"No!" Yula shouts defiantly, rising to her feet and retrieving her fallen scythe with a clatter. "You may be powerful, but I have the Lady of the Moon watching over me! Die!" She charges forward, but before she can get close enough to Goldie to strike, the genasi stomps her left foot on the ground. The wooden floor splinters in a circle around her as the earth convulses beneath, and Yula is sent sprawling.<br/><br/>"Return to your prison!" Yula says as she hauls her battered body to her feet. She shifts her grip on her scythe higher up along the handle and makes a quick strike... But with a resounding *CLANG*, Goldie catches the flat of the blade between her palms.<br/><br/>"Oooh, thank you Yula!" the genasi replies in a chipper voice. "I was just thinking I ought to give my new friends an example of why they don't want to disobey me." Yula snarls and pulls the blade free to strike again, but before she can, Goldie strikes her in the abdomen with the flat of her palm, producing a strange metallic chime. The tone goes on and on, like a tuning fork.<br/><br/>"Hnnnnhh!" Yula staggers backwards, dropping her scythe. After a moment, you realize the ringing sound is coming from her. "It... hurts... ARGH! My head!" On closer inspection, her body is visibly vibrating. She grimaces and tries to throw it off, but before she can, Goldie grabs her by the shoulders and roughly forces her to her knees.<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">A brief mini-combat between Yula and Goldie. Yula attacks and misses. Goldie uses an encounter power that knocks Yula prone. Yula stands, misses again. Goldie uses a melee power that hits for 11 damage, marks Yula, and gives her an additional penalty. Yula attacks and misses for the third time in a row. Goldie grabs her.</span><br/><br/>"Mmm... and you know, I was just thinking I'd like you to be my breakfast when I was still stuck down there and you were ranting at me." The blonde genasi strokes the soft fur of her prisoner's head gently as her mouth slowly starts to stretch wider and wider, until it's easily wide enough to accommodate Yula's head. The she-wolf whines in terror, her ears pinned back against her head, as she tries to pull her head away from Goldie's approaching maw, to no avail.<br/><br/>Just as Yula's fate seems certain, Goldie stops and snaps her looming jaws shut with a clang. "Oh, wait..." she says, as casually as if she were remembering she'd forgotten her coinpurse after going to the market. "Silly me! I shouldn't eat you just yet, as soft and delicious as I'm sure you are. I still need your spells to release the rest of my old servants."<br/><br/>Yula opens her mouth to speak, eyes wide and staring. But before she can make anything but a muffled whine, her eyelids flutter and she slumps onto her side, fainted dead away. Goldie laughs again, a shrill, echoing sound that's physically painful to listen to. "Hee hee hee! It's so funny when food is terrified, I never get tired of seeing it. I might need her to help for a while yet, though, so I'll have to wait on that particular pleasure. Oh well." At that point, the scouts make their way in.<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>She pauses for a moment before continuing to speak, opening her mouth into a smile before making the introductions. “Goldie these are a couple of my scouts.”<br/><br/>“Yolanda, this is Goldie, she is our new patron. She is a noble genasi so be sure to be respectful in her presence.” Saraphina tosses a couple of sets of manacles to Yolanda before instructing, “for the moment, no one eats anyone. Take them out back and find out what their names are and what their skill sets are. I will formally introduce the whole group to Goldie latter today, until then everyone needs to sit tight. Also, see to it that someone fetches that human I captured, the one named Kelso, oh and have someone bring all the pillows in this inn to this room.”<br/></div></blockquote><br/><br/>The captive half-elf girl, with silvery-white hair worn in a ponytail and prominent tribal tattoos on her face, looks quite relieved. "Thank you for sparing us, my lady! I promise, we won't do anything to make you regret your mercy!" Her rodentine companion snorts and thrashes his whiplike tail. "Heh. Yeah, sure, same here."<br/><br/>As Yolanda escorts the prisoners out, Casandra and a couple of other mercenaries head upstairs to<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">ransack the place</span>carry out Saraphina's orders.<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>She gives a nod, dismissing Yolanda and Anastasia. After they depart she says to Goldie, “I apologize for my subordinates behavior, most of my people's skill sets do not include interaction with nobility.”</div></blockquote><br/><br/>"Think nothing of it, sweetie!" Goldie says with a diva-like toss of her head. "I understand completely. It's rare to find people who know their place these days, and I'm sure that in the decades I've been asleep, things have gotten worse than ever."