Nalun nods in greeting to the Cleric of Abadar The Scales must be balanced. Perhaps we can add to the weights. Nalun says, indicating that he might have coin to spare.
The two men turn to Demitri & Nalun as they make their presence known.
"I believe everyone should stay calm."
Grau takes a breath, but doesn't seem to calm down too much. "Easy for you to say, Demitri. My niece is dying, and I can't do a g~+@@~ned thing about it."
"The Scales must be balanced. Perhaps we can add to the weights."
Whatever else Grau was about to say is cut short. Ishani's eyes light up. "Yes, yes! Thank Abadar--someone else who understands!"
"The price Abadar has set for a disease-curing spell is 150 Sails. Grau has already paid 100 of them--"
"--which is all I could AFFORD, by the way." The sergeant grumbles.
"--*ahem* And now all I need are 50 more." The harried priest finishes, giving Grau an apologetic look.
"Oh, is that all? Thank goodness, I thought this was something difficult, like the prayers falling on deaf ears or some such. Just one question, friend - I know Abadar is the god of cities and wealth and what-not, but what happens when those that can't afford to pay the prices he set up? Sure, the rich will always be able to afford the Vault-keeper's grace, but what about those that work under them? Doesn't everyone that lives in a city deserve access to the same treatment as the rich?" Ortik's face is flat, making it difficult to determine whether he's joking or deadly serious in questioning.
Sure. The good Sergeant can pay me back whenever he gets the coin... Nalun says But having a Sergeant of the Watch owe me a favor is always handy
Nalun counts out 50 coins...
Nalun answers for the Priest The Master of the First Vault requires that the scales of a transaction be balanced. With coin if necessary, but with in kind or other trade is acceptable...to the Golden Lord, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
My family would understand...And you, fleshling? You think this crass? these weaklings should be able to just take! Karri nervously adjusts her cotton face mask, "I can help with that, Nalun."
Demitri will reach into his pocket and hand the cleric some coin. "I know exactly what it's like to be helpless when my child is in danger. And as someone who spent a lot of time being angry, I can tell you it doesn't help. And I know it seems draconian, but having a priest go bankrupt and unable to help anyone doesn't help either. I will pay any other expenses that are needed."
Lyla reaches for her purse and chips in with a few coins. "No need to pay us back, Soldado. We'll settle it among us", she says, giving Nalun part of the money. She then looks at acolyte Dhatri trying to hide the antipathy caused by his stand on the matter, and provokes the man, hoping to shame him into helping. "Maybe the priest would like to contribute with his own coin, too. I'm sure Abadar would be delighted to see a devout follower setting the scale right... I mean, those who have more should help balance things out, right? And Brienne has nothing to give but the little life left in her." She is not quite able to supress the anger in her voice.
She looks at Dhatri without flinching an eye. "Oh, and I'd like to take a look at this powerful ritual that causes so much strain to the gods."
"Well said, Lyla," Ortik says with a sly smile. "Those with the greatest ability must shoulder a greater burden in trying times. Which reminds me..." Ortik fishes out several coins as well, inwardly pleased at how swiftly his friends turned out their pockets to help Grau.
"Maybe the priest would like to contribute with his own coin, too. I'm sure Abadar would be delighted to see a devout follower setting the scale right... I mean, those who have more should help balance things out, right? And Brienne has nothing to give but the little life left in her."
"I am ashamed enough, Lyla. I already intend to help her as best I can." Ishani looks inside the house. The guilt on his face is fairly obvious.
"I know exactly what it's like to be helpless when my child is in danger. And as someone who spent a lot of time being angry, I can tell you it doesn't help. And I know it seems draconian, but having a priest go bankrupt and unable to help anyone doesn't help either. I will pay any other expenses that are needed."
He gives Demitri an appreciative look. "My thanks, sir. I'm trying to do the best job I can--"
He's cut off by the amount of money the party puts forward. "--oh... yes, yes, thank you!"
"I'll get started right away. Come inside if you wish." With that, he hurries into the Soldado home and up the stairs.
Grau looks at the party and starts walking inside. "Thanks for this. I'm not sure how to repay you all yet, but I'll think of something..."
Lyla appeases Soldado, dismissing his offer with a handwave. "Don't worry about it. Down here, we stick together." She points the thumb at Ortik. "Or at least that's what this guy keeps telling me."
The girl follows Ishani into Brienne's room, and observes the man from the corner hoping to learn something from his magic. Maybe it's something I can work into a formula...
"Just pay it forward." Demitri responds before following.
