A thorny situation

So after the poison master surrendered, he tried to convince us to let him go by telling us that he, himself, was working for someone else. He said that there was a man who ran some sort of zoo, who had ordered quite a bit of poison in the past. We went there to confront him, and as soon as we said that the poison master had given us his name, he immediately attacked. We were able to defeat him, but not without taking some injuries.

With him dead, we finally discovered that the mysterious woman who had kissed Obegard was actually the clerk who was downstairs. Apparently, she, like many others, could change forms, and we learned that she hated the zookeeper because he had killed her mate (a bird of sorts), and trapped him in his zoo. I'm still not sure why she didn't just tell us all of this up front, and had us mount a surprise attack on the zookeeper, but to repay us, she took us to a fascinating library run my enigmatic scholars called the seekers. From what I could tell, the library was not located anywhere in this realm, and contained almost all the knowledge of the world. We finally learned that the siegemaster's lieutenant had entered the elven forests, and got mixed up with someone named Witchthorn. It was there that even the seekers didn't know what happened next.

For some reason, Livy knew this Witchthorn character, and she let us know that he was a member of some race of Fey who all had the audacity regard themselves as "Verdant Princes". Livy kept telling us that they were an evil race, and when we entered the elven forest a week later, she even knew how to summon Witchthorn. However, it was then that all turned sour. Obegard thought that the best course of action was to parlay with this evil beast, and when Livy unexpectedly tried to attack, he, instead of casting spells against the Witchthorn, attempted to attack Livy. I tried to put a stop to things, but between Obegard's spells and the Witchtorn's attacks, it wasn't long when Livy was rendered unconscious and was nearly killed. I had noted, however, that she had some sort of healing abilities that rapidly closed her wounds, and prevented her from bleeding out.

It was then when the Witchthorn told us of the debt that Livy owed. Apparently, her powers weren't natural, and were granted to her by this fiend in exchange for a variety of foul magical reagents and fifty thousand gold, all of which were due in a few weeks. The Witchthorn also knew the information we needed about the lieutenant, but would only tell us if we took up Livy's debt as well.

I wasn't in any mood to agree to a deal that involved killing innocent creatures in order to harvest them for parts, and the rest of them didn't seem willing to do that either. I'm not sure what the next step is. I really wish that Livy had just told us the truth. If we prepared well, we probably could have rendered "his majesty" unconscious, and compelled him to talk in exchange for his life. As of now, both Obegard and myself have expended magical resources, much of which was on each other, and Livy was badly wounded and trapped beneath some plant.