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First, which clan do you hail from?

>The Silkscale, who are inclined to subterfuge and silvery tongues, expert at social interaction and deception, with a hypnotic power hidden behind their eyes [Bonus to diplomacy, hypnosis ability]

>The Steeltalon, who may hide behind the size and shape of a regular humanoid man or woman, but who are coiled with serpentine muscle and may expand and grow into a behemoth when their masquerade is broken [Bonus to physical ability, intimidation]

>The Dragonblooded, who carry the direct genetic contributions of ancient dragon-kings, and whose blood and breath boil with the flames of their noble demigod ancestors [Greater authority over other reptilian races, fire resistance and firebreath]

>The Serpent Priests, inbred but pure scions of ancient devotees to the gods of your ancestors, who can craft powerful illusions and divine the starsigns to guide yourself and others in this return to greatness [Divination, illusion, and some other minor spellcasting, multiple humanoid disguises available, but physically infirm and vulnerable to disease and temperature]

>The Degenerates, half-blooded creatures beneath the contempt of most because of your magically-enabled half-humanoid parentage; your creation was either a mistake by a sloppy operative which the priests saw fit to make use of, or a disgusting necessary evil of the great plan [No risk of dispelled disguise, can use mammalian magic items, and you gain the abilities of your humanoid parent's race]

>>4672320
>>The Silkscale, who are inclined to subterfuge and silvery tongues, expert at social interaction and deception, with a hypnotic power hidden behind their eyes [Bonus to diplomacy, hypnosis ability]

>>4672320
>The Degenerates, half-blooded creatures beneath the contempt of most because of your magically-enabled half-humanoid parentage; your creation was either a mistake by a sloppy operative which the priests saw fit to make use of, or a disgusting necessary evil of the great plan [No risk of dispelled disguise, can use mammalian magic items, and you gain the abilities of your humanoid parent's race]

>>4672320
>Degenerate

>>4672320
>The Serpent Priests, inbred but pure scions of ancient devotees to the gods of your ancestors, who can craft powerful illusions and divine the starsigns to guide yourself and others in this return to greatness [Divination, illusion, and some other minor spellcasting, multiple humanoid disguises available, but physically infirm and vulnerable to disease and temperature]

>>4672338
>>4672346
>>4672350
>>4672360
Seems we're leaning Degenerate. Tallying results and writing a post in 6 minutes! If you're lurking or reading and want to be something else, post by then. I'll try to maintain an every-half-hour-or-so schedule for a few hours here, until I go out for dinner.

>>4672320
>>The Silkscale, who are inclined to subterfuge and silvery tongues, expert at social interaction and deception, with a hypnotic power hidden behind their eyes [Bonus to diplomacy, hypnosis ability]

Rolled 1 (1d2)

>>4672372
>>4672338
>>4672346
>>4672350
1 is Degnerate, 2 is Silkscale; then, writing

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>>4672320
>>4672379

You are a Degenerate. Your Reptilian parent was an operative as well, early in the information-gathering stage of the campaign against the mammals. Whether by the Priests’ divinely-inspired dictat or as a shameful side-effect of maintaining a cover (or maybe out of some twisted and vile genuine affection for mammalian hand-holding rituals, though that is a disturbing and unlikely thought), you were born half-mammal. Your mammalian parent’s fate is unknown, and irrelevant to the mission. What does matter is that your mixed heritage makes you the perfect natural infiltrator for your beastly parent’s society!

You have been chosen specially to infiltrate the society of your non-reptile parent, as a cog in the machine that is the Serpent Priests’ grand design! Perhaps you might even earn yourself a place of honour in the reptilian future… Or at least, safety from the culling which will befall your mammalian cousins.

Which society are you being sent to infiltrate?

>Deepwater, a predominantly human port-town central to cross-oceanic trade; perfect to acquire resources, intercept diplomatic travelers, and to stage wide-spread infiltration campaigns

>Bleakspire Mining Operation, a dwarven corporate town that seems to be tunneling towards the ruins of a long-lost imperial capitol; ideal to acquire some of the treasures of your noble ancestors and their godly patrons

>Iternagreyn, the mystical and government capitol of an elven magocracy, where forbidden tomes are kept safe and where mages and politicians are trained; ideal to infiltrate education and to acquire and weaponize the foes’ own spellcraft

>Warsing, the biggest encampment of an orc and half-orc warband which has grown in might and prosperity through raiding their neighbours; favourable to war against their fellow humanoids, and with loose leadership, they could be easy to take control of, and to elad to direct military action

>Hawksong, the capitol of the mightiest human-held empire; paladins and kings reside here, and all trade flows inward and outward from this central point; it is arguably the most dangerous mission, with the greatest chance of being discovered and where guile will be necessary, but its cosmopolitan nature and immediate access to halls of power is uniquely advantageous

>>4672320
>The Silkscale, who are inclined to subterfuge and silvery tongues, expert at social interaction and deception, with a hypnotic power hidden behind their eyes [Bonus to diplomacy, hypnosis ability]

>>4672383
Sorry, bud; a bit too late for that. In deference to that, we'll say your Reptilian parent was a Silkscale-clan operative. Now, we're identifying your mammalian parent, and your mission!

>>4672381
>Iternagreyn

>>4672381
>Hawksong, the capitol of the mightiest human-held empire; paladins and kings reside here, and all trade flows inward and outward from this central point; it is arguably the most dangerous mission, with the greatest chance of being discovered and where guile will be necessary, but its cosmopolitan nature and immediate access to halls of power is uniquely advantageous

>>4672381
>Bleakspire Mining Operation, a dwarven corporate town that seems to be tunneling towards the ruins of a long-lost imperial capitol; ideal to acquire some of the treasures of your noble ancestors and their godly patrons

>>4672381
>>Hawksong, the capitol of the mightiest human-held empire; paladins and kings reside here, and all trade flows inward and outward from this central point; it is arguably the most dangerous mission, with the greatest chance of being discovered and where guile will be necessary, but its cosmopolitan nature and immediate access to halls of power is uniquely advantageous

>>4672390
>>4672395
>>4672399
>>4672403
Hawksong it is! Writing...

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>>4672430
>>4672381

You are anointed with protections by the Serpent Priest who has been your handler, though the elder male squirms and avoids directly touching your impure flesh. It hardly matters. Being deployed to Hawksong, the vainglorious capitol of the most presently-dominant kingdom of humanity, he cannot risk bequeathing you any actual magical protections. The ports of entry would detect the alien magic immediately, and it would render direct interactions with high-ranking spellcasters (or royalty) exceedingly risky. His ritual is entirely symbolic: your own degenerate bloodline shall be your cloak, and your shield.

As a half-human, you look almost identical to one of those monkeyfolk; you have a slight yellowishness to your eyes, maybe; a slight deformation to the pupils. You lick your lips when nervous, you shy away from cold and tend to layer up in winter. Regular application of oils helps calm down an eczema-like condition which reveals patches of scaly, rough skin around your eyes and hands. To anything but the closest scrutiny, though, you are a human, or at least one of the many half-humans which run around such a cosmopolitan capitol. You have the advantages and disadvantages of a human: you are versatile, adaptable, and sociable, but you also lack darkvision and you are at risk of pregnancy (or impregnating others)

You are given no map to find you way from your people’s home beneath the earth to the homeland of your human parent; rather, you have been drilled endlessly, and memorized the route so that you may follow it in darkness even without the natural darkvision and heat senses of your full-blooded colleagues. It takes several hours, even unencumbered as you are by all but basic clothing, a modest bag of coin, a dagger, a sling, and some rations.

When you emerge, the sun has nearly set, and night is upon you. You look up to behold in wonder the same tars which have gifted your people this glorious opportunity, and whose favour permitted your birth and survival to adulthood despite your filthy degenerate blood. They are only beginning to emerge and sprinkle the sky above, but their many eyes on you brings you a mix of exhalation and anxiety.

In the distance, you can see the magical and lamplit lights of a more earthly constellation: Hawksong, the largest single city on the continent and home to a million humanoids, including the Paladin King Archos.

What shall you do?

>Camp here tonight, wait for morning
>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness
>Head straight to Hawksong tonight
>Write-in

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>>4672438

Also, given your human 'handicap', it may be mission critical to know whether you are male or female in your biology.

>I lay eggs
>I fertilize eggs

>>4672441
>I fertilize eggs

>>4672438
>>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness
>I lay eggs

>>4672438
>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness
>>4672441
>I fertilize eggs

>>4672438
>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness

>>4672441
>I fertilize eggs

>>4672455
wrong post, meant to vote for laying eggs

>>4672441
>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness
>I lay eggs

>>4672438
>Explore the outlying area under cover of darkness


>>4672441
>I lay eggs

>>4672447
>>4672449
>>4672452
>>4672455
>>4672457
>>4672474
>>4672497
Seems we're set on exploration and egg-laying! Writing...

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>>4672512
>>4672441
>>4672438

Pulling your scarf up around your face to shield yourself against the slight chill of the early spring wind, you glance about. You seem to be in the fields and farmlands which service the glowing metropolis for which you are bound. The city can wait for tomorrow, though: you feel the human-born urge to explore and learn, to experience your newfound freedom. Plus, it could make for good intel-gathering! Out here, you’re less likely to be scrutinized too closely, and you may learn about vulnerabilities and opportunities you can take advantage of in Hawksong.

Lacking nigh-adapted eyes, but unwilling to break cover of darkness with a torch, you rely on your familiarity with the area to guide you through the darkness. In preparation for this mission, you have been to this place before, albeit only briefly and never this close to the capitol. You have always been an outsider, a strange young woman traveling alone. Little did the humans know how strange you were, nor did they realize that you were actually born in this very region to one of their own neighbours! Your mother and father both walked this land, before you were born. Your father was a citizen, your mother a spy like yourself, ingratiating herself with Silkscale politesse and hypnotic allure.

And of course, long before then, your thousand-times great grandparents were kings and queens of this realm and all others, in an epoch unrecognizable and terrifying to those who dwell here now… An era which you will revive!

As you muse on what has brought you here, you find scattered and half-tamed woodlands replete with hunters’ cottages and wild game, a number of roadside inns dotting the main throughfare into Hawksong, and of course the nearest farming village surrounded by its golden fields of grain.

What do you do?

>Investigate the woodlands and the isolated hunters’ cottages
>Attend a travelers’ inn for a drink at the bar and some information-gathering
>Enter the village and learn more about the farmers

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>>4672522
[Oh, and feel free to write-in as well; I encourage improvisation, even if I forget to include it explicitly as an option]

>>4672522
>Enter the village and learn more about the farmers

Break bread with the honest folks. They're simple and won't scrutinize us much, and will likely vouch for us if we get on their good side in times of trouble

>>4672522
>>Enter the village and learn more about the farmers

>>4672522
>>Attend a travelers’ inn for a drink at the bar and some information-gathering

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>>4672525
>>4672529
>>4672556
>>4672522

You consider breaking bread with the most ‘honest’ the usurpers to your noble ancestors’ birthright, down in the farming village below. A signpost helpfully informs you that this place is called “Sparrowton”, by way of the monkeys’ crude, blocky rune-script. It has nothing of the flowing grace of your mothers’ calligraphy, just as the guttural mouthsounds of your father’s people are loud, raucous mockery compared to the subtle elegance of your mother’s soft hisses, or the roaring rattles of the Priests’ inspiring calls to conquest and destruction.

Still, you read the language. You speak the tongue, and hardly even with an accent anymore; humans tend to thing is a lisp, in your experience. As the farming folk of the hamlet return from their work in fields and begin to close up their shops and stalls, you pull up your hood and glance about at them. Sturdy and undereducated, largely; even by the standards of their kind, their tongue is fumbling and full of affections and errors that your meticulous linguistic studies have taught you are deviations from the norm in the common tongue of Man in this area.

They seem strong, though, and diligent enough that only now is the local pub beginning to fill up with sweaty labourers (predominantly male or women of marriageable age, as the young and the mothers who tend them retire at home). They would make good servants or slaves, and by the state of their dress and dwelling places, you can tell they are not necessarily the best-served by the current ruling class, though their health seems generally quite fair for their ilk.

Many businesses are closed, but you can see the lantern lit and door open in what looks to be a sort of general store. So too are the lights on in the local temple: a tall and narrow building of considerably better stonework construction than the thatched and brickwork shanties which surround it.

What do you do?

>Attend to the church, to learn something of human religion
>Stock up on supplies and information at the general store
>Head to the bar to eat, drink, and acquire intelligence
>Break and enter into a human home while the male is away
>Skulk around the streets looking for easy prey
>Other

>>4672578
>>Attend to the church, to learn something of human religion

>>4672578
>Attend to the church, to learn something of human religion

Based on the prompt of 'look for easy prey', I just wanna clarify: is our goal to subtly take over from the inside, spy and gather intelligence, destroy humans, or some combination of all three?

>>4672595
Your goal is ideally to achieve all of the above, after a fashion: to to infiltrate and subvert human society, to learn their weaknesses and vulnerabilities, and to destroy humanity (and all mammalian sapients) that you cannot enslave or control so that the Reptilian Race may rule the surface world once more.

