Finn walks in and begins fascinating some of the Mug's customers.
Honey Wasp thoroughly ignites the man in front of her before backing away.
P'oxtan and friend charge into the mug. Seeing only one mugger, Amaqil bites the mugger and rips off his leg.
Hush moves forward and goes defensive!
---
The boar tries to gore the purple bandit twice before it runs around for a charge.
The boar kills the first bandit with the first gore, and shoves another into his stomach to make sure he's dead.
A feminine voice echoes throughout the Mad Mug. "A boar!? Y'all are worried about a boar!?" A dwarven women, with an actual living, bleating goat opens a door within the Mad Mug, only to see a dinosaur has just killed one of her compatriots! "Violet!" she shouts, "SICK 'EM!"
The dwarf marches out of the back room slowly, rolling up her sleeves as she does.
The goat quickly runs in front of her and slams its horns into Amaqil.
The goat then tries to bite at Amaqil as well.
The orange ruffian continues to approach Honey and attempts to stab her.
The ruffian finds honeys leg and draws a clean cut through Honey's thigh. He laughs to himself in glee before trying again.
This time, he flicks the dagger upwards and jabs it into Honey's dominant spellcasting arm. "Try spitting fire with that!" he says as he twists the dagger a bit before pulling it out.
The final ruffian draws his dagger and shouts, "You want a piece of me! COME AND GET IT!" to the nearby boar.
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects:
-----------------------------------------------
Ruffians (Orange: -6)
Finn
Hush
Honey Wasp (-12)
P’oxtan (A: -12)
Boar
???
Finn winks at the customer he’s thoroughly astounded and rushes forward and dramatically leaps onto the bar counter! He then looks dumbfounded at the dwarf and the goat.
Huh. A literal goat…How’d I miss that when I took that guy’s hat? Ah well. Guess this must be the “alpha-‘bro’” Honey was talking about.
”Hey, goat-lady!” He calls to the dwarf. ”I got a present for ya! CATCH!!!”
Finn catches the knife he’s juggling and with a flick of his wrist chucks it toward the dwarf woman!
P'oxtan directs Amaqil to attack the goat lady as he focuses for a moment, staring the woman in the eyes before he and Amaqil attack in unison, a cloud of claws and fangs and cold reptilian rage.
Honey screams in pain as the man carves into her flesh. "AAAAHHH! Get away!" Honey's sorcerous casting is as much emotion and it is skill and she proves she still can cast with an injured arm by producing a huge burst of flames that engulfs her attacker. Honey flees the charred ruffian and continues making her way to the back door.
Hush claps her hands to her face, drops her jaw in shock, and points at a nearby rock that quickly hurls itself at the thug.
Then she pushes against her magical barrier, extending its range.
Finn throws his knife at the dwarf, who just narrowly avoids swatting the dagger aside.
P'oxtan and Amaqil attack in tandem. P'oxtan's first attack hits, and both of Amaqil's attacks hit, but the goat seems to jump in the way of the first claw, taking some of the damage for her master.
Honey once again fries the thug in front of her, and Hush knocks them off their feet onto the ground unconscious.
---
The boar rears up to charge again outside before running straight for the thug.
And with several CRACKs, the man falls unconscious. The boar returns to its previous position, eyes locked on Honey this time.
---
Back inside the Mad Mug, Pruana goes to punch Amaqil.
She misses, but reels up a strong strike again nonetheless
Unfortunately, she misses again and curses under her breath before trying again.
She inches closer, but Amaqil remains vigilant and continues to dodge.
The goat, however, attacks Amaqil with all its fury.
The second ram is hard enough to knock Amaqil unconscious.
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects:
-----------------------------------------------
Finn
Hush
Honey Wasp (-12)
P’oxtan (A: Dying 1;)
Boar
Pruana and Violet (P: -17; V: -4)
The halfling’s eyes go wide.
That goat just knocked out a dinosaur! And…that’s a sentence.
Trying not to let his fear show through, Finn quickly pulls out two more throwing knives that soar through the air. ”Now folks, watch as the Circus of Wayward Wonders takes down this villainous woman and her horrid familiar!”
All the while Finn casts some glances out the window toward Honey as he mouths We need help!
Honey dashes into the bar and surveys the situation for the first time. She spots Amaqil lying motionless on the ground and casts stabilize on it.
"Our diversion worked! Now let's deal with this hag!"
