Merchants with Miracle Cures are not to be trusted

General Summary

Since returning from campaigning with the Battle Crows I had this theory I would settle into a calm life. I don’t know why I ever thought that would happen. My life certainly hasn’t been calm up to this point. Take for example, a few months ago I ran into Renee and Jamie Loomis. Their daughter had taken ill and needed help. That seems simple enough, but it all seemed wrong. So I got my friend Leilani and asked her to figure out what was wrong with the girl. Leilani spent several hours looking over her and observing her symptoms and thought they looked suspiciously like mercury poisoning. While she looked the girl over I got some information from her parents. “Becky just came back from helping her cousin up in town. My brother needed help with his kids for a bit, so she went down into town to watch over the little ones. While she was there, two of them took ill. Becky helped out around the house. The seven-year-old died, but the older girl recovered. It’s been happening all over the Old Town, people taking sick. There are rumors a new plague has come. A new apothecary shop opened in town that can treat it, but the treatment is quite expensive, and it’s not 100 effective.” Leilani felt she needed more information than she had, so I went with her over to Robin Avery’s house, an herbalist who has recently moved to the area. Her house is right on the edge of the Fringe, and not a place I’d normally go, but Leilani was quite sure she’d have the information we needed. We followed the path, and as soon as we stepped into the Fringe it was like someone was watching us from the depths of the forest. After a bit, I heard a sound and looked up to see a tall slight figure wearing a horned helmet on a horse energetically prancing through the forest just where the forest reclaims its land. I nudge Leilani, and we both catch his eye and bow in respect. We can tell a predator when we see one, and he is obviously guarding or hunting. Either way, I do not wish to be his prey. He shadows us as we head deeper into the Fringe, not impeding our progress but aware of where we are. After hiking down the path for an hour or so we encounter a clearing with a stone cottage in the middle of it. A brook babbles in the background with an abundant herb garden between the house and the brook. Just as we step into the clearing a 12-year-old boy runs past us, “I’m going to John’s house Mom,” and that is all we heard of him. He exited the clearing noiselessly. His Mom exited the house, and we saw a woman, probably about 30. She turned to the rider pacing us and acknowledged him, and he bowed deeply to her and left us alone. We introduce ourselves and explain why we are here. “This is very concerning, if you are correct and it is Mercury poisoning then the treatment is very tricky, and I’m surprised to learn anyone is able to mass-produce it. I’ve had some experience with treating it, and it always required personal attendance to make sure it was done correctly,” Robin started to gather her supplies. “Let me gather a few things, and let me go see what is going on with this little girl.” She gathers a basket of supplies, loading in several bottles and dried herbs, and asks us to lead the way. We arrive at the Loomis house and Becky is in much the same condition. Robin examines her and quickly determines she has been poisoned by mercury. “This will require close examination, can you go into town to talk with her family there. I need to know how she might have been exposed.” Leilani and I head to town, and after a few odd incidents, Leilani really had to go to the bathroom quite a lot, we are able to find the Loomis house. It’s on the third story of a tenement house above the dye shop. The door is opened by a man who is obviously in mourning. “Good day sir, we’ve been sent by Renee and Jamie. Their daughter Becky has come down sick, and we wanted to find out more about what’s been going on. Can you tell us about the disease that’s been going through Blackbird Point?” “Oh no, Becky caught it too? Yes, come in, come in, whatever I can do to help,” he answered. “I don’t know what I can tell you about the disease. It doesn’t act like any normal disease would. It doesn’t hit the weakest like you would expect. It hits pretty much everyone. Sometimes in one family it’ll hit their youngest. In another family it hits their oldest child, or the 10-year-old. Then in a third family it hits the father. There’s no figuring it out. It seems to be hitting all over Old Town, which I can tell you is causing no fair amount of disquiet among the people her.” “Can you tell us, how the sickness progresses?” Leilani asks. “Well it all started up a few weeks ago, and it seems to take place over the span of five days. After that you’re either better, or dead. No real answer for that one,” he said after thinking for a little bit. “You’ve seen what they look like when they get it. It’s miserable to watch your child like that.” “We consulted with Miss Avery out by the Fringe, and she suspects it is mercury poisoning, can you tell us has there been any change in the local fish? Where do you get your water from?” she asked. He rubbed at his face a little, “Can’t say that I’ve noticed anything different about the fish. They cook up just fine, and haven’t tasted odd at all. We get our water from the fountains in town, just like everyone else around us. Those fountains have been here in Old Town since before there was a town.” “Thank you,” said Leilani, “you’ve been very helpful. One last question for you was there any particular spot where the illness was really bad?” “No, that’s what was so confusing.” We thanked him and headed to the fountains to start our investigation. We started with the foutains nearest the waterfront. The one closest to the new area of town had a middling rate of mercury in it. The one in the middle was strongest, like it was being continually fed more mercury. The one farthest away had the weakest traces. Like the water had once had mercury, but had been cleansed of it. After that I shape-shifted into an otter and picked up two samples of water, one near the grates where the water goes into the pipes, and one deep down near the bottom of the lake. I also notice that grates and pipes are made of a strange greenish swirly metal that I’ve never seen before. It is obviously not corrosive because there is no sign of rust, despite having been submerged in the water for longer than anyone can remember. I take the samples to Leilani and she tests them and there is no trace of the mercury anywhere in there. “That must mean it’s happening between the lake and the fountains, can you let this pebble go into the grates and I’ll follow it until we see where the water comes out?” Leilani asked me. “Will do,” I’ll see you in a few minutes. I shift back into an otter and drop the pebble into the grate and watch it as it’s sucked away. The suction to get into the pipes is quite strong, but the grate over the pipes does an admirable job keeping any large debris out. Leilani follows the signal of her pebble, and I catch up to her, only to stop at the guardhouse. It really wasn’t a guardhouse, it was actually more of a small building, but it had the look of a guardhouse you’d find by the city walls. The metal door was painted blue and was locked. I wasn’t really sure when it had last been opened, but I shape-shifted into a mouse and snuck in finding a key. I opened the door, and Leilani and I carefully climbed down a spiral staircase carved very carefully into the bedrock. At the bottom we found another metal door and opened it onto bubbling water. There Leilani finds vials on the ground with salt in them. The second room we find is locked, but between the two of us we are able to pick it. There we find some sort of filtration system that is putting some of this salt into the water. Leilani looks at it a bit, and is able to disable it. We decide to lay in wait to see who is going to come repair it, because it has to be monitored someway because it has to be refilled fairly often. After some time, one very large man comes in accompanied by two slightly smaller men carrying something very heavy. We step out and confront the men, but everything goes against us, and we are both knocked out.

