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lettersfrombel10 Tarsakh 1492 DR
Still hanging around the Emerald Grove
My dear River,
I may have inadvertently joined a cult. No, let me rephrase, I may have inadvertently been conscripted into a cult.
First, the matter of the tieflings. Things are not going well; at this point, I suspect their leader, Zevlor, will pay me to assassinate Archdruid Kagha, and she probably would do much the same. Well, if she wanted my allegiance, she would do better to have some adorable children and happy families on her side. If they weren’t under eminent goblin attack, I’d be calling you lot in with whatever friends you have. But the situation will be resolved one way or another. I did at least get the wayward child back to her parents. It seems like a very nice little family.
I continue to need work on my people skills. Apparently me my attempting any optimism comes off as naiveté, so I’m still working on the encouraging thing.
But I am aware of who I am and where I come from. If there is any hint that I, or any of the tieflings, kill Kagha, the whole grove will become a bloodbath without the goblins being involved at all. I’m not offended at Zevlor for asking, I just don’t think a decapitation will work here. At this point, I want to find this Archdruid Halsin if only so he can tell Kagha to stuff it, and not just because of my little brain friend.
I never wanted to be a parent, because I’d be crap at it. I would take a dozen children over Junior though. I have to call it something, and everything I know about mind flayers says that it will get my memories.
But back to the cult thing. We were trying to scout out the goblins on the road, while I convinced Madame Lae’zel I wasn’t ignoring her, when we stumbled upon three humans, one who was gutted by something, and the other two standing around being useless. They were evasive, and I was about to try my charms when the fallen one looked at me... and he was another one of us with a tadpole in his skull. Except, from what he said, he wasn’t on the ship with the rest of us and actually seemed to know more about why we weren't becoming mind flayers (yet).
He called himself, and me, and my companions True Souls. I... well, I won’t say it was wise but I held the link that forms when I meet such people, and got something. Enough to bluff the two others after he told them to listen to me and died. I don’t know what this Absolute is, or how it connects to mind flayers beyond ‘has access to tadpoles’, but apparently it is hatching some scheme to take over the world and let the True Souls rule over the rest of you lot. I am very glad Astarion was not with us, because if he is anything like I was... well, there were times in my life where I would grab for that sort of power. I don’t trust gods, though, and this sounds divine. Both Shadowheart and Madame Lae’zel seem sufficiently attached to existing power structures, and Wyll is a generally good sort.
Also, I don’t like that Junior has some sort of influence over me. When the old man died, something compelled my body to use this strange power to extract the tadpole and pocket it. It was whispering of how much knowledge I’d gain — everything the man knew would be known by the tadpole. I was worried the compulsion was going to make me eat it, or jam it into my eye or something.
Shadowheart has been getting Wyll to tell us about his adventures. He mentioned getting a nasty scar from a minotaur, and she commented that she wouldn’t want to see it. I nearly bit my tongue about how I’d be interested in a closer look. Down, Bel. You are getting pathetic in your quest to get this man naked. You really should find someone to take the edge off this infatuation.
We did track down the person Wyll apparently chased to the Hells and back. Wyll assumed Karlach was some manner of devil and had caused problems before vanishing into the Hells. Karlach maintained she was a kidnapped tiefling conscripted by the Hells for the Blood War. I thought Wyll was going to kill her anyway which... if being conscripted into serving evil because one is powerless, that does not bode well for his opinion of my own past. I haven’t personally done anything too awful, but do remember that I made it to the surface because a surface cult was getting slaves from the Underdark, and I had been involved in that. I don’t think I’d have made that choice now, but there was a reason, River dear, why you were sent to make sure I was not causing trouble. Thankfully, you are a cool head.
Due to the parasites in our heads and their tendencies to let us see what the others are thinking, Wyll saw reason and backed off. Which means we now have both the agents of Zariel who want to drag Karlach back to their mistress, and whoever set Wyll up to murder Karlach. As if we didn’t have enough enemies. There are also gnolls in the area, somewhere. We ran into a dead human; not unusual but I had drank a potion that let me talk to animals (long story, I had to talk down a mother owlbear who was considering drow as the family dinner), and the human’s dog managed to clue us in. Poor beast; it hadn’t sunk in that the human wasn’t going to wake up.
I think this is a sign from the universe that we need to start resolving some of these issues. Zevlor suggested that if I’m not willing to make a decapitation strike on Archdruid Kagha, the leaders of the goblin camp might be better targets. The refugees have a better chance to survive if the goblins aren’t organized enough to coordinate attacks. Especially if we can also retrieve Halsin and he can get the druids to help guide the refugees, rather than just kick them out.
Things are going to be busy. I miss both having an inn room and the group’s company. No offense to my new companions intended, but I’m still finding a groove here.
I remain,
Your dear friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Still hanging around the Emerald Grove
My dear River,
I may have inadvertently joined a cult. No, let me rephrase, I may have inadvertently been conscripted into a cult.
First, the matter of the tieflings. Things are not going well; at this point, I suspect their leader, Zevlor, will pay me to assassinate Archdruid Kagha, and she probably would do much the same. Well, if she wanted my allegiance, she would do better to have some adorable children and happy families on her side. If they weren’t under eminent goblin attack, I’d be calling you lot in with whatever friends you have. But the situation will be resolved one way or another. I did at least get the wayward child back to her parents. It seems like a very nice little family.
