Röc, Bayard, Serpent

@Jomsviking,@Honor_Over_All,@KaijuCuddlebug

Röc is trying Drakonheim's version of tea, which is both sweeter and more astringent than the delta version.

There is a rapid light knocking at the door in a pattern that Röc almost has become familiar with. Tilly gets up from the sofa and goes to the door. She opens it.

Two men duck in, both having to lower their heads to get under the lintel.

Immortal Serpent and Bayard know each other, and the folks already in the room: Tilly, Vinsenz, Dolan, Gurtha, Brigon. What about that … lizard guy? They don't know him. Looks comfortable in here, though. Not a menace.

Serpent, Bayard, are you now having second thoughts about bolting to this refuge with the possibility of an ancient evil following you here? Flight was not a voluntary choice ­— whatever That was, it instilled in you such bitter panicked fear that you could not confront it.

Tilly laughs. She's a good friend of Bayard's, a comrade-in-arms. A potent witch. You're in her house, her sitting room, with its comfortable chairs and sofa and a low table spread with cold dinner: sliced sausage, apples, apricots, tea. Not a tavern at all. "No ale in here, you know that," she half-scolds. "What brings you in such haste? We thought you'd be prowling the streets in search of skeletons to smite. Serpent, you said a … demon?"

"Ar, let's have a quick bite," Gurtha says. "Then we'll get back out there. Right, Brigon? And you two, Serpent and Bayard: you look piss-scared. What about a demon?"

"Ah come na, Bayard, you're taking the piss. Out on patrol is where we needs to get," Gurtha urges/wheedles the much bigger man. "Right, Till?"

"Right, right," old Tilly cackles. "But steer way far from demons, lads. You, too, new boy." She smiles at Röc in that way that primates do, a threat-not-threat display.

A few minutes pass. People tentatively eat, but the room is uneasy with silent tension between the three options presented: loiter here, patrol to defend the citizens from skeletons, or undertake a possibly suicidal search to destroy a demon.