GM Harrow’s Curse of the Crimson Throne - AE

Game Master GM Harrow

As the last Physician falls, Kandru approaches the unconscious patients, checking their injuries with a healer's eye - behind the mask, the priestess's brow furrows at the extent of the Varisians' injuries, but after a moment's examination of each, she hesitantly steps back, confident that they are stable but unsure about leaving them here.

At Shane's suggestion, she nods resolutely, fumbling in her robes for her holy symbol, but Shrike's words give her pause, and she reluctantly lowers the golden key. "You're right - discretion is likely the better part of wisdom in this case." Scowling, she begins to rewind her crossbow, glaring at the room beyond where the Grey Maidens wait. "Well, to a greater or lesser extent, as the case may be - 'discretion' is likely to be interchangeable with 'covering fire' when dealing with the Queen's representatives."

Shrike's head turns back slightly in response to this observation about the Queen's representatives. "Something's wrong there. Making copies of your favorite bodyguard's one thing. But plagues torch cities. Even a bad queen doesn't want to rule over ashes. Madness." It's not entirely clear if this is just an observation or a suggested explanation. When she is done removing restraints, Shrike takes the three masks from the three fallen cultists, along with any small things of value they have. She bends her head away from the others and swiftly pushes up her illusory doctor's mask as she replaces it with the real thing. The fake becomes the shrike mask again in her hands as soon as it leaves her face. She fastens the new one, then stashes her own mask carefully in her pack and passes off the other two physician masks to Shane and Audria.

The long branched spear appears again in her hands from the depths of a pack much shorter than it is as Shrike steals up to the next door. She holds it halfway up the shaft, ready to strike with either end. "Ready."

As the door opens, the room beyond comes into view. Various liquids, some looking suspiciously like blood and other humours, bubble away within oddly formed beakers and twisted tubes in the sizable laboratory. Any wall space left in view between cabinets or over-laden bookshelves is covered by worn parchments depicting magnified aspects of human anatomy in grisly detail - many pierced with pins and flags like the war maps of a veteran campaigner. In the corner, a desk of elegantly carved white ash bears the image of a herd of antelope, but stains from dark chemicals and gore disfigure the once-beautiful piece.

At the desk is Doctor Rainer Davaulus himself, angrily lifting his head from a half-dozen thick treatises that he's studying seemingly at the same time. "Who are you? What is the meaning of this interruption?"

BEFORE Entering, Shane would have finally gotten one of those Doctor masks so his illusion wouldn't be such a concern.

Sorry, just wanted to make sure!

As the Doctor speaks, Shane speaks, in a quavering voice, "Doctor, reports are the Queen herself has caught the Bloodveil."

Bluff: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (16) + 11 = 27
He hopes to sow confusion long enough for the others to ...well, do whatever it is they plan to do! Get the Doctor to lower his guard or see if the man reveals more of any plans.

No real doctor would do surgeries on his desk. This is a torturer. He likes the reminder.

Bluff, Aid Another: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (13) + 6 = 19
Shrike doesn't miss a beat. "What are your orders?" She isn't sure how good her attempt to flatten her fury into dull cultish inquiry is, but it doesn't matter. All she wants to do is help Shane confuse him just long enough to approach a few more feet with Thorn and let the others come into the room behind her before Davaulus realizes the trick.

She lets the tip of her spear fall forward to point at the plaguebringer's heart, and charges.

Mense Sotive: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (14) + 16 = 30

"Her Majesty...? No, impossible. And you should know better than to listen to baseless rumours!" But he hesitates for just long enough to give Shrike and the rest an opening.

Initiative order: Party, Dr. Davaulus.

"Easy Murderbird. Might be he knows something worth his life. If he's willing to make like a nice plaguecrow and sing that is."

