Dantroe

The telepath is dead, finally.  We took our sweet time in getting to it.  We did quite a bit of damage to the pirates' base along the way, and it's a wonder we didn't get ourselves killed in the process.  (But really, using an enemy's corpse to test the extent of the magical traps in a room?  And you're a paladin?  Something here does not compute, as Crunch would say.)  We expended so much of our resources that we had to rest for the night, in less than ideal conditions.  This meant the enemy had time to muster all of its remaining forces and lie in wait for us.

And what's more, why are we trying to cast ten minute long spells while there are sharks and casters trying to kill the rest of us?  That's the sort of thing you do before making the hole in the convenient stone wall the enemy has provided for us, or you don't try it at all.  He could have at least done it where we weren't totally blind from the ink cloud.

Oh well, we got through it alive, although in some cases just barely.  Now we get to find out whether the pirates were actually mind controlled, in which case they might be a little more agreeable than before, or if they were willingly working with the aboleth for some mutual benefit, in which case, they're likely to be even more ticked off.