Irina hovers in the background trying to catch up on the myriad conversations that are taking place. Seeing the stack of books being offered to Zoresk the brawler very promptly edges closer to Kumyo and the conversation over the former mayor, remaining quiet but attempting to look engaged so as not to be roped into any types of research by the lore warden.
"I appreciate the help, sir. If it's all right, I"ll take a seat in that chair over their and do a little digging. I'm honestly not too sure what I might be looking for, so I may need to return a few more times until I find what I'm looking for or run out of books." Zoresk takes the offered tomes and finds a spot to sit and read. He skims through them, stopping anytime he sees a passage that could be relevant.
Serunda shakes her head sadly. "He was killed in the raid; entire family. So I presume the new mayor will get the uh, honour, of speaking to the Countess but I have no idea beyond that."
Zoresk begins looking through some of the books and sees something a little interesting; a description of the ritual that the group was apparently a part of. Wigguns allows Zoresk to take the book, and with Serunda closing up everyone makes their way over to the inn, joining up with Nilan who has finished his duties at the temple.
The book you're reading is The Lore and Mythology of the Starstone, and has a good deal of interesting, if not particularly relevant information about the legendary artifact that ascended several mortals to godhood. The chapter that caught your eye is 'Alternate Methods to Achieving Godhood'. The theory is that the Gods and their ilk are flux with certain types of energy. Holy, unholy, elemental, and so forth. If enough of this power was captured, it could then be transferred to a mortal and with the proper conduit, used to attain Godhood or something like it.
A magical item that could be used in this ritual is then detailed, the Sphere of Life, a crystal ball that forms a link with a specific being. If done early enough, it can be used to draw out the very essence of that being, and then used in this ritual of ascension. The sketch of the ball looks exactly like the ball you saw in the ritual room.
Standing and cracking his back after some time spent digging through older tomes, Zoresk thanks Wiggums, "I appreciate your help, master Wiggums. Are you certain you don't want anything for it?"
Frowning as he mulls over the implications of the item, Zoresk gathers his companions into a room. After asking they not be disturbed, Zoresk explains what he has found, "That ritual, or whatever it was, that brought us here. I did some research." He opens the book to the correct page which he had marked with a torn scrap of parchment. "This look familiar to anyone else? I think it was the object at the center of the ritual room. This book, about the Starstone down in Absalom, has a chapter devoted to attain godhood. This ball thing seems like some theoretical way of going about that. It's danged odd, but I think that's what those cultists were doing. They were trying to absorb our power to create a god. Why they chose us, I don't know, but that's what I've found so far."
No tea, no construct but I did have a very physical type of disagreement with someone before my trip here. HE did seem unusually powerful.
"Construct? Tea?" Zoresk asks the Tian woman, bewildered. "No, we didn't have anything like that. We just landed up the mountain a ways out of town and found our way down through goblins and a few other horrors." Scratching at his stubble as he mulls over the perplexing new account, he shrugs, "I don't remember a construct, just being immobilized. They started that ritual, then those woman broke us free. I only had time to get my weapon and we were on the mountain. I'm no expert, but I'd think we'd notice if they managed to absorb our 'power'. The book suggests they'd be tapping into our very essence. It isn't particularly clear, but it seems likely we'd be worse than dead." Shuddering at the thought, an image of fire and chanting breaks into his mind. Gritting his teeth, he stifles the painful memory and continues, "All this begs the question of who this cult is and why they're after us. With no offence to those here, we don't seem too special. How are the two dozen or so in that room meant to empower someone as the Starstone does? It's just nonsense. Still, here we are."
The group talk well into the night, exchanging their stories and trying to figure out what has happened to them.
A couple of days pass by uneventfully, Nilan sees no return of the strange vision that gripped him, Zoresk works on his falchion, Kumyo and Koriko work on their magic, and Irina and Fingers continue to get to know the town as best they can.
Three days later, while the group has met to eat their breakfast at the inn, a hoarse, horrible cry comes from outside, towards the south gate. Rushing outside, a dilapidated man has staggered into town. He looks emaciated, with wide eyes like saucers, a scraggly beard, and no teeth despite being relatively young with the colouring and accent of a local.
