(My creative juices are so dried out)

*KABOOM*

The thunder outside shook the stone walls around Dakka. But the old hall was sturdy and the storm outside wasn't getting in. The storm outside had been threatening all afternoon before finally starting just as night was creeping in. There had been no warning before the rain came. There was a flash of lightining, a boom of thunder, and then torrents of rain. By the time Dakka reached the old monastary, he was completely soaked.

The old building was completely devoid of life besides Dakka and Wretch. The few remaining sticks of furniture were shattered and turned into a great pyre in the center of the great entrance hall. The air hung heavy with the smell of wet fur from his loin cloth and the smoke from the fire weaved between the rafters. Dakka was stretched out in front of the fire, taking in the heat and drying out. He had sent Wretch off to look for something to eat. The thing was basically a rat and had a keen nose for finding anything that was more or less edible.

While Dakka waited in the great hall, he manipulated the flames. Great snakes of flame leapt around each other, snapping for each others necks. As one snake fell, another, larger, snake would rise up to challenge the winner. Before long, the drakes were twice as large as his arms and it was becoming impossibly hard to control them both. As another snake fell, Dakka let the fighting end. As he waited for Wretch to return, he twirled a bit of flame between his fingers. He was quickly growing bored and really didn't want to go looking for Wretch.

Stolatos was cold, wet and miserable. The rain had seemingly come out of nowhere, without any of the usual telltale signs. His cloak had at first managed to keep him mostly dry, but now even it was soaked right through. It had been so long since he had left his tower, and now his first night out he was drenched. It really made him glad he had finally decided to get back out into the world for a spell. He needed to find some shelter before he drowned. Well, at least he might be leaving a legacy, he didn't imagine too many people had drowned from rain before. Lightning flashed as he crested a hill, illuminating a building below for the briefest of moments but making him night-blind as well. He stood still as his eyes adjusted fairly quickly, his eyes well adapted to quickly shifting light.

He stood still and continued studying the building for another minute, his eyes picking up some form of flickering light coming from inside the building. There must be someone else seeking shelter from the rain. The old Stolatos would have walked right up and knocked, asked politely to share the man's fire - for who wouldn't enjoy some company on a night such as this? But ever since the tower - no, this world was a dark place. There was no refuge for his kind, no kind strangers who wanted to share their fire with a Kiltharr. Especially not one that had been to that tower. He wondered if anyone else had made it out alive as he looked down to his right arm, which was bound tightly with paper, written all over with mystic runes that seemed to keep it dry, somehow.

Finally he moved again, his introspection halted for now. Down the hill through the rain and to the monastery, for that was what it seemed to be now that he was closer. He halted at the door, then decided against it and circled the monastery, searching for and eventually finding a rear entrance. He snuck into the building as quietly as he could, eventually finding a way to the room with the pyre of fire and standing quite still, studying the orc next to it. He had come in too late to see him manipulating the fire, so he just looked like a dirty orc to him. He slowly pulled out a piece of paper, whispered a word over it and then walked forward into the light.

I'll be taking your fire. So clear out.

"Den furreh humie getz da fire!"

Dakka was quite surprised to see a giant humanoid cat. Fortunately, Dakka's surprised reaction was basically the same as his normal reaction. Blowing stuff up works really well at keeping the number of problems in life manageable. Simple fighting was much better than having to deal with people.

In his shock, the thread of flame Dakka had been toying with flared into a ball the size of his head. The waves of heat that rolled off of the roiling ball of flame pushed against his skin. With a flick of his wrist, the fire ball shot off towards the new comers chest. At the same time, Dakka rolled away from the intruder and creating a little more space between them.

[Fireball 1x, Burst Touch bonus]

The fire ball raced across the distance between them, the flames crackling as it devoured oxygen. Dakka primed the fire ball so that it would explode just as it reached or impacted on its target. Rolling up to his feet, Dakka roared at his competitor.

"Waaaaaagh!"

Stolatos was somewhat surprised by the Orc's quick response. In his experience they were usually dull and slow beasts, and would have had to think about what he said for at least ten seconds before figuring it out. This one, however, had seemingly decided instantly that the best way to respond was to hurl a fireball at him. How entirely rude. He would have to have a long talk with this Orc on the ethics of throwing fireballs around and why it was a good idea to give Kiltharrs your fire when they demanded it. He thought it would be common sense, given how deadly Kiltharr were, right? Yes, a lesson was in order.

