The Quest of the Missing Quill

[Vrindlevine]

Before his allies disperse Ishan says "I have preparations to make for the next leg of our journey If you wish to keep me in your service you can meet me at the tavern."

As his employers disperse he decides to harvest some of the local wildlife after checking his journal on local fauna he heads out looking for some comfrey root and wormgrass he plans to spend about an 45 minutes searching he can mix later.

(Survival to search for plants 2 checks for comfrey 1 for wormgrass.)

[HorizonsDream]

"Well, that's one!" Jasmine says as she rushes up to Ben, and wraps her arm around his free arm. "And it looks like we are meeting up at the tavern after we're done."

[keymeister16]

"save me a fowl leg then, i will return with what wisdom I've gathered!" Zurgo called back over his shoulder, book high in the air as he waved farewell.

[Haahque]

Zurgo (Trevsville Library):
Zurgo heads to the library where he can study the Necromancer’s book in peace and quiet. The book includes many things, from diagrams of people and studies of their anatomies (usually in reference of how to re-animate them), to descriptions of rituals that take hours to perform, and a few spells hidden in between.
The rituals usually involve raising creatures as undead in some way, from creating powerful creatures for combat to raising livestock in such a way that they outwardly look like nothing has happened to them, although in truth they’re already harvested and dead.

The spells, the ones that can be cast fairly quickly, appear to be ones that he just fought against early today. There’s one spell which seems to be rather advanced, a very quick way to resurrect a dead body, although due to the speed only skeletons and zombies are possible with this technique. It also mentions that only bodies of previously living creatures can be turned into undead like this, although there is a foot note that in some cases, very powerful undead can also be raised back as skeletons and zombies in this method. The second spell is a cloud of darkness, also very fast to cast. Although it’s not “deeper darkness”, whatever that means, it’s suggested as a good defense mechanism versus missiles. The third spell sounds a lot like magic missile, but it’s not nearly as accurate or as long ranged. It however is fairly powerful.

Although Zurgo can understand these spells, they’re so far different from what he’s studied and has been taught to cast that he can’t replicate any of them, no matter how hard he tries.

Description of Necromancers spells (in game terms):
Raise Dead: Swift Action, raise a skeleton or zombie out of a body. Body must have been of a living creature or of a Tier-3 undead.
Dark Cloud: Move Action, create a 25-foot wide cloud of darkness centered on your square, then take a 5ft step.
Dark Bolt: Standard Action, 25ft range touch attack, 1d8 damage (increased at higher levels).

After he’s done studying the book, he talks to the clerk at the library. He learns that the clerk is willing to give him 10 gold, if he wants to sell the book. The Librarian is unsure of what the cause of the problem that plagues this town is, but notes that some people just seem to be unaffected, while others are badly stricken by it, usually if a family is stricken, the entire family is stricken. She also notes that the farmers are some of the worst off due to it.

Gaheris (Trevsville Church):
While Gaheris doesn’t see anyone in the main worship area at the temple, he’s able to follow the sounds of a crowd to find a room full of malnourished people sitting around at tables, eating lunch. At the end of the room are two tables with food of all different kinds, although many of the plates and bowls are empty, there is still a substantial amount of food left.

As Gaheris enters the room, he notices young man, perhaps 30 years old, get up and approach him. By his robes, Gaheris guesses that he is part of the clergy, if not the preacher at this temple. The cleric addresses Gaheris kindly enough. “Welcome Traveller. You’re welcome to join us if you wish.” Drawing closer and lowering his voice he continues “Although it does not appear like you need it. We host these meals to help feed the citizens that are suffering from malnutrition in the town, although we do not have the funds to feed them all, so we encourage people to bring their own food to supplement that which we supply. I do feel like we help the people, some seem to recover their strength after these meals, but not everyone, and sometimes it’s only a half recovery.”

Gaheris however gives him the impression that he’s not here for the meal. Backing up again he resumes his original poise and volume. “But perhaps you’re not here for food. We worship once a week and you’re welcome to join us. You have a look to you that you might be interested in knowing sharing some knowledge with us. If you happen to be near some evil alters in the near future I can teach you a ritual that can disperse the malicious power. Or perhaps you’re looking for healing.” Gaheris, despite having a number of painful bruises, doesn’t have any open gashes so it took the cleric some time to notice that he may well be in pain. “I can fix you up rather quickly if you would like. Scrapes and bruises are much easier to fix then some of the problems we’ve been having here of late.”

Jasmine, Kannock and Benjamin (Black Barrel Tavern)
Jasmine and Benjamin decide to head to the tavern in the more wealthy section of town, while Kannock tags along behind. This tavern, they note as they enter it, has a sign with a black barrel on it in front. The inn is rather sparsely populated at this time of day, while there are six tables, only three have people at them when you arrive.

