Vkor's Meds to Rime
Starting this quest after The Intrepid puts the party at Level 3.
Deriving the treatment for the mysterious illness in Rime is all in a night’s work for Vkor. Vkor does still need to get it to Rime and could send it on the next caravan. However, the group presents a solution that could be beneficial both parties. Vkor needs the medication delivered across dangerous lands but also has an set of emblems that will mark the party as friends of the Reszich Lodge to offer. This will give the group a network to work in and rely on in future travels. Vkor will try to sell this idea in a truly honest way. If the party is willing to take the call to action, Vkor will set them up with the medications, a simple wagon with a donkey, a potion of greater healing, and a periapt of wound closure. Leaving from Omarop Cove, the party will start in gentle grasslands that could be harbouring some monsters but for the most part leads to a nice journey. There are some Drammer-drawn carriages passing along at much faster speeds than the average caravan. Drammers look a bit like if a centipede grew to massive sizes and their legs were replaced with something more like a pachyderms. They can be unsettling for most that have never been seen before but they have lead to cheaper and faster delivery of imports throughout Moudon. The drivers of these carriages have windswept faces and where goggles to protect their eyes.
Random wilderness encounters can be rolled for d20 rolls by party of less than 10. Grassland type. This is included in stopping over for rests. Now is a great time for characters to finally talk to each other in ways to get to know each other.
There can be at 1-3 encounters along the way, and the team will notice that as they continue along their way, that grassland with rolling hills and plateaus gives way to dry plains and then later thinner air and colder climes. Rime is nestled among some of the higher mountains of the Ursa Mountains. It is small town that at one time had excelled with the brief coal boom and then had all but died down until Limitless decided to build one of their big research and development facilities there. Citizens that had nearly had to resort to leaving just to survive gained new employment as labourers, maintenance workers, and other roles not already occupied by those setting up shop. At the end of the first year of the factories establishment, the job boom had slowed as job creation slowed and the biologics growth and development led to cheaper coverage for many of the roles. Of course, workers were compensated a bit after their lay-off but some of the townsfolk began to look elsewhere. That is when some more recent lucrative job offers appeared from Limitless. Families continued to prosper for a while until the current events came to pass.
For the past three days now the majority of the town has been suffering from a strange illness that they have decided to call The Drain. It starts with people feeling a bit low energy, with a runny nose. Fatigue upgrades to muscle aches and exhuastion. All the while boils filled with greenish fluid start popping up all over the body. Then the body begins to leak fluid through the pores, mouth, nose, and eyes that can range from clear to greenish. Late symptoms include fever and an inability to eat. Citizens that eventually succumb die, in a way. Those that are still alive tend to avoid going outside these days as the dead rise back up in the search of a food that they had never wanted previously. Their bodies now let out fluid that infects and poisons those that come into contact with it.
Plot points/Scenes
The Peddler:
There may be time to engage some of the travelers on the road. On a roll for travelers, one medicine peddler by the name of Bartholimiu Tolas (appears as a more urban wood elf but is actually a Kenku that is able to polymorph) crosses paths with the team. Bartholimiu has a tendency to repeat what he is saying more than once and has a case of echolalia. Maybe the wood elf has a strange verbal impediment but he is a shrewd business man and a dispel magic could easily expose what he really is. Kenku, within Moudon,are not considered sentient enough by the accords to gain full rights and this has lead to their role as second class citizens. Bart is actually very lucky in that he is both magically adept and flexible in his thinking. He has some very real potions of healing and a potion of vitality but most of what he sells are his more experimental potions that either don’t work or just leave some people feeling a little bit better than before. The trouble is figuring out which is which when he does not bother to label them. Over the years he has made a pretty penny to update his cart from a wheelbarrow and even purchase an oxen to pull it, but no matter how far he comes he does not feel confident enough to walk into a major city like Omarop. Talking to Bart does reveal that he has seen the sickness in Rime, a terrible pestilence that makes the people break out in greenish boils and leak fluids everywhere. He was able to heal some but lacked the ingredients to heal all of the citizens who were sick. He also reveals that the whole town would have to be cured to get rid of the disease otherwise it would likely just keep coming back.Rime:
Coming into Rime, the heroes might be surprised to find it deserted as though everyone had left in a hurry. If it is daylight when the team arrives, they are greeted by a seemingly derelict town. Food still sits on some tables, only slightly stale. Homes that are open show signs of recent occupation but there doesn’t seem to be anything to indicate where the villager went off to until the team heads into the main town proper. Amongst the main square is a temple of Yoru, where the remaining survivors are all holed up. If they arrive in the night the town is eerily quiet until suddenly it is not. With a perception check (DC 13) the party is able to pick up the low gurgle of something approaching before they are beset by creatures wailing and ambling toward them with a hunger. Battle ensues: Creatures: 5x Drain victims Treasure: sum of 10 GP, two gold plated rings (10 GP each), Morton’s letter. Morton’s letter reads:“It’s in the water, it’s in the food. How could we sit there and let this happened for a pittance of money. My wife and child- no one should have to bury their child. No one should have to see THAT… No matter what we