[Nexus] Trog's Tavern CCXLIII

[Slii Arhem]

"Also horrifying. He's is a helpfully horrifying squirrel." Shayan chimes in pleasantly. from her seat at the table. Then, for lack of a better thing to do, she picks up the cactus at her table with one of her vines and chucks it at Stu's petals, trying to get it to stick.

"And every rose has its thorn." She singsongs.

[Reinholdt]

"Bitch."
Ignoring the ferrets chomping away at his power suit's leg joints for a second, he turns the flamethrower on Isabelle. Stu didn't see any red glow envelope her.

An entire cactus plant is just going to tear through Stu's petals and flop out on the other side. Stu's not that particularly big, nor is his petals strong or anything.
Stu does scream in pain in response to his petals being attacked though. If he wasn't busy trying to burn Isabelle, Shayan would be next.

[Hattish Thing]

Rick Brutal adjusts his large shades before turning to ??? He smiles and pulls the trigger on his rifle, an exploding bullet comes rocketting out, and will most likely hit, unless something strange happens and he ends up missing.

[5a Violista]

Now that Beast is no longer stepped on, it would freely get itself up!
That is, if its arm wasn't missing. It struggles to get up, something that is a little hard when you're missing the top right half of your body.

Next turn, of course, it'll be able to get up.

The computer scanner is able to reveal some information about the Shadow Beast! It looks fairly humanoid. It seems to have Mayan origins (assuming the computer has access to Earth Archeological reports). Its body is made of a rare material which seems to have a shadowy substance to it. The best description would be a fleshy shadow, ever so slightly immaterial due to not being in direct sunlight. The loss of the face obviously did not impair it, so its vital organs must not be in the face, nor in the right arm.
May or may not be revealed by the computer: The more intense the beam of light, the more material the creature is. Must be a chemical reaction of some sort. The molecules have a fluid structure, only held together in a reasonable form because of surface tension, but each molecule travels up and down the body as if it were water or air molecules.


??? is damaged by fire! (-4 HP) His eyes now look entirely black, now, by the way. No reflection of the blue flame in him.
??? laughs at the feeble wizard's attempts to fight back. It sounds like a grotesque laugh, like one you would get from a horror film. "You lose," seems to come out of his mouth.
He now starts another magic spell.

Then, his spell is interrupted!
(Lucky wizard)

Rick Brutal's bullet reaches ??? on his left side, and the bullet explodes on impact. The little shards of metal tear and cut through his flesh. (15 damage - not quite as much as the spear, though...)
Bleeding, of course, doesn't happen as the same shadowy mist pours out of the wounds, keeping the blood in, just like in the spear's stomach wound.
Each little shard of metal is pushed out slowly of the bloodstream, and falls to the floor...but it definitely hurt.

Rather than quickly attacking the wizard, ??? glares at Rick Brutal for distracting him from his kill.


??? HP 69/137, MP 14/52. On Fire; hole in stomach
Beast HP 13/40, MP 12/15 missing a face and the right shoulder

[Chas the mage]

Chas pulls his revolver from his vest, slides out the cylinder and removes the empty shell, sliding in a shiny new .38 special round, while taking heavy inhales of his cigar, and questioning whether or not to involve himself.

[Lady Serpentine]

The Rayaat-Tyr does indeed have access to such reports, Earth having been conquered by the Tyr-whole several centuries ago.

Beast's origin, however, is ignored for now, as the alien quickly taps out a few sequences on the computer, which begins to emit a harsh, and extremely strong, white light a moment later; should it seem to solidify the thing, the Honn-Tyr will go to pick it up and start hauling it out of the tavern.

[Hattish Thing]

Now that Beast is no longer stepped on, it would freely get itself up!
That is, if its arm wasn't missing. It struggles to get up, something that is a little hard when you're missing the top right half of your body.

Next turn, of course, it'll be able to get up.

The computer scanner is able to reveal some information about the Shadow Beast! It looks fairly humanoid. It seems to have Mayan origins (assuming the computer has access to Earth Archeological reports). Its body is made of a rare material which seems to have a shadowy substance to it. The best description would be a fleshy shadow, ever so slightly immaterial due to not being in direct sunlight. The loss of the face obviously did not impair it, so its vital organs must not be in the face, nor in the right arm.
May or may not be revealed by the computer: The more intense the beam of light, the more material the creature is. Must be a chemical reaction of some sort. The molecules have a fluid structure, only held together in a reasonable form because of surface tension, but each molecule travels up and down the body as if it were water or air molecules.


