A blessing countered Options

[sonof]

The sandstorm settled as the temple appeared again. The robed figured walked up the steps, passed the animal headed statues. As he approached the eyes of the statues that stood either side of the doors flared red and the great stone doors opened.

*******
“Sign here and collect your necklace from the box” the Commisant said.
“Sign sir?”
“Yes sign, we need to know who has what Necklace so they can return them. The Stadtus can be picky about this sort of thing you know”
“True” The militia laughed.
Sellaville hadn’t been badly touched by the Blessing, but it was spreading. It seemed to have arrived with the last gold from the Brokenlands. Though there was also talk of it having come from a trader from Schtoy.

******

A large booming noise was heard one night. A clarion call which every shaman in the broken lands heard.

We iz infected brothers with a scourge from da humans. Listen close..

All tribals must minimise touching each other for 7 days. Power foci with mystical energies as our forefathers once taught us, call on your spirits and gods so these foci can cleanse disease. Then get everyone to visit them so this scourge called pep can be removed from our people.

In the morning large wooden totems could seen being erected across the broken lands.

They depicted a large bull with one huge horn. The horn was white as bone and for those esteemed in spiritual sense these emanated a soft white glow.

“I blame Shargrot, Lug wouldn’t let this happen. He is so much better than the stupid High Witchdoctor!”

At the moot By mid morning everyone that walked past these totems on their daily chores or those that looked upon them where cleansed in some fashion from the pep disease being partially lifted from their spirits.

The shamans weren’t seen for days having spent considerable spiritual energy powering the horns with ritual powers.

Elsewhere in the Brokenlands things were not going as smoothly.

******
Penny directly people up the steps into Talthars Hallowed Temple. People had been sceptical at first, but the reputation the faith had built over the years in Bidlteve meant people, even the undead, were willing to listen and have the disease cured.

There had been some discussions with a group of mummies about it, but a rather helpful member of the Militia pointed out if they were really worried, and being cured wouldn’t kill them, they could just go to the Iron and Empire temple and get a normal disease again when the pep one was gone.

The Militia had warned that the problem wasn’t as simple as just curing everyone though, it seemed a group of Mummies had been spreading the plague in the rural lands, deliberately.

Having heard this Penny had sent the members of Hell Company that had travelled with her out to find them.

******
“Hold, and announce yourself” the Ggrutuck bellowed at the gates of Mirrenheim.
“Tristan, Lord Knight. We’ve been told the city have been touched by a disease and we’re here to help”
The Ggrutuck eyed up the Lord Knight “Bit short to be a Lord Knight aren’t you?”
“I hear that a lot”
“Grafnags in his keep, go talk to him, he’s the best person to direct you”.
With that the Templars led by the Lord Knight entered the city, the signs of the decade long war with the Spiter still touched the streets, but the city was repairing. The great Glass domes on buildings were returning.
A strange sight for those that only saw the Ggrutuck as creatures of war and not scholars and architects.

*****
Bheren spoke with the Militia and the Watch of the Thimon. He had travelled here over the years for trade and knew his way around.
The priests of Talthar, and the guards with them, had been directed here by Penny. It seemed spotting the spread from Bulaslavia into Thimon would allow efforts to be focussed on the Baronies later, which was needed. When they had left Caer Talthar word had reached them that another wave of infected people had been quarantined in Takalia. Graf Ultretchof had sent word to the Circle for aid, but lacking priests in any real numbers meant it was slow.

Fortunately Thimon was not bad. What puzzled Bheren the most thought was the rats. He had expected the Ratfolk population to be the main victims of the “Blessing” but none of them were infected, and some of the Longhairs even spoke of the less kind Rats trying to get the disease to spread it, but for some reason the plague would not touch them

*****
Muttley paced the great room, the problem had been growing, more reports had come to the Moot speaker a strange disease had been spreading through the Tribal broken lands. The King.. Snuffy, was already calling all shamans To empower totems to aid all the populace under his rule. For Muttley, this was a good thing.

Muttleys plans where simple. Go to the source or indeed sources, taking his elite guard and closest allies and stamp out this ere disease.

Suddenly the doors of the Glory Hall Burst open, in strode Snuffy flank by Storm ogres and his own personal retinue. Oggrod, Shlucky, Lug, Porkpie, Dropem, Shank and Sha Grot Flanked in Behind him. "Didnt Fink we'd leave ya to do this alone did ya? Snuffy Grinned ..... No Blood Brother , I did not, Muttley responded.

All too soon the chamber was filled with what sounded kettle drums being banged. The Great heart beats continued to thud into the chamber as both Snuffy, Muttley, Oggrod and Porkpie merged into huge Ettins. The Divine Shibberchook and Bobrod both roared shaking the very walls of the hall

The last thing Bubbles heard as she strolled into the glory hall was "Lord Sylphs take us hence" !!

"Its alright boyz" she mumbled, me and Silent Cloud can hold the fort.....

******
The entire feasting hall had been turned into a massive Alchemical laboratory. Over thirty of the most skilled potion makers Coris Mount had to offer were churning out potions day and night, sleeping in shift patterns.
Sonasello walked through the hall and paused at each station. It was clear that this was slowing the infection at best. Gazing in the middle nothing she managed to confirm one thing, the action to slowly the spread, and indeed turn the tide, had managed to stop it getting worse. However the Blessing had taken hold across the Baronies and it would be a challenge to stop it.
Word had reached that every Circle priest that could cure diseases had been recalled to Coris Mount to try and stem the tide in Habderburg, but it was spreading faster than they could stop it. Already those within the Mount itself were infected.

