RP:Xiang's Challenge

Background

This is part of the Kurgan's Run story arc.

The evil monk Xiang needles Jolie into an attempt to destroy the Obsidian Pool.

At the Hanging Corpse Tavern, Vailkrin

Xiang Lao, servant of the Chaos Lords, appears from out of the shadows. Or was he always there? It would be hard for even Jolie to tell, but as the one known as Kalun questions his purpose in this world, the monk appears, his voice penetrating the darkness to call out to the man. " If it is purpose you seek, then perhaps.. if you are strong enough.." The monk's eyes flash over to Jolie, as if warning for her to not interfere. " Then perhaps I could show you a path most dare not follow in this lifetime."

Jolie had opened her mouth to answer Kalun. It snapped shut again, the necromancer rolling her eyes toward the rafters when Xiang piped up with more of the dogmatic drivel he was always spouting. "He'll show you how to be creepy and not very convincing at it,' she added to the monk's statement. "Very tempting. As for me?" There'd be a pause, then, while she sipped her rum. "I have been many things. I go by many names. Right now, my interests lie in reviving this tavern. Perhaps.. a fighting ring, unrestricted violence. Good coin in that." Pale green eyes flitted to Xiang. "Where's your boyfriend, then?"

Kalun looked at the male and replied, " I'm a druid by nature and want, I will not change this, for anyone or anything, I love the forest with my life, and you still haven't told me about yourself yet, just what you will do and are doing, not what you did do, or really about you. "

Xiang takes a step forward, closing the gap between himself and Jolie and the self proclaimed druid, before he says. " You come to the land of the dead in search of purpose... yet you worship nature and life?" His face holds no emotion, as usual, as he continues. " It seems chaos runs to your very core..." The monk takes a few steps more, ever slowly closing the gap between himself and the duo. " Yes... you have incredible potential..." And even as he gazes upon the druid, he now directs his next statement to Jolie. " Just like you, Joliette... even though you are too scared to take hold of your true power.." A slight "hmph" and a shrug escape the monk, as he says to no one in particular. " A pity.."

Jolie's lips tightened to a thin line of displeasure, when the monk interrupted yet again. "And yet, your masters are still nothing more than wisps of hot air, blowing in the dark. Where's their cataclysm, Xiang? I'll tell you: it's in the same place they are. Nowhere. Busy being nothing." Her tone was low, vicious. "My power..? I had the power to bring their plans to ruin, I'd not call that chopped liver." She made a 'pfft' sound and turned her attention back to Kalun. "Don't listen to him. He's just a puppet, for a bunch of smelly old farts."

Jolie cleared her throat. "As for me? I grew up here. Recently came back. Not much to tell." Nothing she was willing to impart in front of Xiang, anyway. "Oh - I do raise the dead, I suppose that's not too boring."

Xiang scoffs. " You raise a corpse, much in the same manner as any run of the mill apprentice necromancer."

Jolie said to Xiang, "How would you know, egghead?"

Jolie said, "You've seen me raise a glass, perhaps. There's a legion of undead, even now, lurking about this city somewhere, with my stamp on them. But I've no need to qualify myself to the likes of you."

Xiang said to Jolie, "Oh. I have seen your work. Where do you think I've been when I am not here? I do not sleep, need not to eat or drink. I have been hunting down and destroying your creations. Dozens have fallen to my martial prowess, and I've yet to have a scratch upon me. I have tested your work, and find myself wanting... sadly enough. Its indeed disappointing, for you hold power most can never obtain, and you do not know how to use it."

Orikahn gives a grunt, gritting his jaw and straining as he backs his way into the tavern, clawed feet scraping against the smooth floor as he tugs what appears to be the body of a giant spider behind him, gripping the still-oozing body by the husk. Its curled legs catch on the doorframe, and Kahn leans back, putting his weight into the effort, but in the end only manages to pry off a section of carapace, landing square on his rump and looking somewhat dazedly at the chitinous plate in his hands.

Jolie's next biting retort was cut short by the abrupt entrance of the arachnid-bearing hunter and his tumble, green gaze descending to stare at Orikahn while her mind grew thick with irritation, more at the snide monk than the stains of spider-ichor on her clean floor. "You have no idea what I am capable of, you horrid little man," though Xiang was at least a foot taller than she, "I reiterate: I brought your masters low, and I would do it again." Her voice lost is bitter hiss when she addressed the newcomer, peering at him over the counter, "Can I .. erm. Help you with something, there?"

Xiang watches as it seems his prying has gotten through the layers of natural defences Jolie has made through the years, and still the monk stands there, even as the Sin-Eater nearly tries to attack him. And we wouldn’t want that, would we? But, his purpose is clear and he is damn close. " You could try." In response to her threats. " But you dodge my challenge Joliette. If the pool is nothing to you, then destroying it should be as easy task... I mean, you cannot say that at times it isn't a painful reminder?" The monk prowls the tavern, walking about with catlike grace as he says. " But.. if I was bluffing, I too would stall and misdirect attention away from the facts as well.."

Orikahn nods placidly again, apparently finding Jolie's canines (a quite diminutive set in comparison to the feline's saber teeth) entirely unthreatening. The mention of spines and chewtoys, though, has him double taking. Personally, he'd never been fond of gnawing on spines, having always preferred shoulderblades and femurs. Then again, maybe the human would have an easier time getting the vertebrae between her tiny jaws? No matter, there was business afoot. The last of the hair legs scrapes it's way loose, and he drags the carcass up in front of the counter, leaving a wide trail of speckled ooze in his wake. "Of course it is." He confidently answers Jolie before glancing a little less certainly between the monk and the necromancer. There is a pause, then quietly he clears his throat and nudges the body with his toe, causing the upraised legs to quiver shake a new dusting of spider hair over the floor. "No hurry, if you two are busy."

