CLOSED POST: SECRET TO EDENA
Illithids generally don't speak over radios. We generally can't get them to work - We have no spoken language. Such things are for lesser creatures. But it makes it a bitch to speak in to microphone.
We have not yet determined how to create a telepathic interface with a radio, nor, frankly, would I trust such a device. The subtleties, the inflexions, these would not only be LOST, but completely misinterpreted by random static.
Because of this, we tend to communicate through proxy when we use the radio. It's simple enough to command our thrall to speak for us. I'm certainly not going to shapeshift in to a form with a tongue for something as trivial as this.
Besides... Controlling a thrall is more dignified. And I need to make a good first impression on my fellow Illithid.
The slave, a human, looks up at me blankly. I've altered his memories, slightly... Most humans would instantly lose control of their bodies upon realizing my identity. I've gained a great deal of infamy in these six months. This human knows nothing about me, my past - Nothing except that I'm his boss, and if he screws up I eat his brain for supper.
The device in front of me is one of our better radios - Powerful, yet focused. Tight beam, they call it. I can use it to communicate with my fellows in space without having to leave my home. And at the moment, I'm hunted. Leaving home would be a very, very, very bad idea, even for an entity as powerful as me.
I need to get it back. I have to have it back. Holding it. Touching it. Wielding it. It's like nothing else I've ever experienced in my entire existence. But it is also wrong... Wrong, and sick. An Illithid should not feel this way about anything. We are not meant for such thoughts nor built for them. Yet I... I find myself lusting after the staff. Thoughts, HORRID thoughts, intrude on my consciousness. I have seen this in the minds of mammals and recoiled in disgust, yet now I find it in me... And I find this, this LUST, focused not even on a life form, but on the Staff...!
I need to get it back. I crave it like a drug. No, not like a drug. Like something worse. Something carnal.
I shake my head. My... troubles, the effect the Staff had upon me, must wait. A voice hisses in to coherency on the transmission. It is a Skum, under the control of one of my fellows... I speak through the thrall...
[SECRET SECTION!]
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"Brethren. I see you have become aware of the sacrilige perpetrated by the solar Alzem. You have come to ensure that I regain posession of the Staff?"
A brief pause. Radio waves can only go so fast.
"This is the case, Chosen." The voice is crackly. I can barely comprehend it, and I am a creature that has listened to the heartbeats of trees in my finest moments. "We come in our fleets to rain just vengeance upon these foolish creatures, who so desecrate the sacred of Ilsensine."
"There are few other Illithid," I began, "Who are truly faithful to his Will. Indeed... There are very, VERY few who truly understand how important he is, how greatly his fate is entwined with ours." I would have glared, but how would he see it? "I do not believe you are a true follower of his Will, whomever you are. I will not speak a false mammal-name to describe you, nor will I ask you to. Why have you truly come?"
There was an unusually long pause.
"We... We have heard of your exploits, Chosen. Your power, and your bravado. Our people have long lived in the shadows, Chosen. We desire the light. We desire Penumbra again."
"You will have Penumbra. But you do not need to come to Oerth. I have another destination for you."
And I told them the coordinates of the Penumbral Hub. There, they would wait, wait for my trap. I would crush those fools like minds beneath my will... And I would have a very good time doing it.
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Edena, I want the Illithid Spelljamming forces to move to the Penumbra Hub, and prepare for one hell of a fight.
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