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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 4310957" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #23 – “Sleepless” (part 2 of 4) Meanwhile, at Death & Taxes Laarus called on Ra to aid or smite his friend, “Almighty Ra! If Timotheus has fallen and become an abomination against life and Anubis then send him from your willful order for this realm!”  The young priest channeled divine energy through his sun-shaped holy symbol, but the demonic vision of Timotheus only smiled, his features melting and changing.  Laarus had no time to react as Timotheus now looking like Laarus’ brother Shuward[sup]1[/sup], wrapped his muscled arms around the priest’s waist, pinning and arm and lifting him up momentarily to bring them both slamming to the floor.  The burly warrior’s full weight landed painfully on the priest upon Laarus.“You always were a disappointment, Laarus,” Shuward hissed in his brother’s ear. “A weird little egg of a kid no one liked…”Laarus turned and strained to get bend a leg and get a foot down beneath him and push them both up, but Timotheus’s weight and strength was too much for him.  They fell back together with another groan, which was quickly followed by a cry of pain from Laarus.  Tim-Shuward bit a chunk out of Laarus’ neck, blood pouring down his chin.  Laarus felt a wave of drowsiness wash over him but he was able to shake his head clear.“Get off!” Laarus cried as he tried for a sudden burst to break free after pretending to relax for a moment, but it did not work.“Disappointment…” Shuward-Tim whispered in his ear with mocking intimacy before biting him again.“May Ra show me the truth behind this false visage, for a long time my brother has not been whole!” Laarus grunted as he finally managed to slip a hand under Tim’s grip and pry it free and stagger to his feet.  Timotheus, still looking like pale-faced Laarus’ dead older brother lunged from his knees, but the priest skipped back out of the way, wary.  He made a break for the door and the changed Timotheus stood and lunged again, slamming the priest against the door as he took another bite.  “Running? You always were a coward! Heh.” Timotheus spoke in Shuward’s voice as Laarus felt his consciousness ebb.----------------------------------------------The bruised and possessed captain of the Sluetelot Watch recoiled as Bleys slammed the heavy shield in her face as she grabbed at him again. Markos winced instinctively and it was all the opportunity she needed.  She bounced off the shield and turned wildly pulling the thin-framed mage into her grip, her muscles bulging unnaturally.  She spun to use Markos as a shield as Bleys stepped in to slap her on the side of the head with the flat of his saber.“Fncking Bleys!” Markos barked as he struggled, looking up to see the watch-mage step back, drop the heavy shield and began to cast a spell. [sup]2[/sup] “What in the Hells is wrong with you?”  He wedged his dagger between them and pried.  Captain Firth looked down at him, hissing and snarling.“You are under arrest, Markos,” she drooled.“Come and play with me, sister,” The toddler whispered as Victoria leapt away, off the cross-shaped inner building, landing with a grunt, the wind knocked out of her momentarily.  She looked up as she stood in time to see the form of her long dead brother…a bowl of dark hair on a round face twisted with a grimace, eyes in circles of bruised black, with deep purple around his little neck… come leaping down upon her with a snarl, grabbing at her neck with his little hands and bringing his sharp teeth to bite her.  She winced and felt a wave of drowsiness come over her, but she shook it off.  She grabbed the baby and slammed it against the wall of the cross-building and it squealed in pain.“Sister! No!” He cried, as it pulled her grip open with preternatural strength and slid from her grip down to the floor.  She reached down to grab him, but he ducked deftly, and then tumbled aside awkwardly to avoid her powerful kick.  “You are NOT my brother!” She roared.  “How DARE you?!”“Get the fnck off me!” Markos continued to struggle, his thin arms straining in her apish grip.  She spun him around again and this time Bleys’ sword clipped the other mage’s thigh, drawing blood. [sup]3[/sup]“BLEYS!” Markos cried.“Let go of her, Markos,” Bleys replied, still monotone.  He was hypnotized for half a moment by Markos’ blood on his blade.  He began to look for another opening, as the possessed captain grabbed a big hunk of Markos’ neck in her teeth.“Bleys… You’re an assh0le,” Markos gasped, yanking his head free before she could sink her teeth in.  She raised her head to go in again. Bleys dropped his sword and stepped in, placing the heel of his hand under her chin and using Markos as a lever to pull her away.  “Let him go!” The smaller wizard stumbled away awkwardly, as Bleys took his place locking arms with the captain as if dancing.“Victoria, stop playing with that thing and come help us,” Markos called to the militant as he stepped over to the stairs and began to cast a spell.Victoria of Anhur could not get a grip on the little creature appearing as her brother Ephram. It ran between her legs and sunk its sharp teeth into her calf.  