"You can find the plague doctor that way, back from where we came, but I wouldn't count on him helping you find someone unless they are already dead. If your comrade's still alive, perhaps you have a better chance to find it sheltered in the palace district. That is where we're heading now. If you can defend yourself, feel free to tag along..."
Then addressing Orris: "Speaking of which... we might have to take to the rooftops. even if they are unsafe. This city is unstable, and there is no guarantee that its streets lead where they seem to, or that they even wouldn't change as we go across them."
Then addressing Orris: "Speaking of which... we might have to take to the rooftops. even if they are unsafe. This city is unstable, and there is no guarantee that its streets lead where they seem to, or that they even wouldn't change as we go across them."
"Yes, a wonderful idea. I'm sure we'll still have some unpleasant surprises but at least our goal will remain in sight." To Sky, he says,
"Yes, survivors of the chaos caused by the plague and the fires are meeting at the palace. Perhaps your colleague is there. I don't remember seeing him among the corpses of the dead, although, I didn't inspect the pyre very closely. I don't imagine we'll be going to the The Mule and Cat unless it's on our way."
Severin had remained quiet through most of the exchange, allowing Orris and Grim to answer the dragonborn's questions. At the mention of Alton Teagallow, however, his expression showed a moment of consideration before he shook his head.
"The name means nothing to me, I'm afraid. Nor do I remember seeing a halfling matching that description."
The wooden disk hanging against his blackened armor shifted as he turned, briefly exposing the weathered oak leaf carved into its face. Unlike the crimson dragon and downward-pointed sword worked into the armor itself, this was a much simpler thing: old wood, worn smooth around the edges from years of handling. Sky recognized the symbol, though nothing about Severin's armor otherwise suggested the sort of company in which Sky might have expected to encounter it.
Severin looked from Sky toward the palace rising through the smoke.
"They're right about one thing. If Teagallow is alive and looking for shelter, the palace district is a reasonable place to search. And if he isn't there, you'll have lost little by reaching somewhere people are still gathering."
His attention moved upward as Grim and Orris returned to the question of the rooftops. From here, the nearest route began with the partially collapsed shop beside them. Its front wall had fallen inward, leaving heavy beams angled through the remains of the second floor. Above it, the roofs crowded together unevenly toward the palace, interrupted by narrow alleys and the occasional burned or collapsed section.
Before moving toward it, Severin paused and looked over the three travelers around him.
"Before we start climbing, is anyone wounded?"
His fingers briefly touched the wooden disk at his chest.
"I have some healing left to give. Better to use it here than discover someone needed it halfway across a roof."
Once that question was settled, Severin turned his attention back toward the climb.
The first ascent looked straightforward enough. Rubble had accumulated almost to the level of the shop's second floor, and several exposed timbers provided easy handholds from there to the roof. Beyond it, however, the route became considerably less certain. Some roofs remained solid beneath soot and ash, while others sagged between their supporting walls or ended abruptly where fire and collapse had consumed whole sections. Here and there, broken tiles and exposed rafters left openings into the darkened buildings below.
From the street, the palace had repeatedly vanished behind Plague-Mort's impossible turns. From above, its towers remained fixed against the smoky sky. Between here and there lay a broken succession of rooftops that appeared passable, although determining which sections could actually be trusted would require a closer look.
Sky recognizes the oak-leaf symbol as the holy symbol of Silvanus.
No check is needed for the initial climb. Once you're on the rooftops, someone can make a Perception, Investigation, or Survival check to assess the route toward the palace. If multiple PCs want to make checks, just say what each is specifically looking for rather than everyone rolling for the same thing.
"Thank you for offer of assistance, but I must decline said. Plague Doctor is my best lead. Alton has been in Plague Mort for weeks. If he sought refuge, he would return to his residence. He has not. I know this because I am living there last three days.
Sky glances at the rooftops and shakes his head. "Rooftops are precarious at best of times."
<<You could lead them to the palace,>> suggests Tempered.
Sky shakes his head. <<I have to find the Plague Doctor. It is the only lead I have.>>
<<It is a naughty word lead>>
<<It is a lead. What else do we have?>>
<<Potential allies?>>
Sky considers the suggestion. <<There is no reason for them to assist us. But. OK. I know.>>
"I can lead you to Arch Lector's palace. I have map." Sky touches his temple. "But first we find Plague Doctor. He is not far from here, no?"
A map you say?Does it track the movements of the city? For all we know, the way we came has already changed...
Orris gives an ominous warning,
We should warn you though, our last guide got shot through the eyeball when he lead us into an ambush.
Then he clarifies,
Wedidn't shoot him. The ambushers did.
My point is, the way is dangerous and, even if we do find him, he may be in trouble. I think you are wise to ask us to accompany you. Why don't you tell us more about Mr. Teagallow. It will help us help you in finding him.