Beyond that, you may slay, torment, vivisect, ensorcel, seduce, or manipulate as you see fit. The Serpent Priests trust in their operatives, even a degenerate like you, for the stars are right and your training has been very thorough.

A viper strikes when the opportunity is right, or when it is necessary. You may wish to put the fear of your wrath into these people, to pick away at their psychology and their sense of safety, or you may wish to take a subtler and more gradual approach.

>>4672578
>>Attend to the church, to learn something of human religion

>>4672620
Ahhh I see, I'm more in favor of the getting their trust to gradually put ourselves in a place of rule before slaying everyone who doesn't kowtow after we're too powerful type of route myself. Curious to hear how my other fellow players wanna go about this

>>4672628
>>4672627
>>4672595
>>4672587
>>4672578

You walk towards the temple, interested to learn more of local religious customs. You know about the human faith in broadest strokes, of course. In this area, the people predominantly worship a mother and father figure, who dwell as supreme divinities in the sky or on highest mountains, but whose stern judgement and loving kindness can (supposedly) be felt worldwide by the faithfully-adherent. They preside over a small patheon of demigodly children who administer various worldly forces and deities, as well as a smattering of ascendant priests and heroes. All very trite, with nary a nuance or any hint of true mysticism or occult knowledge.

So it is that you enter the temple with the attitude of a tourist beholding quaint local customs. It is a demeanour you quickly disguise when you notice you have the full attention of all those within: a young boy, a woman of about your age, and an older man. Their garb identifies them as a priest and his attendants or disciples. The boy is counting coins in a bowl, the woman holds a lantern and a small hand-broom, and the older man observes. On the floor between them is what looks to be some sort of basket, which shifts lightly as something moves within.

“Oh! Hello there, my child,” the priest warmly greets you. “A newcomer, if my old eyes don’t fail me? Well, come in, have a seat if you will—you look tired. I’m afraid we’re just counting alms and tidying up, but what brings you here?”

What do you do?

>Ask about Sparrowton
>Ask about Hawksong
>Ask about the gods
>Ask about the priest and his attendants
>Ask about the basket
>Ask about the alms
>Ask to stay the night, as you have nowhere else to go
>Ask about ancient faiths
>Attack!
>Other

>>4672680
>>Ask about Hawksong
>>Ask about the gods

>>4672680
Supporting >>4672691

>>4672691
>>4672700
>>4672680

>About the gods

“Ah, yes. Well, that would make sense—why else come to a priest but to ask after the gods?” the old man chuckles.

His young attendants go about their duties, though the young boy in particular can’t seem to stop glancing your way. Peculiar? Does he know something, see something…? Unlikely, but it would set your hair follicles to goosebumps, if you weren’t uncannily hairless apart from your scalp and eyebrows.

“Moroth is a kind god. Many forget that, but he is indeed kind; it is not the sole purview of Marese!” The old man speaks of the chief god and goddess of his people, naturally. “In these parts, their daughter Atheme is worshipped very often, as I’m sure you know if you’ve ever been through a village like this come harvest-time or when seeds are to be sewn. Just as whenever a child is born! Such is her command of fertility. A lot like the old goddesses of such matters, but without the… Unseemly rituals of the flesh. Much more modern and civil, though a few men my age have been known to request blessings along those lines…”

>About Hawksong

You interrupt the old man’s ramblings to ask about Hawksong, and his expression turns dour. “Ah, yes. Hawksong. Just as I said: so many these days forget that Moroth is kind, and not merely stern. Hawksong and the Paladins are among that sort, by my reckoning! They administer justice, certainly. I’d never say they are UNJUST. But merciful? Compassionate? Sometimes, maybe. No enough. They have too much of Moroth, one could almost say, and not enough of Marese. Except that’s not quite right, for Moroth has a shield as well as a sword!”

It seems that the old priest is not so fond of the militarism or strict adherence to law that he perceives in the attitudes of the Paladins, temporal and spiritual authorities of Hawksong and dragoons of the royal military.

His focus changes again, though… Back to you.

“But enough of an old man’s musings and ramblings. What brings you to Sparrowton?”

How do you justify your presence?

>Looking for a place to stay the night
>looking for a place to settle down
>You’re a religious pilgrim
>You’re just passing through
>You’re here from the Paladins, to crack down on heretical teachings
>You’re here to end the Era of Mammals
>[change the subject, ask more questions]

>>4672724
>>looking for a place to settle down

>>4672724
>looking for a place to settle down

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>>4672728
>>4672732
>>4672724

“I’m looking for a plassse to sssetle down,” you say. You hide a scowl behind a practiced diplomatic mask, and bite your tongue to punish it for the lisp. You’ll have to work on hiding that, if you’re to better blend in—not that this man or his acolytes is likely to recognize your accent.

“Well, Sparrowton is certainly that!” the priest says jovially, though he then frowns slightly. “Well, it was. We’ve been losing so many young people lately to the hustle and bustle of Hawksong. I guess that’s what happens when the Paladin King finances his swords and his marches on our tax dollars!”

“I must admit,” the young woman chimes in from the pews she is sweeping, “I’ve been considering heading there myself.”

The old man looks aghast. “Agatha! Say it isn’t so!”

She grins sheepishly and shrugs. “I’m sorry, Father, but it’s not like the alms split three ways can feed a family, and there’s so much more work there. I’d still keep up on my prayers!”

“And boys who aren’t your cousin,” the young boy quips, earning him a glare from this Agatha.

Do you:

>Chime in, suggesting Agatha travel with you to Hawksong tomorrow
>Tell Agatha that she ought to remain here, with her community and her faith
>Offer to help earn money for the church’s operations and those who run it
>Offer to take Agatha’s place at the church
>Stay out of it
>Ask something else to change the subject
>Leave

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[Out to get some grub with the fiance, though. I'll return later and post at least a couple more times tonight, for sure.]

>>4672779
>>Chime in, suggesting Agatha travel with you to Hawksong tomorrow

>>4672779
>Offer to take Agatha’s place at the church

>>4672787
>>4672858
I return from dinner! If nobody breaks the tie soon, I'll roll and/or write in soon.

>>4672779
>>Chime in, suggesting Agatha travel with you to Hawksong tomorrow


I like agatha, when the snake uprising begins, she will be spared

>>4672975
>>4672858
>>4672787
>>4672779

“I wass actually thinking of ssetling somewhere such asss Hawkssong, myself,” you chime in. It’s the truth, after all; better yet, you manage to control your accent a bit better.

The poor priest looks double troubled now, but Agatha is seemingly delighted, despite having just made your acquaintance. “Excellent! I was hoping not to have to travel the road alone. There’s been word of bandits lately—“

“All those taxes, all those swords, and still the roads aren’t safe for a lone woman…” the priest grumbles.

“—and you know how menfolk get when you ask them to accompany you alone somewhere.”

“Even when they’re your cousin,” the young boy teases, provoking a swat from Agatha and an admonishment from the priest to finish counting alms and then pray for Marese to temper his sharp tongue with some common sense and kindness.

“I’ll be sorry to see you go,” the priest says to her, “let alone on such short notice! But Marese would want plenty for you, and for your future family. Godspeed.”

Agatha invites you to stay the night at her, home, if you have nowhere else to go; the temple, too, is open to you, as Father Thom makes clear.

What do you do?
>Stay in the temple
>Stay with Agatha’s family
>Find your own accommodations later, and continue to explore Sparrowton after dark

>>4673007
>Stay with Agatha’s family

>>4673007
>>Stay with Agatha’s family
Sssssssssoundsssss cozy.

>>4673093
>>4673099
Let's do it

>>4673101
>>4673099
>>4673093
>>4673007

You opt to stay with Agatha’s family, finding their home to be as simple and underwhelming as the others you passed on the way to the temple. Still, especially once you enter the cozy interior and see her family—two somewhat older-than-expected parents, three older brothers, and one younger sister—you can’t help but feel out-of-place, and maybe even a tad envious. The disgusting half-breed daughter of a spy, raised by priests to fulfill a destructive purpose, you’ve never seen the sort of tenderness which underlies the family’s dinner and even their barbed exchanges of banter here and there.

Perhaps, in a world where these people and their gods had not driven your mother’s race deep into the earth ,smashed their homes and melted down their statues for precious metal, you could have been born different? Perhaps you could have had something like this?

You make a show of eating the meal, but claim your travels have left you too woozy to finish; this helps cover up the automatic nausea which accompanies your over-consumption of grains and vegetables. In the end, you finish your steak and water, eating only enough of the other foods to hide your revulsion towards them.

The thoughts which accompanied dinner (and your disturbed stomach) keep you awake for much of the night, but eventually exhaustion clams you in the brief torpor characteristic of your mother’s race. You sleep for but an instant, dreamless, and when you awake a full six hours have passed.

By the dimmest light of early dawn, what do you do?

>Search the home for valuables or useful supplies
>Spy upon the human family
>Pack and ready to leave
>Exit the home to explore in Sparrowton in advance
>Other

>>4673111
>Pack and ready to leave

Side note, how old are we? I assume like early to mid twenties?

>>4673131
You hatched twenty five years ago.

I'll await some more replies, as well as discussion for your broader plans for what to do once you get to Hawksong. I'm actually fairly drunk and a titch high, so I'll pick it up tomorrow!

>>4673253
Sure thing. Thanks for running! I look forward to where Mark Zuckerberg quest goes

>>4673111
>>Pack and ready to leave

>>4673111
>Pack and ready to leave
Better to lay low for now

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Alright, I'm back! Oof, when the edibles hit, they really hit. Writing!

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>>4673591
>>4673553
>>4673131
>>4673111

You pack your things, and ready to leave. The process, sadly, takes almost no time: all that you own is on your back or body already. You sit motionless for four hours, until finally you hear the rustling of others now awake.

“—Ah!” Agatha cries out as she catches sight of you standing stock-still in the hall, staring right at her the moment she opens her bedroom door. “You startled me!”

“Are you ready to go?” you ask.

“Well, I have to say goodbye to my family, a few friends, stock up on some provisions… Breakfast would be nice…”

You sigh, itself almost a rattling hiss before you catch it. So many delays. Perhaps close ties to a family and a community aren’t all they’re cracked up to be? You could be half-way to Hawksong by now!

What do you do?
>Press on; get an early start, and Agatha can catch up if she hurries
>Visit the general store to purchase some supplies
>Stick with Agatha, learning more about her
>Attempt to recruit other young folks to accompany you
>Stay with Agatha’s family and wait for her
>Other

>>4673747
>Visit the general store to purchase some supplies

>>4673747
>Visit the general store to purchase some supplies

Heads up I'm >>4673271, the id is because I'm out right now on mobile

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>>4673766
>>4673758

Though you are trained in young adult human peer group interactions, and have observed a few from afar in your past surface excursions, you feel a pang of anxiety at the thought of testing these so soon with Agatha’s friends and family. Dinner already felt like an exam, desperately recalling your prepared backstory and improvising to fill in blanks while your stomach did flips.

“Actually, I need to sstock up on a few thingss at the general sstore,” you say, as if you just remembered. “Meet me at the main road?”

“Oh! Sure thing!”

You and Agatha depart the home, going your separate ways from the door. Agatha seems chipper, but you detect some trepidation of her own about bidding farewell to familiar places and people.

You turn around and set off towards the general store, stopping for a moment to compose yourself when you see just how many humans are now milling about by light of day, some setting up stalls or transporting goods while others begin to chat or shop at them. The crowd is unfamiliar and alien to your youthful experience: your race is sadly depleted, and in your caverns, you would be a welcome sight at such a gathering of full-blooded Reptilians. Hawksong will be busier, though, by a huge margin; you remind yourself of this and press through to the general store.

Inside, you find a well-tidied and truly GENERAL store, playing temporary waystation to a wide assortment of goods that creates the impression the shopkeeper flipping through a book behind the counter has made a habit of buying any odd tchotchke which catches his eye on a passing merchant’s wagon at a low enough price. Still, amongst the discounted cheese-wheels and pawn-shop jewelry, there are a few true gems: simple but well-maintained armour and weapons, lanterns and torches, a few books and scrolls of cultural value, maps, trail rations, and even a few baubles that might eb truly mystical!

The business owner hasn’t yet noticed you. What do you do?

>Attempt to pocket something good before he notices
>Assassinate him before he ntoices
>Browse and wait for him to notice you
>Get his attention, and attempt to buy some goods
>Attempt to use your Silkscale heritage to haggle for a good deal

Also, what exactly are you looking for here? Feel free to specify if stealing, browsing, buying, or haggling as to what you actually want!

>>4673781
OP, you mentioned out skin gets kinda fucky and reveals it's scaliness if it's not maintained properly with oil or something. Was some of that given in our starter equipment? If not we should probably see if they have any here.

>>4673807
You have enough oil to last you a couple weeks; it doesn't take much, and it only need be applied every few days, so the amount you have on you is not terribly suspicious. However, you are a sucker for a good oil-rub...

>>4673781
>Attempt to use your Silkscale heritage to haggle for a good deal

>>4673781
>Attempt to use your Silkscale heritage to haggle for a good deal.
Would you look at that, we found Edred’s shop. Did you intend to use the same pic as Shopkeeper quest?

>>4673824
I quite liked that quest, so I thought a little reference would be a nice tribute now that it seems to have died.