Again she felt the swoon of sleep wash over her, but she stamped her foot, and took a jarring half-step to the side to keep herself awake. The little monster leaped up at her and she batted it away, drawing her morningstar. “Victoria! What are you doing?” Bleys was alarmed, concerned that that might really be a possessed child, an innocent pawn in whatever was going on.  He turned his body trying to get the possessed captain into a headlock.“This desecration ends now!” she replied, swinging it heavily.  The boy sidestepped and snickered. “Why are you trying to hurt me sister?  Have I not suffered enough already?”  He scurried away and tried to take advantage of Bleys’ preoccupancy with the grappling captain, but the watch-mage lifted his leg and kicked in time to avoid being bitten.“Bleys! Be careful, that’s my brother!” Victoria warned, her attitude suddenly changing when she saw someone else threatening the child-like form.  She stepped over and punched down at it with morningstar still in her hands. [sup]4[/sup] Markos stepped out of the shadow; his hand crackling with blue white sparks of lightning and touched it to Captain Firth. Her body jerked in spasms of agony, and Bleys was thrown free of her grip.  She stumbled and nearly fell, but then looked up, a look of fear and confusion on her face.“Huh? What happened to me?” she asked, looking around. While still bruised, the monstrous aspects of her face and her unnatural musculature were gone. “The last thing I remember the warden was chasing me!”  She hurried over to the door out and turned around.  Markos grabbed the manacles off his belt and reached out with them towards her.“You need to get in these for your own good,” Markos said, but she backed away, raising her hands in fists, as she had no weapon.“Captain Firth, trust me! You were not yourself! You must submit to the manacles!” Bleys said, turning to flank Ephram between him and Victoria.  “You say this is your brother?  Who is this child?”“He is in the guise of my brother…He… he passed when we were children…,” She replied, punching at the thing with her morningstar, but now being overcautious.  Ephram giggled and jumped out of the way, but then shrieked when he realized he leapt right into Bleys Winter’s strong arms. The watch-mage stooped down and scooped him up around the head and shoulders, and Victoria quickly grabbed the child’s kicking legs. They tightened their grip and the child stopped squirming, its form melting and changing, until suddenly they held a <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Halflings#toc1" target="_blank">stout halfling</a> in their arms.  “Hey! What’s going on?” the halfling cried with alarm.  “Brutality!” He desperately began to try to break free again, but with much less strength.Captain Firth seeing the transformation was convinced and put out her wrists for Markos, who snapped the manacles around them.  “What in the gods’ names!” The captain suddenly swore, looking up “What is that?”Markos looked up to where Angeleena Firth looked and there crawling down the wall head first was the figure of the warden, his hair sticking up wildly, his eyes glowing deep red, and his clothing tearing from the undulation of his muscles.“Aw fnck!” Markos swore as the possessed warden leapt off the wall at him.  The skinny mage managed to push Captain Firth back, as he jumped back himself, and the warden landed between them, hissing and cackling.“Close that door!” Markos commanded Alexander, and the frightened guard did not hesitate to obey.  “Sagitta caustus!  An arrow made of acid came flying out of Marko’s hand and slammed into the warden. The man howled as his skin and clothing smoked.“Victoria, put him in a cell,” Bleys said to the militant, shoving the halfling roughly into her arms and turning to help Markos.  The little man now hung upside-down from where Victoria held his ankles.  He swore in his high voice.   Bleys the Aubergine stepped over and slammed a heavy fist with all his might into the side of the warden’s head, and the man went down.“Captain Firth… Where is the watch-wizard?” Bleys asked, wary of more possessed people that might attack.“When we were fighting off Jeroen he was injured and bleeding, but we managed to bind him before he died,” the captain explained. “He should be on the upper level…”“What’s going on?! Let us out of here!” There was a sudden roar of prisoners’ voices filling the gaol, now that the sound of the fight had stopped.“Quiet!” Bleys commanded.  He turned back to the captain. “And what of Jeroen, the dock master?”“I don’t know…” Victoria put down the halfling and he immediately scurried away, putting his back to the wall of the cross-shaped building.“You!” Bleys turned to him, holding out another set of manacles. The halfling had a dark hair cut short to his scalp, and a round face disfigured with dimples of fat.  “Either you are going to put these on your feet, or you are going into a cell…” [sup]5[/sup]“I’m not doing either!” The halfling protested.“Oh yeah?”“Yeah!” The halfling snarled.  “It is the injustice of us being locked in here so long that led to us being in danger in the first place!”