Chapter 21
From the directions given by Blurg, the Tower was back towards the destroyed temple of Selune so we made our way there. Going back inside I noticed a collapsed wall to the right that could be used as a pathway forward. Going through it and down some vines we found ourselves in what looked like an art museum's reject pile judging by all the stone statues littered around the cave-like ground. I took a closer look at the statues they were all in positions of discomfort or fear, like they were attacked by something. Then I heard a modulated growl, and we turned to see a creature beyond any description in my world. It was a floating head, with deep black, rubbery skin, one large green eye and four tentacles with smaller versions of that eye on the end of them. The monster roared a glutaral bellow at us to reveal multiple rows and multiple mouths of razor-sharp teeth before it rushed us.
The monster blasted us with red energy from one of its four eyes. I was able to bring my shield up as it tried to blast it away. "What the hell is this thing? The hydra's special cousin?" I asked through gritted teeth as my shield took the continuous blast.
"It's a Spectator, one of the beholderkin. If it's attacking us, we've probably run into some guarded place, or it's been ordered to kill any who come down this path. They tend to follow orders until death or reassignment." Gale answered
"Any way we can order it to bugger off?" Astarion asked trying to shoot the creature with his crossbows, which simply bounced off the creature's lumpy hide.
"None I'm afraid, only the caster that summoned it can order it around…"
"That's great Gale, how do we kill the thing? My shield isn't gonna hold much longer!" I grunted interrupting his answer.
"Ah yes, of course. Its hide is tough but not invulnerable, enough swings and magic will do the trick. It can cast confusion blasts and can petrify beings. That's how all these poor buggers got stuck here." Gale explained pointing to what I had thought were statues.
As if the Spectator understood the wizard, it aimed its other two eyes on the left towards the statues. Two of the statues became flesh once more, revealing themselves to be drow, wearing similar armour to Minthara but coloured all black and wearing a hooded mask on their faces. They ran towards us a sickly green glow in their eyes.
One clashed blades with Astarion while the other shot a bolt from a large crossbow at Karlach which lodged into her shoulder. "Me and my big mouth," Gale whined before focusing back on the fight.
My shield finally broke down and I was hit with the red energy blast. Suddenly my vision blurred, and my mind went fuzzy. All I could perceive were shadows and my addled body reacted with fear-induced violence. I blasted the largest shadow being with a blast of force whilst I whacked the shadow next to me with my staff. The being was able to block the blow with a similar-looking weapon before it thrust its hand towards me. My entire body went into a spasm as I felt the electricity surge through me. With this new agony came the clearing of my vision, the figure that attacked me was Gale and the larger figure I blasted was Karlach. I was able to hit the drow attacking Astarion in the blast, but the fiery tiefling was out cold alongside him. Before I could process what just happened, Gale had tackled me back down to the ground just avoiding the bite of the Spectator's many teeth. That didn't protect Gale from the remaining drow who shot the vulnerable wizard in the back with his crossbow. Gale screamed and fell off on his side. Reacting I aimed my staff at the drow archer, "Forzare!" I cast in outrage as the man flew off his feet hitting the cave wall. Before I could check on Gale, I heard a scream and saw Astarion being thrust around by his leg in the creature's jaws. The vampire howled with pain as he tried to stab into the Spectator's hide with little effect. Thankfully, before the vampire lost his leg, Shadowheart landed a hit with her light globes, right in the creature's big central eye. It threw Astrarion down as it roared in surprise and pain, leaving the pale elf bleeding and unconscious. With most of our crew down, Shadowheart and I had little chance of killing the monster, but I had another idea. I connected with Shadowhearts tadpole and ordered, "Keep it busy and in one spot. I have an idea."
