19. Rezmouth: Something's Amiss

Waiting for the evening when they could find Florence, the adventurers decided to explore Rezmouth and its surrounds. Eberond, Catsby and Bal’Aur stood at the porch of the Eel and surveilled its sparse inhabitants. They noticed that more than a few of the people shared Robnob’s sallow skin and bulging eyes, though there were a great number of people hailing from various parts of Dezaria and even neighbouring Fiumri.
The trio traveled around the lake and headed towards the mountain, whose base was covered in a thick fog. On the way they passed a deep man-made trench very near the lake and that headed towards the eastern shore. A few villagers toiled here and the adventurers helped them for a brief moment, trying to find out what the purpose of the trench was. The villagers replied it was their holy work, which helped purify their souls. As they worked they started to hum a peculiar, discordant tune. Catsby found Bal’Aur and Eberond looking at him strangely, noting the tabaxi had started to hum along.
Perplexed, the three adventurers left the trench and continued towards the mountain and soon entered the fog, which still held despite the time of day and weather. They continued on waiting to see evidence of the base of the mountain but soon the fog unveiled and they found that that they were now on the other side of the lake.
Determined to get to the base of the mountain, they tried again, with Catsby climbing the trees to try and guide them to follow a straight line towards their goal, and after sometime, they realized that they were retreading the same ground, even though it provided illogical.
Eberond mentioned that he got the feeling the fog was enchanted. When they turned back towards the town, they quickly emerged from the fog, furthering their belief that the fog was not natural.

By the time the three adventurers returned to Rezmouth, the day had fallen into twilight, and braziers were lit across the village. The hubbub of people seemed to carry from the direction of the church.
Ebrond, Baul’Aur and Catsby returned to the Eel and found Gilles sat at one of the tables by himself. Other than the cleric and Robnob, the tavern was empty.
The adventurers sat down and told him of the enchanted fog and this deepened Gilles’ worry. Whilst the three compatriots were exploring the fog, Gilles had found and briefly spoke to Florence. She seemed distant and changed, and he needed time to collate his thoughts. When asked if Gilles had asked Florence about the Inquisitor and his Soulguard retinue, Gilles admitted he did not ask her about this.

The villagers were celebrating something tonight by the church, and she could be found there but in the meanwhile Gilles would stay here at the inn where they were provided lodgings and consult his tome of magic.
Bal’Aur and Catsby would investigate this festival, whilst Eberond decided to see what he could find out at the big white house that seemed of interest.
A short while later, the band of adventurers gathered around, except for Brutalithops who was still lurking about the town somewhere. The yshared what they had found out - the small festival being celebrated was related to lighting up the darkest nights of the month, in honour of the so-called Protector. During the night, the villagers would sing, and the songs carried that strange tune.
Florence was briefly seen amonst the celebrating folk, but they decided to leave her alone at this stage.
Eberond told them he had circled around the Big House on the otehr side of the village and noted it was guarded. He didn’t take the chance to break in and investigate further.
Catsby meanwhile had entered the church, which appeared to have two other rooms, one which was guarded by a villager.
Their curiosity piqued by the guarded room in the church, Catsby and Eberond concocted a plan to confuse the guard, which worked and gave the half–elf an opportunity to sneak around and see what was in the guarded room.
The small room appeared to be fulfil some kind of religious purpose but more interesting was that part of the floor gave way to the rock underneath, with a black hole leading somewhere down.
Eberond snuck back to the group and shared his findings with them, and they plotted how to proceed next.

Location
Rez Isle

Date
Sune 14th, 5249AC

"Rez Isle? Why would you even go there? It's just a sorry place for the the dregs of Merra and inbred hicks!"

_{Dzero Pero, The Dog's Leg}