"I was going to suggest you check on him," Gamble says. He takes a break from his work, setting down the hammer and nails, wiping his brow with a rag, and then follows after the chirurgeon.
You follow Garley near the southern edge of town to a barn. The door is closed with what you know is a weak wooden plank from your experience fixing the house. Inside the barn it's dark and sheriff Garley lights an oil lamp to guide himself and you inside.
"He's in the stable to the right", he says although that wasn't necessary. You've been hearing soft sobbing and moaning since he opened the large barn door.
The smell of dried vomit assaults your nostrils as you approach. There is a large shapes tied up and twisting about. Hallod is sweaty and pale and seems to have consumed himself. He turns to look at you, desperate. "Gods, it hurts so much! Make it stop! Make it stop!"
"NO! You can't leave me like this! Please, give me something! Anything!"
Garley spits on the floor in disgust. "But he isn't dying, right?"
"Yes I am! Give me something for the pain! PLEASE!", Hallod pitifully pleads.
From the darkness of the next stable over a familiar voice calls out. "Phinick's head hurts from all that screaming, can Phinick be put somewhere else?"
"Can we even do anything to ease his suffering?" Gamble asks Kunsheng. "Can you replicate whatever additive his mistress used?"
Sinan, approaching to see the commotion after another of the feedhouse's fine meals, lays a hand on Kusheng's shoulder. "If this is withdrawal, can you provide something to make sure it does not take his life? I have questions for Hallod, and it will be easier if he knows that answering them will finally provide him relief."
A dark look falls over the priest's face. It is dirty work, finding the brains behind a murder- or slavery ring as he is more used to dealing with. But it is a necessary one. "If Hallod is very lucky, he will learn the errors of his ways in the light of the sun." He turns to the sheriff. "But not today."
You leave Hallod with his misery and Phinick with Hallod's wails of anguish and return to your own affairs. Tomorrow morning is the day Noala agreed to return for your aid in dealing with the blight.
During the evening, you have all had time to prepare as a familiar female shape goes by Deerslicer's lean to.
"Good evening, Master Deerslice", she says cheerfully with a smile at both him and the young bear.
Delma knocks at your door.
"Noala's had another row with Garley. She's not coming into town. She asks that you meet her outside of town 'where the ambush took place', she said. She also said you have your horses ready as it'll be a lengthy trip."
"Oh," Delma says taken aback. "I thought... weren't the horses at the stables yours?"
After Delma leaves, you head out for the Feedmill as the evening usuals file in. It's been a week since you arrived at Etran's Folly and some of the locals have opened up themselves to you. At least to greet you with a hand wave or a nod of acknowledgement. Tamli is with Edra in the stables and upon your request agrees to lending you the horses.
"Whatever can help find the person responsible of this.", she tells you. "Besides, you were the ones who took care of them when they had all those fleas. I'm sure it's what Bort would have wanted." Although that last statement sounded more to herself than to you.
|----|----|----|----|
At first light, you leave your home and the comfort of Etran's Folly and head out north towards the site of the ambush. Noala is there by a lean-to and greets you with her good hand.
"You are all here. Perfect. Allow me to tell you my plan", she says in her raspy voice. "We will travel to the nearest blight. That's about three hours from here even with the horses as it's all mostly little more than game trails. While you enter to explore the site, I will set up several snares outside to make sure any creatures you miss or are flushed stay contained to this blight."
"Once the area is clear, I will investigate it fully to see if there's anything that can be learned from it. All right?"
Noala shakes her head. "I would be surprised by what you're saying if I hadn't seen it myself. No, we're talking wolves. And plants. Even the plants have gotten corrupted and are attacking. I was attacked by a tree just two months ago. Keep your eyes peeled for anything as you head in."
"I imagine fire is the antithesis of what a lady of the wood would want us to bring, my friend." Sinan chuckles to Simon. "Still, with the Lady of the Dawn with us, fire is one thing we have plenty of."
Noala nods at Valor's insight "Fire would help with the plants, not so much with the wolves. It all really depends on the nature of the blight as as we haven't investigated it yet, it's hard to tell without further information."
"We need any supplies before we head out into the woods?" he asks the night before they're expected to meet Noala. "Tent if you don't like sleeping on the ground or getting rained on? Torches? Lanterns? Food? Not that Deerslicer's cooking isn't perfectly fine."
----------
"We had best be ready to kill whatever we find," he says after the huntress explains her plan, stowing his walking staff and drawing his bow.
"Then if you're all ready to go, let's go."
|----|----|----|----|
Just as Noala said, traveling to the blight takes about three hours. The coolness of the morning dispereses to the morning warmth. The mounts, while helpful can't hasten the pace, as the trail is little more than a winding game path as promised.
