It feels good to be healthy again. At last I have a moment to sit down and bring this journal up to date, without the threat of the plague hanging over me. But I'm skipping ahead in my tale. When last I had time to write, we were holed up in a locked room in the Temple of the Waters, having defeated the cult and rescued a mess of prisoners.
After several rounds of Glug sleeping and healing us, we felt ready to face the journey back to the compound. We opened the door and observed the carnage wrought by the attacking bandits. They had roughed up the rescued prisoners and ransacked the storerooms, but fortunately most of the prisoners survived. We comforted them the best we could, and searched the storerooms for the papyrus we needed, but we didn't find any. After a short discussion we decided the best thing to do was to get the prisoners and Danell back to the compound. Then we could go after the double boiler and try to track down the missing papyrus.
Laden with our loot, we started our slow track back to the North. Milque scouted ahead for danger, but we made it to the barricade without incident. Getting the prisoners over the barricade was quite an effort, as they were to weak to climb without assistance. Fortunately we weren't interrupted in the middle. On our way north from there, we met up with some refugees who were happy to join our band and help carry our stuff in exchange for escort to safety. By the time we reached the compound we had quite a parade. The guards were a little iffy about letting all these refugees in, but since we found Danell and brought him back alive, we talked our way in.
Rescuing Danell also got us an audience with Zeker, who up until now had been too busy to see us. He congratulated us on our work so far, and gave us a 1000 GP reward for rescuing Danell. We also got some better directions to where the orphanage was that had the double boiler, and permission to store our loot in his basement. Since Zeker is probably the most powerful man in town, it ought to the safe there. That done, we headed east. We hadn't gone far before we heard yells for help to the north. We ran to the rescue, and found an old woman beset by bandits. Arrows knocked, we demanded they surrender, and they fled before our armed might. The old woman was naturally grateful, and the goody two-shoes among us were quite pleased with themselves. We left her holed up with some food and water, promising to rescue her on our return to the compound. I'm not sure she expected us to return, but at least she wouldn't starve. As we neared the Northeast corner of the city we came upon a huge area that had been burned out. There still seem to be looters about, so we headed south to avoid trouble. Eventually we reached the section where the Eastgate Inn was located, and even managed to guess which building it was.
It was completely dark inside and the door was locked, so I picked our way in. Looking inside, I saw lots of tables flipped on their sides, and heat sources all over the place. I closed the door quickly, but it turned out they were all over the place. Milque climbed to the roof, and there were bandits up there as well. We decided to retreat and find a more defensible spot, so we took off south and hid in a building across the way. A building with a wood roof. A building within flaming arrow distance of the bandits. On hearing several impacts, we reconsidered our choice of refuge, and moved farther away. Soon the bandits came pouring out of the inn, and moved to surround us. We retreated to a defensible alley, and Glug summoned a dust devil to guard our rear. Milque climbed to the roof top to get an aerial view of the battle, and so he could weild his bow to maximum effect. That turned out to be pretty damn good. So good that I never even bothered to cast my sleep spells. Only one of the bandits was really tough, and he went down right away. He carved up Quicksilver pretty badly with his scimitar, but as soon as Quicksilver yelled he was a specialist (takes one to know one, I guess, he just looked damn fast to me), Milque took him out with arrows from the sky. After that, it was just a matter of Chicot and Quicksilver carving them down from the ground, and Milque picking them off from the sky. They never did figure out he was up there. Glug did a little healing, and me, I just provided an appreciative audience.
We explored the inn after the battle was all over, and found the innkeeper in the back. He and his wife had been held captive by the bandits, and forced to cook for them. Not surprisingly, they didn't shed a lot of tears over the gang's demise. It turns out that their son Twilly was the man who bought the double boiler from Cooper's Copper. He'd donated it to the orphanage, which was in the next section of town over. Their other son was able to provide us with a description of where it was, although from the point of view of a young boy, so it was a little hard to follow. Twilly, it seems, had disappeared as well. He'd gone crazy from the plague and run off with a pack of dogs, leading them naked with a pair of horns tied to his head. They said they'd appreciate it if we would bring him back. Why do we get these jobs?
