(As our story starts, the five kids already know each other and are friends at best, or at least there's not one of them who doesn't totally tolerate each of the others at worst.

--Someone tell me what time of day or night it is.

--You're in the Poor Quarter, but someone tell me: are you
----playing in the street?
----sitting around on the front steps of a building's stoop?
----hanging around inside a currently-abandoned building? )
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:56, Tue 05 Oct 2021.

It was late afternoon, and the buildings of the poor quarter were becoming canyons of shadows. Dinkar and his harem were sitting on the stoop of an abandoned building, trying to look tough enough to stake it out for sleeping purposes without actually having to fight for it.

Raga scrunches up next to the building and crosses her arms across her knees, trying to look inconspicuous.

Ever the aristocrat, Anthielle carried a hand towel that she used to wipe things before she touched them.  Her part of the stoop was clear of dust and grime.  She had picked out the most shaded area too, having a slight intolerance for the sun’s harsh rays.

“I’ve been thinking…”

Usually a scheme accompanied that little catch phrases of hers… and this afternoon was no different.

“Why don’t we have a permanent headquarters?  I think it would be a fitting quest. We could wrest control of a place from the Strange Quarter… where nobody would bother us…. or our loot.”

Anthielle looked squarely to Din, then Sarah, Raga, and Jaffa… in that order.

Raga lifts her chin off her knees to say: "Spooky place.  Weird too."

She then resumes resting her chin on her knees, which are still gathered in against her chest by her arms

Din wasn't really much of a listener. But, to Anthielle's credit, Din listened to her entire pitch. He grunted a wordless response to indicate that he'd paid attention.

Overall, he wasn't really one for the whole 'headquarters' thing. But she'd said 'loot' and he was definitely one for loot. He loved the idea of loot, and if the unreasonably tall half-elf wanted a place where he could keep his loot, who was he to say no to that?

"I'm in," he said.

"I don't know about that..."

Jaffa had tried settling into a 'permanent residence' a while ago and maybe she was just bad at managing a home, people bothered her until even the adults came by. She wasn't sure what exactly they meant to do, but she didn't want to be taken away by some random jerk who would call her "Redspot" or make her give up sweets. And she'd even tried to hide her loot before after overhearing an adult in the Dock Quarter talking about good places to hide their own loot. But when she came back to it after a week, the loot had gotten hard and crusty, with a weird growth over half of it. She hadn't cried so hard in a month...

"Isn't it easier for people to find and bother us if we stay in one place? I know the Weird Quarter moves around, but if we can find this new place, I'm sure others can. Besides, loot goes bad after a week or so, so we should really just eat it when we get it, right?"

"That's food," Dinkar said, and not for the first time. Jaffa loved cakes almost too much to eat them. "Loot is gold, or weapons, or magic items. You eat food. You save loot."

"Well I think food is better than gold! And what does a Master Assassin like you need with weapons and magic anyways? Cant you just sneak up next to someone, go fwah!" To punctuate her point, Jaffa jutted her arm forward with clawed fingers pointed out, ruffling dust out of her haphazardly stitched-together robe. "And then they're down!"

Din saved Anthielle the trouble of correcting Jaffa.  She was a sweet girl, but kobolds could be weird.  Weren’t they part reptile?

“Din is correct, Jaffa.  And this headquarters can allow us to plan other endeavours in secret.  We can have maps, tokens, and yes… refreshments.  What say the rest of you?  Now is the time we put our training to the test.”

It was a little melodramatic, but Anthielle wanted the group excited.

Raga is clearly not excited.

"If we 'ad anythin' good, someone'd take it."

"'Fwah' is all fine and good, but sometimes an assassin gets paid to kill a target in a particular way," Din explained to Jaffa. He was pulling the explanation out of his ass, but it sounded about right. Truthy, if not actual truth. "So you need knives, and poisons, and all sorts of fun stuff, just in case.

"And besides, loot is loot. It's good to have loot. And nobody gets to take my loot."

Big talk for a kid who didn't even have a sharpened stick to his name, but again, it sounded good.

"Exactly, Raga! Besides, wouldn't it be safer and easier to carry around that good stuff. That way, people can't take it without us noticing! Except picky-pockets, of course. But still!"

Taking a moment to listen to Din, Jaffa nodded her head. It sounded plausible enough, though it was rather rude of a patron not to supply their assassins with the tools they wanted to use. Sounded rather cheap of them. "Okay, fine Din. I guess you might need some weapons. But just be careful with them, okay? I know that I can make it feel better, but that takes time and I would rather you don't get hurt in the first place! And that goes for all of you!"

With a self-satisfied smirk on her face, Jaffa gave her warning and knelt over to brush some of the dust out of her robe. She wished Anthielle had brought this up earlier so she could've avoided coming up here. She didn't like how dusty it was.

Sarah merely watch on as the others decide on a permanent base. She mostly chewing on some bubblegum she found on the floor, she then spits it out after it loses it's flavor,"Ah, theirs no need to be worried Jaffa, not when you have the strongest kid around Poor Quarter. If any of you got hurt, I'll attack back with a thousand more hits, though it's too bad my grandma took away my sword after that sword practice incident." she says, remembering a lot of antiques being destroyed that day and Din getting a lot of bruises by "accident","If we're going to take over a quarter, why not take all of it. Sides, theirs bound to be an epic and powerful sword hiding away in one those quarters."
This message was last edited by the player at 23:01, Tue 05 Oct 2021.

"'d settle for food."

“It sounds like everyone is in, more or less.  Now the question beckons… how do we find such a place?  Going to the Strange Quarter sounds like a good first step.  Then we can look around and settle on a site.”

As was customary, one of the group would have to lead the way.  Anthielle knew the catacombs well, but Din was a great guide too.

Ooc: I guess we roll a Travel Elsewhere action.  If Din is a sneaky kid, he can do it with Agile.  Otherwise the next best qualified person can roll Insightful, if we have such a person.  I’m not 100% sure on everyone’s TYPE.  Anthielle would roll 2d6 total if using the Catacombs, other people might roll 2d6 for alleyway or street travels…
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:35, Wed 06 Oct 2021.

As the others planned, the last member of their group poked his head in through a gap in the wall. Looking around curiously, Grog took his friends in, before entering fully. Apparent from the obviously old piece of bread in his hand and the pigeon feathers in his hair, he’s come straight from stealing from the elderly and their birds again.

“Got grub.” The scrawny goblin said, Holding up the nigh-moldy bread in one hand, and fishing a dead rat from his rags with the other. The chewmarks made it clear just how he’d caught the rodent. “We goin’?” He added with mild interest, as He offered the bread and rat to each in turn. The others usually had some kinda plan when they all got together like this.

"Grog, I see you've been busy. Thanks, for the gift I guess." Sarah says as the team's pet goblin gives her a dead rat, she pretends to put it in her pocket but tosses it away at a open window when Grog's not looking,"Anyways, yeah, we're heading to Strange Quarter to make our first conquest. We're gonna have a permanent base and I could even find a new sword, but we'll need a guide so I nominate Din as our guide for this trip. I'm sure he knows the best spots to find a sword."

Raga sighs heavily but doesn't say anything.  She doesn't get up either.

"Oh, hey Grog."

If Din knew the best spots to find a sword, he'd probably already have a sword, Din thought to himself. He said nothing to this, of course.

"The best way I know to get there is by way of the rooftops," he said. "We'll have more light up there, but it's gonna be slippery in places. Anyone deathly afraid of falling ought to say so now."

He paused for just a moment, and then added, "Nobody? Good. Let's go."


Dinkar rolled 2,5,5 using d6,d6,d6 ((2,5,5)).

Taking the bit of moldy bread in her hands, Jaffa slumped to the group, clutching the stale good in a solemn act of grief. Another victim of poor planning and lack of appetite!

"I swear to give this gift a proper burial," she vowed to Grog, pressing it into the pockets of her robe. They were heading out and she didn't want to throw the poor thing onto the street. Following Din to their destination (one that she still wasn't terribly pleased about, mind you!), Jaffa allowed herself a good cry to mourn the neglected piece of bread.

As Din prepared to leave -- and the others as well --- Raga stirred slightly.

Considering her options, she decided the least bad option was to stay with the others.  So she went with them.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:31, Wed 06 Oct 2021.

“M’kay” Grog said as the others took the food. He didn’t quite get why they didn’t just eat it now. But to each their own. He would definitely have eaten the rat immediately, while it was still pleasantly crunchy. But maybe they’d find more in the Strange quarter. Some of the food there tastes really weird, but sometimes in a good way.
“Why a sword?” He asked after a moment. He could see the point of having a more permanent den, but a sword?

Sarah shakes her head at Grog's question,"Oh, Grog, Grog, Grog!" she says in a tone an older sister would say to a child that doesn't know what swords are. She then coughs and tries out a gruff voice,"To be the strongest, one must always carry a powerful weapon. To be without one, is to take the path of a fool." she says, her finger on her nose to form a mustache,"At least, that's what my grandpa said, and he knows a lot of stuff. So of course, someone as strong as I need another sword, one that my grandma wouldn't know about." she says in her normal voice, she then follows the rest of the group as Din takes lead,"Anyways, rooftop traveling sounds like a lot of fun. Let's make a move on Grog!"

"Grog, good to see you are only marginally behind time.  Jaffa, have you learnt nothing from my wisdom?  If you insist on carrying rotten food, at least use it to bait something... edible."

It was a bit hypocritical of Anthielle to dispense survival advice when the most challenging thing she had to do at dinner time was to save room for desert.  However, there was one rule for her... and one rule for everyone else.  While they were picking their way over the rooftops, Anthielle answered Grog's question.... after Sarah did.

"Swords also make people do what you want... why else do the town guard carry them, hmmm?  There's a reason why the adults don't give us any, to maintain their authority over us.  At any rate, acquiring some weapons is a good idea... and we'll be able to hide them in our headquarters."

She paused.

"Nice going, Din... this path should take us exactly where we need to go..."

As she could not really dominate Din, Antheille preferred praise and ego tickling.

Dinkar leads the way up into the abandoned building, and then up onto the roof. And then he easily leads the way onto the next-nearest roof... and then another... and then another...

The smoke from the Smoke Quarter starts turning the sky red... but the children don't get very close to the thickest parts of it... where the stray fumes and wisps occasionally move in ways that don't seem to have anything to do with any breeze...

And then, their rooftop journey takes them away from the smoke... and the roofs get more spaced-out... And they realize they're in the Strange Quarter. More wrought-iron. More dead trees in yards. More dead ivy on the sides of the buildings. And hardly anyone moving around in the streets below...

Upon arriving in the Strange Quarter, Jaffa made a beeline for one of the few yards that looked remotely alive, pulling out the moldy bread and laying it on the ground. Hands clasped tight, she mumbled out a wish under her breathe for the poor thing to take safe passage to the great stomach in the sky. Jaffa immediately felt much better about the bread, confident that her wish had helped in some small way, as opposed to using the poor thing as bait. Could you imagine? Bait!

Standing back up, she walked back to the group, not bothering to shake off the yard's dirt from her robe. Brightly smiling with a sharp, toothy grin and covered in grass, she approached their most recent guide. "Thanks for the safe journey, Din!" she exclaimed, arms wide in the hopes of a friendly hug.

"Triumph!" Din was pleased with himself for getting them safely to the Strange Quarter. He'd made the journey a few times before, but he'd nearly sworn that the quarter had moved between visits in the past. Maybe he'd just gotten himself a little turned around, he'd justified... but it hadn't really felt that way.

Now seeing that Jaffa intended to hug him, Din turned a bright pink. Hugs were too great an expression of emotion for the generally angry little hobbit. He didn't know what to do, so he did nothing.

Taking a moment to smooth out her dress, Anthielle looked out upon the spooky quarter.  The simple antics of the others elicited an eye roll from the half elven ‘princess’.

Any thoughts on where we should go, oh great Shadow… she inwardly mused, hoping that her Patron was listening in.

Ooc: 00:47, Today: Anthielle rolled 10 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,4,3.  Coaxing information from her Patron.

