Nena looked up as another man joined the party, and took offense to his claims that her rat was rotten. So she put her foot down, and crossed her arms.
"Hey! Dingle-berry! My rat isn't rotten, it's fermented. I doubt such an unfratinized kazbar like yourself would know the difference, but there is plenty of difference. I make Rat cake, rat sorbet, rat pudding, and strawberry tart. A diocisian lumpgrad like yourself wouldn't eat them though, so more for more!" Nena finished. Her...'insults' - if they could be called that - were entirely nonsenstical, as if she had taken a lexicographical hammer and bashed some letters together until bits stopped falling off.

Mai'lo shrugged. "Well enough I suppose. Hooked up with the world walkers that same day, actually. Del and his brother are a little weird but they're good people. And they're sure efficient." He shrugged again, one shoulder lifting slightly before dropping back down.

He stood, pushing his chair back with a loud rattling noise as the feet scrapped across the wooden floor. "I'm gonna head out and see what kind of trouble I can scare up," he said. "I'll probably be seeing you around a lot more. Del castle tends to get the group together as often as possible to farm experience and loot. We should be heading out looking for some ore or something in the next day or two as I understand it."

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Nighttime / LVL 16

[HP]73%///////-[]

Dom stifled a laugh as the fox girl turned around, completely ignoring him, and made a nonsensical insult for the ages that did the arguementive pair proud. If this turned out well maybe she would be able to join their insane little group but that was a chance for the future. Now wasn't the time to give in to that simple urge to forego a fight and laugh!
Dom went in at full power the moment she had turned her back on him. Friendly fight or not, he played to win. Nenas comment ended with Dom's rising fist under her jaw as it connected solid and lifted her from her feet to slam into the ceiling with enough force to crack the stone ever so slightly thus rendering the fox girl out for the count. Dom wiped off his hands and frowned at the heap on the ground. No serious damage had been inflicted, just a long stun and momentary unconsciousness from a heavy hit and what could only be presumed to be malnutrition from so long in this cave.

"Come on, Smart. We're leaving. Takin' her with me. Crazy to leave someone stranded in this sad excuse for a grave."

Dom lifted Nena across his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and started off, carrying her up a small cliff to the gorge exit wasn't exactly 'easy' but it was the fastest solution to their problem of escaping what Dom would later refer to as 'the valley of suck'and demanded it be avoided if at all possible. Dom and Smarter set up camp a short distance from the gorge in an open clearing where grassy field met dusty plateau. The small fire crackled brightly with the smell of roasted pork wafting in air, both men angrily grumbling about how everything they cooked smelled great but tasted like dirt.
Nena was wrapped up in Doms spare blanket on the opposite side of the two elderly men.

"I got 50 gold says she wakes up and fights me again. Gotta be upset about what I did but I ain't got time to talk sense into that scenario anymore."

Dom let out a sigh and stared at the sky, hoping Scarlet was having better luck.

====================

-Delcastle-
-Morning / day 17 / LvL 12-

Delcastle had not slept well that night, uncomfortable with the idea of falling asleep with Cinera snoozing on his lap and Sapphira laying in critical condition just a few feet away breathing steadier but still clearly in pain. Whatever had done this had been thorough about it and likely expected her to die on her way back. No evidence. The thought of it cemented his scowl at the cruelty of other players on the first level of the entire game with life or death on the line. How far the proud fell when faced with desperation.

"Fools.."

Delcastle rubbed his eyes as sleep began to take him but the shouts of Sapphira brought him right back awake mere moments later. Despite the threatening posture he could not suppress a smile of relief as the feisty girl was on full guard. Haven't you done enough..? So it was players after all... Cinera was up in a moments notice to console her wounded friend and Delcastle simple stood up to watch with as disarming a smile as possible, arms crossed over his chest as his eyes drooped uncontrollably but his sheer stubborn streak denied the possibility of sleep just yet.
Instead he brought both hands up, empty, infront of him to show he meant no harm and was simply there to watch.

"You were injured. We found you in the town square with a foot in the grave it seemed. Please, eat and drink to your hearts content." Delcastle could not contain a long yawn as his body demanded immediate rest. "When you are feeling better we can discuss your.. recent events. For now, I ask that you rest and recover on World walkers dime until you are feeling better."

His smile was genuine as he once again motioned to the healing potions and food that had been placed at Sapphiras bedside when they had first gotten to the Inn. Delcastle brought up the menu and shot off a quick PM to the other members of the guild to explain his absence both for their meeting and the likely delay of the adventure to the gorge.

