"I will not say much, i'm afraid. For you see, though we have come this far, my trust does not come easily. But what I will say is this: Speaks-With-Dead is not me, and I am not Speaks-With-Dead. He is my mind's product of untold grief, confusion, and unbridled rage, all directed at these foul wretches known as goblinoids. When the stinking green tide fell upon my community, all was taken from me. I watched most of my family and friends get torn to ribbons, their remains little more than fresh meat for their war machine. The ones i did not see i can only assume met the same fate. My Gods had abandoned us, for no salvation was to come for my community. So I forsake them, and began my study of the one thing I craved the most: Death. Death for the Ironfang. They want to fight with an army of monsters, fine. I'll show them an army of monsters their feeble minds could never fathom."
~~~~ Speaks-With-Dead, upon inquiry of his background.
Speaks-With-Dead, born Tchanka Ebonfeather, originates from a small Tengu community that was located on the western side of the Mindspin Mountains. He was the eldest of 3 sons of the chieftain, and as tradition would have it, he was the apprentice under the tribe shaman, Reads-The-Bones. Under her tutelage, Speaks-With-Dead learned of the true value of necromancy to a crow. Reads-The-Bones taught him that contrary to popular belief, creatures and people are just as valuable dead as alive. The Old Gods teach that the body of a person is merely a vessel for their soul, the essence of who they are. Upon death, that soul leaves and as such the vessel becomes empty. Using their divine power, The Old Gods could grant the ability to refill the vessel with energy, creating undead creatures ready to defend the village and the ideals that the living once stood for. Speaks-With-Dead became enthralled with this idea and studied as often as he could in his free time the powers of necromancy. Not yet trained enough to use the higher level reanimating spells, Speaks-With-Dead spent months of research on a new spell to serve as a lesser version of animate dead so that he could utilize this sacred ability to help his tribe whenever he could if the shaman was occupied. Upon discovery of his breakthrough, Reads-The-Bones was proud of her apprentice, but warned him that these powers should never be used on the innocent. Also, the other peoples of the world may not view necromancy as a benign power and as such these powers should be used carefully, for fear of persecution.
Soon after Speaks-With-Dead’s research was complete, the village was awoken by the sounds of combat. Racing outside, Speaks-With-Dead and Reads-With-Bones saw the village night guards engaged in combat with goblins. Within minutes the whole village was up and fighting but the small community was no match for the numbers of greenskins and soon the few remaining warriors were surrounded on all sides. After a few moments of silence, Speaks-With-Dead heard a goblin shout ‘For the Ironfang Legion” and the green tide descended upon the Tengu. In the following ruckus, Speaks-With-Dead, as he was casting a healing spell, was knocked unconscious by the butt end of a Tengu warriors spear.
Speaks-With-Dead awakened in a mass shallow grave, surrounded by the corpses of his friends and family. Speaks-With-Dead climbed from the pit and saw his home burned to the ground. As he searched for anyone else, he found the corpses of his father, 2 brothers, and mother half-charred in the remains of the chieftain’s hut. Speaks-With-Dead fell to his knees and wept for several moments before his sorrow turned to burning hatred. Hatred for the orcs, and the goblins, and in his mind those two words kept repeating; “Ironfang Legion”. Speaks-With-Dead shot to his feet and began searching for a weapon and he found his family’s bow unscathed. It was sheltered from the flames by his father in his final moments. Speaks-With-Dead also found a bushel of arrows and 3 onyx gems. Upon exiting the tent he found the remains of a goblin and its wolf mount and he proceeded to reanimate them. He vowed revenge on the Ironfang Legion and he reasoned that their next stop would be Nirmathas, on the other east of the Mindspin Mountains. He remembered a small town his village used to trade with, Phaendar, and he figured the people there might provide him refuge so that he may consolidate his strength to destroy the Ironfang Legion once and for all. Before leaving, he dug graves for his family as well as Reads-The-Bones, and left with his two minions for Phaendar.
