Rocky still suspects the blink dog in the cave may have some contagion, which would explain why the blink dog outside the cave won't enter, and why the blink dog inside the cave won't exit it. However, Rocky realizes that given how rational the male blink dog is right now he no longer thinks the contagion is one that affects the mind like Rabies.

Rocky tries to use his senses as a bear to see if he can spot or smell anything that could give a clue to the male blink dog's condition or why the male blink dog won't leave the cave if he isn't sick.

  "You know, the fact that these teleport means we can't exactly force it out of the cave.  If it's safe to enter, they'd just leave if we picked them up.  If it's not, they'd just teleport out of a net or lasso."

  Joe is used to the passive aggressive problems being related to conversation trees and exposition, so hey at least this much is new.

Mits ear-perks that the blink dog nodded.  "Well hurray!  Hopefully this means we can get to the bottom of what's going on."

She smiles and gives Grumbles a thumbs-up.  "Today's your lucky day, my friend!  We're the heroes that ended the Antler Horror of the Great Forest's reign of terror.  So first question: Are you sick?"

Mits figures that since no one is rushing into the cave, she can ask about any magical traps after first having Rocky's idea addressed.

The blink dog seems to think on Mitts' question before shaking his head.

Timothius says, "If he isn't sick... and he's actually communicating... is it safe to approach?"

Liberty says, "He's fine with food approaching. Problem would be if he thinks we're food."

Tam remains silent, thinking.

Rocky wishes he could communicate with the blink dog as that would make it so much easier to simply asks 'what is wrong and what can be done to fix it.'

Rocky now knows it isn't an illness so proximity shouldn't be dangerous. He also knows that if something were to be lethal to him it would merely knock him out of his wildshape and he can quickly resume it if needed to buy even more time if something is continually hazardous. So Rocky plods along on all fours up to the entrance of the cave while using his senses to try and discover anything that would help explain the situation. At times like this he wonders if he should get a pet rock that could be rolled around...if he did he'd have to name it Thief... and let it be a professional trap finder. Not like it would eat much and if a trap destroys it... well any similar rock could become Thief Jr... wonder how many Jrs he'd need if he went through a trap infested dungeon.

  Joe isn't sure if he's giving good examples, terrible examples, or both (probably both) to Liberty.

  But regardless, he gently underhand tosses a GM Approved™ squirrel with a rope tied around it caught off panel at the cave entrance.

  If it doesn't hit a forcefield, explode, or otherwise face dire doom at Joe's current attempts to pull it back out, it's getting TWO whole walnuts, wow!

Mits smiles at the answer she gets.  "Glad to hear you're in good health!"

Mits shrugs to Timothius' question and nods to Lib.  "Probably not safe.  Proceeding with caution is what Blinky advises."

Upon Rocky approaching, Mits tries to assure Grumbles, "This is Rocky.  He's a druid in bear form.  He's also a hero who means you no harm."

When Joe tosses the surprise Mission Impossible squirrel, Mits laughs!  "Ha!  Clever idea, Joe!  Ohwait!  This is not intended to be a meal, Sir Growls!"

(( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsuVLsDyln4 ))

The dog watches the squirrel get tossed. The squirrel lands in front of the dog and looks up at him before trying to get away. The dog just watches.

When the squirrel returns to Joe, it looks at him expectantly and chitters.

If it weren't for Mittens saying it still isn't safe, PLUS the earlier chiding, Liberty might have just walked right up to the dog by now. Alas, she just folds her arms, dreaming of being Leroy Jenkins. She honestly has no idea why Joe threw a squirrel. "Why'd you throw a squirrel at the cave?"

Timothius is paranoid by nature, so he has several thoughts on why Joe did.

Tam is WTF'd by the squirrel tossing. She'd ask why, but Liberty beat her to it.

Rocky smells a human scent that does not belong to anyone in the team. But definitely human. Doesn't smell familiar, though, so probably nobody they met so far.

The blink dog doesn't seem to mind Rocky approaching, but keeps an eye on him.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:46, Fri 14 June 2019.

Rocky glances at Joe and shakes his head 'no' in response to the thrown squirrel as Rocky doesn't approve of that. But as a bear he can't really frown and growling would be a bad idea at the moment.

