))So I was told that if I record my thoughts while I'm under the effects of Devilweed it helps me to remember them later. Cause sometimes, only sometimes, I really do get some good ideas when I've been smoking.
People ask me why I smoke this foul-smelling stuff. They ask me why I feel the need to be outside of my mind so often.
The truth is, well, I"ve seen some [[bleep]] that would turn my skin white.
The name under which I was born was Desmodu Ukumbu. My father, Mwoli, was a bamboo farmer in the jungles of Chult. He was also a short-order cook at several restaurants, and he taught me everything he knew about cooking. We grew up on a farm only a few miles from the city of Mezro, the capital city of Chult.
My father was arguably the only Human Being that I have ever truly loved.
My dad worked hard, really hard, to give me and my brothers a good life. My mother died when I was very, very young from a horrible fever, leaving my father alone to care for me and my four siblings. We lived a happy life. But that was before the [[bleep]]-ing Zhentarim came...
I'm twenty-seven years old now. The Zhents occupied Chult just after I had turned thirteen. And the Zhent, well, they did what the Zhent do: They conquered, enslaved, and took "Resources."
Funny. I had never before considered the fact that "human life" was a resource to be taken.
My father and I, we had just spent the day in the blistering heat planting coffee and cocoa beans. Since our farm was covered in natural volcanic soil we had the best-tasting coffee and chocolate for miles around. Even the "nobles" of the city of Mezro, if you can even really call them that, would come from miles around to the Mezro marketplace to buy his signature Dark Roast, which he would brew and sell at his little coffee stand.
I'll never forget the night they came for us. It was nearly midnight when I happened to gaze out my window and saw the entire jungle ablaze. Out of the inferno walked out a man in heavy black armor. His eyes glowed red under his helm..his face was hidden. On each of his flanks was a pair of Zhentarim soldiers. They were foreigners to our land, we could tell, from their white skin.
My door flung open and my father, wearing a suit of bamboo armor, walked into my room. He had with him his trusty Bone Spear.
"Get up, boy. We got some unwanted visitors. And I guarantee they ain't gonna leave nice...pack a bag of clothes. Take nothin' more than you gonna need, and you get your brothers and get them out of here. You run, to the jungle. I'll be right behind ya..."
Mwoli Ukumbu was not an emotional man. After my mother died he became distant. He buried himself in his work. Before my mother passed he always had a smile on his face, a pep in his step. But no more. Mwoli was all business. And he was going to protect his children. He wasn't one to ever tell us that he loved us. He was always one to tell us to "Get our asses up, quit your complainin'" whenever we would stumble or fall.
I loved that man with all of my heart. But I was terrified of him. He was never afraid to take a cane to my black ass in order to set me straight if I [[bleep]]-ed up. I gathered my belongings quickly and rounded up my little brothers, and we hid in the cellar under the house. There were a few tunnels under the house my father used to store food in the winter. I made my way through them, and then looked out from an opening under our house to see what would become of him.
My father stepped out of our hut to face the men that were coming to our home. The fires in the fields raged higher and higher. The Dinosaurs we had domesticated as livestock were stampeding, screaming in horror. The man in black armor approached our home, his weapon drawn, and stared Mwoli down.
"Ah, yes. The Farmer, and the Chef. You will make a fine addition to our...stock. You and your children shall fetch a fine price at market when we ship you off to the Thayans." The Baneite chortled underneath his helmet.
"And I will DIE before I or my children will live in Chains..." I heard him shout back to the man.
"Then so be it..." said the Zhent.
The Zhentarim soldiers charged my father, who stood his ground. As they approached and got closer, and closer, Mwoli simply smiled. As the Zhent closed in, their morningstars drawn, my father did something I'd not seen him do since my mother died.
He whistled.
CRASH!!! through the Barn doors came his oldest, and dearest friend. "Spike" we called him. Spike was an Ankylosaurus. A heavily-armored, quadripedal dinosaur with spikes on it's back and a powerful tail that ended in a blunt club. Spike weighed as much as twenty full-grown men. He crashed through the first Zhentarim wave as a boulder would crash through sand. The Zhentarim soldiers flew through the air with all of the grace of a stone, their bones crushing in their armor as they hit the ground. I still remember the sound of their bones breaking and their armor groaning as they were crushed under Spike's heavy feet.
"Just you and me now, Baneite. Let's see how well you do when you don't have faceless minions to do your work for you!!" my father taunted. The Baneite raised his black Morningstar, and began to charge Mwoli.
Spike took exception to this. As the armored man charged Spike turned his head and released a deafening, primal roar. He charged forth between he and my father and spun around his mighty tail, clubbing the Baneite right in the chest with the force of a crushing hammer. The Baneite flew, landing upon his back with a THUD.
"FOUL BEAST! FEEL THE HAND OF THE DREADLORD!" the man shouted as he stood to his feet. I didn't know it at the time, but it was a Slay Living spell, a spell that tore the very life-force from a living being. The Baneite reached forth his hand, and touched spike upon the forehead.
Spike had just long enough to turn to me, where I was hiding. I could see the fear in his eyes. The pain. Spike was one of my oldest friends too. In Chult, we do not have horses. We ride Dinosaurs. And ever since I was barely old enough to walk my father would take us into Mezro upon Spike's back in a special saddle made for all of us. Spike loved me as much as any Dog would love it's Master. I saw his sad, emerald colored eyes....and then, suddenly, those eyes were empty. The very life snuffed from him. Extinguished like a candle in the wind.
My father screamed in agony. It was as if he had just lost a part of himself. He charged forth, with his bone spear, forged from the spine of a Dimetrodon, and plunged the front of the spear between the shoulder-joint of the Baneite's armor, piercing him deep.
"You will die tonight!! Nobody threatens my family!! I will tear you ap----.."
His shout was cut short as the invader came around with his great black club and went right upside my father's temple. He fell to the ground, his bamboo armor not able to deflect the blow from the steel weapon. He landed upon his side. I can still, in my nightmares, see the blood oozing from his nose and his eyes and his ears.
"Fool. I am no common Zhent. My name is Abaddon Xelviras. And I am High Imperceptor of this chapter of the Inquisition of Bane. And what the Church wants....we take. Your children shall be no exception."
I saw my father struggle then, as he had struggled all of his life, and slowly rose to his feet. He was barely able to stand. His left eye had been almost completely caved in from the devastating blow. He leaned upon his bone-spear, gasping for breath.
"Come now, Farmer. You are beaten. Surrender, and I shall spare your life. After all...I don't wish to damage the merchandise." he chuckled darkly. But my father merely braced himself, and raised up his spear.
It was at this point I had to intervene. I handed my infant brother Ike to my other brother Remi and told them to run. Somebody had to save dad....Remi merely nodded and took off. It would be the last I would ever see them.
Fishing under the house in the storage I found a bamboo fishing spear. It had been sharpened at the end, crudely, so that it could be thrown to catch fish. I readied it, and crawled out from under the house, pointing the spear menacingly at the Imperceptor.
"You leave my dad alone!!" I yelled, tossing the Fishing Spear at the man. Of course the spear merely bounced off of his armor as if it were a leaf against tone. He chuckled before turning back to my father.
"The boy has spirit." uttered the Imperceptor. "..I shall enjoy breaking him, personally."
"Desmodu, I told you to get the hell out of here, boy!! YOU RUN NOW!" my dad screamed.
"I ain't leavin' you dad!" I responded to him, and in my stupidity I charged the Imperceptor. My eyes were blind with tears, my teeth gritted in anger. With one mere strike from the butt-end of his mace...everything went black.
And that was when I awoke from one nightmare into another...