??? is damaged by fire! (-4 HP) His eyes now look entirely black, now, by the way. No reflection of the blue flame in him.
??? laughs at the feeble wizard's attempts to fight back. It sounds like a grotesque laugh, like one you would get from a horror film. "You lose," seems to come out of his mouth.
He now starts another magic spell.

Then, his spell is interrupted!
(Lucky wizard)

Rick Brutal's bullet reaches ??? on his left side, and the bullet explodes on impact. The little shards of metal tear and cut through his flesh. (15 damage - not quite as much as the spear, though...)
Bleeding, of course, doesn't happen as the same shadowy mist pours out of the wounds, keeping the blood in, just like in the spear's stomach wound.
Each little shard of metal is pushed out slowly of the bloodstream, and falls to the floor...but it definitely hurt.

Rather than quickly attacking the wizard, ??? glares at Rick Brutal for distracting him from his kill.


??? HP 69/137, MP 14/52. On Fire; hole in stomach
Beast HP 13/40, MP 12/15 missing a face and the right shoulder

Rick Brutal smiles his best hero smile, hard to do when you have brown hair that already balding, a yellow cape, and shades on at once. Rick shouts out to the ???. Ha! Foul creature! It is I, the Great Rick Brutal! Slayer of the Dread Grundlekrunk, Vanquisher of the Crystal Lizard! Indomitable Savior of Medea! Fear me! Rick Brutal shows off the large amount of bling on his neck. These are all wards for my great deeds! I, who slayed the dragon Drignskdfgndlfkgn! ....I don't think that's a name Rick. I, the vanquisher of mighty creatures! Drow, Mind flayers, even demons fear me!Rick raises a fist in self-confidence before raising his yellow rifle. Surrender, and you shall be spared!

[ThirdEmperor]

Um, no Rick. No surrender given. Jerky McShadowpantses has already gotten his chance to give up and go quietly.

The wizard sings a silent prayer to his laughing gods as Rick's sends the beast reeling and extinguishes it's spell, taking this chance to cast his own. With a magic word beams of golden-yellow light leap from his open palm, twisting mid-air into tendrils like the limbs of an octopus.

Six move to ensnare and bind ???'s limbs, the seventh trying to wrap itself around it's legs and pull it to the floor, while the eight goes right past the shadow elemental, seizing the silver spear where it was discarded and yoinking it through the air back towards it's master.

Wizard is 64/75 HP, 61/100 MP

[5a Violista]

Beast is already solid enough to grab; not quite solid enough to crush under a boot, though. (Think: A pillow vs A sheet of Glass) The bright white light is able to 'harden' the Beast, at the cost of making him extraordinarily fragile, maybe with an arm shattering off and breaking. This only lasts as long as the bright light is on him. Once it's removed, he returns to the non-fragile slightly squishy state.
Either way, he is able to be picked up, and carried out the tavern. Entering the sunlight (or any similar bright light) will make him that fragile again...and he doesn't struggle.

It seems the bright light subdued him; similar to a deer in the headlights, unable to decide what to do, completely confusing him.
He's lifted up quite easily. In fact, he's not that heavy. (Relatively speaking.)


??? does not surrender; his attention is drawn away once more from Rick to the wizard by means of tendrils. Its legs are bound, along with the rest of the other two limbs. ??? struggles and snarls, but to no avail.

Then, ???'s head looks up to the Wizard's face.
Something different has happened!
Instead of having all-black eyes, both eyes are perfectly normal, though tired, blue eyes which seem to be shouting "Help me!".

That doesn't last more than a few moments, though; the darkness returns to the eyes and shuts out all human look to them.

Edit: The fire burns out, finally. (2 damage)


Beast is carried out the door! HP 13/40, MP 12/15
??? HP 67/137, MP 14/52. Bound

[Me.]

