It’s worth noting that only ONE single pawn in your team at a time can have Dragon’s Plague. I made the mistake of throwing all my pawns into the brine to “cure” them of the plague but only one had red eyes. That was not an easy journey to the next rift stone alone
I needn’t have bothered being that drastic. The next time I noted symptoms in one of my pawns, I knew it would not manifest until I slept and kept them alive. I later noticed the symptoms shifted to another pawn and the first pawn went back to normal.
If you notice your pawn coming back scarred it means they have died with other “masters”. You need to bring them to the rejuvenation springs on the Volcanic Island (not easy to get to). I don’t set pawn quests and might turn off MP so nobody gets my pawn because it’s clear some ******** hire your pawn and punish them because you didn’t put a quest and reward on for hiring them. While it’s nice to get 10,000g reward for killing an Ogre, that’s not why I hire pawns. I look for a mage with levitation and the ability to cure afflictions (blight, poison etc). Or a mage with a good mix of offensive abilities rather than just fire for example.
Also the player made pawns available for hire really do show the sad state of most video gaming. Almost all if them are scantily clad skinny young white women. I end up with a group of scantily clad skinny white women because that tends to be 90% of your choice. So even if you go looking for a Beastren or a capable male pawn, it is impossible.