Ortik says nothing, but his beaming smile from the actions of his friends speaks volumes. He follows into the house as well to watch the ritual.
The party follows Ishani & Grau upstairs, where the rest of the Soldado family is waiting. Tayce, clad in even dirtier plain brown clothes than yesterday, is holding her young son and daughter apart from Brienna's bed. The two children eye the approaching priest and party with a mixture of anxiety and hope.
Ishani stops before the child's pillow & blanket laden bed, clasping the golden key around his neck. He gives everyone present a worried look before turning back to the sleeping, pox-ridden little girl before him. "...please, Abadar, grant me the power to save her..." He whispers before kneeling next to the bed.
He takes a breath to steady his nerves, then begins to speak in a commanding voice. "Abadar, wise Judge of the Gods and eternal bastion of Civilization, your servant beseeches you. I ask a boon of you, and its price has been paid--a cure for an innocent young life's disease."
His hand begins to glow gold.
"Please... give this little girl her health back."
He rests his hand on Brienne's forehead...
...and the gold glow transfers from his hand to her entire body.
Almost immediately, Brienna's rash-ridden skin clears and knits together, the boils and sores smoothing themselves out and becoming little more than pale spots. Her breathing becomes steadier and deeper, but still shallow. The pox scars on her face turn from an angry red colour to a dark brown.
The family breathes a collective sigh of relief that's echoed by Ishani. Brienna stirs, and opens her eyes.
"...Mom? I'm hungry."
Karri watches, hoping it works... as the little girl awakens Karri's heart jumps against her chest and she gasps aloud! See there is hope!
Demitri just smiles as the girl is healed. He then looks at Soldado with a nod.
Ortik chuckles as Brienna's immediate concern goes from her fading health to sating her hunger. "Well, let's see if we can fix that as well. Would you like some soup, little one?" He waits for the girl's answer before turning to Ishani. "Well done, brother. I may have issue with the Church's insistence on payment for services rendered during a crisis like this, but I can't fault your results. Pass along my regards to Judge Zenderholm if you see her before I do."
Though relieved to see Soldado's niece healed, Lyla is less enthusiastic than her friends. She walks up to Ishani in the back of the room and stops by his side to watch everyone gathering around Brienne. "Not bad, but that's just one. What about the hundred others outside?", she says under her breath, loud enough for only Ishani to hear. "What do we do about them? There's not enough gold in Korvosa to pay for everyone in need of this kind of healing", she says bluntly, this time looking straight at the acolyte. Her somber expression demonstrates sincere concern.
I don't think there are enough Priests to cover all the sick at this point Lyla, leave the poor man be. He did his duty... Nalun says
"Regardless of his duty, can she be reinfected?" Oh, yes death is persistent...
Brienna nods at Ortik. "Yep. Soup would be nice." She tries to sit up, but her arms give out before she can get too far. "Ow..."
"Well done, brother. I may have issue with the Church's insistence on payment for services rendered during a crisis like this, but I can't fault your results. Pass along my regards to Judge Zenderholm if you see her before I do."
Ishani bites his lip and looks down at his feet. "Actually, speaking of which, I need to speak with you about her."
"Not bad, but that's just one. What about the hundred others outside?", she says under her breath, loud enough for only Ishani to hear. "What do we do about them? There's not enough gold in Korvosa to pay for everyone in need of this kind of healing",
"I know." Ishani replies. "I... I need to ask for your help." His lip trembles slightly.
"Regardless of his duty, can she be reinfected?"
Ishani sighs. "I do not know, truly, but in any case, we need to take steps to prevent it from happening again. Unfortunately, I don't have the faintest idea how that happened..."
Brienna looks down at her sheets, suddenly looking quite guilty. Tayce smooths her hair back. "Brienna? Little Breeze, what's wrong?"
"Ok, Ishani, we're listening. What kind of help do you need?"
Ishani sighs and pinches the bridge of his nose. "This is... not easy for me to admit. The churches of Korvosa are being stretched thin dealing with this plague: Sarenrae, Shelyn, Pharasma, Asmodeus..." He shudders. "...and even the Church of Abadar."
"So many people are coming to the churches' doors every day, and every day we are forced to turn away many more. Even Senior Arbiter Zenderholm and Archbanker Tuttle are hard-pressed to keep things from getting out of hand."
He looks down at Lyla. "You've demonstrated that you are capable of fighting this plague, and can act when the hands of others are tied." He pauses, his lip quivering. "I would ask for your help investigating this plague--how it's spreading, and what can be done to cure it. But without an idea of where to start..."
He shakes his head. "Please, come to the church of Abadar as soon as you can. Senior Arbiter Zenderholm will be of more help to you than I can."
