Four adventurers from the Elite Underman Excavation Company showed up for the final mission:
- Aethelbald the Green, Horse Girl (and Wall the Griffin)
- Hyacinth "Cindy" Hakkapeliitta, Mad Brewer (and her new husband Fovean Blaster Caster)
- Chrysanthemum "Chris" Hakkapeliitta, Ex-Legionary
- Gyrfalcon "Gary the Mage" Hakkapeliitta, Wizard
The Unicorn explained the mission at Aethelbald's ranch outside of town. With the psychic protection they got in the Demon Ruins they could now enter the Cave of Squids and eliminate the threat to the City. Jerry the Mage had used his alchemical expertise to make a big bomb, all the Guild had to do was take it into the dungeon and drop it in the room with the jars, and the thing inside the jars. They'd recognize it from their nightmares, and when the Unicorn said that they realized they would. The dream of an enormous body, trapped in a confined space, dimly aware of the innumerable dreaming minds in the world above.
An assault on the Cave of Squids would provoke an immediate response from the inhabitants, who would use their psychic powers to draw in all their servitors from the City and Undercity. To that end, a team would hold the entrance to the Cave and protect the Guild's line of retreat.
- The Unicorn
- Jerboa "Jerry the Mage" De Hornachos
- Jerboa's cousin Baramundi "Barry the Mage" De Hornachos
- Jerboa's uncle Scarab "Scary the Mage" De Hornachos
The Guild chose the Cave entrance in the cellars beneath Hangman's Hill, rather than the flooded drain from the Giant Conclave. Aethelbald hefted the bomb, Cindy took the sack of spare psychic resistance rings, and they descended into the final area of the dungeon.
The Guild combed the trash pile for treasures and set off into the dungeon. The lower level was flooded and they needed a way to drain the water. The room on the map with a big winch looked promising. The route to the crank took them past a prison cell, where three Ghouls begged to be fed. Cindy used her magic demon bowl to summon meat for the Ghouls, who rewarded her by not alerting their jailors (the Squids) that there were intruders in the Cave. The Guild got to the crank room unopposed, but Aethelbald went to check out a suite of apartments to the south and make sure the flank was secure. He peered in and found them occupied by a handful of rival adventurers. The Ghouls explained that these were thralls, enslaved by their captors.
A Mind Flayer came out of a flooded cave and spotted Aethelbald conversing with the Ghouls. There was no negotiation, it identified the Guild as intruders and attacked immediately. It couldn't harm them with its psychic powers but it could open the psychic lock on the Ghoul cage and compel them to attack. Aethelbald mounted the Griffon and fled the grasping claws of the undead. He flew over a flooded room filled with jars where an enormous octopus sat quiescent in a magic circle, monitored by a single Mind Flayer. The next cave was full of Mutants, who scattered in fear as he approached.
Cindy used her magic bowl to create food for the Ghouls, the one thing that could override the Flayer's psychic conditioning. The Ghouls scrambled for the bowl of rotting meat, leaving the Mind Flayer wide open for Gary and Chris to rush down. They hacked away at the Squid and it fell back, summoning the adventuring party from the apartments to attack the Guild from behind. Fovean couldn't fire his energy blasts without hitting friendlies in the narrow corridor. Cindy kicked the food bowl toward the adventurers, sending the Ghouls running into them. Without its thralls the Mind Flayer couldn't do much to adventurers packing psychic resistance, it retreated into the flooded tunnels below before the Guild could kill it. With the rival adventurers distracted fighting the Ghouls, the Guild quickly activated the lightning battery on the crank, pulling the plug out of the drain on the lower level and un-flooding it. They quickly retreated back to the garbage room to camp.
Cindy made a paralysis grenade out of the Carrion Crawler's tentacle beard. Gary scouted a promising chamber and found it led to the shore of the boiling sea in the Demon Ruins, warded to stop demons coming in. Aethelbald taught Wall Griffon to pick up and drop things on command. Chris told war stories, inspiring the group in spite of the gory and unheroic antics she relayed. Nothing attacked them while they rested, and soon they were good to go.
Aethelbald mounted Wall and flew on ahead, down a series of tunnels on the lower level. One room had heaps of tablets covered with elder knowledge. Corrosive slime, fast rushing water and poison coral were no obstacle to the Orc's flying mount. A Mind Flayer, Fomorian Giant and Intellect Devourer spotted the flying rogue and gave chase. On the upper level, the rest of the Guild dropped down through the drainage chute to back up their teammate. Cindy tossed the paralysis grenade, freezing the monsters in place. They hammered away at the frozen Flayer and slipped a ring onto the Fomorian's finger, freeing the mutated giant from the Squids' psychic domination. The huge mutant was grateful enough for his freedom that he immediately blasted his former master with his Evil Eye, turning the Mind Flayer's tentacles into a mass of tumors grafted to its face. The Flayer ran into a wall, paralysis expired but proprioception impaired. The Guild chopped the Flayer to pieces and tossed the Intellect Devourer into the swift flowing water from the waterfall on the level above, sending it spiraling down the drain.
