[Adventure] Rage of the Savage Lands (DM: Dekana, Judge: TwoHeadsBarking)

[Luinnar]

Hello dearie. Beatrice says walking over and plopping the lizardwomen down in front of the priest. We've got a sick lizardWOMEN and we would like for you to take a look at her. See if you can heal her for us as she was suppose to be our guide.

 

[Dekana]

"A lizardwoman, you say?" You can see large bags under the priests eyes as he tiredly focuses on Toeto. He looks like hasn't slept in days. The priest stands over Toeto, one hand holding his chin while he decides how to proceed. He then leans over her, reaches out an arm, and opens up one of Toeto's eyes. At first she remains still as the priest looks at her iris, but it's also enough to stir her from her sleep.

"Ugh... where, did you take me?"

The priest responds softly softly, "Please, be calm, Miss. My name is Dieter, Dieter Foerster. I am the leading cleric of this Temple of Maros. Your friends have brought you here because you have fallen ill."

"Temple? Cleric? I, no... I won't... be... sacrificed! I beat your raven queen. I'll beat you too!" Toeto grabs at Dieter's head while he is leaning over and raises herself up to bite. Thankfully, the priest slips out of her grasp and backs away before she can do any damage.

"I was afraid of this. Everyone, your assistance if you please?"

With the party's help, Dieter takes the now thrashing Toeto to a tiny cell in the basement. The room is bare except for a bolted-down iron chair in the center. The chair has wrist and ankle restraints built into it, which Dieter secures around Toeto once she is seated.

Dieter leads everyone just outside the room. "I apologize for the crude accommodation, but it is for everyone's safety. You see, your friend has caught the Rage-Plague. She will become increasingly delusional and violent, as you have just seen. And, I am sorry to say, I have no cure for this madness." The cleric sighs and looks to the ground.

"Your friend is not the only one who needs a cure. Right now, hundreds of people in poor quarter are afflicted. It's only been a week since the plague appeared, and an entire district has been lost! The garrison had no choice but to seal the entire area off before the sickened could get out. I've... I've been working day and night for a remedy, but all I've had to examine are corpses..." He motions to another set of cells further down the hall. Their contents are (thankfully) out of view. "Perhaps your friend will be more helpful. You said she was your guide, yes? I'm afraid she won't be able to serve you in any capacity now, but please leave her with me. She'll be safe here.

Toeto continues raving from out of sight, boasting about how her tribe will come to save her and will horribly kill all the humans in town. Dieter leads the party back upstairs to the relative quiet. "As you have a lizardfolk guiding you, I take it you are going into the swamps? Might I ask what your business is out there? I'm afraid the lizardfolks there are even worse off than the citizens in the poor quarter."

 

[Luinnar]

I don't like the idea of leaving this poor dear with him...isn't it kind of creepy that he has a chair with restraints? It reminds me of the dungeons of one of my grand-kids... Beatrice whispers to the party.

As you have a lizardfolk guiding you, I take it you are going into the swamps? Might I ask what your business is out there?

Well to find a cure of course! Beatrice says. What else would we be doing? Swamps are hardly vacation spots!

Now if only you could give us a hint of some kind of herb or spice or strange magical portal or something that might lead us to the cause or a cure. I'd hate to add that poor girl to your dead list!

 

[Dekana]

I don't like the idea of leaving this poor dear with him...isn't it kind of creepy that he has a chair with restraints? It reminds me of the dungeons of one of my grand-kids... Beatrice whispers to the party.

While the chair does look like something from a torture dungeon or a nightmarish insane asylum, it does a good job of restraining Toeto. With the way she's thrashing about and biting, you doubt that you would be able to control her any better for long periods of time.

Well to find a cure of course! Beatrice says. What else would we be doing? Swamps are hardly vacation spots!

Now if only you could give us a hint of some kind of herb or spice or strange magical portal or something that might lead us to the cause or a cure. I'd hate to add that poor girl to your dead list!

