Strange Aeons 2: The Thrushmoor Terror [IC]

[lostsole31]

"Then let us not dally and check the fallen woman and the materials of her caves, and then head out," Dorn's voice is heard over the collective.

[silphael]

Sticking close to Flair to ensure he's still sane, Maeni simply says :

"Yes, let's do that."

[digiman619]

Flair smiles at Maeni before turning to Jens. "Good idea." He then turned back to his companion. "Maeni, why don't we start dragging Jaume towards the boat while they search? Chances are they'll finish up before we get there."

[bcool999]

Nodding at the suggestion of searching, Jens will search the nearby area and the woman's person.

[lostsole31]

So, Flair and Maeni can only lift Brother Jaume (and his gear) with the greatest effort and stagger along before realizing that dragging him in the sand is easier (barely). But what they can't do is lift the lummox up the rocks .... climbing up the way they climbed down.

While they are doing that, Jens and Dorn search the woman, using Brother Jaume's quarterstaff to help add light into the vast cavern. The small cave system opens into a large chamber with a sooty ceiling. A table littered with cooking pots, glass flasks, and other tools sits against the wall in the southeastern part of the room near a smoldering campfire and a wooden crate. The ceiling of this cave is only 7' high in the western end of the room, but opens up to nearly 12' on the eastern side as floor slopes gently down.

A spiraling mass of tendrils with two long, descending tails is painted into the wall in this chamber. Neither man knows what to make of it.

The wooden worktable against the wall holds a wide selection of containers and vessels to aid in cooking all manner of concoctions. Jars and tins hold reagents and materials to produce possible poisons, drugs, and potions? Though it is not known who the benefactors of such would be. A small tin pot sits cooling on the edge of table, and is filled with a nearly complete batch of some plant material that seems to be derived from thick, tiny-leafed plants. All of this is outside of the knowledge of Jens and Dorn.

There is definitely a complete alchemist's lab here (but again, outside J+D's knowledge), and neither man can detect magic. Dorn shrugs and looks to Jens, "I will go get Flair in here. I can do more to help Maeni get Brother Jaume's body out the grotto, anyway."

Dorn leaves and goes to Flair and Maeni who have gotten the cleric's sleeping form to the base of the rocks heading up. "Perhaps I can be of assistance? Flair, we need your scholarship in the cage. Actually, Maeni? You, too, and I'll watch over the friar. Better hurry before Jaume's light-staff extinguishes."

[digiman619]

Flair will nod, leaving his insensate companion to head back in and check on the stuff the rest of the party found.

[silphael]

Maeni also goes back inside.

"We might need a harness or something to haul him up."

[lostsole31]

Spoiler: Flair

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Flair recognizes that the symbol on the wall is dedicated to the Great Old One Xhamen-Dor. He knows nothing else about what that means, other than recognizing the symbol and the "owner" of it.

Maeni sees that the woman wore masterwork wooden armor. The woman's body possesses a key, a spell component pouch, thieves' tools, and a scroll of lesser restoration.

One the worktable, Maeni recognizes a fully stocked alchemical lab. There are 11 magical potions...

Spoiler: Maeni

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(6) potions of cure light wounds
(3) potions of barkskin
(2) potions are unknown, but similar in physical properties. Magical aura unknown.

It requires Flair to understand what any of the other non-magical, plant-based matter is...

Spoiler: Flair

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(4) doses of belladonna
(6) doses of bloodroot
(10) doses of flayleaf
(1) dose of malyass root paste

The tin pot is filled with an almost complete doss of id moss.

Underneath the group of poisons and the like is a note that was overlooked (mainly because they didn't move the veggie-stuff they didn't understand). It is a folded note that is a request for "more of your dream-inducing brews, as well as more of that oil," signed by a person named Melisenn.

[digiman619]

Flair smiles ruefully as he sees the alchemy set up. "Oh wow. I haven't messed with reagents in years." He reminds himself to see if he can find any materials for crafting these back in town (an apparently ever-increasing list, it seems), before looking at the agents she woman was dealing with. "Hmm." he says as he recognizes the plants. "Okay, while a couple of these have medicinal uses for pain relief, most of these concoctions of hers were poisons. The one she was mixing up" he says, gesturing to the pot "is id moss, it causes swelling in the brain that results in major deceases in mental acuity and can lead to death if their immune system can't fight it off."

He then bend down to pick up the note that was half hidden under all the ingredients. "But this might be more important." he says after he finishes reading it. "It's a note asking for 'more of [her] dream-inducing brew, as well as that oil.'" He held it out to his teammates to show them its contents. "It's signed by someone named Melisenn. That name ring a bell for anyone?"

[lostsole31]

Nobody in the party should know who that is.

[digiman619]

When no one responds, Flair will simply nod. "Very well, then. We have a clue to follow when we get back into town." He then glanced back at the prone priest. "Of course, that depends on us getting Jaume out of here. Since he can't move under his own power, we're gonna have to rig up some sort of stretcher."

[bcool999]

Jens

The name having no meaning to him, Jens replies, "Well we are currently working for a detective agency right? She likely knows the local players and such that would have need of these... concoctions."

Jens will then Maeni and Flair back to Dorn and Jaume, rejoining all into the collective who might have wandered out of range.

