Event 3
The air was cold but not overly so, but this didn’t matter to her. She felt utterly frigid and no amount of blankets was able to restore her color. Sandy planted herself near the foot of the bed, making sure to keep any intruders away from her sick mistress. She couldn’t help but wince a little out of sympathy; she hated the cold as much as any lizard, and for some reason PK had decided it was a good idea to run about an icy cave for hours. It was hard to comprehend - why had she brought the cold here? That’s all the icy dragon had done so far... bring on the snow, making everyone sick...
Eventually, Sandy heard the door open. She growled momentarily before recognizing the scent of the visitor.
“It’s just me Sandy, really now. I’ve brought some tea for her, it ought to help warm her up from the inside,” Shroomsworth said, bringing the brew over to the bedside. “I really don’t know why she waited so long to let me call the doctors in...”
Sandy sat up. “She’s going to be okay, isn’t she?”
Shroomsworth paused briefly before answering. “Yes, of course.” He had hoped Sandy didn’t notice his hesitation, but PK’s color was worsening. The blind Deino wouldn’t be able to notice such a detail, but he certainly did. He leaned forward, trying to find a good spot to place her tea. She was shivering with such intensity that he reconsidered handing off the tea, fearing she might instead burn herself.
“Please, madam, open up and take a sip,” he pleaded with her. “You can’t go on like this...”
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“Mike, come on man! Cut that out!” Chill warned, “You can’t be burning your tail that big in here! This is a treehouse, man!” He went to roll Mike elsewhere, but drew his paws back immediately after his pads made contact with the glowing scales.
“You’re burning up, man! Literally! Mike! What’s going on?!”
Maple poked her head out of the nearby room. “You silly, he’s got a fever. Can’t you tell? Every time it got real cold, this would happen at home... Mama just used to stick him in the fireplace ‘til he burned it off.” Pleased with herself for imparting such clearly useful information to Chill, she retreated back to her room.
Chill looked back to Mike. He wanted to go visit the doctors to get medicine for Mike, but not at the cost of his treehouse burning down...
It was decision time. His decision was...
“Hey Maple-” no sooner had Chill spoken these words than had the overly enthusiastic Stunky appeared by his side. Looking right up into his eyes. That giant, goofy kid smile on her face. “I need a favor. Can you go do something for me real quick?”
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He paced around the dank cave in thought, circling his partner countless times before coming to a halt. “This is going to make my next move very difficult, you know that, Gunpowder?”
A grumble was all Devonshire received in response.
Devonshire idly adjusted his cravat for a moment, then stated, “Well, a sick partner is no good to me. I’m sure you’re aware of that.” Gunpowder narrowed his eyes a little, unsure if he had briefly seen the gems flickering in the dim light or if that was just his delusional imagination. He placed his bets on the former.
He also knew that Devonshire wouldn’t truly leave him hanging like this, stuck alone and ill in this hole in the ground. After all, it took a lot of work to get to this point. It was clearly easier for Devonshire to help his partner than to move on to a new one. Besides, it was just a cold.
A cold that had lasted well over a week... with no signs of improvement...
Yes. Just a cold.
Devonshire’s blank expression finally broke and he sighed. “I’ll go visit the good doctor. Try not to become just another body to be removed from my cave, yes?”
Gunpowder grunted assent, and with that, the Sableye receded into the shadows and was gone in an instant.
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“Back again, I see?” Dr. Quaak said, sizing up the Breloom, seemingly considering the ingredients in front of him. “Actually, I vanted to see you. Needed to talk.”
Shroomsworth looked at the doctor, clearly wishing for good news of some sort. “Does this mean you’ve gotten the medicine ready?” he asked tentatively.
Dr. Quaak laughed heartily, as if Shroomsworth had just told a grand joke. “Shortly, shortly, my boy,” he said, wiping a tear from his eye. “In ze meantime, look over to your left - yes, right there--”
“YEOOWW!”
The doctor had pulled a spore off of the cap on Shroomsworth’s head. Just like that, it had been removed.
“Doctor!” Remedy yelled, “What are you doing?! He didn’t agree to that!”
“On the contrary, Frau! He agreed to help his partner under any conditions, do you remember zis? I’ve determined zat zis is a condition. Very necessary.”
Shroomsworth was in too much shock to even speak. He had spent the past minute leaned forward, hands on knees, face blanched from the pain which subsiding. Slowly.
Remedy rushed toward him with her medical bandages and antiseptic balm. “I didn’t know that could come off...” she said in a hushed whisper.
