Plague and bone - RPLOG
Participants
Date
3/5/477
Log
A fine morning in the farmlands to the west of Firmament as several wagons ply along a dirt road in the direction of a small hamlet not too far from the sea. Although there are neither beasts of burden nor any visible runes on the wheels, they move at an impressive pace - a closer look will reveal that each of them is powered by some sort of Creator artefact, no doubt courtesy of the Church.
It doesn't take long before the train closes in on its destination, passing by farmhands toiling in the fields at spring planting. Most of them are hard at work, although some look distinctly worried, even if they carry no weapons on their person. There are also fewer of them about than one would expect of the season, considering the gruelling nature of the work.
Eventually, though, the wagons roll to a stop on the outskirts of the hamlet, and the priests urge the hired hands to start unloading. "Come on!" a small-clanned mouse in priestly robes urges, waving a paw. "There are sick folk here! I expect you to take all precautions not to catch it, whatever it is - don't want to spread it back to Firmament! Remind me to spray you down before you leave!"
Jera is looking well over the horizon, honestly looking a little bit disappointed as the ride ended. He is no stranger to long journeys. The kit fox has his cloak drawn around him much more closely than usual, trying to keep his glowing markings hidden. He steps off quietly from his wagon and stretches.
As the wagon bounces about upon the road, a lion sleeps soundly within a wonderfully covered environment. His body rests gently upon a rather large travel pack of sorts standing right next to his standard tower shield only a few feet away. Perhaps the lion got caught right when he was returning from his trip! Hearing a priest shout out, Dio lets out a yawn and rubs at his eyes. "Oh... 'ere already?" He says in a groggy fashion, but soon quickly springs to his feet. "Let's get goin' then!" Such an immediate surge of energy! Finding a box of supplies, he takes some and starts helping with the unloading process.
Selena blinks somewhat surprisedly at Dio's sudden energy - the wolfess having been watching the scenery quietly throughout the trip without much fuss, furrowing her eyebrows a little. While physical labor certainly isn't the wolfess's forte, she does as she can to assist the other beings. "I'm curious what you all make of this. When was the last major outbreak of disease out this way, anyway?" she queries, looking over to Jera and Dio. "It can't have been since I arrived in Firmament at least."
Jendayi, in all her massive sphinx-y glory, steps off the wagon, clad in her leather armor and carrying her various artifacts, more mundane tools lined up on her pack and rope belt. She has some torn cloth tied over her mouth like a really terrible and useless dust mask, but that doesn't stop her from being convinced it'll keep her safe. "I am of impenetrable endurance, small friend, do not worry. I will help CRUSH this ailment beneath the feet of our medicines. I do not believe my Sacred Doctor is enough to cure the disease outright, though perhaps it will at least treat some of the more painful aspects of this malady. We... DO know what the symptoms are, yes?" She gives the tool a gentle pat and moves to assist with the unloading.
As the group helps unload the medical supplies and devices, getting ready to enter the village proper, two beings leave one of the homesteads near the hamlet's town square. They're clad in strange attire - one might recognise as such from the First Text of doctors who treat particularly virulent diseases. Beaked masks obscure much of their faces, through which they peer out via glass-covered eyeholes, and large volumnous robes obscure much detail of their appearance - a fragrant scent floats toward the party via a spring breeze, reminding one of medicinal herbs, perhaps stuffed in the mask's beak.
The two of them are carrying a dead body between them, and lower it with utmost care and respect on a handcart which already countains a couple of others who seem quite pale and unmoving. Yep, dead.
"It's sad," one of them says. "So much pain and suffering."
"We do what we can."
The townsfolk around to witness the scene don't look particularly intimidated or even surprised at it all, but perk up as the supplies begin to filter into the town square, carried in by the Church and freeswords.
A handful of the doctors proceed along with their duties, apparently having a small greet as they point towards houses that have already been attended to, and break away to move towards another set, one of them shaking their head at the bodies in passing. One group pop into the building to check on the interior, while the other stops outside the house, cracking the door as one of the doctors makes an after you gesture, allowing one to enter and check while the other adjusts the sloppy cross.
