Hiram steps back, blinded, and tries to cast a spell.
Terrill swings at the fey but misses.
Wilhelm stabs into Ilquis, this time his rapier digging through with full force!
Bizzle sends another missile into the fey's chest!
Fredrik steps in and swings but the little creature jumps out of the way.
Not liking being surrounded, Ilquis flies to the other side of Terrill. "You, you, you! I told you to take it up with Stepan! Knuckleheads!"
Once again Chasik has trouble hitting the little creature.
Terrill, however, digs his blade in deep and takes the fey down!
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Terrill follows Bizzle's suggestion, binding the sleeping people quickly and fairly gently. When he's done, he responds to Wilhelm, saying, "Yes, only you two are blind, but that's more than enough to be a problem. I think we may need to go see a cleric about getting your blindness cured, if it doesn't go away on its own pretty soon."
He then nudges the two sleepers awake, if they're still sleeping. "Hello, who are you?" he says, hoping to gauge whether they've returned to their senses with the death of the lurker.
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We will need the help of this town's disgusting clergy. Unfortunatly removing magical blindness is still beyond my abilities.
And I think we may have bigger problems. The fey kept mentioning someone called Stepan like that was an important person, somebody we should know about. Lady Anya's husband, the baron of Karpad, is called Stepan too.
Fredrik checks the northwest vat holding his wooden holy symbol with his left hand, afraid of what he may find inside.
Please Lady, do not take the the girl so soon. She is just a kid.
He then nudges the two sleepers awake, if they're still sleeping. "Hello, who are you?" he says, hoping to gauge whether they've returned to their senses with the death of the lurker.
The two folks look a bit out of it at first, clearing trying to reorient themselves and figure out how they got there. It is obvious that they were not aware of what they were doing earlier. It is also obvious that both already suffer from an advanced case of Tallowthroat. The man answers, "Wha? I'm Fane. That's my wife Oana. We were told the light would offer us protection from the shadows and agreed to help that little bug. It claimed to be working on the Baron's orders, after all. We just followed his orders, we didn't really understand what he was up to."
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The others go to check the northwest vat, finding the wax still a bit warm and malleable. Encased up to her neck is a young girl. She is crying and frightened but answers to the name Olya . After a few minutes of digging through the cooling wax, you are able to free her. She tells you that she was led here by Catalina the candlemaker.
While freeing the little girl, you notice that two of the other vats also have people inside of them, submerged up to their necks and the wax hardened around them. They tell you that they are Delian (the butcher's son) and Zona (a farmer from just outside of town).
None of them remember thinking that it was a bad idea at the time when they climbed into the vats of warm wax They all nod-with little Olya still crying silently-as Zona explains, "Once we were in there that-thing-made no secret of his intentions with us. We begged for mercy but it didn't matter; he kept telling us he was going to sacrifice us for some foul ritual. And he said he had the Baron's permission to do it, too! Pah!"
The small storerooms of to the side are filled with cotton cord and twice, cleaning supplies, raw wax, and organic resins. Spread through the three rooms are five human bodies (two men and three women)-likely the previous victims of the lurker-in-light.
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Wilhelm slides down with his back still to the vat, ending in a sitting position. "You were going to be...sacrificed?" His unseeing eyes flail about wildly in their sockets. "This is just beyond the pale. Wha-? I just don't know..." He sits sullenly, with his hands limp at his sides.
"If I could just see. Excuse me," he leans over, attempting to face the rescued folk, "where might the local chapel or temple be? My brother-in-arms and I must seek a cure for our blindness forthwith." His spirits pick up as he focuses on this one task to complete.
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"I agree, Fredrik," says Terrill seriously, "we should be very certain of our approach before we confront the Baron. But before we go to the temple, we must return these children to their parents. Perhaps we can take them all to Lucian, Olya's father, since he's so nearby, and he can return them to their parents? Then we go straight to the temple to get our blind friends healed, if their priest will do it."
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Dasterdly business, all of it! Bizzle is clearly distraught with the discovery of the bodies both living and dead. Let us return those fortunate to have survived and let the town know where they can find the deceased so that they may take proper care of them.
Bizzle collects the wand and dagger unless there are any objections. He'll leave the scroll for the cleric if he wants it.
The party returns the captured citizens to Lucian, who is overjoyed to see his daughter again, and in a better condition than he expected. He agrees to escort the others home. Conveniently, the temple of Zon Kuthon is near the watchstation.
A graveyard surrounds the austere, spired temple, and imagery of skulls and chains is carved in riotous profusion onto the tombstones and black stone edifice of the building. Mausoleums line the edge of the cemetery, each emblazoned with the Boroi family crest and dozens of names. A woman tends the hedgerows between two Boroi mausoleums as you approach the building.
Inside, the head priest-an overweight man in his late thirties with a facial tattoo and numerous silver piercings along the bridge of his nose and on his pale bald scalp-greets you. "Good evening. My name is Radu Miklos. You must be the foreigners I've heard about. How may I help you?"
When told of Hiram's and Wilhelm's conditions, he says, "Ah, yes. We can fix that. But how would you like to pay? In gold or in pain?"
Seeing your confused looks, he explains, "Our god delights in pain. Allow us to inflict some minor pains in celebration of our god and we will heal your illnesses."
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Wilhelm feels around in his coinpurse. I certainly have enough to pay, but do I really want to? How am I ever going to save up? As Hiram volunteers to undergo the procedure paid for with his pain, Wilhelm's mind is made up. Well, I'll just look weak if I don't follow Hiram.
