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Realizing he's drunk, but apparently not as drunk as Bulvi, Fin arches an eyebrow at his Ulfen comrade. "Bulvi, my friend, methinks it's time for you to hit the hay...and dream of large women..."
The Elf turns to the couple with the croc, whispering, "Apologies for my friend here...we've had a rough go of it lately, he was recently blind for a while and now he's just blind drunk. As for the portals though, he speaks truly...we closed 'em...nasty bit of business it was too..."
Fin hiccups a bit before closing with, "Is that a real croc?"
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"No the portals are gone! The black rider told us to close it or the world would end so that's what we did, we closed it.
Quasit puts a finger to her mouth and shushes loudly at Bulvi while waving her hand downward violently.
"Shhhh! Witsches, remember?" she says in a stage whisper. She then slides down into a chair at Maka and Hace's table (safely away from the crocodile) and starts talking to them with a deeper voice and an exaggeratedly serious face. "Ok, ok, you guys can't tell anybody about that, ok? I can neither co'firm or deny the presence of a magic portal or any efforts to close it, nor can I co'firm or deny the presence of any ice dragonsz or killer crows or a man with an unnatural relashionship with a goat. That's all pure shpeculation on Bull's part. *hic*"
"-yeah you guys happy. But like I'm a romantic at heart, I want someone for Bulvi. I don't want to be alone. Am I greedy to want friends and companionship? Is that too much to ask for... I don't know. So yeah romance and maybe sometime the carnival but that's not for everyone."
Quasit watches this slow-motion carriage wreck with an odd expression on her face somewhere between amusement and embarrassment. "Oh boy..." she mutters a little wearily.
Bleary eyed he turns to Quasit "You're far hotter than you think you are. When you stab monsters and are being all humble heroic it's like hell yeah."
"Hot" Quasit is currently a little sweaty, face flushed, eyes half-open and a little crossed, fighting back beer burps, and has her cheeks smooshed into her palms again as she rests her elbows on the table. Half the straps on her leather armor are undone or loose, her shirt is untucked, and her short dark hair looks like she just rolled out of bed, or maybe a hurricane.
"Well... he's not wrong..." she admits quite candidly to Maka and Hace, now tending more toward the amused. "But I think if i's ok with you, I'll sit over here for a bit til Bull passes out." Then she grabs one of Maka's empty plates and flings it at Bulvi like a big wooden shriuken. "Yer drunk, you doofus! Go rub some snow on yer face or something!"
Then she confides to Maka. "He's a great guy. For a doofus."
"Oh great, drunken adventurers. This is why I don't drink, Maka." Hace says before turning to Findurêl, "As far as I can tell, it's a real crocodile. Named him Issalissk after he saved my life, course he was a lot smaller then. I didn't expect him to get so big."
Figuring he might be wasting time with the drunken Quasit, he still decides to try to pry more out of her, "So did you see any portals or not? We just came through one and got dumped here. It seems a lot like we might be in Irrisen, but I've never actually been before, just read about it."
He then turns to Maka, "We're not honeymooning right? Did I fall asleep during my own wedding or something? Maybe those people chasing us were an elaborate game and the portal took us right to our honeymoon location. Doesn't seem likely though." he then turns to Issalissk, "I didn't get married yet, did I buddy? Were you the ring bearer?"
Bulvi turns watching the dirty plate bounce off the wall.
His gaze settled on Hace. "No honeymoon. Shame. We are also not heroes who did our bit to save the world. Quasit threw a plate, you wouldn't catch a hero from a book doing that."
"Fin don't let me drink too much. I come out with rambly bits. I know Quasit wanted to blind me with drink but that seems unhealthy in hindsight. Now that we're big heroes we can go find forrests filled with elf women for you to find love."
Bulvi screws up his face. "Crocodile man, where were you before the portal? Where is the portal and what'd it look like. It's Irrisen alright and its full of witches that range from cranky to evil."
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Figuring he might be wasting time with the drunken Quasit, he still decides to try to pry more out of her, "So did you see any portals or not? We just came through one and got dumped here. It seems a lot like we might be in Irrisen, but I've never actually been before, just read about it."
Quasit sighs heavily and dramatically, and starts acting a little less drunk through force of will.
