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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 2795940" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #331] The Hand of Aphyx[/PLAIN]"Oi," Karak said despondently. "That's that, I guess." Feln and Morier had dispatched the chaos spawn so quickly that the dwarf hadn't had a chance to land a single telling blow."Gods..," Armsman Culun gasped, his expression awe-filled. He held his longspear loosely in one hand. "That was amazing!""Get these people back!" Demetrius Wyverneye ordered staggering toward the Armsman. Wyverneye was barely standing, but still possessed a commanding presence that the young Culun could little resist. "And send a runner to the temple! We need healing!""Aye, sir," Culun said, quickly electing a young boy to head off to the temple. He then began working the crowd.Demetrius turned, catching Karak's eye. He apologetically added, "I hope that wasn't overstepping my place, sir dwarf." Karak harrumphed, waving off the apology."Ye did nae but what I was preparing to do myself," the dwarf said. Pointing to the fallen Goodwife, he said, "Help me with the girl. Then let's check out the carriage." Shamalin meanwhile looked down at Lela hunched over on the ground nearby; the sprite looked like nothing so much as a queerly animate doll. The cleric hadn't seen much of the tiny creature since returning to Floxen as Lela had spent the fast majority of her time in the wilderness surrounding the town. But Shamalin did remember kindly the faen's words of comfort upon finding her chained and broken within Blackheart's lair. And so it was with a gentle touch that Shamalin called upon Flor's granted miracle to Remove Disease, hoping to quickly rid Lela of the sickness which had taken hold of her.There was little gentle about Huzair at the best of times, and today wasn't anywhere near the best of times. The mage had found himself unexpectedly at death's door, and while Shamalin's healing magic had pulled him away from any immediate danger, the experience had left him... irritable.And he directed that ire at Morier."Look at all these people!" he chided, stepping up to the albino. "I even feel bad for Tannen Baum!" Morier just sighed."I know what you're thinking, Huzair. Indeed that carriage and the rot it carried did come from Relfren, but we couldn't have stopped it had we stayed there a fortnight," the eldritch warrior said. He gestured with Ravager at the misshapen body beside him. "We spoke to the Constable, here, and he made us well aware of his intentions that the festival go ahead no matter what. I wonder if he had second thoughts about it before the madness took hold?""Look at me, Morier!" Huzair snapped, caring little for the elf's calm demeanor. The lanky mage stood a foot and more taller than Morier and he glowered down at him as he shouted. His long black finger stabbed at the eldritch warrior's chest. "Kael's Loom! You think I was ostracized before now?! Gods! I don't even want to look in a ferking mirror!""I didn't do this to you," Morier replied, not giving any ground. He was smaller in stature, but a good deal stronger none the less."Didn't you? Whose idea was it to walk away from Relfren?" the mage continued. "We need to save what we can when we can, not walk away until an even bigger mess finds us later on!""We warned them, Huzair. But we must remember, there are few who have travelled the land as thoroughly as we have, and even fewer who have seen all that we've seen. We can't blame them for not knowing the power of this evil," Morier said, wiping Ravager clean before sheathing it over his shoulder. "That's why we need to push on... to kill it at its root. We've seen that we'll never be able to convince everyone how truly black this thing is until they experience it for themselves... and by then it will be too late. Let's press on while we still know which way we're being pulled. We'll rest today and move out before first light in the morning.""You have no clue where your head is pulling you," the mage hissed, but much of the venom had been drained from his words by Morier's argument.Pausing to sense the pull in his head, he repeated the words aloud that had been burned into his memory by the Water Guardian in the Grove, as though trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle: "...The Keepers, Dridana's most powerful servants, were able to craft four keys that would breach Lady Rot's defenses. These keys we hid away in a pocket not unlike the Grove itself, apart from the Green but linked to it. Each key grants its wielder great power over one of the four elements. And each key must be brought to bear to free Dridana's heart..."He blinked and turned to look at Huzair. "We need the keys first, and I can lead us there. So you see I have some idea where I'm being pulled," the elf told the mage. Then he looked at the others and added, "We must each vow before we leave here tomorrow that that is our goal, and understand that we cannot continue to be pulled off course by the trivialities of fighting evil for people who won't do it for themselves. We could spend a thousand lifetimes on that course and be no further ahead than we are now."Huzair looked at the eldritch warrior for a long moment, before turning, deflated. "Second mistake I have made! " Huzair muttered angrily. "Garan Zak said: always stay at maximum range in combat... Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" He kicked Constable Tannen Baum's corpse in the head and it burst like a rotten melon, sending dark, blood-tinged puss splattering away from the mage's boot. The thick globs of diseased slime fell on Feln, eliciting a roar of disgust from the half-ogre."I hate the filth of Aphyx!!" Feln bellowed, looking in horror at the tainted scum that clung to him. "Someone needs to help me clean this... mung... off!" He looked at the nearby well and at the stream, immobilized by indecision about which would be the best choice to wash off."Oops!" Huzair said simply. "Damned chaos scum caused me to lose my temper. Sorry about that.""Don't just stand there!" the half-ogre replied heading toward the stream. "Help me wash this mess off before I catch something!""Stay out of the water supply!" Morier sternly cautioned the martial artist."Yeah! What a good way to spread the filth to the town's drinking water," Huzair sneered condescendingly. "Great idea, Feln.""Well, we need to do something!" the martial artist cried, his voice a full octave higher than normal. Huzair laughed, producing a cigar from his pocket."I can take care of burning the remains," the wizard told him, lighting his smoke. "That's the best way to be rid of it. And we've got a priestess of Flor in the group to take care of you. Get a grip.""What's wrong," Lela asked, shuddering. Shamalin had been quietly humming a tune that Lela vaguely recognized; it was a song about kindnesses and nature that enhanced the sprite's feelings of well-being. But the tune had abruptly died in the cleric's mouth. There was a growing look of fear in Shamalin's eyes that the faen - even sick as she was - couldn't miss. The cleric twisted her lips into a false, rubbery smile as she spoke."Nothing's wrong," she lied. "You'll be fine."The truth of it was that Shamalin had cast Remove Disease on the sprite expecting her to make a swift and complete recovery. She didn't, however, which was troubling. There were certain diseases so virulent, she knew, that they required application of other curative magicks in conjunction with Remove Disease before relinquishing their hold on their victim. She racked her brain but could think of only one: Mummy Rot. The Constable clearly hadn't been a mummy, and anyway Shamalin wouldn't be able to cast Remove Curse before extensive prayer and meditation.The cold rush of doubt was quick to flood Shamalin's soul once more. Was she completely unable to work curative magicks any more? Had Flor turned her healing gaze away from her at last? Had the things she'd said and done at Blackheart's request caught up to her finally?She closed her eyes and took a deep, calming breath. When she opened her eyes again, the self-doubt had abated enough for her to try another spell. She channelled the power of a Lesser Restoration into the faen and saw some of the color return to her tiny, ashen cheeks.Shamalin smiled. She had only treated the symptoms, not the disease, but it was good to be able to do even that much. It reaffirmed her connection to the divine. "We need to get you back to the temple," she said at last."Thank you so much for your healing," Lela replied, smiling wanly. "I am so glad you will be traveling with us." The faen's confidence seemed misplaced to Shamalin and the genuine affection in the words stung her."Shhh," she sighed. "Rest and be well.""There's nothing we can do for her," Melonna admitted, wringing her hands as she spoke. "This is The Hand of Aphyx we're dealing with here; not Cackle Fever or some such. This is a disease crafted by the Rot Queen herself and no mere spell can put the faen right now.""What?" Karak growled, hefting his frost-rimed waraxe - freshly-enchanted in Balazaar's workshop. Melonna raised a reassuring hand."There is hope, good dwarf," she went on. "There is another temple of Flor to the south in a city called Rhadcliffe. Therein is a shrine famous throughout Pellham; the ill travel there from leagues away to be healed. Shamalin knows the area. She spent some time there with the Speckled Band."The half-elf nodded. She and the others had done battle with bizarre creatures that seemed conceived in some madman's nightmare. They had dubbed the things gestalt monsters because they each seemed to be the fusion of one or more familiar creatures into a single, disturbing whole. She remembered well a battle with a giant whose head had been replace with the body of a belohder; that encounter had almost cost Amaury his life."It is some distance away," Shamalin said after a moment and Melonna nodded."True, and Lela will certainly need continued attention during the journey," the high priestess confirmed. "You can use spells of Resistance to help the sprite prevent further deterioration and Restorations to offset the damage that has already been done."I thought you guys were supposed to be a temple of healing," Huzair scoffed. "Why can't you just work some magic to fix her?" Melonna sighed."I wish it were that easy, but this is a disease without counter, the ultimate fruition of the Rot Queen's dark art," she said. "We are fortunate indeed that the rest of you did not succumb to the illness as Lela has. If that chaos spawn had rampaged wantonly through Floxen, the situation would be far, far worse. I thank Flor that you were here to deal with the situation.""As it is, the situation to the northeast might be every bit as grave as I fear," she added. "I'm dispatching a team of clerics in the morning to follow the coach's trail and alleviate what misery they can along the way. We must find the point of infection and cleanse it; if a disease such as this were to spread..." She left the thought unfinished as a shudder of fear travelled through her.</blockquote>

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