Samantha tries really hard not to pay any attention to the over -grown perv flower, but despite her better thinking and a glare of warning from her brother, she can't help but get involved.
She quickly takes off her glasses and tosses them back into her purse. She saunters over to the fight casually, observing the situation to try and find the best method for attack. She then looks to the other women engaged in the fight, and says casually "Ladies, if I may."
She gathers her energy before aiming her staff directly at the large floral sexist creature, and parts her lips "Lhach Elen."
As the Elvish words are spoken, a dozen or so tiny stars of white-hot fire escape from the tip of Samantha's staff. and point directly at Stu. After but a second, they launch towards him with remarkable speed, aiming for points all over his body. If hit, searing burns will ensue to torture the beast with pain. A few stray may hit the ferrets or the nearby casters, but Samantha took careful aim.

[Lady Serpentine]

Beast is already solid enough to grab; not quite solid enough to crush under a boot, though. (Think: A pillow vs A sheet of Glass) The bright white light is able to 'harden' the Beast, at the cost of making him extraordinarily fragile, maybe with an arm shattering off and breaking. This only lasts as long as the bright light is on him. Once it's removed, he returns to the non-fragile slightly squishy state.
Either way, he is able to be picked up, and carried out the tavern. Entering the sunlight (or any similar bright light) will make him that fragile again...and he doesn't struggle.

It seems the bright light subdued him; similar to a deer in the headlights, unable to decide what to do, completely confusing him.
He's lifted up quite easily. In fact, he's not that heavy. (Relatively speaking.)


??? does not surrender; his attention is drawn away once more from Rick to the wizard by means of tendrils. Its legs are bound, along with the rest of the other two limbs. ??? struggles and snarls, but to no avail.

Then, ???'s head looks up to the Wizard's face.
Something different has happened!
Instead of having all-black eyes, both eyes are perfectly normal, though tired, blue eyes which seem to be shouting "Help me!".

That doesn't last more than a few moments, though; the darkness returns to the eyes and shuts out all human look to them.

Edit: The fire burns out, finally. (2 damage)


Beast is carried out the door! HP 13/40, MP 12/15
??? HP 67/137, MP 14/52. Bound

Beast, should his passivity persist, will be hauled into a small craft outside, and flown off to the Home thread.

[Hattish Thing]

Beast is already solid enough to grab; not quite solid enough to crush under a boot, though. (Think: A pillow vs A sheet of Glass) The bright white light is able to 'harden' the Beast, at the cost of making him extraordinarily fragile, maybe with an arm shattering off and breaking. This only lasts as long as the bright light is on him. Once it's removed, he returns to the non-fragile slightly squishy state.
Either way, he is able to be picked up, and carried out the tavern. Entering the sunlight (or any similar bright light) will make him that fragile again...and he doesn't struggle.

It seems the bright light subdued him; similar to a deer in the headlights, unable to decide what to do, completely confusing him.
He's lifted up quite easily. In fact, he's not that heavy. (Relatively speaking.)


??? does not surrender; his attention is drawn away once more from Rick to the wizard by means of tendrils. Its legs are bound, along with the rest of the other two limbs. ??? struggles and snarls, but to no avail.

Then, ???'s head looks up to the Wizard's face.
Something different has happened!
Instead of having all-black eyes, both eyes are perfectly normal, though tired, blue eyes which seem to be shouting "Help me!".

That doesn't last more than a few moments, though; the darkness returns to the eyes and shuts out all human look to them.

Edit: The fire burns out, finally. (2 damage)


Beast is carried out the door! HP 13/40, MP 12/15
??? HP 67/137, MP 14/52. Bound

Rick Brutal frowns when no one listens to his obviously made-up accomplishments. Instead, the little man grumbles and fires his rifle again at the ??? Rick seems very upset now....he doesn't like being ignored. Fine, foul creature! Just rememebr, that you didn't take my offer!

Across the room, three young woman enter Trog's, they are all rather beautiful, and seem to be looking around for the one named Stu.

[Dimonite]

Behind the young ladies, a being of pure, opalescent light enters. It is shaped vaguely like an 8-foot-tall human, and has a certain aura of chill and corruption about it that one would not expect in something so beautiful. Ignoring the chaos around it, it walks through the women who entered before it, and goes up to the bar. "I want all of the alcohol that this will buy me," itsays, then reaches within itself and pulls out a handful of beautiful, glimmering diamonds.

