Exhaustion: A Sleeping One has started at Thena's Room.

Our heros decide that it is time to go check on the man from the other night. Calbert, the carpenter. Who has surly been busy working during the siege. Except that Sparte will have found out that he hasn't been seen for his shifts for rebuilding in the past two days.

...just taking a break, right? It IS hard work...

Calbert has the smallest room available at the Murder of Crows-- really a closet --and it's outside that room that our heros find themselves.

Thena hasn't been seen around the barracks at all save one recent occasion and she's out of armor today, looking bleary as a cup of hastily-downed coffee makes its way into her bloodstream. Still, when you're invited to check on something going on in a room above where you're seated when you get the message it seems churlish not to attend. Her recently acquired hideous dogbeast is, thankfully, stationed in the hallway and not in Calbert's closet of a room.

Sparte glances around at the others, leading with a rat-a-tat-tat on the door and a raised voice. "Calbert! It is Guardsman Sparte from the other night. I brought some people to talk. Are you home?"

Calaudrin had stopped just before coming here with Thena to shoot off a quick message to someone else. Someone who hopefully gets it in time! It's like dominos. Right now he's leaning against the wall, looking exhausted and like he'd rather be downstairs drinking more coffee. Maybe this was a mistake.

Esoka receives that message shot off by Calaudrin. And, so, she comes eventually. She's dressed in her armor. Maybe she was in the middle of doing knight-y things. Or just hangs around in it. Either seem plausible, by the look of her.

There is a creaking sound from the otherside of the door but no verbal response to Sparte's knocking or his calling out. There's a small trickle of light visible from underneath the door, as if someone had a lantern or a lamp on as bright as they could get it.

Sparte glances between the others before gently trying the door to see if it is locked. A little rattle instead of a click gets a sigh from Sparte, who knocks on the door loudly this time. "Calbert, we're worried about you. If you don't answer we're going to force this door open to make sure you're alright. Do you understand? At least say something man."

At the sound from inside the room, Thena glances over at Sparte, eyebrows perked in query because she's not really a bust-doors-down-ask-questions-later kind of girl. And neither is Sparte, apparently. "I can get a key. If we need it."

Calaudrin peeks at the trickle of light visible from under the door and he sighs in exasperation. "Looks like he's trying to stay awake in there again. I wonder how long he actually slept for." Esoka arrives and he nods his head at her, a tired smile gracing his face. "I think the key would be a good idea. I'd rather not piss of Master Grayhope by breaking down his doors."

Esoka //is// a bust-doors-down kind of girl, so she shoulders forward some when Sparte suggests this. But Thena's suggestion gets a shrug and nod. "That seems prudent. I suppose he might miss his door." Calaudrin gets a quick smile in return, if one that doesn't quite light her eyes. She looks a touch tired herself, the little laugh lines around those eyes more prominent than usual.

Sparte nods in quick recognition and support of the idea of a key. "Please, I don't really feel keen on paying the damages." He hits the door again, calling inside. "C'mon, let us know you're alright."

"I don't feel keen on my cousins getting all over my ass for letting you lot poke holes in their property," Thena notes drily before pattering downstairs, a task for which, to her annoyance, her dog joins her. A few minutes later she returns with the key and eels through the group gathered in front of the door. The door unlocks and she pushes at it gently.

"All he'd hear is 'The Iron Guard broke the door' and I'd have a massive bill to explain to Silas." Calaudrin mutters, clearly quite tired and wiping at his face. He's happy enough to wait while Thena fetches a key from downstairs to open the door. When it's pushed at gently, he takes in a deep breath and steps forward with everyone else to enter what's probably a very tiny room.

Esoka might look a touch wistful about not just smashing things. She has her biases. But she doesn't argue forcefully for property destruction. When Thena gets the door open, in she'll go with the others.

The door opens and the smell that wafts out is ... /awful/. Sweat, so much sweat. Sour, sharp. It's awful. The lights in the room are bright as they can be. The curtain has been removed from the window -- which is open. The cot stripped of linens and pillows. The mattress stained yellow with sweat and ... urine? It smels foul.

