The second item Hank found in the general log which he usually ignored because it contained mostly annoying rubbish like “you swing - miss” “or you drink water - recover 5 stamina, your stamina is full - effect reduced to zero”. Hank did not need a blow by blow account of his life. Still it was blinking aggressively.

Notice : Remedy Created

Congratulations. You have created Hank’s Poor Spider Bite Poultice

You have created an Arachnid Gargantous venom treatment

Your knowledge and research of specific components has allowed you to create this treatment

There is significant opportunity to improve this treatment.

Further medical knowledge and skill required

Benefits :

Application to bites from members of the Arachnid Gargantuous family will limit the effects of the poison. Many factors contribute to ht e

Reward :

Your creation is a derivation of another’s work so rewards are proportional

100 xp

The following properties of the existing formula may give further insight into the benefits and penalties of this recipe.

Poor proportioning :

Cannot confirm relative portions

+20% duration for effect

Poor ingredients :

Cannot be sure if fresh, dried, root or leaf are best.

-30% effectiveness

Poor skill :

There is no guidance as to treatment of ingredient and their combination

+20% duration for effect

Understanding of ingredients :

Not all ingredients used are well understood.

+10% chance of severe side effect

+20% chance of moderate side effect

+30% chance of slight side effect

+80% chance of drowsiness and headache.

Non essential ingredients:

Mint :

2% reduction in severity of some consequences

10% increase in duration of headache and drowsiness

Others :

May present over time

Hank was a little confused by the results of his actions. What did ‘duration for effect’ mean? How was it different to ‘effectiveness’?

As far as Hank knew there was nobody else with any medical knowledge. If there was, Sabine would have designated them as the team healer. So, no use asking around Hank thought. All he had was a single medical book and a very poor book on flora. He could see he was going to be building a library wherever he settled.

He pulled up the log general log filtering it for medical items.

Log (Medical)

Skill

Target

Level

XP Gain

Inspect & Diagnose

8 Team members (including self)

?

8

Inspect & Diagnose

2 Animals

?

2

Administer tonic

7 Team members (including self)

?

7

Make treatment

1 poor, simple salve

?

9

Administer salve

4 Team members (including self)

?

4

Administer salve

1 Exi

?

1

Bandage wounds

5 Team members (including self)

?

16

Clean wound

1 Harissa

?

4

This latest entry surprised Hank even more than the previous couple. Firstly, treating did not seem to be the same as medical assistance. Secondly neither Marko nor the female Exo were fully healed, so he wasn’t sure what would happen if they worsened or died before full recovery. But perhaps more surprisingly it looked like practising medicine gave you XP no matter if it was on human or beast.

Hanks mind was starting to focus on these thoughts. His dad had said it was a problem that when he focused like that he tended to tune others out. Fortunately Jamie distracted him by asking Ruadh a question. “Hoekom is jou stam hier.”

“Verlede winter was dit te koud en ons het honger gehad. So in die lente het ons die berge gekruis om kos te vind. Sedertdien is ons stadig suid toe. Die rivier hier naby het goud daarin, so ons begin terugstap na die berge om dit te vind. Toe het die spinnekoppe gekom.” Tears were leaking down Ruadh’s face “Ek moet terug gaan en kyk of iemand anders oorleef het. Ons gaan in die regte rigting.”

Hank was getting frustrated at never understanding what anyone said. “Jamie, what’s he saying”

“His tribe was starving so in the spring they crossed the mountains to the north looking for food. Since then they’ve been working their way south. At the river they found gold and so started to follow it back to the mountains, much like us I guess, until the spiders came. Now he wants to head back to his camp in case there are other survivors.”

“Didn’t we pass through a couple of clearings with his dead people?” Sabine translated Fritz’s question.

Which meant that Jamie had to translate for Ruadh. “Het die ander opruimings nie sy dooie mense in hulle gehad nie.”

At this rate, Hank thought to himself, it would not surprise him if they ended up with the worst case of he said, she said ever. Sabine’s people accounted for the first hundred people of any village he was likely to start. They spoke Compidg. So, he would probably have to learn that bastardised language. What a waste of time.

Ruadh interrupted his musings. “Geen. Ons vegters het hul bes gedoen om die spinnekoppe van die kamp af weg te lei. Hopelik het sommige van die res oorleef.”

“No. He is hoping that some have survived because the warriors tried to draw the spiders away from their camp. We are going in the right direction, so he wants to look at his camp.” Jamie continued translating.

Jamie wasn’t translating directly, which was odd for a herald. Heralds who’s reputation depended on their exactitude when translating, were sticklers for precision. It was a topic worth pursing but as Ruadh walked his horse to the front of the line, Hank realised he needed to focus on the present.

Nobody else objected to Ruadh’s unspoken assumption that everyone was on board with finding his friends and as he changed the direction of their path, Hank wondered if he was leading them to sanctuary or more problems. The setting sun prompted Hank to consider stopping for the night. The team was ragged after the fight and travel of the last few days, they needed rest. But Ruadh didn’t slow or hesitate, so they walked on. Hank could understand Ruadh’s reluctance to stop. He wouldn’t if it had been his family.

All night and most of the following day the group wearily trudged on before finally stumbled into a clearing. A number of large round tents lay, collapsed and scattered about haphazardly. They seemed awkward in design, too many poles and ropes Hank thought, but as they were sized for about seven or eight people he concluded it wasn’t unreasonable.

