The hospital attendant unlocks the sealed ward and leads Doku inside. Medicinal fumes hang beneath the low ceiling, sharp with bitterroot, ashleaf, and something metallic.
The miner, a gaunt middle-aged man with sallow skin and cropped gray hair, lies rigid beneath gray blankets, each breath scraping shallowly through his chest. At the adjoining bed, a courtier’s blood seeps through layered bandages despite their careful binding.
Two apprentices stand beside the beds with trembling hands, their green sashes dampened by sweat. Neither reaches for another instrument while Doku enters the dim chamber.
the hospital attendant
The fumes are from the failed purifying draughts. We stopped administering them when both patients worsened, but the warning sigils appeared afterward.
On the nearest table, every vial, bowl, and folded packet bears a freshly drawn warning sigil. The marks glow faintly through the haze, denying ordinary remedies.
Doku Nohara
The warning sigils appeared after treatment began.
the hospital attendant
The miner arrived from the eastern works, and the courtier came from the palace before noon. Their conditions are worsening together, Lady Nohara.
✓ Quest Accepted
Stabilize at least one critical patient
“"I can easily stabilize both." She pulls out her medkit. "Let's do this quickly so I can save both patients."”
SUCCESS (Legendary Healing, rolled +3)
Doku Nohara
I can easily stabilize both. Let's do this quickly so I can save both patients.
Doku opens her medkit across the central table. Her gloved hands sort antidotal powders, clotting paste, and bitterroot tincture with swift clinical precision, ignoring the glowing warnings.
She treats the miner first, clearing his airway and administering a measured restorative draught. His scraping breaths deepen, then settle into a steady rhythm beneath the gray blankets.
At the adjoining bed, Doku cleanses the courtier’s wound, applies a binding compound, and presses a seal of powdered ashleaf over the bandages. The bleeding stops.
the hospital attendant
Both pulses are stabilizing. The warning sigils are fading, Lady Nohara. You did it before either patient crossed the critical threshold.
As the final sigil dims, its lines briefly rearrange into a shared alchemical mark. Doku’s treatment reveals the failed draughts were contaminated from one source, and the remaining ward stock can be safely isolated.
the hospital attendant
The apprentices can quarantine every tainted vial now. You have saved the patients and shown us exactly where to look.
Identify the source of the contaminated draughts
Quest Complete
Stabilize at least one critical patient