WG - The Mystery of the Poisoned Healer Options

[Grits]

(Continued from approximately here.)



Abiene in Chorrol

Eyja explained what would be needed for a complete recovery. “For the amount of metal you've been exposed to, you may need to keep taking it several times daily for at least a week, and do a restorative healing on yourself several times per day as well. The raw ingredients work better and quicker if you can stand the bitter taste. The potions are flavored, but are much weaker.”

Abiene started to reply. “I can stand the taste, but I’m sure an alchemist will be better able to…” Several times per day? She pressed her fingers against her face again, fighting down that frantic feeling. “I have patients to tend! I won’t be able to— I’m already taking far too many magicka potions just to keep up my workload. There’s nothing for it, I’ll have to ask for a leave of absence from the chapel.” She clenched her fists on her knees, anger creeping up through her fear. “Darn whoever did this!”

Eyja handed Abiene a list of ingredients. “Expect to be near an urn for a while,” she told Abiene. Then Eyja tucked her materials away.

Great, thought Abiene. I’m not going to go through a week of purging on the pot in my chapel quarters. She put that concern away for now and looked at the list.

Garlic
Sunflower seeds
Pumpkin seeds
Flax seed oil
Corkbulb root
Netch Leather
Scrib Jelly
Scamp skin
Kwama cuttle
Ash yam
The juice of a lemon
Dried seaweed
Charcoal

“Abiene, I need you to remember exactly how long you were at the inn, who you saw there, who brought you that tea, and if it was the same person you ordered it from,” said Eyja.

Abiene tried to clear her thoughts. “I reached the inn after dark and spent the night. There was a commotion when Irvana arrived with talk of vampires, and I ended up healing her in her chamber. I had a glass of Tamika’s last night with the stuffed mushrooms, plus a cheese plate with strawberries. This morning I ate a sweet roll and drank some kahve at the bar. A Dunmer woman was there, I didn’t catch her name. She was another guest. Lycus was sitting there, too. Yetta the cook and Lleris the hallboy were serving, but I got my breakfast from what was already set out on the bar. Bograk and Aravi were there, too. Oh, and I believe Kayla headed upstairs around the time I came down with Aravi. Honestly Eyja, I’m probably forgetting someone. I’ve been told to improve my situational awareness, but I’m not really sure what that even means.”

She hoped Eyja wasn’t too disgusted with her lack of information. She had not been paying attention at the inn because she had not been up to anything she felt she needed to hide. And Aravi’s troubles had been foremost in her mind.

“Then I got some tea from Yetta and went outside. I spoke with Dar’muktah and watched Lowren and the Argonian man cleaning up after the storm. Then I met Maxical. We sat on the bench chatting for a while. We have some mutual friends.” What happened next? “I must have been in a fog, because I can’t say how long we sat there or even what we talked about. I don’t really remember getting my things from the inn, but I must have.”

Abiene looked at the list again. “I can pick up a few of these things today at the chapel. Master Selvilo might have some of them, he’s a Dunmer. I can’t imagine why he would have netch leather, though. I’ll need to pick up my crystal ball so I can try to reach Darnand. He’ll know where Jerric is. That’s the alchemist.” She shook her head. “I hate to involve them in this.”

Abiene’s mouth went dry and her heart began to race. Perhaps that’s still the poison, she thought, gripping the bench’s edge.

.

This post has been edited by Grits: Aug 24 2013, 04:01 PM

[mALX]

*

Eyja:

Eyja nodded mutely at Seth's plan. It did make sense to check the closest Ayleid site first.

Seth swung his horse to the northeast, climbing the hill on a diagonal to meet the road heading north.

Eyja strained her eyes staring to the northwest, but other than a few deer crossing the high fields in graceful bounding leaps there was no signs of movement as far as she could see.

She didn't have to signal Sapphire to turn, the mare automatically followed the large black stud Seth was mounted on, scrambling up the hill with a faster gait to meet his horse's long strides.

Seth spotted the white Ayleid arches through the trees and pointed them out to Eyja while he scanned the structure for a path up to it. The only path going up was slick looking slabs of a marble-like rock gleaming so brightly in the sunlight that it was almost blinding to look at them. Eyja shaded her eyes and let Sapphire have her head to follow Seth’s horse through the thick brush to the lower set of arches.

It was easier to see the structure now, just an entry into an underground cavern in the facing of the mountain. Had it not been for the reflection off the slabs and arches it would have been impossible to see it through the woods.

Seth dismounted and began preparing his weapons for quick and easy access, which took nothing at all; he merely touched each as if checking off a list of preparations in his mind.

Eyja dismounted and did the same, making sure she knew the position of every weapon and shield, potions and spell before setting out behind him.

Seth put his arm out to stop Eyja walking, pointing at an enormous footprint in the dirt, then another in a measured distance from the first. They were going in the direction of the Ayleid ruin. She didn’t need to hear Seth’s whisper of “The Orc” to realize who had made them.

As if on signal both Seth and Eyja reached for their poisons and began tainting several weapons in readiness, both moved to opposite sides of the slick marble and began closing in on the entry with weapons drawn and squatted low to the ground to make smaller targets if someone did exit while they were approaching.




***


Seth signaled Eyja to stay hidden beside the entry while he circled the structure to ensure no guards were hidden on the hill above it.

When he returned he faced the entry itself, scanning every discrepancy in the pattern carefully. He indicated the slightest darkening of the marble in one section and whispered so quietly that Eyja wasn‘t sure she‘d even heard it.