Shadowheart nodded and waved her left arm in a casting motion and at her word an ethereal, glowing gold guardian in equally coloured armour appeared and thrust its sword at the Spectator. With the guardian and Shadowheart hitting the creature from either side, it couldn't move, and it didn't notice me preparing my spell. Gale said the thing was summoned by a caster, so it must have come from some spirit realm of some description, so hopefully, this spell should work. The Spectator was firing bolts of green energy at both its attackers, the golden guardian ignored these and Shadowheart was able to dodge them by rolling to her left. Until she couldn't. Shadowheart wobbled at her last roll as she noticed the chasm at the end of the cave platform we were fighting on, in that moment of hesitation she was hit with the green energy and was petrified, and her golden guardian disappeared. The monster turned to face me, but it was already too late, "Say hi to your hydra daddy for me. Stregallum Finitas!" On my word, my staff glowed and the spell that kept the Spectator in this reality reversed, and it disappeared with a soundless roar.
The petrified Shadowheart and all the remaining statues returned to normal, and our cleric quickly went to work healing everyone. Everyone was alright, Shadowheart only needed my help in pulling the bolt from Gale's side. "What did you do to the Spectator?" Shadowheart asked.
"Reversed the spell that was holding it in this plane. Sent it packing back home." I said with a satisfied smile on my face.
Gale opened his eyes blearily and groaned, "That shouldn't have worked. Only the caster can order the creature away."
"I didn't target the monster. The summoning was created through magic, so I used mine to cut off the energy, thus an instant reversal of summoning."
Gale raised an eyebrow, "Really? Never used a spell so specific to a casting. Especially after the summoned being had been in place for so long. Deal with a lot of summoned beasties in your land?"
"More than I can count. Summoning something shit from the spirit world tends to be my bad guy's main move."
"Excuse me if I could interrupt." A croaky voice asked harshly. We turned around and saw a drow who, unlike his three dark-armoured associates who were now gathering behind him, was wearing a blue and black wizard robe with a dark collar. Before the drow wizard could speak he coughed out some dust, "Dust. On. My. Tongue!" The drow man complained as his croaky voice cleared into a more high-classed vaguely European accent. "I offer to parlay, and he brings a Spectator? Twit. Quite ruined my ambush. Now. You are?" The drow wizard spat with little deference.
"The people who just un-petrified you and your insectoid-clad cronies. So, a thank you would be nice." I said in an irritated tone.
The drow scoffed arrogantly, which made his long silver hair rustle slightly, "Very well. I Dhorn the third son of House Ba'Tol, first rank evoker and initiate of Gravenhollow's…" As Dhorn was preparing some sarcastic gratitude for my deed he was reaching into his back pocket, and pulled out a clear crystal and stared at it in genuine horror, "Oh. Oh no no my dear Dark Gods below no!"
"A memory shard. Looks like it's faded out. Pity that." Gale said sass dripping from his smirking face.
"How could this be! A memory shard ought to hold its glow for years- and look at it! It's nearly faded out completely. It contains knowledge that is most precious to me. If it has grown this dull. Then my enemies have already found the forge. Which bastard stole my glory- Xangrim? Filro?"
I gave the drow a confused look, "Never heard of either, guys?" Everyone, now including Karlach and Astarion who had finally gotten up from healing, shook their heads.
Dhorn raised an eyebrow, "None of you? The man who found the Adamantine Forge would be known and feared throughout the Underdark." A wicked smile spread on the drow's face, "Which means they haven't found it. Probably died in the attempt. Ha!"
Karlach perked up, "A forge! Ohhh I've been wanting to get some new armour since leaving Avernus. Any chance we can tag along and share in some of the glory… and loot." Karlach asked hopefully.
Dhorn chuckled slyly as he stated, "Whist I truly am grateful for your help. I will not share the glory with anyone. Apologies for this but I can't let you leave this place alive." The drow wizard then raised his hand to signal an attack.
I'm guessing being stuck as a statue for a couple of years dulls one's reflexes because Dhorn didn't react at all to my punch in the nose and froze as my pistol rested neatly under his chin. I smiled my best crazy smile at the bastard, "Now, Mr. Dhorn of house Bailtail…"
"Ba'Tol!" Dhorn croaked angrily before remembering the situation.
"Whatever. I've had a very difficult week. I've been kidnapped, shot at, poisoned, mauled and recently forced to attack one of my friends helping your grey-skinned ass. So, I'm really not in the mood for any backstabbing drow bullshit right now. So, you're gonna be a grateful lord and reward my party with that nice memory crystal there, or I can pull this trigger and blow your brains out before your boys over there can even touch me. How do you wanna play this?" I said a maniacal edge creeping into my voice.
