Stranger from a Strange Land
Jhesssail is silent for a minute or so after Syld asks his question. She then begins to speak - though her tone is less like a hostile enemy, and more like that of a storyteller.
"Indeed, I could have left you. I ssstill could. However, that would not ssserve my purpossse, or the purpossse of my people. We have little trussst for thossse not of the faith. I do not mean to be offensssive. Over the sssenturiesss, we have grown to dissstrussst thossse not of our kind.
"Our people, the yuan-ti, were onssse sssimilar to the human. We were of the Dokorr [doe-core] - the rassse that, agesss ago, intertwined with the Isssci [is-key] and produsssed the human rassse.
"The Sssalpheriansss had forsssaken the waysss of the Dokorr, and were banissshed from the Dokorr landsss. They were onssse a great tribe, but were then redusssed to nomadsss. We, the tribe of Yuan-Ti, were a lessser tribe, an off-ssshoot of the Sssalpherians. Becaussse we were related by blood, we, too, were given their sssentence.
"We travelled by way of ship, far away from our ansssessstral home. Eassst - alwaysss eassst. After monthsss of travel, we found what we were looking for - a plassse that wasss hot and sssimilar to our homeland. The desssert that we found wasss sssuitable.
"A sssingle ssshaman from the Dokorr had travelled with usss, and he sssaw the desssert - and called it the 'Desssert of the Forsssaken', for that isss what the Dokorr had named the Sssalpheriansss. He named the plassse where we landed 'Moland', which in your tongue meansss 'point of landing', and the whole of the plassse, from the watersss of the eassst to the mountainsss of the wessst, was named 'Molandum', 'home of point of landing'. The Sssalpheriansss named it Sssalpher, in their name.
"Although the Sssalpheriansss had mossstly given up the worssship of the godsss, we of the Yuan-Ti knew that they ssstill held power. Although the desssert wasss sssimilar to our homeland, it wasss different - few plasssesss of ressst, and little water. We knew that only the godsss could help usss sssurvive. Imzil came to me in a dream, and offered her asssissstance, if we came to trussst in her and only her. I told the othersss of my tribe what I had ssseen, and they agreed that it wasss the only way.
"We performed the ritesss, and became what we are now - Imzil's image. The Sssalpherians feared usss, for we were proof that the godsss yet held power, and they banissshed usss from Molandum.
"We wandered the world for an entire year, while Imzil told usss of the location of a new home. A plassse that we had misssed when we passsed through on our way from our homeland. A newly-risssen plassse. Untainted.
"The plassse of which ssshe told usss, isss thisss one. Thisss jungle. For over a hundred of your yearsss, we have lived here, undisssturbed. But, a few yearsss ago, ssstrange creaturesss began coming from under the earth. A few humansss came from the north, and before they ventured further sssouth told usss of what they were looking for.
"Ssstrange, foreign wordsss were what they ssspoke to us. 'Illithid', 'alhoon', 'illithilich'... namesss of thingsss that we did not underssstand. We asssked for an explanation, and we ressseived one. We know thossse namesss now. We know what they are, and what they plan to do. That isss why we desssire a peassse with your kind, with thossse to the north - to help usss root out thessse abominationsss. To cleanssse our new home from the evil that dwellsss here.
"Asss to your other quessstionsss... Imzil isss known to outsssidersss as the sssnake goddesss, although only a rare few know of her. Beyond that, ssshe hasss revealed none of her other namesss to usss."
