"What he said," Mits agrees with Eli, raising an eyebrow at his notes, "Ask me later, and I might be able to answer some of your questions, kiddo."

She smiles at the newcommer.  So cuuute!

"This is the place.  Of awesomeness!  Before you are the heroes of the town.  Rhagar, Dagger, Eli, and yours truely!  Mittens!  Welcome!  What's your name, she with the pleasant voice."

Dagger blinks as she spies upon the newcomer.  "A harpy!!"  She starts to throw what's in her hands at the harpy when she realizes her hands are full of tacos.  She pauses as she conciders acting upon instinctual spite against the feathered one, or keeping tacos to herself.  As if in answer, she stuffs the taco in one hand into her maw and reaches for another.

---

The harpy giggles softly at the reactions, really she's kind of used to it.  "Nice to meet you all!  My name's Kyokuu, I'm a singing bard!  I'm a harpy too but that's not important really.  I did hear there was a taco party here though and I had to come check it out!"

Eli would argue that what you are born as is pretty important. Even from a non-racist perspective. But then, depends on what constitutes import. "The taco party was mostly for the heroes... but if you want a taco, I could buy you one..."

The bartender says, "NONSENSE! I'll not have the heroes spend a single copper today! If you so desire for her to get a taco, then she will get a taco. On me."

Eli cringed, startled from the bartender's outburst. Then slowly nods. _"..ok.."

He then looks up at Mittens with a hopeful smile. "You'll teach me? Yay?"

  "See, she's a better parent already." Who you are born from is also supposedly important, but sometimes you get defectives who don't even come back to try and mooch free tacos off their son's reputation.

  While Rhagar would disapprove of wasting food, he could also appreciate a strong 'out of spite' reaction.  Spite is more powerful than The Force, after all.  Confirmed by watching five jedi botch force jumps and fall into electrified water while the noodle armed gunsmith nailed the Olympic leap.

Rose hides behind Eli.

"A song bird, huh?" Mits says with a wry smile, "Bet you never heard that one before.  Sarcasm!

"Anyway.  Was gunna offer you my share, but you're being thrown food without my intervention it seems.  I would like to hear a song when you're ready to sing, though."

She nods at lil Eli.  "Sure.  Just ask questions, and I'll answer if I can.  Don't know much about many things, but when it comes to monsters I'm a veritable encyclopedia."

Dagger decides to opt for the more peaceful path of not starting a fight with a harpy since currently she as friends and free food.  No need to risk losing that.  For now she just listens and watches the harpy warily as she noms.

---

Kyokuu chirps softly and smiles, "Oh!  I'd love to sing!"  She walks on over to the bar counter and rewards Eli's offer with a nice feathery hug!  "Awwww thankyou so much, you're such a sweety!"  She grins at the bartender, "And I'd be happy to pay.  By coin or by song."

Eli's face turns red almost immediately.

The bartender says, "Song it is! But don't sing on an empty stomach!" he hands Kyokuu a taco.

The people go quiet in anticipation of the oncoming song.

  Rhagar isn't too worried about the random stranger hugging someone else, it's not the wings that are the sharp part or a harpy, duh.

Rose slunk under a table when the harpy approached.

Mits wasn't born yesterday, so she's keeping a close eye out for hostility from the harpy.  But hugs aren't hostile, so she shrugs.

"Yeah.  After eating was what I was implying when I mentioned 'when she's ready.'"

Kyokuu awws at Eli's blushing and hugs again before carefully taking a taco up between the 'wrists' of her wings to nibble on, "Well okay!"  She chirps happily, "Mm what kind of song do you want to hear?"

One of the crowd immediately says, "One about the local heroes!"

Another says, "Can't expect her to just invent a song right here and now! How about just a song of hero-praise?"

Seems the crowd is definitely in hero-worship mode.

  "I would be perfectly fine with nice things about me being made up." it would be a short song, otherwise.

Short...  Like his wings!  Nyah hah!  >.>  <.<  I'm terrible.  But speaking of which...

"Looks like Ragar isn't the king of wing size any more.  So long as the song is pleasant, I'm fine with whatever."