Rocky then moves over to a patch of dirt and scratches out a message into that dirt with a claw on his right hand. It is crude due to the limited hand dexterity of his bear form. Once he is finished he steps back and points to the message. 'Human scent at cave, not us. Will try to track.'

Buzz spots the message and reads it aloud for the group, "Rocky has written a message... he has found the scent of a human not from our group and is going to try to track that person."

Rocky nods to Buzz before the wildshaped druid starts to snift around to try to find the trail to see if he can track the human scent while still taking advantage of his bear senses.

  Joe commences nut based apology, "Just checking the thankfully just paranoid idea that there was something more tangible keeping living things trapped in the cave."

  He glances at the note, and to Rocky, saying "At this point it really would be best to just get on with it and head in, but you'd be better at following the trail than the rest of us, so fancy bears first."

  If he went on ahead there would probably have been at least a half dozen tunnel splits, now there is a bigger chance of it being a straight shot to the back of the cave with Rocky following a scent trail.

"Mittens is very pleased that Sir Growls didn't eat the squirrel.  Moreover, it managed to make it back to Joe unhindered."

She reads the message while Buzz reads it aloud, and just smirks at the eager helper being eager to help.

"Thanks, Rocky."

She'll follow after the bear as well and addresses Sir Growls, "So the Human that Rocky is smelling:  Are they the reason you're stuck here?"

The dog nods. And makes way for Rocky. The scent leads directly into a wall. To save time with post-rounds, it is soon discovered this back wall of the cave is illusiory and with a little prodding, the illusion vanishes. Hidden behind it is a cave tunnel where the scent continues. The dog seems to not wish to enter that tunnel, nor exit the cave.

There are a few forks, but it isn't labyrinthine. And soon, the group is able to find what looks like a mad scientist's lab. Though more Wizard version. Skulls, arcane sigils, books, glass vials, bubbling chemicals, etc. There is a scowling elderly human asleep in the room and hasn't noticed the group yet.

Rocky looks at the 'mad arcanist' in his lab and waits for the rest of the party to decide what to do since he is unable to communicate silently right now and he'd rather not tip of the wizard to their presence. Rocky would prefer to not give the wizard time to prepare for a fight since a wizard who has had time to prepare is deadlier than one caught off guard.

Rocky does prepare to engage the wizard in melee to try to stop him from casting an aggressive spell if the wizard attempts to attack the party.

  Someone who is cranky in their sleep is always bad news, it would probably be worse if they were NOT evil because then they would have to put up with listening to them for longer than three minutes.

  Tark isn't here to be disappointing at leaving bubbling chemicals in an enclosed space unattended.

Too bad Tark isn't here, 'cause that's just funny!

Mittens holds up a sign that reads, "I imagine a cranky mage who torments puppies is the kind to fill his secret lair with a magic trap or two."

She uses her arcana skills and whatever spells at her disposal to try and detect and traps.

The children came along, following at a distance. Upon seeing the wizard, Liberty silently shakes her fist at him, pretending to yell obscenities. Tam and Timothius looks startled like they expected sound from Liberty's "outburst" but calm down and then try not to laugh when they realize Lib's just playing.

Mittens does not detect any magical traps. Joe does not detect any non-magical traps.

The wizard is completely unguarded and asleep. If attacked in any way, of course, he will awaken.

Rocky observes the reactions by the others as they enter the lab and awaits a signal to attack or to take some other action like trying to grapple the sleeping wizard.

  Pesky actual standards.  It means not just murderhoboing the old man in his sleep and claiming to the townsfolk you saved them from an evil wizard.

  Joe makes use of ye olde notebook and ink to scribble 'While the less cautions option, just screaming at him to 'wake up' would put the moral posturing ball in our court better than mugging him in his sleep' .
This message was last edited by the player at 17:00, Wed 26 June 2019.

Mits nods to Joe and gets an impish smile.  She puts a puppet on her hand then proceeds to caaarefully put puppets onto the hands of the old man.  Because waking up to a bear in your room isn't quite the same as waking up to a bear in your room while your hands are too occupied with puppets to cast a spell.

Whether or not she manages to get the puppets on the old guy's hands before he wakes, she'll address him with her own puppet, as sweetly as she can sound.  (( https://images-na.ssl-images-a..._SL500_AC_SS350_.jpg ))

♬ "Wake from your rest, for you have a guest." ♪♫

The wizard wakes up, startled and looks about. "What in blazes?!"

