Mika has managed to survive it this long. How bad can it be? "Thank you." She tips the barkeep generously, Mika may not have wanted him to give that out.

Across the river to Old Korvosa. She can get across the river, and the upside of numbered streets is that navigation is easy. The streets here will also be more dangerous, but as long as she stays on guard, she should probably be fine? (Her blob bobs along behind. It looks... brave? How can a blob of shadow have clear enough body language for her to get "brave" from it? Oh well, just another mystery for the pile.)

Old Korvosa is... well it's definitely much older and less nice than North Point. The streets of Garrison Hill are winding and cramped, but not as cramped as they could be.

Half of 9th Street is a large tenement apartment building. The other half is mostly townhouses, many with small shops or other commercial activity on the ground floor.

Winding and cramped is fine. Winding and cramped means any wild dogs who want to eat her have to get within Color Spray range instead of charging her from far too far off.

If Mika was living in the apartment, the other tenants might know where he is? On the other hand, he almost certainly went to the shops if he was in the area. Do any of the shopkeeps recognize the name?

Some of the shopkeepers do. They're a suspicious bunch, and one of them "won't have an elf in my shop!", but eventually she gets a location down the street where Mika's building is located.

Is Mika there right now? If not, does anyone there know where he most recently went?

A few moments after Tencednil knocks on the door, she can hear Mika's voice. He sounds unwell. "Hello? Who's there?"

"Tencednil, here about what we talked about two days ago. You don't sound at your best." No reason to mention large quantities of money in as many words in public right now.

"Ah, sorry 'bout that. I've a rather nasty cough, don't want to get anyone sick. Or leave my bed, to be honest."

The door unlocks but doesn't open. "You can come in if you want, I'll get my mask on."

Disease. Joy. And her without a mask. Her friend can't talk, so it can't handle this for her. ('Can you pass along messages usefully? No? Oh well. Do you get sick? Probably not... Anything you think you could help with?')

...she does have her new cantrip, perhaps it can prove of some value. Can she Prestidigitate a quick square of cloth to put over her mouth?

She can prestidigitate a small cloth over her mouth. It's quite fragile and looks very strange, but it does seem to work.

Better than nothing! ('You can? How? Yes of course I'm going to help him. You can do something there? Can you do it? You don't have hands! You can help me with the basic treatment? Sounds good.')

What is there in this room?

The apartment is small and cluttered. Mika is sitting on his bed with a mask on. He looks pretty damn terrible, and is coughing intermittently.

"Well this won't do. I have a signature from the other two on permitting us together to extract four thousand shields, and I've signed the same for them. You should probably do the same and get to the bank to buy a Remove if this gets worse. Have you already handled your own basic treatment?"

"Eh, I'm not a trained healer or anything. I've been trying to take it easy, fight off the sickness."

"That probably does as much as I can, but I'll double check just in case."

She makes her way over and fusses over him a little bit. Her shadow blob buzzes at her every once in a while, but she's not sure it's... consistently correct? Regardless, she can't see any ways to improve on his planning here.

"Looks like about as much as I could manage myself. Only time will tell. If you want, and sign an authorization, I can have the Bank put an offer out for a Remove Disease. Normally I'd say a bit over a hundred shields if you want it within a few days, but with the current events the cost must be going up. Or you can wait and see if you get over it on your own if you'd rather save the money, your choice. It would also be fair for you to sign off on Julio and Anton taking out four thousand of their own if they need it. I don't know what's happening inside the Academae, but they might."

He has a coughing fit. "C-Could you write those authorizations up for me? There's some paper on my desk. I'll sign 'em."

"Of course." Can he read? Yes, he could when he was deaf. He really is poorly off.

Authorizations: one for a withdrawal of 150 shields to order a Remove Disease at this address, one granting Anton and Julio permission to withdraw their own 4000 shields, and a final one authorizing her to withdraw up to 2000 shields of the funds Anton and Julio have already signed off on. The bank should be able to handle it. Do those look good to him?

They do. He signs them. "Thanks for coming by. I wasn't sure how long this was gonna last."

"Of course. Do you know where you caught whatever it is?" She packs the paperwork away and walks to the exit, but holds back to hear what he has to say.

"No. I went to bed on Sunday just fine and woke up yesterday like this."

"Hmm. Hope it's not all over, or the offer might not be enough. I'll ask what Removes are selling for while I'm there. Hopefully you get better and don't need it."

And now, over to the bank to deliver paperwork. This is worrying! Are there other people around here who are also looking sick?

There's definitely sick people around, but it's hard to tell if there's more than normal. Tencednil hasn't spent much time in Old Korvosa.

She's walking through a particularly crowded and winding street when the ground rumbles—

A huge, monstrous shape bursts through a sewer grate down an alley. It looks like a horrible mix of a wolf and a squid. It smells awful.

One of its spiked tentacles tears someone's head clean off their shoulders. It tramples down the street in her direction and roars!

A crowd all around her, and no way to run. Feeding it other people would be her plan here, but it seems remarkably focused on her in particular. This is... bad. This is really quite bad. If those tentacles catch her she will be dead in a moment. What is there for her to do?

If you can't win, lose well. Bag: dropped. If it gets to the Bank, at least Mika will survive. "Take this to the Bank! I'll try to keep it off you!" Did anyone hear that? Maybe.

Run to the side, not towards where everyone else is going. They know the area better, this is a dead end. Soon to match her own.

Line up to cast. Those tentacles are long but they don't look long enough to be out of her Color Spray reach. When it comes, catch it off-guard and draw it out further. Or die. Probably that one. Maybe the shadow can catch it somehow? Maybe.

The Otyugh leaps forward like a lumbering giant—