Caveth shows off the khopesh he recovered.
"All kinds of weapons that no one knows how to use," he chuckles.
.
Harbek's mouth hangs open as Caveth repairs the ladder.
Well at least it's helping... he thinks, shuddering slightly. He assists Kay in carrying things up the ladder and then uses his rope and a short plank of wood to create a sort of pully and seat arrangement to pull up the more injured members of the group. Once everyone is up he ties the rope swing and looks at the ladder and the space in the tower.
With Caveth's mending of the ladder completed, Harbek and Kay make short work of relocating your supplies. You also transport the worker, after checking that his bonds are secure, and Atterleigh, still lying paralysed with a slight smile on his face.
Moffrey insists on climbing up himself - it's slow going, bu he manages it, and lets out a breathy exclamation of triumph upon reaching the top.
The watchtower is cold and a little rain makes its way in through the broken window, but the overhand of the roof protects you from the worst of it. The blood splatter on the eastern wall is a touch macabre, but in the current situation probably not enough to dissuade you from making camp here for the night. There's no stove for heat, but if you really wanted to you could grab one of the portable stove units from the Worker housing, or even simply make a small base of stones from the ruins of the fireplace and set a fire atop that. There is also enough material left inside the watchtower to construct a relatively flimsy barricade with not much effort.
It's a squeeze to fit you all in, but it's safer - and dryer - than the ground.
Joseph climbs up the ladder and into the tower.
"Well, that was an interesting evening," he says as he unstraps a bedroll and blanket from his backpack. He turns to the worker. "You said someone wanted to see us - who?"
The worker moves his mouth, and sounds issue forth. , you nod in understanding - of course it would be her, who else would want to see you - and then shudder involuntarily as your mind actively purges the information from your memory.
'See?' The worker shakes his head in disappointment, seeming quite genuine, 'You're too full of concern, of individuality. You shouldn't be. But don't worry... it will come, I'm sure. You'll know when you're ready.'
"It isn't too cold now, but I think getting a stove and blankets would be helpful. With fire, food and water we could last quite a while if a siege develops."
"As regards watches, it is a good idea. I'd prefer first or last watch. I also suggest - and I apologise for this - that we never have only one person on watch. I think that somehow that stag got to Atterleigh. Hate to think what it could do to a lone watchman. Let's pool our ranged weapons for the watchmen, too."
"Now, on a more urgent note we need to get some of these wounds cleaned and dressed, or we risk infection.".
Night draws inexorably closer as you prepare.
Caveth looks vaguely uncomfortable with the notion of anyone else using his bow.
"I'll need to get a good rest in order to receive Milani's blessings tomorrow. If no one objects, I'll take the first watch," he says, "Before we settle in though, I'm happy help get a stove up here. We already took the blankets from the cart."
" There was a stove in the workers hut I slept in, I'll go get it. " Harbek says nodding to anyone who decides to go with him. He loads his crossbow and heads down the ladder.
Kay does her best to help out with things. As Harbeck heads off for a stove she rigs up the ropes to help haul it up. As Silas heals someone she will Aid (see aid roll above, 27), and she will also attempt to Heal someone as well.
Treating deadly wounds restores 1 hit point per level of the creature. If you exceed the DC by 5 or more, add your Wisdom modifier (if positive) to this amount. A creature can only benefit from its deadly wounds being treated within 24 hours of being injured and never more than once per day. You must expend two uses from a healer's kit to perform this task. You take a –2 penalty on your Heal skill check for each use from the healer's kit that you lack.
Wis mod +1
Harbek and Caveth, you manage to retrieve a stove from one of the small worker houses - and, if you like, a set of blankets from the worker bunks. The blankets are thin, but they'll be better than nothing.
In the hut Silas stretches out a blanket over a broken bench, reaches into his trunk and unpacks medical tool afer tool. Knives, forceps, tiny bright saws, clamps, bandages, leeches and finally a large lidless jar of what looks like long white worms.
He puts on a pot of water to boil.
He starts looking at his patients, carefully sterilising his tools before using them.
He also regularly indulges in one of the folk superstitions of the local folk. A few chanted words and a gesture like throwing something over one's shoulder. Such a superstition is surprisingly out of place in the ultra-modern doctor.
Skadi glares out of her little glass prison, but uses her prestidigitation to assist, cleaning, nudging objects and highlighting obvious mistakes.
Upon entering the worker residence, Caveth notices the still-made beds. He strips the bunks of their blankets, folding those into a neat pile, which he brings along with the stove back to the watchtower.
"These should be useful, I think." he says to the Dwarf.
Once he and Harbek muscle the stove up using the clever device Harbek assembled earlier for the injured, Caveth settles in to assist Kay and Silas in tending to everyone's wounds.
