Open Chronicles A Sample from the Past

[Tera Lynx]

A plague doctor she was not. But she was a doctor, and it was a plague that she was currently testing in her bottles and test tubes. The castle keep where they were treating the plague was spacious yet secure, making it easier to quarantine the sick away from the guardsmen and those who weren't yet sick.
She scrawled in her notebook her observations on the plague.

"Beginning Symptoms:

• Fatigue.
• Coughing and Vomiting from black substance in stomach or lungs.
• Fever.
• Delirium.

Advanced Symptoms:

• Fatigue.
• Coughing and Vomiting from black substance in stomach or lungs.
• Black Skin Discoloration, vestigial growths.
• Fever.
• Delirium.
• Paranoia.
• Amnesia."

For weeks these people of the village of Rains Bow have been suffering from this unknown plague. The lord of the village had moved the sick into his keep for treatment and hired the best doctors he could contact. The horrendous sight that greeted anyone who saw the infirmary was... Heartbreaking, to say the least.
Very few villagers remained unafflicted and those in the infirmary were being tended by those who weren't AS sick as the others. The sick were in various stages of the plague which Tera had identified as the beginning symptoms and the advanced symptoms.

She examined the black bile substance in the glass bottle. The bottle was enchanted with a seal to protect against the corrosive nature of the bile that had threatened to eat through the glass itself upon initial examination.
She watched as the bile undulated and quivered inside the glass prison.
She had attempted introducing several different medicines, herbs and cures trying to find something that would have an effect on it. but every time she gave it something it only grew.

She recorded in her notebook.
"Sometimes I feel like I'm treating the plague itself, giving it medicine as if it were sick to make it strong and healthy, at least that's how it acts every time I introduce anything to it, just eats it up and reproduces. Now I'm keeping it contained without any host or any substance to feed on, observing its reaction to starvation like the parasite it's certainly proving to be."
She sighed and rubbed her temples, laying down her quill before resting on the table to watch the offensive black substance act like a living breathing creature in liquid form.
This was the black bile substance that the victims of the plague either coughed up or vomited, both together in the advanced symptoms, indicating that it could attack both the stomach and the lungs.
She gave the glass a tap and the bile reacted with a vibrating quiver.
All she could do was shake her head, this thing was mystifying... But she wouldn't stop till she found a cure.

... Wait... The bottle used to be more full than that...

She bent down to examine the bile again... Yes! There was a noticeably lower level of the bile sitting in the bottle, it was dying!
She quickly began writing this in her notebook.
"The plague is a fluid based parasite. When deprived of a host and sustenance it begins to attack itself and dissipate. This is a breakthrough!"
She stopped her quill and came down from her excitement.
"However, this means nothing for those who are still host to the parasite. Will require further testing and observation to come up with a solution."
She set down her quill and sighed, it was exciting to learn something new about it, but she couldn't have her sample die just yet.
She popped the lid off the bottle, dropped in a peanut from her lunch, and put the lid back on. Within minutes the peanut was dissolved and the bile was healthy looking once more... in it's own sick way.

 

[Asa Renwyk]

A plague doctor he was. As well as an alchemist and experienced hand at these sort of outbreaks. News of such events always found their way to him and he always seemed to conveniently be close enough to respond to them in a timely manner. Great news for the sick. Great news for his mother.

Dressed up in his plague attire, the man sauntered through the village. No one in sight. Judging from the lack of the dead being piled up in the streets or corpse wagons meant the sick were not being infirmed in their own homes. Perhaps the keep standing tall over them all? The best likely place to take them in their wished to contain the disease.

Caw.

"No."

Caw!

"I said no. We are here to save no to feast. Control yourself mother. You are being unseemly."

A raven perched on his shoulder ruffled her feathers and dramatically looked away from the strangely dressed man.

Asa continued on his way up to the keep's gate. Once there he picked up his cane. Knock. Knock. Knock. Loud three times a tap then he let his tool slide down his hand back to the ground. He waited a moment before deciding it was best to yell. No doubt the residence were far too distracted with their ailing neighbors.

"Would you be so kind as to let me in? Your plague doctor has arrived."

Spoiler: Outfit

Tera Lynx

 

[Tera Lynx]

She had to find a way to treat the virus inside the body. Simply starving it out was impossible since it fed on its host for a, so far, indeterminate time period... The lack of dead related to the plague was a mixed blessing, the loss of life was always tragic but they also had no idea when the virus will have finished all of its stages. They had no idea how far the parasite would go until it kills the host.
She wrote in her notebook, "We don't know how the virus ends, the answer to that question remains in the future... But we can still discover the beginning, the source of our troubles and how it's being spread around..."
She adjusted her glasses on the bridge of her nose and scratched her head.
"Perhaps the source can provide some answers to the cure..."

