16: Wen, there's Darkness

Attending: Severin, Finn and Jules. Jules fights the internet and sometimes is there. Kasia away.

Granny is still being held by security, Dexter is sneaking around downstairs and Hamlet and Bardley found a mysterious furry someone in Nurse B's room! We start with Dexter's dark room with hissing noise from behind him, as he waits for the footsteps to pass by. He swings his torch around to address the person and find out if they are friendly, as they hiss and cover their face with the sheet. Dexter tyurns down the torch and ses a green pustule filled face, it's trying to speak but the way it's face is means not much comes out. He turns back to the corridor and doesn't see anything. The figure on the bed swings their feet onto the floor, hissing as it tries to talk and reveals that their whole body is covered with these bulbus lumps, even the bottom of their feet which squelch under the pressure of standing. Creeped out he listens and hears "Nurse" and points at itself. Dexter asks what letter and they draw a W in the dust on the floor. She needs help, which Dexter agrees to and scoops up grossly in a blanket and tracks back to the shiny box as the footsteps get closer and can now hear a scuttle noise.

Hamlet and Bradley address the figure, as it is revealed to be a Tabaxi with wrappings on its arms and a staff on it's back. This tabaxi knows who they are, asks where the rest of the team is and introduces itself as "Wen, of the Forgotten" who both has and hasn't been following them. They don't know anything about the Forgotten and there's some joking about how that probably makes sense given the name. The shiney box pings open revealling Dexter with a roll of banket over his shoulder with convenient timing and Wen ushers him in. Bardley says they should start a band and Wen says "we have our own songs thanks, I'm not one of the Singers but I do know the words." He agrees to perform the words if they stay quiet and then puts a hand into a pouch and pulls out a handful of dirt and performs the following: "In the name of the forgotten, we will never remember you. We will strike your memory from the hearts of all and turn their faces to the sky, their eyes to the earth, their hands to the heat, their steps into the sea and their minds towards each other. In no-ones name but hers we still sing so that none hear."

Wen tells the Sidebars that the reason he knows who they are is because The Forgotten keep tabs on the old woman they found and gave soup to in the forest. Wen says that the woman does not reveal herself to anyone usually and the fact that she did, means that they are now a group that the Forgotten will not forget. He lets them know what the Forgotten is and does, and that he doesn't exactly remember all of the details because well... he's forgotten them. He goes back to she who sings and then forgets. But she of the golden instrument told them it must be so and thus it is. Which perks Bardley's ears up of course, with golden instruments being something they are keenly interested in knowing more about and getting back. Dexter wants to know how Wen knows you're finding good things to forget, Wen speaks of maintaining the balance and ensuring that things are forgotten so that they can't be used for evil.

Dexter checks in with Nurse W and Wen is surprised to see a member of the Dark Vault with "The Rot" being carted around as they are usually cases that can't be helped. Wen in frustration reminds them of why they are all there and the team get searching Nurse B's room for clues as to why she is missing. Hamlet finds a well used leather bound journal and flicks through it, reading the hard days, the good days, the people helped and the ones she lost. Also referring to a nurse friend who fell ill and wondering where she was being taken. Then finds an entry that says:

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Nurse Nahi is furious with me. I'm probably going to lose my job for this. But I know I'm right and she's just being so stubborn. There's something wrong with the way they were disposing of the black gunk that is removed in a healing process. It always used to be absorbed and changed by the land, there is records going back thousands of years. I've read them and studied them. Someone says some words to say thank you, presumably to the ground itself because who else would they thank and then the ground takes it and changes it into the best growing earth for miles. The farmers have always paid us to take the black gold to their farms and we use the money to better heal others. that's how it's always been!

But I saw the barrels piling up. I heard the ferry was trapped with black goo... is it in the lake? I see the fees for healing rising and rising. It doesn't take a wizard to read the runes on the tablet here. AND SHE KNOWS IT. She didn't even deny it. She just listened and then told me to get out. To never mention it again. This isn't the Lakeside Hospital I wanted so badly to work at that I travelled across Isen doing minor healing in trade for food and a ride. I'm going to get to the bottom of this... even if it means I have to pack up my things and leave. (large water mark droplets and smudged ink here before it continues) Please don't let it be as bad as I think it is. Please let this be some kind of horrible mistake.

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Hamlet realising what they've found, tries to hide the journal by passing it to 'lacky' but Wen perceives the attempt. He asks them to pass it over because anything that may have information about the stones he was sent to find is vitally important. Hamlet hands it over knowing there is nothing like that inside. Wen flicks through it and finds nothing, frustrated he consoles himself that at least when he goes back he'll probably forget he's even been there. Hamlet offers that perhaps we could work together, and Wen considers this proposition. Bardley swings a massive persuasion roll to find out more and Wen makes a decision to help them get out of here so that they can talk more somewhere else.

They ask Nurse W what she wants, and hear that she wants to go home, so they decide to trust in Wen and smuggle her out as well. Dexter and Bardley get in underneath a sheet on the top of the trolley while Wen pushes it, while Hamlet holds the blanketed Nurse W on top of himself on the tray underneath. The plan is to come back for Granny if they need to later. As the trolley wheels through, they can hear Wen chatting easily to other nurses about the dead ones he's taking to the morgue. Dexter gets an irrepressibly itchy nose as the sheet tickles it and he fights to suppress the urge. The blanket that Nurse w is wrapped in begins to ooze with the yellowy gunk that has popped and Hamlet is watching as a drop hangs right above his face. Dexter scratches unable to stop himself and Hamlet projectile vomits out the side of the cart, causing Wen to scrambles to cover. Dexter comes out fighting and palm strikes the nurse to the throat, and Hamlet grabs the purple mushroom from last episode and throws it at her.

Desgracia sees this happen down the hallway and howls with laughter, encouraging the chaos and joins in with pelting the nurses with more mushroom right off her face. Wen breaks his horrified frozen pose and runs for the back door with the Sidebars, breaking his cover from the hospital forever. With no real plan on where to go, the Sidebars ask Nurse W where she lives and she pulls out her Kart Licence which has her address and they take a pause in this forested area after their escape to chat. Wen seems dejected for a moment with how that did not go to plan, but also mentions that maybe he screws up all the time but never remembers so it won't matter soon.

Wen suggests that maybe you should meet the other members of the Forgotten? They're everywhere but I'm here. Maybe I could get permission for you to go to the Temple? He seems really unsure of what to do exactly but what does seem clear is that if the Zeiglermel knows who they are then the Forgotten should too. You were asking about the stones and the golden instrument and more of that information can be found there but I can't take you there myself. So I need to get permission and it may take some time to get but he will return when he can. Wen asks what the party will do next?

Hamlet suggests that they need to get Nurse W to her home and Dexter says ideally he would like to free all of the occupants of the Dark Vault but knows that might take some time and is perhaps part of a bigger problem. Wen nods and agrees that something is wrong here, with the earth and that's why he was in Lakeside because they thought the stone might have something to do with it. Once upon a time these stones were apparently powerful and channeled the elements in some kind of way, at least according to the old hero's of Isen's stories. But perhaps it's bigger than that, bigger than we thought? I need to go back.

And with that Wen of the Forgotten walks away and then disappears, but our Sidebars are sure that they will see him again one day.

And that's the end of the episode!