Pyrus is hoping to catch his quarry in the wild but is expectin the tracks to lead right back to town, forcing him to resort to Streetwise checks.  He wears a blank, unimpressed look when introduced to the human girl with the delicate name.  When she disappears, he nods to Sora.  "Very good, Sora.  Presumably she doesn't expect payment up front for her services?"

  "They seemed a bit too enthusiastic about it to risk not going because we're broke."  Rhagar would have also made some comments about how they've only met Sora a week ago too, but this is the sort of setting where Combat Grade Friendship (or at least tolerance) can happen in a matter of seconds.

Sora shrugs. "From what I know about Butterfly? Rhagar's probably right."

Morthos skews his mouth to the side, arms folded. "Well what's it matter. If she can track, that's all you guys want, right?"

Sora says, "Well... anyone would take services for free over services for a fee."

Morthos chuckles. "Except the overly pious, who feel the need to pay for services whether they're free or not."

Sora says, "Lucky for me, I'm not overly pious."

Butterfly comes to the door, carrying adventuring gear and a bow. "Whatchya need tracked?"

Pyrus nods to what's said, but "probably" and "seems" aren't enough to satisfy him.  He gives a quick recap of what's happened so far so Butterfly knows what she's getting herself into.  She's plenty old enough to know better than to get involved in a potentially deadly quest if it turns out she really is as delicate as her name suggests.

"You would be tracking the two who fled the scene of the ambush," he concludes, "If you accept the task, would you charge for your services?"

  Rhagar digs through his woefully tiny coin pouch in the face of Pyro's economic grumbling "I got a couple gold, I guess. I'm not paying arrow expenses though."

  Rhagar, that's not how you 'win' are bartering with the NPCs.
This message was lightly edited by the player at 05:11, Thu 10 Nov 2011.

Butterfly huhs? "Pay? Nah. This is a favor for Sora and her pals. I'll not be charging anyone."

Sora just has a knowing smile on her face. Like she doesn't even have to say "told you so" But then as hard as Pyrus and Rhagar worked to jinx it, is it any wonder Butterfly isn't asking for money?

Butterfly asks, "Take me to where you saw them last and I can start."

Pyrus doesn't mind being proven wrong when being proven right would be a nuisance.  Besides, he wasn't insisting she would or should charge.  Just preventing a surprise bill later on.

"I see you choose good friends, Sora," he says, "Very good, Miss Butterfly.  Your aid in this matter is appreciated.  Right this way."

He leads the way to the site of the ambush.

  Rhagar finds this convenient, no shock there.  "At least this whole situation is still fairly recent.  I get the feeling the next few hours will be very busy."  Well, that or an extended boring period of trailing behind Butterfly followed up by six minutes of eye bulging terror.

Sora seems proud from what Pyrus just said. She nods to him and follows Butterfly. As the human girl takes the lead, Sora asks, "So when we catch up to the enemy and kick their butts, what's the plan? Drag them back to town? Or are we going to interrogate them on the spot?"

Morthos says, "They'll need to go to town eventually anyways to face trial, right?"

Pyrus nods in agreement with Rhagar's prediction.  He smirks and enjoys the beauty of Sora taking pride in her wise choices.  To her question he nods.  "Likely both.  If either of them survive a confrontation with us, I do want to question them myself.  Each one separately if possible.  Their story may change depending on who's asking the questions and where.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if they beg to die rather than be taken back to town and handed over to the humans.  Ideally, they're just simple idiots, confess publicly their petty vendetta, and we can move on.  But I doubt we'll get such a favorable outcome."

  "Really, any outcome where they stop messing with us is a favorable outcome.  So we got some leeway there at least."  Rhagar can't help but wonder if headbutts will be a requirement of persuasion methods... Nah, too awesome to happen.

Butterfly is certainly focused on her task, and gets on the trail. But once she has the trail, she goes back to being a social butterfly (pun intended). "So tell me a bit about yourselves? How do you know each other and why would anyone want to do this to you?"

Sora says, "I don't have any enemies like *this*. That I know of, anyway. Unless they are enemies of my parents. But this seems more focused on giving Morthos a bad name. As for how I know these guys? Well Rhagar's always been a friend from around town while Pyrus was the local bully's bully that I looked up to during late childhood."

Pyrus grunts a chuckle when Sora describes him as a bully's bully.  "I am a sorcerer of fire," he answers, "I take it that bow of yours isn't just for show?  You'll be ready to fire at these villains if things turn violent, won't you?"