The room is empty.

Sparte gets a small round tin pot filled with a mixture with a strong menthol smell from a double wrap sword belt made of quality leather.

Sparte reaches into his belt, producing a small tin. He quickly unscrews it, using a pinky finger of his gauntlet to swipe some menthol smelling goo out and rub it under his nose. He then offers the tin to anyone else interested. "I know I heard something inside when we got here."

Thena crinkles her nose a little at the smell but falls far short of being overwhelmed by it, one of the very few advantages of a Lowers upbringing. She immediately heads for the open window, one hand on the dagger she wears even when out of her armor.

Thena wields a sleek steel dagger with carmine leather handle.

Esoka makes an "Uck" sound, hissing something in a language that doesn't bear much resemblance to Compact Common. She likes her Crownlands shav profanity. In proper Arvani, "Gods preserve. How long was he living like this?

Calaudrin pulls his shirt up to cover his mouth, trying to filter out the terrible smell as soon as it hits him. His eyes sweep the room and his biggest question is, "Where is he?" He wants to know and reaches blindly for Sparte's tin of menthol. "Thank you." He swipes some of the stuff under his nose and hands it back.

Thena checked perception + investigation at difficulty 10, rolling 5 lower.

Calaudrin checked perception + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 19 higher.

Esoka checked perception + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 4 lower.

Thena makes her way to the window and rubs the sleep out of her eyes. Well, some of the sleep. A little of it. She squints in the daylight and sees little, but when she looks down there's a smear of blood on the window ledge. "There's some blood over here."

Sparte checked composure at difficulty 7, rolling 8 higher.

Before anyone upends the furniture, Calaudrin notices something on the groudn. "There's... blood here. Old and fresh. Possibly from a wound." He follows it with his eyes towards the door and then frowns. His eyes sweep towards the bed.

Sparte steps forward to the bed, eyes scanning the room. Not seeing anything else to do he tucks the tin away ebfore reaching down to grab a corner of the bed and flip it.

He does find something, but it isn't a person. What looked like the bed's shadow before was a mass of cockroaches hiding from the noise and the light. All at once they scatter across the room trying to escape, now that their hiding place is revealed. Sparte somehow manages to not freak out at this, swatting a few off that try to climb his armor. "Ooookay this is disgusting."

Calaudrin checked composure at difficulty 25, rolling 7 lower.

Esoka does not immediately see anything that needs smashing. So she's not exactly in her lane. Her eyes flick to the blood, when Calaudrin points it out. Frown on her lips. She pokes around, steel toe colliding with a backpack in the corner. "Hrm..." she mutters, drawing her swords to poke at it.

Thena checked composure at difficulty 10, rolling 14 higher.

Esoka checked composure at difficulty 15, rolling 9 lower.

Esoka stops poking the backpack to blink at the mass of roaches, swearing some more in shav. "UGH!" She lands back on her feet with a thud. Metal is heavy for attempting to jump around bugs in.

Dead people? No problem. Blood on the floor? Pfft! Spiders raining from the sky as Death herself walks among the people? *WHATEVER*. A pile of cockroaches skittering across the floor and one of them trying to climb up his leg? Fucking forget it. Calaudrin screams like a man-girl and shakes his foot until one goes flying through the air and past Thena's face.

Thena checked dexterity + dodge at difficulty 30, rolling 18 higher.

Sparte puts a small round tin pot filled with a mixture with a strong menthol smell in a double wrap sword belt made of quality leather.

"Just put the mattress down and they'll go right back under it," Thena tosses blithely over her shoulder, stepping away from the window and leaning back smoothly as Calaudrin's roach sails past her head. She gives the man a look of deep exasperation before standing up straight again. "So our friend has escaped."

Sparte replaces the mattress, glancing over towards the window thoughtfully. "I guess we'll know if he escaped upwind. Wonder why he ran away?"

Esoka checked strength + brawl at difficulty 15, rolling 5 higher.

