Akash made his way down the stairs of the Golden Grain the next morning, feeling well refreshed and excited for the new day ahead of him. The rest of the party was already in the tavern section of the Grain ordering a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage. "So, do we have a plan for today?" asked Akash as he took a seat at the table.
"I think we should go to the church and check on that soldier," said Gnoll, "he was in bad shape, and I feel that we are somewhat responsible for his condition."
"Yeah, that's true, between you and I we should be able to help him in some manner."
Finishing their breakfast the party made their way to the church where the elderly priest greeted them at the large oak doors. "Hello, I assume you are here to talk to the soldier whom you saved last night." He said.
"In a way, Gnoll and I have some healing magic, and we wanted to stop by and see how he is doing, and if there was anything we could do to help him."
"Well I am afraid he is only getting worse. Please come inside to see for yourselves." The priest led them into the church, which was sparsely decorated with a handful of artifacts and a small, yeet impressive piece of stained glass behind the main altar. Continuing on he led them into a small side room where a cot had been set up for the soldier to rest upon. He lay limply on the cot, his limbs bound with a myriad of splints. It appeared that there was no longer any active bleeding at the bandages that covered the non-splinted areas of his body still shone a pure white, unsullied by blood. "As you can see, we have done our best to set his broken bones, and staunch the bleeding, however, I am not strong enough to heal him completely. You are welcome to try your best, but unless you are significantly more powerful than you appear I fear it will all be for naught."
Gnoll and Akash both knelt by the side of the dying man, outstretching open palms that glowed with a familiar golden light they focussed their will, channeling their magical energy to the man. His breathing deepened and evened out, turning back to face the priest they were surprised to see a still somber look on his face.
"Each time we try what you just attempted he will recover for a moment, but then decline back to an unstable condition." As the words left the priest the soldier's body was wracked with a coughing fit, his breath returning to its previous rasping. "I was able to find a ritual that should be potent enough to heal him, but one of the ingredients has been outlawed for nearly two decades. There may still be some who grow it, but it is highly unlikely that we will be able to procure any in the time that this man has left on this plane."
Perking up, Akasha asked, "What is it? We can at least try to find some to save him."
"It is a plant known as Sluid, historically it has been used in healing rituals and potions to relax the patient granting them temporary relief while the magic fixes them. However, farmers began using it to relax after hard days and as a result agricultural production ground to a halt. Fearing an impending famine it was outlawed, in order to encourage higher productivity."
"Well, is there anyone who still grows it? There's gotta be someone out there who still uses it."
"I don't know anyone in Greenmeadow who grows it, we're just a little too close to Thundercliffe, and their law keepers…you may, may, be able to find some south of here in Three Falls. They've always been a little more self governing, and I suspect that some of the farmers still grow personal staches in secret, but I highly doubt that you will be able to make it there and convince one of the farmers to give you some with the time that this man has left."
"I think we have to try, no man deserves to die like this." turning to stand Akash and the others made their way out of the church and started traveling south to Three Falls.
The road was reasonably well traveled, passing a few straw laden, and merchant carts along the way. After about eight hours of waving grassland they came upon the first of the satellite farms of Three Falls. Gnoll approached the front porch and gave the white door a quick rap with his knuckles. After a moment, sounds of shuffling came from within as a middle aged woman with brown hair tied back in a messy bun cracked open the door.
"Hello there, is there something I can do to help y'all" she asked, her eyes squinting with suspicion.
"Apologies for the intrusion ma'am, but we are desperate. There is a man in Greenmeadow who is dying from a grievous wound and the ritual that we need to save his life requires sluid." The woman's face dropped into a scowl.
"Sluid is illegal you know. I wouldn't go around askin' for it if I were you." She begins to close the door, but Gnoll steps forward, his leather boot wedged between the door and the frame, preventing her from closing it completely.
"Please, we're not with the authorities, but we need this for our friend. If you know anyone who can help us please, just let us know and we will be on our way."
"Listen, y'all clearly have no idea what you are getting yourselves into, but if you really need sluid as much as you say then go check out the accounting shop in town and talk to Sarah." With a swift kick she removed Gnoll's boot from the gap and slammed the door shut, the sound of several locks being latch solidified the end of the conversation. Gnoll turned and strode off the wrap-around porch to discuss options with the rest of the party.
"Well, considering we are trying to buy an illegal drug I would say that went rather well. She told me to go check with Sarah at the accounting firm in town."
"That's great news, let's hurry over, maybe we can catch them before they close up for the day." Suggested Akash, his tone was excited, but he held a healthy nugget of suspicion in the back of his mind, for an illegal drug this was going much better than he expected.