Probably a bust…

The shadows up the street toward the northeast grow darker...

Sarah decides to search around the place, looking for a weapon to match her might. She finds nothing,"Man, what a rip-off, I was expecting to find a sword stuck on a stone or something. But theirs nothing but smoke and dead plants." she sighs in disappointment. However she still keeps an eye out for something interesting.

23:01, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 2 using 1d6.  Finding A Sword.

An old crone turns the southeast corner and spots the children. "Say, what're you children doing poking around over there?! Don't you know not to trespass on other people's property?!?" She starts quickly hobbling over to you, an action slowed by the way she keeps lifting up her black walking cane and pointing it at you while she shouts, or raising it higher as if to threaten you//punctuate what she's saying. "Get away from there! That's someone's yard! Shoo! Shoo! No, on second thought, stay right there! I'll teach you a lesson you won't soon forget!"

Turning towards the woman, Din sighed as she hobbled her way towards them.

"Lady, we don't have that kind of time," he sneered. He practically danced back out of her way. The woman was twice his size, but moved at half his speed. "Now why don't you just head on home before you embarrass yourself?"

Insult:
Dinkar rolled 4,2 using d6,d6 ((4,2)).

As she is not cornered (and believes herself to be faster than the crone) Raga simply backs away.

“Oh. I see.” Grog said , his bushy brow furrowing in thought as Anthielle and Sarah laid out their arguments. “But why specifically a sword? Why not a hammer or an axe? Protection is good, but most weapons have more than one purpose. Hammers and axes can be used to build. Knives cam be used for carving, sculpting and hunting. Only swords were made with a single purpose. Killing people. They are only superior tools in the hands of killers.” He turned a curious and guileless look on the others “Are we gonna be killers?”

Having said his piece, the goblin seemingly lost interest in the topic, digging through his rags and pulling out a rat’s tail. Where the rest of the rat had gone was anybody’s guess. He then started happily chewing on the tail, before throwing another glance toward Anthielle. “N’ my grub’s edible. Don’t make my Tummy  hurt or
Nuthin’.”

---

As the group arrived in the Strange quarter, Grog followed the others silently, only clapping with a toothy grin as the others congratulated Din for getting them there safely. He briefly considered offering Din a snack, but then remembered he’d eaten his last rat tail om the way there. So instead his eyes flicked around hungrily, looking for anything small and edible.
Thus he got startled when the Old lady started yelling at them, and her loud promise of “lessons” made him hunch down close to the ground, teeth bared in a snarl.

Taking the darkening shadows as a sign, Anthielle moved in that direction with a smug smile… pausing only when the crone assailed them.  While she might have tried to claim an excuse (like getting lost), the hag’s rudeness just seemed to irk her.

“Waving a stick around could get someone hurt.  Din, Sarah… why don’t you help the lady.”

Focusing her own force of personality, Anthielle tried to use the surrounding shadows to hinder the crone.  Odds were good that her vision wasn’t great.  It would be a shame if she slipped…. Otherwise her efforts would hamper the crone’s caning attempts.

Ooc:  01:40, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,3,2.  Shadow powers on the crone.

Seeing the Master Assassin just stop for a moment, Jaffa decided to go for it, transitioning from the big, back-squeezing hug she'd planned on into a more comforting pat-on-the-back sort of hug. And then right back into the back-squeezing! Possibly pressing her arms into the boy a little too hard, even. But that didn't matter. She was very glad to have friends, so she was going to make the most of them.

So when the crone came by to punish them, she felt quite upset that the moment of friendship had been ruined! Releasing Dinkar from her vice-like grip, Jaffa moved between her friends and the crone. "Please leave us be, miss crone!" she cried with what seemed like sincerity, "We were just trying to, uh, find a good bit of nature for a decent burial for this piece of bread! We'll move right on! You'll see!"

Jaffa Redspot rolled 11 using 3d6, unique dice with rolls of 2,3,6.  Okay, record each die. Frick, why am I messing up using the roller?

11:36, Today: Jaffa Redspot rolled 6 using 3d6.  Distracting/convincing the crone of the truth! Charming.

If you want to treat this as a failure or a partial success since the first roll could not have had any results higher than a 4, please feel free.

"What?! How dare you, you useless, homeless, good-for-nothing little pipsqueak?!"

(Dinkar and the crone each take 1 non-physical Hurt.)




The area darkens noticably... but it doesn't seem to hamper the crone any more than it hampers the rest of you.

(Anthielle cannot use her shady powers again until she has made her patron happy once more...)





(I have set the die roller to a default of 1d6, and have also set it as default to Record Each Die.

I shall treat your recent move as a partial success.)

Jaffa's pleas do slow the crone down a bit and partially mollify her. "...Hmph! I'll do and say what I please! But at least you have some manners! --Why can't the rest of you be as polite as this tiny little kobold!?"

Quite ruffled, Jaffa shakes her head. "I do appreciate you recognizing my politeness, miss crone, but don't call him useless and good for nothing! He's a very good nav-ee-gator! And a Master Assassin!"

Seeing Anthielle’s magicky stuff do nothing and Din’s insults do even less to avoid a fight, Grog decided that Jaffa’s idea was the best. avoiding a fight the first way he’s learned from the smarter animals: acting cute and pitiful.

‘M sorry. We’s no good at politing, cus we’s small.” He said to the Old lady, clasping his hands on his back and acting small, before hitting her with the best trick a dog had ever taught him. The puppy eyes!

OOC: Grog tries to gain the Old lady’s sympathy, and to get her to ease up on them.
18:21, Today: Grog rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,2,3.  Charming check: puppy eyes for sympathy!

Raga deems the crisis averted -- or at least slowed -- or at least not focused on her.  And that last point is most significant, as Raga is ever-concerned about her personal well-being.

So with so many others between her and the crone, Raga stops backing up and quietly watches.

Now worried that this crone might be a witch (how else could she have resisted Anthielle’s powers?), a retreat was looking more appealing…

She did however cringe when Jaffa mentioned Din’s profession.  Why did she have to fix everything?!

“Haha, Jaffa… assassins are bad people and they aren’t as young as we are.  ‘Madam’ can we go now?  Otherwise this lot will want to come back here tomorrow… and the next day… and the next.”

Anthielle then turned on her heal and marched off to the north east with as much dignity as she could muster.

Ooc:  02:37, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,2,3.  Charming her way out.

"I guess I'm a bad person, then," Din said blandly. It wasn't the first time someone had called him that, and it wouldn't be the last. It might've hurt more this time, coming from someone who could be considered something of a friend, but not really. Dinkar was a Master Assassin (in training) and if that made him a bad person, then so be it. "I'm bad! You know it!"

To emphasize this declaration, he would do something truly, unmistakably bad.

The woman had brandished her cane like a weapon. Weapons were loot.

Loot was fair game.

Dinkar darted forward, intent on taking the cane.

Dinkar rolled 3,4,6 using d6,d6,d6 ((3,4,6)).

"Master Assassin?! Ye gods! What's this world coming to?!"




"Hush, you disgusting little twerp! You'll get no sympathy from me! Children should be seen and not heard!"

(Grog takes 1 non-physical Hurt.)




"What?! How dare you even contemplate such a thing?! And you look like you're from Parkside Quarter-- do your parents know what you're up to?! What kind of heartless and irresponsible little girl are you, running around doing whatever you please with whomever you please?!"


(Anthielle takes 1 non-physical Hurt.)





Dinkar steals the crone's black cane right out of her hand without her noticing, but she will as soon as she starts trying to walk somewhere again (or if she notices him holding it after this moment)...

Dinkar, being much shorter than the crone, was about the same height as the cane. Thus in his hands it became an awesome battle staff that he twirled around over his head in triumph, even as he danced away from the crone.

"Yeah! Let's go, gang!"

When he speaks (and twirls), naturally, the crone turns toward Dinkar. "What-- what-- my cane! Get back here with that immediately!"

(I think I'll wait and see what the rest of Dear Old Gang does next)

Taken aback, Jaffa lets loose a gasp. Why, this lady wasn't a concerned citizen at all! She was just a big jerk! Looking around and quickly balling up a handful of dirt in her hand, she shouted, "Stop it! Grog's not disgusting and Anthielle's not heartless! She's just a bit reckless! So stop insulting my friends, you big jerk!" On 'jerk,' Jaffa tossed the ball of dirt squarely at the big jerk's big face. Hopefully, that would give them some time to get away as well.

Jaffa Redspot rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,1.  Throwing some dirt at the jerk. Agile.

The ball of dirt misses, and gets in Dinkar's eyes instead.

(Dinkar can't see, and must either stand still and rub his eyes for a round, or else must run blindly and risk running into something painful (or, indeed, into the crone.))

"Aagh!" Dinkar shouts. He tucks his battle staff under one arm and begins to wipe dirt out of his eyes. "Jaffa!"

Raga doesn't feel threatened; Raga doesn't see any food; Raga doesn't think her friends are in any great danger from the de-caned crone.

Raga stays where she is, but she looks around for a place to spend the night (in case it becomes necessary for her to do so).

"Ah! Sorry, Din!" Disappointed in herself as losing her cool and throwing things, Jaffa decided to stay behind and protect Dinkar for now. It was her fault he was hurting like this. She wanted to console the boy, but was worried about making things worse before they even had a chance to get away!

When his pity trick failed, Grog flinched at the woman’s harsh words. She wasn’t very appetizing herself, but He didn’t go around yelling it…

Seeing Din take her cane, however, and what’s more seeing Jaffa actually get mad at her put the crone firmly in the enemy category. Which meant discouraging her from attacking them the hard way.
His mind made up, Grog snapped into feral once more, growling and hissing as He jumped at the crone’s leg, sharp teeth first. A good bite usually convinced people to leave him alone.

OOC:
Grog jumps the crone, intent on biting her ankle.
22:33, Today: Grog rolled 1 using 1d6 with rolls of 1.  Forceful check to bite crone

Welp, Grog is striking out with all the feral child staples today.

Well this was a mess.  Still smarting from the crone’s dressing down, Anthielle gave a mocking laugh and unleashed the full power of her Mean Girl aspect.

“Look out, she’s trying to eat us!  I knew she was a mugger… with that fake hair.  Back to the dark with you, slavering banshee.”

Anthielle tugged at the crone’s hair and then shoved her into the shadows… Hoping her Patron would enjoy the gift.

Ooc:
07:04, Today: Anthielle rolled 7 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,3,1.  Mean Girl Fu… vs crone.

Does the dice roller even have 5 or 6s on it. :$

Sarah contemplated how should she fight without a sword. So she waited for the right amount of time to find a weapon, but then realized she's wearing slippers and it could be used as a substitute, probably. She takes off her sandals and charges toward the crone,"You face against the streets strongest warrior, and a friend of these guys right here. Your insults shall face my wrath." she says and goes on a whirlwind of slipper attacks.

05:53, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,5.  Slipper Surprise Attack.

Take 2 physical dmg

This message was last edited by the player at 21:59, Wed 06 Oct 2021.

"Oh! Oh!" The crone jumps when Grog grabs her leg... and then, unbalanced by the weight of a small goblin on one leg (it's not like she has a cane or anything), she falls... but her fall is cushioned by falling on Grog... and on Anthielle, who'd come running up just at that moment.

(Grog and Anthielle each take 1 physical Hurt.)



"Oh! Oh! Oh! Help! Help! Someone help! Oh, have you ever seen such cruelty?! Oh!"

(The crone takes 2 physical damage.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:38, Thu 07 Oct 2021.

"Time to run!" Din shouted, and started away.

Wounded in both body and pride, Anthielle bolted away.

“Flee the witch or she’ll cook us,  Go!”

"What, is she calling in her munchkin forces. Well, time to book it." Sarah says, she then puts her slippers back on and retreated with the others.

"Sorry, miss jerk! Try not to be such a jerk next time!" Jaffa shouted behind her as she briskly followed the others away.