I continue to need work on my people skills. Apparently me my attempting any optimism comes off as naiveté, so I’m still working on the encouraging thing.
But I am aware of who I am and where I come from. If there is any hint that I, or any of the tieflings, kill Kagha, the whole grove will become a bloodbath without the goblins being involved at all. I’m not offended at Zevlor for asking, I just don’t think a decapitation will work here. At this point, I want to find this Archdruid Halsin if only so he can tell Kagha to stuff it, and not just because of my little brain friend.
I never wanted to be a parent, because I’d be crap at it. I would take a dozen children over Junior though. I have to call it something, and everything I know about mind flayers says that it will get my memories.
But back to the cult thing. We were trying to scout out the goblins on the road, while I convinced Madame Lae’zel I wasn’t ignoring her, when we stumbled upon three humans, one who was gutted by something, and the other two standing around being useless. They were evasive, and I was about to try my charms when the fallen one looked at me... and he was another one of us with a tadpole in his skull. Except, from what he said, he wasn’t on the ship with the rest of us and actually seemed to know more about why we weren't becoming mind flayers (yet).
He called himself, and me, and my companions True Souls. I... well, I won’t say it was wise but I held the link that forms when I meet such people, and got something. Enough to bluff the two others after he told them to listen to me and died. I don’t know what this Absolute is, or how it connects to mind flayers beyond ‘has access to tadpoles’, but apparently it is hatching some scheme to take over the world and let the True Souls rule over the rest of you lot. I am very glad Astarion was not with us, because if he is anything like I was... well, there were times in my life where I would grab for that sort of power. I don’t trust gods, though, and this sounds divine. Both Shadowheart and Madame Lae’zel seem sufficiently attached to existing power structures, and Wyll is a generally good sort.
Shadowheart has been getting Wyll to tell us about his adventures. He mentioned getting a nasty scar from a minotaur, and she commented that she wouldn’t want to see it. I nearly bit my tongue about how I’d be interested in a closer look. Down, Bel. You are getting pathetic in your quest to get this man naked. You really should find someone to take the edge off this infatuation.
We did track down the person Wyll apparently chased to the Hells and back. Wyll assumed Karlach was some manner of devil and had caused problems before vanishing into the Hells. Karlach maintained she was a kidnapped tiefling conscripted by the Hells for the Blood War. I thought Wyll was going to kill her anyway which... if being conscripted into serving evil because one is powerless, that does not bode well for his opinion of my own past. I haven’t personally done anything too awful, but do remember that I made it to the surface because a surface cult was getting slaves from the Underdark, and I had been involved in that. I don’t think I’d have made that choice now, but there was a reason, River dear, why you were sent to make sure I was not causing trouble. Thankfully, you are a cool head.
Due to the parasites in our heads and their tendencies to let us see what the others are thinking, Wyll saw reason and backed off. Which means we now have both the agents of Zariel who want to drag Karlach back to their mistress, and whoever set Wyll up to murder Karlach. As if we didn’t have enough enemies. There are also gnolls in the area, somewhere. We ran into a dead human; not unusual but I had drank a potion that let me talk to animals (long story, I had to talk down a mother owlbear who was considering drow as the family dinner), and the human’s dog managed to clue us in. Poor beast; it hadn’t sunk in that the human wasn’t going to wake up.
I think this is a sign from the universe that we need to start resolving some of these issues. Zevlor suggested that if I’m not willing to make a decapitation strike on Archdruid Kagha, the leaders of the goblin camp might be better targets. The refugees have a better chance to survive if the goblins aren’t organized enough to coordinate attacks. Especially if we can also retrieve Halsin and he can get the druids to help guide the refugees, rather than just kick them out.
Things are going to be busy. I miss both having an inn room and the group’s company. No offense to my new companions intended, but I’m still finding a groove here.
I remain,
Your dear friend,
Bel
From the Player:
Bel continues to have complicated feelings about happy families, and not sure what to do about them. He also is trying to play off his infatuation with Wyll as merely lustful, rather than also having an emotional element.
Also, yes, I know (sort of) what the purpose of the mind flayer tadpole specimens in game mechanics is, but Bel does not. We'll see what happens there.
Bel doesn't have the same 'giant soft spot for animals' that his younger sibling did, but he was often tasked with getting rid of his younger sibling's 'pets' (aka whatever wild creature Ilphyl could catch and befriend). Bel would try to make sure they escaped unharmed, because their mother was trying to teach a lesson of 'don't get attached to things others can take from you', and while an adolescent Bel wouldn't openly oppose his mother, he also wanted to make the lesson as painless as possible. (Eventually Ilphyl figured out that Lolthite taboos around killing spiders meant it was harder for their family to object.)
Needless to say, Bel decided not to fuck around with the mother owlbear as long as she was willing to take the party off the menu -- don't pick unnecessary fights, even if it is only dumb animals -- but was willing to go in an owlbear cave looking for treasure. After all, the owlbear doesn't care about that stuff.
Unintentional reference to Stargate SG-1. 'Junior' was Colonel O'Neil's nickname for Teal'c's immature Goa'uld symbiote. I didn't remember that until after Bel decided he needed a name for his.