"Oh, it's Irrissen all right. So you just wandered through that portal, huh? That's rotten luck. I don't suppose you got immediately attacked by a 10 foot long praying mantis? Or by ticklewyrms? Because that's pretty much how our day went when we may or may not have come through probably that same portal in the woods outside Heldren. Was that the name of that village? Honestly, I can't remember."
"So, just so you know, this is a bad time to visit our lovely frozen police state known as Irrissen, because there's a witchy power struggle going on. The new witches are trying to get rid of the old witches. And the new witches are worse than the old ones, because they want to open portals all over Golarion (kinda like that one you came through) and take over the world. And rumor has it - although, again, I can neither confirm or deny the story - but rumor has it that the portal may now be closed because of the heroic actions of a ragtag bunch of misfits."
Then she switches gears and offers her hand. "I'm Mina by the way. But everyone calls me Quasit. I'm from Cassomir. It's nice to meet you."
She can't help but peek past Hake toward the floor. "Jiminy, I've never seen a real live crocodile before. He seems pretty well behaved. Is he going to be all right up here with all this snow? Poor guy."
Hace returns the handshake, "I'm Hace and I'm not a fan of any witches. Relying on borrowed power just doesn't seem right to me."
Turning to the crocodile, "Don't suppose any of you have a wand of endure elements, would you? I'd love to buy it for him." Hace says as he counts out his remaining coin. "Well, I've only got about five hundred gold pieces right now. Don't suppose you know where some adventurers could find some work?"
Maka laughs heartily at Bulvi's drunkness, revealing her elongated canines. "I don't remember getting married but I did lose a lot of blood the last few days. Taldan's sure have some funny ideas for wedding gifts if that's the case. She replied to Hace.
Maka takes Quasit's hand and shakes vigorously. "Nice to meet you, I'm Maka. I hail from Jalmeray. We weren't attacked after we went through the portal but were being chased before we went through it though. Hopefully whoever closed the portal did it before they made it. Did your friend say something about a Black Rider and the end of the world?"
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Turning to the crocodile, "Don't suppose any of you have a wand of endure elements, would you? I'd love to buy it for him." Hace says as he counts out his remaining coin. "Well, I've only got about five hundred gold pieces right now. Don't suppose you know where some adventurers could find some work?"
Asked about the wand, Quasit shrugs. "Nadya might know someplace. She's a woman from this town who we've been traveling with. She's at home with her kids. I don't know if they have clerics around here or not. The witches probably aren't fans of alternative authority figures."
"Maybe we could rig up a little toboggan for him? Then he wouldn't have to crawl through the snow at least."
Asked about work for adventurers, Quasit chuckles. "Ugh. Where were you guys two days ago? Well, we're probably going to leave town tomorrow or the day after and head for Whitecrown, which I guess is the capital. If anyone is looking for advneturers, that's probably the best place to look. You can tag along with us if you want. Safety in numbers and all that."
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Maka takes Quasit's hand and shakes vigorously. "Nice to meet you, I'm Maka. I hail from Jalmeray. We weren't attacked after we went through the portal but were being chased before we went through it though. Hopefully whoever closed the portal did it before they made it. Did your friend say something about a Black Rider and the end of the world?"
"Yeah, he did. Keeping secrets is not something we do well apparently." with a roll of her eyes and a waggle of her head. "So, anyway, yeah, we found the portal dumping all this lovely winter weather into a Taldan forest, when this old man in black armor on a black horse came stumbling out of it and convinced us to come here and try to close the portal from this side. And then he promptly died. And for some reason we did it. But yeah, he said the new witches are opening up portals like that all over the world so they can bring winter everywhere and take over the world. Like you do."
"Back up a sec though, did you say you were from Jalmeray? That's amazing! I want to move there when I get home! I want to buy a house on a beach, and maybe run a little exporting business. Any idea how much a beach house would cost? Do people all speak Common there? Does it rain a lot? From everything I've heard, the place is like paradise, especially compared to a dump like Cassomir."
Bulvi pulls out a hefty stick and waves it about. "This belonged to Yu. Zombies got him but if I ever catch the witchy goo goo and survive I'm going to bury it with her."
Bulvi squints his eyes as he peers and elbows Fin. "She's got pointy teeth like your ears. Nice one." He leans in closer and speaks a little lower... but louder than he thinks. "I'm holding off on the booze cause Quasit is throwing things. Hopefully she'll take the hint. Now its dirty plates but a few more pints she might switch to cutlery and pointy things."
