Trog's Tavern CLIV

[Earl of Purple]

"Well, I'll give it a go, just... Not like this." Suddenly, the half-elf stops being a half-elf, and becomes... Something else. Half magpie, with black and white feathers across large wings, and a pointed beak emerging from her face. Half bison, with a pair of horns and a humped back, with hooves on her feet. Half oak tree, with leaves and acorns across her body. And with far too many hands, across her entire body. She walks into the fire, apparently resistant to the natural flames, grabs the swordsman and pulls him out, before dumping him on the floor in front of Olvisin and turning back into a half-elf. "Not fireproof, that hurt a little, but fire resistant, I think. Good to know."

[Vahnavoi]

The swordsman doesn't resist much, so it's relatively quick and easy to draw him out of the fireplace. He lands on his stomach at the feet of the goblin.

He is still glowing hot.

Presumably, the fireplace has a sheet of metal or some such on the floor before it, to keep stray sparks and embers from setting the tavern on fire. This means the man is not an immediate fire hazard, just a potential one.

He puts his hand on the floor and pushes himself up. So, now there is a two meters tall naked glowing man in the tavern.

He takes a step forward, then grabs the mug of hot chocolate Zee left behind and pours it on his masked face. The drink immediately evaporates, cooling his mask to a slightly less angry shade of red and filling the air with the stench of burned milk.

[Morty]

Normally Olvisin doesn't mind large, naked men in her general vicinity, but this situation makes it gross on a few levels. Starting with the burning milk. And her impromptu helper's transformation. But at least the burning guy is mobile, that's something.

"Uh... that's an improvement, I guess. But he doesn't seem to hear or see us. And if he steps out of here he's liable to set something on fire."

[Earl of Purple]

"Sir, sit down and don't move. You'll burn the place down if you aren't careful!" The half-elf reaches out to try and push him to the floor, or possibly to a metal chair if there's one available. Just something for him to sit on so they get a bit of warning if he decides to walk off. Wow, this guy's weird. And... Well, so is Mishnehel, as it happens.

[Recaiden]

The prophet shakes his head.

"No." he says with a serious voice. "I have been a laywer befor and worked at one of the highest buildings in inside. Not really something you want in a city known for apocalyptic events. One day, just two weeks ago I started to hear voices. At first it was more like when someone talks in the next roomand you can hear that, but not understand. I thought it was stress, but I had no case or private problems. The intensity rose with every day. Since last week I can't sleep anymore. They seem to communicate in some way and what appears to be crazy is. I UNDERSTAND THEM." He shouts the last sentence and stares at Tao, befor he can catch himself again and looks at the surrounding. "Sorry. It's still a bit much."

Tao just nods along.
"So you gotta get one of those metal hats that block out voices." he suggests.
"Anyway, you say they're here to consume everything. Got any more details? What are they like?"

"Cause honestly, I think that's happened once here recently, and things were okay in the end."

[Vahnavoi]

The chair closest to Mishnehel is the one she made the man sit on the first time.

It was not made for this crap.

So, she tackles the man and presses him back to the floor. Again, he doesn't resist much. For a while, he stays put, and everything is fine, except maybe Mishnehel's hands, which made contact with the man's glowing hot skin.

Then he decides the hot chocolate wasn't enough, oh no. He wants that spiced cider too.

The goblin lady gets to admire from close range how the man's strong muscles bulge as he begins a slow yet determined rise against the resistance of Mishnehel's many arms. Medically speaking, they can at least tell the man is not wounded in a way that'd impede him from moving or exerting massive amounts of physical force. Yay?

[Zefir]

Tao just nods along.
"So you gotta get one of those metal hats that block out voices." he suggests.
"Anyway, you say they're here to consume everything. Got any more details? What are they like?"

"Cause honestly, I think that's happened once here recently, and things were okay in the end."

"Oh no thats just a fantasy and doesn t work here." The man says shaking his head violently.
Then the man shrugs.
" It s impossible to describe them. They don t seem to have a form like we do. They change themself as they see fit. They are small just like rats or big just like buildings.they have sharp long talons or they spit acid." The man seems to turn back into the mess he was when he entered the tavern. You can see how the describing effects him. His eyes turn pale and his gestures get wild. He also seems to loose controll over his voice as it changes from normal to loud.

