A Bargain in Shadow

## Learning of this Quest

Shortly after returning with the Stygian sediment and contacting Appius, he'll tell them they need to bring the sediment to the Raven Queen in the Shadowfell in order to trade it for a Book of Keeping. He'll send them to LeLun to travel through a bleed there to the Feywild and then they'll need to figure out a way to flip themselves over to the Shadowfell.

## Reward

The village of Medyl will offer a Staff of the Woodlands for stopping the corruption.

## Details

### The Setup

* The party will need to make their way to LeLun (distance will depend where the Clam Blaster ends up).
* Once they arrive, they'll need to complete Cleansing LeLun before they can continue.
* After completing Cleansing LeLun, they'll need to complete Journey to Palace of Petals.

### Obtaining an Audience with the Raven Queen

* Now that the party has arrived in the Shadowfell, they'll need to gain access to the Slate Citadel.
* The landscape in the Shadowfell is very different than the Feywild. The ground is rocky and gray. The sun hangs low in the sky and appears to be shining through a haze, leaving it looking like perpetual twilight. In the distance, you can see mountains and forests, but they look drab. Not lacking in life, but just the opposite of vibrant.
* As they approach, they'll notice the palace looks very similar to the Palace of Petals, but instead of being white and covered vines, it's charcoal gray with veins of silver and obsidian running through it. The city around the palace seems more organized than the village around the Palace of Petals. Instead of small, scattered buildings, there are short skyscrapers in ordered rows. The city is bustling with creatures, most of them Shadar-kai, but there are others such as kenku, minotaurs, and leonin.
* As they walk through the city, they won't feel the same side-eyes and frustrated glances they did in the Feywild. None of the creatures here seem to mind them at all.
* There are taverns and shops here but the shops just have normal every day objects needed to live and the currency they use is a dust that looks vaguely like the silt from the River Styx they have, but duller. If they go into a tavern, they'll see Shadar-kai dancing in jerky, almost teleporting movement that look like stop motion
* Once they make their way to the palace, there will be guards at the entrance. The guards will ask them their business.
* They can either persuade the guards to let them in or show them the silt which will gain them immediate access.
* As they enter, they'll see a grand hall with tables set for a feast. However, the settings will look like they have been there for a while and haven't been touched. There isn't exactly dust everywhere, but there's a general feeling of being untouched throughout the palace. Everywhere they look, they'll see things set up for a wonderful celebration but completely unused. At the end of the hall, they'll see an archway setup with a small table and two jars full of ground herbs. Lia will immediately recognize this as an elven wedding ritual.
* Past the archway will be an open doorway into what is obviously the throne room. On the throne, they'll see the Raven Queen. She's around 9 feet tall and sitting calmly on the throne, just looking slightly down. She's wearing a simple dress in the same colors as palace. She has a single raven feather in her hair and one of those things on left ring finger that looks like a talon. As they approach, she'll look up at them and greet them. Her voice is soft and unassuming. She'll tell them she knows they there for a trade and ask what it is they want.
* Assuming they eventually tell her they're there to get the location of a Book of Keeping (if they ask for the book itself and not the location, the following will still happen but she'll include that she wouldn't have something of that sort herself, but she does know where one is), a look of concern will quickly flicker over her face. She'll tell them she knows better than to ask what they may want with something so powerful, but she can't just hand over the location of what could be used as a weapon of mass destruction. The party will need to try to convince her they have only good intentions for it.
* After some discussing, she'll say she has something that will prove to her that she's not making a terrible mistake by handing over the book. She'll ask each of them to relive a powerful, formative memory. She will construct the world using memories she already possesses from people that have died, but the characters will use their own memory to populate the events. In each, she'll expect them to use this time to learn something they missed the first time they experienced this and use that to grow themselves as people.

### Into their Memories

* During the memories, they'll need to investigate what they may have missed during their first time living these events. They can't change events, but they can go outside of them and view things they couldn't see the first time. They'll also have the option to role one Intelligence check per memory to be their intuition to give them a hint on where to look
* The first memory will be Lia's
	+ Lia's recollection of the event: Lia and Bren dated on and off for a while. Things started out great, but Bren grew distant, often disappearing and not contacting her for days. Whenever confronted, Bren would tell her he just needed some space to figure things out but he's back because he wants to be. One time when he came back, he suddenly wanted to teach her magic. She was confused but thought it sounded fun, so she went along with it. He taught her a few basic spells, but then disappeared again. Lia and her friends were confident he was cheating but needed to prove it. They decided to find him and secretly follow him. Together they were able to use a spell to locate him and found that he was deep in the Arrow Forest. After trekking all the way out there, they found a small shack. They snuck around and found a window they could observe in and found Bren speaking to a beautiful, very scantily dressed woman. Having confirmed he was cheating, the friends went back home, had a girls night filled with drinks, ice cream, and crying and then Lia dramatically broke up with Bren the next morning, telling him never to talk to her again. She decided to leave and explore the world shortly after.
	+ The twist is that Bren had stumbled upon a powerful succubus that wanted his service in exchange for power. Every time he disappeared, it's because he was going back to the succubus to learn more. However, the succubus wanted full devotion which required certain... carnal rituals. Bren was torn between magnificent power and his devotion to Lia. He truly loved her and didn't want to hurt her, so he tried to get the succubus to bring Lia into the fold. However, the succubus said that her being a cleric meant she couldn't be taught the power. Bren hoped that teaching her wizard spells would make her turn away from being a cleric. In the meeting Lia and her friends saw, the succubus was telling Bren that this was his final chance and that now she needed him to kill Lia if he wanted power. He argued with her and tried to fight her but was wounded and the succubus abandoned him. He used his magic to keep himself from dying immediately and drug himself back to Lia, hoping to get her help to heal him and planned to tell her everything, but she broke up with him and left. He succumbed to his wounds shortly after that.
* The second memory will be Rogelio
	+ Rogelio's recollection of the event: Rogelio grew up orphaned and on the streets of Saj'aant. One day, he picked the wrong man's pocket and was caught red handed but the man was impressed and took him into his house and fed him. The next day, the man told Rogelio to run some errands for him as repayment for the food and board. Rogelio happily complied and went out into the city. Rogelio grew up here so he knew the right places to go to avoid trouble and could usually escape it if he needed to. He used a shortcut through an alley he'd used a dozen times before but this time, he was quickly ambushed by a small gang. Rogelio was confused, the gangs never operated in this area so it was always safe, but now he was caught. They wanted the money the man had given him and said they would kill him if he didn't hand it over. Rogelio wasn't about to betray the man that had just helped him so he started to fight them off. He had done a fair amount of fighting on the streets but rarely without using stealth to get the drop first and never against so many people. He was quickly overwhelmed when suddenly the man showed up wielding a gorgeous gilded rapier. He quickly fought off the gang and they all ran. The man asked Rogelio if he was ok then gave him a smaller, simpler rapier and told him that wearing this will make others think twice about attacking. Then Rogelio continued the errands and went back. The man taught Rogelio everything he knew about fencing and eventually Rogelio joined his band of assassins.
	+ In this memory, the party will find that the man had been watching Rogelio for a while and planned everything. He knew Rogelio would try to pick his pocket in that square and he knew what shortcuts he took and paid the gang to be there to test Rogelio. Rogelio passed and the rest is history.