"I also will offer up my pain to your god," Wilhelm declares and holds out his trembling hand, waiting for the priest's guidance.
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Chasik, is overjoyed, knowing that the people weren't evil, just under the effccts of a spell. He does look concerned when they mention the Baron gave the orders, allegedly anyhow in respects to the foul doings of the current affairs.
Chasik's brow raises at the thought of 'paying in pain', he is about to go to his coin pouch, but both men are gone by the time he wraps his head around the concept of what the pudgy priest has said.
He waits around for his companions to return, and looks aver their wounds, finding it counter productive to heal with pain. He sits by, and waits for his friends pain and general sickness to go away.
The priest leads the two men to the back and a few assistants join him for the ritual. Everyone else can hear their screams of pain from the back sanctuary as their pain tolerance is tested in service to their Dark Lord. After what seems an eternity to Hiram and Wilhelm, the ritual is finished and the priest finishes by curing their blindness. "Thank you for your service to Zon Kuthon. Your pain has pleased the Lord. Please come again if you require anything from us."
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Terrill gives Hiram and Wilhelm sympathetic looks and says, "After what you've been through - the blindness and the cure - I think sleep sounds like a good idea. Perhaps the morning will bring some clarity to the question of what we do with the information we learned from the lurker in light, about who he was working for."
The Weeping Willow tavern (or The Willow as locals call it) is a hub for gossip and a place of business for the town's few prostitutes. They have several rooms available that they are glad to offer to the party for the night.
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Terrill joins his fellow Pathfinders in the common room of The Willow in the morning, glad to see that the two who were blinded yesterday seem recovered from their ordeal.
In response to Bizzle's question, he says, "I think it's too soon to confront the Baron, but we might do well to talk to his wife. Also, we know how those children and others disappeared, but we know nothing more about the disease we were asked to investigate."
He ponders a moment, then asks "Is it just a coincidence that the illness is called tallowthroat, and tallow is used to make candles?" Shaking his head, he says, "It's probably nothing. When we first met the Baroness, she suggested we might talk to some of the people with the illness. We might see if we can find any pattern to how they got sick. And didn't folks in that angry mob yesterday say that the fetchlings at the manor were sent away? We should look into that too."
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Hiram comes down from sleeping moving a little more tenderly than he did before. His listens to Terrill's advice while grabbing a bowl of porridge and honey. "I agree. If we're going to confront a Baron, we need more than a shiny fly's word. The fetchlings seem like a good lead. Seems like they might know something about the shadows erupting from the dead peoples' throats."
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Wilhelm recovers in the morning, joining the others while rubbing his eyes. "Some things are still a bit blurry, but at least I can see!" He sits down and removes one of his rations - chewing with little savor.
"Hmm, a peculiar coincidence indeed Terrill. Tallowthroat..." Wilhelm's voice trails off in thought. "I agree with Hiram - the fetchlings would be a good lead to follow up on." He checks through his equipment briefly.
"Perhaps we could find a shop in town to procure a bit of oil of magic weapon or perhaps some holy water - if we find ourselves up against those nasty shadowy things again."
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Terrill orders a hearty breakfast and is enjoying a nice rasher of bacon and fresh-baked bread when he sees what Wilhelm is eating. "Why're you eating rations in a tavern, Wil? There's better food to be had, and eggs don't travel so well as that dried stuff."
After chewing thoughtfully for a few moments, he adds, "If we can't find any of the stuff you're looking for here in Karpad, I've got a couple of vials of oil that will let you hit even creatures that your mundane blade can't, and helps it strike a little truer on a good hit. I could certainly part with one, and maybe both if there's a need."
Asking about the fetchlings in town, the party finds that there are about 30 fetchlings (to the 150+ humans), and their population has been in roughly this proportion for as long as anyone can remember. The fetchlings are generally tolerated and, until recently, the baron made a point of employing a number of them within his manor to show support for the town's shadowy denizens. All of the fetchlings live in the ghetto across the water known as Shade Row. They mostly keep to themselves.
Shade Row is entirely separated from the rest of the town; they have their own inn, general store, and tavern, though they lack more specialized shops and artisans and therefore do much business with the other townsfolk.
When you go to Shade Row, you can easily be pointed to the residence of the family you saved on your first day in town. They greet with warmth and gratitude. "Oh, we can never repay you! Thank you once again for what you've done. We fear to leave Shade Row anymore; we hadn't even done anything, we were just a convenient target. You should have come to us last night, we could have boarded you up and fed you; it would have been the least we could do!"
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Terrill is very pleased to receive the thanks of the fetchling family. Not often we get such gratitude in our work, it’s nice to have done something so simple and good, rather than the artifact-fetching the Society often tasks us with.
He nods and smiles happily in acknowledgement of their kind words and says, ”No repayment is needed, we’re just glad it turned out okay. In fact, we found the lost children, and no blame will fall to you or your kind for any more disappearances.”
He pauses a moment and then continues, ”Perhaps there is something you could do for us, though. We’re trying to figure out where the tallowthroat disease might have come from, and we don’t know where to start. I want to be sure you know we don’t mean to blame you for anything, but some of the angry folks yesterday said something about the fetchlings at the manor being sent away. Do you know anything about that, or know anyone in Shade Row who worked at the manor?”
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Wilhelm helps out Hiram by asking around in Shade Row and gather some information. "Why yes, I was part of the group that rescued that family down the road. Oh, it wasn't an easy fight - but I managed...Say, if there really is anything you can tell us, we'd really appreciate it."
2 flasks of holy water -50 gp