He disappeared moments before the fireball hit, teleported back to the paper he had dropped back in the shadows (Kitty Teleport). The burst of the fireball exploding would light up the area, but he would duck quickly and then stay still until the light faded, hoping the Orc hadn't seen him and considered him dead by the explosion, vaporized or some such thing. He stood slowly in the gloom following the fireball, thinking the Orc didn't have the same ability to see into the dark that he did. He circled around the outskirts of the room, sticking to the shadows and generally doing his best to not make any noise.

He made his way partially around the building, all the way to the east side from the north in the shadows. He wasn't paying attention to the Orc, just doing his best to be quiet and unseen and hoping it all worked out for him. Only then would he break the silence, letting out a ringing taunt, doing his best to throw his voice as far away from himself as he could, trying to get the Orc looking somewhere he wasn't to get him looking in that direction instead of at Stolatos.

You know, I never thought I'd run into an Orc in here. You smell like a -human-.
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Kitty Teleport used 1/2 (Delayed action)

At the sound of his master yelling at some one, Wretch looked up from the barrel he was searching. He hadn't found any food or edible almost food like things. He had only just now found an old water barrel in the back corner of the kitchen. Not only was water the last thing they needed in the middle of a massive thunder storm, there was a very green and fuzzy layer on the top of the water. Dakka was never happy if Wretch took too long to get to get back. He scampered out of the kitchen, wooden lid still in his hands mostly because he hadn't thought to drop it at first and then because it would be a very good object to cower behind if he was late getting back.

Wretch got back to the room just as the last remnants of the fireball fizzled out. He couldn't see who his master had been fighting with but he could smell the faint stench of rotten eggs hanging in the air. Stopping just short of fulling entering the room, Wretch put the wooden lid between him and the doorway. His natural instincts of not dying were kicking in and the last thing he wanted to do was to catch a fireball to the face. Dakka was notoriously bad at looking at what was behind his target. Very slowly, Wretch crept towards the room, keeping the lid between him and the giant fire in the middle of the room. He nearly bolted as a voice called out maybe ten feet to his left as he entered the room. In terror, Wretch screeched and flung the lid end over end toward the voice. He bolted back into the dark hallway before who ever it was could retaliate and put an arrow through him.

Dakka had been looking around for the overgrown cat after his fireball had detonated. He had strutted over to where the fireball exploded and was planning on having a nice leg of wannabe lion for dinner. But the stranger was no where to be found. Dakka had never been able to completely incinerate a body in one shot before no matter how hard he tried and really doubted that he had now. Scratching his head, he looked around for where the cat could have been blasted. He was still searching when the cat actually called out to him. Which was quickly followed by a terrified screech that could only belong to that poor excuse of a grot that followed Dakka around.

Dakka spun around to look for both of them. He couldn't see either of them but he could see a wooden lid flipping through the air. Growling, Dakka stalked across the room to a point roughly between the two. Grasping his choppa in his left hand, Dakka pulled a wisp of fire from the center of the room into his right hand. The cat was going to get skinned in at least one way before the night was over.

Stolatos was not prepared for there to be a kobold in play. The sudden ear-piercing screech almost made him jump, but of course he was a grizzled mercenary and all that so he didn't. Instead he just quickly turned towards the noise, eyes detecting the fleeing form of the kobold and then the flipping lid fairly easily, as there was more then enough light in the room for him [Eyes of the cat]. The lid didn't seem to be much of a threat, it wasn't remotely weighted for throwing and the kobold had been in a panic as well. It glanced off his left arm and fell to the ground with a clatter, likely alerting the orc to his presence. Then again, maybe that had been the plan all along. Were kobolds smart enough to make plans? He didn't know, but maybe he'd have to look into that at a later date.

His eyes returned to the orc then, seeing the drawn dagger and the malicious gleam in his eye. Well then, this orc really wanted to wrassle, didn't he? And it hadn't even responded to his clever prose, so it was likely even dumber then its other orcish cousins and didn't understand the subtle undertones he was speaking with here. That annoyed him. His sarcasm was going to waste! Sarkasmos would not be pleased, not be pleased at all. He would have to put on his game face and turn it up to eleven and up the ante and... more cliche sayings like that. There was simply no way he would let this grave insult of being an idiot pass, pig-face! Wait, pig-face was a pretty good one. Did this orc know what a pig was?

