The Nobodies: After the Lost - 3

A brief reminder of the side characters in this story: CLONK (Barbarian - Warforged), RAPP (Rogue - Tabaxi), THERAL (Wizard - Tiefling), VIC (Monk - Fire Genasi). And, BALTHAZAR the Hardworking (Wizard - "Tortle").
 
THERAL and BALTHAZAR spot a sketching looking person following them after leaving the magic shop. BALTHAZAR notices him to be slightly armed. The individual looks like a street thug. He had a crescent moon tattoo on him. More people appear to be tracking the wizards.
 
ZEL GARNADIZ (sorcerer branch director), meets with the party (while wearing a glittery bronze robe) while working through the pile of papers on her desk. She sets down 5 rough sketches of each party member in a pile taken from around the city. The guild of phantom (Most prominent assassins guild on the continent) has connections to the various bounties out on the party members. The party officially names themselves The Nobodies. ZEL offers the party a "completely legitimate contract". There is an individual who lives in a small town on the edge of the Kingdom, JOHANNES RUBIAN. He was a inventor with research in automatons, got quite wealthy for selling items to rich people. Over 20 years ago he cut himself from the world going into a self imposed isolation, many of his automatons are quite advanced compared to most others. The town of MIER just on the edge of the mountain range in the kingdom. She places two vials of liquid on the table as payment. The party is going to get there through teleportation circles, the old wizard from the magic item shop to function as the teleporting power.
 
The receiving teleportation room was in a storm cellar in a sparse town. There are many pine trees around. An older one eyed man manning the desk gives us rooms no questions asked. Nothing occurs during the day trek to the town of MIER. It is decently sized for a town. It is clearly busy (wood chopping, tannery). More into the town people are giving the party looks. There are a couple of town guards following from a distance. THERAL approaches the following town guards, and asks them some questions. At the center of town there are notices about missing family members asking for information to aid in finding them. There are quite a few of them, all from the last year to 6 months.
The guards come to collect us to take the party to meet the magistrate. This leads the party to the largest building in the center of town. among the office is a crude painting of a flower presumably painted by a child. The magistrate is in his early 50's and looks very tired with paperwork on his desk. He wants the party to deal with the "VANISHINGS" with gradual increasing number. Similar to the disappearances 20 years ago with JOHANNES. JOHANNES was an inventor that liked making toys and gain popularity from his inventions. He built a large manor on the outskirt on town for him, his wife, and two children. He kept building bigger and better things. He seemed to do quite well. Suddenly, the family stopped making public appearances and wealthy patrons stop showing up. Day worker here, old lady there, then multiple in a day, and then the first child had disappeared. The guards found JOHANNES as the only living member of the family filthy, bloodstained, and laughing manically. The guards, horrified, hung him from a tree on the estate. After his death the disappearances stopped. Anyone trying to loot the house for valuables have never come out causing the town to abandon it. There have never been a recurring theme other than people disappearing while out at night.
The most recent disappearance happened at the logging north of the town a little bit. The MANSION is on the Northeast side of the town. A local ranger is preparing to go into the mansion, AUGUST GRAVES. He has been paid by a third party to figure out what happened. JOHANNES didn't invite people other than the his wealthy patrons to his mansion.
A frail looking man in sheep clothing and worn leather is walking with a guard to meet with us. With a crossbow over his back, AUGUST. He was 15 when this started up before. Didn't experience much as he hunkered down in their cabin. Went to the MANSION once to burn it down. Got a general layout of the building. A lumberjack out at night was taken last about a week ago (with a rumor of meeting with another woman - married).
Three men from the town attempt to stop the party from proceeding to the MANSION after an investigation of the last disappearance location. Just outside of the house is a single dead tree with rope hanging from the tree. The first floor windows are shattered, but built so it wouldn't be easy to climb into.
 
The entrance to the dark room are completely open with one off its hinges, destroyed furniture, dried black blood, near the stairs are the remains of an old bedroll, there is a prominent scorch mark on the third step of stairs. At the top of the stairs there is a large portrait in oil paints showing the RUBIAN family with the adult males face burned away. Something has gone through and destroyed the area, crossbow bolts in the wall and scrapes on the floor with graffiti in a strange language. The gems on the columns give off a magic appearance giving the sign of trapped stairs. The locked door to the left of the foyer holds a study exposed to the elements for a long period of time. A small crossbow with legs then jumps out at THERAL in the study. More are identified in the kitchen area and a boy indicates that his mother and sister would like to meet us. A hole in the floor leads down into the wine cellar that is covered with more than 30 bodies and terribly gory.