The party learned that something strange was happening in the forest to the north. A horde of humanoid creatures had been seen coming through the woods to the northwest of the city. Highwater had reported seeing the creatures shambling through the area. They were also described as having dark, purplish skin.
The rumors were that the horde was heading for Cinderhaven. Rumors also said that they had attacked animals along the way, but not people. Based off their path, the horde would likely have to pass by Primeheart’s land and the Green Iron Village.
Cyl spent her morning making sure the workshop was as comfortable as possible for Al and Wit. She talked with them about the eirshale boulder and asked if they wanted to explore the city with or without her. Cyl dropped off Wit at the library and Al went with her to the Beer Forge.
Kali spoke with Afra about donating money to the city’s rebuilding fund, but Afra suggested having Kali’s church start a soup kitchen. The city didn’t have a funding issue, so that would help create jobs and feed people that needed the help.
Seldanna went to the knowledge temple, The Eternal Archive. She met with the High Loremaster, Geraru, a braith with long tentacles that he had bound in a few sections to keep them out of the way. She wanted to look around and see what the Knowledge temple looked like, so she spoke with Geraru. He asked her some questions, when he found out she was self taught, and started teaching her based off of what she told him. He gave her knew information on some of the sacraments and rituals. He also explained that the church’s goal was the pursuit of knowledge and there were no restricted sections or forbidden knowledge.
Irrel went to the Chalice to train and sparred with Nambu, the loxodon from the Shoveltusks. It was a pretty even match. Saxi went to work and gathered information from the rumors she heard about the approaching horde. Nathan spent his morning training, then decided to figure out what to do with his armor and the curse on it.
The Beer Forge
Irrel, Saxi, and Nathan arrived first to find it moderately full. Binxie came in riding Waffles and tied her up under the table. Kali, Cyl, and Seldanna arrived next with Al coming along. As the group chatted, Irrel and Seldanna met each other for the first time.
The group discussed the rumors about the shambling horde and whether to look into it. They decided to investigate, but worried about stepping on Birchfield’s toes. Seldanna used a Sending to let Maeryl know that the group was going to be investigating in the forest. She replied that she was fine with it and just wanted to know what the group found.
Travelling
The group made their way out toward the forest where the horde was supposed to be coming from. As they slogged through the snow out to the woods, they decided to stop at the treehouse to see Lark and Jastra first. The treehouse was the closest home to the incoming horde. Allure, finding out about the relationship, started making jokes about Jastra and Lark to Seldanna. She was less than amused.
The group got to the Green Iron Village and discovered that it was mostly empty. Only a few goblins remained and they were all packing. Most of them had already moved to the new headquarters in the city.
Green Iron Village
Lark wasn’t home, but Jastra was at the treehouse and let the group in. The expansions to the tree house, that were done by the Goblins, looked beautiful and were well crafted. The god-blins had outfitted the house very nicely.
Jastra had already heard about the horde from some of her friends in the city. Her information said that they were very thin, almost like they were starving. Her information also said that the creatures appeared to be Braith. They had been described as starving, mostly naked, and animalistic. She had also been told that they had attacked animals, but not people.
The group started to discuss getting things together for the possible incoming refugees. As they decided whether to get food and alert the city, Al informed them that the horde had started to arrive earlier than predicted. The party looked out the window of the tree house and saw figures in the distance, moving slowly through the woods.
Nathan sent Mags out to look around and get a closer view of the horde. The creatures were wearing very worn clothing and they were shivering from the cold. They were gaunt, clearly underfed, with eyes sunken into their thin faces. Nathan, through Mags’ eyes, quickly realized that the creatures only had tentacles over their mouths.
Irrel and Seldanna both recognized Nathan’s descriptions as being Illithid instead of Braith. Kali left immediately to warn Primeheart and the city. Seldanna used Sending to get word to her father. Cyl pulled out her animal messenger and sent it to Afra.
Irrel called on his abilities to “shroom out” before the possibly impending fight. He then announced to the group: “We are Colony.” Irrel was still part of Colony, but no longer alone.
The group, recalling how things had happened with the goblin army, decided to talk with the Illithid before attacking. The Illithid stopped a bit away from the party and waited to be approached. Up close, it was incredibly obvious that they were all gaunt and looked very weak. The party tried calling out to the Illithid in different languages, but they got no responses. Cyl even used her hammer to draw two hands in the snow, trying to convey welcome.
Seldanna used her channel divinity, to attempt to listen for surface thoughts and see what they wanted. It was a little difficult, almost like trying to translate sanskrit. Eventually, she was able to get the impression of an overwhelming, desperate hunger.
Colony eventually stood with the others and spoke to the Illithid in deep speech. This time they understood. He asked them what they wanted and one stepped forward to speak with Colony telepathically, but all Colony got was fuzzy, staticy noises. They were too weak to even communicate with their telepathy. More Illithid came forward and started making the static noises as well. They seemed excited that someone was speaking with them.
The fuzzy static got louder and louder, until it was almost deafening. Colony stepped forward and asked them to stop. It wasn’t working for them to communicate that way. The “leader” stepped forward and Irrel asked if they came in peace.
The Illithid said that they came “in hunger.” The party discussed what to do and tried to figure out if the Illithid needed living brain matter or just meat. Colony continued speaking with the Illithid and asked where they came from. They didn’t know a country name, but they were from far to the east. They had been enslaved, but recently were freed by the “Heroes of Cinderhaven.” They didn’t know who the “Heroes” were and only referred to them as the “Heroes of Cinderhaven.”
The Illithid leader said that they needed meat, but it didn’t necessarily need to be brains. It just needed to be dead. Saxi pulled out some rations, to try and get them something quickly. Seldanna and Nathan went to search the village and then saw the tree house, so they went to ask Jastra.
Irrel, having let his Colony persona fade, went to hand the Illithid the rations. Their tentacles were twitching a lot, like they were trying to restrain themselves. He told them to keep their tentacles to themselves and left the food before using his cape to get away quickly. The Illithid filtered the food back to the weaker members, something that was not normally seen in Illithid.
Seldanna went to Jastra and awkwardly asked for meat, if Jastra had any. They had a slight altercation, when Jastra asked why they wanted to feed the Illithid, but she took them to the pantry. Jastra let Nathan and Seldanna take all the meat to feed the Illithid. They tossed it out the window to Saxi and Cyl, who used their bags of holding to carry it all over to the Illithid.
Again showing compassion not normally seen in Illithid, the refugees fed the weakest first and the leader ate last. The food was enough to keep them going for that day, but they would need more. The leader introduced himself as Slethrelach and said that the Illithid wanted to seek asylum in Cinderhaven.
The party agreed to speak with the city, feeling somewhat responsible as they might be the “Heroes” the Illithid had mentioned. Cyl and Saxi used their bags of holding to bring more meat to the Illithid. The refugees decided to stay at the, newly vacant, Green Iron Village until they could talk to the city about asylum.
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