[Game Thread] Act 1: Investigating the Mystery of the Afflicted

[FamMedKing]

Belnan eyes his glass of ale suspiciously as if it had suddenly grown teeth and claws. The mug was awfully big, big enough for someone to drown in. He looks up as Neira addresses him and pushes the mug further away from him. Well, a human called Martigan, who, if I might, is certainly one quiver short a few arrows, had some business to attend to last night, and so at our dear lady Atma's concern for his well being, I offered to go along as his protector. A good thing I did too! When we reached the Western gate, a couple of dark archers chose to use us for archery practice, and as I destroyed them both, they simply vanished into smoke! Well, that seemed to end Martigan's interest in whatever business he had been about and so we decided to head back to the Inn for a bit of rest (Martigan really needed it, being a bit injured by that point. He tried to pull this vanishing/reappearing stunt that really didn't go very well for himself, poor sap), when we were introduced to this city's odd nightlife. One of it's citizens, or at least most of it, was wandering the streets and when we tried to approach it, we discovered that it was missing a few pieces...not so much here, or here, Belnan indicates his forehead and then ears respectively, but right along here, he waves his hand across the entire lower half of his face. Well, Martigan, being of the weak stomach variety, it appears, couldn't handle the scent very well and shared most of that evening's meal with us, if you catch my drift. I put a few bolts into it with my crossbow, then came up with a wonderful idea. Why don't we capture the creature and drag it back to the Inn to see if we, or anyone else there interested, could learn more about it. Well, Martigan, who unfortunately was not a squirrel class scout, tied a horrible knot in his rope which utterly failed to catch it the first time, but with my quick agility, I managed to get him onto the ground and together we got him tied up and hauled back to the Inn here. Unfortunately, the large minotaur decided it was a bit of a detraction for business and did finished the creature off. Martigan, after all that hard work to get him here, burned the thing to a crisp. Well, I can tell you a few things about these creatures from that experience. First, they are very slow, so a fine athlete like myself can easily skip around them and do some damage. Second, they stink. Really bad. Seriously, like dirty socks soaked for a week in a latrine then stewed up in a pot with several rotten eggs kind of stink. Lastly, they burn really easily!

[Ericg1s]

Devin stops...
"I am sorry-I almost ran out on everyone. The errand can wait. I am Devin, a warrior by...well, not really a profession-it's just that I wasted my youth training for a war which never took place, and was then discharged from service when I began to lose my youthful vigor and slowed down a bit. That said, I was never a brillaint shot with a bow anyway, but I digress. I am sorry that I was rushing out on you. Please to meet you."

[Yves]

Feldt smiles at Atma as the barmaid practically dotes on her every need. Now this is how everyone should be treating me, the wizard thinks to herself. "I'm fine thank you. I will just need a clean room with fresh sheets please." Feldt takes awhile to pick a place to sit, having no thoughts about food or drink at the moment. She sits in various spots in the tavern. Just as it looks like she's found a spot to sit in she'll complain either about the "glare" of the sun or a spot where there's a "draft". Finally after much fuss, she finds a seat. After a few seconds she says, "Okay! I think this will be my seat."

Only then does Feldt pay attention to what the others are talking about. She listens especially to Belnan's story about the last night. However it seems like the gnome(?) has a knack for adding extra fluff into his stories. She waits to make sure that Belnan has finished before asking questions of Neira. "So do the undead only come out at night? Does it affect only humanoids or all living creatures? Do you know anyone who's been infected personally? And are some buildings warded against their entrance...this one for example?" Some of her questions might have rather obvious answers, but she would like to confirm them all the same.

[Magnai]

Atma scurries back to the kitchen and brings out a big roast chicken and places it on the table. Enjoy, fair Kal. Atma nods and bows to Feldt, acknowledging her request. She scurries back and finally tends to the other customers. There are some scattered gnomes, dwarves and a few elves, none of them in cloaks of any sort.

Kindli and Neira smile at Devin's greeting. Kindli thinks, Now there's the dwarf that I saw earlier in the church.

At Feldt's mention of knowing anyone personally who was affected, Neira takes in a big sigh and chugs her entire mug of ale, refills it and chugs that one. She refills it again and takes some big breaths. Kindli notices this behavior and rubs her back lightly as she does this. Neira speaks slowly and with much pain. My parents and siblings were all taken by the affliction. My mother even tried to feast of my flesh. Neira takes a smaller swig and shakes her head slowly. She clamours to answer the other questions. The mutants don't only come out at night, but they tend to be more prevalent then. Mostly you only see mutants in the daylight if you are outside the town walls. Neira pauses and Kindli takes up her speech.

