A thin tendril emerged from the atrocity like a tiny arm and waggled in my direction.

Hang on. Was it...waving at me? What the heck was this thing?

> Familiar Shoggoth

> A miniature but no less horrifying version of the fearsome Shoggoth, created to be a familiar.

>

> Powers:

> Blob - Competent: Change size and shape0

> If You Could Read My Mind, Love - Adept: Telepathy

> Vending Machine - Adept: Replicate elixers

> [Locked]

>

> Skills:

> All-Seeing - Competent

> Tentacle - Adept

So you really are a Shoggoth, huh? But of course. Oh, and you have telepathy. So I really am hearing the voice of an eldritch monster in my head. How nice. At least you’re not trying to eat me.

Why would I do that?

Isn’t that what Shoggoths do?

Yes, but I’m not the Shoggoth.

You're not...? Oh, I get it. It’s your familiar. So to whom do I have the pleasure of thinking with?

It would be easier to show you.

The blob convulsed, then sprouted some tentacles which it used to half-scurry, half-drag itself along the floor like a wounded spider. When it reached the wall it kept going, seeming to pass right through it. I stared stupidly after it.

That thing moved pretty fast for a thick glob of snot. Ah well, no need to hide anymore.

I changed out of my Second Skin into my adventuring garb.

A portion of the little shoggoth reappeared in the wall, as though it was poking its head out, and several dozen eyes erupted to stare at me, the sort of intense stare you get from a dog who desperately needs to be taken outside for a pee.

What’s that, boy? Timmy’s trapped in the well?

Who is Timmy?

The eyes popped, venting greenish light, then were replaced by more burbling bubbles that morphed into more popping eyes. An uncontrollable shudder quivered through my whole body and I felt itchy all over at the sight of the holes left behind.

Yeah yeah, I get it. You want me to follow you. I’m coming.

As soon as I began shuffling across the space toward it, the creature vanished into the wall again. I followed it, walking straight through the wall into another round space beyond.

I assumed it was farther up in the tower — that would make sense, after all — but in a place like this, where the normal rules of physics and logic did not necessarily apply, it was dangerous to assume anything. I could be a mile below the surface or a thousand light years away for all I knew. I did seem to still be in the tower, though. This space was the same as the one I’d just left, all except for the brain.

In the center of this room, floating over a cylindrical pedestal under a transparent dome, there was a brain. It looked like a human brain, but who knew where it really came from.

Was it some kind of trophy, like the things we’d found in Daedalus’ study? Why would someone keep a brain pickled in a jar like this?

Then it moved. Not, like, slithering around or anything, it only pulsed a little, but that was enough. A subtle throbbing in a few areas was just enough to indicate that it was not a trophy, but was somehow alive.

Welcome. It's pretty cool you made it this far. But wow, your method of concealment was far out. In all my years I have never seen anything like it. I didn’t even know you were here until you already inside the tower, and that piqued my interest enough to not destroy you right away.

There was a lot to parse out there. So it was a tower after all, and I was still in it. That was good to know. And it was also good that I hadn’t been destroyed right away, but the phrasing of that made me a little nervous. Like I still was l going to be destroyed, just not right away.

I take it you’re that brain?

Correct.

Got it. So, um, if you aren’t, despite all appearances, an eldritch monster yourself, then who, er, what are you?

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It sucks to admit it, but I suppose I am more of a what than a who. At various times I've been known by many names, but if anyone still remembers me they would know me as Cagliostra, the Great Sage.

> Cagliostra

> Great Sage

That’s it? Not much of a Status.

I’ll have you know that Great Sage is a title which carries a great deal of status, within the right circles.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to think that aloud. When I thought Status that’s not what I...never mind. So I take it you weren’t always just a brain.

Bingo. After many centuries pursuing esoteric knowledge I believed I no longer needed a physical form and chose to shed all but the biological necessities.

How’d that work out for you?

It was a trap.

A trap?

