You are walking by a black Lincoln limo with darkened windows, when suddenly the doors open and four creatures climb out. They wear dark pinstriped suites and sunglasses...but their tentacled features leave no doubt in your minds - especially those of Al and Darian - as to what they are: the dreaded illithids, or mindflayers.
"Prepare to die," says one of them, obvioulsy lacking both tact and imagination.
Occa opens up with a magic missiles....using up to 7 spells. He will focus on one mind flayer and continue till it is dead. Then he will move to the next and so on.
"Kill them as quickly as possible!"
Darian pours three magic missile spells into the furthest mindflayer. If it dies before then, he directs the remaining spells at another flayer.
Al summons the gust of wind ability from his ring to disrupt the flayers as he curses at their arrival. He then charges when they are disoriented and attacks with the Claw.
Emm retreats into the shadows.
Niko tosses a Sepia Snake Sigil dagger at two different mind flayers. "What kinda foul beast are they?" he asks.
Niko also moves toward Occa to defend him with his flame tongue and chain sword (dagger) against physical attacks should the mind flayers make it past the front line of fighters. If no mind flayers move to physically threaten Occa, Niko will pepper one of them with Magic Missiles until the mind flayer is dead or Niko is out of Magic Missiles (including the 3 extra Magic Missiles).
Varlen prepares to defend himself once again with his quarterstaff, waiting until he can find an opening to attack.
Equinox throws his magic darts at any available mind flayer.
Four psionic blasts hits the party.
Suddenly Gonzo yells in terror, then runs screaming off into the desert of Avernus.
Niko also screams in fear, and then runs away.
Varlen suddenly sits down and starts to suck his thumb (feeblemind).
Occa gets a glassy grin on his Al-face, and stares vacantly off into space (feeblemind).
Robert bellows, and turns and attacks Gilstrock.
Darian, while fighting some silent struggle with the mind flayers, releases his first magic missile spell. One of the 'flayers grunts in pain as the magic blazes into him.
A gust of wind ruffles the mind flayer's tentacles. The cavalier is close behind.
Occa laughs, and unloads a magic missile spell into a mind flayer. His spell dings one of the creatures.
Al, using his scimitar of speed, lashes at the nearest mind flayer with his blade. Memories of the last encounter moving him forward to avoid what occurred then.
Darian tries to hold on. If any of his brain survives, he fires another magic missile.
His second spell blazes into the same monster. Now critically injured, it begins a hurried retreat back into the Lincoln.
Three more blasts hit you from the remaining illithids. The first one shocks you like bad news, but no one suffers further. The next one sends Darian reeling and senseless to the dusty dirt, where he lies still. The rest of you develop splitting headaches but are otherwise unharmed. The last psionic attack worsens your headaches but does no further harm.
Occa unloads a second magic missile spell into the same mind flayer. This time, he critically injures it, and the monster retreats towards the Lincoln as well.
Using Bubba, Emm moves to attack one of the creatures from behind.
Equinox tries to hit with a dart any mind flayer not hit by magic missile, sword, etc.
One last psionic blast strikes you. It feels like someone is scraping their fingernails down a chalk board in your heads. Suddenly Gilstrock sits down and begins babbling to his frost brand (feebelmind).
Occa looses a third magic missile spell into the retreating mind flayer. One missile kills it, and he sends the rest of them into another monster, hurting it.
Al attacks. His scimitar bites into the illithid that Occa just missiled, badly injuring it. It lashes out with a tentacle, but misses. Al connects again, and he kills it.
The last mind flayer, seeing the tide turning, flees for the Lincoln. One of Equinox's darts strikes it. Emm jumps over a fender, Bubba flashing, and connects, opening a large wound but failing to fell the creature. Robert is hot on his tail, though, and lands another powerful hit, but still the monster lives.
The mind flayer dives into the driver's seat of the Lincoln, as Robert feels its alien mind trying to control him. The warrior resists, but hesitates. Occa does not, though, and pours another bout of magic missiles into the monster, and kills it.
You look into the interior of the Lincoln...just in time to see the last surviving mind flayer fade out of this plane.
You take stock of the situation. After a few minutes, Niko and Gonzo stagger back, looking pale and shaken.