I'll sing a song from my native land.  SCREEECH!  SCREEEAM!  Did I mention I was terrible?

Kyokuu totally has bigger wings than Rhagar, but he has arms with hands and fingers and opposable thumbs so.... yeah.

The harpy giggles and nods, munching a couple more tacos before singing The Hunter's Mark.

(Love this song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOaCvz_kLFU )

Eli can't help but bob to the tune after a few verses.

The crowd, of course, eats it up and when Kyokuu is done singing, they all applaud!

Eli glances over to check on his companions and see how they each reacted.

  Rhagar liked the song, you can tell because he's actually smiling for once (well okay he was smiling when he stabbed that guy in the brain earlier).  The clapping helps too.

  "Well, that was pleasant."

Mittens nods and claps, looking impressed.

"Wow.  Nice.  So I was wondering about what the bartender commented earlier about today being 'weird day.'  What's everyone's story?  I'll give my own after everyone else goes."

Dagger can't help but be impressed by the song.  as for her story?  "Me?  Well I just came here cause I travel a lot, and wanted to drink and have a fun time."

---

Kyokuu giggles and gives a bow before nabbing another taco to nibble on.  "I'm a traveling bard.  I go to different places, sing songs of happyness and joy and hugs and fun stuffs!"

Eli goes to hide with Rose. "I'll only tell if Rose does." he says defensively.

The crowd does look intensely curious about the answers of the heroes to Mittens' question.

  "I came her to buy some lunch, ended up getting it.  I think you might be the only one who came here today hoping to find things to smash later."  Well, unless Mittens was also adept at nonviolent justice?

Rose shakes her head and puts her finger to her lips.

Mits huhs.  "So disparate collection of powerful individuals of diverse races converged upon this inn by coincidence.  Or perhaps providence.  Because it was just before a bunch of orcs decided to raid the place for fun.

"Well I was an adventurer of some repute.  Me and my sibs would travel about in search of wrongs to right.  We got killed for our troubles by powerful evil mastermind.  But mere death was not enough to stop our hunt for justice!  No!  Now even in our afterlife we do as we did in life.  Defend the defenseless.  Avenge the victims.  And so forth.  Didn't think this place needed but a little help maybe, but apparently much was needed and available."

She glances Eli's way.  "Beyond his rude dad who wanted to make him drink a zombie, I only know that this kid is quite talented in magic.  The kind that helped save many lives today."

Dagger hums softly, "Has to be coincidence.  I mean think of all the other taverns that gets all kinds of patrons of all shapes an sizes but don't become an orc stomping ground."  She shrugs, "I'm not complainin' mind you, made my day meeting all of you.  It's just that the only kind of providence that was ever taught to my tribe was serve the master dragon, or get eaten."

---

Kyokuu chirps softly at Mittens and grins, "Sounds like you've had an exciting journey full of adventures!  Care to share some stories?"

Eli loves where the discussion with Dagger is potentially going. But doubts it will go there. "Fate is the kind of thing people have been arguing about for as long as there have been societies. Some believe fate can not be avoided. Some believe that only parts of fate can be avoided, but not the bigger parts. Still others believe fate is completely shaped by mortals."

  Rhagar thinks fate depends on how closely you are holding to a module or campaign notes, really.  Wait, no, that's what his player thinks.

  "With or without fate, ridiculous coincidences happen all the time.  Though I suppose that is more likely than most expect when life is full of things that spit fire or ask the gods for dating advice."

"Considering how most gods' relationships don't end well, I would think it unwise to ask them for advise," Mits says, "But considering I went to the afterlife and back, it would be kinda silly for me to deny the reality of divine influence.  I'm of the middle ground camp.  Some events are beyond even the power of the gods to prevent such as the Dawn Wars.  Others even a baby has the power to control.  Such as the war between the backyard ant colony and the beetle.  The more power one has, the more influence over fate.  I aim to gather as much as I can to influence history for the better as much as possible.  For example, 'In the year 1271, the village of Summersville was ransacked by a tribe of orcs and completely destroyed' became '...was defended by a band of heroes.'"