At evening, Desmond casts Dream while Urs and Vara keep watch and Aengus starts his sleep. Urs and Vara pay much more attention to Desmond in his trance than to their surroundings. After 4 hours, Desmond shifts into Heidi’s dream, which he shapes into a scene in the Infinite Steppe. She’s a human-looking woman.
H: “Nile? Bran?”
D: “Hello Heidi. What do you think is happening right now?”
H: “I’m in a dream.”
D: “Take a look at me. Do you know who I am?”
H: “I hope I do. I just don’t know if you’re Nile or Bran. They were my sons.”
D: “Hello mother.”
H: ” What about your brother? How is this possible? How do we meet in person?”
D: “Heidi, I have a lot of questions. Basically… why [did you abandon us]?”
H: “I liked it better when you called me mother… I’ve been looking for you for years.”
Heidi spent most of her youth in the forest. Nomadic life. Loved nature. Still felt like she wanted more. Handsome, charming man named Drowlofax traveled into woods that she became infatuated with. Asked her to “follow” him. Went on their journey of the world, lots of adventure. The man knew everyone everywhere, seemed to have lived many lives. When she became pregnant, he rejected her and left her. Twins born were blue, unlike both parents. Handmaden/midwife said this was a mark of evil sorcery, born into the world to destroy it, harbingers of doom. Insisted they needed to be destroyed. Her nomadic nameless community insisted too. Heidi chose to abandon them instead of killing them. She was still expelled from her community for not destroying them.
Fell into piracy, met Kensington who wanted to do things like get rid of Tobias to save the world, brought a very persuasive bird man with him. Heidi hired Avery to kill Tobias since she again couldn’t bring herself to kill an innocent child. Was thrown into prison because of her failure by Kensington.
D: Mom, someone tells you your children were evil and needed destroyed, and you believed them. Then some people you didn’t know said the same thing about another child. Why did you believe that?
H: How does my young boy have so much more sense then his mother?
Heidi is also a druid (follower of Eldath) who escaped her prison cell by transforming into an animal. Didn’t leave the prison immediately because she wanted to speak to the prisoners and get the layout of the prison. Wanted to free any worthy prisoners she could. Advised against getting too close to the beast at Drop Point. Thinking of sneaking into the mines to get gems. Currently across the bay at Hatch Lake. There’s a creature in the water. There’s a magic door with a big deadly creature by it.
H: You say you’re at Moon Lake… how many orcs did you run into? Are you safe right now…? There are hundreds of them… can you get away quickly?
Heidi will fly across the bay and meet us where the mountains meet the bay south of Moon Lake.
Desmond = Bran, second born (no birthmark)
Desmond comes out of dream to warn us of orcs, hears we’re surrounded. Urs wakes us up. Drawl the Angry (“You may call me Daddy”) says do not move. Urs tries to talk us out of it. Drawl wants to sacrifice us to Drop Point to keep mines open (beast-induced earthquakes open holes?). Desmond charms with Eyes of Charming, says we were hired by warden just to get prisoner so we are on the same side. He agrees to let us collect prisoner, and then he will sacrifice only two of us. He’ll watch boats to make sure we don’t leave. Blood hand shake with Vara. Sending 3 orcs with us as escort to find Heidi.
Get armor on, move away quickly, kill the 3 orcs once out of sight. Pass without Trace, move quickly until we find a cave. Urs goes on watch invisible while the rest sleep. There’s a low rumbling, and we all poop ourselves. Aengus sees winged creature making passes during his watch.
In morning, bird lands and transforms into Heidi. Others in prison: goblin woman who sharpened teeth on stones; firbolg named Sumana; male half-orc Kinska (half-brother of Drawl); Mishoe half-elf cleric found stealing from coffers; tiefling stopped paying taxes; Martha human on council made shady investments; Rorc aaracokra reporter for the Parchment Post broke some stories people in power didn’t like. Argue about what to do next: prison break, or get out while we’re ahead?
Aengus messages Leon: “Trazacal seems a sad, unjust place where Kensington puts anyone he doesn’t like. What’s your impression? Is it vital to Lo’Thar’s justice system?” Leon: “Trazacal has existed for generations, long before Kensington or myself for that matter. Is it vital? No. It’s being phased out. Why?”
Decide to leave prison un-sprung because it’s no longer the way Lo’Thar does things, many prisoners have been there since before Kensington, and we’d have to kill countless orcs if a fight broke out.
Decide to leave island. Walk south, Desmond and Heidi turn into eagles, all go invisible, fly to Captain Tuss’s boat, land safely on deck.