[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXXX

[Rebonack]

*Upon entering the tavern you find it to be rustic, dim, cramped, and smelling of spilled beer. Moving through the crowd, half of which seem to be deadtiming, you spot a fireplace with a banjowood carving on the mantle, you also make out through the haze the curving bar and private booths hidden behind ferns. A side door leading to a patio outside reveals a hungry looking dumpster mimic sneaking towards an unsuspecting customer.

Trog's is a single location that exists simultaneously in the cities of Town and Inside. Somehow. It's best not to question it.


Staff:
Owner and Proprietor: Trog
Manager: El Jaspero
Bartenders: Zee, Phoebe, Ashna, Ambrosia

Trog's Tavern hires only the finest NPC servers:
((Since all are NPCs they are up for communal control. Feel free to say what they do or say to you or any other patron. To a point.))

Bouncer: Baby (NPC, a dwarf who was raised by orcs and has the intellect of Thog.)

Servers:
Nina - A fiesty and vivacious tiefling. Mean, self-centered and completely unavailable. You may have seen her recently on the WotC 4E cartoon.
Paige - A sweet, wholesome, flirty elf working her way through PC school.
Cosmo - A quick-witted and oppressed gnome scoundrel. Truly a monster. RAWR!

DRINK MENU:
Wines:
Catoblepas Sauvingnon
Chimera Cabernet - A hearty red with a hits of oak and black cherry.
Chuul Lounge - Bacardi Limon, Aberration , creme de bananes and juices into a Chuul shaker half-filled with ice cubes. Shake well. Strain into a highball glass half-filled with ice cubes, and serve.
Constitution Crushing Wine - Fort. DC 35 or pass out!
Cormyrian Fireamber - Imported and very good.
Eladrin Carbernet - Official Feywine of the Wild Hunt
Feline's Fancy - A purplish, swirly mixture that any feline will adore.
Funky Llama - A rich fruity wine, available in white or red.
Iames Agonia - This tart, dark red wine will stun you and leave you feeling good for hours.
Kobold Chianti - Tart. Tangy. Shifty.
Merfolk Merlot - Full-bodied with a hint of rose.
Powerlust Pinot - For those corruptable humans
Shadar-Kai Shadowine - Served in a jagged, broken glass
Spoonake Chablis - Straight from the Underdark!
Warlock Wine - Best served cold
Xorn Zinfandel - Sweet and fruity!

Mixed Drinks:
Aboleth Absinthe - Far Realmilicious!
Black Shadow - A strong concoction guaranteed to send a chill down your spine at any temperature.
Coffee Martini - Buzzzzz.
Djinn and Tonic - Whirling ice cubes, fizzy soda, and one drunk genie.
Dragon Liver Buster - Strongest drink in the house
Dwarf Spirits
Fire Archon Asylum Rum - "FAAR!!!"
Haley's Liquer - Named for the redheaded rogue, a sweet creme liquer, excellent over ice.
Hemo Colada - 100% less coconut, 100% more ichor
Ice Liquer - From the Plane of Ice: guaranteed to cool you down.
Ichor Liquor - Made from a fermented mix of various kinds of blood
Jasphattan - El J's Secret Recipie, vermouth & bitters
LEVEL UP LIQUER - Need a few extra XP? We gots XP in a bottle!
Long Island Iced Tea - Tastes better than it will make you feel in the morning
Murderita - Wasted away again...
Piña CoLlama - If you're not into yoga and have half a brain.
Rampaging Rail Mixer - Mad strong!
Rust Monster - Scotch, drambuie shaken in a wooden mixer.
Sneak on the Beach - Peach vodka, cran-pineapple juice, a cat hair
Swampwater - Phosphorescent lemon-lime
White Russian Wukei - for bounty hunters who dig dairy
Wizard Blizzard - Crushed ice and Bourbon. The effect depends on the spell stored in it.

Beers & Such:
Ales: Archon, Guilders, Balthor's Best
Grim Brewery Ginger Beer - Death-o-licious!
Mind Flayer Mead - Mmm... brains.

Other Fine Beverages:
Celestial Soda Pop - Soda specially brewed in Celestia. Tastes divine.
Darknight Coffee - cream has no effect
Dragon's Fire Breath (cherry Kool-Aid) - for the kids!
Fox Cola - the choice of the furry generation
Llamonade - That cool, refreshing drink for quadrupeds
Oni Tea - From the far east.
Red Minotaur Energy Drink - a-MAZE-ing energy!
Root Beer
Save vs. Slow Slurpees™ - C-c-c-cold
Hot Chocolate - Mmmmmmarshmallows