The next day we headed out to try to find the orphanage. The section of town we were heading to had been pretty heavily damaged by fire. Unfortunately, fires still burned, blocking our access to where the orphanage lay. Milque and Glug, wearing the rings of fire resistance we'd taken from the red robed cultists, were able to pass through. Milque disappeared for a while, scouting he claimed, and came back with an arrow wound. Eventually though, we managed to ferry everyone through the fire using the rings. On the other side, we were attacked by a bandit (probably one of the ones who fled the night before), who fired some more arrows and then fled again. For some reason he just didn't want to stick around and be killed. I can't understand it.
About that time the barking began. Sure enough, moments later the wild hunt came into view, with Twilly in the midst of it whistling to the pack of dogs around him. I cast a sleep spell on him, and the hunt abruptly stopped as the dogs milled around. We decided to try and use the Cure Disease scroll we had on him, as he could probably lead us to the boiler. The only problem was that the spell requires a touch, and the pack was guarding him. Chicot tried to use his ranger skill with animals to befriend them, but it didn't seem to be working. He and Glug were just starting to back away, when suddenly Milque opened fire with arrows. He and I were still in the burning area, wearing the rings, so the dogs couldn't get to us. That didn't stop them from attacking the rest of the party however.
In the end though, they were only dogs. Chicot managed to get bit a few times, since he foolishly tried to turn his back and walk away, but the rest of us came out pretty well. The dogs were all killed, and while Glug was curing Twilly we hauled their bodies into the fire. We didn't think he'd appreciate our killing his friends, even once he was sane. Luckily for us, the cure worked. He came out of it, and was surprised he'd been running around naked (except for the horns). We gave him some spare cloths, and then got him to lead us to the orphanage. We were all pretty dismayed to see it had been burned to the ground. Copper isn't the strongest of metals, and we were all worried the boiler might have been destroyed. We were really glad we'd rescued Twilly, though, as he knew where the boiler had been stored. The orphanage had a basement storeroom, it seems, and he was able to show us where in the reckage to dig for the entrance. Without him, we'd have been digging for hours. As it was, it didn't take our fighters long to open up an entrance to the basement, and their was the double boiler: Big, copper, and unharmed.
We made our way back to the Inn, picked up Twilly's family, and headed back to the compound (even remembering the old woman on the way). Zeker eagerly took it and said he'd start on the cure right away. I asked about the papyrus, and he looked at me funny. It seems Milque had delivered that to him on our last trip. He must have found it in the storeroom and had it in his pack the whole time we were searching! I need to talk to him about this kind of thing. We were in danger the whole time we searched, and could have been attacked at any time.
After that, we just hung out while the big guys worked out the cure. I did a little practicing of my thieving skills, and met up with a thief named Thio who offered to help train me. Cool, I'm ready to learn more stuff! With all the sneaking and lock picking I've done, I guess I ought to be! And Danell even offered to show me how to cast second level spells once things aren't so busy, in thanks for his rescue. Double cool! Milque, it turned out, had traded the papyrus to Zeker for 4 identifies. Hopefully I can use one or two of those to find out what some of the goodies I snagged from the temple are. Later of course.
It took a day or so for them to get the cure together, and we were looking for signs of the plague in each other towards the end. It had been more than a week for us, and onset could have happened at any time. We got lucky though, and they got the cure finished before we got any symptoms. We eagerly downed our doses, and then helped pass out cures to the rest of the folks.
I must say, it feels pretty good to save a city. Chances are, Zeker will get most of the credit, being both local and the guy who came up with the cure, but he couldn't have done it without our help. Maybe we'll get a footnote in the history books. If nothing else, we got a nice chunk of change, and that's even nicer. Footnotes don't buy dinner.
On to Journal Eleven