"Ah 'ave trouble sleeping in new places, it's no trouble ah'll be getting me some good rest soon enough." Finley shifts in his seat, "ah'll not bother ye, just be 'ere in me corner."

Each of you do not sleep easily as you each experience a nightmare where Bavlorna either turns you into her next taxidermy project or eats you alive. Soon the next day dawns and everyone has finished their long rest. 

What do you do next? 

Valrieth dreamed that she was leading the party: not only Finley, Octavian, and Vansel but also Gan-Re and Hisa.  But in the dream, all of her friends weren't their normal selves.  They each had rough stitches across their skin, and parts of other creatures had been sewn to them like one of Bavlorna's taxidermy chimeras.  They were sneaking through Bavlorna's hut, trying to find an exit, but then Val found stitches under her own fur and realized that she wasn't a real harengon either.  She herself was one of Bavlorna's taxidermy creations!  When they finally started racing down a long hallway toward a distant exit, Val realized that Bavlorna was there behind her, holding onto the end of a thread.  As Val ran, the thread was pulling out of her stitches.  Val struggled to get to the exit, but the closer she got to the exit, the more she came unraveled.  She remembered desperately trying to keep herself from coming apart at the seams, uncertain whether she could ever make it to the exit -- then suddenly Octavian was waking her up for her turn on watch in the dark, pre-dawn morning.

While the dream quickly faded, it took Val most of her watch to shake off the feeling that Bavlorna had her at the end of a string.  As the morning light finally filters through the dirty window and the perpetual fog around Bavlorna's hut, Val wakes up Finley first so that they can discuss the day and decide what to do next. 

Once they've made some decisions, Val settles down to meditate, seek guidance, and prepare her spells for the day.

Sweating profusely Finley wakes up with a gasp, activating his gauntlets, brief bits of lightning flash along them before he sees that it's Valrieth and stands down quickly. "Ye alright?"

"Yes," Valrieth says.  "Did you have bad dreams, too?"  She looks less tired than last night, but as she looks searchingly at Finley, you think that she has a sort of haunted look around her eyes.

Val says, "I thought we'd talk before I wake up Vansel and Octavian.  We need to decide whether..." She glances at the door before turning back to Finley to say with particular emphasis, "um...whether we try to fulfill  my  bargain with Bloody Toes today.  Or whether we're just going to bargain for Octavian's heart and our release, no matter how hard of a bargain she drives for that." 

"Aye, ah did. First are ye gonna be alright?" Finley tries to straighten up his hair and beard as he talks, "we should really try for Octavian's heart, but if it'd make ye feel better we can fulfill yer bargain first, unless ye dunnae want ta do so yet. Ah support ye in whichever way we go, but getting a deal done and over might make it for th' best for us. Even if it could mean extreme danger."

Quote from Snievan>>

"Aye, ah did. First are ye gonna be alright?"

"Oh, yes!," Valrieth says, trying to sound chipper.  She rubs her eyes and continues, "I think that I'm fully rested.  It's just this whole realm."  She wrinkles her nose like she just smelled something rotten.  "It's not like what I imagined the Fey Wild to be like.  The wicked hag's magic infects the whole land, and sometimes it feels like it's seeping into your bones, you know?"

Finley tries to straighten up his hair and beard as he talks, "we should really try for Octavian's heart, but if it'd make ye feel better we can fulfill yer bargain first, unless ye dunnae want ta do so yet. Ah support ye in whichever way we go, but getting a deal done and over might make it for th' best for us. Even if it could mean extreme danger."

Val thinks for a moment.  She speaks as though she's thinking it through while she talks:  "It's a risk -- for sure!  But, somehow, I feel like the Path that the Stars have laid for us leads right through Bavlorna.  We're well rested, and we've healed from yesterday's injuries.  If she's alone, I don't think that we'll get a better opportunity.  We could go find her, like we're going to bargain again.  If she's alone and doesn't have any of the lornlings with her, then while Octavian pleads his case for his heart, you could cast faerie fire as we planned.  Maybe that takes her by surprise, and we can strike before she can act.  But as soon as you cast the spell, she'll definitely know.  Then we'll see whether the widdershins allergy helps as much as we hope."

Val seems ready to take that course of action, whatever the consequences.  The one exception she mentions is this: "If she already has lornlings with her when we find her, well, I would take that as a Sign that we should bide our time.  Wait for a better opportunity.  In that case, we'll just try to proceed like normal and bargain for Octavian's heart.  If we can reach a bargain that we feel we could live with, then we'll just focus on restoring Octavian's heart."

