The party enters the inner sanctum of the Heart of Ubtao. It’s protected by some magic that prevents noise from entering it. There’s a single entrance, but a teleportation circle in the north east corner.
Valindra Cimber wants the oracle to be asked “What is the location of the Soul Mongerer”.
She views Rodvan and Ellias as incompetant, and she wants the party to work for her. Ellias insulted Shadowmantle with a racist remark, and then she used power word pain to torture him. Locke Hancock tried to talk her down and intervene, but Brysh pulled him away.
“His organs are going off with power word pain. What if he’s an organ doner?!?” - Sean
Valindra casts banishment on Locke, and he floats in the Astral Sea and thinks he sees Betsy’s ship on the horizion. With his reduced intelligence speed, he’s far slower than he used to be.
“Do we want Locke back?” - Brysh
The party asks for Valindra to drop the banishment to get Locke back. He’s just about to reunite with Betsy on their Galleon, and then he pops back into the forgotten realms.
Valindra then offers the part six magic items, each specifically for a PC, in exchange for their subserviance and the answers to their other two questions. Locke notes that there’s no item for Xandela, and Valindra remarks that she already got hers.
Locke rejects her offer. He will not send her information, use the teleportation circle scroll, nor accept the magic item. He won’t stop his party, but he won’t be her supporter either.
Ash asks if the contract is permenant, and if they can say no later. Valindra says that’s possible, but they’d need to give back the magic items. She only cares about results.
Xandala Cimber looks at an animated portrait of her family that Valindra owned. Locke offers to ask Valindra for it, and she agrees. While chatting, Valindra talks about a 7th level spell she’s working on to break through crystal spheres. She asks about Locke’s home plane and why he refuses to work for her. He says she manipulated her party into giving her power over them, and her search for power will only end in pain. He talks about his time in the war, and how no power was ever targeted and porportional.
Morgan swears that she’ll never kill for Valindra, and that ticks her off.
Sylvos and Yosei ask about her scyring crystal tablet. They’re not common items, and she can see just about anything. People, places, and it just takes ten minutes.
Locke tries to cheer Xandela up when he notices she’s mesmerized by the portrait. “Mistakes are just learning opportunities!” She mentions they might want to stay the night, but Locke isn’t eager.
The party decides to take a long rest atop the heart of ubtao. Brysh attacks Locke and is very angry at him for antagonizing Valindra. Later inspected her new magic item. It is cursed with the following effects:
- It cannot be unattuned without remove curse
- It gives disadvantage on wisdom saving throws against divination magic
The party asked Xandela about her family and their history. Apparently Valindra was drafted in a war against Netheril. That war was during the 1480s when an Netherese enclave exited from the shadowfell. It culimnated in a seige of the capital, and ended in 1489. It’s now 1495.
Alisandra Cimber is an Abara: an ancient protector of the city of The Lost City of Mezero. She dissapeared with the city when the last bit dissapeared. When the last bit of Mezero was destroyed, she was thought dead along with it. It broke Artus Cimber and caused him to go to a dark place.
The party decides they’ve discussed enough, and they take a long rest. In the morning, Locke proclaims that he cannot follow this path and wishes to leave when they return to Camp Vengeance. He offers to help Xandela come along and they could search for her father together. He’s confident he can easily leave to the astral sea with a banishment spell. Sylvos convinces him that their interests are still aligned, and he agrees to stay with the party a little longer.