We had about 30 days of sailing before we reached a port. Saigarn was pretty good at keeping the crew in line and minimizing conflict. The A'aloss kids maintained a fairly cheery disposition; they were the happiest members of the crew. Some resented their attitude, some took it as an additional morale boost.
We were back into deeply magical waters. We were seeing things on an almost daily basis, but thankfully there were few encounters. We were still very careful on what we pulled up when fishing. Merpeople would occasionally mess with out catches; tangling the nets or filling them with sea junk.
The pirate vessel was several days behind us, floating without masts in the open sea. One of the crewmen became violently ill. It seemed he had food poisoning. Somehow he was the only one sick. I was able to verify he was poisoned, but I couldn't tell the exact source. I was fairly certain he'd be fine for a few hours; at this point he just needed rest. I couldn't afford to leave him on the sidelines, but I could safely investigate the source of the poison before curing him magically.
The first barrel I investigated was salted fish; it was poisoned. All the rest were, too. It seemed like all our supplies were spoiled and/or poisoned. It was definitely decay accelerated by magic. I couldn't be sure, but it seemed necromantic. Something wasn't adding up though. The magic was... not standard. I tried to purify the food... it seemed to resist the spell. This was very unusual. I was able to overcome it and get the magic at least salvageable. Even so about 1/3 of it was unusable.
Talking to Saigarn, he recommended returning the one crewman, Cory (a tailor in his forties) to full health before interviewing the crew. Cory was quick to point the finger at Jayden. We suspected this might be a byproduct of the magical waters we sailed through, but wanted to be safe. I made sure to conduct the interviews in a non-accusatory manner. I was looking for any indication of possession or a malevolent magical item. I checked each crew member for magic and poison as I cycled through the crew.
In between interviews, I purified additional quantities of food. That day, I was able to salvage about 3 weeks of food. There were 2 batches of food I could try again the next day. And of course, we were adding days to the journey by pulling crew out of their positions for interviews.
We found several more people that were getting sick; 3 of the villagers. Willie (in his 60s), Robert (our adventure guide) and Nick, a boy in his twenties. I neutralized the poison in Willie first, and interviewed him. Willie thought that if anyone poisoned the food, it would be Josh. As with Cory. Josh was an herbalist that ran an apothecary in the town; he wasn't exactly classically trained either.
Robert hadn't seen anything weird, but he also thought Jayden might have been involved. I cured the poison in his system. He had a magical ring, but the aura was faint and he assured me it was only to give him the upper hand in negotiations. That aligned with what we knew of him; he always seemed to be a little more hard to bluff than normal.
Nick also hadn't seen anything weird, He'd fished these waters most of his life, so he was pretty confident he hadn't brought anything on board by accident. Brennen delayed the poison in him as well. He didn't have any suspicions about who might have done it (if anyone did.) He also told us there were fish in these waters that could contaminate supplies, but not of the level we've been seeing. Not that he was ruling anything out, but it wasn't inside the realm of his experience. He also felt if it came from the sea, people would have been killed rather than spoiling our supplies.
We took an hour before the next two crewmen; Stephen & Sam. Stephen was in his thirties, and was known for some hunting & fishing. He was a good crewmember, generally solving problems rather than creating, and did his job well. Stephen suspected Robert had poisoned the food, if anyone.
Sam was our carpenter and engineer. He was definitely Brennen's favorite on the crew, and an integral part of our crew. Sam hadn't seen anything odd, though he was aware of the fact that we had some odd people and everyone was hallucinating on and off between work & magic.
We had a few hours without interviews. I cured Nick, and rested again. About 5 hours later, I started feeling nauseous, as did Shatain & Brennen. I cured the three of us, and rested again.
Phillip was our next interview; he was in his fifties, and had a reputation as a full time drunk and a part time fisherman. However, he was the comedic genius on the boat. He did his work with a little encouragement, and kept people laughing. He was in an unusually long spell of sobriety, so he had no idea what was going on; he'd seen pretty much everything during the voyage due to withdrawals. We figured it would take too much work to poison the food. I cured him.
Brendan was a fisherman in his thirties, without a lot of personality. He had a dog, but hadn't brought it along. He wasn't very exciting or excited, and didn't have any suspicions. I cured him.
Yoric was one of our original sailors, and was from Emilgar. He had an accent and was a bit creepy. Emilgar was one of main sources of necromancy in the world, and he had some odd religious views. He didn't have any suspicions. I cured him. He had a magical necklace; it was a powerful charm against evil. I didn't ask him about it.
We rested again, and no one else was getting sick. Seve (our other veteran C'oritan sailor) did not get sick; neither did Jayden, the A'aloss, and Josh the hedge wizard. I was able to purify the remaining 2 batches of food, but that only got us another 4 days of food. We were pushing the limits of endurance. We would have to put into port in Volu, and Saigarn did not want to stop there. The A'aloss hated Volu, though the city was a reasonable trading port.
I talked to Saigarn, and made sure he was OK with me interviewing the A'aloss. He wasn't crazy about the idea. I explained I was trying to be as fair as possible, and I would keep it brief. He agreed it was a good method, and promised to send them down.
