In reply to Pan Flute (msg # 391):

Jamie can still feel the remainder spirit mingling around in her head while Igatho carried her until her strength recovered.  'That was definitely a lot, and some of them are still hanging around. I hope I don't appear too weird..'

(Time Jump)

By the time they reached Parnast, Jamie was walking upright, and she returned Pan's embrace with a hug of her own.  "We managed to take care of the haunted cave, though it wasn't something I'd like to repeat for a while."

From the back of her head, she heard a voice.  "No Kidding."

When Pan turned to the next in line, (or to be nearly crushed by Igatho) she had a face that said "Not now," to nobody in particular.  Or at least, nobody they can see.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:41, Tue 22 May 2018.

He groans as his back pops from Pan's strong hug.
He rubs the back of his head blushing abit. not quite used
to someone being so concerned about him.

  Tark is so glad angels won't accidentally light him on fire.

  He hugs the best panda back, and is glad she only has to put up with sensing bored spirits at worst right now.

  "It went much better than expected, given the threats made by the inhabitants."

Nathan was doing aerials in the lead, imagining himself the protector of his friends in spite of his clearly not being the toughest among the group.  He gladly returns Pan's hug with a cheek kiss for the nice teddybear.

"Thanks for the welcome, Pan.  Love ya!"

Sure Nathan's plenty happy to be back, and he makes no effort to hide his relief that no one was hurt.  But Pan likely also senses his mixture of concern for Jamie and his disapproval of her dabbling in spirit possession.

"The curse has been lifted.  And we found some neat artifacts from long ago."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:15, Sat 26 May 2018.

Pan did not forget to hug Darci, either.

Pan says, "The curse is lifted? Good job, everyone! Come! Let's go eat and celebrate your safe and triumphant return!"

Pan rushes to tell Justin of the return and success of the heroes. "Justin! They're back and they're OK! They lifted the curse too!"

Soon, other townsfolk come to greet the heroes and shortly after, the local tavern is serving a meal to them.

Pan makes sure Justin is there before having the group tell everyone how it all went down.

Igatho tells the tail, "We went to the cave. A mean man made me have a dream while awake and wanted to make me hurt my friends. So I smashed him. Then I woke up! Then we found a toy store! Then we found a lift that was like a closed room. The other rooms were covered in blood and machines! A ghost talked to us and asked us to smash the secret room. Then Jamie got the ghosts to agree to let Jamie eat them. Then we found a secret door to a secret room and Nathan got angry, 'cause his eyes caught fire. We smashed the room and big balls of fire happened! Meiou and I were scared, but I was having so much fun swinging on the evil arm of doom, I almost didn't get scared. When the room was smashed, the ghosts were happy! So Jamie threw them up. But not all of them. Some still talk through her mouth!"

The people look skeptical.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:09, Sat 26 May 2018.

In reply to Igatho (msg # 396):

When Igatho gave out her report, Jamie let out the most comical "URK!" expression she ever made.  So did the other spirits in her mind when word got to them.  There was some chuckles in the back.

"Er, Igatho, child," Jamie stammered, "er, I didn't...I wouldn't...Oh boy."

Justin had to roll her eyes over Jamie's outburst.  "At least you're still acting normal, young lady."

Darcy patted Jamie on the back.  "It's not uncommon for witches in the Black Forest Coven to commune with departed spirits to aid them to the afterlife.  It appears that you still have to work with a couple of them, right."

"But still..." Jamie's face was red with embarrassment.  "Eating them and Throwing them up?!  I'm a witch, not a dragon."

Darcy just hugged Jamie's face. "Work with that overgrown child there."

With that, Jamie just sighed and patted Igatho on the back.  "It ain't as simple as you make it to be, dearie."

That's when Igatho heard one of those ghosts whisper. "Really?  How do we taste?"

"WILL YOU MIND?!"  Jamie's outburst didn't help her comical expression.  Others have heard the whisper and had to laugh.  "You have to bear with me for the time being, some of the spirits that're still around tend to be comedians.  Excuse me."  And with that, he walks over to her house. With a pronounced huff.

"Strange Girl," Justin said. "And that's without her dabbling around with ghosties."

The Squirrelfolk woman hums a tune softly as she wanders about the tavern carrying a couple trays of food on her arms carefully dropping a plate off in front of its intended recipient before moving onto the next. She does this soon after with the drinks as well leaving a large mug of juice for igatho. With her work done she looks to Jamie with a smirk
" Well if there be more than folk in yah I guess ill have to start charging extra on everything you order."

