Emi returns Tiora's smile and sits down with her.
"Feeling a little more like normal now? No, they're not looking for Rolth today. Tassira, the mage, her mother is suffering from an illness and Kayleigh, the priestess has gone to help with her cure. Nebbin, the big one, has gone with them as well. He and Kayleigh are never far from each other, as you'll come to see. They probably won't be back until tomorrow."
Emi frowns slightly. "I'm not sure about Regeris. I expected him to be here. He'll be back soon I'm sure."
Emi excuses herself for a moment to fetch her bottle of wine, offering to share it with Tiora if she wants.
"Don't worry. We'll let you know when we find Rolth. You'll have your revenge. Until then sleep as much as you want, eat as much as you want. Get yourself back into solid condition. I'll find you a better place to sleep than that pew."
Emi chats with Tiora, getting to know her and so forth, until Regeris returns.
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Vantyev Manor, the Next Morning
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After praying for an hour, Kayleigh sets to trying to heal the diseases wracking Lady Vantyev and herself. Then she casts a pair of lesser restoration spells on the noblewoman to pump her her shiver-ravaged constitution.
A bit later, still feeling sick, Kayleigh can't help but wonder if she's just made Lady Vantyev strong enough to boot the healer from her family manor.
Regeris wakes up the next day in the Temple, wondering why the hell everyone is taking so long but not too concerned. Emi gone for the night visiting Vencarlo. I won't mention it to the others.
He wanders around the Temple for a little while, inspecting the rose bush in the back but deciding not to interfere with Kayleigh's own project.
Many leads to follow up on. I can chase down the leads on Trinia, see if that was actually her I was following. Or I could warn my parents - no, not that. They can handle themselves. Wait!
He suddenly snaps his fingers. The Bank had allied with the Church of Asmodeus. This can't be a coincidence.
Finally, he gathers his gear, and takes off for the bar in the Heights. Before he goes, he sketches a quick note, tucking it where he usually sleeps, assuming people would look for him there.
"Diabolists were harassing passers-by at the Temple. Investigating. Back soon."
-R
Regeris sneaks out of the temple as he leaves, ensuring that he's not spotted, and checking for anyone who may be watching them.
Nebbin waits to see what happens.
"Do you think she'll be better now? Maybe we can ask her who's giving her her ... um, supplies ... and then go tell them they're not allowed to do that anymore," he whispers to Kayleigh. "And are you feeling OK?!"
"Well...I've certainly felt better," Kayleigh concedes to Nebbin, "but I'm in no immediate danger of keeling over and dying. I think the same can be said for Lady Vantyev...provided we keep her from taking any more shiver."
When she hears his suggestion, she manages a wry smile. "It doesn't work that way," she says softly. "Remember what happened to Carawyn: We rescued her from Lamm's clutches but shortly thereafter she snuck off to Eel's End for her next fix. The stuff's terribly addictive and hard to swear off of."
"And on the other side of the equation, whoever's providing Lady Vantyev with shiver isn't 'giving' it to her--he's selling it to her, and making a tidy profit doing so. Remember the tab Carawyn racked up, just for an occasional fix to keep her going? This is worse--much worse--and the Vantyevs have enough cash to pay for loads of the stuff. The sellers aren't going to stop providing the stuff just because we ask them nicely."
"If we leave before I'm able to neutralize Lady Vantyev's addiction, she'll just start taking the stuff again as soon as she can get her hands on some; then in a few days' time, she'll likely be in the same dire condition we found her in when we first arrived here. After that...that...revenge golem...I can't allow that to happen. We've lost too many friends, acquaintances, and family members already."
Tassira, to put it simply, really does feel exhausted--somewhat physically, but mainly emotionally. Hopefully, Kayleigh's healing magics are able to do something to help her mother...
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The Temple of Aroden
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Tiora happily takes the offered wine and makes small-talk with Emi.
"That pew is better than the mud pit I've been sleeping in. I found a quiet peace in the chapel last night. A connection to the energy of the goddess that settled my nerves."
"Since then, the memories of that place seem a little less present. Like nightmares that fade to the background as you wake."
"Anyway, I don't mean to make myself a permanent burden," she says with a smile and a gesture at the orphans, "you maybe have enough of those under this roof already."
"I mean to quietly look into the state of things with my last mates, from before I was captured. Alot can change in a fortnight, I'm betting. I need to make sure of my welcome before I go striding back to the Kickers, or looking into any of my own long cons."
Regeris makes his way back to encounter Emi and Tiora. He waves as he moves in, neatly removing his pack and bow before setting them in the usual spot. He groans as settles in, interrupting the ongoing conversation.
"Emi, Tiora, good to see you. My apologies Emi, I was unable to follow you for very far, I trust your journey was well. It turns out that there's a pack of diabolists - worshipers of Asmodeus who were proselytizing outside of the Temple and generally annoying the locals. It's clear we were targeted and they were likely looking for a fight."
He squeezes some water into his mouth from a waterskin. "I followed them to a strange bar in the Heights they frequented before tracing them back to the Church of Asmodeus proper. One was paying for the others. After that I lost the one who didn't go into the Church. Unfortunately no better information than that for now. I'd like to return to that bar they frequented and question the staff."
He blinks, realizing he's interrupted everything. "Ah, right. Carry on."[/b]
Tired, itchy, bored, disappointed in herself, but mostly itchy...Kayleigh opts to take a nap, provided the Vantyevs don't boot her from their home.
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Vantyev Estate
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Itchy and irritated. Fevered and in pain. Exhausted from hours of listless half-sleep. Unaided by her own prayers. And dismayed to find a pattern of rash and an elevated temperature in both her patient, and in Nebbin when she first sees him in the morning. Her restoration spells have the expected result on Tassira's mother, boosting her vitality and bringing her to a nervous wakefulness. But there can be no doubt that she's infected both of them with whatever disease she's fighting off.
Thankfully Tassira seems unaffected. Lorne as well.
Emi is surprised. "It seems an odd thing for some Asmodeans to bother doing. Aroden isn't exactly a competitor anymore. Neither you nor Kayleigh have been evangelizing. There are no public services here. It's almost the definition of beating a dead horse."
Then she looks thoughtful. "And why now rather than yesterday or last week? You mentioned they were payed? Also didn't you say at one point there was some cooperation between The churches of Asmodeus and Abadar here? Could that investigator, Wyndser, be employing them to harass you? It seems the Asmodeans wouldn't need to be payed if they were doing it on their own behalf?"
"And yes, my trip went very well. Nothing suggesting I was watched or followed."
"Could that investigator, Wyndser, be employing them to harass you? It seems the Asmodeans wouldn't need to be payed if they were doing it on their own behalf?"
"Well, to specify I saw a senior one paying for the others' drinks rather than handing over bags of money for services rendered. And yes, my immediate assumption is this ties back to Talli. His father is a Hellknight so he is likely directly involved in the union between the bankers and diabolists. Frankly, this kind of petty nonsense is his style as well. It's possible they're provacteurs hoping to goad us into behaviour we could get arrested for."
He lets out a long sigh. "I should have checked to see if there were Gray Maidens nearby spoiling for a fight. What I want to do is visit the bar they frequent and question the staff, but I'd prefer we reconnect with the others first."
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Sleep is slow to come. There are too many competing thoughts and emotions surging through Emileva's mind for sleep rhythms to take root. She catches herself dwelling on scenes from the mausoleum, the dread of being blind in a fight, the thrill of Vencarlo's touch. Each time a thought is banished another rushes in to fill the void. The buzz of the wine she shared with Tiora flushes her skin and confuses her memory. She's already stood in this closed, fetid room before. She doesn't need to look in the box again. The one with the flies that buzz around it. There's a head in that box... and a deck of cards.
She wakes up from a sleep she never knew she found, her legs twisted up in the blanket. She kicks off the cover and revels in the cool of the night air as it leaches through her sweaty nightclothes. Her renewed breath now comes freezing to her lungs and she shivers under a ceiling of cold starlight. She finds herself sitting on a rooftop with the Kuthona moon hanging pregnant over the bay. She still wears the livery of the place she left. The cold sliver of the drug slides through her thoughts, melding whim to the wind and will to the deep blue sea. The boys face swims in front of her, familiar and warm. Her hands grasp his ears and hair as she pulls him towards her hungrily.
