Courier Pigeon Initiative

### Results

Diplomatic relations opened between Dilghao and Penskruingman, Kobold species ritually pseudo-castrated, Shoggoth species exterminated

## Participants

### Binturian Allies

Courier Pigeon Initiative, Penskruingman Kobolds, Qilin

## Common Knowledge

Sailors, especially those on the eastern coast, may have heard of a new landmass discovered recently just beyond the Worldline. Dilghaoan sailors or military may have directly interacted with or even worked for the Courier Pigeon Initiative, an mission to explore a new continent far to the east.

Just about every Kobold would be familiar with the Courier Pigeon Initiative, the agents of another continent who brought new resources, freed Shalor from its mysterious tyrants, and offered escape from their island, but shortly after their appearance the size of their litters shrank drastically.

## Contributing Factors

### Kobold Exile

Thousands of years ago, the Kobold species and humans lived together in northeastern Orelisle. Due to a number of factors, including the Kobolds’ incredibly high birth rate and latter size as well as the humans’ xenophobia, conflict broke out between the two groups. With the humans’ discovery of Mythril, an inherently magical metal, they forced the Kobolds into exile across the sea. The surviving Kobold refugee fleets landed on an island far beyond the worldline, which would be called many things including Penskruingman and Zikrspin.

### Colonial Dilghao

Centuries of Dilghao’s xenophobia and refusal to acknowledge non-human states as sovereign entities led to colonization as a culturally acceptable practice. In addition to plundering and attacking various groups in the Fera Isles, Dilghao had begun plans to launch a full-scale invasion of nearby Barg and Ashain. Dilhaoan scryers, however, instead directed their attention to a previously-uncharted island to their east, several leagues beyond the Worldline. In preparation for this event, Dilghao constructed a colonizing fleet, equipped with speed-enhancing runes to make the months-long trek only minutes-long, and began recruiting various organizations across Orelisle to a potential motherload of unexploited resources. This expedition and the affiliated groups would come to be referred to as the “Courier Pigeon Initiative” (or CPI, for short).

#### Affiliate Groups

Dilghao recruited as many talented groups and minds as they could, eschewing their normal hesitations about certain *other factors* involved (usually racism and xenophobia, what a surprise). Below are a list of organizations and individuals who were in some way involved in the Courier Pigeon Initiative.

* Amrali Royal Archaeology Society, represented by Hot E. Archaeologist on the voyage
* Argiderran Alchemists’ Guild, represented by Alan on the voyage
* The House of Healers, represented by Kaitlyn Silfedis on the voyage
* Pyrite Incorporated, represented by Leneki from the mainland
* The Weather Wizards, represented by Mark Martin on the voyage
* The Wizards’ Guild, represented by Tanlin Briltgrin on the voyage
* Archibald Equius III, Esq., a formerly-Abyssal freelance contractor on the voyage
* Rush Geddy, an Arlaven freelance cartographer on the voyage
* Theo Rothin, a Jerichoan artificer on the voyage, and former member of the Seven Nations’ Alliance
* The Dilghaoan Government, represented by Team Leaders James Brenner (a Paragon) and Maple Albrecht (a Warlock)
* The Binturian Party, represented by the Binturians on the voyage

## Binturian Involvement

Shortly before the colonizer fleet departed, Team Leaders James Brenner and Maple Albrecht, along with Equius III, approached the Binturian Party about providing security and exploratory services in exchange for a large sum of stone. They accepted, and guarded the fleet’s main ship as it penetrated the perpetual hurricane that at that time surrounded the new landmass.

Once on the island, the CPI and the Binturians quickly made first contact with the local Kobold population. The Binturians would hold a principal role in diplomatic negotiations between the Kobolds and the Dilghaoans, ultimately resolving the situation with the assistance of the island’s guardian and a ritual which decreased the birth rate of the Kobolds to levels that would not destabilize Orelisle at large. The Binturians also executed the last request needed to reach that arrangement: the total obliteration of the parasitic Shoggoth species.