>>4673824
>>4673817
>>4673807
>>4673781

You lean on the counter and politely clear your throat, and the shopkeeper looks up from his reading—some tawdy little pulp piece about the life of a bartender—and hurriedly dogears a page before shutting it and tucking it into a pocket. He fixes you with a winning smile, and you can tell that even before you’ve begun your own efforts to win him over to a better price, this man has turned on his own charms.

“Hello! Welcome to the shop. Can’t say I’ve seen you around—passing through? In the need for some adventuring gear? It’s the newest fad among athletic young people like yourself!”

Shame you’re immune to flattery. Still… ‘athletic young people’ implies certain things about how your slinky, reptilian movements and training-honed body come across. You could work with his!

“I’m looking for linimentss… Lotionss… Oilss, maybe?”

“A natural beauty like you has a secret routine?” the shopkeeper feigns disbelief, but pulls out a small glass bottle of some greenish, semi-viscous fluid from beneath the counter. “Be it cooking or puffiness under the eyes, this bitterberry-infused oil can’t be beat! Last bottle I have, though, I’m afraid…”

The price he asks would be roughly a quarter of your available coin, but the oil does look to be of high quality… Not that you know much about ‘bitterberry’ or its properties as a topical.

What do you do?

>roll 1d20 to haggle
>roll 2d20 to haggle, take the higher result [flirting]
>roll 1d20 and use the distraction of haggling to pocket something else
>refuse the oil outright, as it’s just too expensive

>>4673841
>roll 2d20 to haggle, take the higher result [flirting]
Turn the charm up to 11

I'm assuming we don't roll until an option is chosen, so I won't add dice to be safe

>>4673846
Correct!

>>4673841
>roll 2d20 to haggle, take the higher result [flirting]

Rolled 13, 18 = 31 (2d20)

>>4673846
>>4673862
Rolling, then writing!

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>>4673878
>>4673862
>>4673846
>>4673841

“What if I jussst tell everyone who asskss that it wasss your oil that made my sskin sso sssmooth?”

The shopkeeper’s face flushes, but before he can say anything, you gingerly take his hand on place it on your bare forearm.

“Ssssee? A wonderful endorsssement, wouldn’t you say?”

You wink and roll your sleeve back down, and the shopkeeper gulps. “Alright, alright. 25 percent off! But only because I know a skilled haggler when I meet one.”

By the way his eyes flit across your body, you know that it’s not just your haggling which impressed him. But either way, discounted oil! You pop the cork and give it a quick whiff, and the aroma of the ebrry infusion makes you feel a little giddy as well.

What do you do?

>Shop for additional supplies (Specify)
>Leave the shop and explore around Sparrowton
>Leave the shop and look for Agatha
>Leave the shop and head towards the main road

>>4673892
Before we decide to buy anymore, can we get a rough estimate of what's in our inventory?

>>4673892
>Shop for some armor and a weapon

>>4673900
Your current inventory consists of:

>One bottle of deep mushroom oils
>One bottle of bitterberry-infused oil
>A modest amount of coinage (roughly enough to buy two bottles of bitterberry-infused specialty oil at asking price, with change left over, apparently)
>basic clothing
>a backpack
>a dagger
>a sling
>enough rations to last you roughly three days
>a filled waterskin
>a cozy scarf

Of course, you can always requisition more by making contact with another operative or returning to you mouth of your people's cave, but what use is a Degenerate who can't even make her own way day-to-day in the human world?

>>4673910
>Shop for additional supplies (Specify)
Let's get leather armor, a rope, and a shovel.

Armor for protection, rope for binding targets or traversing the outdoors, and a shovel for burying bodies if we end up causing trouble.

>>4673922
Oh and also a lantern or torches! Almost forgot to add that.

>>4673892
>Ask him if he has any bookss about reptilians
Maybe we can get some information about what humans think/know about us which might come useful later?

>>4673932
>>4673924
>>4673922
>>4673901
>>4673892

>arms and armour
You recall what Agatha said of bandits on the roads, and your eyes slide over to a suit of rough leather armour hanging on the wall. It’s hardly in your size—you’re a slim and muscular little thing, ‘athletic’ as the shopkeeper said, but not exactly mannish in proportions even after your strength training. Your mother was a Silkscale, after all, not a Steeltalon. Still…

You point to the armour, and then to a shortsword in his glass cabinet behind the counter. “How much for thossse?”

“Oh?” he seems surprised. “What do you need those for?”

“A natural beauty needss her protection,” you banter back.

“Everyone’s gotten so used to the Paladins protecting them that nobody really has a lot of interest in personal protection, outside of the adventure tourists,” he admits. “Still, it’s a nice sword, isn’t it? Elven design, but good old local human hands made it! Well, semi-local. Human, anyway. It doesn’t glow when orcs are near, or at least not that half-orc who came by. Tell you what: buy the sword, and the armour comes free. I’ll even apply that 25 percent off!!”

The shopkeeper’s quote is more money than you have on you, even with this ‘deal’; you suspect he’s actually just looking to unload the armour, and is charging you full price for the sword. It’s not a terrible deal even so, and you suspect you could maybe get him to unload it for the remainder of your coin with a few honeyed words.

However…

>shovel, rope, torches, lanterns
You ask after the more practical tools of a traveler, and discover that they are a lot less expensive than a nearly-elven shortsword and armour. The shopkeeper quickly walks back his semi-disdainful comment about adventure tourists, and instead launches into a sales pitch for his ‘starting adventurer’ package price on such items: about two thirds of your coin.

>>4673957
>bookss on reptilianssss
This last inquiry catches him off-guard.

“Uhh… I’m honestly not sure,” he admits. “Odd subject matter. You mean like dragons and kobolds? Or those lizardfolk you hear about in the jungles and off the coast?”

He rummages through a box of clearance books, and eventually finds one: “Protocols of the Learned Elders of the Coming Race” by someone named ‘V. Rilney’. The cover bears a rough likeness of a creature with an elongated, crocodilian snout, but with the neck and shoulders of a man. Not quite like any Reptilian you’ve seen, though the general intensity of the staring eyes reminds you of your handler during a pop quiz on mission emergency protocols.

“Some crank in Hawksong wrote this,” the shopkeeper explains. “I bought three copies on the cheap off of a traveling book merchant, but it still took me forever to unload them. I think it’s an experimental fiction written in a scholastic style. That or the man is legitimately convinced there are subterranean lizard monsters infiltrating the hoity toity big city rich folks.”

The shopkeeper laughs, and offers to unload the book on you at half price; this would mean that you could afford to buy it and all the non-combat gear, and still have a couple coins leftover.

>What do you do?

>>4673959
Let's prioritize the practical things we need, i.e shovel, rope, torches, lanterns, and the book. When we get to the city we should look for a job of some kind and can find armor and weapons later. At the very least we have a dagger on us now which should work out.

Let's also make a point of giving our gratitude for his help. We don't need to be super seductive or anything, but genuinely showing appreciation and implying we might be a regular may give us discounts in the future which would be a big help- especially since this shop is outside Hawksong and thus we'll attract less attention buying other stuff we need from here.

>>4673959
>"Starting Adventurer" package
>Protocols of the Learned Elders of the Coming Race

>>4673959
>Buy the book and non-combat gear

>>4673972
>>4673967
>>4673963

You decline the sword and armour combo, opting for the less combat-oriented equipment... And the book. You reason that the torches and lantern, and a few multi-purpose tools and rope, will serve you a lot better in your subtle mission of subversion than a big stabby knife. Besides, you have a dagger, and combat training beyond any human peasant!

You express your gratitude to the shopkeeper, who introduces himself as Aldrich, and promise to come by next time you’re in the area and in need of supplies. You load your backpack up with your new belongings, hand off the coin, and Aldrich thanks you for your business, and your company.

What do you do next?

>Chat with Aldrich
>Start reading ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders’
>Look for Agatha
>Explore Sparrowton further
>Head to the main road
>Other

>>4673979
>Explore Sparrowton further

>>4674000
>>4673979

You tuck the book away with the rest of your purchases for the moment, and decide to explore this small village for a bit longer, before your group with Agatha and head out to fulfill your mission.

Unfortunately, there’s honestly not much to see around here! You’ve been to the store, to the local temple… There’s always the bar, you suppose, but relatively few working folks will be around there at this time of day, since you can tell pretty much all the farmers you spotted entering the establishment last night are absent, out in the fields in all likelihood. Still, those whoa re present may be useful to ply for rumours, or you could just get a drink. You’ve never had alcohol, but you have heard other operatives speak glowingly of it…

The stalls offer some interest, but mostly only as an observer: a lot of them are selling fruits, vegetables, and bread. Eurgh. One is selling cuts of local meat, though, and another handicrafts. Perhaps most intriguing is a single stall decorated with stars, moons, and sundry foreign pictographs, where an elder human woman sits festooned with cheap gems and dark make-up. The signage advertises it as a fortune tellers’ booth.

Of course, not everything is about commerce. There is a small gaggle of young boys and men—teenagers—milling about, having a lunch, chatting, and occasionally catcalling at a passing young lady of the appropriate age. Another possible avenue for information, or for hired help.

What do you do?
>Buy some meat
>Buy some handicrafts
>Visit the fortune-teller
>Go to the pub
>Approach the young men
>Move on
>Other

>>4674043
>Move on

>>4674043
I really wanna visit the fortune-teller but if she is any good she'll find what we are sooo
> Move on

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>>4674067
>>4674081
>>4674043

You eye the fortune-teller with equal parts intrigue and suspicion. If she’s anything but a charlatan, she’d be a liability. And anyway, what use is a human fortune-teller when The Serpent Priests have already read the essence of your destiny in the star-charts?

You shrug and move along, heading towards the main road. You find Agatha already waiting there, loaded up with a pack of her own, and with a mule in-tow. You must have spent longer chatting and shopping than you realized, or else her farewells went faster than expected.

She waves you over, and introduces you to her mule, in the manner she would to an old friend. He does look old, too, past his prime working years. His name is apparently Torto.

“I hope I can find him a stable,” Agatha muses. “If not, I can probably keep him at my uncle’s, right? I’ve heard there are fewer places to keep animals in the big city, with everyone living all packed together and on top of each other and such, but surely they’d have room for a single mule?”

You admit you’ve never been to Hawksong or any other metropolis, yourself. That much is the truth. However, as you begin your journey down the major trade road into that grandiose city, Agatha begins to ask questions which require more of you. For instance, she wonders what you’ve done for a living, and what you plan to do in Hawksong once you arrive for work, and for residence.

It’s something you’ve given thought to yourself: the need for a job. The coinage you were given by your handler has set you up alright for this brief sojourn, but is sadly lacking in terms on managing your long-term needs. You’ll need a job! And, of course, you’re going to Hawksong to infiltrate or undermine the Paladin King and the whole world order he represents. Maybe you could kill two birds with one stone?

What do you plan to do for work?
>Become a skilled artisan
>Become a troubadour
>Become a maid to a noble or wealthy merchant
>Join a guild
>Join a brothel
>Join the Paladins
>Other
>You honestly don’t know, and will just take whatever work you can

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Expect delays for a couple hours; if all goes well, I have an Edge of the Empire game happening with friends in 45 minutes.

>>4674103
>Join a brothel
This unironically isn't a bad idea, given our exotic looks and accent. Could start manipulating high-level officials if we got any successful.

>>4674103
>>Join a brothel

>>4674103
>Join the Paladins
Sounds like free armor and weapons, as well as information about the military situation and going ons of the government. If we can't manage to join though, then

>Brothel

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>>4674159
>>4674211
>>4674219
>>4674103


“Ssex work,” you state plainly. Agatha, who was taking a swig from her own waterskin, spits it out across the road, bug-eyed at the statement and the directness with which you speak it.

“W-what? Like, as a whore?” the conservative young human, who you remind yourself you met at a church service, is as red in the face as a Dragonbood. You simply nod, and raise an eyebrow.

“Why would you w-want to do that?” she asks, still completely taken aback.

You can’t tell her the real answer, of course: you mean to attract a high-end clientele with your smooth bronze skin and unplaceable accent, and then to manipulate them toward the enslavement of their own race. You settle for an approximation of the truth:

“Lotss of very wealthy men pay a great deal for ssuch services, yesss?” You grin, and tilt you head. “I like wealthy men.”

Agatha doesn’t seem to know what to say, and you get the feeling she’s questioning her choice in traveling companions—maybe even in the destination she’s setting out to. By your telling, it’s full of wealthy whoremongers!

Eventually, she says “I was thinking of being a seamstress, or maybe just tidying up around a shop that sells clothes. Those city girls always have the nicest dresses…”

You run into no trouble on the road, luckily. Despite all this talk of banditry, you are not accosted. Perhaps the two of you don’t look like you have anything worth stealing? Or else, given you are two unescorted young women on the road, you have simply been lucky.

Certainly, luck is on your side insofar as you pass a patrol of Paladins, breaking the awkward silence. You recognize them from your dossier—shining silver-clad men, bearings swords and shields, sitting atop only the finest white-headed wingless gryphons! Agatha is openly agape at them, despite surely having seen them before. They do cut quite the distinct figure from the other traders and foot-travelers you have otherwise passed.

