"Put the bodies in the root cellar, since they thought to come here first.  We have a long night ahead of us."  Kiven begins cleaning up the blood and any other mess with liberal use of Prestidigitation.  "Help him down as well and bind him" he says, referring to the barely stabilized soldier.

Once the man is below Kiven climbs down and gets close to him.  "I will send someone to free you when the hour is near, and you may return to your wife and child.  Do anything but take her and flee and you will perish.  Do remember that Lord Kiven Aloro is merciful when you think of this night.  What we do here is a necessity due to the corruption of your Mitran lords and I do not revel in it, but do not despair.  A new dawn is coming and you and I will bask in its light together when our work is done."

Soon Kiven climbs back out of the cellar, assumes the look of Father Donnagan, and is ready to depart for the keep.

On the way he says to Respar and the others "we should tell those at the keep who are healthy that something special is needed to save those who are ill and send them off to retrieve it."  "It could be to another town, or even north beyond the gates where our friends can take care of them for us.  Might you have any suggestions in this area?"

Blau offers "I know of a couple of ingredients that I can suggest to Father Donnigen, that some of the troops can harvest in the Northern areas. We'll need lots of them, of course, so any spare troops should go." He uses his disguise item to refresh his humble Fauxcour disguise, and joins Kiven as the get ready to enter the keep with their 'guards'

  Selena takes on the appearance of one of the guards.  Looking down at herself she says, " This form is not to my liking but we do what we must.  " She then grins at the others.  " I feel that everything is going well. The smell of blood is in the air. I can sense impending bloodshed and doom coming for these fools.   We are the instruments of their destruction. Revel in the moment!" 

The group assumes their disguises, and proceeds on to the fort. With both Captain Eddarly and Father Donnagin in front, you're ushered within without much of a challenge, and told that the patients are sequestered in the largest barrack. Fortunately one of the guards waves vaguely in the right direction, which is enough to get you started.

Soon enough, you're standing at the entry of the barracks. About thirty men sit or lie down on the beds within, many of them seem to be more irritated at being cooped up in here than truly ill. The men here seem to be following a rough quarantine.

A man you recognize as Captain Mott strides up, "Father, good. We started getting reports about an hour ago. Fevers, nausea, a handful have felt the need to vomit. None of them are badly ill at this point, but for so many to become sick at the same time... well, I'm sure you can see why we're concerned, especially if things get worse from here. With only a few exceptions, we haven't been letting anyone in or out of the fort, if this is some virulent disease, we don't want it spreading to town if it has not already."

'Father Donnagin' looks at the men in the barracks with concern and mutters quick prayer to Mitra under his breath, touching any holy symbols he's displaying, to the best Kiven can imitate based on what he's seen of such things, of course.  To his new friend as played by Blau he says "I may have need of your knowledge here, my friend."  Father Donnagin moves into the room and begins inspecting each man briefly, looking each in the eye to comfort them.  To the man who brought them to the barracks he asks "and this all started at once?"  "No one was ill yesterday?  Have you checked their water supplies?"

Friar Fauxcour nods in reply to the request, concern showing on his face as he sees the mildly inconvenienced soldiers. He starts examining a nearby victim, checking various medical aspects and says "I may have something to help with the nausea and fever. Let me see if it works." He pulls out a vial,  and has the soldier drink it. As soon as it takes effect, the Friar says "That seems to help with the symptoms, at least, but I don't have very much. I'll need a lot more to treat all these poor souls. The nearest source for the herbs I need are about 6 hours North of here. Can we send some men to gather about 40 plants that I'll describe from the area, while I treat these men?"

  Selena stands close by the holy men as she is cloaked in the form of a male guard. She thinks to herself, " Is this really going to work? It is all going so smoothly.  Nothing ever goes according to plan though   " She maintains a concermed look at the guards fate. 

The captain nods in response to 'Father Donnagan's' question, "Yes, all at once as far as we can tell. The water supplies seem to be fine, especially since none of the animals seem to be sick, and they drink from the same source."

The captain looks on with interest as Blau treats one of the men, causing him to feel considerably better within a few minutes. But then he frowns at the following statement, "You want us to send people north? And how would you know what's up there to begin with? What are you playing at?"