Sneaky Kick (Power Attack): 1d20 + 12 - 2 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 12 - 2 + 1 = 28
Nonlethal Bludgeoning: 1d6 + 5 + 4 + 3d6 ⇒ (2) + 5 + 4 + (2, 4, 4) = 21
Dazzling/Motivating Display: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (6) + 12 = 18 Maybe Shaken for a round (+1 to 2 rounds if it succeeded), and +1 Morale to attacks for around. DC is 10+HD+Wis

Shrike fairly flies across the room spearpoint-first.

Thorn v. Dr. Feelbad, charge, Power Attack: 1d20 + 11 + 2 - 2 ⇒ (16) + 11 + 2 - 2 = 27 Probably against flat-footed AC.
Damage, Thorn, Lethal Grace, lesser Hidden Strike, Power Attack: 1d8 + 4 + 3 + 4d4 + 6 ⇒ (5) + 4 + 3 + (3, 3, 4, 1) + 6 = 29 Two-handed, magic, piercing; ignore 4d4 if not flat-footed.

The great goggled eyes of one of the doctor's own subordinates stare impassively into his face. "Best start singing."

Shane had prepared his phantasmal killer spell, a spell that, if it worked, would put down the dread doctor! Proving Magic triumphs over this petty and evil wielder of inferior 'science' but then...

The others go non-lethal?

Well, there's a way to twist a wand from too much swaying, drat. What do do? I have few spells that will help in... well, no that wouldn't work, would it?

Drawing his blade he intones under his breath, and then... he presents an illusion of the Queen, bound and gagged, with Shane's dagger at her throat, "Surrender, and answer all our questions, or I commit regicide."

Minor Image spell, DC 17 to disbelieve.

The 'Queen's' eyes are wide with alarm and implore the Doctor to desist!

Will save: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9 lmao

The scenario is too outrageous to be believed, but the 'good doctor' does do a double-take and the tableau is believable enough as to unsettle him momentarily.

Shaken for 1 round.

Kandru steps forward into the room, drawing her golden amulet of Abadar from within her robes and holding it aloft. Intoning a prayer to her god for strength, Shrike feels the powers of Abadar bolstering her strikes.

Blessing of the Faithful, +2 sacred bonus to hit

Elric raises his bow and draws, carefully aiming his arrow at the doctor's midsection.

"You heard him. Surrender and start talking. Otherwise, you and the Queen will meet an end as painful and cruel as those poor bastards dying below us."

Spending a move action to take aim with Bullseye Shot, readied action to fire if he does anything other than surrender.

And all caught up! Yay!

Audria, having been silent since before leaving Carowyn Manor, shakes herself. The horrors she's seen here have fanned the flames of her anger to white-hot fury. The destruction of art, the maiming of beauty, the cruel denigration of the people of Korvosa, and for what? She cannot fathom what kind of person could be so cruel as to inflict this on other people, nor does she care to. Every fiber of her soul cries out for justice, to send this pathetic man off to face his doom at the hands of whatever fiends will claim his grubby soul, but she knows that they need what this man knows badly.

So, she walks up to get Doctor Davaulus within her glaive's reach, careful to avoid bumping into anyone, especially Shane and "Queen Ileosa".

"I am bound to offer you the same chance to surrender as my companions have given you. I suggest you take it and give us a target to fully vent our fury on," Audria says in a voice far colder and more deadly than any of the others have heard from her.

Intimidate: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (10) + 1 = 11

Still, it's the voice of a young woman, and one that, despite the plate she wears, isn't all that intimidating in stature.

I'll get Audria updated in a minute. I haven't leveled, but that's not going to affect her intimidate bonus.

Dr. Davaulus hesitates, but then raises his hands in acquiescence.

"I can see now that you are not my doctors... Whoever you are, you are making a terrible mistake! You are interrupting vital work to find a cure for the plague, work commissioned by Her Majesty Queen Ileosa herself! Your actions could well be interpreted as high treason!" He lowers his tone a little. "Look, I understand that you might have concerns, or that false rumours may have poisoned your mind, but think of the ones you claim to be concerned for - without my crucial research they will surely succumb to the blood veil - and thousands more unless I am allowed to continue my work for a cure!"

