Mirrorspace: Melodya (Planet) Part 4

The dark truth

When Ileatril and Caela came back to the survace as the only survivors of
the Company of the Deep Song, they returned different beings. They had
fallen into a carefully prepared trap of several Mindflayers, were
overwhelmed with mindblasts and carried off into the lower underdark, where
a huge city sat brooding in the cold, black waters.

The Aboleth had tried several times over the centuries to extend their
powers of domination to the surface, but either failed or had their plans
foiled by small groups of powerful individuals, most of them apparently
from the surface. While many of these hated adventurers could be located
and killed later in revenge, some seemed to be untraceable. The Aboleth
finally stopped and analyzed their situation. Then, after decades of
thinking and devising, they came up with a new, a different plan. “When it
was not possible to dominate the surfacedwellers by force, let´s try to
ensnare them. Allure them with what they love most: Beauty. Ecstacy.
Music.”

They began catching instead of killing deepdelvers, looking for individuals
who fit their plans. They found them in Ileatril and Caela. Both were
brainwashed and brainwashed again, by the oldest and most experienced
elders of that powerful race. They were sent back with altered memories of
the events that let to their friends tragic demise, the longing for
settling down and the idea of something great: their own Songhall, better
than anything Mirrorspace had ever seen before.

Several months after the opening, the Mindflayers carefully started to test
how easy the minds of the dancers could be accessed. Music reliefes stress:
when hearing music and dancing, the mind relaxes. It opens itself. The
Illithids found that they could penetrate the lowered defenses of the
dancers with ease, reading their minds at will. Moreover, they found
something else to their liking: the taste of ecstacy.

Over the time, several dancers were captured, their brains eaten. The
brainfluids were enriched with a taste that no charmed food- servitor ever
offered: unbridled ectacy. Bit by bit, more guests were captured, but only
those were chosen who would not be missed or had only few bereaved. While
only a small fraction dissapeared whose absence could easily be explained
away, the mindflayers captured hundreds, if not thousands over the years.

The Aboleth were surprised by the unexpected outcome. They debated what to
do and started experimenting. It was not long after they found a way to
profit from it: Ecstacy could be distilled into a powerful drug, they
discovered. While the Illithid “drank” the brainfluids pure, a thought-
distillate could be made to concentrate the taste. It was stored in psionic
repositories and consumed by the Aboleth, whose minds were much more
powerful and thus, sensitive than that of the average mindflayer. They
started to discuss the future course of action, all the while revelling in
the ecstacy of others.

While it was surely possible to dominate the surfacewellers above them,
only few were still interested in it. After all, what sense makes
domination when you could have pure bliss by harvesting the dancing cattle
without dominating it? The outcome of the discussion, which lasted for two
generations of dancers, was that the original plan for domination was
abandoned. Instead, the efforts to lure the best dancers (who were found to
develop the most “delicious” feelings when moving in perfect harmony with
the music) to the Deepdome. A few individuals in key positions would be
dominated to pave the way and avert close scrutiny, but dominating the
masses was no longer the goal.

A few elite Mindflayers underwent a series of psionic alterations to
prevent others from penetrating their thoughts by arcane or psionic means.
They were “equipped” with something like a “second mind”, a curtain that
concealed their true throughts. Most Illithid went insane: they could not
bear a permanent split personality. But after countless attempts, enough
Mindflayers were available. They were introduced to the cattle above, and
again the plan was a complete success.

Slowly, over the following centuries, the Aboleth stretched out their
tentacles over the sphere, dominating individuals on every world. Some of
them took interest in the events happening in Mirrorspace, regarding it
their playground. But the vast majority of them was contend to enjoy the
pleasures of the emotion- distillate, slowly but inexorably succumbing to a
new powerful drug: pleasure.