Gerry

When asked about Amarelyh Gerry tells them that it is a Mind Flayer. It has devoured countless minds over the centuries, but wasn’t that successful until it possessed the body of a little girl who was a shapeshifter. This allowed Amarelyh to hide in plain sight and devour and impersonate its way into great power.

When asked about where they are Gerry says that whatever it is it’s a nightmare and that Amarelyh is the boss here. The place is littered with her memories and remnants of the minds all of those she has consumed over the centuries. 

You are where you have always been. It’s only a matter of perspective. The reality that shapes your perception is of your minds making. Your perception can’t be trusted. Your brain lies to you about everything. Stretch your arm in front of you and look at you your thumb. The retina in your eye, the part of it that is crisp and full of color. It can only see about that much in front of you. The rest is filled by your brain and fuzzy black and white receptors. There are more neurons sending information into your visual cortex from your memory than your retina. What you see is made up by your brain.

Fine you say, but there is an objective reality there even if I can’t fully perceive it.

What is substance? The more physicists probe reality the more they realize there is simply nothing there. The deeper we probe the more everything is just empty space. We are empty space filled with the interactions of massless particles that coalesce into existence only when observed.