"You're bluffing," Dhorn said weak and flimsy defiance in his terrified voice.
"You feeling lucky punk," I said in my best Eastwood impression. The voice had the desired effect of the drow thinking I was crazy, and he simply dropped the crystal and hightailed it back up the vines, taking his men with him.
"Well, that was intense. Nice work getting the shard soldier. Would you have killed the drow?" Karlach asked.
"Probably, he would have ordered his goons to rush us and I'm not quite up for a fight yet after that whole mess," I said gesturing back to where the Spectator disappeared from.
"Fair enough. Well, you gonna use that thing or just fondle it?" Karlach asked sarcastically.
I rolled my eyes at her and stared at the memory crystal. Suddenly, I was pulled into the depths of the object. I was in someplace deep, loud and hot as hell itself. An image of a lava pit and stone platforms appears in my mind. Another image, this time a giant hammer waiting to fall on a mighty forge appears. As the crystal fades I get an image of a statue wearing the same armour Shadowheart does.
"Well… what did you see Dresden?" Astarion asked expectantly
"The forge is somewhere in the Shar stronghold we're headed to," I responded
"Well, isn't that convenient," Gale said brightly.
"Not exactly. From what I saw, it was surrounded by a lava pit and if the Duergar are any indication, the Absolutists are around the temple."
"Yes. But we'll get over them. Treasure from a mysterious forge is worth the odd trip into a lava pit infested with cultists." Astarion said with his signature grin.
"We'll burn that bridge when we get there. We better get back on the trail." I said as we looked down over the chasm. The directions pointed us across it and there was another small rock platform in the middle of the gap between us and the path. We decided to jump across the gap one at a time. Once across we climbed down a rock platform to the path that led to Lenore's Tower. We walked forward until we found ourselves at an archway that led to a cobblestone walkway. I walked through the archway when I caught sight of a strange metal device. Unlike the walkway or what little of the tower I could see from my viewpoint, it wasn't made of stone or wood, but a shining metal half circle that was a stand for a thin rhombus-shaped metal that hummed with magical potential. I took a step forward and the device sprang to life, sections of it glowed blue as the rhombus shape floated up, directed at me face-on. I pulled my shield up as a blast of blue energy hit it and sent me flying back through the archway, to where my companions were standing.
"It seems Lenore has put up a security system. Magic turrets I'm guessing by your… abrupt return." Gale stated with a giggle in his tone.
"Oh, you think do ya! Why the hell was I the only one to walk forward?" I complained outraged as I rubbed the bruise on my back.
"I was using a spell to check for traps… and you were in front so everyone saw me before we had a chance to grab you," Gale said, a bit of embarrassment and shame in his voice.
"Whatever, any idea how to shut 'em down? I don't think my shield can take another blast."
"We can only deactivate them from inside I'm afraid. I can give you a way directly to the basement where you can do it, but you still have to get past the two turrets on the grounds."
"I could probably sneak past the defences. How much cover is there between the archway to the door?" Astarion asked
"None, just a rock near the archway and there's a bit of cover on the steps up but that'll only cover the first turret." I supplied.
"And that's not the way you need to go. You'll need to go behind the first turret over some large mushrooms off to the side of the tower and jump over the gap to get to the back of the tower. That's where you'll access the basement and deactivate the defences. Try to go through the front door, and you'll likely just encounter more defences." Gale corrected.
"Bollocks. So how do we do it? I'm good but I've no invisibility potions on me. And I'm too pretty to be reduced to ashes." Astarian quipped haughtily.
"I could veil you. It's not quite invisibility, but it should be enough to fool an automated turret magical or not. Probably." I said with a worried chuckle in my tone.
"Well… It's the best plan we have. Anything else I should know wizard?" Astarion asked.
"Yeah, I'll need to come with you to keep the veil up, and it'll be hard to see through it. Blurry. But the turrets are glowing and the mushrooms in this place are pretty hard to miss, so we should be fine." I said with a false amount of confidence.
"Wonderful… Right, let's get it over with then." Astarion said in sarcastic cheer.