1d20 + 14 ⇒ (12) + 14 = 26

Sense Motive (untrained, favored enemy +4): 1d20 + 2 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 2 + 4 = 9

Oh no, we've made a terrible mistake... the poor doctor is just trying to help!

Elric looks skeptical, but holds his fire fore now. He continues to aim at the doctor's abdomen, though.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 16 ⇒ (3) + 16 = 19

Behind the mask, Kandru's brow furrows in uncertainty, but after a moment, she scowls, bringing her crossbow to bear on the doctor. "Be that as it may, we have testimony that agents of the Queen's Physicians acted in concert with no less than two mass-murderers - as their direct supervisor, I suspect we could bring you up on at least an Aleph-9 suspension of medical practice pending review for malpractice. At minimum, you are guilty of gross negligence and outright incompetence, if not active collaboration with criminal offenders under Classification 1 Subclassification A-6 - that Queen Ileosa appointed you does not reflect well on you and in fact reflects rather poorly on her!" She laboriously winds the crossbow, keeping it aimed at Doctor Davalus. "Now please, step away from the desk, or I swear to you that I will not rest until I have personally notarized the signature of the co-chair of the committee to review the recommendation to permanently revoke your ability to practice medicine!"

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (19) + 8 = 27

Iridescent light flashes through the slits in Audria's helmet as she listens to the Doctor telling half-truths and lies. She fishes her holy symbol out from under her breastplate to let the man see it.

"Would you care to try again with the truth this time? I may be in the service of the Eternal Rose, but even our patience and mercy has limits. I suggest you try not to test them a second time," she warns him, emphasizing her point with a small step closer with the tip of her glaive aimed at his heart. "What is it you're really after here? I know it's not a cure, and you couldn't care less about the people you have suffering below and just outside of this office."

"He's not a doctor. Just an empty mask," Shrike realizes. Even with all they have seen lately, it takes her a moment to be sure that Davaulus is lying and not sincerely deluded. But the little flashes of rainbow light she catches from the corner of her eye, and Audria's cold, steady voice, clinch it. That was exactly how she sounded when dealing with the Cow Hammer Boys. Her weight shifts subtly to her back foot in preparation for a lunge, but the point of Thorn, already stained with the false physician's blood, never wavers. She pushes a little. "A dabbler. That's why she needs Lamm and Andaisin. They're the real thing."

Shrike can't make that Sense Motive even on a 20, but there's no way she believes this guy is for real after what we've recently found out. If we're still in rounds, ready action to Acrobatics through his space and stab him with Up Close and Personal if he makes a hostile move.

"Testimony? Testimony from whom? Don't you know how many people are jealous of my appointment? But I seek no glory or reward for my work, only..." Doctor Davaulus trails off as Audria calls him out on his lies. He sighs deeply, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand, the fingers stained with acids and gods know what else.

"Alright, yes. I am researching what exactly makes a handful of people immune to the blood veil. And I am a doctor." He seems to take umbrage at Shrike's assertion, raising his chin and glaring at her. "While you are on some sort of foolish crusade. Disease is the world's way to bring back balance! In order for civilization to grow and prosper, the parts of society that hold everything else back must be periodically pruned. Korvosa will be stronger once the plague finishes its work - a place you and I would be proud to call home!"

We are still in rounds, in case anyone else other than Elric and Shrike want to declare readied actions.

"So anyone who's not Chelish has to die," Audria snaps, the doctor's words stoking the flames of her fury to new heights.

Tally, who'd been hiding in the folds of one of the physicians' outfits, flits over to land on Audria's shoulder, her eyes matching the paladin's iridescent and baleful gaze.

"And who are you to decide who lives and dies, Davaulus," the thrush asks in a voice that would be pleasantly melodious if not for the rage seething behind its flattened timbre. "My ward has warned you about testing her patience. I'll warn you that she is by far the most forgiving of the ones you now face. I suspect that most of the others would be glad to see you writhing on the end of a pike for what you have done."

