Reiko slides into the kitchen and gently takes the pot from the halfling. "You aren't asking... we are offering. Take a seat Master Proudstump and let Jerukh look you over. I can make the tea. It is close to an art among my people." She gently nudges the halfling toward the alchemist and swiftly finds a kettle and sets about making the tea. Surreptitiously, she learns the layout and contents of the house while the halfling's attention is distracted.
looking back at one of the potted plants, you can see where it appears the pot was recently chipped and the plant in it has been rumpled on one side. You also spy some loose potting soil on the floor where it looks like the plant was knocked over.
"Oh, well. Thank you then. I'll gladly accept your help," Walthus says as he moves aside to let Reiko make the tea.
Something from the talk with Sheriff Hemlock clicks into place in Vigny's mind. She takes another close look at Walthus, along with a discreet sniff to check his cleanliness.
As cover for this she moves over close to him and says "I'm sure your advice is good normally, but it's too near dark now for us to start back. I'm sorry to impose, but we will really need to stay the night here. We'll be on our way at first light tomorrow."
Jerukh shifts toward the halfling, towering over him.
He crouches in an attempt to be... seem less threatening perhaps, and heralds his attentions with that awkward smile;
"What are your symptoms Master Proudstump? Anything on how you feel may assist in my efforts..."
:
Emi reclines on the setee.
"Our priestess is right, Master Proudstump," she reassures the odd little man, "your home is obfiously safe for you to hafe lifed alone out here all these years, and it vill be efen safer vith all these hands to guard it tonight... ve'll efen set a vatch since the goblins hafe been so actife lately."
Whatever he's suffering from, it's no illness. It's more like he's been poisoned, and it appears that he has several wounds from bites and a blade.
"Oh, but some snakes have recently got in. I've been trying to get rid of them, but I haven't found them all," Walthus says, "and if you hurry, you could make it back before dark."
Turning to Jeruhk he asks, "can't you just give me something or cast a spell?"
With the kettle heating properly, Reiko moves into the pantry. "I assume your teas are in here, Master Proudstump?" She does look for teas, as well as anything else of interest that might explain the halfling's odd behavior.
As the conversation hits upon snakes, Reiko's voice sounds from the pantry, "Snakes? We can help with those, I should think. I've some experience killing swamp snakes. Do you know how they are getting in? Coming in through a root cellar, perhaps?" She emerges from the pantry - tea in one hand, sheathed blade in the other. She quickly sets the tea out along with cups. "I'd be happy to stalk snakes while the tea steeps. Are they coming in from somewhere up-stairs?" Before Proudstump responds, Reiko is already strolling toward the stairway.
For those who are even slightly familiar with Reiko - everyone except Proudstump - the ronin's lively banter and puppy-like desire to be helpful is completely out of character. Given her usual deliberate and purposeful choices, you imagine there is a reason behind her odd behavior.
Jerukh shakes his head solemnly;
"Alas nu... "no" sir. Unless I know what's ails you I cannot discern what will heal..."
The alchemist taps his belt;
"I have tinctures and poultices... herbs and remedies..."
He pats the halfling's shoulder, speaking softly, but firmly;
"Please Master Proudstump. Allow me to look at those wounds... are they bites from the snakes you mentioned?"
Vigny jumps at Reiko's offer to look around for the snakes. "Oh! I could certainly help with that. I'm not much of a tea drinker anyway."
She joins Reiko to go up the stairs.
Emi stands, a bit too quickly, and checks every nook and cranny of the setee for snakes. Before she can sit back down she sees the others volunteering and follows suit.
"Yes, yes... of course, you are our host allow us to deal vith the snakes. You relax and let Jerukh help vith vhatever is ailing you."
"What? Um? I really don't know," Walthus admits as he goes after Reiko and Vigny. "Please don't go up there. It's a mess! and don't worry about the snakes. They took me by surprise is all. Please, just leave my things alone for now."
When asked about his his wounds by Jerukh, he starts at the hand clasping his shoulder.
"Y-yes. They bit me a few times," he answers.
On the floor, barely noticeable unless you're looking for it, are a few specks of black ichor.
