private [GURPS] A Path to Heroism

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance let his magic fade out, realizing it was worthless for now. He grabbed the towels and held pressure on Erik's neck.

 

'My magic won't work on him. There's... I dunno dark magic or something preventing it!"

 

Lance growled under his breath, determined not to let some unknown quantity kill his first patient of this 'adventure'

 

'Ragnar! Can you uh... ah, look and see if this Library has anything on dark magic or anything that could prevent this from healing? I need to try and keep him alive till we figure out what's doing this. And is Angelica still here?? Or anypony who saw what happened to this stallion?'

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Ragnar nodded.

 

"Right. I'll do my best and see what I can find."

 

He headed off into the aisles of books and began hurriedly searching through them for any books on strange diseases or dark magic that might help them figure out what was wrong with the pony.

[Neikos 968]

@@Doc Ginger, 

 

The pressure Lance applied on his Neck made him survive a few more minutes. Everyone around was just frozen with shock, but as it became clear that they were able to help two of the four ponies headed out with Ragnar trying to find something on the subject of dark magic. "I think I might know where to search.", she told the others. Angelica came back in though, not knowing a lot about books she hoped that she could at least stay at the side of her dying coltfriend. One could see that she cried earlier, her eyes were red.

 

"Nopony saw what happened", she started to tell, "All we heard was a really loud explosion like sound and Erik lying on the ground. His bleeding started a bit later. We are not sure why though... nopony here cut him or anything and we weren't able to close it up since."

She then blinked, "Wait, is that blood coming out of nose?" Now, not only his mouth started bleeding but also his nose, and it wasn't just a few drops either. "Quick another towel!", she would try to stop his nose bleeding, but how are you going to stop that with a towel?

 

@, 

 

As Ragnar went to look for books on the subject of Dark Magic two other ponies followed him. One of them mentioned knowing something, and indeed she went straight towards a book shelf and took out a larger yellow colored book. "I think it was this one...", she started to quickly search trough it. "Wait... half of it is missing!", she frantically looked around her in hope of perhaps seeing it. "Erik is pretty careful with his books... if he took out a part of it it must not be far around... he probably did that to clean it or something."

 

The main part of the library isn't that big, mostly just large bookshelfs and his workstation.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@,

 

"And I suppose the part we need is the missing part isn't it? Very well; you keep looking around here and the other shelves, I'll check out his workstation."

 

Ragnar headed over to the workstation and began searching. As he did so, he tried to rack his brain for anything that might help. As intelligent as he was, he didn't have any experience or real knowledge in regards to medicine, but he couldn't let the pony die. 

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance slowly turned Erik onto his flank so that the blood forming in his mouth and nose would drain out instead of falling back into his throat, and he continued to keep pressure on his neck while he apologized to Angelica.

 

'I am sorry but.... But we can't do a whole lot medically at this point... All we can do is do our best to keep him comfortable and hope his blood congeals on its own... The only alternatives are too hope Ragnar and your friends find something, or perform surgery.... But that's not a great option since I have no idea what this infection will do if I try using a needle on him...'

[Neikos 968]

@,

 

"Well I'm not sure. But that might be it yes", the whole thing was a simple desk with small paper stacks all over it. One of them is probably the missing part of the book. They all had an old look to them. One stack was standing out though. It was in the middle of the desk and it was slightly tipped, almost to the point of falling over. Either way, if he would look trough it he would find out that it is the missing pages. Will they be helpful though?

 

@@Doc Ginger, 

 

"It's.. it's not your fault. I know you're.. I know you're only trying to help.", she said, her face serious, she wanted to cry since earlier but knew that it wouldn't fix anything right now and that she is more useful like this. With that she took away the slowly getting heavy towel and placed a fresh one under his head. "If it is black magic, what will you do? Do you know how to get rid of that?"

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@,

 

Ragnar grabbed the most prominent stack and started looking through it as quickly as he could, hoping he could find something while there was still time to save the injured pony. He knew they couldn't possibly have much time left before he bled out. 

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance furrowed his brow and hung his head ashamed, but continuing to hold pressure. 

