Trog's Tavern CLXVII

[Timberwolf]

Or sometimes both at once...

Snowraven quirks a grin, remembering Ilvari and the fun they used to have with the pompous and very evil drow, before they blew up her liar and stole her pink with kittens on pyjamas.

I see. Well, we should introduce ourselves too. We're the Alexander sisters. Our mother went in for bizarre names. I'm Nightstar. the twin with both eyes the same is Snowraven, the one with each eye different is Duskblossom, former assassins too, now garage owners and the obvious copper sitting there is Winterfrost. He...

she indicates Eric

is Eric, he works for us.

Winterfrost fires another hold person at Tiben.

[McBish]

Eric gives a slight wave. Hey.

[Rebonack]

"So... should I call you Osborn or call you Ozzy and fall into that shifty 'lots of people' category?" Nick inquires.

He considers trying to follow the obviously crazy fellow's gaze, but it's pretty much just jumping around the tavern in a 'they're out to get me' sort of way.

[AmberVael]

Earin grins a little at Snowraven's comment.
That sounds right to him.
Good to meet you all.

[Nevrmore]

"I don't care..." Ozzy says, still averting his gaze every few seconds to another part of the room.

[Osnagard]

Osnagard enters the Tavern and, upon seeing Nick, goes over and has a seat beside him. "Hey", he mumbles in greeting.

[Rebonack]

Nick grabs one end of the off-kilter table and rights it before pulling up a chair and taking a seat.

"Alright Osborn, would you like me to buy you a drink or something?"

Nicholas licks his lips nervously when the necromancer shows up.

"Eerr... afternoon."

[Nevrmore]

Ozzy shakes his head fiercely.

"No! No! No! No drinks from another person! Only poured by me!" He insists.

[Timberwolf]

So, just out of curiosity, who do you know in the assassins ? It's always good to know who's who..

[Osnagard]

"Mm, a nice one too"
Osnagard then turns to Ozzy, "hey"
He then orders a drink from the passing Cosmo, and leans back.

[McBish]

Yeah, otherwise you end up with a posion needle in your back.

[Rebonack]

"Eerr... alright then. Hey Cosmo, brink over a glass of wine. Has to be unopened," the gnome grumbles about mouthy PCs and retrieves the beverage and requisite glasses.

"There you go. Pour away."

[AmberVael]

I was originally hired by Renrik- he leads the old group, or used to. I know his group, the wererats, the masked troop.
After the Den was renovated, I insinuated myself into the newcomer's group... they don't like me, but I command their respect, I believe.
It's the Masked Troop I'll be getting into contact with though. They're the real power.

[Nevrmore]

"NO!!" Ozzy grabs the wine and throws it on the ground, the bottle shattering spectacularly. "Who knows what could have happened to it before it got to me?!"

[Osnagard]

Osnagard, looking rather shocked at this looks over to Nick, "What's his problem?"

[Rebonack]

Nicholas winces slightly as the bottle of rather expensive wine quenches the thirsty floor boards. He should have seen that coming. He really should have.

"Ok... How do you even eat if no one can have ever come in contact with your food? Even a random berry out in the woods could have been poisoned."

Nick, due to the fact that he knows nothing of psychology, has no idea what's wrong with the fellow. So he just shrugs.

[Nevrmore]

"STOP TALKING ABOUT ME!!" Ozzy roars, turning to point at Osnagard. Due to the extremely heavy nature of his armor, however, the sudden shift causes him to lose balance and go hopping into the wall.

[Timberwolf]

Well, whoever this guy was, he was no wererat, unless they've developed wings. I have the nasty feeling he's freelance though. Which either means he's new in town or powerful enough to hold off the local guild.

[AmberVael]

I'm no wererat either, that's just the main group. Not all of them are, just most.
It's possible that he is freelance though.

[Osnagard]

laughing to himself (mostly), Osnagard addresses Ozzy, "Well This one tried talking to you first, but you Ignored it then proceeded to break a perfectly good bottle of wine." Secretly wishing that another random monster would appear Osnagard takes a deep gulp from his mug.

[McBish]

Yeah and in this Town it is possible that he is powerful enough to found his own guild.

[Timberwolf]

Hmmmm, well, that still leaves who he's working for.

I'll be at the bar, give me a wave when you're not talking assassin.

Winterfrost heads over to get another drink

Sorry about that, she spent more time than anyone trying to put me and Snowraven out of business in the old days. The only way we're going to find that out is by making him talk. Ah well, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas perks slightly at the mention of wererats. He never really met one before that he liked. They all seemed pretty thoroughly unpleasant.

At this point he decides to wash his hands of the whole 'crazy Ozzy' situation. Maybe the guy is possessed or something.

And then, just because someone wished for something to do, a klaxon begins to sound through the tavern as red lights flash.

"Warning! Random encounter detected! Warning! Random encounter detected!"

Nicholas glances around the room, licking his lips nervously.

[Nevrmore]

Predictably, the noise causes Ozzy to gasp loudly and roll into a ball.

[AmberVael]

It's best if you act like you won't get anything, but I may actually be able to find something out. I know my sources- they see things all over Town.

[Osnagard]

"Finally!", exclaims Osnagard, drawing his sword and lifing his sheild.

[Timberwolf]

Well, thank you Earin, I think we'll try and intercept him and have a little chat. He doesn't know there's 4 of us and we can probably mousetrap him handily enough.

[McBish]

Eric nods, Well the help is appreciated.

[AmberVael]

If you need anything else from me later, you can probably leave a message for me at Inari's if I'm around. I still stop by there, even though I'm no longer part of the church.

[Warpfire]

Joseph awakens from dead time and looks around.

[Timberwolf]

We'll do that. If you need a word with us, we have a garage in the slums, just follow the sound of naughty words, that's our chief mechanic.

[McBish]

Eric nods and grins at the mention of Frank.

[Rebonack]

Suddenly, and for no readily apparent reason, every single bottle and cup in the tavern bursts simultaneously, yielding a veritable maelstrom of glass and alcohol. The whirling hurricane spirals toward the center of the room, where the storm coalesces into...

A booze golem!

The humanoid mass of fluid and jagged glass gives a gurgling cry before heaving one of its inebriating fists at Osnagard.

Nick back-peddles away from the monster, drawing his sabers as he does.

"Can't say I've seen one of those before..."

[AmberVael]

Earin chuckles and then looks over at the golem, his laughter dying in a wave of confusion.
What is that?

[Nevrmore]

Ozzy nervously lifts his head, looking at the booze golem.

"Now that's just stupid."

[Warpfire]

Joseph stares blankly at the booze golem for a few moments, then turns to Nick. "What the hell is that thing?" He points a questioning finger at the alchoholic monster.

[Osnagard]

"Shoot, It was hopeing for something with more blood inside. Oh well", He says as he lifts the sheild to repell the blow, he then stabs upwards towards the golem's head with his sword.

[Timberwolf]

Oh dear Lord...

