Trog's Tavern CLV

[Fenric]

[Bar]

Fenric nods

Indeed. And then you will need to take that wrench to yet another decrepit old building in a dangerous and monster-filled area, which will be filled with newer and more entertaining traps to retrieve an enchanted weapon!

then he smiles

To be fair, I did do my homework first and have verified through divination that both items are in those respective locations and I rather doubt that anyone is going to beat you to them.

(( Though you tempt me... which is not wise... ))

[Rebonack]

Lapis' arrival with Anika is easily several weeks after Zee's chat with Raril so all should be well on that account. Lapis isn't quite old enough to engage in the sort of nonsense that Zee gets up to.

Zee will be found behind the bar veeeeeeery carefully stacking toothpicks into an elaborate tower on account of it being a slow afternoon.

"Oh! Hey Anika! Hiya Lapis! What brings you two in today?" the bartender asks.

Lapis immediately comes scurrying around the counter to hug Zee's legs.

"We need a cake for Ilpholin!" she announces.

"Huh. I don't do cakes super often but sure. What's the occasion?" she asks, glancing between Anika and Lapis.

Yes indeed!

What IS the occasion?

Looks like answering that question is up to Anika.

[Shadowcaller]

"Lapis-meeting-her-half-sister-day." Anika explains with a nod. "Oh, and we're also going to return her underwear. But mostly the meeting-half-sister part."

[Recaiden]

"Yep. Don't leave home without poison-filters.: Omiko agrees, amused with herself.

"Ah, saying it like that, it's as if you expect us to fail." Omiko says to Selekhael, rising from her seat. Is that any way to approach an adventure?

"We'll have the wrench and staff before you know it."

"Now, what can you do?" she asks the barmaid?

[Rebonack]

"Well, that sounds pretty exciting to me. Meeting Lapis and returning underwear day," Zee replies with a sagely nod. "What sort of cake did-"

"Carrot cake!" Lapis declares loudly.

"That's your favorite, Lapis, but what about your big sister? What kind of cake does Ilpholin like?" Zee inquires.

Hmm...

That's a good question.

S-spider cake?

Stabbing demons cake?

Lapis isn't sure.

Maybe Anika knows?

[Shadowcaller]

"What about a carrot-cake shaped like a spider?" Honestly, Anika didn't know the names of a lot of cakes. She just knew enough to eat them. "Lapis can tell Ilpholin it's her favorite and so she'd get to know something about her. Then Ilpholin can tell Lapis her own favorite and she'll know for next time."

[Rebonack]

"Okay how about this," Zee begins. "I'll fix a chocolate cake. Everyone likes those."

Maybe not everyone.

But hey, close enough right?

"But! It's going to take a little while to finish the cake. A couple hours at least. So you two will probably want to find something to keep you busy while you wait."

Oh.

Ooooooh!

This means Lapis and Anika need to definitely not get into any trouble to pass the time!

Lapis looks over to Anika again. "What do you want to do while we're waiting?"

[bc56]

Selekhael shakes her head. She doesn't want to fail, of course. Who would? "No, I, uh, just wanted to be sure of what I was doing ahead of time." She hates waiting for the quest log to tell her what the next step is.

[Shadowcaller]

"Chocolate cake sounds good." Anika declares, and so it would be. "Maybe make it extra black. She likes that color." The druid muses.

She then turns to Lapis. "Uhh... hmm... maybe we can help with the cake? We could add a whip cream Lapis to it? Or some kind of message?" Anika considers. She had helped her father with baking but while she had never gotten especially good at it she still knew the basics.

[Fenric]

Fenric nods

Always a wise plan!

Now, for the second half of the fun: after you leave the ruins, you need to come back to the business district. DART was a more recent menace, so you may be more familiar with them. The "Dastardly Agents of the Reign of Terror" ... still a bit of a stretch, really: "dastardly" sounds like something from a cheesy black and white silent film. This was a kindred spirit of sorts to KNAVES, being an exceedingly lawful group who felt that the best way to keep the population in line was through fear and pain. Unlike KNAVES, however, they actually have a historical basis back on Earth: the ideaology of Maximilien François Marie Isidore de Robespierre, one of the main players in the first French Revolution. Rather than a guillotine, however, these agents preferred small dart pistols which they could load with darts of many different effects.

