The Strange Fruit

[Kaiser Omnik]

The Orchard

Aruzara's insults seem to only add fuel to the fire.

"How DARE you talk to me like that, in my own orchard! I -"

Fortunately, Aryana's words, although not entirely convincing, do end up calming him a bit.

"I've heard about the sick animals from 5 years ago. If Voada vouches for your abilities, you can't be all bad. Although she lets anyone in her home these days..." The head laborer glances at the half-orc for a second, then turns his attention back to Aryana. "Speak your mind then, druid. What can you do about this mess?"

---

Auraun and Oliver

Spoiler

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OOC: I believe the others should have some time to investigate the orchard before you two reach them.

[Zevox]

Aranya winced at Aruzara's words. She knew the Half-Orc was trying to help, and was grateful that she was sticking up for her - especially given they'd just met - but she expected the woman's rudeness might just anger the man more. Which it did.

Thankfully, he wasn't too enraged to listen at all, so she had her chance, at least. "Thank you, sir," she said, inclining her head respectfully. Not her usual behavior, but she thought it best to try anything to seem polite, given the circumstances. "I actually came here because I heard about the apples and wanted to help, you see. I have a spell that can purify plants and food of diseases or poisons - I've used it to help other towns when disease struck crops before, and I was hoping to see if it would work here, too. As long as whatever is causing this is natural, it will, definitely," she said with total confidence and the optimistic smile that came so easily to her. "If you're at all worried, I'd be happy to try the spell on some apples you've already picked first. I think I'd prefer it, in fact - it would be best if we set one from the group I try it on aside first, so we can compare it to the ones I purify, to be sure the spell worked. It won't be as obvious as it usually is, after all, since the only thing odd about the apples is the taste. Unless what I've been told is wrong?"

Spoiler: OOC

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Another persuasion roll?

[The Hellbug]

Oliver

Oliver laughs and responds to the dwarf, "Only water, and I don't think that's what your thinking about."

[Lank]

Aruzara clenches her fist when Carda replies. Back in the raiders if anyone spoke to her like that she would have broken their jaw but that was then, she was trying to maintain a lawful path now and pursue honorable work. She unclenches her fist. "Lets just examine the plants and get going, I'd rather not be in the company of superstitious yokels for an extended period of time" she says to Aranya.

[Kaiser Omnik]

The Orchard

"Very well", says Carda. "Look for yourself, and do what you need to do."

He points to an unattented basket full of apples next to a ladder.

"But don't take your time! Don't get in the way of my workers. I'll be keeping an eye on you."

Carda glances one last time at the half-orc and leaves the three women to themselves.

[Lank]

"I'll take a look around the orchard if there is anything suspicious, perhaps there could be footprints not belonging to any of the workers or perhaps a damaged fence". Aruzara splits off from the others to do a bit of detective work.

Spoiler: roll

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(1d20+3)[9] for investigation.

[czieg]

As Carda leaves, Shallan lets out a sigh of relief. Superstitious folk were arguably her worst enemy since she became a warlock. Despite what others may think of their seemingly nonsensical accusations, when it came to her, their fears were not entirely unfounded. The overly aggressive ones like Carda were the worse, often asking rather pointed questions and not leaving a 'suspicious' person alone.

Once the irate farmer had left, the warlock did move over to the basket of apples. She didn't know much about the finer aspects of nature, but if it were indeed a magical taint that befallen the orchard like Carda believed, then she might have more luck.

Spoiler: Rolls

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Knowledge (Arcana): (1d20+3)[10]

[Zevox]

Aranya can't help but give Carda a bit of a glare once his back is turned. Rarely had she had to deal with someone that rude, particularly when she was offering her help with a serious problem.

"All right, Aruzara. I'll try my spell on those apples quickly, and have a look around myself, too. Lets meet back here in, say, ten minutes," she replied.

Moving over to the apples, she was a little surprised that Shallan accompanied her. Right, she'd said something about Dorn getting her to agree to help with the apple problem, hadn't she? Aranya takes the opportunity to get a quick look at the girl's necklace, now that the situation has passed and she's no longer clutching it like her life depended on it. It looked like... an eye? Huh. It reminded her a little of a priest's holy symbol, actually, though a bit more ornate, since it looked like it was carved from a jewel. She'd have to ask Shallan about it later.

