Loskid attempts to divine the location of the Tree of Shackled Souls, to which he receives the divine response:

The tree site you seek
cannot be located but
endless others exist

It seems the universe has a sense of humor (and less of a sense of poetry). Hilde proposes breaking into Adrick Garthún's house, while Loskid proposes giving one of the menagerie of animals that accompanied Elanor (specifically the monkey) a pencil and paper. They do the latter, and in response to an inquiry as to his name the monkey draws this:

They then ask the priestess of St. Cuthbert if she can dispel the monkey, to which she informs them that she is unable. Hilde and Melgarin go off to the second-hand store to buy some scrolls of dispel magic. The storekeeper charges them an additional 20% as an “adventurer's tax” which he apologizes for and blames Velantru's policies. Melgarin adds another reason to his list to end the reign of Velantru.

While Hilde works to use the scrolls, Jenya takes this opportunity to have get caught up on administrative paperwork for the temple. Loskid talks his way out of catching up on the paperwork and decides to go back to the orphanage (from sessions 1 & 2) because he figures the 4 orphans that were taken were shackleborn.

Gretchen Tachik answers the door (she was formerly referred to as the proprietress). Loskid tries to sense if she's “evil”, and he finds that she is really cautious and suspicious of him. He asks if any other children have disappeared, to which she responds that none have. He asks to the status of the children they rescued a little less than a year ago, and she states that they are still there and she leaves him on the stoop while she goes and wakes them (Deakon, Evelyn, Lucinda). Loskid asks to see if they have any unique markings, and Evelyn says she has a birthmark that resembles a tree, Deakon says he has a mole that resembles a face. Loskid asks if they heard anything about the tree of shackled souls, and they recount the story of how they were taken and their rescue.

Upon arriving to their house, they find the door open and the road damaged. Elanor tries to sneak in, discovering a guy putting a wig on a skeleton. He states that they “came by to talk”, and he was disguising the skeleton so he could send it out for oatmeal for the following morning. Elanor signals the group to come inside while she steps out to ask Hilde if she has any oatmeal or if there's any in the house. Melgarin inquires as to what the intruder wants to talk about. He introduces himself as Khyron and the skeleton as Melogorin. He then starts into a rambling “speech” where he states that the world could be better if there were more people, but more people would die, because people all eventually die. He's been working on this for a couple of years (though he's unclear what “this” is). He then explains that he wants to build a better transportation network across the country and that if they can turn Cauldron into a trade nexus then they can be successful. Elanor re-enters the building and says she remembers where the oatmeal is and goes to the kitchen. Hilde casts invisibility. Loskid hears something in the basement and signals to Hilde (who then heads to the basement). Melgarin gets tired of Khyron's bullshit story and decides to try to intimidate him (unsuccessfully) into giving up the location of the tree. Loskid tries to get him (through his infamous diplomacy skills) unsuccessfully to reveal the location of the tree of shackled souls. Melgarin then walks up to Khyron and swats him with Alakast, starting a royal rumble in the dining room. Logan drops a flame strike on Khyron and Melogorin (which annihilates Melogorin) and fries Khyron's balls inside of his plate armor. The chicken-shit Khyron then roasts Loskid with a flame strike and then casts word of recall because he knew our heroes were much too powerful for him.

After an unsuccessful spot check, Hilde then notices an undead-looking lion and demon in the basement who have clearly blown a hole in the wall. Hilde decides to reverse gravity, and then puts acid fog in her own basement. Following this, the battle devolved into a melee with lots of summons and acid clouds. The team schwacks a giant and an undead tyrannosaurus looking thing before the team decides that the remaining two winged things and praying mantis-looking thing are too much for them, and Hilde teleports them to the Temple of St. Cuthbert.

Shackled City Home
Last time: Session 60
Next time: Session 62