After a rest, I interviewed Jayden. He wasn't surprised; I emphasized I was trying to put him through the same process as the rest of the crew. He commented that he was happy I was being fair about it. I also told him at this point that I figured this was the lich's doing; it wasn't normal lich magic, but it seemed to be forcing us in the direction she wanted us to go. He also had a magical dagger. After some cajoling, he allowed me to examine it (while he held onto it.) I assured him I would keep his secrets. There were 3 separate enchantments; conjuration, evocation, and necromancy.
I traded him my ghost-touched cold iron warhammer in trust to examine the dagger more closely. The evocation component would cause bleeding wounds that required magical healing to stop. The conjuration was ghost-touched, like my warhammer. The necromancy was an effect that significantly increased the damage from a surprise attack. I passed back the dagger, complimented him on the quality, and assured him of confidentiality. He thanked me and I moved on.
I spoke with with Seve briefly. He didn't have anything to add, other than that there were a lot of odd things in this water, and like others, he wasn't sure if we'd ever pin this on anything. He admired my effort though.
Josh was our final human interview; the hedge wizard. He seemed to have a little poison in his system, though nothing serious; he had a pouch however with a very significant amount of poison in it. He seemed a little nervous, though not really out of the ordinary. He had no magical items. For some reason he believed the A'aloss might have been to blame for the sickness. He pointed out they seemed to really enjoy playing with the magical fish. I told him the A'aloss were up next, and assured him they were going to be questioned just like everyone else. He didn't seem to believe me.
I asked him point blank about the pouch of poison. He told me he didn't know what I was talking about. I pointed at the pouch and explicitly told him that I was willing to do whatever was necessary to find out what was in it. His composure broke, but he kept up with the store that the didn't know what was in it. I warned him I could destroy it with a thought. He turned to leave, and started running when I cast the spell to neutralize the contents of the pouch.
He ran right into the A'aloss. Saigarn had sent them down for their interviews. They immediately restrained him. He struggled harder, and it seemed like they took a little more time than they needed to, but they got him subdued and tied. He was beat up pretty badly, but nothing life threatening. I healed him up so that he wasn't in pain.
I sat the A'aloss down, within earshot of Josh. I asked them the same questions. They had no poison or magical items. They told us they had been eating certain fish, and it was keeping them in better spirits, but it would be lethal to humans. They said some C'oritan natives (like myself and Seve) might be able to handle it. They told me that Josh had been an annoyance; he was constantly trying to get into their circle, and find out any secrets of the fish. They knew he'd got his hands on at least some of the organs.
I took Josh's pouch. It was a small array of alchemy tools, and an unidentifiable paste. He wouldn't tell me anything about it. I thanked the A'aloss, asked them to share a bit of the magical fish with me next time, and sent them on the way. After updating Saigarn, I searched Josh's bunk.
Josh turned out to be hiding an small, amateurish, but passable alchemy lab. He had the organs from the fish in various states of preparation and decay. I called down Robert; he told me it looked like Josh actually knew his business a bit better than he let on. The preparation would make a mild sleeping poison. It would kill in a high enough dose, but it wasn't likely the reason the food had gone bad.
I thanked Robert and went back to the captain. He ordered the materials thrown overboard, and told Robert his life was only spared because the crew was so thin. Saigarn made it clear that if he cooked alone, or was found with any other implements, he would be killed immediately.
We untied Robert and sent him back to duty. His pride was broken. We might have made an enemy, but more importantly he was back to work and the threat was neutralized.
I went down to the hold and pulled out the orb. There was a faint shimmer of fire within it. I could barely see it. I felt an intense connection to the orb, and knew there was a large concentration of chaotic energy inside, and likely a pitched battle. That made sense - the fire elementals had gone somewhere, after all.
I was thinking about calling out the witch to get her take on events, but decided this wasn't the best time.
I reported back to Saigarn and life returned to normal. About 10 hours later, Robert came off shift, went down and came back to grab Jayden. He told us someone killed Josh in his bunk. Saigarn detailed me to investigate.
There was very little blood; his neck had been broken. It looked like he'd been attacked by an animal that had taken him by the neck and shaken him to death. There were some abrasions from teeth, but nothing indicating a normal beast. Brennen checked for any tracks or other sign.
Brennen found enough - he determined the culprit was a wererat. Someone on board was a Volu. We knew the A'aloss hated, loathed, and despised the Volu. This would start a witch hunt if we let the information get out. The A'aloss were the only ones we could rule out.
There was a lot of conjecture about the Volu. We knew they had traders of all races that lived in their city. The common wisdom was that no one should stay in the city for more than 6 months; that was long enough to catch the curse. We knew people disappeared there all the time.
This was its own unique, odd magic that was completely undetectable. Calling them wererats was a bit of a misnomer; there were many mutations within the Volu. Brennen was certain the jaws were truly massive to get around even Josh's scrawny neck. If the jaws were proportional, the hybrid form was 7-8' tall. The only thing we could do is talk to Saigarn and hope for the best.
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