Hey, Pig-face. That should find him the answer right quick. That's some nice -elf- tricks you've got there. Must do your ancestors proud by using it... And hey, why not bring some elves into it. All orcs hated elves, right? He hoped this would get a rise from the creature.

He pulled a shuriken out with a malicious grin, whispering a few words over the paper. This orc used fire and needed a lot more light them him to see, so it was most certainly time to play that advantage to its fullest. If this orc wanted a fight, he was going to get one, but Stolatos wasn't keen on making it easy on him. He brought his arm back, spinning and throwing the shuriken unerringly for the fire [Acute Aim]. The moment it hit the ground, roughly in the middle of the fire, the magic in the seal attached to the shuriken sprang to life (Tremor Seal). The ground started immediately to quake, throwing embers up into the air and scattering the fire - the result would be a brighter room for a few seconds, then the fire would start to die down to embers as the shaking continued, dropping the light in the room considerably.
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Tremor used, 1/2
Shuriken used, 1/5

(Incredibly sorry about this. Thought I had posted this days ago.)

The cat was trying to taunt him again. Dakka was more than willing to fight him before any name calling. All it was really doing was giving away the kilthars position. Dakka couldn't get angrier at some one. He overkilled everything no matter what names they called him, even nice names. Blowing stuff up was fun. He didn't need a reason, be that reason good or bad.. Well, fun was a reason for blowing up stuff. But some times it was a lot of work blowing something up to satisfactory sized bits.

"Wot doez squibz an' 'ointy ear umies 'ave to do wit dis fight?"

The fire erupted in a shower of flames and sparks as Dakka passed it. He had caught glint of something fly into the fire and saw the outline of the cat in the firey illumination. Not concering himself with the fire show, Dakka charged straight toward towards the cat. He was determined to roast the intruder alive, and then once again when the cat was dead. Dakka's choppa was raised in his left hand, ready to make a swipe as the kilthar got into range.

"WAAAAAAAGGGGGGH!"

Elsewhere, Wretch was getting his testicular fortitude back and was creeping back into the room. Staying as low to the ground as possible, he poked his head around the frame of the door. Still not recovered from his earlier shock, Wretch was just observing for now. If anything so much as sternly looked in his general direction, he was going to scream like a little girl and run away. Again. He was plenty content to sit off in the corner for an entire fight and just watch.

Stolatos frowned. It didn't seem this orc was intelligent enough to understand his wit after all. Well, that was just a pity. He had always enjoyed angering people when he fought them through wit, or just making them look like a fool. And here was this orc, doing it for him! Then he had run out of time to think about it because the orc seemed to have triangulated his position through his talking and cunning use of the light to see by and was charging at him with a... dagger? Well, that was odd. He though orcs used bigger weapons, but he supposed that this was one of those rare 'orc mages', so it didn't necessarily have to play by the rules.

Then again, he had to wonder why an orc mage would want to get into melee range with him in the first place. All the thing knew about him was that he was a Kiltharr, he was pretty sure he'd never met this here orc before. Or maybe it wasn't really a mage, it was just some form of warrior that could control fire somehow? Just born with the gift but it was really just a bash-things-on-the-head-ing brute? It was hard to say, but Stolatos just decided to classify this here orc as an oddity. That done, he readied himself for the orcs charge to reach him.

Really taking advantage of the continued low lighting that was only getting less and less now as time went on, Stolatos would simply bring his arm up in front of himself, wait until the orc was about a foot short of where the point would appear, and summoned Ch'taith to his hand. As always, the blade would take less then a second to appear, and given that it was dark black it would be all but invisible given the general gloom. His sword summoned before the Orc's charge, he would simply stand there and basically just let the orc run into it. That was the plan, anyways, to have the orc impale himself on the blade, which was held at the general level of the beast's heart in the center of its mass. His left foot dropped slightly backwards as he braced himself for impact.

Wolf has asked for a time-out and the rewards are as follows:

Wolf: 2 gold
Tengu: 1 gold