[silphael]

Holding a scroll, Maeni asks :

"This is a scroll of lesser restoration, I will use it on Jaume so he can help us, anyone having anything against it ?"

[digiman619]

Flair turns to Maeni. "Good thinking. She must have gotten it as a contingency in case she get hit by her own pets." Addressing his other companions, he continued "Unless any of you would prefer we try to haul him up these rocks?"

[bcool999]

Jens

"Well I am certainly not caring him up there. We might be able to haul him if we had rope, but we haven't really had much of a chance to shop since getting to town." Jens says wryly before continuing, "Not that a bunch of escaped asylum patients had much coin to spend to begin with."

[digiman619]

Flair speaks up. "We actually have a bit of coin, should we need it. That artist gave us a couple hundred as a reward for diffusing the crowd."

[silphael]

Unfolding the scroll, Maeni casts lesser restoration on Jaume.

[lostsole31]

Jens, before Maeni gets too comfortable, you can stop her from "wasting the scroll."

Spoiler: Jens

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Poisons work differently[than diseases]—fulfilling the cure condition removes a poison from the victim’s system, but she remains at the same step on the track and recovers gradually. (Treat a poison that has exhausted its duration in the same way.) For every day of bed rest (or 2 nights of normal rest), a victim recovers one step; this recovery is doubled as normal by Heal checks, and tenacious poisons might require a longer recovery period. Usually, neutralize poison or remove disease immediately moves the victim to a healthy state on the respective track, and a heal spell will work for both. However, once the disease or poison has reached its end state, only a more powerful spell such as miracle or wish can remove its effects.

Some diseases and poisons cause the same effects as a condition (such as sickened) or render characters paralyzed. Effects that modify or remove those conditions (such as immunities) do not apply; only effects and immunities that help against diseases or poisons apply, as appropriate.

The tl;dr? Lesser restoration won't help.

[bcool999]

Jens

Seeing Maeni about to cast the scroll, Jens gets a funny tingling sensation at the back of his head. For some reason, Jens is sure that whatever hocus pocus Maeni is about to attempt will fail in some way. Jens speaks out on his concerns, ”Maeni, that scroll. You called it Lesser Restoration? What effect specifically will that scroll have? I just have a feeling that it won’t be effective on Jaume’s poison.”

[digiman619]

Flair shakes his head. "It's not about the dealing with the poison, it's about healing the damage to his immune system that the poison already did."

[bcool999]

Jens

”That is the problem.” Jens says as he tries to explain what’s wrong, “I cannot tell what damage he sustained. As the poison progressed it weakened Jaume that much is obvious, but I barely see signs of tissue damage beyond what would be normal for the coughing. I believe that this spell isn’t specialized enough to give Jaume the care he needs. We can try the spell if you wish, but I am fairly certain in my deductions.”

[digiman619]

Flair frowned, but nodded. "Very well, I will trust your medical expertise." He then sighs. "Bene, merda." he swore in Infernal. "I guess since we can't get him to walk under his own power, we now need to find a way to drag him back up the rock face. Does anyone have anything we could build a stretcher out of?"

Spoiler: Translation

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"Well, $hit." $ to get past the censor.

[lostsole31]

"Let us clear the caves for safety (and curiosity), and then inform the fisherman we are staying for the evening," says Dorn. "I am worried what it would look like to the town if we brought one of our largest, strongest members back completely incapacited. We don't have to tell the fisherman anything, just that we are staying overnight for investigation, but that he can tell the town we have slain the witch that laired here."

He pauses, then out of respect, "At least, that is my recommendation."

[bcool999]

Jens

"That's... not the worst idea I suppose. It will give me a chance to nurse Juame back to health a bit." Jens agrees reluctant at first but warming to the idea as he mulls it over, "Shall I be the one to inform the fisherman? I can climb back easily with my connection to earth, and I am likely the least banged up here if we desire a show of competence to assuage the populace."

[lostsole31]

Dorn shakes his head. "Maeni and I will go talk to him. You watch over your patient."

Does Maeni have a problem with that?

[digiman619]

Flair sighed. So much for that bath. "Make sure to offer to pay him for the return trip; he's got to make a whole other trip in to pick us up after all." He then smiles ruefully. "Well, on the plus side, that does mean that we'll have time on the trip back in the morning for me to hit the Asylum. There were a few books in the library that I need for research purposes" After the two of them begin to depart, he turns to Jens."Now, if you'll excuse me, I want to try and talk with my friend" he says, tapping his temple, "for a couple of minutes until they get back."

[Blackhawk101]

Brother Jaume snores on, oblivious.

[silphael]

Aquiescing, Maeni takes the direction of the shores with Dorn.

[lostsole31]

Dorn and Maeni make their way carefully up the grotto walls to talk to talk to Toli. Maeni helps Dorn, but Dorn is able to get Toli - as a sign of good faith - to forgo immediate payment for a second voyage until he comes back tomorrow morning. Waving him off, they very carefully make their way back down to the rest of the party with the good news.

[digiman619]

Flair nods. After they got Jaume situated as best they could, Flair motioned to the inside of the cave. Assuming it didn't delve lower, it probably wouldn't be too much to search with their diminished number.