The darkness of night begins to fall across the city of Truce, and with the dark comes those rare few who enjoy it and revel in it, a group composed mostly of heroes, adventurous types, or those with no other places to be. They gather at the fountain, a central focal point and recognizable landmark, for reasons unknown to most. Here, where many adventures begin.

Hastur sits at the fountian, enjoying the quiet of the night while sipping sake from a large bottle. He looks around, keeping ever-vigilant even in his time off from his bodyguard jobs.

Balbadorf entered from the east having just arrived off of the ferry from Wutai. He was wearing his prosthetic, having had to deal with some geodudes harrassing caravan's near the town. He took a seat at one of the fountain's benches and decided toclose his eyes for a moment to relax.

Garoth rested his head back against the rim of the fountain; if he could have, his eyes would have been closed, but instead a clear flame burns from within the pumpkin atop his shoulders, the pumpkinhead relaxed and calmly sitting on the cool stone.

Coming from the west, Kent starts walking into the fountain area, holding a large, yet remarkably thin package, wrapped in cloth. Judging from the fact he was covered in soot (again) he had come from the forge. He looked rather excited. And knowing Kent, if he was excited about something, you should probably be worried.

Helios hovers in from the north looking a bit scorched. "Ugh, that didn't go well..." He hovers over to the fountaon and ducks into one of the streams of water to clean himself off.

Travelling in from the south, the green cloak and familiar face of Demonicor walked into the fountain, his face lighting up at the sight of Helios "Hey! How goes things since the diagnosis? Doing any better?" he grinned widely as he stopped nearby, leaning against the fountain.

Hastur waved a bit at Kent, smiling at him. He also nodded to Helios, chuckling at seeing him all scorched again. "Troubles, Helios?" He takes another swig from his bottle

Helios shook himself off as he hovered out of the water, looking a great deal cleaner. "Oh, hi there Demonicor. Yes, we only had one skip in our memory and that was just for a split second." He seemed to shrug. "Probably just a loose wire or something." He looks over at Hastur. "The engine still isn't working. Perhaps it goes deeper than the coolant pump..."

Balbadorf looked up to the night sky with his head back, at times like these he could almost stand to erase the world's problems from his mind. Almost. He sighed, and looked to the fountain's occupants, his eyes falling on a man covered in ash and soot, curious of the man he watched him from his seat.

Garoth turned his head as he noticed Kent, raising a hand in greeting "Hey there buddy, been awhile." he slowly rose to his feet, dusting off his jacket, before making his way over to the knight "What'cha got there?"

Kent unwraped the package to produce his latest project. "I decided that I needed a new one." He holds up a wide metalic kiteshield in his hands. The metal itself had been polished adn treated until it was white, and in the center, there was the simple design of a golden, four sided diamond. The edges of the shield shined particularly brightly, with the same silver alloy that made Kent's sword, and had been sharpened to an edge. "I think It'll work nicely."

Demonicor chuckled quietly and shook his head, watching the excited knight before turning back to his friend "Well, that's good to know. At least things haven't gotten any worse."

Hastur chuckles at Helios, shrugging. "I'm sure you'll figure it out, Helios." He then got up and walked over to Kent, whistling at his new shield. "Now that's a nice looking shield. Looks like it would do well in both offense and defense."

Helios nods. "Yeah, though none of the records we seached through or the tests we ran indicated any reason for the lapses in memory. It's very strange..."

Balbadorf looked over to the giganto who he had gotten to know a bit after their initial encounter, he called out to him, "You sound as though you'd like to test it, eh Hastur?"

Garoth looks appraisingly at the shield, somehow managing to give a quiet whistle "Well, that really -is- nice. How long did it take ya?" he continued to look around the shield, stopping short of touching the work of practical art.

Demonicor gave a short nod before wandering over to sit on the bench "Oh, by the way, the robots made themselves a kid with the parts you sent me.... well, I call it a kid, but it looks almost exactly like them" he shrugged helplessly.

