Legacy of the Silver Dragon: Chapter 1 (Chickens, Demons, and a Missing Girl)

[gambler1650]

Mysthyr, Muzdim, Bosco

Carlog looks a bit confused by the interplay regarding the elf, and walks off muttering: "Adventurers..." after he settles the group in one of the side rooms. Also open to the sky, the room is simple with a long bench against one wall. Anna huddles beneath the clothing that protects her from the sun and waits. A few minutes later, Elara sweeps into the room, followed by Carlog. "This had better be good. Mind you, right now the meeting is stuck with everyone going in circles, so I don't mind the break. But it doesn't look good for me to not be there..." She is a middle aged woman with crow's feet around her eyes and a slightly wrinkled cast to her skin. She is also well tanned, with long blonde hair. Then again, most followers of Pelor are well tanned... She peers at the three adventurers, and focuses on Myst. "Brother Mysthyr. Bring me up to speed. Emphasis on speed, if you please."

OOC: Assuming he repeats the information already given...

"We will speak of these tunnels later. In the meantime..." And she peers under Anna's hood, "Very odd. And overly sensitive to light." She pauses for a moment, murmuring something under her breath, and Mysthyr recognizes it as a prayer for guidance from Pelor. Higher clerics are able to use it to determine if a course of action is likely to be helpful or harmful to an individual. Elara mutters under her breath, "Well then my dear.." and then says, "Carlog, please close the roof overhead." He leaves the room, and likely with the help of other acolytes, the roof overhead is pulled back over the side room and only the wall torches provide illumination. Elara convinces Anna to remove the covering fabrics, and with Carlog back, says "Now.. this may sting a bit..." She touches the holy symbol of the sun at her throat, murmurs a few words, and then sunlight seems to burst from the object, illuminating the young, shimmering skinned girl - who immediately shrieks in pain. Elara's eyes narrow as if she wants to stop, but she keeps the light on the woman in spite of her writhing in obvious pain, wisps of something that appears smokelike rising from her skin. Anna tries once to throw herself forward towards the door, but Elara is between her and it, and the light is stronger closer to the symbol. Anna shrinks back, trying to press through the wall behind her.

Throughout, Elara continues to pray, "Pelor, with your light, drive the darkness from this young woman!" It seems to take minutes, but in reality probably is less than 30 seconds long before Anna's shrieks become whimpers, and the smoke lessens. Elara keeps the light on Anna for at least a full minute longer, by which time Anna is merely shivering. "Anna? We would like to keep you here for awhile longer. We will send someone to bring your mother to us. I think you should stay in sunlight the rest of today, and probably all of tomorrow." Carlog makes his way back out of the room and the roof is withdrawn so that sun illuminates the room. Anna blinks in the light, but otherwise seems mostly unaffected. She replies, "That... That would be fine. Oh. Oh, thank you." She looks from Elara to the three adventurers, "Thank you so much." Her voice breaks at the end.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Is she cured? And let's say, hypothetically, there was a whole mess of Annas down there, could you cure all of them? What if the transformation had gone further?"

 

[Voda Vosa]

"So, what'ye gather from it?" The dwarf asks Elara. "We found a shimmering liquid in the tunnels as well, in fact, the gelatinous cube had it too. It was everywhere. Is it some kind of parasite? A transmutation concoction?"

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Is it worth any money?"

 

[Binder Fred]

Antares and Stellan

Gregof is indeed in the area, stepping out from the barracks as he notices the odd gathering outside. While the few townsfolk passed by on the way here did their best to NOT look curious, a couple of those within sight of the barracks are beginning to wander over. Gregof looks the two young men up and down, "Hmmm, looks like you boys have been into something... And you're bringing what looks like a... body?" The last is said after casting an eye to the sheeted corpse. His eyebrows raised, he waits for the explanation.

"Ah - yes - sadly enough this one... This one could not be saved." He tightens his grip on Former-Anna's hand and swallows, somewhat uncertain. Before facing the older man once more. "Truth be told - and in all fairness - there were... not inconsiderable complications in that-" The beginning, start from the beginning or he will not understand a thing you say! "Ah, so we of the Behenian Company were approached to find a missing girl, one Anna by name..."

At Antares' beginning to describe the situation Gregof notices the people beginning to move within earshot. "Missing girl? Perhaps we should best go inside."

The young elf blinkingly looks left, then right... "Should we?" he asks in the tone of one honestly wondering why this is so. "Would not the information be spread faster if everyone were to hear?"

<Response Gregof?>

<Wether this ends up being inside or out:

"Now. Would you like to start over? Or from the beginning. Are you talking about Anna?" While he casts another gaze to the sheeted body, he seems content to wait for more information.

"Oh no!" quickly reassures Antares. "I mean: yes, Anna was the girl we were to seek and find, at her mother's beset, but, no, this is not her -- though I too believed it was so for a short while. Ah... Perhaps if you saw for yourself instead?" With a kick at Stellan for *not helping at all*.

With Gregof's permission, the young mage glides Former-Anna's stiff form to a drifting rest atop the small oak desk <ground if outside>, her glow progressively fading once his hand breaks contact to instead worry at her covering. Finding the tucked-in edge after two tries, he peels back the improvised shroud from her face and upper shoulders...

