In Hawayden their enemies were already preparing the first weapons in the war, gossip, and hate.

“They like stinky things.” A child’s voice whispered on the playground, they didn’t really know what was going on, merely copied the adults in their life not realising said adults were horrible horrible people.

in a factory a worker who had been overlooked for a non human who worked just as much for terrible pay, and even less respect started to complain about stolen jobs, and it spread.

Local adventurers started picking non human allies less and less often as voices in the background muttered about their untrustworthiness. While the bars the adventurers frequented became less and less welcoming to any non human resident.

Then came the big ones. The Garuw had captured and imprisoned humans. They held them in that city of theirs for no good reason. Maybe they planned to enslave them or something, who knew for sure?

The city became a big bubbling pot of resentment, and everybody was far too angry to ask who was doing all the stirring. People became more nervous and on edge, people in this city (at least the human ones) had long considered themselves to be superior, an attitude that had been carefully cultivated for years in an effort to prevent them looking outside to the bigger and richer cities for trade. But now they were starting to notice how well others were doing, far too late. Envy is a nasty nasty beast, and right now it was rattling the bars, testing the limits.

Hands were starting to stray closer to weapons nowadays, particularly when a weeping woman claimed her child was amongst those captured. (She had never had a child, but things don’t have to be true to be believed. She had been paid enough to put on a very convincing act, and when she herself vanished a few days later? Well it just added to the whispers. Which were now mutters, (and shouting on street corners.)

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Back in his room Carsus Belli was hard at work, the rumours were spreading fast, but not fast enough for his tastes. It was time to arrange a few more mysterious disappearances. (Well not so mysterious to him, he just got a few people killed, and spread the story of the shrine in the woods to a few more fools. If they were daft enough to drink the damned stuff then more fool them, and if they tried to walk away, well unlucky for them. He didn’t want anything spreading beyond his control. That was bad for business, he just needed an excuse to claim the city, it was ridiculous to him that the Garuw were considered sovereign while he had to bow to a king.

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Still, no matter, the city would soon be his, and that was merely a first step. The Rattropolis gambit hadn’t worked out, but this time the Garuw had not one, but TWO Princesses in their city, if he could imply it was against their will, well he would be truly justified in rescuing them, and if The Princesses, poor wayward wanderers that they were could not be saved? His actions wouldn’t even be questioned on the legitimacy of his attack. Looking at the map again as his ambition grew he started to plan.

At this rate if he kept going one day he would even have a red robe, because pink was definitely not his colour.

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Mawri and Kawn were not happy, from what they had read in reports the number of humans who were picking fights these days was increasing at a terrifying rate, and from what they could see some of them weren’t even afflicted with the curse. To make matters worse they were completely out of dungeon space. There’s only so much room you can set up that way, particularly when the place in question is half a paw thick in padding. The non cursed humans were carefully contained in storage rooms pending a trial and fitting punishment. But for understandable reasons the courts here were stretched to the limits, and the guards were overworked.

Every once in a while the curse victims would settle their differences long enough to put up a real fight to escape. But it wasn’t like Mawri could simply let them go. They had to be contained until the curse ended for their own safety. Anybody who while weighing 9 stone wet through was willing to headbutt an ogre, and then upon failing try it again, and again, probably was not in possession of their faculties enough to be out solo. Let alone the grandma who swore she was a barbarian queen, and ran around in a bikini. So they had to be contained, who knew if the curse was even contagious. She had noticed a worrying trend of the guards who were in the dungeon for an overly long time getting a tad too into their role. Even adopting elaborate personas and playing along. (Something about a Garuw rolling over and playing dead, complete with foam sword tucked under a leg, long dialogue, and liberal use of tomato ketchup somewhat stung her pride as a Garuw, and she really disliked it when her people were playing “monster” roles. That line was one far too many nasty individuals were more than happy to blur without her own subjects lending them a paw to do so.)

That wasn’t even the strangest thing, some of them were even starting to sometimes play along even further, and side with the humans, and weirder still some of the humans had started to side with them too. It was like watching children play. If children playing had the potential to lead to a widespread diplomatic incident on a citywide scale. Mawri really really really didn’t like that. Somebody was trying to pick a fight with her territory, her pack. In that situation she would have no choice. The remaining guards alongside a few volunteers (including The Princesses and their entourage,) started to gear up and prepare the walls. They really hoped that this wouldn’t escalate further.