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"Whatever you can share with us about Noemi is most appreciated. I am to understand that she has not returned to work ever since the phenomena of the flickering lights and buzzing noises? Would you happen to recall what manner of fruits you found?" Takumi pauses and gives Gunty a small bow. "Apologies for peppering you with questions, but you see, we believe there might be more at stack than some truant assistants. As if coordinated, quite a number of young apprentices across the town have gone missing and we believe it is connected. Would you happen to know who are her usual 'no-good' friends?"
"Thank you," Gunty says without the slightest hint of condescension when the tiny Imojin goes to unload the cart.
"I don't pay attention to who my apprentices hang out with," he says. "They're all kids, and they're all trouble. If more are missing, they're probably all planning some kind of prank."
You once again pass the orchard during your investigations. With only one master left to interview, the orchard proves too easy a place to investigate, and so you do.
Rows of neglected apple trees sway in the wind, and the occasional rotting, worm-eaten fruit falls with a wet thud to the ground below. The earth is heavily trampled near the northern end of the orchard, and an overturned barrel of apples lies broken on its side, exuding a sickly sweet scent.
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Faust breathes the scent in deep through his nose. How pleasing, the scent of a rich life and death. Poetic, almost. "This place is wonderful!" he says with a smile, likely the first you have seen of him. "I was prepared for disappointment, yet this has been a pleasant turn," he declares as he explores the grounds littered with rotting fruit.
He gives Zeldana a cross look as she pulls him from his pleasant thoughts. "What is it you are yammering about?" Faust walks over to take a look for himself. "There is always a sick one. Carves the weakness out of the group. What of it?" Only the strong survive where dark things lurk, why should this be any different?
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Imojin hops off of Whiskers and looks carefully at an oddly disturbed patch of ground... She explains that there are signs of a struggle between two humanoids here. She picks up a sap lying on the ground near the overturned barrel. "Look, the winner half-carried, half-dragged the loser--who, it appears, was heavier, to the north." She follows the trail to its end at the edge of the orchard. "The trail ends here..."-
While Faust bends down to collect a sample of the purple ichor, you hear a rustling among the branches. Two gigantic fire beetles leap from the trees, their carapaces scarred with purple warts.
Combat! Round 1! Bold may act.
Shalendra
Zeldana
Faust
Takumi
Imojin
Beetles (red, yellow)
Xanac
Whiskers
These are giant fire beetles. They are vermin (you know Vermin traits). For every 5 that you beat the DC, you may ask for one additional category of information.
The two beetles charge toward you as two more fly over the apple trees and land. Takumi fires a bolt of force the caves in the front half of the beetle before it moves more than a few feet. Faust, flagrantly challenging the predators, cleaves the next beetle in half lengthwise with a skillful slash (and then cuts it in quarters for good measure).
Combat! Round 1/2! Bold may act.
Shalendra
Zeldana
Faust
Takumi
Beetles (red, yellow)
Xanac (1st)
Imojin & Whiskers (1st)
The crossbow bolt skips off of the beetle's chitinous back.
Xanac staggers one of the beetles as it scuttles forward, and then Takumi blasts it to pieces with a missile of invisible force. Faust tries to strike down the last beetle before it reaches the others, but this time his blade slides off of the dark shell.
The remaining beetle chews on Faust's armor.
Combat! Round 2/3! Bold may act.
Party
Beetles (blue) (red - dead, yellow - dead, green - dead)
Beetle juice splatters across the apple trees in the wake of Faust's ferocious swing, and then the orchard is quiet again.
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How peculiar... Faust wipes his sword down before sheathing it. Again, he tries to take a sample of the ichor. Who knows what this compound will be useful for?
Still feeling a little pumped from the rush of battle, Faust is breathing heavily, but with a smile. "While this development is indicative of a greater threat, I do not see any signs of the missing apprentices. Shall we venture forth? Does anyone have such options in their repertoire?"
