Characters: Julian, Terus, Cael, Balin, Anthony, Randal, Grim.
NPCs: Constal Joseph "Plague-bane" Throffson, Duchess-Consort Lucia Thionne-Hhune (Ships), Lord Arbos Fullstein (Karlaggar), Samnilith Simonne Whitebrow (The Bindery), Azikiwe the Lobi-Tongo Chieftain, Asif the Librarian, Order of the Gorgon guardsman, Lady Elena Kessler, Kadan the Herald of Zazesspur.
L 23 Alturiak 1374 - M 24 Alturiak 1374
5200 XP
The masses of plague-stricken rioters had been broken by the great waves of the sea gates closing. The party moved into the main isle of the Ships District where Throffson awaited the return of Lucia Thionne-Hhune's imperial vessel. The ship docked slowly at the port while Throffson's remaining Knights of the Cleansing Flame surrounded it. Lucia Hhune exited and met with Throffson whom promtly took her into custody and sent her off to the Fortress of the Faithful under his powers of martial law. Throffson gratefully thanked the party for their quickness of action and decisiveness by rewarding them with the Purple Dragon merit of the Vigilant shield. As Lucia was sent away she ordered that the Ships District guardsman comply with the Cleansing Flame until she stated otherwise. The party then returned to the large and empty Firehawk Inn for the night.Early in the morning they were awoken by the sounds of preaching, drums, and tribal chants coming from the Wainwrights streets. The party bustled outside to find a group of Chultan missionaries preaching against the "false pantheons" and moving the bodies of dead civilians out of the streets. Randal found one of them to be a former worshipper of Illmater whom had decided that worshipping Illmater was no different than praying to the most powerful priest of Illmater on Ferun. Also amongst the group was a number of Wainwrights guardsman whom graciously assisted the missionaries. The party interrogated these Defiants and finding no evidence of guilt moved toward the Fortress of the Faithful to seek out their leader Azikiwe. By foot the party passed over the civic bridge into the Markets District, guarded by a Knight of the Cleansing Flame and a number of followers. In the Markets District the party found the great tent-shops and store-fronts completely closed down and the streets baracaded. The only faces seen in the empty Markets District were guardsman and Lobi-Tongo, many of the guardsman were converting.
The party then crossed the greatest of the Zaz bridges into the Faithful District where a large non-violent protest was taking place on the front grounds of the Fortress of the Faithful. No signs of Bloodfever were present in the beautiful high-city of Zaz. The Lobi-Tongo chanted as they converted a number of acolytes from various temples to their tribe. The party passed through as an acolyte of Torm smashed his own holy symbol against the ground and embraced the Lobi-Tongo high-priest. Julian marched through the crowd as it parted and spoke personally with the leader on issues concerning the absence of divine power within the city. The well-educated leader told Julian of the fickle nature of the gods and made a number of convincing statements supporting his claim. Then the party was ushered into the Fortress where they were greeted and allowed to participate in an ongoing emergency council meeting. The meeting featured the remaining Lords of the Zaz city council, aristocrats from local noble houses, Triad high priests, other priests of Zaz, Azikiwe the leader of the Lobi-Tongo mission, and was presided over by Constal Throffson himself.The party was formally introduced to the council by the Herald of Zazesspur and first heard of the recent claim that the blight of Harvest's-bane had been found in the largest grain store of the Bindery District. Food shortages were argued intensely by the council and then they turned to the party for a fresh opinion. The party offered their suggestions that the absence of high-powered arcane magic was severely hurting Zazesspur and that the disappearance of Jinjivar must be investigated. In addition, Julian and Randal led a push for the legal domain to use their powerful magical abilities to clear the city's waterways and streets of the dead. Members of the council, particularly Lord Arbos Fullstein of the Karlaggar District and Duchess Hhune expressed their concerns for outsourcing such dangerous powers to a group of non-bound adventurers. Still, Throffson and the rest of the council agreed, the party had little to gain through deception and had done much previously for the good of Zaz. Thus, it was decided they would be declared official Emissaries of Justice for Zazesspur.
With their new legal powers the party followed Balin to the Gardens District. While they found excellent and expensive quarantine methods being used, and no signs of Bloodfever. However, nearly all of the Garden District's formerly lush plantlife had been afflicted with a serious infection known as Archer's Blight. Although the sky was overcast, the remaining daylight still penetrated through the canopy to the marble floors. Asif, a librarian of the Zaz Library had already collected a great deal of historical information concerning Bloodfever, Harvest's-bane, and Archer's Blight. Balin and the rest of the party read through the texts and found similar symptoms to the one's previous in Zaz's history. Then they followed Asif to the lower auditorium where 3 human dissections were taking place. The different stages of the illness suggested that there was a terrible respiratory element not mentioned in the historical texts. Randal hypothesized that if they could examine bodies from the previous plagues that they may find concretely whether or not this is the same Bloodfever. The party went with Asif to the oldest noble house of Zaz, the Kessler merchant family. There they were met by a guardsman dressed in dark blue robes, carrying a magical staff as were permitted to enter after they cleansed themselves. Lady Elena Kessler, was deeply opposed to the exhuming of her ancestors. However, through Randal's incredible diplomacy they were given full access to the tombs of the 2 Bloodfever plagues. The old sarcophagi were opened and upon basic dissection the party concluded that the previous Bloodfevers did not have a respiratory component. Grim was most certain that this current disease was a heightened magical version based upon Zaz's old Bloodfever.