Jera watches from the back of the group. His bow kept at the side under his cloak, glad that he made the upgrade to allow his bow to bend in half so he can keep it fully hidden. It doesn't help that he seems a bit afraid of the disease in general...shivers tingling up his spine.
"This place is always gettin' sick," Dio claims while he settles down a box of medical supplies. After dusting off his hands, he returns to the wagon to better follow up with Selena's question. "At least, that's what I've 'eard. Might be somethin' to do with all the rain an' stuff, but who knows? Suppose this is the least we can do." Reaching into his travel pack, the lion pulls out his bag of soul gems and deposits it into his coat pocket, but not before swapping out his soul gems for something more suited for medicine and such. While he waits for the new information to flow within his mind, he takes another box of supplies and heads back, idly eyeing the unfortunate environment.
Selena looks down solemnly for a few moments in silence, respect for the dead beings paid before she gets moving again, looking over the beings with a sorrowful expression, peering closely at the plague doctors as they pass. "I have a bad feeling about this." She mutters to herself, swallowing a little and ushering one of the healthy-looking beings over - one that is not wearing a plague doctor's uniform. "Excuse me, could you tell us anything about what's been happening here?" She calls, nodding politely to any of the plague doctors - "I don't mean to be rude, but I would like to hear from the residents what happened here as well." She explains, moving over to Dio and murmuring something to the lion - then to Jendayi and doing the same. "That doesn't surprise me, Dio, but if this place is 'always getting so sick a lot of people die off', then nobody would live here." She replies. "I mean serious outbreaks like this, not a cold."
Jendayi stares at the doctors as they go about their business. Those horrible, horrible masks. She knows what they're supposed to represent, appreciates it and what they do, but even as a priest she can't appreciate that uncanny valley feeling that mask absolutely drips of. Beneath her strip of cloth she offers a sheepish smile and is very glad it is invisible to them considering its uncertain nature. It quickly shifts to a deep, deep frown when she sees the dead, though. "It has claimed lives already...? I weep for our lack of previous haste. And knowledge, for that matter..." She makes sure that cloth is tight against her mouth before she crosses her arms. Questions begin brewing in her mind, and anyone who looks in her eyes can see cogs turning. When Selena speaks to her, those eyes go as dark as stormclouds, though she quickly composes herself. Her attentions fall entirely on the being Selena addresses, though she says nothing to him, allowing her expression to state her curiosities for her.
The being approached is another small-clanned sparrow, looking a little worried and relieved at the same time before Selena closes in. "Aye, of course. We've always 'ad a case of sniffles here every spring, and folk take it in stride. Coastal land's bountiful enough that no one moves away, but it's been rather bad this year. Y' can see for yourself.
"T'was too much for Marie and her apprentice to handle all on their lonesomes, so the Alderman sent to both the Church and Freeswords for 'elp, and these folks came with their clothes which they said protected them from the sickness. Took out the dead, burned them, then told us to burn the houses 'cause there was still sickness lingering in 'em. Got everyone else settled into a nice quarantine on the east side of town, since the west side is where they've been treating all the sick folk. Some come out alive...and others don't. Obviously." she gives a forced, half-hearted laugh. "But now that you Church folk are here with the machine spirits, I think everything's settled. Look, I think that's them negotiating with the mayor for their payment now."
Indeed, one of the plague doctors is speaking with what must be the alderman, and the latter gratefully tips a small pouch of crown into the former's hands. There's a brief moment as that masked gaze passes over the group...
The plague doctor gives a final respectful wave before moving to join the others, who exit their respective homes body free. They confer momentarily before nodding and moving towards a rather large house with a cross upon the door, all but one going inside, before the other turns to look inside briefly, before joining them, grabbing what appears to be an aid for moving a large clan being about.
"Mmh. People raised in the toughest condition tend to grow the toughest. I'm sure the people of Sweetwater are no different." Jera keeps his cloak covered close to his face, quite disliking the smell in the place with all the death and plague nearby. "And the sooner we get out of this place, the better."
"Yer right, lass," Dio replies to the wolfess, "But I suppose places that 're a bit more sick than others might be more likely fer somethin' like this. Can't say I understand it myself, lass." Before depositing his second box of supplies, the lion catches wind of a whisper upon his leonine ears. Curiously, he tilts his head while his eyes flicker about the forlorn atmosphere. A frown creeps across his once serious expression after hearing the news, but he decides it would be best not to make such information public at the moment. "I see... Curious, that."