## Order of Events

### Departure

In late spring of 10,018 A.B., the Binturian Party is approached by a large group with some familiar and unfamiliar faces (Maple Albrecht, CPI; Hot E. Archaeologist, Binturian Nayeli’s husband; Kaitlyn Silfedis, Head Medic at the House of Healers and Binturian Aquano’s mother; Tanlin Briltgrin, Wizards’ Guild representative and Binturian Felji’s brother; and two Dilghaoan guards carrying the chest), and offered them a literal chest of gold if they agreed to join the Courier Pigeon Initiative for a “short but rewarding job” (though they did request that they sign a nondisclosure agreement, to keep this on the down-low, as well as separate agreements prohibiting them from engaging in nation-building on the CPI’s claim).

The Binturians accepted, and the CPI agents teleported them to the CPI’s Dilghao warehouse base. There, they found three large ships adorned with rows of cannons and covered in runes. The Binturians boarded the flagship *Seventh Siren* with Brenner, Albrecht, and Mark Martin among others, and they set sail flanked by the gunship *Lapsed Pacifist* and the cargo ship *Lily of the Valley*. During the journey, Brenner explained the full details of the CPI, and the new landmass they will be exploring, and the reasons behind their recruitment (both for their experience and to mend some of the bridges burnt by the Seven Nations’ Alliance the previous year). The wards and runes of the ship itself could block the Worldline’s effects, but it would be up to the ship’s crew and the Binturians to defend Mark Martin while he protected the ship from the island’s perpetual storm.

The ships were harassed by swarms of sea creatures, which were easily beaten back into the sea, before the legendary sea squid Charybdis emerged from the sea and the whirlpool above its mouth threatened to suck in the whole fleet. The quick thinking of the Binturian Enzar felled the beast in a single strike, saving the day and the fleet at large. The storms grew worse, and a large fish rose from the sea and transformed into a huge bird, but it too was repelled. Just as the land came over the horizon, lightning shattered the protective ritual Mark was maintaining. Without it, the *Lily of the Valley* was caught in the winds and blown somewhere towards the island, but with Mark and the Binturians’ help *Lapsed Pacifist* and *Seventh Siren* reached the shore. There the storm was only as bad as a regular thunderstorm instead of the cataclysmic winds that they had just weathered.

Upon disembarking, the sailor Jim (a popular figure among the crew, and secretly the Elder Goddess of Possibility in disguise) took the first steps onto the new continent and planted the Dilghaoan flag. Moments later, a large bird-like creature swept down and grabbed him, and carried him off to his doom. This would be an omen of things to come.

### Initial Survey and the Beachhead

The Binturians split into two groups: the first would go out with Brenner to find the cargo ship, hopefully rescuing the supplies (and any survivors, too); the second would work with Albrecht to clear a proper landing area for the remaining fleet and help establish base camp on the island.

Brenner’s group navigated through the forest, following the *Lily’s* trajectory and battling off the island’s monstrous inhabitants. At a clearing, they found what remains of the ship, but its crates have been opened and the supplies taken. Following footsteps deeper in, they entered a sinkhole to find a dark tunnel system. Down in these depths, the Binturians found an as-yet undiscovered metal (the electrifying Orichalcum) as well as the missing supplies in the lair of a large, stealthy, poison-emitting jaguar-like creature. Dispatching the monster, the Binturians returned to base camp with the supplies but with no survivors.

Meanwhile, the much smaller group cleared out the frankly-alarming number of monsters on the beach with the *Pacifist’s* cannons and good-old-fashioned violence. Some of the Binturians might have been briefly afflicted with a zombifying curse, but it was very immediately lifted by the abundant healers present after the deed was done.

### First Contact - Kobolds

The next morning, Brenner and the Binturians followed up on spotted signs of civilization on the island. They found bipedal footprints near a herd of grazing beasts (some kind of armored fish), and followed them deeper into the forest. Not long after, they entered a clearing and stopped at the sound of chattering and movement in the woods. A three-foot-tall, canine-like humanoid in jungle-fashioned materials and carrying a spear emerged from the jungle. The Dilghaoans on this expedition, few that there were, began to murmur amongst themselves about “Kobolds”, people who once lived in Dilghao generations ago but were exterminated for breeding like rabbits and draining the land’s resources.

