Jym reacts quickly, before the monster can rear its head again to strike.
Staring at it, he thinks, "This metal snake looks like a metal snake!"
"Away from her!" Uro bellows out.
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Jym casts magic stone on three of his sling stones.
The snake, reacting before Korynne can get away, continues its mindless assault:
Uro, you're up.
Korynne is on the floor, bleeding profusely.
In addition, the edges of the new bite wound appear to be blackened, as if gangrenous.
Uro is up.
Feelings of embarrassment at having missed the snake so badly redden the orcs cheeks. As he sees Korynne drop, the feelings turn to anger and the massive orc lets out a maddened howl as he lashes out with his great axe.
Rage!!!
The metal snake isn't quite fast enough to get out of the way of Uro's axe. Its metal chassis dents and buckles under his blow, although Uro fails to actually breach it.
Genuinely frightened at what the snake did to Korynne, Jym makes sure he's positioned so that the snake has to get past Uro to attack him before hurling one of his magic stones at it.
"We must have missed some sort of mechanism or safe zone after we came in!"
Jym's hurled pebble misses the snake entirely. Meanwhile, the thing strikes at Uro:
Uro half smiles as he feels the things fangs bounce off of his armor, then brings his axe down in another vicious arc.
Uro, unfazed by his lack of initial success, is emboldened by the snake's miss. Heaving an enormous breath, he lifts the axe and swings it down in a massive slash, connecting squarely with the metal snake and breaking its back. The metal buckles apart this time, spilling some sort of unpleasant-looking liquid on the floor, and the construct lies still. You can almost imagine smoke coming out of the defunct wreckage.
Korynne appears to be in very bad shape. She has lost more blood, and, worse, the poison continues to act on her. If someone doesn't help her soon she'll die.
As Korynne lies bleeding on the floor, several recent lucky purchases spill out of her bag: two potions of cure light wounds and two vials of antitoxin, all clearly labeled.
Jym rummages through Korynne's belongings for the appropriate potions, finds a vial of antitoxin and another of a minor healing liquid, and pours them both down her gullet.
"This is the first time I've had to hold someone's hair out of the way while they're unconscious and a liquid is going IN their mouth!" he says brightly.
Korynne's bleeding stops and the antitoxin does the trick, but she's still unconscious.
Uro catches his breath and waits for Korynne to stir, but it doesn't happen. "Well it looks as though her bleeding has stopped anyway." We haven't traveled far, let's take her back into town and let her rest up. Perhaps we can hire a cleric to heal her. Meanwhile, we can buy some extra healing potions too. Seems as though we'll need them."
Uro can easily carry Korynne back into town, if that's what we agree too.
Lavinia is aghast.
"I had no idea that... thing was in here," she stammers. "I mean, I knew there might be a trap, but not what it would be. I'm pretty sure that's all, though -- we just need to open the vault itself now. With the money inside, I'll be able to afford much more potent cures for Lady Korynne."
Lavinia is aghast.
"I had no idea that... thing was in here," she stammers. "I mean, I knew there might be a trap, but not what it would be. I'm pretty sure that's all, though -- we just need to open the vault itself now. With the money inside, I'll be able to afford much more potent cures for Lady Korynne."
"M'lady, you probably have more knowledge of this vault than any of us, but if you didn't know that the snake was here, why are you so sure that there aren't other traps? Wouldn't that make for the best trap: One that we wouldn't be expecting? It reminds me of my Uncle Cubscutt Finchclitt back in Greenfields and his wandering eye, if you know what I mean! You see, he--"
Jym wills his story short when he take another look at Korynne's bloodstained clothes.
"Anyway, as much as I'd love to understand how your parents would have bypassed the snake, I think delaying one more day to get Korynne back on her feet and a to purchase a few more healing draughts would be the safer course of action."
Lavinia takes a deep breath, then nods, convinced by Jym's arguments. In a few minutes, she has called a stretcher for Korynne and closed the outer vault door behind her, explaining to the keepers that she'll return in a day or two.
Jym advises that they take Korynne to the nearest reputable divine healer that he knows of. Jym will pay the cost of one CLW spell, or two if mechaPoet rolls another 1. >:(
Jym thinks fast, his encyclopaedic knowledge of the city again coming to the fore. The most reputable healers in this part of the world are at the big Azure Cathedral -- but that's over in another district entirely. Likewise, the temples to St. Cuthbert are over in the Cudgel District. You're now in the Noble District, whose district patron deity is Wee Jas -- a goddess of death and magic -- and there's no point in tempting her with someone so close to passing over!
However, there's a small shrine about two streets over, that you once spotted because it's between two excellent brunch establishments. It's marked by a clay statue showing a woman holding a jug. . Once, when one of the nearby eatery's noble patrons passed out after a surfeiture of exceptionally potent rum and became unresponsive, it was speculated that he was about to die of alcohol poisoning and he was taken there -- the priestess of the shrine healed him at no cost.