[Morty]

That's both good and bad in equal measure. Probably bad, really.

"Can you keep him from doing too much damage while I run to the bathroom and get a bucket of cold water? Or I can go to the kitchen for some ice."

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel stops being a half-elf and turns back into her angelic form, holding the swordsman down with far more hands and weight than she could muster in her humanoid appearance. She's also not particularly bothered by the heat, at least until it starts getting incredibly hot.

[Vahnavoi]

The good thing is that now that he's out of the fire, the man is slowly cooling down. The bad thing, for Mishnehel, is that his body's now cooling down by transferring the heat to her multitude of hands and arms. It's a bizarre sight, a glowing hot naked man struggling to reach a cider he couldn't even drink, while a pile of arms is grappling him and holding him back. The goblin lady better be fast with that bucket of water, ice or icewater.

[Morty]

Goblins are thankfully surprisingly quick on their short legs, and Olvisin seems to be no exception. Acquiring the ice also goes surprisingly quickly, the staff of Trog's being used to weird requests and Olvisin having a good "this is urgent, don't ask questions" voice. Carrying the bucket is somewhat more difficult, but thankfully it's only a short way before she can throw its contents all over the naked man. Which she promptly does.

[Vahnavoi]

Some of the ice bounces off the man and piles at his feet, some sticks on him and rapidly melts into water, then starts to boil and steam. The ice at his feet forms a sizzling puddle. The man is now looking less like a heated piece of iron and more like a human covered in soot. He's still uncomfortably hot to touch, but no longer in danger of setting things on fire. His reaching hand manages to grab the spiced cider and he pours it too on his mask, but now it just makes his hair wet and makes him reek of spice and alcohol.

[Earl of Purple]

Now he's not quite so hot Mishnehel starts to let go, and some of her extra limbs will pick up the fallen icecubes and splashing them on her own hands to try and cool herself down.

When she's happy he's no longer an imminent fire risk, Mishnehel goes back to half-elf and sits down. "Well, that was exciting."

[Recaiden]

"Oh no thats just a fantasy and doesn t work here." The man says shaking his head violently.
Then the man shrugs.
" It s impossible to describe them. They don t seem to have a form like we do. They change themself as they see fit. They are small just like rats or big just like buildings.they have sharp long talons or they spit acid." The man seems to turn back into the mess he was when he entered the tavern. You can see how the describing effects him. His eyes turn pale and his gestures get wild. He also seems to loose controll over his voice as it changes from normal to loud.

"Ah, really? Shame about the hats then."
Tao shakes his head sadly.
"So like shapeshifting sewer monsters. Okay, so at least it's not robots again."

"Hey, if you're tuned to their wavelength, or whatever, you could help people get away from them, right? Know when they're coming, specifically?"

[Morty]

"Sure was. I can add "put out a man on fire' to my resume." Olvisin seems to have recovered her wit quickly enough. "Should we keep throwing ice at him? It helped cool him down, but it doesn't seem to have returned his senses."

[Earl of Purple]

"I'm... not sure he has sense. But we can try." If he says something to stop them, he's OK again, right? That seems about right to Mishnehel. She goes to get more ice so she and Olvisin can keep throwing it at the swordsman.

[Vahnavoi]

The man seems a bit lost. He puts the empty cider cup down and just sort of stands in place when Mishnehel goes to fetch more ice. Then, he seems to remember something and grabs the towel Zee brought with his right hand. He walks back to the fireplace, kneels and takes the angry red remains of his sword out of the flames. He wipes the blade on the towel - thankfully, the towel is still wet, so it doesn't catch fire before the man finishes what he's doing and throws it aside.

[Morty]

Olvisin walks up closer to the man and tries to poke him in the thigh. Spirit in Gears, he's big.

"Hey! Are you alright? Do you need any more help?" she asks, slowly and loudly.

[Vahnavoi]

"Wright... must find Magdalene Wright..." , the man mumbles in response. He keeps kneeling before the fireplace, almost frozen in place, burned blade in hand. It's like he only now realized he's lost his clothes and his sheath again and has nothing on his person to place the weapon in.