//Now/// there are things that need smashing. Esoka's got this. She crushes several under her boots before they manage to escape to whatever roach lives they had before they were disturbed. "UGH!" She looks somewhat satisfied after that. And bends down to pick up the backput. Wearing gauntlets makes her less averse to touching it. "He left this behind, I think. Or someone did."

"I'd try to escape if my room was filled with roaches too." Calaudrin mutters under his breath after he gets control of himself once more. He shakes it off and seems to be back in good spirits. If you could call his grumpy state today good spirits. Until he glances at Sparte replacing the mattress on the floor. Then he visibly pales at something he sees. "Is that... a leftover sausage?" It comes out in a harsh, quiet whisper. How terrible, leftover food.

...what sausage?

There is no sausage.

There is a backpack in Esoka's hands, however. It feels heavy. It sags as if some heavy weight were inside of it. Should it be opened inside is a set of carpenters tools, and what appears to be a jar of murky herbs.

Thena leans back against the wall and crosses her arms, fidgeting with a little string of green beads she's fished out of her pockets and gnawing her lower lip in thought. "We heard him, maybe. When we knocked. And then he bailed?"

Esoka reaches over to idly clasp Calaudrin's shoulder. There, there. Some of those roaches are dead now. The backpack is opened and dropped on the mattress so they can all rifle through it. "Does anyone recognize this stuff?" she asks, of the herbs. A grunt of agreement in response to Thena. "Perhaps he won't be too hard to find. Nothing in here looks like the work of someone in their right mind."

Sparte rubs at the side of his nose thoughtfully for a few moments before going over and starting to turn off the lights in the room. "He didn't want it dark, and then he ran. I wonder..."

Calaudrin blinks a couple of times and rubs his eyes. He looks hard at the area around the mattress again before casting a suspicious look to the people around him. No one else seems to notice it. He takes a breath, he's fine. "How far is it to the ground on that side of the building, Thena?" He asks, looking curiously in Esoka's direction as she holds the backpack. He notably doesn't go near to the bed. Sparte starts turning off lights and Calaudrin cuts a look towards him.

Sparte checked intellect + occult at difficulty 15, rolling 18 higher.

Thena checked intellect + medicine at difficulty 15, rolling 20 higher.

Calaudrin checked composure at difficulty 25, rolling 12 lower.

Thena peers into the jar but doesn't reach in. "Lavender. Valerian. For sleep." She holds the jar up and squint at the underside of it. "And...I don't know what this is at the bottom."

Ainsley GM Roll checked mana(5) + occult(3) at difficulty 15, rolling 18 higher.

Sparte checked willpower + occult at difficulty 30, rolling 2 lower.

Thena checked willpower + occult at difficulty 30, rolling 14 lower.

Esoka blinks as the lights go off. Frowning. She nods to Thena's reply, glaring at the jar. "We should have this examined by...someone. Does anyone know a skilled herbalist? Gods know what he was doing to himself."

The lights are going down and Calaudrin is looking unhappy but not like he's about to do anything to stop Sparte from doing his thing. He listens intently to Thena's explanation, nodding along with it. Then something /else/ attracts his attention and he's staring at the window. "/Thena./ How /far/ is the drop to the ground below?" He repeats the question again, but this time he sounds noticeably agitated and upset. It's quite out of the ordinary for him and he's closing ground to the window which he very abruptly slams shut without any warning at all. There's a muttered, "/Fuck./" When it's all said and done, he looks surprised.

Ainsley GM Roll checked dexterity(3) + athletics(2) at difficulty 35, rolling 10 lower.

Sparte wavers where he is as the last light goes out. Backing up slowly he sits down on the bed with a loud yawn. "Wow, didn't think the menthol stuff would... Huh."

Calaudrin slams the window shut and there's a loud sound from outside. Like a shout of surprise, and then a *crashing* noise. Like someone just fell off of the roof... or the wall or ... something and down to the ground below.

