The marked split up for lunch- mostly mingling among the students, though Kaede steals away to the library and Tera approaches the priests. By the time they all meet back up to depart for Banny Harker's they have learned a handful of important facts about ghasts: their terrible stink sickens anyone who gets near them; their natural attacks can paralyze people; and, their bite causes a nasty disease and if you die from it you'll become a ghoul.
The walk over doesn't take overly long but the closer the investigators get to the mill and Harker's home the more stares and questions they get. When they arrive a the small, simple, single-story home within sight of the mill, a watchman is there awaiting their arrival. He nods as the group draws near and offers, "its unlocked, take as much time as ya need."
The house is made all of wood, with a thatched roof. Nothing on the exterior seems out of place or suspicious. Inside is a fairly tidy, modest home, similar to many of the other homes in town.
Unimpressed by the modest household, Marcus makes a few remarks about proper woodwork being a good way to judge character.
Typical of a boy his age, he is heady to move on before the others.
"It's like.... He was always saving money," Kaede says in agreement with Salomae. "But if that's the case, where did he keep it?"
"Is that Mr. Harker's funds?" she ponders as she wrinkles her nose a little from the sauerkraut's smell, "If it is, I think we have to turn it over to the guard. It is stolen money."
"With every twist and every turn
A secret's found, a lesson's learned," Zache recites, before grinning. "I say we open it, just in case there's evidence. We can always turn it over after, right?"
Working together, Kaede and Sal are easily able to slide the chest from its hiding place and lift it up into the room. Tera quietly suggests checking for traps before opening it. Without really waiting for a response, the young mage casts detect magic and thoroughly inspects the chest. It proves to be safe, but locked...
Curiosity getting the best of him, marcus gives the chest a tug with everthing he's got.
Sal sits down with her lock picks and after a few careful minutes of meticulous work has the lock open.
[spoiler=Ignore] [spoiler]
[b]"Welp, I think we found the embezzled funds. We'll have to take this to the garrison. Then I guess we go to Habe's,"[b] Tera says.
"If this is just a ledger, though, then this is a dead end," Kaede fatalistically adds, as she heads to the door to get the watchmen's attention. "How far from Sandpoint is Mister Habe's?"
"Not necessarily," Tera disagrees, "It could help establish a motive or provide some background on Mr. Harmer. Two seemingly random bits of knowledge could combine to form a small part of what happened. It may not be the same as finding a note that stated someone Mr. Harker had cheated had a reason to kill him, but it's better than finding nothing at all. As for Habe's, I can't say for certain. I... Kaede, have you ever heard of sanatoriums?"
Whistling, Zache shakes his head. "Certainly evidence worth handing in," he agrees. "Though I'll admit, I'm not terribly keen to go to Habe's," he adds with a shudder.
The watchman goes wide-eyed at the sight of the small chest's treasures and asks the marked to please guard it for a few minutes while he gets help. Running up the block to the mill, he quickly returns with a pair of the guards that were there. After a brief discussion about who would stay at the house and who would escort the discovered evidence to the barracks, the youngest of the men takes up the guard post outside while the original guard and his new helper carry the chest off.
Despite some misgivings, the marked head for the southern gate and out of town towards Habe's Sanatorium. The spring afternoons are not yet as long as they will be come summer and the sun is well on its way to the horizon by the time the investigators have crossed the hinterlands and arrived at their destination.
Habe's is a sturdy building of neatly hewn stone with a large ground floor and a thirty foot square tower that rises to three stories. It has a pitched split slate roof and windows that are normal height but less than half a foot wide. It's built in the lee of the limestone escarpment known as Ashen Rise and a creaky wooden veranda lines the front. The front door is locked and when the marked knock there is a moment of quiet before it swings halfway open. A waft of sour incense smell rolls out as a tall, pale man with a vaguely unsettling appearance moves to block the opening. "This is the Saintly Haven of Respite, may I help you?" he asks in a gravelly voice.
Already unsettled by the recent events and the general spookiness of the sanitorium, Marcus does his best to whisper from the back, "This guy gives me the creeps, there's something not right about his eyes..."
As for Habe's, I can't say for certain. I... Kaede, have you ever heard of sanatoriums?"
"Not really," The Tian priestess admits as they leave Harker's house. "However, from what I'm inferring, they're a place to send people that have serious emotional or mental issues for healing, yes?"
On the the travel down to the sanitorium, Kaede stays close to Tera, as if she expects an attack on the way down. The hike in armor and with glaive harnessed to her back brings her a little comfort as she scans the road for trouble. Upon reaching the building, she looks at it in slight discomfort. "This....is not what I expected..." she whispers to herself as they approach the building.
In any case, Kaede addresses the man at the door. "We're here on business from Sandpoint. We would like to gain an audience with Mister Habe to see if we can talk with someone that was sent here several days past. Are you him?"
"Not really," The Tian priestess admits as they leave Harker's house. "However, from what I'm inferring, they're a place to send people that have serious emotional or mental issues for healing, yes?"
"The first part's true enough. The second... Let's just leave it at I've heard things about some of the places in Magnimar," Tera says, obviously uncomfortable with the subject.
