Enter the Flayer
It is not just a trickster troll and his minotaur friends that are in need of more than drow for party food. The fake, grammatically poor voices we have been hearing are explained by the appearance of a mind flayer. At least, some of us see it.
The mind flayer pops his head around the corner to mind-blast everyone, those affected failing to register the presence of the monster. One of the weak-minded individuals is Adran, the mind flayer showing its lack of insight by targeting our ranger for a brain-sucking feast. When Gruknal is deciding what action to take, Adran is quick to ask him to 'come and kill the mind flayer!'
'What mind flayer? You can't see it, or its tentacles trying to chew on your brain.' It's a good point, although it is unclear whether the mind blast also acts as an anaesthetic. 'Besides, there are minotaurs killing the rest of the party.'
The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, and Gruknal is better suited to protecting the frailer members of the party from large, hard-hitting monsters. 'How injured are the minotaurs?' I ask, trying to gauge the relative importance of our defence.
'Both are badly bloodied.'
If we can defeat two minotaurs quickly then everyone can concentrate on the threat of the mind flayer without also getting hurt by the large beasts each round. 'It's a no-brainer', I point out. 'Oops, sorry, Adran', I quickly add, remembering the tentacles drilling in to his skull, 'that was insensitive.'