[IC] The Plague of Tamor Town

[Xihirli]

Lana nodded and took out some rope, looping it through the handles of the treasure chest. "Okay, loop this around me in a second." Her body grew and expanded into that of a riding horse and Lana got distracted for a moment trying to see if her mane was still braided before holding still so someone could hook the box to her.
Lana then bumped her head on the cave roof and thought better of it, shrinking back down. "New plan. Let's use that cart over there."

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Holding her nose, Taara gets a bright idea. "Why don't you just do all the creating here or outside? 5 vials of that special water will only weigh something like 5 pounds which will be much easier to carry."

[Zergrinch]

Zarron starts dragging the dwarven corpses out of the cave, desperately trying to keep down the food he ate that day.

[Xihirli]

Lana nodded at that solution. "Yeah, that might be better than moving the copper." She helped Zarron move the bodies back outside of the cave.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara also helps move the dwarves' bodies.

[Izzarra]

It takes a few hours to pull the copper and the bodies outside before you set up camp. It is very quiet at night.

[Zergrinch]

"Well, might as well put the food to good use," Zarron says as he raids the dwarves' larder, taking two bottles of ale, a portion of cured meats, some dried mushrooms, and a loaf of dwarvish bread. He also hustles into the armory to retrieve the studded leather armor he was admiring earlier, but had abandoned. If he was going to die soon, might as well do it with style!

[WhismurWanders]

Holding her nose, Taara gets a bright idea. "Why don't you just do all the creating here or outside? 5 vials of that special water will only weigh something like 5 pounds which will be much easier to carry."

Cailenam is confused by this apparent epiphany. "Yes, that's why I suggested we grab the copper and move it outside." However, everyone seems determined to clear the bodies from the mine, and pitches in as well.

[Xihirli]

Lana sat down in front of the food Zarron had grabbed and motioned the others not to eat yet.

Spoiler: Aquan

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"Hey food. Hey food. Are you poisoned? I am! Sucks, right?"

[Izzarra]

In the morning you get to work performing rituals and burning the bodies. Towards the end of the day someone comes up the path.

Spoiler: OOC

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Ghiso can jump right in with his message from the healers of Qsen. It is the clockwork pigeon that you have used before.

[Xihirli]

Lana squinted and peered toward the new person and smiled with her wide grin. "Hey there!" Lana called, waving openly and immediately. "Look everybody! It's a new friend!"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara was awake and working up a sweat training, trying to immerse herself in the feeling of the kiss she shared with Lana. She punches and kicks air, and every so often as she swings a phantasmal fist appears, which she tries to make appear again before getting frustrated and returns to her training.

When Lana points out the newcomer, she stops and scans the individual. Upon finding that they were not of Parvat Sha'ran, the Monastery of the Gilded Peak, she still cautiously approaches and stops in front of Lana.

[Valmark]

Ghiso had been walking for the major part of the day, trudging along the path indicated by the healers and talking to the clockwork pidgeon they gave him- which for obvious reasons hadn't answered a single question, but there was no need of that.
It was only when he saw the two travelers that he went silent, his mind working the probabilities that those were the people he was meant to find.

"Heeey!" Ghiso called out, waving "You the ones helping out the town? I got a message!" he nodded to the 'pidgeon' he had put on his shoulder.
Once he actually got near enough to not have to scream, he bowed slightly in a greeting- his bulk seemingly threatening to topple over as he made sure the contraption wasn't falling.
"I'm Ghiso Durant, happy to meet you. The healers told me to follow the path of bluestone and you correspond to the description of the people at the monastery, so I figure it's you" he took the pidgeon, keeping it close still "They wanted to know how it's going- and sent information about a flower that grows at high altitude, with drawings and instructions. I Couldn't really wait so I went ahead and read it" he offered it to the elf, since she was nearer as he looked them over.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara accepts it and scans the instructions and drawing, at the same time taking in Ghiso's appearance. Fairly uncoordinated, but strong, and a whole foot taller than her and a whole lot bulkier. She regarded him with her blank expression, not knowing what to think of him yet, but from what he says he is curious like Maut and to the point like Kaj.

"Yes, that's us. You're just in time- we were preparing holy water to purify the source of the plague, but if we left earlier we may have missed you moving through the caves. The symptoms of the plague may arrive any time now." she turned to walk away before turning back. "My name is Taara, by the way. It means "star" in the dragons' language." she returned the slight bow. "And this is Lana. The half-night elf is Zarron, and the high elf is Cailenam."

[Xihirli]

At hearing Taara tell the meaning of her name, Lana jumped in with information on hers.
“That’s short for Lanitfat, or raindrop.” Lana didn’t return the bow, and looked confused that Taara did, but mostly she eyed Ghiso with excitement.
“It’s nice to meet you!” she said with complete sincerity.

[Valmark]

Ghiso pulled out a small diary, nodding through all the information they gave him as he jotted them down.
"It's nice to meet you too-" he replied rising his sight once he was done "-Lanitfat, Taara, Zarron and Cailenam. I think I can remember them" he nodded. He didn't seem to be looking much at them- his gaze shifting often away, maybe because a leaf moved or a sound got dragged by the wind. He got so distracted that almost went against Lana- and almost tripped to dodge her, too.
"I'm sorry. Oh, are those Zarron and Cailenam?" he went up to the ones he spotted only now, giving his bow again "I'm Ghiso Durant. As I told your comrades, I was sent by the healers with a message- Taara's inspecting it now"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

At hearing Lana's name's meaning in her ocean language, she thinks of what Lana means in the dragon language, completely ignoring the newcomer's near-collision with the water genasi.

