Tav - A Male, Half-Elf, Bard

With a thud, the cold chitinous floor of the nautiloid rushes up to meet me. I let out a grunt of effort and stand up to survey my surroundings.

A large circular room, lined with illithid capture pods, strangely all of the pods are filled men, dead by various men. In the middle of the room is a reflective pool. Half the room is on fire and there is a gaping hole, showing a mass of creatures clashing far below.

Overcome by curiousity I cross the room and peer down into the pool, only to see myself starting back at me. A moment passes as I psyche myself up, and something moves, disturbing the reflective surface of the yellow liquid.

With a shake of my head, I take a breath, and open the door and trek out into the ship.

Everything around is alien and indecipherable, so I move through quickly. As I move through, I hear a whooshing sound, as a thud as an yellow skinned woman, clad in skimpy silver armour lands in front of me. She has brown hair tied back in a no-nonsense pony with braids woven into the back of her head. Probably the most important detail, was the large sword pointed straight at me.

Lae'zel: "Abomination! This will be your end!"

My head throbs, and I see the woman double over in pain too, as visions of a life not mine flash through my head. Soon, the pain subsides, and the woman lowers her sword.

Lae'zel: "Tsk'vaa, you are no thrall! Vlaakith blesses us this day"

Tav: "Lovely to meet you, can we do this somewhere a little less... finite?"

Lae'zel: "You will assist me, we must reach the helm, take control of this ship"

Tav: "Lead the way"

Lae'zel: "First we must dispatch of those Imps"

Cooperating with the warrior, we quickly dispatch the imps and progress through the ship until the sounds of a struggle meet my ears.

Tav: "Lae'zel, can you hear that?"

Lae'zel: "A straggler. We have no time, we must get to the helm"

Tav: "Im going to investigate quickly. Five minutes and we'll leave."

Lae'zel: "Tsk'vaa, fine"

I jog in the direction of the pleading, to see a half elf woman with long dark hair, and an ornate chain shirt. Pounding against the glass.

Shadowheart: "You! Get me out of this damned thing!"

Tav: "Hang in there! Ill find some way to open the pod!"

Shadowheart: "I saw them lock the pod with something and take it into the next room! Hurry!"

With a sense or urgency, I dart into the next room, only to see yet more captured victims. My head pounds, and suddenly I understand that this is an experimentation chamber, for accelerated ceremorphosis. Apparently, my presence initiated some experiment, since one of the pods moved to the center of the room.

In a puff of smoke, it occupant was awakened, a blonde haired human woman wearing a simple cloth tunic annd pants. Releived from her stupor she takes in her surroundings and panics, screaming and pounding at the glass.

She clearly doesnt notice, but I do. Her pants shimmy down, and a thick, dark blue tentacle snakes its way up to her snatch and plunges in. Her eyes widen as shes penetrated, and her scared screams become a mix of pleasure and pain, as the tentacle wastes no time in utterly railing the poor woman.

Less than a minute passes, until I see the tentacle pulse, and retract, spraying her in a thick white liquid, until she is absolutely glazed in it.

I start toward her, but before I can close the distance, the slime begins to fall off her, revealing a mindflayer, already fully cultivated.

With a gasp, I run past the pod, and grab the key before returning to Shadowheart's pod. Quickly, I open it, and the newly free woman falls to her knees gasping in fresh air.

Looking now, I notice she isnt wearing pants. I cast a glance to Lae'zel, confirming my suspicions that she too is pantsless. As Shadoweart gets to her feet, she looks over us both.

Shadowheart: "Thank you. I thought that pod was going to be my tomb"

Lae'zel: "We have wasted enough time already, we must get to the helm"

Shadowheart: "As much as I hate to agree with a Gith, shes right."

Together, our trio reach the helm, only to find Mindflayers and Devils locked in a bloody conflict. In an adrenalin fueled haze, swords, spells and arrows were launched, and a pain crashes into my head, as all goes black.