AAR: [5] Finding a Cure (2020-04-09 20:00 GMT)

[Shokunin]

From a roughly bound stack of loose paper titled 'Vlolkir'

There has been much carousing. After the bees and all I came back to throal, and spent days around inns. I met a merchant caravan and its guards. They were T'Skrang, and not of Throal. They have a powerful spirit and held their hurlg well. We spent time trading tales, songs, blows, and pours from the pitcher. One spoke to me after the guard finally broke our barricade and drove us from the tavern, I do not remember which it was. He told me of the spirit of Floranuus. I had cared little for the passions, what use to call on their names? But what I heard talk of was good. Those who do not shrink back in fear or timidity are already in his mind, the T'Skrang said. This is interesting.

After the days I spent, I heard friend Zil was looking for more to help him with a thing. He wished to go to help sick folk in a village. I have no lore for herbs, he said I could help, so I agreed to go. We leave Throal with Carver, Karl, Xeviouz, and someone who is not a warrior of any sort. We travel to this village, and there are many ill. Many dead. Villagers won't last long, The other says we should look to find a cause. I am not sure what would cause such a thing. We talk outside the sick-hut. As we talk others run up, trolls. They are not like any kin I have seen. Much taller and mightier, they wear no armor, carry no ax or sword. They speak little and roughly. They come a-raiding, and we are challenged. It is fast, I am set to by two, Karl calls me to the other side of the house, there is one striking for Carver. I go and fight that one, Carver and Karl are too weak for the clubs these carry. I bring him down. Xeviouz bests another. The rest are knocked out. We tie them and question them about plague, I speak the words to them. They say they have no plague, know no plague. They had a cave nearby, had two wives, those are dead now. They came for food, in the way of raiding. I let them go, told them to find a new family and better grounds.

We go on the road to find others to ask of plague. We find a house, dead animals, some near dead. We find dwafs inside, these are dead too. Dead of plague. We cannot ask them, so we go on to the next village. Here all is quiet, all are dead. Only an empty well and things in the street. Carver sees something in the midden, asks me to take a look, I do. It is a trick, flies buzz up and form into strange orbs. The orbs cast spells. I am hurt greatly once or twice. We bear steel, and though they are just light, we snuff the lights with steel. One thinks to hide from me, floating higher. I leap, and bring about its end. As I land, a creature appears from the midden. It is a slug covered in midden. I am stuck to it, and it draws my blood out. There is much pain, and I am alone, there are none to free me. I use great strength, break free of the beast, I take ground on a roof. The others kill the last orbs. We kill some wolves who come to feast on our bones. We kill the slug after breaking open the midden. I curse that slug and all of its kin.

We search for namegivers to ask of plague. There are none. We look in the well, it is dark but Zil has dropped a crystal and we can see creatures. They eat wolf parts we drop in the well. They are lizards, the others say. The others argue about fire, and platforms, argue how to choke lizards to death without going in. I have learned how to fall without fear, and decide this is best. In the face of a foe, the answer is the challenge of battle. The others come down on a rope. It is dark the others say. I see the warmth. We go deep into this well with no water. There are the lizards we see ahead. We stay near the opening of the cave, the archers throw things at the lizards. Zil uses magic. The lizards are not dead, I charge to kill them. I see statues in a hidden cave room, but they move. There is taint here. I kill a lizard, and the statues strike at me. I escape from being surrounded, and go back to the mouth. We fight there, kill all the lizards, start to fight the statues, then a thing comes from lower in the well. It is a horror, or something a horror made. It is ugly and weak and filthy. Others say this is what caused all the sickness, this is what killed the village above, and will kill the village we came from. I curse it and all its kin forevermore. Xeviouz and I attack it, it is hurt some, but it is twisted and strong in a way. Zil is being attacked by statues. I do not see him fall, but his magic ceases. The cursed dog runs from me. It hides as its life is near end. I feel the end for us near too. We are wounded and weary. I charge the thing, with great strikes I fell it, in its feebleness I crush it. The statues stop. We give Zil things to be healed, he breathes again and is well, for one so small he is very strong and fearless.

