Klauthsura

Biodata

Power Progression

Background / History

Experimental Origin

Klauthsura originated in the Elder Brain’s experiments rather than ordinary Mind Flayer reproduction. To investigate Elder Brain Worm development, the Elder Brain confined several hundred tadpoles together and forced repeated rounds of mutual predation. Klauthsura was the survivor, an incomplete worm that had consumed hundreds of its own kind 309.

The eventual host was a Half-Giant with Cloud Giant ancestry, identified earlier as a goliath. Imprisoned in the Colony, she had been transformed into a Deep Dragon Dragonborn as part of research supporting the Elder Brain Dragon ritual. The Elder Brain then implanted Klauthsura into her cranial cavity and catalyzed ceremorphosis. The experiment demonstrated that an Elder Brain Worm could become an adult Mind Flayer when supplied with a sufficiently large host and external psionic intervention 292 309.

Klauthsura inherited fragments of the host’s memories but distinguished those experiences from its own. The host’s suffering during the dragon-blood experiments belonged to her; Klauthsura had still been a tadpole at the time 309.

Exile

The Elder Brain severed Klauthsura’s connection to the collective through what Klauthsura initially described as “a series of low-probability events” and, more simply, “exile.” Despite that separation, Klauthsura insisted that no one could truly escape the Elder Brain 144.

Its origin made it unacceptable to Mind Flayer society. Klauthsura regarded itself as an evolutionary error, while the collective treated it as a failed specimen that required destruction. Its hunger also made other Mind Flayers particularly desirable prey. Familiarity with the Colony and unusual mental defenses helped it repeatedly evade capture 173 309 430.

Appearance

Mind Flayer Form

• Tall, with purplish-black, jellylike skin and four facial tentacles 226 317.
• Yellow sclera surrounding needle-like aberration pupils 170.
• A beak-like mouth concealed between the tentacles and silvery-white blood 214 406.
• Unusually expressive eyes that allow Renato to recognize its individual emotions 170.
• Frequently hovers or levitates while traveling and working 218 233 261.

Dragonborn Form

• A female Dragonborn sorceress appearance based on the original host, modified using the Library’s records of human aesthetic preferences 292.
• Purple hair, golden slit-pupiled eyes, scales along the neck, a thick scaled tail, and paired spiraling bony horns 307 429 436.
• Usually adopts a reduced, slender build rather than the host’s full dimensions 292.
• The larger form stands over eight feet tall, with broad shoulders, long limbs, and pronounced musculature 436.
• Initially wears a dragon-scale-patterned mage robe while posing as Gattholex’s Dragonkin Retainer 187 192.

Personality

Klauthsura values precise reasoning, orderly work, and the acquisition of knowledge. It corrects accusations by identifying their logical flaws and treats research as more valuable than possession of a powerful artifact. Its declared ambition is to reach the world’s pinnacle and uncover the universe’s ultimate truth 220 439 443.

Although exiled, Klauthsura remains proud of Mind Flayer civilization. It praises the Colony’s division of labor, research autonomy, and collective planning, refusing to condemn that social structure merely because it has no place within it. Conversely, it considers Lolth’s rule an obstacle to rational inquiry and regards Sammoril as a prison for the wise 284 317 343.

Its rationality does not eliminate emotion. Distress over its origin and anger at Quelyn’s contract violations cause involuntary psionic manifestations, including a drop in the surrounding temperature. During the struggle to escape Sinnaphyx’s spell, Klauthsura recognizes that its fear for Renato is not simply a calculation of mutual advantage 309 343 425.

Klauthsura learns human etiquette and adjusts its behavior to make Renato comfortable, adopting spoken conversation, walking rather than hovering, and more expressive body language. Nevertheless, it retains practices Renato finds troubling: brain consumption, slavery, and partial brain-removal surgery performed to improve obedience and efficiency 239 284 434 435.

Abilities & Skills

Mental Psionics

• Telepathy: Communicates directly with companions, including during battle and while operating research equipment 192 354 422.
• Illusions and impersonation: Alters the appearance and voice perceived by others. Copies Balin and Tristana, later reproducing a consumed Nightwind Guard’s posture, expressions, and gait 176 345.
• Hypnosis and mind control: Subdues captives and implants convincing false perceptions. Tristana recalls perceiving Klauthsura as a handmaiden of Lolth 148 183 226.
• Memory acquisition: Extracts information from brains, gaining local knowledge, magical research, and practical craft skills 239 284 292.
• Limitations: Dead, deteriorating brain tissue yields scattered memories rather than reliable intelligence. Tristana’s spider Holy Symbol can dispel Klauthsura’s disguise 176 272.

