<em>"Don't anyone be thinking about touchin' a feather on his head!  Anyone lose a finger, sure as shit ain't my fault."</em><br/><br/>A voice growled out a (moderately) friendly warning from just outside the door of the tavern, a feral sort of sound that rumbled like thunder or a man attempting to gargle a bucket of rocks.  The source of the voice suddenly barged into the bar with all the grace and poise of a bull elephant--a bugbear (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v296/rcburner/BugbearWoman.jpg), nearly seven feet tall and bristling with grimy armor and sculpted muscle.  The monstrous humanoid looked to have enough supplies to last a small caravan of men several months, but on its enormous bulk it looked like a paltry load.  Perhaps more immediately intimidating was the heavy maul strapped to her wide shoulders, whose head looked more than capable of smashing skulls like melons.<br/><br/>It looked around the bar, taking a good long sniff of the air and perking its ears up like a hound.  Apparently the place was satisfactory enough, because the barest hint of a wide and toothy grin peeked up over the wide studded gorget hiding its jaw from view.<br/><br/><em>"Great digs!  Real cozy-like, innit?</em>it said, more to itself than anything, with an oddly light undercurrent to its voice.  As it came into the light the reason for it was obvious--a woman, and a bugbear no less!  If not for the tightly constrained but clearly ample bosom, it was unlikely one could tell the difference.<br/><br/>But before she had so much as a chance to say anything more, she cocked her head to one side and listened.  Her brow arched, as though she was thinking something mighty peculiar was going on but was straining to place what it was.