Recaps

In the ruins of New Rolling Stone City, Renato questioned Klauthsura about his plan to counter the Elder Brain while Tristana and Balin distrusted the Mind Flayer. Klauthsura explained how he predicted the attack and infiltrated the city, but Tristana exposed his disguise and remained hostile.

• Tristana demanded that Klauthsura beg for her help, while Balin accused him of trying to deceive them.
• Madra withdrew with his wounded warriors to salvage supplies from the ruins.
• Renato stopped Tristana from attacking Klauthsura and asked how he had predicted the Elder Brain's attack and entered the city.
• Klauthsura explained that he learned about New Rolling Stone City by reading the mind of a fleeing Duergar and predicted the Elder Brain would strike again.
• Klauthsura demonstrated his psionic disguises by taking Balin's and then Tristana's appearance, explaining that he had used them to infiltrate the city.
• Tristana used her spider Holy Symbol to dispel Klauthsura's disguise and cursed him for his true Mind Flayer form.

Renato and the Deepforge warriors prepared to flee New Rolling Stone City while Klauthsura warned that the Elder Brain’s ritual could enslave the entire Underdark. After learning the danger from a quest description, Renato reluctantly agreed that Klauthsura had a point.

• The Deepforge warriors rescued Dain from the collapsed sewer, and Renato trusted Madra to force the merchant to reveal what he knew about Mushroom Putty Cave.
• Klauthsura urged the group to help stop the Elder Brain, but Balin rejected him as the duergar prepared to leave for another layer.
• Klauthsura deduced that the group planned to escape and warned that the Elder Brain’s ritual would make everyone in the Underdark its puppet.
• Renato received a quest to destroy the Elder Brain and learned that it had captured a legendary dragon to use as a new vessel.
• After considering the threat of the Elder Brain’s plan, Renato told Balin that Klauthsura had a point.

Renato tried to persuade Balin to help Klauthsura stop the Elder Brain, but Balin refused until Klauthsura named the dragon involved as Gattholex. Balin recognized the name and revealed an unexpected connection to the true dragon.

• Renato tried to recruit Balin to stay and fight the Elder Brain, while Tristana agreed after praying to Lolth.
• Balin rejected Renato's warnings and prepared to leave with the Deepforge Tribe through Mushroom Putty Cave.
• Madra told Balin to stop trying to persuade Renato and get ready to leave.
• Klauthsura said the Elder Brain was weakened but its transformation ritual was progressing, and warned that Gattholex would merge with it within seven to fifteen days.
• Balin reacted strongly to Gattholex's name, and Klauthsura asked whether he knew the old deep dragon.

After the battle, Madra paid Renato and led the Deepforge warriors away, leaving supplies and the Mind Ripper behind. That night, Balin revealed that he had come to the Underdark more than twenty years ago after swearing to kill Gattholex.

• Renato collected his thousand gold coins while Madra complained that Balin had changed their agreement.
• Madra left the Mind Ripper with Balin, warned that its power would last about fifty days, and ordered his clan to move to the next stratum.
• Madra departed with his bodyguards, and Big Tooth passed along Flori's garbled blessing to Renato.
• Renato, Tristana, Balin, and Klauthsura gathered supplies and rested overnight in the ruins of New Rolling Stone City.
• When Tristana asked what he and Balin had discussed, Klauthsura mentioned deep dragon ecology, and Balin revealed his oath to kill Gattholex.

Balin told Renato and Tristana how he joined the Tenth Legion and lost his comrades when a giant serpent attacked their camp. He revealed that the creature was named Gattholex and swore to kill it, wherever it fled.

• Balin explained that he had secretly joined the Empire Legion as an Auxiliary Soldier to earn enough money to buy land and marry.
• Balin recalled serving in the Tenth Legion, which fought across the Empire and later guarded the Great Cavern against attacks from the Underdark.
• Balin boasted that his Century had defeated many Drow, prompting Tristana to accuse him of lying.
• Balin described how a giant serpent attacked the Legion's camp, killed sixty-five of his comrades, and turned soldiers to stone with its magic.
• Balin remembered the serpent naming itself Gattholex and vowed to kill it with his own hands.

