#lephilodi

"Hello..." I greeted back softly as I cautiously glide to my feet, my telepathy encompassing all four in the greeting, including the minotaur just now entering and the dwarf hesitating at my door.

The elf spoke again, "I am Luciel Morelle, and these are my friends-"

"Kala," quips the firbolg.

"Crete Thunderhooves," the minotaur rumbles.

"And my name is Galvar Bronzehands. Pleased to meet'cha," the dwarf quotes in a northern accent.

The young elf pipes up again, "I am an elf," –as if that weren't obvious– "and you are very interesting. What is your name?"

I narrow my eyes just a bit. Why would this elf be introducing himself and his party to me? What motive could they have? Any reasonable adventurer stumbling upon a sleeping illithid would not have hesitated to kill them. So why is my head still attached to my body? Even with my tentacles gone, it is clear enough what my species is. Unless...they have never heard of my kind? I should answer the elf.

"My name is not verbally pronounceable, but you may call me Lephilodi," I responded calmly. Despite the prickle of fear in the back of my mind, wishing for me to flee, I cannot leave without my papers. They are too priceless. I can feel the resonance stone around my neck thrumming beneath my robes, forcing me to stay calm and rational as always. "Why are you here? I came to this abandoned, haunted Dwarven fortress to be alone. And perhaps more importantly, how did you get past the shield on the door and into this room?"

"With this," came the response from Luciel. The blond elf tosses another small stone towards me. “It has quite a unique property. Like nothing I’ve ever seen.” His eyes sparkle with youthful curiosity.

I catch the stone in my hand, and sure enough, it was the stone I had in place to erect the shield against the undead while I slept. Of course. It seems they pried it out and broke in. At least the dwarf had manners and was waiting outside the door. “Mm. I see.”

“While I’m sorry to disturb your rest, but we have a slight issue. You see, we have been tasked to clear out this fortress for a town. As you clearly like to be alone, this pertains to you as well. Should they need to, they will move here. And that will disturb you a good deal.” The elf stands up from the table, much to my relief.

This time, the firbolg speaks. “You see, there is a white dragon roaming the area, and while we are going to remove that threat, should it attack the town, the people will flee here for protection.”

I pause to think about the situation for a moment. A town of humans would be arguably worse than a sole adventuring party. “I see. The danger would be too great for me to stay. Humans fear what is different. What they don’t understand.” The party members all seem to agree with me.

“Are you lonely Lephilodi?” Luciel’s eyes meet my own as my head jerks back up.

Why on earth would he ask me that? Is he trying to find an emotional weakness? I have none. This question reeks of suspicion to me. But perhaps he is being genuine. It would not be the first time in my seventy years of life that a humanoid actually treated me with compassion, as much as I may have disliked it. “Not particularly, but I suppose it could behoove me to have, what do humanoids call them? Ah, friends.” Or at least meat shields against a possible inquisition. “I would not be adverse to your company I suppose.”

Luciel speaks up yet again. “Great! We are almost done here. We just have some of the upper floor left. Once we are done, we will leave. If you’d like, well, I am interested in learning more about all of this. If you’d like to come with us, I’m open to that.”

I am a little stunned. This group must be either inexperienced, foolish, or both to offer an ulitharid a place among their party. They seem to talk amongst each other while I am processing what just happened, and I finally am able to tune back into their conversation towards the end.

“I’m pretty sure just the giant spiders I saw upstairs in the bastion are all that’s left,” Kala muses. “But I don’t know how to get back up there with Crete. The passage I took was too small for him to fit.”

I suppose my knowledge of the stronghold will be helpful this day. “There are no creatures of intelligence left in the fortress. But I can lead you up to the bastion. The stairs are not far.” I move past them and take my outer cloak from the tentacled creation I placed in the corner next to the door. The covering relaxes me some, and once I pull up the hood I pull the white veil into place over my mouth. Inexperienced as they may be, they may yet be disturbed by the appearance. “Follow me.” I lead them down the hall and into the next room where the bastion’s stairwell is, pausing as Kala, Galvar, and Crete excitedly gather the bolts from the seven untouched ballista within this chamber.

“I have 95 ballista bolts!” the firbolg says excitedly to her peers.

I tilt my head in confusion until I see them place the bolts into her bag of holding. Ah. I look back to Luciel as he approaches me.

