Nari moves up and continues to extend Vander's good fortune.
Random puts an arrow into one of the ex-druids!
Omorose commands one of them to lay down but he resists the temptation, comfortable as the ground may be.
The first ex-druid gardener steps over to swing at Omorose! The other shifts to flank Manzcar!
Nari tries to the daze one of the gardeners but his focus is too great.
Omorose changes fate to prevent Manzcar getting injured and then summons a bout of fire on two of the gardeners. Unfortunately, they jump out of the way of most of it.
Vander cuts into the gardener!
Random moves around and swings his longsword but misses!
Manzcar cleaves through one ex-druid into the other, taking the second one down as he finishes his swing.
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They scream in anger as their friend falls and continue to hack at Manzcar!
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Omorose sees another potentially deadly blow in Manzcar's future and attempts to divert it by altering fate again...
She then moves up to attempt to distract Manzcar's foe by flanking him with her dagger, and attacks fighting defensively - very nearly taking her own eye out with an overly enthusiastic swing!
Omorose again uses the forces of fate to save Manzcar from a devastating blow. Omorose swings her dagger around in the air to little effect.
Omorose cuts open one of them and he falls to the ground!
Vander then finishes off the remaining ex-druid!
Inor follows up behind you now that the combat is over and helps you locate the correct flower from whence the disease has been coming. It takes just under an hour to discern it.
Inor then urges you to take him to Laurel, an old wise woman in Falcon's Hollow, as soon as possible; she may be able to find a cure now that the offending flowers have been found. It is less than half a day's travel from the plague fields to nearby Falcon's Hollow.
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Random looks at Inor with a raised eyebrow. "What makes you think these flowers are responsible? Oh, right. Those flowers. What makes you think those flowers are responsible?"
"I don't see any huts, tents or sheds here. Where did these druids sleep? Or store their lovely hoes? Whence... you like that, huh?... came the water for these crops?"
Inor stops for a moment to consider Random's questions. "Well, I have some training in herbology and I'm quite certain these flowers are the culprits. But you make some good points about tents, sheds, and water. . . "
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"Nasty men, but they did grow some pretty flowers." Nari comments, reaching down and plucking a couple of the flowers from the ground. She spends a moment securing one within her hair.
"If I'm going to have to keep fighting nasty things, I'm going to get something pretty out of it." She exclaims.
"Inor I trust you know the way to this Laurel?"
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"Not so fast! Before we go, Vanick Inor, I wonder if I might use your... lavatory?" Random asks, with another raised eyebrow.
When shown what passes for facilities, Random immediately pokes his head out again. "Omorose, I'll need your expertise to help me in here."
After Omorose's scan comes up negative, he concedes, sort of. "Inconclusive... very interesting."
Returning from the facilities with Omorose, Random concludes, "Let us go see this Laurel, then. I wonder how else the missing basin would influence these flowers, unless the Venture Captain was mistaken about its presence here."
Inor leads you further into the forest to Falcon's Hollow, a small little village some ways away. He takes you to a small building. Creeping ivy and full window boxes cover the facade of this rugged-looking, two-story shop, which bears the faded sign “Roots and Remedies.” The small, mud-tracked shop smells of burnt earth and spicy incense. Bunches of dried herbs, dangling pots, and drawstring pouches hang from the ceiling,and a cauldron bubbles softly on a table next to strange presses and alchemical apparatuses.
Inor leads you inside to where a wizened old woman sits before a recipe book where a few leaves of parchment are overflowing with notes and cryptic formulas in ancient, scrawled handwriting. "Oh, hello there." After simple introductions and a quick explanation of the problem, Laurel comments, "Oh, yes, I've seen a lot of that going around. Caught it, have you, Inor? Well, I haven't had much luck finding a cure as of yet. I'm not going to let you leave here until you are better. Perhaps everyone can pitch in to help me here."
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"Laurel, thank you for your willingness to help. Perhaps you're right... I think we may be able to help you as well. We haven't had much of a chance to rest and speak comfortably as of yet. Mind if I take a look at Inor?"
Vander approaches Inor. "Uh, here, let me check your vitals. Good, good. Now follow my finger with your eyes. Alright."
"Quick! Get this man some chicken soup!" Vander looks over his shoulder to the others. "What? I mean...it can't hurt."
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Random wrinkles his nose as he smells a bitter root that's sitting on Laurel's workspace. He looks around the desk for its companion, but doesn't see it. "You need me to grab the turnipseed? The elves I trained with always put that in the same tea with this stuff. They said the two worked together somehow. Certainly didn't make it taste any better. Blech!" He starts looking through the bottles on her shelves.
Vander checks the man's eyesight and looks about for chicken soup but Laurel just shakes her head. "I don't think that's helping, dear."
Random searches around but can't find any more of the ingredients he's looking for. "No, I don't think I've got any more of that," Laurel tells him.
Laurel describes a few herbs and Omorose comes back some time later carrying a few samples. "Excellent! Excellent! These will do just fine."
Manzcar runs about town and countryside gathering potentially useful supplies but Laurel shakes her head as most of them appear to be either things she already has or things that are irrelevant to the disease in question.
Nari finds the right plants!
Laurel tries to tend to Inor's disease.
Laurel sighs as she is unable to heal Inor. She sends you back out to find more ways to help.
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Seeing that success of the first plants she found, Nari dashes out of the house. "Perhaps I can find some more!"
I wonder if anyone else has ever heard of this disease before. Nari decides that maybe asking around and getting the various rumours around town may provide some additional insight into the disease crippling Inor.
Finally, at a loss to what to do, Nari attempts to try her hand at alchemy, and fails miserably at it.
