Decadents and Dropouts IC

Phyliss Ovida

The gorgon feeled quite alone in the situation. Gryph, who drank more wine then he was probably used to, would certainly protect her in every physical way, but would be no big help in diplomatic affairs. For Trunfor, even if here, would go the same thing. Kanut, on whome she had relied the most in such situations, was already asleep. And Relic wouldn't even bother to help her, guessed Phyliss. Maybe she even enjoyed if she got into trouble? Or was she to hard upon the drow? Phyliss kept smiling, taking care not to show any unsecurity.
 
-Z-

"In return? I am not sure why I should ask for compensation when it is I who am paying off a debt. Ah...well perhaps you feel it odd for a human to care at all to pay off debts owed to...non-humans? Well not all places in the world are the same. Where I come from, you are not judged by what you are born as, but what you do with yourself."

'Zaeel' looked off in to nothing as he reminisced. "Do not think this land to be peaceful and free, though. No, no, no. Far from it. There...no matter what you are, if you have no power...you are nothing. If you have power, then you use it to destroy anyone who stands between you and what you want."

Z paused for a moment, then looked back at Phyliss. "I do not wish to discuss this land at the moment, but I do want you to understand that where I am from, beings such as yourself are far more common than in these lands. If you do not wish to believe I am acting simply out of...altruistic honor, then you can believe I am acting out of good business sense. If word reached my homeland that I ignored a debt I am honor-bound to pay simply because it was owed to a gorgon, a cambion, a ssri-tel-quessir, a kobold, and a draconian...well let me simply say it would be bad."

"If you decide you neither want nor need my aid, then I will wish you well and consider the matter closed." They all seemed tired, and possibly intoxicated. Z didn't want to push them in to anything.

"Do not feel you need to answer immediately, shahzadi. I shall be down here just before sun-up. If you or your companions need me before then...I am staying in room four on the third floor. Do not worry about disturbing my sleep, I am on an...odd schedule right now and will likely just be reviewing some business papers."
 
Gryph

He listened to the talk between the two, it was interesting and he found that his bottle was empty. He smiled, fangs reflecting from under his hood, then turned to Zael

"I am generally not a trusting fellow as the only thing I'm used to getting from humans are fear and judgment. So though I understand what you are saying one thing just seems to be a bit...off. This boat and equipment will cost a small fortune, I do not see that as a compensation just for helping an employee. That kind debt can only be when said person is family"

He peered at Zael

"Maybe you are family and not merely employee and employer?"
 
-Z-

'Zaeel' gave Gryph a sly smile. "As I do not pry in to your personal affairs, Master Gryph, the...polite thing to do would be to not pry in to mine. As for a small fortune, river boats are not as costly as one might think. Besides, a proprietor of transportation can usually ask for no better person to have in his debt than a merchant."

Most people traversing the river just take a ferry, but anyone willing to give this crew a ride would be just as likely to sell them off to hunters. He didn't really want to buy them all a boat, because even with his usual con game for a better price this endeavor was probably going to bankrupt him.

If it wasn't for that annoying pang of guilt and that damn conscience he never would have bothered with them. Of course if it wasn't for his conscience he would have ended up like the rest of the cabal. It was times like this when Z wished he could just drink the voice in his head away like everyone else does.
 
Gryph

He chuckled

"Ah I am sorry Master Zael, I did not mean to offend you by asking a question"

He gave Zael a long look from the shadows of his hood

"Then are we allowed to lower said debt with payments of our own? Or should we just hand it all over to you now?"
 
-Z-

"You are...allowed to do whatever you wish. If all I can manage to provide is not enough for you, then you can use your own resources to add to it."

Z rose from his seat and gave a small and courteous bow. "I do not wish to be rude, but I must retire to my quarters. There are many books that must be reviewed so I can see exactly how much aid I can...allocate. I shall review some files as well in the hopes of finding a helpful contact that might be in the city. Or at the very least an important name that can be dropped at the right moment."

Z turned to head up the stairs, but stopped and looked back at the table. "If I might make a suggestion...you and your friends may wish to find someplace more private to discuss your course of action. The patrons of this establishment seem less than...considerate." Z glared at a nearby table of drinking peasants who immediately averted their gaze and tried to look nonchalant.

He smiled to himself as he made his way to Zaeel's room. It wasn't often he ran across dragon-kin, but it was always an enjoyable experience. Maybe it was coincidence, but every draconian man or woman he met was direct and genuine, possibly to a fault. It was just such a foreign concept to someone like Z.
 
