There Must Be Something In the Water

The group worries about how to get the captives safely to Lowtown. Adalia is morbidly curious about the sewers. Carindrina says she is on board with anything. Belladonna looks closely at the group, trying to see if any are fey, it seems to be a mix of humans and high elves. Adalia , noticing the high elves, tries to see if they will talk to her since she is only a half-elf. She sees an older elf, with grey hair and a beard that he has tried to maintain despite the conditions, and asks him, “ How long have you been in this cage?”

He introduces himself as Welben Durhar, “I am the advisor for the Tanglewoods, about three weeks ago, the Lord and Lady Tanglewood went to Balvonier. Eline was holding the party for the festival. No one ``remembers what happened, there was a fog that rolled in, then screaming, then we woke up in cages.”

Adalia nods, making eye contact with the group as she asked, “Why were the Tanglewoods in Balvonier?”
`”Well they were working on the contract for the engagement between Hanburn’s son, James, and Elaine.”

“Riiight...naturally.” Carindrina drawled.

“So you haven’t seen Elaine recently?” Adalia pressed, trying to be diplomatic

“I can’t say that I have, but I also can’t say that I haven’t. I’ve seen her body, but she isn’t there anymore. She comes in and takes people then returns them a shell of themselves.” He shakes his head sadly, “She wouldn’t do this. She’s a good girl. I’ve know her since she was a baby!”

The group struggles to reply until Carindrina speaks, “Thank you, Welben, that is very useful information.”

He asks why they are here and the group deflects the question, he gives up and asks if they have been to Lowtown, if it is safe, and where they plan on taking them. Carindrina confirms that they helped someone escape to Lowtown before they came to the castle, and to the best of their knowledge it is safer than where they are now. She also suggests escorting everyone to the city limits so they can flee.

Welben considers this, wrinkles deepening around his forehead as he contemplated the offer, “I know that for many of the nobles, they don’t have connections in Lowtown, or a place for lodgings. We may go to Balvonier and try to find Lord and Lady Tanglewood.”

A few of the group grimace, and Adalia tries to break the news gently, “I hate to tell you this, but we just came from Balvonier, and we saw no sign of Lord and Lady Tanglewood.”

His face is momentarily filled with sadness, then resolve. He turns and addresses the other captives, “If you want to go to Lowtown, I have faith that they can get us there safely, but if you want to go to Balvonier, I will be leaving and going to find the Tanglewoods until all of this is resolved.”

The group is quiet, but it appears that only Welben will be making the journey to Balvonier. Carindrina begins to explain the battle plan, “The best thing for our party is to move quietly and with the greatest of care, to the closet gate into Lowtown so we are within the safety of the group. On the way, I would like to stop at the armory and allow everyone to grab a weapon to protect themselves.”

The move to the armory, everyone picking up something, the young girl tries to pick up a large bastard sword, but her brother grabs her hands away. Galia sends Juniper over her with a command to defend her. She whispers to the girl that Juniper is very friendly and she can pet her. The girl smiles and cuddles into Juniper’s soft fur. Adalia casts pass without a trace, hoping this will prevent any beings that want to keep the captives in HIghtown from following their trail.

The group very carefully makes their way to the gate, going through, they plan to return Alora to her sister and ask to spend the night there rather than go back to Hightown immediately.

At the gate, the little girl tugs on her brother’s arm, “Henley, I want to go home. I miss mommy.” He puts an arm around her and shakes his head, “Mirella, sweetie, we can’t go home. It isn’t safe. I’m sure someone will let us stay with them.” She cries quietly, trying to hold her tears back. The older high elf girl comes to get her, picking her up to carry her though she is almost too big to carry. As she shifts Mirella’s weight to her hip, she smiles sadly at Henley. They appear close. The group notices that Mirella and Henley look similar to the paintings they saw of Jame’s mother, and tuck that fact away for later.

Henley turns to the group and asks if they plan on coming back to Hightown. They explain that they will, but they have to rest or they won’t be prepared for anything. He says that he would like to go back with them, and they can take anything they need from his house, but for now, his family funds the church and he can give them lodging there. The group thanks him and they set off. The passing crowds don’t appear to notice them.

Carindrina walks through the town like a military strategists, looking for sightlines, ways people can attack, if they are being watched. The area is pretty hard hit, broken doors and windows, it would be easy to watch them, but it is almost like no one realizes they are there. They arrive at the church, it is pretty and in good shape considering the state of the slum they walked through. Henley knocks and one of the men in the strange black robes answers the door, his intentions are inscrutable as he says, “Yes? How can I help you, my child?” Henley pauses, “I am Henley Truewater my family funds this church and I need sanctuary.” The black robed figure pauses, and then bows, mumbling of course, opening the door to let them pass.