Tera stays quiet as Kaede takes the lead at the sanitorium. She does hear Marcus' whisper about the man's eyes and takes a closer look.
Her mind puts together the clues about the man's heritage, and she almost wishes her mind weren't so sharp.
Oh, I hope this is just my paranoia and not an omen of things to come.
The doorman frowns as Marcus murmurs something and suddenly people are staring at his unusual eyes. ”Doctor Habe is indisposed at the moment,” he answers, ”I’m afraid you’ll have to come back tomorrow.”
"We were told that one of the people here survived an attack on some other men and we really only want to ask him a few questions. Please, sir. Give us a few minutes and we'll be gone," Tera adds, hoping to change the man's mind. Unfortunately, she's too nervous and stutters through her words just a bit too much to come off as someone to be taken seriously.
”The Sheriff?” the strange man answers with a frown.
He hesitates for a moment, seemingly weighing his response, before insisting, ”I’m sorry, the Doctor is with a patient and will not be available for quite some time. Please try back tomorrow.”
Seeing which way the wind is blowing, Tera comes up with an idea.
"We may not have to spend the night. Do you have rooms that are open, or we could see Grayst without the doctor," she asks in a last ditch attempt to not have to make a return trip.
Kaede nods in agreement to Tera, as she readies to slip her foot into the door, to prevent it from being locked on them. "Please, sir, this may become a matter of life or death."
"No, no, no..." the man answers, nervously shaking his head.
"Nobody can see any patients without the doctor," he insists, "and the doctor is busy with a patient right now. And we don't have rooms for let, this isn't an inn."
Tera turns to take a look at Sal as she hears the steel in her voice, then steps back at the coldness in her eyes. She couldn't remember if she'd ever seen her friend like this.
Kaede takes one look at Sal and faintly sighs before locking eyes with the doorman with a stern gaze of her own. "This is important. Stop stonewalling us," she adds in an almost monotone voice.
"Okay, okay..." the doorman answers with real fear in his eyes. As he back away from the door, it swings open to reveal a ten foot by fifteen foot room with a desk and a few chairs. The room has stone walls to the east and west (where the now open door is set); the north and south walls are both made of wood and each contain a single door.
"Make yourselves comfortable," the shaken man hisses as the small room complete fills with 'guests'. Behind the desk, a rope hangs from the ceiling in front of a small placard labeled 'Ring for Service'. He gives it a few sharp tugs then sits resentfully behind the desk. "The doctor will be with you as soon as he stops treating his sick patient for your sake..."
A minute of uncomfortable silence passes before the south door flies open to a shout of, "How dare you disturb me in the middle of..." The shouter is a short man with a fairly athletic build. He has light skin that's beginning to wrinkle, and dark hair that has grayed around his temples and through streaks of his beard.
"Doctor Habe, these are representatives of the Sandpoint watch," the doorman informs his boss.
The doctor twitches at his words and scowls. "It doesn't look as though you've brought another patient to drop in my lap," the doctor states somewhat accusatively, "so what business do you have here so pressing that it had to interrupt my work?"
"Truly, a matter of life and death," Zache adds, his grave face betraying his light tone.
Tera stands near Kaede and Salomae, quietly observing how things are unfolding.
"Mister Sevilla is in no condition to talk to anyone right now," Dr Habe answers flatly.
"Dr. Habe, There are several of us that have been blessed with healing gifts. Please, we wish to learn what he knows before more people die. If he is unable, we will find a way to help him so that he is."
Kaede nods to the others before looking squarely at the good doctor. "Mister Sevilla was brought to you after he survived a trio of murders, yes? Well, there's been more murders with the same signs attached to them, and a promise that the killer will strike again. To our knowledge, Doctor, Your patient is the only person that's actually seen the killer, so anything that he can tell us would be of get help in tracking down this monster. So, please let us see him, so we can save lives."
"We understand that your work is delicate, and we have no intention to undermine the progress you have made, but the monster that did this is still on the loose. Our focus must be trying to stop future tragedy." Marcus adds, trying to help the situation.
Doctor Habe scowls and shakes his head but his expression softens as the marked explain their desires. He sighs when the room finally falls silent and replies, "I did open the Haven to help people... Mister Sevilla is in a tenuous position, regarding his health, but for the good of Sandpoint I'll bring him out to you... maybe you can use your divine favor to help him."
Stepping back out of the doorway he adds, "you can wait in here, there's a bit more room. I'll be back in a moment with the patient." The now open room to the south is far larger than the cramped entryway--about twenty feet wide and forty feet long, with another space branching off to the west at the far end--and is home to a small, simple kitchen, a workstation with disused sewing supplies, and three large wooden tables with chairs. There are three doors on the western wall and one on the far wall, in the eastern corner. The doctor disappears around the corner into the space branching off to the west and the sound of another door can be heard.
"If we had to come back here, you would have seen me do meek and desperate," Tera whispers back, letting ehr discomfort at being here show more clearly now that Habe was gone and her back was to the tiefling orderly.
"You're doing fine," Zache mutters. "Remember that. Would you like me to take the lead?"