The Kobold before them tried to speak to them, but centuries (or more) or isolation had created an impenetrable language barrier between the Kobolds and mainlanders. At a signal from their apparent leader, more kobolds emerged and surrounded the group. Their weapons remained at their sides, and many looked wary but not openly hostile quite yet. The leader gestured that they follow him, and led the Binturians to a small tribal camp not far away. After an “introduction” to the tribe’s actual leader, an elaborate game of charades and a map revealed that travelling to a place nearby can somehow let them communicate.

Arming up with the Kobold chieftain and Brenner, the Binturians journeyed through a canyon, reeking of death and rot and littered with undead. This valley, the Blighted Vale, was long ago flooded with the power of undeath, and anything that dies was raised as a mindless undead unless properly dismembered. On the other side of the valley, there the chieftain mimed that the “Qilin” lay. A long, long, *long* trek later, they came to a beautiful forest glade with a small pond and a scaled, lion-like creature. This creature, the “Qilin”, spoke telepathically with the party and agreed to translate for both groups if this group now pledged to protect this island and its inhabitants. The Binturians agreed, and communication with the Kobolds was finally established (albeit with some magical/essence-based trickery that gives some speakers accents).

### Battle of Giants

While one group of Binturians established first contact with a new civilization isolated from Orelisle for hundreds of years, another group was frolicking through a flower meadow. This may be an exaggeration of sorts but did definitely happen at one point, as this group was sent out to explore by the CPI’s cartographer. Over the course of wandering through the majesty of nature and taking in its wonders, and dispatching monsters that harried them along the way, the Binturians found a tree whose fruits could make creatures grow to huge sizes. A fight between a giant Binturian (Valtir Stormblade) and a giant monster led to the leveling of a few forests on the island. This may sound like an insignificant detail, but this action inadvertently saved the final negotiations with the Qilin.

### City Folk

Hearing through the grapevine that outsiders had been discovered on the island, (the Dilghaoans christened it Nouvonde, the Kobold tribes call it Penskruingman, and the Kobold cities call it Zikrspin) a delegation from the city of Valsum arrived at the CPI base camp and requests that they meet with their council. The Binturians travelled for a while and came to an underground staircase leading them to a cavern city built wholly from crystals. Meeting with the Valsum Council, the two groups exchanged information about each other before the Council asked the Binturians to handle a problem for them.

One of the principle materials that Valsum mines and exports, aside from Orichalcum, was a clay that can be used to mimic other objects’ and metals’ properties if properly tempered and enchanted. Unfortunately, the mine holding this “reality clay” had been recently closed on account of a big, angry lava monster, whom the Council would really appreciate no longer being there. Through some trickery, the Binturians were able to convince the lava monster (Ket-Xil, a guardian of a forgotten god of nothing named Zilien) that his old master wanted him to move on and no longer protect this memorial site (the fact that Zilien’s memories actually did want Ket-Xil to move on had literally no bearing on the process). The Binturians were rewarded with chunks of Reality Clay in exchange.

### Second Contact - Crystallines

While removing a nest of harmless but annoying Gremlins, the Binturians found a large cavern filled with a city of stone and white quartz spires, stalagmites, and stalactites, ringing with chime-like tones. They saw clusters of colorful crystals with limb-like offshoots, moving about the city below, and one of them noticed the Binturians and tried to communicate with them. Neither party could understand each other, but the Binturian Maldour Forgearm cursed the entity to be able to speak and understand the common tongue. The language barrier easily eclipsed, the two groups exchanged notes as their new translator led them to their leader, the Elder. These entities, the Crystallines (who call the island [D5 Major, A4 Minor, E5 Minor, B4 Major]), were the original inhabitants of the island before tensions with the immigrant Kobolds forced them underground to their oldest city, where the Kobolds refused to go.

