Lurel is glad of the opportunity to rest - the afternoon's march was exhausting.

"Hello," he greets Konnell. "We're just passing through. We've set out on a long hike this morning, and Padden said you might be willing to sell us some supplies. And we'd be grateful, too, if you'd let us camp on your land. It's been a long walk from town."

He wonders, though, what happened to this Konnell - why is he sweating as though he has just exerted himself? And why is he limping? Although he does not believe that Padden would knowingly have let them towards an 'enemy', past experience has taught Lurel that people are not always as they seem. He uses his empathy skill on Konnell.

Turning to Padden, Lurel says: "Thank you for all your help, Padden - we'd have been wandering around the countryside for days looking for the right way. I know you have to go back to your mother in case there's an emergency, but surely you won't be going back in the dark?"

Ford pants as he tries to keep up. When they finally stop he lets out a large sigh of relief and starts to get his breath back.

"Yeah... thanks for your help Padden. We appreciate it... but geez... walk a little slower next time would ya?!"

He grins slightly.

Midge finally catches up with his rather small stride.

"Yes, we would be grateful for anything you could offer us.... we have gold"

Lurel's empathy shows Konnell to be a little surprised that people should be travelling anywhere near his farm. There is otherwise no harm in him.

Konnell is staring at Padden. "Camping in my field? Don't you remember the ticks last time you were here? If anything they are even worse. I've been scything the area around the house. They don't like short grass."

He contemplates the numbers. "You can stay in the farm. There's plenty of room."

He looks at Lisette. "The only water's in the pump in the yard. But if you can wait thirty minutes Malika will be arriving. She's got the farm adjoining mine. She'll take you back to get a wash there. Can't have these boys seeing too much, can we."

The way he looks at Padden, he is well aware of the boy's reputation.

"Malika will enjoy cooking for more than me, for once. She loves cooking."

Konnell leads you into a large and tidy farm house.

"So first things first. Let's get the business out of the way. What provisions do you need?"

"Thank you for the invitation," Lurel says with a smile. "It's very kind of you, to let us stay here. "As for provisions," - he looks questioningly at the others - "I suppose stuff that doesn't perish, isn't too heavy and can be prepared without too much fuss. Cheese maybe, if you have it, and some travel rations, cured sausage perhaps, maybe dried fruit...er...."

Lurel looks to the others for help as he cannot think of anything else.

Lisette startles a bit when she hears Lurel's voice "Oh... ah, thank you Konnell. I'd be happy to follow Malika back to her farm and wash up there. As for supplies, we could use some flour or cornmeal if you have any, some dried beans or salted meats, and if you have any eggs, we could boil them up; they'd travel well and last a few days. Other than that, I can't think of anything right now."

Konnell takes you through the farm to a cold room at the back. There he produces most of what you have asked for.

"I have no eggs but Malika will get those when she takes you to wash."

He glances at Ford. "I have a good salve for wounds and another for keeping the ticks off if the would help."

As he is talking a tall blond-haired girl enters. She is uncertain of the party.

"Konnell?"

"Hi Malika. These folk are buying some provisions. They are staying the night before going on to..."

He realises he does not know where you are going.

Konnell goes on. "Anyway I told the lady, here, you'd find her somewhere to wash."

Malika gives an amused glance at Paddon. "Yes. I can do that. But we'd best go now. I don't want to walk back in the dark when all those insects are on the move. Shall we go?"

Padden gruns. "I don't know about the rest of you but I'm using Konnell's pump now. I don't want bites in embarrassing places either!"

Konnell tells you that your food purchases come to four gold.

Lisette smiles at Malika. "Sounds good. Shall we go?"

OOC> Looks like the replies from Theta and me vanished during the upgrade.

Lurel, Ford and Midge.

As Padden ducks through the door heading for the shower he calls out: "There's nothing from here on. I'd get some of Konnell's salve if I were you."

Malika sets a pace almost as fierce as Padden. Fortunately Lisette is in good shape.