Adalia asks where the priests are.

He turns his head coldy, “I am a priest, I am Vinur C.”

Adalia lets the doubt creep into her voice, “I have never seen someone of the order of Liguaquide dressed like you.”

“ I am part of a new order, we focus on being more true to the water. We are keeping the order and the cycle of the water pure.. We focus on keeping the purity of the water, keeping that circle and that cycle pure.”

Nira quietly asks Henley if this is normal, “This is not part of the religion I know.” he whispers to her, then to the robed figure demands, “Where is Lady Crystal?”

Vinur C replies cooly, “Lady Crystal went on a pilgrimage North and asked us to come aid her.”

Adalia was getting angry, her emotions crashing inside of her like the waves she loves, “You talk about the purity of water, but your water is. Not. pure.”

Vinur C seemed unphased, “Our water is perfectly fine here, what water is impure?”

Adalia’s tone sharpened, “The canal.”

He shrugged, “Oh, I didn’t know, the canal doesn’t flow through Lowtown.”

“So you are limited to Lowtown?”

“Yes, we were told that the church in Hightown was covered, we were only here to help Lady Crystal.”

“Who is the other priestess?” she pressed.

He hesitated longer than was reasonable if he was telling the truth, “Lady Juliet. We have been so busy here with the soup kitchen and charity and healing the infection that has gone down. We haven’t been over to look.”

Nira, used to being around religious circles, evaluated him. He did seem pious, however he was clearly being evasive. There was no reason he shouldn’t have known the other priestess' name when there was maybe a mile between the two churches.

“How long have you been here?”

“Oh, about a month, we stayed with Lady Crystal for about a week, to get a feel for the town, then she went away. She went North to bring back a relic for the church.”

The group sincerely doubted him, even Aquilla tried to be intimidating but only let out a small mew, but Henley nodded, “Yes, she said she was going North to bring home a relic for the church. I’m so grateful you are here helping the town.Ok, Mirella, let’s stay here. You won’t mind if we all stay in the women’s area? I want to get her cleaned up and resting.”

Adalia puts a hand on his arm and whispers, “Be very careful and very vigilant.” He smiles, squeezes her fingers in gentle reassurance and sayd, “Don’t worry, I always am.”

As he leads Mirella to the lodgings, the girl who had carried Mirella came over and introduced herself as Leonara Trueflame, she told the group that she is their cousin and she loves them, but she does not want them to stay there. The group adamantly agrees.

Vinur C breaks in, “Would you like something from the church? We have a small kitchen, there isn’t much as we are out delivering measles, but--”

Adalia cut him off, “You keep saying “we” how many of you are there?”

“There is me, and several others. We try to travel with several of us so we can take breaks and we cann cover more ground.”

“There seem to be quite a few of you in the streets.”

“Oh, I’m sure it is just the robes. If you’d like to wait, the other Vinur will be here. I’m the youngest, Vinur V is the oldest. If you’d like you can sit outside.”

“Why can’t we sit inside?” Nira presses.

“Of course you can, I just need to prepare some things for tomorrow, is it alright if I leave you?” He looks around, clearly anxious.

“Of course. What happens tomorrow?” Adalia asks.

“Oh just more work spreading Liguaquide’s knowledge.”
Carindrina smiles blandly at him and turns to herd the group outside.

Adalia whispers, “The walls have ears, let’s talk outside.”

Outside the group of rescued citizens waits. Alora announces that she is going to her sister’s house and she has room for 2 people, possibly more if they sleep on the floor. The girl with green hair also offers two spots, saying that her home has room if it is still standing. Nira tries to get everyone to stay together as night is falling and they can all be escorted home in the morning. The girl shakes her head, saying, “I’m not staying in that church. I live in the Northwest corner, if you want to come, you can.” Then she walks off towards the North end of town. Adalia grumbles why didn’t you tell us when we were closer to that end of town? But she was already gone.

“Where is your sister's house?” Adalia asks Alora, trying to organize an escort.

“It isn’t too far, it is across from the church near the city walls and gate.”

Carindrina volunteers to take Alora home.

Nira asks what they should do with everyone. Leonora says that she doesn’t have any property here so they really are at the mercy of the people of Lowtown, but she doesn’t want to leave her cousins alone at the church. Adalia tells Nira she thinks she is right and we should get as many people as possible to stay together.

