Orlando had knocked Barnabeak out.
And the heroes brought him down to Amelia’s basement where they bound the unconscious feathered creature to a chair.
This was a bit of an unusual situation for them and they discusses what they actually wanted to learn from Barnabeak.
Alfein checked the unconscious shaman and found a vicious knife stuck to his back with residue of the dangerous poison found on Daryl’s body.
DM note, I introduced a variant of the Negotiations process from Draw Steel to prevent the interrogation to go on indefinitely.
Having woken him up, Alfein started questioning him. But while they she made some headway, Barnabeak suddenly changed from the nervous skittish creature mimicing pirate speech to a menacing tone and behaviour.
The heroes realised there were two personalities: Barnabeak and the Shade.
It was hard for them to balance the seemingly two separate conversations, but had a break through when they realised the Barnabeak personality was very keen in getting ride of the Shade.
Finally the heroes had a break through and the Shade left the Kenku.
From Barnabeak they learned that he was convinced the Nyxarians from the world’s creation myth were real.
He also tried to explain a concept foreign to himself, which was that the Nyx can travel through memories and that Fey had started reappearing in Daisygate awakening memories of Fey.
A fantastical story had it not been for the fact that the heroes by now were strongly Shatter, the green-skinned girl was in fact a Fey.
They also learned Barnabeak had indeed killed his friend Daryl while controlled by the Shade. Heart-broken, the Kenku left to turn himself over to the Inquisitors.
Shatter’s role
After an infuriatingly difficult conversation with Shatter involving words, crayons, magic and sparkling lights, the heroes finally understood Shatter’s purpose: She can shatter memories.
While it wasn’t apparent how to make use of this, it was clear she would be dangerous to the Nyx.
According to Shatter, Alfein’s memory loss was due to them being “shattered”. Shatter promised it wasn’t her.
It was also clear that Shatter had been sent to help the rulers of Skylathar to fight the Nyx should they arrive from the stars like in the fairytales of old.
Going back to Thornlock
But without a clear way to communicate directly with the powers that be, the heroes decided to return to the original lead: Deliver the box to the Triarch at Thornlock.
But this time they had a plan:They would bring the empty box and hand it over to who might show.
Alfein suggested tagging the empty box so Amelia cast Light inside the box and closed the lid. The spell would last 1 hour and when the crate was opened, a beam of light would rise 40ft in the air acting as a beacon.
As the party approached Thornlock, 6 Iron Mask appeared demanding the box in return for the heroes safe passage.
But while two of the Iron Masks carried the crate away, the other four u-turned on the safe passage promise and attacked the heroes.
It was a weak and predictable move and none of them managed to land a blow on the heroes.
As the right progressed our heroes had the upper hand.
But the Iron Masquerade didn’t come without a plan: they started shouting for help as they dropped their cloaks and masks.
To the horror of the heroes, the cloak and masks dissolved into the ground and as the Daisyguard emerged, the last two Iron Mask threw themselves on the weapons of our heroes killing themselves making it look like they had been attacked and murdered by our heroes.
With the back against Thornlock and the trained Daisyguard in front, the situation has gone from challenging to problematic.