[Earl of Purple]

"Well, um, I don't know who that is. Do... you need any help with that? Um, I'll see if they've got any clothes." Trog's doesn't sell clothes, but they do sell any food you ask for. So she might have to ask for a trouser sandwich with no butter. That... probably wouldn't be the weirdest thing anyone's ever ordered in Trog's, either.

[Rebonack]

And at exactly this moment a teenage looking human comes bursting into the tavern carrying a weird looking orb about the size of a football (not American, the other sort of football). He glances around for a few moments, spots Mishnehel and the swordsman, and comes jogging over to them.

"Hey, you guys killed that weird deer monster right?" he asks.

He's pretty sure they did.

He saw them do it and everything!

"After you killed it it just sort of rotted away and left this thing behind."

The lad holds it out for them to see.

It... looks like a ball of gold, its surface scintillating with pearlecent white light. Whatever it is, it looks really pretty.

"Some goon was trying to knick it and I figured it belongs to you guys since you beat the monster, right?" he says, smiling encouragingly.

[Morty]

"Yeah, I've got no clue who that is either," Olvisin admits. "But it's a name, so it's more than we had a moment ago. We can ask if anyone from the staff has heard of her."

[Vahnavoi]

The masked man doesn't seem to react at the teenager barging in at first. But once the boy finishes explaining where the ball is from, he practically jumps up and suddenly towers before the boy.

His left hand carrying the remnants of his sword, his right swooshes throught the air to swoop the ball from the boy. "Mine now."

[Zefir]

"Ah, really? Shame about the hats then."
Tao shakes his head sadly.
"So like shapeshifting sewer monsters. Okay, so at least it's not robots again."

"Hey, if you're tuned to their wavelength, or whatever, you could help people get away from them, right? Know when they're coming, specifically?"

"That is why i am here. " the man says in a more seriouse voice. "They come here, no place is safe on this world anymore. I can't tell you were a specific alien is. I'm only able to seee something like their General. They have an endless amount of supplies at their hand"

[Recaiden]

"Endless supplies, so we can't hole up about it." Tao says, listing that off in a matter-of-fact way.
But he doesn't stop thinking about the possibility of winning or escaping.
"Can you feel the General now? What is he like?"

[Earl of Purple]

Mishnehel has a butter-free trouser sandwich now, and will give it to the swordsman. "Hey, take this. Um, maybe eat the bread, but put the trousers on. Do that, and I'll help you find this Magdalene Wright. OK?" And whilst it would be fair to share the golden sphere, whatever it is, he did do a lot of the legwork and probably needs the money from selling it more. If he sells it; he might eat it. Maybe that'd be a good thing, who knows? Mishnehel's never fought an undead winter-beast before.

[Vahnavoi]

The swordsman ignores the trouser sandwhich. He does not seem to be concerned with his utter lack of modesty and decency. He flips his blade around in his hand and then begins hammering the golden sphere with the tang, as if trying to crack a coconut.

[Zefir]

"Endless supplies, so we can't hole up about it." Tao says, listing that off in a matter-of-fact way.
But he doesn't stop thinking about the possibility of winning or escaping.
"Can you feel the General now? What is he like?"

The man shakes his head.
"I don't see him. Most of the time it is him looking at some grotek mass of flesh. Sometimes it looks like a map, but every time I look through their eyes." The man says. "I can only tell you that they are bigger then most of their units. They allways look down on them. That is all I can say."

[Rebonack]

The lad staggers back a few steps when the orb is grabbed, a bit shocked by the sudden movement. "Um... you're welcome?" he says, sounding a little put off.

Honestly who wouldn't be?

Mister naked masked guy didn't even say thank you!

So.

The orb gets clobbered. And crack open like a coconut it does! Resulting in... well.

It's pretty dramatic, really. It just sort of bursts and dumps a pile of equipment all over the floor. There's a spiked targe with the skull of some sort of beast embossed on its bronze surface, some rather improvised looking armor, a pink knit cap, and a really nice high quality backpack. When the backpack flops to the floor several live embers, iron tokens, and a green crystal skull smouldering with aetherial flames come rolling out.

Embroidered on the backpack's strap is the name 'Magdalene Wright'.

Apparently our heroes have found her stuff.

[Morty]

Olvisin looks between the pile of objects on the floor and the assembled people.

"Looks like it belonged that... Magdalene Wright. Who is she?"