The tavern door swings open. No-one is at first visible. Then the sharp tone of a stick striking a taut drumhead resounds twice, and the figure of a woman steps into the doorway. Her high cheekbones and thin, high-set eyebrows lend her an air of aristocratic beauty. Her eyes are closely set, but wide open with wonder. Her straight black hair and her skin tone show that she is a native of the Kingdom of Jade, the fine robes she wears are in the style worn in that land. The robe is white, with an orange lining visible at the fringes, and decorated with a delicately embroidered floral pattern in pale gold.
Tied on a strap over her shoulder is a small hourglass-shaped drum--obviously the instrument heard earlier. In her hands is a small wooden transverse flute.
She takes three steps in, pausing in mid-step, looks to the right, then to the left, then continues forward two more steps, bows her head then raises in back up to level. She then begins speaking in a lilting sing-song style.
"Hú Lí is here!" She places the flute to her lips and blows two high keening notes.
"Ready to entertain!" She pipes a long rattling tone, then advances into the room, gliding swiftly and smoothy.
"Skilled with flute and drum! Hú Lí knows songs and stories." She steps forward one step, then turns her head slowly to the right.
"And also secrets!" Her head snaps back and she shuffles rapidly around in a circle, trilling her flute wildly. Suddenly she stops still in mid-flight.
"Hú Lí can play and sing the songs the old blind women know!" She straightens up and plays a low note, then a higher one on her flute.
"Hú Lí can tell of the monk and the tea kettle, and knows many stories of children born of peaches and bamboo!" Holding her flute in her left hand, and squeezing the drum underneath her arm, she gives a single sharp tap on its head, and speaks again more softly.
"Hú Lí knows of betrayals of lovers by great noble lords, leading to sorrow, and to death!"
She returns her flute to her lips, and plays a long trill, starting slowly, and growing faster and faster, then suddenly leaping up to a high steady tone that echoes in the room after she finishes.
"Hú Lí is no stranger to peril either!" she says. She takes two steps forward.
"Hú Lí has seen the serpent coiled to strike!" She takes two more steps.
"Hú Lí has seen the tiger on its hunt!" She takes a single step.
"Hú Lí has seen the demons that eat souls!" She blows a weird, unearthly melody and steps forward sharply.
"Peril! Secrets! Stories! Songs! Hú Lí is here! Ready to entertain!"
[sblock=secrets!]A keen observer may note that Hú Lí has on some sort of armor under her robes.[sblock=perception 26]An even keener observer might spot--just once--what appears to be a bushy black tail peeping out from underneath her robe.[/sblock][/sblock][sblock=ooc]Hú Lí is
here![/sblock]
