[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXLIII

[5a Violista]

The Battle Music continues!

The man with the all-black eyes throws menacing glances at NPCs who are in the background.
Not that they notice, though, 'cuz they're in the background.

And then, he flips over a table, spilling over a hotdog and a Large Drink!

Unfortunately, though, he can't find any cats.

[ThirdEmperor]

Ah, that soulful melody of adventure, derring and do, calling all brave souls forth to battle, to the vanquishing of evil and the looting of stuff. Three tables and a small anomaly in space-time over it reaches a fitting hero, ears perking up at the familiar tune, their owner lifting the brim of his dark blue stars-n-moon wizard hat to peer out at the ongoing ruckus in search of the cause.

Ah, and what's this? A man with shadowy eyes the color of pitch, terrorizing townsfolk with toppled tables? Avast! Hark! Heed! This calls for a hero's help! Indeed. Sweeping his table clean of emptied mugs and twice-licked plates, the wizard vaults upon it, pointing forth an accusatory finger!

"Cease with thy knavery, ne'er-do-well, lest I be forced to insure you ne'er do anything ever again!"

[5a Violista]

??? turns his look from the NPCs to the Wizard, and he roars! "Grrrraaaaaugh!"

His fingernails seem to grow (black, of course - he is Shadow element) into sharp claws, and he starts a charge towards the Wizard!

Luckily, he was far enough away that the Wizard has time to do something before the Charge hits.

[ThirdEmperor]

Does shouting 'stop' ever work?

"Spear!" With that dubiously magic word the wizard thrusts one hand into the air, ripples flowing through the fabric of existence around him and stealing an atom here, an atom there, with which to conjure forth a spear forged of purest silver into the outstretched hand.

Said spear is promptly jabbed stabby-end first towards the charging elemental, set to run it through by it's own momentum should it not change course.

[5a Violista]

The ??? ceases not to charge! (After all, it's a little hard to slash at stuff if you don't get close to it.) He impales himself onto the spear, right through the stomach.
17 damage!
(HP 116/137, MP 40/52)

But now, due to the spear lodged in his gut, he's within attacking range.

??? growls, and, with sweat tricking down his forehead, he makes his way a step or two closer to the wizard, as he pushes himself even further up the spear shaft.
Once he's close enough, he makes a swipe with the left clawhand, and with the right, he makes an uppercut punch.

[ThirdEmperor]

Yikes. That's one tough critter.

Really throwing his shoulder into it, the wizard tries to shove his foe back before it can reach him to attack, letting go of the spear at the apex in an attempt to send the the dark-eyed man staggering into one of the nearby tables.

[5a Violista]

He is unable to swipe successfully!

The Shadow-eyed man is thrown backwards and a chair hits him just behind the knees, causing him to stumble backwards and fall flat on his back...which, added to the spear's movement, causes additional damage. (3 damage!)

To get rid of the spear, he pulls it out...as the spearhead tears out his flesh, it once again causes more damage to him. (5 damage!)

HP 108/137, MP 41/52. (MP naturally regenerates, albeit at a slow rate)

Now that it's his turn to attack, his eyes start glowing even blacker, and his bloody stomach wound starts bleeding shadow mist. (He's still lying on the ground.)

He uses his turn to charge a Magical attack!

((Bye! I'll be back in an hour.
Probably.))

[Reinholdt]

((The cactus' reaction was just because of the large amount of movement and vibration Nadas caused. Sorry for making you think you had to wait for me.))

Shayan looks on as the two continue their confrontation, taking note that Vriveka seems to be the only one hit by the spines of the cactus. She'd be the one to watch later then, if Shayan wanted to study the long term effects of this.

Then chitin and fire happens, and she shrinks back a bit instinctively even though she's far enough away not to feel the heat. Fire is a pain to deal with on the best of days, and if her test subject is burned to a crisp, then that means she's going to have to wait for someone else to go thumping about like a big ox.

Virveka takes a fireball to the face and stumbles off her chair. A bit of flailing and excited exclamations later and she appears to have completely forgotten Nadas, while trying to put out the fire.

"...barbeque- hey, how long have I been bleeding?"

Her hair is still on fire, but right now she's examining the damage to her shoulders and the places that the needles pierced her tank top... Nadas could probably get away right now if he hurries.

Nadas is up and leaving in a surprisingly agile and expedient manner, calling on his demon blood perhaps more than he has to.

[Lady Serpentine]

He is unable to swipe successfully!