"I wouldn't mind being a Paladin, either," you muse, only half-joking.

What do you do?
>Keep your head low and hurry on
>Ask Agatha about the Paladins
>Attempt to get the Paladins’ attention
>Other

>>4674243
>Attempt to get the Paladins’ attention
Politely greet them, make small talk, make ourselves seem pleasant- maybe casually ask about where to shop or find lodging in the city proper

Rolled 7 (1d20)

Rolling something for next post...

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>>4674243
>>4674313
>>4674330

To Agatha’s ever-mounting dismay and embarrassment, you wave to the passing knights of the realm and shout a polite greeting: “Lo, Paladins!”

“What are you doing?” Agatha whines, hiding her face in her hands, and then trying hurriedly to tidy her hair and straighten out her travel-rumpled dress.

Many of the Paladins simply ignore you, but one catches sight of you and gestures a hand-signal to his fellows. He and two others veer off and approach astride their massive gryphons.

You are smiling at first, but as the Paladins approach, and their gryphons focus their huge yellow eyes on you, you feel terror seize your heart. It feels to you as if these predatory mounts are all looking at you with… Fascination? Aggression?

Hunger. Like a hawk that has spotted a serpent or lizard.

You unconsciously take a step backwards, which everyone luckily seems to take for understandable nervousness at the majesty of the gryphons and their noble riders.

“Lo there, citizens,” say the admittedly dashing-looking noble warrior who led the riders toward you. He holds his helm under one arm, having taken it off on the way over, and you recognize the leering grin as that of a man looking to make an impression…

But it’s the gryphons’ expressions and low whining squawks which hold your attention.

“Strange to see two young women walking the road alone,” the knight notes, when you don’t return his greeting. “Where’s your father? Brother?... Husband?”

You force yourself to snap out of your terror, and to formulate a response

What do you say?
>“I don’t need one, I can take care of myself.”
>“I’m actually looking for just such an escort. Interested?” [flirt]
>“We trust in the Paladins to keep the roads safe. So far, so good!”
>change the subject (such as to asking about lodging in Hawksong, whether the Paladins accept female members and how one gets in, etcetera)
>Other

>>4674243
>Attempt to get the Paladins’ attention

Also strongly against becoming a prostitute because we don’t know how badly they’re treated and we have no protection against pregnancy and stds. Let’s just be a paladin anons

>>4674345
>“We trust in the Paladins to keep the roads safe. So far, so good!”
Oh hey new post

>>4674349
A bit late, but also there's still plenty of time to NOT join a brothel when you get there. Can even play it off as a joke later to Agatha, if you folks decide against it.

>>4674345
>“We trust in the Paladins to keep the roads safe. So far, so good!"
>Try to end the convo to get away from griffinss assap

>>4674353
Being a whore is the most effective way to control wealthy and powerful people and we get to use our superior acssent to lure them and play like pawnss.

>>4674345
>change the subject (such as to asking about lodging in Hawksong, whether the Paladins accept female members and how one gets in, etcetera)
This, asking basically the things mentioned in parentheses.

Also I'm with >>4674349, let's try to avoid brothel route if we can. Joining the Paladins would be super advantageous to our goal and towards getting armor, weapons, and understanding how our opponents fight. Let's save the brothel as an emergency backup if we need coin quickly or if it doesn't work out

Writing the next post!

>>4674410
You may want to resume using a name and/or tripcode btw

>>4674384
>>4674383
>>4674366
>>4674352
>>4674345

You back away from the gryphons, and the Paladins chuckle slightly. The man with his helmet off shakes his head, letting rather impressive black tresses fall free. “No need to fear, miss. They’re quite under control, as long as we’re around! First time seeing a gryphon?”

“Yessss,” you admit. “Very… Impresssive beasstss. I sssee now what keeps these roads sssso sssssafe.”

Damnit! If you were less nervous, you would have thought of a way to say that with fewer S’s. Alassss!

The Paladin hops down from his gryphon, patting its face amiably with a gauntleted hand. It glowers around the armoured glove, trying to keep its sights locked on you, but he hands the reigns off to one of his colleagues, and the hang back and keep his own gryphon with the others. The whining squawks grow louder, provoking a couple boost and swats from the other two riders; this quiets them somewhat, allowing you to collect yourself. The Paladins mutter to themselves, unsure what has set their otherwise well-trained mounts to such agitation and disobedience.

Tehre’s no getting out of the conversation gratefully now that the Paladin ahs dismounted to speak with you, but at least you have some space to breath now.

“Quite the unusual accent,” the Paladin you are speaking with notes.

“Well, I’m not from around here,” you say by way of understatement. “I’m heading to Hawkssong, actually. I don’t ssupposse you know anywhere you’d recommend nice young women like usss to lodge?”

“You’ve no family there?” he asks, surprised. “A young woman traveling alone within escort and with nowhere to stay when she arrives… Daring! What brings you to Hawksong, anyway?”

“I’m looking for work,” you say truthfully, then hazard: “Maybe with the Paladinsss?”

The man laughs at your ‘funny joke’. “A lady Paladin! Well, you certainly look tough enough, but I’m afraid that the gryphons backs might be a bit sloped to ride side-saddle.”

He thinks on it, but then suggests: “You know, if you tell them Sir Chase sent you, they might consider you for the role of a gryphon-nurse. The beasts have may uses, but they do make quite the mess, and the chicks take a darned long time to mature…”

What do you do?
>Take Sir Chase up on this offer
>Politely decline; working with giant terrifying land eagles is not for you
>Suggest that you might be able to ‘serve the Paladin cause’ in ‘other ways’ [flirt]
>Declare that you’ll be staying with Agatha and her uncle
>Other

>>4674439
>Politely decline; working with giant terrifying land eagles is not for you
Probably don't want to get ourselves eaten, and if we do something insane like kill or poison them then the new nurse would be the first one under suspicion.

Let's head into the city with Agatha. If we do want a job manipulating wealthy people though, we're probably better off seducing someone as a maid to a noble or wealthy merchant than as a whore anyone can buy at a brothel

>>4674439
>Politely decline; working with giant terrifying land eagless is not for you

>>4674448
Not just any cheap whore, the most desirable ones not only can get information out of their clients, but also heavily influence them. Unlike maids, who are stuck with one person who's in position of power over them.

>>4674470
Getting pumped full of STDs and rando human kids does not seem ideal to our mission, and prostitutes generally don't really have that much sway unless you somehow get very lucky with a wealthy client and put yourself in a weird, sugar daddy relationship. We can get way more info and get straight to a target that would actually be worth seducing as a servant to a rich person. They'd probably have lots of crap to steal too

>>4674448
>>4674449
>>4674470
>>4674481

You politely decline Sir Chase’s noble offer: the gryphons are worthy defenders and spectacular beasts, of course, but… Maybe not for you. He seems to find amusement in this, but doesn’t find it suspicious. Many people don’t feel at ease around gigantic predators, after all.

“Well then, there are a number of fine inns if you have coin for them, or women’s apartments whose matrons specialize in training young women for service and marriage if you don’t,” he suggests.

“I’m not sure that’s quite what she’s looking for,” Agatha starts to say, but you give her a meaningful nudge with your elbow. “I wass only joking,” you tell her of your talk earlier.

In truth, you haven’t wholly made up your mind. It’s evident that human men find you attractive; a legacy of both parents, you suppose. You have no aversion to using your body as a tool of spycraft, and this is a tried-and-true technique of infiltration. However, is being a common prostitute the best way to achieve access to the halls of power you are here to infiltrate and destroy? Maybe you’d be better off being a maid or servant first, and then seducing a specific target…

Or you could always se if the town guard or a less auspicious organization might take you on, and grant you access to your enemy’s weapons and strategic information, if the Paladins are two gryphon-centric for your liking.

You bid the Paladins farewell, still musing on these ideas. By the time you snap out of your reverie, the rather impressive, eagle-and-gryphon festooned gates of the capitol lay before you. They are wide open to trade, but Paladins and regular guards (men and women, you note) are stationed to either side of it, and are stopping each trader, diplomat, and regular traveler in turn to take information down on long parchment scrolls.

What do you do?
>enter through the main gates with Agatha
>Attempt to sneak in, to avoid official documentation and scrutiny
>Namedrop Sir Chase in the hopes this gets you less questioning
>Make an excuse, turn around, and wait for nightfall
>Attempt to talk your way into the guard
>Other

>>4674534
>enter through the main gates with Agatha
Now that you bring it up, the guard could be a good backup. Still get some gear and they probably know what's going on around town. Also allows it to prowl around at night 'on patrol' without suspicion. I like this a lot.
>Attempt to talk your way into the guard
after we go in the normal way

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>>4674547
>>4674534

You follow Agatha’s lead as you approach the Hawksong city gates. Giving the Paladins’ gryphons wide berth—easy enough, as they mainly hang back and chat amongst themselves while the common guards do the bulk of the mundane work—you pay careful attention the guards. Their arms and armour are less eye-catching, but still well-made and uniform. They have the bearing and discipline of people with military training. Albeit a bit rough around the edges and without the nobility’s studied social graces and air of inherent dignity.

An easy mark?

“Welcome to Hawksong,” says one such guard—an older, weathered-looking man, but built powerfully and with rigidly-straight posture. “State your name and business here.”

“Uh, Agatha Johan of Sparrowton,” says you companion. “I’m here to visit with my uncle, and to seek employment in the garment trade, if I may.”

“And you?” asks the guard, looking now in your direction.”

“I wass thinking of joining the guard, actually,” you say with a smile.

“Wait, what?” asks Agatha, whirling around to look at you in shock again. She looks nearly as surprised as when you were considering prostitution!

“Hm,” grunts the guard. “And your name, would-be trainee?”

What name have you been using?
>A false name you devised with your handler
>An exotic name you came up with on your own
>A local name you read in a book once, and liked the sound of
>The name your mother once shared with you, which your father had told her he wanted to name you

[Also, pitch names]

>>4674622
>An exotic name you came up with on your own
Ismena Rosgard

>>4674629
"My friends call me Izzy"

>>4674630
>>4674629
>>4674622

“Issmena Rosssgard,” you say, sounding it out the way you used to in your barren stone hutch beneath the earth, dreaming of this freedom under the open sky—of being someone important, powerful, and alluring enough to deserve such an auspicious name. You could just imagine it: men and women hearing it spoken from across the room, turning to look towards its terrible, beautiful, powerful bearer. Someone exotic. Someone fascinating. Someone respected.

“Sounds foreign,” snorts the guard, nodding to his younger lackey in oversized armour to jot it down on the parchment.

"My friends call me Izzy," you mumble quietly, annoyed at his mundane reaction.

“Well,” he continues, “come on in, if it’s to work. Can’t say for sure that you’re guard material, but you look tough enough for a little girl. If you’re serious, come by the guardhouse tomorrow morning, bright and early. Moroth and Marese both know we could use some more muscle, and more eyes. Property crime’s been ridiculous lately, and now the kidnappings…”

He clears his throat and ushers you in. Even if you wanted to ask mor about this crime wave that so vexes the man, you can tell he isn’t inclined the chat now. There’s a line forming behind you, and he has to move it along.

The talk of kidnappings sets Agatha on edge, though. He clutches her mule’s reins closer to her, and glances around.

“Well, I should really be getting to my uncle’s before it gets dark,” she says. “Thank you for traveling with me, Izzy. You really had me going, you know, with all that brothel talk! Do you really mean to be a guard, though? Seems almost as, uh, rough-and-tumble, in some ways.”

“Maybe,” you tell her non-commitally.

“Well, sleeping on it isn’t a bad idea,” Agatha suggests. “Where, uh, where are you staying?”

Now THAT is a good question. Where ARE you staying?
>Ask Agatha to stay with her uncle as well
>Scrounge up some coin for an inn
>Stay at one of the women’s apartments which Sir Chase described
>Find a brothel to ‘stay’ at after all
>Sleep on the streets tonight
>Seek out a Reptilian contact in the city and try to stay with them
>Other

>>4674692
>Stay at one of the women’s apartments which Sir Chase described
It couldn't hurt to get a little instruction on how to be 'lady-like' by human standards, especially if we end up going seduction route after all.

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>>4674698
>>4674692
“Ssir Chasse’s ssugesstion wassn’t altogether a bad one,” you acknowledge. “I think I’ll check out the women’ss apartmentss.”

“Well, good luck!” Agatha says with a wave. “And be careful, Izzy. Maybe you should see if they can spare a guard to walk you home?”

“No need,” you say. “Bessidess, it sssounded like they were short-handed.”

Just another weakness in the human defences, and an opportunity for you!

You get some directions from a passerby, and before long you’re on your way to this apartment. The sun ahs almost et, though, and the towering buildings of this citadel city offer shade even before total darkness sets in. Lanterns are lit throughout the city, of course, but a candle lit can as easily be snuffed.

And so it is that, en route to your possible resting place for the night, you encounter a patch of darkness. Row upon row of lanterns has been blown (or deliberately snuffed) out.

What do you do?
>Proceed under cover of darkness; you are nightmare, after all
>Light a lantern and proceed
>Take the long way around
>Call out into the darkness
>Seek out a guard
>Other

>>4674772
>Proceed under cover of darkness; you are nightmare, after all

Keep our dagger at the ready, just in case.