In this well we find potions and things, others say the potions will be good for plague. This is well. The beast of filth and evil is dead, and its cowardly poisoning will be stopped soon too. We take the potions to the village where we came, and the other one, who is a follower of Garlen and can heal tells us they will live. Many are dead, many still live. We are victorious. It has been hard, many wounds have been opened. Zil is taught of Garlen and her things. We return to Throal with some already telling this tale. It is a tale I will share too, over much Hurlg, once I am done with other things my silver is for. I must see another master, I can feel myself being pulled forward by the patterns.

[Montaugh]

My name is William Carver and I am a 3rd circle Scout, 3rd circle Thief.

Our group for this task was y: Zil, Xeviouz, Karl Tomsson, Vlolkir, and myself.
We were asked by Merimath a quester of Garlen to escort, investigate and provide aid to a plague ridden town called Juniper Hollows.

We arrived in Juniper Hollows and hollow was a well fitting name. Only 25% of the people within the settlement have survived the plague. We were only a day and a half out of Throal with the settlement between 41.09, 41.10, and 42.10.. why do they people keep building at the edges of markers it makes it hard on us mapmakers? We talked to some of the survivors and Zil fed and watered them while we talked. We learned that the plague may have begun with a carpenter that had done some work in a nearby town of Wolfridge. It was about three or so weeks back, we also learned that all the cats had been killed in the same span of time.

Zil was trying to figure out what was going on by searching the astral, Karl was tending to the only surviving kitten and then the farm animals that were neglectied, and I was looking for tracks that did not seem as if they belonged. I did find an odd set of tracks in various locations of a barefooted human, elf or orc and they were thin, perhaps a teenager or someone underfed. As we were looking around we heard a sudden roar and we were attacked by Cave Trolls, four of them two males and two very ugly females no offense to Vlolkir intended. It was a short but brutal fight and one of them connected with me and broke some of my ribs. We killed the two women and only knocked out the two males. We questioned the men and then let them go shortly after they learned that the town had a plague.

After the fight I looked for more footprints around the village and found some leading off down the road towards Wolfridge. We followed the tracks and found a lone farmstead, all inside were dead. We tended to the animals in the barn and would return to take them back to juniper hollow with us. We spent the night and then continued on the way to Wolfridge.

If Juniper Hollow as a hollowed out shell of a town Wolfridge was a dead town. The stench of death hung in the air. We approached a well and there was a pile of trash with some fire flies around it. As I got closer to the fireflies danced in patterns, I backed up and told Vlolkir to move forward as when I backed up the dancing stopped. He walked closer to the garbage and fireflies when they suddenly burst into balls of lights and will o wisps attacked us. One of them nearly gutted me with its magical attack, but that was when the worse happened. A globberog was the trash pile and it snagged onto Vlolkir. When fighting globberogs you need to crack the shell to reduce its armor making the slug like creature easier to kill. As we were fighting we were attacked by two alpha wolves. One of the wolves attacked my and then charlie. Charlie fought back with all his worth and gave the wolf a nasty wound, it soon ran off not finding an easy meal. The other wolf ended up a victim of the Globberog. We managed to kill the will o wisps and then used troll slings and arrows to kill the Globberog.

There was a well and we were discussing things I don't really remember much of what happened in this part. It was like I had this thought and plan and it just went away like a daydream so I wandered over to charlie and got some water while I tended his bite marks. We decided to go down the well and investigate what was within.

Down the well we found a cavern. We had a plan, Vlolkir had a different plan. I told him to stick to the plan but off he ran into the pitch black attacking things that I could barely see. Its not my fault that the only injury he suffered was a troll stone to his back. I mean he didn't have to march back down to me and yell Ouch into my face. All he had to do was stick to the plan and let them come to us... but nooo he had to run off and get hit with a fist sized stone. Perhaps he will remember that we humans can not see all that well in the dark and I am really good with a troll sling. The rocks call to me after all.

