Razzec replies in Dwarven to Grey:

While Grey and Razzec speak in tongues over at the wagons, Ember flits about... keeping watch in case any of the fleeing bandits suddenly grew spines and tried to double back to the wagons.

The ground quivers and pebbles rattle in a circle around Charles. There is a pause and the white bearded man gasps for breath and grabs his chest, crying in pain!

The wound still bleeds from front and back but he is alive.

Podo and Kodo chirp at Charles and beg for treats.

Ok, NOW Alexia casts cure wounds.

Healing: 10

Charles sign with relief, taking deep breaths, "Oh thank you, thank you. I thought I was a goner." He looks in shock at his shirt and all the red, then opens the hole too see a quickly fading pink scar.

There is no trace of the escaped bandits.

On one body you find a few small sheets of paper that say "Meal Voucher" with the face of that lady back in the city, plus 7 silver coins.

On Yellow you find his iron staff, a bag of dried fingers, a pouch with 18 gold, and a sack of dust.

On Toda, in spite of the damage the wearer suffered, his clothes are fine. He carries a pouch with 89 gold, 2 matching jeweled daggers, and a bottle of wine. There are also more of the small sheets of paper.

A little searching reveals a simple camp with the equivalent of 30 days of poor rations, a barrel of water, and a sack with fresh fruit and cheese. There is a case of 23 crossbow bolts and you find 4 of the crossbows in the bushes.

Grey will cast Detect Magic as a ritual over the lot of what we just found.

"Taking these rations will be good, as I should probably not be summoning food anymore, in case I need to, uh, bring someone back from the dead. Seems more important."

Grey will try a piece of the cheese, after his detect magic on it of course!

"Alright, Charles, here’s what I think we should do." Razzec says, looking over the scene.

"First, we strip the bandits of their gear and load the findings into the carts. The 'meal vouchers' from that lady in the city might be important—should we look into those now or save it for later?" He glances over the bodies.

"As for the bodies, I think we should burn them. With the way things are around here, we can’t afford to take any chances. But what do you think? You’ve been around these parts longer than we have."

A mixture of emotions play over his face as Charles takes in the scene. He is at once happy to be alive with his companions and cargo intact. But he is also full of fear.

"Oh if word gets back to the city I'm going to be in deep donkey shite. Lady Johay is an important noble in Krawl, and we just offed her youngest son. He was nasty and needed taking care of. Don't get me wrong, but the Lady is rich and well, this is no small offense." He goes to Toda's corpse and kicks it in the crotch a couple times. "At least I'll turn a good profit this time without being robbed by that scum sack."

Charles gives the wagons and yackles a good once over to make sure everything is in order and helps pack the new load of supplies.

OOC: List incoming later today.

"Well, if we come up with a good story, we could get off scot-free. We could say that the bandits were trying to rob him, and we tried to step in and save him." Alexia doesn't seem very worried.

Magic Items:

Pouch of dried fingers, the dried fingers, not the pouch.

Sack of dust

Bag of fruit and cheese, the bag not the fruit.

*HA! I was right!*

So with your new found treasures, you continue down the road.

Charles spends a little time cleaning and mending his clothes while you notice vegetation becoming more sparse or mutated in some way. 

You are warned against foraging and hunting again as for a certainty the one eyed birds and the caterpillar toads will make you sick. The strange particles in the water are also unappealing.

*wait would we have time for a rest during all of this?*

OOC: The vouchers are good for a decent meal (basically stew in a bread bowl) at a mid class tavern owned by Lady Johay. Served from the back door of course. It is acceptable currency for cheap labor.

 Other than seeing examples of strangery, a few days pass before anything significant happens. 

Ember looks about at the desolation, "Chip, old twig... what caused this?  Even forests show more life after a wildfire than this land..."

Charles continues his story about Khaza Ghul...

The star grew in size day by day until you could see it streaking across the heavens. It is said the passage of the Hammer deafened those that saw it pass. Then with unimaginable fury it struck the city of Khaza Ghul. The palace was consumed in an explosion that shook the ground, and threw up a dust cloud that blocked out the sun!

Many powerful undead dropped like puppets with their strings cut. And without leadership, the lesser dead were easy to deal with. VICTORY for the people! 

Charles frowns.

Victory yes. The cost was high and in the end we won. But then strange magics were making people sick and they died from unknown diseases. The area around the city became a death zone and for years nothing could survive in the surrounding lands. Now the whatever it is has faded and people can enter the city. Treasure seekers or those wanting to collect pieces of the Hammer, go into the ruins.

That's where you are headed. Smoulderhome. It's a town about a mile from the ruins, services those that want to explore the city. Like he said, nothing grows or that which does it bad for the health. So he tries to make a living bringing them food and supplies.

"Hmm. Smart. Supply and demand, right?"

"Are we going to have to fight our way IN to Smoulderhome AND back out again?"  Ember asked as he flicked the reins to keep the yackles moving.

"That story reminds me of some places that have volcanoes.  The molten lava is bad enough but, sometimes it spits out gases that kill plants and folks.  This Hammer thing sounds like it did something like that to this land. 

I bet you would have to hire a couple dozen druids to come out and do their plant thing for a year to help the land recover.  Good luck with that."

"I’ve been listening to your story, Charles. Just wanted to make sure I understood what we’re heading into." Razzec’s expression grows more serious.

"We probably should’ve done more research before setting out. Could’ve made better plans, but I guess that's part of the job, huh?"

He pauses, then adds with a bit of a grin,

"I used to be part of something more organized. But after a while, I realized I didn’t want to just blindly follow orders. It was all about fighting in someone else’s war for reasons I couldn’t always see."

He looks ahead, his tone shifting to something more determined.

"But this? The dangers we’re walking into? The problems Smoulderhome is facing? Those are reasons I can get behind. This is about more than just following orders—this is about making sure people don’t get wiped out by whatever’s been spreading across this land."