The party spent a week recuperating from their foray into the shrine of eternal flame then once again met with Cygar. In the meanwhile Cygar had learned more about entry restriction of Nithalmas. Due to a trade war and racial tension he blames on the cult of the living god it is almost impossible to gain entry to Nithalmas proper. But there is a way. Recently a tax collector left the city to fix a bookkeeping error. The nearby Hamlet of Ravenmoor had been written off for almost two decades but it turns out that the hamlet still exists and is in Nithalmas territory. The tax collector went to establish contact but disappeared. The tax collector apparently planned to flee with the funds but never made his rendezvous. Cygar learned this when he booked the same bargeman who had been waiting for the tax-collector for a week.
Recovery of the funds or the tax collector would guarantee passage to Nithalmas proper.
Cygar gives the group the name of his contact in the city and then reveals he booked the bargeman to take them to Ravenmoor and then on to Nithalmas.
The party traveled to Ravenmoor. They encountered stirges and found that the villages had formed a somewhat close relationship with ticks, stirges, and other local fauna. Locals claim to worship the dreamer but the temple has collapsed and offerings idols are poorly made. The group conducts some preliminary investigation of the town but mainly learns that locals have odd taste in food, no one minds them cheating in founder-days events, and that the tax collector may have never left town.
During the pig wresting even Seldion cold cocks the pig and the party find themselves fighting a demon seed that had been planted int eh pig. Locals say that the land around here is twisted and some animals "get the badness in them" but that the dreamer protects villagers from the same.