Raga doesn't necessarily want to stick around.  Nor does she want to navigate her way out herself.  She prefers to stick with the navigator who got her here, because he's her best bet for getting out.

So Raga races to catch up with Din.

With the others running away, Grog scrambled out from under the crone and followed along as fast as He could.

Soon the crone is out of the children's sight (and, even better, out of earshot).

You are still somewhere in the Strange Quarter.

(Did Dinkar run away to the northeast, where Anthielle's shadows seemed to hint to go...?)
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:41, Thu 07 Oct 2021.

Once away from the crone, Anthielle stopped and addressed the gang.  It was initially a dressing down, but she had to rally the gang as well.

“I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life.  Where were our fierce warriors?  Even if she was a witch, we had the numbers.  What happens when we encounter real monsters and enemies?  If we are going to rise above this humiliating defeat, we have to go in there and prove our mettle…”

Anthielle gestured to the North East, where the shadows had beckoned her.

"Humiliating defeat?!" Sarah exclaimed at that claim,"I think I established who the victor was on that fight. After the smackdown I gave that crone, no way will she bother us again." she says, brimming with a lot of confidence, she then looks toward the direction Anthielle was pointing at,"But proving our mettle sounds like a lot of fun though, let's follow Anthielle's lead gang."

(Yes.)

"We were fierce enough to steal her magical staff," Dinkar countered, referring to the crone's cane. He knew it wasn't really magic, of course, but the cane was definitely a staff in his hands. That'd teach the old broad. "Loot!"

He twirled it above his head again, then brought it down sharply to point at a nearby rock. He yelled a 'magic' word.

"...Skeedoosh!"

Raga looks at Anthielle when the older girl begins her lecture.  But the littler girl soon turns away, plainly disinterested.

Having turned away, Raga takes note of any buildings or people nearby.

Nothing happens to the rock.

But behind the rock... in the yard nearby... Raga notices that the house in that small yard... Well... The front door is missing.

The rest of the house is normal. But the front door is just... not there. It's just an open, albeit shadowy, doorway...

Raga points at the house she has spotted.

"That house has no door.  Maybe nobody's there?  Or maybe someone else has taken it over."

"An adventure!" Dinkar nearly shouted. "Let us explore the abandoned structure and search it for loot!"

Raga notices, though, that all the glass in all the windows are still intact and unbroken, which has been true of no abandoned house she's ever seen before...

"Woah, nice find Raga. It looks like we've found our first base of operations, let's go and take out whoever's inside and claim that house as our own." Sarah says, cracking her knuckles, readying herself for another fight.

Raga stops her advance toward the house.

"I think it's a trap.  It's not 'bandoned.  It's too nice, no broken windows.  The door's gone just to get us to come in."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:49, Thu 07 Oct 2021.

A very old (male) dwarf appears in the doorway. "Hello? Children? Yes? Could I please ask a favor of you...? I have an errand I need someone to run, and I'll pay you well for it..."

"Where's your door?" Raga asked, strangely fixated on its absence.

"Mm? Oh, I got rid of it. I... I have... I feel very anxious, these days, about closed spaces. Don't like feeling trapped, no... I think when my errand's done, I'll feel less anxious..."

Following Raga's finger, Jaffa stared at the doorway warily. The man seemed off as well, but that was probably just her paranoia speaking.

"It looks kinda dark and spooky Raga. I don't know if we should go into the stranger's house. Ah!" She just remembered. "But, but, before we go in or walk away or something, does anyone need any help or comforting? I could try to make things feel better after that jerk of a lady yelled at us. It's not good to keep going when you're still hurting, I think..." Partway through her offer, she began to wag her finger like some sort of schoolteacher, concern clear on her face.

"Rats, it's the classic quest ploy, guess we're duty bound by payment to do as he says. I was hoping it would be something fierce or more monstrous, at least something justifiable to take over his house." Sarah whispers behind the group and out of earshot of the old dwarf.
This message was last edited by the player at 14:56, Thu 07 Oct 2021.

The old dwarf considers. "...You don't... you don't have to come in, if you don't want to. I'd certainly understand if you don't want to feel... shut in. I can tell you about my errand here, if and when you're ready..."

"What's the errand, old timer?" Dinkar asked, no longer concerned with exploration. "And what does it pay?"

Feeling better after her little speech, she looked over the house.  The fact that it looked in decent repair was surely a good thing, right?  Anthielle rubbed her hands together just thinking about ‘owning’ this place.

“Din, Sarah… take the lead, Jaffa and myself will follow.   Raga and Grog… go around back and investigate.”

Then the dwarf appeared, mucking up her plan.  However the offer of a quest tickled her adventurous spirit.  She let Din ask about it… taking the opportunity to whisper to Jaffa.

“The crone did hex me… and I’m a bit sore when she pounced on me too.  I wouldn’t mind if you took a look, Jaffa.”

Catching that Anthielle was whispering, Jaffa tried to be discreet as well. With a silent nod, she set to work, raising her hands to gently massaging her friend's shoulder. After a bit of work, she gave Anthielle a light pat on the back, whispering that it was alright and that they were safe now. "Is that any better? It looks like you've got a fair bit of tension..."

Jaffa Redspot rolled 9 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,2,3.  Comforting Anthielle. Charming.

Console: 4. Remove 1 Hurt from a friend, but this leaves you both vulnerable-- Each of you take -1 on your next roll.

"...I want you to go into the Merchant's Quarter and buy something for me. Something I lost, long ago... but now I know where it is. I'll give you the payment for it, and then you bring it back to me."

"As for the payment... I'll give you a house... A house that will be perfect for your needs... A house just for the six of you, no one else..."

Dinkar's jaw dropped. A house? That was incredible, but also too coincidental to be coincidental. Just as they started searching for a place to call a lair of their own, someone offers them one? It was not to be believed.

"We'll do it," he said anyway, his mouth overriding his brain.

Raga eyed the dwarf suspiciously.  She had been lured many times by promises that turned out to be . . . something else, so she is wary.

When Din eagerly accepted, Raga shifted her gaze to him.  She then looks down and slowly shakes her head but doesn't say anything.

The old dwarf gets a leather coin purse out of his pocket-- about the size of a large toad, thinks Grog-- and sets it down at his feet. "Give this to the shopkeeper of the New Moon Jewelry shop. He'll think it's a very fair price, and won't haggle."

"What you're purchasing is a silver locket with a pickaxe on the front. He'll know the one. Bring it back to me..."

The old dwarf backs away from the doorway, back into his house, leaving the coin purse-- tied at the top with leather cords-- sitting where he left it in the doorway.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:00, Thu 07 Oct 2021.

Homina homina huh whuh huh ho.

The guy trusted a bunch of kids with that much money? That was beyond belief. Even if it was nothing but coppers, it was a small fortune to the junior adventurers. They could just keep the money and make a run for it, and... and...

Damn it, Dinkar wanted to see this supposed house. If the guy was willing to trust that much cash to kids he'd never met before, maybe he was on the up-and-up when it came to the house, too.

That raised the question of whether or not the old dwarf was crazy... but Dinkar almost didn't care.

Money... house... money... house.... This was an opportunity out of his wildest daydreams, either way he decided to go with it.

"Don't trust me to carry the coins," he said softly, in a rare moment of self-awareness. "You'll never see me again."

"Don't trust you to carry what coins, Din-oh my goodness!"

Jaffa was coming back towards the rest of the group after helping to soothe Anthielle. She'd heard a little of what the man had been saying (to the point where she probably didn't do good enough of a job for Anthielle, which was why she felt kinda sluggish right now, but nevermind that!), so she'd known he wanted to them to go out and get him some kind of thing. But what was this bag? Were they supposed to use that to pay for the thing? It looked so stuffed full of coins that she could've mistaken it for one of those stuffed breads they had at the bakery! Even if that was all copper, she could get, like, at least two Jaffa Cakes! She didn't know what to do with that kind of money!

"He wants us to get a thing worth that much? I don't think I've ever even seen so many coins in one place... What was the thing he wanted again?"

"A silver locket... with a pickaxe on the front."

Dinkar was still frozen in place by the siren song of all that money. Someone else was going to have to take it.

"Silver locket..." That did certainly sound expensive. But he was willing to give them a house for that? Jaffa'd thought that houses were some sort of impossibly huge deal and this seemed almost mismatched with the bag in front of her. This much was worth a locket was worth a house? Something about that felt wrong, but Jaffa knew that she wasn't an expert on real estate, so she kept her mouth shut.

"I don't think my pockets are large enough to hold that..."

As the group ran away and eventually stopped at the doorless house, Grog tried not to think about what the old lady had said. He wasn’t disgusting, He was natural!
The thought of the crone brought his mind to the scrapes he’s suffered when he’s been caught between the gravel and her bony bum. Absentmindedly He started licking clean the worst scrapes on his arm as the others started talking with some weird dwarf. He only Half-listened, more intent on cleaning his wounds and looking around for anything of interest. Maybe something to eat. There weren’t any critters nearby to ask for directions, and He didn’t even bother looking for pigeons. They still needed a while before they’d forget the bread fight earlier.

Grog’s attention focused back on the others when the clink of the coinpurse sounded out. Staring idly as the others got all out of sorts over the money, He eventually just walked over, picked up the purse, and vanished it into the layers of his rags. He never really got the bog interest in money after he left home. Not like people would let him use it, anyway. They always took one look and yelled about him stealing.
Why would he steal money to buy food, instead of just stealing food?
That’s just survival with extra steps…

Raga had begun cautiously inching toward the bag dropped by the dwarf -- only to be outpaced by Grog's casual stroll.

Anthielle nodded her thanks to Jaffa and then turned her attention to the quest.  It sounded too simple… and very shady.  But the prize was worth the attempt.

“Let us get this locket before closing time is upon us.  Din, you have the lead.”

Sarah was shocked at the reward for completing this quest, she was stunned a bit,"Man, my grandpa always said that their were two kinds of quests. The rewarding kind and the disappointing kind, and I hope this question is the former." she comments after she recovers from that shocking reward.

Grateful that someone had put the coin purse out of sight, Din straightened up and turned to leave. He brandished his stick, pointing in the general direction of the Merchants' Quarter, and shouted "To the Merchants' Quarter!"

Then, realizing that he was advertising their destination to anyone who might be listening, he added, "Or not! Maybe somewhere else!"

Dinkar rolled 1,3,5 using d6,d6,d6 ((1,3,5)).

Soon enough, Dinkar and his friends have found their way to the Shop Quarter...

"When we get there, don' tell the shopkeeper who's got the money.  He'll just try to take it if 'e can."

Raga didn't say much, but on this point... Anthielle agreed.

"...and we want to look presentable.  Grog and Jaffa, you might want to linger outside... in case this shopkeeper doesn't like other races.  I want a smooth exchange and no causes for offense."

Looking around the Shop Quarter, Anthielle sighed inwardly.  So many fun shops, but no funds in which to buy things.  The quest had priority.

"And, uhm . . . should we make sure there's actually coins in the bag?  In case the dwarf is trying to get us in trouble?"

Jaffa huffed. "Aren't you forgetting who has the money? And what if the shopkeeper's a Kobold or a Goblin too? All we know about him is that he's a he and that he probably likes jewelry! 'Sides! If you're so worried about us causing offense, don't you think us loitering in the road would be much more suspicious?" Honestly! Jaffa knew Anthielle was probably just trying to be super extra cautious of certain people, but that felt awfully close to calling her ugly. And that was a rather sore subject for the Kobold. Jaffa felt she was very presentable! She cleaned all her scales, like, once a week! And she didn't smell, like some of the other orphans claimed. She had a very good nose and the only smelling she did was the kind where she was the one doing the sniffing!

Anthielle threw her hands up with a touch of melodrama.

"Fine!  Just stand in the back and don't spook the shopkeeper.  Let us hope that he has an open mind..."

Assuming there was no other fires to put out, she walked into the shop and tapped on the counter (something her Father used to do, when he was around).

"Excuse me, we'd like to buy a locket.  Do you have anything in silver?  Maybe something with a pickaxe inscription?"

