Samos, village under a curse

[Prince Herb]

Samos appears to be a very normal looking village.   The single street running down the centre of the village is deserted, but that is not unusual, as the scorching midday sun forces everyone to seek some kind of shade.   Even the wind seems to have sought shade, jusdging by its absence.

Anaxagoras leads the group to the largest and certainly wealthiest looking house in the village.   "This is the house of our noble headman, Lysimachus," he says.   Above the entrance are carved the words "Let no evil enter here", and above that, only just visible in the glare of the sun, is a carving of the caduceus, the serpent entwined rod of office of Asklepios, god of healing and of medicine.

Anaxagoras raps on the door and calls out to the unseen inhabitants of the house.   Minutes pass before a weary looking house-slave opens the door and ushers the group into the inner courtyard, and then the main house itself.   All are happy to have the opportunity to get out of the sun and to put down their heavy burdens, especially the hunters with their spears and shields.   They are happier still when another house-slave brings them cool spring water to drink, mixed with the sweet white wine made from the householder's own vines.

The householder himself, is an old, distinguished looking man with a long white beard and a professional manner.   Anaxagoras gives him a brief account of the fight with the unicorn, which seems to displease him.   Hearing that one of the group is wounded, he moves into the role of physician.   He examines the heavy bruising where the black unicorn's horn struck Seraya.   "This is not a trivial wound," he says, "but the power of the god Asklepios will suffice to deal with it, I have no doubt."

He invokes the power of the god, calling on Asklepios to aid the poor wounded girl.

Lysimachus casts Cure Light Wounds and rolls 1d8+4 for 8 points of healing.   Seraya is restored to full health

The redness and bruising fade from Seraya's side and are gone.   Lysimachus smiles.   "Asklepios be praised."

"I can only apologise," he continues, "for allowing the curse that has struck this, our village, to harm strangers.   I would be pleased to offer you the protection of my house tonight, and an escort to the next village, if you desire such.   What say you?"

[Seraya]

Seraya watched as the magic healed her wound. When it was invisible, the pain was as well. She smiled and nodded her head. "Thank you for the healing." When the offer was made to stay in the mansion, she instinctly sensed for any ulterior motives. "You are more than kind. Again, I cannot speak for Caflice and Hannah, but I will accept your offer."

[Prince Herb]

Seraya rolls 1d20+7 for sense motive and gets 12

Seraya isn't able to sense anything untoward about the old man or his demeanor.

[Robbie]

Caflice looks at Seraya and Hannah when asked to stay at the mansion. "Well, if it's no trouble at all... I would like to stay here too. I haven't slept under a roof since I left Athens." Like Seraya, he tries to sense whatever ulterior motives this Lysimachus guy has.

Caflice rolls 7+2=9, and is unable to sense anything untoward about the man

[Chimera_Zero]

Seeing that both Seraya and Caflice sensed nothing wrong with the man, Hannah nods and says "I would like to stay here as well, if that is no bother."

[Prince Herb]

The mayor and his family dine early, and their guests with them, not out of a desire to make the best use of the daylight, but because of what the locals know the night will bring.   The olives, cheese, fish, bread and wine of the meal are tasty, but Lysimachus doesn't seem to enjoy his meal much.   As the sun sets, his nerves appear to worsen, and he excuses himself early.   His wife and pretty dark-eyed daughter soon follow, and there is nothing for Caflice, Seraya and Hannah to do but to follow the house-slaves to their allotted sleeping places.

On a rocky outcrop well above the village, Mizar stands, waiting for the reed torches and oil lamps to be lit.   As each little spark of light in the cluster of darkening houses comes to life, Mizar feels it as a bolt of pain, probing through his layers of darkness, burning at his very essence.   The light should not go where there is dark, he thinks as he begins to howl.

And what a howl it is.   Mizar throws back his head and gave forth the sound of a siren bled with a locomotive whistle and mixed with the death-wails of a score of accident victims, the howling of a wolf on a winter's night, and the baying of hounds upon a trail.   The villagers shiver in their houses, but none will go forth from their door to trouble the dark unicorn in his element.

Caflice hears it in the small guest bedroom and is uneasy, remembering tales from his homeland of the wailing of dead spirits, and how they can bring doom to even the greatest warrior.   Seraya amd Hannah hear it too, over on the other side of the house in the larger room that they're sharing with the daughter of Lysimachus, and they remember similar stories from their own cultures.   Somehow, the warm night and the soft beds don't provide the comfort they should.

The howling goes on for an age, until the group of adventurers fear it might go on forever.   And then, somehow now less discontent, Mizar stops and gallops back wherever he came from, passing the strange scuttling creatures in the meadows around the standing stone as he goes.

The girl Amarande sighs as the noise ceases, and crawls over to Hannah.   "You came her to stop it, right?"   She seems to take whatever Hannah mumbles as an affirmative.   "Don't let dad talk you out of it," she says, "and take me with you.   I can help."

Maybe Hannah dreamed that last ; she's certainly too tired to respond properly, and the next thing she is really aware of is the daylight pouring through the curtains and Seraya snoring away in the bed next to her own.

[Seraya]

Soon after the sun starts filling the room, Seraya is getting dressed. The howling must have been that black unicorn... I'll have to find Anaxagoras if he knows of how I could help defeat it. As she ponders best ways to get rid of the beast, she looks over to Hannah and Amarande.

[Chimera_Zero]

Hannah wonders about her dream last night as she wakes up. She looks over to Seraya and simply nods, wishing to get this little adventure over with as soon as possible...

[Robbie]

Caflice has already been awake for the past hour, and is staying in his room, looking out the window. He wonders what the noise last night was, and how Lysimachus seemed to have grown despondent during the day, when the sun set over the village.

Shaking his head, he gets up to leave the guest room, and find the others.

[Prince Herb]

Caflice finds the room with the girls in it quite easily and knocks on the door.   As soon as the others are decent, he's allowed in.   Amarande slips out of the room to go down to the kitchen to see that breakfast is properly prepared, leaving the three adventurers alone.

[Seraya]

"Strange how fate works sometimes... So, Lady Hannah, Sir Caflice, I'd like to know what your intentions are. Myself, I plan to rid this village of their curse." Plain and simple, she would fight again. If they wished to go on, so be it.

[Robbie]

Caflice looks at Seraya. "Well, I'm going to find that out for myself as well. This village is in too deep trouble for someone to me to leave alone..." He looks over at Hannah, expecting her to have her say in the matter as well.

[Chimera_Zero]

Hannah looks at Caflice and Seraya. "My intentions are to help this village.... but after that, I leave to resume my own quest, which is to become the most powerful druid there is. So unless fate has something else for me, I won't be seeing you guys after this." Hannah then just shrugged and looked away.

[Seraya]

"Then for now, it would probably be best we pool our resources. The more might we can toss at that unicorn, the more likely we are to succeed." There was the sound of metal singing as she sheathed her sword. "I'm going to speak with Anaxagoras about any method he might know to defeat it." With that, she started to leave and seek out the soldier.

[Robbie]

Caflice looks towards Hannah. "Well, maybe I should go around the town and talk to some people. Maybe I can get some more information on this creature. Maybe you should do that too..."

Caflice then turns around and leaves the room and the house, going out to gather information on the beast.