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Message: <blockquote data-quote="el-remmen" data-source="post: 4336483" data-attributes="member: 11">Session #23 – “Sleepless” (part 3 of 4)Timotheus Smith shook his head back and forth to try and clear it.  He was leaning over awkwardly on the suite couch, and he winced as he felt the bruises of his battle with Laarus, though he remembered nothing of it save as the shadowy recollections of a quickly fading nightmare.  He noticed Laarus lying on the floor unconscious and hurried to kneel beside him, only taking a moment to slip on a pair of trousers.“Are you all right?” Tim asked, and Laarus’ eyes snapped open.  The priest of Ra’s face began to bubble and change, his mouth opening to reveal rows of sharp jagged teeth.  “Sweet Nephthys! What’s wrong with you?”  Timotheus jumped back as Laarus got to his feet, but before the priest could do much more, he grabbed him in a headlock, noticing immediately how much stronger than normal Laarus seemed.  He looked down in Laarus’ face, but it was no longer Laarus’ face, it was the sad and scared face of his sister, Ivy.“Tim? What are you doing to me?” She asked pathetically.“This is isn’t right…” Tim said, trying to adjust his grip into something equally as restraining but less painful.  She broke free in the process.The transformed form of Laarus sprinted to the door, throwing it open and heading out into hall. “Hey! Get back here!” Timotheus called, giving chase.  He grabbed at the back of his sister’s dress, but she yanked free and turned left down the hall.  Timotheus came around the corner in time to see her leap over the banister of the steps that led down to the common room, and without hesitating he leapt as well.  He heard a gasp and outcry from those sleepless partiers still left in the inn as his legs collapsed beneath him, and looking up he saw that Laarus no longer looked like Ivy, but like some kind of fisherman.Laarus now wore a long dirty yellow canvas coat.  He had floppy fisherman’s hat that covered his ears, and his face was that of a worn older man with a curly red beard.  The barmaid he landed beside turned towards him and screamed when she saw him, dropping her tray of drinks.“<a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Weirspierogen" target="_blank">Weirspierogen</a> will burn Sluetelot to the ground!” Laarus-turned-fisherman declared. The crowd in the common room roared in anger, and then shrieked when he charged at a man sitting nearby with cards fanned in his hands and a small pile of silver and copper coins on the table before him.  The possessed priest grabbed the man around the head and bit deep into his neck, tearing a big piece of flesh as blood billowed out and the man slid to the floor, dying.“He bit Clive!” Someone yelled.  Chairs fell back and tables shook as the crowd drew away from what now appeared to be a demonic <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Weirspierogener" target="_blank">Weirspierogener</a> fisherman with a mouth full of sharp teeth and blood pouring over his chin.“I shall slay him!” It was Floris Tenbrook, rapier suddenly in his hand as he leapt over a table in Laarus’ direction. His left hand deftly pulled a dagger from his other side.“No! Don’t hurt him!” Timotheus yelled, getting to his feet.  “He’s enchanted! He’s under a spell!”  He tried to get at Laarus, but too many people were in the way as they scrambled to get away from the site of the melee.Laarus the fisherman grabbed the barmaid and yanked her in front of him, blocking Floris momentarily as he tore into her as well.  She screamed and fell to the ground.  Floris jammed his rapier into the fisherman’s side.“No! No weapons!” Tim cried pushing his way forward.  He slammed a fist into the back of Laarus’ head with restrained might.  Floris Tenbrook looked at him as if he were mad.  “What exactly is going on here?”Laarus crumpled over, but took the opportunity to scramble away towards the door of the inn.  Floris and Timotheus moved to follow, but this time instead of scattering, the crowd fell upon the fisherman with fists, cups and even a chair.   Timotheus forced his way through the crowd as they gasped as one.  Instead of a fisherman, there lay Laarus’ unconscious form.  Timotheus ran over to the barmaid.  She was bleeding out.“Quick! Help me bind her!” He called to Floris, but the young noble shrugged.  “What do I know about healing people?”  Barton Digits came rushing into the came out of the kitchen followed by the other barmaid and the cook.  “Oh my Gods!”“Well… At least try!” But it was too late, the barmaid was dead, and the other barmaid, her sister, howled with grief.  “Clive is dead, too…” said one of the other patrons.  The crowd murmured their displeasure, and there was a general sense, despite Laarus’ appearance, that the people of Weirspierogen were somehow behind this. [sup]1[/sup]“So, does this have something to do with the sleeplessness?” Floris Tenbrook asked Tim.“I don’t know…”“Where is Bleys and the others?” Floris asked.“I don’t know…” Floris ordered two men to carry Laarus up to the suites, and as Timotheus moved to help there was a commotion from outside.  Screams echoed in from the marketplace.  A man rushed into the inn.