The Alraeican Tavern - Part VIII
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Cat wandered over to Silverfish, and asked "Are you the summoner of those skeletons?"
Silverfish replied, quickly, "No!"
Cat smiled. "I thought not. I saw Rapierian looking through the widow and laughing, so I kicked that skeleton into his face, to try and knock him out. When I did knock him out, the skeletons crumbled. So either you're incredibly devious and are trying to pin the blame on him, or you're in the clear."
Shanadar resumed consciousness halfway through the last remark, and demanded to know what was going on even before he opened his eyes. Cat explained, and they all trouped outside to where Rapierian was lying unconscious under a pile of bones. -
Alice looked over at the snow melting in Mort's mug and said thoughtfully, "That's not altogether a bad idea..." The skeletons, of course, were incapacitated in their snowball-throwing madness, but some drunks had adopted the idea and started making new snowballs to chuck at unsuspecting patrons. Alice turned on his stool and lifted his hand into the air, neatly catching a snowball aimed at his head, and dropped it into his mug. "Much better," he said, sipping what was now ice water.
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"Hey, watch it!" Shi screeched, dodging another snowball and then taking refuge behind Moonshadow's table. "This isn't funny anymore," she grumbled, and Moonshadow couldn't help the small grin forming on her face. Shi glared. "It really isn't! It may not be that bad for you, but if I got hit by one of those things..."
"Oh, that would be nasty." Brianna commented helpfully.
"And I wish someone would fix the door," Shi continued grumbling. "It's getting chilly in here."
"Chilly?" Moonshadow queried. "Well, I suppose it would be, to you."
"That's right." Brianna nodded, crouching next to Moonshadow to avoid the snowballs. "Do you think you can do something about this at least long enough to clear this mess? Especially the bones... I wonder where that comes from, nobody has died in the Tavern in a long time, and we do NOT usually stash corpses in the area."
"Yes, I have been wondering that too." Moonshadow said thoughtfully. "Oh, alright, leave it up to me." She leaned back against the table, closing her eyes for a short moment. When she opened them again, they were silver. Unconcerned about the snowballs still flying around, she stood, taking off her cloak and giving it to Bryanna. "Hold this for me, please." A snowball almost hit her, but stopped inches from her back, floating in midair. Moonshadow calmy gathered her hair, twisting it into a bun at the back of her head and securing it with a few extra pins. Then she turned to face the tavern.
Moments later, all the other snowballs being thrown stopped too. The patrons who had just been in the process of making new snowballs stopped, looking puzzled, as the snow lifted from their hands to float in mid air. Soon, all surfaces in the tavern were cleared of snow. "Brianna, can you take care of Shi?"
Shi looked about to object, and Brianna opened her mouth to ask why, but then the wind started. Quickly Brianna snatched up Shi, and none too late. A breeze at first, the wind quickly picked up strength, blowing the snow and snowballs in the tavern into a small whirlwind with Moonshadow behind it. Some patrons gaped, their cloaks billowing wildly around them, hitting other patrons with the force of the wind behind them, while others had the presence of mind to snatch their cloaks to them quickly, holding them close. "I suggest you clear the way." Moonshadow stated, raising her right hand to point at the door. The patrons between her and the door scrambled to move out of the way, and just as the last did so the whirlwind started moving, picking up speed as it cleared the door and disappeared into the night. I hope nobody is out tonight, Moonshadow thought idly, dropping her hand to her side. Even though it doesn't matter much. The magic carrying it will dissolve soon. Then she noticed the patrons still lining the walls, staring at her. Ah, right. Brianna wanted this place cleared. "You," she said, "and you," pointing out two random patrons who seemed sober enough to follow orders. "I want you to clear to the tavern of all those bones lying around. Bury them somewhere." As an afterthought she added. "And be quick about it. The rest of you drunk lot**... go home. I'm sure you've got families waiting." Her eyes, still silver, lingered on each of the patrons for a short while, and she nodded in satisfaction when they obeyed -- even though it took some of them a while until the message passed from their alcohol-hazed mind to their limbs.