After depositing his second load of medical supplies, Dio listens to the small being and scratches his head. "Awful bit o' events. Thank ya fer doin' what ya can do an' all. I wouldn't mind 'elpin' a bit more beyond deliverin' these 'ere supplies. In fact, I'd like to talk to the alderman an' get a bit more information. Perhaps about the first case if that's possible."
Selena nods, giving the sparrow a gentle pat on the back. "I hope for your sake things will be all right." She replies quietly, biting her lip for a few moments and looking back at the door to the house the doctors had withdrawn into. "... You know, they could've been polite enough to speak with us at least." She grumbles, shaking her head. "I'd like to as well, Dio. But I'd also like to know what the mourners there are talking about..." The wolfess taps her cheek for a few moments. "And nobody should be moving alone here. Dio, could you help me get these supplies a bit further into town? We should be able to catch up with the alderman and speak with them." She notes, shivering a little.
Jendayi returns the gaze with her own completely unfaltering, stone-cold-icy gaze. Despite her clear worry only moments before, she even takes the opportunity to tug her mask down to her chin, completely exposing her Creator visage. Her expression is similarly cold. Steely. Unfaltering. She holds it even as she bows her head respectfully, and as her head rises. With a long sigh, she turns to look towards the being Selena questioned. "Yes, of course... You should have come to the Church right away." She glances around. "And even then, it seems your people have failed to divulge much information. But... Yes." She nods to Dio. "Alderman. Yes. Many questions. Let us go," she says to the others, wasting absolutely no time in marching onwards into the town, forgetting completely about covering her face back up. Not that it probably mattered, considering it was little more than a strip of cloth, but her sudden single-mindedness is rapidly becoming apparent.
"We did!" the sparrow chirps in protest, but the group is already gone and moving towards the town square, where the alderman is just about turning to leave when the group storms in and asks their questions.
"It's terrible, I tell you. Started a week ago, then it took time for a runner to make it to Firmament, then a day or two more for those doctors to return...I told them what I'd done. They looked the situation over and said that they could treat the symptoms, but a cure proper was beyond them, that the Church would have the Creator Devices needed for a true cure and that they'd help contain the disease so far. You have no idea how glad I was to have help...no one else has caught it since then, thanks to their quarantine.
"The first patient? Locky, Creators bless his heart. Fisherman, worked the river. He's now dead," the Alderman states flatly. "The doctors said he went without pain. Don't think anything strange happened to him, certainly not to us. It's too late now - you can't ask a dead being questions."
Meanwhile, the plague doctors haven't come out of the condemned house yet. They appear to be taking far too long to heave out just one being between the five of them...
AS the wolfess closes in on the alderman, she furrows her eyebrows for a moment, turning back around and murmuring something into a burst of subtle air magic before setting the crates down. "Sorry, sir; could we borrow you for a moment? About the plague doctors..." She begins, looking back over her shoulder concernedly. "You haven't noticed anything particularly unusual about them, have you?" the wolfess asks, getting a little more concerned as she waits.
"Plagues work like that. The worst part is that it can hit anyone. Even the people who think they're the strongest." Jera loses interest in the alderman and then starts to sneak out towards the group of doctors, careful to keep his distance, but at the same time, try to take a look. He spies that and then quickly starts a sprint towards the other side of the house. In his haste, he doesn't remember to tell the group...
Dio settles his box o' supplies on the floor and asks his numerous questions to the alderman. While he listens, the lion idly gazes at the curious house some individuals entered before eventually putting his focus upon Selena's question. Remembering her earlier whisper, the lion decides to add something as well. "Maybe they all 'ave somethin' in common, perhaps? A markin' o'... an' item?"
Jendayi remains largely silent and simply listens in on the conversation between Dio, Selena and the Alderman. Her deific visage is set on the Alderman at all times, still sporting that cold as death expression. All the questions she needs answers to have been asked.
"We couldn't really see them," the alderman replies. "They were clothed like that, said the masks were stuffed with herbs to ward off plague, even gave us some to burn. And the clothes, too, they said it was to protect them. Which makes sense, cause there was a lot of bile and blood being hacked up...they even took some of it with them in little glass flasks. If they had any surgical tools or something, they sure kept them well hidden."
