RAVEN'S GAMBIT | Episode 45: Gray Matter & Glass
“I’d save the thick misty doorway for last,” Tessa muttered, eyeing the swirling magical arch at the far end of the hall of painted spheres. Her voice echoed softly in the vast chamber, half-lost among the strange symbols and faded murals that still seemed to breathe with ancient malice.
Sir Cedric nodded, his plate armor creaking softly. “Agreed. I don’t trust a door that hides itself behind a cloud.”
As the group regrouped near the center of the hall, Khopesh ran his fingers lightly along the wall near a painted minotaur. “Here,” he rasped. “The stone is false.”
Another crawlspace.
Once more, the adventurers ducked into a tight, claustrophobic tunnel. It sloped down slightly and then turned sharply before opening into a long-forgotten chamber.
Dust blanketed the room like undisturbed snow. Shattered shelves drooped from crumbled walls. Smashed beakers, potion bottles, and alchemical debris were scattered like bones across the floor. The lingering smell of old, sour magic clung to the air.
Elowyn Mosswhisper stepped lightly, brushing glass aside with her staff. “This was a wizard’s lab,” she said softly, “long abandoned… but not empty.”
Kaela Virell pointed to the northwest corner. “What is that?”
A grimy glass canister sloshed gently as something gray and shriveled bobbed within it—viscous fluid clinging to its rubbery form. A pale, pulsing glow beat like a heart.
Next to it: a bag of cut sapphires glittered under layers of dust, a scroll sealed in wax, and a smaller, crusted jar that contained a twitching white bodak’s eye, suspended in yellowing oil.
“Do we… touch it?” Bran asked.
It answered for them.
A surge of necromantic energy exploded from the canister as it shattered, and the Brain in a Jar hovered into the air—wrinkled, dripping, and pulsing with mental fury.
“Great,” Theron grunted. “Now brains are trying to kill us.”
The air grew heavy with psychic pressure.
Kaelen Firebrand collapsed to one knee, clutching his temples. “It’s in my head—!”
Sir Cedric raised his shield. “Form up!”
The creature sent out a wave of psionic force that knocked Marcus Rourke off his feet. The glass floor cracked beneath him. Thalia let loose an arrow that harmlessly bounced off the shimmering force field surrounding the undead brain.
Tessa circled wide, drawing its focus. “Somebody hit it already!”
Khôpesh moved in, Blackrazor humming eagerly. His strike pierced the shimmering barrier, drawing a high-pitched screech from the creature.
Kaela activated her wand—Scorching Ray. One hit. Then another.
The brain flared in midair, sparking like a ruptured lantern before it imploded in a slosh of fluid and psychic residue.
Silence.
“Anyone else feel like their head was used as a training dummy?” Tank groaned.
Theron chuckled dryly. “Just another day in the world’s worst funhouse.”
Tessa knelt and gathered the bag of sapphires, the scroll, and the jar with the bodak’s eye. “At least it wasn’t for nothing.”
Sir Cedric turned to the others. “Rest here for now. No further until we’ve regrouped.”
Behind them, the shattered remains of the brain slowly leaked ichor across the dusty floor. But in the darkness beyond the crawlspace, the Tomb waited still.