Loolipo has acquired many items since she left this morning. Shaddar is pleased. She pulls a brand new backpack from off one shoulder and reports.
“I was able to do all you asked, master. I did get caught once, I am ashamed to say,” she confesses.
“And?”
“Luckily we was all alone in a narrow part of the border zones, so I just held my shocking pincher staff on him until he passed out… or died… I dunno’ which. Since he was knocked out, I took everything he had – why should Toothsnatcher have all the fun?” She lays out a fine outfit and a fat purse. “I used some of the gold to buy some herbs from the shops. That makes the shopkeepers less wary, you know. You want to see what I got?”
“No. Go upstairs and show that to Cutt after you are done reporting to me.”
Loolipo gurgles in acceptance and continues, “I was able to buy some small lockpicks from a shifty-looking human and opened the scrollcase, master.” She hands it over, the lock clearly disengaged. “I didn’t open the end-cap at all, just like you said, so don’t blame me if there’s a trap inside there or something. I got the lock to pop open while I was eating my lunch – some kind of meat pie, very oddly spiced. Sheep they called it.”
Shaddar greedily takes the scrollcase while mentally absolving her of any liability for the contents and dismissing her. He is quite anxious to see what his ex-master had hidden away so carefully.
Loolipo rushes out of the room and up the stairs, her thoughts worried that the scrollcase is indeed trapped and will soon explode. Shaddar hardly thinks so. His master was too arrogant to believe that anyone would be able to steal his possessions, certainly not in the heart of the illithid city. The lock was just there to insure that a thrall did not accidentally view the contents most likely. No, it is not trapped.
He goes upstairs to his room to insure that he has privacy while he examines the contents. Once the door is closed and locked, he hurries to a desk and opens the end-cap. Two items slide out. A scrap of vellum and a small booklet, both of them rolled to fit inside the case.
The booklet looks well-worn and much poured over, so Shaddar examines it first, thinking that it must be the more valuable of the two items. And perhaps it is, but Shaddar is frustrated to discover that although over half the pages are filled with symbols, the script is totally unknown to him. Perhaps it is encoded? Or a rare language?
He reaches into his robe to touch the brainmate and ask it what it might know of this puzzle.
“What is needed, Supplanter?”
“Do you recognize this… code?” Shaddar asks.
“I do. But unfortunately I do not know the key. I recognize it as the personal cipher of Felinxtrath, but unlike my parent, my knowledge is limited to what was granted to me for this mission,” the brainmate responds.
Shaddar is a bit frustrated by this temporary setback. He resolves to obtain or learn some magic soon in order to translate the code and read his master’s secrets. But that will come later, for now, he reaches for the second document that was inside the scrollcase and is gratified to see that although it is written in his ex-master’s handwriting, it is in the standard script of the illithid. He reads it slowly, several times, pondering each item on the checklist:
Once I Arrive:
1. Confirm the shape and size of the bubble.
2. Travel to the settlement. The Well should be no more than two hours walk due south from the center point.
3. Give the settlement the sign of authority.
4. Inspect the city and the runes. Insure that all was created as I have planned.
5. Inspect the slave races and sample some of the wares to be found there.
6. Collect the research done by the settlement since the time of their creation.
7. Experiment with the flow of time to insure it is proceeding as planned.
8. Interview each member of the settlement to glean as much knowledge from each member as possible.
9. Note how soon deterioration begins. Return to the city once the rate of decay is fixed.
10. Inspect condition of the four slaves who will power the experiment. Note any damage.
11. Verify the time-flow differential and knowledge retention levels.
12. Report to the Elder Brain and plan how to revise and use this new technique to the best effect...
This is completely fascinating.
The bubble? Is that a reference to this pocket dimension? It must be.
Shaddar decides to ask the brainmate what it knows of this. Obviously the Elder Brain knew – so perhaps it will as well.
“What is this list mean? What do you know about ‘the bubble’?” he asks.
“The bubble is part of the experiment. It contains the world that Felinxtrath was attempting to create. I was sent to observe and keep track of various elements of the test. Especially aspects of Felinxtrath’s knowledge retention.”
“His knowledge retention?”
“Indeed.”
“What can you tell me about the experiment?” Shaddar asks.
“I do not know all of the details. My space is limited for knowledge, as I have mentioned. What specifically do you wish information about?”
“What about ‘the settlement’ and ‘The Well’ that are mentioned in this checklist?”
“I do know that part of the experiment was to create a colony of illithids in the new world,” the brainmate answers.
“To what end? As a spawning pool that would be safe from intrusion?”
“I am not privy to that datum. I do not know the purpose of the settlement, just that there was to be one. My primary function in the experiment was to advise, record, and track the passage of time. I know exactly how long you have been here, for example.”
“I see. And are you familiar with ‘the sign of authority’?”
The brainmate expresses a feeling of confusion about this phrase, so Shaddar moves back to a subject that it seems fully conversant on: time.
“So time flows differently here? In what sense?”
“Each year that passes here is but a second in the real world where our great city lies.”
Shaddar’s tentacles twitch with excitement. “I see. So if we were to go back it would be as if almost no time had passed for all of my fellow illithids?”
“Yes. In theory. If the experiment goes as expected. That’s one reason I was sent to track time – I will be able to use the perceptions of the illithids who did not travel here as a basis of comparison and calculate the exact time flow differential.”
“Tell me about ‘deterioration’? Is this Realm going to decay and collapse? Is it not self-sustaining?”
“I have no information about that possibility.”
Shaddar thanks the brainmate and disconnects from it.
He lacks a complete picture, but makes the conclusion that this entire world is the result of Felinxtrath’s experiment. Not everything went as expected with the procedure, since the lab exploded and his master perished. But Shaddar is prepared to form his own theory as to what this place is about – or what it was about at any rate.
He thinks that perhaps this was to be a world filled with semi-intelligent cattle for his kind. A solution to the problems and dangers of raiding the surface world for brains where warriors would fight back. They do not fight back here.
Well…
Not effectively.
This food source was to be consumed by a newly spawned group of illithids and then… What? Hmm…
He ponders for a moment about the tenth item on the list. Evidently the four slaves were supposed to survive the experiment, but instead when it ran totally out of control, they were utterly consumed by it. That much of the experiment did not go according to plan – what else might have failed or gone haywire with the experiment that he is unaware of?
And where are the other illithids that are mentioned in his ex-master’s checklist? The brainmate’s explanations make it clear that “the settlement” was to be populated by those of the master race, so where are they? Because it does not seem that the people here have seen or heard of his kind before.
Unless…
Could the Lords of the city actually be members of his race? Could the illithids from this settlement be ruling and controlling this world from behind the shadows? It is possible. It is a shade of his own plans for this world, after all. And it would explain the cattle’s universal fear of the Lords of the city.
He must find out more about the Lords of the Realm… Assuredly this is so.
Chapter 1 < Chapter 22 Chapter 24 >
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