Gryph

"Take care Master Zael, hope you have a pleasant evening"

He watched the retreating back of Zael with a frown, something just didn't sit right. No human was ever so generous, but who was he to judge somebody else, if he himself had many shortcomings. He turned his gaze to the table and looked at Phyliss and the drow, he gave a soft sigh.

"He sounds honest about helping us, but what is his ulterior motives? That is what bothers me"

He shrugged

"But I am sure that between all of us, we can also procure enough to buy said boat and supplies, but Phyliss this is your dream, so you will have to think it over"
 
Phyliss Ovdia

The gorgons head once more dropped to his armor shoulder, but she got up quickly.
"Goodnight, Mr. Zael, we will be pleased talk to you again, and I wish you a good night." She got up. "Time for us to go to bed, as well. Goodnight everybody." Phyliss got up and walked up the stairs. "You better go as well, Gryph. Also big halfdragons need some rest. Who knows what perils we find tomorrow." she reached for his hand to drag him along.
 
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Gryph

Of course she wouldn't have been able to budge him, but perhaps it was time for him to grab some sleep. Briefly he wondered about where the assassin and wizard was that Trunfor had warned them about, but then he focused on the gorgon

"You know Phyliss I was wondering, would you like to one day try petrifying me? I want to see if I have a resistance to it or not"

He chuckled and softly continued

"At least then you can say you turn more than one part of me to stone"
 
Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss laughed. "I can try to make you hard as stone on an other day." she said. "But I would not try to petriefie you, some of my victims awoke dead after it." she opened their room, were Tronfur was still waiting. "Chifforn or taft?" she asked as she opened the door.
 
Gryph

"Oh just a test, as soon as it starts I'm sure you can stop and let me recover"

He smiled at her question

"That is an interesting choice, let's go with taft again?"

He looked at Trunfor who seemed to pace around a bit nervous

"Hey there Trunfor"
 
Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor looked up as his friends entered. "Good to see you, I was beginning to wonder what had happen." Trunfor got up and looked around to make sure they were alone.

He walked back to the bed and grabbed the cloth, "Phyliss, I know that your dream of a boathouse is expensive and I'm probably right in guessing that you guys don't have much in the way of money. Well I have something that might help with that."

Trunfor undid the cloth and revealed the gold bar. "It's all that I have left of my fortune, and I wish to give it to you. I won't be needing it." And then Trunfor handed Phyliss the gold bar.
 
Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss eyes widened a little as she saw the gold. "Ohhh.." she said, then she looked at her friends and whispered. "First of all, be quiet about that, both of you, and don't mention it to Relic." she hold the gold in their hand.
"Dear Tronfur, you already helped to achieve that boat, or raft. Renember the half-elf you helped? His master is a rich merchant, the one at the table, and he wants to pay for us. A bit weird, but we would be stupid to turn that offer down. Anything else we own, we better hold back for emergencies. We have to pay food, drink, all kind of equipment, and maybe we have to leave the boat and look for accomodation again, or even buy land." she hugged Tronfur. "Hide this well. We might need it later, if anything goes wrong. But let us all go to sleep now." She went back to her back and pulled the short taft neglige out. She took her boots and her dress off, then she stripped her lingerie for this time as well. The light was dim, and if they all shared a room, Tronfur would have to life with seeing her nude from time to time. Anyway, she turned her back to both men, not meaning to provocate.
Then she crawled into the bed she had chosen and purred a soft "nightie-night". With all the wine inside her, she quickly fell asleep.
 
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Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor was confused when Phyliss said he had already helped. He was about to ask what she meant, but was interrupted when she hugged him. He was shock and surprised, no one had ever made physucal contact like that to him. He continued to stand there even when she let go of him, his mind reeling at what had just happened.

Trunfor recovered his senses and did as she told by putting the gold bar away. Still in a state of confusion, Trunfor sat down in bed and took out his journal to write out more about what had happened.
 
-NARRATOR-

Fifty years. It had been fifty years since the Cabal had been defeated and order restored to the land. Maralai was just an elf from the wilds, following a group of nobodies around trying to be heroes. She wasn't ready for the Cabal...her life had been spent killing wild beasts, goblins and orcs. Nothing prepared her for an insidious group of doppelgangers plotting to overthrow the kingdom.

Maralai and her five friends led sixty guards in to the lair of the doppelgangers and sent their vile souls in to the abyss. There were thirty-six of the fiends to kill. Most fought back, but a dozen disguised themselves as children to fool the guards. The fiendish doppelgangers fell before the onslaught of the righteous, until only the Magister and his two guardians remained.

