Detective Rockfrug (Scott's Character), (Consulting) Detective Severus (Ken's character), and a private from the fort were sent up along the river searching for sign that the disease might be caused by something put in the river. The private noticed two people doing something by the water of a small beaver pond. Severus and Rockfrug snuck up on them and surprised them. They appeared to be simple, if incompetent, trappers cleaning a pelt in the water. They were let go.

Ranking Inspector Hezbod Doblian (Edwardo's Character), Inspector Ahmet (Joe's character), Detective Corporal Marc Traceus (Daniel's character) (?), and Detective Yasna (Ray's character) rode up to Swan (since they had horses and could ride) and established that the disease had not hit there yet. Yasna brought a sample of what was suspected to be contaminated water and uncontaminated water to the local sage to see if you could analyze them. The sage didn't know a lot about disease and, when discovered the water was there, called in some local "militia" that confiscated it and rushed it out of town, keeping an a particular eye on Yasna after that (all party members were being followed, she got followed by 6 people after that). The local Sartarites felt disease was what Lunars should expect for playing around with chaos. Ahmet talked to the tribal chief, many of who's followers wanted to attack the party in retaliation for bringing the illness upon them. The Chief restrained his men an counseled that the Lunars should just leave, taking their sickness with them.

Those on foot caught up in Swan. Hezbod sent everyone back to Runegate while he went on up to Tarkalor Keep to try and find someone with knowledge of healing. He was not seen of again. [On the way to the keep, Hezbod was surrounded by local ruffians and captured. He was sold into slavery to some Morocanths. Apparently, he will eventually be rescued by someone who recognizes him as the nephew of Fazzur Wideread and buys him.]

The chief sent a healer from Tarkalor Keep down to Runegate to help out with the illness. She apparently was only there because she had been told to go, but she made up a potion that restored the stricken party members (though there was some idle speculation that a pact with the chaos god of disease could also account for a characters recovery). Further questioning of locals on the way back to Runegate and after arrival narrows down the apparent source to an area a few miles across. We went up to search that area. Two party members (Marc and Ken's character character ?) found a hole in the side of a stream bank that looked like a good place to hide something to poison the water (however, since investigation involved getting down into the water, we were reluctant to check it out). Yasna was determining that a branch sticking out of the water was not, in fact, a diseased limb when the private noticed the horses wandering away in time for them to recover them. Tavar was sneaking around and came across a cave with some people hanging out. They looked to be normal hunter/trappers except there was one thing wrong, they had swords rather than weapons more useful for hunting. It was decided to roust the people in the cave before checking the stream (esp. since Tavar thought they might have heard him leaving).

When we got to the cave everyone had already gone inside. Scot and Lacy established that there were no other exits by scouting around. The rest of the party found a two level dave. The lower part was empty except for some skins, bedrolls, and stuff. There was also a rough ramp leading up to a shelf that compromised the upper part of the cave. We tried talking to them but they refused to say anything but that they were just trappers and that we should all go away. Yasna tried bribing them by throwing up a silver piece, for which they proceeded to scramble. Ahmet noticed the activity and had Yasna throw up 5 more pieces while Severus used the diversion to get up the ramp. He tried talking to them, but the moved up and attacked him. Marc and Tavar were also able to get up while Ahmet used missile weapons and spells from the lower level. Marc got put out by a leg blow from a bladesharped broadsword (which Tavar dispelled) but was able to be heal. Severus and Marc jumped down (Severus hurting his leg). Tavar attempted to make a fighting retreat down the ramp, but slipped and fell anyway, hurting his leg. While he was lying there the "bad guys" tried to drop a rock on him but missed. The party then retreated out of the cave. We sent Yasna and got some troopers and mounted a siege. At this point Severus mentioned that they were not Sartarites and felt that they were both faking illness and were better fighters than they appeared to be. He felt them to from an area north of Whitetop Peak. Buy the next day, the bad guys were convinced their position was untenable and they surrendered.

Investigation of the bad guy's swords by Ahmet revealed that they were relatively new and of good quality. Local peasants denied that they had ever traded with those guys and said the only people they knew were local exiles armed with spears. The leader held out, but eventually some others were convinced by various threats of death and imprisonment, along with promises of release (motivated in part by no clear crime since we were detaining them on suspicion for questioning), to talk. They claimed they had just been hired by a man north of Whitetop to guard the area (the cave and the nearby beaver pond). They had been paid several hundred silver pieces and give new swords. They also revealed that the man was suppose to visit them at the cave (if he didn't show they were suppose to met at a spot north of Whitetop). We waited a few days for him but he didn't show. Tavar then had grapples used to pull apart the beaver dam. The pond drained but nothing out of the ordinary was seen. Tavar (after looking for the private, who had chosen to absent himself, to do the dirty work) got down in the water and attached ropes to the beaver den so it could be pulled apart. There the tree diseased bodies of the exiles could be seen. Yasna had them buried and the healer the chief sent come up and concurred that they had been properly taken care of.

Next the party went north of Whitetop to look for the man who had arranged all this. When I left Taver and Rockfrug had decided to try and sneak up on the alter place where the meeting with the leader was suppose to take place. The party members with horses rode up to the nearby town to see if they could track down the purchase of the sword, but had not yet been able to do so.