Grog paused in the exploring of one of his ears at the mention of him staying outside, before shrugging and pulling out the money bag to give to be of the others. He hesitated when Jaffa spoke up against it, however, looking back and forth between her and Anthielle. Shrugging again, He did take the elf’s words into account, and pulled his hood up. It was a fact that he’d been thrown out of shops before, after all.

Sarah walked beside Anthielle like a guard. If the shopkeeper shows up, Sarah looks at the owner with sad puppy dog eyes and adds in another request,"Excuse me shopkeep, I'm a warrior that lost her sword. You wouldn't mind giving me one for free, I promise to reimburse you when I become the world's greatest hero." she says, upping up her charm enough to influence any simple adult to do her bidding.

16:28, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,1.  Puppy dog eyes.

Brushing all of the dirt and dust caught on her robes into the street, Jaffa proudly strode into the store. She'd never been inside of a jewelry store before, so she was excited for the new experience. It wasn't going to be as sweet as being inside of a bakery (she doubted that anything could be so amazing), but she'd heard that jewelry was supposed to be really pretty and sparkly, glistening in the light like a glazed mirror cake. It didn't sound as useful as food, but it would be nice, Jaffa thought, to have something as beautiful as that, but that wouldn't go bad after a week.

Raga shuffles in too.

She hangs behind the others.  The shopkeeper isn't going to want to talk to her, and if he sees her in her rags he might throw her out.

Dinkar wandered the store as though perusing the merchandise, which technically he was. He was looking to see if there was anything that really shouted "Steal me!" to him.

Even so, he was keeping an eye on the mission, and the payoff. Stealing now would be a bad idea.

It was just so darn tempting.

"..." The shopkeeper looks like he'd be more than happy to escort all of these children out of his shop, but... the little half-elf girl actually looked like she might be able to afford a locket? Maybe? "I... do have a silver locket... with a pickaxe on the front... Dwarven manufacture, of course... Is this... a gift for a dwarf friend...?"





"...Um, I'm sorry, little girl, but this is a jewelry store... There aren't really any swords here."

Raga is still lingering in the back.

There sure are a lot of pretty things in this shop for Raga to look at.

Approaching the counter, Jaffa explained, "Not really a friend, but we are on a kind of quest to buy this for a dwarf. He gave us some money to buy it with too!"

Raga takes a few steps in a direction toward one of the shop's corners and continues looking around.

"I see..." says the man. "And... may I see this money...?"

Din sighed and pointed to Grog, who was holding the money out. The shopkeeper seemed nice enough in the moment, but he apparently didn't care to notice goblins.

“Jiggle the pouch, Grog… and remove a few coins for the nice shopkeeper to view.”

This was the moment of truth.  There could be gems in the pouch, coins, or rusty metal bits.

The cords on the coin purse won't untie.

"Let me try," suggests the shopkeeper.

So that's how the old dwarf was going to keep the kids from stealing his money! An enchanted coin purse! Clever old guy.

"Go for it," he said to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper takes the coin purse, and easily opens it. "Oh my," he says. He empties the contents onto the counter (carefully, so none fall onto the floor).

There's some silver coins, but quite a few gold coins, too.

"Yes... this will be..."

He blinks and opens a box nearby him, and takes out a silver locket on a fine silver chain. He hands it to one of the children. (Whoever wants it.)

It's a beautiful locket, with a pickaxe on it picked out in amethysts.

The shopkeeper puts the coins all back into the coin purse. "Now, I'm about to close, children..."

Dinkar took the locket. It didn't look like it was worth all those coins, but that wasn't Dinkar's problem. Getting the locket back to the old man was. Without a sound, the locket quickly vanished into Dinkar's clothes.

"Let's go, gang," he said to his team, brandishing his new staff. "To glory! To riches! To victory!"

Of those three things, Dinkar only really cared about the riches. Glory was for idiots. Victory was nice, but Dinkar would gladly take a sneaky retreat with loot over a victory with nothing to show for it but glory.

He headed for the door, expecting the others to fall in behind him.

Raga looks dejected.

"Thanks for the locket, mister jewelry guy!" Jaffa exclaimed, immediately turning to the door before stopping. What was wrong with Raga? She seemed upset about something. Jaffa didn't like it when her friends were sad. She had to help!

"What's wrong, Raga?"

"Nothin'," the tyke says dejectedly.

Raga gives one last fleeting glance at the shop's corner, then exits after Din.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:24, Fri 08 Oct 2021.

There was something wrong with Muffy. Jaffa had asked and been rebuffed, and Din wasn't the sort of guy to try. He was curious, but not that curious.

Grog didn’t have much interest in the whole transaction, his friends seemed to have it under control. He looked up at Raga’s apparent moodiness, however. Seeing the girl be more soft than prickly, He frowned.

Rooting around in his clothes, He once again regretted having eaten the last rat tail. That would have worked for sure. Instead He remembered his spare bread piece. About the size of his closed fist, He held the hard bread out to her silently. Seeing a piece of mold on it, He briefly paniclked, before biting of the moldy part and offering the rest to her once more with a toothy, crumb filled smile.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:18, Fri 08 Oct 2021.

Sarah gives out a sigh when seeing that her ploy failed,"Rats, I was hoping that guy would have a spare hidden somewhere in their shop." she says, then noticed Raga's mood and her stare at the shop's corner,"Hey, Raga, you wouldn't mind holding on the locket, would you? Din is kinda untrustworthy with jewelry and coins after all."

Raga is obviously surprised at the offer, but she says, "Alright."
This message was last edited by the player at 21:21, Fri 08 Oct 2021.

“Thank you, sir… enjoy your day.”

Giving a bit of faked cheer to the shopkeeper, Anthielle left the store and looked around.  It was time to finish the quest.

“Din has safer hands.  The Dwarf doesn’t get what he wants until he shows us our new lair.  That said, we should not be rude,  if he can perform magic… inferior to my father of course.  Take us back there, Din.”

It was no secret that Anthielle’s father was a powerful elven wizard… at least from the way she described it.  They did have a magic butler creature and a place in the best quarter.

"Sorry, Muffy," Din said, patting a pocket on his chest. His tone was more matter-of-fact than snide, but it sure as heck wasn't sympathetic. "Locket stays with me."

Returning to the rooftops, Dinkar started their way back to the Strange Quarter.

Dinkar rolled 2,3,2 using d6,d6,d6 ((2,3,2)).

Aargh.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:22, Fri 08 Oct 2021.

Sarah disapproves at this choice but it's an order from their self-proclaimed leader,"Can't argue with that logic. Sorry I got your hopes up bud." she apologizes to Raga as they walk on roofs again.

Raga acts like she has no idea what Din is talking about.  She looks around, as if looking for someone.

Jaffa hummed to herself on their way back, turning the situation over in her head. Raga seemed upset or sad about something, but nothing anyone was doing seemed to make her feel better. Wracking her brain, Jaffa tried to come up with some sort of gesture to improve her mood. Maybe a slice of cake? A sword? Gems or money? Large hug?

Stubbing her toe on a roofing panel, Jaffa yelped and grumbled, but kept herself from calling the roof stupid.

Before the children were even a third of the way back to the Strange Quarter, though, there was a spot where Dinkar had to leave the rooftops because the space between one block and the next was much too large to leap.

And wouldn't you know it but that the children ran right into three of the Painters-- one of the worst teen gangs in the Poor Quarter.

--Jack: human, age 14
--Mary: human, age 14
--Anne: half-elf, equivalent age 15

"Allo allo allo m'little chums," says Jack. "An' wot might we 'ave here? It's a bunch of little schoolmates on a field trip inter Painter territory, I swan! And wot've you brought your upperclassmen as tribute for lettin' you pass through their part of the school of 'ard knocks, then, my ducklings? Yer too smart to pass this way with nothin' to donate...! --Turn out yer pockets, my dearies... especially you, miss rich-britches," he says, gesturing to Anthielle. "...And especially you, too, light-fingers," he says, nodding at Dinkar. "'Oo knows but that you might've taken some old dowager's purse, too, when you nicked that cane yer 'oldin'..."
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:45, Sat 09 Oct 2021.

Sarah begins taking off her slippers,"Painters! And the idiotic kind from the way they look." she says to the others and then shouts back to those teens,"For your information, the dwarf gave us the purse voluntarily and that crone had it coming. Now, if you don't mind, back off or you'll have to face the strongest kid around Poor Quarter." she says, obviously referring to herself. She then raises her slippers up as weapons.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:12, Sat 09 Oct 2021.

"Oh ho ho! So there was a purse-- and either it was small, or you took the goodies inside and discarded the rest. Hand 'em over, me bravas...!"

"So you would resort to banditry, very well." Sarah says, she then starts swinging wildly as if her slippers were chained together,"I am Sarah Farwing, the streets best swordswinger around and the one that'll take you down." she says, her swing speed increasing however these slippers are not in fact chained together like a bunch of baton-like weapons some martial artist would know. So it made sense that one of her slippers would accidentally be toss and hit one of her allies square on the nose. That ally would happen to be Dinkar,"Ah, meant to do that. Looks like a hero of justice wins this bout of strength once again."

08:57, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 1,6,4.  Sword (Slipper) Saint Style Attack.

Oh, a 1 and theirs nothing to break. I'm gonna say I hit Dinkar. Suffer 2 physical dmg, sorry!

(Jack takes 2 physical Hurt.

Dinkar takes 2 physical Hurt.)

"Owwww!" says Jack. "Why you little--!"

But before he can counter-attack...

(Somebody else take a turn!)

"Farwing, you clumsy twit!" Dinkar's nose was bleeding, and it hurt like hell. From a slipper, of all things. If the girl had had half the sense to pick up a rock, Dinkar would probably be dead now. "Watch where you're throwing!"

With a snarl he leapt at Jack, swinging the staff with all his might. If they took one of the teens out entirely, maybe the other two would think twice about their life choices.


Dinkar rolled 5,2,6 using d6,d6,d6 ((5,2,6)).

(Jack takes 1 more physical Hurt...

BUT teens can take more hurt than kids your age...)

"Ow! Right in me eye!" he stumbles backwards, holding his eye... Mary and Anne seem disconcerted...

And then--

(Somebody else take a turn!)

Hissing like an angry cat at the older children, Grog looked around for any animals that might be able to help. He would’ve just jumped in beside Dinkar, but after what happened with the old lady He was convinced this wasn’t a bitey day. But if could find a rat or cat willing to bite or distract them for a share of his next meal…

OOC:
Grog tries to locate a plant or animal helper.
 04:10, Today: Grog rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,6.  Insightful check to locate helper.

That’s be all from me for now too. If the fight proceeds a lot in the next 6-8 hours, feel free to npc me. I gotta go to sleep.
 

Raga keeps a wary eye on Mary and Anne, lest they decide to get involved.

Grog spots a large rat nearby... (Large for a rat, I mean. It's not a giant rat or anything.)

Arms hanging down at her side, she balls her tiny hands into tiny fists, just in case.

“Protect Raga.  You bullies won’t get what her loot.”

Anthielle tried to give the wrong impression that Raga was the one the Painters wanted.  She hoped it would take some heat off Din and force Raga into fighting.

Occ:  05:21, Today: Anthielle rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,2.  Tricking the enemy (CHA).
Burns off that -1 dice penalty too

Raga backs away.  With all sincerity (because it's true) and abet of anguished pleading, Raga says: "I don't got nothin'."

Of course, if she'd stood still, what's the chance that the Painters would know that she's Raga?  No way to tell now . . .

Mary and Anne, completely fooled, glance at each other, and then slowly close in on Raga-- approaching her from the left and right, in case she might run for it...

"Leave me ALONE!!" Raga screams, continuing to back away as she looks at Mary and Anne frantically, realizing she can't outrun them.

Stepping between Raga and the approaching duo, Jaffa scooped up the stray slipper that her strongest friend had accidentally tossed earlier. Throwing it wildly at the two, Jaffa shouted, "Get away from her!" Logistically, Raga probably wasn't the highest priority right now, seeing as Din didn't look too hot and he was the one with the thing. Still, what was she gonna do? Let them hit her friend? She just had to hope Din stayed alright until she could help him stop hurting...