>>4674629
I come back and our name has 2 S’s in it. Damn. Let’s hope no snakefolk inquisitor asks our name or we’re screwed.
>>4674772
>Proceed under cover of darkness; you are nightmare, after all
Snake night vision don’t fail me now!

>>4674908
In my defense I am dumb as hell and didn't think about it until after it got confirmed lol

Rolled 2 (1d20)

A roll for the next post...

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>>4674935
>>4674830
>>4674908
>>4674916
>>4674772

You draw your dagger and lean low, skulking into the darkness which quickly surrounds you. You squint your eyes to narrow slits, praying to your deep, dark gods for your mother’s bight-vision… But darkvision does not come to you. You are too human.

Still, it is not pitch-blackness here, and your eyes are better than your father’s folk in such conditions, if only marginally. When dark shapes rise up to your left and right, you sense them like a tremor running up each leg to you spine, and finally to your lizard-brain. You take a deep breath, recalling your training, and go torpor-still.

When the first one lunges, you swing… And whiff. You know that despite the darkness, your knife should have met flesh, but it didn’t. Your foes are too fast. Something that is neither hand nor foot sweeps your leg, and you hit the ground hard, dropping your dagger and sending it skittering across the ground to where a clawed, almost hand-like foot (in what looks oddly like spats or sandals) pins it in place. You see scaly tails like those of your kin, but sickly pink-grey… And with wiry hairs.

“Stick ‘er! Cut ‘er, gut ‘er, loot ‘er, throw ‘er inna dumpster! Quick!”

The voice is squealing, rasping, high-pitched and hateful to you… But you cannot bring yourself to fear it, somehow. A moment later, you learn why, for a face enters your vision: a rat’s face, but huge and misshapen.

You meet its eyes, and your assailant freezes, even with the upper hand. The rat-monster stares at you much as you now realize you must have stared at the gryphon. The equation is the same, but variables flipped: no longer are you prey.

You are nightmare.

Your reptilian nature has bought you a moment’s hesiattion despite the ambush. How do you use it?
>Fight dirty, try to win this [1d20]
>Intimidate [2d20, take the highest]
>Diplomacy, as fellow enemies of the city [1d20]
>Flee back the way you came, to seek aid [1d20]
>Barrel ahead, to the lights on the other side [1d20]

>>4674959
>Diplomacy, as fellow enemies of the city [1d20]

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>4674959
>Diplomacy, as fellow enemies of the city [1d20]
This thing isn’t alone even if we intimidate him, the rest might be braver, and since we’ve lost our knife we can’t fight them all. Talking seems like our best option

File: E133EF6E-80C7-4D98-A516-0(...).gif (2.31 MB, 680x383)

2.31 MB GIF

>>4674990
>4
On second thought how about YOU do the roll QM

Rolled 18 (1d20)

>>4674995
Don't worry; I roll it after people settle on a choice. Seems like we have. Writing!

Note: if I roll bad, feel free to worry.

>>4675010
>>4674990
>>4674978
>>4674959

"Sslow down, vermin," you hiss. "You're out of your depth."

The rat-monster atop you leaps backwards, a vertical leap of nearly eight feet from a standing start, and it land son its feet. You could never achieve such a feat... And yet it fears you. It's certainly a boost to your self-confidence!

But it’s not alone, and you’re well-aware of that. You hear and feel its companion approaching from your other side, and you turn your withering gaze upon it. You find it brandishing a crude butcher’s implement in one hand and YOUR knife in the other.

You know you should be worried, but you’re not. You are the serpent. They are the mice.

“Sssstay where you are,” you suggest softly and quietly, “and I need not be your enemy.”

“What are you?” it squeaks, panicked.

“A fellow foe of Hawkssssong.” You really elan into the accent, and strain yourself in the way you used to in the reflecting pools belowground to force your round pupils to dilate closer to a proper narrow slit. “I am here to drag Man and his ilk into the drains, where your kind may feast if so you desire.”

The rat-things say nothing, but they do not move closer. Nor do they retreat. They are listening. They are hungry, but they are clever; they need not your scant flesh, your sparse wealth, if what you promise could truly come to pass.

What do you do?
>Make your pitch (include suggestions)
>Ask them to take you to their leader
>Request safe passage, and to speak with them on neutral ground tomorrow
>Ask who and what they are, and learn their objectives as best you can
>Attack while they aren’t expecting it
>Other

>>4675019
>Make your pitch (include suggestions)
"Firsssst, give me back my dagger. My mission will likely benefit your ilk. I will not tell you the detailssss, but know that I can be friend rather than foe"

>Ask them to take you to their leader

>>4675019
>Ask who and what they are, and learn their objectives as best you can
“I think we can work together and resolve this problem in a way that benefits us both.“

>>4675022
>>4675024
>>4675019

"Firsssst, give me back my dagger. My mission will likely benefit your ilk. I will not tell you the detailssss, but know that I can be friend rather than foe"

The rat-things glance at each other, and the one holding your knife flips it over in its grip to hold it by the blade’s tip; a less-trheatening grasp, but it doesn’t yet return it.

“I think we can work together and resssolve this problem in a way that benefitsss uss both,” you try again. “Who and what are you?”

“Asked you first!” one squeals.

“You know what I am,” you reply. “I am not alone. Take me to your leader, and you’ll never have to meet mine.”

This gets their attention, and after a bit of high-pitched, high-speed back-and-forth, the one who took your knife sends it skittering back your way.

“Got it, got it, will do,” it agrees. “Come on, come on! We’ll take you to the boss. WERERAT boss!”

The two rat-things drop to all fours and book it deeper into the shadows. You take up your dagger and slowly follow after them, only to find that they have sprung and leapt over the edge of a bridge, and dove down through a sewer drain, the rail-guarded entrance to which has been modified so that the metal rails can be removed and almost-seamlessly placed back after someone (or something) enters or leaves.

And within? You can’t see, but you can certainly smell.

What do you do?
>Light a lantern and proceed
>take advantage of the rats’ departure to flee unmolested
>Proceed into the darkness and stink
>Other

>>4675053
>Light a lantern and proceed

Having some rat servants could be hella useful. We play nice with them now and we've got ourselves a few nimble chumps willing to do our bidding, as well as a scapegoat should we ever decide to kill someone in the dark and the body is found

>>4675059
>Light a lantern and proceed
Welcome to the under-city

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You take your lantern out from your backpack, thankful that you fall didn’t smash it. With one of the matchsicks that Aldrich the shopkeeper helpfully included as part of the package, you light its central candle to light the way for your accursed Degenerate eyes.

Along the way, you attempt to glean more information from your hosts. It’s an unsettling back-and-froth: you speak a question aloud into the dim murk ahead, and from just outside your lantern light comes and answer… But never from the exact same direction twice.

“What isss a wererat?” you start with.

“Ha. Ha! What’s a werewolf? Like that, but rat!”

“I ssee…” you say, not truly understanding.

“Rat bites man, disease, curse. Get it? Then that man maybe finds he likes it, that it works. Bites another man. That what happened to you, snakegirl?”

“Ssssomething like that,” you say cagily. No need to overplay your hand.

“Most of us were smalltimers. Homeless, thieves. Druggies, sometimes. The bite takes away all that, makes you family. Makes you clean, makes your vision nice ‘n clear!”

You’d certainly never describe these filth-encrusted sewer-dwelling mammalian monsters as ‘clean’, but you can’t exactly fault their superior sight, you suppose; it’s you holding the lantern, and them leading beyond its rays. You could be walking into an ambush for all you know… But you still feel the distinct lack of fear that you felt before.

The wererats lead you through a maze of increasingly malodorous, sticky tunnel complexes into one that seems as dry and clean as any are likely to be. It is there that you realize what you have stumbled upon: nearly two-dozen of these creatures dwell in the complex, all adults by the looks of it. Most wear some manner of human clothing, roughly preserving modesty in some absurd fashion. None wear shoes, though, and all wear shirts open and pants unbuttoned, even the few females; their stooped, malformed frame and penchant for dropping to all fours must preclude doing them up.

At the back of the chamber, reclining in slightly-portly repast and wearing an armful of gaudy bangles and bracelets and with both hands covered in bejeweled rings is the ‘boss’, the king of this filth.

“…The ffffuuuuuUUCK is this?” he snarls, noticing you. “What’s with the broad, boys? You know it’s me, ME ALONE, that decides who we turn. No more random street-girls! We gotta’ gut another down here, wash the body downriver? Fuckin’ bringing attention to us…”

“Wait, no! Boss! Hear ‘er out. She’s… Different.”

What do you do?
>Approach the dialogue from a place of deference and respect, offering aid
>Imperiously lord your conspiracy’s superiority over these undercity mongrel-mobsters
>Bargain as equals, on their own gangster-like terms
>Look about for a way to set this whole place ablaze
>Other

>>4675092
>Bargain as equals, on their own gangster-like terms
If we give them respect, we lose the fear aspect. If we go all in on intimidate, we may not garner their trust. Let's play it up like we're on even ground for now

[Next post will likely be last for tonight, and during the week this will be a "one to three post per evening" kind of thread.]

>>4675092
>Bargain as equals, on their own gangster-like terms
Look him in the eyes, offer aid for a favour in return later.

We’ve found the giant rat that makes all of the rules.

>>4675101
>>4675108
A question so the last post is a gooder: do you have a specific request in mind? Or specific aid to offer?

>>4675115
"We can handle the day operations and you the night. We'll gather info on the humans, and can look into anything you need, and you'll be the muscle we need to execute plans. Anyone we kill you can eat, I don't care"

>>4675118
>>4675108
>>4675101
>>4675092

You meet the boss’ eyes, and introduce yourself as an equal, and a kindred spirit:

“I am Issmena Rosssgard, and I am a vanquard of the coming race,” you unconsciously borrow the title of V. Rilney’s book in your backpack. “We’re not unlike you… In sssome ways. We have been casst down and held down by thosse who live large up above usss. We want a piece of that, asss you do.”

“I got my piece, girlie,” the boss-rat counters, flashing his shiny baubles at you as if it would impress a child of prophecy. You suppose he does not know better, and you don’t necessarily want him to, so you humour him.

“I can sssee that,” you acknowledge. “But you are not… Sssubtle. Power isss. Our network extends higher, spreads… Differently. We do not look sso different from the humansss asss you. We can blend. But your sskillss, knowledge, network… It sstretchess lower. We can offer you our aid, if you offer uss yoursss.”

He cottons on quick, despite his inferior mammal-mind and bestial form. “We handle gross nighttime murder shit, you cover up for us and divert trouble if we draw it, maybe sell what we steal if we don’ wan’ it?”

You nod. “Couldn’t have sssaid it better myssself.”

A long pause, as the wererats chitter excitedly amongst themselves.

“Awright, you got it,” he nods assent. The others fall silent, and their leader slides out of his sloping throne—a nobleman’s once-nice, thrice-soiled and now lump heirloom loveseat. “Name’s Leo, by the by.”

The rat-boss waddles towards you on his hind leg, lacking his hirelings’ grace. At first you think it is his mild obesity, but you then realize his leg is broken, and his whiskers are grey. This old creature has been a career criminal for quite some time. He is no neophyte, no troglodytic throwback. Or, wlell, no more so than any of the young races.

He holds out a hand—paw?—to shake. You assent to take it in yours, in a custom your people find distasteful even with one such as you, let alone a fully-mammalian monster sprinkled with faecal matter. It is necessary, and the stars are right, so you do what you must. You take the unlikelihood of this opportunity on your very first night in Hawksong as a sign it was meant to be.

The rat digs a nail lightly into your wrist and pulls you closer to him, into a near-grapple, setting you briefly to panic. He doesn’t attack, though, but instead he whispers an addendum to your deal:

“Jus’ remember: I don’t look like this always. That’s the ‘were’ part a’ ‘wererat’. I’ll ask the boys where they picked you up. I’ll be watching. You don’t be no snake-in-the-grass to us, get what I mean?”

You nod (what else can you do, in the circumstances), and he releases his grip and punches you amiably in the shoulder.

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>>4675141

“Awright, awright. So, that all you’re here ta’ discuss, Rossgard?”

What do you do?
>Make a specific request of Boss Leo’s wererats
>Ask for information on an aspect of Hawksong
>Ask to stay here tonight
>Ask the wererats to drop you off near the women’s apartments
>Leave on your own, and go elsewhere (specify a destination)
>Other

>>4675143
>Ask for information on an aspect of Hawksong
What do you know of the paladins? Any info or weaknesses that can be exploited?

After that's answered
>Ask the wererats to drop you off near the women’s apartments

>>4675143
>Ask for information on an aspect of Hawksong

Any weaknesses in the city wall? Or even places near it the guards tend to ignore more than others?

>>4675196
>>4675146
Supporting both. Ask for general weaknesses in the city military

>>4675143
>Make a specific request of Boss Leo’s wererats

"I have my ssightss at the moment ssset on infiltrating the law enforssement in this ssity. Maybe the cccity guard, maybe even the paladinsss. I could use sssuch a posssition to sssee many thingsss… Keep many thingsss to the ssshadowsss, make easssier your livessss. There isss a girl by name of Agatha Johan, a new arrival in town. I'm sssure you have regular people working for you, sssome disssposable ssshmuckss. Could you ssstage a kidnapping of her for me to "thwart" and ingratiate myssself with the law?"

