World Tree MUSH

    The Gaping Maw is... An old, old, old bar, inn, and tavern in the city of Anchordeep. Anchordeep is an absolutely massive port city; the world it originated from has long since lost its identity since it was sublimated into the Tree at large, so the city serves as a vast port for ships from all over the various worlds, both sea and space faring. The populace is cosmopolitan; a melting pot of all races from almost everywhere, leading their lives day to day in the city's various wards.
    The tavern is well known for serving adventurers and wanderers of all stripes. The drink is good, the prices are fair, and the rooms are cozy. But then there's the matter of why it's called The Gaping Maw.
    Nestled in the center of the taproom is a giant hole in the floor. A stone 'well' of sorts has been built up around the hole to form a lip to keep people from just drunkenly falling in, but face it. Sometimes people are still gonna drunkenly fall in.
    Lether is here. Decked out in her leathers and drumming clawed fingers on the table she sits at. She WOULD have preferred one of the tavern's dark corners to brood in but the place only has four corners and they're all taken up by darker, broodier, edgier types than she as she sips from a flagon to hydrate a bit while she waits. She called Neviah here personally... And while thinking about it, she also sent Hyouka a missive to stop by as well. But others... Well.
    Who could resist the siren song of gold?
    A rumor's been spreading around the tree that one of Anchordeep's exiled members of its governing body kind of sort of embezzled a whopping half-million gold and hid it somewhere in the city.
    Lether wants a cut, but she also has another problem on her mind at the same time.
    It's a LIVELY night at the bar though, with rowdy adventurer patrons drinking too much, singing, dancing, brawling and gambling, making for a bit of a noisy atmosphere.
    "I grew up in this city." She says. "Lived in the sewers alone for years before my friends pulled me out of a gutter and. Well." She motions at herself.
    "I'm kind of worried. Buncha the local kids and orphans have gone missing. I kinda wanna look into it." The lizardfolk girl says, twirling a copper coin in her fingers. "You help me with that, then I'll do everything I can to figure out where all the missing gold is and promise a cut."

Neviah was poring over old maps when she'd gotten word from a little lizardperson. There's a bar they've gotta go to, and they've gotta go now.

"It's definitely... animated," the professor muses from where she sits to one side of Lether. The place is a little grubby for her tastes. Certainly, her usual flashy array of fashionable bronze and silk would capture attention. She's gone with a black leather vest cut to the ribs and laced across her chest, a pair of high leather boots and a pair of matching pants held in place by a low-slung belt, and she's put her hair up into a high, layered ponytail. It's a more workmanlike ensemble than she'd normally pull out, but not without style.

For lack of an Nth-dimensional labyrinth of corners for Edgardo to ballad his way into, Neviah seems content to observe from her spot next to Lether, sipping slowly from a glass of what is either red wine or tinted bathwater - she's not sure which. Over the rim of the glass, she's taking in the sights, such as they are. She's taking stock of some of the more obvious potential threats and keeping an eye out for anyone more suspicious than the ambient level of suspiciousness might indicate.

It's hard when the whole place is sus. Neviah is incredibly glad she's got Lether here.

"I don't have much time for people who harm children," she muses, voice low behind the edge of her glass. "We'll deal with the gold when we find it. The priority is to find the young ones."

Somewhere in the back of Neviah's consciousness, something serpentine disapproves. Neviah suppresses the urge to recoil.

    "Honestly, I don't even need a cut of the gold. You had me at 'missing kids'," Hyouka replies, grinning a little. "But I'll take it anyway, if it's on offer."

    This is exactly the kind of place Hyouka Kiyama wanted to see when she asked for a body that would let her become an adventurer. A cosmopolitan melting pot of fantasy, a tavern with a seemingly bottomless pit, colorful people, interesting food, a rough and rowdy atmosphere... it's perfect. It's wonderful. The faux-elven cyborg could not be happier here, even with all the occasional stares from people who can sense her massive mana signature. She's used to that by now.

    "Do we have any leads?" Hyouka adds, before taking an experimental taste of the ale she's ordered. If you're in a fantasy adventurer's tavern, it's gotta be ale. At least once.

    Maybe she followed someone here, maybe she's been in the tavern the whole time people watching. Whatever the case, Marceline grabs a nearby chair and shoves at the oaf drunkenly grasping for it. Oh right. She appears, then slaps the big man's arm good naturedly. "Sorry, dude, forgot you couldn't see me."

    Leaving the bewildered warrior staring at her back, she plunks the chair down near Lether's table and slides onto the seat. She offers a nod at Hyouka. Been a little while, though perhaps not by her reckoning. Time is weird.