“So Lephilodi…” The young elf pulls out some papers from his bag. “Can I ask you what languages you know?”

I give pause as he pulls out what are clearly hastily copied versions of my papers and schematics back in my room. “You copied my work…”

He gives me a slightly sheepish smile.

“Well, I can speak Common telepathically like I am doing with you now, but I also know Undercommon and Deep Speech. The writing you have there is in Qualith, the written language of my people.” I decide not to tell him he can translate it using magic.

“Oh, I see.” Luciel slowly puts the paper back in his bag, and the party seems ready to move forward.

Crete heads up the steps first to deal with the spiders, but Luciel quickly incapacitates four of them with a spell. I then float overhead of them and use my mind blast to stun the remaining three. Kala clears up the thick webs in the room with a quick flame. Crete and Galvar take care of the rest in quick succession. They quickly regroup once the fight is over.

Thankfully I wasn't asleep this time when they arrived. Using my telekinesis to lift the portcullis and open the main doors, I went to greet them in the mustering hall. <Welcome back. I'm glad your hunt was successful.>

"Hi Lele!" came Crete's voice as he waves what appears to be a white dragon's foreleg at me in some strange greeting.

<Hello Crete.> Oh Ilsensine above, this one doesn't even have enough brain to shorten my name correctly.

"Hello Miss Lephilodi!" greets the Galvar before he gasps, "What are these delightful creatures?!" He reaches down to pick up one of the cleaning cubes, Kala doing the same and both getting handfuls of suds. Surprised, Kala immediately wipes her hand off on her clothes.

<They're cleaning cubes Galvar,> I responded, amused. <They've been cleaning up the place for me now that I no longer have to deal with ghouls or a banshee.>

"OH! I love them!" The dwarf immediately starts soaping up his beard.

Luciel freaks out a little bit. "Galvar! Those have been eating up nothing but dust in this room! You just smeared dusty soap all over your beard! What about the…you know...the little, uh...creatures! The little creatures in your beard!"

<Ah, Luciel dear, they dissolve the dust once they eat it. The soap is fine.> I really don't understand the dynamic of this party.

Galvar laughs, "Don't worry lad! I just got the top layer. The little beasties are fine!"

Luciel still looks a little distraught before shaking his head and turning my way. "Oh yeah, Lephi, we got something for you. We thought you might like it."

As I look his way, the elf pulls put what I could only assume to be the dragon's brain from his bag of holding, packed with shaved ice to ensure it stayed cold and fresh.

I am absolutely stunned, making my emotional projection go quiet as I look at this gift they have offered to me. I try to keep my hands from shaking as I reach out to take it from him. A dragon's brain. If there is a greater, more succulent delicacy than this, it does not come to mind. <I… Thank you, this is… This is the second nicest thing anyone has ever done for me. You didn't have to do this.>

Suddenly I feel pressure around my waist as Kala hugs me. Oh this is awkward, but I try to lean into it despite both the brain in my hands and the height difference. <Thank you… I'll be just a minute.>

I leave them so I can eat this without scrutiny, dropping it into a bowl in the kitchen. Eating is so much messier without long tentacles, but I try to make quick work of it. Then the memories start to come. No, not right now. I don't want them to see me in a memory trance. But the pleasure of eating a sentient mind is relentless, and despite my best efforts, it takes me as my nature demands.

"Lephi, Lephi," comes an insistent voice, then a touch on my arm.

I slowly come out of the trance to find Luciel in front of me, the dragon's last memories of its fight with them lingering in my mind. The final lightning strike death blow still prickles. <I'm alright Luciel. Sorry you had to see that. Let's rejoin the others.>

Before he can ask anything, I glide back towards the main room with the others. <Well done with the fight I must say. Especially you Kala with the death blow.>

The firbolg smiles a little at the compliment. "Thanks."

"Lephi, we're about to go into town and then out to our manse. You sure you don't want to come with? You're still more than welcome to join us," questions Luciel.

This one is so insistent, but I have given it some thought. Not only have they not condemned me for what I am, they even brought me an unparalleled gift. <Perhaps this is indeed the next step in my journey. I will join you.>

They cheer a little.