Jaffa Redspot rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Throwing a slipper at the bullies. Agile-1.
On a 3 or 4, you deal one physical Hurt, but the opponent may counterattack, or something else problematic may happen.

Locking eyes with the rat,  Grog let out a series of hisses and screeches, promising the rat in it’s own tongue that if it helped him with this fight, perhaps by biting a leg of one of the approaching teens or crawling inside their clothes, there’d be a piece of cheese as reward later. And perhaps more in the future.

OOC: Grog tries to convince the rat to help in the fight by hurting and/or distracting the teens.
14:03, Today: Grog rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,4.  Charm check. “Hey, help me out please” to the rat.

"Ow! You little brat!" Mary rushes toward her attacker and slaps her upside her scaly head.

(Mary takes 1 physical Hurt.
Jaffa takes 1 physical Hurt.)




Sigh, I guess I could help for just a second, says the rat (although no one but Grog understands this message so articulately). Afterward, you'll have to find someone else to be your cannon fodder, though...

The rat scurries and climbs up Anne's leg.

Anne does not take this well. "Eww, a rat! A rat!"

She begins slapping at her leg.

The rat jumps off and runs away, not risking his tail nor anything else for some strange goblin kid he just met...

(Anne takes 1 non-physical damage.)

Mary picked on the one kid Raga can care about . . .

"Leave her alone too!" Raga yells as she charges at Mary.

Raga's not big.  And she's not particularly strong.  She knows this from having been in unfortunately too many scraps.  But that experience has taught her that she can do some pretty painful things to others.

Pull hair  . . . gouge eyes . . . pound on ears . . . bite . . . chop windpipes with the edge of her hand . . . Fight dirty, in effect.

She doesn't like to fight, necessarily -- she's just had to do it a lot.  And when she does, she doesn't hold anything back.

All on an eight year old level, of course . . .

So she charges headlong into Mary, wraps her arms around the taller girl's leg, and bites her on the thigh.


18:03, Today: Raga rolled 13 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,5,4.  Bite Mary's Thigh.

Inflict one hurt; no counterattack

(Mary takes 1 physical Hurt.)

"Arrr! She's bitin' me! These little kids can fight!"

Jack had started this, and Jack would be the one to finish it... by crying and running away, if Dinkar had any say in the matter. All that would take would be another stick to the face. Or more. More would be fine. Jack had it coming.

Dinkar leaped forward with his staff and let Jack have another shot, right in the face.

Dinkar rolled 2,5,1 using d6,d6,d6 ((2,5,1)).
This message was last edited by the player at 00:48, Mon 11 Oct 2021.

Pleased to see Raga take up fighting (despite Anthielle being the instigator), she now looked to find some other way to contribute.  Maybe Din 'could' take down Jack, but she wasn't willing to leave it to chance.  It was even worth the risk of potential harm to herself.

Anthielle picked up a piece of roof tile and tried to dash it over Jack's head... from behind of course.

OOC:15:03, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 1d6 with rolls of 6.  Physical attack on Jack.
OMG, got him! :)

"Oww! Owwww! I'm gettin' outta here! C'mon, girls!" shouts Jack with a note of hysteria in his voice.





But then, Anthielle smacks Jack over the head, and he just stands there, disconnected from reality. "C'mon, luv, let's get away from the nasty little brats..." Anne urges him, and they start to lead him away...
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:20, Mon 11 Oct 2021.

"AH-HA-HA-HA-HA!" Dinkar laughed. He stood with his hands on his hips, blood dribbling from both nostrils, watching the three older kids run away. "RUN, YOU PUNKS! RUN FROM DINKAR, THE SEXY SHOELESS GOD OF DEATH!"

She looked at Din with more than a bit of concern (that he might do something foolish).  Anthielle tried to catch Jaffa's glance and gesture for her to help Din... in the way that she had helped Anthielle previously.

"Well done, team... victory is ours.  Let them run.  We still need to return to the dwarf however... maybe with an alternative route.  Raga, can you get us there?  Din deserves a rest..."

And while everyone reformed, rested, or did other things... Anthielle took the bloodied fragments of her tile over to a shaded corner of the roof and drew a silhouette of Jack... hoping that her injury of the older boy had pleased her patron enough to return her powers.

If Mary gives an indication that she's wanting to run away, Raga will let her.

Picking herself up, Raga wipes her hands as if trying to get the dirt off of them.  Some dust flies, but overall the effort doesn't have much effect.

In response to Athielle, Raga shakes her head.

"You don' wan' me leadin' the way.  I get lost a lot of the time."

OOC: I'm not particularly insightful.
This message was last edited by the player at 18:12, Mon 11 Oct 2021.

"I c'n do it," Dinkar said, sniffling back some blood. His nosebleed was just a trickle now, and he'd found a rag in one of his many pockets with which to stanch it. The rag wasn't in any way clean, but nothing Dinkar owned was ever particularly clean. "Just gimme a minute."


[OOC: He's waiting for Jaffa. No rush!]

"You're not going anywhere until that blood stops, Din!" Rushing to the Master Assassin's side, Jaffa roped an arm around the boy to steady him. Leading Din down to a sitting position, she shot a thumbs-up and a toothy grin at Anthielle, as if to say, 'I've got this!' Concern melting back onto her face, Jaffa began looking over the halfling boy, occasionally using her admittedly filthy robe to wipe off the blood, being careful not to touch any section that could get infected with what was essentially a rag. The boy was really hurt and definitely in need of some consoling. Closing her eyes and clasping her hands, Jaffa began to wish once more for the sake of healing Dinkar's hurt...

Jaffa Redspot rolled 17 using 3d6 with rolls of 5,6,6.  Consoling time for Dinkar. Charming.
--On 6: Remove 1 Hurt from a friend.

OOC: Sorry for the late response there!

Feeling somewhat better, Dinkar wiped his nose one last time and stuffed the rag back into a pocket. It was disgusting, but one never knew when one might need a bloody rag.

"Let's get this done," he said, standing back up. To Jaffa, quietly enough that no one else could hear it, he added,
"...and thanks."

Travel to Strange Quarter:
Dinkar rolled 3,1,5 using d6,d6,d6 ((3,1,5)).

"Hah, looks like those painters we're nothing but jokester." Sarah commented as she put her slippers back on,"And if I had a sword, they wouldn't stand a chance. Now where would you guys be without me to fight, apart from not noseblooding. Sorry about that, Din." she apologizes as they start hopping on roofs again.

Opening her eyes, Jaffa nodded at Din. It was sometimes confusing when her friends got shy about her help, but she appreciated the gratitude. However quiet it sounded, it spoke volumes to her.

Skipping over the rooftops, Jaffa rubbed her own cheek. It still kinda hurt from when Mary had slapped her in the head, so she knew that she had to find time to rest at some point. Hopefully in this new house, if the weird no-door-house dwarf was being completely honest.

Soon, the children find themselves once again in the Strange Quarter. They have no difficulty finding the dwarf's house again...

...But the crone is standing on the street corner, right in plain sight of the house.

She's talking to Mr. Cold, the schoolmaster. (GULP.)

Mr. Cold is human (I guess? I mean, he sort of looks it?), but very thin, with straight black hair and squinty beady eyes and long bony fingers.

He's mean and scary and you don't like him.

But who knew he lived in the Strange Quarter? (On the other hand, where better?) (Or does he live here? If not, oh, why'd he have to be here right now?!?)

Neither of them have seen the children (so far), but...

(Will you...
--try to control your impatience and wait for them to go away
--try to get closer and eavesdrop
--try to make some sort of distraction to lure them away from there
--something else?)

Raga shrinks behind other, taller kids.  Plainly, left to her own devices, she'd prefer to keep a low profile and preserve the ability to run away.

Bah! The crone and the schoolmaster, together? His arch-enemies were consolidating forces to beat him! This was bad! Dinkar probably couldn't beat them both together, even if he could throw the other five at them first.

"We need to wait them out," he hissed quietly.

“Agreed.”

Anthielle settled down for a wait.

Mr Cold and his punishment cane was NOT something she wanted to deal with.  The Dwarf had not stipulated a time frame for this quest… a good thing.

Sarah remembers the horrifying detentions she went through with the school master,"So many chalks! My fingers have never been so sore." she whispers, as her hands shiver at the memory.

Raga doesn't care who these adults are.

They're adults.

That's never good.

Jaffa hadn't been in school before and while she'd normally jump at the chance to learn some new things, she didn't like the schoolmaster. She'd tried once to get around how scary his appearance was and talk for a bit and he'd yelled at her and she'd wound up getting chased away. Mr. Cold was a meanie and almost seemed like he was trying to be scary!

Keeping quiet, Jaffa moved to the back to come beside Raga. If they were going to be here a while, it would be good to check up on the others' conditions and see if anyone was hurting or otherwise felt bad. She'd already helped out Anthielle and Din, so she didn't want to ignore the others. And while she still had to check on Sarah and Grog, Jaffa felt that this was a good opportunity to help Raga. "Hey, Raga...How are you feeling? Did Mary or Anne get you at all?"

(Anthielle, Dinkar, roll Insightful, please)

Anthielle remained clueless to whatever was going on here.  She just wanted these two adults to go away.

OOC:  00:27, Today: Anthielle rolled 2 using 1d6 with rolls of 2.  Insight roll.

Raga shakes her head side to side.

Dinkar rolled 2,2 using d6,d6 ((2,2)).

Crap.

Anthielle and Dinkar cannot control their impatience. They each feel they must do something.

(Whichever of you is the first to do something...
--try to get closer and eavesdrop
--try to make some sort of distraction to lure them away from there
--something else--

...Will lose your 1 non-physical Hurt.)

Relieved, Jaffa let out a quiet breath. "That's good. I don't like all these fights we wind up in, but it's good to see when some of us don't get hurt. I...I know you don't like to talk much, but just remember that if you're hurt or just need some help, you can just come get me. I want to help all of you, not just the ones with bruises." Flashing a scaled thumb up, Jaffa smirked at Raga. "I'm gonna go check on Sarah now. Stay safe!"

With that, Jaffa pealed off and slowly made her way forward to her strongest friend, oblivious to her other friends' impatience.

In another world, another time, Dinkar would be the poster boy for ADHD. Waiting the adults out was too much for him to handle.

Slowly, he began to creep closer to their position, to hear what they had to say.


Assuming this is an Agile roll...
Dinkar rolled 6,4,1 using d6,d6,d6 ((6,4,1)).

Raga nods, but there is a brief hint of a slight small.  Very slight . . . and very brief.

Dinkar successfully crawls near the adults unseen/unnoticed.

"...I just can't believe that the war has lasted this long. In early days, we all thought it would be over in a few weeks."

"Yes, I recall." Mr. Cold sounds like I'm sympathetic, but this isn't anything new, so why must you go on and on about it...?

"I'm just saying things are falling apart more and more, just falling apart. Children committing assault and battery, stealing the canes of old women! Everyone doing whatever they want at any time, not caring who gets hurt!"

"I have an idea which children these are... They won't like it, the next time I see them, cane or no cane, madam." This is a topic about which Mr. Cold is much more enthusiastic, in his creepy, sinister sort of way.

"Well, that's why I told you, after all, schoolmaster..."

On the good side, it sounds like their talking is winding down. If everyone can just hold on just a minute more...

(Dinkar loses his 1 non-physical Hurt.)

Dinkar surreptitiously waves to the group to stay where they are, by holding up both palms in an unambiguous 'stop' gesture. The crone and the schoolmaster would surely be leaving soon, he figured, and they could out-wait the both of them and still make it back to the Dwarf without further confrontation.

"Well, I must finish my errands... I will keep an eye out for your miscreants, though, madam..." says Mr. Cold.

They exchange minor pleasant boring grown-up words of good-bye, and then they leave.

Soon each of the adults really does appear to be out of sight.

"I think they're gone," Dinkar hissed softly. "Let's go."