Finn regains his panache as he begins juggling!
Honey runs from the boar and stabilizes her new dinosaur friend.
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects:
-----------------------------------------------
Finn
Hush
Honey Wasp (-12)
P’oxtan (A: Stable; Wounded 1;)
Boar
Pruana and Violet (P: -17; V: -4)
Hush races into the room and pushes against her magical barrier, extending its range.
Then she surveys the bar. ...Well this doesn't look good.
P'oxtan lashes out angrily at the woman.
Hush races into the bar, leaving the door wiiiiide open for the boar!
P'oxtan's flurry of claws manages to distract Pruana enough to land one good hit on her, and she collapses to the ground, bleeding out.
---
The goat, completely distraught at the situation, attacks the only thing it knows to: P'oxtan.
But the poor goat finds P'oxtan much more agile than anticipated.
The Boar quickly runs around the Mad Mug, making a mad dash for Hush as it quickly goes tusk first into Hush!
And with a WHAM, Hush is nearly knocked off her feet as her allies see merely that Hush has been stabbed with a boar tusk.
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects:
-----------------------------------------------
Finn
Hush (-13)
Honey Wasp (-12)
P’oxtan (A: Stable; Wounded 1;)
Boar (Has 11 HP)
Violet (-4)
P'oxtan hisses with rage and shifts his focus to the goat before trying to tear into it with his claws.
Oh that ain’t good...
Seeing both the goat and the boar converge on the same place, Finn catches both of his knives and send them flying spectacularly—one at each of the animals!
The halfling spins as he makes his spectacular attacks—after all, folks deserve a show.
It looks like P'oxtan can handle the goat, but Honey decides its best to remain behind the bar, just in case.
A few of us aren't looking so good, so Honey calls upon a deep well of divine energy from within her and releases it in a burst of warm healing light.
Hush gasps in pain, then shuts the door, leaving the boar locked outside.
Hush hurries into the bar and climbs up on top of it.
Hush focuses on her barrier and pushes it out further.
Then she pulls out a healing potion, just in case she needs it.
P'oxtan shifts his focus to the goat, but only gets one good swipe in.
Finn, lands a solid hit, and gets a quick scrape in before fascinating another townsperson.
Honey does a quick heal, healing everybody for a solid chunk.
Hush closes the door and focuses on defense!
---
The boar, unseen by the ringleaders, doesn't seem to really do anything aside from squeal loudly!
The goat, on the other hand...
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects:
-----------------------------------------------
Finn
Hush (-5)
Honey Wasp (-4)
P’oxtan (A: has 8 HP, Wounded 1; P: -5)
Boar (Has 19 HP)
Violet (-14)
"Ok. This goat needs to go!" she says before chucking another ball of flame into it. Then she moves around the perimeter of the room, putting a little distance between herself and the squealing at the back door.
"Say no more, my dear!"
Finn pulls out a juggling club and sends it flying at the goat!
The halfling then pulls out a knife and begins nonchalantly juggling it.
Hush pushes against her magical barrier, pushing it out further. Then she points at a beer stein, flicks her finger at the goat, and shakes like she's laughing. A moment later, the stein flings itself across the room at the goat.
The ringmasters attacks all hit the goat at the same time, and in a spectacle of a stein, a club, and fire all clashing simultaneously, a small, smoky explosion shakes the saloon for a moment.
As the smoke clears, it reveals the shriveled, burnt carcass of a goat, twisted all out of position on the floor.
So long as the doors remain closed, the boar is out of the picture.
Finn bows deeply as the goat falls—whether or not there is actual applause.
”Thank you! Thank you! All in a day’s work!” Something suddenly crosses his mind as he turns to Millie. ”Wait, why’d we come here again?”
P'oxtan lets out a rattling sigh as his war crest retracts. He takes a knee by Amaqil, stroking the raptor's bright plumage. In the hissing Iruxi tongue he says, "My thanks to the Storm Father you yet live."
Hush rolls her eyes and points at the unconscious dwarf woman.
"Huh?" Finn looks to where the other halfling is pointing. "Oh yeah!"
He jumps off from the counter and grabs at the dwarf woman's shins. "Hey, P'uktuan, mind helping me out here?"
Honey responds to Finnace, "The Mayor said the Muggers gang was causing trouble around town and wanted us to break them up. I'd say we did that. We should report our success to the Mayor and let him deal with the survivors however their law dictates. I'm sure the Mayor wouldn't say anything if we removed any valuables from the thugs first though."
