There was something familiar about the way she spoke, something that reminded him of the customers greeting him at his shop or the people going about their business in the city.
"Are you from Baldur's Gate?" he asked.
"I am!" said the trapped woman. "Now get me out, please!"
Behind him, he sensed the psychic connection with Lae'zel thrum with her feelings on the situation, well before she opened her mouth to drive her point forward.
"We have no time for stragglers," said Lae'zel.
As if to reinforce that, a rumble shook through the chamber, sounding eerily like a dragon's breath. The flesh-like walls squirmed and rippled. Then he felt the floor slip ever more steeply, and he could have sworn they were beginning to accelerate, not sideways but downwards. From above, sounds of fighting broke out. Muffled yells, thumps, and explosions of a magical nature.
He looked from the helm toward the woman trapped in the pod, a half-elf judging by the slight point of her ears. Her race wasn't of immediate concern, he was more focused on escape, and based on what was going on, that meant getting to the helm and dealing with whatever was up there.
And whatever was up there did not sound like but a mere pack of imps.
He wasn't certain if Laezel and he alone could deal with them. However, the half-elf in the pod looked like she could sway the odds in their favor. An old horizontal scar ran along her cheek, indicating her experience in fighting. She also wore a sort of chain-mail armor fashioned with symbols he wasn't familiar with, which was odd since he could now recall most of the insignias used by the various mercenaries and armed factions from Baldur's Gate.
A third person would definitely adjust the odds in their favor, although them being from the same city didn't guarantee she'd be friendly. Citizens of Baldur's Gate didn't have much in terms of loyalty to each other. However, that made her more trustworthy than Lae'zel. Even if they had just gotten out of a fighter together, there was something about the alien-like fighter that made him uneasy. Probably because her reptilian eyes reminded him of several of his own close encounters with predators in the southern jungles of Chull. Predators who stalked their prey, waiting for just the right moment to strike.
"We should save her," he said.
He felt Lae'zel's disapproval fester, and cut her off.
"She looks like she can fight, and we will need all the help in the helm. I don't think whatever is waiting for us at the helm is a mere pack of imps, and we had our hands full just dealing with the last bunch."
Lae'zel held her tongue, but he could see her think through his explanation.
"You make fair points," she said, although in an aggressive manner bordering on sass. "Very well, how do you plan on getting her out?"
Her admission was welcome, but he hadn't exactly figured out a plan for getting the potential ally out of the pod. Thankfully, the half-elf in question broke the silence.
"Try that contraption nearby!" she said, while repeatedly beating her fists against the glass pane. "They did something to it when they sealed me in! The mind flayers, they-they handed something to one of their thralls and left me here."
Tav turned his attention to where the woman had gestured. There was a contraption, resembling a console of some sort, sprouting tentacles that resembled levers and shells resembling knobs. Engraved in the center though was a bulbous red circle that looked like a keyhole, absent the key.
The thrall the half-elf mentioned had likely departed with it. Tav looked down, noting visible footprints separate from his or Lae'zel's lightly caked with mud. Following the separate pair of prints led over to one of the sphincters on the opposite end of the chamber.
"I think I know where they went," said Tav. "We'll be back."
"Hurry!" said the half-elf. "Please!"
He moved toward the sphincter with Lae'zel following. It puckered open, making a disgusting sound he felt he'd never be able to get used to. Before he could step through, a four-legged brain scampered past him.
"To the helm! To the helm!"
He jolted back and Lae'zel reached for her weapon, but the thing ignored their presence, scooting right past them.
It wasn't the one from earlier, owing to the lack of extra tentacles sprouting out its sides.
"Leave it." Lae'zel moved her hand away from her weapon. "It must think we are enthralled. It will do nothing to harm us until proven otherwise."
Tav nodded as the brain left through the other sphincter, leaving them to push on ahead.
The new room they entered was filled with pods, much like the one they left. Each and every one held the shadow of a being through their glassy panes. All of them were captive and unmoving. The difference was that there was a clear protruding mechanism along the ceiling, which allowed for the pods to be moved like a hanging rack. Alien furnishings lay scattered about, along with the corpses of several imps littering the floor surrounding a single solitary capsule in the middle of the room. There had been a battle here.