That think smells of whisky.

Snowraven reaches into her pocket, pulls out a cigar, lights up and throws the match at the booze golem, erecting a force barrier between where she is and the golem

[McBish]

Right I don't feel like fighting that. And a protective force of deadtime hits Eric.

[AmberVael]

Earin sees the cigar and its destination.
His one thought: "Oh ****."
He lunges behind the bar to get some protection from a very likely burst of fire.

[Osnagard]

Seeing the burning projectile Osnagard's only thought is... "Fire Golem"

[Rebonack]

The fist crashes against the tower shield like a tsunami against a cliff. Except this tsunami is filled with broken glass.

The golem's arm sort of... crumples against the barrier. Upon pulling its limb away the hand is gone. This actually rectifies pretty fast as more fluid flows into the stump and forms a new fist.

The moonshine monstrosity leans into Osnagard's face and bellows another gurgling cry even as the blade pierces it.

The sword stroke really doesn't look like it managed to do very much.

Then it attempts to backhand the necromancer, throwing even more force behind this blow than the last.

"Apparently it's a monster made of broken bottles and..." Nick licks his lips again. "Pretty much every type of beverage you can purchase here."

The marksmen snaps his bow together and ponders how best to attack something made mostly out of water.

Then the cigar hits.

Surprisingly the golem doesn't explode. It does, however, burst into flames.

Now it's a monster made out of alcohol, shattered glass, and it's also on fire. Good going.

[Timberwolf]

Snowraven looks at Earin, taps the force field and decalres

Girls Blouse

The she hits the flaming golem with a cone of cold.

[Hawkeye]

Suddenly, and for no readily apparent reason, every single bottle and cup in the tavern bursts simultaneously, yielding a veritable maelstrom of glass and alcohol. The whirling hurricane spirals toward the center of the room, where the storm coalesces into...

A booze golem!

The humanoid mass of fluid and jagged glass gives a gurgling cry before heaving one of its inebriating fists at Osnagard.

Nick back-peddles away from the monster, drawing his sabers as he does.

"Can't say I've seen one of those before..."

((*falls out of chair laughing*))

[AmberVael]

Earin sits behind the bar, then laughs.
You know, I'm going to bet you we have to drink it to win.

[Timberwolf]

Oh, count me out, I'm feeling woozy just looking at it.

((Nightstar's 4 ft 10 and about 80 lbs))

[AmberVael]

((I remember. :smallwink:))
Well, we'd have to deal with the glass and fire too... anyone have some water and a very large strainer?
He grins.

[Osnagard]

This second blow sends Osnagard skiding backwards, dispite the fact that it also landed on the sheild. He then takes out his larges bell and begins ringing it. Crystal, ready to receive the soul, in his pocket.

((OOC)) If it does manage to take the soul out don't kill it imeadiatly I wanna re-raise it after

[Timberwolf]

What, the fires half the fun, flaming Drambuie or Aftershock anyone ?

((Now, I'm not sure whether these have made it out of the UK. Drambuie is a type of whisky. Aftershock is an extremely unpleasantly strong spirit that was fashionable to drink a few years ago. Rough as a freshly sandpapered badgers backside. It was a test of machoness to set them on fire and drink them. It's a Golem, a construct, no soul, I believe))

[AmberVael]

((Okay, true, some people are crazy enough to drink flaming beverages. But not Earin. And golems usually work off of imprisoned souls))

Hey, I'm all for adventure, but I'm not crazy.

[Timberwolf]

SNOWRAVENNNNN, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU FOR THIS !!!!

Winterfrost summons a pair of Elder water elementals to fight the flaming golem to.

Oh come on, like you didn't want to see what would happen if you threw a match at it. Flaming drinks really aren't all that bad, but not in that quantity.

[AmberVael]

I try and keep my drinking down anyways. Maybe we could just scoop it into cups?

[Timberwolf]

None of us drink much, it's kinda suicide.

The tallest sister is 5 ft even

Those elementals should put it out and give us a load of mixer though.

[Osnagard]

((oops, my mistake))

Realizing that that's not gonna work Osnagard puts the bell away and looks around for any other possible weapon he could use to fight it... pulling his sword out again.

[Rebonack]

((Golems function by binding an elemental spirit to them. Usually from the plane of earth. And thanks for that input Hawkeye. I really do aim to please. By the way, please wait for me to respond before piling on attacks. kthnx))

For some reason, probably having to do with the odd way in which golems respond to spells, the cone of cold turns the whole mass of the golem into a slurry. Despite this the booze beast is still on fire. In other words, it's still an inferno of oxidizing ethanol, except now it's also a walking slurpie.

It begins to flail about wildly, flinging blazing, glass filled snow-balls around the tavern.

Nick quickly boots over a table for cover as one such projectile paffs against the wooden barrier.

"You want to throw a lightning bolt at it next?" Nicholas yells at the siblings. "Then maybe it can shock us while we're frozen and on fire!"

The soul removal fails for several reasons. The first is the fact that all golems are immune to magic. The second regards their lack of soul.

To provide recompense to the necromancer for his effort the golem hurls an icy, flaming, glass filled projectile at him.

[AmberVael]

((Like I said, Golems normally work off of imprisoned souls... spirits... things))

True, but this is Trog's alcohol we're talking about here. Want to guess how many dragon liver busters went into that thing?

[Tiben]

and then Tiben returns to the bar looking to appoligise for his past actions is confronted my a monster. made of boose and fire no less.
quite, I came here to see if I was ever alloud in here again, but NOW I guess I might have to fight a frigging stops to ponder what to call the crime agienst nature infront of him THING!
Then procides to fire a flurry of Ice arrows at the Boose golem

[Timberwolf]

The elder water elementals go for a double clothesline and then start pounding at the golem

Hey, that's a brilliant idea. Tell you what, when you get off your arse and do something about it, then you can critiscise, capisce ?

[Hawkeye]

((I've soooo got to draw this up in a comic, it's comedy gold :smallbiggrin:

Any objections?))

[AmberVael]

((And Rebo, alcohol's freezing point is -117 degrees, and I really don't think a cone of cold will do that much))

((Go for it, Hawkeye. :smallbiggrin:))

[Timberwolf]

((The sisters' player strains large ears to hear. What was that noise that had just disturbed the typing ? Somewhere, alone and friendless, on the streets of a cold, unfeeling city, another catgirl had been brutally murdered.

Police Chief Jordan took one look at the body. The question was, would the catgirl serial killer strike again ?

Yep, go for it, you can find the match thrower's physical description in the OOC thread under "SNowraven"))

[AmberVael]

((Of course, I could just be stupid and forget the minor fact that the water will freeze first. So ignore me.
*stabs another catgirl, because he can*))

[Osnagard]

Osnagard swings the sheild around to stop the flameing snowball but is too late. It takes him just below the right knee, the glass shards and fire are stopped by the chainmail, but the leg goes numb from the cold. "Oh, now you've done it", Osnagard says as he takes out the smallest bell, and uses it to try and immobilize the golem.