“Someone call the watch! There are a group of old wives ripping each other apart out there!”Timotheus turned to go outside, but Floris Tenbrook stopped him. “See to your friend, I will take care of this…”“If people are in trouble I am going to help!” Timotheus insisted and moved to continue, but again Floris stepped in front of him, putting a hand up to the bigger man’s chest. “I told you…” Floris’ usual gay tone gave way to a stern voice filled with authority. “See to your friend.  See to yourself… I shall handle this…”Timotheus fumed, standing there shaking with anger and shirtless, covered in the blood of barmaid.  “You are a fool!” He turned to follow the men carrying Laarus upstairs.“I will not forget you said that,” Floris replied with menace in his voice. He left.---------------------------------------------------Bleys the Aubergine spotted the temple of Isis on his way back towards the center of town and ran up to the ornate door covered with silver runic moons and ankhs.  They were shut, so he knocked on them.“Fair maidens of Isis!  It is I, Bleys the Aubergine! Sluetelot is in need of your aid!” he called.At first there was no response, but he knocked again and soon the door began to open.“Master Bleys!” It was a dark-haired woman approaching middle age.  She wore a white gown decorated with a burning heart emblazoned with a golden ankh.  She wore a read headband.  “I am Aphia of Fallon.  The sisters are all sequestered.  They have been called by the high priestess to discuss a vision.”“When?” The watch-mage asked the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Medicus+of+Fallon" target="_blank">Medicus</a>.“Last night as moonrise,” she replied.  “<a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/The+Silent+Sisters" target="_blank">The Silent Sisters</a> and I have been asked to watch over the temple until they emerge…”“Very well… When you can, please tell <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Leisel+of+Isis" target="_blank">Leisel of Isis</a> that I am convening a meeting of the watch-mage’s council in two hours at Death & Taxes.”Aphia said she would.  Bleys made his way across the marketplace well plaza and spotted a group of the town watch manacling a group of middle-aged and old women by a shattered stall.  Floris Tenbrook was among them, and he looked up and noticing Bleys, made his way to intercept him.“Ah! There you are!” Floris said.“Here I am,” Bleys said in his flat tone.“These women were causing a disturbance,” Floris explained. “They were fighting like animals over some fish… Most of them haven’t slept in days.  Something is going on…”“I agree.  It is for that reason that I am calling a meeting of the watch-mage’s council,” Bleys replied. “I have sent word to Liesel, and was coming to find you, and now I need only to find <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Darbold+the+Gay" target="_blank">Darbold the Gay</a>.”“I can show you the way to his house, but then I need to come back here to keep things calm…” Floris said.  He ordered the guards to bring the women to the gaol, and then began to do just that. “When we get a chance later, I need to talk to you about your companion, Timotheus…”Bleys did not respond.“Oh! And your other companion, Laarus Raymer, attacked two people at the inn and killed them,” Floris added.  Bleys raised an eyebrow.Back at the gaol, Markos was using his sleep spell, which he had prepared in place of a spell he already had ready, and found that putting people to sleep seemed to be what initiated the possession.“The end of all order comes…” A prisoner isolated to his own cell hissed at him.“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Markos chuckled. [sup]2[/sup]  “So who are you? What are you doing in this man? Where did you come from?”The possessed man murmured something Markos could not hear.  “What?” the mage asked and the man murmured again. “Come closer… It’s a secret…” The man said softly, and Markos leaned in and then jumped back, as the possessed man grabbed at him, his mouth transforming into one filled with sharp teeth, his eyes glowing and smoking.Markos walked over to Alexander. “When Captain Firth returns tell her that sleep triggers the transformation.  I need to go warn Bleys and my other companions of this fact…” And with that he left to try and catch up with Bleys.    He had not gone far when he saw Captain Firth returning, along with several guards, the arrested old women from the market and Floris Tenbrook.  The captain and the young noble were disagreeing about putting the women in the gaol.“It is being put to sleep that triggers the possession,” Markos told them. “If we keep them segregated in their own cells, we should not have a problem…  I only worry that the longer someone has not slept, the more likely they are to spontaneously fall into a slumber and thus become taken over…”“I have not slept in almost three days,” Floris Tenbrook replied. “Then you are a danger…”“Some of us have stronger minds than others,” Floris smirked.“Regardless, I need to go talk to Bleys…” Markos said.  Floris agreed to accompany the wizard back to the inn.“You know, your cousin Laarus killed two people,” Floris told Markos.