I have 5 of those marks from the Runic Circles, and several of us thought it was high time we see what they are all about. Romari had 7 of the 8, but Veris had the one that he was missing, so between us all, we had all 8 covered, not that we were sure what would happen if each mark was not present upon each person. For that matter we have no idea what to do, nor what will happen if we happen to get complete the ritual correctly. Anyway, we set out for the Barushwine farm to see if we could make something mystical happen when all the marks were gathered about the stone there. It was me, Ceadda, Veris, Romari and Grom.
When we arrived at the farm, there was quite a gathering of tents. But not much activity. There was a funny smell in the air. Old Pappy Barushwine looked very sick. Examining some of the other tents, it turned out that everybody was at least sick, and several were dead of plague. Pappy was the only one well enough to talk. He tells us that the first to get sick was a Fishmonger from Bergans Rest. She arrived about the same time as a pale stranger, but he did not know if the stranger had also come from Bergans Rest, but did seem to recall that he was traveling to Merrith. Pappy said that some Questors of Garlain had been visiting the last several days and trying to help. We resolved to go find these questors.
We find their camp quite easily, but find that all the questors had been dead for some days, their throats cut, apparently in a surprise attack at night. Aside from the obvious concern we have for the questors, we wonder that Pappy had said the questors had visited them this morning, but obviously the questers were dead this morning. We burn their bodies and collect their personal effects to be returned to their chapter house. We also found journals, which we read the last several entries. The questors had heard reports about plague at the Barushwine farm, Borgins rest, and Merrith.
While the rest of us were gathering fuel for the pyre, Veris summoned a wood spirit, and asked it what had happened here, but did not get very much more information. Asking the spirit to follow the murderers was more successful, but the spirit lead us straight back to the Barushwine farm! There were five tall gaunt humans dressed in tattled black robes. Pappy said that they were questers of Garlain, but he must have been more diseased than we suspected because they quite obviously were not (even the most nonreligious knows that black is not garlans color!) As one approached us, the cry went up that they were horror constructs called plague's. And that they spread a plague.
Those things were tough, and took a lot of killing. Very tough.
By the time we defeated them, several of us, including me, were certain that we had contracted their disease. We treated ourselves to heat food and made recovery tests, and felt much better. We also nursed the survivors at the farm, and provided magical healing for them as well.
We resolved to check the surrounding communities. The closest was Borgin's Rest. We traveled there (one and a half days), but arrived to find the community closed in quarantine and reporting no current cases of the plague. They had been in contact with the T'Skrang nial, and believed it to be free of plague as well.
We then traveled a further 2 and a half days to Merrith. We approached warily. I did a fire heal the morning we expected to arrive. It was deathly quiet. The guard tower was unoccupied and the gates were open. I climbed the guard tower to get a good look at the village. As Ceadda entered the village square, 5 Plagues and 6 Cadaver Men rushed out to the attack. A call was made to form a line at the gateway. I made a tactical blunder, I waited until the Cadaver Men moved to make my attack, and one of the CM stood upon the place I should have been if I was to form a line. There was no longer a place I could stand to form an unbroken line. Further, if I stood most places, I could only attack Cadaver Men, and not a plague. And I was very certain that I did not want to attack a CM (see my previous entry) So I jumped to where I could attack a Plague, which worked fine, except that it left Veris standing all alone, and soon he was surrounded by CM and plagues, and could not move away. In hind sight, it is clear that my best tactical move would have been to jump down from the tower as soon as the call was made to form the line. Not let any of them break the line, and simple accept that some times I would not be making attacks, sine the only things I could sometimes attack were CM. And the CM were not to be attacked until all the plagues were disposed of. Eventually, 2 of the plagues and one of the CM were destroyed, and the line was properly formed. However I took a bad hit and was knocked unconscious about then (I had already used my Absorb Blow charm) (I think I have used up one of these each of my last 4 or 5 missions They are becoming a serious expense). My being unconscious allowed them to maneuver through the space I should have been occupying. However Veris hit me with a water spear that healed a great deal of damage and I was soon back upon my feet. The remaining 3 plagues (all extensively wounded) were quickly dispatched, and then the CM were one at a time dispatched as well.
A great many residents of the village were dead, but some yet lingered and recovered once the horrors were slain. Veris (or was it Romari) spotted an broken ancient amphora that we decided was the thing that created the plagues.Statistics:Posted by ChrisDDickey — Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:33 pm
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