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lettersfrombel10 Tarsakh 1492 DR
That same druid grove, Sword Coast
My dear River:
Well, I have much to report. I am leaning towards sending you these letters. We have found people going towards Baldur’s Gate, and I might be able to persuade them with some coin to carry them to you. I might want to read over them before that, to make sure I have not said anything too shocking to you.
Walking back to the druid grove this morning, we found another mind flayer victim. Somehow Master Gale of Waterdeep, a great and powerful wizard I’m sure, managed to get himself stuck in a rock. I’m not a mage, so I couldn’t tell you the details, but a wizard is a useful person to know. He did have quite a colorful way of putting the matter, enough that I nearly told him that I don’t do unwanted penetration, unless someone is buying me dinner first if not paying for my services. I was diplomatic, though. I assume he was in the ‘let me show I am a wizard by demonstrating how many words I know’.
Things are becoming quite uncomfortable at the druid grove. We did manage to locate their healer, Madame Nettie. She was unfortunately unable to help. When I first mentioned our little problem, I was pretty certain she was more interested in tricking us into either drinking poison or something strong enough to incapacitate us where, best case scenario, we could be left out for the goblins. Actually, it was far more likely we’d end up on her dissection table as apparently our little problem was not unique to our merry band of six.
She and the leader of the druids had noticed that suddenly their lives of only worrying about the normal sort of tadpoles had come to an abrupt end recently. She showed us the body of a drow leading a band of goblins, telling us that when the druids defended themselves, a mid flayer tadpole emerged from his head on death. Apparently dozens of us have turned up and are being drawn towards a ruined temple to Selune, and the leader of the druids was captured trying to investigate. Madame Nettie wonders if we could infiltrate the grounds, as some of the infected. It must be nearby, as some of the murals are housed in the druid grove. Hanging around Leona meant I recognized the symbols of Selune and Shar in a mural.
It does mean that I forgive her gut reaction to my pretense. If one’s only prior encounter with a drow was one of us trying to gut you, it is… annoying that one generalizes, but understandable. And, well, she was a useful font of information and I now have a present for Nurgle if I somehow survive this: wyvern poison. Frankly, it seems better than the options of growing tentacles, but I’d rather avoid either. The druids had enough information on mind flayer tadpoles that they could conclude that the ones they have seen so far are odd. The change of their victims — which Gale told me the word for, thank you Gale — is delayed, and they start showing odd powers, such as mind reading and levitation. It does mean my hypothesis of ‘the mind flayers are experimenting on themselves and us’ might be correct, and I am beginning to hate being correct when I think of awful things.
A captured goblin also asked if I was here to spring her for ‘the boss lady’. I should have followed up on that more, but I couldn’t think of a way to ask without revealing that I was just an opportunist. I am worried my own people are involved — while we learn in the cradle that mind flayers are among the many beings found in in the Underdark that it is best to not fuck with, drow belief in our own superiority be damned, mind flayers also do like the Underdark. I might have to send a letter home, and confirm I am not dead and see if I can get news. Dreadful, really.
It does offer me something. The goblin spoke of something called the Absolute, rather than any goblin gods. And drow generally do not work with goblins, even as cannon fodder. I recall that Withers, that strange undead we met yesterday, also spoke of the Absolute trapping souls. It smells of theology, and a smarter man than I would leave the room when gods were being discussed. But, given these things in our heads seem to have some connection to whoever is giving the orders to the goblins, I don’t think I can sit this one out.
Master Halsin... Archdruid Halsin? may be out next lead, but at this point I would like to meet him, if only because his second in command, Kagha, is on my list of people I want to punch. We met her terrorizing the tiefling child that had tried to steal the druids’ idol. Honestly, it was like being back home, except that she was willing to accept my assurances for the child’s good behavior. Her first comment to me that a ‘child of Lolth’ should understand the broodmother’s desire to guard her nest (she meant the druids). I did not tell her exactly how well drow handle parenting, because she was a surface elf and frankly should know better. She is doing an excellent job of reminding me of the priestesses back home, while being someone I might actually be able to punch in the future — I am not stupid enough to punch a priestess of Lolth. I did get my wish last time (sort of), as you remember.