“See that discoloration? That’s from the oils in men’s hands.” He began feeling around that section of the entry; barely making a sound when he found what he was looking for.

“Found it, a hidden spring.”

There was only a quiet ’click’ sound; the stone slab’s spring gave quickly at Seth’s touch, as if it had been kept well oiled and in good working condition. Whether the Orc was still there or not, this ruin was not going to be empty inside.

The slab itself made a tremendously loud grating racket on sliding open, whoever was inside had to hear it. Still, it slid easily, as if the track had been kept well soaped. The slab must weigh enormously by the sound of it in movement.

Eyja had a minute fear of being sealed inside a tomb as the door grated closed automatically behind them.

“Maybe we should find the spring to open it from this side now, before we need it in a hurry to leave here.” Eyja whispered, trying ot see any pattern or design on the inside of the door in the darkness.

Her voice echoed eerily off the curved marble of the walls, carrying well down the corridor before them. Sound carried too well in this place, they would be lucky if the whole population inside wasn’t charging up the corridor in seconds of her speaking. Then again, they’d hear enemies coming too.

Mold covered the walls, the door; everything. There was no way to see discolorations from sweaty hands; especially in the darkness of the place.

Eyja forced herself not to cast a spell for night vision, though as pitch dark as it was she wanted to. It wasn’t just not wanting to make another sound and draw attention to their presence; she didn’t want to use up her magicka in case the enemies in this place outnumbered them and charged.

As if reading her mind, Seth pulled a small vial from a belt covered in tiny pockets; each just large enough to hold one vial of potion. He took a sip and passed it to Eyja without a word. She breathed in relief, it was night vision. He found the spring quickly and then began creeping down the long corridor.





***


Eyja followed Seth, as soundless as he was moving down numerous flights of slippery moldy steps before a central corridor led them to a huge greatroom.

Seth blocked Eyja from sliding into the room, then carefully moved to one side and pointed; first at the floor, then at the ceiling.

“Traps.” His whisper didn’t echo; Eyja didn‘t know if that was due to the larger room that absorbed the sound or if he was more adept at whispering than she was.

He took another sip from the vial and handed it to her again. Eyja took a swig from the vial and handed it back while Seth glanced over the room quickly from his squatted position beside the corridor.

Seth tapped Eyja's shoulder and pointed, sighting down his arm, then moved his head slightly as if signaling Eyja to sight down his arm. She leaned in closely and followed where his finger pointed.

“Fresh blood, recent.” He whispered; then pointed to a small cubicle on the left where a pillar was topped by a set of empty prongs. He moved his arm over and pointed to the opposite cubicle, set up exactly the same; but that pillar held a Welkynd Stone in the prongs.

“They’ve got the stone. The Orc’s footsteps were the only one’s outside; they must be meeting him wherever they are going.”

Eyja nodded, whispering back. “He can’t be that far ahead of us if the blood wasn’t dried.” Her whisper echoed eerily in the huge chamber.

“If the blood was his.” Seth‘s whisper didn‘t disturb the silence of the place, how did he do that?




***



“So we only need to track the Orc to find them, right?“ Her whisper echoed across the room like the hissing of a snake, she heard it reverberating down the row of cubicles and nearly jumped out of her skin when a loud voice responded.

“By Ysmir's beard, we've got ourselves a live one!”

Eyja’s head spun from Seth’s face to the end of the huge greatroom where a muscularly built Redguard woman was reaching onto her back. Eyja hoped it wasn’t going to come back with a bow in it.

Seth was on his feet with his bow out before the woman had finished speaking. The Redguard woman’s arm swung back over her head with a wicked looking throwing hatchet in her hands; the bronze color making it recognizable as Dwarven.

She couldn’t possibly have the strength to throw it this far, so Seth’s weapon was the only valid one in the fight. Seth was backing away, moving toward the corridor and signaling Eyja with a jerk of his head to get into the corridor first so he could cover her escape.

Eyja stood up to obey him, backing to the corridor as well with a poisoned throwing dagger ready in her hand.

As she moved into the corridor Eyja shot the woman a universal signal for what she could do with her threat, then kissed her hand and rubbed it on her rump. She blew her hand toward the woman, enraging her.

"If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get!" She swung her arm back, moving forward and keeping her eyes on Seth.

Eyja turned and moved quickly down the corridor while Seth stayed in position, his bow nocked with an arrow and holding a dead aim at the woman’s chest. The woman could obviously see them clearly by her following of their movements, she must be using night vision as well.

Eyja stuck out her tongue and made another motion with her hand, even ruder than the last one.

"I'll send your bloody soul straight to Sovngarde! Uraaagh!" She was already in motion toward them.

Seth made a low grunt Eyja correctly interpreted to mean "get moving." Eyja obeyed him quickly, hurrying down the corridor and up the flight of stairs they had just descended.

As Seth barreled down the corridor toward her, an arrow still nocked and his bowstring still taut they heard it; the sound of a huge slab moving at tremendous speed and slamming against the ceiling.

The whole building shook with the force of it. They heard the Redguard woman’s scream break off into a gurgle.

Seth passed Eyja at the door, automatically reaching for the spring that set the stone slab sliding open. He pushed Eyja through first, then stepped out behind her into the blinding sunshine just before the slab grated shut.


*


OOC: I think I had too much coffee in my system, what the hell did I do? I blame Folgers for fueling me up too much. Blackie said it was okay, so go ahead and post if you are ready, Grits - sorry about this.



*





This post has been edited by mALX: Jul 31 2013, 10:31 PM