More alarmingly, they developed a counter to the extreme magical power level found among those that would resist them: The Portable Impossibility Excluder. These small devices could completely shut down not just magical effects, but everything that didn't properly and rigorously conform to the Standard Model of quantum physics... They had limits, though, and DART learned rather the hard way that a PIE exposed to more "impossibility" than it could handle would explode violently in a burst of pure chaos.

In the end, they fell afoul of Team Nightmaere and were mostly exeterminated. Their "front" company - Davis Accounting, Research, and Testing - went bankrupt essentially immediately and no one was willing or able to clean their building out before the misadventure with the sign designating their block a park and the resultant chaos that immediately resulted.

There will be monsters and bizarre random dangers outside of the building. Inside the building is relatively safe as long as you are in the main hallways. This exceedingly lawful group followed all applicable building code and safety regulations, including accessibility. It is only when you need to leave these that you may run into the remains of old traps and security devices inside.
Fortunately, one thing you do not need to worry about are undead: Team Nightmaere is very thorough about such things and there will be none inside. But you may encounter dart traps, explosives, and PIE units.


The vault is in the second basement, where they stored items they "confiscated" and either wished to study or impound to prevent their use.

[Recaiden]

"Isn't the point of the guillotine that it's for fast executions? You can't bring it with you on a mission."
"Whatever. Poison darts we can handle."

Omiko does wish Selekhael would be a bit more talkative.

"Impossibility. So that ..." She trails off. No sorcery. No using her eye. No poison immunity. Only basic healing. And what would it do to her skin and germ system? Better stay well clear of those. Or maybe she could overload one all on her own? "...that complicates things."

"DART had many fronts, didn't it? No chance they moved their stocks to Downtown Area Road and Transport, or Dwarves Against SomekindaAcronymIDon'tRemember during bankruptcy proceedings?"
"Want to avoid any wild geese chases halfways through, you see."

[5a Violista]

Weird Bathroom

Sadly, 'mermaid with bat wings' means nothing to June.
Maybe if it were a deer-centaur with flowers or something, it would be different.

June replies: "But...yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. In which case I should probably just maximize blues, then, unless there's not enough blue here."
The voice probably has no idea what she's talking about, so...oh well. She already tried telling her what was going on.

Giving up on noticing what's on the other side of the door, June goes back to the table.

She starts pouring, going for five blue, one red, one green.
"Yeah, totally sounds like a metaphor thing. Possibly your mind trying to sort through some trauma or something. A bat-mermaid would mean...something? Mermaids I think mean, like, life and fertility but also the capricious destruction of the ocean and I think a bat might mean death but in the sense of 'new beginnings' which matches with the ocean since water often means starting over?"

She checks the measurements in filling, and adds, "So unless there's a regular reflection that is literally you, you should probably figure out what each symbolically means. Maybe it's just one of those weird personality tests. 'Pick which sticks out to you and I'll say something vague that you relate to.' That sort of stuff."

[Ironsmith]

Weird Bathroom

Sadly, 'mermaid with bat wings' means nothing to June.
Maybe if it were a deer-centaur with flowers or something, it would be different.

June replies: "But...yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking. In which case I should probably just maximize blues, then, unless there's not enough blue here."
The voice probably has no idea what she's talking about, so...oh well. She already tried telling her what was going on.

Giving up on noticing what's on the other side of the door, June goes back to the table.

She starts pouring, going for five blue, one red, one green.
"Yeah, totally sounds like a metaphor thing. Possibly your mind trying to sort through some trauma or something. A bat-mermaid would mean...something? Mermaids I think mean, like, life and fertility but also the capricious destruction of the ocean and I think a bat might mean death but in the sense of 'new beginnings' which matches with the ocean since water often means starting over?"

