Bri'kus let Raichel know that he was sad that he was unable to find any useful items for the party in the last part of the cave. He was wanting to find something as a gift for Darcy for being so kind to him.

Most not kind to Bri'kus. Most ignore. You all show kindness and Bri'kus want to thank you.

He spent the trip enjoying the high spirits of the party and slightly excited to see what the rest of the adventure held for them.

  "Even if Irano is not currently here, Sildar should be able to get access to whatever research the wizard has dug up by now." Well, provided they even started to do their job.

  OOC: Sorry for the wait for such a small post, it's been an off kilter week.

Mits laces her fingers behind her head and explains, "Not that I plan to drag my feet on the matter or anything, but I'm expecting that Gundren's already dead.  The badguys already have his map, so there's little reason to keep him alive."

She turns a glance to the prisoners, but they don't offer any insights into Gundren's survival chances.  Sildar's stony expression gives away he'd already come to the same conclusion, but he too does not comment.

Meanwhile, the wolves are demonstrating what years of malnutrition and abuse can do for one's endurance.  Instead of running circles around the group like you'd expect from four-legged friends, they're struggling just to keep up with a walking pace after so many miles.  Even with Mits' trying to help by sharing morsels from her rations and magically cooling them off from time to time, by the time the group is at town they're looking too sorry to be very threatening and even the villagers look like they'd sooner take pity than be angry about a pack of wolves being taken into town.  Nevertheless, a couple of town guard are fetched.

"Going to have to ask that you keep your uh... pets... in a pen.  What's with the  goblins?"

They also turn nervous glances at the kobold and the two catfolk girls. They look like adventurers, but then so do bandits of such savage races.  The rabbit guy...  Never seen or heard of his like before.  They may be wolves, but whatever he did to them is inhumane.  They treat him like he's their god...  ( DC 5 insight to figure out what they're thinking. )  But judging from the humble posture of these guards, they're more scared than assertive.  ( DC 0 insight. )

(( I'm a tad 2 busy to dig up a map of town RN.  Plan to do so later this evening. ))
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:46, Sun 04 Feb 2018.

When Darcy scritches Raichel's ear, the catgirl's eyelids get slightly heavy alongside an involuntary smile, tilt of the head and slight shoulder shrug. "Probably right, sis..."

During the trip, Raichel would have asked Meiou to show her how she can show kindness to the now more pitiful than antagonistic wolves.

When in town, Raichel curiously looks at the guards. She offers them a polite bow, but keeps that indisputable confidence she always exudes. "Hello. I'm Raichel. This is my sister Mittens, and my friends Ben, Darcy, Meiou and Bri'kus. We just got here after defeating a den of goblins and rescuing Sildar and these wolves from their captivity. I assure you, we are heroes. We are only antagonistic to bullies and law-breakers."

Raichel pulls out her City Watch badge to prove she is officially and official.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:05, Fri 23 Feb 2018.

While Darcy is scritching Raichel's ear, she does the same to Mittens, if she's willing.  If so, Darcy just smiles motherly over the two purring catgirls.  "Oh, my little babies," she coos over them.

When the group enters the town and Raichel does her introduction, Darcy chuckles over her forwardness and then adds.  "We might also need a place to keep a couple wolves safe.  They're a part of our group as well."

Bri'kus nods at the guards, but doesn't say anything. He waits for their reply as they take in the odd scene before him and he quickly realizes that being among such a strange group is why he feels comfortable in the first place. Most of the party are humanoids that the human population aren't used to seeing in "civilised" society.
He looks over at Darcy scritching her friend and sister's ears and chuckles.

  Ben can think of several reasons why Gundran would be kept alive, but they would sound crazy to mister 'hasn't seen people complain about getting rescued from being eaten by a Behir'.

  Sorry wolves, Ben won't be able to Cast tenser's floating disk for you to ride on (after a 10 minute wait) until he can scrounge up the appropriate scroll to copy.

  "The Goblins were more inclined to come quietly because the chances of a hard labor sentence still sounded better than the 'work in this cave or die' circumstances we found them in."

  OOC: DnD.  Where the tome nerd warlocks have backgrounds in wilderness survival, and the elemental Monks have official government paperwork.