Kent smiled at the praise that he was getting for his craftmanship. "Thank you, all." He nodded to Garoth. "The smith got a bit tired of me being there. Treating holy silver is a bit tedious, and getting the metal light enough and in the right shape takes awhile. But I did it! Let's see a demon rip THIS ONE to shreds!" Kent strapped the shield on his left arm and held it up defencively. "Alright Garoth, how about you throw one of your fireballs right at me? I want to test it!"

Hastur smirks, then looks over to Balbadorf. "I'm always happy to spar with people, sir. In fact... with that prosthesis of yours..." He scratches his chin a bit. "Would you be interested in a bit of sparring? It's been a while since I was able to spar with anyone."

"Uhhh... What?" Helios flickered his lens. "They did? Where did they get the programming for it?" He thought for a moment. "Did they copy themselves onto it?"

Balbadorf had thought upon the man's offer; he had heard tales of his spar with Kent, a man with a blade being bested by someone fighting barehanded is something people tend to talk about. He rotated his fake arm at the shoulder, 'All the connections seem solid.' He thought to himself. he stood and faced Hastur, "Why not, what will the rules be?"

Garoth gave a bit of a shrug with a chuckle "Ah sure, why not, not like it hasn't seen flames yet." he held up a hand as a flame about the size of a softball sprung into being above it, the flames in his eyes flickering lightly, before he threw it like a baseball at the newly crafted shield.

Kent The fireball hit the shield right in the center, leaving just a few light scortch marks which Kent wiped cleanly off, revealing its original shine. He laughs a bit as he lowers it. "Haha, works like a charm!" He said. "I call this a job well done, if you ask me."

"I figured they were built with the ability to do that... they tinkered with it for a little before and after it woke up, and it at least acted a little differently than them... well, respectively. It didn't exactly seem unfamiliar from the other two," he gave another light shrug "but then, like I said, it did look almost the same." he shifted slightly on the seat, relaxing somewhat.

Hastur smiles and stretches a bit. "Alright, well, I think we shoudl go to first blood, like most duels go. No groin shots, and no biting. And... that's about it. Everything else goes. If you want, we could make it so loser has to buy the winner a round of drinks." He chuckles and drops into a different stance than usual, looking more on the side of Hapkido than Wing Chun.

Balbadorf saw his stance and nodded at the rules he entered a simple fighting stance after bowing to his opponent, "What about the use of magic?" he said steadily, controlling his breathing as he entered his 'combat mode'. years of fighting had taught him how to efficiently fight, the only thing he is thankful for from his loving government.

"Well, it would look fairly similar to them if they were following the hard-coded schematics they have." Helios sighs. "At least they arent doing anything crazy this time. They aren't, right?" He looks at Demonicor.

Demonicor shooks his head slowly "No, of course not.... at least not while I'm looking. I've caught them cleaning up, a few times, but they seem to keep their eccentricities out of the way of business."

Garoth smiled widely (Yeah, standard feature, I know) as he approached his friend, holding out a hand "Glad it's not flammable or anything. Maybe I should see about making something."

Kent shook Garoth's hand. "Aye. But I'm not quite sure what you would make. You seem to be pretty well gaurded on your own." Kent leans the shield against the side of a bench and sat down next to it, finally resting after spending most of the prior day at the forge.

Hastur shakes his head. "No magic. Would rather this be a fair physical fight. I wish you the best of luck, sir." He stands up and bows low, then drops back into his stance, a smile on his face and an air of confidence about him.

Helios nods. "Ah, excellent. Glad they have the sense to do that." He glares at the knight as he sits down before turning back to Demonicor. "Well, at least battles lately haven't been too difficult. The M85 and us helped take down some elderich demon the other day. It was kinda dull, actually." He shakes his core. "Records show that the Homs put up more of a fight back home, but not by much."

Balbadorf bowed his head to his opponent, not wanting to break his stance, his gaze fixed on his target he took a deep breath and when he released it, controlling his breathing, he awaited his oponent's strike.

Garoth sat beside his friend, slipping a hand into his pocket "I dunno... if I can't hit em hard with fire I've got few other tricks to help." he drew out his hand, multiple coins resting in it "Makes me wonder how metal does with holding heat if you place a spell on it..." he lightly tossed a couple of them into the fount before pocketing the rest.

