DEVA - Seldan's Inquest

Log Info

• Title: DEVA - Seldan's Inquest
• Emitter: Cryosanthia
• Characters: Seldan
• Place: H01: Kultari Road - DEVA Station
• Time: Saturday, December 19, 2020, 7:17 PM
• Summary: Silverguard Seldan has had a few days of relative peace at the DEVA Station, when an Inquisitor from the Temple of Eluna arrives. He is a gnome, Yolam Murmurboggle, with some follow-up questions on the reports that have been going out. He wants to know if the various diseases have been fully identified, their origin determined, whether they are natural or crafted, how communicable, if there is a treatment, and how long after recovery before the person is safe. Seldan has some answers, 'Biggie' from Captain Infalia's crew informs that the Disease 1 is from the Seige of Stonetalon. Urbarra explains he met with a high level member of the Bludguni council, his group was given a mission and they opened a tomb in the Necropolis of Blod. After which, they were fed on and got sick. The gnome assures that this is very interesting, that there are 'politics afoot' and for Seldan to keep investigating.

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From east to west, north to south, the Alexandrosian countryside weaves over hill, valley, and farmland. Kultari Road meanders through it at a comfortable pace. The roadside is lined with curbstones, their surfaces comfortably flat and warm, with sand pressed in-between. At times construction meanders into dirt, and numerous pathways branch off here and there to different farmsteads.

Along this stretch, there is a waystation which has been converted into a quarantine station. It sits in the middle of a field, nearly four acres in size, most of which is overgrown. Partially cleared areas are filled with tents, and a parked medical caravan. The waystation itself has been under repair before it was commandeered for medical use. Over its door remain the dual symbols of Gilead and Tarien, even though Daeus, Eluna, Vardama, Althea and Angoron represtentatives are out in force.

Towards the south, the sky and landscape darkens. The Felwood lies there, and an occasional screech from inhuman lungs may be heard.

Towards the east, the shining City of Alexandria.

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DEVA Station

The landscape looks ghostly and drained of color in the cold pale fog. It's afternoon, but the time is hard to determine due to the quality of the light. It's impossible to see the full length of the field. The top of the waystation is obscured, the caravan is a dark blur, and the tents are light spots in the distance, although visible enough up close. There's a sparkling of frost on the grass. Everyone is staying in the tents, with the healers circulating between them.

The demands for peacekeeping have diminished now that trees have been given to group 2. The other sufferers are largely either passive, delirious or bed-bound. For the most part, the patients are stable and some seem to be improving. Recovery isn't quite a term the healers are ready to use yet. It's been a few days since the Airship departed to the volcano, and there's hope it will return soon.

The few days of peace and quiet have been a blessing to Seldan. The days have settled into a quiet routine, and he makes time to talk to the patients - those well enough to speak - and get a sense of how this all got started. The others have gone to figure out where the diseases came from, but he has opted to remain behind just in case.

The chill of a winter in Alexandria outdoors does not appear to trouble him in the slightest, although he does quell the worries of fussy healers by wearing winter-weight clothing and padding beneath his armor and retaining his usual pair of cloaks, with a hat and gloves. After every patient, he uses a prestidigitation spell to clean himself off, as well as washing up.

Now, though, he is sitting to one side of the healers' tent, making notes on a sheaf of parchment, quill and ink at the ready.

He has had some time to make some sense of things. How this conflict come about, why the Caravan and Airship at odds.

That was easy to determine. The Caravan is Bludguni Military, the Airship is BLarite, civilian, drafted for medical use. All the patients are military, young soldiers from both sides who agree that Bludgun seems to be wanting to take back the Blar City-State before it gets harder to do so. The Airship being built outside of Merkabah will definitely increase the difficulty. There have always been disputes and skirmishes as the edge of Blar's territory. It's gotten worse.

An Inquisitor from the Temple of Eluna was promised. He or she did not appear on the day of the promise. Nor the next, nor the one after. As is the nature of such things, as soon as they are forgotten they manifest.

A wave of perfume fills the tent and smacks the nostrils like a well tossed pillow. The source is a small man. A gnome with an egg-shaped head, utterly bare of hair except for a well tended and long moustache that stretches out almost to his shoulders and curls at the tips. His attire seems impeccable despite the field conditions. While Eluna's colours are argent and blue, the man's personal preferences are clearly grey and salmon, yet somehow it works. The Elunite outer wear complimenting the shirt, vest, ascot and cummerbund of the other colours.