The rabbit looked at the guards and the wolves then chuckled at Rai showing off that badge to the guard. This cat girl was a strange but fun one if not enthusiastic about her work.

"Why dont you all go ahead and i'll stay back here with my new friends and talk with the guard about finding them a place they can stay while were away or something."

Map:  https://i.pinimg.com/736x/37/1...47017d42b423ef9c.jpg

The group is arriving from the top of the map where it says, "To Triboar Trail."



Mittens is one to have a very big personal bubble for a number of reasons.  But a nice healer she trusts gets to take certain liberties that others do not.  Entering said bubble at all, for example.  But actual physical contact is not one.  Mittens' ear is suddenly sleeved in ear armor.  ( http://www.brookstone.com/dis/...8p.jpg?sw=500%20500w )

"Psst, hey listen ear," Mittens' sock puppet whispers to the armored ear, "Darcy's just being friendly."

The ear armor wiggles around a little as if the ear underneath is shaking it's head.

"I guess lefty is too shy," the sock puppet explains to Darcy.

To Meiou she whistles the tune to "Never Split The Party."

The guards look surprised by Raichel flashing a badge, briefly embarrassed, then try to cover up the embarrassment.

"Well!  Welcome to Phandalin, officer Raichel.  Dunno what to tell you about the wolves.  We don't have any kennels.  Maybe one of the farmers would be willing to rent some barn space?  Might even do so for free if you sell them on the idea of your wolves helping them with their varmints."

Sildar seems much more at ease.

"My friends," he says, "let us secure lodgings as well.  I'm told the local inn is very quaint."

The guards give each other grim glances.  One steps closer to Raichel and leans over to whisper to her.  Should she let him relay his message, this is what he says:

( DC 12 perc to listen in on the whisper. )

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
"Unfortunately, more than a few bandits and brigands have
settled here, taking advantage of the fact that the
area has no local lord or authority to chase them off. A
gang known as the Redbrands has controlled Phandalin
for the past two months, extorting and bullying everyone
in town. Including the inn. Chances are you'll run afoul
of them if you're not discreet. The
gang is led by a mysterious figure known to
the townsfolk as Glasstaff."

---

Then to the group, he adds, "We can take the goblins to the Townmaster's Hall for you if you like."
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:25, Sun 04 Mar 2018.

Raichel giggles from Mittens' ear "shaking its head". She is slightly confused by Darcy calling her and Mittens her "little babies", but figures Darcy is just letting her estrogen go on overdrive. She doesn't object, though.

She glances at Mittens again. "It's OK, Mitts... we're in town now."

She then smiles at the response she gets from the guards. Until they whisper in her ear. Her smile twists into anger.

Raichel looks down at Meiou. Then squats down to be level with him and beckons him to her so she can whisper in his ear.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
"...Meiou, watch yourself. There are bandits in town, bullying people. If you see anyone suspicious looking ready to approach you, sneak away and hide."

---

She stands back up. "Meet us at the inn, Meiou. See you there."

Raichel looks back at the guards. "Yes, please. I'll take you up on the offer to take the goblins there and remember, as my friend here mentioned, they surrendered. We promised them fair treatment."

Then looks at Sildar. "Lodgings sounds great. Meiou will meet us there later anyway, so let's make sure we take care of everything ahead of him."

Darcy blinks as the ear armor pops up over Mitten’s ears.  She never had a cat get defensive like that before.  Usually, they just come over and nuzzle against her, especially the four-footed variety.  In time, she just sighs and settles for having Rachel be available.

With a Passive Perception of 13, Darcy heard both the Guard and what Rachel said to Meiou.  Her eyebrow furrows a bit.  “Banditry at town,” she muses out loud.  “Looks like things got a bit more complicated then we expected.  I get the feeling that the Redbrands are a priority, but that’s just me.”

  "Convincing wolves protect sheep sounds about right for recent themes."  He is currently oblivious to the whisper whispers contents, if aware at least it is going on due to how obvious people are being about it-Oh never mind, Darcy relayed the exposition.

  "I suppose one way to gauge their priority is waiting to see how desperate they are to attract our ire, instead of ignoring us."  But clearly a group of bandits will be smart enough to not bother the obvious adventures who came into town with a pack of wolves and goblins in tow...