((Feel free, my discription is on the characters page, or through the link in my sig))

[Rebonack]

((It would actually freeze all at once, though the impurities in the water would lower its freezing point significantly. Physics didn't freeze it, the fact that golems have specific responses to certain spells did.

And go right ahead Hawkeye. I suppose I'll have to write up a description of Nicholas eventually anyway.))

The elementals fists hammer the booze golem, though it seems to weather the beating pretty well. Golems are known for being exceptionally durable after all.

The mindless being continues to press its assault on Osnagard due to the fact he was the one who unwittingly summoned it, doing its best to ignore any other attacks thrown its way. The bell works on the golem about as well as the previous on had, spell immunity and all.

It figures that now would be a good time to try and smash its arm into the necromancer again, so it attempts to do exactly that.

The ice arrows stick into the golem's mass, causing it to become a little slushier than it was previously. And it's still on fire, of course.

Having decided that he may as well try what most other golems are weak to Nick notches an nonexistent arrow against his nonexistent bowstring, causing both to pop into existence.

With a twang he launches said arrow at the golem.

Moments before impact the tip splits open revealing... what appears to be an adamtine boxing glove of all things.

With a rather resounding thud it slams into the side of the golem's... head region, knocking a fair bit of slush and glass loose in the process. The monster staggers slightly before continuing to press its attack.

"That looked pretty good to me," Nick replies with a grin. The guy knows his constructs after all. "So, how's that lightning bolt coming along?"

((Golems are usually specifically weak to one spell *cough*horriblewilting*coughcough*))

[Osnagard]

Osnagard ducks under the swinging arm and attempts to cut off both the the Golem's legs
(( which I fully expect to simply reattach, I just like the way it reforms :D ))

[Timberwolf]

Snowraven looks at him

Just fine thank you.

She sends a tiny little zap at him and then tries a Horrid Wilting on the Golem.

[Tiben]

Tiben seeing how the boxing glove knocked away some of the golem he gets a really BAD idea
If a punch could remove a little of it, an explosion should completly disessemble it.
Grinning Tiben fires an explosive arrown at the Golem before anyone can respond to this crazy action

[AmberVael]

((It would actually freeze all at once, though the impurities in the water would lower its freezing point significantly. Physics didn't freeze it, the fact that golems have specific responses to certain spells did.

And go right ahead Hawkeye. I suppose I'll have to write up a description of Nicholas eventually anyway.))
((Well, from what I read, it actually seems like freeze distillation (the fractional freezing of an alcohol mixture and drawing out the poor alcohol concentrations) would be a method that kinda proves that argument wrong, unless I'm just reading incorrectly, which is very very highly possible since I know next to nothing about physics and alcohol))

Earin watches, knowing that his sword won't do much.

[Hawkeye]

((Thanks guys! *hugs each player*

@ Rebonack: can you give a rough description of what Nick looks like?))

[Tiben]

Tiben goes into dead time

[Rebonack]

((*shrug* I just know that a mixed solution will have a lower freezing temperature than a pure solution. Though I haven't ever tried to freeze distil anything, so I can't say.

Sure Hawkeye, just a sec and I'll write one up.))

Osnagard's blade manages to hew half way through the golem's leg before getting stuck pretty well. The booze beast then moves to drive a fist directly into the top of the necromancer's head.

Only it doesn't.

Mainly because all the water in that arm just evaporated.

This also causes the alcohol in said member to volatilize and explode.

This causes glass shrapnel to be flung all over the tavern.

The golem reels backwards between the arm explosion and the arrow explosion, pin-wheeling its remaining limb to attempt to retain its balance.

After listening to the lovely sound of glass lodging in a table Nicholas decides that now would be a great time shoot the golem again. He darts from one table to the next, planning another of his fabled boxing-glove arrows in the monster's chest as he does.

A pair of loud thumps later the golem is on the floor tying to awkwardly right itself.

Fortunately for Nick he managed to get out of the way before getting shocked.

[Timberwolf]

Snowraven and 2 of her sisters are safe behind the force screen. Winterfrost takes cover behing the bar.

Snowraven tries another Horrid Wilting to finish the creature off.

((It seems to be still in the land of the living, just))

[AmberVael]

Earin, after the burst of glass, leaps over the counter, drawing out his sword and lets it glow with light again.
And while the light is magical, the very extreme heat it produces is not.
Extreme, evaporating heat.
He swings at the golem's leg.

[Osnagard]

The glass shrapnel showers over Osnagard, mostly being stopped by his armor but cutting the back of his exposed head up pretty well (though non life threateningly), he rolls out of the way and imeadiatly raises one of the gobs of flying fire/golem material into a miniature golem. This new mini booze/fire golem scurries under a table to hide. Osnagard then lifts his sheild up to protect himself from future such explosions.

[Rebonack]

The final attacks against the golem are very final.

It's remaining mass of water is gone in an instant, leaving only vaporized alcohol in its place.

And considering how much alcohol there is in a DLB that's quite a bit.

The whole thing explodes in a rather spectacular conflagration that peppers the whole tavern with shrapnel.

Nicholas is lucky enough to be behind a table.

Several other people aren't.

[AmberVael]

Earin seems to have vanished in the explosion.
Then he drops down from the ceiling.
Evasion is a handy class feature, let me tell you...

[Warpfire]

Lucky for him, Joseph comes out of dead time after the explosion and thusly evades any harm from it. He looks about the room, then turns to Nick and frowns.

"What happened while I was gone?"

[Timberwolf]

The Alexanders are protected from the blast by the forcefield and the bar respectively. Nightstar thwacks Snowraven across the back of the head

Ow !

No one told you to start experimenting.

[Osnagard]

The glass bounces harmlessly off Osnagard's sheild, then he goes to collect his sword, and scratches the back of his head, realizing it's bleeding he heals himself with a bell and offers to heal anyone else who might need it.

The mini-golem climbs onto Osnagards shoulder, it's only a few inches tall.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas peeks out from behind his table, the front of which is now embedded with a goodly mass of shattered glass.

"Apparently one of the magic users here figured out how to make the thing explode," he replies to the hunter.

Oddly enough, there's a pile of gold coins and gem stones sitting where the golem had been moments before it exploded. A rather nice jade pendent as well.

[Timberwolf]

Snowraven draws deeply on her cigar.

Explosions are fun

No one asked you.

[AmberVael]

Earin grins.
I think explosions are fun.
He goes back over to the bar, brushing some glass off of his jacket.

[Timberwolf]

Hah, someone knows what he's talking about

[Osnagard]

Osnagard takes his share of the loot, and walks back to Nick, "Wasn't that great? I'm a little comfused about the being both on fire and frozen at the same time thing, but hey, at least it was fun." He also makes certain to say "Thanks" to Snowraven for the killing blow.

