[Nexus] The Black Dragon's Den XIV

[Deathkeeper]

The Tengu immediately turns and crows her support at the word “treasure” while her opponent rolls her eyes.
The other two reptilians also step up immediately.
The ork tries to look busy with his book. The human lady turns to listen but doesn’t say anything just yet.

[Recaiden]

"Well, it was made by space aliens, but it's good stuff. Dark, slow-yeasts. Solid drink."
Omiko shivers, it's reported that the bird is aboard, metaphorically, and the different pieces of her are busy with their drinks, paying less attention to their host cat-monster.
She shakes her hand to disperse the mouth there and get its attention, and quickly draws a mystic star on the bar, from which emerges a small liquor bottle.
"A sample."

Then she turns a bit in her seat and gestures to the assorted toughs and patrons.
"Gather round, all of you. I've got a ship and a map and most of a crew, and I need some brave and qualified sorts to venture into the lost city with me to claim its treasures."
"You're in, you're in, you're...going to have to convince me, and what do you think, Miss?" she says, counting off the tengu, the bangaa, the kobold, and the normal woman, respectively. The guy in blue, he's got a bone, but he is small, and her familiar is whispering her bad things about kobolds.

[billtodamax]

Kosh considers the rum. Good colour. Smell's ok. He takes a sip, rolling it around his mouth. Playing pretty nice with the brandy he just drank. Not the best rum he's ever had (obviously) but it'll do. A'right, I'm in. He says, setting it down. He doesn't entertain the possibility that he'll be refused. Send word to Oshurfeb, I'll be adventuring. He tells the barkeep, before draining the rest of his brandy and standing up. Where to? He asks Omiko.

[Deathkeeper]

The bangaa grins and sits down nearby. The Tengu whispers something to the Krogan who groans, before the two of them split the pot of coins down the middle and pocket their halves. She sits down as well.
The kobold gives Omiko a mighty flex of his muscles. Which would honesty be extremely impressive if he were a species three feet taller. When this inevitably doesn’t work he leaves in a huff.
“I think that you’ve got a lot of tough customers here, ma’am. Your job sounds mighty exciting but how do I know it’s on the up and up? And what guarantee do I have we’re coming back?” Asks the human lady.

[Recaiden]

The dwarf is not refused.
"Welcome aboard!" Omiko tells him, offering a robot hand to shake.
She tells the new adventurers which dock they're at and when they'll be leaving before turning to this reluctant human.
"Nothing on the high seas is on the up&up. Anyone who says otherwise just isn't admitting how dodgy they truly are. But we've got an excellent medic and have never marooned anyone on a deserted isle."

[billtodamax]

Kosh scoops up the rum to take with him and heads on out the door to the dock.

[Deathkeeper]

The woman stares at Omiko for a few seconds.
“Well, you ought to be offering some serious pay, then. We’ll see what I think in a few hours.” She says eventually, draining her liquor in one pull and leaving with the rest.

[Recaiden]

Omiko stares at the human skeptically until she leaves.
No enthusiasm there. Disappointing.
Then she finishes her various drinks - if only she could actually get drunk like the rest of these poor folks! - calls to let everyone know to expect a few new adventurers aboard, and then heads out to do a few more things.
((The dock and what Kosh can find there will be in the Seaside thread soon))

[Morty]

Amalungak and Thryscir should arrive here after a trip from the King in Rags' gloomy swamp lair. The elf looks around uncertainly.

"Well, here we are. I've heard it's a somewhat popular drinking establishment, but I've never been here before. Nor do I frequent such places, normally. There certainly are none where I come from."

[CosmicHobbit]

Grinning, Thryscir says, "Ah, a place as grungy and grimy as this is just where I'm at home!" He takes it all in for a moment, then claps his hands together.

"Well then, shall we go to the bar and see what they've got?" Thryscir's tone makes it clear he believes this is the only correct choice of action.

[Morty]

Amalungak nods and heads over to the bar. He seems visibly surprised when he sees the menu.

"They've got kumis. Just like at home. I didn't expect that."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir looks over the menu, and laughs a little. "Seems like they've got everything here! I like this place more by the minute!"

[Morty]

Amalungak looks uncertain for a moment before speaking.

"Forgive me if I'm being rude, but how do you... still drink?"

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir shrugs, and barks out a short laugh. "No idea! I pour it into my mouth, it disappears, and it somehow affects me the way it affects you, or another person, though to a slightly lesser extent! But hey, if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Putting the menu down, he says, "I'm thinking vodka."