Whatever power Thena's earlier coffee was providing her, it's just...gone. She scrubs at her eyes with her free hand, then gives Esoka a deeply taxed look. "/I/ am a skilled herbalist." She lifts her gaze from the jar to Calaudrin with a flash of fire in her eyes almost buried under the weariness. "I don't know, Office Estardes, I'm not a fucking architect." She reaches into the jar to winkle out one of the weird dark bits when the crashing noise hits and she looks up again, startled.

Esoka offers Thena a little shrug in response to her taxed look, and leaves the jar in her capable hands. Calaudrin gets a look of clear concern. But, then, things are crashing. She moves toward the window, to try and look out it. And down at...whatever that might've been.

Calaudrin has rolled a critical success!
Calaudrin checked wits + investigation at difficulty 20, rolling 60 higher.

Sparte hears the crash outside and raps himself in the helmet on either side - boxing his own ears practically before straightening up. It isn't like a guardsman doesn't have tricks to keep them from dozing on the job, albeit painful ones. There is a pause of a second, then he speaks as though testing his own ears. "Mawp?" Satisfied he turns and slumps himself towards the window. "Esoka help me-" Yaaawn. "Help me get this open."

Calaudrin's eyes widen in a kind of special new horror when it sounds like there was /really/ someone out there. When Sparte and Thena begin to rub their eyes, he squints at them in the dark. It's clear that the gears of his mind are turning rather rapidly. "Esoka." The words are urgent. "Whatever is wrong with Calbert, it's wrong with them too now." There's some more thinking going on as he catches his breath, "And it's wrong with me. I've been sleeping all wrong and last night..." His breath catches. "I think it spreads to other people. I think this is really bad."

Mawp

Sparte takes minor damage.

"I dunno why he was using lavender, as a rule I think chamomile worksh mush better," Thena mumbles, shaking the herb jar listlessly. "S'nothing wrong with me outside the usual. Who fell out t'window?"

Esoka checked composure at difficulty 20, rolling 5 lower.

"We are not opening that now!" Esoka barks at Sparte. She eyes him, and his yawning, unease creeping into her eyes. It turns to actual fear, as Calaudrin speaks. She crosses her arms along her chest, like she's trying to create a shield around herself. "I've been sleeping ill since we met that Calbert fellow at the Badger. Odd dreams. Not bad, some of them, but...surreal and strange. Gods help us, what is this?"

Sparte glances over to Calaudrin, squinting at the man. Then he looks over at Esoka and stops to think for a moment, stepping back from the window. "Huh. So... Huh." Sparte reaches up to take off his helmet, hanging it on a hook on his belt. He pulls free a book he has next to it, looking at the cover blankly a few moments before nodding a bit to himself. "Didn't bother me none the first-" Yaaawn. "Time. So what'd... Hrmm. Wasn't dark then." Sparte looks over to Thena. "What else ya got there?"

"It's not normal. It's supernatural." This probably isn't the best time to bring it up, "But I'm definitely hallucinating. I think." If a person can ever be sure about a thing like that. "We've probably both been affected since we saw him and it's been creeping in." He cuts a look to Thena and then steps up to her, hands on her shoulders and looking directly in her eyes. "/Something/ is wrong with /all/ of us." Letting go, he crosses his arms. "We need to leave her and we need to go somewhere else and get help. Preferably without causing a panic or getting ourselves picked up by the Inquisition." Health suspicion! "Other options? Sleep didn't help Calbert."

Sparte puts the book away, going over to relight one of the lights in the room. He stares into the light thoughtfully before turning his head to talk to the others while rubbing at one eye with the palm of his hand. "I need a hand mirror, some sort. I don't keep a mirror in my kit normal like. Gonna try somethin' a bit wives tale and see if it helps."

Thena presses the herb jar into Sparte's hands. "Not sure what the stuff that looks like coffee grounds is. There at the bottom. You?" She stands there, sort of swaying. "I need a nap." When Calaudrin puts his hands on her shoulders she narrows her eyes at him before cutting her eyes to the side, avoiding his gaze. "You leave me here, I let the dog eat your face." Luckily the dog is still out in the hallway for now.