.
Harbek nods with a sidelong gaze at Caveth, obviously a little disconcerted about the man. While they're alone in the workers lodgings he tries to get some info out of Caveth.
" So Caveth, what do you think is happening here? Something driving people mad? "
Harbek: Kay wasn’t able to do much for your injuries, though they won't get any worse.
Silas: Caveth couldn’t help you either, perhaps because you were too busy helping others.
Joseph: Silas healed you for 6 (your level + 4 from Int mod [trait modification]) hp.
Mr Moffrey: Kay healed you for (your level +1 hp).
Kay: Caveth doesn’t quite manage to return hp (14 +3 kit +2 Aid = 19)
Caveth: Silas returns 2 hp to you.
A total of 12 uses from Healer’s kits have been consumed.
"This is like nothing I have ever seen before," Caveth admits to Harbek in the cabin with the stove, "It seems to be some sort of possession or charm but I really don't know. I think Silas, with his higher education, is the likeliest of us to know what is happening, don't you?"
Noting that Kay still seems to be in a bad way and seeing as how she has been rather open-minded about his magic compared to the others, Caveth approaches her.
"I can mend your wounds a little more if you'll allow me." he offers, an earnest look on his angular face.
Genuinely amazed at the thought, Kay responds to Caveth, "Is there nothing that your spirit-friend can't do? I do trust you." The round halfling nods smilingly to Caveth.
Seeming very pleased, Caveth murmurs quietly, "This halfling has nobly put herself in harm's way to protect others today; courageous and selfless acts that surely deserve encouragement..."
Milani must agree with the half-elf's sentiment for she shimmers to life at his side and reaches forward to cradle Kay's chubby face briefly. The apparition nods at the halfling then vanishes.
Kay blushes bright red and casts her eyes down at courageous and selfless acts, "Thank you."
She is amazed at this power that aids Caveth, and warming to the idea.
The relocated stove is filled and lit, and within minutes the inside of the watchtower becomes far more relaxing - friendlier, even. The gathering night outside is peaceful save for the quiet sounds of the forest and and the hiss of the rain, and the droplets drumming on the roof of your little watchtower remind some of you of being back home, or of sheltering in a tavern and waiting for the weather to change.
You'll have a decision to make in the morning - important, and inescapable.
From what you saw of the infected workers that now lie in the ruins of the office, they were approaching you from the south - the direction of the path that leads back to Barrjka. Travelling on foot and with no means of faster transport in sight, you would be at the mercy of them if they've relocated to somewhere along the road, and you don't honestly know whether you could survive a one-on-one fight.
This leaves you with three options, barring any new ideas...
- to head for Barrjka and brave the dangers, trying to get some sort of reinforcements to take care of the infection whilst informing the Hawcroft Logging Company of your findings.
- to push onward into the forest to the north, following the logging path and hoping to find one of the two places that Atterleigh identified on the office map, hoping they can offer you shelter and safety, or
- you can hole up here and wait for rescue. The explosion of the office was large, and the smoke will be visible for a great distance, and may draw rescuers to you. of course, it may draw other types of attention as well, hence the importance of your current night watch schedule, but at least if it does you'll have the high ground.
The sun finally slips away completely as Silas and Caveth take their positions, eyes on the fringes of the darkened forest that surrounds you.
The night watch.
Caveth and Silas, your watch passes without any notable incidents, although you are distracted at least once by something happening outside the tower.
.....terrible.....terrible....face splitting in two....
*the Professor pulls his jacket close around him*
The remains of the office are still aflame, but as the rain gets heavier the fires begin to die down. The chances of anything from the office being salvageable are minimal, but you can search tentatively if you wish. Some of the objects lying in the ruins are presumably from the upper floor of the building, s your search may reap surprising rewards.
Professor, I'm afraid you find... nothing. Yout team-mates seem to have picked the wreckage clean.
Silas sits out the watch. The atmosphere is tense, electric... but in time the almost homely atmosphere starts to relax him. His body makes demands of him, but he fights it off. Silas Bishop does not sleep on the job. From that point on he is methodical. He divides his watch area into segments and rotates between those segments methodically.
When the intruders come he nudges Caveth, who has also seen them.
Three hours into the shift he talks very quietly with Caveth.
"I've been thinking. This thing - whatever it is - seems to be in the forest. I'm sure that the workers' rantings about 'she hates rain' were caused by the plague, but at the same time time perhaps there is something to it - we obviously have not been attacked. The logs here float down to Barrjka I believe. Right through the forest, but not in it. Something destroyed the boats, presumably to stop people using them because they are the best escape method. Mr Itxaro's... spirit guide... might be able to fix them."
