So What's New?
Our travel through the wilderness has taken us past the snowy mountains and down in to a rather more humid region. So humid, in fact, that we are pretty much wading through the bog of eternal stench, air thick with putrid mist. What meagre path we can find through the bog is slippery and rife with rocks and roots for the unwary or clumsy to trip over.
'Should we rope ourselves together, so that if one of us falls in to the bog...'
'...the rest of us get dragged to our boggy doom? No, let's not.'
'What? What kind of adventuring party is this?'
'An experienced one.'
Sure enough, some of us trip and fall, and although a rope wouldn't have pulled us all down with those unlucky enough to stumble, it also wouldn't have stopped them from getting dunked or face-planting in to a tree. The falls cause accidental deep breaths of the putrid mist, or tastes of the filthy water. Or, indeed, unwanted creatures to attach themselves.
'Help! Get it off me!' Kyras picks himself up from a slip to find a leech has made friends with him. We can deal with that, as our rogue remembers some wisdom he once heard.
'These are the ones that come off when you pee on them, aren't they?'
'I'm willing to give it a go.'
Chow's not too sure about this, saying that they can only be removed by 'burning them off'.
'That's okay. My pee burns.' Maybe so, but not in the right way, sadly. We end up ripping the leech off Kyras, who feels a sting of pain as we remove the creature with a measure of ineptitude. I make a heal check to see if he's okay. He's not, he's contracted a disease.
'Mummy rot!'
As much as our history demands someone to suffer from mummy rot, the disease is actually swamp related and will result in a gradual dulling of the mind. But this is Kyras, 'how will we tell?' And can I treat it?
I take a second look at Kyras, and think I may be able to help him. After the pain of the leech, he's a little concerned about what treatment will entail. 'It will be fine, but you may feel a bit of a prick.'