Excitement overtakes Maka. "Yes we'll join you on your quest to save the world! And once we're done with that we can go visit Jalmeray. It's pretty great, there is magic everywhere, you can always find a good fight, and the Jungle is full of all kind of danger. We didn't much use money in my monastery but a house is probably costs a lot. But if you are really good at fighting you can stay at a monastery for free."
However, her excitement dies down at the mention of lost friends. "I'm sorry, it's hard to lose a friend. But I promise to do my best to make sure you don't lose another."
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Quasit downs her whiskey in a quick gulp, winces, shakes her head briskly like a dog shaking off water, then thunks down the glass upside down on the table. Then she struggles not to throw up. And succeeds for the moment.
"Sso, you're a monk? Aw tha's so coool!" she says, suddenly seeming pretty tipsy again. "I'd love to learn how to fight like that. If I punsh somebody, they'd jus' laugh at me. And if I tried doing one of those crazy monk kicks, I'd just end up on my butt."
"Forget the jungle though, once I get out of here, my days of fighting things are done. I wanna jus' be a normal stupid rich woman, lying on a beach sipping fruity drinks and swimming and having a half-orc cabana boy rubbing my shoulder and back."
When Maka mentions losing friends, Quasit nods vaguely. "Ya know, the weird thing is I didn't even know her that well. We'd only met a couple days before, and she was kinda prissy. But so beautiful. I think tha's part of why it bothered me so much... the thought of that pretty girl just turning ... well, you know. I don't know. I guess for some reason it just caught me way off guard. She was a sorcerer, and I just figured, like, they were special, you know? They had a purpose for being in the world. And then she ended up dead in some miserable hut in the middle of nowhere, and we had to drag her dead body back to town. It just felt like such an awful waste. I sometimes think it should have been me. I'm jus' some scruffy street rat. The world'll never miss me. But somehow here I am, and there she was." She shrugs again and shakes her head, and seems a little frustrated that maybe she's not making herself clear enough, but just sort of gives up.
"Never mind me. I chatter."
Maka looks sadly at Qasit for a moment before wrapping her in a tight hug. "Well I'd miss you. So other people probably would too."
"I would. Saki and Fin too. Also every single person in Taldor even if they don't know your name. We barely got through that place as it is. If you weren't there we wouldn't have made it. I know you had your reservations but you showed courage and skill." Bulvi tries to stand, gets a little wobbly and then sits down again.
"Yeah if you need a hug from me too you'll have to come over here. Fairly sure I wont make it to you."
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Maka looks sadly at Qasit for a moment before wrapping her in a tight hug. "Well I'd miss you. So other people probably would too."
Quasit seems caught off guard by the impulsive hug from the woman she just met, and glances over Maka’s shoulder questioningly toward Hace as if to ask him whether this sort of thing happens often. But happy and muzzy as she’s feeling, she quickly seems to decide to just go with it.
”Awwwww thank you!” she says cheerfully.
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"I would. Saki and Fin too. Also every single person in Taldor even if they don't know your name. We barely got through that place as it is. If you weren't there we wouldn't have made it. I know you had your reservations but you showed courage and skill."
Quasit seems genuinely touched by this and actually blushes and tears up a little. But she quickly wipes her eyes and chuckles. ”I don’t know about all that, but it’s awfully nice of you to say. Especially after I threw a plate at you.”
Bulvi tries to stand, gets a little wobbly and then sits down again."Yeah if you need a hug from me too you'll have to come over here. Fairly sure I wont make it to you."
”Would you settle for a hug from the crocodile?” she asks with a playful smirk. ”Honestly, anyone who squeezes me too hard right now is liable to get about 3 pints of ale down their back. I must be more wiped out than I thought, I’m not usually such a lightweight.”
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Fin chuckles a bit. "Indeed...a goblin, eh? I best retire for the night before I seriously start to consider that. Bulvi you need help to make it up the stairs? Maybe we can dream about large Ulfen half-Elven maidens with pointy ears..."
He chugs down the last of his ale, rises, and bows to ladies with a drunken flourish. "Good evening, girls...see you for breakfast here in the morning...you too, crocodile dude..."
Fin will stumble upstairs to get some much needed shut-eye, singing a bawdy fey tune of old, "There once was an Elf from Nantucket..."
Hace listens while he let's Maka give her condolences, "It's too bad, but people die sometime. I imagine we've all been the causes of the loss of some life, but I'm sure some of our actions have saved some as well." he says while petting Issalissk while remembering some of the people the creature has eaten in Hace's defense.