The first of these tables seats four well dressed, but poorly nourished people. They have a wealth of food in front of them, which they’re digging into eagerly, by the looks of how they’re eating, they should be fat, but they’re so skinny that you can see their bones.

The second table has a three men drinking and conversing with each other. One of them is well fed and strong Nephilim, judging by the looks of him he’s a scout or a hunter, as he’s got a bow and quiver strapped to his back and he’s wearing bear furs. The Slithzerikai wearing a smith’s apron looks severely malnourished, his muscles are receding, while the human one never looked like he was as buff as the other two, but still appears underfed.

The final patron of the inn is an elderly man crunching on a lettuce leaf as he pours over some sort of game that involves miniature pieces on a square grid board. He looks well fed and rather happy, despite the troubles that plague the town, and his apparent lack of someone to play against.

While you’re used to innkeepers being nearly as wide as they are tall, this is very much not the case for the half-orc that greets you. She also appears to have been struck by malnourishment. “Welcome to the Black Barrel, what can I get the three of you today?”

(You should mention who you want to talk to about what, and/or if you wish to do a performance or buy anything)

Ishan (Outside Trevsville)
Ishan takes his time outside Trevsville, looking for useful plants to harvest. This close to civilization he’s running the risk that there’s another alchemist close by that’s harvesting the nearby plants, but never the less his search is eventually rewarded when he tracks down a patch of comfrey root that seems undisturbed. He expertly takes the useful parts of the plants, while leaving enough that the patch can regrow in a few days and goes back to searching.

The later part of his search is not as rewarding and he can’t seem to track down any wormgrass. However it’s getting close to the time to meet back up with the others, so he should probably make his way to the tavern.

Search for Comfrey Root (1d20+5): 7, no comfrey found.
Search for Comfrey Root (1d20+5): 18, found a comfrey patch and harvested 3 comfrey root from it. (Patch depleted for 4 days).
Search for Wormgrass (1d20+5): 10, no wormgrass found.

[HorizonsDream]

Jasmine had Benji escort her to the tavern by arm, but she let him go as they stepped inside. "Is there some sort of sickness going on here?" she asks the innkeeper.

[keymeister16]

signing at what little he learned, Zurgo made his way back across the northern district, mulling over what the woman had said "whole families.....farmers seem the worst off..." with a abrupt turn that would have floored the woman behind him if not for his well trained city-walking, Zurgo weaved past the cursing woman to the grocer he passed by, coin purse jingling as he fished out a gold from his recent 'donation'.

"aHEM, shopkeep! i require 1 of your finest apples! you humans carry apples right?"

[JadedDM]

"Yeah, I think I have a couple of cracked ribs," Gaheris admits. "What's going on in this town, anyway? Some kind of food shortage or something?"

[Just_Ice]

"Not that I don't appreciate the attention," Ben tells Jasmine with a hint of flair while unlocking arms, "but I'm afraid I am drawn to someone else inexplicably at the moment. Don't read into it too much."

The room isn't working too well for a performance- it's too lopsided both one way and the other. Instead he visits the old man, his board and the lettuce leaf. "Good day, sir. My name is Benjamin, and I was hoping you'd be interested in telling me a bit about the town, and a bit about this game you have there."

He hoped the elder was the talkative and not-entirely-racist sort as those who live not for want tend to be- he'd made sure to step clear of the other tables, lest someone try to trip him.

[Haahque]

Jasmine and Kannock (Black Barrel Tavern)
“Yes, indeed there are problems going on. Trevsville seems plagued by orcs, goblins, kobolds and… worse creatures. Dark things that disappear into the shadows. Some even say necromancers have been at work here, old relatives long deceased showing up again with intent only to destroy. I can only guess that something somewhere has decided to curse the town. A curse, it seems, that no matter how much food we eat, some people will shrivel up as if they haven’t eaten in weeks. Then to make matters worse, the church, in a noble effort to help, has started giving out free lunches to anyone who’s stricken by the curse, and it may be helping a little bit, but it’s stolen a lot of my business. I’m in danger of starving by conventional means if this keeps up. Maybe I should just close up at lunch time and go over to the church for charity.”

Kannock then pipes up, “I don’t know much about any curse, but if it’s business that’s endangering you I’m happy to help with that. I’d like a pint please, of whatever he’s drinking.” He points to the Nephilim.

Benjamin (Black barrel Tavern)
When Benjamin sits down the old man looks up and greets him. “Hello traveller,” And he begins moving all the pieces on the board, by the looks of it setting it up for a new game. “Yes I could tell you quite a bit about the town if you’d like. I grew up here. Would you like to hear about the fair we use to have? Finest in the land, pity we didn’t have enough volunteers to keep it going a couple years ago. That must have been, hmm, maybe twelve years ago. All the young boys these days want to go off and make a name for themselves in the orc wars.”