Near the end of the third hour, you begin to encounter the first signs of the blight. The plants in the area have given way from a vibrant green to are a sickly shade of green with spots of brown. Soon, the fresh scent of the pine forest is replaced by wafts of sweet rot and the trees look entirely unhealthy, their bark peeling off in sticky black strips.
With every step you take, the presence of rot increases and Noala slows to a stop, raising a palm to signal a halt. She turns to look at you, saying, "This is where those wolves came from, I am sure of it. Somewhere ahead is their den, but I will leave that for you to explore. If you need my help, you will find me out here. I am going to set up snares and make sure nothing gets out of this rotten copse."
"Yes, I can tie them up a bit further away from here. That way they're safe in case of battle", Noala says. "Whenever you're ready, let's move out."
|
Deerslicer raises an eyebrow toward Gamble, one ear drooping questioningly. Cooking? He t'ink da stuff we been eatin' been cooked? He smiles and nods, but says nothing, as he gets ready for the trip.
---------
Deerslicer pulls his dogslicer in one hand, his kukri in the other. "Show us da nasty plants ..."
"Alright," Gamble says as he prepares to follow Deerslicer and Gracie. "If those acid spitting wolves weren't the worst that den had to offer, then we're in for a fight worth at least a half-decent story."
You leave Noala behind with your horses and follow the trail into the heart of this small blight. As they travel, the ground softens and squelches underfoot due to the sticky runoff from all the dying plants. Soon after, the trail opens into an area with tall trees but little underbrush. The path continues toward the rotting remains of a truly titanic tree and, under its roots, there appears to be a small cave.
In the center of the clearing is a trio of small, sickly-looking thorn bushes grouped together. Everything else in this area is eerily quiet. Not even birds can be heard here.
Sinan steps forward to check out the bushes, careful to not disturb the bushes as he approaches them.
"I would be hesitant to approach anything with thorns in this place," Gamble cautions as Sinan steps forward.
...and just as Gamble speaks, the plants rustle as long thin taupe vines extend from the bushes! More vines spread to their sides as they uproot themselves, soil scattering and begin to move towards the party!
As Simon stabs at the bush's tendril, he feels as if he isn't doing much damage at all as it goes through making a hole that quickly begins to drip a white gooey substance that smells sharp.
The bush bursts into flame, yet the plant swirls in place and snuffs most of the fire out. Yet several of its leaves are still on fire. Several flametongues reach the other plants, which twitch and shiver as fire takes them!
The bush whips its tendrils towards Sinan! They strike the priest and open up some deep wounds. Not sated, the tendril reaches out to siphon his blood. The bush continues to burn thanks to Kunsheng's quick thinking, but it shakes itself off and the fire dwindles to nothing
The nearby bush lashes out thrice at Simon, but the younger priest is much to nimble, except in the last lash, where the bush causes a vicious laceration by his ankle.
The last bush moves forward and extends a tendril towards Kunsheng. The tendrils slam into his face, twisting around his neck as they lacerate the Tien! The bush tries to attack again, but the Tien is much more agile than he looks and manages to swerve out of the way.
"By the Dawn! What is it with this land that even the foliage attacks us?"
The priest spits out a curse at his bloody gashes and steps to where he can see all three of the fauna attacking them. He raises his hands and fire burns in his eyes as he bellows "Jamyeukum , ahtarq!"
A cone of flame erupts from the priest to engulf two of the creatures .
Sinan gets out of the way as the tendril seeks his open wounds The plants' leaves burst into flames as they scurry away from the cone of fire! The fire burns them, yet even alight they seem to now make their way to the Dawnflower's agent with deadly intent! Yet all this movement keeps bleeding Sinan out.
Deerslicer would recall just as he advances on his prey...
Plants like these can sense things from the vibrations on the ground (tremorsense). They also appear to be able to have a Spinning Strike [three-actions] (The bush spins in a circle, lashing out in all directions at once. It makes one attack roll and compares the result to the AC of each creature within its melee reach, rolling damage only once and applying it to each creature hit)
Gracie helps Deerslicer by putting the enemy in a flank. Gracie rakes a claw against the plant... and hits only a clump of leaves. The plants seem to ignore both goblin and bear, their focus on the maker of fire next to them as the smell of charred bush hangs in the air.
"We knew this was going to be dangerous. We came prepared," Gamble encourages the others. He moves into the clearing and takes a swing at the closest thorn bush .
With his voice encouraging you, the Ulfen puts his own words into actions as he releases a savage blow that strikes his target!