The first night of the treck, she looked at the group as they sat, eating and talking. The cleric waited for a lull, then spoke. "As you know, we travel for a great storm, one that has a dragon near it, or worse. The items we found with the necromancer and in the basement have proved most useful for us, but some have not."

She looked sheepishly around. "I propose something to you all if you will allow - i will not unless you all agree. For those who remember the gnome we saved, he left us a special pouch - those who weren't there, i will explain."

Within the keep's basement we found prisoners, one a gnome who is a merchant in neverwinter. He left us a bag - very unique.  Two sections in it. One acts as a bag of holding, where our magic items are that are not being used. The other transports the items to his shop where he said he will buy them or trade at a fair price. What i request is that i trade the necromancers staff and the lute for a medallion for myself. This medallion will help me focus the power of Bahamut more readily to help us all"

---

<OOC: Asking if i can trade the staff of withering and the lute of illusions for a amulet of the devout for akyra>

Ariadne pondered, then nodded with a shrug
"I'm not opposed to that"

"I don't have a problem with it. I would probably be hard pressed to hit anything with that staff anyway, but should we come across an enchanted dagger it might be nice to have something of the like."

She smirked, "I would love to meet this gnome, clever of him to make something that gives him guaranteed customers."

Ariadne chuckled
"Yes,  and it plays perfectly into how busy, and perhaps lazy, we Travelers can be.  Brilliant,  honestly "

Sakamoto shrugs, having no claim on either item. "If they are of no use to us, then I cannot object to trading them for something useful. Perhaps we might acquire a Ring of Immortality for me ..." he concludes with a chuckle.

Ariadne chuckled at Sakamoto's joke.
"Certainly we all came close in that last battle,  my friend.   But don't worry,  we will work to keep each other safe"

Khorth stayed mostly silent during the stops for rests. But when Akyra offered to exchange two unused magical items for one to increase her magical prowess, he did chime in.

I dooo nooot knooow much aboooout magic item. If that is a fair price, then I agree that ooone item used is better than twoooo that are useless toooo us.

But in the future, I think we need items tooo see in the dark, Darkscales and me, like thooose that Tiny Dancer fooound.

If we are toooo fight in caves and at night, it is better if the prey dooooesn't see us cooooming at it.

He turned to the newest arrival in the group, Brillik

I doooo noooot knooow much aboooout Roooockdiggers, dooo yoooou see in the dark?

Ariadne nodded to Khorth
"My Order has magic to grant someone the ability to see in the dark.  It's fairly powerful, but given a day's notice, I can provide it for one of us, or perhaps even a couple of us, though that would exhaust much of my power."

"With my new gloves, I can part with my Goggles. They double my darkvision range when used together, however it may be much more useful to have another member of our party able to see in the dark." Sakamoto removes the Goggles of Night from his head, where they were tucked under his woven straw hat. "Which one of you would prefer them?"

Akyra nodded as the majority agreed with the plan she had.  When the talk of night vision came up, she looked at Khorth. "You take them lizard....i'm going to take a different tactic for a change and focus on my more magical side rather than martial side. With you and the dwarf here, you have the protection down, and dancer can help there too. My skills need to be honed to heal people and help them when needed - so something like last time doesn't happen again." She looked at Sakamoto, then looked away.

She took a piece of parchment out of a pouch, and wrote on it with charchoal, then tied it to the staff, and sent it and the lute through the pouch.

Khorth took the googles and fitted them with the helmet using some ligaments from the boar Brillik had brought back from his hunt. He tried them on and was amazed at how much more he saw in the dark swamp.

This will be well used. Thank yoooou, Tiny Dancer.

The lizard folk then looked at the dwarf.

I looook foooorward tooo see yoooou wield that axe, roooockdigger.

"My sister and I can see in the dark, so for ourselves we are covered." She offers to the discussion.

Akyra nodded towards the lizardman. “By the time I attack, the surprise will be sprung and I can use a light spell.”

Brillik Laughed.  A big hearty belly laugh, almost mockingly.

"Well of course lizard-man we see in the dark.  Us Mountain dwarves have the best darkvision of any of the subterranean races, even the drow." he chuckled.  "That was a good one.  Aside from seeing in the dark, What else don't you know about us Rockdiggers?"

The lizard-folk blinked once at the dwarf's hilarity, then continued to look at him with his naturally cold gaze. He had no other questions for now, and wasn't trained in social interactions, that would have prescribed to ask a follow-up question to keep the conversation going. Instead, he teared a big chunk on raw meat from the boar Brillik had killed, blood dribbling from his chin to his armorless chest.

Brillik watches the lizard-man as they tear a hunk of meat from the boar.  Not to be outdone he does the same attempting to take a bigger bite from the boars hide and chew it, never averting his gaze from the lizard-folk.

Eating a reasonably sized piece of boar, Ariadne looked at the strange competition between the two warriors and sighed inwardly.  Knowing what usually came next, she mentally prepared her healing spells, having seen many other results of "manly competition"

The lizard folk did notice that the dwarf was chewing more than his mouth could contain, with those hairy cheeks restraining its capacity to open. Not understanding that it was the sign of a competition, he simply took another normal bite for him, and chewed minimally before swallowing like he always did. That done, he saw that he had finished the meat on the bone and cracked it open with his maw, to reach the marrow. His meal completed, he took some time to fashion some bone tipped arrows, before warming his tired limbs as the fire crackling in the center of the small clearing.

Wake me up when it's my watch.

Curling on the ground, his tail beside his snout, he was soon asleep.

After the events of Thundertree, the group made their return trip to Phandalin. Though uneventful, it was three long days of walking and three nights of sleeping on the road to get there.

I'm opening this back up for the sake of general RP. I know it's hard sometimes to know if you should do more RP or let things move on, or whatever. So I'll get the game thread moving again, and keep this one open purely for RP purposes. Any/all nights and days can be discussed here, the timeline in relation to the game thread has no meaning here.

Ariadne chuckled as she walked
"Well, that was a lot more dramatic than I'd expected this trip to be"

"Tell me about it," chuckled the dwarf as they walked.  "So, do you think their ultimate goal was just to summon a world ending God... or just had nothing else to do this weekend?"  He tried to keep the mood light seeing as how all of them faced certain doom not one day ago.

"They probably thought they could control or at least follow in it's dangerous route and enjoy some of the spoils and destruction to be had. Perhaps one even thought to be a vessel, after all we did see how the storm changed Akyra and that was from another god Bahamut. It was a powerful ritual though let us hope no others have it."

The Dragonborn walked with a serious look. “Some people seek the destruction of things. Some revel in it. Some have been promised power….who knows what Talos promised them, but rest assured, had he come, he would have swept the land like a plague with death and destruction.”

She shrugged. “That is why Bahamut sent me the vision - to save lives.”

"Do you truthfully that was the God Talos?  or just an avatar of his destruction?"

Whatever it was, the Mother wanted its destuctiooon, it is accoooomplished. That is all that matters toooo me.