Malika says: "Why were you buying all that stuff from Konnell? Any farm around here would sell it to you. It seems silly to be carrying so much when you don't need to."

Lurel hands over four gold. "We can divide up the supplies later on, I suppose," he suggests. "For now I think we could all do with a wash, before the insects get really hungry."

He grimaces. "I hate ticks, I really do. I think maybe we will take some of that salve, if you can spare some. I don't know what's like between here and the sea, but I'd rather not get eaten by insects."

Lurel rummages in his pack for some clean clothes before following Padden out into the yard.

Lisette shrugged as she continues to walk beside Malika. "We're doing a bit of traveling and camping and thought it better to stock up on our supplies. Padden suggested we buy the goods from Konnell, so here we are."

She continues to walk towards Malika's farm. "It's so pretty out here. And the sea isn't that far. Have you ever been there?" Lisette asks innocently.

"That wound salve sounds good too. How much?"

Ford looks at Konnell.

Lisette

Malika raises an eyebrow.

"The sea? Oh, that accounts for it. Yes, as it happens I and two friend went to the sea about five years ago. It was our second attempt. But we never talk about it. Girls aren't supposed to be able to do what the boys can't do and if we'd said, all the boys have tried to get there and who knows what damage they might have suffered."

She falls silent. The memory of the trip is clearly not pleasant.

"Do you know how we did it? We did not stop singing. All the way at the top of our voices. When we got back home none of us could speak for over a week."

You see the farm a little way ahead.

Ford, Lurel and Midge

Konnell glances up. "If you want a whole pot it'll cost six gold. That's what I pay for it. I've a bit left in a used pot you can have for nothing."

Ford looks at the used pot and thinks. He decides a full pot of untouched salve would probably be a better idea.

"I guess I'll go for the full pot... thanks."

He hands over the 6 gold necessary.

It is cooler outside in the yard now, and the water from the pump is refreshingly cold. Lurel is grateful for the opportunity to wash away the sweat and the dust of the exhausting march. At first he welcomes the chill of the water, but soon he begins to shiver in the evening air. Once he is clean, and has put on the fresh garments he took from his pack, he realizes how tired he is, and can't help yawning.

Hastily he washes out the discarded clothes he had been wearing, hoping that he can get them dry for the morning, and heads back indoors.

"I could go to sleep right now," he mumbles. "Must be in worse shape than I thought."

Once Lurel is finished, Ford heads out and washes also, before putting on new clothes. He stuffs his old dirty ones in his pack, not wanting to stay out in the cold any longer than he has to. He heads back inside, shivering.

"G-geez you could c-catch neumonia from using that thing..."

He heads further inside and tries to warm up.

Lisette looks with sympathy over to Malika but her mind is spinning like a top, trying to piece together what she heard. She stops walking and looks directly at her companion.

"I'm sorry this brought up painful memories for you, Malika, but I need to ask you a few more questions. The safety of my companions may depend upon it." Lisette takes a deep breath before pushing on. "From what it sounds like, you and your friends... I assume they were girl friends?.... decided to take a trip to the sea to discover if you could do what the boys could not. And you made two attempts. What happened when you went? And why were you singing? We're you trying to drown out something else that you heard?"

Lisette listens intently to Malika response - seeing if the woman makes a reference to something she thought was a legend. For as far as she could tell, it almost sounded as if Malika, and those who attempted to traveled to the sea before her, encountered a siren and heard it's beautiful but deadly song.

Malika shrugs. "I can't say what it was. When we set out the first time we knew to be careful. So many came back damaged. But it took so much attention it tired us out and we lost heart. The second time we sang to keep up morale and would let any negative thoughts get through to us. It wasn't easy but we didn't stop to rest and suddenly we were there."

She closes her eyes. "There wasn't much to see. A stony shore, sand and mud. There were a lot of birds. We though we saw something silver glinting in the distance but..."

