Finan tilts his head quizzically, his eyes moving to Paren for a moment at his outburst. His own face remains void of emotion, although he too caught up on the strange comment. "Indeed, how so?"

Talia flips to a page in her book and points to it. "The blood of an angel is much stronger than mortal blood. It should have been able to withstand for longer."

"Hmm." Finan says, nodding to himself as he moves up to see what she is pointing at. "So you would say something else happened to her after she left here? What was she suffering from?"

The notebook she gestures toward is full of various combinations of words and numbers. It would be equivalent to reading formulas for advanced math problems.

(Those with proficiency with herbalism kits can roll a d20 and add their proficiency bonus to see if they understand any of it.)

"Without knowing the state in which she died, I cannot begin to guess on what happened to her after she left. She was fighting off the infection as you would expect with one of her blood. Unless her blessing was taken from her..." Talia thinks for a moment. "Only the gods can affect angel blood like that though. Something had to have gotten to her. I must know how she died. Where is she? I can examine her."

Falaine insight 20

Paren moves over to Finan and whispers, "She knows more than she is letting on. She clearly knows something about the commanders death."

((After today, this thread will be on hold for the holidays. We'll resume back on December 5th! If there is anything character specific you'd like to discuss, please just send me a DM and we can work through it. Hope you all have a wonderful holiday!))

Paren whispers a little more to Finan, "That is another follower of Shamara dead, possibly at the hands of a follower of Aiden. This family feud is getting expensive." He then moves himself so that he is between Talia and the door. "Let's not rush off just yet. My friend here had a list of questions for you that we would like answers too. To many questions have gone unanswered these last few days."

Talia looks to Paren and says, "You're place is in the forest Warden. I don't answer to you. Best you watch your tone." 

A small smile crosses Paren's face as he places his hand on the hilt of his sword. "Two mistakes. First was treatening me, we are five, you are one. The second was calling me Warden. Only two have ever called me that, and you are no god."

Falaine will flinch in realization. "The clay... It must have disrupted Zymphura's connection to Shamara. You would know that, you must have seen how rapidly she aged!" Falaine will lose herself in a bit of guilt driven anger and her eyes will dilate to impossible sizes and turn a deep crimson.

Intimidation: 21

You see Talia count those standing in her shop. She shrugs. "Doesn't matter if there were twenty of you in here. It's not like you're going to buy anything anyway. What is it you're after anyway?"

Talia looks to Falaine with a mix of confusion and surprise. "Clay? What clay?"

(note: The wounded Zynphura that saved Falaine was taken from the gates to the shrine. According to Talia, she hasn't seen Zynphura since since Z was taken from her after recovery from the fight with Gunthar.)

"DON'T LIE TO ME!" her figure will grow taller and more menacing as she approaches Talia. "I was there when we were attacked, I was there when she fell. She aged rapidly after contact with the crazed animals. She sacrificed herself to save the lives of soldiers and myself and she and those who care about her deserve answers!" 

"I don't know anything about clay. I specialize in plants and their uses in healing. I'm sorry you got attacked by some animals. What that has to do with me I don't know."

She seems genuine in her confusion. 

This would be the first time the others have heard of the clay being involved in Zynphura's untimely death as well as what her body went through as she died. 

Falaine will back down a bit. "I'm sorry, she just did so much for me, and... I can't believe that she died so fast. Whatever was effecting those animals must have had some effect on Zymphura... Tell me, did you do her coronary examination or did that go to someone else?" Falaine locked somewhere between screaming and crying, but she is sincere in apology and is looking for answers.

Persuasion: 11

Jonathan looks over from the entrance at the raised voices. He keeps a hand on the rapier hilt in case things have moved from diplomacy to "sword diplomacy". He walks in, looking around warily to check that no one is fighting.

Tanni's eyes widen as she sees Falaines transformation. After Falaine apologizes, the gnome walks to her friend and reassuringly places her hand on her arm. "It's okay, Fal. We'll find out what happened" She then turns to Talia with a stern face. "We've been through a lot these couple of days. Many a strange and horrible things have happened right in front of our eyes and we have more questions than answers. We are quite frustrated and I apologize for our manners. If you promise to answer our questions, I promise we keep this civil." She glances at Paren's eyes and his sword before clenching her fist and slamming it to her chest. "Thornfoot's promise."

Paren moves his hand from his rapier, but keeps it close. "As she said, we have more questions than answers and we are trying to remedy that. We just want to put a stop to the terrible things happening to this town." He looks around at the group for assurance. "So questions. I for one would like to know why you called me Warden."