INCIDENT LAST NIGHT @ TOWN SQUARE
WW MEMBERS FINE, CIVILIAN FOUND INJURED
GORGE EXPEDITION DELAYED TILL FURTHER NOTICE
APOLOGIES FOR THE ERROR ON MY PART

A separate PM was sent to Tailpin (@haeo)

TAILPIN,
PLEASE FORGIVE MY RUDENESS
BUT WE WILL BE UNABLE TO LEAVE TILL TONIGHT
WOULD YOU PLEASE SEND A SAMPLE OF
"GREASY DOG FUR" AND "POISON FLESH"
TO ME BY MAIL. WILL EXAMINE LATER

Just as his body hit the spare bed his hand traced one final PM to Emporer

DELAYS OCCURED LAST NIGHT
GROUP EXPEDITION TO DUNGEON POSTPONED
WILL RETRY LATER THIS AFTERNOON
APOLOGIES FOR THE WAIT

@destinystar@pockets@sif@Kabensaal@lightbox

@DestinyStar
Ikanus pauses his attempts to get the smell to leave his nose when he hears a scream. He turns, all thoughts of the entrance to the cave forgotten as he spots the girl. He kneels next to Anubis and does rapid hand movements. He then stands and runs to the girl, slowly seeing the extent of her injuries as he gets closer.....shes totally going to think I'm a monster...crap He makes sure his hood is down and skids onto his knees next to her, Anubis running up next to him. He raises his hands. "I am not a monster...you are safe...the canine next to you is my pet." He then slowly visually inspects the extent of her injuries. He quickly opens up his inventory and gets bandages and potions. Once he has what he thinks is sufficient....which might actually be excessive. He opens up a party invite. His eyes then settle on her worry screaming through them. "Please accept these and the invite...." His eyes plead with her, hoping that she will accept so that he can help her. That and if she accepts the party invite then Anubis can help heal her. Anubis wags his tail as if to show that he is friendly.

@Zelosse

Tailpin
Lvl 11/Day 17/Morning
[HP]100%//////////[]

Well, there had been better mornings. Tailpin awoke to the sound of a pair of private messages arriving, both from his Guild Leader. He was half asleep when he read the guildwide message. Truth be told, he'd forgotten about the meeting while he was hunting yesterday so there was a moment of relief. But that was before he connected the dots back to his own experience.

That blood had to come from somewhere, or someone.

He read the second message. It was thoughtful, especially for the "manager." He pulled up his menu and crafted a message. Attaching items meant it had to go by NPC courier but they were still very fast and they never delivered to the wrong person.

DELCASTLE,
APOLOGIES UNNECESSARY.
EMERGENCIES UNDERSTOOD.
SCHEDULE CHANGE NOTED.
REQUESTED ITEMS ENCLOSED.
REPORT POSSIBLY RELEVANT TO INCIDENT:
BLOOD TRAIL FOUND IN SQUARE, I FOLLOWED IT TO A ROOM ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE INN, THIRD DOOR ON THE LEFT. TRAIL HAD LIMITED PERSISTENCE AND VANISHED AFTER A PERIOD OF TIME. SOURCE UNIDENTIFIED. TIME WHEN TRAIL WAS CREATED UNKNOWN. INFORMATION VALUE = UNCERTAIN.
PERSONAL QUERY (RESPONSE OPTIONAL): WHO WAS HURT? WHAT KIND OF INJURIES INFLICTED THAT WERE NOT POTION HEALABLE? DID THEY BLEED?

With the message complete, Tailpin selected the two items and attached them to the message. The menu closed and a small brown box manifested in a dim light in the palm of his hand. He roused himself fully, went downstairs, found a courier outside the front door of the inn and paid the small fee for delivery. The male NPC politely thanked Tailpin for his patronage and then went... back inside the inn and up the stairs.

There was a sinking feeling in the archer's gut as he sat on a bench facing the stairs and ordered breakfast. Thus, he waited. He wasn't sure if he would get a reply or spot Delcastle. If he didn't, then he had a different kind of training in mind for today. Raw experience would only counter monsters. He needed to be able to fight smarter than everyone else, even if he ended up isolated. If this game included a blood trail then tracking might be possible. He would have to try and see if he could develop a tracking skill somehow.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Smarter'n'me
Lvl 15/Day 16/Night
[HP]100%//////////[]

And... the fight ended with a rat-spit sucker punch. Smarter'n'me wasn't that disappointed though. It would have sucked if the crazy had had a fair fight and died. Well, crazy doesn't exactly get fair, now does it. The trip to the campsite was easy enough for the spry jumper and he actually started setting up before his laden companion arrived. A short time later they were sitting beside a fire and seasoning the pork with their usual flavor of grousing. Sure it always tasted like dirt and it always smelled awesome. Maybe the two of them had both just dealt with too much bull for things to taste better.

