Rocky nods in response to Joe's and Mittens' comments but frowns, as much as his face can, at Morthos' suggestion on how to find Arowyn. "Let's find and talk to Honey before we try to find Arowyn, she might know a better way to find Arowyn than through deception, which might put Arowyn off to Lord Henry's offer."

  "Thanks Morthos, the buddy system is a time honored tradition for a reason."

  He nods to Rocky "It tends to be a lot faster talking to people everyone knows the whereabouts of than the terminally shy, yeah.  Plus it's not like we're forcing anyone to take on the job.  But yeah, we're a bit... much, to have any problems where we would have to pretend we need help from one more person.  Though it would just figure such a thing happened to us if we did."

"Nuts.  If only his name were 'flies.'  We'd catch him with Honey for sure!"

Mits smiles to Morthos.  "Thanks a mil for being so helpful!  Come with!  Better chances at elf handshakes that way.  Which way to Honey?"

Unless Morthos has more spring in his step, Mits will likely wind up taking the front again with her magical neon sign.

Morthos says, "This way!" and begins walking towards center square. "This time of day, she's most likely to be entertaining the crowds at center square."

Timothius asks, "Entertaining? What does she do?"

Morthos says, "She's a sorceress, so she uses magic to entertain. But she also likes to dance."

Liberty says, "Oh! I like dancing!"

Tam looks up at Mittens. "You like entertaining people with your magic too, though you have kind of a you-specific thing with the puppets. Wonder what Honey's thing is."

Morthos says, "Well... being zany really. But I'll leave the rest as a surprise."

Up ahead, the group can see the busy center square with many a merchant selling their wares. But it is also a wide open area with a center stage where Honey is in the middle of performing a magic show for the crowd. She does the classic pulling bunny out of a tophat trick!

Rocky keeps quiet as he follows along while listening to the others.

When the group gets close enough to see the 'magic show' going on, Adrian, Buzz, and Doc head forward to watch the show while Rocky hangs back with the group and mutters somewhat sarcastically, "She seems content to use her magical abilities to entertain others. Are you sure she's a sorceress and not a bard?"

Mits isn't one to upstage a performer and dismisses her neon sign.

"I can assure you that bards do not hold a monopoly on being entertaining."

She claps and cheers for the trick.

"The vast majority of sleight-of-hand magic tricks still baffle me.  Love 'em!"

Mits unconsciously dances in place now that the thought's been implanted into her brain.

  Cantrip access means MOST arcane classes are able to casually entertain things more easily than any puppet show. And also make it easier to make a puppet show.

  Which does lead to a certain extra appeal of legitimate showmanship.  Anyone can do magic with the right bloodline or eldritch sugar daddy.  It takes practice to get a real bunny to behave itself in a real hat.

  "While Mittens may have an extreme way of showing it, good PR is very important for any person or group that can set people on fire with their mind, Rocky."

Tam giggles a little from Rocky's comment. But Mittens explains for the team what is "obvious" to most people.

Soon as it seems Honey is done an act, Morthos calls out, "Honey! Got some new people you should meet! C'mon down!"

Honey ohs and says, "OK!" she sits at the edge of the stage before hopping down to the ground and trotting over to the others. Morthos looks at Mittens. "I'd introduce you, but I feel you'd be better at that, Mittens."

Honey turns to face Mittens with a bright smile. She claps her hands and then spreads them to create jingling sparkles. "Hi! I'm Honey!"

Once introductions and reasons for being here are done, Honey agrees to helping with finding Arowyn. So far, she just seems energetic like Mittens.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:38, Sun 23 Feb 2020.

Rocky nods to Mittens and Joe in response to their statements.

Upon learning that Honey acts like Mittens, Rocky relies on the Warforge's limited facial expressions to keep a stone face upon realizing that with Honey and Morthos the party almost has three Mittens in close proximity. The druid wonders if such chaos that could ensue be enough to summon Arowyn.

Instead of voicing his curiosity, Rocky asks, "So anyone have any suggestions on how to find Arowyn?" while Doc, Adrian, and Buzz remain silent spectators.

Mits smiles at the sparkles.  "Nice!  While Mittens now feels obligated to do a complete maraca dance with exploding sparkles at the end to live up to Morthos' hype, she thinks maybe this not the time or place for such.  So she'll have to settle for something more subdued."

