Fetzen

The Five Senses

So are we good to go, or do we need more detailing for the upcoming series of events?

@Jerkchicken

At least from my side I currently don't see any need for additional detailing at this point.

The Five Senses

@Fetzen Hey Fetzen, For clarification, The Crazed is just the name I'll be using for magic users who don't require a fuel source for their magic. Eventually, such magic users go insane. When they do, they are known as the Crazed. The only example we have of the Crazed at the moment is Sightless to be De'laire.

@Pezz570

Fixed that. Thanks :)

Spells in the Dark (18+ for Dark and suggestive themes)

Andvari

At first the not-yet-hunter had been quite happy about Bobby accepting him as a member of the party although the addition of 'you better be a good shot' was a rather heavy weight in his stomach. Then however it seemed that hell broke loose and that he'd have his opportunity to give his training a real world try much earlier than expected -- or hoped for.

Andvari lifted himself from his chair as quickly as possible and rushed through the crowd towards one of the smaller windows, trying to get a good view of what was going on outside. Given that it was rather dark already he couldn't see that much at first, but once his eyes had adapted a little the man could spot something. Moving... things... that definitely were no humans and thus did not belong here. In fact the more his eyes adapted the more ugly details became visible, starting from the creatures' weird constitution and ending with the wicked set of ruined teeth each of them seemed to expose. Now if those would find their way into anybody's flesh bleeding to death on the spot probably was preferrable to a slow and excruciating death due to some kind of alienating infection.

The question was: Where was his own place in his mess ? The urge to do something almost overwhelmed him, but in this case doing something could only mean to start fighting back and he wasn't equipped for that. Andvari wasn't worried about his crossbow, but much more about how he'd be able to reach it in one piece. After all he had not rented a room in this tavern, but settled down at a free spot almost on the outskirts of Seren's Folly. Now this wasn't a particularly large village, but given the hostilities unfolding on the street the distance was still much more considerable than he would have liked it to be.

Andvari opened the door until there was a gap barely large enough, took a deep breath, went through and started running as fast as he could. He wasn't exactly the quickest when it came to getting up to speed, but with his tremendous legs he could maintain a very high one. Fast enough for not getting caught by goblins who were not expecting another opponing in their frenzy, or maybe were even a little afraid of him. Still there was plenty of reason for Andvari to be happy about a door that he could slam shut right behind himself. One of the goblins who had been on the pursuit was in fact still trying to get in, frantically scratching at the wooden panels.

Inside his hut, Andvari hurried to don his armor. Most of it was studded leather, but particularly exposed parts like the area around his throat and his shoulders and also part of his breast were protected by additional light steel plating. So were his feet -- nothing fancy, but much better than going out there again in the simplest of cloth he had been wearing just before. The goblin had still not given up as his screams and scratching continued to produce very discomforting sound effects, but he had to try and concentrate on preparing his crossbow. It was a large machine of warfare, its richely decorated 'head' resembling that of a strange fish or bird as it seemed to be crying out at whatever the weapon was pointed at. The bolts were equally huge, but originally had not come with any kind of oil or silver. Andri in fact had never been able to tell his son what their tips were made of, but he had given a bunch of them a bath in molten silver so they would also work against special creatures. Not really knowing what was most effective against goblins, Andvari simply dumped all of them into his quiver and loaded the first one right away.

Now there was this door with at least one of these foul beasts in front of it. This would be a shot at point blank range, hopefully impossible to miss. Slightly shaking, Andvari's hand reached for the handle in order to pull the door open abruptly. The goblin appeared to be momentarily confused about the sudden disappearance of the obstacle in its path, allowing for man opposing it to pull the trigger without making much of an effort to aim.

There was no scream, not even as much as a hissing noise caused by the bolt traveling through the air as the distance simply had been too short for it to last long enough. Part of the golbin's body was virtually ripped off and burst into a dirty-red cloud with an almost unbearable stench to it. Andvari could feel his stomach revolting as he tried to locate where the bolt had gone. It apparently had punched right through the creature and dug itself deep into the ground. Yet Andvari knew that the enormous power of this thing partly came at the cost of a rather tedious rearming procedure that'd be better started now, even if he would have preferred puking or at least getting away as fast as possible from the open carcass.