Malika has taken you to a water pump in the shelter of a barn. There are towels and soap to hand.

"When we reached the sea we stopped singing. It had served its purpose we thought. But we then felt desperate to get back to our homes. As if there were something in the atmosphere. We never investigated anything."

She walks away from Lisette. "Funnily enough it only took a day to get back. I've never understood that. I'll fetch the eggs you wanted."

Lisette is left to shower and make what she can of Malika's story.

Not long afterwards the girls return to Konnell's farm. Malika refuses to talk about the trip she made again, going instead into lengthy detail of the meal she plans to cook for them.

Lisette gets the others together and gives them detils of Malika's story.

It seems only moments later that you are all seated at the huge farm table.

Konnell smiles. "You'll want to be off at dawn to make the most of the light. If there is anything else you need to ask Malika, Padden or me, you'd better do it now."

Lurel is enjoying the warmth of the farmhouse, and looking forward to a hot meal.

"This looks like a nice place," he says. "Do you ever get any problems here? I've heard that things get a bit strange near the sea - lots of rain, and people having accidents and such. I just wondered where that kind of thing starts - when should we start to be on our guard? I mean - does this kind of thing ever happen as far inland as this? And I wonder," he adds after a short pause, "has it always been like that? I mean, people don't seem to be very interested in the sea, and I just wondered when that started."

He listens eagerly for any information their hosts might reveal - even the smallest snippet of information, unimportant though it may seem to Konnell and the others, may hold a vital clue for them - such as the information Lisette has received from Malika.

Ford just sits on his seat quietly, listening in to the conversation and slowly warming up.

Konnell glances at Malika and shrugs. "Don't recall anything happening here. Obviously I never made the attempt. Haven't been able to walk straight since my mother tried to cut a tick out of me when I was six. Nearly cut the foot off but she meant well. If those things get you, they can give you this terrible disease. I think that's what puts many people off. And it's rough and wet. There are other dangers too. The animals are aggressive, some of the plants are poisonous to touch. A few kids try it every year and the rest see enough not to bother. Besides, we can always go down to the Branden coast if we want to. There are no problems getting to the sea there."

There is a pause while Konnell thinks if there is anything he can add.

"I have a book with pictures of the dangerous plants. I won't let you take it. It was a favourite of my mother. You are welcome to look. It's rather a lot to remember though."

He glances around to see if anyone feels up to the challenge.

"Thanks for the warning," Lurel says with a grimace. "I'm glad we decided to get a full pot of the tick salve after all - I don't like the sound of that disease."

He looks at Midge, who has been very quiet - Lurel assumes that he must be tired after the exhausting walk.

"Midge, would you like to have a look at this book?"

"that's a pretty chunky book" says midge as he opens it and stares down at the pages...

"We shouldn't be in too much trouble.. anything that is more than one colour seems to be poisonous" Midge says as he hands the book back to Lurel

"Diseased ticks... rabid animals... poisonous plants... gee, this is gunna be fun!" Ford says with a sarcastic tone.

Malika gives a small laugh but does not elaborate.

Konnell finishes his meal. "I need to be up early so I'm turning in. I'll show you your rooms first."

He doesn't seem to notice that you are still devouring Malika's food.

There are four bedrooms. Lisette and Lurel have rooms to themselves. Ford and Midge are sharing. Konnell and Malika use the fourth. Padden is sleeping on the sofa. You retire after the quick raid back to the table to clean up the left overs. Nothing disturbs you until Konnell knocks on the doors.

"Malika has left packs with enough food for breakfast and lunch. We're off. Padden said goodbye too but needed to get back to his mother. Seemed a bit jumpy about you. Didn't say why. Outside the gate turn left. Path goes to the end of the long field. After that - you must make the best of it. We wish you luck."

You quickly assemble and collect the food packs. At the gate you do as Konnell advised. The long field is what it says and it takes you the best part of half an hour until you reach the end.