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Omorose attempts to adjust fate to help, but apparently the fates are set in this instance. She casts guidance on Laurel periodically as she works.
Next she heads out into the village and asks a group of local children to gather herbs for her, careful to ask their parents permission first. Gathering up the piles of herbs the enthusiastic children bring her she recalls one variety from her homeland, where it was used to sharpen the intellect when steamed and promises Laurel inhaling the mix for a few minutes will improve her reasoning and recall.
Next as she sorts through the useful, and not so useful foliage gathered by the children she recalls ancient tales of one plant dismissed by Laurel as a weed being used as a powerful purgative by the Azlanti. She excitedly tells the old woman the tale of Queen Elorsa using the same plant with its starry dappled leaves and delicate white blossoms to save her son after he was poisoned by the Serpent people they made war against.
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Random watches closely as Laurel gives Inor her first attempted cure. "Maybe if you gave it to him in suppository form?" he offers sincerely, but unhelpfully.
As the others go out to chat up the neighbors or conscript children to collect herbs for us, Random starts browsing through Laurel's tomes. "Wha-hey, listen to this: '10 Secret Potions Your Warlock Wish You Knew!'"
Eventually, Random fades into the shadows of the cabin. He emerges over Inor's shoulder. "Boo." he says levelly. Though he manages to make the dying man jump, Inor reports that he doesn't feel any better, and now he also has the hiccups.
Nari finds more useful plants! Furthermore, she gains valuable insight by talking to other locals!
Omorose asks some children to help her and they prove fairly helpful. Furthermore, Omorose is able to put her own alchemical knowledge to work and aid Laurel in coming up with a remedy. Her history lessons come into play as she remembers some tales of ancient Azlant.
Random's suggestion of a suppository is met with a frown from Inor. Laurel responds to him when he finds the book, "Hey! Now what is that doing out here? My. . . friend. . . must have left it over here." Random then gives poor Inor the hiccups.
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Vander looks at Inor and shakes his head in thought.
"This disease is outside of my own knowledge, but perhaps Iomedae will look upon us favorably and grant us a sign." Vander spends a few moments in prayer, but his mind is not as clear as it normally is.
"Hm. Perhaps Iomedae is calling me elsewhere for the time being. I'm going to head into town to see if the townsfolk, who perhaps have dealt with this illness among some of their own family members or friends, can offer us any insight. Vander heads into town, and finds a few locals who seem willing to talk. "These herbs? You're kidding me? Well, thank you for these, I'll take some to Laurel and see what she can do with them."
On his walk back to Laurel's, Vander notices a man attempting to pickpocket gold off of an elderly gentleman. "Hey! You there! No... not you, him!" Vander points to the theif to alert the elderly man. The thief attempts to run, but he is set off-balance as a cane strikes his forehead with a solid "thwack!" Quite surprised by the old man's vigor, Vander jogs over and assures the elderly man that he can handle things from here. No need for dislocated shoulders or broken hips.
Vander kneels down next to the younger man. "You're obviously going to be visiting the guard shortly, but perhaps you'd like to set your morality on the right path before you see them. Eh? Well, how about you do it anyway. You've heard of this disease going around, right? Tell me what you know about it. Quickly. Everything you know."
Vander lets out an annoyed sigh. "That's not much. Off to the guards with you!"
Vander receives no insight during his prayers to Iomedae. Vander then walks about town and speaks with the locals, actually gaining some valuable insight into how the disease might be cured. The man Vander catches is not able to give any valuable information.
Fortune wins out and Laurel thinks that she has successfully cured Inor! It took about four hours and the man is looking a little worse for wear but he will pull through eventually.
Laurel thanks you greatly for your help and tells you that she should now have a combatant should the disease start to spread further throughout the area.
Finally, Laurel now divulges some more information on you. Laurel is familiar with the nymph queen Syntira, as she occasionally treks into the Wood to trade baubles and trinkets for rare herbs. "If anyone would know about this disease-where it is coming from or who is causing it-that's where you should head." She can provide you with a map to the nymph queen’s grove.
In gratitude for your help, she gives you 2 potions of cure light wounds. She also gives you two dozen vials of her antiplague concoction that you just helped her create.
"Yes, I have heard that it has been even worse on the fey. I think it should help them, yes."
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"That was far more work then I thought, and getting lost in the dark sounds horrible. Woods in the dark are just creepy." Nari croaks, her throat sore from incessant giggling.
"Is there perhaps a place we could rest for the night? Go find the nymph queen in the morning? Not sure I'm willing to deal with a nymph queen right now." Nari comments looking down and noticing the dirt and stains covering her from the prior encounters that day.
If I'm going to visit a queen, and a nymph queen no less, I'm going to need some time to make myself presentable.
Laurel will let you sleep in her shop if you wish, free of charge.
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The next morning the party awakens and heads out to find this nymph queen.
The streets of Falcon’s Hollow are fairly deserted. The few citizens out and about hurry quickly to their destinations. Beggars and urchins lean against walls and crouch next to shipping crates and tarred barrels. The clinking of a tin cup on the street’s cobblestones and the rustling of wind-blown notices affixed to a tavern wall rise above the silence that fills the nearly empty streets.
When you exit Laurel’s shop with the
antiplague for Syntira, several people push a two-wheeled
cart overflowing with floewrs down the wagon-rutted
dirty street, bringing it to a halt in front of Roots and Remedies. They wear tattered clothes over ragged studded
leather armor and smell as though they have not bathed in
months.
Roots and Remedies carry the same flowers these people appear to be selling.
They give Random a strange look. "We can push it well enough by ourselves. Flowers? Perhaps for the ladies?"