The Eye of Anubis: Book Eight

[NeoTiamat]

Second Guest Rooms, The Monastery of Stilled Nightmares, Sebua
July 20th, 761, 10:57 AM; Day 125 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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Lia ignores Tomas's barb, and joins Andre in his efforts to wake up professor Devereux. She starts with one of the simplest methods known to her; she pours a bowl full of water, then upends it over the professor's dreaming head.

"Rise and shine," she tells the academic in a placid tone of voice.

Professor Devereux let out a kind of strangled shriek as the cold water shocked him awake, sitting up in the bed. To be fair, Lia's method was effective, as the professor sat up, ramrod straight. Though he still looked a bit sleepy.

Of course, looking at him with a soaked nightshirt on, he also looked a bit like an emaciated skeleton. Devereux pulled the covers up and glared at Lia with his best imitation of one of Professor Marchand-Renier's steady gazes. It fell a bit short.

"Er... excuse me?"

Main Guest Rooms, The Monastery of Stilled Nightmares, Sebua
July 20th, 761, 10:57 AM; Day 125 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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Charles sits down on a bed and laughs--perhaps slightly hysterically--for a long time.

Once he recovers, he says, "I doubt the Abbot is keeping them. I think they've done a bunk."

"What the... why would Mr. Maleagant and Captain Harris and the rest run off on us?" Dieter asked with consternation in his voice, looking around the room and checking under beds. "Doesn't make any sense."

"Hullo, what's this?" Dieter got on his hands and knees and pulled out a few packs full of gear from under someone's bed. "This is Ed's stuff. Somebody just shoved it under here..."

A more thorough check revealed that while most of the equipment was in fact missing, Edmund's had simply been shoved under the bed. Most of Mary's was also still here, though it had been rifled through.

"This is just weird." The Lamordian youth decided.

[yalenusveler]

"In brief, people are missing, and you slept about 13 hours." Andre said, starting into a nervous pace. "Get dressed, come with us, and if you see anything that anyone other than you or I would find strange, be so kind as to point it out. Oh, and what do you know, if anything, about the Thanni or their language? And yes, it IS relevant, so hurry!"

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"We have slept thirteen hours," Lia mutters, "and apparently no one came to wake us. That does not bode well, to say the least ... Is anyone else hungry?"

[Kaitou Kage]

An idea occurred to Kuzan.

"We ought to check the animals and supplies, see if they are still here, at least," he said, "Someone else should go find the Abbot or somebody and get some information."

[DocBeard]

"Come off it." Tomas replies bluntly to Charles, breaking character a little by immediately getting what he means. "I didn't mean either of those things; just that, combined with the...Thaani name from last night, it might be relevant information."

"It doesn't fit. If they were going to ditch us, it would have been in Phariza." Tomas further reasons, putting a hand on Charles's shoulder. "That was the best opportunity; just claim that they had no knowledge of what we heretics were doing, and get safely into the Sebulan desert while the chaff was being tortured to death!"

"...okay, maybe that wasn't as comforting as I was going for, nicht war?" Tomas shrugs, smiling sheepishly. "But you see my point, ja? Now, come on, the first logical thing to do is see if it was limited to us, or if the monks had people vanish as well, and if I talk to them alone I'll probably end up with us on another quest or something."

[Nathan of the FoS]

"What the... why would Mr. Maleagant and Captain Harris and the rest run off on us?" Dieter asked with consternation in his voice, looking around the room and checking under beds. "Doesn't make any sense."

"Perhaps not," Charles says. "Surfacing of latent paranoia! We have to talk to the monks before coming to any conclusions, that's sound policy. I'll go with you, Tomas, although Ezra knows I'm not immune to the siren call of windmill-tilting. However! We must exert our will and forebear for the present. Besides, I don't have a lance."

[NeoTiamat]

Second Guest Rooms, The Monastery of Stilled Nightmares, Sebua
July 20th, 761, 11:02 AM; Day 125 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"In brief, people are missing, and you slept about 13 hours." Andre said, starting into a nervous pace. "Get dressed, come with us, and if you see anything that anyone other than you or I would find strange, be so kind as to point it out. Oh, and what do you know, if anything, about the Thanni or their language? And yes, it IS relevant, so hurry!"

"Er... oh dear." Professor Devereux said, his annoyance with Lia forgotten. "Um... let me get dressed... oh dear..."

A few short minutes later, Professor Devereux was following Andre and Lia to the main guest chambers. The lanky, long-limbed academic hurried along, though he hung slightly behind Andre as he walked. There was still a reservation in Devereux. Though it seemed that his secret was out, he didn't like telling people what he saw. Seeing as it was more than enough to get him committed to a mental institution for a few years, this was quite understandeable.

"Er... Thaani... um... Barovian ethnic group, live in Immol, mostly... um... not sure where they're from... um... high incidence of psychic ability... er... alleged high incidence of psychic ability..." The Professor was talking to himself, almost in passing. "Er... high rate of Caliban births... some of whom have... um... oddly-colored eyes... um... talk about masters called the Silent Ones or Four-Fingered Ones... Not a lot of details..."

