It had been over a year since Egrette had been able to sleep the whole night thru. She was eighty now and age itself sometimes makes sleep hard to find, but really it was more that Egrette’s health had been declining for some years now. Like her mother before her she had a bad heart – it beat too fast at times and with an irregular beat. Over the past few years Egrette had become more and more decrepit to the point where she was not able to walk more than ten or so feet without being winded. She had trouble walking up stairs and her balance was poor. Her strength had begun to leave her and now she could barely pick up a gallon of milk. Her husband of nearly forty-four years had died several months earlier – their middle-aged son found his father crumpled over in the tub. Egrette use to be something of a night owl, but slept soundly. Now she might sleep for an hour or less at a time, being up on and off all night and into the day. Without sleep the body cannot heal and the mind cannot find peace. Egrette was in pain throughout the day. She had arthritis all over her body, but especially in her legs. She was hunched over. Had lost all her teeth. The muscles on her arms had become loose, flabby skin. She walked with stilted steps. She had a sour stomach and all day long, and especially at night, felt burning in her chest and back that along with the racing heart and shortness of breath would wake her. Egrette had seen the healers. The best they could do was give her some medicines that sometimes lessened her pain, but never took it all away or solved the problems. Most of her days were now spent in bed starring at the walls or out the window as she had trouble performing most of the tasks she use to do with ease. There were no friends or family to come calling. No books she cared to read. If she was able she would walk to the main room, bent over and having to hold onto the walls and furniture all the way, and sit in her chair and perhaps darn socks or watch the fire to while away the time. At night she would moan and whimper and cry and yell out in pain so much that her son had to plug his ears or else he could get no sleep. Egrette would in pain and anger yell out, “I cant, I can’t I can’t I can’t I can’t”. Her son could still hear his mother, just less. Just enough to take the edge off so that at least one of them could get sleep and do the things that needed being done. Egrette’s son did not wish to ignore his mother, but things had been at the point for some time that there was nothing he or seemingly anyone else could do to console her or lessen her pain. Egrette was a religious person and had prayed to her god for years to help her – if not heal her at least make the pain go away, at least enough so that she could sleep. But her god did not answer her. She prayed to her god to let her die so that she could find peace in his heaven. She told her son, as his father had also told him, not to get old. She also often told her son that she wanted to die.
Egrette had yet another painful night of fitful sleep, begging her god to help her, to take her pain away or strike her dead because she could endure no more. This time Egrette was heard, but not by her god. It was a cruel being that decided to help Egrette. A being that truly enjoyed causing pain, and some of this being’s exploits even rivaled those of the gods of Pure Malice.
Some time after her son had left to go to the village for work there was a knock at Egrette’s door. She slowly got out of bed, yelling out to who might be there, “ . . . wait, wait, jus’ wait a minute just wait, wait!” Egrette struggled her way to the door and opened it. There in the doorway, wearing a maroon dress, stood a dark-haired woman of about sixty years. The woman smiled and said, “I know of your distress, my dear. I am here to assist you.” Egrette, not recognizing the woman, narrowed her eyes, “Who are you?”
“Someone that can help you.”
“An agent? My god finally sent me an agent?”
“No, dear. Not an agent, and not from your god or any other.”
“Then who are you?” The woman smiled, “Does it matter, as long as I can help so you can sleep?” Egrette was not a smart person, but she was not stupid either. She may not have been educated, or worldly in any way, and still she had good sense. Egrette said, “If I take help from you my god will damn me an’ send me ta Perdition an’ I’ll never be let inna heaven.”
“Has not your god already damned you?” replied the woman. “You, a devout, goodly person that never did anyone any harm. What kind of heaven is waiting for you that is governed by a god that does not hear the pleas of his children?”
“Whadda ‘bout my son? I don’ wan’ ‘im punished fer my sins.”
“Your son will be punished for his sins, not yours.”
“How da you know?”
“You are not the only person that has been in pain and forsaken by their god, and you will not be the last.”
“An’ jus’ whadda ya want me da do? Kill for ya? Steal souls for ya? No. I’m not gonna harm anyone so that my pains go away. Now leave my home an’ stay away. Don’ come back here, an’ leave my son be.”
The woman gently stated, “I will grant you the power to take sleep from others so that you may slumber and your distress will go away.” Egrette paused for a moment, “I don’ have ta kill anyone?”
“No.”
“I don’ have da steal anyone’s soul?”
“No.” Egrette thought for a moment, “I can’t sleep, so I’ll steal sleep from others. That’ll harm them.”
“Most are young and strong, they can do with a little less sleep. You had nights without sleep when you were young and you made it as long as you have. If you are taking a little sleep from many people then you will not be harming anyone all that much.”
“Who’s sleep do I take?”
“You can take the sleep from anyone.”
“I can take the sleep from anyone I want?”
“You can take the sleep from anyone. And with this new power you will have many more years of life to enjoy your newfound peace, longer than your father who lived until he was ninety.”
“I don’ wanna live many more years, I’m already eighdy. I jus’ want a few good years without pain.”
