Well, this village doesn’t look okay at all. The crops in the field are all brown and wilted. They shouldn’t look like that… we have had a reasonable amount of rain lately… they should be thriving… and where the hell are all the villagers?

  As we reached the centre of the village, we came across a man collapsed in the doorway of a house. As we got closer to him, it became apparent that he wasn’t unconscious. He was coughing and spluttering… he tried to say something to us but we couldn’t make out what, due to his voice being so weak and muffled from all the coughing.

  Dwynfel: “Svampe… go get him some water from the well. He looks in dire need of a drink.”

  Svampe walked off towards the well, while Agaroth and Damecus examined the man. They were surprisingly thorough. I suppose I’m not used to seeing people perform this type of examination. Whenever I have seen Agaroth attempt to heal somebody in the past, the cause of the injury has always been very apparent. It isn’t hard to work out what is wrong when somebody has a knife sticking out of their chest or a has a bone sticking out of their leg.

  They checked the man’s chest… checked his pulse rate… checked the man’s skin for pocks and lesions… checked in the man’s mouth and the back of his throat… Damecus placed his ear to the man’s back and asked him to breathe deeply. I hope they can work out what’s wrong.

  Agaroth: “Pretty safe tae say this is a disease a some kind. No sure a the cause tho.”

  Dietrich: “Can you heal him?”

  Damecus: “My methods would take time. Magic may be a swifter option.”

  Agaroth: “Aye, I can heal the guy. But if this is what’s fuckin’ wi’ the rest a the village then I’m no gonnae have enough mana tae heal everyone.”

  Phoenix: “One problem at a time. Heal him so we can work out what is going on.”

  Agaroth: “Alright, alright. Calm your tits.”

  He hovered his hands over the man’s chest.

  Agaroth: “Restoration.”

  The man started coughing much stronger than before… he started to spit out large amounts of phlegm… it wasn’t pleasant. But it did seem that he had regained a level of strength and whatever crap was on his chest was loosened enough for him to cough up.

  Agaroth: “Where’s that water?”

  Svampe returned with a bucket of water but did not hand it over.

  Svampe: “I… I think something’s wrong with the water.”

  Farrow and Dietrich walked over to him and looked into the bucket.

  Farrow: “What is wrong with it?”

  Dietrich: “Just looks like water to me.”

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  Svampe: “I… I can sense that something is wrong. The crops are dying, the people are dying… it’s coming from the ground… below the ground… something… wrong.”

  He must be communicating with the plant life… that’s what Flora used to do. It must be such a confusing thing to experience when you don’t know what it is.

  Agaroth: “Right enough, fucked water would explain a few things.”

  Damecus: “Let me see.”

  Svampe handed the bucket to Damecus. He swirled the water around and sniffed it.

  Damecus: “It certainly appears to be normal water. Give me a moment.”

  He walked over to the cart and got a pestle and mortar out of his bag, as well as various herbs. While he was doing that, the man finally began to speak.

  Man: “Thank you… thank you.”

  Agaroth: “No need for thanks, what the fuck’s goin’ on ‘ere?”

  The man sat himself up properly as the coughing subsided.

  Man: “Your guess is as good as mine. A few days ago, the crops started dying and everyone got sick. We didn’t know what was causing it.”

  Phoenix: “If it is contaminated water then it would spread fast. The first thing people do when they get ill is drink.”

  Agaroth: “Right enough, and wi’ the fucked water they’d just make themselves worse and worse.”

  Man: “Is it the water? It can’t be the water… if it’s the water then this village won’t survive. It’s in the ground… it’s in the crops… we’ll never come back from this… oh gods.”

  Phoenix: “Not necessarily. If we find the source of the contamination then we can cleanse the water.”

  Agaroth: “It may not even be the water. Kid’s new to this shit. He could be picking it up wrong.”

  Damecus: “He isn’t.”

  Damecus walked over with the bucket of water… it had some crushed herbs sprinkled on top of it and the water had turned purple.

  Damecus: “There are definite contaminants in this water. We need to find the underground stream that your well gets its water from.”

  Man: “I have no idea how to get to it. We’ve never needed to before.”

  Agaroth: “Well that fuckin well complicates things.”

  Damecus: “Svampe. You said that you could detect something was wrong with the water. Do you think you could use that sense to trace the path of the water to where that feeling is strongest?”

  Svampe: “Umm… I can try.”

  Man: “Are you sure this isn’t magical in origin? Many villagers believed it to be a curse.”

  Damecus: “Your water is definitely contaminated. That being said, the contamination could be unrelated. Kiyui?”

  Kiyui stepped forward and held his staff in front of him.

  Kiyui: “Detect mana.”

  Kiyui’s eyes started to glow. He briefly looked at the water… then around the village, before returning his sight to the man.

  Kiyui: “The only magic that I can detect here is coming from the healing spell that was just cast on you.”

  Man: “Handy spell you have there.”

  Kiyui: “Thanks, its new.”

  Damecus: “Okay then, contaminated water it is. Kiyui, stay here and look after this man until we return. Lead on, Svampe.”

  Kiyui: “Will do.”

  Svampe: “Alright.”