In the meantime, she picked up one of the apples from the basket and handed it to Shallan. "Could you hold this for a second for me? Like I said to Carda, I want one separate from the bunch, so I can compare it to the others after I cast my spell." When the girl takes the apple, Aranya kneels down next to the basket and extends her left palm over it, her right still holding her walking staff upright, and speaks the words of her spell in the secret language of the Druids. "Chauntea, túra Kémi, carin síra laiwa yávë poca." She can feel the magical energy as it envelopes the area, but there was also this strange sensation...

Shaking it off, she says to Shallan, "All right then, that does it. Nothing left but to check them." Not about to ask someone else to risk getting sick to check and see if her spell worked, she grabs one of the apples from the basket and takes a bite.

Spoiler: OOC

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Cast Purify Food and Drink, being sure not to get the apple she handed to Shallan. 1 first-level spell cast, 2 remaining. Also, almost regardless of the results of her first taste-test, she'll do the same with the unpurified apple.

[Kaiser Omnik]

The Orchard

Aruzara wanders the orchard grounds looking for clues, anything that might point to foul play. But she finds no mysterious footprints, no torn down fences. The sun is now fully beating down on her face, and the half-orc is getting restless. Her blood boils for some action and the witch continues to elude her...

---

For her part, Shallan tries to make the best use of her arcane knowledge in the situation. She inspects the apple that Aryana just handed her. There's nothing, well...magical about it, as far as she can tell. Some spells would have highly visible effects; then again, she's heard of curses as well as alchemical poisons which would be all but undetectable without the proper "tools". Spells that detect magic or poison would be necessary to verify Carda's suspicions.

---

As Aryana casts her purifying spell, she senses an unusual...resistance? She can't quite tell what's happening and she can't pinpoint exactly where this antagonist force is coming from. The air around her gets heavier, denser; she feels her body temperature heating up; even the ground under her feet feels less stable, and almost like something's pulling her down... Her awareness of the world around her and even her sense of space-time become...distorted. Words become blurry and elusive in her head, but the half-elf holds on to them with all her mental strength. In truth, all this occurs in the few seconds it takes to finalize the incantation of her spell. Once the deed is done, the druid doesn't feel any of it anymore, except for some residual dizziness.

After taking a bite from both apples, Aryana is incapable of tasting the difference. However, taking more time to compare the purified batch to the spoiled fruit, she does notices faint discolorations in the latter.

Spoiler

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OOC: Zevox, you can cast Purify Food and Drink as a ritual instead if you prefer; it takes 10 minutes, but it saves you a spell slot. If you choose that, the resistance to Aryana's spell is felt just as the ritual ends.

[Zevox]

Well, that was... unexpected. Aranya frowns, not entirely sure what to make of the situation. The fruit she had purified looked better, but the one she hadn't tasted fine too? And that weird sensation of resistance when she cast the spell...

"I don't think it worked," she announces to the girl beside her. "It's the strangest thing: the apple I didn't purify tastes fine, too, but it looks a little off, which is the opposite of what I'd heard was going on. And there was a weird sense of resistance as I cast the spell, like... I don't even know how to describe it. Not like anything I've ever felt before, that's for sure." Well, maybe a little like one thing, but fortunately not nearly the same.

She looks at Shallan with grave concern etched on her face. "Whatever is causing this, I don't think it's natural after all. Or at least, there's definitely something unnatural trying to block me from healing it. Which might mean that Aruzara is right." She shakes her head, trying to clear it of the dark thoughts that have started to cross her mind. The idea that someone might be doing this deliberately is extremely disturbing, so to have evidence of it before her was making it hard for her concentrate on anything but worrying.

After a minute trying to still her thoughts, she finally says, half to Shallan and half to herself, "Okay, I want to have a look around the Orchard, see if anything looks wrong about the trees or soil, anything that might give me a clue where this is coming from. Then I need to meet Aruzara back here - oh, and find Carda and give him the bad news before we go." She gives Shallan a questioning look, not sure what the other Half-Elf's plans were. "You coming with, or do you have some other ideas of your own?"

[czieg]

Shallan accepted the apple, holding it rather gingerly while watching Aryana cast. She knew druids used magic that was based in nature, but purifying poisoned foods? It seemed that they were much more useful then the few abilities that was able to use. Nonetheless, she was glad to have a chance to help at all. It was strange that Carda suspected black magic, but she could find no trace of it on the apples that she examined. Perhaps it was her inexperience with growing fruit, but unless she had access to a properly stocked lab, she had no other way to test the apples further.

