Transformation Theater

[Shifting Sands]

The bouncers of the tavern begin to move toward the insane scrambling of a weakling skum and equally pitiful human basically slapping each other around. A couple of slim and athletic type of merfolk (they don't really come in buff, just well-built and incredibly magically powerful) swim by and easily toss out the two of the idiots, quite adamantly stating that they are not welcome in any sort of way.

However, the bouncers turn to look at the more animalistic skum and the vorzh. They don't seem very at-odds with them and let them move about freely. One other krait-type-vorzh from the bar swims deftly around a crowd of drunken surfacers and offers him a drink for dealing with "stupid-rat skum," then expressly mentions that it wasn't talking of Mike.

Though the two inside are still allowed to move as they like, Yilin and Virmir are quickly threatened by more imposing and dangerous figures. A couple of merfolk guards and their seahorses (the ten-foot-tall kind with lances on their sides) come travelling by, and seeing the idiots making a mess of the road out front, decide to take some fight to them. Maybe they figure they'll make less of a scene in jail.

"You handle the midget, I'll handle the... other midget. The hairless one," one of them says. He's in a more colorful breastplate than the other, perhaps some commanding officer.

"Yes, sir, Taj," the other replies.

They don't really seem to be wielding weapons, but the mages can definitely sense some power gathering around them as they dismount, which consists mainly of drifting off the sides of the seahorses.

[PrincessHotcakes]

"What's this?  Couldn't afford a real horse so you got some mutated legless thing?" Yilin boasts in sort of pathetic challange, bracing himself.

[Virmir]

Huh...  It seems as though we somehow subconsciously found our way inside of a tavern while fighting and then subsequently got kicked out for fighting.  Which is rather alarming, considering I probably would not have yelled at this guy so much if I realized I were inside a tavern environment as opposed to immediately outside the fight-to-the-death doom coliseum with the blades and such, especially since I was seeking out the tavern environment in the first place.  Probably.

"It's 'cause you've got voices in your head making you crazy," suggested Karl.

"Hey, I know you all love fighting so much you want to stop our fight so we can fight, but I've got business with this fellow here and its rude to interrupt.  So you and your sea horse things better back off, or I'll make things go very hard for you."

[Stormkit]

Mike looks to the other guy still in the tavern they totally entered. Then he looks outside at the gathering magical energy. He's about to go outside to go help when a voice whispers in his ear making him now look to the bouncer. "You serve... drinks? Would like drink."

[Shifting Sands]

The guards don't seem to be bothered by your words in the slightest and just march up, their mounts moving with them. Merfolk seem to have an affinity for spears and tridents and the like, meaning your chances of getting impaled and hung from the guardhouse just shot up an infinite amount for speaking out of turn. The officer Taj seem to like the seahorses they rode in on and aims his weapon to Yilin, a sharp forked spear coming at his chest, while the other soldier aims to defend the honor of himself and his career by aiming at Virmir. The seahorses, however, do not partake in the battle yet. Either they're trained to stay out of fights and watch the area or they just aren't meant to fight in the first place.




The bouncer that threw out the two raggedy patrons looks down at Mike confusedly and gestures him to the bar. "You're free to get your own drinks, as long as you keep to yourself and have money to spare." He hooks a thumb back at the idiots getting struck outside. "Don't be like them. At least, that's my suggestion. They look hoity-toity but they wouldn't have crushed half of the vorzh clans unless they were good."

The krait-vorzh tries to chat it up with Attor, talking about a recent hunt of his that went particularly well. "Mer came down, tried to claim 'poaching.'" His voice lowers and he grins, teeth wide and sharp. "'Poached' him too." He cackles and slams his drink on the bar - underwater drinks are odd, looking like fancy glass waterbottles so as to prevent loss of precious alcohol.

[PrincessHotcakes]

"Oh c-" Yilin eyewidens in an aborted curse as he tries in vain to twist away!

Wincing in no small amount of shock, struggling to hold himself together, the human struggles to form coherent thoughts as he concentrates on... trying to stab the stupid fishman's eyes with ice!

[Virmir]

Harumph!  Seeing the pointed weapon coming my way, I attempt to use my newfound fins to dodge swiftly, even though I'm not entirely used to them quite yet.

[Virmir]

"OWWWW!!" Rightly impaled, I grab the shaft of the weapon and send a superheated charge right into the soldiers arms!

(Also, I'm a little confused on how initiative rolling works with multiple enemies and all (especially since two are holding back).)

[Shifting Sands]

(Turns will happen without their involvement until they chip in, and then they will join in on the next turn. Same goes for the rest of you guys in case you, you know, want to help your friends)

The mermen seem thrilled to have harpooned their prey already, but don't appear very content that the two of them are still fighting despite their wounds. They aren't unused to magic, but they are more than surprised with the speed at which they're counterattacked. Taj raises up Yilin on his spear, trying to avoid the gouging of his eyes while the other soldier holds fast to his trident, trying to resist the heat that flows from it.