Tav followed the prints toward the pod, noting scorch marks scourging the floor around the, as he came closer, he realized there was another altar behind the pod, along with a solitary-robed man hunched over it with eyes wide open.
A dead thrall. Mind flayers often used their psychic abilities to take control of other humanoids, coercing them into slaves, and using them for physical labor until they were eaten for food or turned into another mind flayer.
At that point, death would have been one of the kinder fates left.
The man's hand grasped a bulbous-looking key plugged into the middle of the console, which just so happened to look like a good fit the one in the last room. Tav pulled it out, but in that moment, a mental wave shuddered through his mind. He got the feeling of some mental mechanism being set into motion, one which directed the capsule in front of him… to change.
The glassy pane of the pod cleared up, revealing a comatose woman, dressed in common attire. She stirred to life, eyes blinking as the capsule began to glimmer. The confusion on her face gave way to distress, and she started yelling, pounding against the glass.
"Wait!" said Tav. "Hang on, I'll get you out!"
He frankly had no idea so he did the first thing that came to mind and shoved the key back into the console. A mental jolt hit him, but he felt like a misplaced cog amidst a mental mechanism that was already in motion. He tried to force his will through like he did with the other contraptions, trying to force it to be released. However, the mechanism rumpled over his thoughts.
Tav looked up to the woman as he saw the fruition of this process. The woman's hands clutched her face as her eyes glowed a sickly yellow. The skin and bones of her cheek convulsed as her screams turned to gargles. The change spread down her skin, shifting it into a slimy gray. The nails fell off her fingers, her joints twisting to unnatural proportions. Her hair fell out as her skull elongated. Her mouth split open, giving birth to four great tentacles before rising steam inside the capsule concealed the final moments of her hideous transformation.
Then, he felt another presence through the machine. It grasped out to him with an unending hunger. A webbed hand slammed against the glass of the pod, the sickly yellow eyes of a mind flayer leering at him.
"Release me," it commanded.
Tav jolted away, leaving the key in place and breaking the connection with that unnatural being. He looked at Lae'zel and could see his own horror mirrored on her face.
"Kaincha!" she said. "Changed at the pull of a lever? How? If we are not purified, then this may be our fate."
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
So, this was ceremorphosis. It was one thing to read about it and another to see it happen in person. Now that he saw it in his action, it lit a fire within him to avoid winding up in the same way.
He left the key in the console, not really wanting to know if removing it now would unleash the mind flayer, leading to another confrontation. It also ruled out the possibility of using it to free the half-elf, if it would have done so in the first place instead of changing her into one of those… things.
He caught sight of a vial of familiar purple liquid resting atop the console beside a row of empty flasks. The same liquid that burst aflame and wiped out the imps from earlier.
An explosion could break the pod, although it would likely cook and kill the half-elf in the process. If he were to use it like that, then they' be better suited toward saving it for the inevitable fight above.
However, it did resemble a product of alchemy, and he knew that destructive properties of chemicals occurred along a range, which could be shifted with the right additions.
Tav seized the vial, popped off the cork, and went through the motions his master taught and reinforced since the day he began his apprenticeship. Visual observation first, and he took in color and swirled to check its viscosity. Thicker than water but less so than honey. Physical examination next. He tore off a piece of his ragged clothing, dipping it in the substance and then rubbing it against his forearm. Cool, although it quickly acclimated to his body heat. Running through the catalog of mixtures in memory, the combination so far ruled out most poisons, which meant it was safe to breathe in a whiff. Herbal, with a slight spice to it.
That narrowed it down to one possible mixture.
"What are you doing?" said Lae'zel. "You saw what happened, there is no helping her now."
"No," he said. "Not with the key, but…"
A lurch gripped his head as Tav felt the connection involuntarily open, like some sort of extra limb that he sprouted. This time however, he sensed it, and clamped it shut, but not before Lae'zel got a glimpse into his mind, witnessing a flash of decades of alchemical knowledge gained from trial and error, book-learning, and the steady reinforcement of his master.
