From the journal of Zil, the Once Flattened: Journeyman Elementalist and Follower of Garlen.
Word reached Throal that a mysterious deathly sickness has struck the small hamlet of Juniper Hollow, a small farming hamlet only a few days travel from the gates of Throal. Merimath, Questor of Garlan answered the call to tend to the stricken community, and asked for volunteers to escort her on her way and do any investigating that might be required while she tended the sick. In preparation for the mission I bought a cure disease potion.
As we approached the hamlet it was quite. There were crudely lettered signs around warning of sickness and quarantine. As we entered the main street, an old lady appeared (Vorum) who warned us to turn back. We told her that we had with us a Questor of Garlen who had come to tend the sick. She welcomed us all. Juniper Hollow used to hold about 100 people, but only 20 were still alive, and almost all were showing the ravages of the plague, with a red rash and puckered skin. We immediately began treating the sick. I cast plant feast and heat food to give everybody a good meal. Seeing the problems they were having eating, I switched to provinging only broth and soft, well mashed vegetables. I also cast purify water upon many, many buckets of water. I took careful note of the fact that the spell did not seem particularly harder to cast (as it sometimes will when the water is actually bad). I several times tried to use Astral Sight, but never managed the trick. I strongly suspect the area was tainted, or even corrupted.
We asked about the origins of the sickness. The first person to come down with it was Brevin, the carpenter about 2 or 3 weeks earlier. He had gone to wolfridge (about a half days travel to the west) to help build a gate to the wall the village was building. 2 days after he got back, he got a rash. It looked a bit like poison oak but did not respond to treatments. A few days later his wife and a few others got the rash, then they all proceeded to a worsening fever and a lethargy. The rash was described as worsening until it "tears the skin apart", after which death is almost always imminent.
Vorum mentioned that it was about that time that somebody killed almost all of the cats in the village. They were torn apart, not killed by disease. Vorum adopted the sole remaining kitten and has been keeping it close. The village had a typical range of animals, A dozen cows, lots of goats, pigs, chickens, etc. They said that some of the animals had died from what appears to be the disease. Others had died of neglect or freed and wandered off.
In the middle of the above discussion, the hamlet was raided by 4 cave trolls, whom we slew or drove off. We determined that they had nothing to do with the sickness and did not even know what the quarantine signs had meant. My new combination of Lightning Bolt in an enhanced matrix and Earth staff worked just as well as I had hoped.
William Carver had spotted some strange footprints. They were barefoot humanoid. Whomever left them had apparently been doing a lot of skulking around the village. We decided to follow the footprints where they left the village on the path heading west. We reported to Merimath that we were heading in the direction of Wolfridge and she reported that there was a magical component to the disease, and that there was little she could do to cure the disease other than make the sufferers more comfortable as they died.
The footprints that William was following went on the path to Wolfridge. They occasionally detoured to isolated farmsteads, where all were dead. We stayed the night at a farmstead that used to be worked by a family of 4 dwarves. The village of Wolfridge was totally dead, nothing moved except for flies. The village was brand new, several cottages, etc. They had recently started building a wall around the village, and it looked like they were in the process of digging a well. I looked down the well, and then lowered a light crystal on a string. It looked as if while digging the well the floor had collapsed beneath them into a cavern with a 20 foot ceiling. Also of interest was a large midden pile with several bodies. As somebody approached the flies started glowing like fireflies, and coalesced into balls which William identified as Will o’ the Wisp. They seemed to come in two flavors, 2 cast Wizardry spells, and 2 cast Nethermancy spells.
As Vlolkir used Great Leap to attack one of the Will o' the Whisps, He landed near the midden pile, which lashed out a pseudopod to grapple him, it turned out what we took for a trash pile was a Globberog, a huge snail like creature with a sticky body. Vlolkir was stuck fast to the Globberog, which started to feed upon him. Apparently two local wolves knew that the Globberog meant fresh meat ready to scavenge, so they showed up to join the fun. It was a tough fight, but fortunately the Globberog was slow. Once Vlolkir was free of it, our melee people avoided it until our Ranged people took it down. Everybody had very little current damage due to my Grove Renewal spell.
We saw movement down the well (my light crystal was still down there), We threw some chunks of wolf down the shaft and got several quick glimpses of reptilian heads as they grabbed the meat. We quickly came to suspect that in digging the well the village accidentally tunneled into a tunnel complex inhabited by Plague Lizards. It did not look as if the plague lizards could climb the shaft, so we looked for other exits, and eventually found a wide low opening with lots of lizard tracks. We spent time discussing our next course of action. I was in favor of entering the cavern and slaying the Plague Lizards immediately, I hoped that like a Ghoul's poison, maybe removing the source of the infection would affect it's virility. I was also worried that if we waited until morning, several of us would have sickened with the plague. Several party members were wounded, and there was support for waiting 24 hours and entering the cavern the next morning. William wanted to try to smoke out the whole cave complex, which plan I felt was too complex and uncertain. Suddenly the people supporting the other options both looked confused and forgot what they were supporting. Though confusing and worrying, I took the opportunity to push my solution through to agreement and we all climbed down the well.
We started searching, and soon heard the sounds of lizards eating wolf up ahead. We detected two plague lizards and a ghoul lizard. We discussed a plan wherein we would all stay in the narrow corridor where we could form a line and nobody could be blindsided. I wish that we (and particularly me) had followed it. Anyway, before we could all agree on this plan, one of the lizards came around the pillar, looking at us. Vlolkir ran up into the room and charged it. I moved into the room to get line of sight on lots of targets for my lightning bolt spell (which did wonderfully), then I moved further into the room to line up a 2nd shot (which did wonderfully). Then Vlolkir ran out of the room to yell at William, leaving me the only one in the room. I had been dashing around like greased lightning all combat. This time I reacted way too slowly, as two stone-men lined up on ether side of me, and pounded me. I think I would have been OK if one of them had not been behind me. but without my shield, nor my shield willow, nor being able to activate my absorb blow charm, I was pounded flat and dead.
I recall flying through a dark tunnel towards a light, when Garlen appeared before me and told me that my time was not yet and that I should turn about and fly back the way I had come. I awoke to find that my companions had killed a horror construct called, appropriately enough a "plague". They had also given me a booster potion and a last chance salve. In the room where the stone-men were, we found 3 sets of armor. Some blood pebbles, some Living Crystal armor, and some crystalweave. They were all thread items. Since it was windling sized, I decided to keep the Crystalweave for myself.
We built a rough stone oven and burned the bodies of the Plague Lizards and the Plague. We then returned to Juniper Hollow and informed Merimath of what had occurred. She told us that, much like when a ghoul dies, it's poison becomes much less effective, When we had killed the plague, it's disease had become much less potent, and that all of her patients had taken a marked turn for the better, and, with care, were expected to live. By this time Xeviouz and myself were feeling the first, mild effects of the sickness, but aside from feeling poorly for a few days it was a very minor bout. We stayed in Juniper Hallow for several days until the last patent was well on their way to recovery, during which time we performed funeral services for every dead body in the two villages and the countryside.
Upon returning to Throal I attended a very short introductory seminary and was inducted into the ranks of Questors as a Follower of Garlen. Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:50 am
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