"Anyway, I have no qualms about journeying together for a while, but I do want to return to Oppara at some point, Maka. There is still much that needs to change." he says before taking to Fin again, "If only we had a polypurpose panacea for him."
"Well of course we'll go back eventually, we owe some people a whooping." A burst of flames shot out as Maka angrily slammed her fist in to her palm. " Wait, what is a polypocket...?" Maka trailed off in confusion.
Bulvi waved off Findurel. "I will make it up soon."
"Why is there fire? Also some of your teeth are pointy, do you file them and have a special fighting style where you bite them? Or do you punch them and they go on fire? -wait do you bite them and they go on fire?"
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Sakitu flits around the room alternatively trying to keep up with Quasit's mile-a-minute talking, Bulvi's uncharacteristic gushing, and Fin's surprising amiable manner. While she doesn't imbibe as much as the others seem to, she does allow herself to get a little loose with a couple strong drinks.
Eventually she settles at the table with the newcomers. She keeps a wary eye on the crocodile. At the mention of the new people joining them she perks right up. "Oh yes! It would be greatiful to have you guys join us. I mean, why not, right? What else would you do? Oh wait, didn't someone say you were on your honeymoon? So I know what you would do." Sakitu tries to wink at Maka and Hace but she only succeeds in looking like she's about to sneeze.
The burst of fire from Maka catches her by surprise. She jumps in her seat, nearly toppling the chair. "Wow. What was that?" She grabs Bulvi's arm and pulls herself close, hiding her face behind the large muscles.
Maka jumps as Sakitu jumps. "Ah! Oh, that's just my fire, nothing to worry about." Maka forms a small ball of fire and juggles it back and forth between her hands in display.
"Well I do have a special fighting style involving fire, but I usually don't bite people. As for why, probably because I have dragon's blood. My father likes to say that he found me in a giant egg. He didn't that until a few years after he found me so it's probably just a joke."
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Sakitu watches the juggling fire timidly at first. "Wow. That is a fancy trick. An egg? That's strange. Why an egg?" Sakitu puzzles on the idea for a moment while she removes herself from Bulvi's arm and sits back down. Then she finally makes the connection. "Ah! I see, a dragon's egg. Ha. That's funny."
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Sakitu casts a quizzical look at Quasit then bursts into laughter. "No, you silly, she just said she has a father. Of course she's not an orphan." Sakitu shifts back and forth between her fox form and her human form every few seconds. The changes seem to coincide with her snorting laughs and it seems that she doesn't even notice.
Maka looks confused for a moment "Are you still an orphan if you are adopted? Hmm, I should probably write my father and let him know I'm not in Taldor anymore. He gets worri...woah! I'm not the only one with fancy tricks. How are you oh wait no I know this one, you must be changeling." Maka incorrectly guesses upon seeing Sakitu shift between forms.
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Maka looks confused for a moment "Are you still an orphan if you are adopted?
Quasit looks a little embarrassed. "I'm sorry, forget I asked, it's none of my business anyway."
...woah! I'm not the only one with fancy tricks. How are you oh wait no I know this one, you must be changeling."
"Yeah, she's doing her Amazing Fox Lady thing, although normally she isn't quite so shifty." laughs Quasit, who seems relieved for the change of topic. "Saki hon, pick one and go with it? K?" She looks back to Maka and gives a wistful little sigh. "It's not fair, right? She gets to choose between being a beautiful human girl or a fantastic exotic fox woman. I spend most of every day jealous up to my teeth. But I forgive her because she's such a sweetie."
Hace watches the kitsune and Maka's fireball, "Well, I don't have any cool skills like that, but I'm pretty good at solving mysteries. Plus I can see in the dark now, not sure why, it just sort of happened one night that I got attacked. Same night Issalissk showed up too. I've read a lot of books too, so if you need to know something, I might have heard of it."
Bulvi chuckles a starts pointing at the side of Sakitu's head as she shifts back amd forth between her forms. "Your ears are sometimes pointy and sometimes round. I think you're confusing Fin."
After a few moments he comports himself. "I have no fire or magic, just ateel... and cold iron. We should get more cold iron to shave down the throats of any wretched fey that come our way."
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"Is there any other kind of iron in this frozen hellscape?" quips Quasit.
