Carlin Garrick Saves the World (Part 1)

Okay, saying I'm going to save the world might be a bit overblown, but I can at least claim to have assisted in saving a great number of people in Neverwinter.  As I told the leader of the town, I, Carlin Garrick, am happy to have helped.

Things seemed to be looking up for myself and my traveling companions and fellow adventurers as we approached Neverwinter.  With a good night's rest, we had recovered from the battle with the displacer beasts the night before and were ready to go meet Bobbie's friend Wrex.  As an added bonus, Merla had caught up with us after having had to go assist the wizard Max, who I think is kind-of like a mentor for her maybe?  At any rate, it was good to see her again.  I appreciate her humor and how she can be a servant of the divine without taking everything too seriously.  She's a good reminder that not all paladins are stuck-up snobs.  Paladins, despite certain stereotypes, don't have to be that way at all.

I was feeling good as we approached Neverwinter, all together for the first time since I had met these various adventurers, and yet as we drew closer, it quickly became apparent that something was not right.  There was a strange looking smog that seemed to have settled over the city.  We asked Cat about it, since Neverwinter is her home, and she confirmed that this was not normal.

Speaking of Cat, as we approached the city gates, we finally met someone who had heard of Cat!  As much as Cat seemed to have wanted the rest of us to have known who she was, the guards' reactions told me that maybe fewer people knowing her would be better... Cat is a criminal after all.  A criminal who attempts to be stealthy and yet apparently wants people, even those who would like to capture her, to know about her exploits.  I mean, I can appreciate the desire for notoriety, but seriously?  Fortunately, the guards let us through.  Maybe they were hoping that we could be a good influence on Cat.  I'm glad they didn't know us, or they would have realized that was unlikely to happen.

Our intended destination within the city was the Privasea Inn, located near the water, and apparently offering a fair degree of discretion, if the pun of a name would be believed.  Cat was able to point us in the right direction, but as we approached, we were distracted by shouting from a nearby alley.  As Westera, Cat, and I entered the alley, we say a half-orc ruffian threatening a scared looking man in noble attire.  When we interrupted the conflict, the ruffian bolted, leaving Westera, Cat, and I in pursuit as Kithri and Merla tended to the traumatized victim.

Okay, so that was what we thought was happening anyway.  When we eventually caught up to the "ruffian", thanks in no small part in my quick thinking offering of a reward to bystanders who helped tackle the half-orc to the ground, we discovered that he wasn't so much a "ruffian" as a devoted father trying to get money that was owed him so he could buy medicine to cure his sick daughter.  Yeah, so that smog over the city?  Apparently it was making everyone sick.  This man's daughter was one of the victims.  And he was so desperate to help her that he had resorted to getting money by any means necessary, including sleeping with a man who offered to pay him for such services.  Unfortunately, this customer had refused to pay after the deed was done, leaving the half-orc, Luga, desperate to use the stereotype of orcs being threatening to try to get his money back.

Maybe if I had paused to better assess the situation, I would have seen how much it was like that time I had found those "evil" goblins set upon by that "noble" party, those "evil" goblins who were simply traveling to an abandoned farm to try to set up a new life for themselves, and that "noble" party that saw no room for gray between the black and white of "goblins and orcs evil; humans, elves, and gnomes good."  I felt ashamed at having fallen prey to the same assumptions I had fought against not long ago, and promised Luga we would do what we could to get his daughter the medicine she needed.  I wasn't quite willing to go along with Cat's assertion that we would steal the medicine for him, but I certainly wanted to learn more about the man that Luga told us was charging an exorbitant 200gp for a single dosage of cure.  The suspicious vendor was named Gerry Alard, and Luga gave us a good idea of where to find this Gerry fellow.  But first we would need to rejoin the rest of our party, see if we could get Luga's customer to cough up payment, and check in with Wrex at the Privasea.  We promised Luga we'd meet up with him later at the Driftwood Tavern, conveniently located near the Privasea Inn and said (according to Cat, at least) to have great food.

