The door open to reveal a tavern with a small bar and dining section in front. The room glowed with a energetic light. The sound of flutes and loots where made into music by a half-dwarf band playing in a tiny side stage. In the right end of the room exactly where the bar ended there where stairs going up, they probably led to the rooms. A plethora of round tables where scattered all around the dining area , with about four adventurers sitting in each one. Some were drinking, some were laughing, some were telling tales and a few specially drunk ones where trying to get lucky with the waitresses.
The atmosphere was exactly what Stefan had hoped it to be, of course with the unfortunate added bonus that most people in here smelled like horse shit. It seemed like adventurers are too greedy to spend two silvers for a proper bath. He made his way to the bar while starting to look for more details on the people here, he could not hope to be adventuring alone forever, as much as he would like to. Most humans where tall muscular man with either axes or swords, some sort of armor ( usually leather or iron) and at least a bit of facial hair. There were some strange hooded figures in the tavern, two to be precise one with a lean figure that was standing in the edge trying to be unnoticed for as long as possible. The other one a lot bigger, like a LOT bigger. He towered some humans even sitting down, he could easily be 7 or even 8 feet standing up. There where a few elvan wizards and a few elven warriors, they had their usual "grace" and "elegance". Stefan didn't have anything against the elf's per say but they always seem to look down on them. Despite the fallen being half-angels and the ascended half demons, people still seemed to contrast more the grace of the elf's with the intimidating features of the ascended. He however had been with Elfs all his life, as a noble making treaties with the elves was quintessential to be able to export trade to the dwarf that had been an ally of the ascended since their help in the first Molovanian War. Coming back to the elves, they were arrogant and self entitled or at least the ones he had the displeasure of talking with. He hoped adventuring elves where different.
He sat himself right next to a jaguar-tirish and a dwarf orc in the only seat remaining in the bard. " So, what would it be" Asked the half-dwarf working on the other side as he slid a good cup of ale to the dwarf. The half-dwarf was pretty stander for this race, the had the height of the dwarfs with a more human elements to them making them less bulky and less bearded
" What do you serve?" asked Stefan
"Can't ya read fellow? Anything. Under. The. Sun." he said in the same way you tell a child why he cant have unicorn for his birthday.
" Well do you have White Wine"
" err I don't reckon"
" how about some ambrosia"
" are you insane buying that constantly would put my tavern out of business!"
"fine fine. At least a pot of magria?" The bar tendered looked at him with an empty expression, got a bottle filled it up with water and handed it over to Stefan.
"You can shove your magria up your ass" said the bartender as he left to tend another less eccentric customer.
Stefan drank it without any trouble, he could very much use some water after a long trip. Suddenly he heard something crack followed by a large bang and a ferocious howl of pain. He turned around to see a big human on top of a broken table completely unconscious, he saw most people in the bar where looking at the now unhooded lean figure in the corner. With her face now revealed you could see a women in her mid 30's with brown hair pulled into a knot at the top of the head making a neat crown of hair and dark green eyes, her sharp features complemented well her stern look. Her body was slim but her clothing really did not reveal much since she wore leather armor, she seemed to be in some form of defensive pose. She held one hand open in front of her and the other one formed a fist and was directly next to her waist. I'm pretty sure most people here would have laughed at a women in such a place posing in such a way but she seemed to have flung a man twice her size across the room, so that made a pretty clear sign of don't fuck with me. Stefan did not know what was about to happen unlike every other person in the tavern who were already drawing their clubs, wands and daggers. Before he could even blink four men charged at her. The first one got close trying to punch her in the face, she ducked and made a leg sweep, knocking him off his feet, the back of his face hit the ground hard. Another drew a dagger launching forward, she stepped to the side grabbed his arm and with a swift punch to his joint dislocated his arm. Without given them a time to react she kicked one man out cold and went to strike the last one standing. He tried to defend his body with his arms but she broke through his defenses to strike one decisive open palm strike to the chest sending him flying. Unfortunately the direction he was sent flying was to that of a daydreaming Stefan.
