The House of Ataraxia (part 1)

After the farmer Trevor left us, we decided to rest at the House of Ataraxia before going to his farm. We split up briefly. Zarruk and Mirielle went around one side of the building to the back and found a courtyard with a disused fountain, surrounded by four buildings. Upon closer inspection the buildings seemed to be some sort of living quarters, but were long abandoned and empty. The vegetation around the area also appeared to become yellow and sickly the further back along the property we went, until everything around the courtyard was completely dead.
 
I was heading to the back of the building as well when I heard Dru cry out behind me. He had apparently stayed behind and broke a hole in the wall. Something flew out and frightened him. As I checked on him I heard another cry from the rear of the building and dashed back to find Zarruk had opened the door to the temple. Something touched Zarruk (which was the cause of the scream while there may not be any human occupants here, there seem to be quite a few smaller creatures who have taken up residence and were disturbed by our attempts to enter the dilapidated building. After making sure he was alright, we all entered through the door he had opened. Inside was dark, but we saw a circular emblem of a skull with glowing eyes encircled by blood droplets (the emblem was large, about 6' in diameter). I used Divine Sense and while I did not detect any fiendish occupants, there was a definite fiend-like aura emanating from the emblem. Dru said he was able to detect some sort of planar magic from the building. All in all it was unsettling, and we quickly made our exit.
 
Outside we decided to rest and attune to our newly acquired items while Mirielle contacted Bevil through the dragoneye stones he had given us. He and Egert and Elidin all appeared to be in the middle of fierce fight, and it sounded from the bits of conversation that I picked up that they were busy defending a gate of some sort (perhaps the teleportation "gateway" that Elidin mentioned he guards). Mirielle let them know what we found and what Trevor had told us, and Bevil and Egert warned us to stay away from the House of Ataraxia for the time being. He also mentioned that the skull emblem was the symbol that Father Briar and his followers used.
 
We then left for Trevor's farm. On the way out of town I spotted one of the symbols of Silvanus on a building, so there may be other followers of the Oak Father in this city who could give us aid. Seeing this led Dru to ask about my service, and I told him some about my life up to that point. He was sympathetic to my story and encouraging, and even used a spell to change his form briefly to mirror my own as a Fey'ri. I have not experienced acceptance like this in the 40 plus years I served at the temple; I actually dropped my elven guise and appeared as my natural Fey'ri form, something I have not done willingly in public since I was a child. These people are strange, but I have grown fond of them and think I may be able to actually trust them.
 
When we reached Trevor's house, he was quick to invite us inside. But my Divine Sense picked up a fiendish presence nearby in the field, and I insisted we go investigate right away. We crept closer and were able to finally see the creature. I attempted to speak to the thing in common, then again in Abyssal. It responded to this. The conversation was brief, but it did mention that a "master" had called for it and "they" answered the summons. Then it spread huge wings and took to the air above us.
 
The fight was over quickly. I thought I would need to defend our bard, but after Dru knocked the fiend out of the air with a thunder spell Zarruk rushed forward and stabbed it with the knife he found at Egert's house. Some strange magic from the blade held the fiend in place, and I was able to finish it off. The beast was a quasit, but larger by far than any I had ever heard about, standing a good 10 tall. These demons are usually small venous creatures, used as spies or advisors by the sorcerers who summon them. Based on what it said about others answering the summons, this may have been a scout for some enemy. Shortly after I cut off its head, it shrank back to the size I'd expect a quasit to be, and we found a small necklace that apparently belonged to the donkey Burt. Something about this whole thing did not sit right with me, and I suggested that our next move should be investigating the barn.