____________________________​

Upon hearing his knocking and shouting the gate watchman peered down from his guardhouse high upon the castle walls.
He gave the doctor a wave and disappeared inside. After going and confirming with the captain the gates opened thirty minutes later.
Another guard was there inside to escort him, a middle aged man with a drooping mustache.
"The captain said you're expected. We're keeping every patient we can find in quarantine here in the keep while the doctor tries to find a cure... Gotta tell ya, never seen anything like it. Would you like to see the infirmary or the doctor first? She said she's a vrirolo-somethingoranother. Good with stuff like this... I sure hope so."

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

"Man, is this really the right place? Looks almost deserted. Maybe I was supposed to turn left at that gnoll camp..."

A lone figure wrapped in an old duster coat travelled independently towards the town, seemingly totally unaware of the danger he was headed towards. His hand was buried in a head of fiery red hair, and his gaze fixed confusedly at a scrap of paper clutched tightly between his fingers. It was a map, albeit a crudely drawn one. A black tabby cat lay lazily across his shoulders, peering down at the paper with him.

Cassidy Ackerson didn't look a gift horse in the mouth when it came to work. When most of your jobs involved throwing yourself into danger for the sake of somebody else, a simple 'go here and find this' assignment sounded like it'd be a nice change of pace. Even if things went south, as long as he had Damascus at his side he wasn't particularly worried about his safety.

He bit his bottom lip as the town of Rains Bow came further and further into view. No, it wasn't totally empty, as it had looked initially, but what he saw instead worried him even more. It looked like they had the village lord's keep on total lockdown to keep people out of the damned place, and he counted a few guards circling it's base, and a suspicious lack of actual townspeople on the streets. No doubt there were more guardsmen waiting in the towers as well

Ackerson feels a rather annoyed grumble bubble up from his throat, and the feline on his shoulder nuzzles his cheek in response, as if trying to assuage his worries. "This smells. The reward is pretty big, but I don't know if I like the odds of me cutting through all of that. I mean, it's possible with Damascus, but even with him at my side those are some slim odds. Who's this Ms. Lynx that she's so damned important?"

The questions lingered on, and while he made it into town well enough, it was clear he wasn't getting access to that Keep. Just as he arrived, the guards were ushering in a man in a black, grubby looking outfit. He couldn't see if from the front, but it seemed odd enough to note...

Now, how to get inside?

Tera Lynx
Asa Renwyk

 

[Tera Lynx]

She wished that she could have the lord send some guards out to sweep the village and surrounding countryside for the source of the plague, there had to be an infection or a point of pollution somewhere that could give them some answers, but this wasn't a military holding and all the guards were dedicated to maintaining the quarantine or herding the sick into the keep. Not a large force.

___________________________​

Outside the guards were leading some villagers exhibiting beginning symptoms of the plague, coughing as they staggered along.
The gates opened to let the guards and sick people inside.

 

[Asa Renwyk]

The guards were moving rather slowly in response to his presence at the gate. The sickness must be worse than he suspected if they were already stretched this thin. The aid of a plague doctor was long overdo already. Asa should have felt bad for them, but he didn't. He was feeling rather neutral right now. Well perhaps not neutral. He was feeling a bit frustrated. Swiftness was critical and it was currently lacking. As a doctor this concerned him as it shrank the chance of survival for his soon-to-be patients.

Finally after half an hour of waiting, he was let in. The man at the gate informed him that there was already another doctor present. Excellent. The number of deaths was going to be lower than expected. A good outcome for the community.

"Take me to the doctor. Information is vital. Swiftly now. Time is our foe." Asa said as he entered the keep and already was moving ahead of the guard. If they were not quick enough he fully planned to leave them behind and just get the directions he needed from others as he went.

Tera Lynx Cassidy Ackerson

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

Street patrol had to be the most boring post a poor bastard could be stuck with. At least, that's the thought that was going through the head of Wilhelm Dacott, a newbie to the guard rankings and fresh off of his training. The plague was bad enough: People dropping down like flies, the keep on total lockdown full of the sickly? It wasn't in his job description. That wasn't enough though, they had to make him prance around as though he wasn't scared to death of catching whatever the hells was going around. Nonsense, the lot of it. It's not as if there was anything to find, anyways; nobody was outside in these conditions!

Still, he went along his duties. He did em' damn diligently too, at least until he turned a corner into the alley between the tavern and the inn and got clubbed in the back of the head. Concussions tended to complicate one's ability to work, after all.

Cassidy dusted his hands off, whistling at his handiwork. "Sorry brother, I have a date in that keep and I don't intend to miss it." Squatting down, he scoops the snoozing guard into his arms and takes off in a sprint towards the gates of the keep. His furry friend follows after him, mewling playfully. God, he'd rather be anywhere than in some podunk village with a sweaty dude in his arms. Maybe back at that tavern in Allira, shacked up with that bard woman. 'Course, she'd ended up stealing his coin while he snoozed... Bah, worth it.

