"Mmmm, yeah entertainment, hun. I put on a good show, but I'll let you be the judge of that."
Lureene starts to finish her dinner, and between bites, mumbles, "After I eat."
The poor monk who foolishly volunteered to help in the kitchens soon finds himself wrapped in an apron and sat at a stool carefully washing, hulling, and slicing fresh strawberries into a bowl. Therena is a kind but diligent overseer, and gently tut-tuts if he doesn't slice the strawberries to the proper thickness. In the meanwhile, she's putting flour, sugar, nutmeg, butter, milk, and baking powder together into biscuit form to bake in the over. Within about 15 minutes, the heavenly scent of nutmeg makes its way out into the common room.
Once Rath's finished slicing strawberries, he's put to whipping some cream with sifted sugar and vanilla.
Suny continues to snuggle, stroke and otherwise try and comfort/snuggle the bird.
"Who's a cutie then?" *snuggle*
The raven manages to free himself, then flees to the other side of the room where he perches and glares at his master.
Suny pouts at the fleeing Raven,
"Awe poot." She mutters, then her attention flicks to the cooling soup and she begins to sip at the broth and nibble the delicacies floating within. After a small amount of time Suny begins to fish some of the larger pieces of meat from the broth and place them upon the counter top, mischief glinting eyes dancing towards the distant raven.
(^_~)
Lureene wolfed down the stew in a most un-ladylike fashion, and scarfed down the bread. They were both delicious, although she did detect the taste of goblin in the bread. probably no one else would have picked up on it, but, but growing up in the Abyss, she was sensitive to such things. She smiles at Suny's antics, I would pay lots of money to see Suny try that with Grak, of course, since I sent him home, she won't get that chance.
She settled back in her chair and enjoyed the sweet smell, of...my god, it was the most fragrant, sweet, and intoxicating thing she had ever smelled. She sighed in pleasure, just thinking about what was to come.
She turned to Suny, and asked, "What is that heavenly aroma?"
.She turned to Suny, and asked, "What is that heavenly aroma?"
Suny blinks at Lureene. "Mrrphl?" She asks still with soup soaked bread filling her mouth. With a hasty shew and a big gulp she again asks.
"Huh?"
"What, don't you smell it?" Lureene looks at Suny with an incredulous look in her eye. "Such a sweet aroma, I think what ever Therena is preparing for dessert will be wonderful!"
Rath smiles inwardly at Therena's kindly corrections. Clearly she's never been in a monastery where a loss of concentration results in a solid blow from a bamboo staff to the back of the head.
Rath does his best to cut the strawberries to Therena's exacting standards . He also steals the odd strawberry when she looks away . Delicious.
He whips the cream concoction in record time with martial precision - a new application for flurrying blows, I'll have to see how fast I can pound dough - until the cream retains softening peaks.
"Done, Mistress. What next?"
"What, don't you smell it?" Lureene looks at Suny with an incredulous look in her eye. "Such a sweet aroma, I think what ever Therena is preparing for dessert will be wonderful!"
In reply Suny simply lifts the edge of her shirt and,
"HONK!" Clears her sinuses.
*SNIIIIIFFFF* and her eyes alight in wonder,
"oooooo! Yeah!" She breaths
Therena gently halves the still-warm biscuits into bowls, spoons the sliced strawberries in, making a strawberry sandwich and finishes with a dollop of the whipped cream and some finely chopped spearmint. Complete with the coffee she had Mors make, she and Ravarath serve fresh strawberry shortcake to the patrons of Limbo.
Profession Cooking:
Lureene wolfs down the sweet concoction in about 30 seconds flat. When told by Therena this was a specialty called 'strawberry shortcake', she wonders How can something so red be so sweet and delicious?"
When she gets to the coffee, she takes the cups, and heedless of the near scalding liquid, chugs it down in a few seconds.
After finishing the dessert, she settles back in contentment, allowing the food and drink to fill her with a pleasant buzz. Once the others have finished dessert then the real fun begins. She looks over at each of the men in the patrons, knowing they will like tonights entertainment.
** spoiler omitted **
Biter
Dinner and dessert over, Rath clears the tables and washes dishes. Afterwards, he investigates the dert board - tugging a dart free and examining it, and the board, owlishly.