 

'I.... I really don't think so... If its not black magic its something else as sinister that's fighting actively against me... and if it is magic... I will.. I will try but when I first heard your friends outside all I heard was about a stabbing and I thought to help but... This is really out of my power to contend... It completely negates my magic and its making his own body fight the healing process... I'll keep him alive in the hopes that Ragnar out there finds something.... anything useful.. But... It.. I may suggest thinking of any goodbye's you wish to say in case he wakes up again... I'm terribly sorry...'

 

Lance looked over at Angelica, sorrow showing on his face. 

[Neikos 968]

@, 

 

There were several spells and ailments that looked similar to what Erik had. One was a spell that stopped coagulation, it explained how it liquefies blood Platelets and thus stopped coagulation from happening. Following it was a list of all possible outcomes to this. There was a note written at the bottom "Good against headaches." 

A few pages later was a spell that created ulcers and another one making fissures in the skin. It wasn't a pretty book but it didn't seem to be profoundly dark, it was just a lot of medical spells that seem to have been discarded. There was one that was particularly interesting which was called "Regeneration Activation". The whole page was written quite quickly and without much care, it explained in great detail though how to heal a bleeding pony and kickstart it's regenerative functions.

 

The only problem seemed to be a missing part in the incantation.

 

It went like so:

 

Oh thy soul,

went trough high and low,

It isn't thy end of the road

yet, ##### start to erode!

 

 

Under it was written that a crucial word was missing. The author didn't know which one it seems, "I think it has something to do with the name of the hemoglobin." The last word was crossed out and under it was written that tests were not successful. And instead the author suggested that there must be something else in the blood that could help a patient survive...

@@Doc Ginger, 

 

Angelica just listened, closing her eyes slowly, her ears lying back slowly. "I.. I met him in front of the library about five years back.", her eyes were focused into infinity, "It was quite a funny incident, just like one would read it out of a book for foals.", she stopped for a moment. "You see, I accidentally ran into him and made him drop the books he was carrying around. It then just clicked... We met again a few days later... I moved in with him three months after that. I can't just let him go like that.", she was now looking towards Lance, her eyes slowly filling with tears. "I... can't say goodbye." She then felt silly crying like that, the battle wasn't over yet. He was still breathing, heavily, but still he was alive. And as long as he was alive all her soul would battle against letting him go. "I won't have to tell him goodbye, I am sure of that!", she then affirmed to herself and Lance.

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance began to tear, sorrow for this mare overwhelming him as well. But she still had faith in him or whatever else to get her stallion through this. And for that Lance wouldn't give up either. DAMNIT RAGNAR, where are you? Lance wondered to himself as he checked over Erik once more, making sure his condition was at the least, not worsening again.

 

'Luna willing your right Angelica, between the two of us we can keep him alive until one of your friends or Ragnar find something... Hopefully this library has something in it that can....' Lance trailed off as he had a sudden realization. He quickly checked Erik's ears to see if they had begun to bleed as well.

 

'Red eyes, bleeding nose and mouth... his injury not congealing.... Whatever this is its targeting his blood specifically! Its... ah, I don't know what it is that it can fight against magic but it's effecting his blood! That... That's good. That means there really is only one symptom for this!' Lance started to smile as he thought victory was closer than he originally thought. 'If your friends just find anything on magics that effect the blood we can rule out anything else... Don't worry Angelica... as long as we can keep your friend from hemorrhaging again we can keep him alive till Ragnar finds something!' 

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@Doc Ginger, @, 

 

Ragnar swore under his breath. If only he had the complete incantation. Now all the good do was guess the right word. Nonetheless he grabbed the book and took it to Lance.

 

"I think this is our best chance. There's a spell that might help him, but the incantation is missing a word. It's fairly short, five letters I think, and the only word that occurs to me is blood. It's worth a shot anyway, or maybe you can figure it out."

 

He showed Lance the incantation.

[Neikos 968]

Angelica nodded and hoped for the best, as Ragnar came back in with something that looked like a shredded book her heart swell with hope. She wouldn't interrupt, not being that smart in medicinal affairs and would rather await any sort of order from one the two.

