As noon arrives the sight of a small town does too. A few dozens of wooden houses and about half a dozen of stone houses grow around a wide dirt road that crosses it from south to north. There seems to be barely any movement in the village, strange at this hour of the day. The party comes from south-west followin the road.
Lothar turns to you with a smile in his face and says cheerfully Welcome good lords to the Village of Eliod, we have an inn, a general store and a whore. Everything for traders and travelers! he turns back to the village kicks a stone on the road and says much more grimly Don't know what the f*ck is wrong, people should be on the streets at this time of day
At the bandit's words, Sev's musket is out and loaded, scanning the doors and windows for movement.
Perception:
"And a whore?" Thalia repeats coolly, her eyes briefly scanning the empty town. "She must be overtaxed this morning. Perhaps c*ck got her tongue as well?"
Cyean shakes his head at Thalia's words once again before making sure his sword would not stick seeing it does not he nods to himself. He than says "Well than since there does not seem to be many people about where does everyone wish to go?"
As the party moves towards the village they can see small groups of people next to some doors. A man armed with a shortspear tries to stand to attention when he sees you in the distance but it seems obvious the spear is doing more for the standing than the legs.
Sev pulls up, glancing around nervously. "Plague?"
"This is a dead town," Thalia hisses. "That sentry is rapping upon death's door. I, for one, have no intent to join him."
Thalia tugs on Fleet's lead. "Do not touch a single stone!"
Lothar lets the party take point but keeps walking behind them. I was here not a forthnight ago... people were sneezing a lot but I thought it was f*cking spring allergies
Cyean turns to look at Lothar "You were here a forthnight ago and within that time this happened? That seems odd to me. Does anyone know of plagues that effect so quickly?"
Well maybe it was a bit more like twenty days... it's not like we have a f*cking calendar at camp he seems to think for a second If anyone is going in there they should ask for Jonga, she is the meister, or for... what's her name? Whatever Eaglefeather, she was new in town but villagers seemed to trust her and go to her for help with ails and injuries. And she was quite fit for a half-orc.
Sev swallows hard. "I'll go in. Jonga or Eaglefeather, eh? The rest of you stay here." Sev ties a bandana around his mouth and takes off into the town toward the clot of villagers.
As Sev walks by him the sentry tries to halt him but all he manages to say is Halt *cough* w.. who are you? *cough* *sneeze* where'd he go?
Thalia chuckles softly. "Does she warrant my special affections, darling?" she hums. Though Thalia's voice is amused, her eyes remain on the sentry, and between him and Sev. After a moment, she swears in a foreign tongue, then grips the neck of her lute and casts and points at Sev.
"Pardon my impertinence, but this spell will allow us to communicate at a distance. You have simply to whisper. I will follow at its range. Do not worry over much for my health."
After a few moments muttering to herself, Thalia pulls her shirt up and over her nose, and begins following Sev, slowly.
When he sees Thalia walking toward him the guard makes his best effort to look decent and focus his eyes before saying Good morn.. *cough* good morning lady. *sneeze* What brings... his spear slips from his hand and when he tries to crouch to pick it up he loses balance and falls flat on the ground.
Raxus moves into the town with rising unease, listening to his companions but saying nothing. Upon nearing the obviously sick people, he balks, remaining in the middle of the road as far away from anything as possible.
"We should not linger here." he says, mostly to himself.
Raxus goes past the guard while he is still trying to stand upright. *cough* Hal... now I'm seeing giants? sh*t I... *sneeze* I'm worse than i thought
Thalia Fortitude Save (it's her best one!) oh my god, better than 15. thanks lothar for the assist!
Perception
Sev nods when he hears Thalia's message. "Got it." he mutters.
Sev shudders when the guard falls. He moves to help him into a sitting position, then growls at the people standing around. "What in tarnation happened here? Where's Toanga or Eaglefeather?"
A woman looks at Sev and answers his question. The girl is in the inn she says motioning towards a stone building. Don't know who that Toanga is
Fort
Sev nods at the woman and heads toward the inn. Once there, he heads inside, saying loudly. "I'm looking for Eaglefeather."
Thalia continues to move at a distance from Sev. She slings her bow around her shoulder and pulls an arrow from her quiver, and keeps her eyes trained on their surroundings. Should any one of the sick persons attempt to communicate from an uncomfortable distance, she will not hesitate to draw and kill them.
The inn has been turned into a makeshift healing house. Tables are covered with sheets and people are being tended by women dressed in black. The coughs and sneezes fill the air. There are about two dozen sick people being tended by six women led by a half-orc. There's a dwarf behind the bar, smoking on a pipe and muttering to himself. The noise of more coughs comes from the upper floor too.
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Kathleen Eaglefeather hears someone calling for her, but at the time, she doesn't stop what she's doing. She is quite busy, beating on the chest and attempting to breathe for, someone. At the immediate moment, it looks like violence. But her words correct this impression.