Arriving at the gate, he looked around for the guards, shouting out to get their attention to the best of his ability. "Help! This man's collapsed! I think he might be sick, or hurt! He needs a doctor!" With a little luck, they'd let him in. If not, he could always fight his way in. Not preferred, but an option nonetheless. He only hoped he could get in and out before whatever was happening in this cursed place caught up to him.

Tera Lynx Asa Renwyk

 

[Tera Lynx]

"Take me to the doctor. Information is vital. Swiftly now. Time is our foe."

The guard kept up and led him through the keep. They went through the courtyard first before entering the keep itself, then there was a maze of halls, they passed through the feasting hall that was set up to receive patients though thankfully there wasn't such an overflow yet. Tera had a study set up for her in the guest wing where she could run her tests separate from the patients.
The guard knocked on the door before opening it, "Doctor Lynx, this man say's he's a doctor as well and he wanted to see you first..."

Tera looked up from the bottle of black writhing fluid. She glanced the man up and down taking in his outfit which she might have actually called a uniform when she recognized his mask. "Oh good! it was getting crowded in here with my own thoughts."
She waved the guard off as she stood up and approached the plague doctor. "Thank you for bringing him, I can definitely use a second opinion here... I'm Tera Lynx, a Virologist and a doctor."

___________________________________​

"Help! This man's collapsed! I think he might be sick, or hurt! He needs a doctor!"

The gates opened readily enough. There was another guard there when they entered with a scarf over his mouth and nose, "Damnit, you shouldn't have touched him if he's got the plague! Come on, let's get him to the infirmary."
The guard didn't opt to help Cassidy carry the unconscious guard, but led him through the keep to the infirmary...

The sight that greeted them was like an eldritch horror...
Patients filled nearly all of the beds, everyone was coughing or vomiting up some black substance, towels and buckets were stained black with the bile. A few nurses tended to them, those that were still able to do so, even they were showing mild symptoms of the plague.
Upon closer inspection some of the patients were exhibiting black stains on their skin where they had coughed or vomited and these stains refused to come out.

The guard remained at the door but handed him a scarf to cover his face and pointed to a bed where Cassidy could place the guard.

 

[Asa Renwyk]

The veteran on the war against all things plague kept his eye open as he followed the guard towards the doctor. Mental notes were taken of the condition the various sick were in. Of note were the stains. Those were not so common. Boils, cysts, and discoloring from necrosis, rashes, or bruising of the skin were very common. Staining like that from patients' own vomit was not. A most curious thing.

Soon enough he was brought into the study and his presence was announced to the doctor. The doctor happened to be a rather young woman, but what human woman wouldn't be compared to his own age? While he might normally take over immediately when he arrived, this time he actually walked over and extended his hand in greetings. A village healer dependent on unknown knowledge of local herbs needed to be relieved and a trained professional take over for the research, but a proper doctor with a makeshift lab already set up should not be disturbed. Something vital might be missed.

Asa said in a professional tone as he waited to see if she would take his hand or not, "Master Asa Renwyk of Elbion. Occasional professor of alchemy, medicine, bone-setting, and all none magic healing arts. Also a traveling doctor experienced with plagues. You may call me what you wish."

After she either took his hand or not he would pause a moment to look her study over once more.

"What all symptoms have the patients shown? How long have their maladies been in effect? And please tell me you have a sample already of that gods awful black vomit staining their skins."

Tera Lynx Cassidy Ackerson

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

Cassidy was less than enthralled with the sight that waited for him inside the keep. The infirmary looked like it was more or less on the verge of becoming a morgue. Black goop and stains, vomit everywhere. Yuck. He was glad this poor sucker wasn't really infected, but maybe it was cruelty to leave him here. He was more than likely to catch whatever this bug was if Cassidy laid him on that bed. Still, he flashes the guard a smile in thanks for the scarf, setting his unwilling partner in crime on the bed for a moment to wrap it around his face.

Mar was quick to pop out of his collar to inspect the garment, mewling softly at the unfamiliar scent on it. Ackerson's lips curled into an amused smile as he pats the furball's head. "Not right now, go back to sleep."

His feline companion stuffing herself back into his jacket pocket, he turns his attention back to where he'd entered the infirmary. The guard was gone; either he'd figured Cass would show himself out, or something else had come up. Either way, this was his chance to find Lynx. He takes a step towards the door before stopping, swiveling to look at the guard he'd knocked out...

"Gah, you're lucky I'm such a swell guy."

He waited until the few nurses in the room were distracted; it wasn't hard. They barely seemed to be awake and functioning with how overworked this situation had made them. He reached out, grabbing onto the poor bastard and hoisting him up onto his shoulders. Leaving the infirmary, he lowered the man's body to the floor by the entrance of the Keep. He was an awful lot less likely to catch the bug here, although Cassidy knew it wasn't a sure thing.

Now, where was this girl?

