Chpt 1. The Nautiloid
Trigger Warning: Hell and Violence.
I came to with the sensation of my brain splitting open, my body having felt like it had been opened up endlessly. I remember nothing else of myself, no images from my past, no clue as to how I got here. My mind is an empty vessel, I feel delirious but gather my senses. I am lying awake inside my own coffin. No... I'm upright and I can see out into a chamber with the acidic pool of illithid tadpoles, damaged and spilling out. I... I'm inside of an illithid pod. I am then cursed with a recollection about my present state, there is a tadpole behind my eye. The surrounding area is made of soft tissue and chitin cobbled together in a living vessel. I'm on a Nautiloid, an illithid war ship hurtling through some godsforsaken plain. I feel the ship violently swaying.
Searching myself, I find I'm only wearing rags and I have no weapons on me. I press against the glass in front of me to see if I can shift the lid open. No such luck. With my back lying flat against the pod for leverage I press my foot against the door with all my strength but it doesn't budge. I realize I have the key on me. I close my eyes and reach out to the pod with the psionic power of the tadpole. ~Release~ Suddenly the lid opens and I'm able to climb out. Why I know about illithid mechanics I'm unsure, but the knowledge was there nonetheless and I'm grateful for it.
I can see through the broken hull of the ship. Looking out at the rushing land below me and smelling the pungent scent of sulfur I instantly recognize where we are. Avernus. My instincts are drawn to this place, I have hell's heritage, I recall in that moment that I'm a Tiefling. I grab my horns, and relief washes over me as I hang onto them like old friends. The vulnerability of my current state of mind puts me on edge. Do I even remember my name? Yes, Vash Neel. We're off to a good start. I run my fingers through my hair, shoulder length and raven black. I hold out my hands as I desperately piece myself back together. I have tanned skin, a pallid brown instead of the usual reds and blues one would expect of a Tiefling. My arms are covered in tattoos that are meaningless to me. I drag my hands across the rags I'm wearing, and I feel almost naked. My body missing the weighted embrace of something comforting. A coldness runs through me, but I shake off the feeling. I glance out once again and see the blood war raging below me. Suddenly the entire ship lurches as it's struck by attacking forces. It shudders and loses altitude. I don't have much time. Quickly running over to a large sphincter, a door, my presence commands it to squelch open for me. As I step into the next chamber, I begin to run toward what I can only hope is the helm, but I can't be sure.
I hear something calling to me with psionic energy. A desperate and frightened voice; an intellect devourer. I see it trapped inside the skull of an oozing corpse. I feel it hum in a self soothing manner and as I approach it buzzes with anticipation, "Friend! You've come to save us!"
I eye the creature's gelatinous body and my mouth begins to water. I ignore the sensation. This creature could be useful at navigating the ship, the key to my escape, "What do you need, little friend?"
"Free me from this body, we must go to the helm."
"Do you know where it is?"
It squeaks with anticipation, "Please, I will take you there. We must hurry! The enemy is everywhere."
I lean forward and observe the condition of the brain. It is stuck due to edema. The creature was supposed to have been removed hours ago, but it was left to sit in this body while the pressure around it built. It's abominable birth was interrupted by the attack. With deft fingers I use blunt dissection to loosen the swelling cerebral tissue from the meninges lining the skull. When I feel a reassuring shift of the brain as it comes loose, I begin to lift the creature from its prison. The feeling of ripping tissue as the base of the cerebrum separates from the rest of the cranium sends shivers down my spine.
Another mystery, I have some knowledge and skill with anatomy. The intimate nature of this rescue gave me profound pleasure, I must have been a doctor in my last life, but I don't have time to dwell much on it now, the creature suddenly leaps from my hands and pauses, communing with an unseen voice.
Impatiently I questions the frightened creature, "What is it?"
"They are calling for Us. We must get to the helm, we must get to safety."
"What do I call you?"
"Us. We are Us."
A blast from the hull, another attack. I see a red dragon fly past the Nautiloid. The ship is being attacked by Gith raiders. Of course. The Githyanki and the Illithids have been mortal enemies for centuries. I run across the room and crouch next to a door that leads to an exposed corridor. The walls have been blown away by the attack and one wrong move could launch us into the burning lakes of Avernus. I wait for an opportunity of relative calm and when I feel the chance has come Us and I run. The corridor hugs the edge of the ship and I feel the pull of the open sky. As we reach the other side we are waylaid by a Gith warrior.
With a flourish she blocks our path to the next chamber. An utter nuisance as she yells with power in her voice masking her growing panic, "THRALL! I will end you!"
In an instant the psionic energy of the tadpoles in our brains connects us. I am pulled into her mind and I see myself in her own eyes. Her focus and presence of mind gives me nothing else outside of the here and now. I am pulled back into my own mind with a jolt.