"Come on, Madame, breathe. Breathe. 1, 2, 3, breathe." She attempts to help the lady breathe with a makeshift breathing tube made from a straw. She has also closed the woman's nose with her fingers. Katie looks at the woman, sees that her chest shows no sign of movement, and feels the woman's wrists.
"Damn," Katie said. She throws the breathing tube to the floor in frustration, and turns away from the corpse of the woman. "I've lost her. It's so damned quick." Katie sighs with disgust, shaking her head. Realizing someone was calling for her, Katie looks around.
Eventually, she notices Sev, and goes over to him.
"Have you contracted the disease?" Without even bothering to let him answer, she begins to physically examine him. "Any muscle fatigue? How about nausea? Have you had any fever?"
She puts her gloved hands on his forehead, and finding that he is cool, she steps away and relents.
"Oh good, you're not sick. I'm being rude, aren't I? Please forgive me. My name is Kathleen Eaglefeather. You can call me Katie. I'm a nurse trying to sort out this horrible plague and . . . Wait a second. What are you doing in here? This inn, and the town and merchant halls, are under emergency medical quarrantine until . . . hmmm. So if you aren't sick, did you come to report someone who is?"
If he doesn't answer, she will turn to a chart of the next round of anti-nausea and fever herbs for her rather extensive list of patients.
Mikam stands in the dusty road and watches Sev and Thalia walk into the town apprehension and trepidation wells in his chest.
I am not going in that place...not while there is plague there!
Seeing that Raxus is staying outside the town, Mikam relaxes slightly.
"It isn't wise for all of us to go into the town at the same time, so I am glad that you are waiting out here also Raxus. Seriously, if we all went in at the same time, we could all catch the illness simultaneously, then we would be easy prey to the bandits. This is definitly the best plan...yah." Mikam sounds a bit like he is trying to convince himself rather than Raxus.
Cyean looks at Mikam before shrugging "A plague is a very dangerous thing Mikam."
"True. Though it will do no good for us to remain at a distance if they have caught it and then rejoin us."
"Yes...we need to be sure that they are safe before they rejoin us. How can we do that? Do we know anyone who knows what the plague looks like, or has magic to detect it? And what if its a magical plague that resists detection?"
"Then we catch it and likely die." Raxus says simply looking at the ruin of the town.
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Katie sighs, and goes to a book on the bar. She opens it, and crosses out a name.
"That bad," someone asks?
"That bad," Katie answers. She looks at one of the six women giving an herbal-based drink to a child, and she runs over to her. "No, no, don't do that. He's already had too much."
[b]"But he's suffering . . ."
"Get out the watch and hypnotize him. It'll negate the pain without further drugs. The admixture you have is an adult dosage, not fit for a child. Overdose him on this stuff, and he really will be dead, okay? Is anyone keeping track of the quantities administered? No? Then get together with the others and make sure the dosages administered are correct. Bad enough we have people dying from the pox. We don't need to add deaths from med mistakes to that number, okay?"
"Yes, Nurse Eaglefeather." Katie rests her heads on her head, and takes a deep, cleaning breath. She checks her pack, and notices she's running very low on her willow bark mixture.
"F . . . fiddlesticks. Without that, we can't break the fevers or control the pain. Hypnotizing patients can only take you so far. It's only supposed to be used on pregnant women in labor to avoid drug complications. And kids on the verge of an overdose due to poor record-keeping. Oh well, it seems I have no choice. We're running out of drugs, and running out of time. Focus, Katie. You are Br . . . a nurse. You do what you have to do, now. Go get the roots you need. If the bandits kill you, so what? Without those roots, this town's dead anyway. This pox must be cured, now."
With that, Katie takes another deep breath, checks that her tarot cards are in her pocket and the medical supplies she still has are in her bag, and walks out the door. If anyone follows, she will talk to them.
Upon hearing a disturbance at the door, Thalia takes a step back and nocks the arrow in her bow.
"Who are you?!" she demands. "Where is our hunter? Sev?!
"If you so much as breathe incorrectly in my direction, I will not hesitate to draw!"
"Keep your pants on, Priestess. I'm here." Sev walks out of the Inn, coughing slightly. "This here's Eaglefeather. She says she's a nurse."
Thalia backs up further. "That f*cking moron, leading us to this pest town," she growls and draws down on Sev. "I value my beauty and my health far more than your arms, Sir." she says and then looks to Katie.
"You are a nurse?" she inquires. "Examine him, now! I refuse to travel with a dead man."
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Katie draws a fearful breath and takes a step back when Thalia threatens her with a bow, but before she can react, Sev comes to her rescue. So Katie breathes with a sigh of relief, and takes a moment to regain her composure. She has never removed her mask or her gloves.
"Please calm down, Madame. If you refuse to travel with a dead man, you're in the wrong place. But not for very much longer. A cough in and of itself doesn't mean anything. But if he's got it, then you've got it, so either way, it's quite irrelevant. Still, it's better to know now than to wait and suffer in the morning. With your permission, Sir?"
