Vol wouldn't wake up this afterdawn. Something was terribly wrong with him. My guess was that bullywogs gas cloud must have coated his lungs bad. He was going into small fits of shock and I managed to stabilize him; but whenever I would try to rouse him to consciousness, he would quickly slip back to darkness. Some medic I am, can't but pull my brother out of his mindsleep.
I had to get him to a proper doctor, one with better resources than I could manage. The little raccoon climbed a tree for to see for a town. He came back down, pointing in a roughly east direction, chittering about smoke on his little note pad. I asked the Wilden if his spider would carry Vol, gods know I can't, and he took to it, thankfully. This is something I asked him not to mention to Vol later. Since as kids, we spent a day of adventuring in the forest. We found a cave, and us being the intrepit explorores we were, entered to the wind. It so happened that we wandered into a spider's nest. These spiders were large, much like the Wilden's. We wouldn't have made it out were it not for father come looking for us. Since, we've always been on edge around spiders. We'd have even more trouble with the spider of the Wilden, were it not hairy like it is, for the ones in the caves were as sleek and hairless as a river stone. But we went east, toward the smoke. The farther we traveled, the darker the forest got It became incredibly dark, to the point I had to light a sunrod for my companions.
We noticed in the dim light, large-bodied plants, with long vines lithing from them, with knotted clubs at the ends. The vines shuddered with each of our footsteps, and when we got too close to one, it started swinging the club around, so we kept our distance. Avoided the bulbous things best we could, but there were other creatures there we didn't see until their viney arms were wrapping up our legs. I poured acid on the one crawling up mine, and pulled my leg out as hard I could. We stumbled into a pack of long-armed, bipedal plant creatures. I looked back to the spider, and he was already climbing Vol up a tree, keeping him out of danger, of his own volition, which was nice of him. I doubt the Wilden cares much for Vol, apart from having his strength on his side, and that we aim to start wars, but I could be wrong. As long as he's helping, though, I should not complain.
With Vol out of the picture, I had to switch up my tactics. I had to heal, of course, but I also had to take the offensive. I did well. I was a little surprised; I never considered myself a fighter. We continued to follow the smoke, and it wasn't long before we found the edge of the forest, with a large walled town just beyond that. We knocked on the heavy door to the town, and we were let in without much of a thought.
Once inside, we split up. Spider and I look for the clinic. We found it after some time; it was a small, run-down shack. I approached hesitantly. Didn't seem much like a good clinic, given the building was in shambles. I knocked on the door, and a slot in the door opened, someone looked out, and let us in. I saw the same dark veil in the doorway, as the ones in the temple, and I entered into a very large, round room, with something near 20 beds lining the curved wall.
I asked the physician to take care of Vol, and he asked for money. I had to take some from Vol's coin pouch, I swear to repay it though. I carried his pouch for safe keeping, too. The physician was extremely arrogant. I wanted to poison him, but it would have to wait the 3 days or so until Vol was awake and to good health. The spider and I left, and I followed it to a shop, where the Wilden was shopping for a mask and a robe. I entered, but the spider stayed outside and wandered off. The Wilden was explaining to the shopkeep that he wanted to buy a hooded cloak. The keep was inconseevably stupid; he kept presenting things like bathing robes and such and red curtain fabric. Here I entertained myself. I told him I would show him curtain folding techniques practiced by the most noble dukes themselves from beyond the sea, for a small charge. He watched in awe as I cabara-shat my way through the fold, giving up, and just rolling it up at the end. He gave me his bagel and an acorn. I told the dumb fellow that nobody would take this currency where I was from, and I asked for something shinier. He gave me a Healing Brooch and asked me if I could come in and fold clothes for him during my stay in town, I agreed and hurriedly left, as the little raccoon and the Wilden had stolen things and left while I had the shop keep distracted.
They were outside, with the crowd, watching as the spider danced on the rooftop. People were throwing gold at it.
My mind had been growing a bit thick and hazy up to now, and I remember having a hard time thinking clear. I was telling the Wilden about the physician, trying to enlist his aid in offing the prat, when... we forgot who we were talking about. Were we talking about... Vecna? We might have been! Oh, and the Wilden pulled out the red curtain he stole from the shop. This looks like it might be his cape. But it's not on fire. I can fix that. He set it on the ground, and I pulled out a vial of alchemist fire. We took a few steps back, and as the vial crashed at the ground at the base of the curtain, we were engulfed in flames. All this time, the little raccoon was pointing toward the town gate, but we were busy talking, so we just let him go out on his own. But as the fire swelled around us, I realized there was something about this town that was getting in our heads, and making us act stupid and think foggy. So I dropped to the ground and rolled out my fire, and raced out of the city walls with the Wilden close behind.
After sitting outside for a few hours in the shade of the forest, we were thinking like scholars again. The physician was the only person in town we met, ourselves aside, who was not limited of the mind. Had he done this to the town? He had Vol in his care, too! I was scared for him. If he had made the whole town stupid, what could he be doing to Vol, maybe making him stupid, too. He could be running unknown alchemy through on him out of his own driven madness, I don't know. The Wilden and I plotted out a great plan to rescue him, but after all that, we just knocked on his door and walked in. The Wilden talked with the doctor while I unhooked Vol from his IV, and belted him into the spider's saddle. The doctor grew very angry with the Wilden, and forcefully told us to leave, while drawing a fireball upon his palm. We left in quite a hurry. As we were running out of town, the townsfolk were cheering us on, as if we were in a race.
Outside the town, back in the forest, we set up camp. The Wilden told me that the doctor had created a mind fog that kept everybody in peak physical condition, not being able to be sick any more, but at the expense of their thinking. This fog was derived from a berry the grew near a local temple, along the path of the beam. But a lot of the berry was put into the fog. The Wilden thinks that only a few berries could cure Vol, at keep his intelligence clear at the same. I want to test the berry first, before we try them on him. Anyway, I will be off to bed now. Hopefully we make progress toward either another town, or those berries, tomorrow afterdawn.
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