He set off on his way down a random hallway off to the side of the infirmary door. She had to be in here somewhere, and there were only so many places to be. Ducking and sneaking behind furniture and shadows wasn't ideal; he wasn't the sneaky type. It didn't end up being too difficult to avoid the guards attention though. Just like the nurses, they were overworked due to the plague, their senses dulled and their eyelids heavy.

"...can definitely use a second opinion here... I'm Tera Lynx, a Virologist and a doctor."

He came to a full stop as he heard the voice, faint behind a door on the other side of the long hallway he was in. Finally, a break. He waited until the soldier who'd presumably brought the man in black from before decided to return to his post, and cracked the door to the study open gently, peering into the room.

"What all symptoms have the patients shown? How long have their maladies been in effect? And please..."

There she was, standing with that black garbed weirdo he'd seen head inside earlier. They were both doctors, then... Well, that explained why he'd been sent over here in the first place. Virologists were few and far between, hard enough to get a good education in Arethil, let alone a higher one.

Damned if he didn't realize Virologists could be such lookers too...

He was perhaps distracted enough to do a poor job of hiding himself, especially with the vibrant color of his hair peeking through the crack of the door.

Tera Lynx
Asa Renwyk

 

[Tera Lynx]

That was a name she wasn't familiar with but might have heard in passing... Perhaps his name might have been dropped when she was in school?

He offered his hand in greeting as he introduced himself, and even though it was likely safe she didn't dare to touch him, instead she folded her hands in front of her lap and gave him a respectful and apologetic bow.
"Master Renwyk, it's a pleasure to meet you, under the circumstances. I do hope that you can provide some more insight with your greater experience."
She moved to her desk and picked up her notebook to read out of it and summarize her thoughts.
"Their symptoms are progressive, Master Renwyk. We've... I've been able to observe beginning symptoms as either a light cough or slight nausea. Indicating the virus has no preference between lungs or intestines. The cough gradually gets worse and the nausea advances to vomiting."
She hands him her notebook to see her listed symptoms for himself.

"Over the course of a week the patient is bedridden with worsening cough or vomiting, in and out of consciousness and exhibiting extreme levels of exhaustion from near constant expulsions. The black substance they expell doesn't begin to stain the skin till the second week, but by the middle of the second week they seem to fall into a coma, all coughing and vomiting cease and the black stains spread to cover eighty percent of the body before they start growing vestigial appendages or hardening to a tough shell like hide."
She picked up the glass jar with the bile sealed inside.
"This is one sample of their bile, upon a quick comparison it's the same substance that has invaded their bodies. It shows parasitic traits with an ability to consume nearly anything but magical or enchanted objects like this seal. It's viral and can spread via sporing the air or skin contact, as far as I can tell."

She was facing that direction but she still almost missed the flash of red hair. She blinked and looked again, somebody was at the door.
"Who's there, can I help you?"

 

[Asa Renwyk]

The symptoms of this plague was odd. The longer he listened the odder it all became. Coughing or vomiting? No black stains till the second week? A coma? And all of it followed up by growths. Certainly not normal, especially if they require enchanted containers. A most odd contagion.

As the young woman ran him through it all, Asa was idly observing the jars in the office. Eventually she picked one up and showed it to him more directly. The mode of contamination seemed peculiar. Spores or skin contact? Not how plagues tended to work. Her mention of parasitic traits seemed to be the key observation shared so far.

While Tera Lynx confronted Cassidy Ackerson (he had noticed the intrusion but deemed it irrelevant to the current circumstances), Asa was busy idly tilting the jar around to watch how the substance within reacted. Did it seem more like a thick liquid? Was it sticking and plopping like jam? Or was it holding its shape more like a gel? And did it seem to possess independent movement from the actions he was taking no matter how minor?

As he continued this and clearly having not paid any attention to whatever conversation might have started up between the other two, he said, "I believe you were correct in calling this thing a parasite. From the current symptoms and observations that seems far more likely than a disease."

Asa turned around to face the two, but he attention only seemed to be addressing the woman. "Have you tried putting the substance over flames or in hot water?"

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

Cassidy grimaced as he listened in on the details Lynx recited in regards to her findings. He hadn't had any idea of the severity of the infection going around, save for seeing the declining folk downstairs, which admittedly looked bad. What she was saying though... This thing was alive, and it was munching on the people here. The thought was incredibly grotesque.

His eyes trained themselves on the black gunk in the jar she'd raised to show the man who he'd followed in. Yeah... this could be a problem. He was getting paid to get her the hell out of here, but it looked like this this town wasn't going to last long without her help. Cassidy was a merc, but he had a heart. He couldn't very well ask her to ditch the sickly and let him whisk her away, could he?

His musings had made him careless as to his position, and when she finally turned to meet his gaze, he froze up. Fuck, there went his time to think. He was going to have to make a choice here and now, and even as he stepped out from the doorway he was unsure of what he planned on saying. With a bit of dramatic flair, he dusted off his coat and stepped into the room, boots thudding softly against the floor as he took a bow.

