As the session begins, several days have passed after the party was captured by the Vizier's guards and imprisoned. They are jailed in the higher-security jail located in the military district of Viskha, and each party member is alone in a cell. None can see the others, and there appear to be no obvious opportunities to escape. Notably, Flossaria spends her sixteenth birthday in prison.
Finally, on this day, each party member is approached one-by-one by Lieutenant Hadia, who gets the guard to release each party member and asks him or her to follow her lead and not try anything. One-by-one, she leads each adventurer to a small, private interrogation chamber.
The entire group is reunited - Flossaria and P'hla included. Neither of them has any memory of what happened; each remembers closing her eyes, then waking up in prison, with no memories of anything in between.
Hadia explains that she has gathered them together so that someone can speak with them. she urges them to speak quickly, because she's going against procedure in gathering the group and allowing someone to speak with them. The longer they take, the more trouble that she's in. She then admits their visitor into the room.
A man walks in, and several members of the party recognize him - he's one of the members of the cult of the half-closed eye that they had been spying on. The man confirms his membership in the group, but tells them that he (literally) cannot tell them any details about the group. He also declines to give his name.
He explains that he's come to offer an exchange of services to the party. His group opposes the other cultists, the ones who worship the entity that had possessed Flossaria and P'hla. He confirms that the Vizier himself belongs to the cult, and tells them that the cult has recently recovered a map, showing a location in the desert to the west, and that they are currently preparing an expedition to this location. This is, of course, the map that Sharla found, which was taken from her when the party was captured by the Vizier's men.
Thus, the man presents his offer. His group's numbers are too few to both combat the cult's growing influence in Viskha and stop their expedition to the west. They also don't know the exact location that the enemy is travelling to. But Sharla, having studied the map, does know the location. So, he asks them to travel to the location on the map, find out what the cult is looking for, and stop them from acquiring it. In return, his group will break them out of prison, retrieve their gear, and outfit them for the expedition.
The party don't take much convincing; they are scheduled to be executed soon and have no other way to escape, and they were planning on fighting the cult anyway. However, they are concerned about the demon's ability to influence their dreams, and its existing influence on P'hla and Flossaria. The man explains that his group has two ways to block the being's influence. The first is a magic ring that they possess, which essentially blanks the user's mind, which prevents it from being influenced. However, they only have one such ring.
The second method comes with a cost. His group has knowledge of a ritual which essentially erases the subject's past. All memories of the subject older than about a month are completely destroyed in the minds of all others, and somehow this prevents the demonic entity from affecting the subject. This, of course, means that all of the subject's family and friends will completely forget about him or her - essentially, his or her past life will be completely erased.
The man explains that this is completely optional, except for Flossaria and P'hla, who have already been affected by the creature, and therefore must be closed off against its influence. One of them can use the ring, but the other will have to undergo the ritual.
The man prepares to leave, in order to allow the party to discuss who will undergo the ritual. They point out that they have another method that could protect against the demon's influence - the spell that prevents the subject from dreaming, still held by Varanac at the Mages' College. After they describe what it does, he agrees to retrieve it, since it could be useful to his group as well.
Finally, the man departs and the party are led back to their cells by the guards.
September 6, Year 3488 (SE 118)
The next day, the cultists of the half-closed eye put their plan into action. Several cultists arrive at the prison, and convince the guards to let the adventurers go free. The guards are obviously under some sort of magical compulsion; the reasoning that the cultists give is extremely flimsy and yet the guards seem to accept it unconditionally; not to mention the fact that they are taking orders from the cultists at all. Regardless of how it is done, the compulsion has the desired effect, and soon enough the entire party is let out of the prison. They are reunited with the man who spoke with them yesterday, who is accompanied by several other cultists.
The man, who seems to be the leader of the cultists, warns them that the spell that they used against the guards will most likely last for several more hours, at which point the guards will realize that the prisoners are gone. He leads them to the cult's new hideout (the old one having been discovered) so they can plan their next move.
The cultists return the party's gear, which they successfully retrieved from the prison, and they begin by discussing the memory-erasing ritual. In the end, two party members decide to undergo it: P'hla and Zedlyn, while Flossaria will wear the protective ring. The ritual takes an hour for each participant; while this is happening, Sharla begins studying the scroll of Dreamless Slumber that the cultists obtained from Varanac. When Zedlyn, and an hour later P'hla, exits from the ritual chamber, the ritual appears to have been a complete success. None of the other party members can remember anything about Zedlyn and P'hla from more than a month ago.
By this time, it is approximately noon, and the cultists urge them to leave as soon as possible, but the party has a few more errands to complete around town. Sharla and P'hla head out to purchase the inks and other components that they will need to scribe the Dreamless Slumber spell, while Iriellis writes a personal letter and leaves it at the Temple of Slid.
Finally, the party are ready to leave. The head cultist leads them to the outskirts of Viskha, where they are introduced to their guide - Zaerin, a Desert Elf ranger. She provides them with supplies and appropriate attire, and explains the route that they will take. The first several days will be in the fertile river valley area, so travel will be business as usual. After that, however, the rest of the first week will be through the desert. They'll need to exchange their horses for camels if they wish to continue riding. This first week in the desert should be fairly simple, as it will be in territory that is well known by Zaerin's clan.
The second week will be more dangerous, because it will be through uncharted desert; Zaerin will not know the routes or the locations of oases. They will be carrying enough water for the week of travel, two weeks at their destination, and one week back.
With their route explained, the party head out. The expedition that the demon cultists are planning to send has still not left, so they are ahead, but by how much they cannot say.
September 20, Year 3488 (SE 118)
Two weeks have passed as the party travelled to their destination. Everything has gone as Zaerin said it would. After the first several days, they reached the edge of the desert and traded in their horses for camels at a small trading village. During the second week, Zaerin appeared to lose her way a few times, but managed to recover the correct path and lead them to their destination within the expected time. During this time, both Sharla and P'hla manage to learn and scribe the spell of Dreamless Slumber.
Finally, they see what must be their destination, in the distance. It appears to be a city, dominated by a pyramid built in the center. As they cautiously appreach, they notice two pieces of information - first, the city appears to be largely in ruins, and second, the pyramid does match the one seen by Flossaria and P'hla in their dreams, although there was no city surrounding it in the dreams.
As they reach the outskirts, Zaerin announces that she will stay behind and keep an eye on the camels and the supplies. Iriellis and Flossaria cast spells to detect magic and evil, and the party prepare to enter the city.
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