I instructed Astarion to stand behind me as I passed my staff to Gale. I then raised my right hand and cast, "Obscurata". The veil popped up around the two of us. Unlike Molly's super veils, I could only blur our images but as long as we walked slowly and close to the ground, it should be enough to confuse the turrets. And so, we snuck forward crouching as we went. As I predicted our vision was obscured by the spell, everything looked like I was looking through non-prescription glasses all blurred shapes and wonky lines. Thankfully the turret still glowed menacingly alert, so it was easy to walk towards it. Which we did cautiously, and got ready to bolt at even the slightest indication it was about to fire. But the veil did its thing, and while the turret followed our movement all the way around as we snuck behind it, it didn't fire. We found ourselves looking at a blurry image of bright deep blue and purple to the side of a collapsed pillar behind the turret. Astarion and I nodded to each other as I said in his mind, "Get ready, after the jump, the veil will dissipate, I'll reflect the blast back at the turrets and we cheese it over to the basement." Astarion gave me another nod as we prepared to leap.
We jumped over to the first deep blue mushroom, and the veil collapsed under the stress of too much movement. And as it did, I slipped slightly and let out a surprised yelp as I corrected my balance. Both turrets swivelled around and fired at me, as I was the loudest. Before they hit, I cast, "Vento Riflittum!" Energy drained out of me as the power of the two blasts reflected at their point of origin. The blast hit the two turrets and caused them to return to their inactive state. Panting I said, "Doubt they'll be out for long. Come on pretty boy we are skedaddlin'." On my word, we jumped to the purple mushroom and across the gap to another blue mushroom. We jumped down off the mushroom to find a little garden with strange plants that glowed blue under a tree with similarly glowing fruit in its branches. Panting even harder now I raised my hand to Astarion. He high-fived me with a roll of his eyes and pulled out his lockpick.
As Astarion got to work on the door, I walked over to take a look at the strange plants. They were a sort of large flower with no stalk, just the blooming petals that glowed bright blue in the middle and gave off a strange aura that seemed to drain me. I tested a simple spell while I was in the vicinity of the unusual flora, and nothing happened. Against my better judgment, I picked the fascinating plant and carried it through the now unlocked door of the tower.
Inside, there was what looked like a giant furnace which was encased in a glass tube that connected to the roof of the basement and up to the other floors. This must be a generator of some fashion. It seemed to be inactive, judging by the lack of noise or heat from the furnace-style generator. On a whim, I stuffed the strange flower into the furnace. The fires inside suddenly burst to life, along with the braziers on the walls of the basement. I got a psychic message from Gale, "That did it! The defences are down, you should be able to grab the mushrooms and get back here with no further problems." I let out a breath of relief as I took another look at the directions Blurg gave me, he wrote that the plants we needed would be on the third lowest floor of the four-floored tower. Meaning the plants were only one floor up. We walked up old wooden stairs to find no plants, instead, there was another section of tube that was fully open on one side. We went inside and found the floor was glowing with similar blue energy to the flower and there was a single button on the right side of my foot. I looked to Astarion who gave a 'might as well' shrug as I pressed the button with my foot. Abruptly, I felt as light as air, and we flew through the pipes and re-formed on another floor. I've experienced this type of travel only once before when I used Bob's wind travel potion so many years ago. Looking down there were now two buttons one on the left and right of me. "Hmm, first elevator I can use without fear of a plummeting death, nice," I said with a curious smile.
Astarion looked at me exasperated, "Elevator? I swear Dresden, I don't know if you're trying to be funny, quoting something from your homeland or are just plain mad."
"Yes," I said simply. Astarion rolled his eyes, "Come on, pretty boy. Let's get these plants for the squid and get out of here."
Astraion nodded and I looked around the room for the mushrooms described in the notes. The room was covered edge to edge with either shelves of picked plants or sectioned-off trees and mushroom habitats. I found the Tongue of Madness in one of the planters, it was shaped like a blooming flower made of tongues due to its pinkish colour and glossy texture. I made sure to touch it with my gloved hand and put it in the pack. The Timmask spores were on one of the shelves they were spherical and were coloured a sickly brown with blue spots. I grabbed a handful with my gloved hand and stuffed them in the pack.