Adalia and Carindrina walk Alora home. As they approach, they see a pair of monks at a house next door, they hand over a basket but are gone by the time they are close enough to hear anything. When they arrive and knock on the door, Nell sweeps her sister into a hug, “Alora! Patrick and I were so worried about you! Well, I was. Patrick didn’t even know we were gone. I don’t know that he would have believed me if you hadn’t come back.”

Carindrina nods solemnly, “I get the feeling that there is an unnatural affliction going around the town. You aren’t the first one who has talked about losing time and memories since the last festival.”

Alora and Nell lean on each other, “Come back tomorrow if you need anything, breakfast, directions, whatever help you need.”

Carindrina and Adalia rush back to update the others on what happened. Nira has spent her time looking around the church, there are several doors that are clearly marked: women’s quarters, men's quarters, priests’ office, cleaning supplies, etc. One has beautiful glass vials of water. Another has hangers with hooks of the black robes as well as the silvery-blue robes that are common to this religion, Nira helps herself to several of them.
They discuss how to talk to the monk. There are several suggestions to beat it out of him. Galia offers to charm him, or shapeshift, but she doesn’t like bending people to her will as it feels “slightly morally wrong”, and she is worried that Belladonna will hate her if she does. Belladonna backs her up, “Yeah, go with that feeling”, saying that she shouldn’t overpower someone’s will, and there must be a way to meet in the middle. Belladonna and Furus decide to work together to be diplomatic and try to get information that way. Nira tells Galia she should pretend to be the leader and talk to the young one in the church with them (Vinur C). She explains she has to have seen the person, and she doesn’t know what the head one looks like, but she could shift into the young Vinur C and if they put him to sleep (just a little bit of sleep, she reassures Belladonna) she can pretend to be dumb and ask a bunch of questions.
Belladonna, Nira, and Midna go to the front to let Galia know when they show up. Carindrina goes to knock Vinur C out, Furus goes with her to cast Lullaby if needed. Galia is hiding in the shadows, ready to transform. The doors clang open as the Vinur walk through. Belladonna runs and she informs Furus to cast the spell. Vinur C slumps to the floor, Carindrina and Belladonna truss him together. Galia transforms into Vinur C, with Adalia, and goes to the group.
Galia stiltingly greets the group, “Hello, these are new guests of the church. They had some questions and I am new, as you know, so I told them the other Vinur would be able to answer them.”
“Who’s in charge here?” Nira asks, her oddness shining in this moment.
The oldest one, Vinur V, looks at Nira and Midna in surprise, “I’m in charge. What can I do for you children? What are you doing here? Ah, you are from a different God, I did not expect a cleric of Oure in my church.”
“Well I didn’t plan on that either, but here we are.”
“We aren’t so different, Oure is the beginning of Liguaquide, after all. We are almost...family.”
Nira shudders at his cold voice, then recovers, “Yes..family. Family should help each other. Definitely we can use your assistance.”
Adalia chimed in, “We were told you came to replace Lady Crystal.”
“Yes, she went on a pilgrimage north to bring an artifact, one of the crystal tears, to be shared here for a while.”
“And you felt the need to bring so many of your fellow monks here with you? To...watch over her church…”
“Well, several members like Vinur C here are new and in training, so we brought them to teach them how to be kind and bring people into the waves of the church, and how the cycle of water will cleanse the world.”
“Do you mean cleanse or drown?” Adalia asked, raising an eyebrow and staring pointedly at his impassive face.
“Well drowning is a form of cleansing, but I mean cleanse.” He smiled blandly.
“You don’t look like any worshippers of Liguaquide I’ve seen.”
Nira cut in, “Tell me, have you been practicing...What is the word I am looking for? Have there been any martyrs recently?”
“Well, I have been practicing a long time, there are certainly people who devote their life to the cause, but not any martyrs.”
“What do you do with heretics?”
“Everyone has a right to their opinion, the cleansing properties of water will cleanse your soul whether you believe in them or not.”
“If that’s the case, why do you have a drowned maiden in the canal? She doesn’t seem very cleansed.”
“ I haven’t been to Hightown, the gates have been closed since we have been here. No one has mentioned that, we could certainly help.”
“We can point her out.” Nira smirked.
“She has a thing for Nira.” Venus whispered, laughing.
“Certainly. Have you been shown around the church?”
Adalia waved him off, “Sure, sure. Why are you so interested in cleansing the town when you have such impure water in Hightown?”
“I showed myself around…” Nira mumbled.
“Why are you not focusing on Hightown?”
“That is Lady Juliet’s domain, she is welcome to ask us and we would provide assistance and clarity in this matter. I would love to let you all retire. You look, I don’t want to say haggard, but tired. Do you need food and drink or anything?”
Adalia frowned, “We have already helped ourselves, thank you.”
“There are mens and women’s quarters.”
“We’ll go together. Furus is honorary, he’s fine.”
“Ok, if that is how you are comfortable. If you would be willing to help deliver goods and food to the citizens in the morning, we would definitely accept your assistance. However, either way, we are more than willing to help you any way we can.”
The group mumbles assent. Galia awkwardly bows and backs away, going to Furus, Carindrina, and the tied up boy, who is now awake. She stays behind the trussed up novitiate, and transforms back into herself.