“Regardless of what has happened here, you and your fellow dockworkers have broken the law and deserve to be here… We have defeated the enemies here and until you are safely confined, we cannot make sure that all of them have been taken care of…”“I am not doing it…” The halfling replied. “I’ll help you look…”“No… You will comply, or I will simply have to sit on you while we search,” Bleys threatened.“You can’t do both at once!” The halfling snapped back.“Just grab him and throw him in,” Markos growled. “He’s just a halfling!”Victoria took a step towards the prisoner who moments before had looked like her late brother, and the halfling looked up at her nervously. “Okay! Okay! I’ll go in myself,” He said, and began to walk towards the stairs, which was where Bleys gestured.  There was an open cell at the top there.  “But I won’t be locked in…” He added.“It is safer in the cell than out anyway,” Victoria said.“And it is even safer out of the prison altogether,” the halfling reasoned. “Why not just let me go?  I can just go and be out of your hair…”“No, no you can’t…” Victoria replied.“We are all locked in…” Bleys said, pointing to the large metal door Alexander had shut.“You’re all crazy! You locked yourselves in here?”  The halfling began to climb the steps with Bleys in front of him and Victoria behind.Once he was in the cell, they found the bound form of the watch-wizard in another open cell, and it did not take them long to realize after looking everywhere they could, that the unconscious form of the prisoner who had appeared as a “Setite” and attacked Victoria was actually Jeroen.  They carried him over to the cell with the halfling and put him in there as well, much to the little person’s chagrin.“What are you putting him in here for?  What if he wakes up and bites me again?” the halfling complained.“He is not waking up…” Bleys replied.  “Not for some time anyway…”“<a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Barakis+the+Brown" target="_blank">Barakis the Bold</a> would never have handled it this way…” The halfling said.“Barakis is passed.  I am the watch-mage of Sluetelot for now…”“Let us out! Let us out!” Once again the prisoners were yelling and banging their metal cups against the bars of their cells.“We have the keys now!” Bleys addressed the prisoners, holding up the ring of them. “As long as you remain in the back of your cells away from the bars, you should be safe from any other possessed beings seeking to bite you…”“I bet this whole thing is a Weirspierogen plot!” One of the prisoners yelled in the ensuing silence, and then they erupted again, cursing and threatening the people of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Weirspierogen" target="_blank">Weirspierogen</a> and the nobles of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/House+Devenpeck" target="_blank">House Devenpeck</a>. It took some time to convince Alexander to unlock the prison door, even with the safeword that Markos has arranged, but once they did, Captain Firth was unmanacled so that she could gather up the town-watch to help deal with the crisis.  “Send word to <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Havesting" target="_blank">Havesting</a>, we need to declare martial law in town,” Bleys said to her.She nodded, headed out, and was heard to blow her whistle.“We need to figure out the source of this sleeplessness and possession,” Bleys said to his companions. “I think that the sleeplessness makes people go mad and thus open to whatever malevolent force is taking them over…”“We need to seek out someone who would know about these things,” Markos said.“Yes… It is for that reason that I am going to call a meeting of the watch-mage’s council,” Bleys replied.  Markos was left behind at the gaol to await Captain Firth’s return, while Victoria jogged over to the temple of Anhur to see what help she could gather there. Bleys the Aubergine headed back to Death & Taxes.…to be continued…---------------------------------------------Notes:(1) In <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Central+Aquerra" target="_blank">central Aquerra</a>, where the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Gods" target="_blank">gods</a> of <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Ra%27s+Pantheon" target="_blank">Ra’s Pantheon</a> are worshipped, it is not uncommon for twins to be given names that are variations of the names of the twins gods, <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Shu" target="_blank">Shu</a> and <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Tefnut" target="_blank">Tefnut</a>.(2)    Bleys cast mage armor on Markos.(3)    Markos provided cover to the captain, and Bleys struck an AC high enough to normally strike her, but failed to because of the bonus provided by Markos, thus Markos took the damage.(4)    This was where I turned to Victoria’s player and asked “How does one fight to subdue with a morningstar?” I do not recall the answer, but I did accept it, though in retrospect I am once again dubious of the notion.(5)    The halfling’s wrists were too thin for the manacles to be effective on him.</blockquote>

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