Kent chuckled half-heartedly. "I can tell you from personal experience that metal conducts heat. Demon hunting teaches you more than a few things about fire, and whatever forms it comes in." He looked over at Garoth. "You can call me somewhat of and expert on the subject of heat. No offence to the fire mage."

Demonicor blinked slowly at his metallic friend "Eldrich demon?" he turns to straddle the bench, leaning in close "I gotta hear this story."

Hastur takes a deep breath, then bolts forward, approaching his opponent quicker than most would think possible of someone his size. As he realls back to throw a punch, he suddenly spins around his opponent, ending up beside him, the back of his fist coming at Balbadorf's face at great speed.

"Well, we were doing some more work with void rifts at the Jinsaka Manor when Hastur over there," Helios motioned to him, "And several of his pony friends warped in all beat up and stuff. We they got all of the PDF to go and give them help in killing his mom. Long story short, we all went there and soundly thrashed her. One of the ponies went a little bit crazy and mutilated the corpse, but we are going to chalk that up to her being insane."

Garoth scoffed lightly as he regarded Kent "It conducts it, but does that mean it'll hold a spell of it better than, lets say, a wooden amulet?" he tilted his pumpkin before taking it off and massaging the flat spot where any normal human would have a neck.

Balbadorf was slightly suprised by the Giganto's speed, only slightly. When the giganto eneded up beside him however, he jumped to his opposite side attempting to gain some distance from the two coming about 6 feet from the giganto. Regaining his balance, Balbadorf released the blade on his faux arm and ran towards the giganto, appearing to swing his left arm to Hastur's right side, before spinning on his lead foot behind the man to cut his left arm.

Kent shrugs. "How would I know something like that? I know how to fight witc- magic, not harness it." He shakes his head at his mistake. He was learning. Slowly. Kent smiled as he asked a question. "So, you create magical items now? How many other hidden talents have you not told me about?"

"That... well, that really doesn't sound as exciting as the title 'Eldrich Demon' lead me to believe." Demonicor shrugged somewhat before lying back across the bench "Me and my bird have been travelling a lot the last couple weeks, big one modeled off a story I heard, I've hardly had any rest at all between ocean flights and resource gathering."

Hastur smirks as he sees the familiar tactic, moving his arm out of the way quickly. He then spins and brings his hands up to catch his opponent's arm, hoping to use his own strength and the momentum of the movemtn to hurl his opponent over his shoulder.

"Yeah, we were a little dissappointed as well. The M85 hardly did anything, a testament to how easy she was to take down." Helios shakes his core. "Well, at least it wasn't damaged. Not like the M82 after fighting that yoma. That was just embarassing, really."

Garoth slipped his head back on top of his shoulders before shaking it "No, I've only read on it, I doubt I have the skill to enchant anything, but it does sound fun... someone -did- teach me how to fabricate illusions though." he held out a hand, a wisp of smoke forming before coalescing into a blue and white butterfly fluttering its wings as it took flight, Garoth watching it carefully as it flew around Kent's head.

Kent was facinated by Garoth's ability. Such a peaceful creature, a butterfly, was able to be created from nearly nothing. But, the creature was still made of mage, harboring dark energies inside it, able to slowly corrup the world around it. Mimicing the creation of life too! PUTTING ONESELF ABOVE GOD! SUCH VILE EVILS ONLY MADE POSSIBLE WITH MAG- Kent coughed. "Yeah. That's pretty nice."

Balbadorf noticed his opponent move to catch his hand, and thought to use a fake out. Moving his arm down slightly, Balbadorf hoped to cut the man's hand as he caught it, not wanting to miss an opportunity at an additional hit, he also thrusted his right arm in at attempt to hit Hastur in the gut.

Demonicor looks up at the sky, watching the stars sparkle "Y'know, I don't know what I prefer more: the experiments and work I do, or the times when I don't have to do it." he lightly props himself up with a sigh "Are you sure she didn't go down so fast because of the fact that you had a whole strike force with you?"