He then looks at his hands to see puppets. "...." and proceeds to crack up as only elderly men can. After several seconds of this, he says, "Adventurers, I swear! Just when you think you've seen it all, a bear and some catgirl show up having snuck PUPPETS on your hands!"

Rocky figures the wizard suspects he's some sort of animal companion and not a wildshaped druid, so he figures he'll play the part... Rocky growls at the man before sitting down close enough to take a swipe at the wizard if he tries something Rocky views as aggressive like casting a spell, using a magic item, getting a weapon or spell focus out.

OOC: Pretty much a readied action to attack if the wizard tries something Rocky feels is agressive.

  Okay, eccentric and reclusive seems far more likely now. Thanks, Mittens totally official puppet test.

  "For as helpful as jaded cynicism is in the business, it's good to break it up from time to time." Well, 90% of the time with Mittens involved.  "Such as not assuming the worst when a pair of blink dogs seem insistent to the point of biting townsfolk that this cave be investigated."

=n.n= !!!

"Mittens is very happy to find that the scary wizard isn't grouchy!  Moreover, he likes the puppet gag!  She isn't the least bit disappointed that combat didn't happen."

The witch puppet on her hand isn't so convinced.  "Suuure you aren't.  I'll bet you were looking forward to pointing and laughing at the frustrated badguy while he fails to cast a spell while being suplexed by Rocky."  (( https://pics.me.me/know-what-t...attacks-23404323.png ))

Mits stuffs the puppet into her backpack, looking embarrassed.

The wizard chuckles at Mittens' antics, his chuckle turning into an old man cough. Then says in response to Joe, "Oh... the blink dog problem. Well that makes sense of why you're here."

He holds up the two puppets he was given. "Hmm... I guess let's say this one is me." he wags his right hand puppet to indicate which one he means. "And this one is the imp that snuck into my lab."

Wizard Puppet: "Ah the retired life. Now I can do my magical experiments in peace and care for these blink dog pups that wound up motherless."

Imp Puppet: "Aha! But you thought you could retire! No! I am an imp who lives for evil pranks to make people miserable! I'm going to wait for you to sleep, sneak in here, and mess around with your ritual, causing it to instead cast a curse on one of your blink dogs! And then I'll erase the ritual so you can't figure out the curse quickly!"

Wizard Puppet: "Oh my. What happened to my ritual? My magic tells me something infernal was in here. Good thing I have record-keeper magic for all those times I forget where I set stuff."

He flops the puppets on his lap. "You see... the curse prevents me from banishing the blink dog's natural teleport powers, which means I have no means of keeping him penned up. The curse forces the blink dog to follow a set of instructions every night, but he has gotten scared of leaving the cave at all. And what's worse is his sister is now scared of approaching him because he bit her on one of those nights. I'd use tranquilizers, but I don't know how to make 'em and the nearest person who would sell them lives too far for my old self to travel. I can't ask for help from the town because the townsfolk would more likely just come up with a solution like 'kill the blink dog', or even jump to the conclusion that I did this on purpose and then sentence me to death along with my dogs. So! Glad you came. And if you are the classic murder hobos, you probably would have killed me by now. But just in case you are murder hobos, I should inform you much of what I have is of very little value and I'm a dying old man anyway, so I actually have a special spell prepared for if someone kills me.... good thing you didn't. Anyway! Umm... oh right. The curse. I haven't fully figured out the cure to the curse just yet, but temporary or permanent solutions that don't involve death or maiming would be very much appreciated and would land you a reward that only I know how to get for ya."

Liberty scrunches her face a little, looking confused, then looks up at Joe.

Timothius looks relieved and hugs Mittens' side.

Tam decides to play along with Rocky's "act" and pets him gently.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:36, Sun 30 June 2019.

Rocky remains where he is and wishes the party has a means of determining if what the wizard says is true. Rocky also wonders where this imp is, and why the wizard hasn't attached a note to the non-cursed blink dog to take to town asking for help using tricky wording to make them thank he was asking for help for himself instead of his pet blink dog.

Rocky sniffs around while looking to those around him as he waits while the rest of the party figure out what to do as Rocky is curious to know if the Imp or anything else besides the wizard and the two blink dogs have been in the area... after all the imp might be returning to continually hamper the wizard's efforts.