Returning to the alley was not really pleasant.  Apparently a druid and a paladin combined had not been able to stop the "noble" in the alley from DYING with a weird green plant poking out of his nose.  It was disturbing to say the least.  I suppose I can at least attempt to excuse them by claiming they were distracted by the discovery that the man in the alley had not been a noble at all, simply dressed like one, and had no money to pay Luga.  Or maybe they did try to cast some sort of spell to save him, despite the definite lack of evidence to the contrary.  Maybe they knew he was beyond saving, maybe it happened quickly.  Maybe... I tried not to dwell on it too much.  Despite this man's deception of Luga, he didn't deserve to die.  And seeing him lying there, apparently having succumb to the disease that was threatening this whole city, it only spurred us into further action.  If you're going to watch someone die, at least let it motivate you to positive action.  And it seems like this death did.

When we got to the Privasea Inn, we were basically not greeted by a very rude old lady at the counter.  Fortunately, there was another woman, part orc, part human, who introduced herself as Sutha and seemed willing to direct us to Wrex's room.  Unfortunately, when we got to the room, it was immediately apparent that something was wrong.  The door was slightly ajar and there were no sounds of life from within.  Given we had a ROGUE in the party, this would have been a perfect opportunity for some sneaking, but before any of us could suggest that, said ROGUE decided the best course of action would be to BURST OPEN THE DOOR and mark right in like some sort of fighter.  Ugh.  Fortunately for all of us, the room was abandoned.  Unfortunately, there was no note or any other indication of where Wrex had gone, only signs that he had left in a hurry.

Bobbie seemed baffled by the idea that Wrex wouldn't leave some sort of message behind, so we investigated further.  Finally someone in the party had a good idea for how to proceed, as Merla summoned her canine mount and had it sniff around Wrex's room in an effort to track him.  It sniffed the pillows on the bed and then immediately headed back out the door to the main entrance to the Privasea Inn and to Sutha.  And this is where I jumped to conclusions again.  Fortunately, I had learned a little bit of discretion and instead of outright accusing Sutha of sleeping with Wrex, I cast message to ask Kithri if she thought that might be what was happening, and after getting agreement from the druid, tried my best to be subtle by asking Sutha how well she knew Wrex.

Apparently I wasn't subtle enough for Cat (who remember, is a ROGUE and I thought was supposed to be SUBTLE, but I guess this is a story of defying stereotypes), as she simply blurted out, "Were you sleeping with Wrex?!"  A very stunned Sutha answered that no, in fact she wasn't.  Wrex was friendly to her, however, and had given her a hair ribbon a day or two earlier.  Bobbie asked to see the ribbon and as the barbarian must have suspected, it turned out there was a secret message written on it.  As we took the ribbon back to Wrex's room to wrap it around a table leg in a way that revealed the message telling us he had moved on to a new location, I had to reflect that despite Cat's unexpected approach to questioning Sutha, we had at least gotten what we needed.  I just hoped this didn't become a habit of making false assumptions and hurting or disturbing people needlessly as a result.

Having seen the message from Wrex, Bobbie felt compelled to go after him, to the Undercity where Wrex had fled.  Though we certainly wanted to help Bobbie, the city of Neverwinter seemed to have a more immediate need for help, so the rest of us parted ways with her and went to seek out Gerry.  Oh, I suppose I should also mention that we learned in our exchanges with Sutha that she is Luga's daughter, the one he was so desperate to save.  By some miracle, we avoided revealing that Sutha's dad was so desperate to help her that he had attempted to have sex in exchange for money, but having met the young lady spurred us into further action to find this Gerry fellow and give him what-for.

Neverwinter is a pretty sizable city, and it was a decent hike to get to the district where Gerry was said to have set up shop.  On the way, I figured it might be worthwhile to try to repair the somewhat damaged relationship between myself and Cat (you know, from when she stole from that bandit we had taken out and then LIED about it), so I asked her about the orphanage she had said she planned to donate the money she had stolen to.  This brought up the rather startling revelation that Cat seems to think it's a good idea for basically anyone to go adopting an orphaned child, even if, for example, that someone is an adventurer who is always in harm's way.  I tried to convince her that a life of traveling around getting into trouble while trying to battle evil is not really the best life for a child.  It seems Cat might be just as stubborn as I can be at times, because she seemed totally unconvinced that our group of adventurers adopting a LITERAL CHILD would be a terrible idea.  I'll just have to keep an eye on her and do my best to ensure she doesn't one day sneak off and then rejoin our group with a LITERAL CHILD in toe.  Ugh.

