February 18th:

1 AM rolls around, though it's hard to tell given how dark it is and how little peaceful rest anyone got with Araiguna banging up the streets, when Snarg and some of the group drags themselves out of bed after a fitful nap.

Ashakel spent the time trying to catch up with Araiguna to no avail, wandering the streets with him, unable to keep his attention for more than a couple of minutes. As he sees the group heading out, he speaks tiredly: "Boy am I glad to see you guys. The little beast is tireless!"

Snarg groans and punches the ground softly as he wakes. "Uuuuhhhh... I'll ... take it from here," he says to Ashakel after finding the duo.

Sethos awakes, preppy and ready to undo some curses and fight some bad guys.

"He's all yours. Let's just hope he turns back soon. I'm starting to miss the Mite already."

Assuming that these sounds were caused by Araiguna, and that everything was "normal", Zeiss decides to go back to sleep.

Grabbing his hooded lantern from the wagon, Gwydo heads towards the ruins to wait for the rest of the group.
"At least there'll be peace and quiet out there without Araiguna stomping around."

Snarg follows the Tusker, wearily entertaining and feeding him whenever possible to get him to settle down.

Spoiler:

*Z had fallen asleep on the door step, apparently. She yawns and stretches, before going back to watching the Tusker.*

At the crack of dawn the Tusker abruptly collapses on the spot. Five of the Dwarves come out and pick him up, and start carrying him to his bed so he can get at least a few minutes of rest.

Snarg sighs heavily and follows the Dwarves, gathering any awake mages of the party to come with him. "Something may be happening in a minute. Keep on the lookout." He collapses in a nearby chair next to the bed and waits.

*Z follows preforming a spellcraft check every few minutes.*

The Dwarves drop the Tusker somewhat unceremoniously in bed. It's only about 10 more minutes before he, with almost no pomp or circumstance at all, morphs very quickly back into the tiny Mite you know and love, who blinks sleepily up at you guys. "Uhhh... nother restless night." He pauses. "Why are you all watching me sleep?"

Snarg rubs his eyes and looks over at the other occupants sheepishly. "Uh, I'm not sure how to explain this, but ... you know that strange, small, magical Tusker we've been tracking? We found him." He stares straight at the Mite and purses his lips.

"This is just an educated guess as my Spellcraft checks haven't yielded anything yet, but I'm going to assume that your... uhh condition has something to do with the massive amounts of magical energy oozing out of those ruins. If you don't mind I think its in the best interest of everyone here if you let me take a closer look."

Araiguna blinks at both of you blearily. "My... condition? What, are you saying I wake up every night as a Tusker?" He grins good naturedly at both of you but as the silence continues to drag on the smile fades and he slowly realizes this isn't a joke. "Ooookay. I uh. I'm a weretusker apparently. Fantastic. So, ruins?"

"I think maybe before we go hunting in the ruins you should tell us about your last trip into them before you started being so exhausted at night."

*Z is standing with her/his hands crossed over their chest, which appears to be flat not that this is any indication of gender more just an indication of age if their face which is unmasked at the moment is anything to go by. They are clearly annoyed that yet once again their are complications to what should be a simple job.*

"Yeah, might be good if you can actually recall when this first started. That'll give us a place to start looking."

"Oh well, sure, no problem. See," he begins, "the ruins... well they're actually what used to be what I think is an Airship dock, buried for the last few centuries. By the looks of it deliberately, cuz you don't just end up with something that massive that far below ground, yah?" He pauses, realizes he's rambling. "Anyways, lotta old traps around there that I don't know what to do about, and a few beasts that were trapped within that I didn't quite recognize, had to fight my way through and break the traps as I go. Aaand then I put a ton of them in a bag and carried them up, the end really."

"Do you have any of those artifacts still?"

*Their toe is tapping softly.*

"Well, no. I gave 'em all over to the townsfolk, and they sold 'em all."

"So just to be clear you kept nothing that you picked up from down there?"

"Course not!" He looks at you, a bit insulted. "What kind of Mite do you take me for?"

He is not lying.

"I don't take you for anything mister tiny tusker. I'm just trying to get a handle on why you are what you are."

"Hopefully they're not what caused this then. It'll be a lot harder to turn this back if whatever caused it is halfway across the continent." Snarg taps his foot on the floorboard, his nails making a loud rapping sound. "I guess the best thing to do would be to retrace your steps if the mages can't tell anything from here."