The Honor Circle Returns! (IC)

[Dekari]

"Hmmm..."  Azshanas looked over at Dani with an almost trance like look on her face.  The silver of her right iris seemed to almost glow against the darkness of the eyes jet-black sclera while her the red of her left iris appeared rather dim against it's white background.  Azshanas tilted her head slightly to one side as she continued to stair at Dani, however now she seemed to be looking through her, the people behind her, and perhaps the entire bar itself as though none of it was even there to begin with.

With a sudden shudder, Azshanas was pulled back into reality.  She blinked several times as the brightness of her eyes balanced out to normal and leaned forward resting her hands on her knees while still holding her glass and bottle.  "Oh...sorry about that."  Azshanas seemed rather disoriented as she shook her head.  "I guess I zoned out there for a bit.  You said something about happiness being uncommon where I'm from, right?"  She continued as she righted her self only to immediately fall back to leaning against the wall and then slowly sliding down to sitting on the floor, which was all she could do to keep herself from falling over.  "Nah, happiness isn't uncommon where I'm from.  Well, physically at least.  However, where my mind and soul have been, that's a different story."  She finished with a sigh.

[Lisky]

with a mock indignant look Bas raised his own glass, "To the winner..."
He let his voice carry a bit, then added with a bit of a wicked grin, "...of this round."

Tilting his head back subtly, Bas took a sip and swallowed.  The taste was rather surprising, yet not unpleasant.  Having grown used to ales and mead, the stronger liquor was a bit of a treat.  Not so much to effect the demon's judgment, it would probably take half the bottle to reach that stage.  But, it did help him feel relaxed, and more at ease. 

His calm voice carried an edge of bemusement as he added, "And if you call carrying you and stopping you from passing out by sealing up the wounds 'a little sweaty'... i'd hate to find out what 'just a little scratch is...  I do have to say, however, and with absolute honesty, that you impress me, Ms. Kithara.  You have my earned my respect, and that is not something i say lightly.  If you ever wish for another bout, just give me a time and place."

A hint of a toothy smile, as he took another sip.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace sipped at her drink, looking over the rim of the glass at Bas with a deceptively innocent look. "Well," she said, "there was th' time Great-Aunt Veryan got 'er head lopped off. Didn't bother 'er much, she just rolled it out o' th' way an' carried on fightin'. Can't think why that bandit got so upset she wet 'em —y'd think she'd never seen an Undead b'fore."

The lioness cocked one ear and spread her whiskers as her nose and tongue told her the brandy really was very good quality. Maybe it would help soften up Bas before she put a few pointed questions to him about that massacre. With the help of a few pointed persuaders.

[Boog]

The Circle

"Thirst isn't really something I do," Boog stepped in and took another swing, aiming the tip of the bat at the canteen itself. Something gurgled at the back of the man (like creature's) throat, and a thin trickle of smoke wafted up from the corner of his lips...

The Bar

"Where's that?" Richard rasped.
He was at the other end of the bar from Dani and Azshanas, so it may have taken a second to tell he was talking to them. He coughed awkwardly, "Couldn't help overhearing, it just got me thinking. I've seen places with lots of unhappy people. Hospitals, all that. And I've seen plenty of DEPRESSING places, too. Churches, family restaurants... Never heard of a place that's unhappy though. Just ones with unhappy people in it." He shrugged. "So, where?"

[Lisky]

Bas gave an amused snort, a chuckle escaped his lips as well.  "Sounds like you have a rather interesting family.  My family is a bit more... traditional... at least, by demon standards.  we've got our fair share of amusing tails... but they often depend your point of view."

The demon's pose was extremely relaxed as he daintily and rather gingerly spun the glass around in his fingertips.  He took a big sip, emptying the glass of it's contents.  "Care for a refill?" Bas asked in a polite tone as he started filling his own Glass.

[Arroyo Milori]

Arroyo tosses the canteen to his other hand and takes a short hop back to dodge Boog's swing. He aimed the canteen's top towards boog quickly and fires a sphere of water at him, the cap first popping him in the forehead, which probably felt like nothing but still causes the curious question of "What the hell is that?"

"Another reality hacker. Like I haven't fought one before." He acted all uninterested in what his opponent can do, but he still held his guard up. After all, no two people with the same ability have the same tactics.

