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Dear Mr Curly,
I have done little travelling lately because I have been so dreadfully weary. Can it be true as the old Ecclesiastes said; that all things lead to weariness? Surely not. Perhaps the opposite is true: that all nothings lead to weariness. I have a peculiar feeling, Curly, that I am worn out from something I haven't yet done and the more I don't do it, the more exhausted I become. How strange. Could it be something I haven't realised? Perhaps it's something I haven't said? Something I haven't finished! It must be very large and true whatever it is and a lively struggle in the doing but I look forward to it immensely. I know I need it. First, however, I must curl up in my chair and sleep deeply with the duck. Perhaps I'll dream of this thing and wake up refreshed and do it. My fond wishes to you Mr. Curly, and to all Curly Flat.
Yours sleepily,
Vasco Pyjama
xxx
P.S. Not having breakfast can make you weary. That's for sure!
Michael Leunig. The Curly Pyjama Letters.

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Not sure how risque the bath is allowed to get from this point. How did you want to proceed?
Janius smirked at the names for the different Dunmer brews. Maybe it was just their language, but 'greef' sounded like a drink for particularly bad nights.

"Huh," Janius replied to Lorag, pondering being sent off at an age that he would have considered young to be sent off to war. Then again, this was Lorag. "My father didn't seem to mind most of the time, that was probably because he was often away with work. He didn't even know what I got up to. I doubt he would have liked to hear the full story, though." Janius laughed, letting the drink relax him. "May as well enjoy this one..." Janius said, before finishing his mug and leaning forward to pour himself another, "a nice drink once you get past the aftertaste." He leaned back again and swirled the drink in his hands like he was scrutinising a wine, and enjoying himself with the parody, "'tis like biting into a raspberry that turns into a dead rat in your throat." He drank again, not particularly caring.

"I wonder when Alpha and Ariel are going to get back?" Janius said without so much concern as annoyance, "How long's a scouting run going to take?"
Induced by a combination of Ahnasha's antics and her tail making him ticklish, Fendros smiled back and complied. It wouldn't do if he wasn't thorough after all. Just before he reached the top of her leg, however, he paused, then teasingly resumed at the base of her other leg. Ascending this time, though, he would see what he could get away with...
Finally outside, Ariel listened, then shook her head. "The outer patrols are always in groups of three, we'll need to find one of those groups and distract it with something, then catch one of the stragglers," Ariel said, "it shouldn't be too hard, they'll get excited by something as small as an errant magelight. If you could cast one in the direction away from the keep when one of the patrols passes by, drawing them out a little further, I could paralyze one and hide it away, we just need to find a good spot to pull such a thing off..."

With the terrain being as thickly vegetated as it was, it wasn't too difficult to find a place with a couple of appropriate hiding spots close enough to one of the patrol routes. With Ariel finding a spot underneath a bush where she could drag one of the sentinels once she caught it, and Meesei in a similar bush in a divot nearby, all there was left to do was to wait.

After a couple of minutes, three lumbering armoured skeletons lazily walked by, their gait making them look deceptively tired. Once they were in just the right spot, Ariel signaled Meesei to create a distraction to lead them away. With her other hand, Ariel charged a green spell, ready to release on the closest Sentinel.
Sorry, my friends ended up dragging me around a for a bit longer than I thought today. You're probably asleep by now >_>. Well, g'night!
"To drinking," Janius agreed, knocking his mug against Lorag's before taking a sip. "Mmm, that's different." He commented. He still had no idea what the drink was made from, but he didn't mind it so much. "An acquired taste I think," he concluded, before taking a proper swig.

In response to hearing her name, Sabine raised her head from the ingredient she was dicing in front of her, beady eyes gleaming from the campfire. She looked at Lorag, glanced to one side, back to Lorag, shook her head blankly, then returned to her work. At least it was some kind of response, normally silence would be her best respectful sign of disinterest.

"Have you ever had any flights of fancy up in Cheydinhal, Lorag?" Janius asked casually, leaning back again. "You know, lady friends. An Orc like you would have got around a bit, right?"
It became a bit awkward to move as Ahnasha wrapped her tail around Fendros' leg, he had to make sure he didn't set his legs down too far with his kneel or else squash her tail. Thankfully he didn't need to move back too much. "Well, I could always try to teach you how to massage. It's not too difficult once you've had enough practice." Fendros suggested, "I scratch your back, you... well, maybe not like that, considering your claws." He chuckled at the thought.