Jamie would know this was to get back at her for the having to bring her to town in exchange for the herbs pan had wanted. Oh no she doesn't forget bad deals like that.

Meiou just shook his head listening to the whole tale.First nearly being roasted by an angel then being nearly frozen by the witch needless to say put a damper on his attitude and desire to really talk about anything at the moment.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:13, Sat 26 May 2018.

  "This is adventuring, people. Igatho's story checks out."

  He considers the question of charging extra per drink, and says "It's still one drink, in the end. I expect having to split it metaphysically would be worse than somebody trying to water your drinks down."

"It would be funny if it weren't true," Nathan says in a serious tone, "Most dragons don't devour souls, by the way.  That's the sort of thing left for abominations of the beyond.  Though most of those don't vomit the spirits back out."

Nathan nods to Tark's point, though.  "You wouldn't charge extra for a gentleman rogue wearing a costume, would you?"

Pan felt Meiou's frustration and just pets him reassuringly before giving him a side-hug while not drawing attention to this fact.

Igatho looks around, confused. When Jamie walks off in a huff, Igatho's eyes start welling up with tears. "I made Jamie mad..."

Pan says, "Nono, hon.. one of the spirits still inside her told a bad joke at the wrong time. Jamie will be OK."

Pan has one of those expressions where she is trying to remain calm while having emotional turmoil inside. Seeing nobody else follow Jamie, she looks at Justin. "I'm going to check on Jamie and make sure she's alright."

Unless stopped, Pan hurries off after Jamie.

Jamie stops in mid-huff.  "It's not you I'm mad at, Igatho, it's that squirrel." She then spun on her heels and toward Sassy.  "Who saved your fluffy tail from those bugbears that ambushed us on the way there?"

Justin nodded and let Pan follow Jamie around.

When Pan catches up to Jamie, she appears as if she's having a headache.  "I think I caught one of those Jokers.  There's one in every group, including ghost groups."

Sassy smirked at all the comments. "For ye sure its one person Tark. For Jamie its many. Ifin he was trying to con me out of a discount you can bet yer rear I would. In meiou's case he happens to pay in other ways to balance the matter out. " Hearing jamie she would laugh "Oh sure ifin ye call charming them into chasing ya round the countryside saving. Ifin you'd of jes left it to me i'd of charmed them out of all their treasure."

  Tark wishes things were such there was not a 'most' qualifier to Nathan's comment.  But at least he doesn't live in a setting where souls aren't even worth as much as a silver piece.

  He'll give Pan a good five to ten minutes before assuming Jamie fell down a well and needs help.

  "I'll never understand naming schemes sometimes.  Owlbear, sure.  Bugbear? Why?  How did it even stick? Was their old name even worse?"

Tiamat is a dragon, after all.

Nathan gives an assuring kiss to Igatho's cheek.  "Sometimes children get mad when they're caught eating something they shouldn't.  And sometimes children get a sour tummy from eating something they shouldn't.  This is like that.  People shouldn't eat ghosts.  It's bad.  They do bad things to you when they get inside you.  You did good to smash the meanies in your dream.  I think those were the bad ghosts trying to get inside you."

As for whether they should be teased about it...  Nathan's undecided on that one, so he'll not comment.

To Tark he explains, "The 'Bug' from Bugbear is a shortened version of the 'bogey' from 'bogeyman.'  It means 'scary.'  The first Common speakers to encounter Bugbears and survive only caught a glimpse.  They confused them as monstrous bear creatures."

Igatho pouts a little, but seems to calm some after the kiss. Then listens to Nathan and says, "I wanna draw bugbears!" and gets to work! She begins drawing (when she got into town, one of the things SHE did to prep for the party was grab her drawing materials).

Her first drawing looks like a beetle with sharp teeth and thick arms with claws.
Her second drawing looks like a bear with wings and antennae.

Meanwhile, Pan puts an arm around Jamie. "I know it can feel embarrassing. But not everyone in that room was laughing at you. And Igatho honestly didn't mean to upset you... she got pretty sad when you left, muttering how she made you sad. I care about you and so do a number of others... you gonna be OK?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:55, Fri 15 June 2018.

