Session 44: An Offer from Granny Deathfinger
General Summary
The party rested at the Shadar-Kai's citadel, then set out in search of the only permanent portal their hosts knew about.
The way led them through a tangled forest of thorns and brambles that crowded around them and seemed to bar their passage. Branches reached out to trip them as they hacked their way through, led by Sigvurd who felt less-than-confident in his navigation abilities.
As they approached the hag's dwelling, the forest grew more sinister. They passed a series of open graves bearing their own names, and scarecly had they shaken off the chill from this when a powerful spirit appeared and began draining away Nemara's life-force. Vin dismissed her "gross hallucination" with Disintegrate, then urged the party onward. But once they arrived at the foot of the hag's home, Nemara refused to go a step further.
While Sigvurd tried to find a way to get the struggling warlock up the slimy rope ladder, the wizard skittered up ahead and knocked on the door. Granny Deathbone answered, and seemed pleased to see them. She ushered the wizard in, followed by Lins and Zeke, lately reappeared from the spellbook, chiding them not to keep an old woman waiting.
Her abode was stuffed to bursting with odd items. There was a shelf unit crammed with potions and preserved jars, birdcages occupied and empty, bones hanging from the ceiling like wind-chimes, several frogs in an empty wine-bottle, a fire that burned cold in the hearth,and several larger items covered in sheets. Vin was seated in a leather armchair stitched from goblin hides, while Zeke perched on a stool carved in abyssal writing.
Sigvurd and Nemara remained sullenly below while the witch explained what she wanted.
Her price was an artifact she called the Angel's Tear, left by a celestial who fell on a mission of mercy. It was said to be able to cure any ailment. She was an old woman, she told them, citing her rheumatics and arthritic joints and varicose veins and fallen arches, and couldn't make the journey on her own. But such hale and hearty youths such as themselves would have no trouble, surely.
Though they wondered what the catch was, the party agreed, and followed the hag's directions.
The tear, she said, had fallen into the caldera of the nearby cold volcano. Over the most recent eternity, various Powers had attempted to set up shop inside, and thus the place was lousy with ruins and vengeful spirits. The Tear had fallen near what she called the Riven Tower, a small spire that had been rent in the trauma of the angel's last stand.
As the party approached it, they could see the tower leaning precipitously over the edge of the caldera, a bright clear light winking from its highest turret...