[Gnrlshrimp]

"Bitch."
Ignoring the ferrets chomping away at his power suit's leg joints for a second, he turns the flamethrower on Isabelle. Stu didn't see any red glow envelope her.

An entire cactus plant is just going to tear through Stu's petals and flop out on the other side. Stu's not that particularly big, nor is his petals strong or anything.
Stu does scream in pain in response to his petals being attacked though. If he wasn't busy trying to burn Isabelle, Shayan would be next.

Oh dear. Stu is quite right, Isabelle did not think to protect herself from the flamethrower.

Thankfully, her animal friends are ever loyal to their mistress and would sacrifice themselves to defend her. As Stu turns the flamethrower, one of the ferrets jumps across, aiming to grab hold of the flamethrower and position itself right over the nozzle and take the full blast. In doing so, it gives Isabelle enough time to back off, but the red glow around the ferret fades rapidly.

Looks like a few seconds of sustained fire on a ferret will pop their shield. 'course, Stu is probably going to have to toast himself to do so.

Another ferret aims for Stu's arm, intending to start chomping through that to try and hopefully make the flamethrower stop working. The ferrets are nowhere near smart enough to be able to tell what would count as an important flamethrower component though.

Isabelle, as mentioned, takes the time given by the ferret to quickly back off, and give herself the fire shield treatment. How careless of her to forget to do so earlier...

[Slii Arhem]

Shayan, instead of moving back and taking cover behind a magical shield like Isabelle, is going to do the sensible thing when she sees Stu take aim at her friend with a flamethrower.

She's going to chuck two tables and four chairs at him in succession with her vines before standing up. Covering him in a pile of furniture is a better idea, you see, because then you don't have to look at him.

[Chas the mage]

Chas watches the opalescent light figure, completely confused. He turns to Aether next to him, not breaking eye contact with the figure, and asks him the time and date. He becomes even more confused when he says it, "Man, I gotta stop doing heavy stuff..." he mumbles to himself, eyes still fixed upon it.

[Reinholdt]

Samantha tries really hard not to pay any attention to the over -grown perv flower, but despite her better thinking and a glare of warning from her brother, she can't help but get involved.
She quickly takes off her glasses and tosses them back into her purse. She saunters over to the fight casually, observing the situation to try and find the best method for attack. She then looks to the other women engaged in the fight, and says casually "Ladies, if I may."
She gathers her energy before aiming her staff directly at the large floral sexist creature, and parts her lips "Lhach Elen."
As the Elvish words are spoken, a dozen or so tiny stars of white-hot fire escape from the tip of Samantha's staff. and point directly at Stu. After but a second, they launch towards him with remarkable speed, aiming for points all over his body. If hit, searing burns will ensue to torture the beast with pain. A few stray may hit the ferrets or the nearby casters, but Samantha took careful aim.

Oh dear. Stu is quite right, Isabelle did not think to protect herself from the flamethrower.

Thankfully, her animal friends are ever loyal to their mistress and would sacrifice themselves to defend her. As Stu turns the flamethrower, one of the ferrets jumps across, aiming to grab hold of the flamethrower and position itself right over the nozzle and take the full blast. In doing so, it gives Isabelle enough time to back off, but the red glow around the ferret fades rapidly.

Looks like a few seconds of sustained fire on a ferret will pop their shield. 'course, Stu is probably going to have to toast himself to do so.

Another ferret aims for Stu's arm, intending to start chomping through that to try and hopefully make the flamethrower stop working. The ferrets are nowhere near smart enough to be able to tell what would count as an important flamethrower component though.

Isabelle, as mentioned, takes the time given by the ferret to quickly back off, and give herself the fire shield treatment. How careless of her to forget to do so earlier...

Shayan, instead of moving back and taking cover behind a magical shield like Isabelle, is going to do the sensible thing when she sees Stu take aim at her friend with a flamethrower.

She's going to chuck two tables and four chairs at him in succession with her vines before standing up. Covering him in a pile of furniture is a better idea, you see, because then you don't have to look at him.