Kiven nods with interest at the man who replied to his questions.  He then listens to the Friar and the captain's objection.  "Come now, Captain, let me see this."  He reaches for the empty vial to sniff it.  "Surely a poultice of (XYZ) will alleviate these symptoms, and in the meantime Mitra will watch over and bless them.  We can find what we need in the forests nearby."  (Kiven tries to use his knowledge of alchemy and what he has learned about the local resources from the brothers and Snowflake's efforts to bullshit on the ingredients needed to cure the men, being sure to note at least one ingredient that is know to be used in medicine but could be a bit trickier to find in the local region, forcing men to go out just a bit further and a bit longer to collect enough.)

Kiven turns to the highest ranking officer in the room and says "how many men can you spare to head into the local hills to find (XYZ)?"  "We will need a good quantity of (X), ideally before this gets much worse, which it will before morning.  In the meantime I will attempt to call the aid of Mitra to watch over these fine men."

Bluff: 24

The captain is still eyeing Fauxcourt suspiciously as he answers the father, "As many as thirty if the need is great. I'd be more comfortable limiting it to a dozen, there's been increased activity to the north lately. Probably nothing to be concerned about, but this does not seem to be a good time to be so badly understaffed. Just how bad is this likely to get, and what do you need?"

"I cannot speak to your defensive needs, Captain, but we'll need as much Foxglove as possible."  Kiven continues inspecting sick soldiers, feeling their pulse, peeling back their eyelids, and putting his hands around their necks to feel their temperature and lymph nodes.  He asks them each briefly about their symptoms and feigns appropriate checks to match.  "I am concerned about the sudden nature of this, for so many to become stricken all at once, and worry about how many more could become ill.  I have read about such things and fear this could just be the beginning, but with the grace of Mitra there is always hope of stopping this before it gets too much worse."  Kiven says this aloud in the room, but then moves over to the Captain and whispers "without treatment for each of them, I fear the worst before morning."  "Regarding the defenses, I fear for us all without these men here over the many days to come.  Mitra help us."  Kiven tries to stress these last private words, making them seem grave and showing his own fear.  He will let the Captain decide how many men to send based on this, hoping not insisting on the maximum number of men and allowing the Captain to make his own decision will be more convincing.

Blau keeps his eyes on his patients as he continues to treat the symptoms of the illness, letting Kiven do all the needed deception from now on. 

Franz Mott frowns at the disguised Kiven for a time before turning and pointing at one of the men nearby, "You, go tell Captain Varning to assemble his scouts and another score of good riders in the courtyard, he's got a time sensitive mission ahead. And you, find out where Captain Eddarly has run off to, he's needed as well."

He turns back to the room as the two guards scurry off on their respective tasks, "Father, I do hope that you can show them what is needed. If they all know what to look for they can split up to find it more easily."

"Of course!  I'll join them straight away."  Kiven briefly prepares to depart before stopping and showing a small amount of amusement amidst an otherwise troubled demeanor.  "Actually, I know just the boys for the job.  They know these forests far better than I.  The Fritters, have those boys show your men.  Put them to good use for once."

Mott snorts, "Them? Well I suppose I would feel more comfortable if you remained here Father, to watch over the afflicted. If you're sure those delinquents know where to look..."

"Yes, it's probably best.  I will likely go retrieve a few holy items from my private quarters, but otherwise shall stay with them."

Upon hearing someone being sent to find Eddarly, Respar does a fade from the room, and heads out after the searching man.  If he can not see the man once he gets outside, he will head towards Eddarly's home as the logical choice.

Bluff 15 

  I mentally speak to Poe. " Poe, things are hastening to a bloody conclusion. Go and find Snowball. Inform him that it is time to exterminate all of the messenger ravens.  Help him do so if needed.  Then resume scouting from above.   Report any unusual movement to me immediately. " 

Poe responds, " Yes Mistress. I will ensure this task is done. " He then flies quickly seeking Snowball to give him the message. The raven grumbles to himself, " I am the most intelligent being in this world yet i am a mere messenger. " He shakes his head and flies on. 

Blau rises to his feet "I should go retrieve some items as well. I don't know what other use I can be." and leaves with Donnegin 

Once the party is able to depart 'to get supplies' and such...

"Perhaps they can take out the birds together once it's dark, and then an invisible Snowball can sabotage the catapult in a way not easily noticed by any guards.  A rope cut mostly through in a less visible spot that will snap when tension is added to the catapult, perhaps."

"On to the gatehouse?  If need be Mr. Eddarly might be our way in, dismissing any other guards."