[AmberVael]

Earin puts his sword back in its sheath and sits down at the bar.
So, anyone fancy another drink?
He grins.

[Timberwolf]

No worries, it was a bizarre thing alright.

We'd better not, the player needs beauty sleep. Bless him, he needs a lot of it.

[Warpfire]

Joseph eyes the randomly appearing pile of loot. "This is a strange place..."

[AmberVael]

((Oh come on, the joke wasn't that subtle, was it?
Or was it just that unfunny?))

Earin shrugs.
Suit yourself.

[Timberwolf]

((It took you telling me there was one there, but I get it now... It's 2.15 AM, cut m some slack here))

The girls head for the door, quietly chuckling at Earin's joke.

[Rebonack]

Nick glances at the broken, glass peppered shelves.

"I honestly doubt there's anything left to drink."

The marksmen sighs and glances at Osnagard.

"I wouldn’t call it fun. I doubt they would," he jerks his thumb at the poor NPCs who were ventilated during the fight. "Battle is rarely fun and usually messy."

Nicholas manages to find a chair with relatively little glass stuck in it and flops into the seat.

"Strange? Certainly."

[Warpfire]

Warpfire appears, and ninjas the jade pendant. He casts greater identify on it.

"OMFG HE NINJAD BOOT HIM!!!!1" screams a random NPC, before bursting into flames.

Meanwhile, Joseph gives an affirmative grunt, agreeing with Nick's assessment of battle and the enjoyment to be had in it.

[AmberVael]

((I feel happier now. Yay. Night))

Earin shrugs, scoops up the gold and gems since no one seems to care about them, and goes back to his seat.

[Osnagard]

Osnagard shrugs, sits down then goes ridged with deadtime-itis (that's right a swelling of his dead time :D)

[Vhaidara]

Rishtak and Katriana walk in and both order a Catebolas Sauvingon.
So, what do you think of things here?
Seems faitly exciting. I think I could live here.
Good, because this is the last place before we would have to go overseas.
I know. I can still remember our last voyage.
The one where you just flew ahead?
Yes, the one where I flew ahead because I was getting seasick.

[Rebonack]

The amulet is a pendent of Epic Inebriation.

Five times per day it allows the wielder to inebriate a target, inflicting a 4d6 dexterity and wisdom penalty for 1d6 hours.

"Well... nice to see you moving again Joseph," Nick comments before likewise pilfering some of the riches. Has to buy bread somehow after all. He also quirks an eyebrow at the odd wizard from the other night.

"And what about you mister ninja assassin? What brings you to this crazy place?" he inquires of Earin.

[AmberVael]

I'm coming back for a visit. I used to live here.

[Vhaidara]

Rishtak and Katriana pay and leave.

[Warpfire]

"It's good to be moving again. Damned dead time is getting on my nerves..." Joseph grumbles, mostly to no one in particular.

[Rebonack]

"You lived here? Well, that's certainly brave of you," the marksmen jests.

He then turns his attention back to the slayer.
"I think I've run into it once so far since I came here. It was over at this party at the temple of Inari. One moment I was telling this talking llama about one of my adventures and the next everyone's gone and it's quite a bit later."

[Warpfire]

Warpfire eyes the pendant suspicously, then puts it on. He waits to see if he experiences any ill effects, as if from a curse.

"You're lucky, then. I seem to be getting hit by it all the time..."

[AmberVael]

Earin chuckles a little and gets a nonalcoholic drink.

[Rebonack]

The pendent appears to be uncursed. The wizard should try it out on one of the few remaining NPCs.

As soon as Rebonack gets back.

"Hopefully I'll be able to avoi-"

Nicholas suddenly freezes mid-sentence as a pocket of dead time rolls over him.

[Warpfire]

"How ironic." Joseph comments as Nick is taken by dead time.

Warpfire curses and attempts a Summon Rebonack spell, to no avail.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

Samson walks into the Tavern, sitting down at the bar and ordering a Yard of Ale.

[Warpfire]

Warpfire eyes Samson briefly, then disappears.

[Nightwing]

*Barracuda walks in, Uzi in his hand*

[Carrion_Humanoid]

Samson waves his friend over, chuging his yard. "Good stuff, a Yard of goodnes, nuttin better." Samson says belching, ordering another.

[Nightwing]

I'm a purely non alcoholic fish man. I water please.

[Carrion_Humanoid]

"O'Rly?" Samson says, laughing as he drinks half of the Yard. "Should we recruit nowsh?" Samson says looking around for the annoying wizard.

[Nightwing]

OK.



*He stands up*

All right! I am not a member of the order of anarchy! Any one that does not wish to join please come see me.


*He sits back down*

[Carrion_Humanoid]

"Weesh aren't the mafia, bub." Samson says, chuckiling as he finishes the yard, and orders the next round, tipping on his stool.

[Nightwing]

Some thing tells me you are going to get drunk really fast...

[Carrion_Humanoid]

"Two yards of anything can getsh you drunk!"

[Rebonack]

"-d getting caught by it again," Nicholas continues without missing a beat. "It was pretty creepy... last... time..."

He glances around the bar, noting several people that weren't there previously.

"I just got frozen, didn't I?"

[AmberVael]

Yeah, the water will do that to you.
Earin, being an old townie, uses the old excuse.

[Warpfire]

Joseph, who hasn't been doing much of anything for the last while, nods. "Kind of ironic, really."

Meanwhile, Warpfire attempts to inebriate a random NPC with his amulet. Warpfire, who just appeared.

[Rebonack]

"The water?" now Nick sounds really confused. "Don't think I've drank any of the water here since I arrived. What kind of crazy person drinks water anyway? Are they trying to get sick or something?"

An amber colored, sudsy ray leaps from the amulet and strikes the poor fellow in the side of the head. The NPC suddenly begins to belligerently demand to be paid back a debt that the other may or may not owe him.

[AmberVael]

Earin tilts his head.
Um, water is sort of a staple substance, you know.
And pretty much any liquid in Town will do that to you.

[Vhaidara]

Rishtak comes in, puts up a notice, and leaves. The notice reads:
Want to fight someone in an arena where anything goes? Come down and register at the Battle Training Arena!

[Warpfire]

Warpfire chuckles and uses the amulet again, this time aiming it at the NPC that's money is currently being demanded by the drunk NPC.

Joseph pulls out a wooden stake and begins to clean it with a cloth from his pocket.

[AmberVael]

Earin rolls his eyes at the sign, goes over to it, and chops it down with a single blow of his sword.
If you want an arena, go to the normal one. Anything goes there too...

[Rebonack]

((People almost never drank water in medieval settings due to a host of nasty bacteria/protozoa that lived within. Alcohol would keep the drinks sterile, hence why pretty much everyone drank that. Getting buzzed was just a pleasant side effect.))

"Really?" Nick looks at his drink suspiciously. "Do you have a wizard purify the water or something then? And I thought people got frozen because of dead time... or something like that. It's what I was told anyway."

