Underdark of Athas

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Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 10-The Enemy Within part 2

"The undead in the city above had planned well. They had fortified themselves, laid deadly traps, and swelled their numbers greatly over time. They had experienced leaders and several tactical advantages as well. Our council had decided to take the upper city intact and that added a whole other level of complexity.

The conflict began and our assault followed with seemingly overwhelming numbers on our side. We enhanced our soldiers with both psionics and magic. They were sent to assault the city on three different fronts. Despite this, casualties began to quickly escalate, and our progress was stalled to near nothing. Choke points, traps, and cunning planning aided the undead, but also secretly treachery from ā€œourā€ side. My treachery.

I secretly fed the undead our plans while hiding my identity and even aided them in planning their defense. They obviously were skeptical of my help at first but quickly found that I didnā€™t want the aboleth to win.

Yes. I needed them to win. I needed our forces to look weak. I needed Szeliraq to think him/her/its plan was working.

After several weeks of mounting casualties, my rival became bold enough to move. I prepared to spring the trap.

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Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 10-The Enemy Within part 3

"Before I explain what happened next, you need to understand something. When you think about the elements on Athas, are you aware of what you take for granted?

You could see a creature associated with earth almost anywhere on the planet. The desert wastes could also be home to many creatures of fire as well as volcanic areas or lava plains. And those of airā€¦mountains, mindswept plains, and even over the Sea of Silt. All of these places and others you can find creatures of air, earth, or fire.

That said tell me, where do you find those of water? Sometimes in the mud plains? But where else? Difficult to think of such places aside from bodies of water. Those particular places would be valuable to elemental powers just by necessity.

Add to that, the fact over my long existence, I was forced to learn something. A principle many others call enlightened self-interest."

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Dreams of the Ancient Aboleth Part 11-The Enemy Within part 4

"All of our forces were committed with a minimum of reserves for our personal safety. The undead held out still with a powerful resistance (partially due to the fact that I was leaking our plans to them). Szeliraq quietly moved his hidden minions and allies into position to slay the other four of us.

Before I conclude this part of the story, remember what I mentioned before about things such as fish and kelp farms? Yes, that was something that I had excelled at due to my stolen knowledge of life shaping. Itā€™s much easier to handle it on that simpler level rather than the modifications that created the Kuo-Toa but it is extremely important for what comes next.

As I said, Szeliraq made sure that we were overextended and only lightly defended then he sprung his trap. Hordes of silt cultists and a powerful highly intelligent silt drake were psionically teleported inside of our defenses. The four of us were immediately set upon and fighting for our lives.

Gfectax quickly mentally dominated multiple enemies turning them against their allies and using them as body shields. Ibixlat hurled blasts of shadow, illusion, and psionic assaults at the onslaught. Jyzralun erected powerful psionic barriers to protect both himself and us. I shielded my mind from Szeliraq and I called my hiddenā€¦allies.

The battle went on for several minutes before they arrived. The four of us bloodied and expending perhaps half of our mental and magical resources in that time (panic, survival, and necessity pushing us). Then they arrived, with one of their number being most notable.

The primal water drake struck, biting the silt drake savagely simultaneously battering it with a powerful psionic assault. Water elementals of all sizes burst from multiple directions assaulting the ambushers.

In the moment of shock and confusion among Szeliraq and his followers, I transformed and struck him. The other three quickly realizing that the attacking forces had ignored the Corruptor joined in the attack as well. He was formidable but no match for the four of us.

Quickly, the attackers were dispatched and our forces attacking the undead were recalled. We needed to investigate all that had happened and lick our wounds."

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