Esoka murmurs something else in Crownlands shav, mostly to herself. It's a colorful language to swear in. She shudders, and nods in firm agreement with Calaudrin. "Can this room be watched? In case Calbert comes back. And to keep other poor fools out. Gods." She shallows. "Grandmaster Armel may know something of this. Or at least know of someone who can aid in it. This is not a foe I can engage with my blade." As for a mirror, she shrugs to Sparte. She doesn't have one on her. The backpack is given an idle search in case it holds one, somehow.

"Try using the flat of a blade?" Surprise, surprise, Calaudrin doesn't have a mirror on his person. It's how he achieves that carelessly handsome- okay, fine. It's why his hair is so messy. "Grandmaster Armel." He gives Thena a bit of a confused look when she threatens him with her dog. But he's too distracted by the idea of /leaving/ this room full of roaches. "He might. Do we think he'd turn us over to someone who'd keep us locked in cells and poke at us?" He hasn't slept well in days, he can't help but be on edge and cautious. "Maybe Thena could send word to her cousin the archlector. A safety net."

Sparte looks around at the cramped quarters and dismisses the idea of drawing his claymore in the tight quarters. "Not my sword." Sniffling and rubbing at one eye a bit more, Sparte stares at the mixture Thena handed his uncertainly. He can't really smell much past the menthol, so he does what any good curious guardsman does in the face of potential poison. He dips a pinky into it and touches it to the tip of his tongue to see what it is.

Sparte checked stamina + survival at difficulty 15, rolling 18 higher.

Sparte spits a little after tasting it. He then spits a little more, blinking a few times. "Tastes like he ate coffee beans shit them in the woods then scooped it up, dirt and all, to have another go." Sparte thinks for a few moments before grinning and nodding a bit to himself. "The guy saw nightmares in his sleep, right? Awful stuff that was keeping him awake. So all we need to do now is take a nap to figure out what we're dealing with." He yawns. "I volunteer."

If Cal hasn't had the good sense to let go of her yet, Thena digs a fingertip into his shoulder, hard. "He would totally eat your face." She ducks away and pulls her knife. Ha-hah! No, it's just for use as a mirror, if that's a thing they try. To Sparte, "It's dangerous to go alone. I will nap as well."

Esoka checked composure at difficulty 30, rolling 2 higher.

Esoka draws her sword, holding it out for Sparte to use to examine himself. Or whatever he wishes. It's a well-shined thing, and she's not been at any work today that would stain it. She did not try to stab any of those roaches. "I think the Grandmaster would do what he thought necessary," she replies to Calaudrin. "I don't think it spreads like that. It hasn't to anyone I've been in contact with, seemingly. But perhaps better to put this to Blessed Aureth first." Then, eyeing Thena and Sparte she says, in as level a tone as she can manage. "We are not staying here. We are leaving."

Sparte gives Cal a sideways look. "People can't share dreams." He then thinks about it for a few seconds. "But if they /could/, I have a hunch it'd involve bleeding on each other or some nonsense." When Esoka offers the sword Sparte looks into it with eyebrows lifted for a few moments, shining the light across it from the lit light in the room before looking into his reflection on it. He forces himself to yawn at his reflection, then covers it up. He stands there a moment as though expecting something to happen, then turns around and tries yawning at himself and covering it up again at a different angle. That... Doesn't seem like the plan of someone expert in these matters.

"You do /not/ want these dreams." Calaudrin tells them both very seriously. "And I do not think it's a good idea to stay in this room and sleep here. It's full of piss and roaches." He grimaces when Thena digs nails into him. "Fuck, woman." He steps back to Esoka and rubs his eyes, the adrenaline rush seeming to fade out. "I'm with her. We are /leaving/."

"That is revolting, Officer Estardes. /I/ am going to sleep in my room." She turns with great dignity and iffy balance and makes her way out the door into the hallway. "Come along, dog."

And that wa Thena

Sparte follows after Thena and her dog tiredly. You know, for reasons. He still has the awful smelling jar in one hand, not that he really notices.