The second NPC begins to laugh like an idiot, which enrages the first NPC even more. A bar fight, and hilarity, ensues.

[AmberVael]

((Correct, but this is Town. And Earin is used to a place where magic is extremely common, and pure water was one of the most normal things you could come by due to clerics' and druids' handy work))

Wizards? I didn't know they could. That's divine magic. As for dead time... never heard of it.

[Warpfire]

Warpfire laughs and watches the fighting NPCs. He pulls up a chair, kicks his feet up on a table, and magics up a bowl of popcorn. "I need to do this more often. Hmm...though it'd be much more interesting with a higher power level." He glances over at Nick and Joseph, giving a thoughtful 'Hmm'.

Joseh momentarily looks over at Warpfire, then goes back to cleaning his stake.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas is about to respond when Maph'tey is suddenly standing there. He may have been there already, probably standing a few moments out of phase with the normal flow of time, but here none the less.

"Dead time," he explains. "Is a hole in the continuity of the 't' dimension caused by the peculiar way in which several dozen Realms are mashed together, intersecting on this place known as 'The Town'. An object caught within a patch of dead time will temporarily loose its momentum in the 't' dimension, causing it to become frozen in place and thus unaffected by external stimuli. That explains why people caught in a dead time field can't be interacted with by those around them and do not experience any perception of time, where as if they were in a coma as was popularly believed previously then slaying a comatose opponent would be quite easy."

He then takes a step several minutes into the future and promptly ceases to exist.

Nick just blinks stupidly.

"Divine magic? I'm not sure what you mean. Like miracles performed by a god?"

[Warpfire]

Joseph stares blankly at the spot where Maph'tey. "Who the hell was that, and what did he just say?"

[AmberVael]

Earin stares at where Maph'tey was.
That was just weird. And it is comas caused by water anyways.
He looks back at Nick.
In a sense, yes. Gods grant magic to their followers, who gain and use it in a different way than mages will.

[Rebonack]

"I've never heard of anything like that before," Nicholas responds, doing his best to ignore the oddness of the winged guy who popped out of nowhere. "Wizards learn magic and sorcerers are born with it. Sometimes priests and the like devote time to learning about the arcane to better serve the aspect they worship. I've heard of one of the aspects performing a miracle before, but they don't grant their power to anyone."

Yes, in case it isn't obvious there isn't any divine magic where Nick comes from. Thus speaks the omniscient narrator!

[AmberVael]

Huh. I haven't heard of many places like that.

[Rebonack]

"And I haven't ever been anywhere else where a god pops into the bar for a drink," Nicholas responds with a grin. "Or for that matter a temple where a god hangs around and throws parties. So I suppose we've both heard about something we aren't accustomed to recently."

[AmberVael]

Earin grins.
I guess so.
He lapses into dead time.

[Rebonack]

"So, what's your name mister ninja?" Nick asks, not noticing the dead time. "Hello?"

"Wow... Persistent stuff," the marksmen comments before heading upstairs in his own attempt to avoid dead time. Or water comas. Or whatever you want to blame.

[Warpfire]

Joseph nods to Nick as he makes his exit. "Night."

[Rebonack]

The NPCs continue to brawl with one another.

[Warpfire]

Joseph glances over at the brawling NPCs. "Why are you two fighting?"

Warpfire snickers quietly.

[Rebonack]

The two brawling NPCs continue to brawl.

One is still laughing insanely while the other is yelling about stolen women.

[Warpfire]

"Once again," Joseph raises his voice, attempting to get through to the drunken brawlers. "Why are you two fighting?"

[Rebonack]

The inebriated NPCs appear to be far too inebriated to respond coherently.

As such they continue to beat the crap out of one another.

[Warpfire]

"Bah. I'm a vampire hunter, not an idiotic drunk hunter." Joseph returns to drinking and not doing much of anything.

Warpfire begins to tire of the brawling, and considers how to deal with it.

[Rebonack]

Nick pokes his head back down the stairs.

"What's all the racket. Are those two still fighting?"

Sure enough, they are.

[Warpfire]

Joseph nods. "I was considering trying to break it up, but..." The hunter sets his drink down on the table. "Not my job."

Warpfire casually considers whether to kill the fighting NPCs, or just get rid of them in a less fatal manner. He begins to fish through his robes for a coin with which to decide.

((Sometimes I wonder how there are any NPCs left in the Town. They must breed like rabbits...))

[Rebonack]

"Don't they have bouncers here or something to toss out people doing that?"

A bouncer doesn't get rid of them, rather a black pudding oozes through the door and envelopes the both of them causing them to dissolve horribly, before sliming its way onto another random NPC.

Nicholas just stands there looking something akin to horrified. Probably that something like that would be allowed to hang around town.

"I... left my weapons in my room."

((There's a never ending plane of them. Sort of like the Al Continuum. But that would be another one of my running gags like Prancibald.))

[Warpfire]

"Say, Nick," Joseph starts, as his hands begin to move towards his weapons. "Know anywhere that one can have a drink with some godsdamned peace and quiet?"

Warpfire casually tosses a disintegrate at the pudding.

[Rebonack]

Before Nicholas can point out that Ilias had warned him not to utter the word 'quite' in the tavern several dozen black tentacles burst forth from every nook and cranny and slither toward the hunter.

One manages to catch Nick by his ankle and drag him down the stairs.

"I- oow real hate- OOW it here!"

It hoists him off the ground and begins to flail him about.

Nick doesn't appear to like this very much, and do to the fact that he doesn't have any weapons on his person he defends himself in the only way available.

Several seconds of popping, cracking, and squishing later there's a very unhappy couatl-like creature in Nicholas' place. He decides to beat the tendril at its own game and wraps his coils around it before biting the thing.

This causes it to slump to the ground rather lifelessly.

Nick begins to sputter.

"Tastess like tar..."

The pudding casually crumbles into a pile of dust.

[Warpfire]

Joseph raises an eyebrow at the tentacles, then shrugs and draws his two-handed sword. "For Asholme!" He cries, causing the blade to burst into flames. The hunter proceeds to charge the tentacles and start hacking about.

"Irritating tentacles..." Warpfire mumbles something about looking into getting rid of them permanently.

[deepsear]

A portal opens up, and Deepsear crashes to the ground as he exits the realm where Dead Time resides.

"Those stupid drunks," He says, as he brushes some dust off of his pauldrons,

"Are going to make me destitute one day. Anyway..."

He looks about the room, notices the chaos, and walks for the door.

[Rebonack]

Unfortunately for Nick pretty much all of his spell-like abilities really only work on evil opponents. The tentacles aren't evil, just annoying.

As such, he has to resort to biting them despite how gods awful they taste.

After they receive a sound thrashing they retreat back from whence they came.

"I think my mouth iss numb," Nicholas blechs right before he clamps his jaws around a convenient bottle and downs it. Doing so is pretty awkward what with his current lack of useful limbs.