If Sev allows her, Katie will use a heal check to determine if he's got the disease.
"But if you fear him dying, you needn't, Katie says as she works in a proper clinical manner. "Not if we act in time. There is a root I can use that will stop this plague cold. That's what it is, by the way, a magical plague but one that can be treated by less esoteric means. That's why I'm leaving the inn. We're nearly out of medications to treat the symptoms and people are beginning to die. I must act, now, while I still have time. But, you say he is a hunter?"
Katie stops all actions and steps a few steps away, looking at Sev.
"Would you please consider assisting me? A single woman, especially of Bre . . . I mean, Orcish blood, would be attacked and deflected from her purpose by the bandits on the road. A man with a gun by her side, however, would work wonders at keeping the bandits at bay while I go get the plants that I need to counteract this disease. Please? Perhaps there is something I could do for you in return. Madame, shall I check you next? I can if you wish it."
Thalia's eyes narrow as she regards the nurse. "Are you prey?" she asks sharply, and sniffs at the air. "Your monstrous appearance would suggest not."
Thalia shifts again so that she can keep the pest pair to one side of her, and hold the town in her field of vision. "Where is the town's whore?"
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"Monsterous. That's all people see. Madame Kirustinu says to be glad of it, and use it to our advantage. But it doesn't stop the pain. Yes, I am hunted and stalked in my own way. And will remain so until I've done what I was sent to do. Any of us who leave the . . . who leave the protection of the larger population are in danger. We wouldn't leave at all, but there are some times when it is required. As for the tramp, the last time I saw her, I was treating her venereal diseases with a compound based on moldy bread. When mixed correctly, unless the patient is allergic, it'll kill most infections very effectively. She picked the wrong partner at night."
Katie then sits down. She breathes in. Then with a swipe of her hand, she cleans a place on the ground. Next, she removes her tarot cards from her pocket, shuffles, and draws three.
"What is my best course of action?" King of Cups, 10 of Pentacles, 6 of Wands. I need to get that root before anything else. But you're more interested in seeing the city, aren't you? Strange. It seems best if we combine our causes. The cards have decided."
Katie gathers her cards together and puts them back in her pocket.
"I will assist you in any way I can, within reason, that is."
Thalia bears her teeth and growls, turning her shortbow on the orc again. "Say that word again, b*tch, and I will bury my daggers in your c*nt while you sleep. It is whore, or dark mistress of the night to civilians," she snarls. "Tell me where, if you're to have any use to me."
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"Very well then. Dark mistress of the night it shall be. As for where this town's is, I do not know. My mind is rather busy on other things. There's no need for violence, or profanity. Remember, I am also regretably half-human if it's my race that offends you so. Or rather, my grandparents were both Half-Orcs. But then, almost everyone is back on the . . . where I come from. Between Half-Orc and full Orc, it makes the majority."
Thalia rolls her eyes and lets down her bow, sliding the arrow back into her quiver and giving the nurse a gesture for quiet with her hand.
"Hush," she says. "You have told me only two facts since you appeared, and facts and the location of my sister are the only two things I wish to hear from your mouth. If you continue to run your mouth at the expense of my health, I will become cross," Thalia warns.
Thalia taps her lips with a fingertip, considering if I were a low rent whore, and all my customers were sick and dying, where might I be? Thalia begins chuckling softly, and the sound is none too wholesome.
"You have no need to fear bandits," she says, "if my sister is practical in her craft, they are all informed that this place means death."
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"I don't have time for this. I must get that root or everyone here will die. Sir, is this her typical behavior pattern? By the way, hurt me, and your 'sister' will die of the disease. No doubt about it. I'm the only way out of a death trap you people have unwittingly walked right into. If we don't help each other, we'll die together. Consider that before saying another word." She turns her attention exclusively to checking on Sev.
Sev chuckles, a grim thing not touched by humor. "Well, to her credit, she alternates between b$#+! and bare. There's rarely much midground, but some fair midriff. So, am I sick like these? Fast disease that, if merely walkin' through gets you the plague. How'd it start?"
"Her name is Thalia, and you may address me directly," Thalia says. "You say this pest is magical, my sister might have been able to tell me if there were unfamiliar men here at the time that the first started showing symptoms of it. Which you might have thought of if you hadn't immediately turned your green nose up concerning her profession," she growls.
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"Is that what this unhelpful tiff was all about? I apologize for my disrespect. As for asking about strange men, I am rather a newcomer to this city. But Jonga would be able to tell you, I'm sure. We should ask her. It started right around the time that I got here. It was also right around the time that . . . well, it's not important."
"Thalia looks unhappy." Raxus says to Cyean and Mikham in a neutral tone, as though commenting on the color of the sky or something equally self-evident.
Cyean looks than shrugs "Seems you are right."
"Is there a reason we must take her with us? She seems to make everything more difficult than it needs to be."
Cyean shrugs once again, "We all had to go together, why we are all here. She knows the more base feelings of both men and women, while also knowing how to use those feelings. A useful skill."