Finally she closed her eyes, and when she opened them again they were back to their normal amber hue. Behind her, Brianna had released Shi and was trying to get her hair back into a semblance of order. "What was that all about?"
"You wanted the tavern cleared." Moonshadow said mildly.
"Couldn't you have done without the wind?" Shi asked.
"Of course." Moonshadow turned to them, smiling. "But this way's more impressive."
Brianna just shook her head, and even Shi had to admit that it certainly got the message across to the patrons.**Obviously that doesn't include player characters -- I assume they're mostly sober.
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Brianna suddenly had a sense that something was amiss. She quickly scanned the tavern.
"Where's grandfather?"
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The Scribe led Elannan out onto the dance floor. They danced gracefully, lost in each other, completely oblivious of everyone else in the room. This was their night, and nothing was going to distract them from enjoying each other's company. He was so lost in her slender beauty that he almost felt he was floating on air. He whirled her about -
- and the last effects of Rapierian's concoction suddenly wore off. The Scribe was most surprised to find himself genuinely floating in midair, outdoors, liberally sprinkled with snow flakes and spinning about in the dying residue of a tiny whirlwind.
"Oh my," he exclaimed, as he lost control of the levitation spell his drug-infused subconscious had conjured, and plummeted toward the ground. He landed, not with the bone jarring 'thud' he'd expected, but on something rather less solid than most ground matter, that went 'oof!'.
"Sideline? Good of you to break my fall, young man," the Scribe commented as he rolled off the younger and heavier human.
"You're welcome," Sideline groaned. He levered himself to his feet, then offered a hand to the elderly elf. "I was still outside after that fireball, and when I saw you wafting out the door, I figured I'd better tag along."
Having floated away without his staff, the Scribe supported himself with a heavy hand on Sideline's shoulder as they re-entered the tavern.
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While waiting for Rapierian to awake, Silverfish amused himself by building snow-arches over him.
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Cat strolled over to Moonshadow. "Wow. That was some magic!" she exclaimed, impressed.
Moonshadow smiled. "Thank you. It was pretty impressive, wasn't it?"
"But one more thing. What does drunk mean?"
Moonshadow took Cat aside, and explained all about the meaning, uses, application and combustibility of alcohol, after which Cat said, "So that's why Wizard's beard practically exploded when I threw that liquid at him! It must have been a mug of alcohol!" -
Rapierian saw the bones coming and lifted the edge of his cloak to block his face, confident that it would protect him from this like it had protected him from Selax throwing him through a door. However, Wizard too had noticed Rapierian standing outside the window, and he telekinetically knocked Rapierian forward, causing him to drop the cloak and to smash into the oncoming projectile. Rapierian dropped out of sight.
Silverfish was so busy building his snow arches that he didn't notice when Rapierian disappeared...
Rapierian woke up and realized two things. First, he had another headache, and, second, a pack of ratilizards had apparently come up from the sewers and had begun to drag him back that way. This second was easily dealt—he cast his own variant of fear on them. He smiled idly as he watched the creatures run around in circles and eventually drop dead. Now, as for the first, he just had to find a ruffian (he doubted that anyone would be happy if he used a beggar) or something similar...
A few minutes later, Rapierian returned to the Tavern and threw the remains of the door open. He stepped inside, walked straight up to Mort, and sat down next to him. When the lich turned to look at him, Rapierian—never the kindest or politest of souls—laughed in his face. He decided to see how far he could push the lich.
"So, I hear that you did this to yourself on accident, trying to study the dark arts. Come now, if I study those and emerge alive, how hard can it be?" he said in an amused tone of voice.
Selax sat in his corner of the Tavern, continuing to watch all that went on calmly. He couldn't recall it being this busy the last times that he was here. Although he was used to sitting in dens of complete chaos, doing so left him little to do but watch, so he decided that he might as well continue to do just that.
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Cat tiptoed over to Selax, and whispered, "Can I have a go at evicting him?" she pleaded.