Honey begins searching the bodies.
[b]"We might want to put the boar back down too unless it calms down on its own. I don't want to get in trouble for letting it loose in town."
As the ringmasters begin trying to frisk the bodies, they hear a female voice shreik at full volume.
The ringmasters turn to see a surprisingly muscular woman with messy black hair rushing to the dwarf Pruana's side with a flagon of something that she quickly shoves into Pruana's mouth.
"You owe me a healing potion! And whatever it'll take to get all this blood out from the wood! Even Pruana here knows not to pick a fight in the bar! You circus pricks. Think yourselves the heroes or something?"
Pruana's eyes shoot open after the potion hits her lips, after which she sits up and downs the rest of the flagon all at once before turning to the ringleaders. "Who in the nine hells do you think you are!?" she spits a bit of blood back into the mug before handing it to the bartender and standing up. "You also owe me a new goat!"
Finn blinks in confusion at the bartender and looks around, suddenly well aware of the human, dwarf, goat, and dinosaur blood that’s staining the wood of the Mad Mug.
Ah shit.
The halfling turns to the bartender and the now-conscious dwarf and points at Violet. ”New goat? She’s just fine.”
Finn looks over at Violet one more time. ”Oh…uh…guess not…” The halfling sighs. ”We’ll help you out where you need it. But why are you helping her? I thought the Mad Muggers were a buncha delinquents—no offense—who were blackmailing the mayor or something. We're here to liberate the town from their vile clutches!”
P'oxtan holds his forked tongue. While not actively uncharismatic, he was unlikely to improve the situation, especially considering the goat had nearly killed his dinosaur.
"Delinquent or not" the bartender says, shooting a pointed glance at Pruana, "They're half my income!"
Pruana then approaches her prized goat. "Vile clutches!? You should hear yourself. I should release that giant snake from your circus's vile clutches! See! How does that sound?"
The dwarf woman stands up. "Listen. I know why you're really here, doing things for the 'good of the town' and all that. Leave me and my people alone, and come back and clean . Promise me that and I'll tell ya what I know about that halfling witch that supposedly tried to kill y'all."
Honey pipes in, "I think agreeing to help clean up the bar is an acceptable compromise. You are refreshingly reasonable, miss...I don't think we got your name. May I also request one other think, if it isn't too much. We'd like to put of some posters for the next show and we know your bar gets a lot of foot traffic, so it would be the ideal place to advertise."
The barkeep rolls her eyes. "Call me Sarah. After you're done cleaning, we'll talk. Depending on how well you do..." Her voice trails off into unintelligible mumbles.
Pruana, the dwarf, then speaks up. "Still didn't promise to leave me and my boys alone. It'll be difficult to clean the place if my boys want your head!"
"Wait, you know about the...!" Finn stops mid-sentence, realizing the opportunity before him. He puts on the most wonderful customer-service-smile and says. "We'll happily clean up your bar of the mess we've caused. And Pruana, it seems there's been a severe misunderstanding on our part. We'll leave you and your boys alone for the foreseeable future, well, once we're done with the cleaning. Isn't that right guys?" Finn turns to the other ringmasters, his smile unwavering but his eyes shrieking Don't contradict me right now!
P'oxtan nods in quiet agreement. He desperately wanted to ask about eating the goat, but figured that wouldn't improve the situation too much.
Hush gets to work cleaning without a word.
"Rumor travels quickly. The mayor isn't exactly the most tight-lipped individual." Pruana sighs before continuing. "I've got your word. We'll call that enough. I don't know too much more about that halfling witch, but I can say my boys caught her snooping around at night. Said she went into the Lindell barn outside town, that'll be down the Southwest road. Can't miss it. Got a nice rusty label and everything. Place was supposedly abandoned awhile ago. My boys tried to get close, but, uhh, the plants attacked 'em. So they say. Now, git to cleaning."
"Another lead to follow. We should probably finish our original tasks before taking on another. I think we were going to visit the Church of Abaddar and something about giant wasps... I have not exhausted my spells. I can still continue this day. Maybe we can start the cleanup later tonight or tomorrow."
”Hmm…I’m more curious about what that hag was doing in that barn, if I’m being honest. Call it a gut feeling, but I think we should check out that barn.”
As they leave, Hush considers their options...
