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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Gina" data-source="post: 1530886" data-attributes="member: 10990">Session 31: The BirdsThaile remembered to bring my journal, though she didn’t remember to bring any clothing. No matter, Reena had extra and none of my old things would have fit in any case. So, here I am, reborn. I can no longer hear the great voice calling to me. I can no longer see the dead rising, but I remember it still. I shall remember it for the rest of my life, whatever a "life" is. I miss the voice, it seems too quiet here now, but I think that will pass, at least I hope it will. I was able to get a good look at this new body before I entered. It is very different from my old one, though still human. I used to be shorter with curly red hair. Now, I am tall, more slender than before and have black hair with a strange streak of pure white running down the left side. My eyes are very pale and gray where they were once dark brown. Asmathias has a thin white streak running down his back too. I think that it is an echo of the other world. But on to other things. Reena produced an extra set of her own clothing and I put it on. I also gladly put on the leather armor, studded with bone that they had taken from the orcish druid at the Kaufman farm. I thanked everyone for helping to bring me back, Hara just muttered about getting back to town, unpleasant old witch that she is. I wonder that she even consented to help at all. As we walked back toward town, through the forested hillsides, I began telling the others of my time in the other place and of the great voice. My telling was interrupted as I noted that there were many more small birds perching on the trees than usual. A moment later, I realized that they looked quite hostile. Graystone and Mor'Elandi had also become aware of this.Nuthatches, Sparrows, Chickadees, Juncoes, and other small birds sat thick on branches, side by side, staring at us.  Then, in a sudden flurry, they were upon us, a roiling swarm of tiny birds, pecking and tearing at us. Even as Tieran dispersed the first swarm, three more came, engulfing most of us. The fight was hard, many of our weapons doing little or no damage to the swarms. Eventually though, all of the swarms were dispersed. Small birds littered the area, dead or dying. After the swarms were dispersed, Mor’Elandi commented to Tieran that he was trying to draw the swarms away from the group and Tieran kept moving back into their area. They bickered a little while about it as we continued on. Some things never change. We moved on, quickly to avoid being engulfed again. As we did, Graystone, Hara, and I discussed the difficulty of training so many birds to act as one in that way. The orcish animal masters, or Druids must be very skilled indeed. They seem to have a special affinity with birds, since their favored wild shape appears to be a corpse-raven. Interesting. We moved toward Eaglesford as quickly as we could, keeping an eye out for swarms of birds. We were not attacked in that way again and made it to a relatively defensible place to camp. First and second watches came and went without incident, but on Third watch a shadow-fox came and attacked. Reena took the brunt of the attack, losing a great deal of strength. The creature was finally dispatched, but it was very difficult. These shadows seem to be multiplying and that cannot be good. They are harder to defeat than the restless or even the hungry dead. July 16thMorning came and we were happy to see the sunrise. I was happy to be able to commune with nature and feel the power of its magic within me. I feel more connected to this new body now, it is starting to be more natural, still it is odd to know that my own mother would not recognize me now.  We moved out and by mid-afternoon were nearing Eaglesford. As we got closer, Reena asked Kefk about the rag-amulet they had taken from the trolls. Reena had told Hara about it and she wanted to see it. So, Kefk handed the amulet to Reena. What happened next was not good. Immediately upon grasping the amulet, Reena went into a rage, attacking the first target she found, which happened to be Kefk. He dodged her first blow and was only bruised. Tieran cast a spell that put her to sleep and good thing too, because she might have killed us all. Once she awakened, she was apologetic and embarrassed that she had behaved the way she did. We all assured her that we knew that it wasn’t her, but the amulet which caused it. We were near Eaglesford, but also near the Johnson farm, so we decided to go and check on the Kobold warren. It was near night anyway and it would probably be better to spend the night there than out in the open. As we neared our destination, we heard the sound of trumpets from the direction of Eaglesford. Apparently, the legions had finally come to the aid of the town. We made our way down into the warren and were met by Maluki-Kip and Kytum-up. After a quick explanation of what had happened in the clearing, they introduced the new me to them. Maluki-kip seemed quite disturbed by my rebirth, commenting that it seemed dangerously close to necromancy. I spent quite a while talking with him and Kytum-up about my time as a ghost and of the great voice. In the end, he accepted that I am not evil, though he still seemed disturbed about my return to life. I suspect that will be a common reaction among humans as well. We settled in for the night, sleeping in the large central chamber since we were certain that an attack would come. The kobolds told us that they had been under attack every night by shadows recently. This time the attack came on second watch, a huge shadow, a former swamp troll maybe, appeared next to Reena, taking a great deal of her strength right away. I watched, unable to do much to help. Thaile and Tieran used spells, Mor’Elandi did what he could with his bow, actually damaging the creature at least once, while Hara and Graystone worked to keep Reena up and fighting. Kytum-up used his healing to do damage to the creature and Kefk moved up to attack it as well. I even got in on the action, damaging it with some healing energy. Graystone was hit as he gave Reena some of her strength back, falling even as he helped her. The creature was defeated, but it took a great many of our resources. We settled down for the remainder of the night, hoping that there would not be another attack.</blockquote>

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