Darkwood--Deepening Dusk

[Led Pighp]

Seeing Laurel glance his way suspiciously, Led feels a moment of panic. All the color drains out of his face, and his hands go cold and damp. Time seems to slow down, and he watches Laurel very slowly open the waterskin and very slowly pour some into the tub.

Each drop of pure water tumbles gently from the mouthpiece. They seem to hang in the air, suspended and surreal. The light of the sun glistens through them. In a way, the scene is beautful, and a part of his mind thinks "At least my last moment in this world will be spent watching this beautiful woman and these glorious drops of water." The rest of his mind is screaming in fear. Each moment of terror at impending death is also slowed. So the instant of total despair, of complete powerlessness to stop the horrible fate coming to him... that instant seems to take hours, or even days. And all of those days are spent immobile, unable to utter a word or lift a finger to stop it.

By the time the water finally falls all the way to the tub, there's no more fight left in Led. He'd been straining with all his strength, all that time, with no effect. He's almost happy to see it pass out of sight into the tub. The fear and dread will be over soon. The end is here, no more anticipation of what's to come; whatever it is, it can't be worse than this eternal moment of horror.

[Seven Words]

the flour becomes a paste..the pieces of wax simply float atop the water before the flour absorbs it.

[Laurel]

The bard slowly approaches the tub again, and peers in to make sure all is dormant, than turns to look back at Led with a relieved smile. Restoppering the water skein, she makes her way back to him and hands the skein over, then whispers, "If you will allow us to experiment a little on the spores Marrik carries with this, maybe we'll discover a means to clean this mess up. It appears at least there is no harm in trying..."

[Seven Words]

Sir Pval arrives...with a fierce scowl upon his face at your presence. Heren quickly tells him what has happened...Led saw the guards bespellled, overheard a conversation, and pursued.

"A cause for concern.....if true" he says with a sneer. "However, the things in the bakers goods clearly say something ill-aspected is going on. The baker's role in this must be ascertained. You will be questioned...but not put to the question unless you are caught lying. For now.....we will burn this to the ground. After we thoroughly wet the adjacent buildings, of course." He details off several guardsmen to gather citizens to form a bucket lie to wet down the flammable construction near the designated pyre. He also sets two guards to watch the concealed entry, and two more to watch from some 60' away, so as to prevent any one spell from incapacitating them all.

[Laurel]

"Sir Pval!" Laurel cries out, desperately.
"Even with protecting the other buildings, we do not know if fire will kill this...horror. Can not a small sample be burnt first, and the ash tested in some way before the wind bears the ash from a larger fire to places unforeseen?"

[Seven Words]

He gestures negligently with one hand as he mounts up and rides off, "If you wish" he tosses back over his shoulder.

[Led Pighp]

Led moves over and stands next to Marrik. He leans in and mutters briefly to the paladin, so nobody else can hear.

[Laurel]

Watching Led move away from her as though she herself was contaminated, Laurel looks towards the bakery. "It would be senseless to experiment on whatever is in the tub out here, since whatever is in the building has not been touched by holy water first," she mutters to herself. "So we need another sample..."

Squaring her shoulders and taking a deep breath of clean air before going in, Laurel tells Heren "I am going to look for some more items to experiment on and bring them outside. If you could ready an area that could contain the ash of a small fire..." She then thanks Cerana for her wisdom in guiding her to apply some holy water earlier, then goes to the door of the bakery and enters slowly, seeking other contaminated items to bring back outside to experiment on.

[spot, search, whatever may helpful here please]

[Laurel]

The bard sees seven more tubs inside the bakery. Approaching cautiously, she removes the lid of one, peers inside, reseals the lid, and moves on to the next. She looks in all seven tubs in this manner.

Of the seven tubs, four more are contaminated with the wax. Laurel swallows down her own fear, and drags the nearest tub back outside, looking to see if an area to experiment has been set up. If done on small enough samples outside of the tub, one tub should be enough...

[Led Pighp]

Seeing more of the taint being brought outside the building, Led backs further away again. Then he moves around the outside of the range to where Skyseeker is standing. Similar to before, he leans in closer to her and mutters in her ear.

[Laurel]

Not seeing anything changed, the bard heaves a sigh of exasperation and begins scouring the area for items she could use to run some experiments on. A flat piece of shale to scoop some of this waxy substance on to, something to confine any resultant ash or dust that may arise, she thinks to herself as she looks about...

[spot and search, perhaps?]

[Led Pighp]

Seeing her look around like that, Led connects that she might intend to do her dangerous experiments HERE IN THE STREETS. Which makes sense, based on what she'd said earlier, but now was a bit too close for comfort.

"Um... isn't there a working oven inside the bakery? Could you use the fires from that, as well as the containment from it? The building is already condemned to burn."

[Seven Words]

Marrik looks at the increasing mass of restive, worried people gathered about, and concurs. "Within would be a much better idea, I think."

[Led Pighp]

"You guys go ahead. I'll stay out here and keep calm.... er... keep PEOPLE calm."

[Laurel]

The bard raises an incredulous brow.
"And you will take my word alone of the results?
No. This needs to be done so all can observe.
If you are willing to come inside the bakery with me and be a witness to the results...?" she adds with a wicked grin.

"Besides, I wish to also see the effect of force upon it, if Vynarkus would be good enough during one of the experiments to use his blast on a sample. If we can determine what is the safest and most effective way of neutralizing the fungus, we must do so."

[Seven Words]

At Laurel's assertion of doing this outside, the crowd commences to grumbling, loudly....and there can be heard growing threats of physical violence should she attempt to do so.

[Vynarkus]

Vynarkus glances at Laurel, then shurgs. "It may not be the best idea to experiment like this, but if you're going to be doing it anyway...

Of course I'll help."

[Seven Words]

Marrik and Skyseeker both head for the door, to assist within..Skyseeker can be heard muttering under her breath, asking Valkhan's protection and Cerana's favor for the probably dangerous bad idea she's embarking on.

[Laurel]

Shaking her head in disbelief, the bard leaves the tub she had just dragged out where she left it and addresses the gathering assembly.

"Will anyone else come to witness what happens? I suggest dousing yourself with some of the holy water, just as a precaution before entering."

With that, she casts a disheartened look towards Led, lifts her chin, and stomps back in to the bakery. Once inside, she looks for items to help her proceed, besides the contaminated tubs. Perhaps some large pots to put individual samples in, with a lid to contain any resultant residue from each experiment, protective gear such as mitts or gloves, and appliances and tools with which to manipulate the samples. [spot and search yet again, please]

[Seven Words]

A little bit of flour with wax bits in it is placed into a large pot....some firewood is placed within as well...and it is set on fire.

The wax melts...the purple spores lay there, quiescent....before the fire reaches them and they simply incinerate. No fuss, no flash, no drama.


Simply gone.

Marrik breathes a sigh of relief..."The evil I could so clearly sense is gone from this. Fire will kill these spores."