My goal has always been to ascend from this reality into a higher plane of existence. After centuries of research, I finally discovered a way. This final step requires two very special items, which took me more centuries to prepare, only to lose them both just before taking the final step toward complete ascension. Or, more accurately, they were stolen from me.

That sucks.

Correct.

So now you’re trapped here in this display case.

Correct.

Can I help?

I wish. You would need the items.

Any idea where they are?

No.

That’s a shame, but then again it sounds like a quest to me. I know people, maybe we can find them. What are the quest MacGuffins?

I don't know what those are, but the ascension ritual requires a dagger made of the rarest metals containing mana crystals of all colors. This blade must be imbued with the power to pass between realms. The other item is an alchemical agent containing all twelve essences of existence.

Okay. What exactly happened to them?

After working for hundreds of years to acquire the knowledge and materials to fabricate these artifacts, they were both stolen from me by the demon who tricked me into casting off my body and becoming...this.

Demon, huh? Sure hope it wasn’t anybody I know. Since you know how, why don’t we just recreate these items?

If only it were so easy. Before my imprisonment here I spent many lifetimes collecting knowledge and skill and even I could not create the items alone. To recreate them would require a large team of individuals with very specialized talents, plus a significant quantity of materials so rare they may as well be impossible to collect.

You know, I have found that there always seems to be another way besides the obvious one. I have access to a lot of materials and I know a lot of people with a lot of specialized talents, so let’s not discount the possibility.

You actually seem serious.

You said the dagger needs the rarest of metals. What would that be?

Adamantium. So you see, while it is quite decent of you to want to help by reforging the dagger, acquiring just a smidgeon of adamantium is a feat. To get the amount required to make the entire dagger out of it is inconceivable.

How much does it need?

At least a pound.

Only a pound?

Only? You could sift every grain of stone in an entire mountain and perhaps be able to mine that much, if you were extremely fortunate.

Really? Wow. This must be worth a fortune then.

I pulled the lump of metal that Daedalus had been chained to from my inventory.

What is that?

Adamantium. I’d say probably a hundred pounds at least.

Unbelievable! How did you come to possess that much?

I got it off a dead guy.

Unbelievable.

And you said it needs some mana crystals, right?

Yes, one of each color: yellow, green, blue, red, black, and clear.

I reached into my inventory again, and pulled out a small crystal of each color. I’d been collecting them from all the monsters I’d killed, and even though I used them for their mana to craft things almost as fast I could collect them, I still had a modest stockpile. The only one I didn’t get from a monster was the clear one. I’d never encountered a monster that dropped one, and I’d only ever seen just two clear mana crystals: one big one was still sitting under glass in Daedalus’ office, and the other was the little one I was holding. It had been a gift from the city to the elves.

It was hard to tell through telepathy if Cagliostra was impressed, it was like trying to convey emotions through a text message, only without access to emojis.

Unbelievable. Simply having the materials is an amazing accomplishment, but sadly it’s useless without the ability to artifice the dagger out of them. Adamantium is incredibly hard to work with and can only be manipulated by someone with the rare ability to use an Artifice forge and a vast amount of mana. And the particulars of the dagger also requires them to be familiar with runes and have practical knowledge of occult rituals.

Roger that. You wouldn’t happen to have any forges around, would you?

Of course. But what good are they without the requisite abilities?

Humor me.

Why?

Come on. What have you got to lose?

I have nothing left. All I had left was hope, and I lost that ages ago.

Then what’s the harm?

Fine.

The Shoggoth quivered then scuttled off into a wall. It came back a moment later, only now it was about three times the size and was carrying what looked like a very fancy Artifice forge. The ones I’d seen up to then had all been simple affairs, but this one was embellished with delicate scrollwork and curlicues and other filigree, like some steampunk artifact. The Shoggoth plunked it down, then retracted its tentacles, shrank back down to its ottoman size, and became a stationary blob again.

This is perfect.

I took the adamantium and all the crystals and fed them into the forge.

You can Artifice?

Pretty lucky, huh?