"Forgive my intrusion, Miss. Cassidy Ackerson's the name, and I find myself in a bit of an awkward position." He straightened up, his hand sliding into his pockets. His eyes went over the rest of the room, having been hidden to him from the doorway with a low whistle. "You see, I'm on payroll for a big chunk of gold if I can get a Miss Tera Lynx out of Rains Bow and over to Osteriam." It had been a small mining village, not far from Volta where he'd been hired. "I can see now that your services are more in demand than I thought though. I'm in a bit of a pickle now that the job ain't just 'find the pretty girl and whisk her away'." He shrugged, casting a glance over to the other man in the room, who seemed to be talking more to himself now than anybody else.

"You guys are in deep shit over here, huh?" He observed rather bluntly.

Tera Lynx
Asa Renwyk

 

[Tera Lynx]

"Forgive my intrusion, Miss. Cassidy Ackerson's the name, and I find myself in a bit of an awkward position." He straightened up, his hand sliding into his pockets. His eyes went over the rest of the room, having been hidden to him from the doorway with a low whistle. "You see, I'm on payroll for a big chunk of gold if I can get a Miss Tera Lynx out of Rains Bow and over to Osteriam." It had been a small mining village, not far from Volta where he'd been hired. "I can see now that your services are more in demand than I thought though. I'm in a bit of a pickle now that the job ain't just 'find the pretty girl and whisk her away'." He shrugged, casting a glance over to the other man in the room, who seemed to be talking more to himself now than anybody else.

"You guys are in deep shit over here, huh?" He observed rather bluntly.

Tera blinked at him with an incredulous expression on her face.
"Sssooo... Are you serious?"
She looks from Casssidy to Asa, back to Cassidy and finally back to Asa, "Is he serious?"
She stands up from her seat against her desk and looks Cassidy up and down with a critical yet confused frown, "Yeah, my work here's too important, this village needs me... Why does someone else want me? Is there another outbreak nearby?"

"Have you tried putting the substance over flames or in hot water?"

She turned back to the doctor who seemed very unconcerned that her potential kidnapper just walked into the room and drummed up a conversation with her.
The black substance had a blood like texture, it spread around the bottle when moved but it always came together when it rested. It would vibrate and quiver in an agitated state whenever moved abruptly. It exhibited no ability to move of its own volition, indicating that it spread by reproduction.
"Um... Yeah, Fire destroys it. But it does better in a wet and warm environment, slowly reached high temperatures such as bringing it to a boil in water doesn't seem to effect it... But once at that point it takes a lot more for fire to effect it, it's like it has a high mutation rate and can adapt to fire if effected slowly. I had to expose it to ice for an hour before I was able to burn it again."

 

[Asa Renwyk]

Still ignoring the red haired young man who was already proving themselves to be useless for their current circumstances, Asa listened to the further explanation from the pretty young doctor. What she had to tell him was concerning however. A highly adaptive parasite that spread quickly and was seemingly impossible to contain by mundane means. Not the sort of thing he wanted to get out into the world. How many deaths would it cause? Worse yet, it might actually be able to affect him as well. Truly a dangerous thing if it could.

The crow that had been perched on his shoulder this whole time cawed and flew over to the top of a shelf. She cawed again with her eye looking at the strangely dressed plague doctor.

"Hmmm?" Asa said as looked to the bird.

Caw!

The man frowned inside his mask. He pulled out a book from his bag and began to skim through it. As he did he said, "Did ice ever kill it or did it get use to it as well? What about any toxic materials? Mercury? Lead? Nightshade extract? Any effect from those such materials?"

While he waited for answers from the woman, he finished his skimming through the first book. He pulled out a second one and began to do the same with it.

"Young man would you mind bringing me and Doctor Lynx something to drink? I'm rather parched from the walking and judging from the looks of her current condition I assume she has not had a drink in some time either." Asa said as he skimmed through his book. "Not water. The local supply might be contaminated. Alcohol or freshly squeezed juice would be best. Fear even tea might be dangerous given our current knowledge."

Tera Lynx Cassidy Ackerson

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

Cass's tongue met the roof of his mouth in a disappointed tsk as he entered further into the room. If they weren't going to throw him out now, he wasn't going to hide anymore. They'd already written him off anyways; he'd never felt so blatantly dismissed in his life! "Yes, I'm serious, lady." He decided to drop some of the polite pretense, if he was going to be looked at as though he were crazy. "And it ain't my job to ask why. For your information, I'm being awfully nice in not going with my plan A in scooping you up hauling ass out of here. "

He gave the motormouthed man in black another odd look. He just kept talking. Even Lynx seemed a bit confused by his nonchalance. He shook his head and tried to speak in between questions from the other... well, he assumed it was a doctor. "It's because this village is too important than I'm not grabbing you. Yet." He added, and then nodded towards the jar of gunk they'd been examining. "Besides. I think that I..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence, the loud fellow suddenly addressing him from his nice little spot inside a book. Oh, he was a serving boy now? Ackerson couldn't help gritting his teeth. It was only a matter of time before they handed him a mop and had him start scrubbing.