With that, Ishani turns and heads downstairs.
"Um... I..." Brienna looks at the bedsheets, reluctant to speak.
"It's okay sweetie. Get her sheets so they can be washed, I'll pick her up and get her to a bath."
Seems the Field Marshal isn't the only one interested in finding out about this plague. Perhaps the Churches can help us investigate that boat you found Lyla. Nalun says
"We'll be along as soon as we're done here, Ishani. Tell the Arbiter she can expect to see us before lunch." Turning back to the family, he grins. "Now then, while Demitri and Tayce get her some clean bedsheets, let's get her some soup! Grau, could you direct me around the kitchen? She just needs some broth right about now."
"Yes, something not too heavy and after she gets cleaned up." Demitri says picking the girl up in his arms to get her to a bath.
Brienna offers no resistance as Demitri scoop her up and carry her downstairs. Tayce gives the assembled party a thankful look. "Folks, I honestly didn't expect that kind of charity today or yesterday--why don't the rest of you stick around for lunch? I'm certain we can make a good, hearty soup for all of your bellies!"
With that, she starts gathering up the messy bedsheets. She wrinkles her nose and coughs as the smell of blood and other bodily fluids hits her from the sheets. "Of course, that'll have to wait until after I wash these. Good heavens..."
-----------------
Once Brienna has had a bath and is dressed in clean clothes, the party sits around the Soldado's kitchen table for a lunch of soup. Brienna is still having some trouble sitting upright in her seat, but she takes her offered soup spoon and starts lapping up her portion.
"This is the first time in several months Little Breeze has ever been sick." Grau drums his fingers on the table, his eyes only briefly leaving his niece's sunken face. "How'd it even happen? Was it something you ate? Or drank?"
Brienna looks into her bowl and meekly shakes her head. "No..."
It's quite clear that she's telling the truth, but from the guilt on her face, there is still something she isn't telling her uncle. She appears to be quite reluctant to speak.
"It's alright, you can tell us what happened. No one will be mad at you, we just want you to be healthy."
"If you tell us what happened, who you talked to, where you were, it can be the clue we need to find out how this disease is spreading. Brienna, you can be a hero today."
"Exactly, you can help make it so other people can get better too."
Tayce says nothing, but rests a reassuring hand on her daughter's shoulder. Brienna folds her hands in her lap and looks down, blinking a couple of times as if to hold back tears. She looks back up at Demitri & Karri. "Um... I started not feeling well yesterday. I didn't eat anything different, and I drank the same water Mom gave me. But the day before that..."
Tayce leans forward. "Go on, honey."
Brienna blinks. "Mom, do you remember when I took so long coming home from school that day?" She looks up at her mother, her lips trembling.
"Yes, why? And really, young lady, you should have come straight home. You know how worried I was about you."
Brienna looks down, afraid to meet her mother's eyes. "Well... I found a little box in the harbour as I was walking home. It was full of shiny silver coins. Lots of them."
"Wait--a box?" Tayce arches an eyebrow in surprise.
"Mm-hmm." Brienna weakly takes her spoon in hand and drinks some more of her soup. "I got excited, and I ran off to Dead Shoanti Way, to Mr. Giotorri's toy shop. I spent all the coins I had on toys to bring home to Charlo & Rello..."
"So THAT'S where those toy dragons came from?" Tayce clasps Brienna's hand. "Did you run into ANYONE who was coughing on the way home? Anyone who looked itchy? Anyone at all?"
Brienna is silent for a while. "...I don't know. I wasn't paying too much attention to them. I think some of them may have been coughing..."
She looks back to the party. "Am I in trouble?"
"No, of course not. Thank you for telling us. Where is this toy shop? We should go investigate. In the meantime, I'm sorry but you need to burn those toys."
The coins... Nalun says What a way to spread a plague....no one would pass up coins in the street.
Lyla stares at Nalun surprised by his epiphany. She then stops to think about the hypothesis. "Hmm... it kinda makes sense. More sense than the toys, at least, or the other kids in the house would've gotten sick too. So let's get this straight: we started off thinking the plague had something to do with the Direption, with it being quarantined and all. And next thing you see, coins are washing ashore—possibly originated from the infected ship itself. Money changes hands all the time, so it figures that the disease is spreading this fast." She looks at the group and continues. "I'm not convinced the currents would be able to carry the chests to land... they should sink instead of float. But after seeing those weird sharks patrolling the river, I wouldn't be surprised if someone had dumped the chests around town on purpose."