Shallan returns the apple to Aryana and gasps slightly as she takes a bite out of it. Even if she was a druid, rotten apples were enough to make someone ill, but an unnaturally blighted one? It was madness! Could it be that her powers gave her some resistance to the disease since it was plant-transmitted? That seemed awfully strange, but she wasn't a druid, so she took it at face value.

When Aryana describes the lack differences between the two apples and the 'resistance' she felt when casting her spell, Shallan furrows her brow. "I... I..." How could she explain knowing about black magic, without revealing herself? Looking around, an idea struck her.

"My family used to umm... work for a wizard who dabbled in darker magics. I picked up a few things, like how to identify where such magic was used, but I couldn't find any signs of magic in the apples myself, it could be that the curse doesn't effect the apples themselves directly, but on the soil, or maybe the water... no, it would be primarily watered by the rain, and unless they are able to change the weather, that isn't possible..." Shallan begins mumbling to herself under her breath, looking at the soil before snapping out of her trance. "Oh, umm... Well, I can check the soil with... Aruzara, you said her name was? If I had access to a real lab, I would be able to really tell you if it were magic more accurately."

Spoiler: Lies!

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Deception: (1d20+3)[11]
C'mon dice! You kill my players and my characters!

[Zevox]

Aranya gives Shallan a curious look, still trying to figure the girl out. She wants to ask about the girl's family, now that she finally has her saying something about herself, but decides against it - while they're at the Orchard they should focus on the apples. And she had only given Aruzara ten minutes until they were supposed to meet back up - maybe that was too little, in retrospect - so she wanted to get to her own investigations quickly, rather than get distracted by a conversation. Wow, it wasn't often that she thought that. So she sets the topic aside as another thing to ask the girl about later.

"Well, it's possible that the orchard isn't watered only by rain," she says. "There is a river not far east of here, they might bring water from there. Or there could be underground sources the trees' roots tap. It's another possibility we should look into, I think. I'm not sure I know what you mean about a 'lab' for checking the soil, though," She looks at the girl inquisitively, hoping for clarification.

[Lank]

Aruzara gives up on her search for anything out of the ordinary and returns to Aranya. "Couldn't find anything of interest, what about you?"

[Zevox]

Aranya is a little surprised to see Aruzara back a bit early. Still, she explains the situation, "Bad news. When I was casting my spell, I felt a strange resistance - something, either the disease itself or some outside magic, is trying to block me from curing it." She doesn't bother to add the obvious implications of that, already disturbed enough about them herself and not wanting to dwell on them when they should be trying to find out more. "My spell did make the apples look better, but with that resistance, I'm not sure it actually cured them fully. And anyway, there's no way I could keep casting it to try and cure the whole orchard if that's going to happen every time. Shallan and I were just discussing what to check on to try and find out what's causing this - the water they use or the soil seem like our first things to look at."

The Half-Elf girl looks a little sheepish as she thinks of something else that might help. "There is another spell I could try that would help - well, a couple, actually: one that can tell me if things are poisoned or diseased, and one that detects the effects of magic. But I didn't pray for those today. I thought all I'd have to do is purify the orchard. So I won't be able to try those until tomorrow."

[Kaiser Omnik]

Oliver and Auraun

Following lengthy conversations about language, art and drinking, the two companions finally arrive at the Lortan Orchard. There are ladders and carts laying around, most unattended. They see three workers eating lunch under a tree and overhear parts of what they're saying. Something about how they're really short-handed in the field, yet they're not sure if any of their work is worth it with this blight. And where's that darn Anac? An annoyed farmhand is saying that the so-called "Anac" usually gets here before anyone else.

Oliver and Auraun don't immediately spot the others, but if they ask around about a half-elf and a half-orc, workers will send them in their direction, a bit further to the north.

[The Hellbug]

Oliver

After getting directions from the orchard workers, Oliver thanks them and begins to make his way towards where they said the other investigators should be. Nothing jumps out at him as suspicious about the orchard itself as he and the dwarf pass through it besides the conversation between the field hands. That, however, can easily be explained by the sickness spreading through the village, and, since it matches his current suspicions about the cause of the blight, the tiefling doesn't give it any further thought.

