Neva woke to Raliscar's groans, and she moved to help, wrapped in a blanket.
While examining the sick dwarf, she responded to Vyshael. "Well, filth fever would be the likely result of our sewer encounter. The Red Veil, however, is pretty easy to spot."
Straightening up, she sighed. "Well, let me get ready. It's going to be another day of rest."
Neva went to get dressed and then pray. After about an hour, she came out to check on Raliscar again. She placed a hand on his chest and murmured a few magical words.
She watched him for a while to see if he was feeling better.
Both Raliscar and Neva recognize the symptoms for what they are, a nasty bug got into the dwarf's system most likely from dealing with the rats in the sewers. There are no signs of it being the plague that has been running like wildfire through the city.
With Neva's ministrations and a timely spell, she is just barely able to expell the sickness from Raliscar's system. Now all he needs is some rest and recovery to get back to full health.
Neva breathed a sigh of relief as Raliscar began to recover.
She brewed some tea and retired to a quiet spot to scribe a scroll.
Once done, she tended to Raliscar and anyone else who wasn't completely up to snuff.
As Neva rises from Raliscar's side, his hand reaches out and grabs hers before she can walk away. His voice is weak and feeble, but he offers his thanks nonetheless. "Ye're a- a good an' kind woman, Neva." He squeezes her hand gratefully before rolling back over and settling into a restful sleep, the color already returning to his face.
Felgar stops to see his cousin after neva performed her healing.
Eh, Ral, how ya feelin'? let's be gettin' ya up and well so that we can be throwin' back a few 'afore we dive into the riddle with our new info. Stay strong, cuz.
He leaves the sickroom and approaches the others.
What be the plan of action after we be healed? We be knowin' how the disease spread, no? I'm thinkin' that a trip to that sunkin' ship may be in order? Mahap we can get the lay o' the riverbed from the locals?
"Strong?! 'Course I'll stay strong, ye nut. It'll take more'n a nasty case o' filth fever ta take me down, Runt! Now let me be, won't ye? Feelin' half dead makes me grumpy."
Vyshael looks a little concerned, "Neva, many of us were bitten. Should you check us all for signs of the sickness?"
Rutter steers clear of Raliscar, having spent enough time on the sickbed in recent weeks. He goes out as planned, selling the contraband, and spends the evening trying to find out if anyone from the Castle knows a missing page.
Neva looks over the others to see if they, too, need help.
Rutter doesn't make any headway, the first night out at least, in finding anyone missing a page's trumpet. Either no one wants to admit losing a piece of their official uniform, or no one knows of an existing page that had lost their trumpet. All the same, given the change in general atmosphere around Castle Korvosa, especially with the newly created Grey Maidens, most of the employees seem fairly reluctant to talk to outsiders.
Neva, at Vyshael's suggestion, looks over the rest of the group. She finds that Vyshael has an infection in one of his bites, and when Rutter returns for the night he also has an infected bite. This at least allows her to treat them before it hits them too hard.
As Neva patches up his infected bite, Rutter examines the trumpet more closely, now with an eye to selling it, since no one around the Castle seems interested in its return.
Is anyone plannin' on answer me question as t'the plan o' action? Are we headin' to the river, or not? Shouldna' we be warnin' the leaders of Korvosa that the water supply be the problem?
Vyshael says, "I think the plan was still to head to the river... If only to find proof."
Rutter figures the trumpet to be worth about thirty to forty gold.
"Horn's only worth about 30 or 40. Hmph. 'Only 30 or 40' - when did I get so fancy?! Still, I think I'll keep it, in case I ever want an excuse to lurk about the Castle."
"Yeah, we'll let the bookworms write their spells and let your cousin get off his butt, then we'll try to check out that wreck."
Sounds good t'me, Rutter.
Raliscar's grumpy voice floats heavily through the hall, "Bah! I'm better on me butt than most are on their feet!" His exaggerated grumblings can be heard as he rolls gruffly over to his other side.
Keep yappin', cuz, and you'll be holed up longer than ya need be.
After tending to the wounded all day, Neva prepared for bed.
Waking the next morning, Neva completed her ablutions, and then checked on her charges to see how they were doing.
Neva is able to offer Rutter some aid before the sickness takes hold of him, and Raliscar was cured by her spell. Vyshael, however, did not fare as well.