Klauthsura explained how the Elder Brain captured the deep dragon Gattholex and laid out a route for Renato and his companions to reach their combat positions. He entered dormancy to recover and gather intelligence, leaving the group to travel on foot within seven days.

• Klauthsura identified the dragon in Balin’s account as Gattholex, a deep dragon with an exceptionally pure bloodline.
• Klauthsura explained that an Imperial legendary mage wounded Gattholex with Beghana’s Fate, forcing the dragon to sleep for nearly a century.
• Renato deduced that the Elder Brain captured Gattholex while the dragon’s soul was weakened, and Klauthsura confirmed the theory.
• Klauthsura warned that Gattholex’s Draconic magic had delayed the Elder Brain’s efforts to break through for nearly three months.
• Klauthsura showed Renato a three-dimensional map with recommended and alternative routes to the Colony.
• Klauthsura said he would recover for three hours, then teleport to investigate the Colony, while Renato and the others traveled on foot and arrived within seven days.

Renato, Tristana, and Balin prepared to travel to the Mind Flayer nest after Klauthsura outlined its plan and offered a route. The party chose Balin’s safer detour through the Crystal Cavern, leaving them to begin their journey toward Rolling Stone City’s center.

• Klauthsura explained that the Mind Ripper could disrupt the Mind Flayers’ control over their servants and urged the party to depart within three hours.
• Tristana found a Bag of Holding in the ruins, and Renato, Tristana, and Balin discussed whether they should trust Klauthsura’s map.
• Balin rejected Klauthsura’s route and studied his own map, finding that District 1 had collapsed and blocked their old path.
• Balin proposed a detour through the Underdark Dweller settlement and the Crystal Cavern, which he knew as a safer route with places to rest and find water.
• Tristana urged the party to set out, and Renato privately dismissed her belief that Lolth would punish them for delay.

Renato and his companions fought their way through a group of freed orc slaves in the tunnels, and Renato reflected on the danger of becoming careless in battle. Tristana praised the Silent Lady, while Balin hinted at its poor workmanship, leaving Renato to conceal the reason for the dwarf’s reaction.

• Orcs ambushed Renato, Balin, and Tristana as they left the burning ruins of New Rolling Stone City.
• Renato killed the strongest orc after breaking its axe and crushing its hand, while Balin and Tristana defeated the others.
• Renato resolved to stay alert and give every fight his full attention after realizing he had let his mind wander.
• The party found two dead duergar laborers in the orcs’ camp and continued through a spacious tunnel.
• Tristana praised the Silent Lady, and Balin remarked that its workmanship was poor and its enchantments benefited from rare metal.
• Renato avoided explaining Balin’s implication and told Tristana he was pleased that she had praised his sword.

Renato, Tristana, and Balin crossed the eerie Crystal Cavern, where Renato noticed the crystals resembled an enormous pattern. Balin said they were not runes but might be marks or art left by true giants, and the group continued without discovering what the cavern held.

• Renato, Tristana, and Balin reached the Crystal Cavern after nearly three days of travel, and Balin said its crystals crumbled into sand outside the cavern.
• The three entered the cavern and walked for nearly two hours without finding any creatures or signs of an ambush.
• Renato noticed that the crystals seemed arranged like runes and asked Balin whether they had an effect.
• Balin explained that the crystals were not runes and suggested that their arrangement resembled marks or art left by true giants.
• Tristana challenged Balin's belief in Annam, and Balin defended the idea that Annam was the Progenitor Giant.

After the party emerged from the Crystal Cavern, Renato defused Klauthsura’s anger over their route and restored their fragile cooperation. Klauthsura then reported that the Elder Brain would need about thirty days to transform Gattholex and had sent Psionic Warrior squads to search for the Mind Ripper.

• Klauthsura confronted Renato, Tristana, and the old dwarf for ignoring its route, and Renato explained that its instructions had not accounted for their limitations or the hazards along the way.
• Klauthsura admitted it had overlooked what the others could manage, easing tensions within the party.
• Klauthsura said the Elder Brain’s transformation of Gattholex would take about thirty days without Zephros’s help.
• Klauthsura explained that the Elder Brain had disposed of nonessential thralls and sent more than a dozen Psionic Warrior squads to search the Underdark for the Mind Ripper.
• Renato questioned the reliability of Klauthsura’s intelligence, and Klauthsura described how it had gathered evidence from a captured mind flayer, the psionics network, and its own observations.

