Village Green

A rickety carriage sat upon the village green in preparation for the throng of people that would celebrate the holiday, its owner well aware that an entrepreneur's work was never done and that if he was to enjoy the Dawnsday festivities in style. Over the top of the cart, where it opened to reveal a stall, were gilded letters that proudly identified it as "Mr. Cypher's Magical Emporium," all the letters capitalized, with the A in Magical in the shape of the all seeing eye.

The stall's proprietor stood out front, in a suit and top hat that looked far too clean for a man who lived in his cart, an intricately detailed walking stick in his hand with the same design of the all seeing eye serving as its grip, intricately carved in a deep black ebony. He used it more as a theatric tool to motion and gesture, than to actually walk.

"Come one, come all, to Mr. Cypher's Magical Emporium," he called out in a voice that carried accross the green. "Start the new year right with a concoction or two to bring the new gods delight, crafted from exotic ingredients from around the world, guaranteed to satisfy." As he spoke, he used prestidigitation to make a few vials of brightly colored potions appear in the air and orbit around him magically. "Enflame the passions of the object of your Dawnsday desire with a few drops of my own proprietary blend, diluted from a red dragon's ignus gland!" he motioned to a bright red vial. "Or guarantee wealth in the new year with a drought of leprechaun tears," a bright green bottle paused in the air before him as he motioned to it with his cane. "Or perhaps you want luck in the day's games. Well, there is nothing more fortuitous than a dusting of ground fairy bones," a bright gold concoction that shimmered in the sun floated into view. "Or perhaps you simply wish for protection for your family from the wrath of the old gods. Ward them away with a sprinkle of holy water from the shining sea," the last bottle, unnaturally blue, came into view. "Get them now at a bargain price or regret it for the rest of the year."

In truth, they were all just colored water, with a few bits thrown in for flavor. Whenever he ran out of one, he would simply "check in the back for more" and use prestidigitation to turn a red vial green. There were, of course, actual magical trinkets to be found in the town shops, but Louis had found that fools tended to prefer the lie and this town had no shortage of fools.

[+5 Deception]

"I think we have a man in need of a demonstration, on the house of course," Louis flashed a crocodile's smile that did not reach his eyes, keeping up the facade as another vial floated from his sleeve to hang in the air before the brute. Its contents were black, water like the rest, though Louis made the liquid within seem to move unnaturally on its own accord. "I bought this off a trader from the Underdark, taken from the inky black pools where light of the new gods cannot reach. It is only for the bravest of souls, for it gives vision beyond vision, a glimpse into the hearts of others...and some things are better left unknown..."

Louis gave the draught a moment to "kick in" before he reached out with his concioisness into the man's mind, tendrils of thought probing within. He made the mental voice sound like an alien consciousness, strange and terrible, beginning as a host of dissonant whispers all vying to be heard before one terrible thought rose to prominence among the rest, drowning out the others.

"When you sleep tonight, lids heavy from drunken revelry, your companions are going to open your belly for the few coins in your pocket. The last thing you taste before the Goddess of Death claims you will be your or own blood and shit as your entrails become extrails. Kill or be killed!"

Outwards, the elusive Me. Cypher held his smile, looking around at the gathered crowd as if they were about to see something wondrous.

(Awakened Mind-You can telepathically speak to any creature you can see within 30 feet of you. You don't need to share a language with the creature for it to understand your telepathic utterances.)

Balneiros arrives at the Village Green as the bigger man pins the smaller man to the ground, watching them silently for a moment before approaching Louis, ignoring the scuffle. "An ordinary day for humans, it seems."

None of the small crowd were currently looking at Louis. All were watching the large man slowly strangle the small man to death. The brute was weeping as he choked the life out of the other. One of the girls suddenly ran guard the Sheriff's house.

The bushy bearded man was horrified as he watched the two men struggle. Then he raised the bottle up into the sky and brought it down hard on the head of the brute. The bottle did not break when it struck the skull. There was a meaty crack and the brute collapsed to the ground not moving.

Clive wandered into the green, strumming his guitar. He was halfway through a lovely ballad about a half orc maiden shut away by her embarrassed mother, but didn't quite make it to the escape when he saw all the hullabaloo. He parked himself by his half-brother to watch while idly tuning his guitar.

"Really should have considered a plant..."

He considered wading in with his guitar and telling the tale of how an elixir cured his dumbness, but decided it wasn't worth risking his current gig as entertainer. Maybe the next time.

Balneiros nods to Clive as he arrives before turning his attention back to Louis. "Better luck tomorrow, perhaps. Try again when the humans have had their fill of drinking and fucking tonight. I'm looking forward to avoiding the festivities." Bal looked to the corpse with a frown. "Suppose somebody should take care of him."