The Shadow-eyed man is thrown backwards and a chair hits him just behind the knees, causing him to stumble backwards and fall flat on his back...which, added to the spear's movement, causes additional damage. (3 damage!)

To get rid of the spear, he pulls it out...as the spearhead tears out his flesh, it once again causes more damage to him. (5 damage!)

HP 108/137, MP 41/52. (MP naturally regenerates, albeit at a slow rate)

Now that it's his turn to attack, his eyes start glowing even blacker, and his bloody stomach wound starts bleeding shadow mist. (He's still lying on the ground.)

He uses his turn to charge a Magical attack!

((Bye! I'll be back in an hour.
Probably.))

An eight foot tall four armed humanoid, with four fingers on each hand, set equidistant from a central point, and a long tail, covered in black chitin and bony spikes, is sitting at the table that the man just fell next to, and stands, trying to place his foot on ???'s chest and step down, hoping to use his five hundred or so pounds to crush him.

[Mina Kobold]

Louis nods, all there is to say about that matter. Which brings a previously skipped matter to mind.

"Would you like help searching for a job?" he asks Meli.

Meli nods back, cheerful while writing.

"Thank you. I do need help finding one. I am not sure if I have had one before."

Pausing and showing the notebook to Louis, Meli seems to realise something. Writing on, the bear-pawed Elf inquires.

"Do you think it will be a problem that I only have one arm? I do have wings, but I am not sure if that will help."

Shifting a bit, Meli holds up part of the cloak to reveal that there are indeed wings beneath it. The many-limbed chimera seems a bit shy about them, however.

[Lost_Deep]

Vriveka lets Nadas go, as she is preoccupied with the punctures.

Said punctures suddenly heal as if nothing had happened. The seeds will be digests quickly, most likely. She will then get up, turn around, and fall flat on her face.

Bipedal locomotion is hard.

[Hattish Thing]

A rather funny looking man around 35 strides inside. He's wearing a yellow tabard, yellow cape, and a green shirt with brown pants. He has black boots and black shades that cover his eyes. He is bald and has only a few strands of hair left. He brandishes a rifle that's bright yellow. Rick Brutal moves to the room, and notices the fight going on! He'll shout out, Never fear! For Rick Brutal is here! He'll begin to take aim at the creature, but then falls over his own cape and hits his head on a chair, slumping tot he floor.

[ThirdEmperor]

Seizing a mug of frothy ale from a passing waitress's tray, the wizard sloshes the stuff at the shadow-beast, following it up with a snap of his fingers to conjure a brilliant green flame into being. "Gonna surrender, or do I have to make you BURN?"

[Me.]

Samantha successfully removed a needle from the plant, and immediately notes the hissing noise from it. She then pulls out a microscope from her bag (because what woman doesn't carry one everywhere?) and sets about to studying the needle, trying to uncover important facts about the plant. (ex: Species, real or magical, what it's purpose is, reproduction, feeding, habitat, life-span, etc.)

Samuel meanwhile listens closely to the conversations happening nearby. He mostly listens in on the Grig and the Drow, taking notes and such. When he hears the vine-lady mention using humans as test-dummies, he is immediately infuriated, but controls his impulses and goes back to listening to the other two, though he does try to send her a nasty glare. He is surprised when the two turn violent, but fights back the urge to react and continues to look all innocent and such, sipping tea and remaining as discreet as possible. (Of course, all this listening is under the assumption that he is able to do so, which he should be unless there is interference of some sort (magic, distance, etc.)

[OrchestraHc]

Meli nods back, cheerful while writing.

"Thank you. I do need help finding one. I am not sure if I have had one before."

Pausing and showing the notebook to Louis, Meli seems to realise something. Writing on, the bear-pawed Elf inquires.

"Do you think it will be a problem that I only have one arm? I do have wings, but I am not sure if that will help."

Shifting a bit, Meli holds up part of the cloak to reveal that there are indeed wings beneath it. The many-limbed chimera seems a bit shy about them, however.

Wait she has one arm? I thought she just had bear paws and lion legs. "That depends on the job really. If your job was like, picking fruit, it'd probably be a help. Missing an arm might hinder you, but I'm sure there's a job you can get with only one. Do you know what skills you have?"

[Chas the mage]

Chas the grungy elf hippie, along with his handsome, rich and classy human friend Aether undeadtime at the bar, smoking fat cigars. Chas has procured several bracelets, mostly of a hemp weave, and several new patches to his deep brown vest - as well as a tie-dye under it. Aether appears to have a new suit, with matching cuff links.

