The Black Dragon's Den

[Keeper]

”Indeed. Of course, I have the luck of being both parents without either my current or future child having a normal birth and conception. At least I know one of them has turned out alright.”
He certainly sounds proud at least.

[Artemis]

Raril raises his coffee cup to Jace. "May your coming little one turn out well, too."

"It's hard to judge how 'well' someone's doing in my family. It depends on your perspective. But they're all alive, at least. I don't know if I can ask for more than that."

[Keeper]

”Kit will do just fine. I’ve been giving him lessons.”
Jace realizes how weird that sounds.
“Unicorns of thought are weird. You can be glad that being alive is your main concern for them.”
Jace’s daughter has been four different things in as many years. It’s a little worrying.

[Artemis]

"I want them to be happy, too, of course." Raril says. "Alive is kind of a bare minimum, but with drow you take what you can get."

[Keeper]

"...I admit I was hoping that drow weren't quite like how they are in my homeland, but fair enough."
Yeah they seem to be...not great society-wise in many worlds.
"At least unicorns have a much more positive reputation. Though people being in awe of me got old within
a day to be honest."

[Artemis]

"We tend to have a bad reputation everywhere, it seems." Raril agrees. "To add to it, I'm a Lycanthrope, too." He makes a bit of a clawing motion at Jace, as a joke. "Fortunately I'd had most of my kids before that hit me. The ones we had after I was afflicted were chimeras, anyway, so it didn't really effect them."

[Keeper]

"Hm. Did you get a different partner or did circumstances change?"
Obviously this is something Jace is rather experienced with, even if TECHNICALLY both his children will be unicorns if Khannie can just resist being weird for a few months.

[Artemis]

"I've had a few different partners." The drow admits. "My oldest two were with the first woman I loved, Sh'indra. Then I had a daughter with an elven woman I fell in love with on my first forays into the Surface. I didn't know about her until she found me in the Nexus, actually, I thought her mother had died in the war. Here in the Nexus, I found my current wife, Zee. She's... very changeable. She birthed a whole littler of chimeras, who grew up very quickly. They're partially creatures from the Far. Now we're adopting more children who are like Zee. Oh and there's Nadas and Ilpholin, they're..." He frowns. "They're from an ill-fated meeting. I sent them to the Underdark to be raised, afraid of what my wife might do to them... foolish. I should have known better." He sets his empty cup down with an angered thunk.

[Keeper]

Jace gives Raril only the tiniest glance as he agrees that yes, just about anyone should have known better than to willingly send their children to the Underdark to be raised. And it's not even his Underdark. He decides not to dwell on that point.
"I suppose technically neither of mine are with my fiancée but Veronica is close enough to a father for Kit. Unicorns are nonsense and the mortal in the equation is effectively a catalyst. Close enough."

[Artemis]

Raril blinks, his anger at himself evaporating into mild confusion. Veronica was the father? that's a female name... but Jace is the mother and decidedly male, so maybe that made sense?

"As you say." The drow replies shaking his head. "I've got grandchildren too. Erelae tells me Sornnolu has children. He won't talk to me about them, himself. Ilpholin has a son too. Cute little guy. Part Fey." Part horrifying fey, if the rumors he's heard about the father are true.

[Keeper]

"I am...not prepared to be a grandparent just yet. And I think I'm happy to say Khannie is not pushing that subject any time soon." He shakes his head.
"I suppose unicorns are immortal so we have plenty of time."

[Artemis]

"Heh, yeah, but it's their choice, right?" Raril says, then scratches the side of his head nervously. "Immortality, nice. Dying isn't fun. Wouldn't recommend it."

[Keeper]

"I really would have preferred having a choice in the matter, but at least I don't have to worry about leaving my daughter alone. She's been...probably-maybe immortal for a few years. She's been a few different things."
They weren't sure if pokemon-kumiho were immortal but they didn't want to find out.

[Artemis]

"I'd choose immortality, but I've seen the alternative. I understand wanting a choice, though. Choices are important. Choosing makes you a person." Raril says.

