Human Shields

The party cautiously approaches the “settlement” near the manor and quickly realizes it isn’t a real village—just a cluster of old staff houses and makeshift refugee lodging. Kilijan examines the stonework and notes the defensive walls are roughly a century old, likely remnants from the Harengon attack during the war 100 years prior. Greg approaches a refugee man calmly smoking a cigarette. The man isn’t hostile, but he doesn’t offer useful leads—only grim context. The parents are housed here, while the children are being kept “safe” in the villa ahead. Some parents haven’t seen their kids in four days. Greg attempts to help by offering a Hero’s Feast to the man, but the refugee refuses bluntly: he doesn’t eat magically-conjured food.

While the group takes stock of the settlement, Manasa transforms into a cat and slips between houses to listen in. Inside one home, he overhears a couple arguing about whether they should go to the villa themselves to check on the children—fear, guilt, and helplessness boiling under the surface. Elsewhere, Sagiatto watches a male tabaxi through a window, carefully crafting spears. Sagiatto enters the house to confront him. The tabaxi panics immediately, begging Sagiatto to leave. Sagiatto refuses. The tabaxi bolts—leaping out the window into the street and sprinting. Sagiatto gives chase, catches him, and tackles him to the ground. But the tabaxi is too terrified and too tight-lipped to provide anything meaningful. After realizing he won’t get information without escalating things into something ugly, Sagiatto lets him go.

Eventually, the party meets Koby in another house. He invites them in and drops a strange detail immediately: someone named Taylor told him the party would arrive. Koby, a human fighter, wastes no time trying to light a fire under them. He pushes for direct action against the villa, hyping the party up as if they’re the only sane people left in this mess. Through him, the party learns two important things: Koby knows who Melcior was—and confirms she has died. Koby has a son inside the villa and wants him back. The villa stops being a distant problem and becomes personal.

The party advances toward the villa and splits into roles: Sagiatto, Greg, and Koby locate a manhole and prepare to enter through the sewers. Kilijan disguises himself as a child, with Manasa escorting him as if delivering an orphan. Weneon takes overwatch, climbing into a lookout position on a small tower near the villa to observe entrances and movement. Kilijan and Manasa approach the villa openly. They find a stern “sister” running the improvised orphanage within. With quick thinking and steady lies, Kilijan and Manasa successfully convince her to accept Kilijan as another child needing shelter. Manasa begins to turn away—until a sound breaks the plan. Greg, attempting to lift the manhole cover with an improvised mechanism, loses control of it. The cover drops with a loud metallic slam, echoing through the grounds. Inside, the sister hears it. So does Vates, the goblin shaman within the villa.

The alert becomes immediate violence. A horrifying apparition arrives: Corrupted Bambara—the twisted version of the former party called Leaves—appears and attacks Manasa. Almost simultaneously, Vates emerges from the church and becomes a target of the party’s counterattack. Koby charges Vates without hesitation, sword raised—only to be caught in the sister’s weapon: razor-thin iron strings that slice with surgical cruelty. In a flash of blood and shock, Koby’s hand is severed. From overwatch, Weneon sees the sister clearly—and realizes the impossible truth. The sister is Safwalyn. Safwalyn tells Weneon they should leave, insisting the children are safer here than anywhere else. The plea doesn’t feel like a bluff. It feels like conviction. Vates casts Mass Suggestion—but not at the party. He targets the children. The kids begin pouring out of the orphanage in a wave of terrified obedience, forming a living wall around him. A human shield—small bodies, wide eyes, no agency. Kilijan manages to slip into the church from which Vates emerged, trying to gain a positional advantage. Meanwhile, Sagiatto fights his way toward Vates—until the moment that breaks him. Trying to reach Vates through the crowd, Sagiatto slits the throat of a child. The shock hits like a divine punishment. Sagiatto becomes paralyzed, frozen in the aftermath of what he’s done. Vates looks at him and delivers the line like a dagger: “You killed one more than I ever had.” Mockery. Judgment. And an implication that Vates has committed horrors of his own—but still claims the moral high ground in that moment. The party is forced into an ugly pause: they need a plan to stop Vates without killing more children, while corrupted threats and Safwalyn’s presence complicate everything. The villa has become a trap made of innocence.