Etappe 3b: Vive la revolution!

At night, at a campsite, the party meets a candlemaker and his family that fled from Monferrato. After a week of increasing tension in the city, riots broke out and the family's chandlery burned down. Now they are on their way to Malinor. The PCs decide to help the family by giving 50GP of the treasure they took from the robbers, and some swords.   Arriving at Monferrato the next evening, the PCs find the gates to the city closed. They convince the rebels at the gate that they are here to help and are let in. In De Onderste Kan, one of the town's inns, the PCs meet one of the rebel leaders. The motivation for the rebellion is the rumor that the civilians are to be expelled from their homes to make place for an imperial army.
In the old but still robust, and currently barricaded, guardhouse, the PCs speak with Carol Achbas. This seasoned captain of the guard seems not too worried by the mob sieging his guardhouse. Messages have been sent to Malinor and Tur-Inan already and supplies are apparently plentiful. There are no plans to station a large army in Monferrato, and even if so, the fortifications present offer more than enough room.
Convinced that the Monferrans are mislead by a mysterious magic-using stranger, the PCs arrange a parley between the guards and the rebels the next morning. Scared by Hendrik's predictions for their badly planned revolution, the rebels come to an agreement with the town's officials who believe that their normally law-abiding citizens are magically influenced by an ill meaning outside source.
Who has planned this scheme, and why? The party has no clues.

With the peaceful resolution of the rebellion, the party decides to quickly leave the lovely harbor town Monferrato, and continue their journey along the river towards San Raffaele, last stop on the way to Tur-Inan.