Oshuamp - Episode 4: Rest in Peace

Recap
Felix, Ritora, and Ethir dispatch of the remaining bandits and stabilize Nesgrim. Ritora informs the others that there are two additional bandits upstairs and are possibly ransacking the storage room. She and Felix ascend the stairs as Ethir watches over Nesgrim and begins to carve out the skull of a dead bandit. Upstairs, a pair of voices echo out from the Storage Room; Felix and Ritora prepare to ambush the bandits. They do successfully and kill the first and the other surrenders, confessing he is unarmed and only here to make money and take some food for himself because he is completely poor.

Their intimidating interrogation reveals that he and his friend were hired by an unknown man to look for an “entrance” somewhere within the Orphanage. The bandit is terrified of leaving empty handed because he believes he will be murdered for his failure, but he is also afraid of being caught and hanged at the Gallows. Felix and Ritora contemplate his capture, and offer to help him escape as long as he atones for his crimes and becomes a moral citizen and hides. They take him through Sister Madeleine’s office and, while she is distracted on the floor from her injury, assist him back out of the window. He thanks them and runs off into the snow. Felix finds a note on the body of the other dead bandit, offering payment for each “signature” and a massive sum for the “entrance.”

Ethir has a vision of the man whose skull he gathers, as he places it and some herbs into a brazier and lights it. Within his vision, he communicates to the spirit of the man and asks him why they assaulted the Orphanage. The man tells him that they weren’t supposed to be in the Orphanage. Ethir briefly sees a gnarled, calloused hand outstretch, and the bandit grumbles the word “payment.” The vision fades away. Nesgrim regains consciousness and the pair find Felix and Ritora upstairs.

They ensure the children and Sisters are safe and secure, after finding Nina hiding in the toy chest downstairs, and Sister Lauren having panicked during hide-and-seek and barricading herself in the kitchen. They assist Sister Madeleine in her recuperation and she confesses that she was distracted by a vision of Sister Sabrina, the founder of the Orphanage, out in the store, and was confused because Sister Sabrina has been dead for over 50 years. A knocking at the door drew her attention away from the open window, and the two bandits entered her office and knocked her unconscious.

Ritora summons her owl back and apologizes; she had only meant to have Sister Madeleine ring the alarm bell to alert the guards to the break-in. Felix is permitted to read a book on Sister Sabrina in Sister Madeleine’s office. He learns that she was an Elf who worked in Slums East but had a vision of St. Ostador that called her to service in Slums North – she sold her store and used the funds to open an orphanage and begin caring for the displaced children of the Slums. The Cathedral saw the good in her deed and supported her, venerating her and assisting in the additional constructions added to the Orphanage. After decades of service and sacrifice, Sister Sabrina was accepted into the Inner Sanctum, and she gave direction of the Orphanage to Sister Isabel.

Sister Sabrina was known as The Sacred, because her hair had a red aura when she was “invigorated with righteous justice.”

Sister Lauren helps Sister Madeleine to her quarters, and the crew return downstairs to check on the children. They find Bran in the Chapel, and he leaves when prompted, and agrees not to return. Terrified of some ill fate concerning Sister Madeleine when they believe her life could be in danger, they hurry upstairs to the Sisters Quarters after retrieving a key from Sister Alicia in the kitchen.

Inside, Ritora sees and disturbs an Eladrin woman, named Sister Desielle, who they were told would be the one to care for Sister Madeleine’s injuries. She demands that they leave because it is inappropriate to disturb the sleeping sisters, and that Sister Madeleine will be properly cared for. As they leave, Ritora bumps into the night stand and shatters a tea cup.

As they return downstairs, they find Bran once more in the chapel. After a brief argument with Nesgrim, he rushes to the doors to leave, pausing in front of the remaining three. He asks why Felix looks the way he does, and Ethir says, “He is cursed.” Felix jabs him in the side, but Bran’s eyes light up when he hears this.

He asks if that means they can read “cursed” writing, and when they assure him that they can, he offers Felix a note he found on the body of one of the men before they were removed by the Guards, in exchange for a promise that they never tell the sisters that he pocketed one of the men’s coin purses. They agree, and he gives them the paper before scurrying off.

The note bears a harrowing message of crimes against isolate Peculiars within the Slums, and secret meetings of whatever group is performing them. The author of the note wonders if the absence of bodies for the victim means they are being hidden... or being eaten.

Felix cannot read the writing, but recognizes from his extensive studies that it is Infernal.