Ellu'kha had found the tiefling camp and saved a child from the wrath of the druids. Now those very druids wanted her to escort the tieflings out of the region so they could complete their ritual that would force outsiders out of their area forevermore.
She had more pressing issues to attend to; like finding the druid healer, Halsin, who knew about the mindflayers and could possibly cure them from the parasites lurking in their brains.
Lae'zel was adamant that there would be a cure if they found a gith creche, but Ellu'kha wasn't so sure. For now she would trust in nature and the druids.
Before setting off to find Halsin, they returned to the tiefling camp to make sure all was well and no one had been moved along during the night.
They were still there and the druids were still preparing the ritual. That was good. Ellu'kha near expected the ritual to have already been completed during the night and the tieflings to be... dispersed.
There was a commotion though. In a back room — a makeshift prison — a captured goblin stood in a cage and taunted a tiefling with a crossbow trained on it. This goblin didn't care. It was blessed by the Absolute!
It taunted and taunted the tiefling, and just as she was about to shoot the goblin Ellu'kha jumped in front of it. They couldn't kill this goblin. Not yet. It needed to be questioned.
The tiefling disagreed. Vehemently. Ellu'kha tried to persuade the tiefling but failed, and then, in a last ditch effort, tried to read the tiefling's mind in order to ascertain just why she was adamant about killing this one caged goblin. Her brother had been killed. Her brother would not approve of this, but... — Ellu'kha asked her what her brother would think.
Shaking with rage, the tiefling turned her back and left.
Gale commended her on her bravery. Her actions had reminded her of this one time in a pub... but in order to diffuse that situation, he had merely brought everyone a round of drinks. She had jumped in front of a crossbow. Amazing.
Just as they were leaving to look for Halsin and their possible cure, a tiefling stopped them. He looked at Lae'zel, terrified, and asked if she was there to kill them just as the others had killed his friends.
Others... Lae'zel folded her arms and demanded the tiefling pay tribute to her, and then asked about the others he had seen. There had been more gith to the west. Perhaps there was a creche that way.
Wyll was horrified at how Lae'zel treated the tiefling, but she just shrugged. She had been gentle with him. Normally she would've killed him.
With that knowledge burning in their back of their minds — Ellu'kha really wasn't sure they wanted to meet any other gith — they left the tiefling camp and started looking for Halsin.
While atop a small cliff, looking out over the immediate region, a man suddenly appeared before them. A strange man who spoke in riddles. A strange man who called himself Raphael.
He waved his arms and a flash of light enveloped them. The wilds disappeared and they stood within a warm, magnificent chamber complete with banquet table and piles of food.
This was unnatural. Ellu'kha didn't know what was happening. She didn't much like what was happening, either.
She liked it even less when Raphael transformed into a devil.
He seemed overly eager to help Ellu'kha and her comrades. To remove the parasites in their heads with just a click of his fingers...
Ellu'kha wanted the parasite gone — she did not want to become a mindflayer! But... she would not make a deal with a devil. There was absolutely no way she would collude with their kind.
Raphael simply smiled and said that she would be begging for his help within days. Then transported them back to the wilds and disappeared.
It was disconcerting that a devil was interested in them, but they had a quest to complete — they needed to find Halsin. If he could cure them, then the devil would leave them alone. Surely.
While continuing through the wilds, they came across two people crying over a prone man.
Ellu'kha rushed over to see if she could help. She was a ranger, she knew a bit of natural medicine, perhaps she could be of assistance. One of the people, a woman, glared at her for her intrusion and Ellu'kha noticed a strange glowing mark around her eye. The parasite stirred.
These people were new recruits... these people were hers to command. To shepherd.
The woman stopped glaring and looked at her in amazement. She said that she, too, had been blessed by the Absolute. That Ellu'kha was chosen as a True Soul. What would Ellu'kha have them do?
More of this Absolute stuff. And what was a True Soul? Ellu'kha denied any knowledge of what this woman was talking about... and, enraged, they turned on her.
When the people lay dead and defeated upon the grass, the parasite within Ellu'kha stirred further. It bade her step towards the corpse. With a power she did not know she had, she raised the corpse into the air and stared at it, hungrily.
She could retrieve this man's parasite. It had all of the man's knowledge, it could nourish her, strengthen her...
She wanted to accept this gift, badly, but finally... she forced her mind shut and quietened the parasite. The corpse fell back to the ground and she stumbled back, away from the man.
They needed to find Halsin and remove these parasites, quickly. She didn't know about the others, but her little worm was beginning to hold more power over her.
Time was running out.
Until next time! 😊
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 