Pyrus accepts the offer to ride shotgun, then.  On the way he would have enjoyed striking up light conversation.  Upon arriving at the weird signpost, he perks an eyebrow.

"I can't really say.  I approached Parnast from a different direction than this.  There's a spell for fixing things that could be used for that sign..."

But that's not his job.  And he wouldn't be paid if he fixed it without being hired to do so beforehand.

Thank you, Tark. Tark can see that whoever did this was hoping the travelers didn't have a map. The sign pointing to Parnast is pointing the wrong way. The way to Parnast is the direction the scratched-out sign points. According to the map, the scratched out sign would have probably been labeled "Copper Mine".

Zerry starts bounding about, hopping in circles around the signs and the wagon. "Signs! Signs! Signs!" She pauses to look at Pyrus. "Oh! Oh! Can I see?! Fix the sign PLEEEEEASE?!" She falls to the ground, kicking her legs in excitement, which causes her to spin in place on her side. "OmigoshOmigoshOmigoshMagic!"

Post Order: Zerry(GM), Jamie(David), Meiou, Tark, Pyrus
(Jamie's Turn to Post.)

Jamie could only blink in bewilderment over Zerry's outburst.  'My does she put a lot of sugar in her cereal,' she thinks as she looks over the signpost.

"Does anyone have Mending, I think it'll work best for this."

Sarah spoke up " Ofcourse I have it mistress. You had me take it for fixing tears in your robes or your luggage handles coming off again etc etc. "

She got up to get a better view of the sign and focused her power on it as she cast mending upon it to make sure they would know where to go.

  Tark looks to Pyrus, and says "Well, you would have still approached Parnast from a different direction.  Someone also switched the signs around."

  Then suddenly a Zerry happens. "I get the feeling Zerry is just naturally-" polite word Tark, "enthusiastic, Jamie." Good choice.

  "Thank you, Sarah.  Fixing up the sign should let me know for sure these paths lead to where I think they do."

Pyrus laughs at the little girl's antics.

"You look like a beetle on it's back, trying to right itself!"

Not to long ago, that would have been him freaking out over the latest nifty spell.

He gives a nod and smile to Tark.  "Thanks for the heads-up."

...and to Sarah, "And thanks for fixing the signs."

While she spins, Zerry giggles uncontrollably to Pyrus' and Tark's comments and says, "I'mma enthuselastic beetle who eats SUGARRRRR! Weeeeeeee!" No, she didn't hear Jamie's thoughts. But like Tark, she inferred.

If the spell is used to put the sign back together, the spinning Zerry immediately stops and is frozen as she stares in awe of the magic in action! The sign becomes un-scratched and repaired to its former state where the only sign of wear and tear is how old the sign is. And it does, in fact, read "Copper Mine". However, switching the signs back to where they belong isn't technically "fixing a broken object", so the team will have to do that themselves. Zerry's frozen nature ends and she pulls downward on her hair, gritting her teeth while grinning, a high-pitched squeal coming from her that is barely in the audible range of most humanoids.

Zerry leaps for joy and rushes over to hug Sarah. "Woooohooooo! Thatwassoneatoohmigosh!"

And you have to admit... no matter how powerful spells get, the basics like Mending, Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Light and Ghost Sound are all really fun to watch despite how simple they are.

---

A scene from Transformers comes to mind where Spike watches an Autobot transform and he says, "No matter how many times I see it, it still amazes me..."

Jamie is still blinking at Zerry's rambunctiousness.  'I never was that excited about learning spells, and I dreamed of being a witch as a child,' she thought.

"So," Jamie said, "Which path do you want to go?"

" HA! " thought meiou inside sarah. " She strikes me as the type to get excited over anything. Bet She's bluffing about it . "

Sarah blushed abit " But mistress you were so excited when you made me into your familiar . You made me celebrate with you." She blushed abit as Tark and Pyrus thanked her for fixing the sign. " It was nothing. Mistress is always tearing her robes or breaking something. I just fix it so its useful again. " Sarah blushed further as the young centaur girl hugged her.

Pyrus's comparisons about Zerry seem kind of apt, but he can't recall a breakfast cereal with a beetle for a mascot.  Much less one that would be hugging a mouse on the box.

Now that they are un-vandalized, Tark swaps the signs back to point in the correct directions.

"Well, the whole point of the trip was to reach Parnast. So I'd figure going to Parnast would be the general idea. Unless people wanted to stop and see just what is waiting for anyone that fell for being sent to some old copper minds instead, I guess?"

Tark nods at hearing Sarah's elaboration.  Yes, frequently needing extra help with broken property sounds about right from what little he's gathered about Jamie.

"Enthuselastic," Pyrus echoes with a chuckle, "That sounds as accurate a word as I can imagine for you, Zerry."

He smiles at Sarah's humble reaction and comments, "Well it's really good for her that she's got such a handy friend, then, isn't it?"

Pyrus gives Tark's thought careful consideration.  "On the one hand, it's likely that we're the most qualified to investigate.  But on the other, not only have we not been hired to investigate, but now that the sign has been fixed, we needn't worry about travelers falling into the trap.  I suggest we go into town and talk with the town's leadership about it first."

