Chapter 15: Delivering the Medicine

February 28

The group goes into the village and to the herbalist. There is a queue at the door again, and Ertak tries to explain that they are coming to save everyone; similarly, Neiia explains something similar, and the sick people queuing outside state, “What are they really explaining, don’t try to cut in line.” Kieron saves the situation and explains that Agnarr has the herbs that the herbalist needs, so let us through, don’t mind that priest and the other confused person. Neiia gets annoyed at this and tries to argue, but the crowd listens to Kieron.

Kieron and Agnarr get inside and give the herbs to the herbalist. The herbalist takes the herbs and states that it will take her two hours before she can get the medicine ready. Kieron goes outside and tells people there about it. Next, Neiia and Kieron sing and entertain the crowd. Kieron’s singing goes well, but her instruments are quite out of tune after the nut rain. Neiia manages to get the men to listen to her sexy song, but the women are not so happy about it. At some point, Ertak in the back row starts shouting for a duet and gets others involved in the request. Kieron and Neiia put on a competitive singing performance, and their performance is quite successful. Ertak goes inside toward the end of the performance and hears that the medicine is just now ready.

Ertak comes out and tells about it, but when he tries to get people into a neat line, because there might not be enough medicine for everyone, or at least that’s what the crowd hears, the crowd starts running full speed toward the door. This starts a complete panic, and although Neiia and Ertak try to command the crowd, it only makes the situation worse.

Kieron, who is in front of the door, states that this isn’t going to work, so she draws her pistol and fires into the air. This gets the whole crowd’s attention to herself, and the crowd stops for a moment, during which time Kieron threatens that they should calm down so she doesn’t have to shoot. She gets about half of the crowd to flee and about half of the rest to stay in place, and only a few still try to rush inside.

Ertak orders a few of the remaining to flee and then orders a few others to lie down. Neiia makes a couple of people fumble, while Agnarr pulls out his big shield and starts blocking the door. The situation begins to calm down somewhat. Everything looks like it’s already under control before Neiia tries again to order the crowd into a line, but with Ertak fooling around next to her, the crowd doesn’t believe Neiia, and it starts coming toward them again.

Kieron takes part of the crowd and Neiia the other half and tries to get them back into a line. Neiia gets her group more or less together, but from Kieron’s side, a couple of people get past her, but Ertak orders one of them away.

Finally, the group gets the situation under control again and gives medicine to everyone. When everyone has been given their medicine, it’s already about nine o’clock in the evening. The group leaves the village and continues for half an hour before camping for the night. Ertak casts a healing slumber spell on Jaysek and Agnarr.

March 1

The group sets off in the morning, and Agnarr finds tracks and starts following them. The tracks go past the camp, so the group continues along them until Agnarr loses the tracks. He examines the surroundings and concludes that he lost the tracks earlier. He decides to go back to near the camp and try to follow from there again. He returns to the camp and tries to examine the tracks but doesn’t find where the tracks continue from there. They decide to go to the camp to ask about it.

Neiia handles the talking, and she gets a lot of attention, and one guy says he remembers seeing two or three known strange individuals who have reportedly been deep in the forest three days ago. The man also promises to guide them there. The man leads them to the next camp and asks the group to wait outside while he goes to ask. The man returns after a moment and tells that those three individuals are in the group a couple of miles north of here. The group continues in that direction and reaches the lumberjacks just as they are eating a meal. There are 9 people in the group; the guide points to one big thug and the two shifty-looking short individuals next to him.

The big thug doesn’t look like he’s coming peacefully, and he starts advancing threateningly toward Neiia, at which point Agnarr strikes the man with his axe. Next, Kieron stabs the thug twice, and Agnarr hits with his axe once more, causing the thug to fall to the ground. The two other individuals start running away, but Ertak orders them to stop and threatens them that they will suffer if the group needs to chase after them. The individuals stop and then return. Jaysek states that this thug is now dying, and since Ertak had cast a wound-binding spell, he can no longer prevent death with his spells. The group talks with the two shifty-looking individuals and believes them that the whole thing was the thug’s idea and he did everything; these others just followed because he ordered them to. Neiia believes the men, and after that, they take the dying thug with them and then head into the middle of the forest with the purpose of taking him to the forest to be judged.