Hastur moves his hands out of the way, just in the nick of time to avoid getting cut, as well as spinning to avoid the punch to his gut. he uses the momentum to try hitting his opponent with a backhand again.

Helios seems to shrug. "Well, that could have been a factor. It certainly seemed like overkill to bring the entire group to fight one person, elderich demon or not. " He sighs. "Oh well, we suppose the end result is the important thing."

Garoth smiled (standard carven feature) as he let the butterfly dissipate, seeming to relax quite a bit as well "Yeah, it takes a whole lot of concentration to pull off though, I almost think it would be easier to make a real one." he shook his head with a sigh "Maybe I'm making it more complex than it needs to be. It is rather new to me, maybe I just need more practice."

Kent nods. "Studies are important. Kimen often tells me of what he's been up to. I still wish he'd focus more on his swordplay..." Kent's voice trailed off only for a moment. "I haven't seen Kahleen for awhile. Do you happen to know where she went? I believe you might see her more often than I do."

Balbadorf saw the backhand coming for him, only thing was he saw it too late to dodge, 'I'm getting rusty', He thought to himself. He Brought up his left arm to try and absorb as much of the blow as possible, as he took the hit, he realized that it left a dent in his arm's armor; the mechanic had taken a hammer to it and not a scratch, 'Can't take too many of those.' He thought.After the hit, he brought up his right leg to roundhouse kick at Hastur's side.

"The only thing I have to worry about on a daily basis is if the grey rabites go bad when around with the red ones..." he heaved a sigh as he properly sat up "Your little group sounds exciting... though, admittedly, I'm probably the least battle active Vanguard."

Demonicor chuckled as he reached into his coat, drawing out a familiarly shaped ball. He pressed a hidden button on it, causing it to unfurl into a small spiderlike mecha "By the way, the repair droids told me you'd like one of these. careful though, it's not all machine, if it can't get enough energy killing insects on its own it's liable to deactivate permanently." it wandered about curiously across the man before hopping down onto the bench to skitter about on its metal legs.

Hastur smirks and jumps back, bringing his hands up to try to catch the leg and lift his opponent up and slam him into the ground.

Helios peers at the little spider bot. "We're touched, thank you very much!" He watched it skitter around some more. "Well, there are no shortages of insects in the canyon. It should be fine." He looked back up at Demonicor, tilting his core. "What is a vanguard anyway?"

"Speaking of which, do you think you'd be able to teach me how to use a sword? As is, I'm kinda useless in a close-quarters fight," Garoth gave a small chuckle, lifting the edge of his coat "Well, maybe not if I lit this thing on fire... but still, then I'd probably wind up with a baked pumpkin." he let his coat drop down before turning his gaze south "As for Kahleen... I haven't seen her since the last time all three of us were together here." he shrugged helplessly.

Demonicor gave a wince as he realized what he mentioned, muttering as he quietly berated his mistake "Basically, all it means to me is that I have whatever funds I need for research, and can snag whoever I need for assistants." he shook his head "theres more to it of course, but that's really all I'm at liberty to say."

'This. Is Gonna hurt.' That was his thought as Balbadorf was in the air, he hit the ground, hard. He pushed himself up, and tried to take advantage of his opponent's size by kicking the back of his knee in an attempt to knock him over and gain some distance to collect himself.

Kent considered the offer. "I'm not sure how good of a teacher I really am. I never took up a squire back with the Legio Aurea, and I'm afraid I'm not quite what Kimen needs to help him learn." He shook his head. He was also a bit worried about Kahleens disapearence, but did his best to hide it. He failed most likely. He checked Garoth's expression to see if he noticed. ...It was a futile effort.

Helios nods. "Ah, we see. Well, if it pays the bills it works for us." He looks at the spider bot again, picking it up in a magnetic field and placed it on his core. It balances there and peers around curiously. "Well, at least this next test on the engine should hold different results than the last dozen..."

"Shit." Hastur fell to the ground, bracing himself just in time to stop from smashing his face into the ground, the shot his leg up to hit his opponent in the chest, shooting up after him quickly.

