Grohnea

Chronicle

17e00

Mallory suggested the swamp witch, a changeling, as one who might cure the agents’ Flux afflictions, though she would probably extract some sort of soul price; Avandra favored her, and the agents voted to see her.

17e01

The agents learned of her from her counterpart Anorje: not a true night hag, but a changeling whose hag potential is tempered by Anorje’s humanity. She collects afflictions, enduring each she cures, keeps a cosmic ledger removing evil souls from the cycle of rebirth, and has experimented with time magic; she is only 44 years old. Through a telepathic link, the agents saw her cottage on the swamp, entwined by the plant Claudius.

17e02

Welcomed the agents to her greenhouse in the Acrid Marshes, coaxing glowing butterflies from cocoons delivered by her psychopomp owl Cattywumpus: soul larvae, made from people who richly deserve it. She diagnosed the agents with “geomantic drift,” and used her two ready soul larvae to draw Bec’s thorns and Callie’s glitter out of them. In payment, she asked them to harvest more soul larvae from the cult Ordning’s Downfall, led by the cloud giant Rhyzophus, which had seized the Storm Stables, giving them soul eggs, boons, and a round-trip transport; she also asked for something from an absent agent.

17e03

Granted each agent a ward to trigger when needed, and a ward against the cold, before transporting them to the glacier outside the Storm Stables.

17e09

Did not recognize the agents on their return, as she had warned, but found their auras extraordinary. She was harvesting the bloom curse that had overtaken Sissae when she tried to remove her white crane tattoo: a manipulative trap, its central flower growing from Sissae’s heart. When Vondal killed Sissae, Grohnea plucked the flowers in a rush (“Gods forgive me”). Using wishes from Zanqaa, she restored Sissae to life, and took Vondal’s pinky finger. She confirmed she could use the soul larvae to treat the agents’ afflictions.

18e00

Drew the agents’ Fluxtaint out of them in an extraction ritual, as each held their idealized self in mind. She crafted specialty arrows with Freki, and teleported the agents to Xaos, seeming somehow pleased with that arrangement, while Sissae remained in a coma at her cottage.