Chapter 4: New purpose

After resting for a short time, Tomos asked for our help to deal with the rest of the bandits that we saw earlier. It seems likely that the bandits were using the house as a hideout, spreading rumors about it being haunted to keep people away from it. Some of the men came back and were close enough for Kanna to overhear them talking. The important thing that the pirates mentioned is that they would be forced to send a group to attack Saltmarsh to allow them to relocate to a new safe location, apparently afraid that the crown would send troops to deal with them now that they were discovered.
 
The group's opinions were divided on what to do. Eshim believed that the contract had been fulfilled while the others wanted to deal with the pirates before they could initiate the attack. While not particularly concerned about Saltmarsh, Hanna did take good care of me and sending a few more souls to Keretos early can always be fun, so I agreed to continue helping as well.
 
Mia removed the bar that was placed on the door again and we quickly eliminated the smuggler that was put on watch. After that, we moved down and eliminated the remaining enemies without much trouble. With all of them dead, our mission was done though I suggested that were search the entire place - including the mansion - more carefully once more to make sure we didn't miss anything. It gave us a few nice items, including a bag of holding that I kept for myself and a plate armor that Mia decided to take. Considering how close she came to dying already, none of us objected to that. After that, our little alliance came to an end and we each went back to where we were staying in Saltmarsh. Eshim helped fence the stolen goods from the smugglers cove, netting us each a decent amount of gold.
 
I decided to remain in Saltmarsh until Keretos would give me my next target. When He finally spoke to me in my dreams, I saw Asmodeus being crossed off the list. Presumably whatever he was, he's dead enough for now. Unfortunately, my next target was unclear. Instead of a single name, I got a deluge of names. While my memories of previous incarnations are an unclear mess, I definitely don't remember ever receiving more than 1 name. I cannot begin to fathom why He would send me so many targets at once. Are they linked? Did He make a mistake? Is this a result of killing of Asmodeus? During this week I also felt myself regaining the capacity to cast spells once more, perhaps a blessing of Keretos for a job well done.
 
Regardless, I can only attempt to do my job and kill every single one of them. I began by asking Hanna if she knew any of the names, but found no leads there. I then visited the two temples in town, one to Giamae and one to Ulmthro. The priest in the temple of Ulmthro, Wellgar Brinehanded, mentioned that Punketah was a scrawny boy who had a middling talent for magic a few decades ago. He apparently ran off to be a sailor and was not heard from again. I could feel that this is the person I'm looking for, but tracking him down with only that info to go on would be hard. There is a small link between him leaving to become a sailor and the pirates in the area. It could also just be a coincidence, but maybe Keretos knows that's he's close.
 
Upon leaving the temple, I was greeted by a large horsefly landing on me. Shortly after a small, turquoise colored frog chimera appeared before me asking me if I was a warrior. I denied this of course, as I am a priestess of Keretos before anything else. The frog also claimed to be a priest, who was led to me by his goddess, Marai Seven-Eyes. Presumably a local deity of his tribe or people. Since he appeared before me as I was lacking information and direction, I decided to humor the idea that he was led to me and heard him out. The frog introduced himself as Rani and claimed to be looking for allies as well to become stronger himself. I suggested to him that he can tag along with me, my enemies are likely to be some of the strongest enemies a person could face after all.
 
I asked him about the names as well, hoping that maybe fate was be so kind to give me a clear direction. Alas, this was not the case though he did suggest that his goddess could help in finding them. It seems that if she does intend to help, she will do so by communicating with Rani, probably similar to how I received my orders from Keretos in my dreams. He also appears to be extremely poisonous to touch, I'll have to ask him to help me prepare some antidotes to prevent any accidents in the future. While we were talking it began to rain, so I suggested that we head back to where I was staying and continue our talk indoors.