Session 121: Marquet Memento

General Summary

28th-29th Brussendar 836PD   28th Brussendar   As the modify memory successfully takes hold in the Dark Eyes Chosen’s mind, she follows through with what had just been implanted of her regarding them as allies and telling to prepare everything for the journey.   With collective telepathic sighs of relief, the new ‘hirelings’ do as they are instructed. Simeon recovering from the expended magics, and the fact he was dead only 10 minutes ago, decides to stay behind at the Warehouse to provide assistance and wait for the party to provide ‘back up’ from the Northwood mercenaries.   Veteran Dann Holton escorts the group to the Northwood encampment just outside the city, conferring with Dann the group decide honesty is best in trying to set their case to Captain Northwood, to abandon his contract with the cultists and persuade them to their cause.   Just as they are walking through the city, Raven bumps into a passing dazed scruffy half-elf, and with a shocked realisation it turns out to be Raphael! The confused Knight recognises them as well, his mind had been wrecked by the travel back from the Feywild, as what had only been a day to the Unbroken was several months to Raphael. After finishing his training to wield the Exalted Frostweaver, his patron Mab had scried on the party to find them in Kymal and the Arch Fey used the magics of her domain to send him back as close as she could in time to when he left.   As Raphael recovered from his plane-lag, the group arrive at the encampment with Dann. Under the constant surveillance of the armed guards, they are led to Captain Jeremiah Northwood as he oversees the morning military drills of his forces.   The Captain is surprised to see Dann off his watch at the Warehouse, but he and his fellow troops are stunned silent when Dann introduces the party as the people who have attacked and captured the Warehouse the mercenaries were employed to guard!   The tension immediately mounts, but sticking to the plan, the group share their mission, and the revelation of the mercs’ employers as Cultists of the Chained Oblivion. Captain Northwood is sceptical at first, but through the group’s show of remorse for the loss of his men in the cross-fire; the offer of compensation to their families; and the vouching of Dann for their intentions; the Captain is eventually persuaded to switch his employment to the Unbroken instead of the cultists.   For 1500gp the Unbroken are able to hire Captain Northwood and his mercenaries, and pay them to do the job they were originally hired by the Dark Eyes to do, provide security to the caravan to the deal in the Grey Valley. Raphael suggests that their spy and fellow smooth talker, Pick, also join the mercenaries to help handle any interactions with the Cultists and aid in their deceptions.   As the Unbroken head back into the city to collect Simeon and catch up with Pick, Orlando suddenly receives a sending right out of the blue, from their original wizard party member, Zeni!   The copper orange tiefling was alone in Ank'Harel, Marquet and needed help! Orlando told her to find somewhere safe and to rest and will have Raphael use his dream magic to communicate safely. Settling their debts in Kymal, Simeon speaks a prayer and through his word of recall the Unbroken are teleported back to their Keep in Emon.   The party get some much-needed rest for the evening, and Raphael casts dream to speak with Zeni.   She retells that she had just woken up that day in a strange room with little to no memory of how she got there, but there was no sign of Sabali or the other two members of their Shackle group, the human monk, Dia, and the roguish half-elf Quinn.   She recognised that she was still in Ank'Harel, and had some hazy memories of her time over the last month since see was with the Unbroken. She and Sabali had been partnered with the other Chosen of Celestia, Dia and Quinn to find the Storm-Lord’s Shackle in Marquet, and had been in a constant cat and mouse game with the Lock-Breaker, Latara, in trying to find it.   She last remembered Sabali saying about trying to find his mother, Misty, in Wildemount, but wasn’t sure if that was last night or sometime before. She had tried sending to him, but received no reply, and when she sent to Quinn they she was scorned by them, as apparently she had broken up the group and said she and Sabali were better off without them.   When she left the room, it turned out to be an inn in the city, and the barkeep said that she had been signed in and dropped off by her “wife”, whose description matched that of Latara. Confused as to why her enemy had modified her memory but left her alive, and what had happened to Sabali, Zeni had spent the rest of the day at the Temple of the Mentor, Cobalt Soul archive to try and piece together what she had been doing up until she woke up this morning. Although she could remember was something about a caravansari…   The party decide to help their friend, and fortunately Arthur’s connections had extended across the Ozmit sea as he knew of the Cobalt Soul’s teleportation circle.   29th Brussendar   In the morning, Simeon still needs some time to recover and so offers to stay behind to help debrief with the Tal’dorei Council on the upcoming deal and convergence of the Cults up in the Grey Valley in 3 weeks’ time (18th Sydenstar). He’ll also help with the plans and set actions needed in preparation for their infiltration of the deal.   Arriving at the Ank’Harel Cobalt Soul through Arthur’s teleportation circle, the party meet with a relieved Zeni. It had been a long month since she had seen then last during their travels through the Underdark, and was introduced to her successor Arthur as the latest wielder of the arcane to join the ranks of the Unbroken.   The reunited party help Zeni to trace back her steps, investigating the room she was dropped off in and finding her notebook. Whilst the pages were torn, Arthur was able to make out through some charcoal rubbings an imprint on the page of her last note, a name or place called Tash Rabat. Which is revealed by the innkeeper as the carvansari that Zeni had been mentioning.   As the Tash Rabat is only a couple of miles outside the city, the party stop off by the Suncut Bazar to get some supplies of healing potions, scrolls and other items they may need as they prepare to find the clues to Zeni’s lost memories…