It took another hour to make it into town proper. The main drag of the town was split by a clear river with three bridges providing passage across. A good number of people roamed the streets, many wearing the heavy clothes of laborers. Akash was surprised by the diversity of a town of this side as well, while the majority of individuals were humans, as it was in Greenmeadow there were many half-orcs and goliaths lumbering the streets with the occasional gnome scurrying around the taller folk. Although the streets were busy the party was quickly able to find the accounting shop that the farmer had pointed them to. nudging the door open it was a quaint office, with three separated desk areas, each occupied by a sharply dressed accountant tending to a customer. Scanning the room Akash noticed each of the accountants had a plaque with their name pinned just outside their desk area. At the desk labeled Sarah sat a sharp eyed gnome, who was compiling a stack of papers that she handed to the client at her desk before shaking their hand and bidding them goodbye.
"I got this one guys, I speak gnomish might give us a little advantage." Naivara whispered to the group as she walked over to Sarah's desk. As she pulled out the wooden chair it squeaked on the floors prompting Sarah to look up from a small notebook.
"We're about to close up for the evening, I'm really not looking to take on any new clients this late in the day." Sarah said, shifting her focus back to the notebook.
"I believe this will be worth your while." Niavara replied, her voice unfamiliar to her friends, a more melodic quality to it, her face contorting with the strange pops and clicks of the foreign language she now spoke. Lifting an eyebrow with surprise Sarah responded.
"Not too common for you tall folk to speak the stump tongue." her own voice taking on the same qualities of Naivara's. "So, what exactly do you want?" She continued.
"My friends and I are looking to pick up some product. We were told that you were the one to talk to.
"Who told you that?" Her voice lowering to a hiss as she leaned forward on her desk.
"Just a farmer, so do you have anything for us?" replied Naivara with a dismissive wave of her hand.
Leaning back and spinning in her chair Sarah replied, "You know, I do have a job that needs to be done. Meet me at the Two Carts tavern in an hour, and we can discuss the details of the arrangement. Now get out, I need to close up."
returning back to the party Niavara switched back to her usual voice, "We've got an appointment, we need to meet her at one of the taverns in town in an hour to discuss the finer points, but it sounds like she will be able to help us out, if we help her out."
"She didn't happen to mention what she had in mind for us, did she?"
"Uhhhh, no. She did not mention that aspect."
"Great."
The hour passed and the party found themselves in the dimly lit dining room of the Two Carts tavern. Contrary to their previous tavern of choice, The Golden Grain, the Two Carts' clientele was much more rugged, with individuals who wore dark dust stained uniforms and chose to sip their pints of ale in solemn solitude rather than enjoy the company of those around them. Passing under the two minecarts that hung from the ceiling the group approached the table pushed against the far wall where Sarah was sitting, her hands clasped around a large stein filled to the brim with a dark stout. "So, you actually showed up." Sarah stated as the party took seats around the table. "First things first, what do you need the sluid for? We like to keep tabs on what our users are doing with it."
Clearing his throat Charles answered, "We need it for a healing ritual for a man back in Greenmeadow. He is currently dying so we are on a bit of a time crunch at the moment."
"Fair enough, I guess I'll get right into the job then. There is an ancient dwarvish goldmine in the hills just outside town. Nobody has seen any dwarves in generations so now it is a mine full of unclaimed relics. The majority of the operations are run by the Thompson Company in town, hell they run half the town too, but that's neither here nor there. The Thompsons generally allow independent miners to work in the mines too, but recently they have completely shut down that opportunity. Last word we got was that something big was unearthed in the Eastern vein that prompted the change. There have been some big discoveries over the years, but nothing that has caused this big of a reaction. So our proposal is thus, You go into the mines, find what they have unearthed, and bring it back to us. In exchange you will get your sluid."
"Woah, ok, so that's a lot to take in. Isn't there any way that we can just pay for the sluid and be on our way? Like I said, we are on a timer here."
"Let me be very clear, we in the Guild have a strict set of rules on who we sell to, everyone has to prove themselves first. To address the time concern I can offer to have a rider go to Greenmeadow with the product and once we have confirmation of your success we will have them provide the product." She leaned over the table and held out a hand, "Now, do we have a deal?"
Looking back to the rest of his companions for assurance they gave Chales a quick nod. He returned the offered hand and the deal was struck. Akash let out a breath he hadn't noticed he was holding, as Charles shook Sarah's hand. It was then that he also noticed the sound return to the tavern, quickly looking around he saw nearly every person in the bar turning away from the table he was seated at, returning to their drinks. He even saw several slip daggers back into the folds of their cloaks, and he realized that they may be in a bit too deep now.
"I suggest y'all make your way to the mine, like you said, times ticking." Said Sarah as she leaned back in her chair, a smug smile spreading across her face.