What you then see appears to be a continuation of the field. There is no trace of any path. To your left about fifteen paces away is a line of scrubby bushes perhaps following a stream bed. To your right about thirty paces the field changes colour from a brightish yellowy green to a darker blue-green. You can walk wherever you wish unrestricted.

Ford stretches and yawns as they walk along the path, still barely awake. When they reach the end of the field he looks around then looks to Lurel.

"Well... what way now?"

Midge feeling rather pooped, says
"Ford, you snore.. seriously, i couldn't get much sleep last night. JUst kidding, no you didn't"

"personally, that line of scrubby bushes seems to be the way to go, if it's stream it's bound to be a tributary of some kind.. perhaps to the sea?"

"Well..." Lurel says thoughtfully, "usually water finds the path of least resistance - so the streambed would be a good path to follow. But on the other hand, vegetation usually grows more thickly there too, which makes the going more difficult. And there are usually more biting insects near water too - if the ticks carry disease, who knows what the flies have in store for us?"

Lurel weighs up the various options, wishing he hadn't been so tired the night before - he feels that he didn't ask the right questions. And he regrets not having had a chance to say farewell to Padden.

"Well - it's still early. Let's follow the stream for a while, as long as it takes us in the right direction, and the going doesn't become too difficult. If it gets as hot as yesterday, it might be cooler there too. But keep an eye out for those poisonous plants - and those insects and other beasties."

He looks to the others. "Unless anyone has any strong feelings on the matter?"

You head towards the line of trees. The stream bed is dry, probably seasonal. It would be awkward to walk in it but the top of the banks are flat and the grass is not very tall. A low growing creeping plant with small pale leaves and inconspicuous white flowers grows in profusion.

Midge feels a strange vibration. When he tries to isolate the source it is coming from the rusty spoon. Except, the centre of the bowl is no longer rusty.

Lisette's magical dagger emits an all but inaudible hum.

The air seems suddenly thicker.

You all begin to feel tired, exhausted and depressed. This is a waste of time, it will serve you no purpose, you should give up before disaster befalls.

Lurel knows at once that there is magic in the atmosphere. What it is and who set it are questions for later. What must be decided immediately is how to counteract it. If it is not dealt with their plans will be doomed.

"This is wrong!" Lurel says urgently. "We need to do something about that! Something - or someone - is trying to stop us from going any further."

He thinks hard - there is something, he is sure, that was said about hearing, and distraction.

Then he remembers.
"Ford! That piece of straw you have - try using it now! If it can disrupt people's hearing, maybe it will distract us from this hostile influence too!"

He grimaces. "Or maybe we need to start singing, like Malika told Lisette."

Lisette pulls the dagger out and concentrates on it, enlarging it to the size of a poiniard. "This would be a good time for an attack..... But what's the use? Why are travelling anyway... Maybe we should go back.....". When she realizes that she is being affected by something, she shakes herself and strengthens her resolve to continue onward.

"Midge, was that white flower in the book you were looking at? Do you think that its fragrance is making us feel this way?" asked Lisette.






OOC - Why do I feel like this is a scene from the Wizard of Oz?

"The book said that it was not poisonous but it may just be because this is a different time of the year, all i know ois the book said not much except about it wasn't 'believed' to be poisonous"

Ford starts to look depressed, and is about to turn back when he suddenly realises something's wrong.

"Hey what the... this must be that odd feeling they were talking about..."

He whips out his piece of straw and blows on it as hard as he can, wincing as it begins to take effect.

The effect of the straw means that you can no longer hear anything except as heavily distorted noise. It means you cannot talk to each other. It certainly distracts your minds from the feeling of depression but is not going to work as a long term solution. Perhaps the spell only operates here, at the outset of the route, but you cannot assume it.

Lisette may have a point. The spell must be emanating from something. You need to find out what. If it is something as ubiquitous as the plant a long term solution will be needed. If it is specific you may be able to outrun it or neutralise it in some other way.

