When we last ventured to the Great Basin…
The members of the Task Force were still grappling the implications of a being which could alter memories. While everybody was sleeping in the work room to avoid splitting the party, Zorro had another of his recurring nightmares about his wound which lead to him being discharged from the Eichen military. This time, after the wound was inflicted, he dreamt of being on an unfamiliar operating table, the masked doctors above him talking about the procedure not going as planned and then giving him more sedative.
In the morning, one group goes to procure the material component for False Alibi from Elon’s Emeralds. Meanwhile, another group talks to the Forum delegates from the Commune of Atrxous to get permission to see the body of Bur Harcosa. The new delegates readily agree, and when the form is presented to Eaton, he remarks that you’ve figured out an important aspects of Forum politics and then has a guard escort that group to body of Bur.
After shopping for emeralds, the group out and about heads over to the Library of the Muse to investigate magical means of restoring memories. The curator that Oisin talks to is able to produce a scroll of Psychic Surgery from the pre-print area of the archive. Just like in academia, the Library has received a submission to be added to the archives and distributed to wider audiences, but the submission hasn’t been fully reviewed. The curator is not willing to let you have the scroll, since that would leave the submission in an incomplete state when it is reviewed later, but does give you a copy of the research article associated with the new spell which fortunately includes an address on Kerkrad. The author of the paper is Dr. Diana Drache, who works at the Wounded Solider Initiative, a project originally from the Eichen Kingdom which offers aid to wounded solider and adventurers all over the Great Basin. Realizing that this organization has strong ties to the Eichen, the group decides to fetch Zorro for the conversation. Upon returning to the Forum building, Oisin is able to cast Red Hand of the Killer using the body of Bur Harcosa and dye the right hand of whomever hastened his death red. What follows is a search of the Forum building where you inspect the right hands of anybody you think might be involved with Harcosa’s death. However, you don’t find anything more than one false positive where a worker in the print shop was working with red ink.
After the search, the entire Task Force goes to the address listed on the research paper to talk to Dr. Drache. The secretary goes upstairs to find her, and returns with a black-furred Eichhƶrnchen who is clearly blind with a lot of scarring around her eyes. Using the railing on the stairs to guide her back up, she leads you to her office to discuss your needs. She is willing to perform the operation on Meru, which will restore all lost memories, but since Meru is not a wounded veteran it will cost a few hundred gold extra. The total price, including needed spell components is 1200 gp and once you agree to find the spell components, the operation is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
On the way back from the Wounded Solider Initiative, you notice that some of the people on the streets seem weary of you and are whispering as you go past. Stopping in a prominent spell component shop, you pressure the worker behind the counter (who knows most of the spell casters in the party) what is going on and they tell you that there is a rumor spreading that your Task Force was involved in the death of Bur Harcosa. He doesn’t know where it started as he just heard it from other people coming into the shop, but Meru later learns that the rumor was starting magically.
Later that night, as you all head to bed in the Task Force working room, you decide to light the dream candle after some questions from Meru to the stars reveal that it will let you reach the person whom erased Vicious’ memories. When lit, you all feel drowsy and soon drift to sleep but only Redfern dreams of a dark void with seven elegant chairs illuminated from sourceless drop-lights, a figure in black robes with blue runes embroidered onto it.
We now resume in the mind of a dreaming Redfern as you face the figure who might have erased Vicious’ memories in the inky darkness.