Neva sighed as she noticed that not everyone was well. Vysheal seemed the worst.
+10 = 41
Vyshael grits his teeth and shivers from the fever, "I feel feverish and weak.... and the headache's got everything in a bit of a haze, like I'm a half-second slower than everything else.
He coughs and then pulls his cloak around him, "I guess that's why you shouldn't play in sewers."
"Seriously? Sick again? And I was going to celebrate tonight..."
The next day, Rutter knows he's better before Neva even examines him.
"Hmph. Need to get a change of clothes, though. Feel like these could stand on their own."
He returns later in the day and dumps out a small pile of clothes onto his cot. He then separates a new shirt and pants, and gives a tip of the hat as he heads back out.
He heads to his favorite brothel and gets a bath and an evening's company. He tries on his new clothes the next morning before returning to the group's quarters.
Neva was waiting for Rutter in the morning, angry and impatient.
"Who visits a brothel during a plague?! I mean, honestly!" She was too angry to continue
She shepherded him roughly into the house and examined him for symptoms, again.
"HEY! I hadn't gone out for weeks! At some point, life's gotta go on!" He lowers his voice, and concludes earnestly, "If it's any consolation, I checked both of them for symptoms, too. I was very thorough."
Neva's stern face almost broke into a smile at the joke. But she turned away with a huff of frustration.
Raliscar spends the intervening days recovering from the fever, taking deliberate steps to keep himself from over extending. As Neva has to spread her attention across more and more of the others, he chuckles to himself. "Tha's wha' happens when ye go trompin' 'round in th' blasted sewers, ye nutbags!"
With no int damage, Vyshael would spend day 1 magicking his (bonded) sword to +1, then scribe a gravity bow and enlarge person
Neva shared a wan smile with Raliscar. "Yes, true. But if sewers make us nutbags, what does it mean if we plan to go into the river? For I think that's our next move. I have magic that will allow us to breath underwater, but it'll still be difficult to move and communicate."
Waiting for better ideas or objections, she made ready, putting a bit of wax around the openings of her scroll cases.
"Slightly cleaner nutbags?"
Neva smiled at Rutter. "Only slightly. You've seen the Jeggare"
Neva made sure everyone was packed and ready, and led them down to the river bank.
Vyshael, in finding a little extra time in his day, decides to try and delve once more into the mystery of the unidentifiable magic on the dagger. Except the dagger is no where to be found. Neva distinctly remembers where she had it and put it last, but no one can find it amongst them or their things.
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At the edge of the river, you all see as the dark waters roll by casually. The Jeggare is not a fast river, therefore it's also not the cleanest or clearest. You are at the edge of the vicinity where you have gathered that the ship was sunk. Neva is prepared with her spells and scrolls, now the only questions remain of whether you will all be swimming or using some other form of transportation, and how you will light the murky depths for those that don't have the gift of darkvision.
"Let's hire a boat and anchor it near where we think the wreck will be. We can then tie a rope and have something to guide us back to the boat.
I'll cast light on my hair pins again, so we can have some light. We can keep moving the boat until we find the wreck"
Rutter travels light to the river. He eyes it suspiciously as Neva suggests they hire a boat. "Yeh. Lemme ask around."
Vyshael says, "We can have two magical lights, I also prepared the cantrip today..."
Rutter has the others wait while he wanders to the nearby docks to find and 'borrow' an unused boat. The search is neither hard nor time-intensive, as the plague has found many people unable to work, and before too long Rutter returns with a decent-sized fishing boat big enough to hold the lot of you.
With a boat and a plan, you all make your way to as close as you can estimate the ship had sunk, and weigh anchor. All that's left at this point is any final preparations before voluntarily plunging yourselves into the cold, murky waters of the Jeggare with the actual intent of sinking to the bottom.
I be readdy and willin' t'sink like a rock!
Neva took off her backpack and her belt pouches, unwilling to have her written prayers with her in the water. She stowed them tidily in the little boat.
When the others were ready, Neva casts the spell that would allow them each to breath underwater for the next two hours.
She then looked expectantly at Rutter and Felgar and motioned with mock impatience over the side of the small boat.
"Well, get on with it!"
"Well, I guess I feel a little different." Rutter eases into the water and holds on to the boat as he dips his face under and tries to breathe. When it works, he looks up with a smile, and pushes away from the boat, and then disappears under the surface.