Stables Day II

[James Seabird]

James watched with mounting trepidation as the strange elf revealed himself to be not only a troublemaker but also one possessed by a dark spirit. James had heard of things like this and fear numbed him to the bone as he thought upon the stories he had heard. Young people who disappeared and were said to have been taken by spirits, most turned up a town over having run off with a lover or run to some drink, but if the story came up so often there must be some truth. Right?

Along with those stories came the older myths, of how the clever out witted the demons and were granted a boon of some sort. Even if that wasn't true, those were the stories that lasted through the ages, weren't they?

James sent up a silent prayer to Baveras, begging for her protection of his soul. Then as if things weren't bad enough, a large beast came out of one of the stables and began to sniff him. It resembled some of the swine found in the ports James had stopped in but never anything as large as the beast before him. 'It must be possessed by demons as well.'

James struggled to keep his composure, if the demons could read thoughts it wouldn't matter, but just in case they could it was best they couldn't read his thoughts on his face. James closed his eyes and made his face go dead of all expression, ceasing upon his persona of one who had seen everything. He opened his eyes and put forth an unimpressed face.

"What? Is this part of your game? I haven't even agreed yet. However, I like my odds and I accept your terms. Let these people leave first, they play no role in the deal. I believe it was my body exclusively that you agreed to. Stupid choice I'm afraid, even if you take over my mind, you will have to destroy me completely, for I will never stop fighting you to regain what is mine. How are we to compete?"

James thought to himself somewhat ironically 'Wait a second, I don't legally own my body anyway. Oh well, I've come this far to steal and own myself, I'm not giving up now.'

 

[Ridgen Sú'ufanán]

"Very well. Unless there are those who wish to take part and help  this poor man here?" Ridgen said in a jester-like voice, looking around at everyone. "Be warned, though, as by playing this game, you might face your greatest fear." Ridgen felt a throbbing headache that had been bothering him for the past few minutes. Good, at least now, his mind was clear enough to make up a game on the spot. It was time to stop stalling.

The elf jumped up in a flamboyant manner, spinning around one way before suddenly stopping dead, and acted like he was in pain, the black of his irises suddenly very, very, visible. This is going to shake things up a bit, the elf thought, grinning inwardly. "Get OUT of my head you little..." and following that comment, an impressive string of curses came out of the elf's mouth, but in a voice different to the one he used before. Far deeper. Far less annoying. Sounds sensible, even, if not for the curses. He now had his hands held against the sides of his head, acting as if he was trying to get something out. His eyes were back to their original colour - a metallic silver, which quickly was clouded up by white again as the elf reverted to the demonic persona he had adopted. In the midst of that chaos, a cookie had dropped to the floor, fallen from the elf's pocket.

"So sorry about that. My host tends to be very annoying at times." Ridgen said again. He was amused. And excited to see what these people's reactions would be when he revealed what he had in store for them. "Where was I? Oh, right. The game I have in mind would of course, be easier... Not to mention more fun, if we had more players. Any of you ladies care to try and help this man? This elf, too. Not that you'll win, of course." Ridgen said again, in that demonic/jester-like voice.

In the middle of all that, Ridgen's irises were visibly white. He had taken note of the position of everything he could see in the room.

And the cookie is still on the floor.

[Salena smith]

     Everything was happening so fast around Salena. One minute she was standing in front of James and the next he was guarding her. "The tip eared man? Is he insane or drank too much ale by any chance," Salena thought to herself. The man was dancing around the short stumby man and then was sitting eating a cookie.

At first, Salena didn't make out what the pointed eared man said for she was distracted by what looked like a very large pig sniffing her. She noticed James face change when this animal of some sort sniffed him but she ignored him for the time being. Salena knelt on one knee against the hard dirty wooden floor and pulled out some bread from her bag. "Here boy, this what you want?" As she put her hand out to the pig.

Suddenly her attention was drawn back to sharped eared man and James. The man was asking about a game or talking about one. Looked like he was getting up as if someone had pushed him on his backside.  Salena didn't know what was going on but was prepared if she needed to be. Salena whirled around James and replied, "Yes, I'll play your game but remember a woman with always out smart a fool who claims to be a man.". Salena then turned her head and flipped her long dark hair to give James a wink as if she had something up her sleeve.