As he was preparing the next shot Andvari could see something worrying though: Wasn't that the house of Emiliah he could see over there ? He had spotted the huntress go in and out there before having met her this evening, so he knew it had to be hers. And the door was open, so goblins could go in and out or maybe already were inside. With his weapon finally at the ready again he rushed over, eager to see if everything was alright or not.

The Five Senses

Týfurkh

"We'll I'd say some extra muscle never hurts. We're still only three, so that's much better than just two but still a number small enough so it will not be too difficult to hide ourselves. I think none of us has any interest in an open confrontation with those crazy people." With said word Týfurkh was referring to the entire faction they were opposing in general. What they did was nothing short of lunacy and they would have to end it. The city was already ruined beyond repair, but hopefully their efforts could spare other settlements from suffering the same fate.

"Well I have to agree with you, Karina. As much as I'd like to deliver that message right now as much I have to consider that I will have to put quite a lot of effort into it. It must be a strong one, not a weak whisper that could easily be deemed hallucination or even background noise." Týfurkh looked around, trying to find something for them to rest on. "I would propose a rest of maybe five hours. That should be enough to get us back into shape while not compromising our progress too much."

The room they were in proved to be rather empty. No beds, not even truly enough space for all of them to roll out some beddings on the floor and to sleep there. However he had not been in every room so far, so there still was a solid chance of some nice place for Karina and the other man being there. For himself however ? Very unlikely. Most random beds found somewhere were either way too small or could not support him, so Týfurkh already expected a not so comfortable night on the floor. "If anybody finds a bed for me... you know where I am."

The Five Senses

I'll try to get a post up today or tomorrow.

Spells in the Dark (18+ for Dark and suggestive themes)

Andvari

_{Interacting with Bartolomeo (@Bright_Ops) and Bobby (@Aerandir)}

"I'm sorry." Andvari replied. It was a humble answer and it was expressed with even more humility in its tone. He had seen something burning in the far distance on his way here, but he had never been there himself so far. Honestly it had not even crossed his mind until his arrival here that this observation could be related to such a large-scale desctruction with such a particular cause. The seconds he felt forced to try and imagine the scene described by Bartolomeo were rather uncomfortable to say the least.

The giant's lips parted, but nothing came out until Andvari finally found some words to continue with: "My father was a hunter, at least in his earlier days. He quit the job later on and trained me the best he could, but I never was in the field myself so far." As his eyes told him about the feelings and sickness emerging in the man opposing him Andvari added: "Maybe you should try to talk to somebody -- I'm just not sure if I am the right one."

Then the callout for the Wendigo hunt came and immediately Andvari could sense the dilemma in his head again: According to the original plan of his journey he should not take part in any hunt here. Hell he was even supposed to return to the palace and start acting as a servant again in one piece at some point. On the other hand it would certainly be interesting and instructive. And now as he was sitting here together with Bartolomeo he could hardly resist going for the latter option and join the hunt. What kind of coward would he be if he tried to give advices to other people struggling with recent events caused by their job while he himself didn't even dare to do said job in the first place ?

"Bobby ? If you need someone capable of handling a crossbow to a certain degree I would join!" and Andvari raised his enormous arm just in case Bobby wouldn't be able to hear him. The tone in his words however, by its very design, betrayed the hybrid nature of Andvari's words. They were as much of a solid statement as they were a question if Bobby could use somebody who clearly wasn't at the peak of his training and experience on such an endeavour. Of course he had not taken his crossbow with him, nor any other part of his combat equipment. He simply had not seen the need for it and aside from this... If one saw him one could probably imagine how much more cumbersome things could go if he tried to get that weapon into here as well.

The Five Senses

Two pieces ? What do you mean ? :)

Spells in the Dark (18+ for Dark and suggestive themes)

Andvari

_{Interacting with Bartolomeo (@Bright_Ops)}

Andvari noticed that his unexpected callout towards Bartolomeo had apparently managed to free the hunter from his somewhat nervous looking state. The only thing that lacked was an immediate feedback if this was actually a benign thing or rather due to having been startled by Andvari's voice. The latter, probably not exactly surprising if one took a look at the volume of the hunter's upper body, was extremely chesty. In fact there had been suggestions in Andvari's past that he should try a career as an opera singer. Now obviously things had not come this far as of now, and quite frankly Witches' Paradise didn't seem to be anywhere near a good place to start said career.

