They enter their inn room in Nakovi again and Adaly sits down before Amara says “So the one that was keeping watch had some weird things on her. A burned ioun stone and another ioun stone looking thing” Adaly swallows, the Ioun stones could be a nice boon, but might also mean trouble “Let’s have Heskeni check it out when we get back to camp” Amara nods and they go to sleep.
The next morning they start flying over the woods towards where they think the Amberheart tribe is. Apparently the tribe moves around, so they will not now how accurate the information is. They have to land once in-between, fight off some Ankylosaurus and find a nest. Adaly keeps the egg with the strongest heartbeat, thinking it might be a cool gift for Heskeni.
They travel further finding the river that the Amberhearts are supposed to live near. They travel the shoreline until they find evidence of human life. They follow the path into the woods a bit sneakily, being aware of the dangers of the forest surrounding them.
Amara uses her connection to these woods and identifies structures to the northeast, and few more even further. The northeast ones are in line with their information, so they walk down the path. They get to a clearing which has many raptor feeding off of some death carcasses. The raptors immediately look in their direction, so the party decides to flee.
The raptors stop giving chase, way before they reach the river, but they prefer to stay near the river for a bit, giving them the ability to fly away in case it is needed. After the wyverns seem calm and rested they take to the skies once more, flying towards the clearing and were the village is supposed to be.
Adaly turns glimmer and herself invisible and flies lowering in the clearing, finding the path towards the settlement of the Amberhearts. Adaly can see destroyed homes, and in the middle of the rumble is a giant dinosaur asleep. Adaly and glimmer quickly go up and once above the three line Adaly sends a message to Amara “Big dino there, it appears the people here fled.”
Amara nods and thinks about that “The other structures, about an hour travel…” Adaly nods and they take off to that location.
They lands in a smaller clearing and walk towards the smaller settlement. They get stopped by a half orc that is near the edge of one of the in progress settlement walls, he speaks in orcish, and Amara calmly replies also in orcish.
“Please follow me” male half orc says and the party follows. They are led into one of the improvised cabins where a bit more orcish is spoken to the other orcs and half-orcs in the camp. Amara also joins into the orcish conversation, while Adaly is on her guard. Amara seems relaxed, so they are probably fine, but still Adaly doesn’t like being in the dark.
Eventually someone who is a bit bigger than the others, more muscles more of an air of authority steps forward “Welcome, I am chief Varon… I understand you want help of our shaman, Agrom. I think you first need to discuss with her what you want, later we can continue our conversation” he nods his head towards Amara, and Amara returns the nod.
Agrom walks out of the cabin, into another one, the party quickly follows. In the other cabin a black skinned individual is sitting. He has red markings over his skin and overall looks like he doesn’t belong “Shai pour our guest some tea. Now you what do you want?” Agrom asks when they enter.
Adaly swallows and looks at Amara, Amara signaling that she should speak up. She introduces the party members before continuing. “So I don’t speak orcish, so I don’t know how much my friend already told you, but we came here because we understood you had soul magic. We have a mission in which we must deal with Eidolons, and any help is welcome.”
“I don’t know what an Eidolon is, but if you learn our soul sight that will enable you to deal with a large number of different types of soul constructs… Now let me see who I am working with.”
Agrom walks up to them, first Adaly, inspects her and hits her on the head with her walking cane saying “Idiot”. She repeats the same with Amara and Sam, but stops at Livia. She cocks her head, narrowing her eyes towards Livia “Do the others know what you are?” Livia shakes her head “No” and the shaman also hits Livia and repeats “Idiot”.
Adaly being annoyed says “That is just plain rude, can you tell us why you are hitting us?” Agrom chuckles while grabbing the tea Shai poured her. “You all ruined your souls… Nothing preventing you from learning these skills, it is just plain dumb, so you are idiots. You, last one I cannot teach you, but the others, come back in 2 months and I can teach you.”
“We can’t wait that long, it needs to happen within this month…” Adaly brings out in surprise. The shaman once more narrows her eyes but this time looks at Adaly. “Well I need my supplies, and as you can see we are currently improvising, it will take some time to recollect the supplies I need for the lessons.”
Adaly and Amara look at each other “What if we can go to your old settlement and collect the supplies from there?” Agrom considers it “Yes that will work, let me make a list of everything I need… The training itself will take about three days, we can do it whenever, once I have my supplies and the chief agrees with the payment. Let me go get him.” And Agrom immediately leaves the cabin, leaving the party alone with Shai.
“So what is your deal?” Adaly asks to Shai, but Shai ignores her. She tries a few more times, but Shai keeps being evasive.
The shaman and the chief return. The chief looks at the party “So Agrom told me what you would like to do, but of course for these services we need payment. Either in blood or in steel.” Adaly wickedly smiles “What would the payment in blood be?” The chief looks at the party “Killing the imperiosaur that destroyed our village. I understood that part of getting to do this right now you already promised Agrom to collect her stuff, so this is right up that alley. We would need prove of the kill though, so we would like some of the spinal blades”
Adaly looks at Amara who wickedly smiles “That sounds like a cool challenge, are there any orcs here available to help?” Amara asks and Varon nods his head “Yes we shall send 2 trackers with you… If they returned harmed we might need additional payment, but for now they can help”
“Those terms seem agreeable. Now we did have a long trip, and are a bit exhausted, so would it be possible for us to do this in the morning” Adaly asks and chief Varon nods in agreement, and leaves them alone with shaman Agrom and Shai again.
“So if you get my stuff we will start a ritual that allows you to look at your own soul. Your souls will give you some challenges, three to be exact. You can only get the sight is you complete all three. Failure will result in having to retry the challenge, hence needing at least 3 days.” The shaman starts explaining.
Adaly nods “So how do we do that?” Agrom laughs “The ingredients I have listed here in the material you need to collect will allow you to see your soul. Each session will take about a day.”
The party nods their head and Adaly feels her eyes going to the weird creature named Shai again. “He has been reluctant in talking to us… could you explain to us who he is?” Adaly asks.
The shaman looks surprised at Shai and back to Adaly “It makes sense you are drawn to him, seeing your own infernal connection. He is a fallen devil” Shai immediately gives Agrom an look filled with questions, but the shaman ignores before continuing “Now his body still stores a bunch of sin, making him interesting for others, so if you reveal his identity to the outside world… Well lets say I have some nasty poisons and I am not afraid to use them.”
Adaly starts laughing “Get in line” before getting smacked in the head “Idiot” the shaman says once more. Amara looks at Adaly with a smile, before Adaly properly replies “We promise to keep his secret… We found ourselves in need for more information about the hells though, so Shai could you share anything?”
Shai this time steps a bit forwards “It has been some time, so I don’t think I can share anything interesting, but what would you like to know?” Adaly looks the devil over “I… Our mission involves hurting my father, he is an archdevil in one of the higher layers of hell. So which layer are you from, and could you share anything?”
He seems to consider before answering “I sadly cannot help you than, I am from the second layer… And once more it has been awhile” Adaly sadly nods in understanding. It could have been so helpful if he knew something about Ilhoketh, but the party will have to find other ways.
The shaman interjects “Now when do you want to do this?” Adaly grabs her notebook “Well we have to be at Ingry at the 23rd, so tomorrow we have the imperiosaur but the day after, the 22nd we could still do it. And then… It takes about a day traveling here so the 25th and the 26th of Frostfall?”
Agrom asks “If it takes you about a day travel, will the 22nd still work?” Adaly chuckles “You guys don’t have a teleportation circle, but our appointment on the 23rd does, so we can instantly go there.” The shaman nods in agreement, and kicks them out.
Stories of my brain 