We split up after we hear the list of activities, with Spesof deciding to see the reenactment of The Defeat of the Grey Ear Legion and Tittlin wandering off to go gamble in the hooks.
I head over to the market and wander around to see if I can find anything that might be useful as a spell component. Or just tasty. Not surprisingly, none of the trinkets for sale in the market are useful spell components, but there’s plenty of good food. As I’m searching for a place to sit and eat, I find a dwarven an exhausted dwarven lady who appears on the verge of fainting. Worrying about heat stroke, I get her a glass of water. After watching to make sure she won’t drown herself on the drink, I go to the guards to get medical attention for her. According to the guards, she isn’t the only one. There are many people acting either tired or unruly and it’s strange to have them this early in the festival, at this time of day, in this part of the town, localized entirely within the marketplace. I hear Spesof call my name and wave him over. As I’m bringing him up to speed on what I’ve seen so far, A halfling wanders through sick to their stomach and terribly confused. We try and ask him about what he’s been up to so we can see if it’s related, but it’s near impossible to get anything straight from him. The only thing we managed to get is that it might be something to do with ice cream. Tittlin arrives as the halfling is explaining this and wanders off again to see who else is sick nearby. Spesof instead decides to check out to check the ice cream stands.
Regrouping, we don’t seem to be any closer to what’s going on. There’s no clear link between people’s behaviour and what they ate, and none of the ice cream stalls appear to be suspicious. Tittlin decides to play the brave and tasty role of guinea pig, going out and sampling all the ice cream stands. Midway through one of the scoops, Tittlin starts wobbling. I catch him before he can fall to the ground and start shooting the ice cream vendor a glare before Spesof whispers in my ear that an old lady did it. Tittlin, evidentially not full there, complains about being called an old lady and start throwing bird seed and rambling at Spesof, who’s struggling to convey that it was a shifty lady who did it, not that I’m shifty or that Shifty is a lady.
Tittlin, getting tired of this, decides to head off and get into a fight with an angry person he’d seen in the crowd earlier. I wind up needing to physically keep him out of fights and prevent him from stealing everything within two meters of him. This thankfully doesn’t last too long before he tires himself out and passes unconscious. Unfortunately, we still need him awake. I start debating if I need to give him a health potion before I feel him tugging on my sleeve. I look at the newly conscious Tittlin and he starts pointing and muttering about a strange lady in the crowd. I look over at where he’s pointing, but don’t see anything out of the ordinary. Getting back on his own two feet, he heads over to Spesof and starts discussing with Spesof.
I walk over to them and ask them what they’re talking about, but they seem to shut up the second I approach. I start wondering and asking why they’re being so rude, when I realize they’re both standing entirely still, seemingly unaware of the world around them. They finally come to and start talking about a nine foot tall woman, with many hands. I try and interrupt them, telling them that I don’t need to know what fantasies they daydream about, but they say that it’s a monster, and we need to find Goras and ask him about it. I’m skeptical, as I surely would have seen a nine foot tall woman covered in hands, but I follow along anyways.
We arrive at the CCMB to find Goras missing. According to a rudimentarily disguised Plok, he’s out enjoying the festival. We head back out and begin wondering where he would be. Spesof notices someone eating a strange piece of jerky. Remembering what Goras did with the first slain dragon, it’s immediately clear where he’d be. We ask the man where he found the jerky and are pointed towards the Hooks. We head over there, Tittlin knocking thing over as he rides Motley Crouton.
Unsurprisingly enough, we find Goras in front of the stall with some oddly coloured jerky in his mouth. After some brief chit-chat, we explain that we’re trying to find a nine-foot tall sickness spreading creature. As we describe the types of illnesses it seems to be causing, Goras recognizes them as imbalances of the humors. As much sense as that makes, it still doesn’t explain why they’re all suddenly out of order. We buy Goras some more jerky to ease his reluctance to head back and research.
It doesn’t take long for Goras to find it, as the symptoms are fairly distinct. The creature is probably a Cambium, a type of monster drawn to intense emotions that unbalances the humors in someone, often coming back to the same victims so as to mess with them further. We start debating what to do about it, but can’t figure out any way to have a safe fight in the middle of a crowd. Tittlin, bored with the lack of action or plan, climbs out the window and up out of sight. Looking for more options, Spesof decides to call his grandfather to see if he has any advice. Unfortunately, he’s not much of a monster expert and the suggestions of teleporting it away or letting it run it’s course would be either ineffective or disastrous. As we say goodbye to Hadrian, it’s hard to feel sanguine about our options.