[Gnrlshrimp]

"If you ever run out of handy animals to work with, I'd be happy to help you move on to other subjects. Sedatives and restraints usually keep the messier bits of research from being as much of a problem." The vine-lady replies happily.

Meanwhile, Nadas' flurry of movement triggers the cactus on his table! It shoots a flurry of spines at him as he bolts from his chair, as well as at Vriveka when the book thunks into her face solidly. Shayan looks interested to see the result and cranes her neck slightly in their direction.

Edit: I have been double-ninja'd, but this bit of action should have happened just as Nadas was being snagged, but before the chitin (if the chitin happened at all)

"Oh, there's always some animal in need of improvement. My interview with Magtok when I joined has given me some wonderful ideas for bears that I'll probably get to work on next. But some day, perhaps, it might be worth doing some things with people. I'm sure there's some ways I can be improved." Isabelle smiles thoughtfully, briefly pondering what parts of her own body could be improved.

And then stuff happens.

"Odd person, isn't she? Doesn't look like your plant's thorns are going to do much to her though. See how fast those wounds have healed?"

[Slii Arhem]

"Yes, well, they can't all be perfect test subjects." Shayan agrees, giving up Vriveka as a loss even as her next fall prompts the cactus to shoot another shower of spines at the back of her head.

"Improving yourself is probably the main reason to develop a safe way of improving humans, yes. Although once these discoveries are made there's no reason not to share them. If you'd like to see some of my own efforts in improving things using plants, I would be happy to let you tour around my labs in Atlantis. It might even inspire you on your work with the bears."

[Mina Kobold]

Wait she has one arm? I thought she just had bear paws and lion legs. "That depends on the job really. If your job was like, picking fruit, it'd probably be a help. Missing an arm might hinder you, but I'm sure there's a job you can get with only one. Do you know what skills you have?"

(Meli originated in a plot by Beans that centred around a group of lab test subjects, so the limbs are a bit odd. Sorries. Meli has one bear arm, lion's feet, wings and a mechanical eye, but is lacking the other arm. ^_^')

Meli carefully considers the question before replying, recalling the journey from underground labs to Inside's streets. Glancing around at the manifold species in Trog's before replying.

"I'm not sure. I can't do magic, but think I am a good runner and I got my balance back very quickly. I do remember riding, archery and writing much, but I am not sure if I can use that here."

Meli smiles optimistically.

[5a Violista]

The battle continues! With added fight music, theme 2

An eight foot tall four armed humanoid, with four fingers on each hand, set equidistant from a central point, and a long tail, covered in black chitin and bony spikes, is sitting at the table that the man just fell next to, and stands, trying to place his foot on ???'s chest and step down, hoping to use his five hundred or so pounds to crush him.

(Sorry, you posted just after my internet connection was lost into the abyss, so I couldn't reply. Thankfully, I am now back at school between classes, so there is a connection here.)

???, who looks entirely human expect for the eyes, the shadow claws, and the deadly-looking wound in his chest, is successfully stepped on by the HEAVY character. Even though his chest is reinforced by Shadow, it starts to buckle under the weight of the character. His bones start cracking, slightly. (-5 HP)

Luckily for ???, he finishes his Shadow-type spell just before the quarter-ton man crushes his rib cage! (-30 MP) He stops talking that magical gibberish, and black tentacles wreathe up from the floorboards, and pull him under, pushing a mere shadow of this man - a true Shadow Beast - into life underneath HEAVY character's crushing boot.
(??? -5 HP, -30 MP; new foe created! Beast 40/40 HP, currently unable to move or attack, being stepped on by C'nor's character, but not damaged by crushing, due to not being made out of flesh and bone; just materialized shadow)

A rather funny looking man around 35 strides inside. He's wearing a yellow tabard, yellow cape, and a green shirt with brown pants. He has black boots and black shades that cover his eyes. He is bald and has only a few strands of hair left. He brandishes a rifle that's bright yellow. Rick Brutal moves to the room, and notices the fight going on! He'll shout out, Never fear! For Rick Brutal is here! He'll begin to take aim at the creature, but then falls over his own cape and hits his head on a chair, slumping tot he floor.

[Announcer: "Rick Brutal enters the brawl!" He is no longer in the background, where all the NPCs and non-combat characters are.]