“As you wish.” Egrette, knowing better than to trust someone whom she thought was some witch or demon or an agent of a malicious god, “You brought me this pain an’ now you want me da make a deal with you.”
Still in a honeyed tone, “No. The pain you feel is the pain that comes to mortals with time. You know that both your parents and your mother’s mother had this pain that you have.” Egrette was silent as what the woman said was true. Quietly, “What would I have da do for you?” With a small smile the woman replied, “Nothing.” Egrette narrowed her gaze once again, “My mother always said dhat there’s nothin’ for nothin’ in this world. You get somethin’ from this.” The woman nodded her head to the side a bit, “I do not particularly like your god. Never have. Someone accepting one of my gifts is my way of kicking your god in the bollocks, or at least kicking him in the shin. . . You get to sleep and be without distress, something he could have done for you sometime ago, and I get to thumb my nose at a high and mighty, cold and distant god. What say you?” Egrette paused for a moment, “No, no, there mus’ be more. This mus’ be some test. I’m not gonna end up in Hell. No, go away, go away!” and Egrette turned to go inside and shut the door. “Whenever you would like my gift just call for me.” Egrette quickly shut the door, the woman seeming to disappear before the door was closed. Egrette, now quite shaken, locked the door, looked out the windows as she locked them, grabbed her holy symbol, and sat in the chair by the fire and prayed until she had calmed down enough to fall into her usual, broken sleep.
Later that day, when he came home from work, Egrette had her son take her in their cart to their god’s house of worship in the village – a place she had not been to in years as she had grown uncomfortable around people and preferred to be in her home. She went near the altar, lit a candle, sat down in a pew, and prayed. She prayed to her god to deliver her from the evil that had found it’s way to her door; to look over her son; and forgive her for talking to what she believed was a malecene (agent of a malicious god); and to let her have just one good night’s sleep and she, no matter the pain she was in, would come every day and worship at this temple. After her prayer her son helped her back into the cart and took her home. He helped her into the house, cooked dinner, served his mother, sat and chatted with her a while, helped her to bed, cleaned up around the home, and then he went to bed.
Egrette felt sure that her god had heard her now that she had gone to his house of worship. That maybe she needed to do this one simple thing and her prayers would be answered. The night drew on and her pains began again. She thought her god must be testing her just like he had tested her with that figure at her door this morning. She lie in bed, holding her hands in prayer all night, yet the pain endured. She tried not to cry and moan in pain, but as always she did. Dawn came and once again she had been awake on and off all night. Her prayers had once again not been answered. “I’m being tested,” thought Egrette, “I mus’ show more faith.” So just like the day before after he returned from work Egrette had her son take her to her god’s house of worship were once again she prayed. “Lord, I beg you, take my pain away an’ deliver me from this evil that ‘is come da my door ta tempt me away.” And when she was done praying her son took her back home and their nightly routine played out as it had for over a year now. And once again Egrette had a pain-filled night where she prayed and was awake on and off all night. Egrette continued with this for one month and one day after the dark-haired woman had come to her door. “God, help me! I’m just a human person! I’m not made of iron!” And after one month and one day of praying in her god’s house of worship every day, and her usual prayers at night, there was still no relief from the pain. Egrette was at her wit’s end. After her son had left for work on the morning of the thirty-second day after meeting the dark-haired woman, Egrette called for the woman and accepted her gift.
That night in her bed, knowing that she would need to take someone’s sleep so she could rest, Egrette decided to take the sleep of the butcher’s wife, “She was never very nice.” With that thought in mind Egrette closed her eyes and fell right to sleep and slumbered unlike she had in years, not waking at all thru the night.
When Egrette awoke she felt happy and light. Her heart beat smoothly. She had no pains. She had not felt this way in years. She walked without pain to the main room for the first time in over a year. She carefully started to step and move to a dance she had not done in some time, testing if each movement would cause her pain or not. Not feeling any pain, Egrette let herself go and happily twirled around the room, then settled down and began to eat the breakfast her son had left for her.
Not long after sitting down for breakfast she heard someone walk up and knock on her door. She went and opened it. It was the priest from her god’s house of worship. The priest’s head hung somewhat low. There had been an accident: while working in the village Egrette’s son fell off a roof he was repairing and broke his neck. Stunned, Egrette asked, “How could this happen?” The priest told Egrette that one of the villagers had said her son seemed not quite right that morning. When the villager asked her son what was wrong Egrette’s son said he had not slept very well that night. Egrette’s heart sunk and she fell to her knees and started to wail. Her heart began to race, her breathing became labored, and her legs felt like broken glass was in them. All the familiar pains came back.
Egrette started to beg mercy to her god for her sin. As usual, there was no response. The priest knelt down, put his arm around her, and attempted to console her. In tears and great distress Egrette tried to tell the priest that her son’s death was her fault, that she had made a deal with a malacene, or some witch, or demon, and had unwittingly taken her son’s sleep so that she could sleep without pain. The priest told her that her son’s death was an accident, and knowing, as everyone in the village did, that Egrette did not sleep well, tried to reason with her that she was confused by lack of sleep and had simply dreamnt of making a deal. None of this was her fault. Egrette just shook her head saying, “. . . no, no, no”, over and over again and could not be reached. The priest put Egrette in his cart and took her to his home and once there he and his wife put Egrette to bed in a guestroom by herself. Egrette rocked and moaned back and forth throughout the day, still unreachable, not eating or talking. That night Egrette fell into a long, deep sleep.