They were gone already? Jaffa had only had time to check up with Raga. She'd thought the two adults were going to complain or bicker or whatever they were doing for at least a little longer. No matter! She could just ask Sarah how she was doing after they spoke with the Dwarf that didn't like doors. Or enclosed spaces, she thought? She still wasn't quite sure what his situation was, but hopefully getting this pretty silver trinket would help.

Following along with Dinkar and the others, Jaffa made her way to the strange house.

The dwarf appears in the open doorway. "Did you get it? You got it, didn't you? I can feel it..."

"We've got it," Dinkar confirmed, patting his chest. The locket was actually in a pocket on his hip, but a little misdirection was never a bad thing in his experience. If the dwarf tried to renege on their deal, at least he wouldn't know where to find the locket. "What have you got for us?"

The dwarf nods. "I went and got it while you were gone. All sorts of stuff in my basement..."

He holds up a little blocky thing about the size of Dinkar's fist (all right, maybe a little smaller). "This is a magic house. It grows and shrinks with the command word... so you can take it with you when you're not home. No one can break in while you're in there, either. Room for all of you."

She breathed a sigh of relief when Mr Cold left.  Anthielle made a mental note to ask Din about the adult’s conversation… later.  Right now their employer had arrived.  Dink beat her out in addressing the Dwarf so she changed her intended words…

“Not so fast, let’s see the magic in action… after all the trouble we went through.  A rival gang ‘somehow’ knew about our altercation with the crone.  Lesser people might have found that suspicious.”

Anthielle talked all proper like.

Raga regards the dwarf's "reward" -- and the dwarf -- with some suspicion.  It sounds too good to be true and so, to Raga, it seems like it probably is.

"...It's probably because that halfling is holding what appears to be an old person's cane," observes the dwarf.

He walks across the street and sets the little blocky thing down in a vacant lot and whispers a word over it.

The blocky thing shimmers, and shudders, bouncing around just a tiny bit...

...But then it grows still again, and nothing happens. "Oh, dear, it needs charging. Gone unused for too long. With regular use, it never runs out. But you have the solution to that with you... May I see the locket for a moment...? If you want, you can hold the house in the meantime...?"

He knew this had sounded too easy to be true. Now they were going to have to go on some other errand, no doubt.

Trying not to mutter obscenities to himself, Dinkar picked up the blocky thing and handed over the locket.

“So what happens to people and objects that are inside… when it shrinks down?”

It would be unfortunate if people were crushed to death.  Her father always lectured her about how magic was something to be taken with the utmost seriousness.  Still, a mobile HQ was beyond what she had expected… they just needed to get it working.

"Oh, my grandpa use to tell me stories about a mobile fortress. It's a convenient item to have, and can also be used as a giant rock to crush bad guys." Sarah says that piece of trivia and looks toward the dwarf,"Mind also giving us the command word, I wanna try making a fortress out of nothing."

Raga rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Jaffa hummed for a moment. So it was just a boxy block-ish thing at the moment, but it would be a house if they could...charge it? She was hopeful that the man could just get it over with soon so they could actually see if he was tricking them or not. Still, there was one very important question about the new place that hadn't been answered yet, much to the Kobold's consternation.

"Is there a pantry and a kitchen in this place here? Any, uh, any recently-made baked goods either?"

"Things inside just... shrink. They're perfectly fine when the house enlarges again. As I recall, though, the house won't shrink with any people inside..."




"Oh, no, you can't very well drop this one on anyone... you have to be close for the word to work, so you can't throw it away from you and then use the word... and also, it won't grow unless it's on stable, solid ground..."




"Oh, yes, of course!"



"No, we always cleaned it out when we were putting it away for a while..."




"Ah... yes... Yes... this is it. Thank you for bringing this to me." The old dwarf straightens up a bit, and a bit more color returns to his pale cheeks as he inspects the locket.

He gingerly does something to it, and opens it. He shows the children the portrait painted inside-- a young dwarf girl. "That's my daughter, Durgali Ironbelt." He closes it again... then gives the locket back to Dinkar, along with the little blocky house. "My daughter will be able to charge the house for you. If you show her this locket and the house, she'll know that I sent you, and she'll help. She's a powerful mage in her own right, these days..."

The old dwarf starts to fade away. "Now that the locket is back with the Ironbelt clan... I can finally rest... The word for the house is written on the bottom, by the way..."

And then... he's gone. A ghost!


Anthielle, meanwhile, knows the name Durgali Ironbelt quite well... Durgali Ironbelt is a close acquaintance of her father's. Not only is Ms. Ironbelt still in the city, but Anthielle even knows where her house in the Rich Quarter is...!
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:18, Sun 17 Oct 2021.

"Hmph," is a sound emitting from Raga's mouth.

She wanders over to the "dwarf's" house and looks inside.

The door is still gone.

It's quite dark in there, though...

"Sweet!" Sarah exclaims as she snatches up the block from Din's hand, completely calm about the fact that the Dwarf was a ghost the whole time,"We've got ourselves a magic clubhouse, it's too bad we can't use it as a weapon but at least we have a base of operations. Since our quest was updated, we should find that powerful mage to complete it. Now where to start searching." she says, thinking what to do now while also taking a quick peek at the bottom of the block to know the magic word.

Raga gets up on the porch and peers in from the doorway, hoping that will allow her eyes to adjust to the darkness within.

Anthielle blinked when the dwarf disappeared.  Her mind recovered and she smiled smugly to the others.

“Not a bad day’s work.  A magic house, a thumping of the painters, and now a ghost put to rest.  How much shorter would this war be… if we were involved.  I know where this Durgali lives…”

And if she played her cards right, maybe she could score some snacks for her friends.

“Did Mr Cold and that crone have anything interesting to say, Din?”

"Nothing worth repeating," Dinkar replied. "Although I did learn a couple of new swear words from the crone."

A ghost? So the weird dwarf with the door problem was dead the whole time? And he was just gone now? Jaffa had just thought the guy was weird and suspicious, but he was a ghost? Like, a ghost? Like, a-a spooky ghost? Sure, he couldn't have been bad since he understood the importance of a good food place, but a ghost? She just couldn't shake off that terrifying word.

Trembling, Jaffa stepped away from the house very slowly. "Do you think there are any more g-ghosts in there?"

The word written on the bottom of the little house reads: DRAZZLE



It just looks like a dark house. It seems like there's a floor, and there might be furniture? No lights burning anywhere, though.

Raga turns back to the others.

"Should we look in here, in case there's anything?  Not likely to be anyone else in here."

"But what if there are more g-ghosts inside? And what if they aren't as nice or don't think food is important unlike the door dwarf guy?! It just all seems too scary..."

Sarah nods in agreement,"Jaffa might be right about that. Who knows what kind of undead make this house their home, could even be infested with zombies. I think it's best we find that dwarf girl. Anthielle, sounds like you know the where she is so lead the way!"

Deciding that it was better to take the group through the catacombs, Anthielle sought a way down there.  Guards in the Parkside Quarter te fed to be more vigilant and not afraid to bar entry to those who didn’t fit in.

“Stay close and quiet.  I’m going to sneak us in…”

Ooc:  11: 20, Today: Anthielle rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,4.  Traveling through catacombs.

Dinkar had wanted to explore the haunted house, but the team (were they a team? a gang? a party of adventurers?) had opted to move on quickly. Dinkar had reluctantly gone along, wondering if the haunted house would even be there when (or if) they ever went back.

He'd never been to the Parkside Quarter. It presented a whole new world of possibilities, though. Though he had aspirations towards being an assassin, he was currently not much more than a sneak-thief. But there was so much stuff to steal here!

This day was just getting more and more interesting.

...Wow, that was scary.

It was dark, and spooky, and quiet. TOO quiet.

You could hear things off in the darkness. Like bugs... big bugs. Or like... draggy, moaning things. Or both.

Sometimes you'd see faint lights off in the distance. And it just went on and on and on.

...But.. Anthielle was fine. She didn't seem scared at all.

She seemed to know just where to go... from candle to torch and from torch to candle (who keeps all those torches and candles burning?)...

When Anthielle said stop, you stopped. And waited. And listened.

When she motioned you onward, you moved.

And finally... she just led you up some stairs... and when you got above ground again, you were on the edge of the Rich Quarter...

(Anthielle, feel free to lead the children to the Durgali Ironbelt's house without rolling further...)

While she exercised care in the catacombs, she certainly put a nonchalant spin on the journey.  Leading the group up the stairs, Anthielle made a flourishing gesture.

"Welcome to the Parkside Quarter, the fairest in all the land..."

Anthielle then proceeded to give her companions the 'tour', even if she did avoid pedestrians and well patrolled areas.  There was her favorite dress shop (even if it was technically more residential than commercial), the sprawling park for which the quarter was named, and a few other residences she knew.  Of course she name dropped... often.

"And here we are at Durgali Ironbelt's abode.  Touch nothing, Dwarves tend to rather possessive of their stuff.  And if everyone is really good, I'll try and score us some food later on."

She knocked on the door and waited.

Sarah looked pale when they navigated through the catacombs, every dark corner they encountered, mysterious lights at the distance or strange moanings made every bone in her body shiver. However she followed Anthielle's orders to the letter, not wanting to be all alone in this spooky and quiet quarter. When they made it to Parkside Quarter, Sarah sobbed quietly in relief and then makes a comment,"Hey Anthielle, why did we have to crossed the catacombs. Surely their were more shorter Quarters than that place." she says, her normal vigor drain as she follows their leader, who now starts a tour around the Parkside Quarter.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:17, Tue 19 Oct 2021.

Raga's eyes open wide when the group emerges into the Parkside Quarter.

But as Anthielle gushes over the wondrousness, Raga does not look awed . . . or happy . . . she looks annoyed . . .

A dwarf-- an old one, but not as old as the one who'd asked the children to get the locket, because dwarves don't get much older than that-- answers the door. "Yes?" he asks suspiciously. One gets the feeling he'd be suspicious even if he wasn't thinking why aren't all of you in bed or something?

Normally, Jaffa would not have minded the catacombs all that much. Darkness didn't particularly scare her and, while she liked to steer clear of the larger bugs, she didn't mind bugs in general all that much. It had been a long time, about three weeks, since she'd last eaten one and she definitely preferred bread, but it was hard to be scared of something that she used to eat on a regular basis.

But with ghosts on the mind, every moan sounded like the last remnant of something that couldn't even be considered a corpse anymore. Each corner's darkness hid vicious specter after vicious specter. The lights in the distance were ghostly apparitions, sent to lead her astray so she would trip and fall into a bottomless pit that would leave her as another lost soul with no body to return to!

Shivering, she was glad to be in the Rich Quarter, even if some of the people there weren't the nicest. Jaffa was also glad for the tour, even as every one of Anthielle's words went in one ear and out of the other. It gave her time to calm down and shake off her thoughts of ghosts.


Upon reaching their goal, Jaffa breathed a sigh of relief that they weren't seeing another ghost dwarf. At least, she assumed this guy wasn't a ghost...

Anthielle didn't let a grumpy dwarf throw her off her game...

"I'm here to see Durgali Ironbelt and I know she lives here.  Please tell her that Anathalan's daughter is here to see her.  We have something to trade..."

All in all, she was rather nice to the dwarf.  No insults, demands, or stretching of the truth.  She didn't even drop one of her father's many titles.  Her determination however was non negotiable... Anthielle hadn't come all this way to fail now.

(Roll Charming, please, Anthielle...)

Anthielle waited.

OCC:   01:17, Today: Anthielle rolled 9 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,3,2.  Being charming.

"...Trade...? At this time of...?" The old dwarf shrugs. "Wait here. I'll see if she wants to be bothered..."

He closes the door from the inside.

Minutes pass...

(Everyone roll Insightful, please...)

Dinkar rolled 1,5 using d6,d6 ((1,5)).

Jaffa Redspot rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Insightful.

16:29, Today: Raga rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Insightful (-1).

And she waited some more.

Ooc: 08:32, Today: Anthielle rolled 4 using 1d6 with rolls of 4.  Insightful.