"Um... what else..." Devereux considered things for a while. "Um... my grandmother was a Thaani... er... not very relevant, sorry... um... not much else...."

"I am a bit... er... hungry..."

Main Guest Rooms, The Monastery of Stilled Nightmares, Sebua
July 20th, 761, 11:02 AM; Day 125 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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"It doesn't fit. If they were going to ditch us, it would have been in Phariza." Tomas further reasons, putting a hand on Charles's shoulder. "That was the best opportunity; just claim that they had no knowledge of what we heretics were doing, and get safely into the Sebulan desert while the chaff was being tortured to death!"

"Comforting." Remy had apparently recovered enough from his over-long sleep to be sarcastic. Someone really ought to keep the student from hanging out around Professors Marchand-Renier and Theroux before his sense of humor was permanently warped. "So... either the monks kidnapped them, or there's a horrible monster around here. Yay."

"We ought to check the animals and supplies, see if they are still here, at least," he said, "Someone else should go find the Abbot or somebody and get some information."

"Good idea." Dieter agreed, though he looked at Charles with a bit of worry, just as Lia, Andre, and Professor Devereux entered the room. "The stables are closest, probably best not to split up too much."

OOC: In order to keep you guys from fragmenting completely (and to keep the lovely dialogues going), I'll have you guys take the following itinerary: Stables --> Monk in Courtyard --> Abbot.

This alright with everyone?

[Nathan of the FoS]

"Fair enough," Charles says. "To the stables, then, shall we?"

[Kaitou Kage]

"All right, then," Kuzan said, doing an admirable job of keeping most of the distress out of his voice. Most of it. "Let's get going." He turned and walked out the door, heading toward the stables.

[NeoTiamat]

Stables, The Monastery of Stilled Nightmares, Sebua
July 20th, 761, 11:02 AM; Day 125 of the Menetnashte Expedition
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The stables was in a lower part of the Monastery, connected to the rest of the building only through a smattering of corridors. It was just a single large room, where the various Expedition equipment had been stored, and where the camels and other animals had been tied to hooks in the wall. It was the size of a good ballroom, and likely had been a ship's hold once.

It was also, at the moment, completely empty.

It had been picked clean. All of the Expedition's gear, all of the Expedition's animals, everything was gone. The archeological equipment, the traveling forge, the books, the carpentry tools, the tents, the camels, the enchanted provision boxes containing all the food...

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"Guys..." Dieter said, a note of considerable tension in his voice as he looked around the empty stables. He knelt just inside one of the entry corridors and putting two fingers to the ground. "You better look at this."

When Dieter lifted his hand, his fingers were coated with dark, congealed blood.

The entry-corridor was a disaster area. There were oozing bloodstains on the floor, splatters upon the walls, and even quite an ugly stain upon a section of splintered wall. Something had happened here, and it hadn't happened quietly.

[Kaitou Kage]

"Where is the Abbot?" Kuzan's voice was harsh and ragged, "Someone find the damn abbot. Or a living monk. Or someone that knows what the hells is going on. All of this happened around midnight."

[Nathan of the FoS]

Charles looks around with a clinical eye--he appears to have already internalized the scope of the disaster--until he comes to the stall where Kejser' had been and finds it empty, at which his face goes red, then white.

"Mists take you screaming, Maleagant," he curses in a low vehement voice. "If I see you again you're going to find out what happens to horse thieves."

[Rock of the Fraternity]

"What if it was not Maleagant who did this?" Lia counters in a low tone of voice. "Remember, the Abbot and his ... compatriot ... 'converted' the members of an ancient blood cult dedicated to the demon you dealt with so decisively. What if something removed his control over them? In any case, we know there is at least one living monk in the courtyard. Let's get going."

[DocBeard]

"Or." Tomas glumly pushes hay aside with his sword, not particularly wanting to stick his hand in and find some sort of bear trap, or someone's head, or something. "That dream demon we pissed off the other day decided to posses some of our pals, ja? Not that I am against murderous vengeance as a rewarding after-hours hobby, do not be getting me incorrectly, but mama always said an open mind was the best way to keep from a gap-toothed smile."

A pause.

"The folksy saying rhymes in Lamordian." Tomas explains, a little embarrassed.

[yalenusveler]

"Samael didn't take your damn horse, Charles, so stop having a a snit. He may be avaricious and be of a flexible moral character, but way down deep in there is at least a heart of at least one of the base metals you can alchemically transmute into gold." Andre said, digging around amongst the area the combat likely took place, looking for anything besides a disturbing amount of blood that would suggest just what transpired.

"And Kuzan's right. We find a living monk, or the abbot, we find out what happened. If they DID decide to make their exit, it was NOT willingly I suspect. We find whomever was responsible, and we add them to the list of people who no longer wander the world due to their folly in choosing to impede us." Andre sighed, turning back to his search, and firing off two spells rapidly, scanning the area, then returning again to the group.

"No magic, no secret doors. Just one rather vicious fight, leading me to continue thinking that this was NOT a willing exodus. Though how they managed to do all this..in the middle of the sodding night, with everyone remaining fast asleep for almost 13 sodding hours.."