<br/><br/><blockquote class="uncited"><div>“Now where were we? Oh yes, discussing what to eat.” Saraphina drew closer to Goldie and lowered her voice. “I was actually going to recommend someone in this room. The acolytes wont add much to your army, and I wanted to introduce you to a particular way I like my meals. See the burned orc right there? Though they obviously don't look terribly attractive, searing a meal brings out all kinds of flavor, It gives them some of the dimensions of cooked meat but so much more fulfilling. Just let her sit in your stomach, don't try to digest her, just let her slowly melt into you, I'm sure you will love the experience.”</div></blockquote><br/><br/>As multiple pairs of eyes turn to her in response to Saraphina's words, the female orc who suffered the tiefling's fiery wrath looks up with a guilty, frightened expression on her face. She's looking much healthier than she has any right to be: although her clothes are charred, the scabrous black spots where her flesh was burned deeply have gone away, leaving nothing but a slight red tinge to the previously charred areas of her green skin. Now that you look closely, you can see an empty glass vial in her hand, which she inexpertly tries to hide. You can hardly blame her for drinking the healing potion: those injuries looked like they hurt terribly.<br/><br/>"Nuh... no! Don't eat me!" the greenskin pleads her case rather inexpertly.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Notes on orcs in this setting: Like other monstrous humanoids, orcs aren't nearly as ugly as they once were. A good picture for the as-yet unnamed, soon to be eaten orc would be <a class="postlink" href="http://browse.deviantart.com/manga/?qh=&amp;section=&amp;q=orc+female#/d1010rg">This piece</a>. In this setting, orcs are basically just bigger, taller humans with green skin and little tusks.</span><br/><br/>"Ha ha, did she heal herself? I applaud your initiative, green girl. But Fina over there is right. I don't have much use for you." Goldie's surprisingly strong hands shred the robe the orc is wearing, tearing it clean in two and pulling it off. Shrieking in embarrassment and fright, the acolyte tries to cover her nakedness with her hands and backs away, but finds herself virtually surrounded by enemies, cutting off her escape.<br/><br/>Goldie calmly strides over to her prey and stomps the ground again, shaking the floor again and sending the orc girl sprawling. Too panicked to regain her footing, the orc tries to crawl away, but the genasi reaches down and grabs her ankles. The orc finds herself hoisted into the air upside down.<br/><br/>Once again, Goldie's lips spread wide, and this time, she doesn't reconsider. The orc woman's bare feet slide past her lips and into her throat. Unable to move her legs in Goldie's iron-hard grasp, she punches Goldie in the abdomen with all the force she can muster. "ARGH!" It would seem that the unfortunate orc did more damage to her hand than to her predator.<br/><br/>Bending over as calves and thighs slide past her lips effortlessly, Goldie suddenly throws her head back, flipping the orc acolyte right-side-up again. The greenskin is now essentially standing in Goldie's gullet. When her feet hit the bottom of Goldie's stomach, she's forced to bend her knees: only her head and shoulders are outside now, and the genasi's midsection is developing a large, round bulge. "HELP! HELFF!" Gravity and peristalsis drag the orc girl down Goldie's throat, and her head sinks out of sight, leaving nothing but two desperately grasping arms outside. There is nothing for her to grab, however, and Goldie slurps up the arms and hands before swallowing one last time.<br/><br/>She gives her full belly a firm pat. Unlike most stomachs, Goldie's doesn't seem to stretch tightly around the occupant: her belly is wide and spherical rather than a lumpy outline of her meal.<br/><br/>"Ahh." the genasi sighs with satisfaction. You can hear the orc woman pounding on the inside of her body, but no lumps appear. It seems her stomach is quite stiff. "Not bad. Orc isn't my favorite or anything, but I've got to pace myself. I can't go eating nothing but the cutest meals, or I'll get spoiled." She giggles.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, a dozen-or-so pillows have been gathered and piled on a relatively clean part of the floor. Most are old and lumpy, but they're all that's available. The muscular human warrior Saraphina captured earlier is brought in as well. His injuries have been bandaged, and a pair of iron manacles has been affixed to his ankles. He looks at Yula's unconscious form; you get the feeling he's relieved he doesn't have to confront her right now.<br/><br/>Looking even more sullen than Kelso, Winnow is escorted in as well, bound with rope by the leopardfolk soldier who captured her. Nairen, likewise bound up, remains outside for the moment.<br/><br/>Callise, the dark elf, looks slightly disappointed but nods in response to Marrok's explanation. "Right, of course. I'm sure your friends will understand that I'm worth much more as a ransom than as... uh..." she glances at the gurgling bulge in Marrok's midsection. Even after a few minutes of digestion and compression, the bulge was still bigger than one she'd make. She follows Marrok and his troops into the inn.