Klauthsura explained the Mind Flayer Colony’s Psionic Warriors and Rest Pool before presenting a plan to attack its Psionic Nodes. When Renato and Tristana disagreed over whether to strike the Elder Brain directly, Klauthsura revealed a scheme that relied on Renato’s ability to persuade liberated thralls.

• Klauthsura explained that Psionic Warriors were the Colony’s riot suppression squads and that the Rest Pool housed the Elder Brain and hosted philosophical debates.
• Klauthsura built a terrain model of the Colony and proposed destroying its outlying Psionic Nodes.
• Renato argued for a surprise attack on the Elder Brain, while Tristana favored expanding their advantage and avoiding a reckless assault.
• Klauthsura suggested raising an army without using psionic hypnosis, then shapeshifted into a horned, dragon-eyed figure.
• Klauthsura told Renato that his eloquence could help control liberated thralls and that their chance of acquiring an army depended on him.

Klauthsura proposed freeing slaves from the Elder Brain’s control and recruiting them by promising protection, but Tristana warned that they would distrust a group of surface-dwellers. Renato revealed he could shapeshift into a Drow and addressed Tristana in fluent Elvish.

• Klauthsura outlined a plan to destroy psychic nodes, free the slaves, and persuade them to join the group under Renato’s assumed identity as Gattholex’s Dragonkin Retainer.
• Tristana mocked Klauthsura’s attempt to act like a Dragon Sorcerer, and Renato offered advice on making the disguise more convincing.
• Tristana explained that Underdark slaves would likely reject surface-dwellers and might attack them despite their strength.
• Renato asked Tristana whether she had considered that he could be a Drow.
• Renato transformed into a Drow and spoke to Tristana in fluent Elvish.

Renato, Tristana, Klauthsura, and Balin settled on a plan to destroy three psionic nodes, free the slaves, and attack the Elder Brain. After reaching their destination and making camp, they distributed weapons and gear, while Tristana struggled to cock a steel crossbow.

• Tristana questioned Renato under Zone of Truth and helped him refine his Drow disguise, while Klauthsura explained why most Drow slaves were sent for disposal.
• Renato, Tristana, Klauthsura, and Balin agreed to destroy the three psionic nodes, free the slaves, and lead them against the Elder Brain.
• After two days of travel, Klauthsura concealed the group from an Elder Brain Hunter, and the four reached their destination without a fight.
• The group chose a concealed fissure for their camp, and Balin handed Renato heavy javelins and Tristana a steel crossbow.
• Renato cocked the crossbow, while Tristana struggled with its metal string, prompting Renato to tell Balin to give her the crank cocking device.

Renato and his companions prepared to attack a psychic node after deciding the Elder Brain’s growing strength made further delay too dangerous. As they waited for the signal, Renato readied the Silent Lady with Styx Grease while Balin assembled the weapon he had forged for revenge against the Dragon.

• Renato considered the Elder Brain’s recalled hunters and increased defenses, and concluded the group could no longer afford to wait.
• Renato, Balin, Tristana, and Klauthsura agreed to attack a psychic node in three standard hours, then free its slaves and use them to assault the remaining nodes.
• Renato applied Styx Grease to the Silent Lady and recalled Tristana’s warning that the rare concoction was precious even among drow Priestesses.
• Balin assembled a Steel Crossbow and prepared the enormous mournsteel bolt he had forged to fulfill his oath of revenge against the Dragon.

Renato and his companions infiltrated a Psionic Node where Mind Flayers were managing newly arrived Hobgoblin slaves. As the Mind Flayers descended into the quarry, the group prepared to attack and take control of the slaves.

• Balin finished assembling the Steel Crossbow while Renato reflected on his Drow disguise and Tristana's persistent Elvish lessons.
• Klauthsura and Tristana returned to camp and told Renato that their chance to strike had arrived.
• Renato, Tristana, Klauthsura, and Balin approached the Psionic Node under the Priestess's Silence spell and observed its quarry and Hobgoblin workers.
• Klauthsura explained that Renato and Tristana would descend to control the Hobgoblins while she attacked the Elder Brain nexus and Balin provided cover with the Steel Crossbow.
• When the Mind Flayers gathered the Hobgoblins in the pit, Balin opened his Bag of Holding and unleashed the Mind Ripper's golden light.