"MY EYES!" he cries, staring around wildly. "They kept trying to take my eyes! I can't give them that. Nobody understood everything. The colours were too bright..."
He seems to notice the crowd starting to gather around him, and simply collapses, weeping hysterically.
Irina moves to the man and attempts to both pick him up and console him, There, neighbor. No one here taking anything. What are you talking about? Breath slow....nice and slow...
In a calm voice Nilan approaches the man and lays a hand on him Easy Friend, you are safe.
Fingers looks up at the man, trying to get a sense if he'd seen him before or if there were anything familiar about the mans's appearance, dress, or mannerisms.
He recoils from the touch of Irina and Nilan.
"Please, the light hurts... I don't understand."
The man curls up and starts gibbering incomprehensibly.
A few people from the crowd move in. Somebody calls out. "Jerend?! Gods what happened to you?" More people start moving in from the nearby market, talking all at once. However, with Nilan near they keep their distance, giving the priest his space. The gibbering man seems to have become unresponsive and just remains curled up, muttering to himself.
Irina looks up at Nilan, a look of earnest concern and request for guidance setting her features, What now? Seems like we shouldn't just let him stay here and I don't want to rough him up getting him to wherever he should go...
Nilan checks the man for obvious maladies...
"Who is this man?" Fingers asks the crowd, specifically looking for the person who called him by name.
Nilan kneels down by the raving man to check him over. He's strangely pale and is malnourished, if not emaciated. Probably in his late thirties to early forties. You notice tiny holes along the side of his skull, they look like they were made with surgical precision. Despite that, he does not appear to suffer from any malady beyond madness.
Marit, who had been of help to you before, comes out of the crowd.
"That's Jerend Thoth - he's a hunter who lived near town! We haven't seen him in months, everyone thought he just got et by something nasty. What happened to him?!"
"'The light hurts', 'trying to take his eyes', 'colors too bright'? It sounds like someone tortured him using magic.", Koriko muses as she tries to make any sense of what the man is saying... perhaps some of the things he said coincide with magicks she knows.
Zoresk looks at the man pityingly, "I don't know, 'the light hurts' almost sounds like he means the sunlight. I just don't understand how the sun might be hurting him. He is unusually pale, which seems odd for a hunter." Zoresk racks hs mind, thinking over anything that might be afflicting the man.
Koriko racks her brain to think of magical tortures. Although no specific spells or rituals come to mind, she's certainly heard of all manner of magical tortures or experiments that can drive a man mad.
Zoresk can't think of anything that would make sense aside from time spent underground. There could be other explanations, but unfortunately beyond his ken.
Marit kneels by Jerend, who remains fetal.
"You poor dear. Can we get him inside from the crowd? The inn? The temple? One of the empty homes?"
"Aye, let's move him inside. The temple seems the place for now, until he can regain his wits and explain what happened."
Fingers helps lift the man, but first rifles through his pockets, looking for anything unusual or helpful to what happened to the man. They take the deranged fellow the Pharsamin temple, where the priests can tend to his wounds, or perhaps even his madness.
Irina joins Fingers in carrying the man, human bodies being akward things to maneuver. Irina raises an eyebrow at the rogue as he pats around the newcomer's pockets but says nothing about it...
Irina and Fingers manage to drape Jerend over their shoulders, and walk the man to the other side of town to the Pharasman temple. Fingers rifles through Jerend's pockets but finds that they are completely empty, not even lint. Jerend is finally brought over to the temple where the two priests gladly take him and promise to keep him in one of the cloisters where his condition can be observed.
Watching as the man is taken into the temple and laid to rest in the care of the Pharasman priests, Zoresk ponders what he had said. "It seems like we're not going to get anything from his for the moment. He came in the south gate, any idea what's down that way? If he's a local, then it stands to reason he ran into something disagreeable that was likely in that direction. That still doesn't tell us much of what was done to him and by what, but it might be something to work with. In the worst, we could try and backtrack his path to find where he came from."
If you have the skills then we could certainly try... Irina shrugs her shoulders at the fighter.
