Solitaire and I transported to Kaz Kuruk to meet with the Lady Gryphon in answer to her request to nations of the Heartlands to aid in the removal of an alien threat to Erdreja.

Gathering at Kaz Kuruk in East Lyonesse with the Gryphons, we teamed together with a number of Dragons, Unicorns, Lions and guild liaisons as we prepared to transport on to Manon Tor where the threat had been located.

Upon arrival at Manon Tor we were ambushed by a number of Orc’s that claimed the land as their own. It quickly transpired they were worshiping this alien creature. As expected of locals, they provided minimal resistance.

As we investigated the surrounding area it transpired that the alien creature was a sort of hive mind. Unlike the Illithid which adds other minds to its own collective consciousness, this creature incorporates a mind as part of its own. It was even able to manifest parts of its mind physically. Several of these were buried within various caverns, however their nature is unknown to me (we objected to crawling through caverns whilst on holiday). The caverns had been sealed by Orc shamans, using an elementally bound shield - tied to amulets of that element.

The second day saw the Gryphons leading teams into these caverns to eliminate these extensions of its mind and hopefully weaken the greater alien mind behind them. The first was a smooth endeavour, virtually no casualties and the objective quickly completed.

Between the first and second, we found an Orc Shaman with a link to this creature buried in its mind. Thanks to my previous experience with collective minds, I offered to help break this link. Whilst this attempt was unsuccessful, we did learn that the greater mind did not appreciate my presence and consistently tried to shake us off. We later planned to use this connection to both get the creatures attention, and hopefully shake free some of the blocked caverns.

The second cavern, whilst successful, was not without complications. A member of the Dragons contingent had a creature attached to his head that appeared to be attempting to infiltrate his mind. Meanwhile it was making such radical changes to his pattern that his pattern began to look Alien to anything on Erdreja. Removing this required a complicated combination of healing the mind of this alien creature to try and push out its mental control, whilst someone with expert knowledge of triage used implements natural to Erdreja to cut out the creature attached to his head.

Not without risk, but thankfully we had the skills to save him.

These two incursions however seemed to annoy the greater mind. It sent far more powerful extensions of itself after us, taking a heavy toll on the Gryphons resources. The next attempted cavern saw another creature attach itself to yet another of the Dragon contingent, whilst I was able to save him – two member of the Gryphons were not fortunate enough to make it out of the cavern.

At this point the Gryphons decision was to rest and recover and not push our luck with further caverns that night with our resources so depleted. Unfortunately two members of the gryphons attempted to consume the remains of the one of these alien creatures. One required the same level of healing as the two afflicted by one bound to their heads. The other found their pattern had been abberated. Unable to remove this there and then, it left a slight connection to the greater mind.

We did however attempt to draw the mind to us. A rite was performed invoking the power of those amulets, whilst I poked the mind weave of the remaining connection. Whilst it appeared to annoy the greater mind further, it not draw it out to us.

Come the morning, Solitaire led a rite to speak with the Ancestor Bellona (a Gryphons Ancestor of the Wilderness, Nature, and the hunt). The Gryphons bound themselves to the cause of purging this creature from Erdreja, whilst asking Bellona to aid them by having the land reject this creature. (That Soliatire convinced the Gryphons to dedicate themselves to a purge rather tickled me.)

The hunt then began.

Having chased down a number of the creatures extended minds and destroying them, the greater mind seemed to be weakening. We kept this push up until we believe we had hunted them all down. However, as we attempted to leave I checked the Gryphon that retained a link to the greater mind. Whilst weakened, the slightest link remains. It is possible we missed part of the mind, or perhaps this Gryphon has now become the last remnant giving the greater mind power. We will not be able to gather the power to test that theory until all the nations meet again.

Relations with the Gryphons seem much improved, our presence was welcome (our faith was respectfully kept quiet.

Lastly, Solitaire managed to acquire a royal Cymrian child, to educate and train within the Underdark Acadamies, until of age to take it’s place in Cymrian society.

Marcus Lehn
Master Channeller