When Kindli does this, Neira looks visibly relieved. Kindli continues, I've only seen humanoids affected, but there has been strange behavior on the part of some animals around these parts, so no one can really say for certain. That's basically the theme regarding the mutants. When she says mutants, her eyes dart towards Neira for affirmation. Kindli continues, The buildings don't seem to be warded of any sort. You might not have noticed but they only have small slits 7 to 10 feet above the ground on the ground floor for windows. Everything else is just wooden wall. The windows return to normal above that level. This place has that giant door that we came in during the day. At night, they lock that door and place centries at the small door to the side there. The centries are mercenaries and are known to be very powerful. They all have recognisable clothing so that if someone is wandering out at night, the person can recognise the centry as compared to the mutant. Again with the use of the word mutant, Kindli darts a glance at Neira.

 

Kindli is checking the accuracy of her statements with Neira's looks.

 

Kindli is checking that Neira approves of the word mutant to call these creatures by. You sense that Neira doesn't approve of some other word that has been used in the past.

Kindli speaks up again. She seems to have reinvigorated her purpose. What we were just out doing was searching for an orc that killed my Neitan. He is large and powerful and came after us when we became known for investigating this affliction. I do not know why I was spared and my sweet Neitan was struck down. I had word that he lived in a cave west of the town. We found quite strange things there and evidence of residence there, but nothing definative for the orc. She looks towards the others. I don't know what else to do other than inspect more of the caves around this area and maybe more of those huts.

Neira speaks up again. Beware the huts. They look harmless but often have mutants hiding in them. I am not strong enough to inspect them on my own but it seems like the mutants do like to centralize around them. It's almost like they feel more comfortable there.

[FamMedKing]

Seeing the delicious chicken Atma brings out, Belnan hops up onto the table, being careful to step around everyone else's plates, and helps himself to a leg before returning to his seat. The he sits down and listens to Niera and Kindli's description. He

Dice sense motive:

1d20

2

sees Kindli looking to Neira frequently, but thinks she just has a strange twitch in her neck. Kindli, my dear, you should see a healer about that strange twinge in your neck. Then he continues to eat noisily.

OOC Dice Kindli: 1d20+3 (8)+3 Total = 11 Dice Niera: 1d20+3 (3)+3 Total = 6 Diplomacy Checks

[Stozzy]

'Shame about the body being destroyed...' Patiently listening to the story and sipping my water, I can't help but feel saddened by the loss... "I am truly sorry for your hardships. No good ever comes from a blight. All one can do is muster the resolve to end it, before anyone else suffers the same." I lean over with my elbows on the table. "It is a shame we do not have a body to examine... I don't suppose anyone has a source to these mutants? Whether magical or disease? As for the orc, where did you hear of it's location? It would seem logical that if one were spared then informed of where to go, you're return was wanted, no?"

OOC Rolls for Sense Motive and Spot for any noticeable wounds or infections.

[Yves]

Feldt taps her finger on her nose. Apparently it's her way of thinking. Noticing Neira's discomfort at mentioning her family, Feldt apologizes. "I'm sorry Neira, I didn't know it was so personal. Though if you can bear talking about it, I think the process of how they became afflicted would help us understand and find the source. No hurry though," the little girl says with a wink.

"So the mutants do not have any memories of their past life, yet their brains still need to be destroyed before they finally die. They also avoid the town during the day time which means they may have some semblance of intelligence...though even wild animals have the sense to stay away from people." When she says mutants she also looks at Neira to see what exactly Kindli was trying to detect from her. "Here's a question. How do they get into the town at night if they are outside of the town during the daytime? Also, if the huts are filled with mutants, and the mutants are vulnerable to fire, wouldn't it make sense to just burn the huts?"

[Halberd]

Kal was behaving like a predator, eating the chicken with a voracious appetite and drinking whatever Atma served him, so that he would not choke from stuffing all the food in his throat. It seemed as though he was not paying any attention to what the others were talking about, but he was. Most of the stuff he found interesting, but he kept his questions for later, if any and just continued eating. His table manners were horrible, eating like a pig, belching, even though not loudly and using the table cloth as napkin were just a fraction of his repertoire. He was simply not giving a damn, what the others thought.

[Ericg1s]

Devin waits for a time, drinking in a few new details...
The mercenaries/guards wear special uniforms.
The mutants gather around the huts.
They stay outside of town at night.
He winces at one point...that must have been rough.

[Magnai]

Both Kindli and Neira snap at the mention of fire as a weakness. Fire? Neira thinks a bit. I haven't tried that actually, so I don't know what the effects are. I assumed that the body last night was burned just like any other body would be. She seems to think deeply, attempting to consider how fire could be used against the zombies. It is a valid idea that must be experimented with.

