<span style="font-style: italic">Sorry guys, been preoccupied with other things and haven't had a lot of energy for posting! Now with the group moving along to the main 'adventure hub' things can get a bit less "chunky" and the inertia will be reduced... </span><br/><br/>Yasha's dragon-man, though certainly not as loyal as he should be to his captain, was unlikely to be fazed by whatever punishment he ended up receiving; aside from the inherent pleasure of the act itself, he had been praised and cheered by the few catfolk who'd seen him shamelessly emerging with a newly-expanded and visibly lively midsection.<br/><br/>Thumper's stern, somewhat lascivious rebuke doesn't seem to faze the woman still towering over her. Looking around behind her, Imelda scans the slack-jawed faces of the few commoners watching the simmering confrontation and huffs contemptuously, producing another little cloud of frost. "Don't be thinking I cannot hear you whispering girls!!" she shrills at them in a peevish voice when Yasha is speaking to Thumper. "You would like that huh - to get me to try and help to be fulfilling your natural purpose as target practice and afternoon meals, and then all of the sudden dozens of your filthy little brigand friends coming swarming out of their knotholes and nip my ankles to death, yah? Won't be that easy! For one thing I am having a more important target for practicing on at dawn tomorrow. Once<span style="font-style: italic">she</span>is dealt with, don't be expecting me to be so forgiving of insolence from harmless little lettuce-nibblers like you two. I'll be in the village up there as long as I want, I'll take what I need, and woe to any lady, man or beast who moves to stand in my path!"<br/><br/>With a dramatic flourish of her cloak, Imelda turns back to her sleigh. "Hnh! I suddenly have lost the desire to reward the foul-smelling toothless vagrants of this place with any of my coin! A little weather does not bother me!" One of her cats, seeming to comprehend her intent as she re-harnessed it, gave a long, drawn-out meow of protest, but the giantess ignored the obvious displeasure of her beasts and made to put her snow-mask back on. "Little rabbit, when we meet again, I'll pick your senseless body by the ears in one hand after my charms have laid you low, yah?" she shouts back in a tone of mocking forced politeness.<br/><br/>The rest of the catfolk and the entourage of the few travelers coming here had been appraised of the weather, and wary of the coming storm, the conductor had begun ringing his bell and announcing an imminent departure. The cat nobles who hadn't received a filling meal in the aftermath of the failed ambush were dozing happily and those who were not were excited to greater heights of lust by the close-by evidence of the fun they'd missed.<br/><br/>...<br/><br/>The trip up to the actual town of Catspaw proved to be a bit more harrowing than anything up until then: the hovertrain was going up at a steep, 30 degree angle and winding its way back and forth at a fairly fast clip, causing the passengers inside to uncomfortably sway from one side to the other every so often. As they finally reached the edge of the gates, however, there was a reassuring sight... at first. The woven banners and tribalistic totems of the town's original settlers adorned a haphazard wooden wall. It seemed that the town guards - who traditionally were supposed to assemble and oversee the arrival of nobility, especially their new landlords, with requisite pomp - had assumed that the passengers wouldn't be arriving tonight after all. A half-dressed catgirl with her helmet on sideways and one of her breasts still hanging out of the side of her boiled leather top ran along several small guardhouses, kicking each door as she passed and yelling at them to muster again. Several more Cal'Drua catfolk staggered out, mostly visibly drunk, and almost none fully clothed, let alone armed or armored.<br/><br/>The Cal'Drua, like many tribes living on the fringes and frontiers, did not have any manufactories or import enough materials and tools to use modern construction methods. This entire mountain and the surrounding valleys were liberally salted with ancient salvage, from decades or centuries ago, but that was good for little more than rusty scrap metal. They weren't the most diligent or cautious artisans, but they made up in enthusiasm what they lacked in knowledge or discipline, and in the short time since this place had been formally settled, no less than two-score buildings (mostly huts) had been assembled or refurbished. Being hunters with many trade contacts, they hadn't bothered establishing any farming on the difficult mountainside soil, except for a single terraced garden growing grapes. This was a common practice in their villages: outsiders sometimes called it an "emergency wine lifeline". The largest structure was a single large warehouse, and aside from that, there was only one somewhat modern-looking building - a fancy, still half-unpainted Taileton-style inn<span style="font-style: italic">(with what would be called "Victorian" architecture if there was a Victoria)</span>called "The Comforting Feather".<br/><br/>It would seem that there are several other small clusters of houses done in other styles - there is the base of a stone tower, mostly unfinished, with the large, blocky granite construction favored by the Bucovina... And there could also be seen a cluster of wagons from one of the local nomadic trading groups... Interestingly, those wagons all seemed stripped bare and abandoned. There were fires burning, but aside from a few wearly loggers returning, and the slovenly guards, there was no celebrating crowd to greet them. Those who were here hardly seemed interested in the arrival of the hovertrain, perhaps assuming it was merely more settlers, or not caring to acknowledge unasked-for ladies to rule over them...<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Gotta head out for now - will post more town details as I come up with them. Characters are free to start setting their own goals and inquiring about/coming up with things now, the next major event will be the next ingame morning.</span>