Some more communication later, the Crystalline Elder asked the Binturians to remove a monster den from the surface. The den blocked a stream of light that normally reached all the way underground to a Crystalline breeding ground where newly-”born” Crystallines feed off its light to grow faster. The Binturians dispatched the monster with ease, and in gratitude the Crystallines gave them a newborn Crystalline to observe the world above. The fact that this Crystalline could also act as an unbreakable sword is a nice plus as well. Their “Ambassador” in tow in the hands of the Binturian Felji, the Binturians return to the base camp to share their findings. Upon arriving, they find that a bunch of the island’s monsters (including the Gremlins from earlier) attacked and some even reached the Teleport Pole and may be on Orelisle by now.

### Prolonged Misunderstanding

Later that night, a group of Binturians went out and investigated a large, seemingly-abandoned Crystalline structure. Solving the easy puzzle to gain entry, the Binturians quickly became trapped inside the structure. They quickly came to grips with the horrors the Crystallines unwittingly inflicted upon the Kobolds, and part of why the Kobolds drove them underground in the first place: Crystallines fundamentally did not understand organic life. The facility the Binturians were now trapped in was designed by the Crystallines to keep its inhabitants safe for their entire lifespan, never allowing them to leave, forcing them to live in inhumane conditions.

This facility, harnessed magic, essence, and the soul of a bound and controlled Kobold administrator, kept Kobolds in prisons or pens, forced them to eat the same algae that would supposedly grow their children, inflicted them with poisons and curses when they seemed unhappy or otherwise not within the Crystalline’s “expected parameters”, and inflicted harsh punishments of violence for breaking the rules. The Sanctuary, and places like it, could and did drive Kobolds utterly mad.

The Binturians broke their way through traps, defense measures, and what might still be called Kobolds after years of abuse, and finally confronted the administrator. With the key in hand, they could have simply escaped the building, but chose to end the nightmare that it posed. The Binturians entered the core chamber, where the administrator’s soul was bound and controlled the Sanctuary, fought through waves of its artificial guardians, and destroyed it. The Kobold administrator’s soul was finally put to rest, and the facility crumbled without any mind sustaining it.

### Third Contact - Shoggoths

Following reports of a second Kobold city, one which the other Kobolds avoided based on an uneasy feeling, the Binturians ventured into the jungle once more. They found the refined city of Shalor, a wealthy and advanced place compared to the rest of the island and even to some of the Binturians’ own standards, though they seemed more solemn or tired in some way. After meeting with a guard patrol, the Binturians were escorted deeper into the city to meet with its leaders. On the way, they were instructed not to go to private areas, such as the large put in the city’s center (for cultural and safety reasons).

They did eventually find the pit, as the market square surrounded it, but they also found a small temple decorated with statues of an amorphous, tentacled creature and script in a language not even the Qilin’s blessing could translate. Any attempts to ask about the pit or the strange religion of the city were deflected by Kobolds having trouble concentrating on the questions and promptly forgetting.

Suddenly, one Kobold stopped its normal activities, and walked in a daze towards the pit. The two guards at the top of the pit’s long, sloping ramp made no attempt to stop him, even as their family begged and pleaded with him to stop. As the Kobold disappeared into the pit, their family dried their tears and stopped crying, seeming to have forgotten the horror that just transpired. Even the Binturians themselves seemed to have a hard time focusing on what they have just witnessed. They briefly teleported back to base camp to regroup and plan the obvious next move: explore the pit.

Delving into the pit, they fended off a few Kobolds and followed the ramp deeper and deeper into the abyssal caverns. At its bottom, a tunnel bearing similar iconography to the church above led deeper in, and footprints showed signs of Kobolds entering but never returning. The Binturians grew more and more paranoid, convinced that they were being watched and sometimes catching glimpses in darkness of eyes, teeth, and blackened undulating flesh. Messages would flash in their mind of static, screeching, and malicious intent. Not far ahead, a beast growled at them before being subsumed by a tendril of that same undulating black mass slammed into it and engulfed it, reshaping it into a large, crude mouth and vocal chords.