A puppet appears on her hand and says, "This is Mittens."

Mits smiles and nods to Rocky.  "We form a marching band!  Then, with giant banners flying that read, 'We can do this all day, Arowyn.  Come talk to the nice heroes," we march around in the tranquil forest, music blaring.  If nothing else, it'll be super fun!"

Poof!  Mits now has a full one-man-band ensemble comprised of inflatable instruments.  While she pretends to play music, the instruments don't make much sound besides the inflatable drum's soft "fwump."  (( https://youtu.be/9cxkxCNpr44?t=29 ))

  "I either don't have any better ideas right now, or do but vastly prefer this one." Hint, it is the first thing.

  "Still, we should probably keep the noise down to a low novelty rather than invite the wrath of suddenly appearing cranky old men telling you kids to keep that dang noise down... Yes, like that"
This message was last edited by the player at 03:55, Fri 28 Feb 2020.

Rocky is not wrong. Three Mittenses is quite a bit. If you got five of them, they could gestalt-merge into sockpuppetron, who would have twin pigtail cannons attached to her head.

Morthos and Honey march along. Soon, so do the children, because, well, children.

Honey pretends to play a flute and a flute slowly materializes in her hands as she follows along with Mittens. "I like you, kitten. Not only are you wonderful and creative in and of yourself, but you keep splendiferously exotic company."

The strange performance of Mittens does get the attention of a deer. The deer trots over to the bunch and begins marching with them.

Rocky shakes his head, "Mittens... that is a terrible idea unless you are wanting to annoy Arowyn enough that even when we meet, odds are Arowyn wouldn't want to listen to us, just have the noise stop." The Warforged Druid figures that is Arowyn is as intune to nature as he is, then trying to get his attention by disturbing the forest and those who live within it is a bad idea.

When the deer shows up, Rocky looks over to Doc who speaks up, "Don't look at me. That deer is probably used to people enough that the deer expects to find food or something."

Buzz and Adrian snicker but do not voice their opinions on the matter.

"Mittens was expecting more opposition to her idea.  Yay pleasant surprises!"

"Splendif...  Splen... Splendid.  Iferous... ly.  Yeah, that!  Thanks!"

Mits grins proudly when the "wild deer" joins the group.  "The Silent Marching Band succeeds!

"Greetings, Arowyn.  Clever disguise.  As you can see, we, Adventure's Allies, are a band of fun-loving heroes.  We're on a quest to offer a quest to the heroes of the region..."

She explains the story to the deer, assuming that if this isn't Arowyn, he's somewhere in earshot.

  Expecting the Deer to be spying on them for the druid is just paranoia.  Because clearly the correct thing to expect is for the deer to be spying on them IS the druid-

  Mittens already beat him to it.  Curse you, smart kitty cat.

  "Well if she is wrong, I'm sure 'we accidentally found a deer that started beating up bandits on it's own time' would also be just fine with Henry"
This message was last edited by the player at 08:27, Fri 06 Mar 2020.

The deer turns into a male elf? half-elf? wearing moss, vines and butterflies as clothing.

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs7...c67b2894-d2rm3ab.jpg

The elf-like boy says, "Was the marching what gave it away?" thus identifying he is Arowyn.

Morthos says, "Woah cool... I wish I could shapeshift like that."

Honey says, "Now we know he's a deer."

Arowyn chuckles. "Well if your quest involves leaving this forest, it will have to be quite important."

Rocky shrugs and glances back to Arowyn and answers, "Yes, since if you were an Awakened Deer like Doc then you probably would have spoken up, if only in response to Doc saying something. Normal Deer aren't likely to march, even if coming to people for free handouts of food."

Rocky doesn't comment on Arowyn's 'clothing' as his own 'integrated protection' as a Warforged might make Mittens think that druids won't wear normal clothing. Although if someone did make that claim, Rocky will be quick to point out that his own mentor wore 'normal' elven clothing.

Mits chuckles from Joe's comment and grins at Honey's.

She nods to Rocky's explanation then shrugs to Arowyn, "What qualifies as 'quite important' is up to you.  How badly does the sharp-dressed druid need the money?  Maybe not as much as the mute harpy who'd like to buy her voice back.  How badly does he want to help Henry become a hero?  Maybe not as much as he likes staying in his woods.  But maaaybe the money and helping of a noble could go a long way toward you reaching your dreams of securing your woods from the threat of inevitable invasion.  Mittens cannot say!  What she can say is that she succeeded in relaying the offer!"

