Desdichado
Hero
Huh. I don't know what the story is with Nadaka's Dicebox -- but presumably it's just a temporary outage. For now, I'll go ahead and roll the checks you just made manually, and hope I don't have to do that again very often.)
Shard and Forge: With two of you together, the red-faced dwarf seems to deflate visibly, although his eyes still look shifty, and he's glancing side to side as if mentally trying to gauge how much support he'll recieve if he causes trouble and gets in over his head. He makes no threatening move at the moment, but continues to watch you. (Shard, I rolled an 11 + 7 for a total of 18 on your Concentration check, so you're a wee bit short, I'm afraid.)
Feral: You sit together in silence for long moments; neither looking at each other. The other shifter then speaks softly, without turning towards you. "There may be more trouble yet tonight." With the most casual of gestures, he points his chin ever so slightly at two small knots in the crowd -- two warforged, one dressed in a long gown; the other accoutred more like you've come to expect are eyeing and being eyed warily by various members of the crowd. And a tall, dark-haired man is being slowly surrounded by three toughs, but he seems aware of them.
"By the light of the Dragon Above," he says with a slight nod up into the sky, towards what cannot be seen beyond the heavy black clouds and still falling rain, "but there may be more fireworks there than the fight we've already got right in front of us." His mouth twists in a sardonic smile, and he glances at you briefly before turning back to watch the fight and the crowd.
"You don't look very at home in this town, and this is still a tiny hamlet compared to places I've seen. What brings such a wilder like yourself this way?"
Ceres: (Holy Crap! I didn't read carefully that you had a natural 20, so I rolled for you -- I got a natural 20 too! The dice are smiling seductively for you tonight!) The halfling's face turns an unnatural shade of pale green, and then ghostly white, his eyes staring at you, as if just now realizing how big you are, and how dangerous you look like you could be. "No... no need to be hasty!" he stammers. "I don't know who you're talking about. Those guys there -- I've never met them!" You do see him waving discretely behind his back for them to back up, though. "I'm an honest fella... just a hard-working mineworker, that's all!"
All: The fight between the shifter and his roughneck opponent is swift and brutal once it begins. The dark man moves faster than you would have expected, launching himself with a wordless cry at the shifter, and giving him a nice solid cut across the ribs with his dagger. The shifter barely avoids a fatal strike by throwing himself backwards into the mud. He hops up quickly and strikes back, missing several times with his dagger. The settle into a routine of slash, stab and parry before pulling back, both breathing hard and bleeding from minor cuts.
Then the shifter moves in again, and at the last second he doesn't strike with his knife, he thrusts his head forward and bites the man hard on the shoulder, ripping his head away with a fan of blood. The dark man bellows in pain and falls to his knees, but the shifters rage seems to have passed. Almost casually he punches the man in the face, and he falls in to the mud, no longer moving. The crowd goes silent for a moment, then erupts in shouts and cheers (and curses). The shifter backs up, literally licking his wounds, and a few men move to lift the dark man, but they are all quickly obscured by the crowd who is now filling in the space where the combat took place.
Shard and Forge: With two of you together, the red-faced dwarf seems to deflate visibly, although his eyes still look shifty, and he's glancing side to side as if mentally trying to gauge how much support he'll recieve if he causes trouble and gets in over his head. He makes no threatening move at the moment, but continues to watch you. (Shard, I rolled an 11 + 7 for a total of 18 on your Concentration check, so you're a wee bit short, I'm afraid.)
Feral: You sit together in silence for long moments; neither looking at each other. The other shifter then speaks softly, without turning towards you. "There may be more trouble yet tonight." With the most casual of gestures, he points his chin ever so slightly at two small knots in the crowd -- two warforged, one dressed in a long gown; the other accoutred more like you've come to expect are eyeing and being eyed warily by various members of the crowd. And a tall, dark-haired man is being slowly surrounded by three toughs, but he seems aware of them.
"By the light of the Dragon Above," he says with a slight nod up into the sky, towards what cannot be seen beyond the heavy black clouds and still falling rain, "but there may be more fireworks there than the fight we've already got right in front of us." His mouth twists in a sardonic smile, and he glances at you briefly before turning back to watch the fight and the crowd.
"You don't look very at home in this town, and this is still a tiny hamlet compared to places I've seen. What brings such a wilder like yourself this way?"
Ceres: (Holy Crap! I didn't read carefully that you had a natural 20, so I rolled for you -- I got a natural 20 too! The dice are smiling seductively for you tonight!) The halfling's face turns an unnatural shade of pale green, and then ghostly white, his eyes staring at you, as if just now realizing how big you are, and how dangerous you look like you could be. "No... no need to be hasty!" he stammers. "I don't know who you're talking about. Those guys there -- I've never met them!" You do see him waving discretely behind his back for them to back up, though. "I'm an honest fella... just a hard-working mineworker, that's all!"
All: The fight between the shifter and his roughneck opponent is swift and brutal once it begins. The dark man moves faster than you would have expected, launching himself with a wordless cry at the shifter, and giving him a nice solid cut across the ribs with his dagger. The shifter barely avoids a fatal strike by throwing himself backwards into the mud. He hops up quickly and strikes back, missing several times with his dagger. The settle into a routine of slash, stab and parry before pulling back, both breathing hard and bleeding from minor cuts.
Then the shifter moves in again, and at the last second he doesn't strike with his knife, he thrusts his head forward and bites the man hard on the shoulder, ripping his head away with a fan of blood. The dark man bellows in pain and falls to his knees, but the shifters rage seems to have passed. Almost casually he punches the man in the face, and he falls in to the mud, no longer moving. The crowd goes silent for a moment, then erupts in shouts and cheers (and curses). The shifter backs up, literally licking his wounds, and a few men move to lift the dark man, but they are all quickly obscured by the crowd who is now filling in the space where the combat took place.
![:]](http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devious.png "Devious :]")