It seems a practice target for ranged weapons but these 'derts' are too small to be effective... perhaps the tips are poisoned normally?
He sinks the dart in the corner of the target and steps back to the chalked line on the floor where he saw the incomprehensible dwarf standing earlier. Practice is practice. With rapidity, he pulls triangular wedges of steel from within his gi and launches them towards the board.
Thunk. WHAP! Thunk. WHAP! Whap. WHAP!
To Hit:
To Hit:
To Hit:
To Hit:
To Hit:
To Hit:
With a somewhat satisfied grunt at the results, Rath retrieves the shurikens and steps back for another round...
With the main meal completed, and dishes washed, Therena moves about the common room collecting all the nuts that are out as snacks, takes them back into the kitchen, and roasts them all with honey and spices. She brings them back forty minutes later. Cooking: They are a little burned. A very irate Therena comes back out with bowls of burned nuts, muttering to herself and cursing a blue streak.
"Mmmmm, delicious!"Lureene purrs as she, again, wolfs down the burned nuts. You realize by now her tastes are not quite human, as if her bat wings weren't bad enough.
stretching languerously now after the fine meal and desserts, she realizes her turn to shine is now.
She gets up from the table and walks over to the center of the assembled patrons. "Well, I promised you all a show, and now, you all get your wish. although..." looking at some of the male patrons, "I think some will enjoy this more than others."
She then starts gently moving and swaying her body rhythmically to a rhythm none of you quite understand. Her motions are slow at first but hten they start building in intensity, and then you see her stretch her wings out fully, which has some interesting effects on her body. The movements grow more provocative and suggestive, as the tempo increases until, at the end of the dance, she collapses on the floor in a spasm of extasy.
Arryn watches the dance with a dropped jaw and shifts uncomfortably in his chair.
Olivier gives a hearty applause for Lureene's performance.
"Well done, my dear, well done!"
As the audience begins to react to the ending of the performance, a soft squeak announces the opening of the double-swinging Limbo front doors, and the night divulges a mysteriously dark-swathed woman with striking red hair.
The woman casts a predatory eye over the room's occupants, and it comes to rest on the beautiful Lureene. She stands still for a few seconds, her cloak flapping as some errant night breeze pushes through the doors.
In a sultry voice the mysterious woman addresses the room without removing her eyes from Lureene, "Sincerest apologies for the inconvenience, but that woman," and a gloved hand points directly to the winged barmaid, "is coming with us." As the last word trails off, the woman begins to melt away, as a fog blown before the wind, and the quiet is split by a deafening baying and the yipping of hyenas. In the spot just vacated by the illusion lady stand 3 black-armored gnolls… a short one in leather scrap-work armor with a longspear leveled defensively at the room, a second one in a black lacquered breastplate with a crimson paw over his heart and a red stain in his fur along his jaw, weapons hanging everywhere, and a bow in his hands, the tip aflame (and with some sort of odd, liquid filled tip), and the third, a monstrously huge one in a chain shirt with an armored battle sleeve on his right arm and some kind of flask in his left paw, his one good eye glaring as he lets out a terrifying yipping howl.
For a sliver of a moment, time stands still as both sides take in the scene, then pandemonium erupts.
Here's the link.... here <---------
Will Save:
Perception:
Rath, throwing shurikens at the dartboard, sees the woman for what she is but debates putting 2 wedges of steel into 'her'. However, her vanishing makes the matter academic.
Lureene searches the gnoll corpse and when she finds the note, and finishes reading, her face turns white. "Scarlet, I can't believe that no good rat was able to call in a favor from...her. He was just a flunky, when I knew him."
She turns to each of her heroes and gives each of them a hug and a kiss.
Then she says, "I wonder who will help me clean up this mess?"
The note in question is here.
Rath surveys the fire damage, destroyed crockery, wrenched tables, and bodies... and groans inwardly. As gopher/galley-boy/server... he's going to have to clean up this mess and I just FINISHED cleaning this place up a 1/2 hour ago! With a sigh he starts in, stopping only to ask Havelock if his pet would enjoy having one or more of the bodies... the third one is freshly 'grilled'.