[Buri]

Buri happily accepted the bread Salena handed to him. Sniffing it first, rolling it around the ground, playfully nibbling at the sides and then finally gobbling it up. He squealed with delight as a sign of thanks, then followed his daddy towards the stable door.

His moment of happiness ended when the Ridgen started yelling and cursing in a loud voice. He trotted as quickly as he could towards Thorgas and stood at his side, lowering the impressive tusks he possesses at the direction of the elf. He stomped his feet defiantly and took a defensive position, like those of a sow defending its young. Buri glared at the elf, ready to charge should he attack.

[Thorgas Ironforge]

"Buri!" Thorgas snapped at the boar. "What did I told ye aboot strangers?" Then he turned towards the woman and apologized. "Sorry aboot that, lass. Me pig will eat yer food if ye don't guard it..." He stopped short in his futile attempt to apologize. The woman wasn't listening anyway; She was busy with the insane elf.

The elf. The annoying elf that managed to get on Thorgas' nerves with his child-like antics and jester-like mannerisms. Even his pig thinks the elf is pestering.

"Right, we be going now. Wait what?"

Possession? Could such a thing exist? Growing up in Ximax, he never learned to believe in spirits or deities or some other higher being. Unlike others of his clan, he'd rather trust his scholarly research rather than the myths his people tell. Even the religion of the dwarves was lost to him, preferring to 'believe' in them for the sake of his people. Reluctantly he postponed his intended work of preparing for Brokden and stared at the elf. He looked as foolish as he did earlier. Or perhaps that was the 'spirit's' doing? A part of him wants to leave him alone with his demented gibberish, then he remembered the haks he gave James. Maybe he'll reward the dwarf with as much money if he could bring Ridgen to the community healer! There they could play his game without disturbing all these paying customers, plus he'd get paid, hopefully, for his services.

"Oy there, knife-ear, whut ye talkin' aboot?" Thorgas spoke, trying to hide any evidence of greed in his so called 'kindness'. "Ye feeling unwell?"

[James Seabird]

James mentally pleaded with these people. 'Don't do it! Don't you have any sense? I was helping you get out of here!'

After a moment of mental protest he sighed inwardly. He looked at the girl who winked at him. 'Oh well, I guess I don't have a choice. I hope you know what your doing.'

He turned to Ridgen. "We have your players, now whats the game? Or am I wasting my time here?"

[Ridgen Sú'ufanán]

After hearing Saleena's agreement to play, James's demand and Thorgas's (seemingly) kind comment - which is a change from what comments he's delivered before, which is weird and puts Ridgy on edge. The elf decided to do the following.

"I'm fine, thanks for your concern, mr. dwarf. Not sure about mr. elf here, my host. He doesn-" Ridgen began in that annoying, demonic-jesterly-high-pitched voice. Then he proceeded to let the natural silver of his eyes flash back into visibility, and, using the more sensible, deeper and very not-demonic voice, said, "No, no I'm not okay. Can't do anything about it, I'm afraid, unless one of you knows how to- argh!" and after that, let his eyes fade back to white. Resuming in a high-pitched jester-like voice, he assumed the act of being possessed yet again. "Sorry about that. My host can be a total nuisance sometimes. Okay, we're going to play a simple board game here."