She checks the measurements in filling, and adds, "So unless there's a regular reflection that is literally you, you should probably figure out what each symbolically means. Maybe it's just one of those weird personality tests. 'Pick which sticks out to you and I'll say something vague that you relate to.' That sort of stuff."

[Weird Bathroom]

"...You DO know that made no sense, right?" Says the lady who seems to be convinced she's talking to voices in her own derranged mind.

As soon as June finishes mixing the potion, the beaker gives off a cloud of bluish smoke, which envelops the room and briefly obscures everything. When it clears, June will find...

Four beakers on the table. One with red fluid, one blue, one green, and one yellow. Assuming she didn't drop the previously-empty beaker, which will now once again be empty, and which will be on the table again with the other four if something did happen to it.

There's a knock at the door.

"Mom? I'm home.

The principal called, didn't he? I know, I know, I'm very grounded..."

And of course, another note:

One, one, two, three
As much red as green and blue combined
Half as much yellow as green

[Rebonack]

Zee gives a kind hearted laugh at Anika's offer. "Oh no, that's fine. I've seen that episode before and I know how it ends. I'll get the cake all taken care of; you and Lapis go find something fun to do."

And then off she goes into the kitchen!

A few seconds later there's a horrible bellow and a blench of flames.

"Don't you DARE give me sass I already oiled you. Now behave yourselves!"

Sounds like Zee is having fun with the appliances in there.

Anywho!

What sorts of fun things could be done in Trog's, anyway?

Lapis considers her options very carefully.

Then she points at the giant cat tree sized for tigers over in the corner. "You can turn into a kitty, right Anika?"

[Fenric]

[Bar]

Fenric nods

And I'm sure that if they had ever managed to properly conquer Inside, they would have happily enough switched to a stationary execution platform that people were herded to. But when you're still in revolutionary mode, you need something just a bit more portable.

Fenric nods again

There were and still are a number of businesses and organizations that could make "DART", but of those only Derreck Avery's Rental Tools ended up actually being one of theirs. There is Davison Labs - ironically, not something that spelled DART - which was thoroughly investigated and had several people arrested but they were, for the most part, unwitting accomplices.

[bc56]

"Uh, okay," This is all before Selekhael's time. Before her player's time too. "Should we, uh, get going?"

[Recaiden]

"No planning, huh? Prefer to just dive right in?"
Well, that should be fine for now, Omiko thinks.
"Yeah, let's go."
Off to the bombed-out section of old town. Weird that they still have something like that, but then, this whole place is always weird in a new way.
Out of the tavern they go!

[Gnrlshrimp]

Michalson blinks. He wasn't expecting that. He's not an easy man to surprise, but here it is.

"Like... a regular rhino? Walkin' around on four legs and... eating grass." He's really not quite sure what rhinos do all day. Frolic? Trample unwary passers-by? "But smarter than your average rhino, presumably. So what happened then?"

"Yeah, pretty much. walking around, eating grass, shooing some over-eager male rhinos away because they were ready for that sort of thing way before I was, which I suppose was a sign that I wasn't the same as them but hey I was just a rhino, I didn't know any better." Those were strange days. Very strange days. Most of it's just a blur to Ithuriel of "being a rhino", which is probably for the best. "Uh, eventually I was rescued by people who somehow knew what I was, taught me how to shift away from being a rhino, and became my adoptive parents. Fastforward like a bunch of years after that, and they turned out to be vampires and killed me in order to re-raise me as one of their own."

"Well... if you're certain then..." Slowly reaching across, Kestrel took the bag of coin that had been offered to her. "I really can't thank you enough for this." Bashfully, she ran her free hand through her mess of hair. "But trust me, you didn't need to entice me with coin." She gave a slight chuckle. "The chance to adventure with a friend is enticing enough."

"Hah, ain't about enticing you, Missy. I know how to do that." Atreyu gives a knowing wink, right as their meals are set down in front of them. "Just about bein' fair, I assure you. Now then, best dig in before it gets cold."