Jera, on the other hand, is barrelling towards the group of five plague doctors, who are by now on the edge of town and moving towards the treeline of a rather large forest that borders this side of the village. The windrunner's athletics easily eat up the distance - especially as they're beating an unhurried, tactical retreat.
The beings don't stop to deal with Jera unless forced, instead the doctors all stay marginally together, just rushing towards their unseen goal with varied spread for the purpose of covering eachother. Their clothes all become rather ill fitting, although not falling off so much as sagging about them as they run.
"Stop, stop!" Jera finds himself yelling, drawing his bow from under his cloak and nocking several arrows. "You're just going to leave the town like that? Leave everyone behind?" He draws, ready to take fire, but not wanting to attack possible innocents just yet even as every nerve in his body tells him to just be rid of the threat in front of him. "I give you three!"
"Wait," Dio proclaims, ears twitching upon hearing some curious words. "Yer tellin' me they're takin' blood an' such from people? An' they 'ad some sort o' clothes that can protect 'em from all this so well? I think I better go an' ask them some o' these questions personally. Thank ya for the information." With a few calculations, a burst of protective water covers the group around him, refreshing their body's and creating a slight layer of protection against foul adversities. "Don't know if this'll 'elp, but better to 'ave then to not 'ave. I'm goin' after the lad that just took off." With some more calculations, the lion takes off in flight towards Jera's location.
Selena shakes her head. "Send a messenger cackle to Firmament if you hear of these plague doctors showing up again, please." She replies - "I've never heard of anything as absurd as clothes protecting from disease, but there's something wrong with those beings." She replies worriedly before taking off alongside the lion in the direction of Jera's voice, readying herself for the use of other magic tending to the water and earth persuasions.
Every muscle in Jendayi's body tenses when she hears the shouts, and while she is urged by protective instinct to follow, she hesitates right up until Dio takes flight. At that point, she springs to life, her massive feet sounding out like bombshells- THUM, THUM, THUM- as they pummel the earth beneath her feet, vaulting herself forward with every running step, though as large as she is she is prone to stumbling... not this time. This time she throws herself forwards with grace and speed, but still it may not be enough.
When the doctors don't listen, Jera sets a small flurry of arrows in the direction of the doctors, aiming the best he can. He strikes several in places which would otherwise be fatal, but notices that they don't even falter, the arrows sinking cleanly into the soft dirt. "Be CAREFUL!" He yells, readying another shot and deciding to pause and catch his breath, looking to see if anyone else follows.
While flying through the air, Dio watches as the arrows sink into the doctors and shrug it off so easily. What kind of magic could cause something on that scale? Regardless, if brute force wasn't working, then there was always the age old method of tying something up. The lion conjures up some earth magic within his mind and attempts to capture any doctor he could within prisons of earth so that they may capture and interrogate one later.
Selena drops in elevation sharply as the doctors get closer to the perimiter of the area, the wolfess's magic producing a thick mire around the beings as they flee in an attempt to slow them - then with another gesture, a torrent of mud from the ground below bursts forth in an attempt to harry the being's escape, before lowering herself to earth, unable to pursue much further in the current state of affairs, but taking note of the bodies of the beings - with the arrows in them to no effect...
As the doctors approach the tree line, more shapes emerge from between the woods - savage-looking beings in light clothing, heavily smeared with paint of some kind and each and every one of them wearing torcs of tarnished metal, far too many of them to fight.
With a sharp whistle from somewhere unseen, a number of them bound forward to help the plague doctors struggle out of the artifical mire, clearly used to transversing soft, unstable ground and quickly breaking apart Dio's wall as it forms - no thanks to Selena softening the soil. Others put up covering fire with bows, javelins and the occasional spell, quickly retrieving the doctors before all of them disappear into the woods with practiced ease.
Selena watches incredulously as Jeyandi suddenly flings a huge creator construct into the mire, the period of being stunned reducing the speed a reversal of her earlier magic can work at - the crusher being hindered by a thin layer of cracked earth.
