Strange Aeons / The Rushton Terror pt. 6 / Eire the 10th, 3592 CE / 7-21-20

As the party recovers from their battle with the weird druid and her fungal pets, Sigvald fights off the effect of the fungal wolves' spores with the help of Hemlock. Esp decides to probe the mind of the druid whom she previously rendered unconscious with her mind knives. Descending into the woman's dream state, Esp encounters her in a barren desert, beating her hands futilely against the very out of place frozen lake at the center of the wasteland. The woman introduces herself as Darla Coronet, and informs Esp that a mental block has been put in place preventing either of them from accessing the woman's memories. Darla tells Esp that the hallucinogenic muscaria mushrooms growing in the side chamber of the cave will allow them to bypass the mental barrier. Esp agrees to help Darla, extracting herself from the dream state in order to inform Hemlock, who goes to fetch some the mushrooms. Unfortunately, Darla failed to inform Esp that the mushroom cave is being guarded by a phantom fungus. A fight breaks out as the creature uses its cloaking powers to ambush Hemlock, but together the team is able to quickly put it down, and Hemlock uses Darla's alchemy lab to concoct a paste which Esp feeds to unconscious druid. As she merges once again with the woman's dream state, Esp finds that the frozen lake has now thawed, with tracks indicating that Darla has descended into its depths. Esp follows the druid into this mental projection, encountering strange, alien looking weeds before finding herself in a scene of a gathered crowd of onlookers in ancient dress watching the approach of a burning object from the sky. She spies the druid, who directs Esp's attention to an unnoticed object falling out of view of the crowd. Esp gets the sensation that whatever this object is is far more dangerous. She then finds herself in what appears to be an actual memory, and encounter between Darla and a well-dressed woman dressed in the style of Carthia. Darla appears to be selling the woman all sorts of alchemical weapons and poisons in exchange for information on the location of Baron Haver Lowell IV, Esp's former employer who had her companions and herself committed to Stonebriar Asylum after they somehow developed amnesia. The dream memory ends when Darla becomes aware of Esp's presence, and suddenly the psychic finds herself transported to a strange and foreboding wood populated with tall, spikey outcroppings of stone. From somewhere in the distance, Esp detects a malevolent presence regarding her coldly from the deep green forest, but the more immediate threat appears to be Darla herself, who initiates a mental battle of wills. Fearing she is outmatched within Darla's own mindscape, Esp attempts a risky gambit, using one of her psychic powers to summon an aspect of the Tatterman himself from the Dreamlands. The creature rips through the unsuspecting Darla, and Esp is barely able to escape Darla's mind in time before the druid falls into a catatonic state. Though Gleorn attempts some healing, it does not rouse Darla from the damage her mind has taken. The party collects some of loot from the cave and the proceeds back outside to signal Otis Remsatter. On the journey by fishing boat back to Rushton, the party gets Otis to agree to keep the happenings in the sea cave a secret for the time being, until the party is able to deduce more about the nature of Darla's visit to Rushton. As Otis drops the party at the pier, he bids them adieu before heading home, happy to have an exciting new adventure under his belt and a secret to share with these intrepid Adventurers. The rest of the party heads to their own temporary quarters in town to rest and recover, with Garrok lugging the body of the still unconscious druid, Darla.