[Angel]

Sylvie thought about each of the man's questions, but didn't have time to answer them before he offered her a drink for her concern. She smiled politely. So his courtesy wasn't a front, but ingrained into him. That was a nice change from the norm. He'd be easy to get along with if he had that much of an elven personality (hopefully with none of the half-unintentional arrogance).

"That would be nice, but I'd prefer something cold, if it's not impolite to say so," she said, walking to the bar as well. "My people aren't so good with hot food, you see. That beverage - which is called 'coffee' here, if it's the way you described it - is ethically safe for me to drink, but possibly not biologically so. I wouldn't object to apple cider, though."

---

Whoa. You don't see that every day. The she-wolf's eyes had really caught Dani's attention. The color change was gone as quickly as it had appeared, but the Red knew she hadn't hallucinated that. She was about to ask the wolf about it when the zombie who had caught her attention earlier spoke up. She looked over, then, quickly glancing back between herself and the wolf before answering. "Are you asking me or her? Because happiness isn't uncommon where I'm from. Well, kinda hard to say, really, since nothing can be CALLED common in Rustburg except hair and eye color, skin tone, magic, and lifespan. Other than that, nothing really stays the same. It's a hell of a place to live, but I loved every minute of it growing up." She smirked lopsidedly and glanced at the other woman. "What about you?"

[Dekari]

A slight look of confusion mixed with exhaustion washed over Azshanas as she set aside the pint bottle and drinking glass reached into her jacket and pulled out a small glass vial of glowing blue liquid.  "'A hard life for every silver spoon and a touch of gray for every shade of blue.'  How ironic that it turns out that we are living proof of this saying."  She said as she removed the cap from the vial and drank the liquid.  As she swallowed the last of the vials contents, she closed her eyes tight and grit her teeth in a look of pain as her hand involuntarily closed, crushing the glass vial.

With the confusion and exhaustion gone, Azshanas attempted to stand and quickly made her way to a seat near Dani before she had a chance to fall over again as the elixir hadn't taken full affect yet.  Resting her arms on the bar she replied to the earlier questions.  "If you were to go the places, they wouldn't seem to be unhappy places to you.  But every place from my past is a unhappy place to me....and because of me."  Azshanas kept her gaze down at the bar and away from Dani and Richard in a fashion that resembled shame.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Corgatha held the green girl's eyes a moment, and then stumped over to the bar, awkward strides making the trip longer than his height suggested. Something about her face made him uneasy, but he couldn't quite place it, and suppressing a snarl, he pushed that distrust into the deep recesses of his being. Time to find out the answer to the first of my questions. He waved over the barkeeper, and added in a half smile along the right side of his face. Past experience had taught him that most people found the dance of scar and mottle over his jawbones and cheeks disturbing, but it did tend to attract attention.

Once he was sure of the barkeep's attention, the barkeep being some sort of strange, upright furred animal that he didn't recognize, he called out, raising his voice slightly against the din of the establishment. "I'd like a mug of Kaf-" remembering the girl's rejoinder he finished "fee.  And the lady would like an apple cider." Turning to the girl, he asked "Do you want brandy in that?"  As he turned back to echo her response, it hit him. Doubtless it was due to the odd features, and the green hue, but he couldn't place an age to that face, and that brought unpleasant instincts.  He held his gaze on the bartender, not allowing a dismissal until the girl had answered, and waited for further development.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace was careful not to let her face show her emotions, but she thought she could guess the sort of thing Bas's family thought of as "amusing". Her family had earned a reputation and a not so small fortune — and occasionally lost a few members — dealing with Creatures who thought that way.

The lioness finished her own drink in one swallow, put the glass down on the bartop and pushed it towards the Demon. "I would indeed care f'r a refill," she said, "qual'ty brandy like this d'serves a lot o' testin', t' make sure it stays top qual'ty. Fill 'er up."

[Lisky]

Topping off the Andraces glass, while still leaving enough room for the alcohol to breath, Bas leaned back sipping his own glass.  "ya know... when they get to drinking, most adventurers simply see the horns, the wings and claws and scream 'slay the monster'  No chance to reply, no moment to calm them down.  They see what i am, grab a sword and start swinging.  I greatly appreciate the gesture, Andrace, it's not every day that a supposed enemy to my kind sits down for a drink."