When she wakens she feels like she's been floating for years in that kiss. Her lover moves above her in the darkness, but she's suddenly unsure who he is. Vencarlo would never forgive her if she fell back into the arms of Ansel. In her groping she catches his hand in her left. A frigid spear of panic shoots through her stomach as she counts five intact digits interlaced with her own. She pushes away with all the strength she can muster, kicking out against the bed, her lover, the room. Twisting and clawing for balance, she flees into a hall, down some steps, through a door and out into a street.
The pregnant moon hangs heavy over Old Korvosa and the streets thrum to its terrible pulse. Emileva runs until her breath comes in ragged gasps and her bare feet leave bloody prints behind her. She stumbles and comes down hard, twisting her knee painfully and biting her lip so her mouth fills with the taste of blood. When she tries to rise her lover is upon her again - a maddened, ravening beast that tears at her flesh as she fights him off. She opens her mouth to scream but her breath will not come. Her eyes fix upon the lurid moon as it hangs there, the body of a great slumbering spider. Its massive legs hold it fixed to a terrible web of darkness fashioned from the stuff between the stars. The multitudes of its eyes sleep, and Emileva is suddenly consumed by the importance of keeping that beast asleep. She struggles silently under the weight of her attacker, unable to move, unable to scream, unable to even breathe.
Emileva wakes up as she kicks herself out of her bed and onto the hard stone floor of her temple cell. In the corner of the room, Tiora sleeps soundly on a pallet of blankets. She sits there, twisted in her sheets and tries to shake off the effects of the dream. Of course Ansel is gone, she tells herself as she climbs back into her bed. She slips back under the cover of sleep and rests solidly for the last few hours before dawn.
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Kayleigh tried her best to stay calm and confident in the face of her latest litany of failures…but it was getting difficult. Not only was she unable to break Tassira’s mother’s addiction to shiver…she couldn’t cure or throw off whatever disease she’d picked up in the derro-infested Shoanti burial caverns. Although she didn’t feel any weaker from the malady, the related rash had spread, and the accompanying itch was maddening. It didn’t help matters that she’d overheard Lord Vantyev’s whispered words to his daughter and knew the Milanite cleric wasn’t particularly welcome under his roof. She’d cast six remove disease spells—five on Tassira’s mom, one on herself—since arriving at the Vantyev Estate in the Heights. The results: failure, failure, failure, failure, failure….
…failure. Not only was Kayleigh judging her own disappointing performance, she felt her goddess was judging her as well. And to add insult to injury, she’d seen the look in Nebbin’s eyes when she’d revealed to her friends the rash she’d picked up in the tunnels…back before the redness had deepened and spread. There’d been concern, sadness, and pity in his eyes, certainly, but Kayleigh was pretty sure she’d caught a hint of disgust in them as well. And that was a hurt she felt sharply, even through the eternal, infernal itching that plagued her every waking moment.
And did she now detect the same sickness in Nebbin? How was that possible? She’d taken great pains to isolate herself from him and Tassira…unless whatever disease she had could be transmitted through the air! If that were the case, she wouldn’t be able to prepare enough remove disease spells each day to treat each of the sick…not that her spells were having any success mind you. It was hopeless…but she was determined not to give in to that despair.
Still, she was surprised to find herself in a mid-morning dream, despite her illness. I must be exhausted, she figured subconsciously. In her dreams, she went about what had become her daily business: casting spells upon Lady Vantyev and herself, determined to nurse both of them back to health. As was the case in the waking world, however, nothing was working. She prayed to Milani for more spells to treat the stricken noblewoman and, somewhat to her surprise, they were immediately granted. But nothing worked. Tassira’s mother remained in and out of her drug-induced coma, growing more and more desiccated with every passing hour. And Kayleigh’s rash spread like floodwaters from a cresting river, covering every inch of her body.
Yet she persevered. Dressed in a borrowed white robe that was now streaked red from the blood she’d drawn with her own irrepressible need to scratch that elusive itch that tormented her, Kayleigh crept quietly into Lady Vantyev’s bedchamber every time Milani granted her new spells. This will be the time I prove myself worthy! the teen would think each time she tried to heal the older woman’s addiction, yet each time her spell would fail to take hold. Sometimes Tassira and Nebbin were onlookers to her repeated failures: Tassira grew more and more despondent and disappointed, while Nebbin appeared more and more horrified at Kayleigh’s deteriorating appearance.
Now, on the hundredth (or was it thousandth?) time Kayleigh attempted to heal Lady Vantyev, Tassira and Nebbin could barely look at her. The disease ravaging her had taken its toll: she was now hideously swollen and malformed, a female Cabbagehead. Nevertheless, she cast the spell to lift Lady Vantyev’s addiction…and again she failed.
”I’m sorry! I’m truly trying to help your mother!” the cleric sobbed at Tassira. The mageling nodded stoically but said nothing…yet Kayleigh heard two words: “…warned you.” They came from Lady Vantyev. The older woman’s eyes were shut, and she looked gaunt, like a vampire had drained her of most of her blood and vitality.
”You mustn’t quit! You mustn’t doubt in my power!”
This time the words came from behind Kayleigh, powerful and incredibly soothing. The cleric beheld the glorious and beautiful half-elven form of Milani, complete with semi-ethereal snowy white wings, standing a step behind her, supporting the young priestess. “Try again,” the goddess suggested, and Kayleigh was filled with a new set of remove disease spells…and the confidence that she could do this!
”…the web….” These words came from Lady Vantyev’s parched lips. Kayleigh frowned briefly but then set to casting her spells with a vengeance. The first two tries provided no visible results. Third time’s a charm, the girl thought to herself. But the third try failed just as miserably, and Kayleigh’s newfound confidence was almost gone.
”There is no godly power here.” Lady Vantyev had sat up in bed, her wild eyes staring at Kayleigh and beyond her. Kayleigh looked over her shoulder: Milani still stood with her. Turning back to the noblewoman, the young Milanite saw a rictus grin spread across the woman’s nearly skeletal face. ”Meant to…pull me…from the snare…shiver has caught…me in?” Kayleigh nodded and cast her final remove disease spell; nothing happened. She turned to Milani in confusion, and the goddess lay a reassuring hand on the shoulder of Kayleigh’s robe, refilling her spell quota while silently affirming her faith in her young devotee.
The priestess turned back to her patient, gently pushing Lady Vantyev back down on her bed. Kayleigh frowned as she experienced a strange tackiness in the noblewoman’s white robe—as well as a light tug on the shoulder of her own robe—but she again began casting spells in an obstinate attempt to lift the woman’s tenacious addiction. More failure…and yet again Lady Vantyev offered her another hideous smile.
”Young fool…you’re every bit as trapped as I.”
Refusing to accept defeat, Kayleigh touched the older woman and cast the spell again. And again it failed…and again her hand stuck to the woman’s robe. Eyes widening in alarm, Kayleigh yanked her hand back and tried to step away. Tassira’s mom wasn’t wearing a white robe—her body was partially wrapped up in what could only be giant spider webbing! The stuff was everywhere, festooning the room, and Kayleigh’s panicked reaction nearly doomed her, tightening the strands that had already attached to her robe. With great effort, the priestess slipped out of the robe, leaving her exposed in her grotesque Cabbageheadesque nakedness. She heard the bedroom door open and beheld the horrified faces of Tassira and Nebbin as they exited the chamber in haste. Nebbin gave one reproachful scratch of the red rash spreading across his neck before vanishing.
”Why have you forsaken me?” Kayleigh asked Milani, tears streaming down her cheeks. The goddess’s gaze fell upon her priestess in need, a hint of disappointment reflected in her eyes. Wordlessly, she reached out and embraced Kayleigh, rash and all. Then the goddess wrapped her soft white wings around her as well, providing an additional layer of comfort. For an instant, Kayleigh was at peace, all her doubts and trials forgotten.
And then Milani was gone, and in the place of her soft white wings were dozens of sticky strands of soft white spider webbing. Kayleigh gasped and thrashed, trying to pull free, but her struggles only tightened the bonds, pinning her arms at her sides. She heard a squeaky groan from the nearby bed and beheld Lady Vantyev arise. Flashing a smile that could only come from the imagined pleasures of another plane of consciousness, the noblewoman raised her partially-bound arms above her head and did a spinning pirouette over to Kayleigh, adding to the sticky shroud that encased her gaunt frame. Somehow her hands were still free, and in one was a vial of shiver.