[5a Violista]

[Weird Bathroom]

There's too much to think about, June thinks. The kid behind the door. The flasks. The lady. The whole place where they are. This is even weirder than that time she got sucked into a painting and had to survive a murder mystery.

She listens to the kid and reads the note at the same time, unfortunately leading to her misreading the note (she thought it said 'one one one three' which ends up really confusing her as she tries to figure out what that's supposed to mean. Clearly, it can't be the amounts, because none of those numbers can be cleanly halved. Maybe it's the order of mixing? But then why the three ones?)

June sighs, and looks...upwards? backwards? she's still entirely unsure about the direction of the voice-lady. "Hey, you don't happen to have a kid, do you?" she asks.

Well.
Might as well deal with the kid. She supposes she might make more sense of the new note if she figures out who this kid is and why they're here. Or, at the very least, it might help figure out where she is, then she can go back and help the other kid find his way back.

June sets down the flask she was holding, removes the top from her lip, and dabs her lip with her finger to check if it's stopped bleeding. Seems...to be fine, for now. As long as she doesn't do something that could tear it open again, she should be fine.
So she raises her voice a little, to speak through the door: "Um! Why, what happened?" she asks. She figures that's one of the best questions to figure out whether this is some weird repressed metaphor or whatever for that bodiless woman.

[Ironsmith]

[Weird Bathroom]

There's too much to think about, June thinks. The kid behind the door. The flasks. The lady. The whole place where they are. This is even weirder than that time she got sucked into a painting and had to survive a murder mystery.

She listens to the kid and reads the note at the same time, unfortunately leading to her misreading the note (she thought it said 'one one one three' which ends up really confusing her as she tries to figure out what that's supposed to mean. Clearly, it can't be the amounts, because none of those numbers can be cleanly halved. Maybe it's the order of mixing? But then why the three ones?)

June sighs, and looks...upwards? backwards? she's still entirely unsure about the direction of the voice-lady. "Hey, you don't happen to have a kid, do you?" she asks.

Well.
Might as well deal with the kid. She supposes she might make more sense of the new note if she figures out who this kid is and why they're here. Or, at the very least, it might help figure out where she is, then she can go back and help the other kid find his way back.

June sets down the flask she was holding, removes the top from her lip, and dabs her lip with her finger to check if it's stopped bleeding. Seems...to be fine, for now. As long as she doesn't do something that could tear it open again, she should be fine.
So she raises her voice a little, to speak through the door: "Um! Why, what happened?" she asks. She figures that's one of the best questions to figure out whether this is some weird repressed metaphor or whatever for that bodiless woman.

[Weird Bathroom]

"A kid? I... actually, well... not anymore, no." The disembodied voice sighs. "A daughter. She died four... no, sorry, five years ago." There's a short pause, then, "Don't you know that? Why are you asking me this now?"

Meanwhile, the girl behind the door doesn't respond. If June cares to check again, she'll notice there still isn't anyone there. Presumably, that was a non-sentient illusion, not a person.

[Shadowcaller]

Zee gives a kind hearted laugh at Anika's offer. "Oh no, that's fine. I've seen that episode before and I know how it ends. I'll get the cake all taken care of; you and Lapis go find something fun to do."

And then off she goes into the kitchen!

A few seconds later there's a horrible bellow and a blench of flames.

"Don't you DARE give me sass I already oiled you. Now behave yourselves!"

Sounds like Zee is having fun with the appliances in there.

Anywho!

What sorts of fun things could be done in Trog's, anyway?

Lapis considers her options very carefully.

Then she points at the giant cat tree sized for tigers over in the corner. "You can turn into a kitty, right Anika?"

"What episode?" Anika inquires in surprise. Was there a Anika & Lapis show in Zee's reality? Like that VIGIL show those goblins had produced.