The group make their way to the south gate of the town after leaving Jerend in the care of the priests. The familiar ancient, paved road leads southwards to Caliphas.
"I'm a city boy, don't look to me for tracking someone through the woods," says Fingers ruefully. He's not certain anyone could track anything on the paved road.
Nilan says My duties have taken me into the countryside...but even the meanest town has a dirt track leading to it. Perhaps we follow the road south and see?
Zoresk starts to comb over the area. Although he can tell that Jerend crashed in from the bushes to the east of the road, the tracks prove difficult to follow, and it's clear he crashed in through the forest proper rather than taking a proper trail.
Feeling chagrined as the trail seems to disappear before his eyes, Zoresk observes, "I suppose that answers the question of just following the road. Maybe there's someone in town who'll be a bit better at this then I am?"
Fingers asks Marit, the helpful woman, if there are any skilled hunters or trackers from the village we could persuade to walk Jerend's back-trail for us. We might even pay someone to assist.
With their attempts at finding Jerend's trail failed, the group heads back to town. A brief conversation with Marit and she says she'll ask around, but most of the good hunters were skilled fighters, and thus fought and died against the hobgoblins.
With Jerend safely in the church, the group beds down for the evening, calling it a day.
---
With your room in the temple cloister, you are abruptly awakened by a scream, and a sickening thud. Rushing out of bed, you almost knock over the folding wall that separates the beds in the cloister to encounter a sickening sight. Jerend's bed is empty, the shutters are wide open, and outside, his crumpled body lies on the ground 40' below. Neerun struggles out of his own bed to rush over to you.
"Not this day, not now, not this day, not now..." he mutters frantically, repeating a common Pharasman saying. "I... I'm going to look for your friends! I can't handle this!"
With that he bolts away in his night gown, downstairs. Rubin groans, the ancient man struggling out of his bed.
"Eh? What's going on?"
You are all awakened by Father Neerun, the younger cleric, rushing up and down the hall, banging loudly on your doors and exposing far too much of himself in a night gown.
"WAKE UP! PLEASE! Something awful has happened at the temple! Hurry!"
Nilan checks to see if the man is still alive and does whatever he can do magically if there is still some chance of saving him.
Koriko rushes out of her room, sheathed sword in hand, and withoiut losing any words makes her way to the temple as fast as she can.
Fingers sits up groggily, waking much more slowly than the others. Taking time to pull his breeches on properly, he follows after the others, not exactly sure what he can do to help at the temple.
You quickly make your way from the cloisters upstairs and then check the body. He looks to have been killed instantly by the fall, his neck is broken.
Zoresk wakes with a start, eying the door blearily as someone shatters the night's silence. Groaning, he rolls out of bed, pulling on breeches and recovering his armor and his glaive before rushing out the door. He mutters under his breath, "So much for that night's rest. No nightmares either." He joins the others, armor and weapon still in hand. "What's this all about then?"
Irina rolls out of bed and scoops her belongings up with her, unsure of what lies in store. She sees and follows the others...
This poor soul has moved on. To our Lady's realm I fear. Nilan makes the spiral sign with his left hand. Was his madness so great he wanted to end his own life?
The group make their way out to to the front of the cathedral to spy Jerend's emaciated body, crumpled and broken at its side.
A few of the townsfolk, hearing the commotion, have come out of their homes. There are some gasps and a cry of anguish as a woman in the back collapses, sobbing.
The woman is familiar to you; she had come to you a couple of days ago to ask you to investigate Jerend's disappearance.
After a short while, the crowd begins to disperse. Neerun and Rubin gather the body, leaving Nilan with the party. The weeping woman looks to the group and rushes over, grabbing Fingers by the shirt while looking at Irina accusingly.
"You said you'd look for him!"
She takes a moment. Dressed finely, she is small, timid, and nearly hysterical.
"I... please. I spoke with Irina. My name is Nalla. Can you meet with me? Soon? Now?"
Without waiting for an answer, she flees, heading down the block and across the street to a small, but quality stone house.
Nilan has a very confused look on his face as he follows the woman. He glances back to see if anyone else is coming.