In the dark of the night, a traveler wrapped in pitch black attire, reigns in his horse, at a place it seems is wrapped in much memory, for he has a distant look about him. ((Nergal the Mad)) He blinks, then dismounts the weary steed. Quickly throws the reigns, over the hitching post and strides with purpose, into the dark tavern. He stops, shortly inside the main room, turns his head and his dark gaze sweeps the room. He speaks in a quiet, yet clear, voice "I see my place has been well taken care of. I am proud to be standing here once more." Then he is gone...A gasp sweeps the room as patrons turn their heads in all directions, attempting to find this stranger once more.... All heads turn at once in the direction of the bar, as Nergal speaks once more. “bartender, bring forth a keg of ale, I thirst. I must replenish my strength in preparation for war once more!" "Let the madness begin..."
"Aye, I'll open th' kegs this evenin' seein' as this be the first you been back in 'ere since the time ya lost th' deed to this 'stablishment t' me as a wager an that game of Karak'cha years back. In th' future ... hayevah, yer gonna have t' pay up just like th' rest of th' cust'mers in 'ere."
(keep))
"Aye, aye, and wot's that war-mongering talk 'bout?" Bartender asked in the most insane accent he could manage while pouring the dark, foaming beer into a mug. "That'll be a copper. Anyway, how are things outside Midia? And how did ya manage not tah get attacked by sum Zan fanatics?"
Gackmaster who was sitting at the bar asks "I was wondering that myself. Keep! Lay all his ale on my tab I shall be getting paid well today, see if it shall roll his tongue upon his whereabouts since the coming of K'ar," Gackmasta turns in his stool and staffs his head to the side. "I should imagine, you'd not have come back bearing your own likeness in Midia. You are certain to find many an axe pointed in your direction in battle, no?"
Nergal, smiles, but it is a smile from which one shrinks from, not embraces. He grabs the mug of ale and downs in it in one fluid motion. He turns around, the room grows cold suddenly, a chill moves through the room as he speaks once more. "The wind spoke to me in my deathly slumber. It spoke of the great wars, to end all war. It told me the time had come for me to rise and battle once more. Therefore, I arose from ashes to play my part. Whether it be for good or evil, only fate must know this. For in all war there is madness...I shall fulfill my role with honor and glory. I can do nothing less. I am Nergal the Mad. I seek to end that which I started. How many will join me, remains to be seen..." He pauses, it can be clearly seen, the glowing red embers that are in place of his eyes. "I shall return when I have tasted victory upon the battlefield" then he is gone...
Bartender looks around and sees startled faces everywhere. "K, I'll follow, might be fun! A little blood here and there... All dowsed by a few mugs of Woody cider, perfect."
------------------------------------------------------- The hinges creak on the tavern doors, a footfall into the tavern reveals a ruddy leather boot. Hands large as a bunch of bananas grasp a pair of short dark swords. As the stranger enters the light of the chamber, most see he bears a kind and rugged face, his eyes weary but alert. He moves slowly towards the bar, white knucked hands wringing hilts. "A beer and some meat, bartender," he says for all to hear, he leans in closer and rumbles softly... "What is my status in this place, I seek rest and a good hearty meal. My name be StoneCrusher, and I'd like to keep my battles upon the battle field." Nala LLams enters the tavern seeking some friendly faces but can not locate those he has come seeking. Spying the newcomer at the bar and overhearing his query Nala decides to be neighborly and say hello. "Greetings StoneCrusher, and welcome to Nergals. In answer to your question you have nothing to fear once you cross the threshold into Nergals. Battle is not permitted in the tavern...well except for verbal battle. Outside, however, is a different story. Inside you will find friend and foe willeither drink together or pretty much leave each other alone" Nala checks his purse and seeing that he is actually doing quite well at the moment summons the new Bartender..."Seeing it is this warriors first time in Nergals allow me to pay for tonights meal and drink" Turning to StoneCrusher he pats the warrior on the back. "Eat, drink, rest and make merry and worry not,.. this night your money is no good here" Turning back to Bartender Nala proceeds to order an ale and a light for his pipe. Oh man, I could have used you in that last ring of hell, surrounded by mountains & using the mighty collossa's who hate the touch of stone was quite a task. anyhoo, nice ta meet ya lord stone crusher, may your