MUNCHIES MENU:
AbyssalNuts - damned and spicy
Baked Goods - Scones and Muffins and Brownies oh my! We have no cake - the cake is a lie!
Bamhacon - where the ham meets the bacon. Served with eggs.
Court of Stars Salad - Fresh fey greens
Hero Sandwiches - what else? Served with Villain vinegrette
Velvet Elfish - Trogtilla chips and hot meat and cheese dip
Yuan-ti Gyros - Lamb. Or halfling. We're not sure.
Trog's Floor Chili - Don't ask Trog where it came from and Trog won't tell you "the floor"


SMOKABLES:
Dwarven Cigars - From our axe-hewn humidor
Coffin Nail™ Cigarettes - Get Nailed!
Halfling Pipeweed - Bogart™ brand

((When this thread reaches page 50, anyone can make the next thread. However, if you want to make changes to the OP, please check in the OOC thread first to make sure everyone agrees.))

[Morty]

"Yeah, I'd say." Jared point at Dyna. "Something that looks like her showed up out of nowhere. Turned her, Mister Fish, and a bunch of other people into, well, that. Only some of them turned back. Me and a couple other people fought the thing off."

Oh? I might have helped if I'd been there. I have some... experience in dealing with supernatural monsters. Right now I'm more worried about the fact that I have no home, no friends and no possessions here.

[Zefir]

"Well, people follow Dalachrech because He can stop famine by directing locusts, grasshoppers, aphids and other invertebrate herbivores that eat alot away from agriculturally cultivated areas to places where they do less harm. He also stops the spread of disease by controlling the numbers of mosquitoes in an area, which prevents malaria, yellow fever and many other similar diseases. Likewise, He can punish the unfaithful by directing those creatures towards their agricultural areas and densely populated urban centres. He rarely does that, however, as that can alienate the remaining faithful in an area. Those that are especially faithful are rewarded, if He feels them worthy, with clerical magic which they can use to exert more localised control on His creatures. As a god, Dalachrech cannot focus on regions smaller than countries without neglecting other regions, so He relies on His priests to direct His ire in individual cities, counties and other administrative areas." I don't have as much information as I should about the tenets of Dalachrechianism, I'm afraid.

It is enougth for people who have never heared of her befor I think.

"You mean if I join I I'm able to controll these invertebrates?"

"Wait, really? I'm the first person you've met? Ever?"

Anyu looks a bit perplexed. She'd never been the first person someone met before. Had this person been... locked up his entire life?

Zefir laugths.

“You missunderstand. You are the first nice woman I ever met. Well, to be true it is not very hard, because most woman wanz me dead in my world.

And they still wait.

[Rebonack]

Oh!

The pile of Phat Lewt is still here!

It's a nice big heap of money of various forms. Though more importantly there will be some magical items buried in there somewhere! No doubt nifty stuff for those who took part in the encounter to use in future adventures!

But don't take anything if you didn't help fight off the malevolent mare. Otherwise bad things might result.

Anywho!

Dyna is behind the counter, still clad in a Trog's Tavern apron and still a pretty pony. She's fixing some bacon! And yes. We're talking actual bacon here. How she's managing to fiddle with that frying pan when she has hooves instead of hands isn't immediately clear.

[Gullara]

"Yeah, me too. It's just me, Mister Fish, and the clothes on my back." Just saying it must have made it sink in, because Jared is frowning now.

"Oh! Wait one sec. I was gonna check out that pile of money. You can have some if you need it." And with that Jared goes to sift through the pile of lewt.

[Morty]

But... doesn't it belong to somebody?

[Rebonack]

Darn straight it belongs to someone!

Belongs to anyone who partook in the Random Encounter!

Jared begins the task of sifting through the Lewt heap. Inside he'll find a number of no doubt interesting artifacts! Amidst all the random money-type things there's a jeweled conch shell...

A single sapphire blue scale about the size of a silver dollar.

A crystal decanter filled with black fluid.

A black leather belt with a silver lion's head as a buckle.

And a set of unremarkable looking horse shoes. They're a bit on the small side.

Dyna perks up a bit as Jared begins digging through the heap of stuff. "Oooh! A Lewt pile! I forgot to check if there's anything I can use in there!"

[Gullara]

"Well it appeared after we killed that thing, so I figure I can have some. Besides, it's been sitting there a while an no one's claimed it. Go right ahead and grab some." He goes back to searching.

"Ooh." Jared spots the belt. His pants have been hanging a bit loose. He picks it up and puts it on. "This is nice."

He looks over to Dyna. "Well there's these." He picks up the horse shoes to shoe her. "Not sure if you need them now."

[Morty]

Oh. Sophie gives Jared, Dyna and the pile of lewt a disapproving look. Well, I didn't kill... whatever it was, so I'll stay away from those things.