  Ben feels another bit of optimism shriveling away and dying.

OOC: Good news about the weather: Mostly sunny past few weeks!
Bad news about the weather: 24 hour blizzards those times it wasn't sunny.  But at least our longest power outage was about an hour, rather than how the rest of the state has been dealing with it.

I love living on a street corner 99% of the year though. And the plows have not destroyed our stop sign in years!
This message was last edited by the player at 20:51, Thu 15 Mar 2018.

Bri'kus doesn't know much about the handling of wolves, so he figures Meiou handling that will probably be for the best after they have been with him so long.
His ears(?) do perk up however upon hearing the whispers from the guards. (Passive Perception) He looks up at Darcy and whispers. Bri'kus good at sneak. Can snatch bad guy weapons while sleeping. Make it hard for them to fight back when pack advance.
His tail wags a bit, excited at the prospect of sneaking though bandits loot.

The rabbit just smiled though was slightly confused by one sister saying one thing and the other saying the complete opposite. He pondered if this was normal for siblings or just them. He jus shrugged and nodded to them as he went about trying to find a good place for his new friends.

Mits reacts by underlining the word, "Never" in the phrase "Never split the party" that is now floating in front of her.



Sildar seems much less at ease.  "Might be best to not stay in town, then."

The guards are stunned and impressed with the courage of the heroes, but also look exasperated that their attempts at discretion were dashed.  "That is your decision to make.  Unfortunately, we cannot handle the bandit problem.  There's only four of us to cover day and night watch.  And even if we had an army, innocent people could get hurt.  They've threatened the defenseless families of those that defy them.  Nothing serious has come of it yet, but I do not doubt that they would follow through with the threats if anyone attacked one of their members."

Explaining that they meant vegetable farms to Ben, not sheep farms, is apparently low priority.



Mittens erases her magical phrase.  "On second thought...  Anybody here really good at acting like a scoundrel?  Maybe we can go right to the bandit headquarters with our pack of wolves and pretend to offer to join them!  We probably look for the world like bandits ourselves!  While they're thusly distracted, Bri'kus can be secretly disarming them!

"Either way, I think we should stick together at least until we have a strategy decided on.  I would not want one of us to run into trouble without the aid of a healer nearby."

To Meiou's left is a barn.  Up ahead to the right of the road is a farm house.  Beyond that is the town proper, only a few minutes walk.  Up to him what approach he wants to take.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:36, Tue 20 Mar 2018.

Raichel slightly scrunches her face at Darcy blurting out the thing about bandits. "Darcy, I appreciate forwardness, but they were whispering for a reason. I may not know what the reason is but I'm sure it was for good reason, so please try to be more discrete when officials are trying to be quiet? It could mean the difference between an innocent person living or dying some day."

Rai looks at Ben and shrugs. "We'll see... I just hope for the outcome that has the least amount of innocents harmed."

She looks at Mittens. "Fine. Then we all go with Meiou to find a home for the wolves." with that, Raichel motions for the group to follow Meiou.

Raichel ear-flicks at what Bri'kus says and grins. "Sounds wonderful. Mind if I help too?"

Darcy just goes "Doh!" as she follows the others.

  Look, Ben never explicitly mentioned Bandits even when considering the topic.  Sometimes his Charisma stat is actually worth more than shooting magic at people.

  "Sadly, lying with a straight face is not one of my stronger points.  Outside of deadpan delivery.  Even if it were deemed safe enough to try, I would suggest holding off on looting until AFTER we are certain of their reaction to our presence.  While I know better, Darcy is the only one who gives the impression of being more than 'just another pack of mercenary adventurers'."

  Wait for it...  "You'll be able to steal WAY more stuff if they think we are too jaded to care about bandits in town.  Which Meiou's altruistic desire to find shelter for wolves of all things, probably reinforces to an outsider." There we go.

OOC: I literally face desked when Tim reminded me I was up for this thread.  Given how paranoid I usually am about if I was up to post or not.

Speaking of absences.  I'll be unavailable(?) (I'm cave man territory when it comes to phones and such) From Thursday April 26th until late late April 30th.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:31, Fri 20 Apr 2018.

(Why is this still named Opening Scene?)

