[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080]Carnage spilled free as not one but [i]two[/i] human vs. accursed smackdowns broke out on opposite sides of the hall. As the Ironhands and Fanged Pride clashed, the chaos spread, opportunists striking at the chance to take what they thought was owed. Gamblers helped themselves to the prize haul at Juno's table, grudges resolved by shanks from behind, the assumedly unmovable stone tables flipped. Prisoners brought down for cooking duties from the upper levels made a run for it past the guards shouting,[/color] "Order! There will be order!"[color=808080], but beyond whipping at the fighting inmates that came too close, they didn't seem to have a qualm with the condemned slaughtering each other. The veiled woman was one of the bystanders brought into the fray when a rhinocerous accursed barrelled towards the Ironhands, looking to crush her and her companion along the way. The man tucked her close by the shoulder. A fat centipede dropped from the ceiling and drove itself up the rhino's flaring nostrils with freakish force. His eyes rolled up to their whites before he skidded to a crash. The arthropod left through his socket.

Iggi was ripped from Castor by Bane, both arms incapacited and his tail wound around the lion's paw. The snake unfortunately didn't have the chance to reason with Bane as he was used as a flail. Castor ducked out of there immediately. She grabbed her loose jaw with both hands, huffing, and slammed with her palm, trying to push it back into place. Rivers of blood poured down from her nose and a gash on her head left by Jaxon's fists. She was slammed down from behind before she could realign her bones. Not by an Ironhand - by something with heavy breath, drooling into her ear, with oil-slick black fur and mad yellow eyes. Its tongue slithered down and tasted her blood. The woman's stomach dropped, and her dislocated jaw could barely form a fearful, [/color][i]"Get off me!!"[/i]

[color=808080]She was picked up by the horn and ran across the stone bar, the rough granite surface tearing at her skin and leaving a red streak behind. She tried kicking with her cloven feet, but it just pushed the beast back a moment. Claws raked down her, then clenched around the collar. The beast's arm swelled, the magic thrumming in the collar burning his hand, and it shattered as he wrenched it back. Castor gasped, her senses flooding - more pain, more [i]power.[/i] Green vapour gathered at her lips. As the beast made to maul her, a torrent of poison jetted from her mouth into his face.

Flesh slopped off, bubbling and discoloured, his face steaming. But beneath the gore, new skin was forming. The accursed's yellow eyes hadn't dimmed. His grin hadn't been erased. The new face regenerating was even madder. This time, Castor said a prayer.

Holy light burst through the ceiling from the heavens above and enshrouded her, blinding the beast and everyone around her. The beam faded into a gentle glow and the golden silhouettes of small birds made of light fluttering around her. She sprang up onto the bench as the beast stumbled blind. The little victory did not last, as the guards barked,[/color] "Uncollared!" "There's an uncollared!" [color=808080]An arrow pierced right through the hand she raised. The next arrow came tearing through one of her birds, disapating it and plunging into her right shoulder. The third arrow missed, on account of her body dropping back over the bar.[/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

[center][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/4ad51a9a71d1.png[/img][/center]

[indent][indent][indent][indent][indent][justify][color=808080]Agamen also dropped. And rolled. An accursed, enraged berserker followed and tore up the ground where he'd been. The battle had not been going in Agamen's favour. The accursed seemed bigger the angrier he got, and at least on some level, he had been right: down here, humans like Agamen were gravely disadvantaged.

[color=#9e1e1e]"WHERE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING, SHITMEAT?!"[/color] Blood roared, so worked up that drool was pouring from his perpetually open maw onto the floor. Chunks of stone and flesh were spat behind him as he tore through architecture and crowd alike. [color=#9e1e1e]"Some executioner you turned out to be! Bring me to justice, I fucking dare you! Rattling, stinking, bag of human OFFAL!"[/color]

Agamen took quick shelter behind one of the flipped tables. He could hear the rustle of shin guards and orders being shouted over the din. The thunking of scutums hit the ground. More guards, heavier armoured, with large shields that reached over their heads, had been called to control the crowd. They formed a wall, brandishing flaming pikes to keep the accursed in. Agamen's wall was punched through. Blood struggled for just a moment to pull his own fist back out. He yanked back with a fistful of stone. The wall rumbled and was tossed aside with one meaty arm. It crushed someone, Agamen didn't look. A grey snake flung from the other side of the hall was hurtling, screaming, into Blood.