It was today I learned that Luciel is actually a bard of the College of Creation, as he produced a parasol for me out of thin air. Very courteous of him. It was only a few hours to get to their town thankfully, but upon my insistence, they took me to a relatively safe place in the forest not too far away, where they had stashed some strange vehicle of theirs and covered it in vines. Then they were off to celebrate their victory, leaving me alone again in the ever-darkening wood.

I watched as the stars slowly began to appear from the skies. Some of my people despised them, but I always found them to be beautiful. After all, life has no color without light, leaving creatures pale and blind...

Pale and blind, just like the one who had ruined my life. Erebossk.

I truly try not to let my thoughts linger on him. I chose to leave that life behind, thanks to help from a friend. I try to reminisce on what he taught me, rather than what I had lost.

Thankfully, sometime after the midnight hour had passed, Kala and Luciel emerged from the shadows between the dark trunks. I floated down from the top of the vehicle to greet them, but something was clearly bothering them. <I didn't expect to see you back already.>

It was Luciel who spoke first. "Heyyyy Lephi. We have a question for you."

Something is definitely off. What happened in town? <Alright... go ahead.>

Luciel hesitates for a moment again before speaking. "What's a spelljammer?"

I immediately straighten up, rooted to the spot. <Well, I know you can't read or understand Qualith. And I doubt you knew that word before. Can you tell me where you learned it?>

Both the elf and the firbolg simultaneously answer, "No.”

Okay, this is immensely suspicious, and I don't like it. I'm praying to Ao that I won't have to wrestle away Luciel's bag of holding, as it currently had my books, star maps, and schematics inside. <Very well. Spelljammers are ships designed to travel between planes and through realmspace. Even to other crystal spheres. Does that satisfy your curiosity?>

Kala spoke, "For now, yes."

“We were also told some...things, some negative things about you. But we don’t believe they’re true.” Luciel looks up at me, but I can still see some uncertainty in his eyes.

<Well, in that case, it’s probably all true.> I won’t deny what my people are, what we do. What I did.

Kala steps forward again. “Well, we don’t believe them. Not when it comes to you.”

<I appreciate that young ones. But I can see you are tired. You should go and get some sleep.>

The pair eventually went back into town to rest after checking on me. I got as comfortable as I could in the seat on top of...whatever this device is, and decided to rest with one eye open tonight.

Thankfully the next morning, the whole party seemed much more chipper, though Galvar seems to be suffering from a bit of a hangover. Kala removed the plants and vines from the strange conglomeration of devices below me, revealing some sort of crab tank with a set of four ballistas attached to the top, and I realized with some concern that I had been sleeping in the hot seat. Luciel crawled into the tank portion to pilot it, while Kala crawled up to the seat where I was sitting and deposited herself in my lap. She had in hand what appeared to be two halves of a coconut and began clapping them together as we began moving, somehow accelerating the pace of the whole group. Must be some strange magical item. We set off before the sun gets too high in the sky, headed north into Neverwinter Wood.

By mid-afternoon we arrived at a very run-down manse in the middle of the forest. Pumpkin patches surrounded a large house completely covered in ivy. It looked certainly worse for wear, especially with a boar's head carved into the front door. I close my eyes and open up my psionic field to get familiar with the small region around the manse as the others go over their plan on how to get rid of the gulthias tree in the manse's well, sensing four beings of low intelligence within the manse, likely the vine blights they speak of.

I follow as they head inside, floating over the broken wood of busted down doors, and out into the courtyard of the manse. Before me was indeed a well, from which great, thick vines erupted, spreading out across the flagstones. I readied my whip just in case, as I could sense the creatures down inside the well.

Luciel created a great length of chain from thin air with his magic, slowly lowering it in a circle all the way around the tree. And... Ilsensine above, Crete is flying.

I look over to Galvar to see him grinning up at the minotaur. I suppose he learned a new spell. Kala has her flame scimitar at the ready, and they begin the attack.

Combat with the blights is mercifully short and swift, leaving only the tree in their wake. The caster's flame-based spells making short work of the tree, even if Crete's halberd sent blood-like sap spraying everywhere. Finally, Kala casts her own Blight spell, and the tree withers away to dust, leaving the well empty.

<Well, I think this place could use a serious clean-up.> I pull the dehydrated cleaning cubes from inside my sleeve, going to the kitchen to submerge them in water and set them to work.

I come back out to the courtyard to the other four discussing what to do next.