Their dark magic obliterated the guards, leaving only Maralai and her friends to stop their evil. It was a terrible battle, but in the end the forces of good triumphed. The Magister was slain, but not without cost. Of the six adventurers, only three survived.

One of those three succumbed to the ravages of age not long ago. The other vanished a year after the Cabal fell. The last hero was Maralai, and she devoted her life to slaying the evil beasts of the world. She founded a group of mercenary monster hunters known as the White Stag.

"Is the report accurate?" Maralai prayed to the gods that it was wrong. "Tell me now if there is any chance this is wrong!"

Maralai and six of her finest Stag hunters were being treated as honored guests of the city guard. They were reviewing various monster reports in the City of Forges in the guard captain's office when she saw it. A Cabal survivor.

The captain shook his head. "I do not know, m'lady. It comes from a very reputable source. We haven't followed up on the lead because there seems to be no real threat to-"

Maralai pounded her fist on the desk. "No threat?! A doppelganger is always a threat! The fact that you don't know of any evil he is doing is just a testament to how devious this monster is!"

The captain was taken aback by the petite elf's outburst. "I am sorry lady Maralai...but I don't even know what this Cabal is."

She sighed and folded her arms across her chest. "I shouldn't be surprised that the news of the Cabal never reached here. It was fifty years ago and on the other side of the world. Just tell me what you know."

The captain cleared his throat and grabbed a nearby piece of paper. "Uh...yes well he is apparently known as "Z." Our informant says he has been seen dealing with a gorgon, half-fiend, a dark elf, a kobold, and an unusually large fellow with fanged teeth. Something about boats and the river."

"Must be code for whatever he's planning."
Maralai was deeply disturbed that a Cabal survivor has been roaming the world for fifty years. "Keep your guards out of this, captain. My men and I will handle this."

Maralai turned to her six hunters. "I don't care about the beasts following him. They get in our way we deal with them, otherwise all effort is to made to bring the doppelganger in alive."
 
Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss turned around in her bed, this time untortured by bad dreams. In fact, it was a nice dream. A giant raft, with several little buildings on it, and fishing people. She sat in a friendly room, on mats on the floor, drinking tea with some of the other women. Verialyn, who had no problems consuming it, Relic, and Karmusa, the kobald wife of Canut. Everything was peaceful. Then the sound of fighting. They ran outside, but there were no invaders. She saw Gryph and Tronfur. And blood. She awoke. "Just a bad dream,a dream." she murmured to herself. Before she tried to sleep, she suddenly renembered that she had to see this merchant, Zahlen, or what was his name. She just moved or rather staggered over to Gryph or Tronfur (she wasn't quite awake, really) and found him awake, and whispered in his ear. "Awake me, so that I have time to speak to Zaehl before he leaves". She moved back to the bed and dropped facedown to it and just fell asleep at once.
 
Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor was not fully asleep so he heard Phyliss approach. He nodded to her and promised to awake her before Zaehl left. He went back to his writing while he cast a small spell that would alert him if Zaehl left the inn.
 
Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss had some better, but very wild dreams so that she regreted to awake just before sunset. She had a terrible hang-over. She was still laying facedown on the bed, without blanket. Good she didn't catch a cold, scantily dressed as she was. Gryph was asleep; now, he would need that. Tronfur was sitting, writing something. Did he never sleep, or has he gotten up early? The sun was setting...wait... "Tronfur? Didn't he say meet me before sunset?!" Phyliss jumped out of the bed, quickly pulled the neglige off and washed, then she put on her lingerie and did her makeu-up. She had so much practise in this movements that she could do it in remarkable speed. Then she grabbed her bag and browsed through it hastily. "What shall I wear to meet a rich merchant? right." She grabbed a long dress made from glossy black satin and put it on. Then she threw the green gaze-cape around the shoulder. Elegant, classy and very impressive - just the right thing. While she was getting to the door, she ornamented herself with the green jade jewellery. No time to wake up Gryph or search for the others - she had to settle this alone, if Zahl hadn't left already. Third floor, room four.
"I go to Zahl. Take care of everything here." Phyliss didn't run, but hurried as she stepped up the stairs. She realized that she was in such a hurry that she forgot to put on her boots, to late. "Nevermind, make-up and clothes are just perfect. He will not even notice that you are barefoot."
She knocked at the door. "Mister Zaaahhl?"
 
Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor nearly fell out of his bed in fright when Phyliss shouted out something about meeting someone before sunset. He turned to her and saw she was already dressed and headed out the door.

"Wait Phyliss! Dammit." He dropped his journal on the floor and ran over to Gryph.