He turned his head and let out a single, pained laugh. “It’s not supposed to.”
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Poppy was alone in the tent, working hard to prepare the salve. They had only brought a few ingredients with them to Tao Village, underestimating the amount of Pokemon that would need their help. First, the flower had to be removed from the stem and the seaweed had to be treated with a special elixir. After that, the only remaining item that needed preparation was the spore container from the unfortunate Breloom’s head. She grabbed it up and placed it into her mortar, using her round stone as a pestle to crush it up into a fine dust.
The flower was next. She ripped it to shreds and placed it into the bowl. Seaweed next. Yes, it was all going well. A bit of water, some heat applied... and she had a fine medicine mixture going.
Unfortunately, they had only brought enough of the flowers and seaweed with them for a few doses of medicine. It was shaping up to be an epidemic of some sort; Pokemon were getting ill left and right. They simply did not have the resources to treat the illness as effectively as they would have liked. Dr. Quaak suspected that the Kyurem had been sick before he slept and kept the virus with him for the centuries he slept. Poppy didn’t really know about that type of stuff yet, but she trusted the doctor. He was usually right about these sorts of things.
Remedy and Dr. Quaak reappeared after a brief trip to the guilds’ headquarters. She knew that they were letting the leaders know what needed to be done. She also knew that as soon as she finished this batch of medicine, it was going straight to the sick leaders and that another batch needed to be made. And another, and another...
She and Remedy certainly had their work cut out for them.
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Zhis is so disgusting! Everyone is filled vith ze sickness all of a sudden!
Fortunately, I have ze solution. I vill need able-bodied teams to obtain a few... ingredients.
First zhings first: Seaweed! Zhis can be found... well, in ze sea, silly! But, a more accessible alternative may be ze Cobalt Lake, yes? Of course! Ahh, I am genius.
Ze Breloom of ze Merchants has graciously provided me with a spore from his cap, but ve need more, stat! His home, Sapling Village, may be ze best place to look.
Zhere is also ze night glow flower from ze Creeping Forest. Zhis may be dangerous, as I am sure many of you know. Do avoid any suspicious Sneasels!
Zat should cover it. It is a shame ve must harvest so many zhings for zhis outbreak, but ve have little choice. In my expert opinion, it all started vith zhat lumbering giant Pokemon zhat zhe Kecleon brought back. I vish he vould go avay! But... zhis is not up to me. Healing you is up to me, so do your part!
It’s most unfortunate that this little scare is happening, but we’re doing our best and making our best efforts! We’ve noticed it’s mostly Pokemon that don’t deal well with cold weather who are taking the hardest hits. Try to hang in there, guys! We need the help of all healthy Pokemon for this task! You’re all up for that, I’m sure. If you’re not up to collecting ingredients for Dr. Quaak, Poppy and I could use you helping us in our tent to prepare the collected ingredients for the medicine. Please help out if at all possible, there are a lot of you guys and only two of us.
This is rubbish... what sort of doctor simply plucks parts of others off, regardless of the reason?! We simply must call him into question later! It's only a matter of time before he moves on to limbs, or eyes!
... Ahem! It was for a good cause, it seems. It would appear that the spores of my kind are a key ingredient for the medicine we shall need to counteract this vile sickness that spreads among our village even at this very moment!
As I'm certain you all understand, this affects all guilds, so please, put any squabbles aside for now. We all suffer from this, and there is no need to worsen matters, eh wot?
We are reaching out to you, Pokemon who have resisted the sickness so far! You are needed to collect ingredients en-masse! The good doctors of our village have humbly agreed to concoct medicine for everyone, so long as they have the means to brew it. Splendid, really!
... I'm certain you've all heard the ingredients. I do hope you realize that we normally do not tolerate others plucking things from our caps. Please, refrain from doing this to me or any other Breloom! There are stockpiles of them within my old birthplace, the Shroomish Hub.
Do hurry, there are many sick Pokemon relying on you to help restore health to our village!
I should probably not bother with this. Just thought I would say sorry about the cold outside. Working on it. Tired. Will be sending out medicine later. Can’t do that if no one helps out though.
So, please.
Tired. Good night.
Objectives
-Collect seaweed from Cobalt Lake -Collect spore from Sapling Village -Collect glowing blue flowers from Creeping Forest
OR
-Prepare the ingredients alongside Poppy and Remedy into a salve
Event ends Monday Oct 10th