Ruadh dashed into the camp dragging his poor horse behind him. After a few moments he became highly agitated and started running backwards and forwards throughout the camp whilst Hank looked arround.

Dead juvenile arachnids lay scattered everywhere, usually next to a couple of dead Ore Cane or a sizeable amount of blood. Wherever the Ore Cane lay Ruadh would rush over studying their faces as tears ran down his face.

Hank’s mind couldn’t focus on Ruadh or the Spiders, his leg was getting worse. A quick look at both Marko and Gruffly confirmed they both were a worse state than he. It was obvious that their health had worsened since the fight in the Harissi den. It was clear, the group couldn’t go on any further. Everyone needed to stop and rest. They required recovery time.

Hank turned speaking to the rest of the group. “All right let’s get them down. Jamie, you better stay close to Ruadh. You’re the only one who knows what he’s saying. Sabine if you could check out the tents that are still standing and ask Fritz to help me get Marko down.”

Sabine nodded for a moment before changing her mind. “Better if I swap roles with Fritz. Marko doesn’t always understand you so I need to translate.”

“Fine” Hank was too sore to argue.

Hank and Sabine had Marko mostly down from his palfrey when they heard. “Ninyette” shouted with an intense tone of both hope and distress from across the clearing. Hank looked up to see Ruadh carefully studying the ground near the camp’s edge.

Unsure what was going on, Hank returned to helping Marko and Gruffly into one of the few standing tents. A few moments late as he was taking their packs into the tent, barbarian rushed up to him and Sabine, babbling away. Hank had no idea what was going on and was frankly too tired and sore to care, but he made himself listen, anyway though we wasn’t sure if he should be nodding or shaking his head. A breathless Jamie managed to catchup. Ruadh continued to babble away for a minute before turning and looking expectantly at Jamie.

“There… seems… to be…. a… number….” Jamie was still trying to catch his breath. “… of people… missing.” At this point Jamie took a big breath and seemed to be able to get his breath back, largely. “He wants us to go and look for them.”

“I don’t think we can….” Hank started.

Jamie started translating, and the massive man seamed to explode.

Hank continued “… all go. We have injured who need to rest. Our palfreys are starting to go lame. They cannot go on without rest.”

Jamie continued to translate and the man visibly deflated and tears started to run down his face. All he said as crumpled to the ground was “Ninyette.”

Hank wasn’t finished. “If we can capture a fresh horse or two, we could send a couple of people to look with you.”

The translated words were hardly out of Jamie’s mouth when the man jumped up, hugged him before he dashed off with a shout over his shoulder. “To find horses.” Jamie said.

“Just who do you think is going with him?” Sabine asked, getting herself worked up at the same time.

In a soft and tired voice Hank replied. “Jamie and I.”

“That's fantastic that is. The only healer, who I might add is injured, off looking for lost souls instead of tending to the wounded.” Sabine sounded angry.

Time to nip this in the bud, Hank thought. “You’re not thinking this through, Marko and I are the only trackers here and we’re both injured. Marko’s going into delirium so it's me who goes,.”

“So, you need to stay and treat him. Fritz can go. He’s a pathfinder,” Sabine was adamant in her response.

“Right.” Hank drew out the word sarcastically. “Because he and Marko did a bang-up job tracking bandits in the forest last time.” Hank took a breath. “You and I are going to have a nice little sit-down with your brother when this is all over. You both will need to clarify which occupations your people really have and how that translates into actual life skills. Because whatever this is, isn’t working.”

Sabine glared at Hank.

He continued with barely a pause. “But your point about treating the injured is well made. No-one, other than I, seems to have that skill either. How did you and Gruffly decided who had the appropriate skill set to come on this expedition?” There was a definite tone of question in his voice. He continued, “I mean seriously, off the four of you, one is a warrior, one is the mining expert, and the other two are what?” He paused before his mouth ran away with him completely. “Fritz is at least an allrounder, helpful in most situations. But Marko, really? He consumes food and medical supplies and that’s about it.”

Sabine looked away without commenting.

“Well I guess that says, all sorts of things.” There was a waspish tone to Hank’s voice. “Anyway I will do as much as I can to treat everyone before heading off, but I need to find ingredients. One of your lot could do that I suppose but the general lop and hack approach you all have to plants will go just swimmingly. I’m sure that we’ll find exactly what’s needed right around the corner, in a neat little herb garden.”

Sabine opened her mouth to reply. But Hank got in first. “Sorry, I apologise. I’m in pain and tired and this is not something that I am interested in debating. So thank you for leading our battles over the last few days. We wouldn’t have made it without you. And I am actually glad that Fitz joined the expedition.”

Jamie mumbled something to Fritz in Compidg who replied in kind. Hank’s mood was still poor, his leg was throbbing. “What are you two gawping at? These bodies aren’t going to bury themselves.”

Sabine, in a rather sharp tone of voice, added a few more comments before saying in common. “Hank’s not my brother and we don’t carry on like we’re married. He’s an idiot though for agreeing to this.” She was looking pointedly at both Fritz and Jamie who both decided that it was time to beat a retreat.

She turned and addressed Hank. “Injured, night coming on. What are you thinking?” With that she stormed off. It looked like the apology hadn’t done a thing to cool her temper. Hank’s temper also hadn’t cooled and her was close to another comment himself but everyone was gone. He grumbled to himself anyway.