Day 5: Poison in the Water

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Dwa 16th, 4288: 5 Days in the Mortal Realm

Cortanna returned to us this morning and brought gifts from the mourning Ms. Hill. The gifts were more than generous considering the bad news that wad delivered. However I couldn’t help but feel a sense of gratitude for having received some family heirlooms and a handsome sum of money for our worldly needs.

The heirlooms consisted of a ring, a mythril shirt, a weapon handle that morphed into any weapon (that had a handle), a cloak of invisibility, and a circlet. It became apparent that each of the items were quite powerful in their own way. They would become stronger over time. I was able to secure the weapon handlefor myself. The halberd was a favored weapon among the Angelic, it being so versatile. As I experimented with it, it was no surprise what I summoned first. from the handle. The halberd obviously was masterwork and felt incredible. The power it could have was exciting to think about, but for now it would do as a great piece of weaponry.

I must say, reflecting on how easily we divided up the gifts from Ms. Hill, I'm impressed that no dispute broke out considering we were strangers to each other. Anyways, not long after going through the heirlooms, we were interrupted by a knock at the door. Isaac answered it only to back up and say to me, “your brother is here.” 
Confused, I peered out the door and saw another Angelic standing in the doorway. He clearly wasn't an Angelic of Heironious nor was there any resemblance of a fallen state.  
"That's not my brother," I corrected. In fact, it was just my sister, Meryth, and myself that my parents had. I then asked the Angelic what it was he needed. He introduced himself as Gideon and that he was sent to fetch Isaac for an urgent problem in town. We asked what had happened and were informed that the water for the city was now poisoned and town folk were dying. Immediately we departed with Isaac to see what could be done.

The town square had visibly shifted. What was a typical, small town milling about with their daily activities yesterday, was suddenly a frenzy of townsfolk zipping about striving to keep up with the demands of those poisoned. One of the few Clerics who saw us arrive, approached Isaac. He was elated he had come and enthused he already had helpers to assist him. He instructed us to go examine the main water source that Duke Lupik had made for their town. If we could find the poison source and bring back a sample, then he would make an antidote.

We were quick to get going, heading through the forest. We had been informed that the aqueduct Duke Lupik made was a huge help to Podunk (that's the name of the town). Before hand they would send people out to fetch the water from the river (a good hour travel one way) but it would take some of them days to get back. No one ever investigated it, but we figured out the likely culprit to those delays.

First we came upon a giant spider’s nest. There were a couple of ‘small’ intelligent spiders crawling about. Isaac and Cortanna entered the nest and spoke to the spiders for a moment. It seemed as though the spiders would be friendly, but suddenly two of them sprayed their webbing on Isaac and Cortanna. I retaliated by sending a fire bolt at the nearest one. It was killed by the blast, sending the others scurrying up the tree cursing us. I had a sinking feeling that this would literally come back to bite us in the butt.

We continued to move on only to stumble upon some Griggs. I groaned inside as I recalled how those little fairy like creatures had an insatiable need to dance. Because of their compulsion to dance, we were subjected to dancing with them multiple times. After the third dance session we began to try and explain our purpose with being in the woods. We told them how we needed to get to the river to examine it for poison. The Griggs were more than eager to help us get there. Most of us were swooped up and carried in the direction of the water. I did my best to run along with then, worried that the little guys might have had some ulterior motives. After a few minutes of running I tired and allowed the Griggs to carry me.

The tiny creatures got us to the river and after another dance session we were on our way. We noticed some Mer folk in the water and saw that some of them weren’t looking so good. We tried talking with them. At first they are very reserved and uninterested in our being there, but after we explained that we were trying to fix the problem they inform us that the Podunk guards had come down and dinked around the aqueduct and released the beast. They wouldn't describe the beast for us, but they were clearly terrified of it.

They guided us to the aqueduct and left us to go in on our own. Inside the tunnel of the aquatic we came to a grate. Thoughts of picking the lock weren't brought up due to Billy. The kid walked right up to the door of the grate and ripped it off it's hinges. makes easy work of opening it.
We explored a little further when suddenly the ledge beneath my feet gave way, crumbling to the water below. Billy ended up falling in, seeming to not have noticed me jerk back. He quickly climbed back up onto our side. Clearly not the brightest, but whatever. I used my magic handle to extend into a Halberd. I then tapped the other side to see if it was stable. For what I could tell, it was solid. We all jumped over with ease, the ledge holding strong. We continued on along the path coming to more spots that gave way. 
At one point Rekka fell in and it was then that we realize the water was acidic. Rekka screamed out in pain as she scrambled up the other side. We looked at her feet and could see her feet blistering from the acid burns. Quickly we cleaned her feet off the best we could with the water we had. Once she was taken care of and able to move along, we continued on to a second gate. Once more Billy forced the door open and we went through.

We had barely cleared the gate when a small, black colored dragon appeared. The vicious thing began to attack us, spitting it’s acid like breath in our direction. The dragon must have been just a wormling for we were able to take it down in a matter of minutes. Billy, oddly enough, devoured the dragon... and picked up some of the dragon qualities with that. They're gone now, but for about an hour he had scaly skin that resembled the dragon he ate.

The nest was typical of a dragon; various treasures were in the nest we found. After collecting some of the acid the dragon spewed at us, we returned back to town in record time thanks to the Griggs carrying us. We went to the head Cleric and give him the sample of the poison. He was ever thankful and for a moment we could enjoy a spell of rest.

I'm staying with Cortanna tonight at her place while Rekka stays the night with Isaac. Jessica and Gideon are at the tavern Jessica owns. It is a curious party I’ve stumbled upon, but it sure does feel good helping these people.

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