There were two plague lizards and a ghoul lizard. They were not much of a threat but that was when we saw two stone statues and out of a hole in the ground came a plague construct. The two stone men attacked and killed Zil, then vlolkir killed the plague construct. After that we took care of the stonemen by staying out of their range and reach. We applied a last chance salve that I had bought just in case and managed to return Zil to life. I am going to invest in more of these things.

Within the area that the stonemen were we found boxes with some thread items, I took the blood pebble armor for myself as I have a fondness for stones. Just something about them and their shape pulls to something deep within me, those little orbs and roundness just feels right to me.

We returned to Juniper Hollow and let them know what we find, with the death of the plague and the tender mercies of Merimath the settlement may recover but it will take time. Wolfridge though is lost and should be burned to the ground.

The world is becoming more dangerous and I must rise to the challenge, I feel like I've been neglecting my scout training, I've been going too broad as of late and I need to connect with my roots as it were, recall where I started and blend my pattern to become something more than I was.

[ChrisDDickey]

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. 

[Aegharan]

Journal of Karl Tomsson, 4th Circle Archer and 3rd Circle Beastmaster.

Word has reached Throal that the residents of the small farming hamlet of Juniper Hollow have been falling sick. We accompanied Merimath, Questor of Garlen, and his two Apprentices to Juniper Hollow. They brought an assortment of generally useful things. Juniper Hollow lies on the edge between 42.10 and 41.10.

Besides the Questor our group consisted of Zil the Elementalist, William the Scout, Xeviouz the Warrior and Vlolkir the Skyraider, so a meanwhile very trusted group

The journey to Juniper Hollow is short and uneventful. As we approach the village, we see no smoke from the Chimneys and close to none activity. Coming closer we see wooden stakes carrying signs of warning. Right before entering the village Vlolkir gathers some wood, sits down right in it and smashes a latern on his hand, lighting himself and the wood on fire. Trolls really do strange things.

A woman named Vorum exits one of the houses to greet us and invites us inside for some food and drink. We graciously decline to eat their food by offering food of our own, with Zil conjuring and magically heating up food and purifying a lot of water. Merimath takes the lead in establishing the boundary of please not touching us, for which the villagers have a lot of understanding.

Breven the Carpenter, was the first infected. He got sick two or three weeks ago. He had gone to another village, Wolfridge, and picked up a red rash a couple days later. The villagers at first didn't notice it as strange, and when he succumbed to a fever, a lot of the village had already been infected.
The village has lots of goats, cows, pigs and chickens, but the people are not strong enough to tend to the animals. Vorum told us that somebody killed all the cats. All except for one little kitten that was right near Vorum. When Zil tried to pierce Astral Space, I noticed that the cat acted up a little. I deduced that itself is probably able to watch Astral Space. We asked Vorum if we could take the kitten with us, to try and maybe use it as a kind of Canary for something sneaking up on us Astrally. He doesn't alert us at some point, but he relishes the travel and the different stuff he can sleep on. We start of really good. I named him Linus.

We check up on the barn where several animals are kept. Nobody was able to tend to them and feed them, so they looked very distressed. I took a quick look around, then William and I started feeding them and tried to calm them down. When we started cleaning their stalls, we heard a bunch of heavy footsteps outside. We notice a couple of incredibly ugly, primite, bulky Trolls charging into the village, weapons drawn.

Vlolkir and Xeviouz fortunately stepped up to block the blunt force of them entering the village, but one of them ran around the village's main house and smashes into William. I alerted the rest of the group that William and I needed some help over here. Notably they have some sense of tactics and try maneuvering around us. However they didn't think far enough and often turn their back towards us and get shot hard. We note that Zil's magic seems to function exceptionally well in the rain. The lightning he throws at the trolls arcs around hitting all of them several times, but at the same time avoiding Xeviouz and Vlolkir in between by throwing bizarre arcs. After getting hit a couple times we managed to get rid of them pretty easily.