After spitting the bottle back out he glances at Joseph with those golden slit eyes of his.

"Don't ssay the word that meanss ssilent and sstartss with a 'Q'," he hisses. If there's anything he hates more than the stupid lack of limbs it's that damn lisp. "Apparently that ssummonss them."

[Warpfire]

Warpfire considers saying the q-word just to be a jerk, but before he can a random NPC beheads him with an axe. His head rolls out the door, and his body lumbers after it.

"You can't say...damn, I hate this place." Joseph looks a bit uneasy about Nicholas's animal form. "So...I guess you can transform back now, right?"

[Rebonack]

The big snaky thing nods and proceeds to shift back into his considerably smaller human shape. It makes lots of thoroughly unpleasant grinding and squelching noises as it does so for about the next six seconds.

Fortunately he was still wearing the nifty amulet that allows everything he's wearing to shift along with him. Helps save a bundle on ripped up clothing.

Upon finishing he shudders.

"Geh... It might not be painful or anything to change like that, but if feels comfortably nestled between uncomfortable and nauseating. Bones melting and organs moving around and... bleh"

He shudders again.

And then the wizard's head rolls past.

"I can't imagine how anyone can live here."

[Warpfire]

Joseph nods. "Aye."

At that moment, a lad of eighteen bursts into the room. "Master Joseph!" Come quickly!"
Joseph looks at the boy with wide eyes. "Zachariah? My apprentice? You're still alive?"
Zachariah nods, looking frantic. "There's no time to explain. Teros is here!"
The hunter's eyes widen even more, and he stands with a start. "Teros? Then there's no time to lose. Come, let's get out of here."

With a tip of his hat to Nick, Joseph dashes out of the tavern, quickly followed by Zachariah. Moments later, a clattering of hooves can be heard.

((Aaaannd night.))

[Rebonack]

Nicholas watches the pair depart, figuring that the person mention must be one of the vampires Joseph is after.

"Sounds like a Plot in the making," comments Rebonack.

Nick gives the pixilated knight an odd look.

"Uh huh... And who are you supposed to be?"

"A puppet master. You're really tired. Head upstairs and go to sleep."

Nicholas blinks groggily, suddenly extremely drowsy.

"Yeah I... I think I'll do that," the marksmen mutters before doing exactly that.

"Sleep well, Town. Sleep well. For soon my next diabolical Plot will begin to unfold! BWAH HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!"

He then explodes in a shower of blue and white cubes, which in turn explodes into smaller cubes. This continues until there's no trace remaining of him.

[Vhaidara]

Rishtak comes in, and seeing the tentacles, charges straight into the middle of them, swinging his spiked chain and yelling
For FREEDOM!
Telepathically, he sends a message to Katriana
Come on over to Trog's! There's a fight going on here! Never mind it's already over.
Next time, leave me something to kill.
He leaves.

[Nightwing]

John comes out of his dead time

What did I miss?

[Baeleck]

Udwin is freed from dead time. He shakes off the dust that has settled on him and hovers around a bit, looking over a few NPCs. After a short while, he moves over to the fireplace and hovers motionless, watching it.

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf wakes up, albeit slowly.

[Baeleck]

Udwin inspects the She-Wolf closely, glowing brightly as he does so.

[Exachix]

She's just a normal wolf really, she looks up at him and tries to bat him.

[Baeleck]

"Hey! Get off!" Udwin shouts, rising up away from her after being lightly hit a couple of times.

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf jumps up to try and grab him and bring him to the ground.

[Baeleck]

"Are you deaf? Leave me alone, dumb animal!" Udwin yelps, as he is bought to the floor.

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf looks at him, sniffs him, before letting him go and bounding over to and whining at Cosmo till he gives her some bamhacon.

[Baeleck]

Udwin hovers up and away from the She-wolf, his glow dimming. Cosmo looks at the She-wolf, and shakes his head.
"No money, no food, wolf."

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf whines.

[Baeleck]

Cosmo ignores the whining and goes back to cleaning glasses.

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf still whines.

[Deadly]

Ilias walks in and orders a Djinn and Tonic before sitting down at the bar.

[Baeleck]

Udwin poofs out of existence... purely because his player doesn't see much more point in him as a character.

Cosmo frowns, but resists the urge to give out free food.

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf still whines... but quieter.

[Baeleck]

A slight twitch in Cosmo's eye becomes apparent. Still resisting though...

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf just curls up where she is.

[Deadly]

Ilias looks over at the she-wolf

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf smiles.

[Deadly]

Ilias smiles and nods back at the she-wolf {lupine} Hi.

[Exachix]

{Lupine}"Hello."

[Deadly]

{lupine} I don't think we've met before, my name is Ilias.

[Exachix]

{lupine}"One does not have a name... One's pack didn't think it was needed."

She smiles.

[Deadly]

Ilias smiles {lupine} Ah. So, what have brought you here to Town?

[Exachix]

{lupine}"I don't know. I just came and now I'm here."

[Deadly]

{lupine} Fair enough. he says and smiles Are you hungry?

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf nodds.

{lupine}"I am a little."

[Warpfire]

The door opens and Joseph leaps in, revolvers drawn. He twists around mid-leap to fire a number of bullets through the open doorway, and upon landing hurries over to it and slams the door shut.

[Deadly]

Ilias nods and orders a plate of bamhacon, keeping Cosmo happy with a nice tip. He sets the plate down and smiles. {Lupine} I thought so

[Exachix]

{lupine}"Thank you!!"

She begins to devour it.

[Deadly]

Ilias nods and sips his drink {lupine} You're welcome

[Exachix]

She Finishes and smiles to him.

[Castaras]

aCastaras throws off the dead time, and finishes off her drink.

[Warpfire]

Joseph glances over his shoulder. "Hopefully that took care of him." With a shrug, he heads to an empty table and takes a seat.

[AmberVael]

The door suddenly slams open, displaying a dark and stormy night outside.
And theme music begins playing.
Dark, serious theme music.
The Dancing Man steps inside, his eyes narrow and determined, focused and ready-
For the continuation of the pie fight.
*drum solo*
He pulls out his pie revolver and pulls back the hammer in a slow and calculated movement, looking for his foe.

[Castaras]

aCastaras turns at the sound of the music, and sighs.

You again.

A group of pies appear in front of her, armed with bows and swords.

[Deadly]

Ilias smiles back, then looks thoughtfully into his drink.

He doesn't pay much attention to the Dancing Man.

[AmberVael]

The Dancing Man fires his pistol at Castaras, and suddenly all the pie ooze from the streets flows in behind him, turning into a massive pie elemental.

[Warpfire]

Oh gods, not again... Joseph sighs and shakes his head as the pie fight begins.

[Castaras]

More pies appear around aCast, as three pastry elementals appear behind her. The pie shot bounces off a shield.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas makes his way down from the second floor, looking unusually chipper today. He woken up with the distinct feeling that the day would go exceedingly well. No insanity to deal with at all. No, it would be just great. He would have a drink, see if he can't find out about any good dungeon crawls nearby, and buy that handkerchief of prestidigitation he had been wanting.

