The Drow Queen of Glaley [Very NSFW]

[Zevran]

"...understood," Zevran says blandly, though his eyes widen just a little. "Would it... burn?"

[GamesMaster]

"...I'm not sure? It's not connected to me, though, so I don't much care if it does."

[Zevran]

"Hopefully it does then, as that would... muddy the water."

[GamesMaster]

"Do you have a plan yet?"

[Zevran]

"Find something noxious, have you poison the room, kill the guards, save Coquette and Shisou, and save or kill anyone else as I deem fit that is there as well." A beat. "Return to the manor, kill Varisia if she's not here, get the harem, the daughters, the cats, nursemaid, loot the manor and leave Alessia forever."

[GamesMaster]

"I like it. Let's go."

[NPCs]

What they end up with doesn't thrill Zevran, but he's even less thrilled with the idea of finding an alchemist's shop or a particularly connected drug dealer to find better. Still, a half pound of devil weed mixed with a quarter that much of flaylief and opium, soaked in kerosine to ensure it burns fast and through, should be enough to confuse things very nicely. The room Zevran was in is apparently one of four such rooms suck in the back of a impressively sized warehouse slash commercial building. Typically, they would be offices or perhaps file storage for the attached warehouse; Varisia, presuming the building is her's and not just borrowed or co-opted, evidently prefers using the rooms for holding individuals in varying degrees of comfort and force. The main storage area, where they'd found their supplies, is partially filled with boxes and crates, but currently devoid of personnel.

Aside from the single guard dog that Carbonne had managed to daze long enough to brain with a lump of metal scrap dropped from above, all of the security has drifted to the other side of the building. Mostly a mirror of where they'd just come from, the end of this hallway instead has a small kitchenette and water closet. Four of the guards are sharing a large pot of boiled beans and ham while they pay cards and kill time. Two more stand guard with bored, impatient expressions in front of the further left door. The other door on the left is boarded up and the wall in the middle has a strip of slightly off-colored wood, suggesting the separating wall has been removed to create a single, double sized room on that side. Moving into place at the door to the hall with a chisel in one hand and rusty cog twice as thick as his thumb in the other, Zevran gives his single remaining ally a silent nod.

[GamesMaster]

Carbonne begins to creep forward, trying to blend in to the dark floor using xir ability to disguise xir stripes as a normal, brown-colored lizard. As xe does, however, xe begins to overhear what the men playing cards are saying:

"--shouldn't be long now. I hope we get a turn before they arrive."

"Yeah, they ought to be back any minute with the carriage. Then who knows where the prisoner will be transported?"

"Shame. Still, maybe there'll be time..."

"For all ten of us?"

Carbonne hesitates, flicking a glance back to Zevran. It was a risky plan before. But now, hearing that more are about to arrive... is it still worth doing?

[Zevran]

Ten. Ten is... a lot. If I had more time to winnow them down. Or protective gear. An ally who is more dangerous than a grumpy kitten. Zevran takes a long, slow breath, then gestures for Carbonne to return. Moving away from the hall, Zevran kneels so he can whisper, "when this carriage arrives, sneak onto it. Attempt to report back when they stop." He hesitates a moment, then adds, "I will be returning to the manor to try and get help or at least better equip myself. Afterwards, I will head for the small garden outside the tea shop Shisou and I went to."

[GamesMaster]

Carbonne nods. "Grab the amulet? Shisou will need it anyway, when we rescue him." If we rescue him. If he's not dead by the time we get a chance.

[Zevran]

Zevran nods, then pauses. "What... exactly does the amulet do? And can more than one person use it?" he asks slowly. 

[GamesMaster]

"No, it has to be bonded to a person. One per generation. It grants access to the mystic force that grants Shisou his powers. I'm not entirely sure how it works, only that it's bonded to me and I to it."

[Zevran]

"Damn." He shrugs, putting the idea aside. "Anything I need to know about handling it? Curses or protections or-- very well then," he finishes at xir headshake. "Go ahead and get ready to hitch a ride. I will, ah, winnow the numbers as a distraction for you." They will go on alert once they notice I have escaped anyway, might as well, he figures.

[GamesMaster]

Carbonne gives a lizardly salute, and heads across the floor again, aiming for the door. By the time Zevran has used screams as cover to drop the two guards at the door -- both catfolk, though not the short, thin kind you usually find in Nyra, but instead Plains Catfolk, tall and muscular and far more imposing -- the carriage is arriving, and Carbonne nestles into the axel, hitching a ride on the bottom. It takes some two more hours for Varisia to make use of the carriage, but soon enough a heavily restrained (and whining/screaming) Shisou, a similarly-bound though far more silent Bull, and an unconscious Coquette are tossed into the carriage, whisked away. 


Once, Shisou had been a virgin; once, he had lived in Toukami, where he and Carbonne had sought to do justice in the world in much the same way the Silver Scale had sought to bring justice to Glaley. Varisia had had business with the Higurashi Clan, and so had been invited to stay on their island as a guest of Shisou's stepfather, Indou. 

Indou was a hard man, a former Eel with pretensions. He knew how to drive a good bargain; Varisia knew he would be easier to negotiate with if she plied him with Sake first. And so she found herself in his home, drinking her own alcohol but eating his edamame and rice crackers, listening to his daughter play the piano (badly; the dark-haired girl seemed well at odds with the instrument, and on the verge of breaking it altogether in frustration). His wife, she knows, never makes an appearance, though he had had two daughters the last time she spoke with him.

"Ah, she's been married off," he says, when she asks about it, waving a hand. "She's a Wolf now, belly stuffed with cubs and more's the better. Though, if you're having fertility troubles yourself with your mistress..." 

[Varisia Primfana]

Disgusting, loathsome wretch. "Not at all; my Coquette is actually pregnant with our second right now. And by the count of months, we're expecting a drow, tiefling or another aasimar." She puts no emphasis on any word or phrase in particular in her reply, but her answer was very deliberately worded as it was. "Though I do appreciate you concern of course."