"Sure, I'll throw fifty away on that." He said smartly in response to Dom, taking a moment to turn the pork. "Not like either of us are really poor, right?" He knew well enough that for them to both get to their current strength they had to have accumulated a certain amount of extra coin. "This little miss might clean up nice but she's got to have that special nutty flavor, right?" He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Smart was tired. He always tended to shift to puns when he got tired.

While Dom's eyes went to the sky, Smart kept his on the girl. Games could never reduce a person to that. They just... weren't supposed to. His eyes got a little darker as he brooded beneath the shadows of his bushy eyebrows.

Emperor - Day: 16: Afternoon
"Alright, should be good fun. I'll see ya then" Emperor said to Mai'lo before finishing up and heading out himself. He then headed to a shop, picking up some supplies to work on a recent order. He'd been asked to make someone a simple cloak with a large hood, the sort of thing that was childs play to do however he'd also been asked to put on a rather complex looking guild insignia though he was pretty sure he could manage it easy enough.

Day 16: Late afternoon
Emperor had managed to complete the order fairly quickly and decided to head out to do a small bit of training outside the towns gates. It wasn't long before he managed to come across a pack of two wolves, he checked around to make sure he had a clear escape route should he need it although wolves were pretty fast. He had potions though and they were weaker than he was so he should be fine. He started his assault hard and fast, holding his blade over his shoulder and activating the Reaver sword skill sending his dashing through one of the wolves, shattering it apart. He then follows up with a quick slash to the other wolf managing to get a critical and wound it badly. The wolf recoiled before lunging at him, Emperor fumbled in side step and fell flat on his face as the wolf sailed over his now prone body. Emperor quickly scrambled up and finished off the wolf.

'That wasn't so hard... I really need to stop worrying so much, low level mobs aren't going to kill me easily anymore' he thought to himself as he sheathed his blade. He'd managed to pick up a pelt from the wolves which would probably come in useful later.

He then continued to farm some of the mobs before heading back to an inn.

Day 17: Morning

Emperor awoke to a message from Delcastle and promptly replied 'No worries. Shit happens. Hopefully things will go well later'

@Zelosse

Sapphira- Day 17-Morning

The calm, soothing voices of her friends had that same effect on Sapphira. Silently she grabbed the potion offered by Cinera and drank it. When she was about to recline again and lie down, she got surprised by Cinera's hug. "Uhmpf...!" Crying Cinera also made Sapphira bawl as well. But when something brushed against her left ear, Sapphira winced and pulled one hand free to open a menu and letting a mirror materialize in her hand.
"My ear!", she yowled. "It's... it's completely damaged! Split!" With that realization, Sapphira started to cry like mad, pressing her face into Cinera's shoulder while mumbling into her "They split my ear in two..., those bastards..."

A bit later, she had reasonably calmed down and started to tell them both what happened, how she got targeted by "Glitch Fixers", as they called themselves. They had targeted her store and in less than a week's time, her store was done for and she began the trek to somewhere else where they would not be. But they had followed her, beat her almost unconscious and then enchanted their leader's weapon with a poison, she only now had found out the use of. To injure people permanently and leave scars and marks, like, in Sapphira's care, a split earlobe...

Nena woke up. It was not really a magnificent wake up, like it wasn't really a magnificent go down, but she woke up all the same, and now she was awake. Then, she saw the two people, and threw her fists in the air, in triumph.
"Haha! They told me I was mad to plant Minion Seeds, but they have grown! Who's mad now?!" She demanded, before another side of her thought outloud. "Well, just having the minion seeds doesn't stop you from being mad, just stops you from being mad about this particular thing" the train of surprisingly good logic ran through her head, before she sniffed, and smelled the meat. "Hmmm...." she muttered, grabbing one of the pieces of pork, seemingly ignoring the fact that it was really hot, and bit into it. However, she spat it out and threw it away moments later.
"Minions don't cook, and this is why" she exclaimed, pushing them away from the fire and taking over. Logically, it should not have made any difference, but this was a Game, and games did not run off logic.

@KabenSaal

-Indominus-
Day 16 / Nighttime / LVL 16

[HP]100% / / / / / / / / / /[]

Indominus held back a snicker at the incredulity of a 'minion seed' from the obviously still demented fox girl with the rather revealing dress and low neckline, though not terribly interested in the act itself it was still nice to see that the developers had obviously put a lot of time, effort, and emphasis on character models and realistic displays. Amazing what a bunch of home bound computer geeks could do with a gigantic government grant and a ton of free time. Look at the size of this game and know truly what meant to take every detail into consideration.