The first of his companions that Oliver spots is the towering half-orc, and he greets her, saying, "Ahoy there! Betcha didn't expect to see us so soon, did ya? Have you found any evidence of tampering by that witch of yours?"

As he gets closer, Oliver is surprised by the presence of Shallan and is tempted to ask how her book acquisition went but decides that it would be better to share the information gleaned by he and Auraun first. "Well, Auraun and I met with a boy who seemed to be suffering from the blight and his mother. We, or I guess I should really say Auraun since I wasn't able to help too much, took a look at the boy's conditions and couldn't really tell exactly what to do to cure him. But that's not as important as the next part. When Auraun was looking for what could be causing the disease, he--." The tiefling, who had been fairly carried away by his narrative, suddenly stops and gives a quick look to the dwarf at his side. Then, he finishes, somewhat abashedly, "But it was really Auraun who figured it out so I think he should be the one to tell it."

[Kaiser Omnik]

Shallan

Shallan momentarily leaves the group to examine the soil on which the apple trees grow. Something then catches her eye, half-buried in dirt. She reaches for what are revealed to be a few acorns and...a small greenish gray scale? The acorns don't appear to come from any tree nearby. Following this trail, Shallan uncovers a few partially erased ritual markings etched into the ground. Finally, next to the markings, she finds a strange object seemingly hidden in the undergrowth; it looks like a miniature, grotesque wicker man.

If Shallan shows the druid these items, Aryana can tell that the wicker man may possibly be a druidic totem, although totems are usually wooden figurines depicting animals or abstract things decorated with fangs or feathers. It's impossible to make anything out of the ritual markings in their current state, but Aryana knows acorns are sometimes used as components for nature spells.

Spoiler

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OOC: A Nature check can be rolled (by anyone) to identify the scale.

[czieg]

Shallan shifted among the dirt, her elvish eyes scanning any signs of arcane tampering. After her initial scan, a small trail acorns and a scale were all she had to show for it. 'Shallan, look to your left slowly...' Shallan slowly turned her head to the left, scanning for whatever her mother wanted her to see. 'Stop! There, that is some sort of mark and not by some child, if I had to bet on it.' Shallan looked back at where Aryana was standing. She was probably far enough out of earshot so she couldn't hear a whisper. "What is it?" 'I don't know, but I bet the tree-hugger might.' Nodding, Shallan turned to call out to her half-elven companion when something else caught her eye. A strange wicker man. Reaching out for it, a strange sound reached her ears, like a... whisper? Shallan froze and scanned for any minds within her range, nothing. Who was that? 'The doll, it has some dark mark on it... interesting. Have Aryana bring one of the pure apples in that basket, I want to test something.'

The warlock grabbed the wicker man and dropped it into her pocket out of sight. "Aryana! I found some remnants of a spell I think! There are markings here, they are partly erased, but they might mean something. Also, could you bring one of the apples?" When Aryana comes over, Shallan points out the markings, as well as showing her the acorns and scale that she had found. 'Put the apple to the doll, this may be the source of the blight.' Shallan takes the apple Aryana brought her and places it in the pocket she had dropped the wicker man, pulling it out again after a few seconds and examining it for any difference.

Spoiler

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Nature for the scale: (1d20+1)[21] Well then... I guess Shallan is better spell components then Aryana. And she totally passed it when Aryana didn't because it was a component, not from her vast experience with nature.
Nature for the apple: (1d20+1)[7] You see? She knows nothing about nature!
My DnD game is insane, things went very, very wrong yesterday.

[Kaiser Omnik]

Spoiler: Shallan

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The scale doesn't belong to any beast Shallan or her mother know about. There's a tiny piece of pinkish flesh sticking to it and it's a bit sticky, but...that doesn't match anything she can think of. She's not even sure that's even usable as a spell component. It feels too...alien. Then again, she's no druid.

When the warlock touches a purified apple with the wicker man, nothing seems to happen...to the apple, anyway. But Shallan's mind is soon after filled with quick flashes, barely discernable visions that leave her shaken for an moment. She sees...the silhouettes of an elven male and a human female gathered at dusk around one of the apples trees...then another tree, this one part of a dense forest - an oak? - soaked in blood, bearing many figurines just like this one...and finally, twisted roots extending into a dark cave, the only light inside reflecting off serpentine eyes, dozens of them...

