the fantastic adventures of PENG and friends

new friends, ancient enemies and Marvin

Ambrosia and the Drow stared each other down, weapons drawn, waiting for the other to make the first move. Compared to this man, Tael looked like a surface elf, Ambrosia thought. She had never met a drow before Tael, so she wasn't sure about their range of pigmentation, but where the young elf had grey skin and soft features, the person she was facing off against now was sharp contrast. Stark white hair, tied into an intricate knot, skin as black as coals with two gleaming red pupils of fire, a dangerous beauty.

"Are you here for Tael?"
She asked calmly, a firebolt ready for the moment the other made a hostile move.
"Tael? Who's that, besides, it's none of your business why I'm here."
He spat, his position tensing dangerously. They were both about to pounce, looks flickering back and forth like lightning.
Tael himself was the one who stopped any further harm from occurring, the moment he entered the room, the drow looked between him and Ambrosia, speechless.
"Is this your son?",
He asked, sheathing his daggers quickly and straightening his posture.
"N-no... I'm hardly old enough to have a child his age, besides, he's a drow, isn't he?"

The drow half scoffed, half laughed.
"Oh look at him, you can see the surface elf all over him."
Ambrosia sent Tael back to PENG quickly, for his own safety, and in part because she didn't want him to know that he was any different from her.
"Are you saying he's not a drow then?"
The man calmly fixed his cowl back into place and picked up the book he had dropped.
"No, he's a drow alright... perhaps not fully, young elves do stupid things, if you understand what I'm saying."
Ambrosia did understand. She didn't like the implication, but it was obvious.
"Check his lower back for a mark in the shape of a spider. If he has one, the spider queen was aware of his birth, and you might as well start praying to your God of cowards that you can hide him long enough for him to see his 100th birthday. If he doesn't have it, bring him to a temple of Eilistraee. That's the only place that can hide him."
He had grasped her shoulder tightly. She felt his thin fingers dig into her skin under the thin fabric of the robe she was wearing, burning into her arm.

He let go suddenly, and turned towards the sky. Without their taking notice, a thick fog had rolled in on them... and the sails had gone slack.

The tiefling didn't dawn a cowl to hide herself, despite the fact that the wary glances from all sides sent stings of guilt... what was she even feeling guilty for? She was here to do her job, her patrons job, and nothing more. She wove through the mass of people in the docks gracefully, her path leading her directly to a merchant's stand.
"Greetings. You are my contact."
She stated, matter-of-factly,
"You have the information I require?"
The duergar looked her up and down warily, before answering in undercommon.
"Dei were onto me. Grey dwarf is too obvious, so I gave de thing to master Whitaker, gave it to one of de merchants in de city. Names Calerocious Mabel."
She frowned.
"You gave a note with a detailed description of... agh, nevermind."
She gave him another scolding glance, which didn't seem to be able to illicit  the same reaction of fear her piers could with a single venomous stare, and whirled around, her tail of gauze and spider silk barely hiding the poisonous dart she sent into his leg. Her patron did not tolerate incompetence. The spider queen did not tolerate incompetence.

PENG looked about, very confused by the sudden disappearance of the captain. Knowledge stood to his back, rapier drawn, brows furrowed. They were sure this had to have been a fight, but there was just silence and the licking of waves on the side of the boat.
"Captain?!"
PENG called out, unsure if this was the best idea, but how else were they going to know?
"Shhh, shut up."
Knowledge pointed to the sky, but PENG couldn't make out what he was pointing at, neither could Tael, but Ambrosia, who had just climbed to join them, looked terrified.
"What's up there?"
He asked, still looking around for the captain.
"I don't know..."
Ambrosia muttered, clenching her staff between her palms like it was her final lifeline. She had seen a pair of wings, ginormous in size, barely, disappear into the fog.