Mental Resistance and Concealment

• Its Elder Brain Worm origin grants resistance to mental hypnosis and visual illusions stronger than that of Legendary Psions without active protective spells 354.
• Can retain some independent thought even under the Elder Brain’s control 354.
• Can evade thought detection, supporting concealment and hit-and-run operations within familiar Colony terrain 430.
• Uses psionic invisibility to follow Renato discreetly and approach enemies before attacking 373 418.

Combat Psionics

• Reserve limits: Sustained combat rapidly depletes psionic energy. After repeated casting and a large Acid Sphere, Klauthsura estimates that the ongoing battle could exhaust its reserves within one natural hour 364.
• Physical vulnerability: Severe cold, poison, and hostile magical environments can impede movement or force expenditure on protection 352 394 406.
• Transformation limits: Poisoning and depleted reserves leave it unable to maintain its Dragonborn disguise 406.
• Opponent limitations: Psionic lightning fails against the adamantine golem, requiring barriers and telekinetic pressure instead 404 405.

Telekinesis and Spatial Manipulation

• Operates an entire alchemy workshop alone, controlling vessels and instruments with minimal operator error 261.
• Tears open a roof and holds both itself and Renato aloft during their escape from the Burning Wood Inn 361.
• Uses psionic instruments to map corridors, survey spatial conditions, and record the demiplane’s recurring transformations 354 384 402.
• Uses the Psionics Beacon Eye to locate spatial nodes and establish teleportation coordinates 196 343.
• Cannot reliably teleport Renato through several thousand meters of rock without precise destination coordinates. Teleportation outside a spatial node becomes increasingly dangerous with distance 369 439.

Alchemy

• Cannot reproduce Styx Grease through conventional alchemy because its negative energy appears to originate from ritual magic 307.
• Identifies rare raw materials as the principal obstacle to producing Manticore Poison and Carrion Crawler Mucus 307.

Crafting and Equipment Research

• Deep Dragon Hide Boots: Uses tough back hide externally and supple belly hide internally. Psionic tanning preserves the material’s natural magical and elemental resistance 284.
• Dragon-hide arming jacket: Combines dragon scales, adamantine threads, spider-thread silk, and resilient padding, protecting vulnerable areas while cushioning blunt impacts 315.
• Mind Armor conversion: Enchants Renato’s dragon-hide undergarment and creates a one-way link with Mountain’s Embrace using the Voice of the Elder Brain’s laboratory 431.
• Artifact analysis: Determines that the Hellforged Multiverse Wanderer consumes magical items and resists most spatial detection methods 432.
• Klauthsura’s Ring: Fuses and improves Renato’s Space Ring and Ring of Protection after advancing its spatial research 443.

Equipment / Items

• Psionics Beacon Eye — Crystal-ball-like device that provides teleportation coordinates, disrupts spatial targeting, and locates demiplane spatial nodes. Klauthsura fully repairs it after its earlier damage 196 208 317 343.
• Restoration Crystal — Emergency recovery item inserted into the abdomen. Rapidly heals injuries, neutralizes poison, and partially restores psionic reserves; after one use, Klauthsura reports 67 percent remaining 406.
• Silver transformation ring — Activates the change from the smaller Dragonborn body to the towering version 436.
• Psionic research instruments — Includes neural connections, crystal panels, spatial-survey devices, and a half-face analytical eyepiece 202 354 384 432.
• Amulet of Adaptation — Renato’s parting gift 443.

