As I neared the end of my bottle the guest that entered behind me had arrived, he was a small man, around four foot two, with a large beard and bulbous head, a gnome I presume. It’s a rare sight to see one actively seeking out other people but today has just been full of surprises so I don’t know why I’m shocked. He skittishly stepped out of the stairwell and looked around like a frightened rabbit but don’t be fooled, they are vicious. These skittish creatures feast exclusively on the livers of young animals and will kill anything that gets in the way of that.

The small man looked the room over and quickly skittered to the table on the far end, an older servant slowly approached and started to patiently coax an order out of him, it looks like some servants are well trained on how to deal with certain creatures. By the end of the gnomes order I had finished my drink and bone, the girl from last time quickly approached with a lot more confidence and took my order again, which was the same thing. Once she took my order, she reached down to grab my bottle and the fragments of bone but I grabbed her arm, I could feel that I would be here for a while and I wanted something to do.

When I stopped her she tried to jerk her hand back and looked at me with no small amount of terror. Not wanting to scare her any more than I already have I slowly released my hand and gave her a slight mental wave of reassurance, It seems that I need to work on my people skills. She calmed down after a second and bowed before leaving to retrieve my order. I feel a little bad now, it’s one thing tormenting bad men and monsters, it’s a whole other thing scaring an innocent young girl.

With a sigh, I turned back to the bone fragments on my table and began to mess with them. I carefully began arranging them into a base and started building up from there. While I was engrossed in my work the girl placed another drink and bone beside me before quickly walking off. I grabbed the bottle and took a swig before resuming, a small figure was quickly forming in front of me and soon I had a blank humanoid shape made of bone and held together by magic. The sharp shards made it appear jagged and menacing so I decided to work off of that, a face slowly took form with a wide smiling mouth full of dagger-like teeth and hollow glowing eyes. Next, a hunched back with arms slightly touching the floor, tipped with brutal claws appeared, and on digitigrade legs with sickle-like talons, the figure stood completed.

By the time it was finished my bottle was empty and two guests had arrived, a rail-thin, lanky, bald man and a white serpent. The bald man had exaggerated proportions and digitigrade legs with loose stark white skin. All of his features were loose and unrealistic, and his face was droopy and emotionless. The serpent was also a stark white but the color looked a lot more lively than the man’s, it was a decent size around twenty feet long but it was a bit thin around as thick as a grown man's arm.

The man chose to sit close to the trio while the serpent claimed a table near me. A servant quickly went up to take her order but when she tried to use telepathy to convey it, the servant dropped to the ground and started seizing, she probably accidentally put too much force behind it. I could tell there was no malicious intent behind the act so I decided to help her out. With a few mental alterations the man's mind was back on track, he groggily got up and looked around before another servant brought him away and a new servant took his place. The new man was guarded but didn’t let it show, I doubted the serpent would do any better this time judging from the distress radiating off her so I sent a mental tether over and guided her on how to reduce the force behind her telepathy.

She caught on quickly and placed an order before turning her head to me and nodding slightly. It’s rare to see a twilight serpent and even more so for such a young one, I wonder why it would be here of all places. I decided that a good relationship would be nice so I sent some greetings over in which she responded in kind, and after a few more pleasantries her food had arrived so I decided to let her eat in peace. The surprises seem to be never-ending today.

After a sigh I turned my attention back to my sculpture and began enchanting it, I didn’t just make this thing out of boredom after all. With a heavy dose of magic and some precise control, I had a mental hazard, anyone who viewed its eyes will have it haunt them. The sculpture itself doesn’t do anything but the creature itself will manifest around them, it will start slowly at first but it will drive the victim into madness if left untreated. A cruel smile appeared as I thought of its first victim, the owl.