Scratching his chin, Bas took another drink, while he thought of an amusing story of his own.  He actually started feeling the effects of the alcohol, and while his pose still spoke of near perfect sobriety, he'd subconsciously started slurring and shortening words "'ind you, it's usually when i but heads with my own kind where things get interesting.  Why, i 'member the 'ook 'o 'orror on m' ol'er bother's 'ace 'en 'e when i first tried that shiel' throwin' stunt, 'ou saw earl'er.  'E 'ad no i'ea what was comin' unti' BAM, right in the nose.  Frozen in 'orror for a goo' week while 'is jaw was 'ealin'"

The large demon let out a chuckle of amusement as he fondly remembered the moment.  Taking another sip as he leaned lightly on the bar.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace snorted and wrinkled her muzzle disdainfully as she picked up her refilled glass and promptly started to empty it again. "Am'teurs," she muttered, "am'teurs an' showoffs. They give us pr'fessn'l advent'r's a bad name — think all they need t' do is strap on a sword, find some critter, an' go get one or th' other o' them killed. Or both." It was sometimes not easy to tell from Andrace's voice alone whether she'd downed enough alcohol to seriously affect her. Her habit of chopping and slurring words, whether stone cold sober or half a dirty glass of rotgut away from passing out, could be deceptive. Perhaps this was not accidental.

"I won't deny, we get hired now an' then t' take out rogue Creatures, but we do it legal. I don't do any smackin' down wi'out a 'fishul contract or a warrant," she lied glibly. "An' as f'r all that posin' an' proclaimin' an' wavin' y' weapon around, that's f'r suckers... an' st'tist'cs." The lioness wriggled her rump on the barstool, just enough to make the enormous pistol holstered at her side — which she hadn't touched during the fight — bounce softly against her thigh. Her meaning was clear: she didn't consider herself a sucker, and had no intention of becoming a statistic.

Andrace just happened to be taking a sip of her drink when Bas finished his story. The snort of laughter she didn't quite manage to suppress almost sprayed some of the brandy up around her muzzle. "Heh, brothers," she said with a grin after she'd licked a few stray drops from her whiskers. "I got three m'self, an' I c'n just see that sort o' thing happenin' t' Arcas. Great fighter, good skills, lucky, but if 'e's sparrin' wi' m' sister Zoe all bets 're off. One time a while back 'e was tryin' out a new spear, did a swingin' slash, an' Zoe got 'er swords up an' crossed in th' neatest block y' ever saw... except..." The lioness made a "ker-boing" noise and with her free hand mimiced a long thin object bouncing and tumbling up in a brief arc before coming down again. "Woulda been okay if 'e'd ducked in time, but 'e didn't, so 'e ended up wi' a strip snipped out o' his hair from 'tween 'is ears on back. Didn't 'alf look silly 'til it grew out. My shout, want 'nother one?" Andrace finished off her drink and held the glass up towards Bas, one ear and eyebrow cocked questioningly.

[Lisky]

Is she finished, Bas gave a deep, rumbling laugh.  His tail swished back and forth as he downed the rest of his own drink in a single gulp.  He set his glass on the bar, "Sure, 'nother round wit' good comp'ny s'always 'preciated!"

He chuckled again, scratching his neck lightly, then went back to leaning on the bar.  He kept his eyes focused on the lioness's face as he lazily leaned his head against a hand.  Long medusa like locks swaying lightly as a silver ring bumped the edge of the bar.  "You startin' 'e nex' roun'?" The demon said as a warm fuzziness started to envelope his thoughts, feelings and mood.
 

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace winked at Bas, slipped her free hand inside her top and fished about at just above belt level for a few seconds until she came up with some money from a concealed purse. She slid the coins across the bartop to join what Bas had already paid, reached for the bottle — which wouldn't last much longer — and refilled their glasses.

"Here's t' y' health, Bas," she said as she raised her own glass, "howev'r long y' keep it. Now I know how tough y' are, I'll not go easy on y' if we have 'noth'r fun little scrap." Behind her confident smirk, the lioness was tense and hoping she could pull this off without incident. She'd successfully palmed the little pellet of truth drug from its hidden pocket: it only needed to be warmed for a short time against her palm-pad to activate the chemical mixture, then she'd have to slip it into the Demon's next drink. A few minutes after that, and he should be extremely suggestible and unable to even think anything but the truth.

If she did this right, she could find out exactly what Bas knew about that massacre he'd mentioned. No-one else would notice anything except two people enjoying a friendly post-beating-the-stuffing-out-of-each-other drink and conversation. And Bas wouldn't remember anything afterwards, except perhaps drinking a bit too much. She'd done it before, in similarly tricky circumstances; with luck, she could do it again.

