As night sets in rumors persist about activity around the mines. Two ships have anchored outside the harbor, one flies the flag of the Dragons Flame sect, a powerful religious order that employs hundreds of witch hunters in the civilized south. The other appears to be a large flyut come to trade. It flies the flag of a southern city-state, but careful observers would note that the men aboard are too fair skinned to have come from such a city-state. Neither ship sent in any longboats, nor sent any messages by semaphore.
Throughout the night an uneasy quiet fills the streets. Arrests have risen and many would be trouble makers rot in the prisons. As dawn breaks on the new day a pair of plague riddled corpses are found in the trading square formed by High and Bellflower. Both bodies wear the simple tunics of the miners, grit covered and dirty. None of the street rats have dared step close to the bodies lest they themselves get sick.
Pestilence has occasionally swept through the colonies, and fear of it runs deep in the populace. As the news spreads of a potential outbreak, the guards move quickly to secure the town gates.
