Callie takes the hand and says, "I am Callie Underbough, Cleric of Sehanine. And this is John of Garth."

After pleasantries, the group heads out. Chessnut is telling another seemingly tall-tale about someone turning a vampire's disembodied head into a grenade that then got stuffed down a dragon's throat to blow up from inside...

His upbeat demeanor seems addictive and the two new team mates' moods go back to bemused / happy.

Grabthar chuckles, also amused.  He at least gives the appearance of believing the tall tales.  He's encountered a few strange things himself, after all.  Along the way he tries to get to know the team his with.

  "That sounds slightly more outlandish than beating a cloaker to death with a coat rack."

Chessnut is super open, willing to answer any question about himself. Anyone listening to him can either come to the conclusion the guy has a tendency to exaggerate, or he has some hilarious luck. Either way, the guy seems a generally positive person to be around. Chessnut has a normal kender background; when he got to a certain age, wanderlust hit and he wandered off.

Callie is about as open as a normal person, but despite not being as energetic as Chessnut, is very friendly. It is easy to find out the girl has a strict policy of "two strikes and you're out"; she is willing to give someone a second chance, such as allowing villains to surrender, but has zero tolerance for unrepentant sorts. So all of her mercy goes out the window when someone fails to continue behaving. When Callie was a little girl, her mother passed away. From then on, she was raised by a cleric in a church of Sehanine.

John doesn't talk much, but what is easy enough to find out is that doesn't get enjoyment from killing villains, nor does he feel uneasy about it. It is purely a job for him, but he does get good feelings when he sees his actions cause people happiness. John is private about his background.

Grabthar is fine with telling his background.  He was the son of a human nobleman and a half-orc princess of a neighboring tribe, hence the aristocratic air.  But through political intrigue, his family has been stripped of their land and titles.  So he intends to hone his skills in skulduggery as an adventurer so he can expose the villains who dishonored his family.  There's also good coin to be made, so if all else fails, he'll be able to take care of his folks.

  Joe considers his own history less notable, at least what he bothers to mention.  Introducing sharp objects to criminals and monsters started early, and just kind of kept going.

Concern and care is shown among the team, considering all the "gosh you poor thing" backstories from Callie, Grabthar and Joe. Callie seems to be the kind to lay a hand on people when showing concern. Chessnut keeps his hands to himself; it takes more mental effort than you might think and if he starts patting people on the back, his hand might find things to borrow. Besides, at his height, he would wind up patting 3 of the team members on the butt instead, which would be embarrassing.

The trip takes most of the day. The group arrives at the fort that has been overtaken by bandits. It's decided to be best to just wipe out the bandits right then instead of try to camp and risk the bandits patrolling and ambushing the group during their sleep.

The bandits posed a challenge, especially given the fort they have. But ultimately, with the current team, it seems the team is an unstoppable force. Sure, they got hurt, but the team setup is almost ideal: 1 tank, 1 healer, 2 damage dealers, and 1 jack-of-all-trades who can assist any of those jobs while buffing the team. The only thing missing is an AoE type, but the bandit fort wouldn't have been ideal for such anyway.

Within an hour, the team has rid the fort of the bandits and their boss was basically just another bandit who had muscled his way to the top.

During combat, the group found that Grabthar can vanish from sight and reappear to backsmash the baddies a moment later.  Huzzah for giant ninja!  After securing prisoners, he looks among them for the missing person, having figured earlier that they probably stole the missing item then joined the bandits.

"Splendid job, everyone!  Sure is nice to be working among a group of trustworthy fellows."

  Clearly, the group of bandits are kicking themselves for not pushing to call themselves a Swarm of bandits.

  "Well, it certainly goes a lot faster than slowly shooting them one at a time over the course of a week." Sometimes soloing a map isn't badass, it's just time consuming.

Maverick can empathize that ganking people one at a time is time consuming...

Chestnut says, "Hold your hands up high so I can give you a high five!"