"Doctor Davaulus, if you please," sighs the aforementioned doctor, squinting at the bird through his spectacles. "I work under the protection of the Queen, so I highly advise you to think carefully about your next actions. You may have momentarily foiled the defenders of this place, but both I and Her Majesty have forces at our disposal that can squash you like bugs." His tone turns dark - that was most definitely a threat, and not an empty one at that.

1d20 + 14 ⇒ (4) + 14 = 18

"And last I checked, murder was still illegal in Korvosa." This last bit pointedly addressed to Kandru.

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (5) + 8 = 13 Boo!

Full post later. I have to get back to work.

"Let them try," Audria says before trying to skewer Doctor Davaulus.

Glaive(Power Attack) vs. Doctor Davaulus: 1d20 + 12 - 2 ⇒ (2) + 12 - 2 = 12 Sad paladin noises

Sense Motive DC 18: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (4) + 4 = 8

"You thought you could control it. Sapskull. Fire doesn't know the names of trees." Partway through the sentence, Shrike feints to his left and then spins to Davaulus's right with an effortless leap over his chair, sending Thorn's point and angled blades hissing toward the big vein in his neck along the way as she whips past him in the air. If and when it is her turn again: Free action activate boots, move action to move through his square with Acrobatics, swift action to attack with full Hidden Strike with Up Close and Personal, standard action to attack after moving.

Acrobatics to move through Davaulus's square, acrobat's pillar, daredevil softpaw boots: 1d20 + 14 + 2 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 14 + 2 + 5 = 33 That's got to do it.
Thorn v. Davaulus, daredevil softpaw boots: 1d20 + 11 + 2 ⇒ (17) + 11 + 2 = 30
Damage, Thorn, Lethal Grace, hidden strike: 1d8 + 4 + 3 + 4d8 ⇒ (4) + 4 + 3 + (3, 1, 8, 7) = 30

As she lands behind the mad doctor, opposite Pava, the lethal, leaflike blade flicks out again.
Thorn v. Davaulus, daredevil softpaw boots, flanking with Pava: 1d20 + 11 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 11 + 2 = 26
Damage, Thorn, Lethal Grace, lesser hidden strike: 1d8 + 4 + 3 + 4d4 ⇒ (1) + 4 + 3 + (2, 1, 2, 4) = 17

"The forest remembers. What you do comes back to you. That's balance."

Concentration check DC 19: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (8) + 8 = 16

Seeing himself attacked, Dr. Davaulus begins to cast a spell, but Shrike's second stab sends him stumbling forward, the arcane syllables interrupted by a cry of pain.

"A-are you- What are you doing?! What happened to due process a-and all that?!"

The thin veneer of bluster is crumbling under a rising tide of fear.

"You! Lawwoman! Stop them!"

There is not much that he can do at the moment, so you can kill him or knock him out as you wish. We don't need to do rounds and rolling for it.

For a moment, Audria almost kills the vile man, but remembering the previous times she's taken someone's life, she changes her stab into a flashing blow to the side of Doctor Davaulus' head, knocking him unconscious.

"I'm sorry. I--I can't kill him. Not when he's a step away from begging for his life."

Sense Motive: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12

Shane still has the 'queen' in his grip, the illusion still ready for slaying. A look at the others as Audria protests, then he says to the man "If you know of a cure, now's the time to tell it."

Pava snorts. "And leave the Hells missing their newest devil?" They draw their knife, and put an end to him.

"Let's grab his papers, yeah? Can't say I put much stock in the idea he was laboring after a cure, but if there really were folk not catching the Veil for more reason than good fortune then the notes might help us." They clean their dagger and tuck it back into their sheath. "Even if he was just trying to sort out how to get all the right sorts sick."

The not-so-good doctor did indeed keep notes on his research, and Pava finds them after a bit of rummaging through the desk drawers. A quick scan of them proves the Shoanti right - there is no mention of a cure, only hypotheses on why some of the subjects exhibit immunity to the disease.

