The party faces off with Mommy Fortuna and her horrors drawn straight from the night! There are a pair of large Burning lizards, a humanoid spider woman with venomous fangs, a familiar looking harpy. The monsters follow the directions of Mommy Fortuna though the party notices they hesitate every so slightly and they each wear and iron collar. After a short, desperate fight, Jean, Tronc and Eira look around and find Kovaks is nowhere to be seen. Their dwarven friend having succumbed to the curse transformed into a resplendent quetzal with emerald feathers and flew away. Before the survivors stand the creatures: the harpy Celaeno, a chitine called Flor and two young salamanders with no names. The monsters are freed from their bondage and the party does not hinder them as they flee, though Celaeno whispers words of repayment.... Returning to Silver City with the wagon full of exotic birds, the party finds Brother Love and he confirms their fears: the birds are cursed/transfigured prisoners. He believes he will be able to find a solution though he doesn't know how long it will take. He also offers to reward the party for their good deed in defeating Mommy Fortuna and rescuing the captives. Scrying for Miriam, their missing charge and benefactor, Brother Love finds her near the Arkheion a fabled repository of learning in the southeast. She is seeking someone named Brannis whom the party knows to have worked for Miriam's father, their former employer in researching the Fractured Lands. Traveling quickly to The Arkheion the party discovers Brannis sends runners for research from the massive library. They wait and convinve the runner, a gnome named Adele that they have business with Brannis and return with her to his outpost on the edge of the Salt Flats, a blasted stretch of earth baked by the sun year round. After his initial surprise at seeing the characters, their tale of working for Lord Highdrake and searching for his missing daughter leads Brannis to believe them and ask for their assistance in continuing Highdrakes research. They were researching the potential energy sources used by the civilization that flourished prior to an unknown cataclysm in what is now the Fractured Lands. (It was in no small part due to Eira's belief/knowledge that there was a massive explotion that created the Fractured Lands that bought them Brannis' acceptance). Brannis asks the party to travel into the terrible heat of the SAlt Flats to a volcano he believes contains a shrine or temple or safehouse holding The Hot Irons. What exactly the artifact is he doesn't know but he believes it was instrumental in creating crystals that served to focus and store energy. Agreeing, Eira, Jean and Tronc provision themselves and trek into the hell-scape of the flats. The heat saps their strength and the party finds it more and more difficult just to continue their trek when suddenly they hear a cry for help. Confused, they follow the sound and find the bodies of several humanoids tied to a ring of cacti. One of them is alive! As they rush to aid him a large unnatural figure emerges from the sand, a humanoid torso with the body and poisoned tail of a giant scorpion!