“Hmm.  Can I have the magic item?  Maybe we don’t need Mrs ‘cannot be bothered’.”

Assuming it was passed over, Anthielle moved to a shadowed area and beseeched her Patron for aid.

“Oh great one… recharge this relic and take the amulet’s soul as payment.”

Ooc: bah, great moment defeated by dice roller.
08:41, Today: Anthielle rolled 6 using 3d6 with rolls of 2,2,2.  Calling on her Patron.

Nothing seemed to happen however.

Sarah, regaining some of her lost energy, Snickers at Anthielle's attempt,"Well you can't just cheat your way that easily pal, all we can do now is wait. Hmph, not only am I the strongest, but I've also mastered the art of patience." she says boastfully.

06:48, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 6 using 1d6 with rolls of 6.  Insightful.

"Wow, the art of patience? How does that work, Sarah?" Anything that could make the long hours before the bakery threw out the older bread go by less painfully would be a goddesssend. And, speaking of waiting, since they were doing so, this should be the perfect time for... "Oh, uh, also, Sarah! Are you doing alright? We've been through a couple of fights recently, an' I just wanted to check up and see if my strongest friend was hurting at all."

"All you gotta do is imagine the reward at the end of your waiting. My grandma always said when waiting, occupy your mind with what you'll achieve as a reward and let your imaginations run wild. She also says you can always beat patience with good company, and I think you guys are the best." Sarah says, giving a thumbs up of approval as she responds to Jaffa's question and then answers the other one,"Oh, I'm completely fine, I didn't get hit once on those fights. I guess you could say I'm just that unbeatable and some might say fearless and awesome." she says somewhat boisterously with a wide grin.

Nodding along with her friend's explanation, Jaffa gave an exuberant thumbs up in response. It was quite sweet of Sarah to call them good company, she thought! Plus, now she knew that the way to make waiting by the bakery easier would be to imagine all of the breads and cakes she could scavenge from the trash! Funny, she'd been trying that and all she'd accomplished before was drool and extra hunger. Maybe it worked better with things that weren't food? But then why would she want something that she couldn't eat?!



Beaming at her unbeatable friend, Jaffa clapped her hands together. "That's great! Just, if you do get hurt at all, don't be afraid to ask for help! Even the strongest get hurt sometimes."

Suddenly the door they are waiting in front of is thrown open, and an old dwarf woman appears. (Anthielle recognizes her as Durgali Ironbelt... noting that she's now much, much older than when her portrait was painted for the inside of the locket.)

Din and Anthielle are startled by the heavy door slamming open, but hide it fairly well.

Sarah is the only one who's not rattled at all (and she's pretty proud of it).

Jaffa and Raga are so startled (their nerves still on edge from the catacombs) that they visibly jump in fright.

(Jaffa and Raga each take a -1 die penalty on their next roll.

Sarah takes a +1 die bonus on her next roll. (But not over the usual maximum of 3.))

"Well?!" Durgali demands impatiently. "What's this all about?!"

Raga is more spooked by the real dwarf than the ghost dwarf.  Strange!

Maybe it's because the real dwarf is far more menacing than the ghost dwarf was.

Consistent with her "flight first" approach, Raga moves to the back of the group behind someone (other than Jaffa, who is similarly scared and not much to hide behind anyway).

"It's a long story," Dinkar said, stepping forward. The old broad wasn't going to intimidate him, even if she did have the best beard he'd ever seen. "Short version: we have your locket."

"Locket? My locket? What locket?"

But as the last couple of words leave her mouth, Ms. Ironbelt gets a slightly funny look in her eye, like oh yeah maybe she does know what the halfling boy's talking about--except he couldn't possibly mean that, could he...?

Sarah, now completely calm, high fives her brain for not losing her cool when the old dwarf appeared, though it helps since she's not a ghost. She hopes she's not a ghost,"Nah, theirs no way." she whispers herself to give her a boost of confidence, she then looks toward the old lady,"You bet your biscuit it's what your thinking Ms. Ironbelt, it's something your father wanted you to have. So please, take it." she says with honesty.

Stumbling a bit from her startled jump, Jaffa stepped back a bit, taking a careful look at their new acquaintance. She looked fairly alive and certainly not as suspicious as the ghost door dwarf from before, but if this was the one they were looking for...maybe she was a ghost too? Jaffa had thought ghosts would be very ghostly, but she hadn't been able to tell that the other guy was a ghost, so maybe dwarven ghosts just looked more alive? Or maybe it was a ghostly quirk of this dwarf ghost ghost dwarf family? But hey, she seemed to not mind having a door, so maybe that meant she was alive? Or maybe she was one of those door-liking ghost dwarfs?

Teeth beginning to chatter, Jaffa realized that she'd been staring at the woman for a bit. "Um, you wouldn't happen to be a g-ghost too, would you miss?" Drat, it was so hard to maintain polite discourse while she was still quaking in her boots!

Taking a moment to recover from the door, Anthielle then needed another moment.  How had Din manage to collect all these goody two shoes together (herself excluded)?  Yes, she liked them but one day Anthielle wasn't going to be there to save them from... mistakes.  This was a transaction, not Christmas!  She cleared her throat.

"And in return for delivering your locket, which involved fighting off muggers... your father's ghost said that you might be able to recharge our magical building.  He told us you would honor the final part of his deal... and have the means to do so."

Anthielle beckoned to whoever was carrying the tiny building... that now would be a good time to reveal it.

Sarah sees her que and pulls out the tiny block from her pocket,"I tried saying the magic words a bunch of times, but it doesn't seem to work. I hope you can figure it out."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:11, Sat 23 Oct 2021.

Dinkar held up the locket and showed it to the dwarf woman... but didn't hold it out to her, yet.

Ms. Ironbelt is very interested. She steps over to Dinkar... squints... sort of holds her breath... She mutters a word, and a bright ball of light (say, maybe 20 lit candles' worth of light) appears above the space between her and Dinkar...

She looks like she wants to grab the locket from Dinkar, but doesn't, restrained by the solemnity of the moment. "...Where did you get th... What were you saying about ghosts...?"

Wringing her fingers together, Jaffa explained in a stammer, "You see, miss, therewasthisdwarfg-ghost and hedidn'tlikedoors so hegotridofhisdoor and heaskedustobuythissilverlocketthing and wegotiforhim andthen hegaveusthishouse and saidweshouldgivetheprettysilverthingtoyou andhewas.." Jaffa took a deep breath. "He was a g-ghost, which we didn't know before and now we do and I'm kinda afraid of g-ghosts? Do all g-ghosts not like doors, miss? Can you do that light thing because you're a g-ghost too? Or is it non-g-ghost magic and you're just the cool kind of scary?"

"Calm down. I didn't understand all of that. But I did understand some of it... I'm a mage." For the first time, Ms. Ironbelt really pays attention to what Sarah's holding up to her. "Oh. The house. Been a very long time since I saw this. I suppose I thought it was lost, like the locket..." She looks around at the children. "Do I understand that my father's ghost gave you this house... for getting him the locket, somehow, from somewhere...?"

"Haha, theirs no need to be scared Jaffa. Ghost aren't real." Sarah says, making a cold sweat as they keep reminding her that the dwarf was a ghost,"It was probably an illusion. A magically powerful illusion, nothing more so let's drop the topic." she says, her fear creeping up on her, she then looks back toward the old lady,"Yeah, let's say your illusion of your dad gave us this house and locket. So take it, we won't bite or anything. As long as you power back up this house and give it to us, we won't bite at all." she says, giving the old lady the house.

“That is correct, Ms Ironbelt.  And this magic trinket will save my friends from sleeping in cold streets.  By the way, your father has gone to seek his eternal rest, now that we’ve enacted his last wishes.”

It was typical of Anthielle to paint herself in a good light and pull on the heart strings of others.  She doubted that Durgali would care much about some street orphans, but it couldn’t hurt to increase her own standing with one of her father’s associates.  Never mind the fact that she’d been willing to offer a ghostly soul to her Patron just mere minutes ago…

“The house just needs recharging after being inactive for… a long time.”

Raga peers around whoever she's behind to peer at the mage, with an uncharacteristically hopeful look on her face.

(Someone (just one of you) roll Charming.

BUT

Whoever rolls... you may have +1 extra die for free... yes, on this roll, you may exceed 3.

(Of course, Jaffa and Raga have a -1 die penalty on their next roll... so that would cancel out this bonus...))

Sarah is just a down right charming girl, charming enough that old folks and her grandparents like to dote over her.

Oh, I could also stack it with my extra die I've got. Not only do I get the max die roll, I exceeded it. Nifty
08:54, Today: Sarah Farwing rolled 12 using 4d6 with rolls of 3,5,3,1.  Charming Roll.

Ms. Ironbelt takes the tiny-house... and reaches for the locket with her other hand... but doesn't take it yet, since it hasn't been offered yet. "...May I...?" she asks Dinkar.

Dinkar, ever the soul of trust, slowly hands over the locket.

Ms. Ironbelt's fingers carefully open the locket. "...And there I am. My, but that seems a very long time ago." She closes the locket again, and puts it on. "Now then," she says. "Children, come here, and each of you put your hands on this little house..."

Barely containing her excitement, Anthielle placed her hands upon the house.

We are going to need to scout some places later on.  All the better to shift locations when trouble comes looking for us... she mused inwardly.

With trepidation, Raga will shuffle forward once all the others have moved forward (thereby giving her room).

But before she puts her hand on the house, she asks: "Why?"

"I want to attune the house to each of you... I don't want anyone else to be able to use it... and I'm sure you don't either."

Dinkar steps into the circle and places his hand on the house.

Raga is not trusting of people; she isn't good at figuring out who to trust, and the consequences have been very unpleasant.  Nonetheless -- and despite knowing nothing of how magic works -- Raga studies the dwarf mage's face and tries to determine if she can be trusted.



13:34, Today: Raga rolled 3 using 1d6 with rolls of 3.  Insightful (-1) (w/ potential extra minus).

Sarah looks at Raga as she tries to discern the old lady's face,"Theirs no need to be suspicious, even if this is all a big scam, well at least you won't be alone in that not good feeling of being lied to. Cause we'll do it together, we fall down together and then rise back up stronger. And that sounds great, right." she says words of encouragement that she may or may not stole from her Grandpa, she then place her hands to the block.

Encouraged by Sarah and having clearly failed her attempt to gain insight from judging the dwarf's nonverbal communication, Raga sighs and puts her hand on the house.

Stepping forward, Jaffa hesitated for a moment before placing her hand alongside her friends. She had concerns, like that the thing they were doing might hurt them in some way (even turn them into ghosts!), but if her friends trusted this dwarf (that was probably not a ghost, and if she were, she would be a magic ghost, which could be cool, but also still scary), then she would have to too. Hopefully, this house thing going well would be enough to put her fears out of her mind.

Ms. Ironbelt mutters some words that are probably magic, but the last one is the word on the bottom of the house... drazzle.

The house glows with a nice sort of chartuse light, nothing like the magic ball of bright off-white light hovering overhead.

Then the tiny house stops glowing.

Ms. Ironbelt lets go of it. "There. Set it right-side up, then say the word, and then back up a bit. It won't shrink while anyone's in it-- although it will still shrink and grow if you leave your stuff in it, and your stuff will be perfectly fine. Use it every month and it'll keep its charge... oh, for at least for several decades, I would think. Oh, but be sure there's room-- it won't grow if you try to grow it in a narrow alley-- or someplace that wouldn't be sturdy enough nor wide enough for it if it grew. But you'll figure it out. If it doesn't grow, it just means you've picked a problematic spot and you'll have to move it-- it won't grow on quicksand or the beach at low tide, for example. But I imagine you'll just be using vacant lots, and that'll be fine. The exterior will try to match the neighborhood you grow it in."

"S-so, anyone of us can use it?  And will the door . . . you know, . . . lock?"

She grinned at the mention of the house blending into Neighborhoods… how very useful.