[Earl of Purple]

"Maybe one day. It takes a lot of faith, and Dalachrech needs to find you suitable for the honour, and He does not choose lightly. It will take time before Dalachrech grants you the honour of control over His creatures." That's true, partially. So far every PC to visit the Temple has been chosen as worthy to become a priest.

[Rebonack]

Jared has acquired the Belt of Zemhidar! As soon as he puts it on he'll instantly gain knowledge of both its use and function. The wearer of the belt can call upon the strength and courage of every great hero that has worn it before him whilst endowing his weapon of choice with a power and might which the bards will sing tales of for ages to come!

In practical terms he'll be able to whack people with Mister Fish a bit harder.

Dyna peers at those horse shoes.

Then lifts up one of her front hooves and frowns at it.

"Yeah... I guess I probably will. I'm not sure how long this is going to last. Or if I'll even be able to mutate myself back. No sense in letting my feet get torn up on the street!" and with that she trots over to take the horse shoes.

Yay!

[Gullara]

Jared stuffs is pockets with gratuitous amounts of cold, hard cash. I can guarantee it'll be gone within a week. Jared is very bad at saving money. He'll probably buy something ridiculous, like a crushed velvet Austen Powers suit.

He returns to the bar feeling like a manly man with his new belt. A manly man that does manly things.

"If you say so." He says to Sophie. Although he was only referring to the cash. "So what do you think you're going to do now?"

[Morty]

I have no idea. She sighs. Back home, I used to be a gardener and a social worker... and a hunter of monsters. She adds as a bit of an afterthought. I suppose I could still put my abilities to use somehow.

[Rebonack]

Dyna eyes the horse shoes uncertainly.

She... hasn't ever actually done anything with horses before. They were never really her thing. And as such she hasn't the faintest idea what to do with the shoes. While she's aware that they go on the bottom of the hooves that's essentially the extent of her knowledge.

The pretty pony places a hoof atop a shoe. Wiggles it back and forth a bit.

Which of course does absolutely nothing toward adhering it to her foot.

"Eerr..." the eldritch pwny glances about at the tavern at large. "Does anyone know how to put these things on? I've never done this before..."

"Oi..." sighs a dwarf at a nearby table. "Ye nail 'em on, lass."

Dyna's eyes go wide at that. "Nail them? As in nail them to my feet? Is that... is that even safe?"

[Gullara]

"That's kind of a strange combination of jobs." Jared remarks. "Makes you very employable though. I'm sure you can find some sort of job."

"You want something to eat? My treat."

[Lemonus]

"Is there any chance of a random encounter soon? I'm bored, and I could use some phat lewt"

[Morty]

I was a social worker when I... recieved the call and went to hunt... or help monsters. It's a long story. And something to eat would be nice. Could I get a Greek salad?

[Gullara]

Poor Dyna. That's going to be uncomfortable.

He'll order a Greek salad and a ham sandwich. Of course, if Dyna is busy with her horseshoe problem Cosmo will have to do it.

"Huh, that's interesting. I've got time for a long story if you do."

Hope you have that backstory worked out.

[Rebonack]

Dyna tries simply standing on all four of the shoes at once. No sooner does she make contact with all of them do the metallic shoes attach themselves whilst sending a delicate mithril weave creeping up the pwny's legs. She blinks once.

Twice.

The sorta wiggles one hoof in mid air. "Oooh... These should come in handy!"

An ear twitches as the monkey begins speaking. And in the blink of any eye Dyna's full attention has turned to him. "No! Don't say that you're-"

Flashing lights descend from the ceiling as klaxons begin to sound through the tavern! A rather forboding pixelated portal swirls into existence in preparation for the trial that is about to being.

Warning! Random Encounter™ detected!
Warning! Random Encounter™ detected!

"-bored..." the pretty pony face-hoofs with a sigh.

[Hyozo]

Arltir looks over the pile of Lewts which appeared when the pony was slain. Somewhat cautiously, he picks up the jeweled shell to examine closer. "it seems I have quite a bit to learn about this "nexus" place."

And then another random encounter interrupts him. Great...

[Morty]

I do.
Sophie sighs again. Oh, well. She might as well share her life story with this guy. She really wants to talk to someone.
Well... I come from a place called France. Most of my life was normal. I finished school, then college, I took up gardening and then became a social worker. I really wanted to do something to help someone, you know. It was a thankless job and I was stripped of my illusions pretty quickly... but I think it was worth it. Anyhow, one evening I went to visit one of the people in my custody... the door was open but noone answered. I entered, hoping that she'd gotten herself dead drunk again... but she hadn't. When I entered her room, there was a... creature sucking blood out of her. Initially, I froze in shock but then I felt as if I was blinded by light and I heard a voice. It was my voice, only a little... different. It said "You're here to help. You're the only one who can help." And I raised my hand and yelled "No, stop!"... and the creature stopped. Dragged itself off the woman and looked at me in shock, as if it couldn't believe I can see it and forced it to do something. Then it fled and I patched up the woman. I told the authorities she'd hurt herself after drinking too much. At first, I thought I was going insane, but I wasn't. There were more people like me... Sophie pauses to catch her breath and/or allow for interruptions.

