Post:Re: Something Stirs - 06/26/2024 - 08:43

Re: Something Stirs · on 06/26/2024 08:43	2270
Milene's tavern is more crowded than usual -- patrons that you cannot recall having seen before cluster about tables. Rather than the overt din that usually fills the Milene's Rose Tavern, many of these newer patrons are silent as they eat. A young S'Kra says, "Thank you. This city is a confusing maze, and I have never been able to find my way around." She pauses, glancing around. "The locals have seemed less than hospitable to guests to the city. As much as the city is confusing, many of the locals appear to be just as confusing." As if the S'Kra's words were much louder than they seemed, many of the patrons all seem to glance at the S'Kra suspiciously. As you watch, you notice that many of the unfamiliar patrons move food around their plates with a fork, but do not seem to be eating anything. You notice patrons glancing at each other uneasily, and one by one, each abandons their table -- and food, before leaving. In the bustle, you can see a single figure in a grey cloak, but when you turn to look, it is gone. Only the publican remains, quietly using a rag to polish the bar, and watching you with a curious -- but knowing -- look. The S'Kra pauses mid-sentence, darkness covering her eyes. As her fingers move, a bone spike impacts her abdomen, lodging deeply. The S'Kra drops to a knee, her hand reaching for her meteor hammer. Though useless, her eyes search the darkness for her assailant. She jerks involuntarily as a violent laceration tears across her chest. Like a striking serpent, the S'Kra swings the meteor hammer blindly at the shadows, connecting with an acid-green wasp covered in hairline cracks. The wasp lurches to the side, twisting from the impact, before recovering. The wasp fires a second bone spike at the S'Kra, but this time, she is prepared -- she tucks herself low and rolls out of the way, sending the spike clattering uselessly against a wall. Using the momentum to her advantage, the S'Kra swings the meteor hammer at the wasp, this time much more precisely. The hammer connects with a heavy crunch, leaving the skeletal wasp reeling! Recovering from its stun, the wasp lurches forward menacingly. With a horrendous suction noise, the S'Kra is bodily lifted and held afloat. Cracks form in her flesh, in the semblance of parched earth under the sun, exposing the blood and muscle beneath. Amid screams, she is flayed in one horrific instant, unseen forces tearing broad swathes of skin from her body and scattering them with wet plops. As the S'Kra's corpse begins falling to the ground, the wasp wraps skeletal arms around her collapsing body, dragging her limp form into the shadows into the air. Struggling to carry her weight, the wasp is only to keep the S'Kra only barely above the ground. It hauls her out of the door with an ominous thrum of its wings, her limp arm trailing a steady drip of blood -- leaving only a long smear of gore leading from where she once stood to the door. Out of the corner of your eye, you notice the grey-cloaked figure dissapear out a back door. A gold coin rolls slowly along its length atop the bar, before colliding with an empty glass with an audible tink -- and falls flat on its side. The publican quietly resumes polishing the bar, seemingly unbothered by the outbreak of violence. He turns at you, and lifts a single finger to his lips. He then gestures, and the stableboy begins cleaning the floor with a mop.
This message was originally posted in Events and Happenings in DragonRealms' Elanthia / Ilithi Events, by DR-IRENOS on the play.net forums.