<div class="floatleft">(http://www.stephandtonyinvestigate.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/prince-of-persia.jpg)</div><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Sera Howlette</strong> (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=1077893)</span><br/><strong>AC:</strong>20<br/><strong>HP:</strong>Full<br/><strong>Status:</strong>Normal<br/><hr/><br/>Sera, as men of his ilk are, was somewhat haughty and genuinely disliked public displays of affection.  They were improper.  Sure, he liked a good joke at the expense of decorum and good breeding, but an embrace?  With a stranger?  No, that certainly wouldn't do, would it?  Before Sera could stop the giant oaf from wrapping his arms around him, the dashing adventurer found himself in that oaf's crushing limbs, his own face smooshed against Ser Viscariot's predominant and firm chest.<br/><br/>"All right, big guy," he said, trying not to breathe.   "I'm happy to see you, too."<br/><br/>He tried to smile, but he simply couldn't.  He was suddenly overcome by a foreboding sensation of entrapment.  Fortunately, as quickly as Ser Viscariot had gathered Sera in his powerful arms, he quickly released him.  Despite his...  warm attitude, Sera could not but help but feel a tinge of fear at the man's prodigious strength.  For truly, he was powerful, and could have snapped the poor factotum in twain if he had truly wished it.  Still, the knight was truly perplexing, and Sera could not help but be momentarily confused after that brief instance of panic.  Ser Viscariot produced a mouse, and began his discourse?  Sera did not truly understand as to whether or not he was talking to the mouse, or if he was speaking about the mouse.  Furthermore, Sera did not truly know--for at this juncture, he couldn't quite comprehend the knight--whether or not the knight was being serious, or if he was having fun at the expense of others with a dramatic pantomime.<br/><br/>Indeed, Sera was feeling hot behind the ears, but fortunately, the giant knight's attention was diverted to the centaur.<br/><br/>Here, Sera's jaw dropped.<br/><br/>Now, Sera was a seasoned adventurer, but he had never ventured forth with a centaur.  Sera was excited by the sheer novelty, but did not express it in any way because, well, his mind, working quickly, calculated the logistical woes of traveling--or rather, spelunking--with a centaur, and he concluded that<em>it would be very difficult.</em>He was musing on rope strengths, knots, fulcrums, winches, and various other means to move the centaur, when the troupe was summoned or beckoned by a female believer.<br/><br/>Sera, as was his want in a dungeon, waited until everyone had filed out of the room when he took on the rear.  He was interested in the iconography on the walls, and the trinkets that adorned the clergy.  It wasn't until then that he noticed that the party had been joined by a satyr.<br/><br/>"This is perhaps the strangest company I have ever kept," Sera murmured to himself.<br/><br/>Sera felt Penn's elbow nudge.  He looked down at her, and then glanced at the Lady of the Faith.  Sera looked back down at Penn, and tried to understand her attempted communication.  Penn often did this, and Sera never quite got her.  Did Penn think that the Lady was attractive?  Well, she was.  Anyone could see that.  Was Penn goading him to try to get into her skirts?  Sera frowned at this, because it would be difficult and because he didn't think that it was any of Penn's business.  Not after what happened the month before.  However, his attention was diverted by something that the Lady of the Faith said, and so he could not spend more time to demystify Penn's meaning.<br/><br/>"Volunteer?" he exclaimed in hushed disbelief.  "I beg your pardon, madam.  That word doesn't quite exist in my vocabulary.  I think it has to do something with performing a service for free?  Seems odious.  I am here to perform a service for adequate and fair compensation."  Sera smiled and gestured at an ornamental rug.   "That's a fine rug, too."