New Rolling Stone City had become a field of ruins.
The streets, once cracked by the Great Earthquake, had shattered again. Collapsed stone houses lay everywhere, and flames burned amid the rubble.
No one fought the fires or rescued the injured. The Duergar civilians had either been killed by the Mind Flayers' spells or fled the nightmarish city amid the chaos.
The number of Mind Flayer corpses did not add up either. Quite a few must have broken out during the confusion.
Deep Hammer Tower, which held vast stores of supplies, had lost its upper half. All the food the Deepforge Tribe had spent months plundering and stockpiling was buried beneath the rubble.
Now Madra no longer had to worry about being overthrown by the civilians.
His rule, however, now extended only to the dozen or so Deepforge warriors beside him, almost all of whom were wounded.
"You want us to help you fight the Elder Brain?" Tristana bared her teeth, looking Klauthsura up and down as the spider Holy Symbol in her hand glowed faintly. "Then get on your knees and beg for my help like a slave, you Brain-Eating Bastards!"
The towering Mind Flayer had just given a brief account of what had happened: disguising himself as a Duergar to infiltrate New Rolling Stone City, laying out interference Array Patterns in advance, and waiting for the Elder Brain to attack.
When he heard that Klauthsura had infiltrated the city disguised as a Duergar, Madra's expression darkened further.
The young Duergar noble withdrew from the conversation. Leaving only Flori and the Troll to stand guard, he took his men into the ruins to salvage supplies.
"Your capacity for logic is lacking, Drow." Klauthsura was not levitating through psionics, but standing in place like an ordinary person. "Perhaps this is