Illianka moved at the same time as Schnicklegulp, but rather than jumping into the hole she simply ran down the side of it, her feet sticking to the sheer walls as though they were horizontal. At the bottom, she paused while the others made their own ways down and looked around, judging their situation before following Schnicklegulp.

[private to DM:
20:33, Today: Illianka rolled 31 using 1d20+11. Move Silent.
Using Run and Up The Walls to get down without injury.]

The group manages to reach the doors without incident - it seems the umber hulks have simple orders to dig, and are ignoring you completely.
The doors seem barred shut from the inside.

"Callarduran's strength can let us pass this door, but I know not what we may find beyond it. Prepare yourselves - we shall walk unseen, and discover what may be inside. Callarduran, Callarduran, show me the path that I might see your foes". The svirf holy man begins to chant softly, and a tiny hole appears in the door. He puts his hands into it and pulls it slowly wider before climbing through it.

Inside is a walkway around a large pool. Arount the pool, twelve mind flayers kneel, staring into its depths with a rapture so intense that they do not see the stealthy and silent group. In the pool, dark figures move quickly, striking out at each other with both tentacles and psychic assaults - this is the epicentre of the battle you have felt.

As you watch with morbid curiosity, you see one of the shapes attach its tentacles to another. There is a moment of flailing, then the recipient stops moving, and you feel the blast you experienced back in the tunnel once more, but this time you are close by.

Give me a will save with your next post.

Illianka bit deeply into her own lip to avoid crying out at the massive psychic backlash and tasted blood as her mind reeled.

Even so, she looked for some way out of the room that would be possible to achieve without alerting the flayers.

[private to DM: 01:12, Today: Illianka rolled 21 using 1d20+5. Will save. ]

[Private to DM Daniel: Will save 6]

Schnickle readied his crossbow, ready for action and Smoothhands-knew-what, but then he reeled beneath the psychic blast.

Everyone in the room is overwhelmed by the blast - it is some time before any of you feel you can move (or think) again. The mind flayers remain completely oblivious to your presence in the shadows near the door, so dedicated to watching the battle unfold in the pool that you could probably carry on a conversation without them even noticing.
The creature that successfully attacked one of the others looks significantly larger now, as if it had absorbed a large part of its victims mass.

You can't help but wonder what will happen when there is nothing to distract these psionic creatures - is it even possible for you to kill such a powerful being?
Doubts cloud your minds, and you wonder what you could possibly accomplish.

[Private to Schnicklegulp Stoneswiper: Take 1 temporary int, wis and cha damage, to be recovered after a day.]

Schnickle clutched his head and squealed as he felt his brain go crazy under the assault. "Eee!"

Desperately the little gnome looked up and around and wondered what in the 'dark he could do to stop this.


OOC: Looking around the room, is there anything in here that looks useful or significant? Even a better idea of the shape of the room might be helpful.

I still have the paintbrush and the mechanical thingamabob.

Here is a (very) simple map that will hopefully give you an idea. The door is the semicircle cut into the building.

http://distortion.polyplex.org/BrainPool.png

Around the walls are stones set as if in place of torches - you aren't entirely sure what they do.

Schnickle dashed around to inspect the stones set into the walls.

Each is covered in carvings depicting mind flayers in victorious poses. As you touch them, you feel the tingle of psychic energy - you aren't sure what effect it has on you, but you can definitely feel something.

Schnickle slapped himself over the head, trying to get his thoughts in order. Think! The psychic shockwaves were addling his mind, he felt lost and confused.

To calm himself, he began to murmur a old svirfneblin nursery rhyme.

"Bury me down,
Nice and tight,
So the drow
give not a fright."

[Private to DM Daniel: Cast Lullaby, 10ft radius to encompass a few flayers. DC 10 Will save, or -5 Listen & Spot, -2 Will vs sleep effects. Eh, not much I know, but I had to get some use out of the SLA. :)]

Then he scampered back to the wall, and produced the wierd mechanical device from his back, and lacking any other ideas, he pressed it to the special stones in the walls.

Illianka watches silently, waiting to see if anything happens... and with her mind focussed and ready if she needs to manifest anything quickly.

[Private to DM: ready action: blast any enemies that notice us.]

The illithids don't even seem to notice Schnick's singing, so intent on the battle. Schnick pushes the mechanical device against one of the stones, and a lever slides in, pushing another lever out which bumps the stone sideways, and it seems to recede into the wall a little. He waits expectantly for something to happen, but after a short time it seems there is nothing forthcoming.

OOC: Be patient, sorry about the slowness guys

Illianka watches, carefully, frowning in thought. Momentarily she wishes for time to teach the gnomes how to sign, but realises that there's no point idly wishing and starts trying to make sense of, or at least find some pattern in, the symbols.

[private to DM: 20:40, Today: Illianka rolled 22 using 1d20+3. Intelligence. ]

"Hmm." Schnickle then produced his paintbrush, and began to paint holes around the stone so he could see inside the wall. That was if he could.

Schnick paints through the wall slowly, peeling back layers. It seems to be stone all the way through, however. Illianka's examination of the symbols reveals that each seems to depict a different emotion; various types of pride and anger seem to dominate.

Schnickle probed the holes he'd just made with a finger, wondering if they were real or if they were ilusory.

They seem completely real - you can put your hand through them to the outside.

Illianka touches Schnickle to get his attention, and indicates that she'd like to use the mechanical device.

Schnickle passed the device to Illianka.

Illianka looks around for the nearest 'peace' rune she can find, if there is such a thing, or the closest analogy... if it's possible to activate it with the device without being noticed, she does so.

The closest thing to peace is a rune depicting safety having despached all your enemies. Pushing the mechanical device against it causes most of the levers to slide to their "out" position.

Illianka looks around for any other runes with similar meanings, and if possible activates them with the device.

While Illianka worked with the runes and the device, Schnickle went with Plan B - painting out the walls. He made sure to leave gaps and stuff so that the structure would stand until it could be made to collapse in one go.

Deepwalker jumps down the hole.  Once there he gets out of the way so the minotaurs can join him.  While he has the chance he renews the powers he has up and heads off to kick some mind flayer ass.

Deepwalker follows the party down the hole to the brain chamber, ducking to fit as he steps in through the hole in the door. Behind him are several minotaurs, moving less loudly than they usually would.

OOC: Read this thread when you get time to get a picture of what is going on, then  decide on what to do.