"Lana means 'bring' in the dragons' language. So you're a 'bringer of raindrops'." she smiled playfully. "That explains my dream last night."

[Xihirli]

Lana nodded.
“Amah says our people are linked with dragons... primordial beings of the sea and the chaos found in it. I didn’t learn Draconic, though. But now I know that and am happy!” she tried to smile to show this, but was already.
“I hope your dream was wonderful!”

[WhismurWanders]

Cailenam looks up from where he was seated, the last of the new vials of holy water being placed gingerly among the four others he had spent the better part of the day creating. "Greetings, Ghiso. I am Cleric Emberbright, battlesmith to the Great Cat Matatabi." He keeps his introduction short, his mind was slightly strained from nearly 7 hours of rituals. The copper had been converted into silver dust, the silver dust had been used in the ritual for the holy water. Rituals weren't exactly his favorite part of his duties, but it was obviously necessary.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron eyes the newcomer with some degree of suspicion. Having grown up on the streets as he does, paranoia is a vital survival mechanism which never really leaves you.

Of course, the fact that the fighter is a half-breed just like him goes a long way towards endearing him to Zarron, but still, one musn't be so quick to trust.

"Mr. Durant, you say? What is the situation in Qsen right now, sir?" he asks guardedly.

(Note: Zarron is 15 years old but likes to pretend he's 17)

[Valmark]

Ghiso blinked when he was addressed as sir- after the first greetings that was the last thing he imagined happening.
"Predictably. I came here with some healers who have immediately started attending the ill, but... They can't make miracles" he shrugged "Good thing you all seem to know what you're doing. And you can probably do away with the 'sir', it's really not required. Not uncomfortable though"

[Xihirli]

Lana nodded. "We are so good at this. We just have to purify the lake, and then we can deal with that letter you brought us." She started heading back toward the cursed lake, one hand still holding Taara's.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara moved along with Lana, half to protect her and make sure she sees where she is going, and half because she's dragging her along. Still a bit flustered, she spoke quickly.

"There is a plant they want us to gather... Luckily, it grows high in the mountains, where we will be heading back further to."

[Valmark]

Ghiso turned with interest.
"Cursed lake? Oh, they also wanted to know how was it going, there should be ink and paper inside the pidgeon"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

"Oh. One second, Lana." she gave a gentle tug to stop her, but did not remove her hand from her grip. Instead she opened the pigeon and took the paper and ink, writing a message explaining the situation. She put the message inside, and pressed a button, watching it fly away back to Qsen.

[Izzarra]

The letter from the healers asks for a report on anything of importance that you have uncovered. Also they have been working on a cure that can be administered to a large population as curing a town, or possibly the population of an entire city, through spell-casting alone would be difficult. They need at least a dozen Fritillarias, a flower that grows high in the mountains with red petals and a bulb. They included a rough watercolor painting of it.

After being wound up the clockwork pigeon jerks erratically a few times before blasting away with a massive burst of energy almost knocking everyone nearby to the ground and breaking the top off of a tree.

Spoiler: OOC

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The following is mostly information about the mine I have copied from previous posts for the benefit of our new character.

The stream is fed by a waterfall that flows out of the cliff face and dropping about 100ft into a small lake.
The trail comes to an end at an overhang in the cliff face about 40 ft above the lake with a door set into the stone, it has dwarven decorations.

Near the lake is a burning pyre where many dwarves that passed away from the plague in the near by mine are being laid to rest.

Going into the mine the carved hallway goes up with a series of switchbacks that are apparently close to the surface of the cliff face as there are intermittent window slots to let light in that are carefully positioned to be hidden from view on the outside.

Eventually the way opens into the main hall of the mine. Light filters in from several openings that are angled so that they will catch light but not reveal the location of the mine from the outside. There are a few large tables down the center of the hall and along each side are different crafting areas. Kitchen, several blacksmithing setups for different applications, ore processing, carpentry, etc.

There are several projects in various staged of completion.

Most of the heavy crafting equipment is located on one side where you can hear the rush of water from the stream as it heads to the waterfall and several gears are spinning waiting for a lever to be pulled to engage the hydro powered equipment.

Down the various halls hall you find sleeping quarters, a mushroom farm on the other side of the stream, armory, mining equipment room, and foremans office.

The armory it is well stocked with a variety of stereotypical dwarven weapons and armor. Everything is in excellent shape and well cared for. However just about every item has the clan symbol located on it somewhere.

The equipment room is filled with all manor of mining and climbing equipment. There is a large box of pitons, coils of rope, pulleys, a shelf of lanterns and oil, shovels, picks, everything required to explore caves and mine ore.

[Zergrinch]

"Nobody is seriously ill in Qsen yet? We went to Tamor Town and the situation is bad, real bad."

[Valmark]

Ghiso's attention snapped back to Zarron after he had turned to see the pidgeon shoot to the skies.
"I'm sorry... I got distracted. I told you about the situation in Talmor earlier for some reason" he passed a hand through his hair shaking his head "No, there is nobody seriously ill in Qsen, yet. Could just be a matter of time homewever" after that he moved to follow the others as his attention couldn't ignore the words 'cursed lake' anymore, as he writed in his book about the clockwork creature- he would have had to ask how it worked back at the town. But still, before actually approaching it he stopped to help up Taara and Lanitfat, assuming they fell after the blast.

[Xihirli]

Lana took Ghiso's hand and gratefully accepted the help up. "I keep trying to swim away from sudden explosions and falling over," she explained.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara stands on her own immediately and quietly takes Lana's hand as soon as she's helped up, smiling and looking into her eyes for a moment. She then turns to the rest of the group with sudden lack of expression.

"Well, if we've got all the holy water we need, we should go forth back to the other side."