"SilverguardS Seldan?" The man announces himself, "I'm Inquisitor Yolam Murmurboggle. I had some questions, and wanted to know what you have to report so far."

GAME: Seldan rolls perception: (7)+6: 13

The scents of a healer's area are many, and most are at least as pungent as perfume if not more so. That this particular one cuts through all of the other scents in the way that it does is worthy of notice. Being the sort that focuses deeply on his thoughts, Seldan is not prone to jumpiness, nor to notice all that lies around him, but even he can't miss this. A scent that does not _belong_. He looks up and around, fixing almost at once at the tiny gnome approaching him."

His demeanor adopts almost at once his usual polite reserve, although it is not without a smile for the absurdity of the getup in such a place. "You take great risk in crossing the quarantine line, Inquisitor," he begins carefully. Reserve and some wariness from this Silver Guard is to be expected - his relationship with the Inquisitors has at times in his past been a rocky one. He does not let that show now, instead quickly rattling off what he has learned. This takes an occasional glance at his notes, despite their recency. "Conflict on the Blar/Bludgun border. Bludgun seems to mean to take back the Blar city-state. Both sides seem to have come in contact with something inimical tied to a caldera on the border, and infectious disease runs rife in both their ranks. The Blarites have an airship, but the Bludguni have come by caravan, and they are, perhaps expectedly, oft at odds. What would you of me?"

"I have taken some precautions." The inquisitor reassures. If disease cannot touch him the way dirt seems unable to, then perhaps he has. Perhaps that perfume aids, it feels almost like a pressure. The gnome continues, standing in front of the Silverguard.

"Those are both useful details to know. The senior clergy have been reading the requests and reports that come back. I was sent to see if there is anything that isn't making into the reports, for one reason or another."

He looks intently upwards, "There are things they wish to know. If the source of the disease has been determined, if it seems natural or fabricated. What cures exist, if any, and how long after recovery is a patient still capable of spreading it. The symptoms and progression has been documented by the medical staff here quite well. It is... those other things, that still raise concern."

"A group has been sent to the caldera, to learn what they may of it, and have not yet returned. We are hopeful that they will return soon, and eager for their news," Seldan answers that question composedly. "None have yet recovered sufficiently to safely test such a thing. It is my hope that those who sought answers will return with a cure. I remain here to prevent strife."

The gnome nods, "Yes, the Caldera Saute in the SkyCurtain Mountains. I recall reading that in the report." He hmms quietly to himself. "Let's hope they return with answers and a cure."

"Relations have not been smooth, with Bludgun, since the Council closed the borders. They have not forgotten Alexandria's support of Myrddion. Some of our nobles have been... pursuing their own interests. No doubt you are also aware a Charnese emissary. Any details about whether these diseases were fabricate, and by whom would be helpful."

"We can hope for some answers with the Airship's return, have you found any other details from patients in the meantime?"

GAME: Seldan rolls diplomacy: (12)+19: 31

"It has taken time," Seldan answers, eyes lowering. "Not all are fit to speak, but I have sought to speak with as many as I can. Peace holds sway, for now, and I have sought to use that time well, that we might find some answers."

There were some answers, although the answers sometimes came from unusual places. Most of the sufferers in Group 1 have the unfortunate side effect of being easily startled by everything. Including their own shadow. It makes them difficult to question, and in later stages they are clearly delusional. It's 'Biggie' from Captain Infalia's Airship crew who supplies some answers. The Bugbear stayed behind because she's caught the second type of disease, but she remembers where all the Blar patients with the first type were picked up.

"Yuh. Stonetalon. Seige. Blar outside, Bludgunis in. Catapaulting bodies."

Informative, if not very. Major Kreemo reacted to the name, but claimed to know nothing about it. Although one of his caravan crew let slip that the Bludguni patients came from Stone Talon as well. The Silvergaurd can be persuasive.

Oddly enough, it's a second Bugbear that has some information regarding the magic resistant black plague disease. Urbarra, suffers from it and also exhibits some strange physical deformaties which two Arcanists were looking into for Shalethiste. There are fewer patients with this condition, but they're all from Bludgun.