But Zee is already off to the kitchen before she can get a desired answer. Oh well, but now that was probably going to bother her for hours.
She turns to look down at Lapis. "Yeah, of course." She nods, but couldn't help to add a question of her own. "Is there a show about us, Lapis?"

[Morty]

"Yeah, pretty much. walking around, eating grass, shooing some over-eager male rhinos away because they were ready for that sort of thing way before I was, which I suppose was a sign that I wasn't the same as them but hey I was just a rhino, I didn't know any better." Those were strange days. Very strange days. Most of it's just a blur to Ithuriel of "being a rhino", which is probably for the best. "Uh, eventually I was rescued by people who somehow knew what I was, taught me how to shift away from being a rhino, and became my adoptive parents. Fastforward like a bunch of years after that, and they turned out to be vampires and killed me in order to re-raise me as one of their own."

Michalson raises his index finger, then lowers it again. He blinks a few times as he discards some of the things he was about to say.

"...that was an abrupt mood shift" is what he appears to settle on. "So, like... did they want a vampire rhino? Or did they really think they were doin' you a favor by that?"

[5a Violista]

[Weird Bathroom]

Well, it seems like it probably is some kind of metaphor thing, June decides. "Just asking because I'm trying to figure out what we're seeing and what's going on," she says. Presumably, the disembodied voice is still in the mirror room so maybe the voice will make a weird connection between the mirrors and what they're talking about.

She turns to the door and goes by it. Maybe she'll only find out what happens next after she does the potion mixture thing? Still by the door, she goes over what the new note said again.

...
Oh, shoot, she misread it the first time, didn't she? One, one, two, and three.
June face-palms.
Does this mean she might've misread the first mixture's clues? Well, it seemed to have worked anyway but she ended up way overthinking it.
All together, that makes seven again, and that makes it all pretty obvious. She wipes off the blood from her chin and neck, and puts the cloth down on the table so that she can use both her hands to pour this time. To fit the 'halvsies' the green has to be two parts, and likewise red has to be three. She pours in red up to 'three', then two parts of green, and then one each of blue and yellow.

[Ironsmith]

[Weird Bathroom]

Well, it seems like it probably is some kind of metaphor thing, June decides. "Just asking because I'm trying to figure out what we're seeing and what's going on," she says. Presumably, the disembodied voice is still in the mirror room so maybe the voice will make a weird connection between the mirrors and what they're talking about.

She turns to the door and goes by it. Maybe she'll only find out what happens next after she does the potion mixture thing? Still by the door, she goes over what the new note said again.

...
Oh, shoot, she misread it the first time, didn't she? One, one, two, and three.
June face-palms.
Does this mean she might've misread the first mixture's clues? Well, it seemed to have worked anyway but she ended up way overthinking it.
All together, that makes seven again, and that makes it all pretty obvious. She wipes off the blood from her chin and neck, and puts the cloth down on the table so that she can use both her hands to pour this time. To fit the 'halvsies' the green has to be two parts, and likewise red has to be three. She pours in red up to 'three', then two parts of green, and then one each of blue and yellow.

[Weird Bathroom]

Once again, the mixture erupts into smoke.

Once again, there are more beakers; two this time, containing orange and purple liquid, respectively.

Once again, the voice from beyond the door knocks.

"You missed it!" She hisses angrilly. "I had to have practiced that piece a hundred times, with my arse of an instructor, every day after school, turning down all my friends so I could get it just right for the recital, and you missed it! What was so important, huh?"

There's a dischordant twang and thunk as something heavy and wooden collides with the door from the other side.

"Well, I hope it was worth it!" There's a sound of footsteps receding, then, "...I'm going to the mall. I won't be back before dinner." Followed promptly by the sound of another door being slammed shut.

And of course, another note:

One of everything, except one.
Berry, moon, bell

[Rebonack]

[Lapis and Anika is Cake Finding Adventure]

"What? Like on TV?" Lapis asks, puzzled. "I don't think so?"

She glances at the door her Mother had vanished through, then to Anika.