”Only I can offer you an escape from this horror,” Lady Vantyev cooed, dangling the vial before captive Kayleigh’s terrified eyes. Her voice was no longer weak and raspy; instead, its tone was matter-of-fact, perhaps even a touch seductive. Kayleigh shut her eyes, sealed her lips as tight as she could, and turned her head. ”The healer won’t take her medicine!” came the other woman’s delighted laugh.
Kayleigh felt her nostrils pinched shut. Opening her eyes, she beheld the Lady Vantyev she’d been treating these past days: the gaunt frame, the wide-yet-unseeing eyes, the tangled mess that was two-day bed head. The shiver vial in the noble’s bony grasp had somehow quadrupled in size. The moment Kayleigh’s mouth opened to gasp for breath, Lady Vantyev filled it with shiver and let the empty vial drop to the floor…only it never landed, instead becoming stuck on a strand of swirling webbing that began to slowly encircle Tassira’s mother. Preternaturally strong, the lady of the house then clamped the priestess’s mouth closed with one hand and pinched her nostrils closed with the fingers of the other, all the time blissfully allowing the floating webs to encase both women in silken cocoons. Kayleigh swallowed and Lady Vantyev released her grip. The teen blinked as her eyes began to lose focus. The dangling shiver vial came to a stop directly before Kayleigh’s eyes, its black spider logo taunting the helpless young woman. Just beyond that, the tightly-bound form of Lady Vantyev swayed eerily in the webbing before toppling against Kayleigh and getting stuck there. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she stopped moving, her thin, belabored breath occasionally caressing Kayleigh’s cheek.
Kayleigh gave one last mighty struggle that only tightened the threads that bound her before accepting her fate. Lady Vantyev spasmed and then a contented smile crossed the older woman’s face. ”Welcome…to my…nightmare….” the noblewoman wheezed.
Kayleigh’s last ounce of willpower oozed out of her like pus from some nasty red rash, and she gave in to the shiver’s whispered promise of numbing oblivion. That’s when her dream got really weird….
Nebbin scratches furtively at his neck, which seems to be itching abominably right now. He glances at Kayleigh and notices her furtive attempts to scratch at her own rash.
I think I'm just itching because she is, he thinks. I mean, I don't feel sick so I can't be sick, right?
Maybe it's just being in this house. I can see why Tassira left. It's ... like a big boulder just kind of lurking on your shoulder, with nothing to do and nothing's good enough. And I'm useless here. I can't really beat up Shiver, or make Tassira's mom stop using it. Just like always, all I'm really good for is carrying things.
He slumps against a wall, not sure what else he can do to help.
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Tassira's night is also one of restless turning. Being back in her childhood bed, she tries to surround herself with the good memories of growing up here and ride those into a sleepful oblivion. But in every case her memories of the past slide down the chute of recent experiences and degrade into thoughts of the present day. Still, sleep does eventually overtake her in the small hours and her mind drifts...
She finds herself walking the nightmare streets of Korvosa. The sky is an unsettling shade of burnt pink and all the familiar street and building angles seem wrong. The moon hangs low in the night sky, off-color and distorted. Other citizens walk the street, dazed by their surroundings and unresponsive to Tassira's attempts to get their attention.
She picks out a harmless looking woman who walks along the curb in a state of vague horror. She calls to the woman - steps in her way and waves her hands to get her attention, but the woman sees through her, steps around her and proceeds to shuffle aimlessly down the street.
Tassira turns her back in frustration and scans the street for someone familiar, or even just a stranger who seems more wakeful. Behind her she hears a terrific crack and she spins around to see the street house right itself, having bent over and slammed its facade into the street, crushing the old woman behind her to a disgusting broken pulp.
She flees in horror down streets suddenly unfamiliar. Above the buildings that face her street she can see the rooftops of the other houses of Korvosa moving around, rearranging themselves. She stops in confusion trying to regain her bearings. A pack of dogs runs by on the opposite side of the street. They trail wisps of black smoke or ether behind them and they struggle each to overtake the lead animal. This front beast holds a red chunk of something in its mouth. As they pass, Tassira moves out into their wake and sees a patter of blood behind them. The drops sizzle and smoke on the street and soon disappear.
She turns back in the direction of her flight, trying to remember where it was she was supposed to be going. West she decides, towards he family home, but at the next intersection when she goes to turn west, she finds a roadway filled with spider webs. From the street to the rooftop they seal away the street. Another block south she finds the same. All the streets that would take her home are cluttered with the web.
Tassira turns around in the nightmare street, trying to reason her way through the puzzle that her sleeping mind has presented her with, but she's hopelessly lost and frightened. She retreats to the shadows of an alley and watches the other pedestrians move their way down the perilous road. Another pedestrian walks by, right across the mouth of her alleyway, and as she's watching he steps right into the web and begins to struggle. Her eyes follow the vibrating strands of webbing, up and up, impossibly high.
Suddenly Tassira perceives that moon in its true form. It is the abdomen of some great spiderous monstrosity. Its huge legs tower over the city, supporting the hideous moon body above. Starlight reflects off the chitinous scales on the huge thing's back. It stirs in its slumber, a huge tarsus at the end of one of those ponderous legs shifts just a bit, and suddenly the air is filled with the wailing voices of all the other folks around her. She herself is suddenly paralyzed by a terrible, unreasoning fear that the beast is waking up.
Tassira wakes with a start to the sound of her own screaming.
Covered in a cold sweat, throat parched, wild-eyed and trembling, Tassira clutches her bedsheets to herself and tries to catch her breath.
"...bloody moon spider..." She mumbles to herself as she starts looking for her clothes and cat.
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Someone was nearby. Kayleigh tried to open her eyes but couldn’t. Or was it wouldn’t? The priestess felt warm and snug and cozy…wherever she was.
”I can’t believe this. I trusted her to care for my mother, and here we find her, senseless on a shiver high…and from my mother’s own stash!”
”Remember how she preached to us never to use the stuff again?” another voice interjected. ”What a hypocrite!” After a long silence, the second voice added, ”Look—she didn’t take it all; there are a few vials left.”
Tassira? Emileva?
”It’s an awful temptation, just seeing the stuff lying there, within arm’s reach. I wondered why she didn’t just destroy the stuff when she found it.”
”Well, I guess now you know: She wanted it for herself. Some friend. She knows we’ve both been addicted to the stuff before…yet she leaves it right here for us to find. And I still can’t believe she couldn’t cure my blindness back in the warrens. She can’t fight a lick, has poor Nebbin running ragged trying to protect her sorry ass…was it really too much to have a spell prepared to remove blindness? And if that wasn’t bad enough, then she makes me have to kill that golem on my own…while blind! With a friend like that, who needs enemies?”
”Emi…I…I’m not feeling very strong right now. Maybe…maybe just one last dose…one last trip…wouldn’t be so bad? I hurt so much right now, with my brother’s murder, my mother on death’s doorstep, and…and Kayleigh betraying my trust in her.”
Kayleigh’s stupor cleared just a bit. She knew she had to warn her friends not to partake of this incredibly potent batch of shiver. She ran her tongue over the roof of her parched mouth and lips and tried to speak. ”…take…the…shiver….”
There was supposed to have been a “Don’t” at the start of that sentence, but somehow with her dry mouth, her vocal cords hadn’t been able to produce that word.
Kayleigh heard Emi scoff. ”That’s very thoughtful of you, giving away stuff that doesn’t belong to you in the first place! Very caring as well, as you know we’re both former addicts. You’re unbelievable, and you’re no friend to either of us.”
The Milanite forced her eyes open just in time to catch a bleary glimpse of Tassira handing a vial of shiver to Emi. Wordlessly, they popped the corks, raised the vials to their lips, and drank deeply. Then they stood like a pair of statues, letting the drug do its work. Try as she might, Kayleigh couldn’t fully focus her eyes, but she thought she saw a third shadowy figure before her, standing between Tassira and Emileva, holding a hand of each.
”Yes, forget her,” the figure told Emi. ”You still have old friends who care deeply for you.” Although she’d never met him, Kayleigh recognized the middle person to be Ansel, Emi’s old lover and a shiver pusher.