“Thank you, Ms Ironbelt… please enjoy your locket.  Since it is late, we should be off.”

Anthielle effected a proper farewell  and then nodded to Din, indicating that he should find them a vacant lot.  The choice of district was up to him.

There were more vacant lots in the Poor Quarter than Dinkar could ever count, and — contrary to popular belief — Din actually could count. So Din stuffed the tiny house into a pocket and started the team (gang? troupe? autonomous collective?) on their way.


Travel to Poor Quarter:
Dinkar rolled 3,1,5 using d6,d6,d6 ((3,1,5)).

"Any of you can use it now. And it has a deadbolt on the inside. There's no key to lock and unlock it from the outside, because the whole idea is that if no one's going to be home, you just take the whole house with you. That door, deadbolted from the inside, is very secure, though, believe me."




Dinkar leads the others up, up... across the rooftops... until they run out of rooftops. By that time, though, the children are well into the Poor Quarter...

As the party traverses the rooftops, Raga laments:

"Shoulda asked if the kitchen's got food in it."

 Skipping along over the rooftops, Jaffa allowed herself to relax. Ghosts only sometimes had legs, so they'd probably find it hard to follow them along the tops of the buildings. They were safe!

"I thought the no-doors dwarf man said they usually cleared all of the food out of the house when it wasn't going to be in use for a while? We're probably going to need to find some food for it. Maybe the bakery will have extra bagels to throw away tonight! I hope they'll throw out one of the ones with bits of onion in it!"

"I think we should take a break, you know. Let's worry about food later, we've been running around rooftops and fighting strangers that it's getting exhausting." Sarah says as they hop on another rooftop,"Once we activate our house, let's just relax for a bit. My grandpa always says you attain new power once you take a break. I think he calls it a level up or something." she says as they make their stop on Poor Quarter.

"I'm hungry!"

With a huff, Jaffa wags her finger. "I don't know about you, Sarah, but I think breaks are best with food. Like...breaking apart a piece of bread to get at the nice and soft middle that's still a bit lukewarm! Or breaking off a piece of a cookie to share it!"

Jaffa could always be counted on to take the side of any option that included food.

"Eh, can you guys stop talking about food. Now I'm getting hungry just hearing you talk about it." Sarah says, her tummy now rumbling after Jaffa talks about cookies, she sighs in defeat,"Fine, let's go scavenge ourselves some grub. We're in Poor Quarter right now, so theirs got to be somebody willing to give a bunch of kids a free snack."

"You haven't met a lot of poor people, I take it," Dinkar replied to Sarah. Virtually nobody in the Poor Quarter gave out handouts to poor kids. They were poor. "If we want food, we're gonna have to go somewhere and steal it."

Raga nods in agreement. "Yeah, you . . . you don' know what it's like."

Guiltily, Jaffa also nods. "I've been trying to only take food that people throw out, but people have throwing out less and less food lately. An' even normally, if you need anything good or warm...you've gotta steal it.

Sarah feels like she's being painted as the bad guy here,"Woo, I didn't mean anything by it. I'm not saying we should steal from the poor, I'm thinking we can steal food donations from the church that gives out food to the.... Okay, now that I'm saying that out loud, it's sounding less heroic. And it sounded heroic in my head too." she says, now feeling bummed at herself,"Let's just head off and find some food. All this talk about food is making me delirious."

“Can we put the house down and explore it first?  I do have a home to return to…”

Anthielle was also thinking about dinner, thanks to all of the food talk.

"Roger that boss!" Sarah responds, pulling out the piece of block and placing it on an empty lot then whispers the secret phrase,"Hocus Pocus, brizzle drizzle drazzle." she says a bunch of unnecessary magic words til finally she says the correct one, as she does so, the block starts growing.

It turns into-- albeit very square and blocky-- a two-story house.

It looks like it belongs in the Poor Quarter... the imprint of where dead ivy was ripped off the walls, and dirty, and the windows are dirty (although they're all intact, which is quite unusual for the Poor Quarter), and a couple of shingles are missing...

...Wait, no they're not. Some are just discolored, like so as to make it LOOK like a few are missing...

The front door is very solid-looking, though...

Raga's curiosity momentarily outweighs her hunger.

"I guess we can check it out.  You know, before getting food."

She squirts forward to the door and tries the handle.

The door is unlocked. It swings quietly open. The hinges allow easy movement-- any one child can easily open and/or close it.

On the inside is a very sturdy steel deadbolt, ready to be locked from the inside at a moment's notice.

The interior room looks, well, smallish. There are two other doors on the first floor, a very small kitchenette with stove (there's even a woodpile next to the stove), and there's a larder, and there's a round table that's just big enough for five or six children to eat at. There's also an area with five chairs and a fireplace (with its own woodpile and andirons (that're a little too heavy for children to use very easily). There's also a staircase leading upstairs...
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:12, Sat 30 Oct 2021.

Raga's mouth drops in disbelief and she just stands in the doorway, one hand on the door -- all thoughts of food forgotten.

Sarah whistles seeing the interior of the house,"Woah, everything is just the right size for us, this is like the perfect home base." she says, her excitement palpable. Sarah then wonders upstairs to see what's their.

"Woah..." Jaffa could hardly take her eyes off of the kitchenette. It looked so appetizing! This thing, right here, could...make food. Or, well, take existing food and turn it into other food. Which was just as cool. Stepping gingerly towards the room (with a stove! And a pantry!), Jaffa remembered something. The non-ghost-lady had said they could lock it, right? They should probably do that before someone like that mean crone lady came around. Then she could look to see if that door-challenged ghost dwarf had forgotten about any remaining food in the building.

Disappointedly tearing herself away from the kitchen with a tearful parting wave, Jaffa stood by the door. She would wait for Dinkar and Anthielle to get inside and for Raga to...stop being stunned? Not that she could blame her! The place was gorgeous. Still, she should probably say something.

"I can take the door and latch it and stuff, if that's alright with ya, Raga! Once Din and Anthielle get in, of course. Wouldn't wanna lock them out or anything! But dang, the place looks great! Have you seen the kitchen?! You could...you could make, like, at least a whole cookie in there! Maybe even two cookies!"

Ah no, wait. She was starting to ramble again. Ah, who cares? She was talking about food! Everyone likes food.

Anthielle entered and began exploring the group’s new HQ.  She looked impressed and after a brief search through the kitchen, larder, and other ground floor amenities… the pretty half elf took the stairs to see what the second story had to offer.

“Not bad at all.  It’s a blank canvas with a sturdy frame… just waiting for us to make something special.”

Dinkar entered last. He didn't want to seem afraid, mostly to himself more than the others, but the little house kind of gave him the creeps. It was a payout for doing errands from a ghost, for pity's sake. That couldn't possibly be a good thing, could it?

Well, it seemed okay on the inside, he thought as he carefully looked around. No fire-breathing dogs or portals to hell. And when he looked out the window, he saw the street where they'd come from, rather than some chthonic landscape. The tiny house just seemed like a tiny house.

"Five doors," he said. "And five of us. That's convenient. I guess we should all pick our rooms."

"Oh, uh, I can take whichever room is left once I get the door locked! I don't mind! Any room is better than what I've got now. Not that I have anything, I just mean it's better than nothing! Sorry for the confusion!"

"In that case, I'd say you should be allowed to pick first," Dinkar suggested. It was uncharacteristically generous of him, but Dinkar liked Jaffa more than he liked most people.

"Oh, I hardly believe I'm the only one here without a home yet, Din! That's certainly no reason to put me first," Jaffa explained and exclaimed with a cheerful pout. It was nice of Din to offer the first pick of the rooms to her, but he wasn't the only other kid in their group and she really didn't want to hold everyone up. Jaffa wasn't sure she was ready to make such a huge decision as which room to live in. Every other decision she'd made had been much easier. Someone's hurt or in danger? Help them! Eat a bagel or some crackers? Both! "Really, it's fine! Maybe the oldest of us should go first. I'm, like, I wanna say...36 months old? Wow...I'm getting kinda old!"

Raga speaks up, forcefully:

"No, Dink is right.  For some of us, this will be our only home.  For those of us -- Jaffa, and me, for starters.  We should get first choice."

"I-! But-!" Jaffa didn't really have a good retort anymore. She was the one who'd pointed out that it wasn't just her, after all. She felt bad about going before everyone else though. It hardly seemed like the nice thing to do. "Okay, no, yes. You're right, Raga, Din," she admitted, putting emphasis on Dinkar's name in an attempt at correcting Raga. Jaffa knew how it felt to have a bad nickname, so she didn't want Din to feel sad about his either. "Do you want to take the first room, Raga? I, uh, feel kinda guilty taking first pick..."

"You've earned that as much as anyone," Raga says.  "I say those of us without real homes look and see; we can probably work it out amongst ourselves."

With that, Raga marches upstairs to see these rooms that she's been arguing about sight unseen.

Jaffa wasn't sure she agreed with Raga in that she earned much of anything. Some days, she felt like all she'd been doing was try to redeem herself. She'd hurt someone and she didn't want to do that again, even though she sometimes had to. Grimacing, she turned around and closed the front door. Latching the deadbolt shut, Jaffa vigorously tested the door a couple of times to make sure it would stay closed. Couldn't be too careful.

Satisfied, she slapped her scaled cheeks to get herself back in order and started to make her way up the stairs. "Come on too, Din! Unless you wanna explore the main floor some more, I guess! It's a whole house!"

Upstairs felt like a better tactical move, so Din nodded and went along with Jaffa. He gave Raga a long, dirty side-eye as she went ahead of him, though.

The upstairs contains nothing but a large closet (empty) and four bedrooms.

So, four bedrooms upstairs, two downstairs, and a small kitchenette with small larder and a sort of common area with table and fireplace and chairs.

Each bedroom has matching furniture:
--an adult-sized bed, with mattress.
--a wardrobe, empty except for sheets and two quilts (each).
--one wooden chair.

Nothing smells musty or needs to be aired out. Must be magic.

The closet is empty, as is the larder.

The front door's deadbolt locks easily from the inside.

"I would like one of the upstairs bedrooms, I think.  One with a window that looks outside, preferably.  Other than that, it is all the same to me."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:26, Tue 02 Nov 2021.

"Eh, I don't really need a bedroom myself. I've already have one at home, but I'm thinking of renovating the one of the downstairs bedroom to an armoury. We could
put all kinds of weapons like that old lady's cane." Sarah says, stretching her arms casually,"Of course I'll be watching over that room and it's weapons, since I am after all the strongest and most proficient in the use of weaponry after all." so she says, though prior experience and bruises says otherwise on being proficient with weapons.

Having fully inspected their magical abode, she seemed satisfied.

"I too have a bedroom at home, so maybe we keep one as a guest room?  But an armory is exactly what we need, Sarah.  I shall think upon ways in which to expand it's contents.  In time, Vierna will appreciate my greatness... Heh and all of yours too.  Naturally."

No one could possibly accuse Anthielle of lacking ambition.

"Its a shame there aren't more quest giving ghosts around.  Oh well.  Din, do you have anything to say before some of us head home?"

"I sometimes crash with an old woman who thinks I'm her son," Din admitted, having never revealed this somewhat shameful bit of information to anyone. As far as he could tell, the old woman's son grew up and moved away long ago, and might even be dead. He wasn't a kid anymore, that was for sure. "I do chores for her, and she feeds me and gives me a place to sleep, but it's not really a home. More of a grift. I don't like doing it. So I think I might start staying here. Upstairs, on the left, I think.

"Of course, unless I can steal some food somewhere, I might go back to the crazy old bat for some dinner."

He looked around the tiny house (which was no longer especially tiny, but that was how he thought of the place) and nodded in satisfaction.

"An armory sounds good. I want knives more than I want a battle staff. I'm more stabby than hitty, really."

He clapped his hands once and rubbed them together.

"Good job today, people. Tomorrow we work on weapons and loot."

"And food!" Raga rushes to add.

"Muffy has a point," Din agreed, using his own nickname for Raga in response to her own use of his more hated nickname earlier. "Food. And lots of it."