DITF: Of Paws and Plagues

*Do not read beyond **this point** if you want to avoid being **spoiled!***

***Death in the Family* episode**

RandomTuesday

Bentham

**Of Paws and Plagues** is the first episode of Death in the Family. This transcription was performed by Blacksun388.

## Synopsis

At the Isle of Epidicae where Ensatina Desmognathus’s family lives the family home has been burned and the survivors fled to the village of Ruben. The village itself is a victim of a horrible disease. As they walk into the village of Ruben they see some tradesmen, magisters talking amongst themselves, and a relatively subdued atmosphere. After some banter they start looking for the relative of Ensatina. They start talking to a young girl who mentions that her ward, Timothy, is taken sick with the plague. The aunt has also taken sick with the plague and the child agrees to take them to the hospital. Glamon Desmognathus gets up to her usual shenanigans of turning people into chickens but fails. She reaches the inn where the diseased are taken and after some banter about not touching the infected (or Adelliah of the Axe eating them) they walk inside.

Inside the Inn there are sickly on a makeshift bunch of beds while the innkeeper looks around lost. They look at the Apothecary tending the ill and Ensatina asks where her ward and aunt are. She points out Timothy and notes he is actually holding up against the infection and that Ssathathii passed away from it. Ensatina tries to swallow her grief but then says that she came back and tried to attack Timothy and they had to lock her in the store room. Ragnar Fastflint notes that this could happen to others and Ensatina asks that her aunt be committed to the sacred fire. Adeliah is busy at the bar and Ragnar readies a fire arrow to be shot at the door. Adeliah readies to open the door. Enter Initiative.

Out of the door bursts a shriveled desiccated corpse. Ragnar fires an arrow and misses one but hits another. Glamon stabs the fiend. Adeliah sets Glamon and the fiend ablaze. Ragnar pins the fiend with an arrow and falls back. She finally dies. As they try to put out the fire other patients rise from their beds. Glamon tries to tentacle whip an infected and accidentally hits the Apothecary. Ensatina casts Haste on Adeliah and then goes to her aunt to say a prayer. The Apothecary and Tavern Keeper attack the infected. Adeliah goes up and slashes one of the infected not yet turned killing him. Ensatina gains courage from her prayers. The infected punches Adeliah. Another infected shambles to Ragnar and the others stalk up behind Adeliah.

Ragnar petrifies a shambling corpse and fires an arrow. The Apothecary and Bartender are hurt. Glamon stabs the infected next to her and tries to turn one into a chicken and succeeds. Ensatina tells everyone to move so she can fire her flames. An infected attacks Adeliah and hits. The apothecary heals herself and moves. Another infected hits Glamon. The innkeeper moves away and slaps an infected in the process. Ensatina fires off a spell and summons a monster to scorch the infected (and Glamon in the process… Again). Ragnar fires arrows into the petrified corpse. Glamon stabs the Chicken she created. The infected breaks the petrification and attacks Ragnar. Ensatina goes of to protect Timothy and Adeliah attacks setting the infected (and bartender) on fire. The Apothecary pulls out a vial and throws it at an infected. The Tavern owner tries to put himself out. Ragnar runs to the Innkeeper trying to put out the bartender. He goes to the Innkeeper and manages to put him out.

Glamon sees there is a water barrel and strikes it to put herself out. Adelliah walks up the stairs and slashes the infected dead. Exit Initiative.

Ragnar tries to put out the fire and Ensatina tries to study the corpses. Adelliah is confronted by the innkeeper about attacking him and he demands they leave. She also considers eating the flesh but struggles with possibly being infected. Ensatina studies the corpses and Timothy she draws the conclusion they might have ingested something which infected them and that fire seems to be an effective method of destroying them. She warns Adelliah against eating the flesh as it might be contagious. She then goes to the Innkeeper to get more information and they learn the fish season has been particularly hard. They then apologize for the damage and ready to leave. Adelliah examines the barrels of fish and smells some sort of acidic sour smell coming from it and takes a bundle of fish from it. The apothecary then offers them Sithaththi’s gold and Ensatina offers to divide pay depending on need. They gather up Sithaththi’s remains and Ensatina leaves Timothy in the Apothecary’s care. It seems that Timothy knows Glamon and tries to get him to speak about Ensatina’s stories. He lets fly that Ensatina has said some unsavory things.

With this uncomfortable meeting out of the way they leave the tavern and debate where they will go next….

Ragnar goes into the market for better weapons while Ensatina, Adelliah, and Glamon go to talk to the fish merchants to investigate the fish that has been coming into the city. Ensatina confronts the merchant about the fish while Adelliah starts sniffing the fish from the inn and then his supply. Adelliah notes the same smell on the fish and the merchant admits that the merchant has fallen on hard times and the fish seem to already be dead when they try to fish the stream. There aren't many live fish around the area and she’s not entirely sure about why. They leave and then go to a lizard wizard mage and try to bargain for a healing spell. Ensatina tries to haggle the price of the spell down to try and heal the sick. However the seller tries to note Ensatina’s high status and keeps his prices high.