She whispers “What should we do?”
Carindrina tells her to transform into the head Vinur and tell him this was a test to ensure that there was a safe discussion with Vinur V. That while unconventional, he should forgive our extreme tactics. Adalia followed, saying he should tell us everything he knows, but failing to look intimidating.
Galia, as the head Vinur, moved to look at the novitiate, “This was a test to see how you would treat newcomers, you did well. Blessings from the water. Amen.”
Nira let out a wild, “AMEN!”
Confused, but agreeing, he held his arms out to be untied.
Before the group would untie him, Nira leaned into his space, whispering in his ear, “See how extreme we can go? You might want to think about your loyalties here if your actions do not appease the gods.”
Furus stared at him for any signs of deception, but the young novitiate looked truly confused. The group then retired to the women’s quarters. No one drank or ate any food from the church. Galia split a piece of meat with Juniper. Henley and Mirella were there, just finishing some soda bread and soup. The advisor was missing. Henley, blushing, asked the group if he would allow them to sleep in the women’s quarters so that he can stay with Mirella, and the group agreed. He and Mirella went to sleep immediately. The group set up a watch and decided to take hour long shifts to make sure the door was constantly watched.
Carindrina was first, there was no noise or movement beyond the door. When her shift was over, Adalia took her turn. Venus was next, and still exhausted, nodded off for a bit of her shift. Belladonna, always on high alert, could hear strange whispers echoing from the hallways outside the women’s dormitories going back into the church. She couldn’t make out words, just a whispering, rustling noise. Taking a scan of the room, with everyone safe and asleep, she decided to sneak into the hallway to follow the sound. She crept to the edge of the shadows, peering into the church. She still couldn’t quite make out what the noise was, so she tried to sneak forward, she brushed against a pew and it let out a squeak. She paused, holding her breath. There was a group of robed figures seated around a large bowl of water, chanting. They didn’t notice her, but she hesitated to move forward after making noise. It appeared like they were praying, she recognized the faces of the Vinur they had met. While her senses felt that something was off about this ritual, she wasn’t familiar enough with this religion to decipher what was wrong. She turned back, waking up Nira for her shift. She told her what she saw, and Nira decided to head out to investigate.
Not bothering to hide her presence, she walked out, and sat on a pew in full view of the group around the water. They turn to her, “Would you like to join us? Your God is like our God’s father. Would you like to help bless the water for the day?”
Nira smiled and moved to sit between them, “I would.”
The resumed the chant, while it wasn’t what she was familiar with, she did catch a few words from the very old language, almost similar to protean or another ancient language. She caught the names of Liguaquide and Oure a few times. They prayed for about an hour, then stood up. “We are going to retire now. Thank you for helping bless this water.”
“What is the water for?”
“We take the water to the townsfolk and we heal them.”
Nira’s eyes widened, starting to put the pieces in place. She tried not to run back to the room, but once there, shook Furus awake.
“What? What?” He blinked sleepily.
“Yeah, yeah, listen. What do you think of this theory? I don’t think they are doing all good--I’m not really sure what they are doing--but I think the reason we aren’t seeing anything here, is they are handing out holy water to folks and keeping the vampires and thralls away from the smaller towns.” She paced, hands gesturing about wildly.
“That seems..good? Do you think there is something mischievous about it?” He began standing up and readying for his watch.
“Well, I don’t know. It seems like they are making it seem like the water is fine in Lowtown, but I cannot connect the dots! There is something in the water.”
“Okay…” He agreed cautiously, sensing this was going to end up with them doing something insane.
“I want you to drink one of the vials!” Her orange eyes glowed with chaotic fervor.
Furus laughed nervously, “ I need to at least make it through my watch so if something happens, Carindrina can save me.”
Nira’s chaotic burn simmered, “Yeah, yes, I understand. I want you to go back to that closet and grab some of those vials.”
“Ok, I will watch them and get some. Is it close to where they are?
“Yeah, they were next to each other.”
She laid down and Furus walked out to the main chamber of the church, which was now empty. He went straight to the closet that he had found the vials previously. The vials were fairly orderly, but he looked closely and found that each bottle had a small label with the day. There was a vial labelled with every date going back about 6 months. He grabbed one from about 4 weeks ago and one from two weeks ago. The water that Nira had discussed was glowing faintly. He went over, remembering his previous acid encounter, was hesitant, but seeing the bowl was quite shallow, he carefully collected some in a vial. Doing a last scan, he returned to wake up Galia. She grumbled about getting up early in the morning. He told her what they had found, and her interest piqued, she went out to poke her nose around.
Looking for any signs of the Abbot, she told Juniper to see if she could smell any animals around here, but Juniper didn’t smell anything. Galia similarly didn’t find any clues. Returning to the room, she woke everyone up, and the group discussed their finding. Furus showed the vials he collected to everyone. Adalia and Nira studied the vials. The blessed water in the newer vials seemed similar to Oure or Liguaquide, but older. It felt chaotic. And hungry.