do, we are doomed, all we can do is keep it here. Biri, love, I am so sorry. Morton”Written in spotty ink, the party scarcely has time to read it over before the cry of more Drain Victims echo through the streets. The party has a seemingly straight shot to get the Temple and hopefully cure the survivors but the victims out here are already as good as dead. In fact, if Bart is to be believed, if the party met him, the victims are already dead. 4 more Drain victims come at the team, even a small child in their midst. There is no reasoning with these creatures. Should the party chose to return the dead to their previously inert state they will need to defeat all of the victims in the town. There are 20 townsfolk and along the way the heroes may notice that there are some of the dead that have deteriorated to the point of falling apart in the streets. A medicine check (DC 11) or investigation check (DC 14) will reveal that these undead do not seem to last a very long time but they are faster than the average zombie or ghoul. The group will also likely encounter/see the limitless facility. It is effectively locked down, with every door and window shuttered close. Even if the heroes do not bother trying to get into the factory, once the town is clear they can deliver the meds to the survivors in the temple. The priest of the temple, Kuilo, explains to the heroes that the sickness actually started weeks ago but the town had managed to keep the issue under wraps first as even the factory tried to suppress the sickness. The researchers had offered to take a look at the villagers and had even offered rooms for the workers and their families to sleep in at first. There was plenty of security to keep out and control the dead at that point. Then about four to six days ago the factory had suddenly kicked out all the works, locked down and left the villagers on their own. Kuilo had tried to be there for villagers, able to heal some of those that started to show symptoms and stretching healing resources further with the help of a wood elf peddler that passed through, it had been getting dire in the past bit though. Three survivors had been quanrantined in the chapel. Two are able to be salvaged by Vkor’s potion but the last dies as their body rejects the medication. They pass but do not change. Kuilo runs a dagger through the person’s temple, hoping that it will not come back to life. Kuilo gives the party a scroll of cure wounds and a Yoru’s Mace (a +1 mace that can detect undead 2x/day). He is very grateful for the help and cautions the team against drinking any of the water in the area. He asks if the team has any rations to share as they cannot trust the crops or animals in the area right now. Many of the survivors even request to just leave the city all together. Investigation of the area and people (DC 13) reveals that that less than 1/20th of the population of Rime and its immediate vicinity still live. No one has any concrete evidence that Limitless is behind this debacle but most believe that they are at least partly responsible. Hedar Hollybough is now a mother of one sickly child but used to work for Limitless as a secretary. She is the one with the closest thing to evidence. She explains that she had seen papers come past her desk that spoke of a new test product that would allow for the better growth of wheat and livestock in the area. It had not sounded as if the product had a good trial run, with one of the farmers coming down with fever and greenish boils before falling into a deep sleep that they never woke from. She does not have the paper, as it had been sent to Meriy Ventris, head of the facility. She does had a pin that used to gain her entry to the building, her entry key being a lot more discrete than the average labourer. She gives it to the heroes provided that they promise to get down to the bottom of Limitless’ involvement.
Limitless' Research in Rime:
Once the village is stabilized (or before) the team may try and seek entry into the factory. Hedar’s pin will be able to open the side western door but the heroes will still have to be careful not to get caught trying to access the building. Otherwise, the party can attempt to break in with a strength/athletics check of (DC 18). Inside the main room of the factory is in chaos. Much like the quiet of Rime when they arrived, there is an eerie muteness. Several gurgling sounds issue and the party is beset by a horrible sight. A creature made of the bodies of several researchers half ooze at this point and writhing in agony faces them. Battle ensues: Creatures: 1 x Flesh of my flesh. Treasure: 5 SP, enough of the nasty green ichor to take as a sample for someone in the city to take a look. The team will discover that the door beyond this first main room is firmly locked and solid in build. They will have enough time to catch a short rest in relative safety. Getting through the door will require a lockpicking or force break (DC 20). Failing in any one of these checks can lead to consequences to health or the breaking of any thieves tools used. This door is indeed tough, beyond it a keen ear can hear the low shrieking gurgle of the Drain Victims. Once the door is opened the party will find a row of cages with 6 victims within them. There is intense smell of something foul and organic in the area. 1 victim in a cage nearest to the door opposite has a dead victim there. It is badly decomposed and is like the source of the smell. Getting through the next door and progressing up the stairs gets the party into the overseer’s office and the other corporate offices. There is a man sitting at the overseer desk, breathing heavily and oozing from every orifice. “Help me” he begs. If the party kept any bottles of Vkor’s meds or happens to have the ability to do a lesser restore, he can be cured. The man is Rodyr and he was a researcher at the facility. If questioned he will, under some duress, admit that the higher ups were aware that something was going wrong with one of the experiments. When they could not contain it they ordered the factory to be shut with ‘researchers continuing to work on a cure’ and then they left Rime altogether. All correspondence and data regarding the project were burned by Meriy personally to ensure that loose ends were solved and may have purposely infected and killed all of those involved on the project. Rodyr is able to open the door to the rest of the corporate office