Once ready the party leaves the guest room, and it takes a bit of time until the party finds Bavlorna in her Taxidermy workshop creating some new abomination combining the reptile creatures head with a vulture's body. 

The door is ajar as you peek in. 

What do you do next?

"Let's see what's going on where she is, give me some sort of signal to cast th' magic, like mention my friend ah came ta ye all with." Finley says before they leave the room.

"Th' more ah think about it, Let's try getting Octavians heart first. He deserves that at the very least, it's possible she could be onto us a bit and have it moved by now." He says and peaks through the door, "Ah'm going in." He knocks on the door and opens it up. "Hello, lass. Ah see yer up and wide awake."

Quote from Snievan >>

"Let's see what's going on where she is, give me some sort of signal to cast th' magic, like mention my friend ah came ta ye all with." Finley says before they leave the room.

Valrieth says, "Well, you should really drink your potion before you try casting faerie fire.  You don't want to drink a potion while you're also trying to fight her.  And I need to touch you to grant you protection from Bavlorna, so we should also try to do that before you try to engage her in combat.  So, if bargaining isn't going well, maybe we can 'step away to discuss it.'  Then you can drink your potion while I cast the spell, if she hasn't caught on by then, you can cast faerie fire while Octavian and I distract her before we all attack."  

Val feels better that they have a "plan," but her voice still squeaks a little in fear when she speaks of attacking Bavlorna.

Quote from Snievan >>

"Th' more ah think about it, Let's try getting Octavians heart first. He deserves that at the very least, it's possible she could be onto us a bit and have it moved by now." He says and peaks through the door, "Ah'm going in." He knocks on the door and opens it up. "Hello, lass. Ah see yer up and wide awake."

Valrieth touches Finley's shoulder as he enters the room, giving him guidance for the upcoming bargain.  Then she follows Finley into the room with Octavian to give him "moral support."  Val presses her lips firmly together but otherwise tries to look neutral and avoid showing her disgust at Bavlorna's taxidermy hobby.  

Bavlorna turns as she puts the finishing stitches on her new creation "Yes, I am wide awake and already set to create more lovely little darlings. Now is there something else you seek? I feel it bubbling away somewhere in your noggin." 

She is alone at the moment. 

"Aye, so our friend here, Octavian, is missin' his heart and ah were wondering if there'd be a way fer him ta get it back?" Finley askes, scratching the side of his neck. He hesitantly adds, "we could do somethin' if necessary.."

Valrieth hastens to clarify: "Excuse me, Ma'am.  But Finley doesn't mean simply giving Octavian his old heart.  He means to say, restoring Octavian's heart.  That is to say, putting Octavian's heart back into his chest, still beating and working just as if he had never bargained with you to take it form him.  And if you had put something else in chest to replace his heart, taking that back when you do."

Val's mouth claps shut.  While she waits for Bavlorna's answer, her mind goes over the way she phrased that request to make sure that she didn't leave enough room for Bavlorna to twist the bargain and cheat Octavian out of his heart again.

Bavlorna tilts her head in thought and then grins in a menacing manner "If you want his heart back then I will task you to steal a portrait of my older sister Skabatha. The portrait resides in her home in Thither. The time limit will be only 8 days. I won't tell you where she lives as you will have to found that our yourself. If you fail to return within the specified time with the painting, then both of you will forfeit your hearts to me to do with whatever I want. Now this is the only deal that I would entertain for the return of his heart. Do we have a deal?" she holds out her outstretched hand ready for a handshake. 

"Oh!", Valrieth practically squeaks.  She glances at Finley, practically quivering with anxiety.  Then she asks Bavlorna, "Um...before we agree to such a bargain...I mean...suppose we find the portrait in time.  How would we get it back to you?  Is there an easy and fast way to get from your...your sister's place back here to your house?"

"No there are no expedient paths back here. Unless you find you can fly that is." says Bavlorna. 

Quote from Weathervision >>

"No there are no expedient paths back here. Unless you find you can fly that is." says Bavlorna. 

Valrieth considers that.  4 days to find Skabatha and then 4 days to get back to Bavlorana.  It might be possible, but then Val thinks of something else.  She ventures to ask another question, "And...may I ask?...does time pass the same way in Hither and Thither?  That is, if we spend 6 days in Thither and then make it back here on the 7th day, then will only 7 days have passed here in Hither?"

Bavlorna's grin widens slightly "Oh time can be quite unpredictable here vs there. Whether it is faster or slower in Thither I cannot say. Though I do suggest you hurry if you plan to take my bargain."