Mixed with the specks of black, you can also see specks of brown where blood had dried.
On of the wounds you find on Walthus is not from a snake, but a blade. There's also something off about the scab that has formed. It seems too dark, as if his blood was not red.
Jerukh keeps his hand on the halfling's shoulder, then scowls in concern;
"These wounds look queer... the poison perhaps? We need to treat and dress these right away..."
The big healer looks to the boiling kettle;
"Tea will wait. I need to tend to Master Proudstump... That water is needed.."
Reiko breathes easier for a moment as the half-orc intercepts the halfling. She frowns at something on the floor for a second and her breath catches. She casts a hard look at Vigny then quickly mutters a brief word in her ear.
Reiko takes a step forward, presumably to head to the kitchen, but effectively making room for Vigny to get up the stairs and bar anyone else from following her. Once Vigny is up the stairs, and Proudstump is still being administered to, she retrieves the kettle and a tea-towel for Jerukh. The goods delivered, the ronin steps away and towards the damaged pot and plant she noticed earlier. She surreptitiously tries to pulls the plant from the pot, chasing a hunch.
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Seeing Reiko investigate the plant and Vigs heading for the stairs, Walthus starts shouting angrily.
His voice shifts with each word, becoming more guttural and wet as his form shifts into that of a small humanoid with whorls all over his skin and a giant one where his face should be. He turns on Jerukh and attacks.
His hands elongate and grow in size before he clocks Jerukh with a double handed blow that knocks the alchemist out cold. The oversized hands wrap around the half-orc's neck and one of the lines on Walthus' face yawns wide as a long, wickedly sharp proboscis comes out.
"Is mine! Is Volorog's! I's takes it from nasty hobbitses! I's keeps it, nasty longshankses!"
Jerukh drifts... strangely peaceful... the silence he experiences a somewhat welcome respite from the female voices and their jocularity...
:
Out cold, the big alchemist's chest rises and falls slowly, but regularly.
Vigny continues toward the stairs as if she had heard no protest at all from Walthus. But before she can begin to climb them she hears his transforming voice shouting angrily. She turns to see something else entirely pummel Jerukh to the ground.
"I suspected that maybe Walthus was in cahoots with the swamp monster, but this is a surprise!
She grabs her flagon and draws her sword as she advances on him, striking as she arrives.
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Reiko keeps a firm grip on the potted plant with one hand as she trips the latch near the katana's tsuba and the scabbard slithers free to clatter onto the floor. She had hoped that Vigny would find Proudstump unconscious upstairs but judging by the creature's proboscis and the way it cold-cocked Jerukh... The little man is probably dead.
The ronin steps toward the doppleganger as she raises her blade. "If the alchemist dies, every cast-off of your foul family will fall beneath my blade." She slashes hard and fast at the creature's neck.
"Jerukh!" Emi screams as her half-orc friend collapses. She rushes to his side, trying to stay as far from the beast as possible, and hastily fumbles through his vials...
which one was it... he just showed them to me before we left... which one was the healing tincture...
She does her best to remember which one he said was for healing before they left. She grabs her best guess and looks anxiously at it...
Before Volorog can turn his attentions to a new target, Vigny and Reiko open him up, causing his entrails to become outrails and plop on the floor.
"No... was... mi—" is all he gets out before falling over dead.
Unable to do more for Jerukh than is already being done, Reiko plants her sword in a floorboard. Then she completes her careful examination of the plant to see what may be hid in the pot or in the root ball.
Vigny drops to her knees. Praying to her patron for the use of healing, she touches Jerukh.
For something so horrible looking, this thing wasn't very tough! What is it? And did it say it took the house from the halfling? So this isn't actually Walthus Proudstump at all?
Vigny's called healing lessen the anger of the mottled bruising from Jerukh's jaw and throat, but the big alchemist does not waken...
Vigny waits while Em looks for the extract, but if it's not forthcoming she converts Magic Weapon as well for use on Jerukh.
Reiko heads upstairs, looking for the missing halfling.