Loot: potion of remove disease, +1 mithral chain shirt, +1 human-bane rapier, amulet of natural armor +1, flask of curses (labeled “elixir of true healing”), button key for lift, two keys, 580 gp.

Elric nods grimly as Pava ends the life of the sadistic bastard.

"Looks like we found our way down. Let's finish examining these papers quickly, then move below. I suspect we'll find the higher ranking members of this dirty outfit down there"

Shane feels little sympathy for the 'doctor' slain as he lets the illusion of the false queen drop. He does look at Kandru and Audria as they are put in very hard places, "Sorry, Ladies. Save the city now, consequences if need be later I think is best."

He takes up the papers and looks at them hastily.

Linguistics 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (5) + 11 = 16

"All right, reading..deciphering... old code reliable but not too difficult and I think I have..." A moment later his jaw drops, "He's a bloody Red Mantis, great... lower member. I think he was looking for a promotion. Most of the notes are frustration with the immunity a fraction of the patients displayed. I'm trying to sort that out." He tries to make more sense of what the immune had in common and speaks aloud. "Come on, tell me you kept a list of the commonalities between those immune. Tell me you at least had the sense to do that. A WIZARD would have."

Anyway to tell from these notes and the uninfected in the other room that we saw?

Pava's jaw drops. "Skies and burning stone - a Mantis!? At least if he's a lower member he might've been having us on about everything waiting in the wings to take vengeance on us for roughing up his person. Can't say as I'm sorry he's through breathing though."

Davaulus does not seem to realize his danger, and that arrogance is his end. Shrike disrupts the false doctor's attempt at casting some kind of magic spell and keeps her weapon trained on him. Frogmakers. Never prepared for someone to close with them. She makes no objection either when Audria knocks him senseless or when Pava finishes off the unconscious torturer.

"Skies and burning stone - a Mantis!? At least if he's a lower member he might've been having us on about everything waiting in the wings to take vengeance on us for roughing up his person. Can't say as I'm sorry he's through breathing though."

The revelation that Davaulus was Red Mantis instead of Urgathoan gives Shrike pause, but her harsh voice holds neither regret nor trepidation. "More than due. Couldn't let him walk on her word." The nature of the 'her' is unspoken but obvious.

She had lost no time in starting to go through his pockets with swift efficiency while Shane is making sense of the documents. The croak does not pause either as she continues. "So they're still here. City's getting crowded with death cults serving her. Papers are good proof. Let's take them for Kroft when you're done. Flash shirt and tickler." She hands the things that might be magic to Shane for his examination as well, and considers the rapier carefully when told what it is.

That's a better weapon than either of hers for probably almost all enemies we're going to find in here. It's not good flavor, but practically speaking, I should switch to it if someone else doesn't want it.

"I say heal the ones outside. Cut them a path. Then go below."

Audria looks away when Pava kills Davaulus, She clearly isn't happy about it, but she understands and doesn't argue with the Shoanti about the decision, especially after hearing that Davaulus was a Red Mantis. The revelation sends a shiver down her spine as she remembers when they'd encountered them while helping to defend Silver Sven and Dal from some that hoped to join their ranks.

With the others going through the office, She gently gets Kandru's attention and nods towards the room where the immune are being held captive.

"Can you help me ease their pain, Kandru? I'm not much of a healer, and what divine gifts I have may be more sorely needed deeper in this nest of vipers," she says quietly.

Kandru glares at Pava as she kills Doctor Davalus, sighing after a moment. "You've already heard my argument about killing captives, so I won't repeat it. By all rights, I should be filing a 2-9-C-III-12 form, but a death mid-commission of another crime requires a CL-223-1107-B addendum, and the Bank hasn't responded to my requisitions for more forms since the plague started." As the group uncovers the paperwork revealing him to be a Red Mantis agent, she scowls. "Look at that - these notes would have made a strong case in the Arbiters' courts, you know."