The apple, though, remains free from the blight.

[Zevox]

"Ahoy there! Betcha didn't expect to see us so soon, did ya? Have you found any evidence of tampering by that witch of yours?"

Despite the situation, Aranya smiles a little upon hearing the voice of her new bardic friend. "Well, looks like our little gang's all here now," she comments. She reflects for a second on how fortunate she is to have found so many others who wanted to help the villagers here - even if she's still not entirely sure why Shallan suddenly does. But then she remembers what she has to tell the Tiefling and Dwarf, and turns more serious. "Unfortunately, we might have, yeah." She explains what happened when she cast her purifying spell, then listens as Oliver starts to relate what he and Auraun had been up to.

Auraun is about to pick up where Oliver left off when Shallan suddenly calls out to her. When did she wander off? Aranya wonders. Then Shallan's words process, and she hurries to where the other girl is. "Show me," she says simply.

Examining what the younger girl found, Aranya lets out a gasp. These things together... they might mean that other Druids had been here. That seemed the most obvious conclusion, anyway. But... there was no way a Druid would do this. No, not a chance. If these were from Druids, they must have been trying to help. Yeah, that must be it. The Formir Druids were so reclusive that if they wanted to help, they'd come here in secret to do it, so that the townsfolk didn't disturb them. Right?

Examining the ritual markings on the ground, Aranya recognizes some of them, and grins. Actually, that may be exactly the case. "Well, the wicker doll might be a Druidic totem, and acorns are sometimes used in Druidic magic. And I think I recognize these markings - they're used in rituals that promote prosperity and growth." She stands up and looks at the others, a relieved smile on her face. "Other Druids might have been here after all, but it looks like they were trying to help."

[czieg]

Shallan flipped the scale over. "This scale...it isn't natural. It feels... wrong. Aryana, do you know of any... unnatural beasts in the forest?" Shallan passed the scale to Aryana, but images flash into her head just as the druid was about to take the scale, making he fingers twitch and dropping the scale.

A ritual with an elf and a human woman, somewhere in the back of her mind, she felt a flash of irony at the image. A blood-soaked tree. Eyes, serpentine eyes, so many of them. She gasps as the visions fade. "Especially something like a snake." She takes a deep breath and pulls the wicker man out of her pocket. "I may have found the source of the blight, this... this... figurine is laden with dark magic, sent images into my head." 'So that's what those were. I was forced from your mind for a moment.' She shivers and drops the figurine. "Destroy it, please."

Shallan looked towards the forest, a sense of foreboding heavy in her mind. Who were these druids? Why were they doing this? She did know one thing, she needed to go speak to Dorn again. How did he know about the druids and know to investigate them? There was more to him then meets the eye, far more then what she had thought. "Aryana, can I talk to you?" She glanced at the others, "Alone please."

[Zevox]

Aranya frowned, replies to Shallan's earlier statements dying as she suddenly asked to speak in private. The Druid girl didn't know what to make of that one. On the one hand, this was probably the first time Shallan actually wanted to talk to someone; on the other, she saw no reason to leave the others out of whatever Shallan wanted to say. "I'm always happy to talk. But why alone?" she asked, making no move to follow the other Half-Elf.

She did, however, grab the wicker man totem. She had no idea what Shallan was talking about, claiming it held dark magic, but she'd want to look it over herself to find out the truth now that Shallan had made the claim.

[Kaiser Omnik]

Spoiler: Aranya

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Aranya takes the wicker man and examines it. She finds nothing particularly wrong about it, although she does feel somewhat uneasy. A slight shiver passes down her neck; her palms are sweaty. Maybe it's just all this talk of dark magic...

[Lank]

"This is very incriminating evidence against the druids, I don't believe it for a second. Surely the druids aren't dumb enough to leave without taking their spell components with them. I think someone planted those there so we would go on a manhunt and focus on the druids rather than them".

[czieg]

Shallan looked over at Aryana, then back to the forests. "I think your druid circle needs to contact the Formir druids again. They are doing something, and it really needs to stop, before someone is hurt." 'Say exactly what I tell you to say and do not falter.' Otherwise/Otherwise, the/the only/only other/other people/people that/that will/will stop/stop it/it will/will be/be the townspeople/townspeople." 'Now she will have to-' "Think of how many will die if they take matters into their own hands, they won't wait either. Think about how Carda reacted, how about an entire town of these people?" 'Shallan, stop talking, we have them right where we want them.' "I won't tell them, but they will figure it out, or Carda will tell them."