Renato and Tristana helped turn the mind flayers’ slave revolt into a battle, and Renato killed one of the aberrations while the hobgoblins attacked the rest. When the Psionic Node began to swell and malfunction, Renato climbed the cliff to find Klauthsura.

• The Psionic Node malfunctioned, breaking the mind flayers’ control over the hobgoblins and triggering a chaotic revolt.
• Renato and Tristana joined the fight, and Renato cut down hobgoblins as Tristana drove the others to attack the mind flayers.
• Renato’s Silent Lady pierced a mind flayer’s Psionics Shield and severed its head, prompting the hobgoblins to attack the remaining aberrations.
• Balin warned Renato that the Psionic Node was swelling and sparking, and Renato saw that Klauthsura had not returned as planned.
• Renato activated his Ring of Spider Climbing and ran up the vertical cliff to reach the Psionic Node and help Klauthsura.

Renato reached the Mind Flayer Room and fought his way inside, where Klauthsura was dueling a mind flayer. He bypassed the mind flayer’s Wall of Force with the Silent Lady’s Negation Runes and drove his sword toward its throat.

• Renato used Touch of Dakoul to destroy the Mind Flayer Room’s flesh entrance, then entered and cleared the living interior with his Shadow Shield.
• Renato cut through the chitin walls and found Klauthsura battling a mind flayer wielding a Skull Staff.
• Klauthsura burned away the mind flayer’s tentacle attack and struck it with a Psionics Spear, but a nearby pod’s divine spell healed its wounds.
• Klauthsura warned Renato that the mind flayer had raised a Wall of Force, but Renato charged anyway.
• Renato’s Silent Lady dispelled the Wall of Force with its Negation Runes, and he thrust the sword toward the mind flayer’s throat.

Renato killed the Mind Flayer despite its healing chambers and a powerful psionic attack, while Klauthsura began dismantling the Psionic Node. The chapter ended with Klauthsura warning Renato about the danger of taking Synaptic Static without mental protection.

• Renato's strike shattered the Mind Flayer's staff, and the resulting explosion wounded it while the healing chambers restored its injuries.
• Renato attacked the Mind Flayer instead of the healing chambers, nearly cutting it in two before its psionic spell overwhelmed his mind.
• Styx Grease stopped the Mind Flayer's wound from healing, and Renato recovered before stomping its head apart.
• Klauthsura opened a chamber, revealed a grotesquely altered humanoid connected to the Psionic Node, and unplugged its nerve bundle.
• Klauthsura warned Renato that his close-range exposure to Synaptic Static could have gravely injured him.

Renato discovered that the mind flayers’ healing device was a living cleric of Lathander and destroyed it before rejoining Tristana. She brought the hobgoblins under control, appointing Sazza captain and placing them under Renato’s command as they prepared to continue toward the remaining psionic nodes.

• Renato learned that the healing device was a transformed half-elf cleric of Lathander and severed the remaining nerve bundles, killing it.
• Renato and Klauthsura left the vesicle after the mind flayers’ psionic spells stopped and went to check on Tristana and the hobgoblins.
• Tristana secured the hobgoblins’ obedience by executing challengers and ordered Sazza to identify himself.
• Tristana appointed Sazza captain of the raiding party, gave him a duergar battle axe, and used her whip to restore order among the hobgoblins.
• Tristana declared Renato her strongest warrior and told the hobgoblins that his words were her will, placing them under his command.

Renato found Balin preparing to leave the group and pursue Gattholex instead of helping stop the Elder Brain. Renato persuaded Balin to stay by appealing to his duty to protect the surface and promising to help him fulfill his oath to kill the Deep Dragon.

• While Klauthsura and Tristana persuaded the Hobgoblins to join them, Renato noticed Balin was missing from the pit.
• Renato climbed back up and found Balin heading alone toward District 2 with the Steel Crossbow.
• Balin told Renato he would not follow the plan because he had sworn to kill Gattholex and feared the dragon would escape.
• Renato argued that stopping the Elder Brain came first and suggested Moradin had guided Balin toward this danger.
• Renato promised to help Balin kill Gattholex if the dragon escaped, and Balin agreed to stay with the group.

