Louie and a few hunters left, one of them got off a perfect shot. His arrow was flying true, straight at Louie's heart - but Raymond leapt into its path and took the hit himself.

Dennis takes a flask from his poisoners kit, dons his poison proof gloves, and takes a flask of water from the well. He gets another vision, because of course he does.

The kidnapping of Rusty

Dennis has another vision of being in the Feywild, but from a different perspective. He is a young Flumph, living in a colony of Flumphs with its parents. It learns all the normal Flumph lessons - how to float, not to flip over, what to eat. It spends much time spying on the Fae from a distance, hiding and feeding on the exuberant emotions flowing from them.

Rusty travels the Planes

A much older Rusty, having escaped from the Monastery, sets out to look for his family. He finds where they used to live, but there is nobody there. After searching the site, Rusty determines that they were abducted by Aliens. (Note to self - start figuring out how to smelt aluminium) Rusty wanders further, and strays into the mists. He hears a voice:

I need a talented individual to help me with a schematic. I have a lead on where your family is. Come to my Realm and help me with a design, and I will help you get to where you need to go. Unfortunately, you will have to forget about me.

Rusty agrees. He recalls flashes of a castle, and the sound of organs. Again, a voice:

You've helped me immensely, and I intend on rewarding your expertise. Use this device and it will take you to your parents.

Rusty sees himself standing in a circle. Magic happens. Before him stands an anonymous nobleman.

Hello my friend. It seems you have wandered into my castle. You'll want to leave. Use that device and it will take you to your parents.

Rusty does. He appears in Bluetspur. There he watches and learns from the Mind Flayers. He keeps looking for his family, but never finds where they are. Over time, the psychic energies that infuse the place are growing weaker. Rusty finds himself hungry, then starving. He wanders the tunnels, and notices something familiar. He doesn't know why, but the are generating a lot of mental energy. Rusty rushes toward the food source, and comes across a weird fairy. They say they are thirsty. Rusty tells them to come with him.

Flash forward to a scene with Vilgax, walking with the pair into a grotto and approaching a large land mass. Vilgax winks and says "This will get you out", and he licks the air. A Nautiloid appears.