Once outside, Mittens finds a couple soldiers and adventurers on horseback with another prison wagon or two.  She skews her lips some, coming to a realization.

"Well I suppose we'll be on foot from now on, then," she thinks out loud with a sigh, "Nya.  Not so much the walking as the slow going that I'm not too fond of."

"Then please accept my horse and wagon as my thanks for your helping my home," one of the villagers offers, "They're nothing fancy, but they're sturdy enough to make the journey to Southport."

"I accept your offer!" Mittens answers with a big smile, "Thank you for your thanks!"

Emerald gets aboard the thing with Mittens and the others. She nods to the man, "Thank you. If we're able, we'll see about returning it to you some day."

Eli nods, "Yes. Thanks. Your appreciation does mean a lot to us."

Reverie says,
"When we have rescued many lives,
And come to show we have survived,
Remember that you had a part
By giving us your humble cart."

Liberty says, "Thanks." in a simple tone. Then looks at Mittens. "Prophecies and all. Guess the gods really ARE interested in us accomplishing this goal some time this decade."

Emerald says, "They wouldn't have given dreams to Reverie and Mittens otherwise, I imagine."

Reverie says,
"I'm unsure the source of this dream of mine,
Because its prophetic by its design
But whether god or star gave it to me,
Your statement still rings true, clearly."

Emerald ohs and nods. "Heh... sorry. Forgot you keep in touch with them."

The bunch now aboard the cart, they take off to save time. Emerald offers to take turns driving. Eli also offers, saying he has been trained by his tutors on how to.

Liberty just kinda closes her eyes and seems to meditate.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:49, Wed 23 Mar 2011.

"I'm skeptical that this reward for our efforts had any divine intervention involved," Mittens says, "But who knows.  And of course we can swap out driving duty."

The group makes good progress Southward, the light rain stops, but the clouds keep the sky gray.  Most they pass have no clue about any mind-controlling guy on horseback.  Hours pass, and at about lunch time one says he saw some hoof prints leading off the path that were strange.  Strange for the direction and speed.  Whoever it was was going full speed to a place the locals know to be haunted.  Ye olde, "Few who go that way ever come back."

He gives directions to where the tracks began.

"So shall we investigate?" Mittens asks the others, "Could be the guy we've been looking for."

Emerald nods. "It's not like we got many options, is it?" she says with a smile before taking a bite of her sandwich. Narrative did say lunch time.

Eli is reading a book intently and doesn't even seem to notice what Mittens said.

Reverie simply nods and follows along.

Liberty says, "So now that we don't have Unity laws to worry about, do we still have to NOT kill?"

Eli says, "Yes." ...so he was paying attention.

Liberty ducks her head, giving a harrumph expression.

"I'm gunna have to agree with Eli," Mittens says, "For practical reasons if nothing else.  A dead enemy can't exactly tell us who he works for, where their boss's hideout is, what sort of doom they have planned, etc.  Well... I suppose the can if you have the talk to dead ritual, but then the threat of killing them if they don't talk is just plain silly.  Onward!"

It very quickly becomes obvious that the cart is no good for driving in wooded areas.  It will have to be left behind.

((OOC: It will not be stolen.  Note to Joe's character.  Feel free to pose in you were strolling down the road?  Or... was resting just out of line of sight? ))
This message was last edited by the player at 23:24, Sat 26 Mar 2011.

  At the steady pace of Two 6 Speed Move Actions Per Turn, a commonly dressed Brass colored Warforged had recently entered the wooded area.  Why was he here?  Because he too had heard the comments about the place being haunted.  Why did this make him come here?

  He had never punched a Ghost before.  Duh?

  However, an entire cart worth of talking people has just pulled up to where he was a minute ago.  A bit hard for even him not to notice.  Now he was faced with a difficult choice.  Keep going, or turn around and walk back the way he came a few minutes ago... Hey, backtracking is always a hassle.  It's walking in an away direction from Adventure.  In the end however, finding out who else would be heading towards reputedly haunted wherever won out over wondering if they would ever catch up with someone who walks just as if not faster than them.

 After he went back the way he came enough to see Team Not-Unity, he waved hello and said, "Hello, are you here to take a look at the haunted whatever too?  Or just passing by?"
This message was last edited by the player at 07:10, Sun 27 Mar 2011.

Emerald nods, "We are here for the Haunted whatever as you put it. Your asking such insinuated you are here for that too."

Eli ooos at Brass. He's shiny and gold-like just like a brass instrument. Unless he isn't, but without a description, one can only go by the guy's name. Either way, the boy walks over to examine him.

Reverie is quiet for the moment, letting the others converse.

Liberty looks cautious and watches Brass closely. "Where are you from and what do you swear your allegiance to?"

"Ahem," Mittens throat-clears, "Please pardon the lack of introductions from my allies.  My name is Mittens, this is Emerald, Eli, Reverie, and Liberty.  Nice to meet you."

She pounds her armored fist against her armored chest with a nice loud clang in salute to Brass.

  While his player is still too lazy to write a desc and BG for their Cast Click, indeed the Warforged is of the brassy metal sort as his opening post suggests... Though we did drop the ball on how shiny he was.  The answer is 'you can almost see your fuzzy fox face in his' shiny.

