Sessions 39 & 40 - Kandi Loses His Memory
21st & 28th August 2022
In-game timeline: DR1489 Eleint 25 - Eleint 26
Our "Heroes" have managed to frighten off two of the attacking harpies, and TC and Kandi are keen to talk to the woman apparently crying over the dead body.
Unfortunately it turned out that the woman was not a young, elvish female as initially appeared, but, upon approaching her, she turned into a grotesque hag-like woman, sprouting large, black wings that showed she was another of the harpies! Her tearful lament turned into a harpy song, which resulted in TC becoming quite infatuated, albeit only briefly.
With Mahtis and Carro still in the distance, the harpy attacks TC and Kandi, and their situation worsens when the two harpies that they had assumed had fled, seemed to return from around the hills, perhaps called by their matriarch.
As the fight progresses, Kandi falls to the ground, unconscious. TC throws off his charmed state and lays into the harpy matriarch, though she seems more resilient than the others. One of the other harpies arrives to fight these two and although Kandi is given health and returned to the fight, he falls once again under the onslaught of claws and clubs.
By focussing all their attacks on the harpy leader, however, the matriarch is finally felled, and this causes the two remaining harpies to flee again into the distance. The fight is over, but Kandi, now brought back to consciousness once again, is very exhausted.
The dead body is indeed dead, and has been for many days. It is also partially eaten. An elderly dwarf wearing ragged clothing. They assume it may be one of the slaves. With time marching on, the group press on towards the Abbey ruins.
Progress is slow, primarily because Kandi is so exhausted. They do reach the ruins, but it is already afternoon. The consider entering the ruins, but then remember that they had been told (yep, they HAD been told!) that the Wise Woman was located at the north end of the island, and they can see that the ruins are more in the centre of the island - there are still a number of miles of island north of the Abbey ruins. Eventually they decide that they should get to the Wise Woman first, so they skirt around the ruins and continue north.
To save time, Mahtis turns into a riding horse and carries Kandi, so they make good progress. They arrive at the end of the island in the late afternoon. Looking around, they see signs of habitation and eventually discover a rough and ready door in a pile of rocks.
Kandi knocks at the door and calls out. A cackle seems to invite him in. He opens the door to reveal a small, dark, smelly cave and a bedraggled and elderly woman of undiscernible race stirring a pot over a small fire.
Kandi and TC enter, and there is not really enough room for anyone else to enter.
The woman, after a small amount of "conversation" with Kandi that doesn't really amount to anything, seems to understand that these people are her to ask a question, and she recounts a sentence that appears to be well-rehearsed, effectively saying that questions can be asked, but answered will only be given if something of value is offered.
Kandi offers some rations. She is distinctly unimpressed. Kandi looks around and sees the cave seems to be lined with various items of indeterminate value. A broken amulet catches his eye and he appears to recognise it. He reaches in to his pack and seems to pull out a similar half-amulet. He hands this over to the woman and asks the question of how he may find his friend, Starshine.
After some deliberation and thought, the woman replies that she does not know where Starshine is currently, but that she did visit previously and asked of blight affecting her land. She proceeded to describe the first answer that she gave to Starshine regarding Ruin, which was mysterious and a little confusing. She does add, however, that Starshine then asked a further question, but was not willing to divulge what that question was without a further valuable gift being given.
Kandi decided, somewhat strangely, to give up the memory of Starshine as a gift to get his question answered. Unfortunately Kandi then asked two questions - What was the question that Starshine asked, and what was the answer.
The woman gave an answer to the first - Starshine had asked how they could defeat the Ruin. She proceeded to stretch her hand towards Kandi and all knowledge ad memory of his great friend, Starshine, magically disappears from his head. Kandi is now confused as to why they are all here.
TC pulls Kandi outside before he gives up any more of his memories, and the party discuss what other things of value they have, which they could offer to find out more information from the woman. When rummaging in their backpacks proves somewhat fruitless, Carro reluctantly offers up his scroll of nobility. The party sensibly discusses exactly what question should be asked in return for this valuable item.
Luckily the Wise Woman seems to recognise the value that Carro places on this scroll, and when the elf asks how they can defeat the Ruin, the Woman answers with another cryptic message which seems to hint at the splinters that they have been finding, and points towards a town called Moonfall to the south. TC and Carro were ready with their notepads and quickly write down what the woman said.
Feeling they have got as much useful as they can from the Wise Woman, plus supposedly having nothing else of value they are wishing to part with, the group leave the north of the island and head south as quickly as they can. As they run out of light, they decide that getting to the slaves is higher priority than the Abbey ruins, so they once again skirt round the ruins, though no before they see some large bird-like creatures that they presume to be harpies, fly towards the ruins and seem to disappear around a large, stone tower amidst the ruins.
They reach the big rock as night falls, but press on, heading eastward towards the quarry. They reach the top of the quarry in the dark and decide to camp for the night and proceed in the morning. An uneventful night's rest ensures Kandi is able to move t normal speed once more.
They head to the base of the quarry in the morning light, conscious of the tunnels that seem to lead into the hillside. Mahtis turns into a large dog and uses her enhanced sense of smell to detect the tunnel that seems to have something in it. However, before they can investigate it, a raving woman with straggly, black hair comes running towards Carro, clawing at his face and ranting about a lost child. Carro, with the help of TC and Kandi, manages to pin her down, and soon afterwards an elderly man emerges from the tunnel and runs to the woman, who turns out to be his wife, and calms her down.
The party have discovered the group of slaves - only about 7 remain. The "leader" - the elderly man named Balt Holmdew explains that they are all that is left of the slaves who worked in the quarry mining chintz crystals for the clerics. He explains that they are starving, but that the remaining clerics at the abbey refused to help them. His daughter, Clarice, discovered a large, red chintz crystal about a week ago, and, despite being told not to, went on her own to the abbey to try to exchange it for some food. She has not been seen since, though a dwarf by the name of Hosgrun Rockseeker went looking for her some days ago. When the party eventually realise that Hosgrun is the body that they found by the harpies the previous day, they break the bad news.
They talk to Tamara, a dragonborn herbalist who is amongst the slaves, and she agrees that she should be able to concoct some form of potion - maybe a poison or a sleeping draught that could be used against the pirates, though there will be little time available to perfect such a draught, so it would be somewhat crude.
And so we leave our "Heroes" at the bottom of the quarry in the morning light, deciding whether to return to the big rock to meet Blue and his pirates and to try to escape the island, or to head to the Abbey ruins to try to find some artefacts, or what happened to Clarice. Time marches on. Decisions, decisions….