"Got' em let's get out of this freaky tower," I said emphatically.
"Well… let's not be too hasty. There could be some valuable loot in this abandoned tower." Astarion said a greedy smirk on his lips.
"No. One: this tower isn't abandoned, the owner just isn't home today, and two: we don't know what other defences this place has, there could be magic-powered robots upstairs for all we know. So we're getting out of here before we piss this place off more than already have."
Astarion pouted, "Spoilsport."
I glared at him, and he threw up his arms in defeat and followed me up to the next floor and out of the tower. We met up with the other and Gale teleported us back to the Myconid camp.
Back at the camp, Omeluum was waiting for us beside Blurg where we left them. "I greet you sun-child. How was your search for the mushrooms?"
"Fruitful, got 'em right here," I said carefully handing Omeluum the mushrooms and it turned around to begin working on the tincture. I turned to Blurg pulling out some gold, "Give these to Lenore when you see her next, as a thank you for the mushrooms, and sorry for breaking in and messing with her place."
Blurg looked surprised and said, "That's decent of you wizard, I'll be sure to give this to Lenore."
Omeluum turned back around handing me a draught of a foul-smelling substance, "You must drink the entire draught. I can make no promise to its taste"
'What exactly is it going to do to me?"
"It will lower the psionic defences around the larva. If I cannot remove it, I may be able to tell you more about its origin."
"Right then. Bottoms up" I said as I downed the whole thing in one terrible-tasting pull.
"Not a drop left. Very good. As the potion influences your mind, you may find yourself acting irrationally. Try to stay focused."
The world began to lose its edges. I felt trapped, like a mosquito suspended in tree sap. I was feeling what the tadpole felt. I pulled up my mental defences and was able to focus back to my own senses. The tadpole spasmed, sieved. It fought the potion even harder than I did. Fear pierced my mind like knives of ice. I could feel the parasite dig deeper like it was trying to hollow out my skull. I infused my mental defences with soul-fire, making the walls of my mind hard as a diamond and unsurpassable as a mountain. The knives lost their edge, and the wave of fear turned backwards. The parasite suddenly smelled of power- more power than I'd ever felt before. It surged and twisted, lashing out at anything that dared to intrude. I heard Omeluum scream as the parasite quieted, pleased with itself.
"Omeluum! Are you well?" Blurg asked concerned
"That larva is like nothing I have ever observed before. Its power is… unsettling." Omeluum said a hint of fear in the mindflayers voice.
"Son of a bitch! The damn thing got bigger and more powerful. How is that possible?" I asked livid.
"Such an outcome was not in my calculations. There is more to this being than mere stasis. Unfortunately, it seems the larva is there to stay."
"So, this whole trip was completely useless!" I said raising my hand up in frustration along with my voice.
"We got the crystal from the drow. That's something." Karlach said nervously.
"That's great Karlach, we've just wasted more of whatever precious few hours we have left to figure out how to get these tadpoles out of our heads, but you got a crystal leading to an old forge surrounded by lava and crazy cultists. STARS AND STONES!" I yelled stomping off in the other direction to calm myself down.
On immediate reflection, that outburst wasn't fair on Karlach. Greaaat work Harry, rage at the only friends you have right now because they don't know you got more than one deadline in this situation. I needed to get to Maggie as soon as possible and I just threw away even more time on that mindflayer and its stupid mushroom potion.
"You seem more pissed off than I do, what wrong with ya." I heard from a gravelly female voice. Looking down I saw a dwarf woman, around her mid-fifties judging by the crow's feet by her brown eyes and frown lines just below her auburn hair. There was also a diagonal scar on her left cheek.
I shook myself out of my self-pity and answered, "Business venture, didn't go through. You know how it is." I lied weakly.
"That I do. Have you seen a dwarf around here, Baelen's his name."
"No, can't say I have. He your husband?"
"Unfortunately, the lout was meant to be back hours ago with the noblestalk samples."
I knew I was going to regret this, but the right thing and all that, "I could have a look for him if you like."