Andvari tried not to accidentally hit the noble looking man's knees as he pulled out the chair at the opposite end of the table and sat down. The piece of furniture was significantly lower than the bar stool he came from, so he faced rather obvious issues when trying to accomodate himself properly. Also Andvari made no secret of his interest in Bartolomeo's cane. A clattering noise had emanated from it, raising his suspicion about its shaft not being entirely solid and causing him to lean sideways in order to get another look at the thing. Close-up it looked even more precious than from further away, but without any means to look inside of it he could only speculate about its true nature.

"You look a little nervous." he ultimately addressed Bartolomeo, trying to maintain his subtle smile towards the other man. However Andvari's efforts in terms of facial expression were utterly shattered in an instant as a loud crack could be heard, his countenance slipping away and degenerating into pure astonishment as he could suddenly see Flint's head resting in... well... a soft place where it wouldn't get hurt by accident all too soon anymore. And as if this didn't suffice another relatively large man got up and made an effort to rip Flint's head out of that place again, subsequently granting it the dubious luxury of bare, dirt-stained wood. The motive ? Explained by the doer right away and without any holding back it seemed.

"Well, erm..." Only slowly Andvari turned his head back toward his conversational partner, but he already started speaking again well before the movement's completion. "It seems you can discontinue your search. If that isn't nasty I don't know..." He started to chuckle -- something he should probably try to stop right away as the already overloaded chair made precarious creaking noises with every of Andvari's moves. Noticing this he tried to calm himself, but still grinned many seconds later.

"What's your name ? I'm Andvari. Andvari Markat. Are you a hunter ?"

Since he had positioned himself at the end of the table opposing Bartolomeo Andvari could see the counter and those roaming in front of it without turning his head. It allowed him to discover ongoing conversations there optically before even hearing them. While not trying to be too nosy he still couldn't stop himself from focusing in on a particular one between Emiliah and another female the former had just literally pulled towards her. He understood most of the verbal exchange between them and made a mental note about it. It might be interesting to dig deeper into when there was the opportunity, maybe he could even extract more information simply by eavesdropping while sitting here. For the moment however Bartolomeo had his primary attention.

Spells in the Dark (18+ for Dark and suggestive themes)

Andvari

_{Interacting with Bartolomeo (@Bright_Ops) and sorta with Sanjin (@ghastlyInc) and Emiliah (@Ellion)}

"Thanks for the info." Andvari told Sanjin, nodding his head appreciatively towards the other man. He really would have liked to continue his conversation with both him and the woman who had identified herself as Emiliah, but it seemed that the two knew something about an institution called 'The Pack' Sanjin was associated with. There really was nothing Andvari knew about that, so he was considering if he should actually start to annoy the two with asking probably very trivial questions that would only help to reveal him as a noner in the hunter business.

To both his luck and his shock he didn't have to bother himself for all too long with that issue anyway. The door was suddenly burst open and a man walked, or no... limped... into, bleeding from several severe looking lacerations. He matched his father's description of a guy called Flint rather well: Not very tall, but of a sturdy build and an excellent archer. The bow in his posession was obvious, but so was that it apparently had not been to much avail against the problem -- whatever might hide behind that abstract term. People gathered quickly so Andvari, coming from his bar stool at the other end of the main hall, would not have been much help anyway.

Still the not-yet-hunter could not keep his eyes away from the scene. This wasn't only about bad injuries having to be treated and the question if Flint would carry permanent damage away from this or not, but the situation actually invoked a question of even greater magnitude in Andvari's head: Just how foolish could someone allow himself to be before things would start to fall back onto him ? He had come to this place his father had warned him about. A place that was one of the most purest hunter domains the world was aware of -- and he was no real part of it. Yet he wasn't one of those few innocent and unaware villagers either as not only didn't he live here, but also at least Bobby probably had already identified him as who he actually was. And now he couldn't even just run away from things with the problem waiting to rip apart any lonely travelers on the roads through the forests...

A voice spoke up, requesting others to defend themselves against whatever was out there while the tone was that of revenge. Perfectly understandable, but should he join them ? Yes, he had a weapon, and yes, he had trained with it rather extensively. But the palace gardens had always been a quiet place and there had been no way to change that, so all he had in terms of experience were dry runs and not the real thing. If not even anyone else knew what had attacked Flint at this point joining a hunting party seemed way too risky. But, on the other hand, why had he come here in there place then if it wasn't for some dramatic experience that was less boring than behaving super calm and obedient all day long ? A small dilemma was unfolding in his mind that he was struggling to deal with quickly.