Klauthsura split the group’s forces after the Elder Brain chose to concentrate its troops elsewhere, sending Renato and Balin to infiltrate the Colony while she and Tristana led the Hobgoblins against the psionic nodes. As the groups prepared to part, Klauthsura protected Renato and gave him her blessing.

• Klauthsura explained that the Elder Brain had abandoned the disabled node and was consolidating its forces at the other psionic nodes or the Colony.
• Klauthsura assigned Renato and Balin to infiltrate the Colony’s outskirts while she and Tristana led the Hobgoblins in an assault on the nodes.
• Klauthsura gave Renato the Psionics Beacon Eye, explaining that its mark would let her teleport to his location, and cast a psionic shroud on him and Balin.
• Renato admitted he feared dying, then teased Klauthsura and urged her not to die.
• Klauthsura touched her forehead to Renato’s and blessed him as Thought-Touched before the groups separated.

Renato and Balin navigated the ruined districts of Rolling Stone City toward the enlarged Mind Flayer Hive. They prepared to use the Psionics Beacon Eye but hid when a duergar patrol approached.

• Balin and Renato escaped the collapsing sewers and emerged in District 2.
• Balin abandoned their old route and led Renato through the Jade District toward District 3 and the city center.
• Renato recognized Dain's ruined home and noticed that the Mind Flayer Hive had grown larger.
• Renato reached for the Psionics Beacon Eye, but Balin hurried him behind a boulder as a duergar patrol approached.

Renato, Balin, Tristana, and Klauthsura reached an entrance to the Mind Flayer Colony after recovering from a dangerous psionic teleportation. Klauthsura opened the biological door and ordered Balin to release the Mind Ripper to sow chaos among the Colony’s slaves.

• Renato and Balin hid from a Duergar patrol and used the Psionics Beacon Eye to bring Tristana and Klauthsura through a portal.
• Klauthsura healed himself by piercing his abdomen with a crystal, then urged the group to hurry before their limited time ran out.
• Renato carried the weakened Tristana after her teleportation sickness left her unable to walk.
• The group reached a biological entrance, which opened after Klauthsura explained that the system had mistaken Renato’s psionic signal for a Mind Flayer’s.
• Klauthsura used a nerve bundle to crack the entrance while Tristana described the swarm of Mind Flayers that had attacked her group.
• Klauthsura told Balin to take out the Mind Ripper and create chaos among the Colony’s rebellious slaves.

Balin, Klauthsura, Tristana, and Renato entered the Mind Flayers' nest, where Klauthsura planned to reach the Library through the Prison and interrupt the Elder Brain's transformation ritual. In the Transformation Chamber, a Mind Flayer independently saved the tadpoles before an intruder killed it.

• Balin urged the group to attack the Elder Brain and dragon, but Klauthsura led them toward the Transformation Chamber and explained that releasing prisoners could disrupt the Colony.
• Renato recalled that the Prison connected to a lift leading to the Library, where Klauthsura could find records of the ritual and free Gattholex.
• A Mind Flayer in the Transformation Chamber discovered that the psychic network had failed as awakened Untransformed damaged their pods, so it shut down the ritual and sealed the pods.
• The Mind Flayer calmed the restless tadpoles in the Brine Pool by cooling the water, then an unfamiliar intruder stabbed it from behind.
• The dying Mind Flayer used its remaining psionic energy to quiet the tadpoles again, but the intruder struck it down.

Renato and his companions passed through a Mind Flayer transformation chamber after Klauthsura opened the route to the prison. Balin set the chamber ablaze, leaving the trapped Githyanki’s fate behind them as they departed.

• Renato killed a Mind Flayer and discovered a pool of tadpoles while Klauthsura explained that he had eaten its brain to restore his psionics and learn how to open the prison door.
• Tristana and Balin warned Renato that the sleeping captives had been implanted with tadpoles, and Balin killed a Duergar whose skull had been opened.
• Renato noticed a Githyanki in a pod, who woke and begged them to release him and kill Klauthsura, but Klauthsura dismissed him as a potential threat.
• Klauthsura led Renato, Tristana, and Balin toward the prison after opening its biological authentication door.
• Balin struck the tadpole pool with lightning, igniting the chamber, then left as the Githyanki screamed and the door shut behind them.