“This game is a very important game that teaches patience and skill. It is called hnefatafl, but really it is a way of life. Through it you learn wisdom, and earn new friends. Unfortunately I only have two copies of the same set, so if you would like to play against me, we both would be using the Theodra set.”

“The basic game is simple, players take turn moving three of their pieces. They must move three different pieces, not the same one multiple times. You take an opponent’s piece by sandwitching it, but your own pieces are never taken on your turn, so you can move into a position where you’re sandwitched and your piece will not be taken. Furthermore each piece has special move patterns and abilities. The game is won by taking your opponent’s commander.”

(Rules are explained in the rules thread, playing the game may take 7-15 posts, so it might be an activity best done when everyone else has something else to do, or if everyone wants to team up and try and beet this guy. There will be other opportunities to play this game, either by coming back to this man in this tavern, or by finding other people who play it. It's a somewhat common game in this world (like say chess is in ours))

“If you wish to play, you may go first.”

Zurgo (Merchant District, Trevsville)
By now, Zurgo is fairly used to the racial slurs that spill out at him whenever he annoys humans, the woman he nearly hit is fairly tame in her cursing, so Zurgo doesn’t hear anything new and exciting from her.

The grocer that he goes into seems to sell mostly fruits and vegetables, the lady behind the stall eyes him warily, but selects one of her largest apples from the stand. “For you, that will be two copper please.” The apple looks ripe and Zurgo doesn’t see any bruising or holes in it*. He also notices that the sign below the apples are 1 copper piece each.

In general, he sees nothing wrong with any of the food being sold at this establishment, and the woman behind the stall looks fairly well fed herself. This is in contrast to the other grocery store that he passed by, where the grocer was severely malnourished, selling a mixed selection of meat, milk eggs and produce. His food also looked good and healthy, but the grocer himself was severely malnourished.

*note that in a world before artificial preservatives and selective breeding, bruises and holes in produce like apples were much more common.

Gaheris (Trevsville Church)
“Yes, let me fix those up for you.” He touches Gaheris and mutters a short prayer. Soon Gaheris feels a warm feeling where his wounds used to be, and his tissue is completely restored. “Our healing here is limited, and we try to help as many people as we can, but you’re free to come back whenever you need healing and we can try to help you.”

One of the nearby townsmen eating at the potluck growls at Gaheris. “By the looks of it, you should give him a donation for healing you. The church needs all the help it can get, and you have the coin that it can use well.” His voice is rough and his tone gruff, but it sounds like he means well.

The priest smiles at him and continues in his smoother, kinder voice. “We would accept any donation you feel like giving, it will be used well to help out the town. But you asked another question, about the town. I can assure you that there is no food shortage, our farmers gather just as much food as they always have, while the condition is new. No one’s sure what is causing it, but we cannot cure it like a disease, nor is it a curse that we can dispel. It is only effecting us, as far as we can tell, and some people think it’s linked to the food, here at the church we’ve been doing our best to supplement the potluck supplies the others bring with imported food. I do think that helps. Some people link it to the more frequent appearances of necromancers and undead in the lands around the town, especially to the north. I do not know if this suspicion has merit, but it is true that of all the creatures that plague this town, kobolds, goblins and orcs are old threats that aren’t getting any worse over time, while the necromancers and undead are a fairly new threat that seem to be growing more common and more bold every week.”

Priest casts cure light wounds on Gaheris: Heals for 6 HP, Gaheris is healed to full.

EDIT: Forgot to attach a picture of the game board.

[JadedDM]

Gaheris sighs with relief as the pain vanishes. He pats himself down as if to double check. "Thanks padre," he says. "For your troubles." He hands the cleric six gold pieces.

He listens to the cleric's explanation. "What are the symptoms of this...whatever it is? Funny you should mention, but we ran afoul of some necromancers and their undead minions on the way here, on one of the outlying farms. That's how I got busted up. Walking corpses hit harder than you might think. Anyway, we defeated them, but weren't able to take any alive for questioning. From what we could piece together, they were trying to create zombie cows for some reason." He takes a moment to think. "Maybe they are trying to use their magic to taint the food supply? I can't imagine eating zombified beef would be healthy."

(OOC: Does Gaheris recognize the deity the cleric follows?)

[HorizonsDream]

"And I take whatever the lunch special is," Jasmine said thoughtfully. "When did all of this start happening?"

