Haven't had a good bar brawl in a while in my games so it was time to have one. This little scene actually jumped at me a few years ago when GOT had Lady Catlyn brace Lord Tyrion @ some nameless tavern and a bunch of her bannerman jumped to her defense. I thought it was cool.
So here we had Sigurd and the group saw him and he knows, just KNOWS, he's fucking boned. So the sycophant calls out to his guild members to jump to his defense and they do so - but the party just kicks some serious ass and they all end up in jail.
Write up follows:
Avulstein had been reincarnated, as a wolverine. He still had the ability to speak, his mental faculties were as they had been before, and his hands, even though his nails were long and fearsome, his hands were still disturbingly human-like.
The Deathspeakers were tickled at this turn of events and noted that Frey certainly had some thoughts for Avulstein who to date had been rather cavalier at the raising of animals. However, he had come back and was welcomed for his efforts.
And then reminded he had until Heatmonth the 30th at 2:30 to complete his required list and present it to the Deathspeakers. Or he’d be…judged harshly.
Wonderful.
Avulstein and Connal left, the wizard thanking the monk for what he had done, promising to pay him back five-fold for his efforts between last night and today. The two friends though did pick up Lareth’s hurt form and were bringing it to the Hospice – overseen by the healers and clergy of Baldur, Frigga, Hel, and Frey.
Lareth was admitted and Connal, still wearing the adherent’s robes of Hel, asked to be brought to the terminal children’s ward to help those to pass on their way. Avulstein stayed by his side, trying to keep quiet, but a 50 lb. wolverine does invite attention. A priest of Frey called the necromancer an abomination, telling him that he was paying a penance for whatever crimes against nature he must have done to piss the nature god off. Avulstein just hoped to get away from the irate priest and eventually was able to follow Connal to the children’s ward.
The smell was cloying and the few orderlies here were wearing physicker masks loaded with herbs, tending to the dying children. The two men wandered about and learned that one bed held a 12 year old girl who was on death’s door. The two of them stood them, made some prayers, and placed the Nornian Skein over her face and waited. They could see the skein lift and fall from the breathing…but the child continued to breathe.
Avulstein was losing patience and asked Connal to help her along. Help? You know, choke her out. Connal looked at the wolverine and hissed no fucking way. The two of them had made so much noise and hissing angry conversation that it attracted the attention of the orderlies who came over and exclaimed, “Sweet Frigga! A Talking Wolverine!”
This attracted others who came and wanted to see, plus alerted the dozing children that there was a wolverine here that could talk. So Avulstein went with it, walking about and pretending to entertain the masses and staff while hoping that Connal would kill the girl, steal her last breath in the Skein, and then they could leave.
Connal didn’t. He just did not.
So when the opportunity came, Connal walked around with the now quieter staff, talking about Hel, and Wolverines’ and how it’s a sign from the gods, just leading them away from the girl and keeping them occupied. This allowed Avulstein to then climb onto the bed, reach under the skein, and throttle the girl until she passed. The skein lifted on last time and he folded it up, climbed down, and noticed he had blood on his claws. He looked at the girl and realized that in his efforts, his new-found claws had scratched up the girl and disfigured her.
Had to leave. Now.
Blanket over the body and then wandered to Connal who took the skein and walked out of the sick ward together. In the hall the priest of Frey had seen the two of the coming and took a bucket of trough water from outside, tossing it on the wolverine. He then called him a degenerate and told him to fuck off before leaving. Avulstein was just stunned.
The two of them made their way back to the Pennywhistle where they found their companions (it was about noon) and told them of what happened and Avulstein’s new condition. Einar was taciturn during it, commenting that maybe now Avulstein would have some compassion and affinity for the natural world.
They talked about what happened, Lareth’s time at the Hospice, and Avulstein’s list of things to get. The two big ones remaining were the cup of midnight water (found on the lower level at the church of Loki) and blood from a living boar (found on the Terraces – very protected location outside of town). The boar blood was tossed about and a few possible plans were put together but we had to shelve it by the time 1:40 came about so we can get to the Tradegrounds in Central Quarter and see if House Illytch was there to get hired on.
We arrived before two and noted a few other mercenaries and similar types we had seen at the Third Reeve’s Office. There was a large two story drinking establishment called the Iron Stallion right by the Tradegrounds and a couple of buxom wenches were calling from the balcony for thirsty people to come in and take a load off.
As two came and went, a few of the mercs got disillusioned and went to the Stallion to take a drink and commiserate over a lost employment opportunity. We did talk to one of them who said that House Illytch is one of the biggest and more powerful houses, but they do often plan on these hiring fairs and don’t actually show up for them – or if they do it’s very late and apologize for not being there earlier.