Jendayi can't keep up. Try as she might, thunder as her steps may, she just can't do it. They're too fast and she's too big and clumsy, damn it all. But that doesn't stop her from making one last ditch effort. With a loud, fury-laced grunt, she hauls up her OILED CRUSHER of all things in her arms, taking those last running steps to swing that ramshackle machine as hard as she possibly can. Being that it is nearly twice her already intimidating size, it is all but a miracle that she can send that clanker flying all the way to the edge of the muck, shouting out to it as it goes, "CHOMP THE DOCTOR-PEOPLE!" It WHEEEEEEE-KREEEEEEBLAMPOPOPOPOPOP CLANKs enthusiastically as it shifts gears into 'EAT THE SPHINX'S ENEMIES' mode.
As the doctors approach the tree line, more shapes emerge from between the woods - about twenty savage-looking beings in light clothing, heavily smeared with paint of some kind and each and every one of them wearing torcs of tarnished metal, far too many of them to fight.
With a sharp whistle from somewhere unseen, a number of them bound forward to help the plague doctors struggle out of the artifical mire, clearly used to transversing soft, unstable ground and quickly breaking apart Dio's wall as it forms - no thanks to Selena softening the soil. Accompanying them is a dark cloud of the stinging, biting insects known as kricks, quickly directed at everyone.
However, with the combination of Dio's encasing earth and Jendayi's crusher - which, to the newcomers' frustration, appears to resist much of what they're trying to do to it and has no flesh for the insects to assail - one of the "doctors" ends up caught in the crusher's jaws. However, with enough of the cultists helping - and the judicious application of a couple of what look like bones on the other "doctors", it's forced to let go - but not without tearing off a substential portion of those strange robes, along with a number of possessions. They don't stop to retrieve the items, and instead make into the trees, quickly disappearing as fast as they can.
The doctors along their way, one of them does't stop to say it, but does say, rather loudly, in a clearly comical and false voice "Be well."
"D-Damn it..." Jera curses under his breath as he kneels and takes aim towards the sky, launching a single arrow guiding a spree of wind math shots. Though the rustling of leaves being sliced and pounded by slicing gusts of wind as if it were raining heavily follow not long after, the kit fox trying to take out as many of those cultists as he can even as they skitter under the cover too deep to chase further. It's a desperate, exhausting effort that bears little fruit, most of his little wind darts barely able to even pierce the canopy.
Jendayi grrrowls out at the fleeing 'doctors' and clomps her way through the muck to reach her precious Crusher, patting it on the back and retrieving what possessions it stole away that she can. "You did very well, Bitey." She carefully leads it back around the muck to her companions, getting out her oils and cloth. "Oooh those terrible people made you have to get all muddy, did they not? Jendayi is here. She will help you." She speaks to it as though she were soothing a frightened animal, though the machine itself only responds with a WHIRR POP, POP. POP. WHIRRR as it idly follows, junk-parts making quite the clamor as it moves. "You did so well. Yes you did. Yes you did!" Once reunited with her companions, she lazily flops the objects down in front of them, ignoring them completely now in favor of getting straight to cleaning and oiling her precious machine. "Let's never do that again. Not near water, anyway. I am sorry."
Dio gently hovers back down to the ground, but not without a curse or two escaping his lips. "Who knows what they could be doin' with that blood they took off with? Best we tell everyone we can 'bout it if they plan on infectin' innocent beings an' such with this." But at least not all is lost. The lion strolls over to Jendayi and her crusher, eager to observe the results of their labor. "That was a mighty toss, lass. Good work. Now let's see if we can find a good clue o' two off it," he claims as he walks towards the taken objects.
Selena crosses her arms, looking back over at Jendayi and Jera halfway between disappointment and appreciation. "Well, they know we'll be looking for them the next time they're in a town. I want to ask you all a favor - If you can, sit down. Talk to them. I don't trust the corrupt court at all, but these are the people that need help the most. If we kill them outright, what kind of example are we setting? What kind of precedent is that? They must have their reasons for their choices. Even Kendrac managed to speak with Angus when he was troubled before he cleansed him. If they could be our allies rather than our enemies, it would be a greater benefit than adding to the dead." She replies, aparrently not having the heart to root through the objects 'captured' by Jendayi's crusher.
