Kartakass: Chapter Seven

[BigBadQDaddy]

William, visibly frustrated while loading his pistol with normal shot simply growls as he speaks. "Blast it! does nothing work against those damned beasts?"
Exhaling heavily, he looks at the others then off in the direction the attack came from.
"Ole wives tales I tell you. Silver hurtin' a were beast. Bah! Just an excuse to get yeh to throw a few more coins in their purses if you ask me."

[VAN]

"I agree, we shouldn't head to Pietro's house immediately since they can follow us. The problem is that the wizard has seen us, which means he can scry on us easily...We should be very careful!"

[A G Thing]

Deari takes her healers kit from her horse, "Come on... Let me fix you all up now... I bought this kit so you could hold your healing magics til we must use them and I am uncertain we are safe yet..." and begins (after insisting such) to carefully clean and dress the wounds of Lucius and Cornelius and after which splinting Vans leg to aid its healing... Her look as she does this is quite startled as she hesitates for some things but soon seems to aptly and efficently dress the wounds in a military fashion... "Appears I make and adaquite saw bones eh?"

She also asks Hobert after giving him a snack and some water to guard the horses while the party is stopped...

[steveflam]

Once the excitement has settled down, you have the chance to inspect the deceased, but discover nothing but they look like Kartakans. The wagon is empty confirming suspicions it was a setup.

"Deari you're quite good with that kit. I'd like to look at the wounds closely when we settle in for the night. Especially any who got bitten. I suggest we try some cold iron items next time against these beasts. These weren't werewolves but a different type of lycanthrope I've read and heard about. THey call them Wolfwere's in my land. Let's move one and find a good spot to camp."

Searching the area more gives you no more clues. YOu fidn nothing more.
Heading out you travel for near another two hours before the sun sets and Jacob casts his spell for the shelters. Once the horses are settled in he asks Cornelius to tend to the cooking while he inspects the wounds of Van, Lucius and finally Cornelius. Once done he excuses himself and enters his room.

Upon exitting he walks over to Lucius and asks him to walk with him as he wishes to speak with him.

[BigBadQDaddy]

"Cold iron?" William exclaims. "Wolfwere's? Next you will tell me that you need a regular bullet fired from a silver pistol. This is nonsense. Well, one thing is for certain. Your magick's worked on the foul beasts. Maybe next time we come across these beasts, I can run distractions while the rest of you work your spells. Good a plan as any as far as I can figure."

[ewancummins]

Cornelius takes several minutes to gather fuel and prepare a cooking pit, in which he places the iron pot he carries for such campire occasions.
As he sets the dry wood alight, he remarks to the others standing nearby,

''It's the human and the elf that were with those wolfmen who I'm worried about. That attack was probably not random, you know. I think someone is trying to stop us from completing our mission, I just don't know who. Could be this Mother Fury we've heard about, or maybe some other faction. Ah, or maybe I'm just getting paranoid.... ''

The dwarf chops up some wild onions, edible roots,etc and stirs the bubbling stew in the pot. Into the pot go several hard biscuits and chunks of salt pork.

[A G Thing]

"Well as we all saw the wagon was empty besides the corpses... I just don't think they expected to fail... They seemed to underestimate us, and while they have set a trap, I wonder how much they knew... Who could command such beasts against us?"

Deari looks up from cutting ingredients, and around at the woods as if checking to see if something is off...

"The man and the fey born, well they seemed to be there to prevent the very spells that still managed to kill so many of the wolfen creatures... It was cordinated and they left when their beastial allies fell... I think you may be right to be so paranoid Cornelius!"

Deari looks and nods to Cornelius as she says this...

"The only truth I saw from it all, is that whether robbers with monsters taking the roads, which I doubt! Or a specific threat against us, which I believe it was! They where prepared though not enough for all of us, maybe most magics..."

[Ail]

In the heat of the battle, Lucius barely thought of the danger he was in. It was only when Deari went to heal him and when Jacob added his worries about his being bitten that the full meaning of the fight and its risks dawned on him.

He tried to shrug these thoughts aside. There had been much tragedy in his life due to werewolves already, and indeed, it was such an incident that had set him in the priestly path. If that had not happened, he'd probably be a full time teacher by now... with a bit of magician on the side, but he doubted he'd ever have set on this trip if he weren't a priest of Ezra.

He was interrupted by the cold touch of Deari's hands on his naked arm, inspecting his wound. He was a bit startled and couldn't help meeting her gaze and looking deep into her eyes. He averted them quickly, and looked to his arm.

Funny, he though, I don't ever remember being healed like this myself. Usually, I'm the healer. It was a novelty for him, and he was not sure whether he felt uncomfortable or relaxed under the touch of another. Soon Deari finished her treatment and moved on to others, but Jacob's remark was not too relaxing.

When they finally camped for the night, and the dark elf asked him to talk aside, Lucius' worries grew.

"These were wolfweres, he said" Lucius whispered to himself, "but I have no idea if these can infect someone as werewolves do. I hope Jacob tells me they can't, but his attitude seems to suggest otherwise. Oh Ezra, please, guard me from harm and from harming my friends."