Ensatina and Glamon stand aside and formulate a plan to steal the spell from the mage because of lacking the gold for his prices. Glamon suggests flirting with the young mage but Ensatina decides on another course of action. She picks a fake fight with Adelliah about carrying her aunt’s corpse and Glamon takes the opportunity to try and steal the spell formulae. The trader is distracted by the trade of insults and Glamon takes the spell. Glamon tries to put on a show for the crowd by turning a girl into a chicken which offends her parents deeply. After they turn her back and Ensatina offers a quick apology.

They decide to try and talk to the Magisters and Adelliah suggests asking a local elf to which Ensatina resists. Ragnar in the background hears someone talking about how there has been nothing interesting in the village. He can hear the voice and Adelliah checks on him to see what's wrong. Ragnar tries to check the fruit vendor thinking someone is playing a prank on him. He follows the voice to find a cat somehow and starts meowing at it. Adelliah then starts petting the cat. The cat, Pawel, offers wares to Ragnar and tells Adelliah the corpses are fine to eat. The cat offers some jewelry it took and tells Ragnar that if they can find the necklace it will make the other stuff more powerful. Ragnar decides to look for the necklace and is told by the cat to seek out their brothers to enchant the necklace further.

Ensatina walks over to the Magisters and the Dwarf captain and demands answers to her family mansion being burned down. The magisters say their investigation concluded that her aunt set the mansion ablaze to try and contain the disease. They had witnesses and detected signs of Pyromancy around the area, not surprising since pyromancy is a family tradition. She decides to ask Adelliah to talk to the mage. Ragnar finds the necklace that looks like a cat's eye and tells the others about it. Ensatina seems incredulous and they try to get on about their business. Adelliah goes over to the elf merchant and sees her old friend Earlian. Ensatina talks to Earlian and asks about the testimony they gave to the Magisters. Earlian spoke about she seemed to have run out of the house in a panic casting fire on the mansion and burning anyone trying to escape it. Ensatina doesn’t want to believe her aunt would kill anyone but the details align with too well with how the others turned that it makes sense. She concedes that she might have to allow Adelliah to consume her aunt’s corpse to learn the truth. Adelliah doesn’t want to eat it at the risk of being infected. Instead she suggests finding the ones or at least cause of the poisoned fish. She agrees to put her aunt to rest and find the source.

Ragnar then goes off to find the cat again and barters for a discount on the condition that Adelliah pets him again. Ensatina suggests doing away with the cat and taking the rings but he runs off. The cat from a distance offers to sell the rings for 250 coin. They go back and forth about whether the rings are worth the price and eventually Ensatina gives in and gives him the coins to purchase it. He finds Powel again and makes the exchange. The cat leaves the rings on the ground and picks up the bag of gold to drag off into the dark. Ragnar puts the rings onto the necklace and they fuse into a greater item. After Ensatina inspects the necklace she determines it indeed can summon a cat. He tries it and it summons a cat and soon after springs off like a cat on top of a watchtower much like a cat. They decide to leave and go to the family mortuary to burn Ensatina’s aunt on the pyre.

The hill above shows the remains of Ensatina’s mansion after it burns down. They go to the eternal pyre in the mortuary and gently throw her into the pyre so her body can burn. Ensatina recites the final rites of the dead and the group are somewhat somber on the occasion. They walk to the docks to try and find a way up the river. They encounter a friend of Ragnar’s named Ironhand who has been captaining the ships up and down the river. After a terse introduction they strike a deal with Ironhand to fight pirates if attacked and Ironhand and Adelliah bond over a fondness for axes. They agree to be taken to the spot where the infected fish are. They board the ship and it tilts and turns gently with the water. Looking out for anything strange they go out to the coast.

They spot an outcropping of beach where dead fish start rising up as they see the fishing grounds and go over to spot. They land on a beach and see there is polluted dirty water around the isle. The sand is dark and dirty and the fish around the island all seem to be dead. Upon investigation Ensatina sees broken barrels and suggests it might be some alchemical ingredients poisoning the area. Adelliah looks over at the beach and sees several long dead corpses that seem to be recently slain. She reaches down and carves a piece of flesh from the body. She sees a fisherman on a small boat throwing back a haul of fish. They then hear creaking of wood and turn around to see a large ship bearing a pirate flag dumping the barrels overboard. They try to run away but before they can deploy the sail they are cut down by arrows.

She comes out of the hallucination and explains it to the group in as much detail as possible. They then walk down the beach and see a Giant Crab and a dead pirate next to it….