Relationships

• Renato — Ally, traveling companion, research partner, and later intimate partner. His trust and treatment of Klauthsura as a companion become central to its personal loyalties; it supports his decision to return to the surface rather than demanding that he remain 284 317 425 435 437 438.
• The Elder Brain — Creator, former collective authority, and principal enemy. Conducted the experiments that produced Klauthsura, severed its connection, and subsequently sought its destruction 144 173 309.
• Zephros — Hostile Colony Psion. Klauthsura recognizes his independent authority and superior power; Zephros considers Klauthsura a failed creation that must be eliminated 172 173.
• Tristana — Distrustful ally whose hostility is intensified by memories of psionic manipulation. She repeatedly warns Renato against Klauthsura and attacks its disguises and motives 148 176 182 219 220.
• Balin — Suspicious ally in the campaign against the Colony. His Mind Ripper is essential to Klauthsura’s slave-liberation strategy; Klauthsura’s Counterspell helps create the opening for his killing blow against the Elder Brain 176 187 214.
• Quelyn — Nightwind Matron Mother and contractual patron. Provides laboratory access and regular food supplies in return for potions, then violates the supply agreement as the family’s resources deteriorate 233 239 343.
• Rafada / Pure White — Collaborator in the palace infiltration. Initially accepts Klauthsura on Renato’s assurance, though Klauthsura doubts his account of his abilities. Later places Klauthsura in stasis before its release 385 387 410 414.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Campaign Against the Elder Brain

Klauthsura uses its knowledge of Colony procedures to disrupt mass teleportation at the moment when the interference will inflict the greatest losses. Zephros recognizes that the resulting slave casualties will delay the Elder Brain’s plan 173.

Its subsequent strategy targets psionic nodes and frees slaves through Balin’s Mind Ripper. By posing as Gattholex’s Dragonkin Retainer, Klauthsura offers the liberated groups both a cause for revenge and the prospect of future protection. It later divides the force, sending Renato and Balin into the Colony while leading Hobgoblins against the nodes with Tristana 187 196.

Inside the Library, Klauthsura retrieves encrypted research explaining how the Elder Brain is dismantling Gattholex’s magical defenses and will. During the final confrontation, it supports Renato’s attack on the dragon’s controlling tentacles and, despite broken legs, interrupts the Elder Brain’s spellcasting. It afterward pays Renato with a Space Ring already containing his uncollected spoils 202 203 208 214 219.

Research in Sammoril

Klauthsura establishes a laboratory under a one-year potion-supply contract with the Nightwind Family. Renato supplies dragon blood, spellcasters’ brains, and other materials, while Klauthsura develops enhancement elixirs and protective equipment 233 261 284 292 307 315.

Both ultimately reject remaining in Lolth’s city. Anti-teleportation arrays prevent a straightforward escape, but the white fog engulfing the West Wall district presents another route: a demiplane whose spatial nodes might connect to an upper stratum 317 343.

The Niter Demiplane

After entering the fog, Klauthsura surveys the realm and investigates its connection to the vanished Niter Kingdom. The pair endure the city’s transitions between living inhabitants and undead ruins, then join Rafada in an infiltration of the Royal Palace and White Tower 355 361 369 385.

Klauthsura provides reconnaissance, concealment, and combat support against the tower’s constructs. A Restoration Crystal saves it from severe poisoning during the adamantine golem battle. Later, Sinnaphyx repeatedly buries it underground; Klauthsura eventually breaks free, confirms that the spatial node is usable, and begins treating the critically injured Renato 402 403 406 422 425.

Recovery and Parting

Back in the Colony, Klauthsura arranges Renato’s recovery, upgrades his equipment, and studies the Hellforged Multiverse Wanderer. Their companionship develops into physical intimacy, but Renato eventually decides that remaining underground would halt his growth and interfere with Klauthsura’s research 429 431 432 434 435 437.

Klauthsura accepts that decision and helps charge the artifact with abandoned magical equipment. Before their farewell, it returns the newly fused Klauthsura’s Ring, engraved with encrypted Colony coordinates and an invitation to return. The two part with a kiss and the belief that their different paths share a destination 438 439 443.

Notable Quotes

“But you possess a desire for knowledge. And that is a prerequisite for intelligence...” 144

“Go, Thought-Touched. … May our thoughts never perish.” 196

“Though we walk different paths, our destination is the same.” 443

Trivia

• Klauthsura chose its name after a form of wordless polyphonic music it particularly enjoys 144.
• Its blessing for Renato invokes Ilsensine and introduces the address “Thought-Touched,” which it uses again at their farewell 196 443.
• Klauthsura’s Ring preserves extradimensional storage for up to 3,000 pounds and 360 cubic feet, adds a permanent Deflection Field, and encodes the Colony’s spatial coordinates 443.
• Renato continues benefiting from Klauthsura’s craftsmanship after their separation: the linked Mind Armor and Mountain’s Embrace automatically adjust to his changing physique 529.