All those hopes are dashed when he sees the pie fight.

"By Selune... Can't there be a peaceful day here? Even once?"

[Exachix]

The She-Wolf watches.

[Warpfire]

Joseph glances over at Nicholas, a bit of a smirk spreading across his face. "You might want to consider heading back upstairs."

[AmberVael]

The pie goop elemental roars forwards, trying to engulf Castaras and all the pastry elementals.

[Deadly]

Ilias turns around and raises an eyebrow at the strange fight. But he figures that he's probably seen far stranger things, so it's not really that surprising or anything.

[Rebonack]

"Already considered it," Nick responds with lick of his lips. "But I'm going to be here in Town for a while and I figured I may as well run the gauntlet while I have the chance."

He tromps down to the common room and carefully takes up residence at Joseph's table.

"So... did you find the nasty your apprentice was talking about?"

[Castaras]

aCast teleports out of the way of the pie elemental. The pastry elementals slurp, trying to engulf the pie elemental as it tries to engulf them. The pies scuttle out of the way of the fight and fire pie arrows at the Dancing Man.

[AmberVael]

The goop elemental is far to large to be engulfed. but it does try and dissolve the pastries.
The Dancing Man shoots the arrow out of the air with a pie, then flings a holy pie grenade at Castaras, where it explodes in a spray of holy pastry.
He backs off to the fire place.

[Warpfire]

"Yes, but there were some...complications." Joseph takes a drink, considering what's happened.

"My apprentice was turned into a vampire very shortly into the battle. It's lucky I managed to get him outside of his lair, or else I'd be dead right now. As it stands, I had to flee the battle and kill my apprentice. Which leads me to a favor I need to ask of you, and possibly Therarde..."

[Castaras]

The goop elemental is far to large to be engulfed. but it does try and dissolve the pastries.
The Dancing Man shoots the arrow out of the air with a pie, then flings a holy pie grenade at Castaras, where it explodes in a spray of holy pastry.
He backs off to the fire place.

In a flash of inspiration, a strange sort of floating pie surf board with engines attached appear underneath aCastaras. She surfs out of the way of the holy pie and fires a magical firey pie at the Dancing Man. The pies carry on firing pie arrows at him.

[Deadly]

Ilias shakes his head and disappears.

[AmberVael]

Frozen, stored pies fly up to form a shield wall, then, now unfrozen due to the flaming pie, explode outwards in a burst of pie.
The Dancing Man steps back in the fire and puts a pie in it.

[Rebonack]

Nick looks somewhat downcast at the mention of the dieing apprentice. Losing an friend can be rough, though in such a violent line of work it can be rough. He steals a glance at the raging pie fight before turning his attention back the hunter.

"I have the feeling I know what the favor is. As much as I hate fighting undead I'll lend you what help I can."

Just then The Essence of Cake appears in the tavern in a flash of butter cream frosting.

"Fools! Pie is as far below cake as the mortals are below the gods! Cake shall reign supreme!" it then sends a flurry of exploding trick birthday candles at both pie dualists.

[Castaras]

Frozen, stored pies fly up to form a shield wall, then, now unfrozen due to the flaming pie, explode outwards in a burst of pie.
The Dancing Man steps back in the fire and puts a pie in it.

aCastaras dodges out of the way of the explosions and pie explosion on her pie board and speeds towards the Dancing Man, pies appearing in both of her hands, and two pies sailing ahead of her towards the Dancing Man. Another pie sails towards the essence of cake.

[AmberVael]

The Dancing Man picks up his pie, which is now on fire, and uses it as a massive, exploding barrier to protect him from the cake and other pies.
Incidentally, the explosion shoots him straight up the chimney.

[Castaras]

After the explosion aCastaras swoops into the fireplace and up after the Dancing Man through the chimmney, pies with wings appearing around her.

[Warpfire]

"Wow, are you psychic?" Joseph grins. "Yes, I need your help in taking down Teros. As much as I hate to admit it..." He hesitates momentarily."...he's too strong for me to take on alone. It would probably help to take Therarde along, too."

[Rebonack]

With the incarnation of randomness gone the Essence of Cake doesn't have enough silliness to maintain itself here and promptly turns into a pineapple upside down cake.

"At least that's over..." Nicholas mutters.

Nicholas doesn't respond to the psychic comment since he's never heard the term before.

"Well, I have gone up against vampires before. Nasty bastards the lot of them. They were minions of this lich whose name I honestly can't remember now," he waves one hand to dismiss the subject. "So I do have some experience with this, just not a lifetime of doing so."

He leans back in his chair and licks his lips.

"Heh... At least I'm not a werewolf. That would make this inevitable fight quite a bit more clichéd."

[Warpfire]

Joseph is taken by dead time, but it looks like he should be back fairly soon.

[puss in boots]

Kerra unfreezes and looks around Trogs. She walks over to Shadow and waits for her to unfreeze. She does a couple of seconds later and jumps into Kerra's lap.

[Nightwing]

* John comes out of deadtime and leaves the tavern*

[puss in boots]

Kerra scratches Shadow behind the ear and leans back in her chair.

[Warpfire]

Joseph comes out of dead time and looks around.

"Now where was I?"

[Rebonack]

Nicholas, by this time, is working on a meal while waiting for Joseph to finish being frozen in time.

He gives the cat-person (she's still a cat person, right?) an odd look, not quite sure what to make of her.

"I was just commenting on how fortunate it is that I'm not a werewolf," Nick replies upon noticing that the hunter is moving again.

[Vhaidara]

Rishtak and Katriana walk in.
I heard that there are completely random attacks here.
It seems a little quiet for that.

[puss in boots]

((Nah. She's not a cat person anymore. Just an elf. I havn't been bothered to change the avatar cause I like it.))

Shadow gives Nicholas a hiss in return to the look. Kerra continues petting her.

[Rebonack]

Of course, since one of the pair uttered the q-word the swarming black tentacles burst from every nook and cranny of the tavern to try and grapple them with great vigor. Take that to mean what you will.

Nicholas swears under his breath and yanks out his silver sabers, slashing at anything that slithers too closely.

[puss in boots]

Kerra takes out her sword but needn't have bothered for Shadow grows a little bigger and bites any that come near them. Kerra smiles and sheathes her sword.

[Vhaidara]

See, random attacks.
With that, Rishtak pulls out his spiked chain and charges into battle, swinging the chain with lethal force at everything within 10ft, including random NPC's. Meanwhile, Katriana goes up the walls. Literally. And then she starts firing arrows from her bow and acid from her mouth.

[Warpfire]

Joseph grumbles and draws his two-handed sword, slashing about at any tentacles that come close without even bothering to get out of his chair.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas ducks under the spiked chain as it whizzes over his head.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" he snarls at the elf moments before getting yanked off his feet. He begins to hack at the tentacle wrapped around his feet.