In reply to Igatho (msg # 406):

"It took me a while to notice it, Igatho," Darcy said as she watched Igatho draw.  "I think one of the ghosts still in her said something snippy and she reacted to the ghost, not you.  I'm sure she's sorry that you misunderstood, easy to do when you don't hear everything."  She patted the child frost giant.  "Keep practicing that, you'll get there."

[bar]

"I'm more embarrassed than anything else," Jamie said to Pan, smiling at her.  "One of the spirits still in me has a healthy case of bad timing."  She then sighed.  "I don't know if you could sense them.  If I know that I don't have a split personality, I'd think that I turned into a crazy person with the others in my head.  It usually takes some time for me to get them to settle."  She then looked at the Pandaren.  "Maybe you'd like to meet them."

Sassy was just about to go back to work upon hearing Darcy "More like someone can't resist telling bad jokes at the wrong times." sassy chuckled

  Tark nods, "Yes, I can see why people would assume something almost killing them in the woods was a bear." That or Elk, they have real anger management issues.

  Hmm, Tark can't question how authentic Igatho's art is because there probably are monsters that look like that.

Yup!  http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tHqq...2-27-Bumble-Bear.jpg
http://images.clipartpanda.com...hoto_csp14834768.jpg

Nathan is very amused by Igatho's art and claps for her!  "Very good, Igatho!  I wunna draw the giant that smashes 'em!"

He draws a quick caricature of Igatho wearing a bearskin cape.  (Kinda like this: http://img15.deviantart.net/70...an_by_rfswitched.jpg )

Nathan gives a glance to Darcy and Sassy, but says nothing.

To Darcy, Igatho giggles. "Ghosties! Jamie should smash the ghosties!"

The frost giant toddler is encouraged by the positive commentary she is getting about her art! To Nathan's art of her, Igatho claps. "Yeah! Lookit, everyone! Nathan drew me wearing a bugbear after I ripped its skin from its bones!" ^_^

---

Pan answers Jamie, "I've never met anyone with multiple personalities, so I couldn't tell you if there was a difference. But I have met crazy people before. And what I can tell you is that you feel like more than one person occupying the same space. Even crazy people can not feel five completely opposing feelings at the same time."

In reply to Igatho (msg # 411):

"Oh, I'm sure that she's going to her tower to whip those naughty ghosties into line," Darcy says.

[bar]

Jamie signed, rubbed her forehead, and smiles.  "Well, that's a load off my mind.  Whenever I have some keeper spirits in me, I usually need some time or me to get them to settle.  I find out why they're staying around, maybe find a way for them to help me out, and I know of one of them who want to have another body, outside of my own, of course."  She looked at Pan.  "I don't know if you want to see it since during the process I let some of the spirits take over for a bit.  Maybe you could help me with them.  Also, some of the ghosts plan to take on my likeness and become my mirror images."

Meiou got up and headed on outside having finished up his meal and drink.
Sassy had gone back to work on serving those currently in her tavern aside the party.

  "Jamie is filled with the ghosts that are not big enough jerks to smash. I think."  Tark won't completely shelve the idea that Igatho may need to shake the witch upside down for ghosts and loose copper pieces.

  "Well, it will probably get pretty boring for the ghosts if she spends much time in that tower. So I guess that's another way to make them leave Darcy."

Nathan smiles and nods to Igatho.  "I'll bet we can get you a nice cape."

He then lights up with an idea.  "Ya know?  Since you like it cold, I think you'd be more comfortable wearing furs to keep the warm air away from you."

Same principal.  Fur keeps cold and warm from mixing.  Wrapping a cold drink in a blanket on a hot day keeps it colder longer.

As for how best to send the ghosts on to their proper afterlife, Nathan chooses not to comment.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:28, Sat 30 June 2018.

Igatho looks at Nathan. "Furs are fluffy and soft! I like furs!"

Igatho sees Meiou heading out and says, "Mew..." like a cat and gets down on all fours, wags her butt as if she had a tail, and says, "Wanna play cat and mouse?"

---

Pan says, "I can help, sure."

(Fast Forwarding)

The night passes uneventfully (well... as far as a frost giant toddler chasing a rabbitfolk, an angel and a half-orc around town while a pandafolk helps a red-headed half-elf talk to the ghosts inside her is considered uneventful).

The next day comes and Igatho spends her time petting various kinds of animals to see what kind of fur she likes best.

Pan has gone to hang out with the PCs (Jamie, Darcy, Meiou, Nathan, and Tark)
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:14, Sat 30 June 2018.