Madame Lae’zel managed to track down the tiefling who had seen one of her kin. We learned where githyanki were spotted, that they killed someone for the crime of ‘surprising them while they were walking around’, and that Madame Lae’zel only respects me in a fight, and thinks I should keep my mouth shut. Which is a shame, as you know how well I can talk myself out of situations, and Madame Lae’zel doesn’t appear to know ‘good guard, bad guard’. She makes an excellent ‘bad guard’, and it is so novel that I get to be the reasonable one, rather than trying to be terrifying.
No luck with charming the pants of Wyll, but even I can’t do much in less than a day. Shadowheart continues to keep her secrets, though it is clear she is dealing with something that she is not talking about. I do hope I’m not picking up another stray. I don’t know why young people assume I am some sort of kind and wise and trustworthy mentor. (I don’t even really know her age, beyond ‘younger than I am’, but ‘younger than I am’ goes for everyone traveling with me, with the exception of Astarion and Withers, unless Madame Lae’zel neglected to mention that githyanki age even slower than elves.)
I continue undaunted,
Your dear friend,
Bel
From the Player:
That same druid grove, Sword Coast
My dear River:
Well, I have much to report. I am leaning towards sending you these letters. We have found people going towards Baldur’s Gate, and I might be able to persuade them with some coin to carry them to you. I might want to read over them before that, to make sure I have not said anything too shocking to you.
Walking back to the druid grove this morning, we found another mind flayer victim. Somehow Master Gale of Waterdeep, a great and powerful wizard I’m sure, managed to get himself stuck in a rock. I’m not a mage, so I couldn’t tell you the details, but a wizard is a useful person to know. He did have quite a colorful way of putting the matter, enough that I nearly told him that I don’t do unwanted penetration, unless someone is buying me dinner first if not paying for my services. I was diplomatic, though. I assume he was in the ‘let me show I am a wizard by demonstrating how many words I know’.
Things are becoming quite uncomfortable at the druid grove. We did manage to locate their healer, Madame Nettie. She was unfortunately unable to help. When I first mentioned our little problem, I was pretty certain she was more interested in tricking us into either drinking poison or something strong enough to incapacitate us where, best case scenario, we could be left out for the goblins. Actually, it was far more likely we’d end up on her dissection table as apparently our little problem was not unique to our merry band of six.
She and the leader of the druids had noticed that suddenly their lives of only worrying about the normal sort of tadpoles had come to an abrupt end recently. She showed us the body of a drow leading a band of goblins, telling us that when the druids defended themselves, a mid flayer tadpole emerged from his head on death. Apparently dozens of us have turned up and are being drawn towards a ruined temple to Selune, and the leader of the druids was captured trying to investigate. Madame Nettie wonders if we could infiltrate the grounds, as some of the infected. It must be nearby, as some of the murals are housed in the druid grove. Hanging around Leona meant I recognized the symbols of Selune and Shar in a mural.
It does mean that I forgive her gut reaction to my pretense. If one’s only prior encounter with a drow was one of us trying to gut you, it is… annoying that one generalizes, but understandable. And, well, she was a useful font of information and I now have a present for Nurgle if I somehow survive this: wyvern poison. Frankly, it seems better than the options of growing tentacles, but I’d rather avoid either. The druids had enough information on mind flayer tadpoles that they could conclude that the ones they have seen so far are odd. The change of their victims — which Gale told me the word for, thank you Gale — is delayed, and they start showing odd powers, such as mind reading and levitation. It does mean my hypothesis of ‘the mind flayers are experimenting on themselves and us’ might be correct, and I am beginning to hate being correct when I think of awful things.
