Session XXI: To Interrogate or To Kill?

General Summary

With Vance Pickerin bound, gagged, and stripped of all his worldly belongings, the party began questioning Zenora, trying to decipher Vance's cryptic accusation.   After a few threats of tying her up, and a fair amount of non-answers, Zenora confessed that while she had been at Deroleux's Select Conservatory of the Arcane, she and her twin brother Haldric had lost their mother. Surrounded by magic and possibility, they decided to try to resurrect her in one of the lesser-used rooms deep within the school. An exchange was demanded that they did not expect: a life for a life. But the exchange was interrupted, and instead of dying, Haldric's consciousness was sucked into a chunk of deep green glass and a hollow, undead version of their mother returned to them.   Their screams alerted the faculty, and the headmaster himself discovered what they had done. Seeing an opportunity, Melkorian confiscated the mineral containing Haldric's consciousness - a substance called urceum - and has been holding it and Haldric's body, using them as leverage to force Zenora to do his bidding. She was expelled from the Conservatory and sent into Prehn with orders to infiltrate the society and find out as much as she could about urceum, its origins, and dragons; do they still exist, and if so, where are they?   Zenora's confession was met with mixed reactions; Horxim rightly pointed out that if she's willing to do anything to save her brother, then she cannot be trusted. Zaki was furious that she could have been sharing information with Zenora for all this time, but was lied to instead. Wiinken was confused, seeing her government in a new light, and Calico Jack had a new explanation for the cargo he'd smuggled into Chalcedon in years past.   Horxim insisted on bringing Vance to the arbiters for further interrogation, and the party decided that Surassa was their best bet after having left Rambergam in a hot hurry - and most likely with a bounty after stealing a herd of goats.   However, many of their belongings were still at The Third Donkey, and Zaki had an urge to visit Mindok's Grove, so the party resolved to travel back to Advenere by way of the Grove to see if they could get answers to some of their questions.   With Vance tied to Zaki's goat, the party set out, noticing that the corruption of the forest seemed to fade the closer they got to the Grove, seemingly disappearing entirely once inside it. Zaki offered her journal upon a pedestal on a raised dais before columns of crumbling stonework, along with some flowers, and made her plea. At first, it seemed as though nothing would happen, but then the journal began to flake and crumble and disintigrate, finally disappearing altogether like dust on a breeze.   A disembodied voice rang out through the clearing, audible to everyone, saying, “The only things certain in life are change, death, and tolls; nothing remains the same, all that lives must die, and always there is a price to pay. To know anything else with certainty is to look upon the Making itself, and that is quite a request. Thou offerest thy knowledge freely, for which I thank thee. Yet thou comest asking far more questions than thou offerest things unknown. Furthermore, it is most unusual for nonbelievers to seek out my grove; even more unusual that thou art Outlanders. However, there is Prehnite blood beating in a Prehnite heart amongst thee, therefore I shall give thee two chances, two trials, two tests — and a toll. Riddles I shall pose to thee; answer them correctly, and onto the next trial move freely.”   It is the deep night of the 23rd of First Seed.