“What a shame…” Markos replied with no real sympathy.Floris looked down at Markos and smirked again. “Where is Telémahkos?” [sup]3[/sup]Markos shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know… All my weak-willed companions are acting oddly… And speaking of acting oddly, I believe that if you have not slept in three days, we should put you in a cell before you collapse and are overcome… I am sure all the alcohol you imbibe is no aid in resisting whatever is going on…”“Excuse me?” Floris Tenbrook stopped.“Drunks are not exactly consistently reliable,” Markos replied.“You had better reconsider your words and attitude, young Markos…” Floris replied with tension in his voice. “You are speaking to one of your betters and a member of the watch-mage’s council… Not trading salty insults with seadogs…”“My betters?” Markos laughed. “If only being noble really made someone better, except perhaps better in the favors of those who hold power…”“It seems the Signers of the Charter of Schiereiland have trouble with their tongues…” Floris said. “I must speak to Master Bleys about this…” He started to walk again, his hand tightly gripping the hilt of his rapier.Markos stood there for a moment and then hurried to catch up.  “I may owe you an apology…”Floris was silent.“I mean… I apologize… It has been a stress filled morning…”“Apology accepted,” Floris said. “See? You are learning… Perhaps you need to emulate your companion, Bleys.  He is the most respectful of your band…”“Most respectful? He is the least respectful!”“I am sure whoever has been the target of his indignation has brought such treatment onto themselves…” Floris replied.“Then anyone talking to him for five minutes about anything must be enough to bring it on themselves…” Markos quipped.----------------------------------------------------At Darbold the Gay’s house, the bard’s wife was at her wit’s end, as all three of their young children were wailing endlessly.  Rose was significantly younger than her husband, and her hips, widened by multiple childbirths in a short time, gave her a pear shape.  Her face still had all its prettiness, despite the deep creases and dark circles of sleeplessness.“Darbold was called to Havesting this morning and he has still not returned,” Rose said.  “I wish he would come back.  Little Barakis and the girls have not slept and I am worried about them… They just won’t stop crying…”“Lack of sleep is causing a sort of madness,” Bleys told her. He reached into his satchel for the herbal sleep aids he had purchased in the market earlier, and gave her two of them.  “See if you can feed them these.  Sleep will cure them…” [sup]4[/sup]“Thank you, Master Bleys,” Rose gave a short stiff bow.“Please have your husband come to Death & Taxes when he returns,” Bleys told her. “I am convening an emergency meeting of the Watch-mage’s council…”Bleys headed back to the inn, and found Timotheus running down the steps into the common room to greet him, having noticing him coming from the upstairs window.  The tall Briareus had gotten dressed and strapped on his armor.“We have a problem… What are you looking at me that way for?” Timotheus felt stung by Bleys’ dark penetrating eyes.“Do you have more to say?” Bleys asked.“Laarus turned… Well, he turned into my sister and then into some mad Weirspierogen fisherman and killed two people…”“So I have heard…” Bleys responded.“Something bad is happening because of this sleeplessness,” Timotheus said. “Where is my cousin? Where’s Victoria?”“Victoria is recruiting help from the temple of Anhur,” Bleys said. “She saw a halfling that turned into her dead brother… So you are not alone in seeing people transform into family members…”“Is she alright?” Timotheus asked with genuine concern.“She is a militant… It would take more than that to shake her…” Bleys replied. “Tell me in detail what happened…”“I woke up on the floor, half leaning on the couch… I don’t know how I got there…”“Last I saw you, you were laying there with two bawdy wenches…” Bleys said.“They aren’t bawdy wenches, they’re just a couple of nice town girls,” Timotheus protested with a grin.“And Laarus was awake?” Bleys asked.“Uh… He was laying on the floor when I first saw him, and he was covered in bruises and bite marks… Don’t know where they came from… Oh no!” Timotheus put meaty fist up to his mouth and bit it nervously. “It must have been me!  I must have been possessed while I slept!”“Perhaps passing the infection cures you of it…” Bleys speculated.”I don’t know… Laarus bit two people and they just bled to death…” Tim replied. “And he only stopped when Floris and the crowd beat him down…”“You can tell all that occurred at the council meeting,” Bleys said.“A council meeting?  I hate fncking meetings!” Timotheus swore.…to be continued…---------------------------------------------------------------Notes:(1)    Sluetelot and Weirspierogen have long had rivalry that goes all the way back to the days before the establishment of the <a href="http://aquerra.wikispaces.com/Thricia" target="_blank">Magocracy of Thricia</a>.(2)    Markos is Chaotic good. In case you couldn’t guess from his behavior…(3)    Telémahkos’ player could not make it to this session and would also end up missing the next session.  Luckily, the confusion of the events in the town and the splitting of the party made it easy to explain his absence.(4)    Bleys purchased these in Session #24.</blockquote>

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