"Tsk-va!!! What is this?!" She is taken aback, "Hold on. You are no thrall. Vlaakith Tavki Kwe’vadis! You will join me, we must escape this place!"
"Agreed, we're headed to the helm."
"We?" She glances down to the intellect devourer and her eyes grow wide.
She lifts her sword to strike but in a flash I wrap my hand around her throat, pushing her back and disrupting the attack. I pull my hand back and quickly step in front of her, blocking her from Us, "We need it if we are to make it to the helm. It knows the way and it trusts me."
The Gith woman scowls at me and brushes her hand over her throat as if to remove my filth from her skin, "Your judgement in company is questionable, istik. I will placate you for now, for the mere fact that we run short on time."
I give her a curt but grateful bow of my head, "Your placation is appreciated. My name is Vash Neel." Saying it out loud earns me another modicum of agency.
She suddenly grabs me and pulls me into the next chamber as a bolt of flame erupts behind me. Us jumps to safety in the same instance. A red dragon had flown past in the midst of another attack. As we are thrown to the safety of the next room we are suddenly met with three imps who had flown aboard to feast on the bodies littering the Nautiloid.
She jumps to her feet and raises her sword with a wild battle cry, "HTAK'A!"
An imp charges fast at her and she strikes fast with her sword, cleaving it in two, one of its halves flinging itself in my direction from the momentum of the strike. Another imp flies directly into me, clawing, scratching, screaming. With no weapons of my own I grab the cretin by it's wings and rip them from it's back. No longer able to fly I throw it's useless body overboard as it continues to scream and claw at the air. Us charges forward and slashes the last imp to pieces before it gets a chance to react.
The Gith woman braces her self seeking any other enemies that could be stirring but everything is still. She sheaths her sword and turns to me, "Call me Lae'zel."
"A pleasure." With the niceties aside I scan the chamber for a way forward and see some arterial mesh crawling up the side of the Nautiloid. I dash over to it, climbing to the upper level of the ship. Lae'zel and Us follow. I feel the psionic force of Us's instruction permeate my thoughts. I know where to go. We enter a new chamber, this one with dozens of pods lining the walls. I hear a screaming woman trapped inside one of them, she's over to the left and I see warding runes circling her pod, connecting it to the control panel next to her.
I run past her because something sparks in my mind's eye, an image projected through Us from the collective knowledge it's tapped into from the other Intellect Devourer's roaming the ship. A chest, and the sense of something familiar, I head to a door on the other side of the chamber. The woman screams harder as she watches me pass, it rouses something deep within me and I get a faint hint of pleasure from her rising panic. I sprint through the door and make my way to the back of another pod-lined room, the chest is sitting anchored to the floor of a chitinous landing at the top of some steps. I dash up and quickly throw open the lid. Lae'zel's voice hits me like a nagging crone, "What the hells are you doing!? We need to get to the helm!"
A wave of relief comes over me, my personal effects, I recognize them in an instant. I quickly rip off the stinking bloody rags and step into my trousers, dark red twill wool with black leather gussets reinforcing the sides from hip to knee. The feeling of them is another memory gained though vague, I am grateful for every notion. I pull my tunic over my head, it's sleeveless and the black rough spun hemp broadcloth is breathable but strong, I tuck it into my trousers. I run my fingers over the ornately embossed black leather of my belt before looping the strap through the o ring, cinching it around my waist, and pinning it down with my belt hook. I quickly pull on my boots, the supple black leather flexes with the shape of my foot, the iron sabatons and shin plating fitting me like a glove. I recognize my hand wraps, deep red ribbons of cloth, and with muscle memory I lace them between my fingers and around my wrists for support before sliding on my iron plated bracers.
I see my cloak and grab it, burying my face into it. I take a deep breath almost desperate for a spark of something. Scent is tied so inextricably to memory, if I can pull anything from my past off this I will. It's familiar but gives me nothing in the moment. It smells of linseed oil and has the faint scent of traveling on dusty roads, earthy and metallic with a vague perfume of aged gore. I hear something clanging at the bottom of the chest. My greatsword, with its jagged hilt and polished dark metal, heavy, balanced, honed, and oiled. Linseed oil. I am suddenly struck with a profound sense of myself. Paladin. I'm a Paladin, but I can't remember the nature of my oath. Yet another question that will have to wait. I throw my cloak over my shoulders, the weight of the wool is a comforting embrace, and that coldness that had been haunting me is instantly gone. I feel safe again, for as much as I can be given the situation. It falls to the length of my shins, and I adjust the hood before strapping my scabbard to my back.
Feeling a new resolve I hear the cries of the woman trapped in the other room once again. A body on the floor next to the chest catches my eye. Clutched in her hand is an illithid rune. It's a key. I grab it and dash back to the control panel connected to the panicked woman's pod.
