Friends and Enemies

Returning from the dungeons, the heroes spent the night at an inn. In the morning, they found small gifts at the heads of their beds—cute plush toys that, judging by the tags, were made in one of the workshops of Rakota Manor.

During breakfast, the group spoke with the Lian family. They managed to convince them that they did indeed have another tiefling child, but to restore their memories, a ritual was needed. Through the innkeeper, they obtained diamond dust. Fenris first tested the ability on his familiar cat, which suffered mental trauma after witnessing a vision. Once the cat regained consciousness, Fenris performed the ritual on Lian. He remembered that he had lost the child somewhere in the mountains north of Pale-Bank. Looking into his thoughts, Tari saw Essu attacking the family, taking the child, and demanding that adventurers be sent to him, or else the hostages would be brutally killed.

Understanding that they needed to set out, the group decided to first have tea. Bro prepared a drink for everyone but accidentally added a mushroom from the dungeons. Under its influence, the adventurers saw a shadow in the corner. The shadow did not approach and did not respond to their calls.

After tea, the adventurers left the tavern and headed north. The shadow followed them. Someone in the group cast a spell on it, and the shadow cast a spell in response, but it seemed to collide with a barrier surrounding the party.

After some time, the mushroom’s effect wore off, and the shadow became invisible again. The heroes realized that they had been walking in circles in the forest for the past few hours. Since they were still in the area, they decided to interrogate the hydra’s corpse.

Descending into the dungeon, the adventurers cast a spell on the creature and began asking questions. The hydra spoke only of someone named Seredes. When asked what it looked like, it directed its gaze behind the heroes’ backs. Someone recalled that Seredes was a being from the Underdark that watched over dungeon dwellers.

Finally, the heroes emerged and set out north. By evening, they reached the village of Pale-Bank and stayed there overnight. Danaya consulted her friend Elro about Essu and finally revealed that it was Essu who had lured the Pale-Bank expedition into a trap and killed Elro’s brother.

In the morning, the group headed further north. On the way, they encountered a monk sent to aid them by Master Dobryak after speaking with Bro. The monk reported that he had observed a settlement where Sovlins once lived and saw zombies there. At that moment, one of the zombies approached the group, and the adventurers charged into the village, preparing to fight their former ally.