Session 64 - The Curse of Distant Memories
Thu 18th May 2023
In-game timeline: UNKNOWN
Our "Heroes" have experienced a battle with undead within the Shadowfell. For Alwaith, this brought back old memories. For the others, well - they tried hard NOT to remember things.
It becomes quickly apparent that being this close to the Raven Queen's fortress means they are all at risk of losing their most cherished memories. The group learn that they are able to attempt to make touchstones against this risk, but, should that fail, the memory will be lost - perhaps forever. Even should they succeed it means that this memory is forever locked within a particular item, and should that item be lost, stolen or broken, the memory will be gone.
Our heroes are keen not to tarry here for long.
Unfortunately the city itself has other ideas. As the party tries to rush through the dark and misty streets, aiming for the centre of the city, they realise that the city seems to shift around them. Or perhaps their own memories of where they had gone, and what directions they were travelling seem to change. Either way, their progress is hampered. It is quite exhausting leading the group through the ever-changing streets, so they decide to take it in turns to help progress the party to the Court of Empty Desires in the aim of find Markella.
Alwaith unsurprisingly takes the lead by striding off without waiting for the others to catch up. He relies on his survival skills to find a path through the city, intending to find, and make, markings and tracks that may help their progress. The group takes many turns and eventually spot a Shadar-Kai urchin child standing on a corner. She holds her hand out for some reward and Alwaith gives her a gold piece, which she quickly pockets. Our "Heroes" proceed to ask her the best way to find the Court of Empty Desires and end up paying handsomely for a few generic directions, and a bit of information about creating touchstones to protect their memories, before the urchin disappears.
Her information on touchstones does prove useful, however, as the group find their memories being almost pulled from their minds. They all decide to attempt to make touchstones before these memories are lost forever, and Alwaith manages to channel the memory of his half-brother, Boris, and his first adventure in helping Boris recover from eating a poisoned fruit, into his signet ring that he found on that adventure. Sanada uses her veil to entrap the memory of her facial features, and what they mean to her. Solveig prevents the loss of remembering all the creatures he has encountered on his journeys by focussing that memory into the scales embedded in his armour, whilst Faith ensures he does not forget what his shard necklace is for, and the rune embossed upon it, by storing that memory in his prayer book.
Slightly concerned at the potential loss of such important memories, but emboldened that they all managed to prevent those memories from being lost, the party put their trust in Sanada to progress for the next path through the city. She uses her stealth to move in the shadows, avoiding the gaze from the mysterious Watchers on the corners of the streets, in case they have something to do with the city's shifting streets.
Whether or not the Watchers were, in fact, responsible for the seemingly moving pathways remains unclear, but Sanada does come upon a Shadar-Kai with his three shadow dogs chasing what looked to be like someone originating in Sanada's own homeland. She steps in to bargain for the life of the Eastern one, who it turns out has stolen some bread from a merchant in the market. Not wanting to fight the Shadar-Kai, but wanting to see her countryman unharmed, Sanada offers to pay for the bread, which turns out to be an exorbitant amount for three loaves. Alwaith asks for directions to the Court and the Shadar-Kai provides directions instead to the Plaza of the Lost, apparently on the way to the Court, but only in return for Alwaith betraying his secretive nature by revealing a secret to the others. As the Shadar-Kai seemingly relishes in Alwaith's discomfort, the warlock tells the others of his time spent under the tutelage of a dragon during his time spent in the Shadowfell.
Trying to follow the directions given proves a bit difficult, however, and Solveig's attempt at turning into a large spider and using his heightened perception to spot the best way to move through the mists in the city only leads them to a shop which has very little for sale, and what little there is proves to be old and rotten. However, the shopkeeper, an elderly woman of unknown race behind her mask, refuses to help them on their way until they purchase a number of bottles of her rancid wine. Faith duly does so.
With time pressing on, the group then find their memories being pulled away from them once more. Alwaith manages to focus the energy of his lost friends into his raven necklace, bought for him by Drogan; Solveig retains the memories of what his grandfather had taught him about survival by channelling them into the leatherworking kit that his grandfather had made him, whilst Faith ensures he does not forget his friends at Evereska by placing the memories of them into his warhammer - which he was taught to use by those very friends. However Sanada completely loses the memories of what her special amulet is capable of, and where she obtained it.