”And new friends who would do anything—anything—for you,” the middle figure, now the voluptuous Helvara, cooed into Tassira’s ear. The speaker—Ansel one moment, Helvara the next, a strange mix of both a bit later—took each of her friends in a tender (or was it lustful?) embrace. How long it lasted Kayleigh couldn’t be sure, but she knew something was terribly wrong, that her friends were in grave danger. She tried to focus on the morphing figure, struggling to remember. How many damned arms does that thing have, anyways? she found herself wondering.
Her eyes fluttered open in sudden recognition, darting about in a panic, and she rasped a single word: “…web….” By that time, of course, it was too late: The spidery thing that was neither Ansel nor Helvara had swiftly cocooned both Tassira and Emileva from neck to toes, just as Kayleigh herself was hopelessly bound.
Later (Days? Minutes? Minutes seemed more likely.), a familiar voice and battle call powered past Kayleigh’s drug haze and into her subconscious: “Hey! Leave them alone!” Nebbin had again come to her rescue…and likely to his doom. Kayleigh vaguely wondered what form the master of the web would take to beguile the big warrior…though deep down, she already knew. Indeed, the webbing binding her sloughed away…except for a few lines that manipulated her drug-addled body like a living puppet.
”Kayleigh! Are you all right? What happened to Emi and Tassi? Shouldn’t we cut them loose?”
”In a minute, Nebbin” the priestess heard her own voice reply. ”But we don’t want you to infect them with the same rash I accidentally gave you. Sorry about that, by the way. Luckily, I found an antidote that will heal you right up!”
”But Kayleigh…this is Lady Vantyev’s shiver.”
”No, it’s not. That’s what they wanted us to think! Devilishly clever of them. Drink it down—it’ll stop the spread of the rash. Actually, drink two—you’re big enough that a single dose might not cure you. Then I’ll put some bandages over the rash and you’ll be good as new in no time!”
”OK, if you say so….” Those were the last words Nebbin spoke before the drug separated the big warrior from his senses. Unable to resist her marionette, Kayleigh felt herself uncork another vial of the drug and lift it to her lips. Moments later, the spidery puppet-master yanked her body upward and wrapped it in a fresh cocoon. Just as oblivion claimed her, the priestess heard a very distant Nebbin gently complain, ”I think that’s enough bandages, Kayleigh—I can hardly move.”
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When Kayleigh awakens from her unintended nap, she feels horribly disoriented. The itch of her mysterious rash assails her anew, her sweat-soaked robe clinging to her like freshly-spun spider webbing….
That metaphoric thought gets her out of bed in a flash, kicking, thrashing, and shrieking. When folks rush in to check on her, Kayleigh shakily says that a bug had crawled across her in bed, freaking her out.
It had all been a dream…or had it? Twice before—during times of great emotional strife—she’d experienced particularly vivid dreams that she was certain were (at least in part) visions bestowed upon her by Milani. This latest dream had been similar, but she sensed no guidance from her goddess in it. Her thoughts drift back to the dream she’d had shortly after the senseless slaughter in the Temple of Aroden. With a pang of sorrow, she recalls the horrid image of Neziana murdered in some dark alley, her cat playing with a removed eyeball. That had come true, to some extent—Neziana had been murdered, and she and her friends had few clues to the culprit.
Wait a minute! Her cat….
”Tassira—what happens to a wizard’s familiar when its master dies?” Kayleigh excitedly demands of the mageling, her eyes feverish and perhaps a bit mad. ”Does it retain its intelligence? If so, we need to track down Neziana’s familiar: It may be able to help us identify her killer…maybe even lead us to him!”
Kayleigh glances around the chamber in confusion or perhaps paranoia; then she seems to calm down and remember where she’s at and what she’s pledged to do.
”That can wait until after I’ve healed your mother and everyone else, of course,” the priestess concludes softly. Then she furrows her brow and inquires, ”How long have I been asleep? And where are Regeris and Emileva?”
Once she's gotten dressed (and found Ravnos), Tassira finally emerges to address Kayleigh. She stops cold when she sees the feverish look in her eyes... and the worsening rash on her body.
"...I..." She swallows. "...I'm not sure. The best I can guess is that they revert to being ordinary animals."
"I think Regeris and Emi are at the temple--I know Regeris will be, at least. Call it a hunch." She shakes her head. "Kayleigh... when did you get that rash?"
"I first noticed it yesterday, shortly after arriving here and treating your mother," Kayleigh says of the rash, looking mildly aggravated that her revelation about Nezi's familiar is apparently yet another non-contribution from her to the party's efforts.
"It's spread quite a bit since then...though I don't feel any weaker...only itchier. And I seem to be sweatier than normal."
Tassira's eyes widen. "...oh, no..."
She shakes her head again, clearing her head of lingering cobwebs. "Well, whatever it is, once you've asked Milani for her favour in healing Mother, you're going straight to a healer. I swear, if Mother caught whatever it is you have..."
She sucks in a breath and shakes her head again, thinking of possible places for Kayleigh to go for healing...
Once she's out of bed Emi throws on some clothes and quietly pads out of the room, leaving Tiora to sleep as long as she will. She wanders down to the kitchen and puts some water on to boil for tea.
She feels good. Catching up on sleep is helping, even with the disquieting dream during the night before. She doesn't give the dream much thought. After all, the past few days had been difficult so releasing the stress through dreams is very ordinary. It does make her realize how little she's thought of Ansel lately. Emi has rapidly moved on to bigger and better things in her life, even if it is sometimes a mixed bag.
The most remarkable thing about the dream to her was its vividness. It was reminiscent of a shiver dream, although in her own experience at least shiver dreams had not been frightening or unpleasant.
Her thoughts quickly wander on as she waits for the water. First there is the question of what to do with the day. Emi expects Tassira, Kayleigh, and Nebbin to back sometime during the day, and she hopes it's not too late into it. She really wants to get the Eel End business taken care of. She would almost just go ahead with it, but Emi feels going alone wouldn't be a great idea. She also wants to visit Vencarlo again. It would be a full night away though, which is out of the question without more people at the temple.
Regeris will also probably have plans, so they have to figure things out when he shows himself. Emi also wonders how patient Tiora will be. When Tiora comes to mind, the thing Emi ruminates on is the woman's sudden, rather visceral interest in Milani. Tiora expresses an amount of emotional connection that puzzles Emi, and honestly makes her feel a little uncomfortable. Sure, not everyone is the same, but she has never felt anything remotely like what Tiora seems to feel, and she wonders if that makes her odd.
Regeris barely sleeps, his mind endlessly circling the increasing paranoia he's feeling about being watched. By the time he's about to sleep, it's morning and time for prayers. He eventually joins Emi as an exhausted, troubled wreck, blinking at her out of hollow sleepless eyes.
"Ughrmmm.. morning," he settles in to start putting on his gear. "We need to rejoin with the others soon, I pray things went well with Tassira's family. We need to compare notes and plan our next actions... in the meantime I'm tempted to visit that bar. I'd prefer to question the staff before the trail grows cold. I'm open to suggestions though. What about you?"
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Vantyev Estate, The Following Morning
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Kayleigh had decided that she wasn’t interested in experiencing any more crazy dreams, and if that meant staying up all night, so be it. Restorative touch was a wonderful power! Milani be praised! Even with magic to combat her fatigue, the priestess did briefly nod off twice. The first time, she dreamed that Ravnos wandered into her room missing most of her fur, a red rash running rampant on the exposed skin. The familiar glared at her as only a cat can and hissed accusingly. The second time, Kayleigh’d found Lady Vantyev’s bony hands squeezing her throat in an attempt to strangle her; a mighty head-butt from the priestess had sent the old broad spiraling away, likely back to her own nightmares.
Before Lorne had retired for the evening, Kayleigh had asked—nay, begged—the butler for the use of a bath. The next morning, after not finding Kayleigh in her assigned room, the butler and her two friends discovered the diseased teen still in the bathroom. The entirety of the tiled floor was covered with watery smears of blood. An even bloodier white robe lay in one corner. And in the tub in the center of the room—a tub filled almost to the brim with bloody water—Kayleigh sat motionless, her lifeless eyes staring forward but without focus. Much of her face, shoulders, arms, and chest were covered with shallow furrows, where the teen had apparently scratched away her own skin. A silver chain hung from her neck, the holy symbol of Milani hidden beneath the murky red water.
