Mirrim hurried out and returned in a moment or two with the dirty blade she had found near Raevyn. "Unsurprisingly, the troll appears to have fallen on top of his axe," she explained. "You're welcome to try and get it from under him."

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Vennir, hearing this, calmly got up and walked over to where the troll lay atop his own axe. Stupid creature. Vennir then, with a few movments of his hands, proped up the heavy creature with two pilliars of hard earth by the shoulders, and walked under to retreave the axe, and then let the pillars collapse under the trolls dead form. He walked back over to camp and handed it to Mirrim, nodding once and heading back to his seat.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Mirrim let the axe fall, dusting off her hands in disgust. "There you are," she told Decian. "Do what you do best - and could you tell me what you do, afterwards?" she added, unable to restrain her curiousity. "As a healer, you know, I would be very interested."

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Decian answered, "As soon as I identify the poisons, I will administer the corresponding antidotes. Let's see...." He took the blade first, sniffed it, withdrew a small vial with a clear liquid in it, and poured some of the liquid onto the blade. After a while, the edge of the blade turned a faint purple. "Figures," said Decian. "Goblins never get original with poisons. Aye, I think it's deadly nightshade mixed with wolf's bane. I got the antidote with me. As for the troll..." He went off to inspect the troll's weapon and later found out that it used another curious poison which turned out to be mere spider venom. "Interesting..." Decian said to himself. "I wonder where a troll might find something like this. The antidote is at the citadel. I will need some to get it."

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I was cured all right.

"But in the meantime," interrupted Mirrim, "will she be all right?"

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"Depends on your definition on 'all right'," said Decian. "This particular venom is now targeting her nerves. Within five minutes, she will be paralyzed. Another five, she's dead. As for Raeven, she's in for a lot of pain but she will live longer than Meleth, though not much. We tested this on rats and they all died within twenty minutes. Unless of course, you have any belatna leaves. They help stop the paralysis. Like I said, I have the antidote for Raeven but I need a fire and hot water."

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I was cured all right.

Mirrim looked appalled. "I - I do," she said, clearly shaken. "But they're dried - will they still work? I was using a fire earlier, it's still burning and there's a pot by it to heat water - I gave Raevyn a preventative remedy that slows poison, will it help?" she sat down, her knees feeling extremely wobbly, and dug in her bag before removing a little pouch full of dried leaves."What do I need to do to them?"

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Hearing that a fire and hot water were needed, Vennir emedietly got up to rekindle the fire that had died in the past hour or so.

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You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

"Crush the leaves with a mortar and pestle," commanded Decian. "Get the water to boil and when it does, tell me because I need to put these" He withdrew a bag of powders. "In the water." He then mentally contacted one of the Death Bringers and said, "Contact our Life Bringers and tell them to bring some of the farian. Send it through bird."
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Within five minutes, two Life Bringers were wrapping a small package of farian, the counteragent for the deadly neurotoxin, to a raven's legs. After mentally telling it where to go, they released the bird.

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I was cured all right.

Mirrim swept out of the tent to do as he said, holding the leaves in one hand. She expertly put water to boil and hastily crushed the leaves, heart pounding wildly - what if she hadn't known? Meleth and Raevyn could both have died....she shuddered.

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Vennir came up behind Mirrim while she was crushing leaves,

"Is there anything I can do?" He asked, a worried and slightly sympathetic look on his face.

_________________
You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

Mirrim jumped, lost in her own thoughts. "Oh - yes," she replied, peering into the pot of water. "Could you run and tell Decian this water is boiling?"

She gave him a shaky smile by way of thanks.

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Vennir nodded and jogged off to Decian,

"Decian, Mirrim said the water is boiling, you can make whatever antidote you have in mind now."

_________________
You may (or may not) know me elsewhere as Elfpen

"Right," said Decian distractedly. He took out a small spoon from the bag that had the powder and got out of the tent. He began scooping the powder into the pot, whose contents slowly turned darkish blue as it boiled. As soon as Decian scooped in the correct amount of the powder, he took the pot off the fire and poured it into a cup. Just then, a ruffle of feathers distracted him; it was the raven delivering the farian. Decian extended his hand to receive the raven, who after being relieved of his burden, flew back towards the citadel. He first poured some of the concoction into Raeven's mouth to start fighting the poison. He then asked Mirrim, "Have you finished crushing the leaves yet?"

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I was cured all right.

Mirrim promptly handed him a little pot full of such finely crushed leaves that they looked like powder. She had obviously been rather tense, and she looked slightly paler than was usual.

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Thane came to Mirrim's side. "You look quite pale." He whispered. "Don't worry, Mirrim. She's strong. She'll make it through." He suddenly produced a cup. "Here, have a cup of tea. It will do you good." The tea was warm but not scalding. The scent of the tea was strangley soothing, perhaps because of the medicinal herbs he had put in there, herbs that relaxed and comforted.