Bless the Child

You hunted down [The Smiler woman, running into her disguised as Bellamy’s wife Constance and holding the baby Amelie. In spite of fooling the hag into thinking that the flayed zombie was the skeletal alchemist holding an alchemy book, Abraham’s rash decision-making resulted in the tragic death of the baby Amelie, but the gang killed the hag with nary a scratch on themselves at least.

On the way to find the hag, the gang also ran into the Kodama, strange nature spirits who rapped these hot bars:

A world you must mend, thirteen to stitch
To keep us as friends, you scratch our itch:
Blood of the fiend, blood of the witch,
Blood of the beast, blood of the lich,
Blood of the sorrows, blood of the joys,
Till the end of tomorrows, till the end of all noise,
Make this land pure, and hallow the ground,
Return this world to where it was found

After you killed the hag, the Kodama returned and gifted you a stone charm, containing the spell dispel good and evil and dropped these similar bars:

A world you must mend, twelve left to stitch
To keep us as friends, you scratch our itch:
Blood of the fiend, blood of the witch,
Blood of the beast, blood of the lich,
Blood of the sorrows, blood of the joys,
Till the end of tomorrows, till the end of all noise,
Make this land pure, and hallow the ground,
Return this world to where it was found

We gift you this charm, to keep you from harm
Now turn back the clock to where next you dock

After killing the hag, you raid her hut. You tell Bellamy and the townsfolk of Kinista about slaying the hag and the death of Amelie.

You retrieve a treatise from the hag called “Manipulations of the Mind”, being used by the hag as a spellbook. Inside the pages, you find a letter as well:

Dear Arry,

Apologies for the last one, but the fiends will be hunting us anyway. We may as well get some use out of the equipment.

I have enclosed here the recipe for mind control. I have transcribed it and improved it from the Rakshasa’s hand. It is a dangerous one, so take care not to overuse it on those you need it to work on. It may cause madness or even undeath.

I await your rescue boat tomorrow. I can only shield my mind for so long. The Rakshasa is close to finding me out.

Yours truly,
Nat

The gang tried to figure out the Kodama’s charm overlay map puzzle and decided to go to Lemba next. They arrived at the shore and heard a strange dirge in the woods.

28 days till Zulon’s arrival

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