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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jon Potter" data-source="post: 644390" data-attributes="member: 2323">[PLAIN][Realms #206] On the Trail[/PLAIN]"Dear gods!" Rherram sputtered as he smeared a dollop of healing salve into the bite wound on Draelond's shoulder. The sticky green substance started to work immediately, knitting the edges of the bite closed. "You lot manage to undo in minutes what it took me a week to accomplish!""It was hardly our idea," Ruze muttered and Rherram snorted in reply.The baby was crying and Jisselleen stood in the corner of the infirmary rocking the child in her arms. The wetnurse looked very frightened, her normally plump and ruddy face seeming pale and drawn. "Are those... creatures gone?" she asked timidly."For the moment," Ledare replied. "Why don't you take the baby back to bed? There's nothing you can do here."Jisselleen shook her head, her thick braids lashing the air. "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather stay with everyone else for the time being," she said and Ledare couldn't blame her. Skaven and invulnerable rat piles weren't exactly things that a wetnurse had to deal with in the normal course of things."I found it!" Finian shouted from across the room. He stood up from their packs with the bundle of herbs the king had given them. He rushed over to Rherram, unwrapping the package as he went. The healer took one look at the belladonna and shook his head."It's too old, m'boy. If we're going to poison your friend we should do it with fresh poison, don't you think?" he grumbled and cocked a salve-covered hand over his shoulder. "I've got some in my lab. Go fetch it and bring me the small mortar and pestle as well."The belladonna didn't kill Draelond -thanks in no small part to Rherram's expert dosing - so lycanthropy wasn't a concern. His injuries were greater than Rherram's salve could quickly heal however, and Ruze was obliged to use his divine gifts to mend himself, Draelond and Ledare. None of them were feeling in perfect health, but they felt a good deal better than they had."I can use the healing salve again tomorrow," Rherram explained. "If you would just wait until then before rushing off."Ledare shook her head as she strapped on her breastplate. "I am afraid that if we wait too long, the trail will be cold," she told him. More concern crept into her voice as she added, "Or worse, it will be a trail of dozens of tiny rat feet.""Shall I track, find the lair and come back?" the Archer asked. "I'm uninjured, but I hate to think what would happen if they caught me.""I may slow you down," Ledare said, "but I'm going with you. It's too dangerous for you to go alone.""I think we should all go," Ruze said as he hefted his scale mail."I agree," Draelond admitted. "But it doesn't seem like any of our weapons are doing much of anything to that rat pile; we need another plan.""He's right," Ledare said, eyeing the mottled blade of her silver-iron longsword skeptically. "Do we have ANY defenses against the rats? Our special silver weapons seem to have no effect. Any other thoughts? Fire, perhaps?""Bringing something to start a fire is a great idea," Finian nodded. "Rherram do you have any oil?""I do, but I also think I can do you one better," he said wagging a finger in the air as he started to turn. "Wait one moment! I'll just run to my lab!"Rherram supplied them with several alchemical items from his stockpiles: 4 flasks of alchemist's fire, 2 thunderstones, 2 flash pellets, a smokestick, and a tanglefoot bag. "I sell these little goodies to most of the peddlers who come through the Junction. They're very popular with those adventurer-types. Being a healer doesn't always put food on the table, m'boy," Rherram explained to Finian as he doled out the supplies. "Folk just aren't happy with my methods when they can visit some local shrine and get divine healing much faster. These little goodies are my real bread-and-butter."So laden, they set out down the long slope at the edge of Rherram's property. Neither the skaven nor the strange rat colony was making any attempt to conceal its path, so Finian had little trouble following the trail."At least there is a full moon," the ranger said as he crouched down to examine the tracks."Don't forget, that full moon is the reason we're in this state," Draelond quipped.The skaven's trail meandered aimlessly to and fro across the field moving generally south and westward. The path lead generally away from the town of Strenchburg Junction - a fact for which everyone was thankful - and into a series of wooded hills to the west of the settlement. The pursuing rats, moved unerringly toward the same hills, on an angle that intercepted the skaven's trail just inside a copse of trees some 500 feet from the westward caravan trail, Longway. Apparently, the rodents weren't the only group moving abroad under the moonlight.Inside the small cluster of trees was a campsite that had been recently abandoned. Although no smoke rose from the firepit, the ashes still radiated heat. An odd silence hung over the entire area, and it appeared that those who had camped here left in a hurry. Finian was about to creep forward into the clearing when a tall, cloaked figure detached itself from the shadows at the southern edge of the campsite and knelt down to look at something on the ground. The newcomer didn't give any indication that he had seen the Companions.Something on the opposite side of the clearing caught both Ledare's and Finian's attention. A net hastily concealed with dead leaves and branches had been strung amidst the trees there and as soon as they caught sight of it, the net fell aside and several bloated, shambling creatures moved forward into the moonlight. They were leaking black ooze from wounds and other holes all over their swollen bodies. Flies buzzed around them and worms were crawling over their bodies, whose skin has been stretched nearly to its limit.They were clearly undead, and they were moving to attack the unsuspecting stranger.</blockquote>

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