The Legend of Gith

Somewhere in the distant past... an illithid slave world on the Prime... It's dark and it's cold. All round me is the persistent sound of dripping sewerage... at least, I think its sewerage. I just can't see anything in this infernal darkness. It certainly smells like it though... You'd think the tentacle-heads would treat their meals a little better than this... Maybe it's this constant ringing noise that I can hear during ever waking moment I experience here in this pit, that is distracting me the most... It is extraordinarily irritating to have to put up with this uncomfortable sound. What's worse is... I'm now starting to hear it when I sleep as well... heh... when I sleep... I haven't slept in so long, contently, that I've almost forgotten what real sleep feels like. I can't even dream... to dream about escaping this place and finding a life for myself. Ahhh! This ringing... I think it's getting louder... [unconsciousness overtakes her] Ohhh... I... errr... I'll... admit I've been... ahhh!... a little on edge... lately... these past few days or weeks. It's hard to... ahh!... there it goes again... this pang was louder than the last... where was I? Oh... yes, that's it... I think... ... Time!... It's hard to determine how time passes in a place like this. Ahhhh...! this is too much... I can't think straight... I can't feel... AND I CAN'T SEE ANTYTHING!... What's that noise now...? [unconsciousness overtakes her] The noise seems to have subsided for the moment... my mind is a little clearer than it was... and has been in quite a while. My vision is a little distorted though... Oh... I mean... Oh... what is wrong with me now? Why can't I see straight... It's not enough that I can't see anything in this darkness, but now my vision feels blurred as well... Where in the Hells am I? [unconsciousness overtakes her] I'm feeling a little better... although... It's gotten colder... it was never THIS cold here in the murky depths of the where-ever that I am in. I'm shaking. And yet... I'm sweating... I can feel the sweat running down my neck and down the length of my back. I can feel it dripping down my forehead... hitting my lips. I can taste it too... it's... AHHH!... the PAIN... the NOISE... IT'S TOO MUCH... PLEASE! PLEASE... SOMEONE HELP ME!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME? CAN ANYONE HEAR ME? [unconsciousness overtakes her] The Pain is still with me... as is the Noise. I can FEEL then now... more than I ever could before. I'm learning now to... to... concentrate and focus around it. It's difficult... Ohhh... I feel like I'm going to be sick... no... I'm still just a little dizzy. I can focus... On what, I don't know? I'm still sweating, and yet, I feel the chill in the moist air around me. I'm cold... and yet... I am sweating. I'm uncomfortable too... I'm always uncomfortable... These stones that lay beneath me are jagged and sharp... I don't have to see to know that. The smell here in the dark seems... Ahhh... seems to have gotten worse. The stench... it was never this strong and pervasive before. I can smell it on my skin... in the rags that I call clothing... it's even in the few strands of my hair that remain. It's... Ohhh... it's everywhere... I CAN'T STAND IT ANY LONGER!... [unconsciousness overtakes her] [unconsciousness overtakes her] I'm okay. The Pain is still there... along with the Noise. But it feels different somehow... It's less intrusive than it was before. I can focus... my mind isn't as disoriented as it was yesterday... was it yesterday? I can't remember... There's something else... Although I can still smell and taste the stench of death that hangs over this pit like a shroud... it isn't causing me to retch as I did before. And I can feel... I can feel the air around me. I can FEEL IT! I can feel it on my bare arms and back... on my skin. And, if I focus slightly... I can see it. I know what you're thinking... these sensations aren't anything new... but if you could sit here, and feel these things the way that I'm feeling them now... you'll realise that the experiences of those sensations we've always had... are nothing but pale shadows of the REAL THING! Hehe... I just realised... maybe that prime greybeard was onto something... you know... about the cave and the shadows cast on the wall being just reflections of a truer reality. [contemplation overtakes her] I'm alone here... now. My best friend... if one can consider how ridiculous a concept it is in such a place... disappeared some time ago. I don't know where he is now... or what become of him... but I do know that the tentacle-heads had to use several of their number of subdue him. There was no physical altercation though... it was a purely silent affair. Three tentacle-heads against a human... at least I think he was human. I had to feel the features of his face in order to determine this... He didn't have pointy ears... or heavy brow ridges... or even wrinkly skin. It was smooth, scratched in some places... and a little slick in others... but smooth nonetheless. He seemed to have hair, from what I could feel... but it was knotted, wet, and had pieces of rock strewn through it. I don't know where he is now... I only hope that THEY haven't eaten him... [contemplation overtakes her] I can see!... By the gods...! I can see the walls of this pit... my home. I can FEEL them too... but I'm not touching them with my hand. I can FEEL them... in my mind. I've never been able to do that before. In fact... if I focus just a little... I can almost grip each individual block of stone that makes up the wall, with my mind's hand. THIS... IS AMAZING! What could possibly account for such a development? Is it my time here...? Have the tentacle-heads... wait!... what's that noise coming from above? It's them... they're coming for me... AHHH! LIGHT!... IT'S TOO BRIGHT... I CAN'T SEE!... MUST... FOCUS... CONCENTRATE... ... I... I... can