Adventure: The Power of Knowledge (DM: Fragsie, Judge: TwoHeadsBarking)

[Fragsie]

Keeping their visit short, Miranna and Andrec take the two unconscious children in their arms and head out for the temple of the Oblous. Once they are out of the Overgrowth and back into the more prosperous parts of Daunton, they are again reminded of the huge gap in the quality of life between the peoples of this supposedly rich town, even the beggars in the temple district wear clothes that would be considered a luxury for the denizens of the Overgrowth.

Fronted by a facade of smooth, white marble, and decorated with carvings of a thousand tiny scenes of death and the afterlife, the Temple of the Oblous is one of the most imposing buildings in Daunton. It is also certainly among the richest, and that wealth is displayed in countless ways. Some are subtle, like the bells of finest brass that toll a deep, mournful, yet somehow soothing sound. Some are less subtle, like the twenty-foot solid gold front doors inlaid with a riot of precious stones. Some are unmistakeable, like the cadre of elite and extremely well equipped guards who watch those front doors at all times.
Inside the pair are shocked to discover a hubbub of activity, many makeshift cots have been set out in the temples main hall, and most of them are occupied by distraught people. Clerics and others make their way between the cots spoon-feeding those patients that are not unconscious and carefully administering a nutritious soup to those who are. The level of noise in the temple is quite high with three of the patients in particular, men in their middling to later years, making a racket of childish unintelligible sounds. To one side a group of women sit on their cots with large hoods covering their heads and faces, but you can see that their backs are hunched and their hands are distorted with arthritis and covered in boils.

A Lautonian cleric approaches you both with a forced smile upon his face that quickly disappears when he sees the state of the children you carry, "Oh my, it seems to have no end, and children too. May Lauto lead us to an answer before the whole town is afflicted. Please bring them this way and we shall see that your children are looked after. If you wish to stay in the temple with them while they are being cared for we have set aside a part of the cloisters for families."

---

OOC: an 8 isn't high enough to find anything, but if the the other three of you pitch in with some perception checks too, you may have more luck.

 

[Tomalak]

"Unfortunately, we cannot stay with them. We are engaged by the city to investigate the source of this..." Trailing off, Andrec gazes around him at all the victims. After depositing the children in the care of the priests, Andrec turns to his guide, saying "My name is Andrec, and I will return to look in on the children whenever I can. In the meantime, what can you tell me about this affliction? Symptoms, duration, who it is afflicting and where? Anything you know could be vital to the city's investigation."
Though he looks like an adventurer - sword and shield across his back, white cloth surcote about his chain-mail shirt - Andrec manages to come off sounding like a desk clerk. Sword or no sword, there's no doubting he's city-employed. No one else makes a crisis sound so boring.

 

[Fragsie]

The middle-aged priest is at first taken aback by Andrec's responce, expecting the adventurer to be a parent, but as he explains himself the cleric seems to lose an invisible burden that he had been carrying.

"I must say that it pleases me no end to discover that this is being looked into, things have gotten very bad very quickly.
In answer to your questions, it seems we have five separate yet related maladies to contend with here, quite possibly six now, as the children you brought with you seem to be suffering from something we have not seen yet. Though they bare runic branding like the rest yet a new rune.
First to come to us were two of the Master Librarians found afflicted in the library's halls, and then a day later a historian from Cobblestop; all three have had their brilliant minds reduced to that of an infant. They cry and garble as though there were born but a week ago.
Then there were two night watchmen from the northern gate, they were discovered and brought here early yesterday by their sergeant, a mister Nibs I believe. Then three minotaurs (would you believe it!) arrived this morning from the..." The priest takes a huge breath as though about to shout something, but then shakes his head to himself and continues using a different word "...fighting arena. All of them seem to have lost all the strength in their muscles, they are so withered away that we have had to resuscitate two of them on a couple of occasions, their lungs simply not having the power to breathe.
Then, today we have been inundated with suffering women, some have lost the ability to utter a single sound, as though their voices have completely left their bodies. Others, once renowned for their beauty are now horridly disfigured and covered in pox. Perhaps worst are the cadre of dancers; they were visiting from the Kingdom of Jade, Not only have they lost their looks, but their bones are riddled with such arthritis as I have never seen in the oldest of people, the pain they go through to make but the smallest move is incredible.
As for the duration, unfortunately no one has yet recovered, their seems to be no end to it. The runes suggest to some that this is the work of men and therefore could be undone, yet our head archivist is certain that the glyphs are some form of supernal that we haven't seen before and he thinks that they are there as a mark from the gods."