*After listening to everyone speak their mind about the situation, Bri'kus makes a proposal*

If pack find out where bandits live, they can hide outside of home and Bri'kus can sneak in at night. Once weapons are taken, pack can ambush hideout and take them unaware without harm.

*he nods, hoping his plan will help them capture the bandit nuisance swiftly*
This message was last edited by the player at 07:46, Sat 28 Apr 2018.

( The DM is told that Meiou's player has a severe case of writer's block for this round, so things will be moved along narratively. )

A farmer couple approaches the group from the barn.  ( https://www.videogamesartwork....y_adam_adamowicz.jpg )

"We couldn't help but overhear.  Since you're planning on ridding us of those bandits, we'd be honored to look after your pets while you stay in town."

The guards look a little surprised and quite a bit relieved.

"The reason we were trying to be discreet is because many people in town are so afraid of the bandits that they will actively resist anyone who so much as suggests sending for help.  They fear that should the bandits find out, matters will get far worse.  Fortunately the only ones who overheard you aren't in that camp.  Even so, please be understanding should you encounter someone who is.  They don't like the bandits.  They're just scared."
This message was last updated by the player at 18:31, Sat 28 Apr 2018.

Mits grins and thumbs-ups.  "Great!  Glad that's been cleared up.  Also, you're welcome.  Unless these bandits are way stronger than a cave full of goblins, they don't stand much of a chance against us.  For the record, though, anyone who actively helps the bandits forfeit any claim they might have to any stolen goods we find at the bandit hideout."

The guards shrug.  "Sounds reasonable enough."

Mits addresses Bri'kus, "Thanks for the offer, my friend!  Once we know more about these bandits and their hideout, we'll see if that's the best plan.  Sounds like bluffing won't work, so who knows."

The guards nod.  "We can tell you where they've been staying, at least."

They point at a hill to the east, topped by a ruined mansion.  "Tresendar Manor.  Don't think they'd dare enter a goblin infested cave, but depending on numbers... hard to say who'd win."
This message was last updated by the GM at 18:31, Sat 28 Apr 2018.

To Bri'kus, Raichel nods. "Smart. We'll do just that, Bri'kus. Just keep in mind to try to take as many alive as possible. I'm worried that the bandits in town are not all there is. And if they are providing for someone higher on the food chain than them, it would be bad to find out the hard way..."

Raichel looks surprised at the approach of the two farmers. "Thanks!" and smiles at them, then turns that same smile to Meiou. She figures Meiou will take care of things like assuring the wolves that this couple can be trusted or whatever.

Raichel points her ears at Ben, listening. She gives him a helpless smile. "Heh... I am horrible at lying too. Best option for us non-liers, Ben, is to not speak when the bandits talk to us. But yeah... thanks to these two offering to take the wolves, we can hang about and make like we're just passing through."

To the mention of opposition from the victims Raichel looks like she was getting increasingly angry. "Helping bullies because you're scared of them only encourages them to take further advantage of you and those you care about. It may keep you from getting beat up or killed, but when you find out your loved ones don't have any respect for you or worse, have learned the best course of action is to let evil flourish and walk all over them, was it worth it?"

But Mittens giving that ultimatum and the guard agreeing seems to calm Raichel some. She takes a breath, gives a small smile and says to the guards, "You guys have been super helpful. Thank you. We'll make good use of your help and make sure the bandits are dealt with."

Raichel glances at Mittens. "...and thank you, sis. Your offer of consequences is kinda perfect." After all, people just love their possessions.

Meiou agree's to let the wolves go reassuring them with some care that he would be
back for them soon. He listened to the party and looks to mittens "Maybe we should Bri'kus infiltrate the bandits. If anything knowing how some groups work having someone like him would make them more threatening. Then when their asleep he can rob them and we can capture them."
The rabbit said as he continued to reassure Ripper and give him some extra affection.

"Sounds like a plan," Darcy said as she joined in the proverbial huddle.  "However, we might need a plan B in case that goes awry.  Any suggestions?"

*Bri'kus likes the idea of convincing the bandits to let him join, it would be an easy way to get inside that way*

If Bri'kus fail at task, perhaps the Goblins will help pack attack the manor?

*He glances into the cart and nods at the captured Goblins*

Be like, community service.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:31, Tue 01 May 2018.