When next Egrette woke she found herself in what at first she thought was some cave. After coming fully awake she looked around better and saw that she was inside the hollow of some great tree. Without any pains she stood up and walked her way out and saw that she was no longer in the village but some great forest. Frightened, and not knowing what to do, Egrette called for the dark-haired woman. The woman appeared before Egrette. “Where am I? Where’s the village?” The woman informed Egrette that she was in the village, or what use to be the village. “What happened?” The woman explained: After Egrette had been taken in by the priest and his family she stole their sleep. Each day while she slept more they slept less. As Egrette continued to slumber her sleep-stealing powers grew, spreading out until she had stolen the sleep of everyone in the village, every living creature in the village, and for some miles beyond the sleep of every person, every animal, and every insect. Some of the people went mad and the village turned on itself. The village was eventually declared cursed and all stayed clear of it. With no one to maintain them, and a bit of foul magic, nature quickly took back the village and the fields turning them into brush then into woods, and the woods became known as the Sleepless Wood. Egrette spat at the woman, “You said I could take the sleep of anyone I wanned!” The woman smiled and said, “No, my dear. I said you could take the sleep of anyone. I never said you could take the sleep of anyone you wanted – you added that part, not I.” Egrette yelled, “You said I didn’ have da kill anyone! That people would only be a liddle harmed!” Still smiling, the woman replied, “You are correct that I said you would not ‘have to’ kill anyone. I never said that you ‘would not’ kill anyone with these powers. In regards to ‘a little harm’ I said ‘If you are taking a little sleep from many people then you will not be harming anyone all that much’ and you took ‘all’ the sleep from ‘every’ person and living creature.”
“You said I’d never be in pain again!”
“I never said that your pains would go away forever, you assumed that. I said, ‘I will grant you the power to take sleep from others so that you may slumber and your distress will go away.’ I never said how long you would sleep or for how long your distress, not ‘pain’, would go away.” Egrette was about to yell back at the woman, but the realization of what the woman actually had told her versus what Egrette had thought she told her stopped Egrette before any further sounds came out of her mouth. The dark-haired woman continued, “So you have a choice: you can refuse to take sleep from others and will go back to having torturous, all-day-long pains, and eventually die and find yourself on the plains of Perdition where you will be no doubt be tormented by your sins, and you will never sleep or be at peace. Or, you can continue to take sleep from others and thus be useful to me, and continue to have unusually long life and thereby be spared from dying and going to Perdition for your sins.” Egrette closed her eyes for a moment, slowly opened them, slowly nodded to the woman, the woman smiled and nodded back in approval, and Egrette wandered away thru the forest.
It seems that throughout the Mortal and Demi Planes several more Sleepless Woods, or Sleepless Forests, popped up here and there over the centuries with little trace of the villages and cities than came before them. How many are due to Egrette, or how many more will be because of her, are anyone’s guess. There are many fell monsters that exist in the Mortal and Demi Planes, and one of the most terrible is a decrepit, sad, old woman who just wanted one good night’s sleep before she died.
How to incorporate aspects of this story into your gameplay:
The players happen upon some type of community – thorp to city, of unsettled, anxious, and sleep-deprived individuals and have to find the cause/search for the cause and find out it is Egrette. Or the players are asked by some divine agent of a benevolent god to investigate said community or Sleepless Forest, or to find Egrette directly. What do they do when they find Egrette? Kill her? Try to get her deal nullified? Somehow lock her in the Demi Plane? Save her? Talk her into allowing herself to die or killing herself and going to the Gray Waste/Perdition and face her punishment? Try to contact her former god to spare her/forgive her or give her some act of penance? Put her in some type of stasis box or state of suspended animation? Perhaps, during the daylight hours, have Egrette go to the Olive Grove in the Demi Plane. Find some place Egrette can hide from the being she made the deal with – some holy place she can find safety and peace (at least for a while).
The players end up losing sleep while in some thorp to city or wooded area. How much sleep do they lose and what effects are there: loss of coordination; hallucinations and/or delusions; irritability/loss of patience; decreased ability to communicate, make decisions, magic goes awry, etc.
Egrette appears as an old, sometimes very hunched over, woman. She may be in some pain, not be able to walk very well, has to hold onto things nearby, and has difficulty breathing as she walks. She does not appear to be scary or threatening. She cannot cast magic. She does not have super strength, speed, or durability. The only supernatural things about her are that when she goes to sleep she steals the sleep of others and she has unnaturally long life. She poses no threat from a combat situation. Her ability does not work while she is conscious and she has no control over it. She is not overtly malicious. She is otherwise a kind and gentle woman. She is simply a person in great pain and wants that pain to stay away.