Selax considered it for a second, then shook his head. "Better not just yet. When he needs to be kicked out the window, I assure you I will let you have the first go."
Cat sighed impatiently, and sat back to watch the show. -
At Rapierian's words, Mort held his skull in his hands in shame. {{ I know! I'm such a los - hey, wait a minute, }} he continued, sitting upright and at last facing his tormentor, {{ you realise you just called yourself an idiot? }}
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Shanadar awoke with a rather sore lump on his forehead. A catlike patron proceeded to testify for the 'Silverfish' fellow's case, presenting the actual summoner. Shanadar let Silverfish go, but treated him with no less suspicion,
After returning to his seat and downing a few more ales to numb the pain, the very summoner who caused all the trouble earlier got up, came over, and started taunting Mort. Shanadar awoke with a rather sore lump on his forehead. A catlike patron proceeded to testify for the 'Silverfish' fellow's case, presenting the actual summoner. Shanadar let Silverfish go, but treated him with no less suspicion,
After returning to his seat and downing a few more ales to numb the pain, the very summoner who caused all the trouble earlier got up, came over, and started taunting Mort. Mort replied in kind, twisting the intruding patron's insults against him. Momentarily distracted as he attempted to form a suitable retort, his skull was aquainted with a very heavy cast-iron staff.
The patron, Rapierian, now on the floor found Shanadar looming over him.
"It seems to me, Mr. I-really-like-the-dark-arts-and-flaunt-my-powers-in-public-for-my-own-perverse-amusement, that you've just received the second concussion in the past five minutes. If I didn't know better, I'd say you were losing your edge."
Rapierian started to get up, only to have his face pressed against the floor by a heavy boot pressing on the back of his skull.
"You've gone and insulted the only person in this tavern that I've yet met and actually liked, Mr. Summoner, and have sown a great deal of wanton chaos and destruction as well. That will never do. I'm sure we both realize that I only have you pinned because I caught you by surprise, a mistake I am sure you will not repeat. However, you have also raised the ires of several other prominent patrons here who I'm am quite certain could overpower you, regardless of your magics. And so, I'm going to let you go on the condition you behave. That means no more tasteless practical jokes, no more damned incantations, and certainly no more insulting the other patrons, especially Morteous there."
And with that, Shanadar removed his boot from Rapierian's person.
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In the background, Cat muttered, "Hey, it was my turn to deal with him! There is a queue, you know!"
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Silverfish, having not yet realized the change of action, continued to make snow arches, and started working his way around the building
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OoC
Cache, if you want Rapierian to leave Mort alone please let me know and I'll have him stop. He doesn't actually particularly dislike Mort; he just derives his amusement from bothering others and believes that Mort is a good candidate for this.
BiCRapierian dusted himself off and sat up, glaring at Shanadar. The floor behind the necromancer suddenly began to ripple and then to crack. A golem burst out of the ground and helped Rapierian to his feet. Then, it assumed a position behind its master, obviously to function as a bodyguard.
"Hmph, I am certain that it legally questionable to assault a member of the Cytheran nobility—however minor a member he may be—until there has been some sort of Council meeting," Rapierian stated. "Not that my family would care much, I suppose. Perhaps, the only reason they haven't tried to kick me out of the House is because they are too frightened." This thought apparently amused him, and he started to laugh again. "I wouldn't recommend that anyone attempt something like that again: I might just lose my temper. Besides, I—a raiser of the dead—have as much right to speak to the dead as anyone else here does, do I not?"
Suddenly, the golem behind Rapierian lumbered toward the door and stepped outside. Its master had sent it to find another ruffian, so Rapierian could rid himself of his new headache.
Rapierian turned back to Mort.
"Now, where was I?" he wondered. "Ah, yes. I was finding out how far I could push you before you lose your temper, purely a friendly experiment, although I suppose that I might cease that for the moment in favor of asking questions of interest to me."
"Your definition of 'friendly' is pretty twisted," someone muttered.
"I know: it's wonderful, isn't it? Now, Mr. Mort, what book were you studying anyway? Anything that might interest me? In addition, what reanimated you?"
