Celeste:
You send Stanton out to pick up Jessica and to get his hands on some oil for anointment. You then enter human form and hit the town yourself. You end up at The Greased Halfling, a tavern so crappy they serve you in your ugly base form. The bartender looks up and smiles.
"Celeste! It has been awhile. What can I get you?" You sigh and shake your head. Booze has a bad habit of messing up your ability to perform magic, but you can't afford to make trouble. "Whatever you can get me for this." you reply as you slide a silver coin across the counter. You pause for a second "This place is so empty, I can cover the next round for everybody with a silver right?"
The barkeep nods, takes your coin, and passes tankards of foul tasting ale to you and the other four patrons. "Oh boy. Drinks on Celeste. You are courting magical favors aren't you? How is Stanton doing by the way. Havn't talked to him since I lost my quarry job last month."
You turn to the short but strangely brawny figure before you. "Oh he is doing fine. Doubt you'll see him again though. The pair of us are moving to a orci-" you are cut short in your lie by the truly revoling taste of your drink. "Barkeep. DID YOU MIX YOUR ALE WITH SEWER BREW?"
Hutch turns to you and speaks before the bartender can. "Must of gotten my drink. I just got plain old shitty ale I'm afraid. What kinda work are you offering. You want to turn me into some vermin and spy on that whore again?"
You shake your head. Stanton may be a bit strange from time to time, but his ex-coworker and often implied half brother Hutch is a sick freak in comparison. You suspect that he is an Orc/Halfling hybrid, and you know from your studies of mortal forms that such unions are infertile without powerful magic. "Nah. No spy work. Just need a messenger bird. You did that for me once right?"
The strange humanoid nods rapidly. "Yeah. Same price as before?"
"Sur-" you begin to reply when some poor stranger in the corner pipes in. "I'll do it for free. I've always wanted to fly!"
Hutch looks downtrodden as his offer is beaten, but helps the others clear out the middle of the room for your ritual. You tell your volunteer to step forward and lay hands on him. "Alright. I am going to recite some incantations, while I do so you are to repeat the following phrase under your breath without pause and as quickly as you can: 'I will seek the hag Agurtha and tell her that the required spell component has arrived.' Once you take avian form the spirits will guide you in hunting down the message recipient, and then back to me to reassume your base form. Understood?"
The human nods and you quickly instruct him to begin reciting. As soon as he starts to speak you begin your incantation.
"I exault the glory of nature with the roar of a wild beast!
I request that nature repay my loyalty with the aid of element air!
Mortal, allow your mind to fill with new purpose!
Mortal, abondon thought, and let the spirits of nature guide you!"
The stranger's body begins to shift and warp as you finish your incantations. Suddenly his clothes fall to the floor and a beautiful white parrot struggles free of the man's jacket before flying out the door.
The other three patrons in the bar applaud your trick. You spend several hours getting good and drunk before take your leave. About 30 minutes after returning home the parrot finds you, with a quick magical gesture you turn him back into a now toungles human. You feign confusion in reguards to his condition and are about to send him on his way when Stanton opens the door and drags a kicking and screaming Jessica into your house.
"Alright." You say with a slight frown. "Now I think the mute as seen too much, Stanton block off the door and don't let either of these poor folk leave... Oh, Hello Jessica. It has been awhile." You smirk devilishly. "Did you know that the captor/captive relationship is one with authority? I could have your soul if Stanton were to say that I could. Stanton by the way would do anything for me, because he loves me for what I am! THAT IS WHY HE HAS A LOVER WHO WILL GO OUT OF HER WAY TO SAVE HIS EXISTENCE, WHILE YOU ARE JUST A WORTHLESS WHORE DOOMED TO SERVE AS SPARE PARTS FOR MY SPELL!"
You take a deep breath and are suddenly overcome by the urge to end your old friends suffering. You draw you sabre in one hand and pull out a chunk of quartz in the other. "Spirits..." you sob "give me the strength to do this."
---
Agurtha:
You wander the streets and look for someone who looks to be about the age where he or she could be a parent with young children. Eventually you find a man in his late twenties closing up a shop. You lock eyes with him and place your evil eye hex upon the victim; a scowl spreads across his face almost instantly and informs you that your spell has taken effect.
You stalk him home, and to your luck the sound of a baby crying can be heard as soon as he opens the door!
You return to your wagon to wait for the spell to work him down. If you time it right you will find him at the point of utter desperation, where he would be willing to give his own life in exchange for riches for his family. If you don't leave the spell on him long enough he may not accept your offer. If you wait too long the mental anguish may lead him to harm himself or his family.
Your stomach rumbles. Maintaining your hex carries a huge caloric cost. You begin to eye the soulless elven ranger hungerly. Elf organ taste wonderful raw, and it has been so long since you last got to make a bloody mess in your wagon...
You are interrupted by a parrot flying into your wagon. "Celeste informs you that your required spell component has arrived."
With a single fluid motion you grab the bird. "Indeed it has..." you reply as you carefully cut out the tongue with your cleave.
---
Koral:
You decide to prepare some nasty spells for the assault. One by one you call each Orc and Kobold over and ask their name before drawing on them a quick rune in ash and reciting the following incantation.
"Only death worthy of a savage soldiers heart is fire!"
You inform your 'friends' that the ritual is to bring good fortune in battle. In reality you have just turned them all into bombs; ready to explode in a massive fireball at any point over the next couple days by reciting your secret powerword and the unwitting maytar's name.
You fly up to your cave and fetch a down feather from your stockpile. You place the feather on the ground and ask all present to lay hands on it. Once you get your 'allies' participating you recite a prayer to the sky in the forgotten language of the storm gaints. Suddenly a powerful hunger grips the entire group.
"That just sapped a days worth of eating from all of us." You explain relatively eloquently in your native Orcish.
The feather twists, extends, and changes form to a bolt of solid lighting. "It explodes when I throw it. It gets 5 meters of electrified blast radius for each of us that contributed. It will spare all those involved in it's making from any harm. 'Bolt of the Storm Giants' they call it, but I think it was us hags that came up with the idea in the first place. Now then, why don't you all run along and put your new weapons to use finding me some food!"
Your expendable minions dash off, eager to satisfy their now aching stomachs.