The man body slammed into him. Knocked him out of his chair, destroying the concentration he had in his illusions spells making the purple glow of his stone attract the eyes of two elfs nearby. Stefan after getting back up and seeing the two elf's eyes change from light blue to dark purple he had only one thought in his mind. Fuck. He prepared himself for battle. In the background the women kept launching people like paper, A fallen appeared out of nowhere and was fighting two dwarfs and a faxiur with relative ease. This dark haired old elf was holding off five other elves by himself. He was by far the most impressive. Stefan was probably biased since he absolutely loved wizards, but before he could fantasizes about wizards any longer an arrow made its way to his head. He quickly reacted by summoning a telepathic shield which stopped the arrow a few centimeters off its mark, another one was being loaded up by one of the elf's while the other which had a dagger in one hand and was fully armored made his way to him. He use his telekinetic power to move the aim of the elf with the bow from him to his brethren. The arrow struck the elf directly in the back. As he reeled in pain Stefan made the illusion that depicted the arrow had struck him in the heart, his body was motionless as a pool of blood spread through the ground. Fortunately for him the screams all over the bar drowned the elf's screams of pain from getting shot by an arrow and continued to the illusion of him being "dead", this managed to break the effects of the gem as the elf threw the bow aside and made his way to his "fallen" brother. Stefan turned around and used magic to hide the gem, we don't want anymore fake or real casualties.
He turned around to find that most of the tavern was destroyed. There were only four people remaining. The huge fallen with white skin and tattoo lines that seem to make no bigger picture but where lines for the sake of lines, he had no hair and brown eyes, no armor showing his muscular figure and a long sword strapped to his back. The women was still standing without a scratch on her and a pile of about ten men around her who where grabbing their probably nonexistent manhood as they moaned in the floor. In the last corner of the tavern the same old man who seemed to have a bit of his beard burned off but other then that seemed to be generally ok. His luscious black beard and short black hair were complemented by his dark robes with silver in his waist, around his arms and in his back where it made the sign of a giant serpent who was dripping venom from his fangs which landed in a wand. That was the symbol of a necromancer who graduated in Hollmancy (a magic school located in Jaymore). The four of them looked at each other with a certain respect for having lasted this long in the battle royal that had just occurred, nobody seem to be critical injured or close to death, at most one had a small stab in their foot.
Each one of them looked at each other, not daring to make a single movement. Then the elf smiled with a big grin and clapped a few times before saying "well I would say that we shall call this a day, i'm rather tired. I still don't understand why everyone went bat-shit insane for no reason and starting attacking one another, but I also don't care. I have spent 1 silver in a nice warm room with a comfy feather pillow and I intend on getting my moneys worth".
Stefan looked around to see that every one was lowering their attack poses. The fallen cracked his bloodied knuckles "It's probably for the best, I wouldn't want to kill an old man, a poor women and that weak, weak looking ascended" he suddenly made a confused face "wait, i think i feel a little something" he turned around to show two daggers still dangling from his back, he took them both off without even a grunt.
He examined the two wounds "superficial" he exclaimed after a while.
" Well the men in here where getting a bit too comfortable with their language, I wasn't really thinking of the damage to the tavern" said the human women now finally relaxing her stern facial features "next time i'll take it outside"
"I'm pretty sure you did" replied Stefan as he looked at the two or three broken windows where the men were sent flying through. This was crazy, there was no doubt in his mind that any of the three could end his life in an instant, he looked around at the broken windows and tables and address the group with the question they have all been dreading. "So....... I guess we will need to pay for all the repairs here ?" He stated just as the chandelier hanging from the ceiling collapsed right in front of them.
The tavern owner, waitress and bar keepers had all fled the scene some time ago. He looked around at everyone's expression, the fallen looked at the ground, the elven wizard did some mental maths that made him drop the grin on his face and the human women looked around for the nearest exit she could backflip through. It did not take a genius to figure out that they were either extremely poor or soon to be. The wizard was about to open his mouth when all of a sudden the door slammed open, as a reaction Stefan masked his ascended figure with one of a human as 12 dwarven guards broke into the tavern. Three of them had silver armor instead of the usually iron and one of the three made his way to the middle of the room to proudly exclaim "Everyone stay still you are all under arrest!".
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