[Lisky]

Clinking his own glass against hers, Bas flashed another devilish smile, "And to your continued health as well.  If we spar again in the future, i assure you, i'll give you everything as well, no holding back."

He'd spotted the hand movement, oh so subtle, yet there. Interesting... Seems she's trying to drug me... not that i have any complaints... might as well play along. 

His minds-voice added in a vary sarcastic tone, Oh no, how powerless I am.  Being used by such a beautiful and powerful adventurer.  Oh woe is I.  The thought brought a very real chuckle out of the demon, one he attempted to hide behind a sip of brandy. Between the clothing switch, the drinking contest and now the drugs, Bas drew the only conclusion he could think of for such pleasantries.  Clearly she was trying to seduce him.

[Angel]

She shook her head and smiled pleasantly. "No, just plain cider. I'm not much for alcohol either; I don't really like the taste." She looked at him more evenly now; it only seemed right to thank him for more than one small favor. "By the way, thanks; not just for the drink, but also for not rushing to judge me. Conscious people have trouble not staring at me and treating me strangely where I come from; I can only imagine what it's like to regain consciousness in a strange place with someone like me standing over you."

---

For the first time since seeing the she-wolf, Dani noticed her physical state. She was exhausted, it seemed, to the point of actual weakness. "I'm sorry I didn't notice before, but are you all right? I mean, I collapse in public places all the time, but it's rare for me to see someone else about to do it." The last part of that had been intended as a joke, but she really was concerned, and it showed.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Her responses were pleasant, disconcerting. The conversation was drifting further and further away from subjects he was qualified to talk about, no tactics, no channeling, no stonework. And the comment about judging struck too close to home. Maybe the Aes Sedai couldn't see thoughts, but what was to say the people of this strange place were capable of?

Fortunately, the bartender heard her order, and the cider and Kaf arrived shortly enough to forestall the necessity to respond for a moment. The silver he slapped on the table did seem to meet the odd thing's approval, although a secondary worry that it wouldn't last him very long. He had very little use to carry around money on his own, and only really carried enough for tips. Still, no use worrying about what couldn't be mended. The Kaf was pungent, and he inhaled the fumes a moment, before quaffing some of the liquid. Bitter, powerful, scalded his tongue. A hawkish grin emerged, and he knew how to respond, bringing words of an old litany to bear.


He turned towards the girl, forced himself to look at her eyes. "What is to judge?  You're green. Lots of odd things live in the north, near the Blight. There was a man in Fal Dara who could smell the act of violence, the White Tower is sundered, and the Lord Dragon cleansed the Source. What's another strange thing among many? It is neither here nor there, and it is all a long way from anything I am familiar with. You mentioned that this is a fighting place and a bar. We are patronizing the bar, tell me of the fighting ring. Who fights whom, and why?"

The Kaf here definitely was good, and Corgatha took another slip, slower this time. Salt and soda would probably produced blood when he cleaned his mouth this night, if he managed to find facilities. He waiting, rather calmly, for a response. He could already feel a bit of energy coming to him, although that was probably more excitement than any effect of the beverage.

[Dekari]

"Although your concern is appreciated, it's not necessary."  Azshanas said hiding behind a half faked smile, relieved that the topic had been changed.  Her strength had now visibly returned to her as the elixir had taken full effect.  "I'm just not used to being around this many people.  The energy of this place just got a little...overwhelming."

She spun around on her stool, put her back against the bar, and lead forward with her arms stretched out far in front of her before sitting back upright with her arms stretched high above her head.  "I think a bit of fresh air might do me good about now."  Azshanas said hinting towards the door leading to the rings outside as she hopped off her barstool.  "Would one of you two care to join me?"  She asked referring to both Dani and Richard.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace snickered into her glass for a moment in between sips, then she smiled wryly. "Yeah, I c'n see how that'd mebbe feel a bit weird, Bas," she said with a slightly rougher slur than usual in her voice. "S'pose I c'd say th' same, I've no plob... prob... lem sittin' down f'r a drink wi' folks who ain't Bein's, but some critter who's... a bus'ness int'rest, y' c'd call 'em, not so often." Unless I'm tryin' t' trick 'em, she thought sardonically.

The lioness wrapped her tail around one leg of her barstool and kept her ears, whiskers and face carefully unexpressive. She'd noticed the Demon's eyes flick towards her hand for a brief instant. Had he somehow seen her palm the drug pellet? So why wasn't he doing something typically drastic about it? For all he knew, she was about to make him swallow a magic-suppression charm that would take away all his Demonic advantages, or a virulent poison that would drop him dead on the floor before he had time to cough. No, she'd been very careful which hidden pocket she'd slipped her finger into.