>>4675143
>>4675408
+1 to this

>Ask for information on an aspect of Hawksong
Are there any espesially corrupt VIPs who would work with us for a bribe/favor?

>Ask for someone to lead you back to the surfase.

>>4675435
>>4675408
>>4675347
>>4675196
>>4675146

>What do you know of the paladins? Any info or weaknesses that can be exploited?
>Any weaknesses in the city wall? Or even places near it the guards tend to ignore more than others?
“What weaknesssess do you know of, Boss Leo?” you ask after a moment’s consideration. “Within the Paladinsss… The guard… The city wallss themssselvess?”

“The sewers,” he answers flippantly, and with his strange mutant gang’s characteristic quickness. “Weakest point in the defences is always the stream a’ shit that exits it. Connects right up with the river. ‘Course, it’s one thing to use it to smuggle in some weapons, to dodge the alw… Ta’ float out a corpse. Different situation in you wanna’ bring in, say, and army…”

You ignore his probing for your intentions, and instead ask after the various defenders’ own weaknesses.

“Well, they can’t see too well in th’ dark,” Leo offers. “But if you think a rat wants ta’ be any nearer to the gryphons than snakes would, well, you got another thing coming.”

He noticed your trepidation about the Paladins, deduced the reason for your nervousness. Altogether too clever, despite his undesirable station in the muck. Perhaps you really do have something in clever with this creature.

“I wass actually thinking of joining them,” you say, “of ingratiating myssself firssst to the guardss, and then to the Paladinsss themsselvess.”

“Oh?” he asks, sitting back in his throne heavily. He plays it cool, but his ears perk. He’s intrigued.

>Are there any espesially corrupt VIPs who would work with us for a bribe/favor?

“that’s your department,” leo scoffs. “You wanted to big the uptown, daytime racket, didn’t cha’? Not a lot of politicos rollin’ dirty in th’ depths with us, scuzzbags though they are.”

>The kidnapping of Agatha Johan

"There isss a girl by name of Agatha Johan, a new arrival in town. I'm sssure you have regular people working for you, sssome disssposable ssshmuckss. Could you ssstage a kidnapping of her for me to "thwart" and ingratiate myssself with the law?"

“Huh.”

He rolls his rings with his fingers, staring at the gems. “Yeah, we can kidnap the broad, Rossgard. I take it you wanna’ save her alive, too, though—not just a body? Yeah, non-rats is best. I’ll look into it, keep you posted. Anything else?”

>>4675565

>Ask the wererats to drop you off near the women’s apartments

Boss Leo snaps his fingers, causing his rings to clatter and ting against each other noisily. “Take the lady home, boys. Sounds like she’s got a busy day ahead. Gonna’ need her beauty sleep.”

Without much delay, the two rats who escorted you here lead you back through the stink of the sewer and the accursed slickness of the fluids and solids in the lantern-lit dark. Your lantern flame flickers and flares with the pockets of gas, and at times you consider dousing it to prevent an explosion. Luckily, it doesn’t come to that: before long, you are beneath the dimness of the waning moon, and your rat ‘friends’ are returning to their boss’ den and their strange family of freaks.

You take a deep breath of clean air, savouring the smell of literally-anything-but-human-waste. It’s later into the night now, closer to midnight you guess. The women’s apartments await… But even without much in the way of human social graces, you know an unknown, foreign woman stinking of the sewers and wandering to the doors at next-to-midnight is unlikely to be a common sight for the matron of these apartments.

What do you do?
>Make up a story for the matron on the way there (make a suggestion)
>Sleep on the streets
>You’re too excited to sleep anyway; stroll the streets and explore (risks exhaustion)
>Find a Reptilian contact to stay with
>Find a victim to mug or slay for her clothing
>Other

>>4675567
>Find a Reptilian contact to stay with
Maybe they can provide us with more clothes, too

>>4675567
>Other
brothel, it's free! (with service)

>>4675577
Nah, brothels filter their workers, they wouldn't take a suspicious woman right from the street. However, there is a different way to use our supposed attractiveness to our advantage, if young human males are indeed as instinct-driven as we've been told.

>>4675567
>Other

>Hide our items in some crany, rub enough oil on skin for it to glisten, and rip our clothes, exposing enough flesh to arouse base instincts but not enough to blow our cover

>Wait in the shadows next to a decently lit street until a well-off looking male comes through it

>Run out, bumping into him, and do the whole "help me I'm so scared it's been my first day in town and I've been assaulted by some smelly lowlifes" song and dance. It's even mostly true, for a certain point of view.

>>4675577
+1

>>4675601
>Support but let’s not rip our only set of clothes without good reason.

>>4675577
this

>>4676116
>>4675999
>>4675577
I swear if we get locked in a rape dungeon because of you coomers I’m gonna post a rage comic

>>4675572
>+1 at least let’s get in contact with some backup before we begin the very risky job of being a hooker in medieval times

>>4676378
Indeed

Seriously why are you guys so set on brothel? Is it just horniness? Not only is it a dangerous and less than ideal situation, but even if we were trained to use sex strategically I doubt our character would want to immediately become a cumdump for inferior mammals

>>4676378
+1 for finding a contact before resorting to hoeing out

you people need to ease up on the horny, there's other quests to funnel your erections into\

hopefully a bed available in the barracks will make this the last time we find ourselves struggling to find a roof over out head for the night

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Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>4675572
>>4676465
>>4676378
Three for finding a Reptilian contact

>>4675577
>>4676116
>>4675999
Three for becoming a brothel-worker for free housing

>>4675601
>>4676090

Two for attempting to trick a passing rich man into being chivalrous at you


I guess I"m rolling 1d2 to see if we a hoe before I post.

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>>4675565
>>4676547


In a turn of events you didn’t see coming before your assault by the wererats, you are caught between two arguably-dishonourable options: turning up at the house of your local contact to request aid on your very first day as a spy in Hawksong, or turning tricks for shelter. It’s a difficult choice in theory, but as a disposable Degenerate, you aren’t exactly prudish about the sanctity of your tainted mutant body to begin with. What you ARE wary of is reinforcing the perception that your polluted blood has rendered you useless to The Serpent Priests, and to your people.

Prostitution it is.

You spare a quick glance back at the women’s apartments, and sigh wistfully. Some part of you perhaps wished to avoid this, to uplift yourself in the eyes of even this mouth-breathing mammals. But a Degenerate is only as useful as her role in the grand design, and the parley with Boss Leo was more useful than any lessons in hosuewifing could ever be. As you skulk towards the Hawksong red-lantern district, you grin a too-wide, too-sharp smile at the thought of your impromptu plan to use Leo and Agatha as pieces in a game of cops-and-robbers. Now THAT’S subverting human institutions like a Reptilian!

You put out your own lantern as you exist the patch of rat-ruled night and enter the literally red-lit district which houses the city’s most popular brothels. As a common entry-point into human societies for low-level operatives, you were well-briefed on such establishments. You steel yourself and straighten your back, striding into one such parlour: ‘The Pretty Kitty’.

Inside, you find smoky, heavily-perfumed air. You almost hope it’s enough to disguise your own disgusting odour from your negotiations, but sadly, the feather-festooned and buxom woman who comes to greet you lets her practiced smile slip just long enough for you to realize that you’ve had no such luck.

“Hey there sweet little thing,” she asks, fumbling only slightly as she regains her seductive swagger. “You lost, or…?”

“I’m new in town… In thiss country,” you say, leaning into your exotic qualities. “I am without coin. But I think maybe, in this place, I may find some? I am… A hard worker. Eager to pleasse.”

The greeter looks you up and down appraisingly, taking a puff on a small pipe she seemingly materialized out of the rather-impressive powdered wig on her head. “Caramel honey with a mysterious past, from a foreign land, looking to please? Good angle. Yeah, you could swing that. You sure, though?”

“I… Have nowhere elssse to sstay,” you admit. “It’sss not an angle.”

>>4676594

“Well, been there, honey. Alright. Come with me, and let’s get you hosed off. You crawl into town through the sewers or something…?”

You realize she’s waiting for your name.

What do you do?
>Give her a new pseudonym; the name of Rosgard shall not be associated with what we do here
>Give her the name “Ismena Rosgard”; it isn’t ours anyway
>Give her the name “Agatha Johan”
>Stay silent and nameless
>Other

>>4676600
>Other
>Ask madam for a name for us. She knows what sells, and what doesn't stick out too much.

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>>4676667
“What name sssellss, Madam…?” you ask, awaiting her own name.

The woman laughs. “Madame? Oh no. I’m just the girl working the door tonight, while the others work the johns. I’m Felia, honey.”

You feel your stomach flip at the idea of ‘working the johns’. You approached this place with bravado, but in actuality, your own sexual experience is… Limited.

“So, how do I sstart… Work?” you ask. You earned another laugh.

“A scrub down first,” she reminds you. “Most fellas don’t have the fetish you smell like. Then, some rest. You’[re pretty enough, don’t get me wrong—I can recognize a looker. This ain’t your finest hour though, hun. You look like you’ve gone a few rounds with a street dog.”

She’s nearly right. Even before the rats, to be honest, you could do with a bit of torpor. It’s ben a long, long, BUSY day with a lot of twists an turns.

“And then?” you ask.

“Well, THEN you can meet Madame Mina, make a good first impression, and we can see what you’re best at. Where you’ll do the best work. What kind of client. You get what I mean?”

You nod, though you can’t help but blanch a little at the thought of what sort of aptitude test these human sex-workers would perform to gauge such a thing. You wonder if there’s a specific way to… fellate, or whatever… That makes you most suitable for guildmasters and noblemen.

Felia leads you to a bath-room, cozy enough and dimly lit by candles, and commands you to strip. The tone reminds you of your handler, and before you know it, you’re obeying. She whistles appreciatively, giving you another look over.

“Shit,” she says, “they shave where you’re from? All over Good look for you.”

You simply nod. You do not blush or look away; you’ve been inspected for readiness before.

“The warm water poured over you has an effect, though—you practically fall into a half-slumber then and there, as your cool blood is warmed to rare comfort. You wish to curl up and sleep, but Felia’s direct, unashamed hands on you with a bar of soap and some sort of sandstone wake you up and almost elicit a yelp.

“Hmm,” she stops, running fingers over the small f your back. Bit of a rough patch down here. Anything… You know, contagious?”

You freeze. Your scaly patch near the scar, where your tail was removed as a child. “Um, no. Not contagiousss,” you reassure her.

Her hands go to work again, and your hiss practically becomes a purr. It’s not sexual, at least not to you, and Felia seems positively businesslike, but… This is the most comfortingly you’ve ever been touched, even so. Shame it’s by a human.

>>4676788

Eventually, you are toweled off and set up with a room. Felia leads you to an overly-plush, somewhat cutesy room full of soft pillows, cheap ballerina baubles to create the illusion of feminine décor, and thin sheets that can be easily washed… or burned, fi need be, without much expense.

“You can stay here tonight,” she tells you. She gives you a little wink. “Free of charge, even, which is better than most can say. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll earn your keep soon enough, honey.”

No working name yet, then, but a friendly nickname. And you managed to avoid giving her your ‘working name’ from your REAL job.

What do you do?
>Settle in for torpor
>Attempt to skulk about The Pretty Kitty looking for useful information or valuables
>Read ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders’
>Steal some clean clothes and leave, now that you’re cleaned up
>Other

>>4676789
>Read ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders’
let's do some reading before we start our work

frankly I think we can use sex to our advantage. become a highly prized concubine and we can gather a lot of sensitive intelligence.

>>4676789
>Read ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders’
>Settle in for torpor

>>4676789
>Settle in for torpor
Right now and there, no need to overextend ourselves for nothing.

>>4676902
>>4676896
>>4676800

One more post before I get some torpor myself, then.

>>4676789
>Settle in for torpor

>>4676800
>>4676896
>>4676902
>>4676933
>>4676789

You rub your eyes, feeling relaxed from your scrub-down and tired from the day’s ordeals. Ultimately, you think yourself successful enough to deserve the respite of a few hours of staring through nictitating membranes at the ceiling while hardly breathing.

However, your mind drifts back to ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders of the Coming Race’, the strange and mysterious book you picked up in Sparrowton. The ‘crackpot’ who wrote it is apparently a resident of this very place and, having spent some of your allocated funds to acquire it and having arrived in the author’s own city, you feel obliged to read it as a final parameter of the day’s missions.

The writing is… Not great. You imagine an impressionable humanoid might find it spooky, but for you it is at best amusing. ‘V. Rilney’ seems to know little, if anything, of your people; he conflates the supreme Reptilian Race of The Serpent priests and their worshipful few with everything from lamias (who are, as everyone knows, actually a six-limbed lion-like creature!) to various human demon-cults (with whom your people only have occasional, indirect dealings). He even speculates that recent surges of seemingly-unconnected lizardfolk raids on the southeastern coasts of the humanoid realms are the work of your ‘reptilian master-race’. If he’s right about that, all you can say is that you wish you’d landed THAT assignment!

