NPC post: 


Orange reptilian eyes watched from the warehouses as the children boarded the ship and set off to the south on their sea voyage.  The naked, bald, woman had watched them all winter, skulking about in various shapes to best keep an eye on them without being noticed herself.  It fascinated her how much her enemy simply ignored their presence, the tenacity of the children also fascinated her.  By all rights they should be dead by now.

She knew something of the value of being underestimated.  She herself was once considered nothing more than a trash caste among her own kind.  A lesser being and worth very little to the ancient ones and the leaders of her clan.  But despite that, or perhaps because of that, the god S'seth had shown her great favor.  She rose steadily and quickly through the ranks of his priests until she became one of his favorites, one of his Chosen, and blessed with a touch of his divine power.  

Her natural abilities of shapeshifting, between her human form and snake, had been augmented by her god and now any and all reptilian forms were available to her.  Through meditation she could commune with her god almost at will, and drift in and out of her body.  Through prayer she was granted a variety of useful, and powerful spells.  Her kinfolk had come to look up to her, admire her devotion, and respect the powers she now possessed.  Her dedication was why she had undertaken this dangerous journey from Chult to this unknown land to chase down this threat to her god.  And now she had found...not allies precisely...but tools.  These children had so much potential and could be used to take down the dark god if she handled things right.  

The fool god Ubtao had refused to even notice the danger, he'd probably perish sleeping.  The thought brought a sneer to the woman's face. Her god, however, was adept at dealing in secrets and deceptions and when the dark god Eshowdow made his move to take over this strange land of Faerun she was ready to follow, hinder, and stop him in any way she could.     

Hairlissa watched the ship sail out of sight before she slipped down the wall of the warehouse, a small brown snake ignored by the people who bustled about.  She would need to move fast to follow the ship but she wasn't too worried even if she lost them.  She knew well where they were headed. 

Once the children had arrived in Chult she would make her move.  She sensed the goodness in them, that could be problematic, but she also sensed conflict and a desire for revenge.  Those were the attitudes she could nurture.  

No one on the docks noticed the tiny brown snake slip into the water, no one noticed it disappear beneath the waves, and no one noticed the huge lizard like shape cruising quickly along under the water, powerful tail carrying the great salt water crocodile out into the ocean in the wake of the children's ship.  

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Hairlissa wasn't entirely correct in assuming Ubtao was ignoring the spreading threat of the dark god Eshowdow.  In fact one of his priests also watched the children take off on the ship and had noticed the same thing she had.  The children were unnoticed, considered to be no threat, while every other being who might potentially have halted Eshowdow's spread had been swiftly dealt with by the dark priests the children were ignored as nothing.  

Kief was an outcast among his priesthood, and among his kinfolk.  He let his anger get the best of him once, and killed in a fit of rage.  Ubtao's priests didn't kick him out, but he was quickly demoted.  His kinfolk had shunned him, disowned him completely.  Killing in rage was, to them, uncivilized and a mark of a bestial nature.  The only being that hadn't condemned him for his brash actions was his god Ubtao.  He was still granted spells, albeit it different ones than the ranking priests.  He was not denied his communion with Ubtao, the god still heard his prayers.  Kief clung to that knowledge...not quite a priest and not quite not a priest.  He teetered on a strange invisible line.  It was because of this he was able to notice the threat the dark god posed.   Eshowdow was a part of Ubtao, a shadow of the great creator god.  How often do you notice your own shadow?  It was only because Kief wasn't fully a priest of Ubtao that he even saw the threat.  

He was laughed away when he tried to bring it to the attention of the priesthood of Ubtao.  And so, on his own, with only a few simple spells, he headed to the strange lands of Faerun to find out Eshowdow's plan, to find proof to rally the Ubtao and his priests to fight the spreading shadow threat.  He had seen S'seth's servant watching the children as well, knew she would be as poisonous as the god she served, but for now there was nothing he could do to stop her.  Eshowdow was the greater threat.   

He didn't like this land, but he had learned much.  None of it good.  These children though, there was something special about them.  They could be allies, if he could muster up the courage to speak to them, and if he could figure out the best way to approach them.  He could offer them help, strength and guidance, and they seemed to be the ONLY people still able to stop Eshowdow's spreading power.  He knew where they were going, he would just have to figure out how to beat them there.