We stack the corpses on a pile of wood and bind the unconscious to the pile to question them. Vlolkir translated between Throalic and Trollish. That language really has a special ring to it. I should learn it at some point. They knew nothing of the disease and became instantly really scared when we started talking about people being sick. It seems that their thick skin does not protect them from diseases well. We set them free and told them not to return.

Among the different tracks within the village William found a set of barefoot footprints. We asked around, but nobody in the village walked barefoot. We talk to Merimath and leave him here, following the lead of this footprints. We follow in the direction of the neighbouring village Wolfridge.

We reached a farmhouse, where William told us the barefootprints enter and leave. Inside was a dead family, showing the same symptoms of plague like in Juniper Hollow. In the barn we found several animals, in a very bad shape. This strengthened William's impression of the footprints being relatively old and Zil's findings of them being dead for at least several days. We took care of the animals and make camp outside of the house, camped up against the house. The night was uneventful. We set the animals free on the farmland but within the fences, to take them back to Juniper Hollow on our return.

The next day we reached Wolfridge. The barefoot footprints led into the village, where we found barely any sign of life, save for some fireflies. The well was not only dry, it had an entire cave system below it that we could look into. When Vlolkir approached, the fireflies formed up into a kind of glowing, balls, that slinged spells at us. While taking care of these, we missed that they very carefully maneuvered around a pile of trash.
We quickly found out why, as when Vlolkir jumped up to kill one of the glowy balls, he got stuck to the pile of trash, which suddenly started moving. Apparently these are called Globberogs. He quickly was able to pry himself lose, while we got rid of the remaining glowing balls of flying magic.
The Globberog had all kinds of rubbish, corpses, farm equipment, stones, and wood stuck to it. Attracted by our screaming two wolves came out of hiding and attacked us. We fended off one and the Globberog killed the other. After that we cared to keep distance to the Globberog and slowly wear it down, with William, Xeviouz and Vlolkir all shooting their Troll Slings, Zil casting Spells and myself firing my bow.

After the fight I saw some movement at the bottom of the well. We had a look and, using a piece of dead wolve as bait, saw a reptile come out and eat it. William and I identified it as a Plague Lizard. We searched the village for survivors, but found none, just a whole lot of corpses, all showing signs of disease. At some point we debated smoking something, but I think pipes are best enjoyed after an adventure, not during.

We climbed down the well and entered the cavernous system below the town. After some searching we find several lizards which die quickly. Vlolkir jumped into the midst of the Lizards, then noticed two stone statues approaching from an alcove behind him. Vlolkir then found his inner tactician in the back of his head, and directed William to attack the statues. He did however instruct William vis-à-vis, shouting rather harshly at him. During this, Xeviouz got backstabbed by a creature we did not notice before. This turned out to be the Horror Construct that caused the Plauge. It looked like a disformed abomination, mixed between Ghoul and Namegiver. While he tried to surive this one's attack and hold the line, Zil got double-teamed by both statues. First he got smashed into the ground, then properly stomped. This killed the windling. Vlolkir in proper Skyraider fashion followed the Horror and killed it, while we killed the statues. We immediately rushed to Zil, poured potions down his Throat and applied a last chance salve. He came back to his senses and we all let out a sigh of relief. However he wouldn't stop talking about the headache that Stoneman caused by knocking him down with both fists onto his head, until we reached Throal. In the Alcove the Stonemen emerged from we find a couple suits of Thread Armor that get distributed among the group.

Vorum allowed me to keep Linus. He found great comfort on Rusty's pillow besides the fire in my home.

Zil and Xeviouz are also hit by the disease, but it by far does not have an effect as debilitating as on the villagers. By the time we come back to Juniper's Hollow, they are nearly healed again. Merimath also did great work, as he had already nearly absolved the village from the disease. He was grateful for us defeating the horror, and the villagers were sad about the loss of their friends. Merimath and Zil come to the conclusion that the eradicated Horror must have brought the magical disease, and with his demise the disease lost its potency.

[ottdmk]

The Great Library of Throal thanks Xevious, Vlolkir, William, Karl & Zil for their contributions. Please take +300 LP and +178.3 sp.