Dieter's tired face brightens up a little as Beatrice speaks.

"My dear, if you're serious - no, of course you are." He chuckles. "I've been struggling to get any help at all from the garrison troops, and then you and your company of warriors show up unprompted and intent on finding the cure! Maros must have arranged this meeting, indeed."

"About the vector, I do have an idea on that. You see, the madness popped up in our city seemingly overnight. I can't imagine any infectious disease spreading so quickly! I believe the plague to be caused by some sort of contaminant - something that many people would be exposed to at once. The toxin would also have to be found naturally in the swamp, which eliminates most of our imported food from concern. I also doubt it is airborne, or else all of Cay Harbor would have been exposed."

Dieter raises one fist as he announces his final deduction. "Therefore, I see only thing responsible: tainted well water. The people in the poor quarter drink from their own wells, and more often from them than the higher classes. I imagine the swampwater the lizardfolk drink from became similarly contaminated."

Dieter lowers his arm and continues, "I never considered an expedition to the swamps - I was so focused on Cay Harbor's own troubles. The lizards have been sick for months, so I imagine you'll find it easier to travel there than usual. There will be, er, less of them" he adds rather darkly. "If you were to gather water from wells in the poor quarter, you wouldn't have to travel nearly as far. However, you'd have to contend with scores of deranged people in a sick area. I'll leave it to you to decide which is less hazardous."

OOC: End walls of text, I hope. Where to?

 

[Luinnar]

Beatrice blinks and stares at the man for a moment than replies. So you are saying our poor Toeto got sick by somehow drinking contaminated water before we landed on this island?

Sorry dearie but you are as kookie as she is. I may be old, but being senile is not something I've experienced yet.

OOC: My vote is to Macgyver up a cage with wheels and bring Toeto with us and explore either place.

 

[Mewness]

"Harold" nods dubiously. "I myself have been in close proximity with Toeto for quite some time, and she manifested no symptoms until recently--and nobody in her company has shown any symptoms at all. The ailment does not seem to spread in any normal manner. Perhaps it is some sort of.... Well, it is not for me to indulge in idle speculation. I am hardly expert in such matters."

OOC: I'd be willing to leave Toeto here if she would have the protection of the temple. At least the local priest doesn't seem to want to kill her outright, as the guards do.

 

[Dekana]

"She became sick at sea?" The priest asks with some worry. "I don't see how she could. And why would it only be her... Maybe she was exposed earlier, and the madness had a delayed onset?"

[sblock=earlier]Echoing what Scarm just brought up, Toeto did mention early in the voyage that she thought the plague was not natural.[/sblock]

 

[Velmont]

"The person the closest to find a cure was her." tells Jarel-karn, pointing Toeto. "And she wasn't thinking it was simply the water. From what she said, I would rather think there is some magic or other unnatural source to the problem. That could explain why it happen so suddenly in the poor quarter, and that it is only contain within it. When did the first sick person appeared in the poor quarter?"

 

[stonegod]

Damen reaches behind him and pulls out some notes from a bag that is not his. Probably magical.

OOC: See if Toeto's notes (if any) say anything more.

 

[Dekana]

"The person the closest to find a cure was her." tells Jarel-karn, pointing Toeto. "And she wasn't thinking it was simply the water. From what she said, I would rather think there is some magic or other unnatural source to the problem. That could explain why it happen so suddenly in the poor quarter, and that it is only contain within it. When did the first sick person appeared in the poor quarter?"

Dieter looks skeptically in Toeto's direction, but he doesn't have a ready explanation.

"The disease appeared here a week ago, with an explosion of new cases the next day. That's when the guards sealed off the district. We know the lizardfolk have been afflicted for several months now, as their mad occasionally wandered to the city walls. We don't see them anymore, though..."

Dieter gestures to Yishim. "You look to be a mage. If some kind of foul magic is at work, perhaps you can detect it if you get close enough. In the meantime, do collect that water sample. There's no harm in covering all our bases."