We stayed local, a few of us went shopping, we fashioned a bandolier style bag for Avulstein to wear across his chest and midsection. We did note a heavy-set man come to the Tradegrounds, wearing the colors of House Illytch, wiping the sweat from his jowls and under the folds of his neck. The group intercepted him and he introduced himself as Derigius, 2nd assistant to the hiring page for House Illytch. The fair was not going to happen today, too many things had come up, and the hiring manager was hoping to do one in 3 or 4 days.
That was going to be too late for us. We tried to ask if we could come back to House Illytch and plead our case and capabilities there but were told that the Hiring Manager wasn’t seeing anyone at this time. So Einar forked over a handful of silver to Derigius and asked him to see what he could do to make some meeting happen and there would be more money to follow. Derigius was stunned, employees paying to meet an employer? And they have a god damned talking wolverine!?!? He promised to go and let us know. We were to wait here at the Iron Stallion and by 5 he’d be back with his boss and then some to try and have a meeting with the party.
Bolstered now and seeing it was after 3, Avulstein and Connal went back to the Third Reeve to explain the necromancer’s absence this morning and his new condition – not wanting to do anything to upset an employment opportunity for us.
At that point they did return in hopes to meet up with Derigius and most likely his superiors from House Illytch. So it was 5 after 4 when the group entered the Iron Stallion and looked around. The place was full; 2-300 people were drinking and laughing. A wench saw the group enter and motioned to a clear table near the center and left of the bar and we made our way there.
And then we saw him, at the same time that he saw us. Sigurd was sitting there with two of his friends, drinking and laughing and he caught the group making their way through the tables. He uttered an expletive and his face went pale. The two friends with him stood up to see what was going on as the group of 4 plus the wolverine and giant fucking bat made their way closer to the table.
Seeing Sigurd was getting upset one of the guys at his table sneered at the group and told them to “Fuck off ya dirty mercs, or we’ll make ya fuck off!” This irritated the shit out of Einar who started to harangue the men back. Sigurd and the two men then reached up and pulled the edge of their tunic over, showing the circle and spear symbol of the League of Odin. Other members of the League nearby stood up, called on by name as Sigurd was inspiring them to “rise up and help out a fellow guildmate”.
The standoff went from 4+2 vs 3 to 4+2 vs 12 and more. Conversation around us was petering out and the proprietor was starting to yell at us to “take it the fuck outside or I’ll get the damned Bluecapes!”.
And someone hurled a clay mug at Einar’s head and the bar brawl was on.
Avulstein pulled himself back and slid around one of the tables, hoping to be unnoticed in the fray. Einar told his bat to fly and pointed at one of the League men who tossed a chair in Connal’s direction. The bat dove down and flailed at the League man, biting him and tearing at his head. Connal knocked flying cutlery aside and started working his way towards Sigurd who was hoping to move back. Darius tackled one of the nearby League men, struggling with the man who attempted to smash the fighter’s head in with a plate. So when the chance came, he kicked back and then out at the fighter – catching him in the crotch and tossing him back into the fray when he fell screaming and rolling in agony.
Twp tried to jump on Negan who held his own, pulling one of the guys off of his head and throwing him across the room where he smashed into a table and knocked another patron down. More men and women joined the fight, not necessarily League members, and they fought not only the party, but other patrons as well. Connal was getting closer and Darius let a sling bullet fly and then tossed the sling when he realized it was a deadly weapon and a big NO NO. Negan had 3 on him now, shaking them around as two of them managed to grab his fingers and bend them back.
Einar’s bat took off and dove back into the crowd, hitting a man at the bar drinking a beer and not in the fight, but bit him as well while the druid was trying to call him back and to help out with fighting patrons – meanwhile he had broken a chair across on of the League man’s back and was beating him with the broken legs as impromptu clubs.
Darius had gotten close to Sigurd, Connal as well, when another of the League men tried to stop the fighter who jumped up and kicked out at the Leaguer – hitting him in the knee and causing his leg to fold the wrong way as he went down screaming in agony. Connal rolled around another and Sigurd started to run for the back of the bar. Avulstein was well positioned and slalomed his way through the legs and tables, launching himself up and tackling into Sigurd. He tore at his face and chest, the claws ripping his midsection open and tearing bloody rents in his guts as the man who betrayed us fell over shrilly screaming for anyone to help him. Negan smashed the two men holding him in place together, their heads slamming into each other and then staggering back with bloody faces.
At this point Bluecapes had run in and were letting fly stun and sleep rods, quelling the combatants and dropping swaths of the bar to sleep. Avulstein abandoned Sigurd and tried to run away but was caught in a blast of arcanic energy and was knocked out along with over 30 patrons and the rest of the party.
Where everyone was taken to the jails and locked up for questioning. Lots and lots of questioning.
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