Garoth took note of the flash of worry but said nothing, keeping it tucked away, his face ever unchanging "Well, maybe if you figure out how to train me, you can train her. The kid -does- do magic too, maybe you could combine her natural talents with a bit of good old fashioned bladework." he stood up, mimicing some sword work as though being attacked by a winged demon... or innefectual bats, followed by throwing a fireball while his nonexistent 'enemy' was horribly distracted by his equally nonexistant cold steel blade.

Balbadorf saw the leg come for his chest, he sidestepped the kick and raised his faux arm to swing at the back of his leg, attempting to get the first blood he would need.

Demonicor chuckles quietly as he looks at the spider, getting up to dust off his clothes "Well, I have someone I need to check on before the night is over. It was kinda my fault..." he gave a shrug.

Kent facepalms at Garoth's pantomime. Almost by reflex, he stood up, grabbed Garoth, and began quickly rearranging him. "Shoulders this way. Point your toe. Not that much!" Before long, Garoth was standing in a proper fencing possition, Kent even checked how he needed to bend his arm given the length of his imaginary sword that he mimicked. "Now this time, try not to have left your left arm be so obviously just THERE. Keep things more tight."

Helios nods. "And we should be getting back to the engine tests. Guess we will see you around then, Demonicor." He heads off north to his transport.

Garoth gave something of a surprised shout at being rearranged, hardly putting up much of a fight and giving up even that after a moment, posing how he was placed as best as he could "You fight like this?" he rolled his shoulders and flexed his 'sword arm' before taking the pose back up "This is a uniquely uncomfortable position..."

Hastur winces as he feels the blade scrape across his leg. He gets up quickly, clicking his tongue as he sees the blood coming from the scrape. Then he looks at Balbadorf and breaks into a grin. "Ha, you bled first! I win!" he grins and points to Balbadorf's bloody face.

"Fighting is a uniquely uncomfortable thing." Kent smiles. "But it has its moments... looking down at a demon's face... it's own blood slowly flowing down its neck... its tail sliced off, its throat collapsed, and it speaks to you, begging for mercy which it did not know in life, and I would not offer it in death..." Kent stops daydreaming and turns back to Garoth. "But other than moments like that, fighting gets pretty uncomfortable."

Balbadorf looked in confusion for a moment before bringing his hand up to his nose, a few drops of blood coming out. He raised his arms in surrender, "Fine, fine a tie it is." He laughed at his own joke and patted Hastur on the back, " I'll meet you at the bar I gotta do a check on my arm. That was one hell of a backhand." He headed off south to remove his arm and fish out his wallet for tonight's drinks.

Garoth lowered his arm to look at his friend in confusion "That is... rather specific... and honestly, somewhat creepy." he took up the pose again best as he could, facing towards Kent "So, when do I learn how to even hold a weapon?"

Demonicor made his way south, in somewhat of a hurry but not deigning it requiring a run, quickly stepping nonetheless as he made for wherever home is.

Kent grumbles. "Always so impatient. With Kimen he said I moved too quickly!" Kent gathered his shield and nodded to Garoth. "See me later this week. I have a spare blade I can give you, I just need to get a different hilt. Shouldn't take me too long."

Hastur grins and stretches his arms, looking back to see the cut already healing. "Ah, always fun to spar when ya heal quicker than most." He chuckled and headed to the bar for his free drinks.

Garoth dropped out of his stance with a nod of his pumpkin, raising a hand to wave to the knight "Right, well, I'll try to see about using that pose next time I do a bit of training. Have fun... well, gathering bear asses? Did you ever figure out what he does with those?" he tilts his head as he tries to think of exactly what one would do with those "Eyyah, nevermind, maybe I don't want to know..."

"This week it's elbow grease actually. He needed three buckets out of it, and it was a very SPECIFIC type of elbow. From fish. Do you know HOW HARD it is to get elbow grease from fish?" Kent shakes his head at the fact that a demon hunter was still doing oddjobs. "Have a good night, Garoth" With that, he head down south towards the inn.

Garoth stood there for a moment before shaking his head and moving off to find wherever he was lying down to bed for the night "Ah, some people..."