Sky shakes his head. "The map is memory of what was. Not what is. But it is sufficient, I think."
Sky considers what he recalls of the town layout, noting the recent changes, and gives Orris and his companions a his best estimation of the way to the palace.
"Teagallow was here to investigate slipping of town. He stopped reporting a week ago. So I am sent to do the finding.
"I must go. Time is not in surfeit. Be safe."
Sky turns and heads down the street in the direction of the Plague Doctor. The last reported position of the Plague Doctor at least.
Sky had made it several paces before Severin spoke.
"Wait."
He glanced toward the palace, still visible above the uneven roofs, then back in the direction Sky was heading. His hand settled briefly against the wrapped crossbow bolt he had recovered from the ambushers.
"If this doctor has been studying the plague, I have questions for him too."
Severin drew the bolt just far enough from its wrapping to indicate the glass ampoule fixed beneath its head, careful not to touch the black substance within.
"Someone has learned how to collect this stuff, preserve it, and put it into weapons. I'd like to know whether he has seen anything similar."
His eyes moved once more toward the palace.
"The people there will still need help when we arrive. If the doctor is as close as you say, finding him first costs us little."
Then he looked toward Grim and Orris rather than presuming to make the decision for them.
"I'm going with him. Afterward, I'll make for the palace."
The route Sky remembered was not long. More importantly, unlike the others, he had spent the last three days repeatedly walking this part of Plague-Mort. The streets no longer agreed completely with his memory of them, but the discrepancies themselves had become useful landmarks. A lane that should have continued straight now bent around a burned-out residence; another had appeared where yesterday there had only been an alley between adjoining walls. The town was changing, but Sky at least knew what had changed.
The last place he knew the Plague Doctor to have been working lay only a short distance away, beyond the district they had just entered.
Whether the doctor was still there was another question.
Sky's Wanderer feature is useful here. He remembers the original layout and the changes he's personally observed over the last three days, so no check is needed just to navigate toward the Plague Doctor's last known location.
Grim and Orris can follow Severin and Sky or continue toward the palace.
"Right, if finding the Plague Doctor is critical for you, we'll get you where we last saw him, and hope he's still around. But then we better head for the palace soon after that."
Grim still has in mind that we were given a task to escort Severin to the palace, but obviously we can't force him if he has other intentions, but she most certainly doesn't want to lose sight of him as it might be not so easy to find him again, so she starts following Severin back to where we came from.
The way back was easier with Sky leading. Plague-Mort had changed since the dragonborn first walked these streets, but three days spent searching the district gave him something to work from. A narrow lane now bent around the remains of a burned building where Sky remembered it continuing straight, and farther on an alley opened between buildings that had stood flush against one another the day before. Enough remained familiar for Sky to keep them moving toward the place where the Plague Doctor had last been seen.
The smell of smoke and burned flesh grew stronger as they approached. Soon the buildings opened onto the same small square Grim and Orris remembered from earlier. The pyre had burned considerably lower since their last visit, its collapsed timbers glowing red beneath a crust of ash. Several bodies remained nearby beneath stained coverings, awaiting their turn.
The Plague Doctor was still there.
The strange physician crouched beside one of the covered bodies with his white bone staff resting on the stones within reach. He had opened a small case beside him and arranged several instruments upon a folded piece of cloth. His granular, stone-like skin caught the glow of the embers as his hands moved carefully over whatever work occupied him.
He looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. Grim and Orris received a moment of recognition before his attention shifted to their new companions. His gaze lingered on Severin's blackened armor and the symbols he carried, then moved to Sky.
"You return."
Severin stopped a short distance from the physician. He still carried the recovered crossbow bolt wrapped and separated from the rest of his equipment, but made no move to produce it. Instead, he glanced toward Sky and left the reason for their visit to him.
The Plague Doctor seemed in no particular hurry to fill the silence. He picked up a darkened instrument from the cloth, wiped it carefully clean, and waited to hear what had brought four armed travelers back to his pyre.
Sky's familiarity with the area is enough to reach the Plague Doctor without a navigation check.
"Please be excusing my interruption. The grimness of your task is not escaping me. I will be brief, and if you can be of assistance, the debt of return will be owed.
"I am seeking a colleague who I understand you have meetings. Alton Treegallow. He is a short person, and a Ranger associate of the Circle of the Moon.
"Do you know him? And perhaps his locations?
"Oh, and apologies. I am Clear Winter Night Sky, a minor member of the Circle of the Moon.
If the Plague Doctor does indeed know Alton, Sky will seek to gather the following information.
What information was Alton seeking?
Did Alton mention anyone else?
In case they are needed:
● Insight (Wis)+6
Investigation (Int)+0
● Perception (Wis)+6
Persuasion (Cha)+1
Sky also has a couple of spells that may be valuable as gifts/bargining tools:
