After walking around for a while, baffled why everyone in Vernis was nowhere they should be, I realized it, the simplest answer available. Basically the whole town is cursed and people are teleporting away, and they are getting their gold stolen which I'm supposed to steal from them when I play my cheap show tunes.
Wow, that's unlucky. That happened to me in Palmia once. Not the entire town though. Innkeeper was getting randomly teleported and I was seeking him for shelter. I managed to find that idiot by developing only one syptom. Damn you etherwind!
I stole the cursed item from him and dumped it somewhere. Maybe you should nuke the Vernis. That may solve the problem
The game is awesome, i'm a pianist, but the audience throw me rocks! I lol'ed hard! Haha, there are unique monsters too?
Be careful for the high level NPCs. They can literally kill you with a rock.
If you mean bosses by unique monsters, there are.
If you are playing for the first time I suggest you to play as a warrior. It is a very good class to learn the game. You should take a look at this giant list of tips too:http://elona.wikia.com/wiki/Tips