Callie wonders how this is going to go and holds her hand high as she can. Chestnut runs to the nearby tree, runs up the side and LEAPS off the tree to high-five everyone who held up their hands, catching Callie's hand on his way down!

Callie stairs at her hand in disbelief.

Grabthar is amused!  "What is the sound of one hand applauding?  I think we just found out.  Most impressive, sir!"

  The sound of one hand clapping is snapping your fingers.  No, really, that's how snapping your fingers works.

  Joe opts not to point this out.  "Have you really never been high fived in so long, Callie?" No Joe, she's starting at her hand because a leaping high five probably stings when she had the farthest drop towards her hand.

The missing person was nowhere to be found in the bandit fort.

Callie says, "Well.. yes, but I'm more amazed at what Chestnut just did. Sure, I saw you all do amazing things in that fort, but if someone told me I could high-five four people varying in size from three-foot to seven-foot, I wouldn't believe it. What, have you been high-fived by acrobatic three-foot people like that often?"

Chestnut smiles and gives Grabthar a thumbs-up. Then looks at Callie. "Like me, he just wants to look cool in front of the pretty lady."

Chestnut begins setting up camp. It is too late in the day to bother traveling back to town.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:26, Mon 12 Sept 2016.

Grabthar smiles and adds, "More than that, my friends.  You are cool."

He helps with the camp setup as well.

Turns out that the missing person was among the bandits!  No wait, it was a mask!  On top of another mask!

  "Well, can't say often, no." It would depend on how often Joe has run into Shelly in this timeline.

  "Well, at least half that sentence is true, Chessnut."  Joe's wildly spiraling standards applied to himself are probably of no surprise to the assorted players, at least.

Chestnut ohs? "What part isn't true, Joe? And thanks, Grabthar!"

John is quiet, but at least doesn't seem like he is ignoring anyone.

Camp is set up readily enough. Callie looks up at Grabthar and says, "Yes. Thank you."

Grabthar chuckles at the pleasant conversation and gives a polite bow to Callie.  "You're most welcome, Madam."

  "Well let's see, Callie's a pretty lady, so it must be the other part."

  Nevermind what Grabthar just said.

Chestnut says, "So you didn't wanna look cool? ...gosh. Guess you already know how cool you are then. Good!" He beams.

Callie just giggles. Though is lightly blushing from the commentary the guys have been giving. "Such a gentleman, Grabthar. You can take the man out of the aristocracy, but you can't take the aristocracy out of the man, eh?"

Grabthar smiles and nods.  "I was taught that a gentleman more than simply does, a gentleman is.  And I see that the same can be said of cool guys such as these three."

  Joe is wondering what is going to go spectacularly wrong, considering it doesn't seem possible to have everyone in a party be worth hanging around with to be allowed to happen (Yes, even you John Mc NPC).

The night goes uneventfully. Again. And another mangled squirrel in a bear trap.

Joe wakes up to Chestnut cuddling his arm while asleep.

Grabthar is able to get up in time to see this also. Callie remains asleep. Probably because she stayed up a little to pay tribute to the moon goddess.

Grabthar covers his mouth to stifle a chuckle from the sight of the adorable Kender hugging the jaded human.  He gets about starting breakfast for everyone, since he may as well.  And he can do so very quietly too!

  Joe really wonders some days, how tiny woodland creatures ever survive long enough to make more of themselves.

  He doesn't seem to mind snuggle halflings, even if he would have preferred the other one.  He is so going to check his own pockets later, though.

Yes, kender do "borrow" in their sleep. XD Up to Joe's player what, if anything, got taken, though.

When Chestnut awakens, he yawns, stretches, and smacks his lips a few times before sniffing at the air. "mmmm..."

Callie wiggles her nose before waking up and continuing to sniff. "...break...fast..?"

Quiet though Grabthar may be, the smell of breakfast is enough to wake any halfling.