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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Binder Fred" data-source="post: 6490124" data-attributes="member: 63746">After everybody has settled down, Fastus begins, Sachiko and Elsbeth excitedly standing by behind the curtain."Welcome friends- and neighbours! I think everybody's heard the news by now, so I thought-" he suddenly grinned: "let's make it entertaining too, right! So tonight I'm- WE're going to tell you a story of what happened TODAY, out in the swamp. A tale of daring-do, treasures and ADVENTURE! It's all true too!" His heart was beating fast, looking at all those eyes, and he couldn't help grinning wide: better than facing goblins!And he began with them setting off from Sandpoint, Fastus the Brave, Sachiko the Quick, Elsbeth the Magical, Suldrel the Wise, Wireth the Strong and Jariah the... also Wise and Magical -- oh, and their pets too. Dire warnings from the Sherriff, strange tracks and sneaky shapes in the thickness of the swamp, but then safe refuge at the warden's house.As Fastus narrated, behind the curtain Sachiko intoned quietly under her breath and narrowed her will to a pin point: a stylized vista unfolded behind the blacksmith... looking more like hand-painted artwork of a scene than a picture of a real place. But the trees rustled silently and the reeds swayed and the water rippled, and smoke lazily curled out of the chimney of the warden's homely cottage."Cooool!" commented their self-designated narrator, eyes shining when he turned to see what everyone was oo-ing and ah-ing about. Didn't know Elli could DO that! "Uh, I mean: safe refuge at the warden's house!"The warden emerged from that cottage, but the eyes of that cheery halfling were yellow with black, slitted pupils."UNTIL!"The bad warden lashed out at the shadowy figures of the party, knocking them flying! "That's RIGHT: the warden's tongue SHOT OUT, hitting Elli right through the chest! Red blood like a fountain! And when we looked, the 'warden' wasn't the warden anymore: it had never been HIM! Instead there was this tongue-monster thing: short, wiry, dry like a twig, and with sharp SPIKES poking out all over -- even on its TONGUE! A LOT of them on his tongue, actually, right?"He went on to excitedly narrate the battle, and in THIS version Elli was deeply wounded but didn't pass out, directing the battle from the back and encouraging her friends to greater glory; the tongue-thing had a sibilant voice and threatened people a lot as it battled (Fastus uses his Intimidation skill to try and really bring it to life for them); and Fastus gloriously falls during his (successful) 'pushing' gambit, bravely sacrificing himself so the others can surround the thing. At the end, the monster was badly wounded but surrounded by the downed (but still conscious) bodies of the fallen heroes -- he had just finished taking down even the mountainous Wireth-the-Orc! "But brave Sachiko is undeterred."The scene pivoted abruptly to center on an imposing figure dressed in a flowing kimono (which she had seen Ameiko wearing before), with long white hair snapping in the wind. She had a wide, disc-like hat on that's tilted forward to cover the top half of her face, showing only the confident smirk on her lips. Tall and slim, but with rather impressive measurements, this incredible warrior slid a wickedly oversized sword from the sheath behind her back-Fastus spontaneously giggled, "Is that supposed to be-?" Wait, he realized. SACHIKO's doing this?! When did she-? No time, "Ah: she delivers a stirring speech to the thing before-"'Sachiko' seemed to flicker out of sight so fast was her movement. The first slash-cut away what's left of the beast's disguise, and it and the lady warrior dueled fiercely as they leapt about, knocking over trees and laying waste to the swamp and the halfling's home until finally the swordswoman severed the monster's horrifyingly spiked tongue and cleaved the creature in twain with the follow-up. The deed done, she ran two fingers down the sword's length, cleanning the blood off of it, then slid it back home and put a straw in her mouth to chew on as she helped the others to their feet."- doing THAT," summarized Fastus, picking the thread back up and now enjoying himself tremendously. "(Although *I'm* the one that cut the thing's tongue off)," he specified to his audience as if it mattered. "The tongue-thing falls, uttering a last hissing threat -- But who cares? RIGHTEOUSNESS has prevailed and the warden - the TRUE warden - is SAVED!"</blockquote>

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