"Umm... I think that's just a thing she says? Like maybe she means that she knows what will happen if we help in the kitchen?"

What would happen if they were helping in the kitchen?

There comes from the doors what sounds like a deep mechanical bellow and a blast of flames, followed by Zee yelling at something.

"Mother told me one time the appliances in the kitchen aren't very nice."

That...

Sounds like it might be an understatement.

[Shadowcaller]

[Lapis and Anika is Cake Finding Adventure]

Was that thing people said? Anika guessed that if people were as used to goblin magic as they were here they might say things like that.

Or there was actually a show that Zee just hadn't told Lapis about?!

Only time could tell but Anika had her suspicions. She was going to keep her eyes on Zee for sure.
Speaking of which, she turns to look off to where Zee had disappeared as those metal noises interrupts her train of thought. "She didn't even want us to help with that, eh? Oh well." Anika scratches her head. There was some expression about too many chefs right? Fair enough.
"...so you were asking about my cat-form earlier, Lapis?"

[Meowmai]

"Hah, ain't about enticing you, Missy. I know how to do that." Atreyu gives a knowing wink, right as their meals are set down in front of them. "Just about bein' fair, I assure you. Now then, best dig in before it gets cold."

That furious blush rushed to Kestrel's face again, and she almost dropped the coin bag in her sudden fluster. She fumbled with it for a moment before finally gaining a proper grasp again, and putting it away. The birdwoman was relieved that the waiter chose that moment to serve their food. It was a welcome distraction. "U-um, y-yeah..."

Except of course, that probably meant the waiter had also seen her embarrassing reaction. And now that she was here, mouth full of a delicious rabbit dish, she couldn't help but think about what happened the last time she ate rabbit with Atreyu...

[5a Violista]

Weird Bathroom

June listens to the voice from the other side of the door.
. . .
She glances around.
She's not sure if she wants to talk about this with the mysterious speaker, just in case it actually is related and brings up some painful memories.

She waits a few moments, then continues: she reads the note. Red green yellow blue purple orange.

Under her breath, she thinks aloud.

First, the words, berry/moon/bell remind her, like that one game. Doubles. But there's two colors with doubles: green and yellow, so that's not it.

What else is in common with those words? she wonders.
Um...round? Which colors aren't round? Red and green are both not very round so that's out. In fact, they're pretty much the opposite of round.

How about...colors with the words? Blueberry, blue moon, bluebells? Does that work with other colors? Green berries are a thing, so is green moon, but not greenbell. Orange... doesn't have a bell either. Red, same. Berry and moon but no bell. Yellow doesn't have a moon, purple doesn't have a berry.
Okay...
Well.
Blue is the only color that matches all three words.

After a quick prayer that this works out and they find a way out of here, she pours in all but the blue liquid.

[Ironsmith]

[Weird Bathroom]

The mixture bubbles and froths, and one more time, shoots out a cloud of smoke that fills the room.

When it clears, every square inch of the table is covered with liquid containers of every stripe; bottles, flasks, beakers, cans, cups, jars, and so on. There's not much distinguishing them, either; they're all unlabeled and the fluids inside are nondescript.

A knock at the door.

"Miss Hadian?"

A moment of silence.

"No, ma'am, but it's kind of you to offer. I'm afraid I have some bad news. Your daughter was involved in a traffic accident earlier tonight. She's being taken to the hospital now."

An uncomfortably long silence.

"Of course, ma'am. We can leave right away."

Followed by the sound of footsteps receding.

And, for what was probably the last time, there's a new note.

Does it even matter anymore? Do what you want.

[5a Violista]

Weird Bathroom

June listens to what's going on.
Oh.
She hopes the daughter gets better...

"Hey. You hearing that?" she asks the mysterious voice. Probably not. Hasn't seemed to hear the other things going on here.
"Tell me what you see and what's going on."

Well, as long as she can pour whatever she wants, then she might as well. June decides to pour all green in, see if that actually does anything. Just straight green. If she can find any greens, looks a lot messier. Just pour greens around.