Fine, whatever. Fishing around in his pockets, he retrieved a large flask, holding it out to Tera. "Water, but it ain't from this town. Should be safe."

He felt his presence in the room dissipate, the two professionals going back to pretending he wasn't even in the room as they discussed their options. If he knew he was going to be ignored like this, he wouldn't have bothered sneaking this far. His hands gripped at his jacket, irk growing as they started to discuss methods of killing it.

"Hey!" He'd finally reached the point to where he couldn't help but interrupt them. "Listen to me for a damned second! I'm pretty sure I've seen that black shit before!"

He'd begun to say it earlier, but he'd been cut off. It had partially been what had made him decide not to be hostile. Maybe now he had their attention...

Tera Lynx
Asa Renwyk

 

[Tera Lynx]

"Did ice ever kill it or did it get use to it as well? What about any toxic materials? Mercury? Lead? Nightshade extract? Any effect from those such materials?"

"No, ice worked too slowly to affect the substance for long. Toxins and poisons had immediate results but ultimately failed like it had an immune system of its own and could fight them off more efficiently than any human could... If it weren't killing its hosts I might have been tempted to think this might have benevolent uses."

Yes, I'm serious, lady." He decided to drop some of the polite pretense, if he was going to be looked at as though he were crazy. "And it ain't my job to ask why. For your information, I'm being awfully nice in not going with my plan A in scooping you up hauling ass out of here. "

She found it strange to be talking to her admitted kidnapper in such a cordial manner. She turned her attention back from Asa who was even flippant enough to order drinks from this guy.

"It's because this village is too important than I'm not grabbing you. Yet." He added, and then nodded towards the jar of gunk they'd been examining. "Besides. I think that I..."

"Yes... I'm very appreciative of that, my work here is very important..."

"Hey!" He'd finally reached the point to where he couldn't help but interrupt them. "Listen to me for a damned second! I'm pretty sure I've seen that black shit before!"

She raised an eyebrow at him and her first reaction was to blow it off... But then her face grew serious and he certainly had her attention, "You've seen this substance before? How? Where?" She walked up to him and examined him really quick, making sure he didn't have any symptoms but if he had just contracted it there was no way to be sure until later.
"Tell me everything you remember."
She pulled him to a stool and sat him down, she placed her fingers on his pulse and began counting.

 

[Asa Renwyk]

No. No. No. Definitely not. No. How could this be it?

Asa continued to flip through his journals. A long life was a good thing for those in pursuit of knowledge, but it also proved to be a curse. As his memory was not one of those special kinds that retained everything his eye had laid sight upon and ears had heard, he was reliant on keeping journals. A long life meant a lot of journals. And that meant a lot of pages to skim through.

So while the young doctor and the redhead were discussing things further, he continued on his work going through his books. The more he heard of how this thing behaved the more he was sure he would need to turn to a particular bit of information in his journals. The issue was in finding the exact one.

Asa walked over and took the flask out of the redhead's hand. As he did he said, "Thank you. Being very useful already. Keep it up. Hard parts are to come."

And he walked on over to a desk. Once there he laid his journal down on the counter top. He unstoppered the flask, lifted up his mask, and took a quick swing from it. A bit of a test for poisons. Was possible the man was more clever than he looked and had prepared a deadly flask for the young doctor beforehand. It wouldn't be hard for anyone to know drinking water would be a concern and that keeping your doctors healthy during an outbreak was crucial to everyone's survival. So poisoned water flask and can blame the plague.

So while he waited to see if he felt any of the signs of poison from the water, he continued to go through the journal on the counter page by page. This time he was moving more slowly. He knew he was in the right journal, so it was a matter of finding the proper page for what he was wanting.

"Dr. Lynx, do you like lavender, mint, and camomile?"

Cassidy Ackerson Tera Lynx

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

(So sorry for the delay on this one! I thought I'd sent it!)

Cassidy could only look on in bewilderment as the doctor snatched his flask from his hand, speaking in disjointed sentences split up into small disconnected parts. What a weird manner of speech this one had.... He'd thought the man had looked odd, but this went above and beyond looks; Whoever he was, he gave Cass the creeps.

Then he was off again, examining his water with all the scrutiny he'd just been flipping through pages moments earlier. He shook his head in a mild bit of confusion. Well, he was glad he could help somehow. He might have been paid to snatch Tera, and she probably thought him worthless at the moment. Even so, he wasn't an asshole.

Thankfully, it seemed his words had finally caught Ms. Lynx's attention, and she rushed up to him, immediately moving her hands to various places on his person, checking him over for what he had to assume were symptoms. He felt fine but... he had been in that sick room for a few minutes.