name be heralded on the battlefield. As for here, as Nala says, peace from the carnage is what nergals offers, although it can get a little rowdy at times. Keep....Whoa!!! OK, I see we have a new bartender, what should we be calling you good sir? do you have a name we can use to summon your services? I'll have a balrog thnx & get shark to knock me up one of those amra steaks with chips & salad, put it on Nala's bill...apparently our money is no good here tonight, lucky Nala's purse is full, wrymm winks at stone crusher, drinks & food on Nala tonight, he calls to the patrons. wrymm heads back to the table were gack, gnascher, snort & lady ginger sit discussing the upcoming NG war, he passes several patrons on there way to the bar to take up Nala's kind offer
Out of nowhere (well, somewhere obviously, but you didn't see where I came from, so nowhere kinda fits) runs Spooky with a platter of food and a large mug of ale. She throws the food at Nala and walks over to dump the ale over his head while he's still in shock. She begins to giggle uncontrollably and says, "These *snicker* things keep *teehee* happening to you! *giggle* Perhaps you should *hahaha* get stain resistant clothes! *paaaahahahahahahah*" Spooky turns to the newcomer, trying to catch her breath. "It's nice to meet you Stone Crusher. *snicker* Sorry bout the mess, it's just Nala and I have this thing....anyhoo, it's nice to see a new face in the tavern. Be welcome, my friend, the food and drinks are already on Nala...so go ahead and splurg." *giggle* *snort*
The Lady of the Mysts enters just as Spokeys Mug of belrog bitter reaches the point of no return in its ark for a spilling blow. Spying Nalas soon to be soaked features the moon elf skirts through the almost crowed tavern to find an empty seat at an dimly lit table. Sighing deeply Mysta watches as the patrons New and old live out their merry lives, wondering when it will be her time...
hmmm, hey spokey, yells wrymm from across the room.
They meet half way, Mysta sitting quietly watching wonders what they may be discussing, but her attention is taken as Nala comes through the crowd, grumbling, dripping with beer & stained with food 
mysta looks back but they are gone....
Hmmm, mysta looks back around & is startled to see spooky & wrymm standing directly in front of her.
Wrymm upends a bowl of creamy amra cabonara on her head, mysta is stunned
spooky steps in, desert madam? & promtly tips a bowl of custard & cream over her, oook!
then they both upend their balrogs as well....
Wrymm & spooky crack up laughing, LMAO, LHerAO
wrymm winks & says, looks like your time has come 
they begin laughing again.
Mysta is still looking at them shocked, she looks down at the mess of pasta & beery custard in her lap, she looks up but they are gone, a ghostly cloud filling the space they had just occupied.
Shark enters from the kitchen with a large platter covered whit a dome and places it next to Stone Crusher. "Here, I thought I would make you feel right at home. This is a marbel cake but I ran out of real marbels soo I substituted jaw breakers. Hope you like it." says Shark as he quickle dissapears back into the kitchen. Who knows what will happen with spooky and wyrm around.
As shark enters the kitchen, the one place he likes to regard as home base, he runs straight into wrymm....
Uh oh!!!!, he turns to escape, SPLATTT!!!! straight into a spooky pie...right in the eye, lol
No escape, he retreats past wrymm into the kitchen, taking a couple of hits as he passes, Spooky goes past wrymm, flinging custard pies at an awesome rate.
you OK here? I'll head for the bar & see what trouble I can get into.
I'm fine says Spooky & Flashes him an evil grin on the way past.
Shark dodges behind the stove, cover for the moment, he looks around & sees a pile of Pavlova slices, aaah, all is not lost after all he thinks to himself.
Wrymm grabs a few items of various foods & heads out into the bar as Spooky stalks the shark in the kitchen....
Bartender comes in with mud and twigs in his hair. "Sorry for being late, I got lost in the forest and ended up in some mountain. Lucky me I found someone who could lend me my grunch" I look around and see the mess, notice wrymm steadily approaching with his hands behind his back and jump behind the bar, picking up as many ammo as I can find and yelling: "FOOOOOOOOOD FAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYT
bartender looks up but wrymm is nowhere to be seen, he only sees gack sitting at a table beyond the spot wrymm had stood, Gack is shaking his head & saying, ya shoudldn't have done that lad, tsk tsk!
Bartender looks around....SPLATT splatt splatt splatt splatt...
He drops his ammo.....
wrymm jumps up on the bar, aiming up the victory shot, SPLAAAATTT!!!! He is knocked of his feet as an apple pie slaps him right upside the head.