However, there's a small shrine about two streets over, that you once spotted because it's between two excellent brunch establishments. It's marked by a clay statue showing a woman holding a jug. . Once, when one of the nearby eatery's noble patrons passed out after a surfeiture of exceptionally potent rum and became unresponsive, it was speculated that he was about to die of alcohol poisoning and he was taken there -- the priestess of the shrine healed him at no cost.
Jym advises that they take Korynne there. And if there's some place nearby that still serving brunch....
As the litter bearing Korynne approaches the shrine, you are gratified to see that both brunch places are open. Both are shamelessly overpriced, but you're flush with cash after receiving your advance from Lady Vanderboren...
Korynne's unconscious and bloody body does its best to foil Jym's appetite - at least until the librarian is awake enough to brunch with her fellow retainers.
Korynne's unconscious and bloody body does its best to foil Jym's appetite - at least until the librarian is awake enough to brunch with her fellow retainers.
Jym and his loyal companions try to identify someone who tends the srhine. Assuming they do so, he'll speak to them.
"Hello! We need magical healing services! Well, not 'we,' but 'she.' The unconscious woman here with all of the blood all over her!"
A small, young-ish woman in a simple robe steps forward. Her feet are bare. "Why do you bring a victim of violence to the shrine of Geshtai?"
"For healing!"
Her expression doesn't change at all. "I would recommend the Cudgel District. Any of the temples of Cuthbert will perform that service, for no more than a few coppers or the promise of a conversion. So, please go -- lest this woman's bodily fluids profane the pure waters of this shrine."
Uro looks at the woman confused. "But this is a temple. You cannot heal her?"
She says, "Through her priestesses, the Lady Geshtai brings forth water when there is drought; she purifies the wells when there is pestilence. She heals the carp with blighted gills, or the otter caught in a hunter's trap, or the duck with a broken wing. So, yes, she can heal -- but none of those include humans damaged in war."
"Korynne was bitten by a snake! We didn't know it was there. I guess it thought we were trespassing. This wasn't an act of war!"
"Our friend is poisoned and you will not help her?" Uro's tusks begin to poke over the edge of his lower lip and his cheeks brighten and his breathing gets heavier. " You will heal an otter... or a duck.. or a FISH?!" The orc stretches an arm toward Korynne. "But not our her?!" his is chest heaving now, anger near boiling over.
The priestess begins to stammer. "I... no one mentioned a snake. The goddess hates poison! She hates it like, well, like poison. I am oathbound as a priestess of Geshtai to cure those afflicted by it."
She sticks her head into the shrine. "Please prepare a bed and bring clean water. There is the goddess' work to do!"
Stepping aside -- very warily, lest Uro slay her -- she timidly says, "Please bring her inside."
The sound of wet feet slapping on bare stone carries from the small shrine and the tip of a well-oiled spear pokes out from the entrance. The voice of the spear-holder burbles, sounding like water poured too swiftly from a bottle.
"Is-s there s-some troub-b-ble, mis-s-tres-ss? Who would b-b-bring s-such anger to this-s s-shrine?"
Moving fully into view, the pale blue man looks fresh from the river, with fine black hair slicked smoothly back along his neck and wide, white eyes squinting in the gentle sunlight. He looks from the enraged orc to the jovial halfling to the prostate woman on the stretcher. He gives a protective glance to the priestess, then looks back to the orc.
"This-s is-s no plac-ce for violenc-ce. S-she can help your friend, but I w-w-will not let you harm Ges-shtai's-s s-servant. If you wis-sh to help, then carry her ins-side. Els-se, s-stand here and b-be s-silent."
"Gross!"
There's a well in the center of the shrine, sort of where an altar would normally be. "The well is very deep," she says to the eerie fish-guy. "A shallow well yields only the brine of the sea, but if you dig past that, there is pure water below it."
She dips water out of it with a ladle, sprinkles it over Korynne's unconscious form, chanting all the while. As you watch, the water seems to wash the wounds away, as well as the blood. Eventually, the priestess seems satisfied with her efforts; taking another ladle of well water, she throws it into Korynne's face. Korynne opens her eyes, gasps, and sits up, heaving breaths. The priestess nods and turns to Jym and Uro.
"Her system had already rejected the poison, so there was little effort needed there. Her wounds were much more serious, though -- I don't think she would have bled to death, but it would be some time before she recovered, if she'd been left untreated.
"I require no payment for discharging this duty," she continues, "but there now exists an imbalance between you and the goddess, that needs to be righted. I would like to send my acolyte here with you, to observe that the obligation is discharged."