As tempting as it was to have done the 'here the whole time' gag, Joe has a preference to stay out of melee range.  "This is why I hang out with you, you're so much more sociable."  2 tiles away is technically out of melee range.

2 tiles away also means an entire 5 feet between Joe and the gobby. The goblin looks up towards Mittens shocked, all four of her pigtails wiggle as if the pigtails were startled. Then smiles and says, "Cute? Why... thank you! Hello!" A very surprisingly not-scratchy voice, if still sounding like a little gal.

She looks over curiously to see Joe and then skews her lips to the side before pulling more marshmallows out of her pack and offering them. "Join me! Have some marshmallows!"

"Why thank you!  Don't mind if I do!"

Mits gladly accepts the offered noms and begins to roast.

"Quite the treat all the way out here in the wilderness.  Where'd you get 'em?"

  "Thanks, this night is going much better than expected." Which would be the case even with a less jaded worldview.  'Cute goblin gave you marshmallows' is something even optimists don't generally expect.

  Though yeah, a slow lead up to tunnels and tracks is probably more tactful.

The goblin kicks her legs happily and says, "I got 'em from Jengus; he's a master alchemist, but sometimes I puts together treats like this. More importantly, he's my... why do you ask? You wanna get some more?"

Mits gets flustered when asked about her motives.  "I uh... YES!  Yes.  Totally was asking for reasons of getting more.  Has nothing to do with investigating missing supplies.

"More importantly, four pigtails?!  That's just.  Just.  Four!"

( Bluff 12 )

  "Maybe? Though given that sentence structure, do you know what smores are?" If she doesn't, would it be Unaligned or Evil to withhold how to make them until they get quest related answers?

Unaligned. Evil would withhold it on principal alone.

Once again, the goblin's pigtails wiggle as if rattling! "Eeeeee! Yes! Pigtails are fun! I like yours, by the by. And no, I don't know what smores are. Now what's this about investigating missing supplies? Maybe I can help? I'm not very perceptive, though... but it's OK because I have four pigtails!"

She closes her eyes with a content smile, bowing her head slightly while holding four fingers up towards Mittens.

(Insight 9)
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:19, Tue 09 May 2017.

"Thanks!  I like yours too.  I can't say four never occurred to me.  I guess I..."

Mits doesn't want to admit she wouldn't dare anything, but...

"I guess I was in the mood for two.  Smores are an amazing thing I'll let Joe share because he's the one to bring 'em up.  And thanks for offering to help!  Do you know of the local settlement?  Starsomething?"

  It's like a confused puppy was reincarnated as a goblin.  Which makes it all the more sad that the average adventure party would have seen a smiling goblin eating marshmallows and nuked it with a fireball.

  "You make a cookie sandwich out of graham crackers and chocolate with your toasted marshmallow in the middle."

  He comments to mittens "Starfield. So you got the important part right"

The goblin stares at Joe. "That sounds amaaaaaazinnnnn... GA! I've gotta try it sometime."

"Starrrrrr field!" she then puffs her cheeks, brings her fists together and suddenly flings her hands out, wide open while saying, "BAWOOSH!"

She looks at the two. "Yeah. My people pass by there all the time. They're not friendly to us, though. Probably because we're goblins. Too bad, really. We could probably help them out if they are having issues with supplies."

"Gaah!  The cuteness!"

Mits flails about a bit as if fairies were buzzing about her head.  She shakes it off and returns to her usual smiley self.

"Oh yeah?  Well maybe they could return the favor with cool Starfield stuff.  Seen any suspicious goblins pass by here?  'cause we tracked the thief's footprints to this area."

  Joe nods, "Yeah.  We're out here because someone dug a tunnel into Starfield's supply building, where supplies keep going missing."

The goblin covers her mouth, giggling from Mittens' flailing about and copies her for fun.

The goblin says, "Show me these tracks you speak of."

When Mittens shows the nearest tracks to the goblin, the goblin takes a step into the track. Her foot fits perfectly. "Well... you followed ME here, anyway. Doesn't mean you found the culprit. But I'll be happy to help you find them, whoever they are."

Mits snickers at the adorable goblin antics.

When shown that the footprint is a match, she slouches.  "Nyan.  Those tracks was our only lead.  Why were you walking about so close to Starfield?  Specifically the tunnel into Starfield?  And go to so much trouble to cover your tracks?"

  Joe will be stabity degrees of annoyed of it turns out the goblin is taking advantage of the fact him and Mittens are trying to be reasonable-oh hey, unrelated realization.  "You know, I don't think any of us introduced ourselves.  I'm Joe, this is Mittens. What's your name?"  What a world when Joe is the first person to introduce themselves.

The goblin looks concerned for Mittens. She's about to answer when Joe's question comes up.

The goblin grins wide at Joe. "Flert."*

Flert then says, "Like I said, my people often wander near Starfield. Covering tracks is force of habit because we don't want them following us back to our camp. As for what I was doing there, I was checking out Starfield because it's so neat to look at!"

*Fun fact. When making the character, used the random name generator in charbuilder and this name came up.

Mittens is usually the first to make introductions due to the player's dislike of those awkward moments where dozens of posts later a player's all, "Why are you using my character's name?!  He never told you his name!  Meta!  METAAAAA!"

"Thanks for handling the introductions, Joe.

"Did you see anything that might help us find the thief, Flert?"

 "At the very least, finding out who did it means nobody will try to blame you for it."  Unless she did it, in which case it would suck for Flert either way.


  Hello, my name is- *Hot coffee to face*

But if she took hot coffee to the face instead of dodging it, then the others in the game would rage quit.

Flert begins walking back towards the campfire and says, "Thanks for the concern, Joe. I haaaaate being blamed for bad things I didn't do. Did I see anything helpful? No. But I did hear there are some stray goblins in the area that are not of my tribe. It is rather late... tell ya what; why don't you two sleep with me, here at my camp. We can start the search tomorrow. Can't see as well in the dark as you can in the day anyway."

"Sounds good.  I'll conjure a watch totem."

Mits conjures a totem pole of creatures looking in all directions, topped by an imposing blue eagle...  https://s-media-cache-ak0.pini...360d5905e4bcc08c.jpg

Before long she's purring contentedly in Lala land.

  As usual, Joe is surrounded by people more adorable than he is... Not that this is hard to accomplish, it's the degree it is generally accomplished that tends to stand out.

  "I think We'll take you up on that, Flert.  Were you expecting anyone else to show up at your camp, on that note?"  He will keep seriousface bird company for a chunk of the night.

"Nope! I wasn't expecting anyone. I love your totem, Mittens!" Flert hugs the totem! "Well good night!"

The surprisingly trusting goblin goes to curl up next to the curled kitty!

The night goes by without issue. Nothing appears to be wrong or out of place. Mittens wakes to a sleeping goblin girl's face being a mere foot away.

All of the faces of the totem blushed.  Morning Mittens smileys at being a mere foot from adorable goblin face.  Nevertheless, morning kitty stretches are had and breakfast is started.  She keeps her eyes and ears ready for anything fun that might be about to happen.

  Joe would prefer more standard fun rather than 'live combat before breakfast' Mittens fun.  Also this is your semi regular reminder that Joe smiles more than his dialogue would suggest.