Sapphira begins to lift the dead guard’s body to take him out of this disgusting tower for a proper burial, but Durgyn approaches and extends a hand.
“Don’t bother, I can carry him easily.”
“Thank you,” the Cleric says, and she allows the strong minotaur to lift Elizar.
The party agrees a proper search of the tower is in order, to find any clues on what the rat’s intentions were or any others leads to their dealings… and of course, if any useful items may be around. Going to the top of the tower, where the large bells hang above the city, Landen explores. Thinking of where the great hiding spots in this tower could be, he displays his expert searching abilities. Durgyn watches, holding Elizar’s slumped body over his shoulder. Landen crawls out onto the ledge outside the large archway, and reaches out to a stone gorgoyle perched on the corner of the tower, 120 feet above the city below. Feeling into it’s lap, he notices a bowl shaped indent, and his hand grasps a leather pouch. Pulling it out he finds inside a hefty sum of gold… obviously a stash of the wererat’s funds.

On the floor below, Sapphira takes the less glamerous task… sifting through the filth of the wererat’s sleeping rooms. On the third floor, amongst the ten burned bodies that were victem to her alchemist’s fire, she finds an amber gem and a topaz. Also, scattered around the room hidden in the debris she found an enourmous amount of silver pieces. Continuing her search on the third floor sleeping rooms, a floor below, she found a total of more than 5,000 silver pieces! But during the search on this floor, she found something very unexpected.
Sifting through the fur and garbage on the floor, she looks up at one of the slain bodies. To her shock, she sees her brother, sitting on the floor slumped against the wall with a large stab wound in his chest. Avoiding denial, she knew why he was here. His clothes and the rapier that lay by his hand made it obvious… he was one of the wererats. She screamed in sadness, “Noooooo!! Why Helix!? Whyyyy!?” She lifted him into her arms, and stood to carry him. The others came down the stairs, Durgyn with Elizar over his shoulder and Landen happily carrying a small pouch.
Noticing the sadness on Sapphira’s face, one of her companions ask, “Who’s that? What happened?”
“This is my brother,” Sapphira explained. With a pause, she says, ”... he was one of them.”
Discussing quickly what they would do, Sapphira and Durgyn agreed they would take both bodies to the barracks and explain what’s happened. Durgyn was leery of the idea, knowing that a minotaur dropping of a body would draw some negative attention, but he trusted Sapphira’s leading… as long as she’d do all the talking.

Leaving the alley that took them to the bell tower, it didn’t take long for the two adventurers carrying dead bodies to draw attention in the crowded streets of the carnival. Commoners were startled, gasped, and backed away. Solomly walking down the street, Sapphira ignored the onlookers, and Durgyn followed, but was a little nervous in the situation. Soon, a small patrol of three guards approached them, the leader drawings his sword saying, “What’s going on here!?”
“This is my brother, he was slain by wererats in the bell tower. The other is Elizar, your missing guard whom we also found in the bell tower. It was infested by the beasts.”
The guard with his sword drawn appeared to not trust her explaination, and one at his side was also ready to draw his weapon in a moment. But, the third guard stepped forward and recognised the two.
“I believe her. They’re the ones that stopped the attack on the carnival from those beasts. She’s telling the truth, we must assist her.”
The lead guard looked at him, and back at the two adventurers. Possibly now recognising them himself, or believing the word of his guardsmen, he sheathed his weapon and announced they’d clear a path to the barracks. Walking up the busy street of Eastgate way, the three guards acted as an escort, clearing a path in the crowded streets and preventing alarm amongst the fair-goers.

They arrived at the barracks, and soon the captain of the guard came out to greet them. He thanked them for finding Elizar, and was saddened at his unfortunate end. He assured them a proper soldier’s burrial would be arranged, and offered to help Sapphira with any special needs she may have for her brother’s arrangements. Wishing for just a simple burrial in town by Heronious’ local servants, she decided to just take him to the shrine nearby in West Hill.
At the shrine she recognized the female cleric that was there this morning where she attended for her prayers. Sapphira explained that this was her brother, and she wished for a quick burial arrangement. The cleric introduced herself as Torea, and said Helix would be ready for burial tomorrow morning. Glad that she could rest and spend another morning praying to Heronious after the day’s events, Sapphira prepared a spell she wanted to have ready for that morning.
Returning to the shrine, Helix was ready for the ceremony and Torea greeted her at the door. Another woman was present now, and Torea introduced her. “This is Alein, she is the head cleric of this shrine and my mentor. She will be assisting us today with the rituals.”
Sapphira greeted Alein, and asked the two women for a moment alone with her brother. Gladly granting her request, the two went to the back room of the small shrine and closed the door.
With a wave of her hand over Helix’s face, and a few softly spoken words, Sapphira had a couple minutes to be in touch with her brother.
“Helix you fool! What have you done!?”
“Sapphira? Sister!? You’ve found me, oh thank goodness. I’m so sorry about what happened… I didn’t want it to be this way.”
“What? What happened? Why were you with the wererats?”
“Well, you know me, always trying to find a way to make some easy money…”
“yea,” Sapphira quietly replies. “I do know you.”
”...Well, I got hooked up with this group that was running an extortion scheme in Chatterstreet Market. They were making good money, and I wanted to get in.”
“What were the names of the merchant’s you targeted?”
“I don’t know… but the old dwarf woman named Shoomma, she knows all the merchants and is pretty much their leader. We had many shops in our grips. After I joined, they told me they were hiding out in the bell tower, and they took me there. Once I was inside, they changed into their hybrid rat form and they were everywhere! I knew I was going to meet their boss, but I had no idea. Then he bit me, and I became one of them. I couldn’t go home, and slept there with the rest of them. I didn’t know what to do… I needed your help.”
“I know, I’m sorry Helix. I’m sorry.”
“Then this minotaur and elven guy came in, and they started attacking us. I was already one of them and if I wanted to make my money and live, I decided to just fall in with the group until you showed up. I mean, with that curse what else could I do?”
There was a pause, and Helix continued.
“I’m so sorry sis… I wish I never got into this. If only you could have been there, maybe I could have gotten away from that minotaur and elven man. I wish it wasn’t like this…”
Helix’s presence began to fade, and Sapphira held back tears. “I’m sorry Helix… Goodbye…... Goodbye.”
Faintly she heard her brother’s voice in the air, saying goodbye.