Thom shakes his head. "I reckon i helped make the mess..."
He begins to clean his blade only to realize it's spotlessly clean, sheathes it, and grabs the legs of Bloodjaw.
"Hey, Keane, mind givin' me a hand?"
Rath tries to take the corpse from Thom and prevent Keane from grabbing the legs. "You both came to my defense. And you (looking to Thom) healed me. Were it not for that, I suspect, I would have to be carried out of here as well. That is a debt I can't repay at this moment save for taking out this trash and getting you a drink. Please let me do what little I can."
"and if you had'na stepped in there so quick, it might'a been me on the end a' that knife... so even-stephen in my book."
He'll help Rav, despite Rav's objections.
Rath accepts his help, "Still, you have my thanks." and they get about the issue of 'disposal'.
"Am I the only one who got injured in that fight? No? Well, that's comforting." Havelock heads over to the corpses and looks them over. "I suppose Pythia would be willing to help dispose of the bodies. No, Pythia, let that one cool off before you eat it."
Pythia lets go of the large gnoll and begins to devour the smaller one, the sound of cracking bones soon filling the air.
"Am I the only one who got injured in that fight? No? Well, that's comforting." Havelock heads over to the corpses and looks them over. "I suppose Pythia would be willing to help dispose of the bodies. No, Pythia, let that one cool off before you eat it."
"Weel..." Keane says with a disappointed sigh, "aye giss thas eet. Ness teem, uh woan kellum so fost."
With a shake of his head, Mors sets about cleaning up the place. With the help of his Unseen Servant, Lureen, and a rather large serpent (of all things!) the work goes rather quickly.
"Four dead in one day. Not exactly the best endorsement. Still, we didn't lose any more patrons, so there's that. Thank you, everyone, for your valiant work in defending Lureene. I've enough trouble around here without adding kidnapping and arson to the menu."
Surprising even himself, Rath fully understands what Keane just said.
He claps the doughty dwarf on the shoulder, "Cheer up, friend. I'm sure, soon enough, some other horrible beast will wander in here and need killing."
Besides, that note makes it clear we haven't heard the last of that were-rat.
Suny looks up from where she was making sure none of the desert was going to waste.
"Huh?" Some cream still smudged on her cheeks.
Suny looks up from where she was making sure none of the desert was going to waste.
"Huh?" Some cream still smudged on her cheeks.
Lureene walks over to where Suny is still in a heavenly trance from the dessert, and says, "Therena, great job on the dessert, someone completely forgot about all the excitement, he he."
Therena bursts through the double doors, sniffing the air. She sees the carnage before her and exclaims, "Oh my goodness! What happened in here? I just stepped out the back to deposit some kitchen scraps and I come back to see this!" She sees some people injured and begins channeling energy. She easily excludes the three gnolls if any of them are still hanging on, and has enough channels to bring everybody up to full.
The wave of healing energy washes over Rath, instantly improving his flagging health. . "Many thanks, Mistress."
He adds with a mischievous smile, "Apparently, some gnolls found your dessert not to their liking. Whereupon, a few of us decided to press the point about the excellence of your culinary skills. From there... well... you can see the results."
With a shake of his head, Mors sets about cleaning up the place. With the help of his Unseen Servant, Lureen, and a rather large serpent (of all things!) the work goes rather quickly.
"Four dead in one day. Not exactly the best endorsement. Still, we didn't lose any more patrons, so there's that. Thank you, everyone, for your valiant work in defending Lureene. I've enough trouble around here without adding kidnapping and arson to the menu."
"What deaths? After all, soon there won't be any bodies left on this demiplane, and the blood could be cleaned with naught but a simple Prestidigitation. Even if guards came here looking for three gnolls, well no one here saw any." Havelock gives him a sly smile.
"Wait, four deaths?! You mean someone died before I got here? Barkeep, pour me another drink. I need one."
Lureene walks over to where Suny is still in a heavenly trance from the dessert, and says, "Therena, great job on the dessert, someone completely forgot about all the excitement, he he."
Suny does indeed sigh at the wonderful, sweet sugary desert that she has been scoffing.
"Mmmm, we dun have nuthin' like this back home..." She sighs contentedly as she indicates the empty desert plates.