{{Egads, I thought that week would never end. |3  Thank you all very much for being so patient. I'm past the rough spot now, so I promise that my posts in the near future will be much quicker than they have been lately.}}<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>When the centaur starts getting all touchy-feely, Jess wiggles away from his arm and makes a grunting noise that seems to say:<span style="font-style: italic">"Buzz off! I saw it first, it's mine!"</span>She considers swallowing hard just to spite him...<br/><br/>Then--"Mph?--MNNPH!!!!!!!" The morsel on her tongue starts to grow by orders of magnitude.<br/>Finally, as her jaw is forced to expand uncomfortably, she notices that she doesn't see the lion-mouse-guy anywhere and at last she figures out what's going on. She quickly spits the half-rat/half-bear onto the table.<br/><br/>{{Shapeshifting during vore is a valid move but does not guarantee escape. Jess had the option of keeping bear-Chrrou ingested (albeit no longer completely contained in her mouth) but chose to release him.}}<br/><br/><br/>In the aftermath of Sen's flashy (if inadvertent) thaumaturgy, the party's longtable has been drawing regular glances from others in the main hall who are curious as to what these strangers are up to. Rihyan's and Auralia's wings, especially, have drawn a lot of stares. Not that theres's nothing strange about seeing planar foreigners here--the place is run, afterall, by creatures spawned in fire and brimstone. But<span style="font-style: italic">those</span>types of outsiders...with the brilliant feathers and the shimmering nimbii... are 'out of place', to say the least. A tension hangs thick in the air, held in stasis only by the harsh law of the Inn and the thus-far placid nature of the strangers.<span style="font-style: italic">...a keg of black powder, with a candle hung over it by a thin thread...</span><br/><br/>So several pairs of eyes are watching when the following happens:<br/>As the freed Chrrou moves to right himself and get his bearings, a sound emits from below him:<span style="font-weight: bold">*grooan-cckkCRAC!-CK!!*</span><br/>The longtable, already in a sorry state of disrepair, gives way under the thousands of pounds of shifting ursine bulk and collapses in half. Except for those in hand at the moment, all of the steins are upended and their contents spilled.<br/><br/>(overheard sentence fragments)<br/>"...breaking stuff..."<br/>"...what the hell are they doing over there...?"<br/>"...first that girl, now a bear..."<br/><br/><br/>"Uh..." Jess blinks up at Chrrou. "Sorry...'bout that. Thought you were a mouse. --'mean, course, you<span style="font-style: italic">are</span>a mouse. I thought you were, like," she gestures with her hands "a<span style="font-style: italic">little</span>mouse..."<br/><br/>Soma tries to suppress a laugh with her hand and fails; it comes out in muffled spurts. This soon infects Jess, who starts giggling too.<br/><br/><br/>Yuki is far less amused. A quick look over her shoulder confirms that, yes,<span style="font-style: italic">even more</span>eyes are on them now than before. Still no sign of the Management at least, thankfully.<br/>She sighs and stands up from the ruined table. "Yeah, that does it for me. I'm turning in for the night."<br/><br/>"Already?" whines Jess, who is presently trying (and failing) to scoop her spilled rotgut back into its stein. "But its so early..."<br/><br/>"You can do what you want; I've had enough. If you ever get around to having a serious discussion, send me a missive." And with a curt nod to those at the table, the greatcloaked tiefling walks off towards the back of the room and ascends the stairs to the small room that the three girls have rented on the second floor.<br/><br/>"Geh. Suit yourself." says Soma to her departing cousin.<br/>"So," she looks brightly to the others, "You guys getting the luxury suite, or what? Cause if so, I'm totally sleeping over tonight."<br/><br/>"Yes!" says Jess matter-of-factly. "Yes they are." She shoots a<span style="font-style: italic">don't-give-me-none-of-that-hyperspace-pocket-nonsense</span>look at Mindy, to disuade her from suggesting otherwise. "Everybody...take out your money..." with tipsy, exaggerated motions she tries to flag down a server. This turns out to be difficult, since the imps seem to be dreadully afraid of Auralia and have been avoiding the entire southeastern corner of the room since her arrival.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><span style="text-decoration: underline">&lt;&lt;meanwhile, at the adjacent table&gt;&gt;</span><br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>"If i wanted to catch something, i'd catch something. As it stands, i want to PURCHASE something. If that does not suit you, i can always take her from you by force, and devour every one of your little companions while i do so...it is only by my own whim i am offering money. And the next time you even threaten to eat me, i am going to kill you." </div></blockquote><br/><br/>"..."<br/>[griffonfolk intimidate resist: 1d20(9)+17=26; fail]<br/>Normally, arrogant words like this would have evoked an automatic violent response; the merc's ears would have translated them as 'please eat me'. Yet, something about this old fox seems...offputting. Dangerous. The griffonfolk hesitates, his feathery brow furrowed in contemplation. Then, snorting with just enough contempt to save face in front of his watching peers, he takes the bag and releases the girl. He makes no attempt to shove her in the fox's direction; he simply let go.<br/>"Take'er and get lost."<br/><br/>She immediately breaks off into a run and scampers towards the open doorway. [her stats are low enough that no roll is required by Kahmori to capture her]<br/><br/>At this point a polar bear arrives--seemingly out of nowhere--and sits on the adjacent table and destroys it. The hyenas find this utterly hilarious, and howl with laughter.<br/>"Hey...hey Munin, friend of yours?" says one of them to the bloated grizzlyfolk next to him, who shakes his head.<br/><br/><br/><br/>{{Geno, I haven't forgotten you, I just want to post what I have so I can go to sleep. I'll add your bit tomorrow.}}