They find that the party has been victorious...after a fashion. Varlen sits, sucking his thumb. Gilstrock is nearby, babbling to his frost brand. Darian lies face down in the ashen dirt. With a groan, he sits up.
Three dead mind flayers lie near the black Lincoln. There is no sign of the last one.
"Way to go Bubba," Emm cries with delight. "You did great. By the way, do you detect any precious metals around here?"
"I always do great! Just ask any woman!" says Bubba. "No precious metals around here!"
Equinox pulls MC Hammer from his belt and asks the hammer, "MC? What kind of metals do you see around here?"
"Lots o' cheap Deetroit iron, man!"
"Hey Occa... whutsa Fjord and why does you 'pose there's so many o' dem here?" asks Gonzo, giving the bodies and anything to do with them a wide berth.
"It is a magical steed that you can ride inside. Very nice contraption. I knew a mage that had something similar."
"Does youse 'pose all Fjords end up in hell on dis road?" ponders Gonzo peering off into the distance. "Lookit Dat! Dat must be dat mage's Fjord... da one over dere whut say 'Mustang'" He trundles on over to give it a good inspection wary of any critters 'riding' in it.
Inside is a corpse. A young man, evidently, once, of medium stature, with blond hair parted (still) neatly down the middle. Beside him sits the corpse of a young woman: slender and apparently once very attractive, with very wavy dark brown hair, she is slightly taller than the man. In the back seat is a package of six brown bottles, labelled 'Labatt's Blue'.
The Mustang is a faded blue in colour.
Darian groans. "I've lost another one! Occa, can we return to Sandas? I need to rest."
"You lost another what?" He looks around and shakes his head. "It is a wonder those foul creatures don't rule the cosmos."
Darian clutches his head. "I've lost another psionic attack."
"It isn't like you try to use them. What is the big deal?"
Darian sighs. "It's only important when we encounter other psionic creatures. I've lost the ability to attack more than one psionic creature the last time we fought them. Now, I lost my next most important attack."
"Hmm, we need to figure out a way to either get rid of your psionics, make you immune to attack or make you much more powerful."
"If we get rid of my psionics, then I can no longer heal people nor will I be able to absorb magical spells. And we're going to have to face Raz at some point..."
"Good point. Too bad you keep getting your brains blown out each time we face these guys, though."
"I know. If we had more psionics in the party, it wouldn't be so bad..."
Niko eyes the cloak "Nice..."
"Occa...can we do anything for Gil and Varlen here? Or are we returning to Sandas?"
"They are going to need a heal or maybe even a wish to get them back. I would rather not return to Sandas after every encounter...let's see if Orlon has a heal or two first."
Niko looks at the mind flayers. "Damn! Knew I should have memorized a Preserve spell...I wonder how long it takes those demons to rot?"
"Occa, do we want to rest in Paradise then?"
"Depends on what Orlon can do about Varlen and Gilstrock."
Occa looks over at Gilstrock, "Orlon, do you have a heal you can use on on Gilstrock?"
"Sure," says Orlon.
He heals Varlen and then Gilstrock.
They return to what passes for normal in this party.
Occa says, "Excellent! Thanks Orlon."
Niko examines one of the mind flayers. "What kinda demon, be ya? An ugly one, fer sure! Betcha these guys would fetch a good price at the mage's guild."
Niko searches the mind flayer's bodies and then begins loading them the trunk of the Lincoln (after he figures out how to open it!).
You finally jimmy the trunk open. Inside are an assortment of violin cases...all empty, it turns out.
"Are you all ready to move on?"
Darian nods. "Just so you folks know, I don't have much in the way of psionics left. I'm not sure I'll be able to heal anyone or block any magic."
"How long till yer able to do those things again?"
"I need a night's rest."
"Occa, perhaps we could just those demons' thingamajig (pointing to the car) and use it to get us to the castle."
Occa says, "No, we go by foot. We march till it is time to camp again. Darian will recover...one day is fine."
You move on.
The rest of the afternoon's walk is uneventful. Darian gradually starts to regain a bit of his strength, and your headaches subside.
The night is quiet.