A Pearl of Hope

Contras straightened his coat and admonished the party for frightening his mother, urging them to leave. Emelyne stood her ground and detailed plans involving the Maw or Warden's Spire, causing Contras’s expression to turn somber as he suggested she could fill his position, asking why they didn't cut his mother down. When Sanasha suggested giving her to another demon lord, Contras’s visage shifted into Valerie, offering her a new body made from their memories and offering Percy his dead wife and child. After speaking into Emelyne’s mind and receiving a refusal, Contras turned to his mother, who called him "Caelin." Diablo suggested leaving her alone, mistaking Percy for Caelin as Percy walked out while Naoki tried to stop him. The party pondered what to do with the woman as Contras's weakness. Percy asked what would happen if they killed her, and a falling book disintegrated as it opened to show the consequence. Emelyne used magic on a window lock, dropped a pebble to the ocean below, and lied about a crack in the glass. When Contras’s mother mistook Percy for Caelin, Percy asked for a story; she recalled Contras avoiding treason charges in exchange for three families' heads before her confusion returned. The party took a lock of her hair to enter her dreams later, and Emelyne took an enchanted black pearl necklace containing the sadness of a weeping boy.

Seeking a hospital morgue for targets, they visited a cleric-run facility smelling of saltwater and mint. After failing to convince a nurse, chief of medicine Caerun allowed them to view patients. In Ward 1, Emelyne attempted a complex procedure on a neck injury patient, performing an unnecessary tracheostomy before Percy healed the wound with Cure Wounds. Checking ancient clinical logs, Emelyne concluded memory extraction would be tortuous and fatal. Returning to their hotel, a carriage brought them to Purebirch Manor.

Guards recognized Percy coldly, and servants provided heated towels before leading them to Lucien Purebirch, where Percy's portrait had been replaced by a blank marble slab. At an aquamarine crystal dining table, Percy received a plate labeled "guest." Lucien grilled Sanasha, questioned Naoki—who noted older firbolgs existed than their lineage—and mocked Emelyne. After ignoring Percy and criticizing his son, Lucien threw his napkin at Percy and left, followed by his wife, while Maria gave a longing look; an insight check revealed Maria was working with Contras. In the drawing room, an older scullery-maid named Jenny embraced Percy before leaving. Learning a chartered ship cost 30 gold per day (900 gold total), they left in the chilly night air.

Returning to enter the mother's dreams, Percy and Emelyne kept watch outside while Diablo, Sanasha, and Naoki sneaked inside. Clumsy mishaps drew out the butler, whom Naoki accidentally killed with an umbrella. Percy cast Revivify to resurrect him, and they convinced him he had fallen. Upstairs, Naoki cast Dream while Sanasha guarded and Diablo searched for clues. In the dream, Naoki saw a younger Lady Vaelora hosting a ball. Overhearing a private exchange, it was revealed that Caelin—now Contras—had been modifying his own memories and those around him to maintain his lies. His mother held a memory as insurance against him, remembering him crying at his first lie. To strip away his conscience, Contras had extracted his feelings, regrets, and sorrows into the black pearl necklace. Exposing the truth within the pearl could strip the god of deceit of his divine powers, leaving him merely a demon prince