Andrace held her nearly empty glass up to her eye, slightly unsteadily, then looked at the bottle, also not far from empty. "We gonn' need 'noth'r bottle soon," she said solemnly, then she raised her glass to her muzzle and downed the last mouthful. She tossed a few more coins onto the small pile on the bar, picked up the bottle (succeeding after only two attempts), and refilled her glass. "Give's y' glass 'ere, Bas, I'll top that up f'r y'," she said, waving her hand in a beckoning gesture to the Demon. It happened to be the hand she was holding the bottle in, but somehow she never spilled a drop as the almost empty bottle sloshed and gurgled. Gatering all her concentration, the lioness poured the last of the brandy into Bas's glass.

She swung her arm in a grand, sweeping loose-jointed gesture that could only be convincingly performed by the truly sloshed, and put the now empty bottle down with a firm clunk. The brandy really was beginning to affect her, but she was nowhere near as drunk — yet — as she was acting. She still held her hand in the slightly awkward pose she'd used to hold the pellet firmly against her palm-pad, just to keep Bas guessing. She'd defy anyone to have seen her put the drug into the Demon's glass, though... because she hadn't touched it. No, she'd slipped the pellet into the bottle, right after she'd filled her own glass. Her apparently drunkenly waving her arm around had been to give the stuff time to dissolve, until only a careful chemical or magical analysis could detect the addition.

All she had to do now was wait, until she could start asking questions. And try to stay sober enough to remember to share the answers with her sister.

[Lisky]

Bas hadn't seen the gesture, perhaps she'd added the drug to her own drink... she didn't slip the stuff it into my own glass, was too careful to watch for that, and not enough time.  Means she either dropped it into the bottle, which would mean we're both drugged...  Or she's used whatever she'd held just barely visible for those fleeting moments, on herself.  Either actions seems to support my initial conclusion.  Interesting, and here i thought a rough bout was only seen as foreplay by demons.

With a wicked, salacious smirk, Bas raised his class, parted his lips and drank.  Almost immediately he felt his head swim.  He felt like he'd gone from 2 drinks to 10 in the blink of an eye, it was a strange sensation as the dull haze came over his view... everything seemed there... but blocked, like being in a light fog.  Details bled together...  His smirk turned a bit quizzical, then relaxed.  Blinking a few times, Bas tried to focus. He wrinkled his nose a minute, as his lazy gaze focused on the feline in front of him.  "Whoa... seem i've 'it me limi' fer the drinkin' tonigh'"

His thoughts were loose, and he was having a harder than usual time from keeping for blurting out the thoughts that were rolling through his head... His mind was lucid, though words slightly slurred from the inebriation.  He leaned in a bit more than he had before, his tail swishing lazily as the salacious grin returned.  "les' preten' tha' las' though' 'n't happ'n... Anot'er drink 'ould be lovely.  I'da as'ed fer pleasur'ble com'ney s'well... bu' 'eems 'at's alrea'y 'ere..."

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace couldn't completely hide a small grimly satisfied smile when she noticed how quickly the truth drug was affecting Bas. Good, that meant the Demon would be less able to concentrate on fighting off its effects: at best, he wouldn't even be able to lie to himself, never mind her questions. The downside, though, would be only a brief time before the drug burned through his system and he collapsed into either a fit of giggles or an insensible heap on the floor, with no conscious memory of anything that happened in the last ten minutes.

He seemed to be well under, but the lioness — no believer (when sober) in skipping precautions — did eveything exactly as she'd been trained. "Aw, it's sweet o' y' t' say so, Bas," she murmured softly as she raised a hand and stroked the side of the Demon's muzzle. Her mother had taught her that little tip, which saved valuable fractions of a second if she needed to clamp someone's muzzle shut one-handed, or rip her claws through their jugular vein, as encouragement to sit down and shut up.

"If we go down that way, though... I don't get that friendly wi' folks I don't know too well. So tell me. Who are y'? What d' y' want? Where are y' goin'? Who d' y' serve? An' who d' y' trust?" Andrace's voice was still quiet enough not to travel far, but it became sharper as she quickly fired off her test questions, and now she sounded much less drunk. As she finished, she curled her thumb and plinked the Demon's nosepad with her claw, not even hard enough to break the skin. The sudden tiny pinprick was carefully gauged to disrupt any coherent thought that might be starting, leaving only a suddenly loosened tongue to start babbling. If all went well, next she'd ask the important questions.