A captured goblin also asked if I was here to spring her for ‘the boss lady’. I should have followed up on that more, but I couldn’t think of a way to ask without revealing that I was just an opportunist. I am worried my own people are involved — while we learn in the cradle that mind flayers are among the many beings found in in the Underdark that it is best to not fuck with, drow belief in our own superiority be damned, mind flayers also do like the Underdark. I might have to send a letter home, and confirm I am not dead and see if I can get news. Dreadful, really.
It does offer me something. The goblin spoke of something called the Absolute, rather than any goblin gods. And drow generally do not work with goblins, even as cannon fodder. I recall that Withers, that strange undead we met yesterday, also spoke of the Absolute trapping souls. It smells of theology, and a smarter man than I would leave the room when gods were being discussed. But, given these things in our heads seem to have some connection to whoever is giving the orders to the goblins, I don’t think I can sit this one out.
Master Halsin... Archdruid Halsin? may be out next lead, but at this point I would like to meet him, if only because his second in command, Kagha, is on my list of people I want to punch. We met her terrorizing the tiefling child that had tried to steal the druids’ idol. Honestly, it was like being back home, except that she was willing to accept my assurances for the child’s good behavior. Her first comment to me that a ‘child of Lolth’ should understand the broodmother’s desire to guard her nest (she meant the druids). I did not tell her exactly how well drow handle parenting, because she was a surface elf and frankly should know better. She is doing an excellent job of reminding me of the priestesses back home, while being someone I might actually be able to punch in the future — I am not stupid enough to punch a priestess of Lolth. I did get my wish last time (sort of), as you remember.
Madame Lae’zel managed to track down the tiefling who had seen one of her kin. We learned where githyanki were spotted, that they killed someone for the crime of ‘surprising them while they were walking around’, and that Madame Lae’zel only respects me in a fight, and thinks I should keep my mouth shut. Which is a shame, as you know how well I can talk myself out of situations, and Madame Lae’zel doesn’t appear to know ‘good guard, bad guard’. She makes an excellent ‘bad guard’, and it is so novel that I get to be the reasonable one, rather than trying to be terrifying.
No luck with charming the pants of Wyll, but even I can’t do much in less than a day. Shadowheart continues to keep her secrets, though it is clear she is dealing with something that she is not talking about. I do hope I’m not picking up another stray. I don’t know why young people assume I am some sort of kind and wise and trustworthy mentor. (I don’t even really know her age, beyond ‘younger than I am’, but ‘younger than I am’ goes for everyone traveling with me, with the exception of Astarion and Withers, unless Madame Lae’zel neglected to mention that githyanki age even slower than elves.)
I continue undaunted,
Your dear friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Looking at my backlog, I wonder if I should shift to short rest = one day, long rest = more days. At this rate, Day 2 might take longer than 24 hours.
Bel is the sort who will make innuendos about things other people say. Especially people who he knows damn well probably didn't mean it like that.
Again, Bel isn't taking it personally that Nettie was probably going to poison him, or at least incapacitate him. He has a mind flayer parasite in his head: it's a sensible reaction. He'd rather she shouldn't, but he was willing to promise that he'd do it himself if he thought there was no other hope. Bel would rather not die, but he also doesn't believe that a mind flayer with his memories is the same thing as being him.
Bel's connection with his family is complicated. He has some affection for his siblings, even older ones, but no use for his parents or aunts. Also being from a minor and slightly heterodox Lolthite settlement means that Bel has more than one living brother. He keeps saying he's going to fake his death and be free of family ties, but he somehow never gets around to doing it.
I had Bel down as True Neutral in the tabletop game, but I think he's skewing more Chaotic Neutral here, if only because he's decided that 'I'm probably going to die soon' means he has zero fucks to give towards authority figures.
Also, given Bel adopted a teenaged cleric of Talona in the tabletop game (more as a 'younger brother' than a child), I think he needs to accept that his taste in men aside, he has a soft spot for people who serve questionable gods. Because, yeah, jokes about Wyll aside, his strongest relationship is probably with Shadowheart, but it's entirely platonic on his side. Some of that is because I've been running around with the party of Wyll, Shadowheart and Lae'zel, so he has more of a chance to bond with them.