Ridgen drew the 'board' on the ground. A bizzare spiral that ran clockwise, composed of 156 steps. The goal to be reached is a big circle on the centre of the board, and there are a handful of extra marks down on certain squares on the board. The elf procured a die from his coat pocket, as well as a san, a copperbard and a silverbard coin. "The game is simple. These coins act as our counters. The san represents James, the copperbard represents the young lady and the silverbard represents myself. We shall each take turns to roll the die and our counter moves closer to the goal according to the number on the surface of the die. Whoever gets to the goal first, wins. But there are a number of catches. Catch 1: should any of you land on the same square as I do, you will have to find one of the five aquamarine stones I have scattered around the room while you're all busy 'listening' to me within a set amount of time - say, 180 blinks. Fail and you return to the starting point. Catch 2: If you land on any of the marked squares, and that includes me, too, you have to do a dare. If you fail, you must return to the starting point. Catch 3: if any of you win, I leave this guy and the rest of you alone. If I win, whoever is last, I will possess," the elf explains. As he did so, he was walking around the room, dropping off a stone in one of the horse stalls, behind a torch, a particularly large crevice in the wood where a dagger had once struck it, on the floor (under the straw) and under his foot as he sat down in front of the board drawn in the dust.

"Best of luck to you all. Let the game begin, and, by all means, remember this body is not my own. You might end up killing a poor little elf if you're not careful."

[Kareesh Valendar]

Kareesh was frustrated. She had better things to do with her time than play a silly little game with a crazed Elf. She didn't believe in possession. She was one to believe what she could see with her own eyes, and she had never seen anything before which would make her believe in spirits possessing someone's body.

Her eyes narrowed as she watched him make a board throughout the stables. She thought she would just follow the Dwarf out the door, but he seemed to hesitate and seem interested in the game. She only vaguely listened as the Elf explained his game.

With a swift motion, she replaced her dagger back within its sheath. A small wave of her hand signaled her desire to leave.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to leave now. As much as it would have been....entertaining....to stay and watch, but it would seem that my presence is no longer needed."

With that, she headed towards the door, silently excused herself past the two humans, the Dwarf, and the pig, and pushed open the door. She paused for a moment, almost as if she were expecting someone to stop her.

[James Seabird]

James from the demon/elf to the woman walking out to the man still lying unconscious in the room."What about him? Or her for that matter?" He gestured to Mallayn. "We cant just leave them there."

He turned to Ridgen, "A board game, really? Is that the best you can come up with?"

James was starting to wonder if this demon was a proper demon at all. Didn't they normally ask riddles or ask for seemingly impossible tasks to be done? Something rigged towards the demon. Why a board game? Isn't that rather pathetic?

[Ridgen Sú'ufanán]

"Very well, if you insist, it will be a game of dares. These tasks I request of you are by no means life-endangering - I need your body intact. But they won't be easy. Scrap the board game, then." Ridgen took back the assorted items he had taken out. "Here's how our game works. I shall start, and give you a dare. If you refuse to do the dare, you may request to answer a riddle instead, or fight me. Should the riddle be answered incorrectly, or the dare fail to be executed, or you fall to me in battle, you're out. If both of you get knocked out, I win, and I shall take over James's body. If I get knocked out, I will leave everyone here alone, including this fool of a host I have here. Remember, though, that if you choose to fight me, I will not suffer - the elf will. The turn rotation will go as ordered - James, myself, Salena, myself, James, myself, and so on. Are you ready to play?"

This will be more amusing. Why did he even bother thinking of a twisted version of a children's game, anyway? No matter. At least the board will serve a purpose or two, in case any one of them wish to fight or play a game of riddles instead. We'll see how James reacts to this.

[Thorgas Ironforge]

Ah well, it was worth a try. Thorgas shrugged. It seems he won't be getting any coins from the insane elf. He motioned for Buri to follow him, then he remembered that Zarkin and Mallayn are still in the stables. Although he's perfectly fine with the others risking their lives ro play with a crazy knife-ear, he couldn't afford to have those two to be involved since they're innocent, so to speak, and the dwarf needs their coin. With a sigh Thorgas trudged to their location, stopping at Zarkin's first. He'll come back for Mallayn later. With a tremendous effort the dwarf tried hoisting the human onto his back, but Zarkin won't budge; his weight is too much for the aging pyromancer and he is getting impatient.

Without thinking of the consequence of his actions, Thorgas pushed Zarkin, causing the human to fall face first to the ground. He won't be feeling that one since he's drunk anyway. Then Thorgas lifted the feet and pulled Zarkin towards the door, the tallfolk's face dragging along the ground.