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance turned and read the passage Ragnar showed him while continuing to hold pressure on Erik's neck. Lance looked up at Ragnar in confusion then read the notes and passage again. he strived to remember any words or components he knew that would fit in the scratched out place of the passage and make sense. 

 

"I, this isn't as helpful as I'd hoped but give me a moment.. I might be able to think of something...."

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

Ragnar shrugged.

 

"Like I said, 'blood' is the only word I can think of that fits, but I'm not sure that really makes sense. I really don't know much about medicine, or magic for that matter, so I'm afraid you're on your own with this. I'm sorry that I can't do more to help."

[Doc Ginger 86]

@

 Lance snapped his head back up, his eyes darting back and forth as he was thinking. "Plate... Plates.. Platelets... Blood platelets! That's gotta be it.."

Lance looked at Angelica and Ragnar, hope in his eyes. "Platelets! Without platelets it doesn't matter how much blood he has it won't coagulate! That's gotta be it!"

@@Alex Kennedy

"Ragnar! Does that book have anything on platelets or spells to regenerate them?"

Edited April 10, 2013 by Doc Ginger

[Neikos 968]

The book did indeed have a spell about platelets, it talked mostly about coagulation and how casting it on a healthy person would kill it by giving it a stroke. But perhaps it might help a sick person. Either way, Angelica was all worked up, she was about to lose her coltfriend and she could not help either. You could hear from the library the other ponies going trough the shelves, looking for possible help.

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@Doc Ginger,

 

Ragnar hurriedly looked through the book, and fortunately it did indeed have a fair amount about platelets. He showed Lance the spell.

 

"Here, this should help coagulate the blood. On any normal pony it would probably kill them, but right now I think it's our only chance at saving him." 

Edited April 10, 2013 by Alex Kennedy

[Doc Ginger 86]

@ 

Lance read the spell indicated carefully, committing it to memory, before nodding grimly at Ragnar and Angelica. Then he focused all his concentration and effort at casting this spell, centering it on Erik's wound. 

 

"hopefully.." Lance muttered as he began to cast. 

[Neikos 968]

As he cast the spell Erik would gently convulse, whether it was a sign of the spell working or him being in pain is not immediately clear and probably won't be until after the spell is done.

 

Then the second phase of the spell began, a small beam of light came out of Lance's horn, going towards the wound, seemingly being absorbed by Erik before disappearing, only to leave a soft glow on him, showing that the spell did go throughout his body. It was then when... something erupted out of his body. A white cloud of 'smoke' as one is tempted to call it. It then disappeared as quickly as it came to be.

 

After a few seconds the spell had done it's work and Erik stopped slowly bleeding, with only his largest wound still needing to be treated properly. His breathing also returned to somewhat normal. It seems that he is relatively okay for now, at least in a magical way.

 

Angelica looked between Erik and Lance, waiting for him to finish the spell, impatient to go and help her coltfriend.

 

 

 

 

Several kilometers North a Caravan was slowly moving away from the city. Inside it were what appeared to be three ponies. One of them was chained to the last wagon. He was not in very good shape, several deep scratches where all over his body, some were still fresh indicating a recent beating. The other two ponies where at the front, one was magically making the whole caravan move while they conversed. Their current subject was about how the weather isn't going to help them advance the next few days. Then suddenly the aforementioned smoke of cloud appeared before them, releasing a frightening cry before vanishing. They both stopped talking instantly and looked at each other. "This is rather troubling.", one said, the other agreed. "It is. How shall we proceed?"
"Let us continue for now."

[Doc Ginger 86]

Lance nodded tiredly at Ragnar, in thanks for finding the spell, then proceeded to use whatever energies he could muster to finish healing Erik, before sitting back and nodding to Angelica, letting her know he had done all he could. 

 

Lance looked over at Ragnar, "Well that was one of the more interesting things ive seen as a medic...."

[Alex Kennedy 1,228]

@@Doc Ginger,

 

Ragnar nodded, not really knowing what to say or do at this point. He was never very good in situations like these.

 

"It was certainly unusual. I'm no doctor but even I could tell that much. He looks like he's going to be okay eventually though, so I guess it worked out alright in the end."