see them... clearly, through the blinding light. They can see me too. They're not reaching for me... they're just standing up there... watching me... probing me with their "mind knives"... wait!... how did I know that? And what, are "mind knives"? Wait!... I can HEAR them... I can FEEL them... They're talking about me... these... these, tentacle-heads... NO!... illithids... They call themselves illithids... or at least... that's what others not of their kind call them. I can't understand what they call themselves. I can READ all this... I can read it simply by looking into their minds... their deep alien minds. It's like nothing I've ever experienced before... a void... of blackness, and yet there is light. But the light seems to be beyond the periphery of the blackness. There's skittering here... and pops... skittering and pops... both loud and quiet. There's whispering... chattering... scratching. The popping noises have become screeches... and they're increasing in volume... they're... they are... AHHHH!!!... [unconsciousness overtakes her] [contemplation overtakes her] [unconsciousness overtakes her] [contemplation overtakes her] What happened? Where am I?... I'm still here... in the pit. But why? Where are these illithids? They're gone. They must have blocked my attempts to probe into their minds... to peel away at the layers inside their heads... I could SEE their thoughts... I could READ them... although, thinking about it now, and what I'd experienced inside their minds... I could only see and make sense and read thoughts that related to me, and this pit that I am in. There were other thoughts... other feelings... but they were a jumble... a mass of everything with no form... and yet, there was form. These thoughts were beyond my comprehension I believe... I simply could not make sense of them because what they describe or relate to is something that is beyond my experience... beyond all mortal experience it would appear... Or, was that simply the result of my new and developing "ability"? Maybe I need more training. What can I do? [contemplation overtakes her] What's that? More noise... more light... I can see it from above... They're coming... again. They're coming to eat my mind... to dissect my personality and feast on my knowledge. I know what they are... what they can do... Where do they come from? That, I cannot answer. They're nearly here... the light above is getting brighter... There are footsteps... I can hear footsteps... ten... maybe twelve individuals coming this way. Ohhh! I can hear them... I can hear their thoughts... They're about me. They are coming for me... They want to know what I know, how I did what I did earlier. I WILL NOT LET THEM TOUCH ME!... I WILL STOP THEM!... [...] They're here. They're above. They're opening the steel grating that keeps me here sealed in this pit. They're descending... slowly... four of them. No... all of them... They can feel my power... They are afraid... I think. There is fear here... but it's not from me... They're speeding up. I know what I have to do. Look into their minds... using my mind's hand to bash and to tear away at the inside of their minds... I can use that to disorient them as they descend further. OH! They are all around me. They are standing... standing tall and still. They are silent. They are just STARING at me. They are staring at ME! I can FEEL their thoughts intruding on my mind's door. Bashing away... attempting to gain entry... They... OH! WHAT? One of them is reaching out for me... I can... NOOOOO!!! _______________________________________________ ... All at once, the mind of the mortal instinctively explodes in a cascade of mental energy. A mental fire. An unexplainable and uncontrolled psionic burst is suddenly released within the confines of the pit. All around the mortal, the energy rips and it tears. But it does not pierce anything in a physical sense. For those who understand such concepts, the damage from the mental fire is sustained by the minds of those around the mortal. These creatures called illithids by some, and mind flayers by others... find themselves unprepared for the raw intensity and raw fury of such a psionic outburst. It does not simply knock at the doors of their mental defenses, it sunders them so completely that the energy unleashed immediately rushes into each and every corner and crevice of each and every one of their minds and lays irreparable waste to their alien mindsets. Shattered and mindless, the illithids are now nothing more than husks. They each fall to the stone floor with loud and wet thuds. They are no more. The mortal collapses. Exhausted. The pure power she has unleashed today is but a mere fragment of her true psionic ability. She is the first. And, with training... there will be others. When she re-awakens, she will come to understand this. But she will also understand one other important fact. Where once there had been no hope for freedom... no avenue of escape... there now stands a path to liberty. She will come to lead thousands... millions even. She will unite the peoples of many pits... in many slave pens across the Known Spheres. She will see that those who have caused such pain, such servitude... such hatred... will be punished... They must be eradicated completely. Destroyed. For if what she saw in the deepest recesses of these alien creature’s minds is true... and such a place of unrelenting madness exists beyond the conscious mortal world of reality... then the entire multiverse is under threat. She will see the threat removed, even if it means conquering the other mortal races and uniting them under a sphere of protection. She will come to know all of this... in time. And in time others will join her vision. In time others will pervert that vision. In time others will betray that vision. In time she will die for that vision... - Thus begins the legend of Gith.