  Brass looks over to Liberty and says "Well, like most Warforged I came from a hole in the ground and ended up with an unimaginative name, Brass in my case.  Though if you mean where I spent most of my time after that, Luraur mostly."  He considers deeply, finger tapping on his chin with the expected sound effects.  "Allegiance, my allegiance...  It hasn't come up now that I think about it.  Did I have to swear allegiance to someone?  What if they turn out to be a bunch of jerks?"

  He shrugs,  "Anyways, nice to meet you.  Yeah, I'm heading that way because haunted things are supposedly in that direction."
  See?  Completely unsuspicious!
This message was last edited by the player at 05:01, Mon 28 Mar 2011.

Liberty says, "What a coincidence. I came from a hole too. As for allegiances, I asked what, not who. I agree that swearing allegiance to a person is a gamble. But everyone swears allegiance to some kind of ideal. Even if the ideal is something lame like being too lazy to be bothered with ideals." Which is really just the ideal of "I'm a useless being" in Liberty's opinion.

Liberty looks in the direction they were going. "We can chat on the way to save time. C'mon." She begins walking down the trail.

Eli says, "Nice to meet you too, Brass. You're shiny." he smiles. He walks with the others as well, but keeps checking out Brass from tip to toe. "Should warn you, though. Ours is an abrasive group. Liberty is probably making sure you aren't evil or something since we just met you." He considers warning Brass about Mittens, but figures it's not worth it. Mittens would just get angry and go on about stuff again.

He eyes Mittens, though. With his new shield spell, and improved defenses, he wonders how he would fair against her. He knows better than to use sleep, though. This world only respects violence. And Mittens "I'll do anything to show I mean I'm sorry. Except that. And that. And that." would definitely never forgive Eli if he defeated her with such a spell as sleep anyway.

When he realizes he is probably staring a Mittens a bit TOO much, he goes back to shyly looking at the ground. He considers his options for the future.

Emerald says, "Eli exaggerates. We've been cut down in size a bit. Our whole group isn't abrasive. Just some. But an ally is an ally and we are happy to see one. So welcome to the team. So are you the sword-swingin' type of Warforged? The spell-slignin' type? Or something else?"

Personally, she is kinda proud she has avoided a spar with Mittens. Probably because she knew to just not bring it up or say anything about it.

Reverie had indeed been too paranoid over hurting Mittens. And the thanks she got was Mittens insulting her and telling her she's arrogant, selfish, etc. The girl isn't thinking about that, though, as she is enthralled by what Eli said about Brass being shiny. She doesn't comment, simply mesmerized.

  Brass starts following along, "Eh, Sticks and stones and all that line.  Though I don't exactly have bones.  And words have been known to cause explosions.  So really that saying makes no sense at all, who came up with it anyway?"

  The spell name 'Power Word Kill' came from this Setting in general, after all.

  "If I need some Ideal to hang out with you, I guess I'll go with 'find out if this place is really haunted and why'.  A bit short term and literal, but at least it's more specific than 'crush all evil everywhere'.  As for what I do, my work experience involves mining and punching things."

 Stupid cheap mine owner, why couldn't he use a pickaxe just cause he's got metal hands?.

"Abrasive, yes," Mittens agrees as she follows along, "But non-lethal.  We're on a quest from Unity to find some human who mind-controlled a bunch of kobolds, stole a horse, and fled South.  These tracks here are the only lead we've got so far.  Oh yeah.  Non-lethal.  Unity preferrs it's prisoners alive.  Eli preferrs non-violence on top of that, but... yeahthat'snotgunnahappen.  Also, we plan to question him about a number of things.  Which is easier to do if he's alive.  Also, considering he's a known mind-controller, there's a chance that his minions could possibly be victims, and not villains.  So yeah.  No killing.  I'm guessing that if you're confident in your ability to survive a ghost hunt alone, you're also likely to be skilled enough to know how to defeat an enemy without killing them.  Am I right?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:49, Tue 29 Mar 2011.

  Brass considers this, then nods.  "Sure, I can skip killing things.  Though, what happens if we fight zombies or ghosts and other things that are already dead?  Do I have to figure out how to punch them in a way that brings them back to life, then knock them unconscious?  I mean, sure, it's not killing them.  But it just seems kinda mean."

  Perhaps Brass is putting a little bit too much thought into the 'don't kill anyone' request.

"Defeating an undead doesn't count as killing someone, I'm pretty sure," Mittens answers, "At least... not by my standards.  Though if you figure out how to do all that, I'd be very interested to know how.  And you have my permission to bring me back to life with a punch if that's at all possible."

Emerald says, "You can't kill a corpse, animated or not. They are already dead. Think of it like a crossbow or a portcullis. They are not living, yet they move and can hurt you if you are in their way when they move. Yet, if you destroyed either one, you are not killing them."

Eli says, "I can definitely tell you destroying an undead doesn't count as killing them."

  Brass ohs,  "I guess Unity isn't a popular vacation spot for Revenants then." He could also imply it would be a bad time for 'unliving' constructs like himself as well, but they hadn't exactly bee quite so 'obliterating them is A-Okay' explicit there so hey, why not have some optimism?

  Elsewhere, an Elven Revenant wonders if an Ex-Coworker is talking about him again.