Neither of the two of them can avoid the damage that the two miscreants are dealing out. Maddened, they sic their mounts on the pair of criminals. Already impaled, the seahorses try to fill them up with even more pointy objects so they can serve as underwater pincushions. Taj raises a hand and flexes his fingers, willing forth electricity to fry Yilin (which doesn't require much sight to do). The soldier, probably not as experienced or powerful as the officer, instead tries to further spike Virmir on his weapon.

[Shifting Sands]

The strike from the soldier is an intense blow - a fork of the trident goes all the way through Virmir's... odd body, and his lower body completely melds together in a fishy tail rather than a pair of finned legs and feet. Without the proper time to adjust in the middle of combat, his movement suffers pretty badly and the jousting from the seahorses sends him into an unconscious (yet bloodless) state. His body, somehow more unstable due to its first bits of change in the arena, goes from its skummy state to a form that looks to be a projection of the very mounts that were helping in dispatching him, complete with dorsal and side fins and slim, curvy body (but it curves vertically, not horizontally. He's a "horse," not a mare.) All of his oily skin is replaced with thick scales and ridges, and his nostrils flare and snort out bubbles in his current state. The soldier, shocked, and with good reason, pulls back his weapon and shakily adjusts his trident, bringing it to face at Yilin.

[Virmir]

BEFORE the above happens (due to having explained what the initiative rolls mean), I thrust my hands out right at the moment of impact and blast the assaulting fish man with a flurry of magical bubbles that are boiling hot!

I then say "GRRRRK!!!!" as I black out, rather dramatically.

[Draykin]

Attor first laughs at the other krait's joke, then at the fox mage. "Oh, dumb grey thing never learn, no it doesn't. Maybe it end up getting so messed up it become useful to huntpack. Ha." Attor shakes his head some at the thought, and then goes on to watch Yilin. While not too keen on letting his pack be mauled usually... These two seem like they sort of deserve it. If an opportunity presents itself, though, instincts...

[Stormkit]

<<Gah! Good gods I go away on vacation for a few days and suddenly all the posts!>>

Mike seems to have in the meanwhile taken the bouncer up on his offer and went over to the bar to get a drink. While at the bar watching, he sees someone exchange coin and is captivated by the shine of it. Before he quite knows what he did, he has picked up one of the coins and is chewing on it absently. If he is particularly lucky, this will be before anyone else knows what he's done too (see agi roll below).

Alas it is very difficult to accidentally do sleight of hand and Mike does not really manage it. He has probably attracted the ire of bar patrons now which will surely lead to him getting thrown out of the bar by that same bouncer from before. Whoops.

[PrincessHotcakes]

Well, the bad news Yilin noted that he was now impaled on a spear.  The eviceration of his gut and vital organs may have seemed to be a fatal blow that should by all rights have completely knocked him out for the count, but after having *already* been impaled once earlier today, the shock value seemed to lose its power.  Though unfortunately the biological shock hasn't quite got the memo and is already making things difficult for the mage.

The good news is, that blasted cocky merman is now bleeding from his eyes quite profusely.  Not enough to take out his vision, but dang if he won't have a couple of swollen useless eyeballs tomorrow and for the next several days.

Alas, this seems to have put the officer in question into a might heightened fight or flight mode, beyond the mere "crush the annoying loud mouthed pissant before him," and now seeks to fry him with electricity.  At first this doesn't seem to make much sense to Yilin, but before he can comprehend this the ugly seahorse comes at him, pointy ends barred.

Sneering, Yilin brushes aside the effect of the electric zap.  He'd mock the officer for trying that UNDERWATER where it can disperse everywhere and where he's not on the surface to conduct it INTO the water below, but such rhetoric is choked off by the stabby stabs from that ANNOYING excuse for a horse!

With one final shot left, the mage summons all the strength he has!... and summons an ice blast directed between Officer Taj's legs

[Shifting Sands]

(Man you guys are terrible mooks, you could use a Chris Pratt to turn you idiots into a useful team)

Despite missing any readily available nads to aim at, the ice at a merfolk's tail could hurt all the same, especially since Taj seems to be missing armor there. Maybe their tails are so thick it doesn't matter, but it DOES seem to be at a possibly precarious spot to hit...

The attack connects, but it doesn't do as much as Yilin was probably hoping for. It hurts, but he doesn't go down. And now... four enemies are staring at him while he's still quite pinned to a spear. They don't waste time in going to work on him, the soldier trying to finish him off with another impale. The seahorses try to move in to stab at him, too, but Mike's form is tossed on top of them by the patron he stole from with promises of more pain to come... but upon seeing the stabbed human and beasts circling said homosapien, he swims back into the bar readily and allows himself to lose one coin. The bouncer wisely decides not to intervene any more now that the rowdiness has been moved outside.

Even without the help of his seahorses, Taj again tries to fry Yilin up like a shishkebob with his electricity. "CEASE AND DESIST!" he yells maniacally, though saying such a phrase as a finishing move seems pretty poor form for a guard of the law.