Luck in the Shadows
Distinguished by her plain robe and the bronze serpent lemniscate pendant she wore on a leather thong around her neck, she was already surrounded by a small crowd of people seeking healing. They stood quietly, watching with a mixture of hope and awe as she examined an infant lying on her lap.
-Luck in the Shadows by Lynn Flewellin
Whenever PC clerics enter a village with no temple, they should be mobbed by people looking for healing (mostly from disease, which is too bad for the villagers, because you get Cure Light Wounds way before you get Cure Disease).
Before any other business in a small town, a cleric would probably have to do some doctoring – making Heal checks, at the very least. Sometimes this will lead to exposure to dangers like filth fever, or even the occasional demonic possession.
This doesn’t apply to all Leader-type classes. People don’t go to warlords so much because their healing is, as far as I can tell, entirely psychosomatic. No one takes their sick baby to the gym teacher to obtain his exhortation to “walk it off”.
Tags: everybook
This reminds me of reading Hugh Cook’s Wizard War, where every time the wizard characters entered a village, they were asked for healing, being labelled “pox doctors” because of their knowledge (even though only one of the wizards actually knew anything about medicine).
Believe it or not I have actually used the phrase “Walk it off!” as an “Inspiring Word” for a Warlord character of mine. I’ve also been known to use “Quit yer @$#%ing!”
Hey… it worked!!
I can’t figure out which swear that @$#% stands for! All I can think is “bellyache.”
Same thing I said to the SSA when they asked if I was a bad enough dude to rescue the president, Paul. “Bitchin’!”