After a time, she mimes out balancing scales and then points toward the church.
Maybe helping the local church would earn them some allies to smooth over the mess they'd just made at the bar.
The ringleaders set out from the Mad Mug, promising the barkeep to come back and clean the place at a later date, which the barkeep reluctantly agrees to.
The ringleaders then begin marching towards the church before they're interrupted by a dove, notably one of Axel's due to it's tag, which carries a small message: "Head to the town square. You won't believe who just showed up."
A small crowd has gathered along the street to watch three colorfully dressed people shouting and playing tambourines and pipes. "Prepare yourselves and your souls, people of Abberton, for a cavalcade of celestial marvels! For sights so spectacular and so marvelous, that you shall speak of them forever after with awestruck tears in your eyes! Prepare for the show to surpass any you have ever seen, either yesterday or in the days before! Prepare for the dawning of...
The speaker is a tall, broad-shouldered woman carrying a whip and accompanied by a magnificent lion. A shirtless man covered in strange tattoos walks to her left, periodically breathing gouts of fire across metal batons he carries in his hands. To the woman's right is a brilliantly bedecked clown who leaps, rolls, flips, and cavorts in constant feats of acrobatics.
Finn rubs his eyes and stares back to make sure he saw correctly, which he unfortunately did.
"You've gotta be kidding me! The Menagerie's here?!" I thought this was our turf.
Honey's body shakes visibly with rage. "I thought I had escaped the Menagerie. What are they doing here? I'm holding myself back from running up there and punching that witch in the face. But we need to find out more information first. Are they alone or has an entire troupe like ours set up camp outside of town? Should we ask around?"
Seeing the clown, Hush crosses her arms, cocks her head, and gives him an unimpressed look.
Clearly she thinks he needs to up his game...
Honey manages to gather that it's just this group of three, at least, for all the town's seen. Supposedly, the remainder of the Celestial Menagerie is back in Escadar, where they currently call home.
Still, after a bit of poking, the lion tamer shouts out, "HEY! Look who showed up!"
The crowd parts to reveal the lion tamer is gesturing with her whip directly towards Honey Wasp!
"Just a bunch of cheap imposters! Gather around everyone, we'll give you a real show, not some amateurish parade of feeble animals and struggling charlatans!" She flicks a whip at the lion she was taming and it gives a pointed roar to emphasize her words. "Unless, of course, you amateurs think you can do better?"
Finn eyes the other ringmasters as he mutters just loud enough for them to hear ”We’re absolutely doing this, right?”
Honey Wasp turns to the lion tamer when called out and puts her hands on her hips. "Cheap Imposter! You wouldn't know a real show if it smacked you in the face, which is what I'm about to do with my fist! Bring on whatever lame contest you can come up with and prepare yourself to go crying home to your master with your tail between your legs, you cowardly dog!"
Hush claps a hand comically over her mouth with surprised mirth at the insults her friends have thrown at the others. She looks at the audience, then spreads her arms wide in a 'what can you do' motion. She grins then flexes her non-existent muscles at the creepy bouncing clown.
Their acts are: A fire dancer, a lion tamer, and an acrobatic murder-clown.
"Come Jellico!" the lion tamer shouts to the clown. "Let's show these people what a real trick looks like."
The clown responds in a raspy voice, "Yes, ma'am!", as he steps forward. "So who's the talentless vagrant that's going to embarrass themselves first?"
Honey fiercely walks up to the clown engaging in a staring contest until she gets right up into the clown's face and their noses touch. Honk!
"Watch and learn!" Internally, she is thinking "Please don't murder me! Please don't murder me!"
She scans the area until she finds a suitable lamppost, signpost, or tree branch and tosses a rope up to it and secures the line.
Then she scrambles up the closest building and stands on the roof. "Ladies and gentlemen of Abberton, are you ready for this?!" Honey lights up her golden wings of light and fires a few rainbow rays of divine lance into the air. Pew. Pew.
Once people are watching, Honey leaps off the roof and grabs onto her dangling rope. She nails the catch and spins around in wide circles like a maypole, throwing in some aerial splits and twists until her corkscrew spin comes to an end.
On the ground, Honey slowly and seductively backflips until she closes the distance back up to the clown. Then she pulls down her eye and sticks out her tongue and gives the clown a loud, wet razzberry. Pffftttt! Beat that, clown! I doubt you even know a trick. Being ugly doesn't count."