"If only I brought my bow. But no, mom told me it would be rude." Flynt remarks as he orders a few rounds for himself and then some for his friends.
Laughing at Flynt's comment she shakes her head before looking back at Jin, "Oh about 4 years ago while on a trip to Freeport. Staying busy as usual now...Sara's ten now though so she's doing alot of the chores I had been doing. It's freed up alot of my time to pursue....other interests." She laughs lightly as she looks at her sisters.
You do know Flynt that I can offer you superior weapons and at half price... Your longbow may have great range but it isn't going to be piercing platemail anytime soon...
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
"It pierces necks and stomachs well enough. Speaking of which, what's a guy gotta do to get some hot wings?"
Gashka just shakes head and laughs, "I'll get the snacks....you guys relax." Turning she looks at her sisters, "You guys want anything? I'm still not feeling that hungry."
Tikkle watches casually as Pharnox wastes good liquor by chugging it, but doesn't back down. After ordering an equally strong drink, he polishes it off casually, showing no signs of the booze affecting him.
Tikkle took a drink with no booze in it actually. "Pirate"
Pharnox listening in to Tikkle's boast calmly will calmly move into the tavern and order the toughest liquor available... He will wait for Tikkle to appear in the bar (and stare him right in the face) and then proceed to drink the bottle in one gulp...
You can see how I might have been mixed up... "Toughest liquor" and "Bottle"
Anyka had remained silent the whole time,a fact that was quite out of character but one which her sisters understood. It was what she did when she was thinking.
Right now, her thoughts were running back to the day they'd all awakened after being taken, and the fact that they'd lost Narima to whatever had possessed the piper.
Now it seemed like everything was coming full circle, and the ominous feeling of facing off against that thing again had her thoughts dwelling in the dark corners where violence lurked.
She takes a deep breath, looking at her friends and family, see how they were coping. Walking over to where Terra sits she puts a hand on her shoulder as she orders a drink and sits down, giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze.
Your longbow may have great range but what will you do should you ever wind up in say the cramped tunnels of the Deeps... Where there will not be enough room to draw it and thus fire it?
Gashka looks at Tikkle and shakes her head, "Remember what I said, if you get sick don't come crying to me...or get sick on me for that matter. I'm not cleaning that up....again." Taking her ale she goes and sits with the others.
Gashka smirks at him, "Easy...we'll put you in front of us." She then takes another swig of her ale and laughs her pretty little head off.
| 3 people marked this as a favorite. |
"It's called a sword, jackass. I own one, do you?"
Noticing Flynt's growing agitation at the dark one, Gashka goes back to the bar and orders up some food for everyone. Standard Tavern fare, even though she doesn't really eat. Her eyes have a tired look to them along with the drawn look to her face.
Once the food is ready she carries it back to the table and puts a good portion of it in front of Flynt. "Here try some of this Flynt, it's pretty good, if anyone else wants something just help yourselves." Looking back at Terra and Anyka she just shakes her head as she goes back to her ale.
Longswords are nice weapons, until one tries to draw them in cramped quarters... Pharnox calmly draws his gladius and begins to polish it, this by contrast is a far more practical weapon. Look at it carefully, your sword would poke someone. Mine would chop their limbs of like firewood, and just try to slit someones throat silently with a longsword.
Flynt just starts putting food in his mouth to avoid continuing the pointless conversation. He'd talked to monkeys smarter than Nox.
Gashka pats Flynt on the back and smiles at her sisters as she finishes off her ale.
"Let it go Pharnox, if Flynt needed a weapon he'd know exactly where to get the best available....and it wouldn't be you. If you hadn't noticed some of us are dealing with some $#!+ right now and just want to enjoy a drink with friends....and acquaintances, so quit the huckster talk for just one damn day will you?" Anyka says looking up from her drink with a startling intensity. One reminiscent of that night when they fought their way out.