'SILENCE!'

Shallan flinches and stops talking, putting one hand to her temple. 'Now you have been on a bit of a rebellious streak since we came to this town, but you were doing well, so I let you do this your way, but you need to remember who is in charge here. So, now they are going to ask what is wrong, and you are going to respond that the talisman sent you another image, say it is one of the images you haven't already told them about.'

"Sorry, I... just got another, um... vision, from the doll. A... uh... blood-soaked oak tree."

[Kaiser Omnik]

Spoiler: Shallan

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As Shallan recovers from her mother's reprimands, she opens her eyes and the first thing she sees is the wicker man in Aryana's hands. She swears the cursed totem is staring back at her.

[Zevox]

"This is very incriminating evidence against the druids, I don't believe it for a second. Surely the druids aren't dumb enough to leave without taking their spell components with them. I think someone planted those there so we would go on a manhunt and focus on the druids rather than them".

"Like the witch you're after," Aranya says, happy to latch onto the possibility. "Makes sense. Maybe she saw an old ritual circle and left a few things that would point the blame at someone else. Besides, most spells that have components like that burn them up to fuel the magic. And yeah, nobody would leave one from a spell that doesn't, because they can keep using it. So it's very odd to find one at all."

Shallan keeps going on, though, and Aranya increasingly does not know how to deal with the strange girl. The "visions" claim is creeping her out, and the rest she can only bring herself to vehemently deny. "Shallan, you're overreacting," she says bluntly - perhaps the least kind tone of voice she's had in the time that Shallan has known her (though still not exactly an angry tone). "If Carda found something like this, yeah, he'd jump to the wrong conclusions - just like you are - but he wouldn't get anyone hurt in the process. The villagers here are peaceful folk, farmers mostly. They don't fight, and wouldn't hurt anyone, much less kill anyone. They don't even have trained guards like a bigger town does."

"As for the visions, I'm really not sure what you're talking about. I'm holding the totem, and I'm not getting any, see?" She holds out the totem in the hand that isn't holding her ever-present staff as proof. "Look, tomorrow I can use that spell I mentioned that detects magic on this, and prove it's just a totem. For now though, we'll just have to hold onto it."

[The Hellbug]

Oliver

While Oliver and Auraun had been traveling to the orchard, the tiefling had formed something of a mental picture about what would happen when the to arrived at the orchard. They would tell the others about the nastiness in the water, which Aranya would easily confirm with her magic. Then, one or two choice incantations later, the water would be purified, the crop recovered, the day saved, and the townspeople eternally gracious of the heroes who had saved their village from a dreaded plague. Then, Oliver would be able to enjoy his leisure in the town and spend some good time entertaining the locals and getting to know the, frankly, very-interesting-looking history of the region.

Apparently, that was not to be.

Before Auraun could even open his mouth, the others were throwing around accusations of druids tainting the grove, which didn't make a whole lot of sense to Oliver, with what he knew about druids. And then there was that creepy little doll they were passing around...

Oliver frowns and throws up his hands, "Hold on, everybody. I'm lost here. You did hear me say that I said that we thought we might know the cause of the disease, right? One step at a time. First of all, druids? Second of all, townspeople taking matters into their own hands?" He then directs one last question at Shallan, "and what's made you suddenly so talkative?"

[czieg]

Shallan shakes her head clear of the echos left by her mother's reprimands. She was right, Shallan had been too carefree in how she had been handling the situation. She needed to control herself, these people were not her friends, and she wasn't theirs. Clearing her throat, she opened her eyes and immediately found herself staring into the fake, stitched-on eyes of the wicker doll. She fell back, in surprise with a yelp. "Please, tha-that... thing is covered in dark magic and it needs to be destroyed. There are more as well. I- I saw them by the tree. They could be all over the orchard." 'Now explain how the dolls could be all over the orchard and we don't want a child finding one, do we?' If a child gets their hands on one, it could hurt them from the exposure, or worse."

[Lank]

"Give it to me, I will smash it into a trillion pieces just to shut her up" Aruzara says to Aranya. "Why use magic to remove the curse when my boot will work just as effectively?"