Kayleigh’s body suddenly spasmed, causing a small wave of water to crest the tub’s edge and splash onto the floor. Her eyes focused on the butler and her friends, her mind and consciousness returning to the present from wherever they’d been a few moments previously.
”Good morning,” Kayleigh says rather stupidly. Suddenly becoming aware of her torn-up condition, the priestess raises one hand and stammers, ”Wait—this isn’t as bad as it looks. I found a way to lessen the itch..by scratching! When the bleeding gets too bad….” The priestess pulls her rose-shaped holy symbol up from the depths of her bloodbath and murmurs a prayer to Milani; a moment later, a burst of healing energy flashes through the room.
”See? Good as new!” she sits up a little straighter in the tub. Indeed, the frightful self-inflicted scratches have healed, for the most part, but the fiery red rash shows no sign of abating.
”You caught me in the middle of my morning prayers,” Kayleigh explains, her eyes losing some of their focus and turning to Tassira. ”Once I’m done, I’ll cast spells to cure whatever disease I caught in the warrens and unwittingly gave to your mother and Nebbin.”
Her gaze shifts to Nebbin. He looks like he’s in serious distress, his face as red as a beet. Holy Roses! His rash has really taken a turn for the worse overnight! the healer in Kayleigh thinks. A moment later, the woman in Kayleigh hits upon the truth of the matter. With a squealing yip, the naked girl tries to submerge herself as much as possible into the red water, waving at Nebbin and Lorne to leave, causing another larger tsunami to splash over the tub’s edge and wash across the floor.
”Scoot! NOW! Both of you!” the embarrassed girl shouts. To Nebbin she yells an apologetic, ”I’ll heal you up shortly!” Once the men have left, she turns again to Tassira.
”Could you do me a really big favor and magic my robe clean? From a distance! I’m pretty sure the thing’s infectious by now, too. Thanks.”
Kayleigh offers Tassira a smile, but it’s the same forced smile her mother sometimes gives her…especially when she’s waking off a shiver high. ”Once I heal this disease I’ve spread, I’ll use my last remove disease spell to throw off your mother’s addiction. Everything will be good again and we can leave this place and go back to the temple.” This time there’s something about Kayleigh’s tone that reminds her again of her mother…who hasn’t always been entirely forthcoming with her only daughter.
Again dressed in her borrowed robe, Kayleigh gathers her two friends. Taking a deep breath, Kayleigh addresses them…or perhaps she’s talking to someone else not in the room.
”I apologize to you both, and to your family, Tassira,” the priestess begins. ”I was a fool. In my own arrogance, I misdiagnosed what was wrong with me. Between marching through the burial caverns and sewers and getting pounded a bit by that cadaver golem, I made a false assumption that I’d picked up some relatively minor disease like filth fever, and I made my treatment choices while operating under that false assumption. Filth fever is communicable through touch, but usually only if the person touched has an open wound. That might explain how I passed whatever’s ailing me on to your mother, Tassira, but not how Nebbin came down with it as well—I’ve been careful not to have any contact with either of you.”
”Which leads me to the conclusion that I misdiagnosed whatever disease is afflicting me. It’s obviously airborne, which is…very concerning to me. I need to change the way I’ve been treating it. Tassira—we need to set up a sick ward, probably in your mother’s bedchamber, and keep me, Nebbin, and your mother isolated so we can’t spread this sickness. I’ll need a few supplies—towels, salves, poultices and the like—to treat this sickness by hand. I was arrogant in assuming that Milani and the spells she granted me would clear everything up; now I see that I need to do my part to make sure the afflicted are still alive when Milani again finds me worthy of her blessing and her spells heal us.”
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Vantyev Estate
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The four of you, Lady Vantyev included, sit and nap miserably through the day at the quiet estate. Lorne brings food and water as it's requested.
As for nearby temples, the closest is Asmodeus, of course. Shelyn's is in the middle of the city. Abadar is across town. Pharasma perhaps farthest of all. They're all a pretty long walk. Tassira's father is perpetually out with the carriage, and most of the city streets are closed anyway.
Kayleigh and Nebbin remain in their present state of sick. Nebbin is bothered by the rash and has a headache. Kayleigh's rash is more serious and her coughing and head-ache are self-reinforcing. Her prayers keep the disease from worsening, but in the afternoon Lady Vantyev begins coughing as well.
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Temple of Aroden
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The tavern that Regeris discovered is about half-way to the Vantyev estate. Tiora hangs about on the morning of Gozran 25 to see what Emileva and Regeris are doing with their day.
Tassira gives a weary sigh. "Kayleigh..."
"...I don't think your prayers are working." She looks out a window after using some magic to clean her friend's robes. "I know you're doing your best, but I don't know if your power will be enough to cure whatever you contracted."
"I'm going to the Temple of Shelyn. I'll stop and get the others along the way--let them know what's happened. Hopefully, the Shelynites will be able to assist us in curing your diseases."
Ravnos gives Kayleigh, Nebbin and Lady Vantyev a somber, feline look before hopping into Tassira's backpack with a "Meow."
"In the meantime, do what you can to keep everyone from getting worse." She then turns to Lorne. "Keep an eye on them while I'm gone, please."
With that, Tassira heads out for a breath of fresh air and to pick up Regeris and Emi.
Kayleigh simply stares at Tassira when the mage spells out her plans, giving a quick nod that she'll do what she can to keep the sick from getting worse. It seems like she wants to say something but doesn't. She turns to Nebbin and does the exact same thing.
"I don't like the thought of you walking alone all the way to the Temple of Aroden," the priestess finally says to Tassira. "If you insist on going, I'd feel better if Nebbin accompanied you...but I don't want him out on the streets potentially infecting anyone who gets too close to him."
She gives Nebbin a brief look before continuing.
"Everything I've done these past few days...every decision I've made...they've all gone wrong. So I'm going to shut my mouth and let each of you decide what your heart tells you to do...and live with whatever consequences those decisions bring."
Folding her arms across her chest, Kayleigh again addresses Tassira. "As for the Shelynites: If you feel the need to bring them in to treat your mother and/or Nebbin, then do what you must. I won't be letting them treat me, however."
Although she's trying to hide it, Kayleigh's extremely frustrated, to the point of angry. Whether she's angry at herself for her inability to heal anyone or at you for insinuating that the party healer's so incompetent that you need to bring in a real healer to heal her is difficult to say; maybe a bit of both.
Tassira doesn't notice the undercurrent of anger in Kayleigh's voice as she leaves.
Nebbin looks back and forth between the two women as they decide what they're going to do for the day. He knows he should stay, but there's so little for him to do here. He's pretty much useless when it comes to helping people who are sick -- able to do nothing but pace back and forth, which isn't helping anyone do anything.
It's dangerous out there -- he can't really just let Tassira go out alone. Maybe he'll spread whatever this itchiness is, but ... if he just holds his breath, that'll probably mean everyone's safe. The trip isn't that long.
Nodding, he finalizes his decision and reclaims his gear to follow Tassira out into the streets.
"I'm going to try not to talk," he tells her, "so I don't spread this to anyone else with breathing."
Point made, he takes several gulps of air, in and out, before inhaling once more, filling his lungs to their utter limit and heading out with the best of intentions.
As the door closes behind him, he scratches an itch along his rib cage.
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Tassira looks down in thought for a moment.
"Nebbin, have you ever been to the Temple of Shelyn before? I think one of the priests there might be able to help you."
Emi pours Regeris a cup of tea when he shows up. He looks like he needs it.
"Rough night? You look like you haven't slept much."
She nods in agreement when Regeris mentions what he wants out of the day.
"If you want to go by yourself or take Tiora along, you're free to go back to that tavern whenever you like. When I talked to Master Orisini yesterday he didn't press me about seeing Devargo Barvasi immediately. It's probably something I could do on my own, but I'm hoping Tassira might be willing to go with me. Her particular way with persuading people could be very helpful. Also she has Madame Helvara's favor, which couldn't hurt at Eel's End."
"I expect they'll be back sometime today. Kayleigh was very successful with Carawyn's problem. It didn't take much longer than a couple of days. Until then I can keep an eye on things here."