[keymeister16]

Zurgo frowned, scanning over the grocers. "these are the finest apples I've ever seen! with food this plentiful and rich all the malnourished people I've witness seem contradictory in comparison," he ignored her surprise of an orc using words more then two syllables and passed her a silver piece. "i would be grateful for a local voice to shed light on this mystery,"

[Just_Ice]

Ben takes a seat and nods in appreciation before picking up the Slith piece and looking over the engravings, "An agriculture fair, perhaps? Your game intrigues me, if you will tolerate the flailing of a beginner. One such as myself could always use some more friends, after all."

(Slith IV to G5, Archer II to H6, Knight II to G6.)

"Tell me," He says while peering over his first move in concentration, "What sorts of foods do you typically eat, sir?"

[Haahque]

Gaheris (Trevsville Church)
“Well the symptoms are very obviously a form of malnutrition. The affected tire out very quickly, their muscles shrink and their injuries heal very slowly without my aid. They become weaker, moodier and some of them start balding. They also, unsurprisingly, become rather fond of snacking, although that doesn’t seem to help them very much.”

“I have heard of sightings of necromancers in the fields before, but I haven’t heard of any zombie cows. This is indeed worth looking into, I hadn’t noticed anything wrong with the meat from the farmers before, but I’ve usually on seen it in the market or the kitchen, not on the field. If the necromancers have tainted our food supply, I may be able to help them. I should be free this evening, so I’ll visit one of the farmsteads that I heard the necromancers have been in.”

Gaheris donates 6 gold.
Gaheris makes knowledge (religion): 14, pass. The cleric is a follower of Sarenrae, goddess of sun, redemption, honesty and healing.

Jasmine and Kannock (Black Barrel Tavern)
“It’s hard to tell exactly when it started happening, these effects take a few days to become apparent, and just seem to keep getting worse from there. However, I can take a guess and say it’s been happening for two weeks now, give or take a few days. John Smith was the first one we noticed was getting scrawnier and weaker, despite his protests, but when we started noticing the same for many other people, he accepted that he was effected. Now he’s nearly bedridden.”

Soon enough the innkeeper produces a pint of ale for the dwarf and a plate with a piece of stake, some potatoes and green beans for Jasmine. His prices, they note, are on the wall, and the prices he quotes, 6 copper for the lunch and 4 copper for the pint, are the prices that are listed.
They also don’t notice anything wrong with the food, it actually looks rather appetizing, the cooks here must be rather experienced.
“Enjoy your meal, miss.”

Kannock buys a pint of ale for 4 copper.
Jasmine buys a lunch for 6 copper.

Zurgo (Merchant District, Trevsville)
The coin Zurgo hands the lady behind the stall is apparently enough for her to overcome her reservations about his race. “They Mayer and the church have said they don’t know what’s causing the sickness, but I know. It’s a disease sent by the gods to punish the monsters who would kill and eat living creatures. Have you noticed that no vegetarians are effected by the sickness? I don’t think that’s a coincidence.”

Zurgo however does suspect that in a town this size, it’s unlikely that there are more than one, or maybe two vegetarians in the whole village. With a sample size that small, it could indeed easily be a coincidence, even considering that about two thirds of people here seem to be suffering from it in some degree.
Zurgo spends 1 silver for an apple and information.

Benjamin (Black barrel Tavern)
“We must all start sometime. The goal of a beginner should not be to win, but rather to learn how to win, so that he may win future games. A mistake is no flailing, it is a lesson with no teacher. You must therefore be your own teacher, only then can you master hnefatafl.”

The old man reaches forwards and moves three pieces very rapidly. It is likely he has practiced his opening move thoroughly.

“Your move was very safe. Using the Slith for protection while bringing your knight to bear to threaten a large portion of the left side of the map. It however leaves your archer on the side of the board, where it can offer little in terms of control and traps it, preventing it from going anywhere except backwards.”

“My move is a much more aggressive start, wresting control of the center of the board with my own archer and shutting down your knight’s possibilities with my Slith and Dervish. It leaves my archer open for your knight to take it, but if you should do that, I would easily be able to take your knight, and it would be expensive for you, as you would have to use the knight’s ability to double move, which costs an extra action on your next turn as well.”

(Dervish to E4, Slith III to F4, A II to D3)

“I eat good foods, foods that feed your soul as well as your body. Today I am making up a lentil soup for supper, if you would like to partake, I expect I will have too much for myself.”

[keymeister16]

Zurgo bit into his snack. "is that so? thank you, you've been a most wonderful shopkeeper," he turned out of the stall, once he had turned to corner heading back to the other grocer, he casually rolled the apple down an ally. "something tells me I'm not gonna be getting a decent meal here for a while...."

finally he approached his quarry. "shopkeep! What meat do you bring? i have a table of 8 to feed,"