"Hey, buddy. Wake up I need you to keep an eye on things for a minute I`ll be right back." Then Trunfor headed out after Phyliss. She shouldn`t be meeting a stranger all by herself, especially a if the stranger was overly friendly. It was something Trunfor had learned growing up.

He had a hell of a time finding Phyliss, but luckly his keen hearing allowed him to follow her footfalls. Had she forgotten her shoes as well? It sounded like she was on the third floor he thought to himself as he ran up the stairs.
 
Phyliss Ovida

Phyliss heard someone runnig up the stairs, and her senses were sharp enough to tell her who it was at once. Great, didn't she tell him to stay behind? After forgetting to wake her up, he would better not blew this thing. She remained cool and run her hand over her snakes, as if she was putting back hair - she never understood why she did such things. Never mind. "I hope he will open the door right now, and Tronfur will not mess anything up." In her mind she just had the horrorvision of Zahl opening the door, while Tronfur couldn't stop after flying up the stairs, crashing into him and piercing the merchants accidently with his horns.
 
-Z-

Zaeel's suite was nicer than the room he got for Zahn. Much nicer. It actually had two rooms. The door to the suite was on the far side of a nice sitting room with two simple couches, a desk and a small table between the couches. The door to the bedroom was closed, even though all of Zahn's gear was in the backpack he didn't want to risk anything. The curtains were drawn, and he had a few lamps lit, but it was still dim in the room.

Z got the natural abilities of whatever species he was in the form of, so he gained nothing by being human. It took a lot of work when he was young to keep some of his natural doppelganger senses in any form, but it was worth it. Incredibly acute vision, even the ability to see in pitch black was handy. Hyper-sensitive hearing was also nice. They really didn't need to be enhanced from what doppelgangers usually had, but that didn't stop them from doing it anyways. The headaches from the hyper sensitivity weren't overly common, but they were severe.

On the table between the couches Z had his notebook open and dozens of loose pieces of parchment spread out. They weren't business contracts. They were all alchemical notes and formulas that Z had written over the years. It wasn't anything special though. Just some basic medicinal stuff. If anyone decided to visit he could easily pass this all off as business paperwork. Z's family were the only ones to use this language in thousands of years.

Z wasn't even paying attention to his notes, he was too distracted. He barely even heard someone coming. Hurried, small gait, soft steps. Too soft...the drow? No...this person wasn't trying to hide. Z decided it was probably someone passing through the hall. Then he heard the knock.

"Mister Zaaahhl?"

The gorgon? He didn't expect to see her until before dawn. He answered the door and was quite shocked to see her dressed so...formally.

With a small look of confusion, but still smiling, Zaeel greeted the young woman. "Miss Phyliss? You have arrived much sooner than I thought...everything is well, yes?"
 
Trunfor Backheart

Trunfor slowed as Phyliss`s footsteps stopped. He walked up about 10 more steps, and looked into the hall. He breathed a sigh of relief when he saw her standing there, though she looked somewhat unhappy.

He quickly walked over to her adopting an apologitic expression. "Phyliss, what`s wrong? You asked me to warn you if Zaehl tried to leave. Well he hasn`t, not yet. I just needed to warn you. You shouldn`t run off and meet a stranger all by yourself, especially if he seems overly friendly, while acting a little weird. I learned this the hard way while growing up." He lifted his left wing so as to show the ragged scar along it.

He took a breath and continued, "I have to make sure nothing happens to you, my oath holds me to my word to insure that no harm befalls you. I sorry if I did wrong, I was just worried." he looked down and waited for her response.
 
Phyliss Ovida

Tronfur just arrived as Zaehl opened the door. Great.
"Good morning, Mister Zahl. I apologize if I am a bit early, but I thought you might have a longer talk with me." She kept smiling as she looked back at Tronfur.
"Well, and my friend Tronfur just came because he wanted to thank you for your noble offer, after he had rescued your employee."
 
-Z-

Z couldn't help but think that Trunfor was the strangest cambion he had ever met.

"Mister Trunfor, I am glad to be able to thank you in person for your willingness to aid my employee, Zahn. I hope I can get him to thank you himself before you leave, but he is...stubborn, to put it mildly. Have you come to talk, Miss Phyliss? If so then please, come in to the sitting room and have a seat."

Z stood to the side of the doorway to allow passage through.
 
Trunfor Blackheart

Trunfor wasn`t sure if he should follow or not. His oath told him that he had to protect Phyliss which meant accompanying her. However, he wasn`t sure if he was allowed to enter or if Phyliss wanted him. Either way he would do as told.
 
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