Once he was confident that there wasn't much more work to do on her back, Fendros carefully unwrapped Ahnasha's tail from around his leg so he could shuffle down to her legs. Does the tail get sore too? He pondered as he leg it go to wander with the mind of its own it seemed to have. He treated the legs differently to the back. Rather than rubbing with his thumbs, he grasped the circumference of her leg in one spot with both hands, squeezing her calf with the heels of his palms, starting close to the ankle. After a few moments, he let go and grasped a higher spot. He continued this process up her leg. The legs were not where her anxiety had tightened up her muscles so much, but with the traveling and hunting, not to mention the combat, there was probably relief to be had. It was also slightly playful to see how she reacted to the massage moving up her thighs.
After jolting in place when Meesei appeared, Ariel sighed in relief while she caught her breath some more. After a swallow, she whispered back to Meesei, "Well, we know one place they are making it, and one place where they are storing it. The other two towers are for lodgings, more rituals, and the hagravens' loft. They might have set up some things in there." Ariel paused, considering their next movements. "We could take a peek in the tower with the lodgings to see if there are any more flasks being made, but I'm not sure. The hagraven's loft, there's no sneaking to be had in there. Oh! And there's also the remains of the lower levels of the keep, we... hold prisoners down there." Ariel's face became apprehensive about that prospect, even more so when she took a quick look at the witches setting up in the courtyard, "The door is very near to the ritual circle, however. That wouldn't be a good idea to try to sneak in. In my opinion, anyway." Ariel closed her eyes and took one more slow breath to calm herself, pouting while she exhaled. "I think I have enough information, though, what do you think? Should we look in one more tower, or go straight for one of the sentinels outside of the keep?"
Janius raised an eyebrow as he searched. He hadn't had Sujamma before, in fact he had only heard about it in passing. He had no idea what it was made from. Still, Lorag seemed happy, so it can't be that bad. "I'm trying, Lorag. These hunters organised their belongings like the Council of Twelve organises their... aha! Here we are." Janius turned around with a smile, holding four pewter mugs by the handles, pulled from another crate filled with various cutlery and crockery. Without wasting any time, he briskly walked back to the fire and handed the mugs to Lorag. "Well, pour us round then." Janius said, before standing up and raising his voice for Fendros and Ahnasha to hear, "hey, Fjori and Holgeir, we found some drink, want some?"
Assuming that Janius was talking to them, Fendros replied in turn, "Later, Janius."

The lower back held some stress as well when Fendros complied with Ahnasha. Here, he wasn't so confident, but that was probably because the last person he had massaged in this area had a painful twinge in their back, inadvertently cause Fendros to inflict pain rather than pleasure, but that was probably not the case here.

Ahnasha's answer was comforting. It was true that he probably shouldn't worry about what could have happened at this stage. Looking back though, he could see it being the case that he may have fallen for her anyway over a longer period of time. Maybe from his position, there didn't seem to be any other possible outcome. Love is wonderful for skewing one's perspective. He didn't much care though. The here and now was pretty good.
With their last encounter, Ariel was especially wary. Dagmar wasn't normally awake at this time of night, so they either had a change of routine, or she would be helping on a big project. Such as the suppression gas, Ariel concluded.

It was Meesei who brought her attention to the next room. They had refurbished the place into a specialised laboratory, Ariel could tell that much immediately. There were tables and tables of similar equipment, all condensing a purple gas into liquid to seal into familiar looking flasks. This was it. Or, at least, the final stage of production. Ariel wagered that the other stages were in the same tower on the higher two floors. Ariel beckoned Meesei to backtrack into the storage tower rather than trying to sneak past the witch in the well lit laboratory. There were probably more witches on the other floors that would only increase the risk.

One they emerged, Ariel poked her head out of the storage tower door and immediately stepped back, closing the door again. She held her hand up to Meesei in order for her to wait as she charged her detect dead spell. The courtyard sentinel patrol was passing by again. Once they were safe, Ariel furtively entered the courtyard again. In the centre of the courtyard, she could see a small number of witches setting up something. The moonlight ritual. Ariel went back inside and addressed Meesei quickly.

"We're going to have to run for the ruined tower." She whispered as she took out a magicka potion from her pocket, "Make yourself invisible." Without waiting for confirmation from Meesei, in a rather rash decision, she disappeared herself and started to move. She kept low and ran in an arc around the walls, passing the gas production tower on the right, past the closed gate and toward the ruined tower. Once inside, she hid behind one of walls in the crumbling rooms with a missing ceiling and became visible again. Catching her breath, she hoped that Meesei would make it. It wasn't only being invisible for so long that was a risk, it was the distance they had to cover past all of those witches with glowing candlelights hovering over their heads as they prepared their ritual.
Hmm. Ten hours ago it was about a quarter past midnight. I think you caught me just as I logged off xD .

