Optional: An encounter with the old merchant (bonus NPCs)
If you pick the alternate timeline, your heroes will encounter the old merchant before he becomes a prisoner.
At this stage he is still very much on board with the ritual. Fear of dying from old age lets him crave the chance to get younger. That Tsamara already stopped his ageing a number of times, he trusts her also to reverse his ageing. He will lie to the heroes and try to prevent them from foiling his plans to become young again whatever way he can. At this stage he is so committed that even revelations that his benefactors are cultists would not deter him from going down this path. The fear of dying of old age is compounded by the fear of losing his only chance to become young again. If the heroes don't back off he will not hesitate to lie very convincingly to the guards that the heroes threatened him and need to be locked away.
In his youth he used to be quite a good fencer but nowadays he needs his sword cane to walk, though he could surprise some enemies.
With this article the sidetrack concludes and Rats under Honeyngton will enter a hiatus period with no regular updates planned so I can concentrate on the NPCs on Wednesdays.