Reiko's examination of the plant reveals that it had been knocked over, but other than that, there is nothing special about the plant. When the samurai reaches half-way up the stairs, she and the others hear the voice of Walthus Proudstump call out.
"H-hello? Who is there?"
Emi watches with worry as Vigny casts her first healing spell. When it fails to rouse Jerukh she nervously takes the vial that she's pretty sure he said was for healing and pours it down his throat...
Reiko attempts to track down the voice, "Hello, Master Proudstump. My name is Reiko. We're here to help and for help."
:
When Emiliana administers the healing extract Jerukh's eyes flicker open, and he groans as his senses recover.
"Argghhh. Wh-What happen?"
He groggily rises as the tinctures effect revitalises body and soul... As he focuses on the disemboweled creature lying close by the big half-orc scowls further;
"What is that monstru!?"
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"Jerukh!" Emi calls out, wrapping him up in a hug, "nefer do that again... how vould I efer tell Koya if you died out here?"
She stays with her old friend until he is up and about.
Jerukh, still somewhat in a daze, uncharacteristically accepts the hug with a confused look, rubbing his neck gingerly;
"D-ied? Urhhh. This monstru sideswiped me yes?"
His voice lowers as the realisation he was felled begins to sink in.
Reiko signals Soli to slow down, saying quietly, "Let's proceed carefully... just in case there are more of those creatures hiding in plain sight." She emphasizes her point by holding her unsheathed katana not so casually down at her side, then proceeds upstairs.
The two of you are met by the sight of a very pale halfling creeping out into the hallway from what appears to be a hidden room.
"Vo-volorog, is he— Is he dead," he asks.
While Reiko and Soli investigate the voice upstairs, Vigs and Emi tend to the badly battered Jerukh. As Emi comforts her friend, Vigs feels something crawling on her leg where she is kneeling while tending to the nasty bruise on the half-orc alchemist's neck. On her thigh, looking at her with large, black eyes, is a small, green snake. For a split-second, it flicks out its pink tongue, as if blowing Vigs a raspberry.
Reiko eyes the halfling, looking for anything out of sorts, but seems to relax slightly. "He's quite dead."
When Vigny notices the snake she freezes and does a mental calculation. Small snake + bite marks on thing + sick thing = poisonous snake!
"Uh, nobody panic or get all excited, but there's a snake on my leg and I'm betting it's poisonous. I'm gonna just not move here for a minute and think about this..."
"Question for you all, do snakes normally just crawl up on people who are not asleep and are moving around? Do I look particularly delicious, or is it trying to be my friend?"
Upon hearing that Volorog is dead, Walthus unsteadily makes his way to Soli and Reiko. His mouth works as if he's trying to speak, but nothing comes out of his mouth until he is standing in front of the two young women.
"H-he's dead, and— And I," he finally manages to get out before dropping to his knees and wrapping his arms around Reiko's legs. He sobs loudly and messily into her knees.
he wails in relief.
The curious snake slithers up more fully onto Vigs thigh before winding its way up her torso. It seems content just to wander over the Caydenite for the moment, looking at Emi and Jerukh as it pauses for a second about halfway up to Vigs's shoulder.
The woman who sliced off goblin ears without perturbation, is utterly flustered by the weeping halfing wrapped around her calves. Reiko's hands flap ineffectually for a moment before she hesitantly places them on Proudstump's shoulders and pats him gently. She looks to Soli, her eyes pleading for help. "It's alright, Master Proudstump. You are safe now." She tries to think of something that might distract the man and stop the torrent of alarming emotions, "You don't happen to have a snake, do you?"
don't startle it...
Emi cautiously inches away from Vigny and the snake. She freezes when it looks at her and then shifts away again. Gathering up one end of her bladed scarf she quietly asks, "vhat should I do? Vait and see if it slithers off, or try to kill it?"
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Vigny bites her lower lip and buries her fingernails in the palms of her hands as she otherwise stays very still.
"Maybe it thinks I'm a tree." she says in a hushed voice to keep her breathing, and the movement it causes, minimal. "I've never heard of a snake biting a tree branch. So, until it crawls off, I'm going to play tree branch."