Gary chopped the head off the Mind Flayer as a trophy. The Fomorian explained the score to the Guild: he was kicked out of the Giant Conclave for fear of spreading contamination. He joined the Mind Flayers for revenge, but found himself enslaved by the Squids' psychic powers. He wasn't interested in sticking around to fight the thing in the room of jars, which was extremely dangerous. He swam away down the waterfall like a salmon and down into the drain. The Guild pried a giant pearl out of an oyster and continued exploring.
The next room was full of alchemical items. An Ungoat Potion of Damage Reflection, some mysterious cylinders, a Pearl of Power and a set of harnesses equipped with red gems and rubber balloons. Chris and Gary went through an airlock to a mysterious corridor with a huge metal dish at the end, some kind of communications equipment. The remaining Mind Flayers sensed weakness and attacked Aethelbald, Cindy, Fovean and the Griffon in the lab.
Fovean tossed an energy ball as they burst through the door, but was cut down by a surprise attack from the Rogue Yrigoyen. Aethelbald shoved Arturo the Fighter back into the flooded passage, sending him tumbling down the hall. Metaxa the Cleric hacked away at him while Farnaba the Magic User hasted the rival guild. Yrigoyen hacked away at Cindy but was beaten down by her mace and killed. Metaxa put the hurt on Aethelbald but was tripped and disabled by the Orc. Chris and Gary burst out of the airlock and joined the fray. Gary negated the rivals' haste with a Sleep spell and Cindy jumped into the hand-to-hand fight. The Guild shoved Metaxa into the corridor and she tumbled back into Arturo as he slogged up the flooded passage. Farnaba fired at the approaching adventurers with her archwood wand but couldn't put out enough damage to stop them before they dropped her with a round of hand-to-hand attacks. The Mind Flayers fled before the Guild could close the distance.
Cindy used a poultice to heal Fovean and, at Chris' insistence, another to heal Farnaba. The ex-legionary was looking for love and thought the Magic User might be grateful at being spared. She woke up in time to see the Guild finish off Metaxa and Arturo. Purged of the Mind Flayers' psychic influence by the ring shoved onto her finger by the alchemist, the mage had the presence of mind to run down the tunnel toward the front liners' bodies as they slipped down the corridor. Metaxa's body slipped down the drain but Farnaba caught Arturo by the leg before he fell. Chris immediately lost interest in her but the rest of the Guild helped haul the dying fighter out of the hole. Cindy shoved another ring on Arturo's finger and stabilized the dying fighter.
With the Mind Flayers driven back, half the enslaved adventurers rescued and some interesting treasures gathered, the Guild decided it was time to accomplish the mission and leave. The bulk of the force went back to the pulley and began the arduous climb out of the hole, while Aethelbald mounted Wall the Griffon and flew over the room full of jars. With the water drained he could see down into the room clearly. The giant green squid in casually reached out and slurped up the Mind Flayer at the edge of the summoning circle. It looked up as the Orc flew overhead on his winged mount and raised a flabby hand, trying to bring him down with a psychic spell. The rogue dropped the bomb into the giant monster's webbed claws and flew away as fast as possible, before it could follow on its sickly membranous wings.
In the dungeon above, the Unicorn stood vigil over Jerry the Mage's body while Barry and Scary held the door. Heaped bodies of men and monsters in the corridor beyond attested to the bloody battle with the Mind Flayers' dominated servitors, drawn by the psychic call of their masters. The Guild and their rear guard made a hasty exit from the dungeon, hauling the injured Fovean and Arturo along with Jerry's body, just ahead of the shockwave from the explosion on the level below.
The destruction of the horrible giant Squid creature freed the City from the pall of nightmares and psychic control. It didn't free them of the Temple of Swords, but Gary had prepared for that too. Cindy helped him translate some of the tablets unearthed by the Mind Flayers. Combined with Jerry's leftover formulae for chemical explosives he had everything he needed to topple the Towers and start a revolution. The Church's moral authority was already compromised by the revelations about the slaves-for-swords scheme. With new information coming out about Squid influence at the highest levels of the religious hierarchy, the people of the City would welcome new leadership. Chris had always hated the Church and was happy to help her brother take it down, even if only to stop their endless harassment over things she may or may not have done as a soldier in the God King's Legions.
Outside the city, Aethelbald spent his hoarded gold to fortify and prepare his secret ranch for the coming upheaval. Not that he would be around to see it. He was going on an adventure of his own to find another Unicorn, so the one he already had wouldn't be alone in the world.
THE END?
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