The scribe and the grizzled old warrior had
arrived at the banks of the river, and stood for a moment, looking at the
murky, fast-flowing water.
“Well, it was I-don’t-know how many years ago
that I stood here with the others, peering out over the water just like you and
me are doing now. Mandraiv summoned some
sort of watery creatures – elementals, he called ‘em – to look for a sunk ship
in the river. They didn’t have any
luck. So, we drunk our potions and
figured to do it ourselves. We got in
the water, and found out why they hadn’t spotted anything. That dirty colour goes all the way to the
bottom. The water’s just too darn
filthy. Well, we walked around down
there for a while, and eventually stumbled over a wreck.
It was in two parts, split over a big
rock. We checked out the smaller bit
first. Sure enough, there was something
down there that didn’t like the way we just strolled on it to its new
house. A few eels. Longer than a man, and thicker than a log,
with a nasty bite. Well, we killed
‘em. I took one back, and got the cook
to prepare it later. Damn thing was just
too silty though. Each mouthful just a
little too gritty.”
Gritt paused, and a thoughtful expression
appeared on his face as he digressed, “Figure if you put them in some clear,
clean water, maybe in a tank, and let them swim around for a while, all that
mud and silt’d pass right out of ‘em.”
He shook his head ruefully. “Never had the chance though. Might get around to doing it one of these
days. Reckin’ they’d be good eatin’ with
the right sauce if the mud was all took out of ‘em. Anyway, we went round the other part. First thing we spotted was a shark – a big
one. Well, as soon as it saw us it swam
backwards and hammered its snout onto a cabin door. Weird – looked just like it was knocking on
the door. We cottoned on soon enough
that it was warning something – and sure enough a real ugly looking thing –
with hair like rotten seaweed, scaly scabby skin and a real snuggle-toothed
mouth – came out. Made Sparrowhawk look
almost normal. Someone said it was a
seahag. Don’t know about that – but I do
know it was tough. Thing damn near
killed Watson and Justin with its spear.
Ran Justin all the way through, and almost stabbed one of Watson’s arms
clean off. Later on, we eventually got
them back on their feet – but they were the worse for wear. Watson’s arm and hand were scarred, and he
couldn’t flex his fingers no good no more, while Justin sounded kind of wheezy,
and didn’t look as full of beans as he normally did.
Well, we searched the wreck, and found some
clues alright. There were plenty of
those coffers, some bloated, diseased rats, and a box which had some paperwork
in. There was also a dead body of one of
those doctors that was being employed by the town, with his long-nosed plague
mask still on. Turned out the ship
belonged to Doctor Davalus. Well, just
like we’d all figured, he was up to his neck in it. The question was – who was behind him? Was it the queen? Mandraiv swore it was, but it still just
seemed to stink of a set up. Anyway,
there was nothing there suggesting it was from Cheliax, so I put that theory on
hold for a while.
Still, we’d need to get to the bottom of it,
so we headed off to the hospice where the Doctor and his minions were working. We had a good talk about whether we were
going to let anyone know. I thought I
should tell Sabina – she deserved to know about it for sure – but it’d be too
risky – for her as well as us – if anyone found out. We also figured there weren’t any point in
telling Kroft. She was giving money to
take care of her problems – not bring her new ones.
We got to the
hospice and bluffed our way in. It was a
real sad sight. Pallets with
plague-struck people just lying there groaning and moaning. Seeing those so-called doctors walking around
made me pretty furious. But, even before
I could say anything, Sparrowhawk started the fight. There were a few grey maidens, they were
pretty tough, as well as those doctors, who were all wielding huge
war-razors. Turned out they were all
alchemists, as they were downing potions whenever they got the chance. It was a good fight, but there was one moment
which stuck in my mind. The
receptionist, a doughty woman, came in while the fight was going on and started
hitting Sparrowhawk with a sap. Kinda
looked like she thought that they were real doctors, and we were the bad guys,
and she was just trying to stop us from doing evil. Anyway, she was really hurtin’ Sparrowhawk
with that sap, so Sparrowhawk shot her with the bow. It went straight through her heart and she
dropped to the ground in an instant. The
look on Sparrowhawk’s face has stuck with me.
She looked shocked alright, but then it was a mixture of regret and
satisfaction – the two emotions fighting with each other. Figured it wouldn’t be the last time I’d see
that expression on the face of one of my companions, and I was right.
Well, Davalus was nowhere to be found on the
ground floor, so we headed upstairs.
There were some more of those maidens and fake doctors, but we took care
of them. Then the doctor came out. He was another tough one, but he concentrated
on Sol. Sol was acting a little funny
that fight, actually. Usually he’s quiet
and inoffensive, just goes around helping us out and giving us blessings. This time though, it was like Davalus someone
had really rattled his cage, or got on his goat. He kept telling Davalus that he was cursed in
the name of the gods. Didn’t mention
Abadar much – but went through a bunch of gos including Shelyn and Sarenrae,
like he was trying out how their names sounded rolling off his tongue… Looked like he was hacving second thoughts
about the his faith. Made sense
though. He’d always been too good for
the Abadar church. Tuttle and the rest
of them just seemed interested in money, while Sol actually wanted to help
people. Anyway, Davalus was taken down,
but he kept proclaiming his innocence to the end. Don’t know whether he was mad or not, but
didn’t make a difference.
We almost had a chance to capture one of the
Doctors, but he just kilt hisself and cursed us to Urgathoa. Half the fight had
taken place in a room full of Varisians strapped to beds. Looked like they’d been tortured and
experimented on, and weren’t in good shape.
After the fight, Justin said something that baffled me then, and still
don’t make sense. Said it would be evil
to release them. Said they were our
responsibility, and whatever happened to them once we let them go would be on
our hands. Don’t see that that’s
right. It ain’t right to deny someone
the choice as to how they live their lives.
They weren’t crazy, and we told them what was going on. Leaving them strapped there would just be
wrong. Sometimes Justin looks at the
world in a real strange way. Maybe its
his Shoanti upbringing.
Well, we had a good look around the top of
the hospice, but there wasn’t anything incriminating. Mandraiv said if we used a strange lever that
Davalus had been carrying, it would take us down the lift into the hidden
temple of Urgathoa. He said it like it
was real obvious.
.Mandraiv’s a real smart one, even if he is a
little cold. He said we should leave
those Varisians strapped up in case any of them warned the guards. Well, he had more of a point than Justin, but
Sol and Watson weren’t having any of it, and the Varisians got released.
Anyway, we had a tough decision to make. Would we keep on going, beat up as we were,
or would we rest, and come back fresh.
We decided to keep going. Didn’t
want to give whoever was down there the chance to slip away.
Well, sure enough, Mandraiv was right about
the temple. We went down the lift and
found a temple of Urgathoa. The place
was crawling with doctors, skeletons, and priests to Urgathoa. It was real creepy down there. There was one room where the walls and floor
were glass, and there were diseased and groaning bodies moving around
underneath it. Well, it was evidence
alright. We took care of plenty of the
minions, but then Watson’s old master, Fyffe, got hisself into the fight. He hit me with some kind of gross tentacle
growing out of his shoulder. Well, I don’t
know what kind of poison that thing was oozing, but things got kind of woozy,
then the last thing I remember is falling to the floor with him laughing. Turned out it was the same poison that Watson
had been hit with when we fought Fyffe’s other apprentice.
Found out what happened in the fight
later. The team had picked off a few
more of the minions, but had retreated, thankfully with Watson carrying me, and
gone back up the lift, to decide what to do next.
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