Lyla stuffs her hand in her pouch and removes some of the latest coins she got as change in the transactions since the previous day. She holds the coins in her palm and shows them to Brienna, and recommends everyone to do the same. "Kiddo, do any of these coins look like the ones you found in the chest?"
"And the poor and working class are more likely to pick up gold they find on the street. That's why the nobles aren't getting sick. They have enough money to not care."
Ortik's stomach twists into a knot as he listens, and his face reddens with frustration and rage. "This was no accident." He says, his voice restrained, every word punctuated with anger. "There is an engineer behind this plague, and if you're right, Demitri, they aim to exterminate the poor. A plague that is passed by diseased coins - how they do that is beyond me - and that resists mundane efforts to treat it. Magic can work, but magic costs money, something that the poor don't have. And Brienna is proof that they mean for the disease to spread indiscriminately, to young and old, without concern for who catches it - so long as their blood isn't blue." His hands are clenched in rage by the time he finishes his speech. "We are being targeted."
He takes a few moments to visibly calm himself, and looks back at the group. "I'll have to turn down the meal, Tayce. If what we believe is true, I need to inform my own family. They're just at risk." He grows silent for a moment. "[b]Moreso because of my own idealism. I'll meet the rest of you at the Bank of Abadar later today. I need to go see the Ffolk, right away."
He quickly makes his exit, and pushes through crowds in the city on his way to the Forgottenfolk commune.
After Ortik storms out in a hurry, Lyla breaks the silence. "Are we really? Being targeted, I mean? A plague is a pretty difficult thing to control, and money runs around—and, to be frank, it actually flows to the noble houses' pockets. Sooner or later some dandy is going to touch one of those coins. So is this really a conflict of classes, or something else entirely?"
She then notices that her stretched arm is getting tired from holding out the coins, and tries to draw an answer from the little girl. "But first, we need to know if we've been exposed, but by now I think it would be a good thing if we had one of those coins to study. So, Brienna, any of these look familiar?"
"Well as of right now, only the poor or working class are getting sick. There aren't any reports of nobles getting ill. Also nobles are more likely to be able to afford healing magic."
Brienna recoils in fright as Ortik speaks, with Tayce, Grau and the other children listening with worry. "Um..." She looks at the coins Lyla is holding out, and points to one silver coin in the pile she has. "...that one."
The coin she pointed out isn't Korvosan currency--one side bears an open, winged eye superimposed on a shield, with three crowns in the corners and a small circle above the eye. The other side bears the image of a plain long sword.
"Don't recognize it," he says after staring at the coin for a time. "It's definitely foreign, though."
Lyla rolls her eyes upon discovering that she's been carrying one of the coins around. Great. She puts away the rest of the money and holds up the foreign coin, studying it carefully. "It's an Absalomian silver weight. But... the Direption was returning from Mediogalti Island. Hmm", she mutters, scratching her head. After her examination, she holds the silver weight before Karri and asks for her input. "Hey, sunshine, do you sense any magic in it?"
[dice=Heal (sort of like a "Knowledge (medicine)" check... just in case)]1d20+5[/dice]
"What she said, it's traveled a long way."
Absalom... and a shiver of cold dread runs down Nalun's spine. This could just be a coincidence.....but did he really believe in those?
However, the coin does feel suspiciously oily... it could be the result of some sort of alchemical treatment. Or it could be something else altogether.
Karri smirks at Lyla's teasing, "Anything for you, Kitten." By the gods, she makes life seem normal! Karri brings forth a sniffer from Legion and concentrates on the coin...
When she is done checking for enchantments, she says, "My father was a merchant, and from what he said many times we can rest assured that because a vessel says it came from somewhere does not mean it sailed from there. We have no way of knowing where this ship stopped on it's travels."
Hmm... hmm... hmm. Strange. Nomagic.
"I've already touched it and stuffed it in my pocket, sunshine. I guess we'll learn soon enough if I got the disease or not. In any case..." Lyla uncorks a vial of antiplague and chugs it down. "Ew. This actually does taste like frog juice." The girl then picks up a small box from Brienna's bedside table, empties it, and stores the infected coin inside. "The coin is a little slippery... like it's been coated in some oil. It could be an alchemical solution... which would mean someone cooked the disease and bathed the coins. Unless it's something magical, of course. I think we should go talk to the Hanging Judge right away."
The antiplague gives Lyla a +5 alchemical bonus to the Fort save to avoid contracting the disease or, if already infected, it allows her to roll twice and take the better result on that day.
"Seems likely. That is a good idea."
And where can we get some more of this.... Nalun says, gesturing to the empty vial of antiplague