He staggers to his feet, OK, who threw that???(tweet tweet)
"Aye, food is no weapon for a bartender!" I say picking up a few bottles of well-shaken champagne. "And after the fight, how about a shower?" I say making the bottles go 'pop' one after another. Soon corks are whizzing about and people ducking under tables whilst wrymm becomes the target of the alcoholic deluge
Just as the deluge is about to hit, Donk knocks wrymm out of the way & begins gulping down the champaigne.
wrymm rolls to the left & steps up ready for another round.
Bartender keeps one bottle squirting at donk to keep him still but is firing of corks at wrymm with the other hand.
wrymm, in slow motion, bends back at an unbelievable angle as the corks wiz by(matrix style)
but then the champaigne hits & he drops to the floor, THUMP!!
he rolls under a table & scampers off through the crowd.
bartender begins to worry now.
there is a whistle from behind, he turns & see wrymm standing next to a tennis serving machine, filled with tomatoes.
He grins & flicks the on switch....
Driping wet from the belrog shower the lady Mysta rises from her seat, leaveing a trail of curly pasta and sticky custard from her lap. Side steping a stray cork ment for Wyrmm, she then dives under the nearest table. Scurring on all fours the lady of the mysts makes her way to the table Bartender had claimed as his fortress in this Food Fight gone wild. Haveing made the trip unheeded the usualy regal lady squats on her hands and kneens, watching as wyrmm dodges corks flying at him faster than the eye could follow.
In a Blurr of mothion wyrmm had crossed the short distance between Bartender and himself, produceing from out of know where a tennis serving machine filled tomatoes.
Seeing that wyrm had forgoten about her and was to busy watching Bartender Mysta prepared to make her move. A broad smile crosss wyrmms Face, his hand reaches to flick the switch....
The broad grin leaves his face, when to his suprise the tennis serving machine filled tomatoes unloads its full load into his exposed and unsuspecting stomoch.
Haveing turned the tennis machine just as Wyrmm had fliped the swich on, the soaked lady was quick to withdraw her hands in time as to not be seen. Quickly she retraced the same path back to her table. When she made it back to her table she slid up into another chair and waved for someone to come and clean up the mess around her....
Bartender looked at wrymm as he pulled out his artillery and looked for a way to escape but saw none. Suddenly, he saw Mysta and the next moment he saw a big red blob in front of him. Seeing his chance, he leaped into the growing flood of tomatoes and starts flinging them all around the room.
Stone crusher is wondering what sort of crazy place he hath entered....
wrymm wipes a mash of tomatoes from his eyes & see's the bartender flinging tomatoes in all directions.
I think I was sabotaged, wrymm looks at Mysta, but she is still sitting in her seat, complaining about the mess, hmmm.
there is a big noise coming from the kitchen so shark is still occupied.
Well I'm not beat yet, wrymm slinks off through the tables to regroup.
Several tomatoe stained patrons are now looking at the bartender with revenge in mind
Szuszi walks into the tavern just as a tomato comes flying across the room and lands *SPLAT* right on her forehead!
With a look of both shock and delight she makes her way to a table already laden with food and begins to join the fun. "Oh...I've forgotten how much fun this place could be!" She thinks to herself. "I wonder if this food fight was organised just for me? Afterall...Infection knows how much I love a food fight and it WAS my birthday yesterday. Perhaps he had it planned as a present for me. But where is he?"
Amidst flying tomatoes and slices of pavlova and amra steaks, she scans the common room for her friend. But the only familiar face she sees, is wrymm.
Managing to duck just in time to miss an apple pie from hitting it's target, Szuszi scraps the remains of a cranberry tart into her hands and sneaks up behind wrymm, as he's backing away from the tennis machine thingy.
"Hi wrymm! How'z it goin' old buddy?" She laughs as she tips the tart over wrymms head, then quickly scampers under the table to take cover, should he retaliate.
*DocY lowers from the rafter where he has been lurking, watching the fun , he quickly snatches a cream pie from amongst the table layered with food.
Moving so fast as to not be seen by most ,DocY sneaks up behind Szuszi and Smeers the pie in her face just as she tips the tart over wymm.