With Faith now taking his turn leading the party, the dwarf tries to work out the best route to take by suddenly lifting himself off of the floor and flying above the city - spotting the Plaza of the Lost from above and then trying to translate where it was in relation to where they are once he descends. After some time they came upon a woman clutching a torn baby's blanket, who looks like she has just been mugged. As they try to ask her questions, her memory starts to fade - she forgets all about her children, her home, her name even. The party come to realise what may happen should they lose, or break, their own touchstones.
Armed with this forewarning, the party have another chance to make more touchstones when they feel their memories being pulled from their minds once more. Again, Alwaith, Solveig and Faith manage to create new touchstones to remind them of their family, their quest and their Chosen One status respectively (using a lock of Alwaith's mother's hair in a locket he wears, Solveig's travel journal and Faith's cloak pin that he received from the clerics in Easting). Once again, however, Sanada's attempt fails, and she finds the memory of how to make potions and salves drifting away from her.
As the sun is starting to set now, the pressure is on to find the Court quickly - especially as all this time spent wandering around the city is forcing them to make more touchstones (or actually losing their memories, in the case of Sanada!). Solveig decides to turn into a giant eagle, hoping to carry the others in the air to the fortress tower but the others quickly realise this is a bad idea as the Raven Queen's ravens gather and circle overhead. Solveig eventually realises the problem in this approach as it becomes apparent that this is a test from the Raven Queen, and trying to avoid it will not be looked upon well.
Alwaith decides to use his arcane knowledge of the Raven Queen to find his way around her city. Unfortunately, this does not lead him to the Court, or to the Plaza, but instead to a woman who is busy cutting up some meat of unknown origin and feeding it to her dogs. After some discussion, Alwaith manages to persuade her to help them find the Plaza and she sends one of her dogs ahead of them to lead them to the Plaza of the Lost which, it turns out, is not far away.
This is where our "Heroes" find a number of Shadar-Kai wandering aimlessly around, showing no emotions and not responding to anything that the party members do. The group's attention is drawn to a dried up fountain in the centre of the Plaza. Whilst three of them clean out the base of the fountain (finding a little gold in the process, and Alwaith also finds a touchstone in the form of a platinum piece), Faith uses some of his stoneworking tools to fix the fountain.
As the water flows again, albeit somewhat brown and dirty, Sanada decides her fate cannot get any worse than it is already and decides to drink some. She gets poisoned in the process. The aimless Shadar-Kai seem a little more 'awake' as the fountain starts to flow, but are still somewhat emotionless. Alwaith tries to snap one of them out of their stupor by shouting at him. After venting his pent up anger for a while, to no avail, Alwaith realises that maybe using a touchstone would provide some emotion. Luckily, he has a "spare" touchstone that he just found in the fountain, so he gives this to the Shadar-Kai and immediately the shadowfell resident becomes more animated. He is happy to help point the party in the direction of the Court of Empty Desires.
Using this information, Sanada decides to get onto the roofs and use her high position to spot the best way to the Court. With the help of the directions provided, she manages to direct the group to the base of the fortress tower and into the Court of Empty Desires.
In this "town square" of sorts, there seems to be some kind of festival or celebration going on, albeit one with very little emotion and zero gaiety. A Gloomweaver, who the group assume to be Markella, is looking on proceedings, but she seems to ignore anything that the party do to get her attention. Eventually Sanada sits with the group who are eating bland, grey food, and she shares their food as the Shadar-Kai encourage her to join in with them. Alwaith and Faith at this point decide to dance along with the group who were dancing slowly in time to the somewhat gloomy music, and Solveig uses his abilities to shape the earth into a form relating to the Raven Queen herself.
At the sight of the party joining in with the festivities, Markella rises and speaks to them, offering to do a reading for them in order to interpret the Raven Queen's desires. All she requires is something of sentimental or emotional value to the group. Alwaith steps up and offers his lifelong service to the Raven Queen in return for such information that the Queen can give. This offer is deemed to be acceptable and Markella proceeds to interpret a vision that the group all share as they look upon the gates of the Raven Queen's fortress.
It turns out that the Raven Queen wants the party to recover the Conspirator's Visage which is apparently in an outpost of the forces of Vecna at the edge of The Rotted Heart. If the group can recover this item and bring it back to her, the Raven Queen will grant them an audience.
And so we leave our "Heroes" as they ask Markella about this outpost and what they may encounter there. Markella is happy to provide any information she may have, and will offer to provide guidance to get them quickly out of the City of Broken Dreams, though she will not aid them in any other way, as this task was given to them alone by the Raven Queen…