The facsimile mimicked their speech, babbling inanely, before becoming shockingly clear and understanding their language. The creature, christened “Jennifer” by the Binturians, beckoned them deeper into a freshly-opened side tunnel. Following the ominous instruction, the entrance shut behind them and they confronted one of many of the pit’s dwellers: a huge, shifting mass of sludge and sinew, eyes and teeth, equal parts intellect and malice, known as a Shoggoth. Though they dispatched the creature after a long fight, the Binturians left before they could contend with the other Shoggoths dwelling in the pit.

### Fourth Contact - Storm Giants

The following morning, while negotiations between the CPI and Kobolds were underway, one group of Binturians worked with Mark Martin, who believed he knew where the storms were coming from and could stop them. Travelling through the Blighted Vale, the coastline, and the deep jungle, Martin ritually triangulated the source of the storms to be atop the tallest mountain on the island.

After a long trek, they reached the top and found three giant humanoids, with grey skin and electric blue and yellow eyes and hair, who literally weaved the storms into existence before sending them out over the island. After getting their attention, the Storm Giants agree to let up with the storms for a little while until the CPI can safely sail out. With the full majesty of the island and its archipelago neighbors revealed by the lifted storms, Martin elected to remain with the Storm Giants and learn their craft.

### Extinction Event

The Binturian Party began to mediate talks between the Kobolds and the CPI. It had become clear to them that the primary obstacle to peace was the Kobolds’ insanely fast reproduction rate, which until now the island’s monsters had kept in check. An easy agreement to make would be to allow the Kobolds access to Orelisle in exchange for trade on the island, but the return of Kobolds on Orelisle could potentially pose an ecological and economic disaster. To find a solution to this problem, the Binturians travelled once again to the Qilin’s Grove.

The Qilin explained that while it could restrict the Kobold’s litter size with its abilities, it would not do so as that would offset the balance of the island. The Kobolds had become an integral part of the island’s food chain. The Binturians asked if the food chain could be altered in such a way that fewer Kobolds on the whole would not cause too much damage, and though the Qilin seemed to disagree both groups remembered all at once that there was such a threat. On the island, one force stood almost atop the Qilin in terms of influence, one group leeched off the island’s resources without providing anything in return: the Shoggoths.

The Qilin agreed to do as the Binturians had asked, but only after the complete extermination of the Shoggoths (and if the Binturians spent part of the summer replanting the destroyed forest). Doing so would preserve the balance of the island, while providing the Binturians the solution to the conflict they so sought. The Binturians delved deep into the pit once more, armed to the teeth and prepared to face down as many Shoggoths as they could before negotiations turned sour. The Shoggoths realized their plan very quickly, and summoned their entire species to merge into one, unified whole. This “Super-Shoggoth” intended to wipe out the Binturians utterly, perhaps then moving on to the outsiders who brought them and upset its eternal meal supply. Before it could do any real damage, however, the Binturian Amirynn brought down the Axe of Doom, a blade that can kill any single creature with no effort. Since the Super-Shoggoth qualified as a single creature, in one fell swoop the entire Shoggoth species was wiped off the face of Temporis.

Invoking divinity and ritual alike to ensure that no Shoggoths remained, the Binturians returned to the Qilin and conducted a ritual to restrict the Kobold’s birth rate and litter size. This done, they returned to the negotiations and explained what had transpired to the Dilghaoan side, but not the Kobolds themselves. An agreement was struck, allowing the CPI and the Kobolds equal passage to each other’s land mass, with further agreements to follow, and the Binturians returned home on the *Seventh Siren* comfortable with a job well done.

## Aftermath

Dilghao negotiated a beneficial trade and exploration agreement, the Kobolds rediscovered the landmass of Orelisle and the world at large beyond their island, the Binturians made a tidy profit, Orelisle was saved from a potential resource crisis, and the sadistic and parasitic Shoggoths were wiped out.

## Further Information

* Axe of Doom
* The Binturian Party
* Crystallines
* Dilghao
* Essence
* Kobolds
* Penskruingman
* The Qilin
* Reality Clay
* Shoggoth
* Storm Giants
* Teleportation Pole