Not a moment too soon (for the sake of my sanity), we approached quite the crowd gathered around a stand of potion-making ingredients run by a man who had to be Gerry and protected by three body guards.  "Okay, so what's the plan..." I started.  And apparently I should have been spending the trip over asking that instead of talking to Cat.  Maybe then we could have avoided having EVERYONE in this party make a bad choice.  I guess it was Westra's turn to do something that I would consider foolish as, without even giving any mind to my attempts to come up with a strategy, she marched right through the crowd and started making demands.

Which, okay, making good use of your authority as a knight can actually be a pretty good plan.  But the key word there is PLAN.  I don't think Westera actually had one of those, a plan that is.  I really wish she had taken more time to actually look around her and realize she could just address Gerry directly and make her demands of him instead of embarrassingly trying to go through his body guards.  The good part of what she was doing was that it served to distract said body guards so that both Cat and Merla could get close to Gerry.  I don't think that's what Westera was going for, but maybe I'll claim that later, to try to make her feel better about what I thought was a pretty disastrous attempt at negotiations and/or threatening on her part.

But more on that later.  The part of the interaction that actually was helpful was thanks to Merla using a command spell to make Gerry drink one of his own medicines and prove they weren't harmful, or at least that Gerry didn't think they were.  We had this fear that maybe it was the medicine itself that had killed that man back in the alley, rather than the disease.  We wanted to make sure the tonic was safe before sharing it with Sutha or whoever else might need it.  So Merla used a spell that would only work on a person if they thought what they were commanded to do was safe.  So when Gerry drank the potion, well, he thought it was safe.  Nice going, Merla!  I really like that paladin.

As Merla slipped back to where Kithri and I were watching the debacle that was Westera trying to assert her authority over Gerry's body guards, I congratulated her on a well executed strategy and then asked if she had any idea what Westera was trying to accomplish.  As the discussion Westera was having grew to a bit of a shouting match, and then a bit of a crowd uprising as she starting riling up the crowd against Gerry, it became apparent that the answer might simply have been that Westera was itching for a fight.  Note to self:  don't let Westera go too long without having something to hit, preferably something that isn't me or someone else in the party.

At any rate, despite it not at all being the approach I would have taken, Westera's approach of causing a minor riot did serve to prevent anyone else in the crowd from being swindled that day as Gerry decided it was time to back his bags and run away.  As the crowd dispersed, Cat, Kithri, and I decided to follow after Gerry and his goons while Merla and Westera (who had made themselves quite known to Gerry and thus might not be the best candidates to go along while tailing him) opted to go address the lord protector of Neverwinter and see if he could do anything to stop this Gerry scumbag from price gouging on his potions, as we were fairly certain he was doing yet still had no proof of.

Well, the proof was about to come.  After we parted ways, Cat, Kithri, and I stalked Gerry into Cat's own stomping grounds of the "Shard of Night".  It would have been a dangerous place to be, had it not been for Cat's presence to guide us and keep the riff raff away (since they seemed to recognize Cat as one of them).  Finally, Cat's desire to be known came in handy somewhat!

We followed Gerry to a barn where he hauled in his wagon full of potion-making supplies for the night (it appeared he had to mix the potions on site, probably to keep them from deteriorating) and went into the attached house with his goons.  After a brief time spent ACTUALLY PLANNING this time, Kithri used her sweet druid powers to turn into a mouse and scurry into the barn.  When she emerged again and turned back into a halfling, she had a bunch of the alchemy supplies with her, but no idea how to combine them for a cure.  Fortunately, Cat had an idea about someone who could help:  a botanist contact of hers named Judy Bloom.

