Return to Port Lorrel

[Jack Rothwell]

Unlike her companion, Tamina was hardly in a fit state to conduct a battle at that point. In fact, the sight of the parrot monster below her trying to dislodge them caused the kobold to break her paralysis and utter a spell before the sane part of her mind had the chance to catch up and advise her of the dangers of what she was attempting.

Still holding the horrible troll-child Tamina stammered something that sounded like 'eyo kla dree' and launched herself horizonally away from the chandelier; it was a testament to her fear-induced adrenalin, her general level of fitness and the strength of the spell that Tamina was actually able scamper a good dozen feet across the ceiling before gravity caught up and made her fall.

Tamina had enough time to yelp before she struck a table back-first and the wind left her body. Nera, now sitting on her chest, giggled and resumed petting the terrified humanoid.

[Graybeard]

"Think we should go in after them?" the first Eisenfaust goon asked the other, watching and listening from across the street.

The second goon chortled. "Hell, no. This is the most fun I've had in ages."

[OOC: Just a reminder that there is serious, BBEG-oriented stuff waiting in the background here, but there's no rush. As for the fight against the terror bird, you're on your own ...]

[Sareth]

It was impossible to say who landed on the bottom of the ball of skin and feathers that were Jamie and the Parrot. After all, the parrot was too small to hurt Jamie just by landing on her, and Jamie couldn't crush the familiar to death by landing on it, thanks to its being indestructible. All that could be said was that when the landing occurred, the table on which it took place certainly did not come out on top.

From a swirl of twisting dust,spattering beer, and flying splinters, Jamie's hand shot out and grabbed the remains of one of the table's legs. The hand and table leg disappeared back into the hidden mayhem with high speed and ill intent. There came a sound of wood impacting flesh hard.

"YEOW!" Jamie shouted from in the midst of it. "That wasn't parrot! And I'm already bruised there!"

The parrot came tearing out of the fray. It jumped into the air, did a loop around a terrified and completely out of it Tamina, then stooped as Jamie emerged from the cloud rubbing a breast and wincing. With clear menace it shot it's talons forward with malice aforethought.

Jamie promptly swung the table leg and struck a line drive towards the chimney with an odd sounding leathery thump. The parrot shot into the chimney and promptly lit on fire.

"Booya!" Jamie shouted, then winced as she became aware that she was now being approached by a flaming indestructible parrot. "Not good... not good. notgood!"

The girl tore away, and began running laps around the room, the parrot pursuing and lighting things on fire as it passed. This continued for two laps, until on the third Jamie realized a problem.

"Awwwwww crap. Those empty liquor barrels are on fire. If the fumes get too hot..."

At that moment, outside, the two Eisenfaust heard a soft "poomf" sound they would later determine was Jamie yanking Tamina and Nera out of the rafters. Then they heard a loud thump they would learn was an upended table. This was followed by a louder thump and squawk as the parrot collided with the table.

And then things really got loud.

After picking themselves up off the street, they looked about at the debris strewn throughout the neighborhood. There were flaming planks everywhere, several shattered barrels were spinning in various spots along the road, tables and chairs were falling out of the sky at random moments, and the bar was gone.

A table near them shifted, then flopped over as Jamie, hair smoking slightly and every inch of her smeared with soot, pushed it aside. She grabbed Tamina into a sitting position, then deposited a disturbingly cheerful Nera back into her makeshift sling. Next to her a smoking featherless parrot gave one squawk, gave Jamie the finger (we don't know how) and walked over to the snoring lump in the middle of the crater before promptly passing out.

"Now THAT'S what I call a bar!"

One of the Eisenfaust glanced at the other. "That her?"

"Anyone else capable of that much destruction in her first half hour ashore?"

"Point.

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina, now blessedly through the worst of the drink's effects with her usual fast metabolism being given a shot of adrenalin both from terror and the magic she'd used, watched in wonder as the carnival nightmare hallucinations she'd had began to melt away. She sat upright with the infant clinging to her (in a manner surprisingly reminicent of her own people's children) and surveyed the scene of destruction around her. Flames licked out the windows of the inn, giving the bulding an inanimate scowl that the kobold found quite disconcerting. She looked over at her charred and slightly less monsterfied companion with confusion all over her face.

"Umm... don't wanna go back there again." She managed. "Jay-me? Drink somewhere else now? Far away? With no more drinks that make me see things?"

Pressed against her chest, Nera made a grumpy noise which any adult with a paternal instinct would've recognised.

"Or food." She added. "Food's good."