Making sure he rubs it in nicely before rising up to the rafters again*
"Happy B'Day szu for yesterday"
"Why you little...." cursing DocY and at the same time looking for some more food to grab, Szuszi notices a lemon meringue pie, stuck to the ceiling, just above DocY's head. She begins to grin.
And just as he reaches the rafters once more thinking he was safe...the lemon meringue pie starts to peel away from it's host and lands *SPLAT* right down the neck and collor of his shirt.
"Ha ha!" Szuszi laughs. "Thanks DocY! This is a fantastic birthday!"
Bartender looks around himself and seeing a group of people were approaching with a strange look in their eyes and intact tomatoes becoming rare, he runs to the bulletin board, knowing this act may attract the wrath of all the women here he takes the risk anyway. He takes it off and presses a button. A door suddenly appears with the words "Women's Sauna" written on it. Takeing a deep breath and praying with all his soul that knowone had installed a camera inside . Pushing the door he sees...
Finding Wyrm quite busy with Szuszi and DocY, the Lady Mysta heads for the kitchen...Hearing loud crashes and bangs comming from that direction, Mysta knew there was yet still more work to be done....
After watching DocY squirm with the Lemon Meringue Pie oozing down his neck and back, Szuszi notices a mysterious Lady (who she is unfamiliar with) heading towards the kitchen.
Thinking that this one is trying to escape the food onslaught, Szuszi sees a bowl of newly prepared raspberry jelly and peaches, on a nearby table and quickly grabs a ladle. She scoops a huge amount of the jelly and fruit mixture into it and flings the contents across the room and hits the maiden square on the back!
Nearing the doors to the grand kitchen of Nergals tavern, the Lady Mysta prepares for her assult on the second of the two Food Flingers. Not knowing what was to behind the doors the lithe elven woman pauses to gather her wits. Quickly she cast her eyes around the entrance to the kitchen hopeing to find some food to arm herself. Spying two almost whole tomatos, Mysta reaches for the mushy mass....
Splat! The impact of the cool sticky glob hits her square in the back, sending her lurching forward through the doubble doors into the kitchen proper. With the agility of her kind she is quick to recover in a roll that while it gave her footing once more, did nothing for the jam that somehow slid down into the seat of her undergarments. Shrieking like a madwoman, the Lady of the mysts smothly continues with her first plan of action.
Leapeing onto one of the many tables in the massive kitchen, she was able to find all kinds of Goodies for her battles to come. Catching sight of sharky and spooky, whos battle in its self was something to see. Spooky armed with dozens of un hatched hatchlings, Sharky defending his hold with a Large wooden bowl and a fine Wooden Spoon! Each egg launhed at sharky being first wacked in half by the spoon, the hard shells falling in halfs onto the floor. Then with much skill and little effort, the golden yolks falling into the waiting bowl. There battle was happeing at such speeds that mysta had plenty of time to reek her revenge. Grabing up a bowl of Fish eggs, Mysta sends them hurteling. The fish eggs seemed to a great choice of projectile, with a loud squish they find their target. Smileilng the Lady Mysta rushes out the back door, but not before she armed herself with a large bag of flour and some really not so fresh livers...
Findiing an open window she quickly looks over the goings on in the common room. Spy Szuszi still slinging the fruit filled raspberry jelly. Knowing that she had not been seen in the chaos, Mysta sends the open bag of flour flying through the open window to land in the center of the room. In less tiome than it take the heart to thump once the huge room was ingulfed in a thick white cloud. Acting before her cance had passed the young elf climbs through the window sliping up behind Szuszi, Mysta unloads part of her smelly gift to the birthday girl into the back of Szuszis pants. Szuszi starteld by the wet livers slideing down her legs spins around to confront her attacker, it was then that she recived the other half of her gift...right down the front of her bodice...
wrymm comes tearing through the crowd slowly turning whiter as the flower sticks to his thick oozy covering of tomatoes....
Szu, still in shock, turns slightly as he approaches.
"Szuszi, happy berthday sweety" he grabs her & gives her a BIG HUG, some of the tomatoe flies into the air & splatts DocY up in the rafters.
Wrymm plants a big birthday kiss on her cheek which smears tomatoe right over the whole side of her head.
GROUP HUG he calls & Grabs mysta into the group...SPLOOOP!!!!!!
*Exhausted wyrm stops playing and the images before the gathered patrons soon fade from sight. Slumping back in his chair wyrm takes the offered tankard from slop, sipping on it as he warmed himself by the fire.*