 

[Kalidrev]

Seeing the suffering everywhere and especially those women who had become ugly like her, raises her ire like nothing she has ever experienced before. Normally she wouldn't care about anyone else, she was a lone assassin after all, but this was too much.

"How DARE they do this! Stealing strength or prowess is one thing. THAT I could almost forgive in the creation of a better army... but stealing all of our looks! THAT'S IT!!"

Flinging off her hood, revealing her horribly disfigured face, Mikara races over to the other disfigured women and she stands before them with eyes glowing red and fierce.

"We have seen how to reverse this! Defeating the person who took your beauty will restore you! I vow to make this happen! As Lauto is my witness, those bastards will pay!"

Turning back to the cleric she clenches her fist, knuckles turning white.

"We need a record of where all of these people were marked with these runes. It may help us to track those bastards down. Can you give this to us?"

 

[Fragsie]

The shocked movements of the other women in reaction to Mikara's outburst, are somewhat eerie as not one of them makes any noise. After the drow explains her intentions to deal with the people responsible for their condition, one of the women starts silently crying, her hands clasped together in obvious thanks.

When Mikara turns back to the priest and fires here short request at him, he seems a bit flustered.
"Um... Well... Yes, I suppose I could write that down for you. Y-y-you mean where the victims where found, or do you mean where on their bodies the runes were? Um... I tell you what; as you said you would be returning, I will have one of the novitiates transcribe all of the notes we have made so far for you. They should be ready for you by sunset.
In case the information can help you in the mean time I will go over the people we are currently caring for." The cleric points around the room as he reels off the list again.
"First was the Master Librarians, found in the great library with their minds gone, then the historian found in his workshop in Cobblestop by his housekeeper (she was a handful!), then the two guards from the North Gate and the three Minotaurs. I think the abomination said something about a group of mercenaries finding them in the Overgrowth. Then the four dancers were found in their rooms in the Kingdom of Jade embassy's dormitories, and finally three local women; both members of our community choir here in the chapel, were found in their respective homes in the Commons.
As you see, there seems to be no pattern to the locations, if we had an idea of where this was originating from we would have found someone official to tell."

[sblock=OOC]I've sent out a couple of PM's to help speed up the game a bit, we haven't heard anything from Tinwe since February, if he has gone MIA you may have to think about hiring yourselves a new healer.[/sblock]

 

[Tomalak]

"Thank you for your help. I'll have someone drop by this evening to pick up that report, and I'll be sure to keep you apprised of our progress."
We'll head back to the group then.
[sblock=OOC]If you'd like, I can NPC him for a while. It's nothing new to me.[/sblock]

 

[Fragsie]

[sblock=OOC]That would be cool, thanks Tomalak. You'll probably have to go around the houses to find brother shane's character sheets though. I'll make a post to send the feelers out in the upcoming adventures thread if I haven't heard from him by sunday, then you guys can sort it out in character.[/sblock]

 

[Fragsie]

Without children to carry, Andrec and Mikara quickly find their way back to the rest of the group who are still searching the overgrowth for the remaining two orphans.

//I've put a quick message up in the upcoming adventures thread about the possibility that you guys are going to need to hire a new healer.

Could we pick the pace up a little please guys?//

 

[garyh]

OOC: I'm kind of loss as to what to do next, especially with my "not very useful in a city" druid. Plus, it's been like two and a half months since our last fight ended...

 

[Kalidrev]

[sblock=ooc] I too am having a bit of a hard time figuring out where to go from here... we need a solid lead, lol. A little railroading wouldn't be a bad thing at this point Fragsie [/sblock]