Nira explained that she thinks that the magic is from the same plane that the portal opened and Carindrina’s arm was hurt. Adalia studied harder, the water was definitely blessed, but the vial from before their arrival felt more normal, the other two were very strange. NIra’s hands danced at her side and she grabbed the one with the strongest aura, the one she had helped bless the night before, popped the cork with her thumb and chugged it. The group looked on in horror, her movements too fast for them to stop her.

She felt this strange sensation, almost like she had been hit in the head and was seeing stars. She felt the dark embrace of Oure cleanse her mind and help her shake off the effects, but she remained shaken. She smiled maniacally, and tried to explain the feeling to the group, “If I was a lesser being, or I thought this was to help me..this felt like mind control. Or..like it was trying to eat away my memory.”

Adalia threw her hands up and began pacing, Aquila watching her cautiously. Belladonna crossed her arms and muttered about how this was exactly what the fey do. Adalia reached out and gave her a high five as she passed by.

“Can we tie them up now?” Nira suggested. “Or we can go the sneaky route. I did promise to help them cook breakfast and deliver things to people. We could do that and figure out what they are doing and gently press. Galia, you can gently press them with me.”

Smiling at being included, she flicked her tail, “I like it!”

“Can we replace their holy water with holy water we made?”

“That depends if we want them to know that we know.” Nira said.

“If we can get them out of the church, you and Furus can dump the water and Adalia can refill it with holy water.” Galia suggested.

“I can sing a song to make them pay attention to me while they cook breakfast and you can dump the water.”

The group agreed and Furus and Galia went to the kitchens to help cook. Furus began playing Under the sea, under the sea, everything is better…. He became so into his song, he grabbed a lobster and began throwing it, the priests became annoyed. They told him they appreciate his help but he should wait outside.

“This is a dry temple, did you bring your own mead?” One asked him.
“You mean you didn’t?” Furus laughed and exited the kitchen, Galia awkwardly following to wait outside the door as a scout.

Adalia and Aquilla pushed the bowl of water outside, dumped it, and returned it before filling the bowl with true blessed water.

The Vinur returned and explained, “If you don’t mind helping by putting a bottle of holy water in each basket we are going to deliver baskets to all the houses.”

“I’ve never known a group to deliver holy water, is that your calling card?” Nira challenged them.

“Well everyone has a small altar in their home and we just like to be able to provide for them. And if they need any healing, there is a cough or something going around, especially in poorer areas like this. Water has amazing healing properties, as you know.”

“Oh I do. So you mostly encourage them to drink it? In their water, in their tea?”

“Well there are many ways to use it, but drinking it, yes. In water or mead, as your friend appears to like.”

Nira frowned, “How thoughtful.”

“Anyone that needs to be cleansed, must be healthy first.” The Vinur’s face was passive.

“Do you enjoy your coffee or tea with the same holy water?” Nira pressed.

“Yes. We refresh the water nightly, though.”

“I would like to join you again.” Nira looked to the group, who appeared worried after her first encounter with the water.

“Of course, calling on old gods can always use more people.”

“No, I mean the drinking.”

“Oh of course.”

“Let’s get out before the day’s heat.” Nira clapped her hands to break the meeting.