    "Missing kids? That sucks." Money's cool and all but what's she gonna spend it on that she won't just steal or procure on site? Maybe she can come up with something. "It's weird. I swear I've either been here before or like. Read a book about this place or something."

    Looks like she's been scavenging, what with the bright red firefighter's hardhat and bunker jacket on. Beneath is just a threadbare shirt, distressed old jeans that are probably almost as old as some of the elves here and some manner of motorcycle boots that could do with a polish or twelve. Her own hands are ungloved but there's a pair dangling from a pocket. Just in case!

    "Anyway." She rests her arms on the back of the chair she's reverse-mounted, eyes flicking around at the other occupants of the table.

    The ale is pretty good! It's inexpensive, and it tastes alright. Probably better than the wine, at least. Lether is side-eyeing every adventurer, cutthroat, and mercenary in the room with a more than healthy level of paranoia.
    And then Marcy shows up.
    The lizardfolk girl kind of... Stares at her for a long moment.
    "... Y-... Do either of you know her?" She asks point blank. Because Lether sure doesn't know her!
    "It's a big cut." She points out to Hyouka. "Half a million gold. Up and missing. Hidden somewhere in the city." But then she returns to her original topic.
    "Kinda..." She says when Hyouka asks about a lead.
    "Normally I'd chalk it up to gang violence. The Zhentarim and Xanathar Guild are the BIGGEST gangs in Anchordeep. I used to run with a smaller thieves guild in the city but they got swept under by the Zhents at some point. ... But they're the type of groups that take in kids at a young age off the street to make into muscle and footpads later in life. ... But I don't think it's that. Weirdly enough the kids didn't start vanishin' until these three old women started showing up in Anchordeep selling 'Dream Pies'." She makes a face. "A friend of mine's is one of the ones went missing, too. Always wore a red ribbon, you can't miss a girl like her."
    Lether actually sighs, overcome with worry, and deflates a bit.
    Thing is though. The tavern IS very animated. A bar fight breaks out between a squad of men in black leathers, five of them taking on a huge orc woman. She's doing well enough, soloing the five with fair ease until one of the men draws a blade.
    "Think it's fun killin' me mates, do ya?" He demands, swinging his sword. In self defense the orc brings a maul to bear and the fight is about to turn deadly and the barman, a huge human pulls a greatsword out from under the bar to imply a very huge deal of threat to the people fighting in his bar, when... All the voices echoing from the taproom down into the big hole in the center of the room seems to wake something up... Because the giant hole in the floor is an opening to the caverns and immense undermountain beneath the city. And Things live down there.
    The room suddenly goes so very instantly quiet when a monstrous roar sounds off from the hole, and everyone in the tavern is reaching for their weapons, Lether included.
    

Not for the first time, Neviah can't help but wonder if the aberration that was once Archimedeus the Ochre had a point about her. She thrusts the thoughts into the back of her mind.

And there comes Marcy. Neviah blinks a couple of times, then scratches her head and frowns. "I... don't think so...? Maybe in passing...."

The mention of dream pies, though, leaves the former professor knitting her brows in thought. "That does seem suspicious," she murmurs, the sound lost as the violence in the place begins to hit a fever pitch.

Then something /roars./ It is a loud, startling roar.

Neviah pushes her chair back quickly and whirls towards the hole, taking a few steps to one side. Weaving her fingers together, she murmurs a little invocation before gesturing at Lether. A subtle shimmer surrounds the tiny lizardlass, vanishing after a couple of seconds but leaving behind a ward that should make evil forces far less potent against her.

"That is not a good sound. Be ready."

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> Lether gets Protection from Badstuff.

    Marceline and Neviah both get a brief nod. And then an amused look at Lether. "I've met her before. She's decent people." She listens to Lether's explanation about the cut - and it's enough to hve her eyes going wide. "Half a million? That's... that's quite something." She settles back in her seat, sipping at her ale and listening to the small reptilian girl exposit. "...Dream Pies? That's ominous." She'd say more, but the colorful locals are putting on a show, and that has the cyborg watching with interest.

    Then something roars.

    Hyouka just about jumps out of her seat.

    In the next instant, there's a CLACK-CLATTER-CLANG of metallic plates sliding, shifting, assembling and locking in, and then the cyborg's forearms have been replaced with a pair of massive magictechnical gauntlets. Orange-red lines light up numerous spots along the FISTEAU units, and the temperature around her noticeably rises by a few degrees. "...Yeah, I don't like that either," she agrees with Neviah.

