Cindergrove

Azerius was not an easy-to-miss figure. Standing at well over eight feet tall, he had a wide frame and even wider horns, as well as what once must have been an incredibly muscular figure. Even now, gone somewhat to seed, he looked like he could be difficult in a fight.

Strange, then, to see him out back of his tavern with a shovel and a pile of rat bodies. He gingerly picked the last one up by the tail (it, too, was no small thing) and hucked it in to a deep hole before beginning to throw dirt atop, one scoop at a time. "I'm going to need to jump in the river after this," he grumbled. Turning, spotting visitors, he grabbed a rag at his belt and wiped his thickly nailed, almost hoof-like hands. Somehow, even on his bull-shaped face, he was able to give a warm grin. "Ah, I'm afraid you caught me at a terrible time. I don't suppose you're good at getting into small corners and weeding out, erm, well, rats, are you?"

((Morkan and Rivka, you're my first lab rats for a fighty quest! Come on down!))

Following the advice of the elf inside the Taphouse, the goblin ventured out and around the tavern, lingering a moment at the corner as she spotted the hulking figure of Azerius, who was over twice her height and likely much more than double the weight of her skinny frame. There was little doubt he could squash her into the dirt with one swing of that shovel of his.

"Spirits... does Rivka have to?" she whined in a whispered voice. But apparently the spirits were insistent enough that she forced herself to start moving toward the minotaur, stopping a bit out of shovel range.

She glanced longingly at the dead rats as he began covering them up, probably to protect them from wandering scavengers. Smart. He must, she thought, be saving them for later.

"Rivka can bring rats!" she said in a high pitched voice. Then hesitated, rocking nervously from foot to foot. "Could... could Rivka keep just one?"

Azerius gave the little thing an odd look. "If that's what you prefer... I'd been planning on trading some coin for proof of their capture, and a little more on the side for making sure they don't keep getting into the cellar. You can never be too safe with vermin, especially when people come in from all corners of the world."

But he relented, seeing her pitiful state and the oddly oversized bug on her shoulder. A prop, or a friend?

"You can call me Azerius. What's your name, little lady?" He had half a mind to see if anyone else was about who might be willing to help; Rivka looked just a little larger than the chunkiest rodents he'd managed to stomp while he was in the cellar this morning.

Well, he hadn't squashed her yet. Or even chased her away from his half-buried rats. That was a good start.

"Rivka," she answered. "Rivka is good rat catcher," she added eagerly, as they were, in fact, a primary staple of her diet. These ones looked particularly large and juicy, she noted, licking her tongue once over her sharply pointed teeth as her mouth began to salivate slightly.

Skeezicks the spider climbed from one shoulder to the other as Azerius looked at it, then paused again, looking as content as a spider can manage to look.

Why Azerius would want to keep perfectly good rats out of his cellar didn't make any sense. But if he'd let her take one for dinner, then the goblin wasn't going to question it. Maybe she could even sneak a second when no one was looking.

"Now?" she queried excitedly, rolling up the sleeves on her oversized, grimy shirt, ready to put her sharp claws and teeth to use.

Morkhan stood silently behind the goblin. The goblin's spider was interesting, and he knew goblins often hunted rats. He needed coin desperately however, so he would work to kill as many as he could. rats were excellent targets for necromancy anyways. "Let's get this over with", he rumbled, hefting his axe. "You, Goblin, what is your name?"

Rivka spun toward the new voice that had caught her by surprise, eyes growing wide in fear that wasn't helped in the slightest when the tall bird-man hefted an axe like a grim reaper come to claim his next victim. "Let's get this over with."

This obviously meant killing the goblin and Rivka backpedaled, trying to get out of the range of the axe as fast as possible. Her back quickly touched the outside wall of the Taphouse and she bared her pointy teeth in hopes of making herself look intimidating as her eyes darted left and right looking for an escape.

"Rivka no need rat!" she exclaimed, her voice high-pitched and shrieky, quickly abdicating her claim to what she perceived as the valuable item as soon as she feared for her life.

Morkhan realized that he had badly scared the goblin. At least that showed that his stealth was still incredible. "We've got rats to kill goblin, so tell me your name". He gave the traditional goblin greeting with a slight flourish before holding out his heavily armored hand to help the goblin up.

Silver Maw had quite literally sprinted from the Animal Stall towards the two, her pawed feet carrying her at alarming speeds, due to her natural catishness. She pants heavily as she slides to a stop between the two, her donkey clopping along to catch back up. She grins a little, looking back for the elf, to see if she would come, but she was away from that awful awkward conversation

"This one heard the talk of rats?" she purrs

((Eep! Go get caught up and check in with the profs. I hope you can make them up! This thread is closed to Rivka and Morkhan in any case, but we’ll have more quests to come when you’re back in the game. :>))

Azerius witnessed the pair introducing one another and his large, bovine ears waggled. Two helpers in one day?! Chauntea was looking over his little land stake today, even if her tidings came in the form of odd... odd people.