"Rough night? You look like you haven't slept much."
"I never sleep much, and there's an awful lot to dwell on right now."
He listens for a moment before going on in his raspy voice. "Although this is just buying some information, my instinct is the more of us that go to Eel's End, the better. Barvasi is a powerful player in this city and I'd like to get a read of him. But... use your best judgement. I'm probably over-cautious at this point."
Regeris glances over to Tiora. "Want to go question some bar staff? The tavern is halfway to the Vantyev estate so we can be here and back before the others return."
Kayleigh's initially surprised that Nebbin chooses to accompany Tassira rather than stay with her, but in the end is quite content with his choice. The more responsible and selfless thing to do would've been to stay in quarantine, just in case this affliction were highly contagious; the needs of the many outweighing the needs of the few. That's how the healer in Kayleigh reasoned it.
But Nebbin had seen the other side of the coin: That allowing Tassira to go out alone into the streets during these troubled times--especially with her brother's murderer still on the loose--was the wrong thing to do. Friends watched each other's backs...and the teen was secretly pleased Tassira and Nebbin didn't heed her 'doctor's orders' in this instance.
Before he leaves, Kayleigh treats Nebbin's rash for about 10 minutes and suggests that he wear a handkerchief over his nose and mouth to avoid potentially spreading the sickness through breathing.
"As a bonus, you get to look like a roguish bandit for a few hours!" she joked, but her chuckle quickly turned into a series of wracking coughs. "I'll be fine while you're both gone."
After her friends depart, Kayleigh spends over three hours painstakingly caring for the poor noblewoman she's infected with the persistent disease. Then she decides to head to the bath Lorne had set up for her the previous night. With Nebbin off her long-term patient list, she has some free time to treat herself. To help take her mind off the infernal itching, the priestess decides to read some of the journals recovered from the Dead Warrens. After filling the tub via create water spells, the exhausted young woman climbs in, occasionally making another casting to pour over her head and shoulders. The itchies kept at bay for the moment, Kayleigh begins to flip through her reading materials.
Nebbin -- realizing he can't hold his breath for the entire trip despite his best intentions -- shakes his head at Tassira's question.
"I don't think so," he says. "They don't really have much use for someone like me there. But I guess if they can help. It's more important that they can help Kayleigh, though. She looked really itchy -- not that I was looking! I don't want you to think anything like that!"
"I'd be happy if more people were going to Eel's End. But I can't imagine all of us in one place without something more pressing to do anytime soon, and I can't wait forever."
Regeris nods once. "Well in that case, this tavern isn't exactly a major concern - just a potential lead. How about the three of us go to Eel's End and sort this out with Barvasi now?"
Regardless of how Emi responds, Regeris carefully checks the exterior of the temple for anyone watching their movements.
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Temple of Aroden / Streets of Old Korvosa
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Emileva, Regeris and Tiora discuss the priorities and lack of contact with the rest of the group and resolve to kill two birds with one stone by going first to the tavern that Regeris discovered the previous day, then continuing on to the Vantyev family home to restore contact with their friends. Tiora straps on the blades and armor Emi gave her, along with a hooded cloak from the temple stores that effectively obscures her identity as much as possible.
The streets of Bridgefront are filled with people as the group makes its way down Wave street. A couple of blocks along their way they come upon an all too familiar scene.
The Pharasmin's Wain stands on the right shoulder of the street. A pair of guards in their red chequer cloaks mill about outside of a multi-story tenement building, keeping an eye on the crowd as they pass by the scene of a guard's investigation. One of them catches Emi's eye as she walks past and hails her.
The guards are from the Old Dock garrison and they remember Emi from the take down of the cannibalistic butcher shop, and the subsequent help the party gave in re-establishing their own garrison. They tell the party of commander's Grau's mission to extend the umbrella of the law's protection into the Bridgefront district, to seek out guard members from the old garrison, and to reorganize the guard's presence in Bridgefront, the largest district in Old Korvosa.
As Emi and Regeris stand there talking, bodies start to come out of the building borne by guardsmen and Pharasmin priests. There's twelve of them in all. Young men - street toughs - all of them taken apart by violence and magic. Many of the corpses bear the blows of a heavy blade. Some are burned. Three are so covered in spider webs that it's difficult to tell what violence laid them low.
As the group bids the guardsmen farewell, Tiora rejoins you from her perch under the eaves of a nearby building.
"Gang war I'd wager," she says simply as you continue down Wave Street together. "Those boys who were killed - those were members of a gang I used to know - one that we were on good terms with. They're shiver dealers, or at least they were shiver dealers. The gangs used to respect each other's turf - each one was given a jurisdiction by the Society and they used to play nice with one another. With chaos in the streets and no guard to stabilize things, I guess those days are in the past?" She shakes her head and follows Regeris and Emi away from the scene.
You find the alehouse very much as Regeris left it. The waitress shows no signs at all of recognizing Regeris when he tactfully asks about the revelry and revelers of the previous afternoon. After a tip of several silvers she gets friendlier.
"Yeah, tough lot weren't they? Hadn't seen them before yesterday. They made a deal of noise that might have scared off some other patrons, but the quiet one was very free with his silver so we let them have their fun." The inflexion of her voice is enough of a clue for him, and Regeris slips her the sum again in silver. Her voice lowers conspiratorially and she continues.
"The quiet one was wearing an Asmodean's cloak, but I'd not seen him before. And the house of the devil is just up the road. But the others - my man tending bar over there said they were roughnecks he knew of from somewhere in Slope. Told me to be on my guard when waiting that table."
She pockets the coin with a smile and moves on to other tables, leaving the three to move on to Tassira's Family home.
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Vantyev Estate
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Tassira passes her time helping her mother and her friends. She switches around her spells to help her positively identify all the items the party had recovered from the necromancer's hideout and also to translate dark scrawlings in the margins of the recovered texts.
The volume is an illustrated catalog of comparative human anatomy. The after market editorials are mostly little notes and dates of variances found and described. The notes become more regular in the last chapter of the volume, where the subject turns to the art of anthropomancy - divining signs and secrets from the conditions of corpses. The text stretches into the realm of ritual and impressment and interrogation of spirits. The illustrations remind you all of the condition you found the shoanti corpse in. The last page is signed in another, larger hand. It's the author of the book, Randolphus Penderghast.
The thin journal from the alchemy lab room is filled with charts of numbers with small sections of notes. A study of them leads Tassira to conclude that these are dosage quantities for some regiment of drug treatment used to control memories and access to them. There's a some kind of formula here that a trained alchemist might be able to reason out.
Nebbin, Kayleigh and Lady Vantyev spend their days secluded from the others in the house, and while Kayleigh and Nebbin's symptoms remain the same, Lady Vantyev's fever deepens so that it does not break at any part of the day. Her rash spreads all over her body and some of her worst patches of rash begin weeping.
When the temple crew arrives at the estate, Tassira explains to them the state of their quarantine and the need to continue it. The party comes to agreement that the others cannot pass the evening at the manor, but rather would return to the Temple of Aroden and seek out magical scrolls from allied churches to aid Kayleigh in her treatments the next day.
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Temple of Aroden
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Emileva wakes in her cell after another night of very vivid dreams. The vague dread of some unremembered part of the dream haunts the young woman as she dresses and joins the other temple residents busy with meal preparations. Talking to Carawyn, she's surprised to find that the young orphan's nights have been haunted by dreams very similar to her own. As the meal preparations are almost complete, Tiora appears armed and ready for the street.
"I'm going out," she announces to Emi with a slight smile. "Time to get the lay of the land - see if I can look after some things. That scene yesterday reminded me of how much I don't know about the streets right now."
Emileva and Regeris follow her out into the morning just a little later, intent on visiting churches until a scroll of Remove Disease may be found. As they step out into the square, however, they can tell that something doesn't feel right. It's more than the cool blanket of grey that covers the city or the banks of low, torn clouds that scud by quickly over the rooftops. The streets are quieter as the the pair wind their way to check first at the Temple of Abadar. They're surprised to find a large crowd milling about the steps of the Bank. A long line winds out of one of the side doors, and it's here that the priest tries to direct you when he hears what you seek.