  Pattern recognition gave it away.  But also all those other things which are much less meta.

  "Well, honestly we're giving the sales pitch out of professional courtesy at this point.  Not everyone is going to have a pressing reason to take up the offer, or a free enough schedule to do so even if they wanted to."

Liberty says, "Actually, we have very good reason to try to get people to go to Henry. Did you all forget we get paid for every hero he gets coming to him? Sure, you don't HAVE to persuade people, but for every person that doesn't get convinced, that's 100 less gold we earn."

Avery, Morthos, Honey and Arowyn all look at Liberty.

Liberty says, "What? We get paid to do a service. If we don't do our job, our pay gets docked. And expenses add up; for every bit we fail to earn, we run the risk of not having the funds to continue doing our job."

Arowyn says, "I would be happy to help if people are in need of help. I don't know how going will help a mute harpy get her voice back, but that is a thing I would do if the harpy deserved such."

Avery scratch-scratches into a parchment, "I want voice. But don't wanna leave nice people." She hugs Mittens' arm to emphasize her point.

Arowyn looks Rocky over. Then Tam. Then Buzz, Doc, and Adrian. He is happy to see a fellow lover of nature, but is confused by Rocky's appearance (the others at least make perfect sense to Arowyn). "Aside from seeking me, what were your plans?"

Honey says, "I was just performing a magic show when these magnificently eccentric people came and asked me if I wanted to play find the elf druid with them!"

Morthos says, "I'm their recruit for the Lord Henry thing. Or something. Honestly, more traveling with them because they're cool. And wild. Yeah."

Timothius giggles.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:19, Tue 24 Mar 2020.

Rocky notices Arowyn's confusion with regards to him as he's dealt with it numerous times in the past so it's easy for him to recognize the 'what the heck is that guy' look. "I doubt you've seen a member of my race before. My race isn't that common in these parts, and I was found and raised by a druid when I first awoke, so I have a greater affinity towards nature than most of my race."

Rocky doesn't feel like mentioning the name of his race since Warforged doesn't sound that friendly. Instead, he addresses why he is traveling with the group,"I joined up with the others since there is safety in numbers and there is still much about the natural world I have yet to learn and would be unable to learn if I remain secluded in the woods where I was trained."

"Mittens is surprised that Liberty is worried about finances, especially in light of the fact that we've already earned enough to last a very long time.  Nevertheless she has a point.  The more we earn, the more we'll we'll have to generously give to the needy or some other heroic cause."

Mits smiles at Arowyn.  "How noble!  Then that settles it.  'cause your going will help, and she is worthy.

"Mittens' simple plan is to travel about and help folks in need as she finds them.  Meeting awesome people is icing on the cake!"

  "I mean, yeah it makes sense Liberty.  Adventuring is insanely expensive and most of your assets end up tied up in your gear keeping you from not dying.  But if you come out and say 'Hey, I'd like to actually get paid' somehow you are worse than the bandits feeding people to their pet monster."

  He shrugs, "Still, there is a difference between not convincing somebody to help people in spot A compared to Spot B, and people crying 'But saying how could I ever thank you was a figure of speech!' after all the hard work is over."

  Plus it doesn't sound good to admit out loud that pretending you don't care about getting paid is one of the top ways to get unpaid help from those who actually don't care about not getting paid.

Arowyn ohs at Rocky and nods to him.

Liberty gets angry. "If people wanna think that bad of you guys for getting paid, then they deserve the bad stuff happening to them!"

Timothius says, "Just a reminder, but people don't all think the same. Some might think bad of us, but those who don't might simply be timid and their voices not heard, yet they are innocent and being hurt. We shouldn't let those who are bad be the voice for the quiet innocent."

Morthos says, "It's usually the villains who have the loudest voice. That's why I like roaring louder in the face of villainy and shutting them up with a smack to the face!"

Avery smiles brightly and nodnods.

Arowyn says, "Very well then. I will travel with the harpy to ensure she gets her voice back. And I will credit you bunch for sending us to Lord Henry."

He looks back to Rocky. "Some day, I would love to explore nature with you. For the near future, however, it seems I must travel on a different path."