A short distance along the bar, Despina did her best not to look as if she was watching her sister. The younger lioness didn't mind admitting Andrace was better at getting information out of people like this. She wondered what had caused her older sister to take action. A clinking noise suddenly caught her attention. She glanced towards Witt, then stared, ears and whiskers drooping and her tail-tuft fluffed out, at the long line of drinks on the bar at his side. Aw hell, m' stomach, she thought sourly. Th' little bugger must have th' const'tution o' a Dragon!

[Lisky]

Bas was a bit surprised at the sudden caress shortly followed by a pinch of the nose.  His thoughts remained clear despite the relative violence.  The claws, everything.  Andrace's attempts to disrupt the canine demon's thoughts were treated as more a minor inconvenience.  He replied in an eerily sober, and even upbeat tone, "I am Baseel Wolkshammar, son of Leofric Wolkshammar and Samara Frostwyrm...  What I want, m' dear, should be fairly obvious, at least, in the short term, my long term goals are rather... non-existent...  Where i'm going, where the wind and my wings take me... I'm living my life and enjoying it... I serve myself, and those who need me when they ask...  I'm not part of an army... nor have i been called on to serve my family, if that's what you're thinking.  I'm something of an adventurer, really."

His jovial expression made it clear he was enjoying himself, despite the threat to his face and life, He made a sweeping gesture towards the sky, then planted a hand on his chest.  "Now, trust, there are but me and the gods who i truly trust unconditionally... as for everyone else... somewhere between not at all, and with my life.  You for instance, i trust you to some degree... but really, the word trust has far too broad a meaning to ask someone 'who do you trust?'"  

He was thinking out loud by this point, and his brain felt as if it was rather everywhere at once... He felt hazy again, like he needed some outside guidance for his own actions and thoughts something to light a path.  Otherwise, he was just blindly following where-ever his thoughts decided to wander.  

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace's ears perked forward attentively, and she kept an open and friendly (but not entirely sober) smile on her face as she dropped her hand from Bas's muzzle and leaned forward towards him just a little bit more. She was barely listening to the Demon's actual words: his tone of voice, the look in his eyes, the set of his ears, whiskers and tail, these were much more important right now. And all the signs pointed towards his brains being just about on the point of dribbling out of his ears. Perfect.

The lioness knew she had to work quickly, now. She might have time to ask Bas only two or three questions before the drug began to wear off. Especially if, as some did, he began to ramble on at some length in his answers. "There, that wasn't so bad, eh? Now we know each other a lot better," she purred enticingly.  Her voice was quiet, pitched to carry only as far as the Demon's ears, and now its tone was again sharp and commanding. "So, tell me — did y' meet a party o' advent'rers at Elenoan's Field last autumn? What happened?" For a moment, her eyes narrowed and her expression became completely blank and impassive. Andrace Kithara was hunting.

[Lisky]

Giving a bit of a quizzical look, Bas replied with the haze slowly lifting from his mind, "Yes, i was there... about a week.  But the incident i believe the you're asking about is a bit more complex than that.  It started with a bar-room dispute.  Turned into an argument with this drunken, arrogant squirrel-ish adventurer.  He challenged me to a duel the next day.  When i showed up, expecting him and perhaps a friend or 2, i found myself partially boxed in by perhaps 20 beings.  A days worth of cat and mouse slaughter, hit and run tactics, raw brutality, and 7 devoured souls to keep myself sustained through the fight.  Several fled when their numbers dwindled..."

Giving a bit of a sigh, Bas continued, " They didn't think to bring much magical muscle, and that was their own undoing.  That and their inability to track me once i got into the woods surrounding the field.  So... to summarize, it was an ambush gone wrong, a failed attempt at trickery that got that whole clusterfuck of an anti-wing group killed or scattered to the wind."

Brushing one of his long cables of hair back, the demon gave a somewhat somber shrug, "I don't go looking for trouble, Ms. Kithra, it's neither productive, nor beneficial.  The fact that it was spun as a brutal attack was simply those few survivors trying to cover their own incompetence...  I'm sure you've met a few beings like that if you're half as experienced as you seem to be."

