Page 81 - Lords of Madness: The Book of Aberrations

opulence, an air of ancient decadence hangs over the scene, While their wills are still free, captives are confined in a

heightened by the forms of illithids moving silently or con- pit about 20 feet deep and 100 feet wide with smooth, vertical
versing wordlessly, their tentacles writhing in a sickening sides slick from condensation. The only way in or out is to be
dance. raised or lowered telekinetically or, if a suitably powerful mind
The main feature of the plaza is a great fountain surrounded flayer is not available to perform the telekinesis, by a winch

by a pool. Smaller fountains and pools are arranged sym- operated by thralls.
metrically around the primary fountain. Some of these serve In Hidden Lagurno, the duergar, drow, and grimlocks

as baths for illithids to keep themselves clean and their skin confined to the pit live a truly wretched existence: filthy, half

moist. Others, especially fountains with wide sprays, primarily starved, and sometimes packed in so tightly that there is no
room to lie down or even sit comfortably. They mill about
function to keep humidity high in the cavern.
CHAPTER 4 THE MIND FLAYERS The walls and pillars of the chamber are carved so that they weakly or lie in the filth covering the floor. They find release

from the pit only if selected for enthrallment, experimentation,
seem to undulate beneath their glistening layer of dampness.
Ramps circle the walls, leading up to doorways and overhang-
ceremorphosis, to become a meal, or for some other twisted
ing balconies.
illithid purpose. The greatest number remains in the pit until
The walls of this spacious chamber are honeycombed with
trapped, lethal battles and even cannibalism occur, especially
the illithids’ individual dwellings. Every illithid, even the they are eventually eaten. Depending on the kind of creatures
very youngest, has its own living space. The size and loca- when the supplied food and water are insufficient.

tion of each space varies according to status. Living spaces at The pit in Hidden Lagurno can accommodate two hundred
ground level are reserved for the most esteemed: community captives without being stacked to capacity, or three times that
leaders, favorites of the elder brain, the most powerful psions number if they are packed in tightly. On a day-to-day basis, the
and wizards, great hunters, and even popular performance typical occupancy reaches one hundred to one hundred and
eaters. As the living spaces rise above the level of the plaza, fifty captives.

they become smaller, less intricate, and less prestigious.
Top-level spaces are small, roughly excavated, and meant Thrall Barracks
for young illithids. Ironically, the highest spaces go to those Most of the duergar live in Upper Lagurno, serving as cam-

least capable of reaching them, and the lowest to those that ouflage for the mind flayer settlement beneath. The mind

don’t truly need their convenience. This is the elder brain’s flayers of Hidden Lagurno also retain a number of other
concept of motivation. useful thralls—large, powerful monsters such as ogres, trolls,
Balconies and walkways all around the walls of the plaza minotaurs, or even giants that serve as the city’s elite defend-
connect by spiraling ramps, but illithids with the power to ers. The sudden appearance of disparate groups of monsters

levitate float majestically to the levels of their living spaces. cooperating together could be a clue to the presence of mind

To an outside observer (assuming he could see anything in flayers in an area.
the gloom), an illithid plaza is unnerving not only because The thrall barracks are much cleaner and more comfort-
of its alien, organic-seeming architecture, but because of its able than the capture pit. Thralls who have been broken to

unearthly silence. Mind flayers in flowing robes walk slowly mind flayer rule are assets, and it’s not efficient to treat them

along the ramps or float telekinetically from level to level while so badly that they can’t work at full strength. Small, doorless

others drift languorously in dark, indifferent pools of steaming sleeping-cells and silent dormitories comprise most of the
liquid, all in near-complete silence. Only the splashing of the thrall barracks, which remain quiet and orderly despite the
fountains and the occasional grunt or scream of a thrall being number of potentially hostile creatures forced to live in such
punished—or devoured—breaks the hush. close quarters.

At any given time, about twenty mind flayers mill about in Hidden Lagurno’s thrall barracks are home to about one

this plaza, with thirty more in their living spaces. Approxi- hundred and fifty thralls of various races, including a hundred
mately the same number of thralls attends them. While thralls humanoids (mostly duergar, grimlocks, orcs, and a few luckless
are scarce in many parts of Hidden Lagurno, they outnumber humans) and forty giants (mostly ogres, trolls, and a few ettins
illithids in the plaza because common thrall errands (carrying and hill giants). Minotaurs and rarer monsters make up the
messages, stonework, menial labor, and meal service) bring rest of the thralls here.
them here. To be fully effective, new thralls need to adjust physically
to their enslavement. Thralls might be assigned tasks by the
Fresh Capture Pit mind flayers that they had no previous training for—as miners,

From time to time, large numbers of captives are brought en valets, cooks, or warriors. Some are instructed in the fine points
masse to an illithid stronghold. The spells and psionic abilities of acting as a mind flayer’s personal servant. Others learn to

that transform a captive into a thrall include difficult, high-level handle a stone drill and mallet, practice fighting with dulled

powers. Enthralling fifty or more captives is a time-consuming weapons, or are simply taught to receive punishment without

process; it could take weeks before all are broken. crying out.
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