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Cat turned to Alice, who was still drinking his iced water, and attempted to have a coherant conversation, somewhat hindered by the fact that Alice was obviously talking to someone else, but she couldn't see who. She gave it up as a bad job, and continued watching Rapierian through narrowed eyes.
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Uzsuy got something to drink and sat at the only empty table.
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Talryn admired the whirlwind that had sent the snow amongst other things out. After spending some time thinking about how he would do the same thing, he finally noticed the broken tavern door. Cheating this time, he 'grew' the door back and muttered something about he should be paid for rebuilding the tavern.
Talryn then streched and sat down next to Rapierian and listened in on the conversation. Talryn soon discovered about his curse that sometimes the abilites that he gained from others would go off by themselves. Such an instance happened and Talryn read Rpaierian's mind really quickly and noticed he had a headache and also got the thoughts about how he was going to 'recharge off the ruffian'.
Talryn tapped Rapierian on the shoulder, "Sorry, but can I talk to you really quick?" Talryn led Rapierian away from the bar a little bit then put his hand on Rapierian's shoulder. A few moments later, Rapierian's headache was gone and Talryn's knees buckled for a moment. He caught himself and then went over to the bar to get some water and food. Rapierian shrugged, smiled a tiny bit, then turned around and returned to his conversation with Mort.
Very briefly, Tarlyn's eyes changed color...
Edit: wow this is almost becoming a TS in a sense, and wow post 116 already?
This post has been edited by Dark Jet : 20 December 2006 - 02:23 AM
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OoC Yes, it's quite a renaissance, isn't it? I don't think we've ever managed to keep a posting run like this going in the tavern before, except when there was a larger goal involved, such as the undead invasion back when I first started.
Selax: I don't mind Mort being bothered at all. You may have noticed I tend to post reactively, so the more there is going on with my characters, the greater the probability something will spark my imagination. Having said that, though, my posts will porbably be fairly brief for a while. I'm hatching an idea for your chronicle challenge, and past experience has taught me that inspiration can often be a limited resource. BiC
Mort stared silently at Rapierian for several long seconds, his eyes dimming to a dull, baleful red. {{ In order, the answers to your questions are "I don't remember", and "no idea". }}
He returned to staring at his drink. "I didn't lie," he thought to himself. "I didn't! It was a choice!"
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OoC I'm very like cache in that way... If no-one talks to my character, and I can't start a conversation by any way possible, I won't be able to post. I'm on plan B, engage others in conversation, at the moment. If everyone keeps ignoring me, I will quickly progress to plan C, start a fire, and plan D, attack someone. Just warning you... BIC
Cat sidled over to Mort, ignoring the latter's aura, and asked, "Are you all right? You don't feel very happy. I know that's probably an understatement, but it's the best I can come up with at present. Is there anything I can do to help you?"
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Talryn got up and said, "Where Im from, we celebrate an event that would occur in less than a week, so in the spirit of that Im paying for the rest of the night."
Then he grabbed a drink, said cheers, drank, then went over to the middle of the floor and concentrated. Little glowing lights begun to appear and swirled around lightning the tavern up in various colors. He then went around and talked to a few of the patrons remaining (besides the chars) and created various things. He went over to Selax and sat down and admired the lights and beckoned Wizard over. Once the three were sitting down, somewhat remote compared to everyone else, Talryn quitely said "There is something i need to tell you guys about.."
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Silverfish kept on building snow-arches all the way around the Tavern. Soon he had finished that, and seeing that the others had gone back inside, followed them.
Inside the Tavern, several groups had formed for the purpose of talking together. Silverfish thought that he might try to join one of the groups, but then he saw Cat trying vainly to do just that. He decided not to risk the experiment, but rather to conduct a scientific inquiry into the nature of one of the patrons.
First, he climbed up into the rafters near the bar, then he made a suitably long cable, and attached it to one of the rafters. On the other end of the cable he formed a secure cage around himself, and started swinging around just outside of Cat's reach...