[Morty]

Amalungak tilts his head.

"If it works. I've never met a person who worked like that, but then I've met few undead in general. Many mystics deal with them extensively, but my interests lay elsewhere."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir nods. "Undead are pretty boring, to be perfectly honest. The ones that have sapience are relatively fun, but most of them are just...eh."

[Morty]

"I have mostly encountered mummies, left behind by some long-forgotten human civilization," Amalungak says. "I don't know if the humans had intended them to rise again or just preserve them in the cold. But they weren't particularly lucid, either way."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir nods. "I've been through quiet a few worlds, and I don't think I have met more than one or two sapient mummies." He strokes his jawbone. "Come to think of it, that was something that was pretty standard throughout the worlds I've experienced, undead not being capable of thinking most of the time."

[Morty]

"It's not particularly difficult for a dead body to rise, but it takes far more, by chance of effort, for a mind to remain after death," Amalungak says. He clearly knows a thing or two about the subject. "Without a mortal anchor, they tend to... dissipate. Or just wither."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir nods. "Makes sense. I, personally, am not too knowledgeable about magic." He shrugs. "Too much boring study for me."

[Morty]

"Well, you seem to be a... man of action." Amalungak almost said "skeleton of action", but that might not have gone well. "My people aren't like that. They study history and nature and refrain from fighting. But there are few mystics like me among them. And of course there are sections of lore they scrupulously ignore and which I couldn't help but pick at. Which is why I am here."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir ignores the man of action comment, not entirely sure whether that was a compliment, a statement, or an insult.

He nods knowingly. "You wanted the truth, they said you couldn't know the truth. Happens to everybody at one point or another." Gesturing at his body, he continues. "I wanted to know how to get this, and what being a lich entailed. I was denied that. So, I found a wizard and got him to spill the beans."

[Morty]

"Indeed? And what does it entail?" Amalungak seems genuinely curious.

[CosmicHobbit]

"Well, for one, if I store my soul in an object and then get killed, I just reform near the object. It also means I can't die from old age or disease, at least non-magical disease. It also gives me supernatural strength and constitution." Leaning back, Thryscir nods, satisfied with his own explanation. "Overall, not a bad deal for having to do a dark ritual."

[Morty]

"Reform? Do you mean your body is transported there or regrows there?" Amalungak asks with fresh curiosity. "Creating something out of nothing seems far more common in this land than mine. That you cannot create something from nothing was always told to me as the greatest law of magic, regardless of the origin."

[CosmicHobbit]

Thryscir shrugs. "I don't really know, to be honest. When I appear next to it I don't regrow any limbs I've lost, but any other kind of damage is gone. It almost seems to be a mixture of the two." He nods at Amalungak's mention of that law of magic. "It does seem to depend on the world, in some places you always need something to make something, in some places you always make something out of nothing, and in some places it's variable."

[Morty]

Amalungak strokes his chin.

"I've heard of many mystics, sorcerers and alchemists who tried to evade death in one way or the other. I don't think any have got as far as you have. But my world is... how do I say it? Diminished. It used to be grand and beautiful, but is now a dim shadow of itself. My- our King fights to bring back at least some of that old fire."

[Earl of Purple]

There's a ring resting on one of the tables. It's a copper ring, made of two thick copper wires braided together, and set with a piece of quartz. It's not a very big ring, yet any who walk past the table might spot it out the corner of their eye; a subtle piece of attention-noticing magic.

[Reinholdt]

Sexy humanoid Reinholdt must be bar hopping today since he ended up here for some reason. Well, the reason isn't too hard to guess. Rein wants alcohol. It takes more and more these days to get properly drunk.

But that just means more opportunities to find things other people leave behind. Like a ring. Which he quietly palms, slipping it on his finger as if it had always been there and no one should second guess this fact.

[Earl of Purple]

Result: 1.

The ring fits perfectly. And unlike some magical rings that fit perfectly after they're put on, this one fits perfectly the moment he touches it.

Once it's put on, Reinholdt might feel hungry. He could just eat something. Pizza with garlic oil, perhaps. Or a nice curry with lots of garlic. Whatever he fancies, it's got garlic, and the ring will ensure he's got a craving for garlic. It can be satisfied, but not for too long, and if Reinholdt doesn't like the flavour of garlic, that also doesn't change.