However, he is adamant in his certainty that your people are REAL, and a real and present danger to all of humanity, as well as the elves, dwarves, and other ‘civilized races of demi-humans’.

“I have written this book under the pen-name V. Rilney,” he state sin his forward “because to do so under my own name would invite assassination, be it of my body or my reputation. I know that to do so will cast the veracity of the work into doubt. If one were inclined to believe this work to begin with, who can trust a man who will not display the courage of his convictions, with name and face on full display? However, to this I can only write what I now shall write: I have seen one of these horrid things who pretend to people, with my own two eyes. I have taken dinner with it, spoken with it, laughed with it, believed t to be friend and not foe. I believed it was human and so I know the cruel skill with which they now extended taloned tendrils into (I suspect) our highest offices and most cherished institutions. I have seen what devilish work they do, and it has cost me and my family dearly. I will not let it cost them anymore. I pray that any father or husband will understand, in their heart, this truest motive.”

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>>4676954

Spurred on by this impassioned plea to be taken seriously, and by your knowledge that the strange human who penned the tome IS indeed at least accidentally correct, you read on for a time. Eventually, though, the inaccuracies and obsessive, disjointed digressions of this troubled ape begin to bore you, and you set the book down so that torpor may take you at last.
- - - - - -
When you wake, you are refreshed, clean, learned, and at ease. Of course, you’re also awaking in a den of mammalian inequity and sexual congress, where you will soon be expected to take ape-creatures bodily into various orifices. You can hear tittering and half-yawning voices through the thin walls next to you, and in the hallways; steps, some of them barefoot and some clearly in tall, narrow heels and walking with some skill despite this. Felia or some other callgirl will no doubt come to rouse you soon, and to take you to ‘Madame Mina’ for assessment and assignment.

What do you do?
>Gather your things, steal some clothes, and leave through the window
>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter
>Stay in bed a while longer, oiling up scaly patches and awaiting your wake-up call
>Ready a dagger
>Other

>>4676969
>Gather your things, steal some clothes, and leave through the window

>>4676969
>Gather your things, steal some clothes, and leave through the window

>>4676969
>>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter

By the way Felia's treatment of us changed once she accessed our body, it seems we're above the average cut. That should give us leeway to negotiate on our terms, such as working part-time on a fluid schedule.

And if we're forced into anything we can't accept, we can namedrop our smelly friends. Brothels are still a part of the illegal world, surely there must be some whispered rumors a wise madame wouldn't dare to ignore.

Never thought I'd be voting for a coomer option. But in for a penny, in for a pound, and we've taken this penny. No need to give ourselves bad rep when we can get good backing instead.

>>4676969
>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter
I still think playing the concubine could be to our advantage, nothing coomer about it

literally slither our way into the halls of power one general and nobleman at a time

>>4676969
>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter.
Just because we work at brothel, doesn't turn this quest into coomfuel. This is more interesting than paladin fuckery.

>>4676969
>>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter

>>4677023
>>4676969
>>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter

Welp, nothing to do now other than to go give some snake succ.

>>4677099
>This is more interesting than paladin fuckery.
We are literally playing as the stereotypical “sexy seductress assassin”. A paladin infiltrator would be so much more interesting but now we’re just gonna coom our targets to death.

>>4677171
A stereotypical army infiltrator would be more interesting than a manipulative snek hoe blackmailing city officials, heh. And it's not like we're gonna be killing everyone, plus assassin part was gonna be a thing either way.

>>4676983
>>4676998
>>4677171

Seems like three people would prefer to bail out the window (though one is prepared to stick around and learn the sex-trade).

>>4677099
>>4677037
>>4677023

Three would unequivocally prefer to stay here.

I slept in, so my posts will have to wait until after work. If anyone wants to break that tie, now's the time; otherwise, it's leaning towards brothel-work.

>>4677371
you missed my vote

>>4677371
>Get up, get dressed, and go meet your new coworkers as a real go-getter
Honestly it would be rude to just fly out the window after their hospitality. I don’t mind staying for a few days at least. Provided we only do succing or rubbing.

For now we are a coom-maker. We can leave later

>>4677371
bruh
>>4676983
>>4676998
are for bailing
>>4677023
>>4677037
>>4677099
>>4677137
>>4677171
are for staying
that's 5-2

>>4677391
Ah, so you are correct. Must be pre-coffee. I'll post up when I can.

>>4676969
>>4677391
You spare a glance towards the window, where high society or guard duty may await… But who's to say what level of personal intimacy (and thus trust, and vulnerability) a maid or servant may be privy to? Who is to say whether a guardswoman will ever meet with a senator, a guild master, or a princeling in anything but the briefest capacity? These people have been hospitable enough, and more importantly, their trade offers inherent opportunities for privacy, intimacy, flexibility, and access to powerful figures under compromising circumstances.

You slide into the rather silly outfit hung up for you: something that is equal part frills and strategic slits for your smooth skin to show. After hastily massaging a bit of oil into those areas in particular—a flash of scales serves nobody's purpose—you open the door to your new bedroom/office and step out into the throng of women (mostly humans and half-breeds) who are your coworkers.

You attract a lot of looks, to say the least. Most are intrigued or appraising. A few are disapproving—some of your seniors seem threatened by an unexpected new face vying for the same clientele, perhaps. The envious women look a little haggard to your eye, however, and you feel their concern might be misplaced; you are aiming for a different sort of customer than it looks as if they are.

“Hello, I'm… New,” you greet them.

Felia spots you and beckons you over.

“We really need to get you something that fits your theme a bit better,” she muses.

“What is my ‘theme'?” you ask.

“Well, not ‘a size too small and girlish. I'm thinking we lean into the foreign gimmick, but… Well ain't Mina.”

Ah, yes, your Madam. You suppose she's the one you need now impress your worth upon, as a high calibre asset worthy of upper crust ‘johns'.

Felia brings you to a fairly ornate door, and knocks upon it thrice. You're called in, and sitting at a high hardwood desk is… Well, Mina, you presume. To your surprise, the proprietors of The Pretty Kitty is actually some sort of felid, with a thin coating of fur and cat-like ears and face. Humanoid enough in body, though, or else she's stuffing her bra. Her expression is tough to read, but her tone is stern.
“This is the girl who came in out of the cold?” she asks Felia. This confirmed, Madam Mina now turns to you. “I hear you need a name and a job. I'm prepared offer you both, if you really want it and if you're prepared to do what it takes. I'm thinking something to do with a spice, or the desert. Don't suppose you know how to belly-dance, for the bar?”

What do you do?
>Demonstrate your dancing abilities
>Suggest you would be better-placed in a private escort capacity for wealthy clientele
>Request something more private, even if it's on your back
>Attempt to use your wererat connections to get special considerations

>>4677682
>Demonstrate your dancing abilities
you move onto private clients after you've gained their attention

>>4677682
>>Suggest you would be better-placed in a private escort capacity for wealthy clientele

>>4677682
>Demonstrate your dancing abilities and overall superiority to an average valley girl
>Ask for special considerations regarding the worktime/freetime, using our versatile talents as leverage and bringing up the wererats if necessary

Bar is good enough. In fact, it doesn't make us compromise our superiority by copulating with humans that don't advance our position, yet leaves the copulation as a possible "extra" option that many will desire, but few (of our own picking) will get.

Nobody sane would let an unknown and untested woman into escort for important people, and spreading our legs is not our goal by itself.

However, it's imperative to be able to live a double life, rather than get stuck as a day-in day-out worker.

>>4677682
>Demonstrate your dancing abilities
>Suggest you would be better-placed in a private escort capacity for wealthy clientele

>>4677707
>>4677682
>Demonstrate your dancing abilities and overall superiority to an average valley girl
>Ask for special considerations regarding the worktime/freetime, using our versatile talents as leverage and bringing up the wererats if necessary

Remember that “wealthy clientele” are not necessarily “important to the city”. Besides, we don’t want to look too cocky on our first day.

>>4677692
>>4677707
>>4677864
>>4677864
>>4677697

Posting ASAP! On my way home, but Word on phone isn't as bad as I thought it might be.

>>4678130
>>4677682

You obediently attempt a sensual dance, something that your natural Silkscale-born talents lend themselves well to. Still, while Felia gives you an appreciative whoop and a whistle, Madam Mia merely remains stone-faced; granted, as a cat-person, that may just be her limited facial muscles.

“Not bad,” the madam eventually admits. “You can start tonight.”

“Actually,” you interrupt. “I was hoping for sssomething a bit more… Flexible than shift-work. What are the hours?”

“Nightly,” Mia says succinctly. “Show up just before dusk. Leave after the last of the clientele goes home around two hours past midnight, and after helping to clean up.”

“That iss… An issssue.”

Mia looks to Felia, who is fidgeting uncomfortably now. “It thought you said she needed the work? That she was a hard worker?”

“I am!” you protest.

“New in the kingdom? Nowhere to stay? What could possibly justify trying to avoid a proper work-week, then?”

You try another tack: “I have many unique sskillss… And I know that I am valuable merchandissse. A cut above the ressst. Educated, fit, young. Perhapsss I would better sserve us both in an… Essscort capacity, for thossse who can appreciate sssuch thingsss?”

“Look,” Mia sighs, the sound a low growl, “every pretty woman who walks in a place like this fantasized about roping them some old horny noble who will set them up. It doesn't work like that; not always. Even when it DOES happen…”

Mia holds up her hand, and Felia hands her a pipe, lights in, and she takes a drag. Composing herself, she continues.

“You want work, you do the job I give you. You want flexibility, you do the HARD work, on your back or knees or wherever else they ask you to lean while they fuck you. What’s it be?”

You consider bringing up Boss Leo. Perhaps the Madam might know the name, the rumors of missing young women. Would it work, though, or would it overplay your hand? Perhaos you can suck it up and... Suck for a living? Or maybe you can work around the dancer schedule--you DID tell Leo you would handle the 'daytime side of operations.

You meet Mia's gaze, two natural predators sizing each other up, deciding whether to strike.

What do you do?
>Take the job as a dancer
>Take the job as a prostitute
>Play hardball; bring up the wererats [1d20 intimidate roll]
>Sweeten the pot [1d20 seduction roll]
>Refuse the work altogether, leave
>Other

>>4678162
>Take the job as a dancer
you earn the interest of the powerful through what you don't give them.

they have to bid for your touch, put on a show worth bidding for.

>>4678162
>Take the job as a dancer
Become nocturnal. Do everything from 4pm-8am and sleep on a warm rock somewhere in the day

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>>4678170
>>4678205

You relent, lowering you gaze.

“I will dansssse,” you hiss through gritted teeth, rearranging your scheduled plans in your mind.

“Good,” Madam Mina replies. “Think on that name. Gonna’ need to announce you somehow when you step on stage. I’m thinking… Less frills, more lace. Maybe some coins to jingle.”

Felia laughs nervously. “Well, she does know how to work those hips, am I right?”

Mina just takes a puff of her pipe, and inclines her head slightly. Taking this as a cue, Felia place a hand on your lower back and pushes you gently out the door, quietly shutting it behind her. When you’re free and clear, she leans against the wall and take a deep breath which causes her bosom to heave so hard you fear her tight top will finally lose its fragile grip on her modesty.

“What was THAT?” she asks, glaring at you. “You know, I stuck my neck out for you, hon!”

You didn’t ask her to—certainly not in those words. You don’t owe her anything. And frankly, you got what you wanted (more or less) and her employer still sees you as valuable.

“Thanksss,” you whisper, affecting a smile. Felia seems to calm down at this, and pats you on the shoulder.

“Well, welcome to the team. And hey, nice dancing! It don’t pay as good all at once as whoring, but it’s safer. And you’re young! This sort of thing’s… Easier to come back from, onto the straight and narrow.”

Felia and you walk down to the entryway to the brothel, boudoir, and back office portion of the business; the dancing and revelry happens on the other side of the building, a more respectable (to a point) edifice adjacent to other, less ‘accommodating’ bars and lounges. Your new coworker shrugs on a fuzzy feather-lined coat, and offers you another. Given your cold blood and the skimpiness of your new outfit, it isn’t a bad idea, but the huge gaudy coat and frilly, high-rising skirt sort of scream ‘brothel’.

“So, you start tonight!” Felia says brightly. “Whatcha’ doing to celebrate? Not that you’ve got paid yet, I guess…”

What do you do?
>Tag along with Felia
>Pay a visit to Agatha
>Investigate the sewers by daylight
>Go to the guardhouse, to pursue a job there as well
>Check in with a Reptilian contact
>Explore the city on your own
>Other

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>>4678321
>Pay a visit to Agatha
let's see if Agatha can design our dancing costume

I'm imagining something between this and slave Leia, go for a harem girl, exotic desert beauty thing

>>4678321
>Pay a visit to Agatha

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>>4678339
>>4678349
You tell Felia that you have some errands to run before tonight, and your part ways at the door. Luckily, Agatha told you where her uncle is staying; it will make both today’s business easier, and the kidnapping!

Though… Now that you aren’t planning to join the guard in the near future, do you even still need to have Agatha kidnapped?

You mull this over on the way, cognizant of the attention your ensemble is attracting as you exit the Red Lantern District and the slummy area around it, where such sights are commonplace and the Pretty Kitty’s claws are known. As you close in on your target, you get a few catcalls and whistles, and more lewd looks and second glances than you would have expected.