WAKING UP SOMEWHERE ELSE

We woke up, trussed in a basement. I’m assuming it was a basement, there were the usual noises you’d find in a basement, so that was my assumption. “This doesn’t bode well for our ability to stop the people being poisoned,” Leilani whispered. “Yes,” I responded. “I think I can shapeshift into a mouse. Want me to go up and see what I can find up there?” “You probably should just go get help,” Leilani whispered back. “I don’t think we could overwhelm anyone, they’ve taken our weapons, and knocked us out when we were prepared for them.” “I’ll go get the Loomises. I’m sure between them we can round up enough people to free you and take care of this person,” I whispered as I wiggled my wrists trying to get loose. “Sounds good,” she said. I shifted into a mouse, and scurried up the stairs, as I did I smelled herbs, beeswax, and the types of smells I would associate with an herbalist shop. After scurrying across town for a little bit I shift back and find the Loomis family. With a minimal of explanations, they help me gather up a mob and we set on the new herbalist shop. There is a great deal of yelling and smashing of bottles as people gave vent to their anger at the people responsible for the death of their friends and family. Before the crowd can string up the men right then and there, we are able to grab two men. One calls himelf Slade, he had whiter hair than I would expect for a man of his age, is small and slight, and had an eye patch on his left eye. The magistrate came and hauled him off. The other man we caught was Caliphas, a mebmer of the Dead Dogs, and he hadn’t even known what he was selling, he was just a pretty face who could talk people into buying stuff. Leilani looked at the treatment they were selling and it’s just an opiate that would reduce the symptoms as the person being treated would be told to stay away from the “bad water.” “We can’t thank you enough for the help you gave us,” Mr. Loomis said, “If you ever need any help while you’re in town, just ask after the Loomis family, and we will gladly help you.”

Report Date

21 Dec 2021