    Barfights are fine. Marceline doesn't seem to mind any of that going on, other than the fact it's going to turn to weapons, then blood, then probably guts. When the guy running the place desides to put his foot down - or big ass sword - that's enough to get a snort out of her before returning her attention to the table.

    "Ha! Thanks." Hyouka gets a wink, then Marcy leans back and considers. "Sounds like hags or something. Nice old ladies selling suspiciously awesome or weirdly named stuff? There's always a bunch of them? Or maybe they're just weird and their pies explode into weird knockout gas." She shrugs. She's from a weird place, though! Stuff like this is almost normal.

    "But so- What the grease? Hey?" She turns in her seat, then shouts over the dead air after the roar, pitching an empty mug into the well. "Shut up!"

    Is she dumb? Crazy? That confident? Yes.

    Silence now overtakes the bar and tension hangs like static in the air as hands rest on blades and the ominous chanting of spellcasters muttering spells under their breath begins.
    Marcy yells to shut up.
    A nervous laugh rises from the bar goers but then the roar sounds off *again*. Louder. Closer. Angrier.
    "Sod this...!" One of the men in black declares and the five of them bolt out the door. Lucky them.
    Because as they do a huge hand suddenly crests the well, gripping the stone. And a massive figure climbs out of the hole.
    Green skinned and easily nine or ten feet tall, it's a fine example of troll kind, body mottled with scars that healed in interesting ways.
    "Oh..." Lether mutters as Neviah casts that protective magic upon her.
    "That's a--"

    "TROLL!" A bar patron yells.

    It's chaos in an instant. An ice spell goes off, pelting the monster in shards of ice that it shrugs off. The orc woman rushes the thing with her maul only to be swatted aside. Men and women either rush the beast or rush out the door in chaos and panic.
    Lether hurls a dagger and it flies straight and true embedding in the beast's eye. It howls in pain as Lether whistles and the dagger magically returns to the sheath at her hip.
    Only to watch as the troll's wounds seal up and it grows a new eye.
    Durnan, the barman leaps the bar, greatsword in hand to go toe to toe with the beast and he holds his own well enough.
    "Fire!" He growls. "Use fire on it! Or soak it in oil from the lamps!"

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> DID SOMEBODY SAY 'FIRE' +_+

    'That's a troll'. Words that have Hyouka tense, but at the same time a smidge excited - she's got enough confidence in her cyborg body that most of her thought process is 'this will be an interesting fight'.

    Then, Lether says the magic words. 'Use fire on it.'

    Hyouka's lips stretch into a wide grin. "DARGN. Let's ramp up my core." The smugness in DARGN's reply is almost palpable. "DraCor output increasing for combat operations. That poor troll."

    Where the rise in temperature was noticeable before, now it's visible. The air around Hyouka shimmers with heat, the lines along her FISTEAU units starting to glow brighter. Fire mana floods the twin smashfists, and in half a heartbeat, she's lunging out of her seat. In a series of loping strides, Hyouka crosses the bar to the edge of the Maw, and without even trying to obscure her movements, just swings the biggest, most powerful haymaker she can. "ORAAA!" And as her right arm swings in, the air around it erupts into flames, the gauntlet so charged with fire magic that even a glancing impact will release a powerful burst.

>> SUMMARY[Hyouka Kiyama] >> DID SOMEBODY SAY 'FIRE' +_+

Getting into barfights isn't Neviah's style. She'd rather sit in a fancy chaise-longue and sip champagne like a debutante. Protecting Lether from howling monstrosities, however, /is/ increasingly her style.

And thaaaaat's a troll. Neviah widens her eyes for a second.

"Damn," she finally hisses, whirling back as quick as she can to try and create some space. She can hear the barman shouting - use fire.

She doesn't have fire and isn't much for getting into melee range to hit it with lamp oil. Internally cursing, the cleric mentally gropes for what sort of spell might be helpful in this situation. With no open sky above, raining down lightning is out. Fog would get in the way of fire and so would ice.

Neviah straightens with a sudden flash of inspiration. Planting her heels apart, she chants something quietly, flicking a small strip of iron into one palm; it vanishes with a serpentine hiss and sizzle. Then she flicks her hands out, palms facing towards the troll.

With a hum, a green aura attempts to manifest around the hulking creature. Neviah strains as she tries to hold the troll in place magically. "Hurry...!" she manages through clenched teeth.