When Audria comes to fetch her, however, she follows the paladin into the cramped room, the breach of procedure forgotten. "Of course - I'll do what I can for them." Pulling out her holy symbol, she intones a prayer, curing the wounds of the immune Varisians.

Channel Energy: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 4, 1, 3) = 10

Lowering the golden key of Abadar, she nods. "They should be recovered now. Do you have any plans for egress? There were a fair few Physicians in the main ward - I'm a decent shot with my crossbow, though if it comes to that I suspect I'll be better off helping Lieutenant Rivers." Turning to the younger holy woman, she raises an eyebrow. "What do you think? If the basement of this place holds a clandestine anything, there could be an exit, but that's likely even more heavily quarded than the main ward."

Pava's mouth twists wryly as they react with honest surprise to Kandru's complaint. "Did you hear the man talking about how he had the queen's ear? Do you really think that this would've been the time the Arbiters handed down something approaching justice."

With what's already starting to be the force of habit, they take up a place at Shrike's shoulder. "Murderbird's right. This doesn't end till we go below."

Shane ponders this, "If the authorities themselves are violating the law, then is not their authority diminished, and thus the laws themselves in question? I..pardon, sorry, not the time for academic debates I suppose."

Unfortunately, the research that Dr. Davaulus was doing on the immune patients has not advanced beyond the stage of half-baked suppositions, so his notes alone are not very useful in identifying the exact cause of the immunity and - most importantly - how it might be used to develop a cure.

Kandru's ministrations return the unconscious Varisians to a healthier state of body, although most of them are frightened and even panicking, intent on getting away as quickly as possible.

Diplomacy/Intimidate check to get them to calm down and not rush out of the room.

And while these people are more or less hale and ambulatory, sadly that is not the case for many of the sixty-something patients below, all of them infected with the blood veil.

While the discussion happens, Shrike adjusts her armor and appearance. She fiddles with her sleeves, and the illusion of Queen's Physician robes vanishes, replaced with her common burglar's clothes, while the true appearance of the plaguebringer's mask changes to the illusion of her usual shrike mask.

Now looking like herself again, Shrike pauses at the door to the cruel experimentation room, cleaning her spear of Davaulus's blood with a weapon rag and watching from the corner of her mask as Kandru holds up the Key of Abadar. She stiffens slightly when the wave of holy energy washes over all of them and the injured civilians. Concealed by the mask, her eyes widen as cuts close, bruises fade, and chemical burns heal, taking near a score of people at once from death's door to something close to healthy. The fingertips of her right hand twitch up to her temple, drawing a simple crescent.

"Clear sight to you for your blessings, Justicar." I know you and the Judge of the Gods haven't much to say to each other, Hunter, but while we have a common enemy, we need all the blessings we can get. And he has seen fit to bestow powerful ones on her. "Only saw one exit. Loading doors're boarded up."

She moves to the center of the room, looking like herself, with the strange distinctive spear in hand. "Listen up. The doctor's dead. But no way out but through the downstairs guards. Let us go first. Follow on our signal. Don't rush out unless you want to die."
Intimidate, Renown: 1d20 + 12 + 4 ⇒ (6) + 12 + 4 = 22

The freshly restored people turn to watch Shrike with various degrees of fear, awe, or caution. Deyanira's brother, Ruan, is not among them. Hesitantly, they acquiesce to Shrike's command, shrinking back from her and from the bodies of the physicians still lying on the floor.

Seeing how Shrike is handling things and the reaction the people they are trying to save have to her, Audria decides she needs to soften things a bit. She takes off her helmet as Tally lands on her shoulder, and discretely gives Audria a bit of divine inspiration. (Tally casts Guidance on Audria.)

"What my rather blunt friend is trying to say is that we'll make sure you all get out alive, but we have to be careful about how we do it. There are also a lot of sick people down below that could get hurt if we aren't," she tells them, hoping that will be enough to calm them and smooth things over.