"Met a Council. Special mission. Open Tomb. Deep Dark. Ritual opens. All got sick after." UrBarra shared. The Bludguni hobgoblins were more tight-lipped, neither confirming nor denying anything, and rarely offering more than a name. One soldier, when the others weren't watching, did bare a forearm to show some recent ritualistic scarring that seemed recent and barely healed.

Inquisitor Yolam is quite interested in these details when they're shared. He pulls on one end of his moustache, curling it while he considers the possibilities.

"Did you ask any follow-up questions?" He asks.

"At some length, Inquisitor." This is a known quirk of Seldan's, among the church in Alexandria. Using given names instead of titles is both a signal of familiarity and an evidence of trust when it comes to the Silver Guard, and the latter is not granted to many. There are very few people he will call by name.

"The Siege of Stonetalon suggested that bodies were being catapulted out, a suggestion that that form of disease may have been sourced there and spread. I had hoped to learn whence in Stonetalon it came, but that is perhaps a long ask."

"Of a great deal more concern was the opening of a tomb via ritual, and the end result. I was able to confirm that this was a different plague from the one that most recently beset Alexandria, but the whereabouts of this tomb, and why they had sought it...."

... took some digging, in the form of conversation with Urbarra. The Bugbear, who explained that his name means 'wolf', lived up to it. Hairier than hobgoblins, Bugbears can develop a coat of fur and sometimes resemble a werewolf in partial transformation, or the big bears they were named after. They aren't that civilized either, at least Urbarra didn't demonstrate much, as he would scratch and try to burst the black nodules in his underarms despite everyone asking him to please not do that!

The 'Special Mission' was deep in the Necropolis of Blod. A City of the Dead from when the renamed capital was in Myrrish hands and rivaling Alexandria's catacombs in age. They were given instructions by an Ogre-Mage, blood was necessary to both open the tomb and awaken what resided within. A resident that is decidedly a vampire. All the participants were fed from, then returned to their regular military assignment.

Information about the Seige of Stonetalon was comparatively easier to find out. Not only were the bodies fired out, they were fired in. Initially, by Blar forces which caught some Bludgun forces outside the wall and kiled them.

Everyone infected came from Stonetalon. The symptoms, extreme cowardice and then hallucinations, are exactly the sort that would undermine a contained group of defenders. It would be great serendipity if it arose naturally.

And Heinous if it didn't.

"The source of the first disease may not be Stonetalon, but it was assuredly brought there," Seldan finishes his explanation to the Inquisitor. "It is in my mind that this is no accident, but that more information will be required to determine its origin." He delicately refrains from commentary on Urbarra, although he had remained at a healthy distance during the discussion, and had been no exception to those reminding Urbarra not to do that. "I have not yet been able to speak to Captain Infalia on the matter of the Siege of Stonetalon and what befell there, but ... it is in my mind that these diseases were planted as part of a war effort."

"The other, though, is much more worrisome, for its source is the Necropolis. Of this have I little doubt. I would find that Ogre-Mage, for it may well be that he operated at a vampire's direction. Vampires control minds as easily as you or I control finger puppets."

"That is quite true," The Inquisitor agrees, making a few notes and twisting the other end of his moustache contemplatively. "The operation of the Bludgun Council is also very opaque. It would not be surprising if there are factions, or this is some new empowerment. I'll look into the archives to see if there is any suggestion who or what they might have found. If you can question that Ogre-Mage, do so!"

"The Captain sounds like they might be a good repository of information too. Hmmm." The Inquisitor taps at the table, "Any information on the third type? That group, sleeps mostly, doesn't it?"

Seldan regretfully shakes his head at the latest question. "Very little, Inquisitor. I have not yet had the opportunity to speak with any of them." He does not move from his seat or make any effort to move closer to the little gnome. "I should return to my rounds, if you have naught more," he offers. "It is well to remind them that I am about, lest trouble start. I would hear anything that the senior Seers might offer as wisdom to me."

"That is all for now." The Inquisitor replies, putting his notes away. "I'll decontaminate and be on my way. The senior clerics will be glad that there is news, but not glad of this news. Conclusions will be drawn, in the meantime continue to treat everyone and maintain the peace as you have so far."

The gnome bends in the middle in a bow, and then turns to leave. Once he has exited, it's as if the tent inhales and fresh air rushes in. Cold air that wafts the oppressive scent away.