>>6150330“To the <span class="mu-r">Monstrous Regiment</span>!”
There is a confused quietude following <span class="mu-r">your[/red exclamation as everyone mulls over the name.
“We’re not MONSTERS,” Khorine huffs.
“Speak for yerself,” Yeb-Uit says.
He holds out his hand, and you pass him the barleywine. He takes a swig, then raises the bottle high.
“To the Monstrous Regiment!”
He passes it to An-Yii, who takes another draught of her own, hiccups once, and joins the cheer:
“The Monstrous Regiment!”
Khorine is, by many standards, too young to drink. However, none of those standards are GoblIn standards, where an adult is anyone over the age of eight-to-ten who can hold a weapon or a tool. As such, the goat girl (already red-faced with intoxication) takes another wary sip, scrunches up her face at the sour taste, and mumbles her own words to that effect before stuffing more bug-brownie into her mouth to smother the taste.
Finally, the bottle arrives at an uncertain Cara-Zi.
…
<span class="mu-g">…</span>
<span class="mu-g">You</span> stare down at the bottle, by now all-but-empty. You got your fair share, just as you hope you offered you fair share of aid in the first ‘quest’ of your little party. Your time in Sunset Lake has certainty been significant to you—TRANSFORMATIVE, even. Still, staring at the the distorted reflection of your new, elfin face in the green glass bottle, you can’t help but see the ‘real’ you underneath it all. You remember how you got to be the way you are, right now: pretty, not quite pink, long and thin of ear and short and lithe of frame. You think of the Nothic, and of Maladoo, and the two caged cave-drakes awaiting their fate… Just as you are.
Are you ‘monstrous’, in the way all of them are?
“CZ?”
You look up, and see the curious faces of your fellow party-members—<span class="mu-i">concerned</span>, even, in ZZ’s case. You realize with a start how long you’ve been looking into the glass, though you're unsure exactly how much time has passed.
“Sorry, the barley-whatsit must be getting’ at me,” you laugh it off, and raise the bottle up. “Ta the <span class="mu-g">Monstrous Company</span>!”
Everyone else cheers at that, even An-Yii and Khorine, and you push down the unease… For now.
The question is, what will you do with those cave-drakes, currently kept in the stables with the Maladoo Gang’s carriage?
>Find somewhere nearby to set them free, when nobody’s looking [+Monster Empathy]>Perform a ritual to The Nothic, summoning it forth and offering them unto the ye-guy for power [+New Ability]>Turn them into the guards [+Human Empathy, + Chivalry]>Kill them [!!!]>Write-in [???]</span> 