Still, he wasn’t complaining. “Yes, yes, Rivka, no need to fear. If rats mean supper, I’ll have our cook make one up in special honour, if you bring them all back—quite dead, if please!” He nodded his great head at the human and, after a moment of leading them, pointed them to the entrance of the cellar.

The doors opened with some quick lock-work on Azerius’ part, and the stairs down led into darkness. Even now they could all hear disgusting scurrying noises.

The goblin did not take Morkhan's hand. But her panic slowly gave way to the realization that the ...human? ... with the bird mask did not intend to split her in two with his axe. At least not here and now and she squeaked out an answer to his question. "Rivka is Rivka, Birdie," she explained, bestowing Morkhan with a nickname at the same time.

And Azerius' promises of a rat dinner soon had her following toward the entrance to the cellar.

Her ears that had been drooped back suddenly raised a bit at the sound of the rodents within. She needed no further encouragement and slipped quietly down the stairs without bothering to gather a light source first. Her low-light eyesight was excellent. But, if needed, she had a few candles buried in one of the pouches beneath her oversized shirt.

Morkhan took no offense when the goblin didn't take his hand and called him "birdie". He faintly grimaced at the mention of rat dinner, and remembered the last time he had been forced to eat them alive so that he could use their corpses to escape... Now was not the time for a walk down memory lane. He prepared his necromancy spell and remembered that his powers had been reduced. Perhaps The Raven had need for his power elsewhere.

Morkhan walked towards the dark cellar cellar silently, and gazed down. He followed Rivka after she slipped past him and activated his spellscar to grant him some night vision. Rivka would once again have the upper hand, but he could turn a few of the dead rats against themselves and use their eyes.

In but a moment, the first real evidence of rats hit the pair. One, then two, then a whole swarm of them--the regular sized ones, strangely enough, darted out from behind a barrel and moved like a wave of furry water across the central, packed dirt floor towards the next nearest box across the room.

One turned back to glance at Rivka, and, shrieking, it bared its fangs. The rest turned as if in unison and all seemed to take a defensive posture.

Rivka's initial glee at spotting the rat buffet before her quickly turned into a slight concern as the rats turned toward them and shrieked. That was not ... normal.

Sure one would bite once in awhile once as she got her hands around it to throttle the creature. But their instinct should have been to flee, not line up like rat warriors.

"Birdie, Rivka squash them!" she announced to Morkhan and darted toward the barrel, intending to knock it over and roll it over the rat army like a steamroller.

Morkhan found that as he was about to take a sweeping swing at the creatures, Rivka dodged into the way, preventing him from landing a single blow... probably for the best, really. From behind that same barrel came what could only be described as a growling sound. High pitched, sure, but not unbelievable when the human turned and spotted another rat the size of a dog.

It darted out and leapt at him, nibbling at his armor like it was trying to fell a tree.

Similarly, the swarm parted like water as Rivka ran at them and then, as unnaturally as they'd been working before, descended on her. Luckily, she seemed fast enough to dodge getting bitten by even one...

But they were in the thick of what seemed like an unusually aggressive rat pack, now.

The rat pack concerned Morkhan, but he had a job to do and he would do it. He was interrupted by Rivka as she charged into the mass of rats. His concern grew when the rats parted as a swarm. He turned to see the source of that high pitched growl and brought his axe up to block the giant rat. He swung his axe as hard as he could at the giant rat

Despite the swarm of rats, the goblin was still rather determined to get to that barrel. Now there was the added incentive that it offered some high ground against this swarm of vermin as well.

So, letting Morkhan keep the big one distracted, she moved quickly toward the source of the rats. Sharp claws swept left and right as she continued toward it, more to keep the rats away from her rather than actually trying to snatch one. (Though if one landed conveniently in her hand... that would be alright too.) If there was a hole or something behind that barrel, it needed plugged up so that more of the creatures didn't get keep coming.

The giant rat squelched as Morkhan's axe cleft it in twain, and fur and blood more or less puffed up and away from it. Just as he'd finished the job, Rivka came running back, leading her swarm back into range as she went for the barrel.

But oh, it was so heavy. For someone a goblin's size, this thing might as well be filled with lead. Rivka had but a moment to try anything before she could hear a gentle thrumming noise with her oversized ears...

Morkhan almost grinned under his mask, as he slayed the giant rat. He had expected something much more mundane, but he hadn't had this much fun since he was young! He touched his axe to the dead rat and brought it up as an undead. That rat seemed to be his current limit, but Morkhan was fine with that. He began slicing through the rat horde as it came into reach, with quick diagonals looping to either side, and crushing more beneath his feet. However, he was unable to crush most of them because they parted around his feet. he got in a few slashes while the undead rat turned on it's brethren