>> SUMMARY[Neviah Younger] >> HOLD

    "Yep, it sure is." Marceline probably can't even really be heard all that well over the sudden chaos as the troll tops the lip of the well. Pit? Portal? Whatever. If she drank, she'd probably resume sipping from it.

    As it is, she steps out of her chair, scoops it up and hurls it at the troll's face. Buy everyone a sec to open up and see what they can do to handle a troll. "Fire, right, um..." Her eyes swivel up to a lamp, she scoops one down from the hook, snags up a second and flits back down to pass Lether the second. "Man said oil, let's help fire it up!" She doesn't wait, instead turning to sling her lamp in the direction of the troll, mostly being careful not to hit the barman or Hyouka. "Hup!"

    Quite the image, someone half-dressed as a firefighter helping start a fire.

    The tavern is a display of chaos, a small riot of panicked people rushing the door, people rushing the troll. It swats men and women alike with ease while the barkeep manages to remain in melee. Lether... Ducks back to not get caught in the chaos as MArcy passes her a lamp.
    The barman hacks off the beast's hand, but like something out of a horror film it regrows it fast enough to swing at him and slam the barkeep into a nearby wall.
    It's as Neviah casts Hold Monster on the thing that it suddenly goes tensed, bodily struggling against the magical aura surrounding it.
    That's the time to strike, and with a shatter of glass, Marceline and Lether hurl their lamps, splattering the troll in oil.
    The thing's howls as Hyouka hits it with that explosive wave of fiery force from her punch...
    They're horrifying. Especially as it flails and breaks free of containment to flail and shriek and howl as it runs around on fire--only to trip over the stone lip of the hole in the floor and return, burning to death, whence it came.
    Things quiet down. The barman picks himself up.
    Lether grabs someone's drink. She doesn't care who's and downs it.
    "Everyone alive?" Durnan, the barman calls out, cradling a bruised set of ribs.
    "Too much excitement for one night." Lether grumbles.

Trying to hold back something as huge and brawny as a troll is as hard as it sounds. Neviah clenches her teeth and tenses, holding her arms out as she fights to keep the spell up as long as she can.

Marceline, Lether and Hyouka ensure she doesn't have to hold it for very long. The troll, aflame, trips and tumbles back to whence it came. Neviah lets the spell go and exhales heavily, arms falling back to her sides as she sags visibly. "Bloody hell," she manages.

She quickly looks up to Lether, then Marcy and Hyouka, checking if they're alright. "That... was not a fun surprise."

    "Not technically, no." Marcy replies to Durnan, shrugging with a smile full of teeth to rival Lether's. She hovers, legs tucked, while fixing the top hook of her heavy waterproof coat. The troll? It seemed to be a bigger deal than she thought it'd be but maybe she should've got in there to try it out? Eh. The end result was good enough.

    "It was plenty fun. Nobody died, everybody's sobered up so much I'm guessing big homie barman is gonna kill it for the rest of the night. Less the fuzz busts in and kicks everyone out."

    People DID take off in an awful hurry. There could be a small army headed back here to check on things! "So wait, do we go down now? Or just-" Glance glance.

    For a few seconds after the troll goes stumbling back to the depths, Hyouka holds her fists up, a guarded posture waiting for it to just come right back up. Only when it doesn't do so after several seconds does the cyborg relax, and her mana output drops to the poing where the air around her arms is no longer shimmering.

    Then, she gives the barkeep a great big FISTEAU thumbs-up.

    As the twin fist units disassemble themselves and fold back into the otherspace within Hyouka's arms, the woman turns to Neviah with a slightly amused look. "I'm with Marceline, honestly. Even if it's pure coincidence, I had my fire crystal equipped, so that was a fun little diversion." DARGN deadpans, "Several people were injured in the brawl." Hyouka huffs. "They're the ones who chose to rush a troll without fire weapons." DARGN's reply is dry. "You would have done the same thing." Hyouka stammers a little, but can't quite come up with a reply.

    "A-anyway," she transparently shifts topics, "Where do we go from here? I have a few pending contracts, I'm not sure when they'll come through, but if I'm available, I'll be here."

    No, that was not fun at all.
    Neviah gets a light pat-pat from Lether as a result as the lizardfolk girl slumps back into her seat.
    So where to next?
    A good question.
    "I'm not going down there." Lether notes to Marcy, next. "That's definitely ont where the gold's stashed."
    It is as she says this that an older man dressed in somewhat fine clothes approaches the group.
    "Excuse me... I couldn't help but notice how you all handled the troll. A word if I may? ... My name is Volothamp Geddarm.