He observed the ongoing situation from his stool like a dramatically oversized cat, eyes wide open and ears paying full attention to the various voices. Both Emiliah and Sanjin would not have too much of a difficulty with discovering his increased level of nervousness. Andvari's lips had become a rather thin, rather tightly closed pair of reddish lines running in parallel along his face. As he was panning his eyes across the main hall he spotted another one who, at least at second glance, appeared to be in a similar situation. The man's clothing was an obvious mismatch with regard to what the other people were wearing. To be honest the quality of the fabric and the fine-tuning of the colors remembered Andvari of those people that used to go in and out of Oriel's palace day and night. People with way more coins than they could reasonably carry around. Was this a noble ? What the hell was he doing here ? He had never heard of noble hunters...

Andvari lowered his head a little to see what Bartolomeo was hiding beneath his arms and on his thighs. A thing made out of shiny metal came into view, likely silver. And it was sharp at one end so there were two properties that were capable of making stuff expensive each on their own. With both combined that cane was bound to be brutally pricey. If he had still been in the palace and acting as a servant Andvari would have put more effort into his approach, but given the noisyness of this place, the fact that someone heavily injured way laying around close to both of them and the presence of two really large tankards of strong stuff in his belly a loud "Hey! What's wrong ?" shouted out into Bartolomeo's direction would have to suffice.

Spells in the Dark (18+ for Dark and suggestive themes)

Andvari

_{Interacting with Emiliah (@Ellion), Bobby (@Aerandir) and Sanjin (@ghastlyInc)}

As Andvari was waiting for his drink the tavern seemed to fill up rapidly. Frankly speaking he got the feeling of not wanting to be the place's owner for the amount of work the job must have posed, but on the other hand one could probably earn a significant amount of money here. This seemed not only to be a simple tavern where drinks and foods were sold and rooms were rented, but this looked like the primary gathering place for every hunter in the area before and after any major activity. Wounds were treated, information exchanged... and strange acquaintances made.

He watched Emiliah, whose name he didn't even know, come closer to him, and address the man behind the counter with 'Bobby'. So this was Bobby, the most famous of them all his father had told him stories about ? Good to know - so he wouldn't make a mock out of himself when trying to get into conversation with the man in front of all the hunters without even being sure about his name. Yet now was not the time for this as the attractive woman decided to turn towards him.

"Erm... yes ?" A not only slightly confused answer in full spite of the fact that the issue stated was a very simple one. "I would think so, and so does the vast majority of people." He stretched out his open hand which looked as if it could just swallow up half of Emiliah's arm in one go, but given the gentle smile he tried to put on this was more meant as a nice gesture of greeting each other. "I'm Andvari. And you ?"

He could hear the sound of a tankard being put down on the table next to him and gave Bobby a thankful nod. Andvari was still looking towards Emiliah, but actually was thirsty enough to reach for the beverage with his unused arm while still offering her his hand. He still focused on her so did not look at what was inside the tankard, but he expected beer anyway. The taste of honey came as a surprise and it was good. And strong that stuff was! It didn't take long for the tankard to become halfway emptied and Andvari turned towards Bobby: "Hey! How could you know I would like this stuff even more ? It's great!" With his still free hand he reached into the depths of his pockets in search of some coins which subsequently clattered onto the counter. "One more after this one, please!"

"You stink of the road mister! If you dont bathe properly the prey will notice you. ....and then you'll die...I'm Sanjin, do you have work?"

Andvari really tried not to do it, but his instincts beat him and he actually inspected the strange newcomer from top to bottom. However, even if taking all of his clothes and accessories into account, the strangeness Sanjin's outer appearance did not come even close to that of his behavior. Now it could be that this man had just come back from a hunt, seen something terrible and thus was thrilled and overly nervous, causing him to dance around on the floor as if the latter was comprised of a thin layer of solidified lava with much of the liquid stuff still directly underneath it. Maybe this kind of disorder had already become chronic with the poor lad, but this still didn't explain why he was saying what he was saying. Couldn't that guy see that he was already talking to someone else ?

"Work ? Yeah... you could tell me where the nearest place for a good bath is. A creek or something maybe ? And getting noticed by one's prey can't be that much of a bad idea if you're so excellently trained in... massaging the floor ? Aside from this stinking of the road while actually being on the road is a pretty good obfuscation technique, isn't it ?" Andvari reached for the mead again, consuming the majority of the remainder.