[Ail]

Before going to meet Jacob, Lucius heard Williams' doubts about the wolf-like creatures. He couldn't stop grinning at the old sailor's remarks.

"William, I know it's hard to believe what we see in this land, but I think it's time to start believing folk tales. I've heard quite a few of them in the University, as I was a History teacher and things tend to get muddled, so I know how labyrinthine popular suggestions for dealing with monsters can be.

But here, I have a crossbow and cold iron bolts. I don't use them anymore, I've never had a steady hand for shooting. I brought them along more for precaution and easing my conscience, but I'm sure you could use them better than me. Please, use them if you will. You may return them later if you think you should, but I won't hold that against you. Make the test yourself, will you? I'm sure we'll find more of these, and you'll have the opportunity to learn if cold iron does work... oh, and do keep silver bullets with you. I'm POSITIVE there are true werewolves in this land, and that will help against them."

[VAN]

Van can barely walk, his twisted leg hurt very much, so he was more than happy when Deari healed him.

"Thank you very much! I feel much better now. It's the first time someone dispels my fly spell...And I agree that is was an ambush. They certainly waited us. Someone wants to make us fail, do you remember Tarlyn's disappearance and the doppelganger? Maybe has something to do with that as well. Don't know if is Mother Fury or someone else behind this but for sure someone is..."

Van is also very worried about Lucius being bitten, he has heard about the disease lycanthropy as well but he isn't sure if these wolfwere can transmit it. But still thinks that he has to share his thoughts with his friends. So when Jacob and Lucius left he says:

"I'm worried about Lucius, he has be bitten and I don't know if he can get the disease from there shapechangers, in any case we should be very careful and with the minimum sign of change we will try to react. I mean immobilise him and try to help."

Then he looks at Cornelius cooking and smiles:

"I'm glad we have you with us!"

[A G Thing]

Deari settles back after tending to the wounds of her companions... Deep in thought she keeps her eyes on Lucius and to a lesser extent, Cornelius when they are in the area... None of the injuries where fatal or all that serious but the thought of the disease is a little disturbing... Still, it seems odd to think that the healing and purifing herbs and salts would not work... But magic is but a fact to her, and curses, for no normal disease would cause such transformation, were also widely told by the wise women...

Her and Hobert will take the first watch tonight... She has decided to say such when the topic is brought up tonight... Of course she will have to rouse her currently sleeping dog from his current slumbers, but that just means he will be rested for the watch...

Smiling at the conversations, for the time she forces her attention on the rather kind and familiar sounds of the campfire and friendly voices... She is there now with her mind settled to comfort them, and try not to show worry... Perhaps they were lucky, but perhaps not... Till then she will try and enjoy her new friends and treat them as such... No need to make them feel worry if she can avoid it...

[BigBadQDaddy]

"William, I know it's hard to believe what we see in this land, but I think it's time to start believing folk tales. I've heard quite a few of them in the University, as I was a History teacher and things tend to get muddled, so I know how labyrinthine popular suggestions for dealing with monsters can be.

But here, I have a crossbow and cold iron bolts. I don't use them anymore, I've never had a steady hand for shooting. I brought them along more for precaution and easing my conscience, but I'm sure you could use them better than me. Please, use them if you will. You may return them later if you think you should, but I won't hold that against you. Make the test yourself, will you? I'm sure we'll find more of these, and you'll have the opportunity to learn if cold iron does work... oh, and do keep silver bullets with you. I'm POSITIVE there are true werewolves in this land, and that will help against them."

William takes the crossbow, inspecting it as he says to Luscius, "Hmph. I thank you for the crossbow Luscius, but I still have my doubts. I will use it the next time we face these beasts. I s'pose if worse comes to worse, we can hope they choke on us."

The rest of the evening, William looks over the crossbow, familiarizing himself with it. The heft was heavier and more awkward than his pistol, but it was solid and seemed to be in good working order.

[ewancummins]

Then he looks at Cornelius cooking and smiles:

"I'm glad we have you with us!"

''Well, be certain I'm glad you are all here with me. Nasty business, that was. I wonder if they'd have bothered to cook us, like I'm doing this old pork, or if they'd have eaten raw, just like natural wolves? Hahaha...''

Cornelius gives a strained sort of laugh, then turns back to his work.

[steveflam]

Once the door is closed, Jacob leans up against the wall, beckoning to Lucius to sit at the desk. He rubs his eyes. Turning to Lucius he says "I know you were bitten by that wolfwere. By my knowledge and study, I fear you may have been infected. I will attempt a Remove Disease to begin with. On my home plane, it is a simple thing of killing the first wolfwere. Here, my thinking is simply this. Tell me what you know of Lycanthropy in these lands. I don't think it will be that simple.

Know you any spells that I might gain to help suppress your change or help you?"

Lucius knows of a spell called Suppress Lycanthropy that can help him. It is a 4th level spell from the VRA.

Lucius is taken aback by Jacob's words, and goes pale for a second. His legs falter and he tries to on the nearest chair. Since he doesn't see any, he sits on the floor and leans against the wall. He hides his face in his hands, hardly suppressing some tears, and when he once again looks at Jacob, his eyes are swollen and red.