OOC And with that, I'm gone for two weeks. Put words and actions on Tamina as needed, have fun guys!/OOC

[Sareth]

"Don't worry. I'm positive that there's more bars where that one came from. We'll just have to find one." Jamie looked at Nera beginning to fuss. "Quickly."

The girl put her darkened hands on her darkened hips and began looking around. Inevitably, her eyes fell on the two men watching. "Hey, you! Where's a good place to get a bite to eat?"

[Graybeard]

"Hey, you! Where's a good place to get a bite to eat?"

The two men looked at each other, back at Jamie. "Geno's," one said. "Good steaks, not too expensive, only a couple of blocks from here."

And under our control. That seems like a good thing right now ...

[OOC: Don't that take you back? Jamie and various others have been here before. JR, you might want to have a look at that thread, if you get a minute while lounging on the beach...]

[Graybeard]

[OOC: This has stagnated in the absence of JR, so to get it moving again ...]

Geno's hadn't changed much since the last time Jamie had eaten there, now a month or so in the past. The same rather disinterested-looking maitre d' met them at the door, and conducted them to the same table ... where, less routinely, two steaks were already waiting, along with some mush for Nera.

And so was a note, placed by Jamie's plate.

Hope you enjoyed your trip. Dinner is on us, but when you have finished, we need to talk. Come to the warehouse, and come alone. We'll look after your kid and your catgirl friend while we talk. They are under our protection too.

Eat this note after you read it. I'm told it tastes like strawberries.

E

[Sareth]

Jamie stared at the steaks, which looked absolutely excellent. She stared at the mush, which didn't, but which Nera clearly approved of given the way she was grabbing for it before they even reached the table. She stared at the note, and sighed.

"Last time I was here you guys gave me some sort of beer that had to be at least one hundred proof. Do you have any more of that? If that paper is what I think it is, I'm going to need it." Stepping up to the table, she swept a soot covered hand out and grabbed the note, reading it quickly. "Yep. I'm definitely going to need it."

Ignoring the slightly distressed look on the waitress' face, Jamie proceeded to besmirch the chair before one of the plates of the food with her ash covered body. She carved a bite of steak and popped it in her mouth. A few chews and her eyes widened. "Wow. This is primo stuff! Someone really knew what to order for..." She trailed off, a sly grin forming on her face. She rounded on the waitress looking slightly demented.

"Let me guess," Jamie said. "Someone came in ahead of us and ordered this food."

The waitress nodded.

"And they said to give us whatever else we wanted and make us comfortable."

Again the waitress nodded.

"And they promised to pay for everything plus make it worth your while if you did and threatened you if you didn't?"

The waitress, turning paler by the moment, nodded once more.

Jamie gave a chuckle that caused holy men half way around the world shudder for no apparent reason. "Okay. I want one of the most expensive wines you have in the place. No! Two bottles, one for each of us. Then I want live musicians and dancers, the best in the town. I want a VIP table too, even if that means buying one. For the second course I want Tsuirakuan sturgeon fillet covered in Veratian sauteed mushroom sauce. And for desert, how about an entire Elven Black Chocolate cake."

The waitress blanched.

Then Jamie turned to Nera. "What about you? Anything you want special?"

Then she turned back to the waitress, who looked ready to pass out. "Oh, don't worry, by the way. You won't have to give the bitch the bill for this. I'll deliver it personally." She grinned and then stuffed the paper in her mouth. "Mmm. It really does taste like strawberry."

[Graybeard]

Elke smiled as she and Annabelle watched proceedings through a well-concealed peephole in the ceiling. Of course, Jamie wasn't going to get everything she asked for; for starters, the nearest Tsuirakuan sturgeon was in Tsuiraku, after all. Still, it was nice to know they had the right girl.

The two women slipped out the back way, to make sure they got to the warehouse before Jamie did. "That's going to cost a pretty penny, isn't it?" Annabelle asked her boss, not sure this was all a good idea.

Elke's smile widened. "Yeah, and just wait until Jamie finds out that we fixed it so the Gewehr is paying..."

[Jack Rothwell]

Tamina listened with half an ear to Jamie's byplay with the waitress as she tore into the steak in front of her to shreds with teeth evolved specifically for such an action.

Outwardly, the kobold now looked fine, although there was an occasional involuntarily twitch that escaped her as the dregs of the potion she'd taken exited her system.

"Jaammm-muhhh!" She said through a mouthful of meat and mushroom gravy. "Peoplsssss be...nom! ...nice to us now?" She finished, ignoring a man one table over who was now picking brown gunk off his lapels, and frowning at her companion. "Umm...why you eating the pay-per?"