"Knock yourself out. But don't come begging for coin if you find him. If you try to ransom him to me, you'll find yourself skint and stuck with a fat old lout."
"You're really motivating my heroic instincts you know that. Mind describing him to me oh, wife of the year." I asked admittedly a bit harsher than was necessary.
"Bald. Blue tunic. Dumb as a stick. And if you're so desperate for payment beanstalk, see if you can find that noblestalk Baelan was out for. A few are meant to bloom down to the right of this camp, that's where I sent Baelen. I'd pay for that. If not, not a copper."
It was at that time my party had decided to catch up with me, "You got all of it out of your system, or do you want to stomp off some more?" Karlach asked smirk in her voice.
I rubbed the back of my neck with a palm, "Yeah, sorry about that Karlach. Situations gettin' to me. You didn't deserve the tirade." I apologised in a sheepish voice.
"I get it, we're all under a lot of pressure. And that mindflayers 'potion' didn't look pleasant."
"It looked like you were trying to pass a stalagmite, Dresden. It was quite entertaining." Astarion chuckled before Shadowheart slapped him upside the head.
I glared at the smirking vampire, then wiped my hand over my face as I said, "Right come on, we gotta go."
"Where to now?" Karlach asked.
"To go waste more time saving an apparently very poor botanist," I replied as we went in the direction of the noblestalk and dear husband Baelen.
Moving to the right of the Myconid camp we found ourselves walking on a narrow path, that looked more like an enormous tree root than a cave floor, "Susuar bark trees. They grow exceptionally large in the Underdark. The bark has similar properties to the plant you used to power the tower, mainly a natural silencing spell. These roots should be fine though." Gale assured.
"Good to know," I responded worriedly. As I marvelled at the size of a tree that could spawn this magnitude of root, I heard a cry from further along the path. I ran towards the sound and was pulled back Karlach just a bit away from a whole field of large sphere-shaped green mushrooms.
A bald dwarf in a blue tunic called out to us, "Stop. Stop! Bibberbang." The dwarf likely named Baelen warned in a terrified wail.
"He's right. A whole field of Bibberbang mushrooms. More deadly to walk into a furnace, than venture through there." Gale warned.
"How can we get you out of there?" I called out to Baelen.
"Scroll-escape! My bag! I've dropped it. Somewhere." Baelen said thoughts both erratic and disorganised.
I scanned the deadly field for a bag, I finally found one. Which was of course a few feet away from the dwarf and through about most of the deadly fungi. On the cave wall next to the bag was a glowing blue flower. This one fully glowing blue rather than just the centre like with the magic-blocking plant.
"That must be the noblestalk. Probably best to go for that first, more fragile than the plump dwarf." Astarion mused. I gave him a sideways glance, "Oh, don't look at me like that. I want to actually get paid for jumping into deadly spore-spewing plants thank you."
Ignoring him, I turned to Gale, "Can you teleport to him and get him out of there."
"Unfortunately, no. My spell only works for long distances and only to specific points." Gale said
"I can use a dimension door to grab the dwarf and get back here, but that would set off the mushrooms, so no noblestalk. If you were planning on grabbing that as well." Shadowheart said helpfully.
I studied the bibberbang field and the distance between Baelen and the noblestalk. "Shadow, I assume that dimension door spell takes more than one?"
"Wouldn't be much of a rescue plan if it couldn't. I have no desire to get blown up for the cause." Shadowheart responded.
"Gale. How long does it take for Bibberbangs to go off?"
"About a second or two, they swell up, expel spores and the spores ignite. Similar to the orange variety, only larger."
"Right, Karlach. That fire immunity cover exploding mushrooms?"
"Only one way to find out. You got a plan soldier?" Karlach asked excitedly.
"Yeah, Shadow teleports you and her over to Baelan. She jumps Baelan out of the way, while you go grab the noblestalk. You up for it?"
"Fuck yes. Time to put this new upgrade to the test." Karlach cheered pumped up.
"Alright, if you're ready Karlach." Shadowheart said, less enthusiastic.
