A Nightmare Revealed

Shadow takes the group to the edge of the encampment where Quick Candle has her home. Snow knows Candle to be a private person, but certainly a longtime member of the clan and a credible and helpful member of their group.

Shadow pulls aside the hides that obscure the interior of the home of Candle from view. Inside, you see a stooped, older tabaxi with vivid green eyes and white fur gone creamy in places with age. She wears a loose navy blue robe which gathers at the shoulders, revealing bare forearms. A pouch-laden belt gathers the fabric at her waist. She tends a simmering pot full of herbal-smelling contents. Bundles of drying herbs, leaves, and branches line the walls of her hut, and baskets of potion ingredients and clean linens are gathered close to the fire.

Candle ushers you around to the side of her home where a fallen log serves as a bench for conversation. Shadow and Snow tell her about Dusty's recovery, and she shares that she's been to see Broken Antlers, one of the clan elders this morning and that he is close to death's door.

When asked about her own dreams, Candle tells them her story.

I still have them, you know. But not as frequently, and they have less of a physical effect. In my dreams, the Wildmother instructs me to foul the water supply to the encampment. She wants us to leave the Savalirwood. Her protections of the few remaining healthy places are failing, and she wants us to be safe. She worries because the elders are ignoring her dreams and visions. But me... she trusts me. Trusts me to do what is needed for the safety of our clan, and trusts me to see her will done on Exandria.

But... I could not do it. I came to the waters edge, and I couldn’t do it. I fell to my knees. I was so tired, so scared. So convinced that this was the only way. But something stayed my hand, and preserved me.

I came back to my home, and rested. I drank a broth I made – a bone broth infused with greens gathered from the dryad’s glade on a full moon. I put anything healing I had into it. I chained myself to my hut, even, to force me to think twice if I attempted to leave again. Slowly, I began to recover. I still have the dreams. But I’ve recovered enough strength, at least for now, to resist them.

I admit that I was doing a fair amount of experimentation on myself. Various wards, poultices, anything I could think of. The recovery process was slow, and has had its ups and downs. It is difficult for me to say what worked and what didn’t. So I’ve simply brought everything I can to bear on others that are afflicted.

Snow excuses herself from the conversation on the pretense that she needs to run to her parents for something. She then sneaks into the hut.

Erash notices that Candle's eyes don't match her words as she expresses her appreciation for Ferric's holy intervention. He confronts Candle with an intimidating display. She doesn't seem phased, however. But she rises and insists that if they wish to continue this conversation it's better to do so inside.

Meanwhile, Snow explores the interior of the hut. At first everything is as it seems; but as soon as Snow attempts to touch the contents of one of the baskets, her hand passes right through it. She reaches for the fire with the simmering pot, and the same thing happens. Hearing the group approach, she quickly hides in the shifting shadows of the interior of the hut.

Candle turns and faces the group, her expression turning from pleasant to sinister in an instant. She snaps her fingers.

The room around the group lurches suddenly, and transforms into something utterly unlike a tabaxi home. Instead, the space now resembles a square, rough-walled, single room cabin that seems much roomier on the inside. But “inviting” isn’t the word that comes to mind. An amethyst fire burns in a hearth on one wall. The light haze of smoke burns your eyes and throat, and is pungent with the stench of decay and unwashed linen. Shelves are a jumble of skulls, both human and animal, of all different sizes; vials, dried husks of animals and suspended humanoid heads, items in jars and under bells that are better left unidentified. From the shadowy rafters, you hear occasional rustles and clicks. You can no longer see a doorway. A desiccated corpse of a tabaxi hangs from the rafters in one corner, the fur the same color as Candle’s, strips of flesh missing from the body.

Not-Candle invites everyone to have a seat and offers tea. At this, five chairs on bird legs stagger drunkenly out of the shadowy corners and come to rest in a rough semicircle facing the small table in the center of the room. As she settles herself, A kettle on top of the amethyst fire sprouts spider-like legs and marches resolutely towards the table. Not-Candle fills the teapot, and lets it go again.

Ferric is the only one to join her at the table, and offers his own tea blend instead. She graciously accepts the offer.

There is brief, tense conversation, while Snow still hides in the shadows. Not-Candle reveals that she's behind the nightmares, yes. And that what she wants is souls. Threatening language just earns her confident laughter, and she taunts each speaker with unsettling commentary on their personal affairs. She also makes several offers to negotiate in exchange for stopping her attacks on the clan.

When she derisively as Candle's corpse as dinner, Snow can't take any more and arrows fly. While she clearly bleeds, a thick dark black ichor, she doesn't seem concerned. She looks at the group as she strolls across the room.

It’s too late to still the heart of this dark power. It beats stronger and stronger, and our time is nigh. The tower calls ever greater evil to it. Caer Mosor belongs to The Sisters of the Shattered Sphere, to use as we will. Stay away, or we’ll flay the skin from your bones and feast upon your souls.

All-seeing eyes protect the deepest secrets of our lair, and only those who know no fear dare to stare into them.

And with that, Not-Candle fades away leaving only a laugh behind her as the party hears in their heads, "Here's a little something to keep you busy."

At that, the flames flicker and change color rapidly as a chitinous fiend emerges from the fireplace, and the owls that had been quietly roosting in the corner reveal themselves as no ordinary owls. The party quickly reduces them to piles of feathers and goo.

Erash manages to destroy all three of the fiendish owls in one go, but something strange happens as they perish. He feels a physical weight settle on him, and feels his breath drawn from his body. He watches a strange steam-like mist coalesce a few inches from his face then evaporate.

Snow alerts the clan and they quickly come to arms, but the tussle is over before they arrive, with the Freaky Gray Company victorious, even if their primary quarry eludes them. After Snow retrieves Candle's body and Erash burns the hut to ashes, the party discusses what to do next in hushed tones. Erash identifies the creature as a Night Hag. She knew a disturbing amount about them all. And in searching her hut after her departure, they found a much simpler but similar mirror to the one that they retrieved from the Harpy Matriarch with the Kryn gold. What does it all mean? How are these events tied together? And how to do you defeat someone who can disappear at will?

What did she say to me again?