While Ford protects you from the spell the rest of you try what you can.

(OOC> only Ford is unable to trace the source in one way or another)

Lisette puts one hand up to her ear to cover it. "Gods! That thing is annoying! We better hurry or that stupid straw will drive me crazy!" she thinks angrily.

Lisette looks around at the others. She shouts to Midge, hoping that somehow he can make out the words even though he cannot hear them. "Midge, try using the spoon to see if we can find out what's going on. I'm going to try searching using my dagger as a dowsing stick..... Maybe we'll be lucky and find it and neutralize it."

Lisette holds the dagger out at arms length and turns in a circle, then starts moving in a spiral pattern from where they are standing. Hopefully, the dagger will vibrate/hum more if it gets closer to the cause of their apathy.

Without the depressive influence of the hostile magic Lurel realizes that they have to act soon - Ford cannot keep on blowing that straw forever, after all....and the noise is making him wince. Communicating with the others will be difficult.

He wishes he had a spell allowing him to detect the source of the magic, but without it, he has to think of something else. Lurel nods encouragingly to Lisette, though he cannot hear what she is trying to say.

He himself, remembering the strange creature in the Moldo's farmhouse, and the significance of the spoon, gestures to Midge, hoping that he will interpret his gestures correctly. With this hand he shapes an exaggerated outline of a spoon in the air, and mouthes the words 'use the spoon'.

Meanwhile, he himself draws his dagger - just in case the source of this magic should have a tangible form.

Every now and then Ford stops briefly to take a deep breath, then resumes blowing. But the lack of regular oxygen intake is starting to make him dizzy, and it probably won't be long before he has to stop, or collapses.

OOC> Shin PM'd me that he was using the spoon.

Midge and Lisette are both pulled towards the bottom of the gully. There is nothing obvious to see. In the farm the spoon had been bright and shiney until the danger had passed. Here, only the bowl is clear.

After scrabbling in the friable soil Midge unearths a small silver disc. As you touch it it burns your fingers but immediately goes cold. The spoon is again rusty. The dagger stops humming.

Lurel waves to Ford to stop blowing the straw, and takes a deep breath - hoping that the depressing influence has gone. He follows Midge and Lisette into the gully, and takes a closer look at the silver disk.

"Looks like your spoon has the ability to trace magic," Lurel says to Midge. "I think that will be very useful - especially if there are more surprises such as this one in store for us. And I think we can conclude from the reports we've had that there will be." He frowns. "I wonder how that spoon ended up in the burnt out farmhouse?"

He turns to Lisette. "What do you make of this? I think this is definite proof that something is keeping people away."

Again he frowns, biting his lip as he tries to remember what Zekic has told him about the use of magic in Levdia.

Ford stops blowing as soon as he sees Lurel motion to him. He collapses back onto the grass breathing deep and fast trying to regain his breath. Once he's strong enough he gets up and wanders down into the gully.

"What've you found? Things feel... different."

Lisette looks carefully at the disk. "I have never seen anything like this before. I don't know if this was intentionally planted as a deterent or dropped accidentily. Either way, it appears that we have neutralized the ill effects for now. "

She looks back to the group. "I think that we should bring it along with us, if for nothing else to prevent others from getting injured by it. If we are lucky, maybe we can study it and find a beneficial use for it. Let's wrap it up in some of the spare cloth. I can carry it in my pack if you don't feel comfortable carrying it.

Anyone else have any thoughts about this?"

"I must disagree, such implements of evil should be destroyed.
However my sppon has stopped vibrating so there must be no more clear danger resonating from it. It must be safe, ok we'll take it with us"

"Yes," Lurel says thoughtfully, "I think we should take the disk with us - if only to make sure that it won't hinder another in the future. But we must be prepared - we do not know if we were meant to find this disk, or if the disk can be used to focus another attack upon us. Ford, as soon as you start to feel that maybe we should turn back, or that this is all a waste of effort, start blowing that straw again - it seems to be effective against that particular magic. Lisette, if you are happy to carry the disk in your pack, let's take it with us. If it becomes active again I should think that your dagger will give you warning."