"I think it would make the most sense for Crete and I to go to Neverwinter, so we can sell our loot and see what we can have made with the dragon parts," Luciel explains. “And we’ll look for some builders to fix this place up and maybe set up some outbuildings. Plus I have this sweet stuffed winter wolf head we found to give to Falcon, since he seems to really like stuffed heads of sentient beings. Y’know, just a nice gesture from the new neighbors.”

Oh I really don’t like that. I’m all for keeping repurposed skulls for pots, but at least those were once my food. I lessened the amount of waste from my kills. But I’d rather not have my own head on this...”Falcon’s” wall.

Kala’s also speaks up, “And I’ve got that spider silk weave I commissioned at the Coster to go pick up in town.”

“Then I’ll get started on that secret room for Lephilodi that we were talking about at the bottom of the well!” Galvar says cheerily. “Is that alright with you Miss Lephilodi? We thought it would be the best way to keep you safe when the builders are here.”

<Oh, I see. Well, as long as I have a bed and some space, I suppose it can’t be much worse than Axeholm. And I prefer to be awake at night anyways.>

“Aye! And we’ll set up a hidden door as best we can so no one can bother ye!” exclaimed the dwarf.

<I suppose that will do for now. Thank you.>

“In that case, we’re off!” shouts Luciel jubilantly, as he turns Crete into a giant eagle in front of my very eyes.

Crete plucks up Luciel in his claws and they soon are out of view beyond the trees.

Well that was interesting...

Kala shape-shifts into a wolf and heads for town while Galvar lowers himself into the well to start excavating. I decide to make myself busy and check on the cleaning cubes. They’re not too far along yet, but this will give me time to look around the house.

Unfortunately, the roof of the kitchen is caved in, and the doors on the lower level are all broken for the most part. Most of the furniture is broken, so I do my part and toss all the unsalvageable wood outside with telekinesis. This feels like settling into Axeholm all over again. However, I am delighted to find a laboratory, a library, and a bathing room that still has warm, running water. That’s good, I’ll need a bath later once this room is cleaned as well. There is one master bedroom along with what likely used to be an apprentices’ bedroom, though the latter had a giant hole in the floor and was even more filthy than the prior rooms. Thank goodness the cubes work quickly.

Towards the end of the day, I sense Kala return from town, and I go out to meet her. Galvar comes back out of the well and goes inside to wash up for a moment. Good, I’ve been wanting to ask Kala about something.

I try to speak with my gentlest voice. <Kala, I’ve been meaning to ask you. Are you...okay? You seemed even more upset than Luciel last night, and...when we first met I could tell you were trying to hide a secret from me. But I did not pry because that is not my place.>

Kala looks up at me swiftly. “Oh! Yes, well...I’m not a firbolg. I’m a changeling. I’m fine now, I promise. It’s just that some things that we were told about you, I’ve also heard said about my kind. That’s why I was upset.”

Ah. So that’s what this one has been hiding. <I see. I know little of your kind personally, but I can assure you I have no qualms against you. After all, that would be rather hypocritical of me wouldn’t it?> I project some amusement to help put her at ease before Galvar comes trotting back outside.

With Kala’s help and her Stone Shape spell, they are able to work a bit longer. I decide to head up to that much needed bath as they do so. Thank Ilsensine, the cubes are finished in here. I draw the warm water and strip out of my cleric’s robes. Even with the ivy blocking the windows, I can still see just fine in the darkened room...and I can still see the scars that criss-cross my light skin. Some were accidentally self-inflicted, learning experiences on my body from my time studying how to use a blade-whip. Others...were not. I try not to dwell on them as I sink into the tub of warm water, and I let out a physical sigh of relief. It’s so hard to stay hydrated when you don’t produce your natural mucus anymore. A symptom of my strange diet, but maybe after eating the dragon’s brain, my skin will start slicking down again. But until then, lotions will have to suffice. I soak myself for a while, occasionally shifting to get everything in contact with the water despite my height, before getting out and doing my skincare routine. I put my dampsuit back on afterwards and then my robe, stepping back out of the steam-filled bathing room only to be met by Galvar.

He snapped and pointed his forefingers and thumb towards me, shooting me a wink before he drawls out, “Lookin’ good.”

I immediately feel my face flush white. Was that a compliment???

Galvar immediately started freaking out. “I am so, so sorry, it was supposed to be a joke! I didn’t mean to freak you out!!!”