Session Date: 1/20/2024
We open the door and see ornate lanterns hanging from the ceiling and a strange humanoid greets us by speaking into our minds: Greetings, scholars. Opal chimes in saying that he is not a scholar, and the creature points out to Opal and says that they see what knowledge we seek and that they are contained in the memories in the Grove, and it asks what memories we wish to give up to access that knowledge. Opal offers Dragon Care 101. One of the creatures moves a little closer, though it doesn’t move with malice.
Opal has no clue what these things are, but Killian is aware that these are The Caulborn , which are a prophet and historian that gathers in small cabals that use their brain power to unravel mysteries. They are clearly telepathic.
We realize that whatever memories we give will be lost to us: it is not a copy. This is their proposition. Hiera and Killian are not going to give up any memories, but the others do give up some other memories for each other.
- Opal
- His father (who has a dump truck ass) has a huge throne-like room. He asks Onyx and Opal to speak with him, and his father tells him how disappointed he is, and how much better Onyx is than him. This would be the first time that he did it.
- Valentine
- Forget how to use the weird ball and chain weapon.
- Ria
- Some memories on how to hunt and survive in the woods. It was when she was still young, her first really successful hunt.
- Yuna
- The burning orphanage dance.
- Josette the human bard. Yuna forgot the coffee date she had with him.
- Killian
- Chooses to forget that Opal called him short and has no rights.
The Caulborns are satiated and we are led back to an area where there are heads that are in cradles, seeming to be asleep. There’s a tree with silver roots that trace to each head, and the keeper that is attending to us touches the head of a female elf. The eyes open and they are silver, and she asks what we need help with: we explain that we need help reversing the curse on the Shadewither Key. She recognizes Osoyo, and she comments the imprint is rather incomplete and the key itself seems almost to be trying to negate this.
She regards the key for a moment, then says she asks for someone to write down a detailed explanation of what to try for Jenthiel . This means nothing to us but it will be important for him.
She is convinced the imprint is tied to the curse as well as possibly something else to happen on Golarion. She might mean the missing moment, but we’re not fully certain. She tells us that millennia ago Osoyo was near the ancient homeland of Silverian, in a vast canyon-filled sea of mist. The ice-blue whale drifted through the air as if a fish in water. Those that encountered it and inhaled the vapor they grew powers, but became enthralled by it. The high elfin families subdued it at great cost, and shackled it to the Crown of the World, sealing it below the thickest of ice caps on Golarion. Its influence is on the key we are showing her.
Ria explains Kaneepo the Slim, but who knows how he got the key. She isn’t sure about that, and she also isn’t sure if using the powers we’ve gained will cause us to lose our minds or lose ourselves. She does admit she’s waited long for this and she would like to help, but she isn’t sure how to get us home or anything.
She explains that her soul is tethered to the material plane but her body is dead, so she is traditionally dead but she is bound here.
Killian asks if there are other ways to tether a soul to the Universe and may put it into another vessel. She explains that what gave the others powers might have shunted him into a poppet body. Killian recalls how hazy his first days were, and he seems to recall that he became a warlock after — this goes into directly contrast to what Grandmother Hemlock and Rend suggested. Opal asks if he died would he transfer vessels, and she says she doesn’t know. Yuna asks if we can add more to him and she advises against it, but there may be rituals or magic that could help.
Valentine asks what is best in life and she doesn’t answer. When asked what the answer to life, the universe, and everything, and she calmly responds 42.
Valentine asks if the Caulborn were put here by their people, or what, and she explains that the Caulborn are much older than the elves and they have been taking care of everything for a very, very long time. She explains the city exists because the grove is here.
We comment that we should make things better and easier to visit here. The Caulborn explain that they are the ones that take care of everything and clean up after the others. The Caulborn are displeased at how we explain we had to fight skeletons here and they say they will explore further out. They agree that they will do their best to make sure things are easier to access in the future.
We leave and find Jenthiel right outside of the entrance of the city and we talk about what his mother said, with Killian explaining her orders to swap around the ingredients indicated. She says the waters of She Who Walks Through Seasons would be hard as she is an avatar of the woods. He explains that she has a spring atop her head and we need to gather water from that in order to collect it. They say that we will need to make an offering to her — and they will help with this — and then they go and find a specialist on this being to discuss her.
To summon her we must do the following:
- Secure the Beckoning Spire
- Keepers abandoned it, so we will have to fight our way in
- Make the offering
- 100 lbs of special fruit and fungus will be sufficient
- Blow on the huge relic, the Spore Horn
- Gather the water
We are given a skull-sized stoppered gourd that is the vessel to hold the water from her crown. They will send a few people with us to help with the ritual and making the offering and interacting with She Who Walks.