  Rhagar shrugs, "Some people are just assholes.  Though if this turns out to be one of those crazy things where someone is 'testing us for a greater purpose' I'm going to need a new carrikal.  After I break this one over their head."

  In regards to Sora's more pleasant subjects, he says "No great story involved, sometimes nice people like to hang out with nice people.  I'm not sure where that leaves Pyrus and myself though."  No singing, no stories.  You are a terrible bard.

Butterfly does that one pursed-lips smile teenage girls seem perfect at ( http://i467.photobucket.com/al...lovestuck123/9-1.jpg ) as she looks over her shoulder at Pyrus. Definitely an expression only a human could pull off. Butterfly answers, "Yessir. Anyone messes with you bunch, they can expect an arrow in their weapon-arm."

Sora chuckles. She then says, "Well it's good you can handle your end of combat. You'd be useful enough just with your tracking skill. But the fact you can use that bow is very nice." And makes Butterfly a warrior in Sora's eyes, thus someone as much more worthy of trustful respect as an adult would be compared to a child.

Pyrus approves of weapon-bashing anus-people who 'test you for a greater purpose' against your will, so he gives a deep chuckle.

"Sora's right.  Good to hear your foes will meet with such decisive action.  And aiming to disable is preferable - so we can question them afterward."

  "I only broke that Goblins mind on accident, I swear.  I didn't know they take those comments so seriously."  Minions, such fragile things in the end.

  The whole 'Warriors are better' thing is probably why Sora tolerates Rhagar.  Sure, he's a Bard who can't even handle a melee basic.  But at least he's got a sweet axe.

  And Pyrus has a fire shotgun, who cares if they can't mele-... Oh, right. Dragon Sorcerer.  Pyrus can piledriver his enemies if he so chose.

OOC Style: When I look at that image link, my tired mind thinks '...Is that a doll?'

Soon, the party is led to an encampment of goblins somewhere. It looks small and not terribly fortified. Like maybe a large group (a dozen or so) decided to make camp near a river.

Butterfly bites her lower lip (An expression dragonborn CAN do) and says quietly, "I see a doppelganger..."

Sure enough, since Butterfly points him out to the group, they can see a doppelganger wearing the armor from earlier.

(OOC: That's what Chris and I both thought about the pic also. Sadly, I couldn't find a better pic of that particular expression, which seems to not have a name for it.)

"Let's approach from the side closest to the Doppelganger," Pyrus whispers, "I don't want it getting away again.  You would be the best choice to point out which way that is, Butterfly."

He waits for her directions.

  "I could stay on this side, and enter from it as a distraction while you beat their skulls in from behind or something."  Alone against the enemy? Yes.  Everyone else a lot closer to the enemy?  Also yes... hopefully.

OOC Style: Rhagar Initiative: 12

Butterfly is getting ready to open her mouth when Rhagar speaks. She tilts her head, listening to him and smiles, nodding. "Actually, Rhagar, that's perfect. That will make the doppleganger believe his only escape is where we will be. And if you look like you're going to be hurt, I'll cover you so you can move around to rejoin us."

Butterfly points a way for Rhagar and herself to go.

---

initiatives
Butterfly: 20+whatever=she goes first.
Sora: 17+0=17
enemies: 8+5 = 13

Making the bulk of them (8) as goblin cutters (minions).
About 2 goblin warriors. 1 goblin blackblade.

No map yet.

Pyrus puts on an impressed smirk at Rhagar's suggestion and nods in approval.  He goes where indicated and prepares for the ambush.

---

Pyrus init: 12

OOC: Everyone is able to get into position well enough. Surprise round begins with Rhagar due to the nature of the plan. I put off making a map because I'm lazy, but then I figured it would be easy enough to make a generic map with little effort involved.

Here's the map: https://docs.google.com/spread...RfTHE1N1F1T0E#gid=12

Place your figs. Rhagar, figure where you'll be ambushing from.

...yeah. This is why I don't run many D&D games on RPOL. For some reason, while I love making maps, google maps frighten me. >.>
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:37, Thu 26 Jan 2012.

  Well, off we go with the stupidity plan.  Rhagar wanders up to the edge of the map and waves.  "Hello, are you still up to that one on one duel? If you're who I think you are anyways, it's kind of hard to tell with you shapeshifters."

---

   Standard: Readied Action; Dragon Breath if more than one enemy enters range (Close Blast 3)
Duuuuurp.  Rolled a 2. (= 9 vs reflex) That hits basically nothing.

Rhagar HP: 30/30 S 11/11 V 7