Seeing the town spiral out of control, the heroes quickly devise a plan.  The church of Elizar is not far away, and seems like the best place to find aid and remove the fey enchantment enraging the villagers.  Knowing that Father Francis may have been affected, and that El-Hanan is capable of dispelling the curse, Armus leads him to the church at nearly superhuman speed.  Meanwhile, Eric draws the attention of the villagers, and leads them on a chase to the church.  A few villagers do not follow him, however, and as Brother Jacob confronts them, one stabs another villager.  Jacob unlimbers his staff and fights his way to the downed man (Robert) and then carries him to the church with his assailants in hot pursuit.

    At the church, Armus warns the acolytes to prepare for the angry mob on its way, and then he and El-Hanan enter Father Francis' office.  They quickly realize that he has been affected by the curse, and subdue him while he ineffectually attempts to use divine magic against them.  El-hanan is able to  lift the curse, but Father Francis' rash actions have offended Elizar, who refuses to grant him divine power.  As Eric and Jacob arrive with the mob, acolytes and the heroes herd the crowd into a courtyard, bar the doors, and draw up a plan to use the resources at their disposal to break the fey spell.  Using El-Hanan and his abilities as a focus, Jacob, Armus, and Eric fill him with divine and spiritual magical energy, and then douse the church bell in holy water, which has also proven effective against the curse.  El-Hanan then strikes the bell, discharging the stored power within him, and sprays cleansing water over the crowd.

    The ritual is successful and the crowd returns to normal.  The party is tapped at this point and cannot use magical means to determine if any of the elves and the Baron, who have already departed, have been affected.  Despite this, Eric, Armus, and El-Hanan make a quick patrol of the village before resting to ensure than no other mischeif is afoot.  Jacob, meanwhile stays behind.  The downed man he carried did not survive his wound and the man who slew him is distraught.  While the party rests, this man returns to the temple and uses his dagger to kill himself in Eric's box at the front of the temple.  Jacob is woken by the noise and soon summons the rest of the party from their slumber.  It seems that little can be done at this point, but the party resolves to clean the bloodstains themselves immediately.  While cleaning, they notice a secret trap door concealed under the floor of the box.  Armus prevents Eric from setting off a poisoned needle trap protecting the latch, which proves that whatever lies below the box has nothing to do with the Church of Elizar.

    The party descends down a ladder into a single room on the same level as the church basement containing nothing but a sinister obsidian altar and another secret door leading to a collapsed passageway that opens away from the church.  It is clear that it has not been used in some time, but its existence suggests a flaw in the consecration of the church above and explains the corruption of the Framlinghams.  Immediately the party falls into heated debate over their course of action.  Armus encourages the group to return to the church and recover before dealing with this unholy niche, but Jacob insists on remaining by the altar and confronting its evil.  He assumes a meditative pose and ignores all further pleas.  As El-Hanan begins to carry him off, Armus sees Eric take something from the altar and calls Jacob and El-hanan's attention to it.  When cornered, Eric draws out a book from his cloak, and sets it back on the altar.  It opens itself to a particular page.  Jacob immediately draws his jade dagger and stabs the book, but the dagger shatters.  The book dissolves, and with a black gust of wind flies out the secret door and is gone.  Terror fills the party, and they depart the room.

   Having fled the secret chamber, Jacob resumes his vigil inside the Fromlingham's box, while Armus argues that the party must back off to rest, recover, and summon help to deal with the taint.    Jacob refuses to stir until an Acolyte carrying bloodied water from his labrs cleaning the bloodstain on the temple floor slips and drops his bucket.  El Hanan and Jacob leap to prevent the spill, but entangle each other and the bloodied water flows unnaturally into the trapdoor.  The debate between Jacob and Armus intensifies.  Although he is not persuaded by Armus' arguments, Jacob yields to Armus' order to depart the temple of Elizar.  Simon runs to the bell tower to sound the town alarm while El Hanan and Armus reopen the trapdoor.  They see no sign of the blood that ran into the hidden chamber, but Armus is convinced that he hears the cries of his wife coming from the chamber.  El Hanan prevents him from descending to investigate.  Taking charge of the assembled acolytes, the party orders the temple evacuated and has the staff hold back curious townsfolk.  The party briefly splits while Jacob attempts to contain the blood spill, part of which flows into the basements beneath the temple.  El Hanan and Eric rouse Father Francis and bring him outside, while Armus sends message pigeons to the nearest church and to the Baron for aid (and to the elves, warning them of the fey curse).  Re-assembling outside, the party makes camp and rests for the night.

  The next day the party rides to the Fromlingham estate in hopes of capturing Marist worshippers who may be able to provide vital clues about the nature of the chamber under the temple and the threat that it poses.  Eric communes with the ancestral spirits of the town to terrify the Fromlinghams as the party arrives at the estate, and Jacob shoots to immobilize them as they flee.  Reading their thoughts, Jacob learns that they were unaware of the existence of the chamber, but embraced the worship of Marist when they lost their land.  Their thoughts indicate that Marist is focussed not only on corrupting Father Francis, but also Eric.  Eric believes that the Fromlinghams may not be beyond redemption, and they are left in the care of passers-by as the party rides back to temple when Armus recieves visions of a monster made of blood surprising the unwary acolytes surrounding the temple and slaughtering them.  The party arrives and fights the beast while Eric confirms that it is not spiritually linked to the altar beneath the temple, but that it is connected to the party members it has wounded.  El Hanan and Jacob are able to destroy the monser, but it begins to recoalesce before the party's eyes.