I'll make a post now, but I'll be busy for a few hours today.
Let's see...

Caelyn, Leo, Tala and Arco have sat down to hang out, various things have happened. Leo just attempted to do magic-surgery on Rye's throat to get her voice back, and is currently freaking out because he thinks Assallya is a stripper ghost hallucination and he is trying to distract himself by talking with Tala, but I'm waiting to see if other people on the table have anything to say. Primez is out for at least a couple more days, so I'll probably have to wait. Anyway, Tala had come by to try and make it up to Rye for what happened to her, because it involved an alchemist using her as a canary for his potions and she kept on getting brought back to life and it's all a bit horrible. Arco said 'cool it' and now she's hanging with us. Caelyn got summoned outside rather suddenly by smith-dwarf and found a head on a pike and a note for him (I think he's waiting on a post from you for something).

As for others; Assallya is at the bar, waiting for bar service with her kobold. Adrian and Rosie are still working things out between them I think, but AoStar is nowhere to be seen, so I think that's in deadlock.

That's all I've got off the top of my head. Read to your heart's desire, dear GM.

EDIT: Tauriel and Aragorn Elniss and Barden, that too.
POSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOSTPOST!

Sorry. Excited. Welcome back.
Man, I just did, like, four edits on that last one after posting it. My grammar is suffering tonight. :P
While hardly a professional, Fendros was glad that what few things he had remembered about massaging appeared to be effective. He breathed a chuckle though his nose at her comment. The 'best decision' was not something he could have predicted to turn out like this. "Who would have thought, right?" Fendros repeated what Ahnasha had said several days ago when they were under the mushroom tree near Vos.

He began to explore behind and around her shoulders, freeing the tension from those areas as well. As the tightness softened at his touch, he noticed how Ahnasha's upper body was distinct from anyone else Fendros had rubbed the back of before, testament to all her practice with a bow. He felt like he was getting to know her all over again with the features he found.

"What do you think would have happened if, you know, we didn't drink so heavily that night?" Fendros asked idly. He didn't want to ruin the atmosphere, but he wondered whether it was truly happenstance that brought them together, or whether they would have fallen for each other anyway.
"Yeah," Janius agreed, getting perspective back into the situation. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea to trust her enough to make a move on her.

"You didn't? I thought..." Janius looked at Lorag quizzically, then got up and searched where he was pointing rather enthusiastically. Lifting the lid from one crate, he rifled through it's contents. It was mostly sacks of grain and vegetables. Looking through a few other crates and barrels yielded similar results, until the fifth one he found froze him on the spot. Four small kegs lay next to each other in the crate, they were branded with a daedric symbol that Janius didn't recognise, but it was Dunmer booze of some description. "Aww..." Janius said through a grin, "Look at that, tucked in tight, they're so cute." Carefully, he put the lid of the crate on the ground and lifted out one of the kegs. He had to look around for a mallet and a spigot in order to actually draw the liquid, but that wasn't too hard. He brought the all the items with the keg and dropped them near Lorag. "Put the spigot in, I'll look for some mugs." He turned and tried to search through various utensils for drinking vessels. "It's our lucky night! I'll bet there's a nice ale in that." He announced through the cave.
Meesei had saved them just in time. The familiar face of Old Georgia strode by them as they went invisible. Normally that woman had a keen eye, going about her preparations for a moon ritual.

Ariel ducked into the tower just as before. The first floor needed a closer look, as most things were in crates. Lifting one of the crates revealed it to be tightly packed with the gas flasks, padded with straw. It was enough to know that this tower was going to be a target. Stepping up to the second floor yielded a similar number of crates and barrels, but Ariel knew for a fact that this was used more for ingredients and other miscellaneous items. On her way down, Ariel didn't spot a stray rock that she accidentally kicked. She halted and cursed every sound that the rock made as it rolled down the old stone staircase. Some footsteps began behind her and she immediately cast invisibility on herself and went against the wall, looking either way. The footsteps stopped and scraped forward as the head of a Dunmer woman poked out of the door to the second floor room and looked around curiously. Dagmar, Ariel thought as she held her breath. The Dunmer woman in a black robe proceeded out onto the staircase and craned her neck to look down it, but seeing no immediate disturbance, she shrugged silently and went back into the storeroom.

Ariel exhaled and descended the rest of the stairs, being careful this time to not hit any loose objects. Once she reunited with Meesei, she beckoned her inside and lead her to a spot to hide behind the crates on the first floor. "We'll wait here for a moment, then we'll head underground from this tower to the next," Ariel whispered, "these crates, they have gas. The laboratory they are using to make it would probably be nearby."
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