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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Desdichado" data-source="post: 1772057" data-attributes="member: 2205">Module I: "Blasphemous Rumours" Part XAfter two days of rest and recuperation, Tson decided to go out.  Konrad was still healing, and Rosham had been shut in his room nearly continuously since returning from the shack in the swamp.  He wandered a bit through Upper Razina looking for local sources of information, but his interest was mostly in making his way to Lower Razina, past Bricktown, where he understood there was a fabulous library.  He had Elroy get the smartest clothes he could before leaving, a black silk suit with a dark purple velvet cloak and gilt threads embroidered in geometric patters, and when he past Bricktown, his breath was taken away by the view of Lower Razina.  The slate-roofed mansions and expansive green parks and gardens of the wealth of Razina sloped away on terraces into the void below.  It was a clear day, and he could see all the way the swelling, puffy, white Cloudwall miles below.He walked further into the district, having to show the pass that Gauvain had given them,which allowed him enter the walled city within a city without comment.  All around him the broad streets were lined with flowers and bushes sparkling with color like he had never seen before in the otherwise harsh regions near Razina.  The people he passed were either messengers and servants, who typically were attired in colorful uniforms and seemed to be in a hurry, or else well-dressed, indolent Unbred walking slowly as they chatted, or riding in carriages or in palanquins carried by oiled slaves, or smoking brass constructs.  He received a few haughty glances from under raised eyebrows as a scarred and faded albino hulk in the otherwise nearly completely pure Unbred population of Lower Razina, but his fine clothing at least ensured that no one challenged him overtly.The library itself was a large columned marble building surrounded by tall, flowering trees.  Up the wide steps and through the heavy brass-bound door, he found the library to be very spacious inside, liberally decorated with fine carpets, bright open windows, and dark wood.  He smiled and flashed his identification again at the thin old librarian who gave a slightly strained obsequious smile and offered to help him in any way."Can you show me a private room, and then any maps of the Wellhead Swamps you may have?" Tson asked.  He was shown into a room that smelled slightly of dust; cobwebs arced gracefully in the upper corners of the room.  The walls were off-white plaster, with dark hardwood floors, baseboards and crown molding, and the large windows were made of slightly frosted glass ringed with dark wood.  He opened the window to hear the birds and bugs from the garden-like grounds of the library while he waited for the librarian to come back with the map.When he did return, it was empty-handed.  He was extremely apologetic.  "I'm terribly sorry, sir, but that item has been removed by one of our patrons.  It is in use, and not on the premises.""Do you know who has it?""I did check, sir, yes.  It was picked up by Remy Ormiteau, a servant of the High Lord's household.  He typically runs errands for the High Lord's wife.""His...  his wife?"  Tson said in obvious confusion.  He didn't know the local heirarchy well, and was suspicious of any interest the High Lord's household would have in the area."Yes, the lovely Catarina Llorença Raeganhere, may all the god's praise her beauty.""Err, I'm a bit new in town.  I don't have the pleasure of knowing much about Catarina ... er, the High Lady."(At this point, I launched into an OOC aside on the nobility of the Cassant Kingdom, which I'll repeat here.  The leader of the nation itself is known as the High Lord Imperator, and he has supposedly ruled for hundreds of years, where he sits deathless in his throne.  However, most of the actual running of the kingdom is handled by the Council of High Lords.  Each of the significant regions of the kingdom has a High Lord; the High Lord of Razina is Heneric Raegenhere, who is often absent with court business in the capital.  Other High Lords manage specific functions of the government rather than regions; there is a High Lord who is the ultimate authority to which the Inquisition reports, for instance.Catarina Llorença Raeganhere is a perfect example of the nepotism that is typical in such inbred societies; she is the daughter of a High Lord and lived her entire life until recently in Cassant itself, the capital.  She has only recently married our local High Lord and moved to Razina.  She is supposedly both very young and very beautiful... and very bored with life in provincial Razina with her busy, middle-aged husand of convenience and politics.)~●~(This next little bit was actually glossed over in-game; this was a bit of dead time where the characters tried to fill time while Konrad healed.  So I made up some of the detail here after the fact...)Late during the night cycle, Konrad woke up to the distinctive feel of somebody choking the life out of him.  He tried to scream, but his voice was cut off.  Trashing wildly, he was able to throw his assailant off and give a hoarse shout.  His attacker came at him again, scratching him and pummelling him unmercifully.  Tson burst into the room with a lantern and wrestled the attacker to the ground.  Despite his prodigious strength, he seemed unable to hold the wily, snakelike figure, until finally he went limp.Konrad shined the light on his face and was surprised to see Rosham.  His normally chalky gray skin was yellowish and sickly, and his red-rimmed eyes stared vacantly.  He felt clammy and cool to the touch, despite the sweat the covered his body.  He started shaking uncontrollably, and Tson tried to hold him down.  Then it stopped as suddenly as it started, and Rosam looked around, surprised to see them."What are you doing in my room?""You're in my room, you bloody fruitcake!" Konrad exploded."Oh," Rosham said vacantly, rising slowly to his feet and shuffling slowly back to his room.Tson and Konrad looked at each other meaningfully.  "Better lock your door," the big man said finally.~●~When they awoke late, Rosham was gone from his room again.  They found him finally, shoved tightly in a cupboard in the kitchen, naked and shivering, and apparently restlessly asleep.  "What the devil is wrong with you?" Konrad asked angrily when they managed to finally wake him and cover him with a wool blanket."I... "Rosham started, then bowed his head, covering his eyes and straining his face as if he were undergoing physical torture.  "I read the sorcerer's book that we found in th shack in the swamp; The King in Yellow," he said.  "It said...  it... NO!  Don't make me say what it said!  The thing is evil!  Blasphemous!  Obscene!  I... was not myself.  I felt ...constrained... by powers from beyond the thin, weak farce of a veil that we call reality."He paused again, breathing heavily.  Tson and Konrad were dead silent.  "There is a place... somewhere in the desert between here and Cassant.  The book gave clear indications of how to reach it.  A temple that survives from before the founding of Cassant; from before even the liberation of humanity from the slave-masters.  If it's really there at all..."Tson was silent for a moment, then waved aside the comment.  "There's another place too, somewhere in the Wellhead Swamp, that is a higher priority as far as I'm concerned.  When will you be ready to investigate that lead?""I'm good any time," Konrad said.Rosham sighed.  "Give me a day to rest; I'll be ready too."</blockquote>

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