Gashka nods solemnly at Anyka's statement and gets up to get herself another drink. Taking her drink, she goes back to the table and sits down again. She drinks quietly and slowly, trying to breath and make herself relax. I need to sleep again at some point....I just need to relax a little. Is that so much to ask? Why can't he see what we're going through and just give us a break?
As Pharnox eats the food he calmly eyes his companions and speaks...
I am not hear for my pleasure, Anyka. I am here because an enemy threatens my future ambitions, my life and worst of all my mate. I am not here to be pleasant and friendly, I am here to find a way to put the Piper into the grave. To do this i need to know whether or not if any of you are willing to go all the way. If this is not the case then I should be assembling a Drow warband and preparing it for war with the Piper.
Flynt will hold out his hand for a fistbump from Anyka before returning to his gorging.
Gashka looks him dead in the eye and says, "Then if you're that much of a badass that you can handle it on your own...get out. Go get your warband or whatever the hells you want to do and leave us alone. We already told you what we need, if you can't deal with it, then that's not our problem." Although she doesn't raise her voice, there is a harshness to it that seldom few ever hear.
Without even looking Anyka's hand extends, her fist meeting Flynt's as a glimmer of a smile tweaks the corners of her mouth. As Gashka speaks her expression once again hardens as she looks at the drow in annoyance.
Pharnox gazes over all of you his eyes judging you, like a craftsman eyeing a particularly difficult item that he has just crafted... Pharnox's voice is blunt, his tone brutally frank and yet tinged with something... Doubt?
There is something disturbing about your blindness, you don't see what the Piper is but I do. He is like the Derro but he is more intelligent, no act is beyond him. He will strike at your own siblings, lovers, parents, friends as he just has now... When no threat is present one can relax as much as one wants to, yet a threat is present. When a soldier relaxes his guard upon the battlefield he dies and now everything is a battlefield. The Piper can move any where he wants to and through anything he wants to, he can appear even as our friends, siblings, lovers...
I can kill any friend, ally or foe if he or she is possessed by the Piper... I know that if Tehanna were possessed and it were push and shove what the right action would be, I do not know however if I could pull the trigger on my own mate. The only way to prevent such a situation to occur is to put the Piper into the grave and fast. I do not know about you lot but I feel the icy breath of death all around me, it is like a battlefield where all my enemies are as mist and I have no way to strike at them but they have no such limitations...
"I think you've finally gone completely insane." Anyka muses looking at the drow. "The fear is making you even crazier then before, and that's dangerous to have around. It's nice to hear you "might" hesitate at your wife, but I'll tell you now. If you kill one of my friends or family while they're possessed by that thing....I'll slit your throat myself."
With her last words Anyka stands, her eyes locked on Pharnox'. It is questionable if she is even aware of the blade that suddenly appears in her hand.
"You think you're the only one who feels this thing coming? The only one with something to protect? The difference is I know who has my back and I know that if we want to take this thing down we do so as a team. If you want to be a part of it, I suggests to shut the %@%##@ up with your psychotic ranting and stop pissing everyone off, or get as far away from here as you can. He comes after us, you have nothing to worry about."
Pharnox's voice it utterly calm even as the knife appears...
This is the reason I am going to freeport, I understand that it is in every sense "free". As it has the largest population in this land it will also have the largest possible population of people who have fought or know how to fight something like the Piper... I will be going there to learn and to prepare myself for war, whether you go there or not to arm yourself against the enemy is your choice...
with that Pharnox calmly used a palm sized syringe he had specifically built for this scenario, it was easily hidden in his hand even as he injected it's contents into his bloodstream...
As needle pierces flesh Pharnox seems to vanish completely...
stealth
Pharnox calmly makes his way out of the inn and goes to his mate and his cart...
My mate it is time to make our way to Freeport as we discussed earlier today, the Piper threatens us both. If a way exists to protect ourselves from him and destroy him we will find it in Freeport...