"I have no special skills at all, aside from being an expert at screwing things up. Although after the week I've just had, I might become a gladiator, considering all the fighting I've had to do. It's kind of a miracle I still have all my pieces."
"Wait. This is the same inn. Everyone thinks I'm your honey rabbit Sakitu! They might get suspicious."
"Lady Fire Fist, we wont tell anyone you're not on your honeymoon but you don't tell everyone I'm not a honey bunny." Bulvi nods.
"Sakitu did you always know you were a honey fox or did it just happen one day?"
"Don't be so focused on special skills. When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man. I'm not completely sure what that means, but part of it is that the special and the ordinary are both important. Also that regular punches will still beat people up."
Maka looks confused at Bulvi. "Is honey not the stuff that bees make?
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"Don't be so focused on special skills. When an ordinary man attains knowledge, he is a sage; when a sage attains understanding, he is an ordinary man. I'm not completely sure what that means, but part of it is that the special and the ordinary are both important. Also that regular punches will still beat people up."
Quasit seems pleased with this observation. "You're right about that!" she avers.
Maka looks confused at Bulvi. "Is honey not the stuff that bees make?
Quasit tilts her eyebrows up and looks emphatically toward Bulvi, smirking at him as she waits to hear him respond.
Maka stretches with a long yawn. "It is getting late, I'll see y'all at breakfast." She said before heading to bed.
Bulvi holds up one hand. "Yes the bees make the honey and it's sweet." He then holds up his other hand "Sakitu likes eating bunnies." He starts drawing his hands closer together "Honeys and bunny together." He drunkenly nods in conclusion.
"For now bed, not outside in this cold so it could be worse." Bulvi stands up slowly and put's his hand on the wall, slowly guiding himself along the edge of the room towards the stairs... which take him much longer than a straight line to it would... under normal circumstances.
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Bulvi holds up one hand. "Yes the bees make the honey and it's sweet." He then holds up his other hand "Sakitu likes eating bunnies." He starts drawing his hands closer together "Honeys and bunny together." He drunkenly nods in conclusion.
"For now bed, not outside in this cold so it could be worse." Bulvi stands up slowly and put's his hand on the wall, slowly guiding himself along the edge of the room towards the stairs... which take him much longer than a straight line to it would... under normal circumstances.
Quasit reserves comment on this syllogism until Bulvi staggers off to the stairway, watching him silently with an amused smile on her face, then turns to Hace and shrugs. "Yeah, I don't know what that means either. Well, seems like the party is over. Beddy bye time. Come on Saki, let's hit the hay."
"Who was the person telling you guys to get some sleep? Any idea where we are off to?" Hace asks as he cleans up his section of the table.
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Sakitu stands and raises a hand in front of her as if she's about to make an important point but before she can say anything Bulvi responds to the question about honey and bunnies. It's a bit confusing to her but by the time she gives up figuring it out, Quasit is speaking to her.
"What? Oh, yea. Let's do that. Let's go hit some hay."
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the next morning comes, too early for some, and others not early enough, Nadya with her two sons meet up at the tavern with the group. when everyone is all gathered you start to make your way out.
somewhere around 10 hours of traveling and nothing seems eventful, though some ravens seem to approach from the south and begin lazily circling overhead.
you notice the birds numbers are gradually growing over time
you can confirm that their behavior is unnatural
Hace looks to the sky, "Hey guys, see those birds? Something has them spooked or magiked. Come across any raven or bird witches in your battles? They make pretty common familiars."
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When Sakitu wakes up, she finds that Quasit has surreptitiously slipped into bed with her again, and is curled up in a little ball under a blanket of her own.
Quasit is late to breakfast. She looks like she's been hit over the head; her eyes are red and drawn, she shuffles clumsily, her arms cradle her stomach loosely like she's afraid something might cave in otherwise, and her hair is particularly akimbo.
She shakes her head wearily (and actually whimpers a little) when offered food, and instead contents herself with silently sawing at her teeth with a toothbrush for about 20 minutes, listlessly and absent-mindedly.
When it comes time to leave, she pulls on her boots and heavy clothes, hoists her pack with an anguished groan and falls in line like a galley slave, wordlessly stumbling along through the snow. Her head is down most of the morning and a couple of times she actually stops and rests for a few minutes before hustling to catch up again. By noon she seems less miserable, but she still seems tremendously cold and more than a little fatigued.