Judy seemed not quite like a friend of Cat's as much as just someone who had to deal with Cat from time to time, but she was still willing to help us out.  She looked at the ingredients and noted that they could be used to make an antifungal.  When we asked if that was something that could stop the illness that was spreading around Neverwinter she admitted it was possible, though it seemed like she hadn't really considered that before.  When was asked her about the cost of this medicine, she said it was a couple silver pieces.  Yeah, a couple silver pieces.  And the ingredients were readily available just outside the town.  That scumbag Gerry really was a scumbag, profiting ridiculously after the illness and despair of others.  We thanked her and went off to meet back up with Merla and Westera.

Fortunately, Westera seems to be much better at interacting with honest-to-goodness nobles than with scummy body guards because she had gotten an agreement that the lord protector would meet with her the next day to discuss the Gerry situation.  We were able to share the low, low price of the potential cure and Westera and Merla were able to share that they had confirmed this disease did appear to be fungal in nature and that they suspected it was either coming from a rather recent mine that had opened upstream from Neverwinter or from a mysterious smelting plant that had opened in a very bad area near the city, and which no one seemed to know anything about.

We decided that step one was to test out the cure we had "acquired" (okay yes, so we did end up stealing it, but don't let Cat gloat too much).  We returned to the Privasea Inn to see if Sutha was around and willing to be our test subject, given that we at least were pretty confident the cure wasn't harmful given Merla's clever test of Gerry and the words of Judy Bloom.  Turns out the Inn isn't exactly open in the middle of the night.  I rang the bell anyway because I figured time at least might be of the essence.  Just as we were about to give up and find other accommodations for the night, that grumpy old lady from the front desk came and opened the door.  We asked after Sutha and learned that the quarter-orc had her own place and didn't live at the Privasea like its owner (the old lady) did, but would be back in the morning.  We figured this could wait until then and I instead requested a room for the night, offering to pay double because I felt at least a little bad for having disturbed this woman, as grumpy as I think she would have been either way.

In the morning, we found Sutha working and still coughing as a result of the fungal infection in the main room.  We explained to her that we had a potential cure and asked if she was willing to try it out.  She readily agreed and as Kithri mixed the ingredients following the recipe Judy had given us and handed Sutha the vial, I felt my heart beating faster.  I couldn't escape this dread that we had done something wrong, that we had misinterpreted some critical piece of the puzzle, that this potion the daughter of the man we had wrongfully assaulted was going to be killed rather than cured as a result of drinking this potion, that despite our best efforts to do the right thing, we would be run out of town as had happened to me so long ago when I had joined with Janzor and William to banish the young ghost that the people of the village turned out to have not really wanted banished after all.  I pushed my fears to the back of my mind as Sutha drank the potion and nothing bad immediately happened.  She went on with her day and we agreed to check in with her in a couple hours, as that was how long the potion was said to take to work.

Westera wasn't with us at this time, as she had gone to meet with the ruler of the city to discuss what we had found regarding Gerry and the cheap, cheap cure that we were currently testing out.  The other four of us went to the Driftwood Tavern next door to try out some of the allegedly delicious food that it had to offer.  And okay, yeah, it was pretty darn tasty.  I'm pretty sure the amount of biscuits and gravy we ate could rightfully be described as a "pile".  I even looked the other way as Cat scooped some leftovers into her bag.  We had made her pay for the whole breakfast, after all.  It wasn't stealing if she had already paid for it.

After breakfast, we met up again with Westera and checked in with Sutha who to my immense relief and building happiness seemed to be completely better.  It had been half an hour since she had coughed and she seemed much more energetic and bright.  Westera suggested we all go back to the lord protector to tell him the cure had worked.  I declined at first, still feeling a bit nervous about Westera's negotiations having only seen her so far with Gerry's guards, but then she raised an eyebrow at me as if to say, "Really, Lin, you don't want credit for this?"  (She might also have actually said that, I don't really remember.)  I perked up then and merrily agreed to go with.

The whole party wanted to go with, in fact.  Even Cat.  Cat who, I then learned, had attempted to steal from the lord protector, who Westera said was a really nice guy and definitely didn't deserve it.  Cat muttered something about robbing from the rich to give to the poor or some nonsense.  Wanting to get this show on the road, and apparently also because it was now MY turn to do something incredibly stupid, I reached out to touch Cat and cast invisibility on her.  I noted to the party that now we could all go into the palace, or wherever this guy lived, and Cat wouldn't get in trouble.