Stu would try grabbing a ferret and crushing its head if there weren't so many things happening at once. Namely, getting pelted with white hot fire, getting smacked and buried in furniture, and having a ferret chomp into his flamethrower's fuel line arm.

This is the worst combination of things that could happen. As is pretty much the typical ending for almost all of Stu's interactions, someone just sent fuel spraying, and his fuel tank is shortly thereafter, ignited. Stu, and his power suit explode very shortly thereafter. An enclosed explosion tends to be more damaging than one that's just on the side, so it's quite likely the furniture is being ripped apart and returned to sender at high velocities. At least the tables will absorb the metal shrapnel and fire for those on the outside, even if splinter projectiles are the price.

Can't say the same for the ferrets though.

Anyways, Stu is dead. Again. Yay.

[Dimonite]

The light figure turns to Chas. "Why are these ... people engaged in violent activity? It is reminding me of what I need alcohol to forget. Perhaps I should ... intervene." On the word "intervene", its hands flow and change shape, forming into a mace and shield.

[Chas the mage]

In being spoken to by the being, Chas sits himself up on the table with legs crossed in a meditation like position, and lights up another cigarette. He turns to the fight, and then back to the being, "Its a rather common thing here, a lot of it is unfounded. I believe that unless someone is in need, intervening will probably just extend the fight." He exhales smokes as he speaks, "care for a cigarette?" he asks, with an open pack in his hand, extended towards the figure.

[Dimonite]

The being, upon receiving this advice, changes the mace and shield back into hands. Then, it takes a cigarette, stares at it, then places the cigarette in its chest, where it took the diamonds from. "How does it work?" it asks.

[Chas the mage]

He gives a slight amused smirk, managing not to be condescending though. He holds his own lit cigarette out infront of him, and says "like so," he begins to slowly put it toward his own mouth "put the orange end in between your lips, place a flame to the opposite end, and inhale" He then does so, taking a long draw and exhaling a large amount of smoke. He pulls out a disposable plastic lighter from his hippie-vest, striking the flint and creating the ensuing small flame.

[Dimonite]

"Oh," the being says. a BREATHING thing. I remember when I used to breathe." As it says this, it bends its head over the bar a little, and drops of light fall from its head, staining the bar with their glow.

[Chas the mage]

"You don't breathe?" he asks, curious. "If you don't mind me asking, what exactly are you?" he says, ordering 2 shots, and placing one in front of the being when they arrive.

[Dimonite]

"What am I?" the being repeats. He takes the shot, stares and stares at it for a little while. the shot begins to glow, and eventually becomes a purplish light, which then flows through the glass into the being's body. "I was a simple Raytoran named Lorom. Raytorans are much like your species, but larger and more magical. Then, I was a raw, naked soul, stripped bare and bound to a dark will - I was forced into being one of T'Lorran's elite police force, the Illuminators, where I killed innumerable people in the most horrible ways imaginable. Now... now I am something in between, a man with all the memories of being a monster. I am now called Lume, and I hope to one day forget what I have done."

[Chas the mage]

He raises an eyes brow, astonished, "jeez, dude... thats... thats pretty harsh." he shakes his head, looking down at the bar, then to his shot glass. He downs it, ordering them another round. "I do have ways of helping people... forget things - if you will," he says leaning in, and speaking in a hushed tone, looking around.

[Dimonite]

Lume's voice lowers to a whisper, and, although it's difficult to tell, he seems to be lowering his head conspiratorially. "What can you do for me?" He asks. "And what price would I have to pay?

[Chas the mage]

"Well," he looks around, taking several drags from his cigarette, "I'm a peddler of... mind-effecting substances" he says, continuing to look around nervously. "The price all depends upon what you're looking for, but i can say that it will make your past seem much more distant and hazy, potentially entirely forget it - or at the very least not think about it."

[Beans]

A mage, a gnome, and a girl with bat wings (presumably) walk into the tavern, surprisingly not being a setup for a terrible joke.
Nycca smiles at Kallista, whom she is currently carrying.

[Dark Elf Bard]

Yup! Kallista is on the bat's back, trembling.

[Lady Serpentine]

Talina is indeed with them, and reaches over to lay a hand on Kallista's shoulder, looking around curiously as she does, not having had a chance to visit Trog's in a while.