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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Eccles" data-source="post: 3369612" data-attributes="member: 5675">The next morning, despite an appalling hangover and a mouth which tasted of week-old badger, Evan staggered out of the inn after a light breakfast, accompanied by Igmut and an incredibly large sack of loot. With Igmut to carry the goods and ward off any potential troublemakers, Evan wandered from shop to shop, buying, selling, discussing, weighing up different opportunities, and always profiting from his every deal.That evening, he met the others back at the inn, and Igmut dumped a colossal sack of gold onto the table. A great deal of hand-rubbing and brainstorming went on, and Endo was generous in offering to create a wide selection of items, as long as he had the spells in his book. Now wealthy, the group went their separate ways. Each had their own shopping to do, before Endo sequestered himself in a rented wizard’s laboratory, Malachite explored the forests around the city, Evan left explaining that he “needed to express himself” with his own creative desires, and Igmut and Flynne went looking for entertainment..oOo.Malachite, returning from one of his forays into the trees, felt an instinctive call to explore a series of low buildings within the city. As he looked between what he swiftly realised were a series of cages, he became horrified at the variety of animals and their apparent frustration at being in captivity. The druid felt a particular impulse towards one of the cages, and rounding the wall, stopped in amazement. A long striped tail lashed in the chill wind, and Malachite growled in empathy with the caged tiger. Thinking rapidly, Malachite turned and went looking for the owner..oOo.That afternoon, as Evan was leaving the Crooked House after a midday meal with Flynne, he was accosted by the rather breathless druid.“Evan,” he gasped. “I need your help to get a chimera!”“What?”“A chimera! I’ve found a perfect companion beast in what is called a ‘zoo’, and the owner says he’ll give it to me if I can supply him with a chimera – you remember? We saw one in the streets the other day, if I can just find it!”“Hold on,” interrupted Evan. “Do you have any idea how much a chimera is worth?”“Worth? It is a beast of the land and the sky. We should merely obtain it…”“Hang on… Let’s go about this another way.”Thus it was that Evan, his face warped through the power of the hat of disguise he was wearing, swaggered into the zoo, and demanded to see the owner immediately.“Greetings,” he blustered, not giving the other man a chance to interrupt. “My name is Gaius, and I am the new Events Manager at the coliseum. I am looking for any wild beasts which might entertain the crowd with displays of ferocity, and understand that you are the man to talk to where big cats are concerned…”“I do have some tigers,” replied the man.Evan gracefully folded his arms and stared down a haughty nose at the man until he added “…sir”, and looked away.“Excellent,” said Evan at last. “Lead the way.” He then strode out of the room, leaving the zookeeper to run to catch up.As they walked across the zoo, the keeper explained that he had been training the animal in a variety of skills, in just the hope that he might be sold to the entertainments. When they eventually reached the cage which held the tiger Malachite had identified as ‘Sheba’ (but which was clearly labelled as ‘Bitey the Tiger’), the owner began to explain that this was his finest, and that he had trained the animal to leap through a ring of fire.“Excellent!” Evan smiled down at the keeper. “I should very much like to see that.”From overhead, in the branches of a tall oak tree, there came the outraged squawk of an indignant small bird, as the keeper ordered a number of his men to get whips and soak a broad wooden ring in pitch. Just as the ring was lit, and whip-armed men stepped towards “Bitey’s” cage, Evan stepped in and grabbed the leader by the wrist. “Lay one whip on that creature, and any deal is off,” he announced sternly. “Any creature which is injured will not be worth a single copper piece before the crowds. You told me you had trained the beast to leap through fire, not that you could beat it into doing so. Have you any tricks worthy of my time, sir, or should we now turn to the beast’s value?”The two fell to haggling, whilst the tiger’s eyes flicked from man to man. A price was eventually settled upon, and Evan dropped a purse of gold and platinum into the man’s eager hands.“My man will collect the creature within 2 hours,” he announced; shading his eyes to look up and nod to the songbird up in the trees..oOo.Malachite was seen later strolling into the inn with the newly renamed ‘Sheba’ at his heels. He flatly ignored Tarquin’s shouts that the beast be let out, and strode up the stairs, taking the tiger to his room..oOo.Over the next couple of weeks, which Endo and Evan spent away from the inn for the greater part of their time, Tarquin became quite fond of the large tiger, which eventually became quite a fixture in the taproom, where it stretched by the fire, and Tarquin would often be seen ‘dropping’ lumps of steak for the animal to devour, purring all the while..oOo.One evening, as Evan returned to the inn, he was interested to see the place in a dishevelled state; many windows broken, and a number of men standing outside, clutching at their heads whilst guardsmen took their details. Two more guards were carrying a stretcher covered with a sheet from the inn away between them.Subtly shifting his image, he strode into the inn, then allowed his appearance to revert to normal when he realised that all was peaceful, although there were sprays of blood, broken furnishings, and the front door was hanging off its hinges. Malachite tapped him on the shoulder, and launched into an explanation of what had occurred.</blockquote>

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