Sleeping Giants Game 31

Intro

Stratton's Bonds

You’re settling in for the night on your first night back in Oakhurst, after a fairly poor reception by the local inn owner, Lessli. Ford – or rather, Horatio as you’re supposed to call him now – excused himself for a few hours to “take care of something”, whatever that means. You’re just about to drift off to sleep when there is a light knock at your door, and the whisper of a feminine voice coming from the other side, “Stratton?”

You get up and walk over to the door, a bit confused and a bit groggy. “Yes? Who is it?” you whisper back.

“It’s.. it’s me, Lessli.” Intrigued, you open the door a crack and see on the other side that, indeed, it is Lessli. Ever a man of good manners, you open the door fully and welcome her into your room.

“Look, Stratton,” she begins. She seems more sheepish than usual. “I just wanted to apologize for how I acted earlier. I was overreacting and should have been more.. welcoming of such of a good friend.”

“Oh, Lessli, you don’t have to worry about that one bit. It is I who should be apologizing to you. It must be dreadfully difficult work to keep a place like this running, all by yourself. I bet you could use some relaxation time. Here, why don’t you have a drink?” You open a nearby bottle of wine and pour it into two glasses, one for yourself and one for her.

It doesn’t take many sips for Lessli to completely throw herself at you. You resist at first, mostly because you feel like you ought to. But before long the two of you end up in your bed. “You should put a sock on the door so your friend doesn’t walk in…” Lessli reminds you.

“Oh, don’t worry, he’ll know.” You respond with a wink.

Things get hot and heavy, and you see a side of Lessli you never would have considered when she pulls out a rope and asks if you’ve ever been tied up before. You inform her that you haven’t, but you’re up to try anything once. With that, she gets to work, and it seems like she must have done this a lot in the past because she ties the ropes up expertly.

And it’s at that point that she lifts herself off of your bed and stands next to you. “Well, that was easy…” she says, and you watch as she begins to transform. She goes from the cute little number that you were just about to bed down to a tall, mysterious creature of dark blue skin and bulbous eyes. A creature you would later be told is a doppelganger.

“Well, uh, Lessli, I never would have expected you to…” you begin to say, but the creature bends over you and shoves a piece of rope into your mouth, gagging you and preventing you from speaking. It then kneels over next to your belongings and begins to rummage through them. It tosses a few of your things out onto the floor, clearly searching for something specific.

“Ahh, here it is.” The creature stands up tall, and holds a small, glass chess piece up to its face, turning it in the dim light to examine it. It then palms the piece, and you watch in shock as the creature turns back into Lessli. It shoves the chess piece into one of its pockets, smiles at you, then tiptoes out of your room. It’s about another hour before Horatio finds you and is able to fully unbind you, almost not even wanting to know what happened.