"GET ME OUT!!!" She pounds her fists in futility against to door of the pod, her panic a sweet symphony to the chaos around us. I step up to the control panel next to her and slot the illithid rune into it, placing my hand on the dash to activate it. Suddenly my tadpole squirms and writhes in my skull and I flinch and recoil but it soon settles as I feel it connect me with the psionic power of the controls. I give the command. ~Open~
The controls obey and the lid to her pod slides open. She falls to the ground exhausted and shaking. Lae'zel and I wait for a moment as she gathers herself. I mourn the loss of her hopeless screaming.
The woman finally tries to climb to her feet, "I thought that pod was going to be my damned coffin."
I reach out a hand, "Are you alright?"
She takes it, "Yes, thanks to you."
Lae'zel chimes in, annoyed, "We don't have time for idle chatter. We must find the helm!"
The woman's face falls and she becomes guarded but resigned, "She's right."
A pulse of psionic energy from her mind, subtle, but I catch it. She doesn't trust the gith woman, and her distrust is mixed with hate and fear. Even so I don't know what lays ahead and this woman is clearly a cleric, "Come with us, we need to get moving, now. I'm Vash Neel."
She focuses her attention back to me just enough to give me a grateful smile, "Shadowheart." Then the briefest flash of realization. "One moment…" she walks back to the pod and attempts to inconspicuously grab a small device from it and slip it into her satchel.
I ignore it for now, "Let's go." Us takes the lead and we follow it through a final sphincter. We step into absolute chaos, a lone mind flayer in battle with a cambion who appears to be some commander in the blood war; imps, and hellsboars guarding the helm at the front of the bridge.
Lae'zel and I pull out our swords and Us braces itself for battle once more. I feel static in the air as Shadowheart glows with a cleric's holy power, but her power comes from somewhere dark, forbidden, but potent. Lae'zel makes quick work of an imp that charges in from the left, Us charges and gains advantage on the imp to the right, slashing a gash into its chest. It falters but strikes back at Us with a fire bolt.
In front of me a hellsboar charges with flaming rage. I dodge the attack and reach into the air, beckoning my god to grant me divine favour. An emptiness begins to fill me, it is cold and breathless, like the presence of death. I feel a draining of energy from my outstretched hand that permeates my entire body. Have I been forsaken? No… I have been forgotten. Suddenly a surging of power fills the void, but to my surprise it doesn't come from above, but below. The whispers in my head grow wild and my blood begins to roil. I feel embraced by something dear and loving. "You've returned to me…" a voice echoes in my mind as my hand begins to spark with acrid magic. "Go forth with vengeance." Whoever my god is, I have been granted it's favour, and purpose. I grasp the power charged in my hand and with a flourish I pound my fist against my chest, and my entire body glows with an unholy embrace. With that I smash my sword down on the hellsboar's skull; it bursts into radiant flames and collapses, dead.
Shadowheart rushes past as the cambion and mind flayer exchange blows. The cambion slices and cuts at the illithid, silver blood gushing from the strikes. She looks at me and points, "The sword!" In an instant I see it glowing bright with hell flames as the cambion continues to brutishly swing at the mind flayer. I understand and begin to rush the cambion.
"Impero tibi" She commands the sword from the cambions hand, but it fails. It proceeds to take another swing at the mind flayer which misses. The mind flayer responds by hitting it with a psionic blast that dazes it. I see Shadowheart gather her powers once again, "Impero tibi" at that the sword drops from the cambion's hand, but it quickly comes to and ducks to retrieve his weapon. I dive and grab the sword out from under him before he gets a chance to arm himself once again. As I slide past him he begins to chase me but the mind flayer lets loose another psionic blast and the cambion is nearly knocked off his feet. He turns and takes a swing at the illithid with his bare fists, burning with fury. I get to my feet and shout, "Lae'zel!"
Lae'zel turns and sees me toss her the hell sword, she snatches it from the air and then takes a swing at the bleeding imp before it gets to make another attack against Us. It crumples to the ground in a helpless pile. Shadowheart, Lae'zel, and Us are all running toward the front of the bridge, not too far behind me. Lae'zel engages with the final hellsboar as Shadowheart and Us take on the remaining imps. I make it to the helm and I feel a psionic instruction from the mind flayer behind us, "Connect the nerves…" I see in its mind's eye exactly what to do, and quickly connect them. Suddenly the ship lurches and we are all thrown to the ground. I begin to slide to the entrance of the bridge and land hard on my back. The ship lurches again but this time throws me midair back toward the helm. I grab onto it in desperation, dangling helplessly as I try to orient myself. The ship is going down, it's in a nose dive. I begin to climb upward toward the nerves and with a swift tug I pluck the nerves to transport us to a new realm. The ship instantly blips from Avernus to the wilds of Faerun, the red dragons nowhere in sight, but the damage is done.
The ship rights itself momentarily but is losing altitude fast. It shudders and jolts, I am thrown from the bridge out of a crack in the hull, my head smashing into it as I fall. I black out.
