That's One Sick Druid
Magpie, yes, there's a blistering around the lips, and there's also a blistering around the nostrils. Interesting. As the elf's mouths' pops open to emit another stream of puke, you see the inside of his mouth is blistered too, and he gives a miserable cough, before speaking: "Godfist Grove is fine."
"Yes, yes, it's fine, Harold," Toby Shagger assures him nervously, wiping at the elf's mouth. Then aside to his visitors he says, "This here is Haroldolphin Goldwinter, one of the druids that takes care of the forest around Godfist Grove. They live mostly out in the woods, and that's how they like it. You know -- druids." Yes, this elf does have a few more sticks in his hair than usual, and a little more soil around his fingernails, fungus behind his ears. "He came into town yesterday, looking like death, and they brought him here. Sure, I've tried a couple of anti-toxins, and some good stiff tonics. I just-- do you think it's snakebite? Zombies? Hellbeetles?"
No, it's none of these. Magpie you are certain this elf is poisoned, and that the poison was delivered in some sort of gas. Furthermore, you know that this is not the kind of poison that was brewed by a person, or concocted in a vial, from ingredients. It's something from nature, something pure. He sits up and groans, "The Grove is fine! Fine!"
"Yes, Harry, yes, lie still. We know."
"We know?" whispers Silvy, suddenly at your shoulder, Magpie. "Oh we know. We've read our books haven't we? Elves? Elves! Oh, we know what happened at Godfist Grove."
Agador, you can also see that this elf has suffered from inhaling some kind of poisoned gas. He can barely catch his breath, as if his lungs are bubbling inside him.
"There's one thing I can think of that might help him," says the apothecary. "that I haven't already tried because I don't have any. A special anti-toxin that's said to inure anyone against the forest's poisons, made from the bark of the six redwood trees of Godfist Grove. I think I can brew it? But I would need the bark from all six trees. If you can bring back the ingredients, we may be able to save him, and if you wanted to investigate what happened to him out there, it would be great for you to have the anti-toxin on hand as well, for your own use."
He retrieves six small glass jars from behind the counter, each with a stopper, and gives them to you.
Crom, you have no idea what the hell is wrong with this puking elf. But you do know what is wrong with freaking Dan Shagger: Everything.
"Yeah, we called for the witch already," he answers you. "I sent my little gob Bolo to fetch her yesterday, but did she come? No. Did Bolo come back? No. Going to have to find another gob, now, to fetch my witches, eh?"
"Fetch her yourself," says Silvy, slyly. "Or are you too scared of the forest?"
"Shut up, stupid," Dan snaps back. Then he gives you a little run-down on Oddwall geography. The witch's house, he says, is across the river and outside town to the northwest. Godfist Grove is straight north, in the forest, about three miles away. "Six big trees," he says, "and a nice little stream runs through there. Dunno why the big trees are there. Dunno why it's called Godfist. Dunno anything that ever happened there."
"It's nothing I've ever heard of happening there," confirms Toby Shagger. "Just six big trees for no reason."
"Nothing ever happened there!" gurgles the druid.
"Something," whispers Silva.
"Shut up!" the three of them command her, and then the druid, depleted by this final effort, falls back onto the table, gasping.
OOC
Ok! So, I asked for a Medicine check to try and figure out what's wrong with this elf.
Agador got a 17, Crom got a 1, and Magpie did an Investigation check instead, with a critical success, adding +3 for a total of 23. If we call it a Medicine check, which is what you'd need to determine what caused the elf's condition, there's no +3 modifier on that skill, but it's still a critical success. To determine whether Toby or Dan Shagger are lying about the failed potions, you'd need to roll an Insight check.
With a high roll, you might be tempted to think, "Aha! I rolled great! Therefore I know what's wrong with this elf!" and go ahead and say what's wrong with him. However, you as the player don't actually know. Only I, the DM, know what's troubling him. (Mwahaha!) With a high roll, you can anticipate that you're about to get some good info that you can trust is accurate, but you don't actually know what that info is going to be. So you put the results of your roll in the OOC section of your post, and that helps me know how to write my next post. If you rolled low, it's going to be something like "You can't quite make out what might be the problem" but if you rolled high, you'll get a better answer.
This round, let's try rolling Insight. All four of these NPCs are making claims, but one or more of them may be lying. Roll Insight and tell me who you're trying to get a read on, then I'll tell you the results in the next DM post.