rooms. There are two or three people in various states of illness. They can be cured with the meds but none of them were involved in the drain experiment. One more person can be found in the basements, Aomiri Sauto, has been trying to continue to conduct the rest of her experiments creating Noolim, a creature that may have the ability to heal people. The hope and the intention was to create a prototype that might be able to treat the infected but the results thus far have been underwhelming result. It stopped the progression of the disease in Aomiri but it could not heal what was already done. Vkor’s meds will still heal her completely. Noolim are a cross between crystal dragons and alseids. They have the potential to be game changers as adventurer’s pets and companions to the sickly. Aomiri is close to a breakthrough but will need more time, she does offer her prototype in exchange for silence on her survival. She knows that it was the intention of her higher ups to have her fail and die. Aomiri does not have intel on the Drain experiment but is aware that there is creature limitless is trying to produce that will be able to create them ‘unlimited wealth’. She stumbled onto part of what was needed but it comes at a terrible price. Aomiri would like to stay in Rime so that she can hopefully find the solution to the contaminated livestock and plants. She has plenty of samples from the offending organism to start learning how to fight it and eradicate it from the environment. It could take years but Aomiri is willing to take the time that it needs to recreate balance in the region. Even if most of Rime ends up leaving. Having achieved their quest in Rime the crew can return to Omarop to collect their reward. The citizens of Rime are grateful for their help and will give them free room and board for the night. They would offer food but are unable to account for what might be infected, any old stores that they have will have to be conserved until which time they are able to find the food. The priest, Kuilo, offers the party 200 GP to get them to act as guards to a small group of visitors who could go into town and gather food, water and necessary supplies to survive in Rime until they can get control of the situation.Getting back to Omarop:
Heading back can involve 1-3 random instances or have a planned interruption such as below: “The caravan has been travelling safely through the plains for a few hours now but all of the farmers you are accompanying seem to be on edge. There is a stone portal in a the grasses decorated with sigils. Looking and listening those of you with a passive perception of 13 or greater notice that the winds have slowed to a stop and the sporadic squeaks of the field rodents have quieted very abruptly. There is a vague smell of something burning in the air. The driest brush takes light as revealing two Azer coming through the portal, an image of magma and rock behind them. These two beings talk to each other (in Ignan) before one points in the party’s direction.” These Azer have come to collect a batch of lesser fire elementals that were drawn out within the last few days by Limitless. They are open to conversation (in Ignan or comprehend languages) but any act of aggression will be met in kind. Potential battle: Creatures: 2x Azer Treasure: 2x semi-molten blocks of gold (100 GP each), one Shield of the Azers +1 (granting fire resistance when wielded) If the party speaks to the Azer, they learn that there have been a few instances around the planes of elemental fire and elemental earth have been infiltrated by people of the material plane to abduct the various denizens of the planes. Their small scouting party was sent out to the material plane to see if they could find more information about a recent abduction. The party can offer to help but unless they have convince that Azer that they would be able to track down the lesser elementals within the day, the Azer will say that they can manage on their own. If given any information that they think is valuable the Azer will lay one semi-molten gold ingot on the dirt as a reward for the tip. If the portal is investigated (DC 17) or an Arcana check (DC 13) reveals that the portal is centuries old and links to both the plane of elemental fire as well as the plane of elemental earth. It takes an immense amount of power to open, more than the average spellcaster would have. There is also a way to trigger the doorway to open using the once rich leyline that lies directly beneath it but it will require some kind of object that fits into a recess at the right side of the door. This object is the Medallion of the Planeswalker, a rare magical object of legend that was more common when magic was rampant in the world. When the team gets back to Omarop with the caravan, one of the farmers gives the group an additional 200 GP that the town had scrounged up to pay the team for all of their help. Getting back to Vkor, they are pleased and offer a pair of Goggles of Night or (Goggles of Object Finding if everyone has darkvision) as well as a night of free lodgings and food. Though Vkor does not have any current quests for the heroes, they say that jobs are frequently offered by the Lodges and that it is only a matter of time before there will be others at this location. Vkor does give the team a small scroll of heavy vellum that has two symbols on it. Vkor will explain this to be a passport of sorts that mark that they have curried some favour with the Lodges. For each great deed completed for the Lodges the managers will add to the scroll until it is deemed that the party have gained the status of Friends of the Lodge. Anyone who is personally already a member of the lodge or succeeds in a history check (DC 18) knows that the one symbol is indicative of an act of courage and the other a symbol that represents an act of duty. They will still need act of sacrifice, an act of wisdom, and an act of friendship. Vkor may suggest going to the Spokane Archives for a quest.Themes
Research is being done around Moudon to progress the world of biologics and no one yet questions the fallout of some of the processes. People's lives may hang in the balance at the hands of scientists making a gold piece, or for some it is the act of playing the role of a god. This may be an isolated incident, but time will tell.
Plot type
Chapter: Side-effects of Progress
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