As she pulled over a seat, he had to admire how quickly she slipped into her role as a doctor. Just a minute ago she'd thought he was gonna snatch her, and now she was helping him just like she would any other. It was a testament to her character if nothing else, and he could feel Mar purr from under his clothes.

"Oh... where was it again?" His eyes closed tightly, struggling to remember the name of that town he'd seen overtaken by this same black gunk... "It was a small trade village in the northeastern Allir Reach. I remember there was a big fuss because nobody there had been heard from in a month or two. When I got hired to go check it out, all that was left was corpses and that black stuff, coating everything."

He shivered a bit at the eerie memory. The village had looked like a damned graveyard that had oil dumped over top of it. "I got the hell out of there as soon as I realized. I think they ended up torching that whole place."

Asa Renwyk
Tera Lynx

 

[Tera Lynx]

"Dr. Lynx, do you like lavender, mint, and camomile?"

Tera blinked at him, it was an odd question and at first she wondered if it had something to do with the plague. But he did indeed seem slightly eccentric so she just rolled with it.
"I like mint and lavender."
She responded.

"I got the hell out of there as soon as I realized. I think they ended up torching that whole place."

Tera listened to his recounting of the example of the plague that he had seen. Corpses? So the advanced stage of the plague was fatal... But still some thing's weren't making sense.
Fire would indeed cure this village... But it would do nothing for those already infected unless... Unless they were forced to make that hard choice.
She set her jaw, she refused to let that happen.
"What did the end stages of this plague look like? Obviously you must have kept your distance to avoid being infected but did you get a good look at the corpses?"

 

[Asa Renwyk]

While the redhead might not think Asa was paying much attention, he actually was. It was just he was use to students taking these matters too seriously with the wrong order of priorities. Perhaps the both of them could use a bit of a lesson? Yes. They both could use a bit of a lesson.

He had confirmed the water was safe and was told which ingredients to use. Lavender and mint would both do wonders to aid in relieving her fatigue from the none stop treating of her patients. Both the physical and the mental. The water went into a kettle and was placed over a fire to begin boiling. He pulled the proper dried leaves for the tea out of his mask and put them into a tea ball. Best to brew a whole pot for everyone.

As all of this happened, the redhead and the young doctor began their discussion. What was said only confirmed his fears further. The current form of treatments was incorrect and what he had in his journal was becoming more relevant with each passing moment. A sad turn of a events but one that was developing as quickly as their patients' need for swift treatment.

"Before the young man answers, the final stage will likely be a sporing stage. Think of slime balls you can find in the grass or forest floor." Asa idly said as he continued to study through his journal. "I said it before, but we need to stop treating this like a plague. It is the mass outbreak of a parasitic organism. Based on the context clues of what was happening here and in that unfortunate town the young man investigated, I imagine we are currently making the situation worse."

He found what he was looking for in his journal.

Asa turned to look at the both of them.

"How much experience do the either of you have with plagues? Not book learning or stories told to you by someone else. Actual hands on experience. I have personally had to treat at least 4 strains of the Garramarisma pocks within the span of a couple years. And countless more events of other similarly nasty epidemics. Plagues have a pattern. The symptoms might not always be the same, but the way they operate does. Our current situation is not fitting it. It is more akin to what happens to ants when a certain fungi plants itself upon their carapace. Best we not allow it to reach its sporing stage or we will suffer a similar state as that town he mentioned."

The kettle began to whistle.

"Oh. The tea is nearly ready."

The man picked it up off the heat, placed the ball with the leaves in the kettle, and let it begin to cool down off to the side.

"A lesson for you Dr. Lynx. As a doctor while treating a plague your health is of higher priority than your patients. If something happens to you then everyone will suffer and may be doomed. Eat, drink, and rest properly. Spread out the workload as much as possible. Things may be rougher in the short term, but in the long term it will pay dividends."

He got out three cups.

"And one for you as well, Cassidy yes? Every little action taken to ease the burden of the healers is vital. Getting us drinks helps us keep our own health up. Grabbing items of any kind when asked is helpful as it means we can stay on task. Lifting patients. Getting water. Getting blankets. It may be grunt work but it ultimately saves lives. Fools who refuse to pitch in because the work is 'beneath them' are the ones who will die first and take the rest of their community down with them. They are also the ones most likely to flee and spread it to other places. Likely how our current issue with this predatory parasite came to be."

Cassidy Ackerson Tera Lynx

 

[Cassidy Ackerson]

What on earth had he gotten himself into? Tera seemed about like he expected, albeit probably a bit sharper than he'd given her credit for. Made sense though, given what she did for a living, and what she was going through now. It was funny, he hadn't even remembered that incident at the trading village very clearly up until the topic had come up. He'd steered far clear of that area ever since the incident, torch and burn or otherwise. The fact that he'd come so close to ending up... well, like those people downstairs... it sent a chill up his spine.