"You know, Jacob... I think I have never frankly told this to anyone, but I was engaged once. She was a lovely girl and I was happy then.

We never married, you know? That was just a short bliss. She was bitten by a werewolf once. I will not go into the details, but I dove into a deeply anxious state of life. It didn't last long, I researched somethings at the time, I learnt of a spell I read in ancient books we had at the University. That particular one came from Barovia, and was one of the reasons I studied Balok. It spoke of a spell that suppresses the Dread Disease.

But I could never find it. I was rather inexperienced at the time.
She... she turned, eventually. I escaped her, but once we knew of the sad truth, we shed many tears together. I took her to the Cathedral of Port-A-Lucine but the priests there couldn't help. She transformed once more, and this time I couldn't contain her. She killed a group of people that lived nearby, and the populace organized a wolf-hunt.

Fortunately, they never even guessed it was her, but I took her again secretely to the church. We had talked, you see? She was a magnanimous soul, she asked me to kill her, so she wouldn't kill anyone else... me included. I didn't do it. I bade her goodbye. We made love one last time, and I left her to the priests.

They assured me she is now buried in a honoured place in the cathedral. And I took the cloth. I can never forget her, you see? And I can never forget I could not save her. The best I could do was to save more people from her. So, now I am a priest. And my duty is to protect the others, and more than anything else, to protect them from beasts such as these.

Perhaps now you can guess how much this situation scares me.

Aside from that spell I mentioned, I've heard only scattered tales. I once met some travelers who had come through Barovia and old Gundarak claiming that two of their band were highwolves, and a that a Gypsy raunie had once given them an iron-chain that contained the wolf within. I never heard of that anywere else. That may have been a high tale, or a particular gift of a Vistana. I don't know anything else, but we could at least reread what the book that man gave us in the boat says. If we can trust the book, I'm sure it will be able to tell you more than I can".


OOC: Thanks, I know that spell. As a side note, that chain was something I invented for my campaign, when the party's priest was infected in a fight against another party member (who started as an infected lycanthrope, whose disease was revealed only in moments of high stress and when the story called for it... in practice, justified teh characer being wounded enough)

Jacob begins praying. Clutching his holy symbol, he utters words in Draconic and Drow. When done, a blue light emanates from his fingers and surrounds Lucius. The bluish light sinks into the man's body. Jacob concentrates for nearly two minutes. The blue light exits Lucius' body and dissipates in the air.

"Well, Lucius the Remove Disease spell did as I feared, nothing. That was quite the tale. I understand pefectly about the loss of a loved one. When I was younger I was married with four children."


Jacob looks down and swallows, his face pained. "Through much adventuring, I amassed enough gold to pay for my own small temple in the town of Berdusk. One week I was off to Waterdeep to tend to a business I owned, a bakery. Upon returning I found the Temple burnt to the ground, completely destroyed."

Jacob punches the wall, his fist actually breaking the stone, but his hand now bleeding. He ignored the pain. "I found the lifeless corpse of my wife and my youngest boy dead. Once I gathered my wits, I took care of business and found my three other children, telling them the fate of their mother. We mourned and parted ways. I became somewhat of a recluse, burying myself in books and information. I knew who had done this terrible deed, but I couldn't take these enemies on by myself.

For the next few years I trained in all my classes. After that I adventured once more. I found out that while I was reclused, my enelies had been taken care of by those who Harp. When I did find them, finally, I merely thanked them. They began giving me small jobs and tasks. I accomplished them and three years later I was admitted as a member.

Well Lucius I can tell you this. I will do what I can to find this incantation you mentioned. We have three choices before us.

One is we finish the mission and find you a cure after. Second is we go in search of this spell that can help you. Third is I go off in search of the spell alone. What do you think?"

[Ail]

Lucius leaves the stury visibly shaken. He looks at his mates waiting in antecipation for dinner and he coughs once to clear his throat, then addresses all of them.

"Ahem, friends... Now that I have your attention, I have an announcement to make. It is no surprise to you all that I was bitten in the last battle and I may have contracted lycanthropy as a result. That sure feels like a death penalty is on me, as Jacob was powerless to cure it...

So, we come at a point where I may be a liability to you all and we, as a group, have to decide on what to do. Jacob game me three choices: 1 - to look for a cure after we complete the mission; 2 - to look for at least this reprieve spell before we go on with this mission; 3 - Jacob departs alone in search of that spell.

Frankly, I don't want to cause any more delay to this matter at hand. We have allowed ourselves to be very distracted by other matters and if we keep going like this we'll never have anything ready. But, on the other hand, it is a likely possibility that more of us may be infected during this task. If we find a way to at least prevent Lycanthropy from emerging, that will work both for me and for any future victim.

I'm merely expounding on the possibilities. I think I should add to this one another: I leave the group and let you go on with your business, while trying to find a cure.

Actually, I'm saying all of this because I think it must be a group decision, but if you ask my opinion, I think the quest comes first. So, what do you suggest?"