[Shadowcaller]

An figure that surely would look very strange in any other tavern enters Trog's. Here however, it looks quite normal compared to many of the things living around here.
It's either a very large goblin or a quite short orc with pure black skin wearing a strange mask on it's face.



It's upper body have no clothing or adornments beyond a necklace made of bones with a rather large human-looking skull where you normally would find the jewel. It looks rather thin with long bony fingers gripping a heavy-looking brown leather bag.

It's lower body is dressed in a Lavalava which covers most of it's legs.

The figure stops once it's half-ways to the bar and peers around the tavern, the eyes looking out of the mask pure red, giving it somewhat of a evil look. The creature suddenly utters a strange chuckling sound and continues towards the bar where it promptly picks out a huge pipe from it's bag.

Then it starts to stuff said pipe with various plants which it then lits on fire creating a smoke that quickly spreads through the tavern as the creature starts to puff the pipe.

The smoke is nauseating to say at least.

[The Alexandrian]

Anthony Rowan strides into the tavern. He is wearing a grand smirk across his face. At least until he spots the portal and hears the sirens, upon which he exclaims,

"Did you guys break the world or something?"

He points at the patrons of the tavern in an over-dramatic, accusatory manner.

[Earl of Purple]

Lurking under a table is what may be a familiar site to regular patrons, especially if they've been bitten. The creature is the height of a halfling, and half again as long. It is covered in green feathers, from the tip of its distorted nose to the end of its feline tail, apart from the wasplike stinger at the end. It has a pair of almost-wings upon its back, and its head is strangely shaped. The head is ratlike, much the body's general shape, but the head is distorted by piglike teeth. It is staring out from its hidy-hole with ice-blue eyes, listening with wolflike (yet feathered) ears and super-hearing, with its slightly telepathic mind listening for other beings with telepathic ability. Two feet to the left of it is another, illusory copy that is completely identical, apart from the lack of a mind to search for telepaths and other magical/psionic abilities of the original.

[Gullara]

"You actually finished high school and college? Huh." Jared comments, surprised for some reason. He then focuses on the important part of the story.

"Wow, that's crazy." He doesn't say anything else. He does wonder if this monster is some kind of pokemon. Silly pokemon universe.

[Rebonack]

Did someone seriously summon a Random Encounter and then leave?

That's just rude!

And possibly inconsiderate, too!

Make a mess and leave other people to clean it up.

The nerve!

A metallic ball drops out of the portal and slams into the floor, splintering wood and reducing an otherwise innocent bar-stool to little more than a shattered mess. It's perhaps a meter across, its surface etched with deep seams and pockmarked with tiny craters. Unfriendly looking spikes stick out here and there at various angles.

...now it's just sitting there. Not doing much.

Dyna glares at the thing, her horn suddenly bathed in an aura of white radiance and black mist.

[Earl of Purple]

The metal ball gets a lot of attention from the two strange creatures under the table. Well, one strange creature and one magical projection of the strange creature. It is trying to see if the thing is telepathic, although that would make things really bad. So much attention, that the creature creeps up to take a sniff of it with its ratlike nose. Its sense of smell is as good as a rat's, not that I know how that compares with a human's. The creature and its illusory duplicate (which is slightly blurred, and more block-like with colours, and doesn't walk, rather gliding) are trying to decide whether the metal orb is alive or not.

[Lemonus]

"What! That's it?! I want to fight!"

[Rebonack]

The rat-thing sniffs at the pointy ball!

It may or may not be alive. It doesn't particularly smell like it is, honestly. It just smells like... well... steel, actually. Not even some kind of spooky magical metal. Simply plain old fashioned steel. There are no psionic emanations wafting out of it. Nor any magical signature.

It appears to be nothing more than a dangerously pointy three foot wide hunk of mundane metal.

The alien picks up the pretty shell! He has acquired the Voice of the Sea! With this amazing artifact he can command sea life! Aqua Man would no doubt be jealous.

...what?

They can't all be amazing.

Dyna scowls at the impatient ape. "Ooooh you'll get your fight alright. Just you wait," she admonishes. "Any time anypony complains about being bored these Random Encounters show up. And there's never been a single one that's been harmless. I doubt they're going to be starting now all of a sudden."

Suddenly!

There comes a hiss of steam as the seams around one of the spikes split apart, the spine extending on the end of a long spidery leg before touching down on the floor.

[Lemonus]

The monkey immediately rushes at the spidery leg, and attempts to slice it with his swords.