The tentacles continue their general attempt to grapple everyone in the tavern. Oh, and several NPCs get their guts smashed out by the chain.

[puss in boots]

Kerra gives a small yelp as a tentacle hits her and Shadow bits it off and gives a quick apoligetic glance. Kerra draws her sword and yells at Rishtak. Put that thing away!

[Warpfire]

A dead (killed by the chain) random NPC's eight-year-old child grabs his pant leg and begins to pull on it. "Papa..?" Tears begin to form in his eyes.

Oh, and he's wearing a birthday hat.

Meanwhile, Joseph continues hacking about at tentacles with his sword.

[Vhaidara]

(Rishtak got 10ft away from all PC's before he started swinging.)
He hasn't been able to let go of that energy in a long time. He used to be able to fight foriegn monster whenever he wanted, but it's been nothing but goblins for the past year.
She goes over to the man with his son. He's just barely alive. I can heal him.
She puts her hand on the man's forehead, and he stands up, fully healed. She then proceeds to heal the other NPC's, still ocassionally shooting acid at tentacles.
Rishtak, noticing there are kids, starts being careful to only hit the tentacles, and aims to sever the ones holding children.

[puss in boots]

Shadow leaps off of Kerra's lap, understanding what she is wanted to do, and leaps in front of a group of children to protect them from the tentacles.

[Rebonack]

((I see nothing of the sort mentioned in your previous post =P))

Except the poor man doesn't recover because he was a first level commoner who just got brained by a PC. And, as pointed out already, he's dead. Not mostly dead. Big difference you know.

The tentacles, seeing that they're beaten, withdraw from the fight.

Nicholas picks himself up off the floor and glares at the pair of elves, the explanation given for the violence not doing much to change his opinion.

"Oh, that's just great. He hasn't gotten his murder fix for long enough so he smashes some innocent peasant's brains out. That certainly makes it all ok."

[puss in boots]

Kerra calmly retrives Shadow and puts her sword away. Shadow looks around at everyone and holds back laughter.

[Warpfire]

The child begins to wail loudly as he realizes his father is (not mostly dead) but dead.

Joseph looks over Nick and mumbles something about hating this town.

[puss in boots]

Shadow runs over to the child, while growing to the size of a horse, and licks him. Kerra can tell that Shadow is just doing it so that she will be happy with her.

[Nightwing]

*John runs in*

Joe! I just found out! Their is a vampire HQ!

[Vhaidara]

A high level cleric walks in, raises the guy, and leaves.
I have been forced to travel for over a year, exiled from my homeland because I didn't want my father's barony, and needed something to beat on. If you want to-
A dead-time grendades goes of in their heads, forcing them to succumb to dead time.

[puss in boots]

Kerra and Shadow dissapear in puffs of black smoke.

[Warpfire]

Unfortunately, the guy doesn't raise from the dead because Sir Conviction ate his soul when no one was looking. And that's terrible.

Joseph's response to John's news:

"Joe?"

[Rebonack]

Nicholas slides his sabers back into their sheaths and just glares hatefully at the guy for a while after he gets frozen. His fists are clenched, arms are shaking. It's pretty obvious he's upset.

"Where was this Teros person's lair at?" Nick asks, wanting to shift to a different subject as quickly as possible.

((Almost as terrible as Lex Luther stealing forty cake-pies.))

[Warpfire]

Joseph watches Nicholas glare at the man, and sympathises. He'd probably have looked the same, if he had seen this happen a long time ago.

"A graveyard out in the countryside." The hunter decides not to make any remarks on Nick's changing of the subject. "We're going to have to go at night. Teros has used this place to his advantage, and his coffin is covered in that strange freezing substance that afficts his place, during the daylight hours."

((I thought someone would catch that.))

[Castaras]

The small, hooded 1 foot tall creature walks in, a cane in a white gloved hand. It walks over to the bar, and raps on the base of it.

Barman!

Cosmo carries on washing the dishes, not hearing or seeing anyone.

BARMAN!

Cosmo looks down at the creature.

Bah. Another little guy. :smallannoyed:
Hey! Can I have a drink?
What do you want? :smallannoyed:
Got water?
Water?! :smalleek: Must be insane...fair enough, little guy. Here you are. :smallamused:

The creature looks at the glass of water put in front of it and pushes it over to a corner of the room, and takes a sip.

[Rebonack]

Nicholas breaths in deeply and slowly exhales, making an odd hissing sort of sound. Apparently he's trying to calm himself down.

He sighs again and finally manages to pull his gaze away from the murderous elf.

"It sounds like a death trap to me. Is there a river near by?" he asks with a grin. "We got rid of most of the vampires in the lich's lair by having the wizard divert a river right into the front door of the castle. Immersion in flowing water slays them within a few seconds."

[Warpfire]

"Really now, I didn't know that. Must have missed that day." Joseph says with sarcasm. "In any case, no. No rivers around, or any other bodies of water."

He grins. "Couldn't have my life being easy for once, could I?"

[Rebonack]

"I certainly didn't know it previously," Nick responds, apparently impervious to the cut of sarcasm. "Was glad to find out when better than four fifths of the lich's forces were reduced to soggy rotten flesh."

He sighs, leans back in his chair, and licks his lips as he considers other possibilities.

"So... what kind of defenses does this guy have? How many other vampires are under his sway?"

[Nevrmore]

A very tough looking dwarf wielding a morning star walks in with the broken head of an axe hanging off his belt. He looks at everyone with his one good eye.

"I come ter avenge my brethren!" He proclaims as a small group of mixed small-sized races come in after him, wielding similarly crappy weapons.

Oh no, it's Fuddbag.

[Castaras]

The small creature watches the dwarf come in, sipping its water.

[Rebonack]

Nick glances at the gathering of smallish people, not quite sure what to make of them, before turning back to Joseph whilst awaiting a response.

[Nevrmore]

Fuddbag, annoyed that everyone is ignoring him, turns to his ragtag group of midgang members.

"HAVOC!" He cries, letting slip the dogs of war.

The smallish creatures run around, chopping at people's shins.

[McBish]

A weak telepathic call for helps can be heard in peoples heads if they aren't blocked someway.

[Castaras]

Or head, in the creatures case.

The cloak falls off, revealing a small strawberry, in a top hat, waistcoat, and white gloves, carrying a cane. It moves out of the way of the dwarf attacking it and whacks the dwarf's shins.

Careful with that!

[Warpfire]

"No other real vampires, though he has several spawn at his disposal. No doubt being in a graveyard, he can gather a sizable force of undead at a moment's notice." Joseph sighs as he continues.

"As for the crypt, I'm not sure. He changes his defense every time he moves, to keep me off guard..."

[Obsidian Blade]

Lelin wakes from Dead Time just as the smallish creatures start hacking at her legs. She looks fairly irritated and flicks her hand, intending for the one attacking her shins to go flying into the wall.