Hmm... he succumbed about six weeks ago. He was one of the first. Ian wasn't the sort to get into fights or strangeness - he just woke up one morning with a fever, lingered for a few days, then fell to sleep and hasn't woken up. A local healer has been making the rounds and tending to the victims, but she's not a real cleric. Clerics of Lathander have been in short supply since their temple burned down a few years back. I suppose the Zhentarim have clerics, but if they know anything, they aren't telling.

I've heard some say it's a curse - that dark dwarves roam the knight and steal people's souls. There was a clan of dwarves in the Dale a hundred years ago, and one of the old lords drove them out.