[Icelander]

Originally Posted by johndallman

Much better. Their tradition might well be good at rendering someone unable to speak, or better yet, remember anything for some magically-significant period.

Doing a charm for that, and then preparations for dispersal, seems like the best bet.

Originally Posted by Varyon

If they opt for a memory wipe of Ms Delvano, the classic twist is for her to become an ally for the PC’s as she tries to uncover her own past, and being forced to make a climactic choice between the friendships she’s made as a Hollywood amnesiac and the loyalties she held pre-wipe once she discovers the truth (and/or finds her memories restored).

Originally Posted by Agemegos

Could they make her lose her memory?

Ah, indeed.

The loss of Ms. Delvona's memories would neatly assuage the fears of the cult leaders that she might say anything she shouldn't about them, the cult or their secrets.

And it would have a dramatically interesting result, in that the players are already somewhat invested in Ms. Delvona's well-being and, specifically, her memories, having spent a whole adventure inside the Dreamlands interpreted through her dreams, encountering figures from her memory, albeit alongside some things they profoundly hope were the result of consuming too much fantastic fiction and an overactive imagination.

Of course, the magic of the Keepers of the Last Hearth is ideally suited to cause a loss of memory. However, the delicacy, precision and comprehensiveness of the memory loss probably requires skilled control. Creating a Charm to be activated by a crude, dumb and insensitive serial killer turned magical creature Pedro Alonso López, the Colombian serial killer whom Wikipedia puts second as the worst serial killer of all time, has been changed into a pishtaco by a dark ritual) doesn't seem like an ideal way for careful psychic surgery.

Under controlled circumstances, a subtle magician with a good understanding of how memories work would be able to sift through Ms. Delvona's memories, carefully causing her to lose access to those that might be harmful to the cult, but limiting the scope enough so that it would be hard to even notice. These will not be controlled circumstances.

Pedro Alonso Lopéz is magically potent, as he attracts dark spirits in droves and has no compunctions about dedicating his murders to any force that will allow him the power to remain uncaught and deliver him more victims. But he's well-below average intelligence in real-world terms (in GURPS terms, this is represented through an array of Disadvantages and IQ 9), he has no education and is functionally illiterate.

Lopéz doesn't understand the first thing about the human mind. He doesn't even comprehend his own motivations. Granted, he'll be 'advised' by a choir of dark spirits, but the vast majority of the spirits are sub-sapient, some are barely sapient and those who are truly smarter than Lopéz might or might not hold his attention at any given time. There will be one or two among the spirits who are subtle and effective at psychic infiltration of the human mind, but as they can't physically trigger the Charm, they'll be confined to filtering their esoteric insights through the small mind of the murderer.

This means that the loss of memory, if it succeeds, will likely be a slip-shod, hasty, unsubtle and ugly piece of work. There will be an overabundance of raw magical power, but little control of it. The results should be interesting and the PCs in a unique place to appreciate them, having spent a lot of time inside Ms. Delvona's mind.

As for 'restoring' the memories, should that even be possible?

Metaphysically and conceptually, it would seem that the simplest available ritual to work would simply cause a loss of the memories. They'd be gone, Elsewhere, even possibly eaten by otherworldly forces. I don't see the ritual having a duration, it's an instantaneous effect that removes something that does not then exist anymore.

That being said, from a dramatic point of view, I'd welcome Ms. Delvona retaining her personality to a great extent, which requires retaining much of the memories that shaped her, I should think. And if it can be justified, a reversal of this memory loss later would be great.* It would please the cult and the PCs. But note that if the memory loss is a temporary block to access the memories, with a duration, the risk for the cult is that any magician with time and access to Ms. Delvona will be able to reverse it easily, as such a quick job would necessarily be fragile. Which is why they pretty much must compensate for lack of control by destructive power, making reversal a matter of Path of Nonexistence (normal version of the Path, not the cult's specialization of loss) to create the memories anew.

*There are figures higher up in the cult who value Ms. Delvona, her memories, her personality and even, for some of them, her happiness. The cult leaders in Indianola don't care for her, but they know that harming her might result in very powerful beings resenting it.