Blood was wrapped up by a frail serpentine body. Iggi looked at him through two swollen black eyes. [color=#f2ef85]"Please don't throw me back,"[/color] he croaked. Blood snarled and flung him off. Not back into the fight, but into the wall, where he splatted and unpeeled like a mosquito. When Blood turned  to his prey, he found himself wanting. His eyes grew black with rage and he let out a roar to the roof that nearly unhinged his jaw.

Agamen weaved between the violence, hunching low and knocking the occasional bother back with a punch to the throat or an elbow. His scanning eyes caught a shard of white on the ground, and he dived down, retrieving half a broken bone that had been Blood's dinner.[/color]

"I don't think that's going to cut it, captain."[color=808080] He looked up to see Marcellus, standing straight and stepping aside with a little bow to avoid two entangled combatants.[/color] "You've gotten yourself into a right mess, haven't you? First day, too." [color=808080]His honey-brown eyes gazed over the chaos to where Blood raged and ripped through the crowd searching for Agamen. His expression uncharacteristically serious.[/color] "I could clean it for you. For a price."

[color=808080]Agamen hit his chest, holding back a phleghmy cough.[/color] [color=#424d8c]"You want a prayer?"[/color]

[color=808080]Marcellus smirked.[/color] "We'll put it on your tab."

[color=808080]Agamen held up a hand. Marcellus took it and helped him up, then passed over his skin of moonshine, shoving it to Agamen's chest.[/color]

"Liquid courage," [color=808080]he said with a tap of his shoulder, and moved past him.[/color][/justify][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent][/indent]

[hider=NPCs mentioned][table][row][cell][justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]M A R C E L L U S[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/9fd65145d33e.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]human | 31 | warfare | charisma | lore[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]A charming mercenary with a soldier's upbringing that finds himself on death's row for a murder he uncharacteristically didn't do... or was it didn't get paid for? He's popular with the ladies and disarms most conflicts with a smile - but his eyes hold the dull, superficial glint of the coin his sword-arm swears fealty to.

[i]penned by CabbageAngel[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][cell]
[justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]B A N E[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/59c0878c2227.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]accursed | 26 | warfare | plunder | curse of twin moons[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]A foolhardy, braggadacious leonine Accursed, and leader of the Fanged Pride gang in the lowest level of Bloodsand Gaol. A former highwayman with an unparalleled skill in brawling and grappling.

[i]penned by ThePigOrcEmpire[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][cell]
[justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]J U N O[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/1ca933a472fc.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]human | 28 | skullduggery | charisma | plunder[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]Entertainer, acrobat, charlatan. Juno is the unofficial quartermaster and croupier within the lowest level of Bloodsand Gaol. A natural-born liar who tells a different tale every time she is asked about her Great Sin.

[i]penned by ThePigOrcEmpire[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][/row]
[row][cell][justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]J A X O N[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/fb20dc7f25ed.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]human  | 41 | warfare | handicraft[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]Also known as Jaxon One-Eyed or Jaxon the Cyclops; both of which he utterly despises. A short-tempered, belligerent berserker from the Free Marches, Jaxon leads the Ironhand gang in the lowest level of Bloodsand Gaol.

[i]penned by ThePigOrcEmpire[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][cell]
[justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]C A S T O R[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/4ff66c31c1a7.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]accursed | 23 | miracles | skullduggery | plunder | curse of dragon (poison)[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]A cold, crypt-dwelling satyr ranger from the Empire's frontiers. Performs miracles of holy, undead-repelling magicks - but all for the personal gain of looting tombs. Has a small crow griffin companion named Mica that helps her seek out shinies.

[i]penned by CabbageAngel[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][cell]
[justify][center][h3][sup][b][color=bf8c50]T H E[/color][color=2e2c2c]..[/color] [color=bf8c50]P L A G U E S[/color][/b][/sup][/h3][img]https://cdn.imgchest.com/files/d41a57bfcbd7.jpg[/img][/center][hr][hider=Story][center][h3][sup][sub]human | 30s | occult | skullduggery | handicraft[/sub][/sup][/h3][/center][color=808080]??????

[i]penned by ThePigOrcEmpire and CabbageAngel[/i][/color][/hider][/justify][/cell][/row][/table][/hider]

[hr][right][i][color=808080]collabs - none | pc interacts - Blood, Iggi | [@ThePigOrcEmpire][/color][/i][/right]