Diplomacy: 1d20 + 11 + 1 ⇒ (8) + 11 + 1 = 20

While she hopes her words will help, she knows that there's more pressing matters to deal with. She turns back to Kandru and shrugs.

"I have no idea how we're going to get everyone out of here, but I'm not leaving anyone here to rot. It's clear that they don't care about anyone here more than they have to so they can maintain the facade that they are doing good for the city. I wish we had a way to--" Her whispering voice trails off as she looks over at Shane.

"Kandru, I know you're not going to like this, and I don't really like proposing it, but I don't think we have any good options left. Do you think you can play up being a officious bureaucrat? I think I may have an idea after all," she whispers to the Abadarian before running over to Shane.

"Shane, can you do what you did with the queen with Davaulus, but make him talk?"

"Shane, can you do what you did with the queen with Davaulus, but make him talk?"

Shane nods "I think so. You want me to have him to say anything in particular?"

He does have Major image ready.

"I'm not sure yet. Depends on what we think we can get away with. I was thinking that we could use our magical puppet to get these people at least out of harm's way and where they can flee for their homes."

She shrugs, silently admitting that she's not sure if that's the best plan.

Shane seems immobilized, and then sighs [smaller]"I'm sorry Audria, I don't know where we'd SEND those who are infected once we free them." He looks at the others "Do we unleash those infected and send them to a temple? Hope they don't wander the city spreading anew? Do we somehow get them to the fishery and hope it is still deserted?"

She hadn't thought of anything that Shane brings up.

"C-could we get word out and have actual doctors and healers come here then," she asks.

"If that's going to happen, we may have to give Cressida the queen's excuse for her..." Pava scowls, unhappy with the compromise they can already feel coming. "We have Cressida cover it up. This was a place haunted by cultists who must have been only masquerading as the queen's physicians. She gets the people to healers who don't wear thrice-damned masks while the queen counts her blessings she doesn't have to kill everyone who ever heard about this."

They tilt up their mask to spit. "It'll all be part of the account come the day."

"Sick aren't going anywhere," Shrike points out. "Call on the temple to take them. Or Kroft. But later. Remove the threat first."

She has clipped the 'tickler,' as she called it, into the charcoal sash at her waist, and already taken thirty seconds to swap her darkened chain shirt for Davaulus's mithral one in the corner made by the open door while back in the false doctor's office — mostly to keep her face concealed in the short time that the long-beaked mask has to be off to effect the switch. She seemed unconcerned with stripping to her black shirtsleeves around the others, and took only enough care to ensure no strands of the long moon-white waves of her hair would end up caught in either chain shirt.

Fortunately, she is quite tall for a woman and Davaulus was thin and narrow-shouldered for a man, so she is not swimming in the delicate chain links. But the dark neck of her many-pocketed overshirt is not cut quite high enough to fully hide the telltale moonsilver gleam of mithral. The fine metal is so light and comfortable it feels indistinguishable from clothing to someone used to operating unimpeded by a well-made steel mail shirt. She could likely sleep in it and probably should from now on. Still, the light-catching reflectiveness of it will have to be corrected if she is to keep wearing it.

Shrike slings the spear behind her back and draws the rapier. She takes a few experimental thrusts, the narrow point nearly invisible as it splits the air, and then shakes her head slightly. She takes off the heavy mailed hand protector from her dominant hand and switches it to her off hand, leaving her right hand free to maneuver the elegant weapon better.

Shane politely averts his eyes while Shrike changes, "Shrike is right."

All business, Elric keeps his an arrow knocked and a watchful eye on the doors throughout the discussion.

"Indeed," he agrees with Shane. "Not much we can do for those already infected, but we damn sure can stop those who are actively trying to spread the disease."

Once everyone are ready to move, he takes up a covering position at the back of the group.

"What do we do about them? They could threaten to kill some of the ill if we don't surrender," Audria asks, trying to think of some way to save everyone, but coming up woefully short on ideas.