The salacious grin came back, and his tail started twitching in amusement.  His eyes seemed focused on the lioness's face, and his left hand was lazily 'drawing' patterns on the bar-top, moving in swirling motion, though leaving no mark.

[Angel]

Sylvie was a little unnerved by Corgatha's response, but found herself unable to reason why. He was certainly nice enough, but a few things seemed a little ... awkward about him. Maybe he WAS more unnerved by her skin than he let on. But if that was the case, it was his place to bring it up, not hers. Don't let it get to you. Everyone asks sooner or later. Even the nice ones.

"Right, of course. Well, the fighting rings outside are for the entertainment of the patrons. If they wish, they can challenge another person to a fight - or several people. The only rule seems to be that no-one dies while in a circle...well, almost no-one," she added, glancing quickly at the book under Dani's elbow. "It's not intended for cruelty, of course. It's just good fun." She didn't add a mostly on to the end of that part, though it did pop into her head. She shook it off. She was trying to forget about that now and enjoy the people here.

---

Dani watched Azshanas nervously for a moment, not really buying the smile too much. She'd been trained to read emotions pretty well at her job, and she was still concerned about the she-wolf's health. "I'll go with you," she said. "I was never much for sitting still anyway, even when drinking." She smiled and stood, waiting for Azshanas to follow.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

She was nervous, that was as plain as day. Corgatha wanted to sniff. He had been in the field the past few days, had only an abbreviated washing since daybreak, however long ago that was. He wanted to laugh, like he hadn't done since the Cleansing. He had never gone recruiting himself, but they said that some of the Asha'Man developed a hardness to their eyes, the sort that unnerved men and women even before people learned that they had joined the same ranks as the people who once Broke the world. He wondered if he had those eyes.

"Enough self-pity" He hadn't realized he spoke the words until he heard them rush about his ears. He obviously couldn't continue this conversation, it was too outside his zone of experience, and this Sylvie,So odd to be wished to be called by a diminutive, deserved better than his vocal fumbling.  He forced himself to split his face with a grin. "It has both an honor and a pleasure speaking to you, and I hope to do so again shortly. But if this is a fighting arena, than I should be setting myself up for a fight."

He gulped down the last of his Kaf, wincing against the burn of the hot beverage, and siezed the Source. Molten rock liquefied his bones, the heart of glaciers froze his flesh, but it was clean, blessedly clean. If he lived to be a thousand, he'd never get used to the Power being free from the oily sewage that it used to hold.

Air and Fire, just so, wove around his own chest and throat, the trickiness of weaving about his own person eroded away from endless repetition of this particular weave.  As an afterthought, he wove a ward against Sound around the green girl.  He didn't want to startle her with his magnified voice.

Trying to modulate enough that he could be clearly heard by everyone within the bar, but not deafening to anyone, he bellowed, "I am Corgatha Taldorthar, Baijan'M'Hael of the Third fist of the Dragon, may his name be illumined in Light. I hereby issue an open challenge to any and all, sequentially, who wish to fight.  I am a channeler of no mean strength, and I promise to give a hearty bout to any who wish a test of might. Who will face me?"

He let the weaves enhancing his voice and buffering sound around Sylvia fade, but kept his grip on the Power, in case anyone decided to forgo accepting the challenge and simply start things by attacking him.

[Boog]

Boog let the cap bounce off harmlessly, bonelessly dodging the following blast of water. "Allow me to surprise you then," the man(shaped-thing) hissed, snickering. What was that gurgle at the back of his voice?
The next bit would best be described as profoundly unnerving.
As established, the Bogeyman resembled a characature of a human being, all exaggerated facial features and lanky arms and legs. However, his expressions were at least generally ones that humans could replicate. However, no matter how exaggerated, a largely humanoid face unhinging its jaw is a profoundly disturbing sight. Two rows of tombstone-shaped teeth stood at a right angle to each other, and something green and thick welled up at the back of the creature's throat. Accompanied by a smell that burned the nostrils and made the eyes water.
Boog spat a gob of his venom at Arryo with all the velocity and subtlety of a cannonball.

--

Richard shrugged and stood up to follow. The girl made him... Well, curious, at any rate. Oh, he was quite certain he possessed the larger misery-dick of the two of them, absolutely, and he would be the first to admit he didn't like people enough to be THAT concerned, right off the bat. But he still wanted to know what could cause someone to maintain such GUILT.
But he wasn't concerned about her. No. Nah ah. Absolutely not.