He bites his lip, frowning.

"But of course we shouldn't expect the next attack to take the same form. This was just a warning. If we ignore it..... well, the next one might be more determined. And of a completely different nature. Watch out for anything unusual - Midge, keep an eye out for any of the plants you recognize from the books. And yell as soon as your spoon starts behaving oddly. Animals, too, we should watch - if a tick can carry a nasty disease, other animals might be a threat to us too. I'll keep an eye out for anything unusual in or on the ground - we don't want to end up with broken limbs like others before us."


He sighs.

"Oh well, there's nothing for it - let's go on."

Ford nods.

"Will do..."

He smiles slightly, turns, heads back up to the stream, and waits for the others before continuing on.

The grass along the top of the stream is short and for a time the going is easy. You encounter a second disc and deal with it. The stream, still dry, zig-zags between low hills that block any distant view making it impossible to guess how far away the sea might be.
As you round one hill the incline becomes steeper, the stream bed ceases to be between earthy banks but through rocks. The rocks are awkward to walk on as several of the drops in level are big. Too big for Midge to step down, he has to jump and Lurel is having trouble too. At one point Lurel stumbes and falls into a small trough filled with vegetation. His hands are scraped by a plant with thin leathery leaves and sharp thorns. In the middle, only uncovered as Lurel pulls some of the vegetation away attached to his clothes, is a massive gaudy flower of red and purple hue.

"OUCH!" Lurel yelps with pain and surprise at his fall, and curses briefly. Realizing that the others overheard him, his face turns red.

"Sorry," he mumbles embarrassedly, "but that was sore!"

He looks at his scraped hands, and at the unwholesome looking flower.

"Midge..." he begins hesitantly, "can you remember if Konnell's book had anything to say about that flower? I don't like the look of that."

Angry at his own clumsiness he aims a kick at the flower.

"aparrently you hit that 'fermaterron' on your way down you will now have the itches, and rather badly too... as for this red and purple flower, no, it was not in Konnel's book. Perhaps an interbred species of 2 plants i dont know..."

"Itches," Lurel mutters. "Wonderful. Well, I suppose it could have been worse." Involuntarily he rubs at the scrape on his left hand, stops when he realizes what he is doing.

"I wish we had something to clean this with," he says unhappily. From his water bottle he pours a little bit of water over the scratches. "Maybe that salve we bought from Konnell might be useful - I really don't like the look of that flower at all. Who's carrying that salve pot again?"

Rummaging through his bag he encounters some of the food he is carrying - none of the fruit, he thinks, is acidic enough to have disinfectant properties. His fingers brush against the doll as he gives up searching through his pack.

Angrily he glowers at the flower. "I'm half tempted to chop it down," he says savagely as he picks up a small stone and throws it at the blossom.

Lisette blanches as she looks at the flower and recognizes it. "Lurel, Don't touch it any more! Guys, stay away from it. It's from my homeland and it is extremely poisonous!"

Lisette tries to recall all that she knows about the red and purple flower and if it is toxic in it's raw form or if it needed to be brewed to create the poison. She is also trying to remember any treatments for it in case Lurel will need it.

Lurel leaps back, another curse already on his tongue, but he bites it back.

"Poisonous. Wonderful," he sighs. ""I suppose I can hope that I didn't get too much of the plantsap into those scratches. I guess I should really look where I am going. Does anyone have anything I could treat the wound with? I'll even try that tick salve...."

Again he rubs at the scratches, and stops, angry with himself.

"I suppose we should try to get out of here before I start foaming at the mouth or something like that. And what should we do about that plant, you think? Burn it, so that it can't harm anyone else?"

He frowns. "How would a plant from your homeland end up here, Lisette? Maybe it's just an illusion, to scare us - like those disks were trying to drive us away!"