"Too.. Damn.. Heavy!" Thorgas groaned as he pulled the human towards the stables doors. Zarkin's face occasionally landed on dung piles, to the delight of the sorcerer. "I'll just tell 'im Hragnur or Galein did it. Or probably not, since he won't remember a sodding thing by the time he wakes up," Thorgas reassured Buri. The boar, without showing the least amount of concern, was trotting alongside the dwarf with a lively gait.

The dwarf slowly passed by Kareesh, too bothered by the load to notice her presence. By the ancestors, he shouldn't be doing physical labor in the first place! I'm a tier six sorcerer, not a dock worker! He complained silently. Then he complained loudly to no one in particular, "By Jynee's tits, human! Why do ye have to grow so heavy?"

[James Seabird]

That was more like it, less dreary chance and more of a competition. A dare, a riddle, or combat. Those were fun options, James would rather have them than some dice which would show you favor one day and spite you the next. The devils dice may skip the favor part.

Giving a sidelong glance to Selena still hoping she knew what she was in for he declared, rather loudly "I have one last thing to ask. Who determines your dare? Or your riddle? Other than that I accept your game and your terms."

He looked over at the struggling dwarf and the dung-faced man. 'I can't really help him now. The devil probably wouldn't let me go. Oh well, he's making plenty of progress on his own'

[Santhos Avathcin]

Santhos walked towards the inn shivering a bit from the weather. He looked at the warm bulge in his shirt on his shoulder. "Its so good to be around dwarves again. Its been much too long. I'll be able to speak my normal language for once!"

Santhos turned when he heard a shout of frustration with a heavy Thergerim accent. He saw, of course, a dwarf that was lugging another man, clearly drunk rather unceremoniously from the stables.

Santhos walked over to lend a helping hand. "I got him kinsman, just spare this mans face from further immersion in the dung will you?" He called out good-naturedly. He picked up the unfortunate fellow easily and through him over his shoulder, careful not to crush Melody, the Ximaxian rat he kept.

Then he heard some call of a challenge plus some speak of riddles and dares. 'That sounds entertaining' he thought. He poked his head through the door to see what was going on.

(The Speech in bold is said in Thergerim with no accent, as Thergerim is Santhos' native language.)

[Ridgen Sú'ufanán]

"The dares and riddles will be given by whoever's turn it was last. That means, both your riddles and dares will be given by myself and vice versa. The dare MUST meet the following criteria: it should be able to be completed within the premises of the Kann. It should not endanger anyone but the daree. And lastly, it should, of course, be possible. Does that answer your question?" Ridgen explained, in that annoying, high-pitched voice. Then he noticed someone - an elf, by the looks of him - poking his head 'round the door. "Why, hello, there! We were about to play a game. Are you interested?"

[Thorgas Ironforge]

This excessive pulling has to stop, one way or another. The old bones won't be able to handle much more of the pressure. Well actually it can, Thorgas just doesn't want to do any work that requires lifting heavy objects. Then like a prayer answered, his load became lighter; someone took pity on the dwarf and lent him a helping hand.

A man called out cheerfully. "I got him kinsman, just spare this man's face from further immersion in the dung will you?" he lifted Zarkin on his back, but turned around and peeked inside the stables instead of going straight to the Kann.

Thorgas stared at the man closely. He seemed familiar, but what bothered him most was the way he addressed him. "Kinsman", he thought. How can one as large and tall as this one be a kin to him? He had never heard of dwarves adopting a tall-folk child except for those who went topside. And the way he spoke ThergerimTaal fluently! Either he was raised by the mountain-folks, or he's an overgrown dwarf. This man must be worth knowing indeed if he took the time to study their language.

"Ye better stay out o' them stables if ye know whut's good fer ye," Thorgas warned the visitor. "There's a crazy knife-ear in there. Oh, if ye doon't mind, can ye bring that tall-folk towards the entrance o' the inn? Methinks I can drag him up the stairs from there. There's another tall-folk inside that be needin' to go upstairs an' I need to work fast." Zarkin will be sore in the morning, but he can't very well ask the guest to carry him upstairs; that would be too much.

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