Seizing a mug of frothy ale from a passing waitress's tray, the wizard sloshes the stuff at the shadow-beast, following it up with a snap of his fingers to conjure a brilliant green flame into being. "Gonna surrender, or do I have to make you BURN?"

The Shadow Tentacles push ??? out of the floor, just in front of the Wizard. Just over 1 meter (3.3 feet?) in front of the wizard. The man seems to come out of the shadows. He says in a brute, forced voice, "You first. Then I'll..." and, for the sake of drama, his sentence is interrupted by ale! He is completely splashed upon by the ale. (No HP damage, but humiliation is good enough.) He is caught surprised, though.

??? HP 103/137, MP 11/52.
Beast HP 40/40, MP 15/15

((Did I miss anyone? If so, shout out.))

[Lost_Deep]

"Yes, well, they can't all be perfect test subjects." Shayan agrees, giving up Vriveka as a loss even as her next fall prompts the cactus to shoot another shower of spines at the back of her head.

Alas, the cactus is blocked by the table. Who knows how she would react to spines in the brain...

In any case, Vriveka pulls herself back up and uses the spidery limbs to walk away, seeing as her legs are too unreliable. She heads out the door, not chasing Nadas but instead getting away from all the people and the cactus.

That's not to say that the cactus isn't cool, it's just annoying.

[ThirdEmperor]

"Welp." Sticking his thumb and index fingers out at a sharp right angle to make a little finger gun, the wizard point it his opponent's way and 'fires', the hovering flame leaping towards the ale-soaks elemental!

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Are you only interested in human test subjects then? Is this why you've put them in Trog's? Because suitable animal test subjects are pretty easy to find." Isabelle should know, she gets 'em by the barrelful.

"I'm not so sure about there being no reason not to share any discoveries I make. That is a matter to consider after making any discoveries, though. I don't know how much I'd understand if you showed me your lab, but I'm sure I'd find it interesting. So I'll happily take you up on that offer." Isabelle already has a good idea what she's going to do with bears, but who knows? Perhaps a little tour could give her some ideas for the next project after bears.

[Lady Serpentine]

The Honn-Tyr, seemingly emotionless, as always, reaches into its belt and draws out an odd looking device, which, after a moment, it fires at the Beast, revealing it to be a combination infrared/visible spectrum laser; it's powerful enough to turn a human torso to ash with a few bits of bones mixed in in one shot, should it be at full power and hit cleanly.

[Slii Arhem]

"Let me put it another way. The benefits of sharing your discoveries with your peers can far outweigh those of exclusivity. Without another mind and set of hands working with me, I wouldn't be nearly as far as I am with my own work. I'm hoping that introducing you as another fresh perspective will bring me even further along. In fact, it already has. Testing these cacti on animals would be sufficient so long as I have a way to monitor their moods later, and I wouldn't have thought of such a simple solution on my own." She admits, somewhat ashamed of her absent-mindedness.

[OrchestraHc]

(Meli originated in a plot by Beans that centred around a group of lab test subjects, so the limbs are a bit odd. Sorries. Meli has one bear arm, lion's feet, wings and a mechanical eye, but is lacking the other arm. ^_^')

Meli carefully considers the question before replying, recalling the journey from underground labs to Inside's streets. Glancing around at the manifold species in Trog's before replying.

"I'm not sure. I can't do magic, but think I am a good runner and I got my balance back very quickly. I do remember riding, archery and writing much, but I am not sure if I can use that here."

Meli smiles optimistically.

Louis tries to think carefully about a job for her, but his world just doesn't have jobs for that sort of thing. "I don't know what sort of jobs you could get with those skills. I'm sure there's something, but my world doesn't use many archers. Were you a warrior back in your world? That might be useful. It might even use your wings." He offers the idea to keep her spirits up.

[McBish]

Kayla, a young human doctor, walks into the tavern and takes a seat at the bar ordering a drink looking slightly upset about something.

[Earl of Purple]

A hobgoblin with dark orange skin sidles up next to Kayla. He's wearing a long, black trench coat with the collar up and a wide-brimmed black hat is pulled low over his face. "Would you like some pixie dust? It's guaranteed to make you smile."

[Chas the mage]

Chas watches as the hobgoblin offers pixie dust as he inhales thick smoke from his fat cigar.

[McBish]

Kayla is surprised to find a strange hobgoblin offering her pixie dust.

"And what exactly is Pixie dust?"

She wouldn't be surprised to find it being some sort of drug rather then a magical item.