"Friend, you can forget getting a scroll for any price here this morning. There's some pestilence that's infected the streets and all this lot from across the narrows are here to buy prayers. The best they'll do is put your name on a list and you'll be eligible for a prayer when the priests can get to you. Such services are not cheap, so you will want to make sure you possess coin or credit to cover the service when your name is called."
Turning away in disappointment, Regeris and Emi steer instead for the Shrine of Shelyn, but they find much the same situation there. The priests exhausted their last prepared scroll on a victim from their congregation who came to them in the middle of the night. None of the healers there will venture on the identity of the disease yet. They say that it must play out in its first victims before distinguishing symptoms may emerge. But its apparent ease of transmission marks it as pandemic. They advise going back to your home and locking yourselves up together for a few days while the bug plays itself out.
They take time while out among the markets to price and purchase any supplies or equipment they may need, then make their way around the Citadel Hill to the Vanytev home.
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Vantyev Estate
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As the dawn breaks on the new day, Tassira feels stretched to her limits. Anything any of her three patients needed fell to her to get, and she's been up for much of the night. Kayeigh comes out of her own room only long enough to pray over Lady Vantyev and see her efforts go to nothing. Her patient would be stronger, as much of the symptomatic damage of the addiction disease is healed by Kayleigh's prayers. But the racking cough and worsening skin rash sap away some of the strength that was returned to her.
She returns to her room determined to pray harder and do better tomorrow, but by the evening hours her own fever intrudes on every thought. She does what she can with superficial healings to limit the places where the rash is opening, but cannot help being disgusted with her own diseased body as she treats herself. The one grace is that Nebbin's symptoms remain in their most minor forms.
The party again briefly unites in the foyer of the estate. Tassira cannot help but be disappointed that no help from other churches is forthcoming. She vows to redouble her efforts the next day to help her friends and family defeat the disease. Emi and Regeris return to the temple later that evening and are happy to find the place disease free.
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Vantyev Estate
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Kayleigh rises with the sun, though she wouldn't know it to look out her window. Rain falls unevenly, pattering the dark pane as she makes her prayers and gathers her powers for the day. Concentration is a chore in her current state, with a pounding headache, a maddening itch, and a needling sense of self-loathing at her own worsening blisters. Her disease has advanced over night and it's really only her prayers that allow her to function.
Kneeling at Lady Vantyev's fever-wracked bedside, Kayleigh pushes herself through the prayer to its rightful end and feels the release of the goddess's power channeling through her. Without examining the lady of the house she knows she's purged the disease. Kayleigh whispers thanks and refocuses her next prayer upon herself. Again, the healing power of Milani channels into her, burning the disease from her limbs in a flash of heat and pressure, and leaving the priestess exhausted. She throws open the chamber windows while the rain outside has paused, letting the cool, sea-scented wind into the room. As it blows through her hair and stirs the curtains of Lady Vantyev's bed she can feel the malevolent presence of the disease dissolve from the room.
She moves on to Nebbin's treatment, and is joined by Tassira who's very relieved to see Kayleigh upright and the correct color. Nebbin's rash has spread to cover his entire frame and his fever is sky high. Kayleigh reaches out again with a prayer of Remove Disease, but this time she fails to burn it away. She musters her strength and tries again, but comes to the same result.
Kayleigh spends the rest of her prayers restoring vitality to all three of the stricken. With her strength mostly restored she redoubles her efforts managing her remaining patients. Lady Vantyev sleeps fitfully despite no longer being infected by the disease. She seems tormented by dreams, and while Kayleigh wants to wake and reassure her, she's afraid that a waking Lady Vantyev will crave.
A knock at the door interrupts her treatment.
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Temple of Aroden
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Once the priests of Aroden come to understand the threat of the infectious pestilence, they lead a check of all the children for symptoms of rash or cough. Regeris helps evaluate the boys, Emileva the girls, before they wrap themselves in cloaks and dive out into the elements to touch base with the folks in quarantine and to pick up provisions for the temple. Their journey across the city is eave-to-eave, jumping over flowing street gutter torrents and dashing through spots where the rainfall comes through the overlapping coverage of the clustered buildings. The rain has mostly stopped as they emerge from the Guard tower and start their way up the hill toward the Vantyev estate and across more open streets.
Rejoined again at the estate, everyone's encouraged by Kayleigh's successes of the morning. The party cross references their findings - the one divulging the notes from the journals, the other the state of the city. After they've had a chance to make counsel, Regeris and Emileva take advantage of another gap in the rain to make their way back across town to the temple.
A quick detour leads the two of them to the Reefclaw Run Market, where rain and sickness have dampened but not extinguished business. Goods are clustered under cover wherever possible and the crowd picks their way among the muddy paths as best they might. Regeris is able to secure some produce for dinner without too much peril to his boots. Of course the sickness is a common subject to all the small talk in the square. Every cleared throat and half-cough draws staring eyes from faces covered by veils and bandanas. At a fishmonger's stall there's an active argument about the rumored plague ship that the city guard sank in the river.
Two other people picking through potatoes pass the time railing against the bankers of Abadar for continuing to sell their services at such a time, profiting from the grief of the city, and excluding the poor from the benefit of their care. It's their own just deserts if the rumors are half-true and the bankers themselves have been hit particularly hard by the disease. Regeris's ears prick up to that rumor but there doesn't seem to be anything more to it.
The two finish their shopping and hurry back to the shelter of the temple. When they get there, they find Tiora drying herself out in front of a fire in the kitchen. She moves over to make space for two more, and spends her time before bed asking Regeris teasing questions about his past and his conversion to Milani's worship.
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Vantyev Estate
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The following day dawns overcast again but the rain holds off. Refreshed by a deep sleep without fever or itch, Kayleigh pours renewed strength into her prayers and feels ready to burst with healing energy as she walks into Nebbin's room. The big warrior has degraded in condition to the point that she was the morning before. He's completely unconscious as Kayleigh completes the prayer that purges the menace from his blood.
When Lorne hears that the house is finally free of the infestation he calls in other members of the house staff to carefully remove the bedclothes where they can be burnt and sets the staff to cleansing the rooms. When Kayleigh and Tassira find Lady Vantyev she is sitting at her small table in front of the window, looking out at the gloomy morning. She wears a bathrobe, and in her shaking fingers she holds an empty shiver vial. She looks up at the two younger women as they walk into her room and smiles thinly at them. She offers them the vial with shaking fingers.
"Don't worry," she says quietly, "it was empty."
She draws a shuddering breath and stares back out the window. When Kayleigh comes up behind her and places her hands on the woman's shoulders, she tenses. As the prayer completes, Milani's power is unleashed in a flare that burns away the disease of addiction. Lady Vantyev lets out a long, measured exhale.
Downstairs there's a knock on the door.
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Temple of Aroden
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The morning is just as overcast and gloomy across town at the Temple of Aroden. It begins, surprisingly enough well before dawn with a tapping at the door. Only Garlan is up early enough to have seen the visitor, so by the time Regeris and Emi are up there's simply a letter waiting for them. The letter is not addressed. Within you find a single sheet of paper containing a short and cryptic invitation to a council, at your convenience, at the Cathedral of Pharasma. The letter is signed by Keppira D'Bear.
"I had it from a Pharasmin's hand, who came up here under cover of dark to deliver it," Garlan says, as you look over the letter.
Outside the persistant cloud cover has prevented any of yesterday's rain from evaporating, and the falling dews of the morning have the gutters running again. There are people in the street whose cries infuse a new current of fear through the crowd. Beggars, asking not for alms, but for succor from the fever running through the streets. The desperation of Bridgefront maginifies all sorrows, and a subsequent stroll through the avenues of the Heights does much to settle the nerves of the pair, but the some of the scenes in the alleys of Bridgefront this morning underscore for them the gravity of the crisis in the slum. The trip across the city is grim and silent.
Sometime in the mid morning of Gozran the 28th, the party is finally reunited and healthy again. Tassira has sent a messenger to inform her father that the disease has been driven out of his wife and his home. Fearing any further entanglement with her family at this moment, she urges her friends through the process of restowing their things and making to leave.
As the party puts their backs to the Vantyev family home, Tassira looks down at the small object in her hand. She's not seen that spider logo before it showed up all over these little vials in her mother's possession, but there's a spider that haunts her dreams, and her intuition tells her a connection exists there somewhere. She closes her hand back over the little clue, and breathes a little inward sigh of relief that it's empty.