"You're a Hr'a'cknir," she said.
"No idea what that means," said Tav, and held the violet vial up to her. "However, I know what this is. Torchstalk essence. Explosive, as both of us have seen, but with a fluid diluter we can slow its reactive properties to open the pod without damaging its inhabitant."
Lae'zel looked at him as if he was speaking tongues, a look Tav recalled every time he overexplained something to a client.
"Water," he said. "We need a source of water, or something similar to it…"
He looked toward the dead man, who was still lying atop the console. A part of him was repulsed by it, and it didn't help the urge he kept sequestered below squirmed at the thought. However, it remained the only option.
"Such as blood," he said. "Help me lift him up."
Tav moved to grab one side of the man's body, while Lae'zel, who was surprisingly calm and accepting of the whole ordeal now moved to the other side. They lifted, although Tav grunted as he barely managed to raise the legs while Lae'zel had already raised the shoulders onto the table. She then pressed up along the man's back, essentially pulling him up by herself.
He cursed at his physical frailty.
"Thanks," he said, as he swiped an empty vial from the top of the console while avoiding eye contact with the mind flayer behind the pod. He bared the man's neck while whipping out his shank.
As he gazed upon the skin, he was beset with unfamiliar knowledge. Memories of the exact locations of arteries and veins, and where to cut them to get either a steady flow or a beating stream of blood. He shook his head, shaking away the disturbing notion of why he knew such intimate details of the human body.
However, he wasn't above putting that knowledge to notion and cut along into an artery along the man's neck. Then he tipped the head below the rest of the body, letting blood pour out onto the vial.
The blood. The urge tempted him to taste it, to drink from it. Once again, he shook the intruding thought away. It felt like something else was inhabiting his mind, and maybe it was a result of getting a tadpole embedded in his head. All the more reasons to find a curse as soon as possible, before the urges got the better of him.
He noticed a necklace hanging from the man's neck, the inscription of Selune inscribed atop it.
Once the vial was filled, he set the man's head onto the console and pulled the necklace off. The dead man no longer needed it anymore, but Tav knew he did. He had been introduced to the ways of the goddess of the moon by his master, although none of his prayers seemed to have been answered. In any case, he figured it was because he did well enough for himself that the goddesses' attentions should have gone towards those who needed it more.
Now, however, with his life and soul at stake, he could use a blessing more than ever. He kissed the necklace, reciting a brief prayer in his mind for the moon maiden to guide him and to provide him the strength to resist whatever had been done to him.
Tav then poured the vial of blood into the purple one, watching as the two fluids sizzled and swirled into one. He breathed a sigh of relief as the two colors glistened into a bright green, which meant the reaction went as intended.
"Let's go," he said to Lae'zel and they both headed back through the sphincter.
He could still hear the steady thumps as the half-elf appeared to still be trying to break through, sadly to no avail. It seemed she realized that as well, given the steady stream of curses uttered from her mouth.
"Save your strength," said Tav.
"You!" she said. "Did you get the key!?"
"I did, but we have a better means of getting you out." He uncorked the vial of green liquid. "Keep your arms away from the glass, and just hold still!"
She looked at him, raising one eyebrow in skepticism but did as he asked.
Tav dipped the vial, letting the viscous fluid flow along the surface of the capsule. As the last drop fell, he tossed the vial aside and stepped back.
He held up his right hand and focused, pulling a strand of magic, willing it into the shape of a firebolt.
"Ignis!" he said, flinging fire toward the slime-coated side of the pod. The liquid ignited, but instead of exploding it sizzled, eating away at that side of the pod. A crack appeared, then two, then spread like a spiderweb before shattering into pieces.
The half-elf inside fell forward, free from the pod's harnesses. Before she could land though, Tav rushed forward, catching her by his shoulder and instantly regretting the decision. His legs buckled under the weight and he fell onto a knee. The sharp outlines of her armor prodded like spikes through the rags that remained of his clothes. Fortunately, at least the floor was squishy enough to absorb the shock.