"I've made a lot of bad choices in my life, some were hardly a choice at all. If your choice is between doing something wrong or dying for it, you choose to live right? Choose to continue and maybe make better choices tomorrow. I don't know, maybe that's a coward's excuse."

[Keeper]

"Right. I was only told that my predecessor's last request was to give me a blessing, and here I am. I should have known, but I couldn't refuse a last request."
He tosses his head which is probably a shrug.
"I suppose like I said, I have all the time in the world for these things now."

[Artemis]

"Predecessor?" Raril echoes. "Can I ask what happened there?"

[Keeper]

"I was on a quest to find a legendary Blue Unicorn. I found him, mortally wounded from a magical organ-hunter. When I asked what I could do for him, he requested I look after his home and accept his blessing. His blessing was all his powers, with the horn and hooves." Jace explains.
"We really ought to have seen it coming." adds the familiar.

[Artemis]

"Oh dear." Raril scowls. "to kill something so pure as a unicorn...I hope you killed the bastard." He says with a snarl.

[Keeper]

"Oh, Jastes' horn was already covered in blood and I found the hunter's body dead on the ground with
a hole in her chest."
He blinks.
"And yes, my name is Jace and my predecessor was Jastes."

[Artemis]

"Went down fighting." Raril nods in approval.

His ears twitch slightly at the similar names. "I wasn't going to say anything about it." Drow names were complicated enough, the two probably sounded very different to his ears.

"I'm glad no one's hunting werewolves, at least. Even though things got funny a while back." He glances at a group of drow huddled at a table. They're openly watching him. Most looked like guards employed by the city, a noble house, or Delmah Phor directly. Each one also wore a pewter wolf's head amulet. A similar one rested against Raril's chest.

[Keeper]

"You mean the blood moon? Or the other blood moon? Or something else?"
Apparently there's been multiple incidents of something like that happening.
Jace does not discuss his history with lycanthropy. He never discusses that. Some things are private.

[Artemis]

"The most recent blood moon, stuff was spreading like wildfire. I managed to keep myself to my office, but then my son, Nadas, opened the door and I got him, then he and I got a bunch of the patrons. So I've accidentally become the Alpha of my own little pack."

[Keeper]

"Well, I suppose there's worse things to be infected by. I am quite happy to report that I have no followers to speak of. Which is good. Apparently unicorns can have priests and warlocks and I want precisely none of that even if I am technically a god by a very specific definition. A silly one, name you."
Yes, terribly silly. He's just an embodiment of the concept of purpose and determination in equine form. Nothing divine about that.

[Artemis]

"Yeah, Wolves are quite noble creatures, when you get down to it." Raril agrees. "Immortal and able to grant powers? Fairly godlike to me. Though, Fey and Daemons can claim the same."

[Keeper]

"Bah! It's maybe one or two people at most. Completely different." Jace insists. He glances around the room as he looks for another subject. He glances between the drow at the table and Raril, wondering if that's something that is supposed to be happening.

[Artemis]

"Oh don't mind them." Raril says to Jace, noticing him looking at the table of drow. "That's the group that got turned. In some ways, they answer to me, but really they answer to my family. Keep an eye on me. Make sure I'm not plotting." The drow smirks, but at the same time dug a finger under the golden choker he was wearing, emblazoned with the spider-on-web symbol of House Xar'Cha.

[Keeper]

"...from what you have told me, it sounds like there are issues with your family."
Given that he is being watched right this very moment, Jace thinks it's best to leave it at that.
"I didn't think that's quite how werewolf packs work."

[Artemis]

Raril shrugs. "I don't know much about it myself, to be honest. Been a werewolf for years, but the pack thing is new. I know they have to answer to other masters, too. Better to let them do their job than try to interrupt that. Safer for them. At least we're all in the Nexus. We'd be slain if we were in the Underdark."

[Keeper]

”…I can’t help but feel like you live in a very precarious position.”
Now that’s an understatement. But then, Jace has never had to deal with politics of any kind before really.

[Artemis]

Raril laughs, perhaps a bit longer than necessary. "Hoo boy, you don't know the half of it. If I could get my sisters off my back." He tugs at the collar again. "I'd be a lot happier. It's less me, even, and more my children. I worry for them all."