Nebbin takes a deep breath -- almost inadvertently -- as he leaves, though he immediately looks around, concerned he could get sick again.
Poor Tassira. That's a bad house. Everyone in it seems to be sick with ... something. We just went in to help, and we almost didn't come back out. If Kayleigh hadn't been able to help us...
He looks at the young priestess, face flushing as he admires her leadership and skill. He wouldn't have known what to do at all in that circumstance, and probably would have died. He didn't get sick a lot -- he makes a quick sign to ward off Urgathoa's attention as he thinks it -- and he doesn't particularly like it.
"So should we go see what they want at the cathedral?" he asks. "Or I guess we can go to the Eel's End..."
Kayleigh was happy to finally escape the Vantyev Estate. Tassira’s mother had been cured of her shiver addiction; the strange disease that Kayleigh had spread to both Nebbin and the noblewoman had likewise finally been eradicated. The priestess was spent, body and mind both exhausted from the taxing experience. Her mind was too tired to make sense of the epidemic in the streets. Maybe she hadn’t contacted the disease in the Warrens but instead had picked it up en route to the Vantyev Estate; or maybe she’d been the carrier who’d loosed the infection upon the city. She was tired, though, and didn’t think she had the answer.
It was good to see Emileva and Regeris again. The priestess could’ve hugged them, but she still wasn’t fully convinced the tenacious infection had released its grip on her. She also hoped Nebbin could forgive her for infecting him. Finally, she prayed that Milani would forgive her lapse in faith. The goddess hadn’t failed her: She’d failed her goddess.
The teen sighed as she realized that the nightmare she’d lived the past few days had only been a precursor to what was to come: she’d be preparing nothing but remove disease spells in her highest-level slots for the foreseeable future, and it seemed likely that all her waking hours would go into caring for the infected, in the hope that her ministrations would help the afflicted throw off the horrid disease. She wondered for an instant if having the disease and defeating it had made her immune…but she doubted it. There was a very real possibility that she’d become itchy and red-rashed again while treating the sick populace. Kayleigh briefly considered hopping on board the next boat to Magnimar or Kintargo.
During the walk back to the Temple of Aroden (or wherever the group was headed), Regeris mentioned the Asmodean provocation. Kayleigh stopped in her tracks, the petulant pout she flashed when she got angry (or someone made a disparaging remark about Nebbin) again crossed her face, and for a second it looked like the priestess might turn around, march back to the Heights, and lay siege to the Temple of Asmodeus…but then she hung her head and closed her eyes.
A simple disease kicked your butt. What do you think the minions of the Prince of Darkness would do to you?
Kayleigh resumed walking, falling into step beside her friends. Dealing with the Asmodeans would simply be added to her growing ‘One of These Days…’ list.
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Kayleigh notices Nebbin giving her one of his looks and studies him a bit, trying to decide if he's angry at her for transmitting the disease to him or disgusted by how nasty the accompanying rash had made her look. She senses none of that: He's still the same old Nebbin to her eyes.
She gives him a reassuring smile. "Both excellent suggestions," she chimes in. Turning to the others she inquires, "So...which one shall it be?"
Exhausted. Ragged. Stressed almost to the point of a breakdown.
Those were a few of the terms that aptly described Tassira in the past couple of days. Between her mother's sickness & addiction, Kayleigh's disease, and Nebbin catching whatever she had, she wondered if it was a miracle that she, Lorne, her father and (especially) her cat were spared. She didn't have time to study the necromancer's magics (having to play errand girl for everyone in the house was a remarkably convenient excuse for her not to), though she was able to identify the leftover magic items that hadn't been fully scrutinized.
When Kayleigh was finally able to cure the diseases and addictions turning her family estate into a plague site, Tassira legitimately could have kissed her. Ravnos certainly did, or at least did the cat equivalent--meowing and rubbing up against the Milanite with such affection that she technically 'adopted' her.
Now... now came a time for more pressing measures. She had barely any interest in what Asmodeus' followers were up to--the empty vial in her hand had taken up almost all of her attention.
"Also, I need to know who sold my mother shiver." She holds up the vial with the spider logo etched on its label. "It's new--I've never seen it before. Eel's End sounds like the place to go first."
The calico tabby at Tassira's feet meows in agreement.
Regeris has spent the last couple of days quiet and troubled, although quietly enjoying the constant questions from Tiora, which he's done his best to answer as honestly as he can despite his own awkwardness with giving, rather than demanding information. His face is now drawn after settling in with his companions to discuss what to do next. He finally speaks up.
"We have a lot of threads waving in the air before us and I pray I had the wisdom to tie them together but I do not. The Pharasmans want to meet. An illness is creeping into this city I pray is not something worse. Rolth is on the loose and potentially targeting our loved ones. A diabolist has paid others to cause trouble at the Temple. We know not what became of Trinia and if it was her or someone who looks like her captured. And now we need to meet with the King of Spiders."
He lets out a long breath. "Tassira is right. The Pharsamans are a priority - we must maintain a relationship with an ally I actually believe we can trust. But we should complete this deal and meet this King of Spiders. If he brokers in information, perhaps we can get something more from him."
He looks keenly over at Tassira and Kayleigh. "You're going to have to speak for the group if we want this to go well. Emi, Nebbin and I aren't exactly diplomats. I do not know his character in any way beyond reputation, but if he deals in information he will know us. He may attempt to mock or goad you. Be prepared to swallow some anger if we want the best result."
Despite her great relief that Kayleigh and Nebbin are well again, things are settled at Tassira's home, and a couple of restful days, Emi can't stave off a growing feeling of unease.
It's not their old troubles like Rolf, or their newer ones like the spreading plague pressing down on her. Those are things to worry about for sure, but they don't get under her skin. The dreams had started to do just that. Not at first, Emi isn't much of a dreamer in the sense of remembering them well, or placing significance on them. The clarity and repetition of her dreams over the last few nights stood out to her in that respect. Even that Emi could explain to herself, Devargo is called the "King of Spiders", and meeting with him had been weighing on her.Spiders in dreams are maybe not so surprising then.
It was the bodies she and Regeris had seen a couple of days ago that got to her. The three covered in webs. She couldn't think of any explanation for how they could be so fully enveloped in them. It keyed her memories of the dreams, even though she knew it was just a coincidence. It was... eerie, that's the only way she could describe it, and it had clung to her ever since.
As the group walks and chats about what comes next, Emi is pleased to hear a consensus building toward going to Eel's End next.
But, if the Pharasman priestess wants to see us urgently enough to send a messenger before daybreak, maybe it really can't wait?
Emi adds her own opinion. "At the least Eel's End seems to be the one thing we could hope to start and finish in a day. It would be good to have one less thing to worry about."
She also asks Tassira if she can see the vial she's carrying.
Tassira shows Emi the vial.
Kayleigh nods at Regeris's words of wisdom about perhaps having to swallow her pride before the Spider King. She's so tired, that may not be a problem...or maybe she'll snap easier if provoked.
Don't snap, she reminds herself.
The priestess wants to visit the Pharasmins while the party's in the neighborhood...only they're not really in the neighborhood: Gray district is still quite the walk to the south...but it's closer now than it will be tomorrow if she wakes in her bed inside the Temple of Aroden.
"If we go directly to Eel's End, I won't be at full power," the young Milanite tells her friends. "I prepared a bunch of spells to deal with disease and addiction, and I used up some of them; the rest I can still convert to healing spells, if necessary. But I don't have any bless spells or shield of faith to protect Nebbin. But then again, we're hoping for a negotiation, right?"
No snapping at the King of Spiders, she again reminds herself.
Turning toward Regeris, she concludes by saying, "I think the Pharasmans can wait a day. Garlan should probably be at that meeting as well--his faith, and the temple we've been staying at, are a part of the equation and need to be addressed soon."
"We're there to do business. It doesn't hurt to appear dangerous but preparing yourself to battle against the plague may also help with negotiations. Who knows? Maybe some in his employ are sick and you can barter your services. And Eel's End isn't far, maybe we can see the Pharasmans afterwards."
Nebbin nods.
"I'll protect you if things get bad, Kayleigh," he says earnestly, fingers reaching momentarily for his sword.