Ilyra
Ilyra Voss
Ilyra Voss is a Drow researcher who has spent roughly 450 years studying the aberrations in the tunnels beneath Garmok's Mine. She maintains a magically warded study where she observes dangerous creatures — chief among them the Mind Gobbler — from a safe distance, and she is revealed to collaborate with the mind flayers whose experiment created it.
Description
Ilyra is a drow woman of immense experience and arcane power, having dedicated centuries of her long life to studying the aberrant creatures of the deep Underdark beneath Garmok's Mine. Her study is filled with books, scrolls, and arcane equipment — including a scrying device she calls the "Aberration Finder" — and is protected by powerful wards that keep out even the Mind Gobbler's psychic intrusions. The iron door "melts" open to the right rituals and passphrases.
Background
Ilyra has lived in these tunnels for about 450 years, carefully cataloguing the aberrations that dwell there. She is particularly interested in the Mind Gobbler — a psionic aberration born of mind flayer experimentation — which she has only ever studied from the safety of her warded chamber, never daring to face it herself. Even she remains uncertain what the creature was before it was transformed ("certainly not a common turkey").
Aid to the Party (Session 45)
In Session 45, Ilyra sensed Deez Nuts through her wards and brought them into her study. She shared what she knew of the Mind Gobbler, warned of an Aboleth deeper in the tunnels, and pointed them toward the deep gnomes (Svirfneblin) of the southern passages who might dig them a new exit. She gave them:
- A psionic-suppressing barbed knife — when lodged in a psychic creature it dulls its powers and grants nearby allies advantage on saves against them (on the condition the party report back what they learned by using it on the Mind Gobbler).
- An upgrade to Alexios's Gauntlet of Gem Forged Will, linking it to her ward to add Reincarnate and Resurrection.
- A scried revelation: Voaraghamanthar is dead, but his identical twin Waervaerendor had recovered the body and was likely reviving him.
She later scribed the party a Scroll of Feather Fall for the great chasm.
The Experiment Revealed
After the party barely survived the Mind Gobbler's mythic transformation and fled to her study, they confronted Ilyra: they had seen her watching the fight alongside a mind flayer. Ilyra was unrepentant and genuinely puzzled at their anger — she had, she insisted, been clear that she studied the cave's creatures and that fighting the Mind Gobbler was the observation. The party realized they had been, in effect, her experiment: adventurers sent against the aberration while she and an illithid took notes. She explained the mind flayers' own interest — at the moment of its creation the Mind Gobbler had consumed the brains of every illithid around it, and they wish to understand how it grew so powerful. She added that the creature learns the abilities used against it, and suggested a rematch would yield valuable data. The party declined.
Ilyra is clinical and morally ambiguous rather than overtly malicious; she offered the party genuine aid and safe lodging even as she used them.
Relationships
- Deez Nuts - Gave the party intelligence, the psionic knife, and a gauntlet upgrade; also used them as unwitting research subjects against the Mind Gobbler
- Illithids - Collaborates with the mind flayers studying the Mind Gobbler; observed the party's battle alongside one
- Mind Gobbler - The primary subject of her centuries of research
- Waervaerendor / Voaraghamanthar - Identified the twin dragons via scrying
Current Status
Ilyra remains in her warded study beneath Garmok's Mine, continuing her research. Her trustworthiness is now in question after the experiment revelation, though she parted from the party on non-hostile terms, providing sanctuary and a Scroll of Feather Fall.
Notable Possessions
- Psionic Disruption Knife - A barbed magical blade that suppresses psychic abilities (given to Deez Nuts)
- The "Aberration Finder" - Her scrying apparatus
- Magical Wards - Powerful protective magic shielding her study from psychic intrusion
Appearances
- Session 45 - The Mind Gobbler - Met Deez Nuts, armed them against the Mind Gobbler, and was revealed to be studying them alongside a mind flayer
- Session 46 - Diggy Diggy Hole - Provided the party with a Scroll of Feather Fall for their journey into the lower tunnels