Gashka just sits there quietly, drinking her ale while she lets Anyka vent at the dense elf. It's hard to tell from her expression exactly what it is she's feeling, but it looks like a mixture of hurt, angry and tired. Touching the middle of her tattoo she looks at her sisters, her thoughts come across as tired tinged with anger. "Anyka, save your breath...there's no point in arguing with him. He's not going to do anything to us or anyone we care about, we'd kill him before that happens. I'm really sorry, I thought I could talk about stuff tonight...but I just can't. Not right now...not with him here. Maybe we can meet at your house tomorrow, or out at the farm? I just need to get outside for some fresh air before I do something he regrets."
Excusing herself from the table then, Gashka gets up and stalks out of the Tavern slamming the doors behind her as she exits. She walks down the little street a ways before stopping at one of her favorite trees to take some deep breaths and fights back the urge to walk back inside and choke out a certain elf.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
After the Dark Elf vanishes, things quiet down. More patrons start to arrive as the sun begins to set. The atmosphere of the tavern is rather subdued, as not many want to really talk.
"ooh dramatic exit. Yaknow none of us would've followed if you'd just left."
Tikkle thanks the barkeep for helping with his ruse, even though the elf had left without completing his own challenge.
"Welp, now that he's gone, I'll run and get Gashka, then we'll talk about real stuffs. You lot ok to hang tight here for a minute?"
Flynt swallows his food before answering the cat. "We'll be fine, just make sure our green gal is okay."
Gashka seems a little shaky, but it would seem to be more from anger than fear if the look on her face is any indicator.
She looks at Tikkle, "Well....I guess someone is trying to warn us then huh? Maybe you should take this back to the others....I...don't think it would be a good idea for me to be around that one right now." She hands the note to Tikkle and tries to smile, but it's halfhearted at best.
"I'm sorry I ran outta there like that, but I just can't stand his punk ass anymore."
That was the plan, yet I feel something in the air here... Like the soldiers who fight in the Maw I sense death all around me. We will move with the first light and make our way to Freeport, if we can get information on the Piper anywhere it will be there...
The others would desire to make a stand here against the Piper, yet we both know this is suicide... They make no preparations to prepare the battlefield, nor do they even realize that Swampwood is perhaps the worst place to make a final stand... If they desire to die that is their business, the Piper is a threat that must be neutralized intelligently... Brute force isn't the answer, my aim was true and perfect, a clean headshot if there ever was one. Yet it passed through the Piper like he wasn't there.
When I my fire another bullet into the Piper it will hit, along with my supply of grenades...
It would be one thing if they possessed the weapons to strike at the Piper without error, that would actually be a fighting chance... Yet without weapons that can strike at the Piper we might as well all be dead. In the Deeps I remember reading through ream after ream of alchemical formula, one particular thing stood out. Some alchemists of the more privileged city states were recorded as having made a special potion that renders them like the Piper: invincible to normal weaponry.
If our own people could invent such a potent defense then it stands to reason that these "wizards" of the surface world would have also created a way to enact such a defense... Logically someone would also have come up with a way to pierce such defenses, either to defend themselves or to deal with a rival... Swampwood is simply too small and can't provide the information we need to survive, we can relax as much as we want when our enemies are dead...
Yet while they hound our footsteps we must remain alert and wary, for this war has awoken from it's stupor... The death of the human woman that the Piper captured along with me was his work...
Still we must march, but perhaps not to Freeport... The local priests or perhaps the elven herbalist might know of someone closer to are location with the information we seek... I will find out whether or not.
With that Pharnox will make a visit to the local temple(s) to see if he can get information...
Jin watches as once again the Drow's inability to understand those on the surface further agitates Jin's old friends. He may know our tongue but he hasn't learned anything in ten years.
The young mage sighs heavily and finishes his glass of water. While everyone else argued with one another Jin was busy trying to figure out why the lot of them had been summoned here after all this time. Were they merely fruit ready to be plucked from the tree?
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Problem, lets hope Jin is not immune to bribery...
Just for future reference, who in this town would have the most connections to say Freeport or the other big cities and towns?
diplomacy