And that's how the plan went down. Shadowheart waved her arms up and won in a quick motion and suddenly there was a gateway next to her and next to Baelen. The woman stepped through it and Shadowheart pulled the same trick to get Baelen out. Karlach then sprinted towards the noblestalk, Bibberbangs going off all around her. She only just got the precious flower into the pack before the mushroom next to it went off. After the smoke cleared there was a field of ash and fire and Karlach, patting some excess fire off her clothes and smirking, pleased with herself. She handed me the flower and announced, "One noblestalk in pristine condition, and one dwarf, slightly used."
Baelen had finally registered what happened, "Ah, yes. Umm. Thank you. Here for your trouble. Ta." Baelen spurted out, giving Shadowheart some gold and walking off back towards the myconid camp.
I followed the confused dwarf while asking Gale, "What's so special about this noblestalk anyway?"
"Noblestalks are one of the most powerful healing agents in all of the Sword Coast. They can mend near any ailment, caused by physical or magical malaise alike." Gale supplied.
"Really. Any?" I pondered as we arrived back at the dwarf's stand.
Baelen walked up to his wife, and she shushed him over to the back of the stand, "So, you found the old windbag. Got the stalk on you as well, if so, hand it over and I'll compensate you. If not that's business done."
I gave the grouchy dwarf my best business-friendly smile, "I'm sorry, but I didn't get your name when we first met, what is it?"
"Derryth. Derryth Blonecloak. Why?" Derryth asked suspiciously.
"Well, Derryth, I have another arrangement in mind. In lieu of gold, we cut the noblestalk in half and I take one, you take the other. It should be enough for you, at least to grow more. Which I assume was your goal. No use in selling a one-time cure."
Derryth groaned in annoyance, "I assume this is the only way I get the stalk at all?" I nodded, "Fine, fine, give it 'ere and I'll cut it down."
True to her word, Derryth cut the noblestalk in half and handed me a piece. We said our goodbyes and we parted ways towards the entrance to the camp. At the last step, I turned to Shadowheart, "I think you should eat the noblestalk, to help with your memory loss."
Shadowheart looked at me hesitantly, "I… I can't. My memories are being withheld for a reason. Lady Shar will return them to me when the time is right. No sooner. Besides mushrooms aren't my favourite. I think it's because of the gills…"
"These are your memories. You shouldn't have to ask permission to know who you are. And besides, circumstances have changed. Your memories could be the key between getting back to Baldurs Gate alive, or as mindflayers." I responded urgently.
"Alright… give it here," Shadowheart said exasperated. I gave her the glowing plant and she stiffed it down with a disgusted gulp.
"You, okay? Is it working?"
"I think so. I remember… something. Not everything. It's new and not new at the same time, all jumbled up." Shadowheart said, fear and excitement warring for dominance over her tone, "I was younger, much younger. An initiate at the cloister. I was upset about something… the others were teasing me. Mocking my name. Like I wasn't worthy of it… There was another. A tiefling boy with short horns and purple hair. I think he was my friend. He tried to make me feel better… 'Rennald'. That's all I can remember… that must be his name. Perhaps he's still there, in Baldurs Gate." A small smile came across Shadowhearts lips before it was turned into a snarl as the wound bit into her.
Feeling guilty for being the reason Shar decided to punish my… whatever she was to me. I tried to apologise, but Shadowheart raised a hand to stop me, "Don't Harry. It's not your fault. And… it was worth it. A good memory."
"Yeah, friends during the more awkward years are valuable. Kids can be cruel." I said empathically.
"You sound like you talk from experience. Who could bully you? You tower over most beings that aren't freakishly tall in their own right."
"Didn't get the growth spurt until I was about fifteen, smallest kid on the playground until then. And I had a habit of mouthing off when I got pushed around. You do the math." I responded.
Shadowheart chuckled at that, "I bet you got more bruises standing up to the bullies than you did just walking about."
"Yep, and it was worth every swing. Gotta stand up to people like that. The only way to make things fair."
"That you do" Shadowheart responded.
"Now we should be going, those Duergar bullies need some standing up to for all that slavery and mushroom murder," I said in my best school gym teacher voice.
"Lead the way" Shadowheart said, a warmer smile in her voice as we went to 'Cleanse the Rot'.