I think Westera's reaction could adequately be summarized as, "Uhhhhhh".  And then Kithri pointed out that she could just paralyze Cat and keep her from following us.  "Oh, well let's do that then," I decided, dropping the invisibility spell only to reveal Cat had sneaked up behind Westera and looked a bit surprised to now being visible again.

I don't know what Cat really would have done while invisible, but in retrospect, it definitely would not have been anything good.  Maybe now Westera and I can consider each other equal on the dumb ideas front?  At least we could if Westera would admit that her confrontation of Gerry's guards was a dumb idea.  I don't think she appreciates me basically telling her I thought it was a dumb idea via my poking fun at the whole situation.  Maybe if I can explain to her it wasn't so much her interaction with the guards as how she just marched up there without talking to the rest of us first.  Sigh.  That's another relationship I'll have to work on repairing.  What good is a bard in the party if she isn't going to write songs about me, right?  Plus, I do want to be Westera's friend, not just for my own sake but for the sake of others I care about being made more known through her, others like Janzor...  And she seems like a pretty cool and useful person as long as she sticks to interacting with non-thugs.

At any rate, Kithri did cast her spell on Cat and then we tied her up for when/if the spell wore off.  I even stuffed a biscuit in her mouth for good measure, which actually made her seem a bit more okay with the whole situation.

Despite the paralysis and the tying, Westera still seemed really super nervous about the idea of Cat approaching the lord protector's mansion.  When she told the guards not to let anyone named "Cat" through even if she claimed to be with us, their reaction was to basically exclaim, "The Black Cat?  Are you kidding?!  Of course we wouldn't let her in!"  Okay, fine, just drive it in how stupid my plan of sneaking her in had been.  Ugh.

Pushing that out of my mind, our meeting with the lord protector went remarkably well.  Westera seemed much more in her element here, and though I'v heard her insist she is the lowliest type of noble, I do have to admit that filling the role of noble suits her well.  It's weird to see someone who fits that role so naturally, after watching Tina struggle against what she had grown up as, but I can see how Westera's background can come on handy for us, just as Tina's had, at least in terms of getting us into the room where we ended up... Anyway, that's another story.  You can read through my older journals if you don't know what I'm talking about.

The lord protector seemed very grateful for what we had done for Neverwinter.  He informed us that Gerry and his goons were under arrest and that he had people out harvesting the supplies needed for more cure, which would be distributed to the city either at cost or free of charge.  That was a slight bummer as at least Cat and I had hoped to sell some of the cure for a reasonable fee of 4 sp, but the health and well being of the people was more important than getting a slight profit.  After all, I can see how it might be a slippery slope from "slight profit" to "exorbitant profit", and I certainly never want to end up like Gerry.

As we concluded our visit with the lord protector, I bid him farewell by announcing perhaps a bit too loudly, "I am glad that I, Carlin Garrick, was able to assist in this matter."  Westera smirked at me, but she didn't look too unfond.  Maybe I can bring her back to my side again if I can bring myself to apologize for calling her out on what I still think was not the best approach to Gerry, despite how it did work out.  Ugh.

Having done our duty to help cure the city of its disease, we left the mansion and began to discuss our next course of action.  Curing the ailment was one thing, but what we really needed to do was cut it off at the source.  As we went back to retrieve Cat (OF COURSE we could NEVER just FORGET to go untie her), we discussed whether the mine or the smelting plant would be best to check out first.  We settled on the smelting plant and prepared for our journey.  I'm not sure what we'll find, and I'm at least a little cautious given the stories I've heard about people going to check out the plant and never coming back, but I'm hoping our group has gotten all the bad ideas and foolish impulses out of our system.  And even if we haven't, we did somehow manage to find a cure and bring Gerry to justice.  Sometimes, you just have to do your best and trust that things will work out, and with a little luck (okay, given our group, maybe a LOT of luck), just maybe things will.