--

Meanwhile, in the bar, a gust of wind blew through an open window at Corgatha's words. It rattled silverware, knocked over a glass and did dreadful things to a couple individual's hair.
The breeze subsided, accompanied by the BANG of the Book falling open.

[Dekari]

Azshanas walked out of the bar to the area with the rings along with Dani and Richard.  "There really is no need for you to be concerned about my health.  If there is anyone who knows more about my well being than anyone else, it's me.  I was born a healer after all."  Azshanas said as she slowly walked ahead of the other two toward one of the rings.  She paused as she neared it, crossed her arms across her chest, and shook her head with a sigh.  "And what a healer I was.  I was said to have the strongest connection to the Astral Plane out of all the healers of my race.  Could cure any poison or sickness, heal any wound no matter how grave it seemed."  She began to walk around the outside of one of the rings, examining it with curious eyes.  "My brother used to joke that if I was any stronger I could have 'cured' death."  She stopped and stared off into the distance.  "But those days are long gone.  The memories don't even seem like they are mine anymore, almost like I'm watching someone else's life."

Pulling a stopwatch from a jacket pocket, Azshanas spoke to herself in a manner that was barely audible to the others.  "Funny, I always thought your life flashed before your eyes before you died, not three years after."  She keyed in five minutes into the stopwatch and turned her attention back to Richard and Dani.  "So how does this thing work anyway?  I kind of got a little bit of the idea from some guy in armor, but he wasn't really forthcoming with information."  She said hinting at the ring.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

The only response his challenge seemed to generate was a few muttered curses down the bar, from people whose ears he had hurt with his bellowing. Somewhat mournfully, he dissolved his weaves and released the source, cursing at the level of detail that seeped out of him, colors becoming duller, sounds with a weaker timbre, scents milder.

Feeling somewhat sheepish, he turned to face Sylvia again, when he felt a breeze coming in from his left. A window, that had been closed, opened a small shaft of illumination, and Corgatha watched bemusedly as a tiny tome hurled itself toward him. It wasn't as large as a volume of the Karaetheon Cycle, but far larger than any of the ledgers he was far more used to reading.

The book slowed down as it got closer, finally coming to a halt around a foot away from him. It opened languidly, and Corgatha suppressed irritation. He wasn't sure what kind of game this was, and although he seemed to speak whatever language was current here, he had never been much of a reader, and did not want to have to communicate with inks and parchment.

Peering at the book, he saw not words, but a picture. A man, or at least the outline of a man, covered in seaweed and wearing a glowing brass helmet of a shape that was totally unfamiliar to him.  He seemed to be underwater, and was holding an anchor suspended from a chain in his right hand. A pale, eldritch glow suffused his helmet's faceplate and whatever skin was uncovered by the seaweed.

The image seemed somehow substantial, and Corgatha became uneasy looking at the thing for too long. He turned to ask Sylvia if she knew anything about this odd tome before interacting with it further.

[SpottedKitty]

Andrace looked thoughtful for several seconds after Bas finished speaking. Maybe she hadn't known any of the adventurers involved in the Elenoan's Field incident, but her older sister and brother had encountered one of the survivors. They'd written up reports for the family archives: Irene's had been typically succinct, sulphurous and scatological, Mitri's used longer words (many of which Andrace had to look up in a psychology dictionary) and said pretty much the same. It made her uncomfortable to agree with a known adventurer-killing Creature, but Bas was right. That group had been a messy incident waiting to happen. If Irene said they couldn't plan their way out of a wet paper bag, and their tactics boiled down to "if it moves, hit it"...

Thinking about hitting things reminded Andrace of something. The Demon had already talked about it, but she'd like to know for sure if he'd been telling the truth or spinning her a line. "Y' know, Bas," she said nonchalantly "I been thinkin' 'bout that nice little scrap we just had. Y' did good, it wasn't easy beatin' y', but... a few times y' missed good clear chances t' smack me down. Y' could've parted m' hair wi' y'r axe, or shot off that blastin' spell faster t' catch me b'fore I got out o' th' water, or y' could've aimed that last kick better an' got me 'cross th' guts. Did y' go easy on me on purpose?"

The lioness watched Bas closely after she finished her question. The truth drug seemed to be burning through his system awfully quickly: she expected the amnesia to start kicking in any minute now, possibly before he'd finished his answer. After that, it was anyone's guess when he'd pass out. She'd been told the drug's effects were unusually fast on some Creatures, but this was the first time she'd seen it for herself.