When his shift is over Silas wakes Harbek and Kay.
He starts reading through his books
, then goes off to the balcony to relieve himself.
Casting Crafter's fortune on self
So many things I should do. Start investigations. Consult my books. Try to remove those last pieces of glass I think Caveth missed... but I'm so tired. Mind's not working right... I'll sleep, and look in the morning. Yes. Yawning prodigiously he lies down on the sheets, expecting to take some time to sleep. Instead he is down in seconds.
In his dreams it feels like someone is trying to talk to him. He's in his study, the door locked, working hard. A voice keeps asking him to open the door, but he refuses. Finally he recognises the voice as his wife's, and with that realises he is dreaming and ends the dream.
"So, Mr Toruun, what brought you to working for Mr Hawcroft? For myself, I needed work, and even started in his offices, though he recognised that I would be a better asset out in the field, so he had a word to his daughter, and here I am."
" Needed an honest job I guess. All my friends were signing up... Most of them are retired now I guess. Except for Dain... Felled tree rolled over him. " Harbek pulls a small packet of cigars from his pack and lights one up offering one for Kay. " Started out as a tree lopper, but I've been working on the machines now for years. Couldn't believe it when I arrived here a couple of days ago. Whole place deserted. Now it's just getting weird. "
"Now that's an understatement."
Kay accepts the cigar and puffs away contentedly.
"Quiet night, hey. I guess Mr Bishop and Mr Itxaro scarred them off for the night.
"So, the weather will be nice tomorrow and we will go home. It'll probably take longer to fill out all the paperwork."
.
" Ixtaro gives me the willies. If he hadn't been so much help I'd think he was the cause of all this. "
he takes a long draw on his cigar and blows his best smoke ring.
" I hope your right about tomorrow today has been far too strange. "
and , your watch passes without incident. The rain intensifies throughout the night, and the only thing you notice of any note is that about an hour before the end of your watch the river bursts its banks, the overspill running through the Logging site, lapping against the struts of the watchtower and putting out what's left of the fires burning on the debris of the office.
.
Harbek stands and gently shakes the Professor and Joseph awake.
" It's your watch, everything's been all quiet till now. Except we might be caught in a pretty bad flood if this rain continues. "
"Yes, whilst I am keen for some more sleep, please do keep an eye on the water levels. I don't imagine we'd be all that happy if we were, say, sealed into old apple-barrels and sent to float down the river... Though maybe that isn't such a bad plan. I think it might just work."
Kay chuckles a little at her own joke, and tries to find a warm and comfortable spot.
Gazing at the watercraft bobbing on the rushing river, their moorings tested with growing violence, Caveth says to Silas in a low voice, "I do like the idea of using the river to travel but I suspect the barges are beyond repair. I can have a closer look in the morning. He pauses, apprehension on his face, "I'm concerned for everyone's health, that explosion took a lot out of all of us. I'm not sure we should be planning to leave tomorrow."
Joseph blinks for a second or two, then sits up.
Joseph gradually climbs out of his blankets. He reckons there's enough light from the fire, just about, to read by, and he'd rather get this done before the others wake up. He opens up a book from his backpack and, while trying to keep an eye on his surroundings as well, he starts to read.
Dawn breaks over the camp as your stove begins to gutter - the rain is even stronger than before, almost torrential, and the river is a churning mass of muddy water that has spilled over into the camp. You estimate that the camp is covered by about half a foot of running water in places, although the surrounding forest looks less waterlogged.
Professor, you spot two things of interest in the slurry below you. The first is a sodden raft of moss, blackened by the office fire but possibly still salvageable, attached to a section of the collapsed building. You're not sure, but you remember reading somewhere that it was used in local medicine...
The second is a body - or the remains of one, at least. The rising water has unearthed it from the wreckage below you and it bobs in the rain, a crow already perched on its back, beak buried inside it. You can't make it out perfectly as it's partially shielded by part of the collapsed fireplace, but you think it might be one of the workers that attacked you yesterday.
Kay wakes feeling refreshed and bouyant, until she remembers where she is and what is going on.
She stokes the fire and looks to get some tea and coffee on.
Silas Bishop is a creature of habit.
EVery morning he wakes, bright and cheerful, stretches and rolls over to say good morning to his wife.
Then he remembers.
Then he gets dressed, has breakfast and goes to see her. He tells her everything that he is thinking.
Today he cannot.
Skadi is a poor substitute.
"Anything interesting?" he asks, seeming angry and despondent.
" Someone say coffee? " Harbek says, looking like he's been hit by a stampeding stag. He rubs sleep from his face and light another cigar hovering around Kay till the coffe is ready.