Jolie remained very still for a long moment, and silent, perhaps due to the immensely conflicting natures of two parallel instincts that were currently vying for the upper hand - an explosion of bestial rage, and the recognition that allowing her mind to keep cool and collected was probably a far better option. Trembling with the effort of not simply buckling to her animal urges - nothing she wanted that mocking monk to see - she trained her focus on Orikahn, and said in a slightly choked by somewhat more polite manner, "Why... in the name of all the gods...would you be under the ... impression.. that we are -buying- those.. things?" Her hands were visibly trembling when she turned back to the monk. "I'll show you, you pitiful glove puppet. I'll show what I can do, and show you how I can vanquish the creature whose hand is up your backside moving your mouth. The Pool will be destroyed. Not buried, but banished to the sinkhole of apathy it skulked out of." She was nodding, talking through her teeth, her gaze narrowed to slits. "And only -then- will I bother flensing your sorry carcass."

Lokthull charges through the cellar door, the smell of anger and discontentment and...spider guts? catching his attention. The troll actually looks excited as he bounds over to the source of the trail of ooze being spread. With his fingers, and a glass bottle he'd been carrying for the occasion, the troll begins to carefully run the goo into the bottle, fingertip by fingertip. Looking ahead for just a moment, he spies the source of the goo and cries out. "Aye yuh, stahp weestin dem goo!" He puts his gooey-fingered hand up to point at the feline. "If yuh be draggin dat dis way an dat, lemme be gettin da goo from it fuhst." In the flurry of goo acquisition, the troll doesn't even seem to notice the others in the room.

Orikahn blinks at Jolie, a little baffled at her question before raising a single furry digit to point at a dwindling jar of spider eggs behind the counter. "Because you sell them." He matter-of-factly reminds her in his soft, velvety basso. Then with a flick of his tail, he indicates the creature's distended abdomen. "That one's about full to bursting, I figure. Eggs, you know?" Appraisingly, he raises both brows and nods, only to stiffen completely, fur standing entirely on end as he whirls around to face Lokthull. Ah! Here's a sensible man, the proprietor no doubt. "Yeah! The goo, and the eggs. Brought her in fresh, good heavy catch. How much for it all?"

Xiang said to Jolie, "I doubt your words. Until you take action, I think you a failed experiment. A disappointment with an undeserved ego."

The sabretoothed hunter's quite reasonable explanation was a cold, hard slap of normalcy delivered to the insane scenario that was running through Joliette’s thoughts, as she tried to imagine exactly -how- she was going to do this thing, how she'd banish the black heart of the accursed fortress... "Oh." was all she said, for some time. "Well. Then. You can uh.." she was quite obviously under immense stress to keep herself in check as she glanced to the janitor. "Lokthull. Please.. take the .. goo. And the eggs. I'll pay for the lot. Just.. clean this up, will you?" She flapped a hand at Orikahn's grisly catch. Xiang's return comment had her sneering, less likely to explode into a small tornado of violence and sharp bits, her mien turning suddenly icy as she regained control of herself. Thank gods she'd smoked the poppy resin this morning... "We'll just see about that."

Jolie rummaged in the till and threw Orikahn a small pouch.

Lokthull jumps a little off the ground, smiling far too widely for his horrible teeth to enjoy. The troll sets the bottle on the ground and approaches the feliney character, moving to carefully accept the oozy package. Should said businesscreature relinquish the item, the troll would quickly bring it behind the bar and drop it in the bin labeled 'food' before disappearing with the bin into the cellar, the bottle forgotten. If the businesscreature, by some strange instance, does not accept the offer, the troll will furrow the skin where his eyebrows should be, his expressions becoming quite sour indeed. "Wai yuh note be givin me dat ting, hmm?" he'd ask angrily. Happy troll, or disgruntled troll, the choice is yours.

Xiang stands perfectly still now, seeing as his job is done for now. He would watch as the troll takes the spider, and as the feline was paid. All palling in comparisson to what will transpire soon enough. The monk was appeased, and so stood like the sentinel he was ordered to be back by the staircase.

Orikahn deftly catches the pouch and quickly turns it over in his hand, sniffing it intently before inverting its contents on the counter, pawing at them a bit and frowning. Picking one up, he sniffs it, gnaws on it a bit, then licks it over with a broad pink tongue, humming to himself. More of these silly yellow disks. He sighs deeply, but sweeps them back into the bag nonetheless. Lokthull's question earns a rather cool, dry look of indignation. "No, it's fine. Take it."

Jolie 's gaze was a pair of toxic green slivers trained on the monk. She forked her first and second fingers, pointed their tips toward her own eyes and then toward Xiang's, and back again. No more attention was paid him.

Jolie stalked from the building, after snapping a few orders to Steadman. Her heels were a decisive, fading tick of steel on stone as she passed through the door.

Lokthull returns from the cellar, carrying the empty food bin. He turns about just in time to see Jolie stalking from the tavern. "Ay yuh, wait!" he calls after she disappears through the door. The troll clamors across the tavern and follows her out.