Was this some sort of ritual warfare on the South? It made little sense as everything mercenaries had found suggested Pep’s target was the Nobility and the Empire of Glass. Was it just bad luck that the Baronies had been the centre of the outbreak?

*****
Dancing through the trees the Goblin smiled and sang his song “I smashed a troll, I smashed a troll”. Having just returned from the Brokenlands the Goblin had enjoyed the raid on the Decante, they deserved it.
Then as he turned the corner towards the Spider tribes village he stepped on the twig and heard the snap
“oops”
The traps set earlier were sprung and the goblins leg cut clean off and he was thrown into the tree.
Screaming other Goblins came to his aid. Picking him up they began to drag him back to the village.
“How are you still alive?”
“Don’t know” said the Goblin “I’ve being feeling tougher since punching the troll”
One of the rescuers turned “You know what, I feel a bit stronger too”
“Yeah me five” said another Goblin.


******
Tirama opened another crate of Purgatives. Hope and Mercy had been busy in Scarlene getting them shipped down to Alunkhad. They had also managed to get a good number of scrolls for the priests of Shaehan to use.

It hadn’t been easy to do, without a true city the group had been forced to travel from village to village trying to locate people that had been infected and where they had been.

Each evening Josho would take the scrolls used that day and draw upon the spirits of light to try and infuse them with power anew.

That evening the group sat around a campfire. The priests slept, exhausted not only from the travel by the strain of continually healing and meditating.

At least some lives had been saved though, a small mercy but a mercy none the least.

******
Jesiah moved through the streets with the militia. Checking everyone they found, anyone that was infected was taken to the Commisants officers. The Knight Templars had set up there and were curing the blessing as quickly as they could.

It had been a long few days, but as the evening set in it seemed that everyone in the city had been found and cured.

How long it would last was unclear, but it had been done for now at least.

*******

Izkrok and Shlucky looked at the gathered Orcs.
“The King says you are getting cured” Shlucky shouted again, maybe they hadn’t understood.
“Why? It makes us stronger and means we are tougher”
“Because it’s a disease” Said Izrok, how was it these Orcs were so stupid!
“Yes.. and the man said we can use it to smash the Nobles faces in. We’ll be strong enough to get all our land back and stop them taking it from us”
“What man?” Shlucky asked
“The man in robes with the ladybird on his tabard”
“It wasn’t a lady bird”
“Well what was it then?”
“Don’t know, but lady birds aren’t gold are they?”
“It was a gold lady bird then, on his purple tabard”
“And what did he say!” Izrok asked in exasperation
“That we can have the power and they would help us smash the Nobles in, if we helped them smash the Nobles in”
“Well it don’t matter, you can’t have it King says”
“Oh yeah puppy boy, make us get cured!”
“What you calling me!”
Izrock stepped in between the two “Look this isn’t about fighting its about curing”
“No, this is about fighting”
“No it’s…”
“You’re right, its about you taking the puppy home before we hurt it”
“Shlucky…”
Before Izrock finish Shlucky’s claw was buried in the orcs chest “Puppy am I?”
“Oh well…” Izrock unslung his axe. Guess the Blessing would be go rid of the old fashioned way…

*******
Tristan sat opposite Grafnag. The discussion earlier had been short, and simple. Tristan was surprised how easy it was to convince Grafnag to let the Templars go to work, but Grafnag was remarkably amicable in the talks.
Now they ate, a great feast. Tristan wasn’t sure what it was he was eating but he’d been assured it was intelligent or even human, and it tasted nice.

“So the disease is gone?”
“For now yes, but we found people arriving from other Waldgrafines carrying it. So we need to be careful to stop it returning”
“When you done here where next for your Templars?”
“I don’t know, it seems to be bad in almost every part to the Baronies and is getting worse”
“Well thank you for your help here. If you need us call. I don’t have many that can heal pestilence, but if we can help we will”
“Thank you”

******
The last of the mummies fell to the ground. The priest checking the bodies.
“That’s all of them”
“Strange creatures. Their touch was just the blessing, and not the normal plague”
“How many are infected?”
“A dozen or so”
“Lets take care and get back to Penny so we can get cured”
“Is this the last of it?”
“Yes, though I did find people on a ship from the Needles with it this morning, so we’ll need to check the docks to make sure it doesn’t arrive on ships from Ishma or the Needles”
“Or the Baronies, I hear they have it bad”

******
The moots door opened and a blood covered Izrock and Shlucky returned.
Snuffy and Muttley were already working out what to do next.
“What happened?”
“Some of the Orcs didn’t want to be cured”
“So we cured them permanently”
“Oh”

The fire was burning in the dark night in the centre of the hall. The boar turning slowly on it.
“So its all gone”
“Yep, every last trace”
“And how did it get here?”
“Some man apparently, he promised it in exchange for killing Nobles”
“Oh”

The fire flared as the fat from the boar dropped onto it. The Brokenlands could go back to worrying about other things now. Like which Ogre had eaten all the pies.

*****
The man knelt before the altar. “Blessing be upon you my lord”
“Is it done?”
“We are close my lord. We have the means to travel and rescue Ramarl”
“Excellent. I wish him to be at our side when we bring vengeance on those that laid waste to our homeland”
“And your return my lord?”
“It is nigh. Th next time this temple manifests I will be able to return in the flesh as well”
“Excellent my lord”
“Now go, carry word to the others, and prepare for our victory”
“Yes my lord”

The robed figured turned and left the temple, walking down the steps he paused as the sand storm returned and watched as the temple vanished as easily as it had appeared.