The giant fire beetles destroyed and the strange ichor collected, you are free to search the rest of the orchard at your leisure. However, you find nothing more to guide you toward the missing apprentices. The trail of footprints is lost once it reaches the street, erased by at least a day's worth of foot traffic.
You continue onward to the last master--Ildris Ruvarra--at the temple of Erastil. The temple is old, large, and utilitarian. The infirmary is the largest room in the temple, and it is there that you find Ildris. He is tending to several delirious and comatose patients laid on cots.
"Yes? Can I help you?" the priest ask tersely, though you get the sense it is more from exhaustion and his current task than any bias against you or your foreign nature.
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As the group enters the Erastilian temple, Faust grows tense. He treads through carefully and is constantly looking over his shoulder. A holy place like this is nowhere I care to be. "Let's make this quick," he snips.
"Yes, yes, all information you have would be useful. The quicker the better. Wouldn't want to distract you from your work." Erastilians tend to get aggressive once they see what I am. Fortunately I am one among several and he is preoccupied.
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Demon's Bile is a unique Abyssal substance that can act as an ingested disease as well as an environmental hazard, depending on the circumstance.
Demon’s bile is biological in nature, and if left in an open area unchecked, even a small amount of it can begin growing until, in 1d4 months, the substance takes up a 10-foot-by-10-foot area of filth. Demon’s bile that covers an area of that size or larger then begins growing in earnest, expanding at a rate of about 5 feet per day. Demon’s bile attracts vermin, and those that wallow in it (as well as some other creatures exposed to it) often grow in size, gain the fiendish template, or both.
Any good-aligned damage, damage from cold iron weapons, or positive energy damage applied to any 5-foot square of bile destroys it.
Ingesting it causes a disease that causes weakness and insanity.
"Oh, thank the gods of good!" Ildris exclaims when you explain why you are there. "Nolaria has been missing for several days, but I have been too busy with the sick to look for her. So many people coming down with strange maladies. They all require close attention, and more show up every day."
He sighs and straightens his robe. "Nolaria was an orphan from the Goblin Blood Wars. I took her in and tried to raise her right, but she's always finding ways to skirt the rules and get into trouble look for 'adventure.' Now, she's not mean spirited. She would never hurt anyone, but she could easily have misjudged the danger a place or a person represented.
"I last saw her in the cemetery behind the temple with her pet raven and some friends, but that was several days ago. I made a quick search, but didn't find anything. I haven't been able to search anywhere else since then."
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"Priest," he snaps, but quickly calms himself and clears his throat. "Ah.. Priest... Are your sick complaining of weakness? Perhaps some of the further gone cases experiencing some mental delusions?" This demon bile may have a large role in this than I feared. Perhaps it is linked back to that damnable island... feeling your mind slowly lose grip on reality is not a pleasant experience.
The graveyard is clearly our next destination. What horrors lie in wait for us there?
"Several of them have been too weak to stand or even move," Ildris says. "None of them have really been awake enough to reveal their state of mind, but those who brought them did not mention anything like that."
"Purple goo? What do you mean?" the priest asks.
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Zeldana responds "There's a disease floating around, known as Demon's Bile. Last I saw it has only spread through ingestion and I think we dealt with the source, so unlikely to be these cases unless it's spread."
Zeldana motions to her companion to bring out the sample. "Looks like this, makes people a bit crazy and potentially violent. Cold Iron or Positive energy will dispel it."
Zeldana pauses for a moment "As a said, your problems could be completely unrelated but if this stuff is spreading another way I'd be worried."
"Demon's Bile?" Ildris peers at the sample. "Yes. That looks like Demon's Bile."
He shakes his head. "No, none of my patients have had the symptoms of Demon's Bile--other than the weakness. Where did you find that?"
"Oh, I hope not!" Ildris says with genuine concern. "Nolaria is like a daughter--is my daughter save by blood. Please, do not tarry with me, then and continue your search."