Eventually, you arrive at a fairly humble, run-down little house, tall and narrow and in need of some work. Still, it’s a good sight better constructed than the Johan farmhouse in Sparrowton, and more auspicious in appearance. You rap your knuckles on the door, and after a few moments a large-jawed, greying-haired human cracks the door open and leans out. He’s tall, and certainly bult like a human of farming stock, wherever he may now dwell.

“Who is—Uhh?” The man begins and ends his questioning greeting nearly as soon as it leaves his mouth. His eyes bug slight—not in the same lascivious ogling fashion as the other men you passed, but more in surprise at this incongruous sight at his door.

“Can I… Help you?” he asks, as if he has no idea where he would even start.

“I’m here for Agatha,” you simply reply.

“Uncle Oxford, who is—Oh!” Agatha peeks out around the larger man (apparently her uncle) and stares at you with much the same expression, before flushing bright red. “Oh! Oh no! Come in, quick!”

Agatha pushes past her uncle, and hauls you inside, before slamming the door behind you.

“Oh Marese, oh Moroth, oh gods above… You weren’t kidding? I thought you were joining the gurds, or, or, or going to that apartment to learn how to cook!” Agatha bursts out.

“You know this… Young woman?” Her uncle inquires, leaning against the wall and sizing you up anew.

“Um, sort of,” Agatha admits. “We traveled from Sparrowton together. Her name is Ismena, and she’s a…”

Her blush deepsn, and she leans in close to ask: “Are you really a… A…”

“Dancer,” you reply with a twitch of a smile. “Jussst a dancer.”

“Oh,” she says, exhaling at last. “Well, what brings you by?”

What do you do?
>Say you’re just stopping by to check in on a friend
>Say you were hoping to have her make you a dress for tonight
>Ask her about her experience of Hawksong so far
>Ask her about her uncle
>Gathering information specifically in an effort to better plan her kidnapping
>Warn her about the wererats
>Other

>>4678367
>Say you were hoping to have her make you a dress for tonight
and maybe if she agrees 'casually' chat about the other subjects

>>4678367
>Ask her about her experience of Hawksong so far
>Say you were hoping to have her make you a dress for tonight

gotta be polite and proper first, open with the pleasantries.

>>4678367
>Say you were hoping to have her make you a dress for tonight
>Ask her about her experience of Hawksong so far first

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>>4678399
>>4678400
>>4678405

“I wass actually hoping you could make me a dressss for tonight,” you say.

This catches Agatha off-guard, and she sheepishly acknowledges that, for all her judgement of you, you’re having a much more successful start in the city than she is (oh, if she only knew!).

“I kind of just… Spent the evening catching up with Uncle Oxford,” she says. “I figured I’d start, you know, job-hunting today!”

“You didn’t get up to anything?” you ask. “Really?”

“Well… We went out to this elvish restaurant around the corner, actually. It was nice! I mean, it was all just vegetables, and the seasoning was a bit much, but it was really unique! Honestly, it’s just sort of novel having anything cooked for me by, well, ANYONE but my mom.”

Eurgh. Vegetables. Though the talk of food does set your stomach to rumbling. You could use a bite to eat. Agatha clearly heard it, because she giggles and apologetically intimates that her uncle is a lousy cook, hence the fancy dinner out. She offers to make you some food with her typical unthinking charity. Naïve little human. You accept, naturally, primarily eating the bacon and eggs and only nibbling at the toast.

“And speaking of ELVISH RESTAURANTS, holy cow!” Agatha continues as you, she, and her uncle eat. “I never knew there were so many different types of people in one city. I saw them when I visited before but I guess I just assume THEY were visiting, too. But no—there are humans, and elves, and dwarves, and even ORCS living here. Like, all the time, year-round!”

Over the meal, you you offer to be her first client as a seamstress.

“I wouldn’t even know where to start!” she says. “I was hoping to apprentice… And I don’t have any money for materials, really.”

“I wouldn’t need a lot of materialsss for the sssort of dancing I’m doing,” you say, causing her uncle to have a coughing fit an excuse himself.

“Well… I could try!” Agatha says. “What did you have in mind?”

“A harem girl, exxxotic dessssert beauty thing,” you say, reflecting on Felia and Mina’s impression of you.

“Hmm… Alright! Let me size you, and then come back later. Uhh, ideally with some money, if you could?”

It’s the second time in as many days that a human female ahs had her hands all over your body, but Agatha’s touch is less tender and less practiced. You’re not exactly relaxed this time, but nor are you stressed. Your mind is already on your next move.

What do you do?
>Stick around to watch Agatha’s progress
>Explore Hawksong
>Get more food
>Attempt to rendezvous with a wererat contact to set up the kidnapping, now that Agatha is going to be in a known location for a while
>Find a way to make some quick coin to pay for the outfit Agatha is making
>Swing by the guardhouse after all
>Other

>>4678419
>Find a way to make some quick coin to pay for the outfit Agatha is making

if we're already on the route of hoein' out, offer some bomb-ass head in an alleyway for a few pieces of coin

>>4678425
we do need to practice, so seconded

Rolled 12 (1d20)

>>4678431
>>4678425
Oh boy. Welp, rolling for next post

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>>4678460
>>4678431
>>4678425
>>4678419

You agree to Agatha’s terms, and depart her uncle’s home to allow her to work. You suspect you might be able to try to hustle the human girl for ‘exposure’ or something similar, but ultimately you dislike the idea of owing any more debt than you already do to she and her ilk. Self-sufficiency hasn’t yet proven to be your strong suit, and that needs to change.

Beyond that, having chosen the way of the escort over the way of the guard, you now find your sexual inexperience a liability. You’ve proven an adequate dancer, and you have mounting evidence that humanoid males find you a physically alluring mating partner, but you assume that males in positions of power have their pick of the physically-desirable underclass. You’ll need to stand out, to really sink your fangs into a man of worth and strategic value once you locate one. To do that, you’ll need to… Refine the relevant skillset. You think back to the catcalls and wolf-whistles which hounded you on your way to Agatha’s, and the thought occurs:

Two birds, one stone.

You gulp back a peculiar and immature nervousness, and steel yourself. Straightened your spine, you stride confidently back the way you came. The next time a loudmouthed male mammal barks “How much, your answer comes quickly and steadily:

“How much do you have, sssir?”

To equal parts amusement and frustration on your part, your first couple efforts scare the targets off; they were ALL bark, it seems, and no bite. Pity, though maybe not, for you find yourself more disgusted by such specimens as shout at you in public than you are by the average member of their simple, hairy young race.

Eventually, in a somewhat-sweaty younger male, you find a taker. By his clothes, he is of the merchantman class: middle-income for a human of common-birth, full-blooded, non-magical of nature, comfortable, mildly-educated. No great catch, but fine practice. You curl your finger seductively and lead him into a nearby alley, and he follows you like a mindbound Silkscale slave, though you lack your mother’s hypnotic eyes.

You wouldn’t know you weren’t a hypnotist by the way he reacts when you begin to work him with your hands, though, and to mimic what you have learned and observed of humanoid seduction: you nibble and kiss at his neck, stroke the heinous reproductive organ of this ape-man, and eventually kneel before him to warily begin the process of your education. He gasps, moans, whimpers, pleads. It is… A sort of power, you suppose. You could bite down, even , and wield bloody wrath against such a victim of your wiles. In this instance, though, you do not: you practice the craft before you with the same doggedness with which you master all other useful skills in pursuit of the grand design.

>>4678480
Eventually, after a few minutes, the stars are right for the experience to end. You gag a little, spit onto the dirt and cobblestones, and ask the obvious question after an exam:

“Did I do well?”

“Uh-uhmaazing…” the human groans, hand still in your hair. You brush it away and straighten your clothes, brushing off knees and holding out your hand for the bag of coin he deposits. His praise is… Good, you suppose. A good sign. Still, you don’t know how much it truly means for your skills. You get the feeling he is less experienced even than you are in these matters.

What do you do?
>Shake the guy down for more coins
>Offer more services for more coin
>Kill him to cover up this indignity
>Kick him to the curb and move on with your day
>Get his name and address
>Other

>>4678483
>Get his name and address
can't hurt to groom a contact

>>4678483
>Tell him your name, and where and when to find you if he wants a repeat performance

if he comes by the brothel when you're on the clock, that's a little bit of rep gained within the workplace. maybe he'll bring friends

>>4678490
>>4678489
>Support, the first of many clients.
No problem here but I don’t think we have a work-name yet

>>4678483
>Mug him and case out his house

>>4678489
>>4678490
>>4678546
>>4678553
>>4678483

“What’sss your name?” you ask him, feigning sweetness and affection.

“My name? Um, Kilian.” He volunteers.

“Pleassure to meet you Kilian,” you say, using his name to establish conversation familiarity and control. “Can I get your addresssss?”

He looks nervous at this, and asks why.

“I do houssecallsss,” you whisper.

“Housec-oh! Oh gods, my father would fucking THROTTLE me if I had a—” he stops short of saying anything rude about you, as you arch an eyebrow.

“Well, I’ll be at The Pretty Kitty tonight,” you offer, “if you want a repeat performanccce.”

“I…” He trailes off, not committing, but you’re already fixing your hair and leaving the alley.

You turn around and, with a saucy wink, tell him: “Bring friendsss!”

With Kilian services, your professional trade skills and reputation on the rise (after a fashion, anyway), and a bag full of coin jingling on your waist, you still have a few hours ahead of you before Agatha expects you back and work shortly thereafter. The coin you’ve obtained with a few minutes in an alley is enough to actually make back all you spent on supplies in Sparrowton and then some!

What do you do?
>Buy some food
>Read ‘Protocols of the Learned Elders’
>Buy some non-prostitute clothing
>Buy a better, more professional version of what Agatha is currently making for you
>Find some more johns, and make some more money doing sex-work
>Explore Hawksong
>Other

>>4678546
If we need a 'performing' name I suggest something like Scheherazade would fit

>>4678572
buy some non-prostitute clothes and explore Hawksong

>>4678578
>>4678546
Feel free to brainstorm names; when you step on-stage (assuming you don't bail or get waylaid before then), you'll get to officially declare it.

>>4678572
>Buy some food
>Keep enough coin on hand to pay back Agatha when the time comes

some meat to wash out the taste of that "meat"

>>4678581
voting for the name of an exotic spice - first one that comes to mind is Cardamon

>>4678587
If we're going that way I'd go Paprika or the ancient version of cardamon, Kamunu, for extra exotic flair

>>4678603
Kamunu sounds dope as fuck. I'm in.

>>4678572
>Find some more johns, and make some more money doing sex-work
find one and mug him then case out his house

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>>4678615
>>4678587
>>4678578
>>4678572

You do a bit of reconnaissance around your new realm, scoping out a few potentially-useful locales: the location of the Paladin King’s palace on a high-up hill to the north-east, the centrally-located Guild Hall, The Hawksong Mages’ Tower, the elven embassy, and the heavily-sponsored Hawksong Royal Library (which, of all of these, is the only one open to the public).

Your stomach, nose, and need to get the taste of human phallus out of your mouth all conspire against you, though; while all these sights are fascinating and useful to the mission, your feet guide you to a delicious-smelling food stall just outside that library. It is run by a burly, grey-skinned humanoid—a half-orc, with a pig-like snout and a build more apelike than the human norm. Still, the man knows how to cook what you like: sizzling on spits and slabs are chunks of lightly-seasoned, well-grilled street meat. The animal they’re made of is as unknown as it is irrelevant to one such as you; you pay the fellow half-breed and gobble up the largest chunk of meat you can get.

As the food digests, you mull over possible performing names at work, including spices and common names you have heard from tomes which referred to the desert realms of the surface-dwellers. Eventually, you settle on a short-list, and you set about picking up some clothing for your off-hours, when you DON’T want to solicit solicitous attention and earn coin.

Having spent some of your coin already, fine and fashionable eveningwear (even the cheapest) is just outside your budget, as are most formal dresses. More within your scope are:

>A matching brown and green set of sensible peasant’s dresses (must be purchased as set, simple and unfashionable)

>A heavily-discounted set of winter hat, gloves, and ladies’ jacket (so last season, too warm for warmbloods right now)

>Modest and professional gender neutral robes for the wizard’s assistant on-the-go (some small spots of blood and ichor staining)

>heavy-duty men’s workwear, complete with pants! (but you are not a man)

You can buy any two of these, or one and have enough money left over for Agatha.

[Also, this is the last post for tonight; tomorrow, when I have time, you'll move along to (most likely) your first night on the job]

>>4678587
>>Buy some food
>>Keep enough coin on hand to pay back Agatha when the time comes
Then afterwards
>Get in contact with the reptilian cell.
Going with Kamunu
>>4678615
Let’s not, low profile infiltration you know?

>>4678632
Sorry, just a bit too late!

>Get in contact with the reptilian cell.

I'll present this as an option after the night at The Pretty Kitty (or people can write it in and support it prior to ditch work, essentially).

>>4678636
No prob, I got what I wanted anyways. Gnight

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I'm not much of an artist, but I tried my hand at drawing the protagonist dancer style