AMIA ARCHIVE • View topic

*The cave wall above the tunnel into the lair of the Beholders is marked with a symbol. Three interwoven circles, burnt into the rock.*

A certain, unseen entity takes notice of this, soon disappearing back into the darkness...

A message appears just inside the cavern in the Forest of Despair.

It wrote:

The Far Realm is influencing the development of the Illithid deep below in these caverns, and I do not know what they will become. Any who note change in the behavior or physicality of the Mind Flayers (or the Eye Tyrants nearby) are encouraged to post their observations here, or send them to Mathus at the Crouching Lemur Monastery.

I do not know who or what is represented by the sigil of three interwoven circles, but I would be willing to pay for that information.

Change is coming.

A passing traveller, taking a note of Mathus' message, made a detailed sketch of borromean circles, for future librarian search - and scrying.

A man wearing heavy armor of dark colors, followed by a swarm of flies, being rather regular in those
caves, paused at the entrance and after flipping through some pages in his grimoire started mumbling
some phrases.

Mathus' note is transcribed into a spellbook, as is the engraving. The creatures are observed by the arcanist to the best of his abilities. He observes the techniques and strategies employed by various adventurers, and how the illithid react. He records his own battles. Every observation, every variable is written in excruciating detail. He observes their feeding, their breeding, their communication. He observes their environment. Every so often, the caverns themselves or the dissected remains of the far spawn are observed with True Seeing, Detect Magic and Arcane Sight spells, to record the minutiae of any planar influence. The scholar makes liberal use of Arcane Eyes and Scrying spells to carry out his studies in the depts of their lair when invisibility or sanctuary doesn't permit peaceful note-taking.

Days pass, and detailed diagrams of the various creatures begin to spread over his notes. Data points on the location and strength of magical auras are plotted into equations, and strange fractal designs begin to sprawl over his parchments. Likewise with every tiny note taken on the physiology of every captured or dissected specimen. Even resting at his home between expeditions, the young man pores over the incomprehensible collection of seemingly unrelated information, well into the night. He oft falls asleep in his chair, and wakes again with a start, thinking to have found an emerging patterm, only to be disappointed when another look at the madness captured in ink offers no more insight.

[Ruins of Udos Dro'xun] An Engraved Mark

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