Kindli places her hand on Neira in an effort to comfort her. I heard the story yesterday, so I'll attempt to tell it for Neira. Basically, how it worked is that her mother got violently sick with a very high fever. It took a couple days but eventually her mother succumbed to her illness and soon after she parted from this world, she awoken with a fierce hunger for flesh. Neira barely escaped her jaws. The rest of her family was not as lucky. They were too affectionate with the new mutant and lost their lives as part of it. Neira nods in affirmation and drinks another heavy swig of her ale. That little girl can drink.

Kindli contines her answers to the many questions. We assume that the mutants that are here at night are new mutants that have recently turned. Kindli glances over to Neira to see if she likes that word and Neira has no response to that word nor to any of the uses of mutant earlier. And as for my information, I heard it from one of the travellers that was also investigating the affliction but has since given up. He said that the orc spent time there in one of the caves along the west ridge of the town and even lead us to it. He eventually left because things got too confusing and he wasn't that interested in helping these people. He mostly was in it for the money.

Kindli thinks a little. Well, we can go off to one of the huts to see what's up and give Raphael a chance to experience these creatures. We don't burn the huts because they belong to people and hold things. They are often sanctuaries for the scholars of the area and hold valuable tools of learning. That or they are just shacks that hold trinkets that are useful in the forest. If you get stuck out there at night, you want to find a hut because you'll be safest there.

Kindli chooses to ignore Belnan's comment about a twinge in her neck because she doesn't quite understand it.

[Stozzy]

'What is it, Neira?' I can tell there's a tenderness Neria has and is doing her best to subside, but wonderment into detail causes me a conflict of interest... "Neira, I know this is hard, but can you tell me more about the illness your mother experienced? The fever, physical ailments, any detail you can think of, however mundane it may seem. 'It feels wrong to be so used to the dying, dead, and undead... I can barely imagine what she's feeling.' "You say the fever took her, then soon after she became feral... Between the half life and susceptible to fire, I can only be drawn to the conclusion they are in fact the undead we heard about. I believe someone, or something, has taken action to manifest this plague... I keep a soft on Neira to gauge her reaction. Wordplay here seems tense, but I need to know what they know down to every illicit detail. "I agree that seeing first hand would help... after this information huddle, we need to look into a way to subdue and restrain one of these creatures as best we can."

[Magnai]

Neira doesn't seem to like the word creatures, when Raph used it. She makes a face but attempts to hold it back. I... I don't know. She was only gone for an hour or two. The heat had not even left her body. She just closed her eyes like everyone else that I have ever seen passed. When she woke, her eyes and mouth opened and she gasped, sucking air in. Neira thinks back. The fever was indistinguishable from a fatal childhood fever. Unrelenting chills and shakes. You'd need to change the sheets multiple times a night because she sweat up a storm. She didn't cough but she had other fluids leaving her body. I was young, so I do not know about her bowels or her feminine cycles. Neira thinks again...

Is that enough detail?

Neira nods to Kindli's suggestion. I'd like to take some pot shots at some more mutants at the huts, if you wouldn't mind. Neira seems to imagine a bolt from her crossbow entering the skull of one of these mutants. Maybe we could attempt to get more information about them and what people store in those huts.

[Stozzy]

"From what I gather, it seems to be some sort of disease, causing death, then springing the body back in a feral state of undeath." I sigh heavily... 'There's just no easy way about this, is there Pelor?' "I agree... we should most definitely inspect these huts. One to extinguish what, mutants, inhabit them, and to thoroughly inspect every item, crack, and crevice inside them." I hesitate to say mutant... 'I know it's hard on Neira, but one has to realize the undead... are dead...' "We do need a body though. Preferably in tact for the most part, minus the head for safety sake. If destroying the head destroys the... mutant... severing should serve the same purpose and leave me with enough for inspection."

[FamMedKing]

Belnan finishes up his chicken and pushes his plate away. Well, if it's capture you wish, I think I could be of use there. If someone here can tie a decent knot (unlike my companion of last night), I can levetate a rope around the creature to bind him. Unforunately, I do not know any spells that would bind a being, although if there is a wizard in town here he looks questioningly at Kindli, that might be willing to share some spells, I could certainly learn to cast such. As for destroying them, I have a few spells of fire under my belt that would do nicely. However, this orc piques my interest. I would be very interested in exploring these caves myself. I think perhaps this orc is a key piece in solving our mystery.

[Yves]

Feldt's eyes light up at the mention of magic. "I believe I can help out in that department! I have many spells that can hold someone down, slow them, or make them slip. Plus, I really want to see just what kind of trinkets are in those huts."