He turned to look toward her, and the half-elf opened her dark eyes, green as spring leaves. Then her nose twitched as she got a whiff, before immediately rolling to the side.
Tav sheepishly looked away, figuring his smell must have made quite the impression. Not surprising since he doubted the mind flayers were keen on washing him while he was inside the pod.
"Sorry about that," he said, as the woman coughed, retching from his stench. "Are you okay?"
She just patted him away, before rising up.
"At last…" she said. "Thought I was done for. I thought that damn thing was going to be my coffin. Thank you-"
All three of them clutched their foreheads as a discomforting sensation brought them to a standstill. Tav's head vibrated as he felt the psychic connection between him and Lae'zel thrum, except this time he felt another channel open, to the woman he had just freed.
He saw glimpses of memory, but unlike Lae'zel who had revealed snippets from a long harsh childhood, hers was like a blank canvas. No, it was more like a painted canvas that had been doused in black dye, obscuring what lay within.
Also, unlike Lae'zel, he felt her immediately detect their presence and shove them out of her mind with a wrought iron will, not quite unlike a wrought iron gate being slammed shut in your face. The last thing he sensed through the momentary connection was a deep weariness, partially due to the assault his stench made on her nose but mostly due to Lae'zel's presence. The word githyanki echoed from her with hostility.
Lae'zel crossed her arms at the half-elf, looking at her with a sinister glare.
"Yes," she said. "I am a gith."
"You keep dangerous company," the half-elf returned the glare before turning toward Tav.
He noted the implication and moved to nip it in the bud. They needed to make it out alive, and whatever issue she had with Lae'zel came second to that.
"Dangerous company is what's needed in a fight," said Tav. "And if you want to live, we're going to have to stick together."
The half-elf looked at him as if she was trying to measure him up. He sensed nothing through the psychic link they momentarily shared, her will in mental matters was quite strong.
"Fair point." She looked from him to Lae'zel. "I take it you know that we were both in each other's minds for now."
"Yes," said Tav. "It must be whatever the mind-flayers did to us, and if we aren't cured soon…"
He lowered the walls of his mind, letting her peer into his memories of the horrifying transformation in the other room. The half-elf raised a brow at the visage, then recoiled with shock and horror.
"Exactly," said Tav. "And unless we want to undergo the same, or worse, we need to get to the helm and take control of this ship. So will you help us?"
She looked at him and then at Lae'zel.
"I will," she said, taking a step away from both of them. "I'll come with you. And when we get off this ship, we can watch each other's backs along the way."
"Good," he said, noting that she had extended the invitation to beyond escaping their current confines. Something he had considered but not brought up yet. "Oh, and I'm Tav by the way."
"Shadowheart," said the half-elf.
Shadowheart? A peculiar name. The flamboyance of it sounded like the stage name of a theater actress now that he thought of it. She certainly had the looks to pass off as one, although the armor and the scar riding below her left cheek told more of a life mired in fighting and performative dance.
"One moment," she said, reaching back into the capsule and pulling out an object no greater than his hand, shaped like a sphere with multiple flat surfaces.
"What is that?" said Tav.
"It's nothing," said Shadowheart. "Trust me."
Something heavy whooshed past his head, which was revealed to be a mace that Shadowheart caught one-handed.
"Enough of this chatter," said Lae'zel, who appeared to have found a weapons crate while they were talking. She holstered several arrows into a quiver. "We need to get to the helm. Now."
"And who put you in charge?" said Shadowheart. "I'll trust my own judgment."
"Kainyank." Lae'zel huffed, and Tav sensed a directed burst of skepticism sent his way as if wondering how much help Shadowheart would be.
"Easy there," said Tav. "Lae'zel probably knows the most out of the three of us. She's helped me, and I see no reason to distrust her."
"Very well then," said Shadowheart, who then looked at Lae'zel with scorn dripping from her face. "Lead on."