I received a letter from home recently, from my old chaida, K’star. In the letter he asked for my help on an urgent, desperate matter, but didn’t say exactly what. K’star’s never been one to mince words, so this both disturbed and intrigued me. He wanted to meet in River Falls, a town about one day North of Syrtis, on the eastern bank of the Serpent River.
Given the mysterious nature of K’star’s letter, I took precautions and enlisted the aid of a few friends. At worst, there’d be enough of us to handle whatever the issue was, while at best, we’d have a pleasant trip to Syrtis and back. Juniper (an elf Shadow and Questor of Lochost) was happy to join me. He brought along Amhran (a windling Troubadour), who then included Strata (an obsidiman Gauntlet) in the group. All good traveling companions.
We took the well-traveled path up to Sosonopa and then after some bargaining took passage on a riverboat heading to Syrtis. The price of passage was cheap, after some haggling by Juniper and Amhran, and an agreement to help with on board chores.
So we whiled away the trip with Strata scrubbing the decks, Juniper in the crow’s nest, Amhran entertaining the crew, and me, well, I learned how to swing through the rigging on a ship. I wasn’t any good any at it, but it was fun. The first time I tried it, on a dare as the t’skrang ship’s crew shamed me, a t’skrang, into it. I figured that the worst was I’d fall in the river and have a nice swim, so I swung for all I was worth. A very different perspective than my usual activities!
It only took a few days to get to River Falls. Once there, I realized that K’star’s letter hadn’t included a meeting place. Luckily, River Falls wasn’t that big a town. So we started at the town square, and visited likely meeting places, namely, taverns and inns. Juniper certainly didn’t mind! Amhran was fun to have along, and Strata didn’t say much.
We found K’star at the second tavern, sitting alone at a table in the back. Over a couple of ales, K’star explained the problem. The hatchlings were dying. T’skrang, as a race, are decreasing in numbers, something that we’re all struggling with. But to have healthy hatchlings die for no reason, that was unthinkable, a true disaster. One of the few clues that K’star could provide was that before dying, the hatchlings would show signs of weakening, including vomiting up much or their food. K’star could think of no one outside the small group of chaidas (about 6 in total) that would be able to influence the children.
K’star was also suspicious of people in Syrtis. He didn’t say anything specifically, but hinted that he wasn’t sure who he could trust, or who might be behind the hatchlings’ deaths. That, in part at least, was why he called on me: someone he considered trustworthy who was also outside the Syrtis environment. We asked K’star every question we could think of to get more information about the problem, but there was precious little to go on.
The only lead we could find was to investigate the farm who delivered the food supplies to the crèche. Perhaps something was going on there that was tainting the food. We really didn’t suspect anything wrong, but it was all we had to go on.
So we made plans to travel east to the farm, about one day’s journey. After investigating things there, we’d travel to Syris and meet K’star at the nursery. We expected to arrive in Syrtis in no less than three days time. Perhaps when we reached Syrtis and could investigate the crèche itself, more clues would present themselves.
We set out in early afternoon, and made camp at roughly the mid-point of our journey to the farm. During the night, a group of croajins — large, predatory cats — attacked the camp. I was badly hurt, but thanked Thorkell silently for his training in Fireblood!
We reached the farm in mid-morning, surprising the farmers. They weren’t expecting visitors. In fact, it was very rare for any of their customers to actually want a tour of the farm. But they agreeably showed us the fields, the barns, the processing areas, everything. We could find nothing wrong there. So we collected a large box of produce for the crèche and headed towards Syrtis.
Near the end of the day, we noted more activity than usual off to the side of the road. A large number — perhaps a dozen — humanoids were walking, heading generally toward us. This part of Barsaive was lightly populated, so there weren’t any towns nearby. Where had these people come from?
The “people” turned out to be ghouls, including about three that guided, or led, the rest in their attacks. Strata was swarmed by the creatures, while the rest of us attacked and debuffed. It was a good thing that Strata was virtually impervious to the ghouls’ attacks. Amhran proved to be worth her weight in gold as she provided help with nearly every action.
After the battle, we followed the ghouls’ tracks. We were curious where they’d come from. The tracks led to a densely wooded area, more like a dense swamp than anything else. Then we noticed the smell. Rotten, disgusting, it took effort even for me — a nethermancer used to horrible sights and smells — to not become sick on the spot. Moving forward, we found the source of the stench: a single, bloated creature, a sack of rotting flesh, the rolls of flesh hanging down, one atop another. Gruesome. Someone Named it a “meat-sack”, and the term definitely applied.
Nevertheless, we fought it. At one point, Juniper was so overcome with disgust that he was too sick to continue. A dreadful situation, but we prevailed. Afterward, we burned the body and purified the area. Upon reflection, I concluded that this meat-sack was some kind of viral dread iota horror.
Studying the area, we realized that this swampland was connected to the water supply for Syrtis as well. Then the clues all fit together. The meat-sack/horror was tainting the water supplying the crèche, effectively poisoning it. The ghouls helped spread the taint, or poison, by contact with travelers. The hatchlings were dying from the taint. The adults weren’t as affected because they’re larger and hardier than the very young.
We returned to Sytris and reported what we’d found both to K’star and to the city authorities. The hatchlings recovered and the rest remained healthy. A good ending to a puzzling problem.Statistics:Posted by Anoush — Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:36 pm
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