"Minion seeds? Forget that drivel." Nena made a backhanded comment about his cooking and Doms metaphorical lid flew off. He stood up and brought has full palm in a heavy slap on the fox girls rump with a loud fleshy SMACK. "Mind your words girly, I been cookin' up rocks what kept us alive for years. You don't see his wrinkly bones fallin' apart at the taste."

As he spoke the thought occurred to glance at Smart just to reconfirm, but frowned a little more when he realized the bastard was likely agreeing with Nena on the taste opinion. Granted he had no skill in cooking, ingame or in reality, but neither did snake pants over there.

"You puss filled sack, like you do any better!"

@Zelosse@KabenSaal

Smarter'n'me
Lvl 15/Day 16/Night
[HP]100%//////////[]

Smarter'n'me just sat through the bustle of the girl waking up. He had to repress a sudden urge to smirk when she dissed Dom's cooking but then barked out a laugh when she got her butt tanned. He was actually amused enough by that sight to let Dom's moment of insecurity slide. Though, he had his own take on being from a minion seed and wasn't going to miss out on the fun. After all, he hadn't gotten to either hit her or hit on her yet and the night was wasting.

"If we grew in your minion garden then you must have watered us with the wrong kind of duck blood. We sprouted old and cranky from the start. You need the PH neutral duck blood with the trace bile and added ginseng." He was trying to divert the conversation away from the cooking issue since he didn't really feel like fighting Dom... again. Besides, the way she was talking sounded kind of fun and mimicking it would probably drive Dom crazy. "You should try stuffing eel livers with braided snake sausage. Then you slow roast it over ice on a hot day and pickle it."

By the end, he was smiling in the way he had when he was being an absolutely cruel man. He did not wear that smile often. He had learned that smile in college. Dom would know well that it was never a good sign.

Nenatalev didn't so much as blink when she got slapped on the ass, engrossed in the cooking. Eventually, she pulled it back out of the fire, and offered it to her minions.
"Apparently, the game lets me cook better than minions. I guess the guy who made this was a minionthrope or something" she said, before looking to the second minion man, who blathered about lots of strange things. Like, duck blood being used to grow seeds. And, some minion cuisine that sounded horrible.
"Are you ok? Do you have brain fever?" She asked, placing a hand on his head. "You are speaking all strange. Maybe it's the dirt food. Eat" She said, pushing the boar into his hands more. It wouldn't be dramatically better, but would taste more like food, and less like dirt.

@Tracyarmav@DestinyStar
Ikanus-midnight

Ikanus looks at both of his now passed out party members and inspects them. He goes through motions as he puts bandages on them...actually wrapping their wounds and also having them used as a healing potion.....along with actually giving them healing potions. Once done he stands back and looks at Anubis he had to get them out of here...but how.

He paces a bit thinking before looking back at his canine and snapping. A few moments later he is scrolling through his stats with a glives hand. He nods then pulls out his teleportation crystal. He gently picks up the girl and puts her on anubis' back. He gently ties her there with what appears to be leather strips. He then picks up Edgar with a grunt. He then activates the crystal taking them back to town.

With another grunt he goes as fast as he can...which isn't very fast...to the inn. Getting a room he manages to get there. Once there he plops Edgar on a bed then untied the girl and puts her on the bed. With a small huff he grabs a pillow and puts it down on the floor. He unequips his scythe then pulls off his cape. He looks at Anubis and point to the girl, causing the canine to hop up on the bed and curl up next to her. Satisfied he lays down on the floor using his cape as a blanket. thank god that loop hole worked

@Tracyarmav@DestinyStar

Anubis manages to wake up and avoid being stepped on and rolled on. The canine huffs and hops off the bed. With another huff he looks up at scarlet then trots over to her axe and sits in front of it.

Ikanus however, gets stepped on which wakes him up a bit...what wakes him up fully is scarlet yelling about her eye. He sits up and puts his cape in his inventory. He then slowly stands, without his cape his physique is more noticeable. Once standing he slowly walks over to scarlet and stands right in front of her. He gently used on hand to make her head back and forth. "You suffered eye trauma....the damage to it means that you won't be able to see out of it much like...reality." He takes his hand off of her. "I believe there may be some sort of special potion or something to help get rid of alignments like that.....but I'm not certain" he then glances at her bandages and then his eyes stay firmly on hers. Even as he opens the inventory and produces more bandages. With extreme speed he changes out her bandages. So quickly it's hard to even tell that he changed them quickly. He then steps back. "Well now that you both or somewhat awake....how are you feeling...other then traumatized"