OOC: Thanks for the info on the barracks. Makes sense.

 

[gambler1650]

Bosco, Muzdim, Myst

Elara looks up at the three adventurers, eyes narrowing a bit as if seeing them for the first time. Indeed, she had appeared solely focused on the young woman, who quite quickly closes her eyes and appears to enter a deep sleep. Perhaps the healing drained her energy, and certainly Elara seems unsurprised by the result.

"Brother Myst... You have some odd companions. You will tell me in more detail of what happened, but finding the lost one here has pleased Pelor." She looks at Bosco as he asks his questions, and replies: "I do not know enough of what happened to her to guess what might result from a more advanced.. infection. I take it you encountered beings more changed? I will say that the substance damaged her as it was drawn from her body, only an additional healing granted by Pelor kept her from visible damage, and her body is now resting from the strain. I can't speculate if the damage caused to someone more infected could be offset by the healing, but I do also know that whatever the infection is, it sought to turn her into something mindless for a purpose unknown."

To the Dwarven cleric she seems amused as she answers, "I wonder what chance I would have of getting answers out of you if our positions were reversed. But Pelor's light drives away the shadows, and as such, I reveal what I know. I don't know precisely what was in Anna. A substance, yes. One that sought to change her - body and soul. I sense the substance itself is wholly natural, but there was something... else.. that I sensed. It had been strengthened, even corrupted, as if something else was using this substance for its own purposes. What those are, I don't know." She pauses, tilts her head, and then asks with directness to Muzdim, "And will you tell me where you found this young woman? Where these tunnels are?"

She smiles slightly at Bosco's other question, and murmurs in an aside, "I would have no use for such a substance. You perhaps, could find someone willing to pay, but their motives would almost certainly not be good. It would best be destroyed." And then she looks back at the dwarf.

 

[gambler1650]

Antares and Stellan

Once inside, as Gregof insists on, he replies to Antares, "Perhaps what you have to say will best be shared with all as soon as we know more. Or perhaps it's best to keep people from gossiping, spreading wilder rumors and causing panic. Most likely the answer is in between, but I will do what I can to prevent the second to ever occur. Now then..." he says as Antares peels back the fabric.

His first response is an inhalation, "Where... where did you find... her?" The second pause is almost as if he were trying to remember the person's name. "And, what happened to her?"

 

[Voda Vosa]

"I wonder what chance I would have of getting answers out of you if our positions were reversed. But Pelor's light drives away the shadows, and as such, I reveal what I know.

"Ah, but that's why I asked, sister." the dwarf smiles broadly.

"And will you tell me where you found this young woman? Where these tunnels are?"

"That's hardly a secret worth keeping, several people know about it, even Anna here could tell you. The entrance is in the ruins of the burnt building." the dwarf replies. Perhaps, if the situation would have been other, it is certain he would have treasured the secret.

 

[Binder Fred]

Antares and Stellan

"Ah, well. She was ah... found below the burnt house three street down from the furrier?" Although 'found' seems an entirely inadequate concept in the circumstances! "Small, cramped tunnels worm their way beneath the wooden sidewalks there?" His eyes and breath animate with the incredible, still very immediate memories of it all: "In truth, strange creatures dwell within - at least one, huge, made of slimes as transparent as water, which we successfully battled; several pale as chalk and small as starving children - sharp of claw, these, and absent of eyes, and yet somehow with fell awareness of all that moved in the eternal darkness of the below? I theorize- Ah... There is a pale, silvery water there, Officer Gregof, that bleaches all living thing that it touches? When first we met her, she quickly retreated to a carven cave where stone altar had been raised to that water -- perhaps to worship? Perhaps to *produce*? I know not- but the runes carved there sang of chaos and... hunger? She was... leading(?) a group of the smaller, paler creatures that seemed intent on making a bound Anna into one of their own - through forced ingestion of the silvery waters." And now for the hardest part: "My... Ah... My companions felt her threatening - and I don't believe they truly felt, in their hearts, that she was... quite what she once had been; especially as the smaller creatures -the White Ones- were quite... aggressive in their protection of her? There was... a battle..." His expression says it all as he gently lowers the sheet back down, concealing Former-Anna's face once more...

He forces himself to continue, his tone remaining much subdued: "Anna was, we believe, taken to the temple of the Bright One for healing by our companions -- after three days in captivity she was... slightly silvery - but no more! - and sunlight seems to cure the transformation? At least when applied early..." An internal, heartfelt repetition of his earlier prayer for her safety -- though her mention has now stirred that unrest, that disquiet to the forefront of his heart... His wide, green eyes flip back up to officer Gregof's: "Perhaps, if you please, a messenger could be sent there, to inform of our own whereabouts and be informed in turn? (Myself and Stellan delayed, studying runes and altar while our companions rushed the maiden out as quick as they could.)"

 

[gambler1650]

OOC: So, we apparently may have lost Toric_Anderthain... He hasn't been on in awhile. I sent a PM to see if he's still around. We probably need to regroup shortly, and decide on next steps, but I'll give him til the end of the week to see if I get a response. Will continue the RP currently going though.