He still wasn't sure what to make of the other one though. He seemed transfixed with his own work, but at the same time, he couldn't help but feel like he was paying more attention to what was being said than either of the people actually talking. Definitely a strange one, but as the gravity of the situation dawned on Cassidy further and further, he was finding himself glad that they had a type like him on board. In Cass's experience, people he thought were loony usually turned out to be geniuses of some type.

Then he started talking right as he was about to answer Tera's question, and oh boy he didn't stop.

Cassidy hadn't been a mercenary for very long. He'd been raised a rich kid from Oban with the world handed to him on a silver spoon. Suffice it to say he didn't have much opportunity to experience plagues aside from his brief brush with whatever this one was prior. When Asa leveled that question at him, Cassidy merely shook his head reluctantly. He didn't know what half of what the man was saying meant, and he certainly didn't have much of an idea what the implications of it being a 'fungi' were, but he took all of it to sum up to "Things aren't good and we need to move quickly."

That was the kind of language Cass could understand.

He reached out to accept the tea with a nod of thanks. He seemed to have an idea of what to do, even if he hadn't shared it yet. Plus, Cassidy had learned a long time ago that losing your cool was never helpful. He was pretty calm even now. If the worst came to worst... No, he hated the idea of snatching up the lady and bailing on this situation. These people needed her, and that nagging conscience would be the death of Cassidy. The lesson that Asa shared with him was... well, it wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but he nodded his head. "Hey, you haven't seen me try to run have you? I'm being offered a lot of money to make sure Ms. Lynx is kept safe, and if I have to figure this out with you to do that, then that's what I'm gonna do. Now, since you're so chatty all of a sudden, you have any ideas?"

Asa Renwyk
Tera Lynx

 

[Tera Lynx]

"Before the young man answers, the final stage will likely be a sporing stage. Think of slime balls you can find in the grass or forest floor." Asa idly said as he continued to study through his journal. "I said it before, but we need to stop treating this like a plague. It is the mass outbreak of a parasitic organism. Based on the context clues of what was happening here and in that unfortunate town the young man investigated, I imagine we are currently making the situation worse."

Tera sighed and nodded. She didn't want to see it but at this point ignoring it was dangerous. "I suppose you're right, I was in denial hoping otherwise. If this is a parasite then it's likely not any known or normal kind. Parasites aren't normally so invasive, it could even be supernatural and These symptoms are likely it's natural reproductive process... Yet I'm still questioning this because it adapts so quickly..."

"How much experience do the either of you have with plagues? Not book learning or stories told to you by someone else. Actual hands on experience. I have personally had to treat at least 4 strains of the Garramarisma pocks within the span of a couple years. And countless more events of other similarly nasty epidemics. Plagues have a pattern. The symptoms might not always be the same, but the way they operate does. Our current situation is not fitting it. It is more akin to what happens to ants when a certain fungi plants itself upon their carapace. Best we not allow it to reach its sporing stage or we will suffer a similar state as that town he mentioned."

She shook her head, perhaps she was a bit out of her depth here.
"As you said, mostly book learning. I've treated various flu, measles and other common outbreaks in rural backwater locations. I've studied vampirism and lycanthropy as well as a few other divinely created curses and plagues and even a few man-made ones such as Lochnards Doom. This is something entirely new and undocumented... Like something an ice miner would discover inside a glacier."
The doctor was making tea... And she thought she understood why now. He was right, they needed to take a step back.

"A lesson for you Dr. Lynx. As a doctor while treating a plague your health is of higher priority than your patients. If something happens to you then everyone will suffer and may be doomed. Eat, drink, and rest properly. Spread out the workload as much as possible. Things may be rougher in the short term, but in the long term it will pay dividends."

She took a deep breath and nodded. She had been pushing herself though she had thought she'd done pretty good keeping her strength up. She'd been working on this alone up to now so the work load was pretty squarely on her shoulders, but still she managed to sleep and at least eat a little bit every day.
"I know, Doctor Renwyk. It's just that I don't think these people have very much time... Time has been against me for a while."
She accepts the cup of tea and sips it, closing her eyes and letting the heat sooth her.

"Hey, you haven't seen me try to run have you? I'm being offered a lot of money to make sure Ms. Lynx is kept safe, and if I have to figure this out with you to do that, then that's what I'm gonna do. Now, since you're so chatty all of a sudden, you have any ideas?"

"I think I might have an idea, actually... Our two cases, here and the one mister Cassidy described, they don't seem to match either... We're here treating this, testing the parasite and seeing how it reacts... It adapts and we've been introducing change to it... What if what Cassidy described isn't the actual outcome that this parasite is trying to achieve? Were there doctors treating it at this village, or did it simply rage out of control and burn out? We're seeing something similar to a transformative curse or disease that infests the host... What if Doctor Renwyk is right and we're actually only making things worse?!"