Zerry rushes over to Tark, climbs up one of the signs and does a tap-tance on the top of the sign. "Way to go, Tark! You sure set those signs straight!" She turns her attention to the others. She hops down off the sign and says in a concerned and thoughtfully slow pace, "But... what if someone already fell for the trap and are about to get hurt?"

"I agree with ye, my pretty," Jamie said to Zerry.  "And besides, I always like exploring abandoned places.  Who knows what you find?"

Post Order: Zerry(GM), Jamie(David), Meiou, Tark, Pyrus
(Meiou's Turn to Post.)

The squirrel sighed and shook her head " Sadly thats true. One time she went into this abandoned cabin in the woods and ended up unleashing what felt like all hell when she found this collection of artifacts. I still don't know how we survived. "


The rabbit raised a brow inside curiously. Had she? Was this how she was a sentient suit? Or had jamie just performed witchcraft on her famialer and turned her into this. With that trickster there was no telling

  Having a mostly functioning conscience is really inconvenient some days.  "Allright, let's check it out then." He'd ask Pyrus if he was okay with it, but can't think of how to do so without sounding sarcastic or belittling without intending to.

  Tark thinks it's obvious why Sarah and Jamie survived the mentioned artifacts, though.  Because it was a backstory gag.

Pyrus smiles at Zerry and says, "Good point.  Let's go rescue them."
He gives a nod to Tark and follows along, then asks Sarah, "Oh?  What sorts of artifacts?"

Upon arriving at the copper mine, the group can see the place looks suspiciously clear and is quiet. There are no signs of wagon tracks or people tracks. Zerry gallops to the entrance of the mine!

In reply to Zerry (msg # 55):

"Hold on, darling," Jamie said as she headed up to Zerry.  "Let's not go charging in full throttle.  We need to plan these things."

With that, Jamie pulled out a small orb from her shoulder bag (a Bag of Holding) and held it aloft, she spoke a command word, and it started to float up above her wide brimmed pointed hat and produce light.

She then turned to Sarah.  "Sarah dear, I think I heard your rabbit friend in the far bushes, go find him, will you please?  We need his skills."

What everyone didn't hear was the Mental order Sarah gave Sarah telepathically.  'Go hide somewhere and use the Requip command to tag Meiou in.'

-----

OOC:  Mechanically, I have it so that Meiou can still sense Sarah in his mind, even if he's no longer wearing her.  We're talking about this offline.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:46, Sun 08 Jan 2017.

The squirrel was kind of nervous about this order but she got up and hopped down to go into the brush " I will see if he is here as you paid him to be mistress." she said making the logical excuse for why the bunny would be here in the middle of nowhere.She slipped into the brush vanishing from sight before slipping on the bracelet and whispering the command word.

The rabbit appeared as Sarah was sucked into the bracelet . He shook his head squirming this whole experience was different than anything he was used to. He usualy provided the personality to the suit not the ohter way around. Now she was in his head as he felt a shove from Jamie mentally causing him to stumble out of the brush like he had been shoved by sarah.

  Tark comments to Pyrus "Maybe it's unspeakable artifacts, from how little they are talking about them?" Tark, no.  That's not how 'unspeakable magics' works.

  Things he agrees with Jamie on.  "She's right Zerry. Stay with the rest of us."   Things he disagrees with Jamie on.  "I don't think Sarah should stay all by herself.  Why warn Zerry not to rush off, if you're going to tell your friend to do just that?"

  That said, he will go to offer a hand up to Meiou if the apparent shoving results in faceplants. Hmm, maybe Sarah wasn't as nice as she acted, if this is the first thing she does when out of sight?
This message was last edited by the player at 00:09, Fri 13 Jan 2017.

Pyrus puts on a pitying expression for the comedic sidekick swap.

"Well if it isn't the bunny who runs from children.  It seems someone is wanting you to walk into danger in her stead.  Do you really owe her so much?"

To Tark he tries to explain, "Unless I'm mis-reading the clues, Sarah and Meiou are one in the same.  Just one is an illusion of some kind.  Or perhaps some other strange magic is involved.  Like two people were fused together but apparently have the ability to swap out."

Reality is stranger than fiction, they say...

Zerry thought the bunny was just playing hide-and-seek back then? She smiles at Jamie. "You sure are nice to me, Jamie. You call me pretty a lot and now you call me darling! OK... so who is going in first if not me?"

(OOC: Sorry this came so slow. Life being busy.)

In reply to Zerry (msg # 60):

Jamie looks back at Pryus and Tark's conversation about her squirrel and rabbit. 'Pryus is a bit close to the truth,' she thinks.  'But I'll let him figure it out before I tell them.'

"Always let the rogue go first, my darling," Jamie said, as she gave Meiou a light shove into the mine.  "And that means Meiou here.  Go on, you. I didn't hire you to line my hat."

She then stood up.  "Meiou here can be a bit grumpy at times.  It sometimes needs a bit of a nudge for him to get started." She gave a sigh and a flip of her hair.

" Sure you didn't.I'm only grumpy when I feel like i'm being used like a puppet!  " he replied sarcastically and somewhat grouchy as he slipped into stealth mode at Jamie's pushing sneaking on ahead to check things out.